- Joined
- Jan 12, 2010
- Messages
- 35,183
- Reaction score
- 44,146
- Location
- Somewhere in Babylon...
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- Political Leaning
- Undisclosed
While I am sure that defense sepnding can be cut to some degree, given how much entitlement spending exceeds defense spending (as demonstrated), the only way to effectively address spending is to slash entiltements.
Sometimes you have to roll the hard six.
Long term, one of the best things that can happen is for the US to not take on any more debt.
That's short term.Long term, one of the worst things that could happen is for us to default on our debt and increase the interest rate on the debt that exists, thus making the situation even worse than it already is.
Wow, that's kind of cool. What's the point of having a debt ceiling if you are gonna raise it at will?
Long term, one of the worst things that could happen is for us to default on our debt and increase the interest rate on the debt that exists, thus making the situation even worse than it already is.
So, if the markets continue to tank due to this vote, do you still think it will more negatively affect Democrats instead of Republicans?
So far, we're down 220 points - and analysts are going to say it's because of default concerns over the vote not to raise the debt ceiling. It does have to do with other numbers, but it's still dangerous.
How exactly did Democrats back themselves into a corner on this issue? If anything the Republicans backed themselves into a corner by waiting so long to present their reform plans that it did not give Congress enough time to properly debate the issue. Since it will be raised one way or the other all Democrats have to do is wait.Democrats own this fiasco, no argument there, just stop it
they backed thierselves into a corner
they wanted to play political football, the GOP said, ok, lets play
America is not stupid... dems have been in charge for 5 years....hard to blame anyone else
It will be easy for President Obama to say that he wants the debt ceiling raised so that it will give more time to Congress to work on reforms while avoiding a short term collapse. It will be the Republicans that will have to answer their constituents why they are so insistent on not raising the debt ceiling.In the spirit of bipartisanship, here’s some unsolicited advice for the Obama administration: send apologetic letters to all Social Security recipients in congressional districts of Republican freshmen. Tell the seniors that now that the government has reached the debt ceiling, the Social Security Trust Fund is currently unable to redeem special Treasury bonds that it holds and that therefore no new Social Security checks will be sent until the debt ceiling is increased. If the recipients wonder when that might happen, they can call their Representative and ask.
How exactly did Democrats back themselves into a corner on this issue? If anything the Republicans backed themselves into a corner by waiting so long to present their reform plans that it did not give Congress enough time to properly debate the issue. Since it will be raised one way or the other all Democrats have to do is wait.
By the way, what programs do you want to see cut in the short term to, in essence, balance the federal budget? Medicare? Social Security? The military?
Just for fun, courtesy of FrumForum:
It will be easy for President Obama to say that he wants the debt ceiling raised so that it will give more time to Congress to work on reforms while avoiding a short term collapse. It will be the Republicans that will have to answer their constituents why they are so insistent on not raising the debt ceiling.
If anything the Republicans backed themselves into a corner by waiting so long to present their reform plans
all Democrats have to do is wait
republicans passed hr1 on the day boehner was sworn in
republicans passed ryan on april 14
it's been two years since the party in power in the united states senate has even proposed a budget
except for the obama production published in february which reid's roundhouse routed, 97 to 0, last week
finance chair baucus has intimated that budget chair conrad will not likely write one up this year either
hurryup harry reid has adopted an openly "minimalist agenda"
there are reasons the party can't put its preferences on paper
ok, but wait for what?
ask senators mccaskill, manchin, nelson, nelson, webb, pryor, landrieu, tester...
ask the 44% of nancy's caucus who sided with boehner
Democratic aides said ahead of the vote that the Democratic caucus would not support the plan because it has been supplanted by the deficit-reduction plan Obama outlined at a speech at George Washington University in April.
No Democratic senator was willing to support it, however, after Obama discussed a more ambitious plan at George Washington University to save $4 trillion over 12 years. Republicans criticized his speech for lacking detail.
"There's no need to have a Democratic budget, in my opinion," Reid told the Los Angeles Times recently. "It would be foolish for us to do a budget at this stage." Instead, Reid wants to wait and see if the deficit-reduction meetings led by Vice President Biden bear any fruit. Before that, Reid wanted to wait for the Gang of Six -- now nearly defunct -- to come up with something.
Reid isn't alone. The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Kent Conrad, is also happy not to produce a budget. Not long ago, he told reporters that he planned to "defer" work on a 2012 budget indefinitely.
Except that this isn't true.Just for fun, courtesy of FrumForum:
In the spirit of bipartisanship, here’s some unsolicited advice for the Obama administration: send apologetic letters to all Social Security recipients in congressional districts of Republican freshmen. Tell the seniors that now that the government has reached the debt ceiling, the Social Security Trust Fund is currently unable to redeem special Treasury bonds that it holds and that therefore no new Social Security checks will be sent until the debt ceiling is increased. If the recipients wonder when that might happen, they can call their Representative and ask.
Democrats own this fiasco, no argument there, just stop it
they backed thierselves into a corner
they wanted to play political football, the GOP said, ok, lets play
America is not stupid... dems have been in charge for 5 years....hard to blame anyone else
Love the spin. The recession, the economic impact of 9/11 and the surge in entitlements had nothing to do with it.So it was Democrats who inherited the surplus in 2001 and turned it into a deficit through tax cuts, more Medicare, and two unfunded wars?
Let's see, President Obama's health plan took over a year to pass in full. I see no reason why Congressman Ryan's plan should not be given the same amount of time so that it can be properly debated and looked over to see what its passage means for the future of Medicare and health care in the United States. Or are you okay with a bill, one the American public largely does not support, being jammed down this country's throat since it is coming from your side?How much more time is needed?
Welcome to politics. The Republicans, since President Obama's inauguration, made it clear that they would do everything in their power to obstruct his agenda from becoming law.This pressure has existed prior to Obama's election. His agenda took center stage, along with record breaking spending, largely on the backs of democrat legislators. And now that republicans can throw in on the fight and redirect the agenda the dems just sit around with their thumbs up their asses?
Perhaps they are finally playing with, uh, er, uhm, well, balls. Not golf balls like the president plays with...the more manly kind.House rejects debt ceiling increase, 318-97 - CNN.com
I think Republicans are playing with fire.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?