Congress has lost its mind...

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by BigV

Quick question friends--

do you think whatever deal is made about the debt ceiling/deficit reduction... do you think it is a good thing or a bad thing to make one that is so short that we'll need to do this process again before the 2012 elections?

Obama's goal to make it go to 2013 at least is political posturing completely on his part. I would like to see a plan that goes out 10 or 20 years and ties it to a balanced budget amendment and a total revamping of the tax code, much like the gang of 6 designed.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

...and ties it to a balanced budget amendment ...

Politicians who throw around the idea of constitutional amendments lose major points in my book. It's virtually impossible to amend the Constitution. It's not just an act of congress signed into law by the president, it requires 2/3s majority in BOTH houses and then goes to the individual states and must clear through 3/4s of them. That's 38 states that each have to approve the proposed amendment. It isn't easy. The equal rights amendment never made it through. Anything that is remotely political isn't going to make it. For example, think of the political climate in Arizona and the political climate in Massachusetts. There aren't too many issues that both states are going to get behind. That's the divide you have to bridge.

Politicians who talk about Constitutional amendments are just full of shit.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by glatt

Politicians who throw around the idea of constitutional amendments lose major points in my book. It's virtually impossible to amend the Constitution. It's not just an act of congress signed into law by the president, it requires 2/3s majority in BOTH houses and then goes to the individual states and must clear through 3/4s of them. That's 38 states that each have to approve the proposed amendment. It isn't easy. The equal rights amendment never made it through. Anything that is remotely political isn't going to make it. For example, think of the political climate in Arizona and the political climate in Massachusetts. There aren't too many issues that both states are going to get behind. That's the divide you have to bridge.

Politicians who talk about Constitutional amendments are just full of shit.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that they are "full of shit", well at least no more than the rest of them and Obama, now if you said they were all pretty much "full of shit", I would agree with you completely. The idea that we can't figure out a way to mandate a balanced budget through some process or the other does not mean that we can't explore ideas to address, this is just another idea in my book. But if this thing fails I predict Obama and a host of other politicans, both R's and D's, are going to go down in flames come 2012, as they should.

[Stormieweather]

The problem is, when we dropkick them to the curb, are we going to end up with a bunch of fire-and-brimstone, punt women back to the stone age, elitist nutballs in power instead? Are there any actual sane people running for office? If not sane, then maybe ones that use actual facts to base their decisions on? Instead of deliberately skewing statistics by comparing apples to monkey balls?

I'm sick of the whole lot of them and that's saying a whole lot.

[Spexxvet]

Kennedy raised the debt ceiling 4 times for a total increase of 5%.
Johnson raised the debt ceiling 7 times for a total increase of 18%.
Nixon raised the debt ceiling 9 times for a total increase of 36%.
Ford raised the debt ceiling 5 times for a total increase of 41%.
Carter raised the debt ceiling 9 times for total increase of 59%.
Reagan raised the debt ceiling 18 times for a total increase of 199%.
George H.W. Bush raised the debt ceiling 9 times for a total increase of 48%.
Clinton raised the debt ceiling 4 times for a total increase of 44%.
George W. Bush raised the debt ceiling 7 times for a total increase of 90%.
Obama has raised the debt ceiling 3 times for a total increase of 26%.

Adding the percentages of the Democratic presidents’ total debt ceiling increases (shown in blue) together reveals that President Ronald Reagan, arguably the most popular Republican president on this list, actually raised the debt ceiling by a higher percentage than all of the Democrats combined.

The Democrats’ total percentage increase is 152%. President Reagan increased the debt ceiling by 199% in his two terms in office.

The Republican presidents, shown in red, when added together, have raised the debt ceiling by a total of 414%.

http://progressivetoo.com/2011/07/14...since-kennedy/

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Stormieweather

The problem is, when we dropkick them to the curb, are we going to end up with a bunch of fire-and-brimstone, punt women back to the stone age, elitist nutballs in power instead? Are there any actual sane people running for office?

Well..... how does that differ from having the other extreme? Don't the voters make that decision?

[Stormieweather]

Huh?


I repeat, are there any sane people running for office...so the VOTERS CAN MAKE THE DECISION....?

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Stormieweather

Huh?


I repeat, are there any sane people running for office...so the VOTERS CAN MAKE THE DECISION....?

Sorry your quote:

bunch of fire-and-brimstone, punt women back to the stone age, elitist nutballs

sounds like a common rant about repulickin right-wing nuts... If that is not the case, my bad. If that is the case, again, how does that differ from the other extreme?