Sign Up | Log In
REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
American Enterprise Institute on Congress: It's the Republican's fault
Wednesday, May 2, 2012 5:53 PM
SIGNYM
I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.
Quote:We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party. The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.
Thursday, May 3, 2012 1:52 AM
KWICKO
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)
Thursday, May 3, 2012 2:14 AM
AURAPTOR
America loves a winner!
Thursday, May 3, 2012 2:27 AM
GEEZER
Keep the Shiny side up
Quote:Originally posted by Kwicko: Another odd correlation: the partisanship and polarization in the U.S. House of Representatives has risen hand-in-hand with income inequality in the U.S.
Thursday, May 3, 2012 2:29 AM
M52NICKERSON
DALEK!
Quote:Originally posted by AURaptor:Fact of the matter is, it's the Democrats who have refused to even submit a budget, for 3 years and counting now, as they are legally bound to do. The Dems are breaking the law, and some want to point the finger of blame at the GOP?
Thursday, May 3, 2012 2:52 AM
Thursday, May 3, 2012 2:55 AM
Quote:Originally posted by m52nickerson: Quote:Originally posted by AURaptor:Fact of the matter is, it's the Democrats who have refused to even submit a budget, for 3 years and counting now, as they are legally bound to do. The Dems are breaking the law, and some want to point the finger of blame at the GOP? The law, Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, states that the president, not the party, must submit a budget to Congress each year, which the President has done. Here is a like to his 2013 budget proposal. A quick Google search can find proposals for other years. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget So you are wrong.
Quote:WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans have been pressuring Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad to offer up a budget plan, and on Wednesday, he gave them one - sort of. Conrad, a fiscal hawk who is due to retire early next year, will try to revive a 2010 fiscal commission's mix of recommendations to slash federal deficits through tax hikes and spending cuts. But no votes on the plan are expected before November's election. His committee began a review of a modified version of the so-called Bowles-Simpson plan - viewed by many centrists as a model for bipartisan pragmatism - but the panel's "mark-up" session will not feature the usual amendments or a vote. Instead, the Democratic budget blueprint for fiscal 2013, which starts on October 1, will sit in a legislative holding pattern, possibly until voters decide in November on the direction they want the country to go.
Thursday, May 3, 2012 5:06 AM
FREMDFIRMA
Thursday, May 3, 2012 5:41 AM
STORYMARK
Thursday, May 3, 2012 5:43 AM
Quote:Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA: I wouldn't believe AEI if they told me the sun rises in the east... But it's pretty bad when a bunch of fascist cocksuckers who include the NeoCons, PNAC and the fucking Federalist Society (american nazi party in all but name) think that the GOP has gone too far, seriously - that's a bit like Hitler telling Stalin off for the gulags... -Frem
Thursday, May 3, 2012 5:57 AM
Quote:Originally posted by Geezer: A distinction without a difference. The Senate Budget Committee, controlled by Democrats, won't put a budget proposal out for a vote.
Thursday, May 3, 2012 6:44 AM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Quote:When there are Marxists in power,it's damn near the duty of the GOP to not cooperate. When the nation's toes are poised over edge of a huge chasm, where jagged rocks await down below for anyone fool enough to take 1 more step 'forward', the smart, prudent thing to do IS to go back.
Quote:Everything old is new again. Current makes note of the growing belief that, in the era of postindustrial perma-recession, our sociopolitical structures increasingly resemble those that were found in feudalist societies — a concept called neofeudalism:Quote:Among the issues claimed to be associated with the idea of neofeudalism in contemporary society are class stratification, globalization, mass immigration/illegal immigration, open borders policies, multinational corporations, and “neo-corporatism.” http://www.disinfo.com/2011/05/are-we-returning-to-feudalism/] The truth?Quote:You can only shove so much “product” down the throats of the public, especially in a depressed economy. And, for those doing “whatever it takes” a constant reminder of “the law of diminishing returns” is ever-present. We are FAST APPROACHING (already arrived?) a neo-fuedalist society… and if you don’t think we have “royalty” in America, think again. Part of the problem is that our economic system is “product” based ONLY and the “usery” side has been slid “under the table.” Quote: And skirt length correlates to the stock marketOr, just as validly, the stock market correlates to skirt lengths... The big corporations act as if there is no end to our resources… and they still put forward and endorse the lie of “free resources” (meaning you needn’t even “clean up” or reconstitute the aftermath of your unabashed, reckless consumption of these resources. Thus our issues with air quality,water pollution, toxic waste management, & the illegal dumping of it, are still there despite years of ‘crys in the wilderness’ from the populace. http://www.howto-winlottery.com/how-does-i-single-working-mom-of-2-get-ahead-without-having-to-wait-to-win-a-lottery/]
Quote:Among the issues claimed to be associated with the idea of neofeudalism in contemporary society are class stratification, globalization, mass immigration/illegal immigration, open borders policies, multinational corporations, and “neo-corporatism.”
Quote:You can only shove so much “product” down the throats of the public, especially in a depressed economy. And, for those doing “whatever it takes” a constant reminder of “the law of diminishing returns” is ever-present. We are FAST APPROACHING (already arrived?) a neo-fuedalist society… and if you don’t think we have “royalty” in America, think again. Part of the problem is that our economic system is “product” based ONLY and the “usery” side has been slid “under the table.” Quote: And skirt length correlates to the stock marketOr, just as validly, the stock market correlates to skirt lengths... The big corporations act as if there is no end to our resources… and they still put forward and endorse the lie of “free resources” (meaning you needn’t even “clean up” or reconstitute the aftermath of your unabashed, reckless consumption of these resources. Thus our issues with air quality,water pollution, toxic waste management, & the illegal dumping of it, are still there despite years of ‘crys in the wilderness’ from the populace. http://www.howto-winlottery.com/how-does-i-single-working-mom-of-2-get-ahead-without-having-to-wait-to-win-a-lottery/]
Quote: And skirt length correlates to the stock market
Thursday, May 3, 2012 7:13 AM
Quote:...the current GOP talking point that “the Democratic majority in the Senate hadn’t passed a budget in three years.” Now, first of all: a (nonbinding, not-actually-a-law) budget resolution, a part of the budget process made moot through last year by passage of the (binding) Budget Control Act. The budget resolution is only a “framework for subsequent legislative action on budget matters during each congressional session.” If the subsequent legislation passes, it doesn’t really matter much whether they did the budget resolution or not. But suppose you think it’s important that Congress pass a budget resolution. You know how this started? It was with, you guessed it, the Republicans. In the first two decades after budget resolutions were invented in the 1974 Budget Act, Democrats (and responsible Senate Republicans in the 1980s) managed to pass budget resolutions. And then Republicans won majorities, and all that went out the window. In four of the last five election years in which the Republicans held at least partial control of Congress (1998, 2002, 2004 and 2006), they didn’t pass a budget resolution. That includes three years in which Republicans controlled both chambers. The problem is that when one party starts playing constitutional hardball (and budget resolutions are only a very minor example; better would be the use of the filibuster), then the other party must choose to either reciprocate or risk getting run over. And the party that’s been doing that over the last 20 years, and in other ways violating the norms that American democracy needs to function well, is the Republican Party and its apologists. It’s a serious problem, one that both liberals and conservatives should worry about – indeed, one that conservatives should probably worry about more, because it prevents the party they want in office from functioning very well. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/why-the-dysfunctional-republican-party-matters/2012/04/30/gIQAihKNsT_blog.html]
PENQUIN11
Thursday, May 3, 2012 7:15 AM
Thursday, May 3, 2012 7:46 AM
KPO
Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.
Quote:When there are Marxists in power,it's damn near the duty of the GOP to not cooperate.
Thursday, May 3, 2012 7:50 AM
Quote:Originally posted by kpo: Quote:When there are Marxists in power,it's damn near the duty of the GOP to not cooperate. Here you have it, Auraptor completely backs up Signy's opening post by demonstrating his extreme beliefs, and intransigent zealot attitude. This is what we're dealing with. This is what the problem is. It's not personal. It's just war.
Friday, May 4, 2012 2:23 AM
Quote:Originally posted by m52nickerson: Why put it to a vote when it will easily be defeated?
Quote:You also have to take into account that congress passed the Budget Control Act, which basiclly sets the budget for the next 2 years. Possible more if the automatic cuts go into effect.
Friday, May 4, 2012 3:01 AM
Quote:Originally posted by Geezer: Quote:Originally posted by m52nickerson: Why put it to a vote when it will easily be defeated? Budget Control Act of 1974 requires it. Per the CRS summary, it "Declares that annually, on or before May 1, Congress shall complete action on a concurrent resolution setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for the fiscal year beginning July 1."
Friday, May 4, 2012 3:50 AM
Quote:When the nation's toes are poised over edge of a huge chasm, where jagged rocks await down below for anyone fool enough to take 1 more step 'forward', the smart, prudent thing to do IS to go back.
Friday, May 4, 2012 5:02 AM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: Quote:When there are Marxists in power,it's damn near the duty of the GOP to not cooperate. Son, you have no idea what a Marxist is. A Marxist would never had bailed out the banks and the insurance companies. A Marxist would never have made private health insurance a key feature of a national health insurance plan. A Marxist would never have kept the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy in place, so that the top 1% would continue to enjoy growth & prosperity while the bottom 99% suffered job losses and home dispossesions and bankruptcies. You know what a Marxist WOULD have done? Dissolve Congress and the Supreme Court. Dissolve the banks, insurances, oil and gas companies, and indeed all of the corporations, and line up anyone against a wall who wasn't with the plan and shoot them. Or put them in indefinite detention without trial as "enemies of the people". Take over all of the previously private assets and find others to run them, and start "job creation" with a vengeance. It's obvious you don't know what "Marxist" means... or "capitalist", "capital", "capitalization", "socialist", "fascist", "communist" or "freedom" either, for that matter. Throwing fancy words around like confetti doesn't give you any intellectual cachet, especially when they land in inappropriate sentences. Please, at least look up these words BEFORE you use them. Remember, google is your friend. Quote:When the nation's toes are poised over edge of a huge chasm, where jagged rocks await down below for anyone fool enough to take 1 more step 'forward', the smart, prudent thing to do IS to go back. "Back" to where? To the heyday of American might and prosperity under Eisenhower, when tax rates on the rich were at 90%? To the day when Nixon proposed national health care? To the day when Reagan increased revenues by closing tax loopholes? You think there is some magical place "back there" which fulfills all of your fevered right-wing dreams, but the REALITY is that no such place ever existed. We Americans have been trying "your way" since Reagan, and look where it's got us: a very small very rich elite making out like... well... bandits. A vastly diminished manufacturing sector, and a shrinking middle class. That button doesn't work the way you think it does, son, no matter how many times you push it. But if you want aim for an even poorer middle class, an even smaller manufacturing sector, and an even richer elite, keep on pushing that button. Just don't expect us to buy into the story that this is going to end in prosperity for everyone 'cause we been there, done that, and got the T-shirt and mug. And unlike you, we learn from experience. Quote:Originally posted by AURaptor:Fact of the matter is, it's the Democrats who have refused to even submit a budget, for 3 years and counting now, as they are legally bound to do. The Dems are breaking the law, and some want to point the finger of blame at the GOP? Epic fail. Again. Next?
Friday, May 4, 2012 5:59 AM
Quote:Originally posted by m52nickerson: Okay, it is required. That is still not going to pass a budget and that falls on both sides, not just the Dems.
Friday, May 4, 2012 6:16 AM
Quote:Originally posted by Geezer: Quote:Originally posted by m52nickerson: Okay, it is required. That is still not going to pass a budget and that falls on both sides, not just the Dems. But the other side wants the budget resoultion so they can debate on it. And it is the law. So you're saying, that in effect, the Democrats are using parlimentary tricks and ignoring the law to prevent the Republicans from having their say on the budget. Have you told Niki about this abuse of power by a cabal of high-ranking Democrats?
Friday, May 4, 2012 4:19 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Geezer: Quote:Originally posted by Kwicko: Another odd correlation: the partisanship and polarization in the U.S. House of Representatives has risen hand-in-hand with income inequality in the U.S. And skirt length correlates to the stock market. Or maybe correlation does not imply causation.
Saturday, May 5, 2012 2:49 AM
Quote:Originally posted by m52nickerson: First thing to remember is that that budget resolutions can also come from the House Budget Committee. In fact the House resolution and then legislation is more important because all expenditure bills must originate from the House. That is per the US Constitution. So in the end the Senate Budget Committee is not obligated to pass any resolution by law and doing so is a moot point.
Quote:Adoption of the Budget Resolution. House and Senate Committees hold hearings on the President’s budget and the Budget Committees report a concurrent resolution on the budget that sets each committee’s allocation of spending authority for the next fiscal year and aggregate spending and revenue levels for 5 years. The budget resolution also establishes aggregate totals with respect to revenues and spending for the entire federal budget. This resolution, once adopted, is not law, as it is not signed by the President. The allocations, enforceable through points of order, establish the framework to consider spending and revenue bills on the House and Senate floor.
Saturday, May 5, 2012 8:13 AM
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: You know what a Marxist WOULD have done? Dissolve Congress and the Supreme Court. Dissolve the banks, insurances, oil and gas companies, and indeed all of the corporations, and line up anyone against a wall who wasn't with the plan and shoot them.
Sunday, May 6, 2012 5:19 AM
Monday, May 7, 2012 4:31 AM
CAVETROLL
Quote:Originally posted by SIGNYM: ...You know what a Marxist WOULD have done? Dissolve Congress and the Supreme Court. Dissolve the banks, insurances, oil and gas companies, and indeed all of the corporations, and line up anyone against a wall who wasn't with the plan and shoot them...
Monday, May 7, 2012 7:10 AM
Monday, May 7, 2012 8:30 AM
YOUR OPTIONS
NEW POSTS TODAY
OTHER TOPICS
FFF.NET SOCIAL