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Originally posted by New Yorker:
I still don't see how we can avoid making deep, deep cuts in spending and do so soon.

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Originally posted by Hawk:

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Originally posted by malik3000:
Does anyone have any ideas that are both legal and practical that those of us who reside in this childish and corporately-owned polical entity can do to rescue ourselves. By us I mean the many who being preyed upon by the few.

I see no hope for this. But God makes a way out of no way.

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Surely emigration is the only rational choice for an American. Pick a country at random and apply. Anywhere's got to be better.

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Posted                          

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Originally posted by Hawk:

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Originally posted by malik3000:
Does anyone have any ideas that are both legal and practical that those of us who reside in this childish and corporately-owned polical entity can do to rescue ourselves. By us I mean the many who being preyed upon by the few.

I see no hope for this. But God makes a way out of no way.

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Surely emigration is the only rational choice for an American. Pick a country at random and apply. Anywhere's got to be better.

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Maybe in 2013 when the GOP controls both Houses of Congress and the White House, we'll make progress! But the Republicans always seem to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

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Hey, remember that time, like 6 years ago, when Republicans did control the Senate, House, and White House? Manoman, that was a golden age. The budget was soooooo balanced.

Zach

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Don't give up yet, no, don't ever quit/ There's always a chance of a critical hit. Ghost Mice

Posted                       

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Originally posted by Imaginary Friend:

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Originally posted by New Yorker:
I still don't see how we can avoid making deep, deep cuts in spending and do so soon.

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By instituting a tax regime worthy of a fair, progressive, compassionate, developed society.

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Posted                       

quote:

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Originally posted by Zach82:

quote:

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Maybe in 2013 when the GOP controls both Houses of Congress and the White House, we'll make progress! But the Republicans always seem to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

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Hey, remember that time, like 6 years ago, when Republicans did control the Senate, House, and White House? Manoman, that was a golden age. The budget was soooooo balanced.

Zach

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You gotta love how the institution of massive tax cuts for the wealthy caused the problem and yet somehow it's the expenditure that's gotta be fixed....

If it wasn't for the fact that these idiots have power it would be awesomely funny.

God bless America...

...you guys really, really need it.

AFZ

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Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
[Sen. D.P.Moynihan]

An Alien's View of Earth - my blog (or vanity exercise...)

Posted                      

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Originally posted by New Yorker:

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Originally posted by malik3000:
New Yorker, at long last, do facts mean absolutely nothing to you?

First, to momentarily sink to the level of your comment, where do you get the factually wrong idea that the extent of Michelle Obama's travels as a 1st lady is all that different from previous 1st ladies? Or does the commandment "Thou shalt not bear false witness..." mean nothing to you?

Now there are also those who really still can't get past the idea of a African-American 1st Lady. This of course would not be true of you, though hailing from the deep south as you do (despite your screen name)

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Malik -

The fact that Michelle is black has no bearing on my thoughts. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that she has been traveling and living large on the taxpayers' dime(s).

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WASHINGTON [5/12/2002] – Laura Bush takes in Paris in the springtime this week – and Budapest and Prague, too.
It will be her first extended solo trip abroad as first lady and, in many ways, an inevitable new step on a long trail blazed by her predecessors.

Jacqueline Kennedy did it with a splash 40 years ago with high-profile visits to India and Pakistan. And Hillary Rodham Clinton regularly traveled the world, promoting education, health care and micro-loan programs designed largely to help poor women.

On this trip, Mrs. Bush will be more low-key, though no less ambitious in her own businesslike way.

She will discuss education and health care, two issues that she has long advocated. And, in an unusual venue, she will direct a 15-minute address to Afghanistan on the Radio Free Europe network.

"It's a good opportunity for her to use a global stage to talk about something that's important," said the first lady's press secretary, Noelia Rodriguez, summing up the 10-day trip. "She's very much looking forward to it."

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Originally posted by New Yorker:
If I am wrong, then I was wrong. And thank you for your kind words.

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:
Lunch conversation today introduced me to the mindset that everything wrong in the economy is because the government spends too much. So if this budget deal tanks the economy, people with this mindset will never accept that it was the cuts, but instead argue that we need more cuts.

It's going to be a long ugly decade.

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Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
I rate it another mixture of grandstanding and brinkmanship, ie it's politics. It rates zero in any country.

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by Sioni Sais:

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Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
I rate it another mixture of grandstanding and brinkmanship, ie it's politics. It rates zero in any country.

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That was my post from exactly one month ago. Go on, tell me how wrong I was!

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Posted                       

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Originally posted by moonlitdoor:
I was interested to see that in the House a lot of Democrats voted against and it was the Republican votes which gave it a comfortable majority, whereas in the Senate the Democrats voted overwhelmingly in favour. What accounts for the difference between the two parts of Congress ?

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Posted                       

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Originally posted by Golden Key:
I'd really like to see the Republicans formally and legally renounce their own Social Security and Medicare, since they hate them so much.

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by Golden Key:
I'd really like to see the Republicans formally and legally renounce their own Social Security and Medicare, since they hate them so much.

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Posted                       

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Tea Party Demands Bible Be Replaced with Ayn Rand Novel

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Which bit of this is supposed to be satirical?

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we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams

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Originally posted by mousethief:
Is this "supercongress" thing even constitutional? Does't allowing a group that isn't congress to determine spending constitute a wresting of constitutionally-guaranteed powers from congress?

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by mousethief:
Is this "supercongress" thing even constitutional? Does't allowing a group that isn't congress to determine spending constitute a wresting of constitutionally-guaranteed powers from congress?

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Posted                       

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Originally posted by mousethief:
Is this "supercongress" thing even constitutional? Does't allowing a group that isn't congress to determine spending constitute a wresting of constitutionally-guaranteed powers from congress?

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Posted                       

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Originally posted by Crœsos:

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Originally posted by mousethief:
Is this "supercongress" thing even constitutional? Does't allowing a group that isn't congress to determine spending constitute a wresting of constitutionally-guaranteed powers from congress?

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Congress is allowed to let committees handle specific tasks, provided that the committee members are all members of Congress and their work is later voted on by Congress as a whole. The only sticking point is whether the supposed inability of either house of Congress to submit amendments to the Supercongress' recommendations prior to a vote is constitutional and, even if constitutional, if it comports with the existing rules of the House and Senate respectively.

So I guess the short answer is that this kind of peculiarly-constituted joint committee isn't unconstitutional on the face of it, though there may be some detail deep in the works that renders it so.

Part of the problem may have been naming the thing "the Supercongress". If it had been named "the Joint Committee on the Federal Debt Limit" there probably would have been less fuss.

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Mousethief posted: Grow a spine, Barry.

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by Golden Key:
And now, of course, most of the Congress critters have scampered away for their August break, leaving the FAA still unfunded, people working unpaid or on furlough, etc.

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by Alfred E. Neuman:
The impasse was over cutting subsidies to 13 small rural airports (under the Essential Air Services Act) that would save the government $16m per year. But with the FAA unable to collect airline ticket taxes during this shutdown, the government is losing almost twice that — $30 million — EVERY DAY.

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Posted                       

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Originally posted by RuthW:

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Originally posted by Alfred E. Neuman:
The impasse was over cutting subsidies to 13 small rural airports (under the Essential Air Services Act) that would save the government $16m per year. But with the FAA unable to collect airline ticket taxes during this shutdown, the government is losing almost twice that — $30 million — EVERY DAY.

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The air services to rural areas was just so the tea-baggers could keep talking about cutting stuff. The real issue was airline workers unionizing.

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Originally posted by art dunce:

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Mousethief posted: Grow a spine, Barry.

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Greatest disappointment since Ken Griffey Jr.

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by Paddy O'Furniture:
Who is Barry?

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Posted                       

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Originally posted by Timothy the Obscure:

quote:

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Originally posted by RuthW:

quote:

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Originally posted by Alfred E. Neuman:
The impasse was over cutting subsidies to 13 small rural airports (under the Essential Air Services Act) that would save the government $16m per year. But with the FAA unable to collect airline ticket taxes during this shutdown, the government is losing almost twice that — $30 million — EVERY DAY.

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The air services to rural areas was just so the tea-baggers could keep talking about cutting stuff. The real issue was airline workers unionizing.

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And I gather the airports targeted were all in Democratic districts--it was purely cynical gamesmanship, which is par for the course. ...

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Posted                          

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Originally posted by Apocalypso:
Oh, now, hey, be fair. The FAA Safety Inspectors are still on the job.

Of course, they're working for free.

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Posted                       

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Originally posted by Josephine:

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Originally posted by Apocalypso:
Oh, now, hey, be fair. The FAA Safety Inspectors are still on the job.

Of course, they're working for free.

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They're also paying their own plane fare, hotel bills, meals, car rental, and the like. And, unlike their co-workers who were furloughed, they can't apply for unemployment.

And you thought indentured servitude was abolished over a century ago.

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by Alfred E. Neuman:
And in other news... Standard and Poors, one of the three largest credit rating agencies has just downgraded the US one point to AA+... the first time in history the US government has been rated less than triple-A.

Great timing, waiting for Friday evening after the markets have closed. Watch for a wild ride Monday with the stock market after this week's 800 point Dow Jones drop.

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by Crœsos:
It should be remembered that S&P rated all those bad mortgage-backed securities AAA and re-affirmed Lehman's triple-A standing a month before bankruptcy. I'm wondering why Standard & Poor's is taken seriously as a credit-rating agency anymore.

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by mousethief:

quote:

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Originally posted by Crœsos:
It should be remembered that S&P rated all those bad mortgage-backed securities AAA and re-affirmed Lehman's triple-A standing a month before bankruptcy. I'm wondering why Standard & Poor's is taken seriously as a credit-rating agency anymore.

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Exactly.

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by Sober Preacher's Kid:
Shall we play the Last Post for the end of an era?

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