June 26, 2009

Republican SLOW CLAP for John Boehner

Let me start the SLOW CLAP for John Boehner, Republican House Leader for trying to personally derail the Cap and Trade bill in Congress that will go a long way to turning the United States into a Third World nation.

In the middle of a deep recession, in the middle of a choking de-industrialization of the nation that once produced over 50% of the world's GDP, in the middle of a global cooling phase, the Democrats managed to pass a bill to kill what's left of American manufacturing, to kill the auto industry, to hamstring Boeing, and Caterpillar, and countless others.

On top of which, they decided to slide it through on a Friday afternoon, the day after Michael Jackson died - as close to the dead of night they could muster.

John Boehner went on Twitter (go there and search #nocap to see some tweets on the topic) and plead with conservatives to contact their representatives to stop the bill. Then he went on the floor of Congress and tried to affect a one-man filibuster.

He deserves a round of applause for his efforts.




The bill passed 219-212. The congressional representatives were flooded with calls to reconsider. It was closer than expected. It was almost turned back.

This could be a moment in time that people look back and say this was the moment America truly lost it's way and wandered into the wilderness for decades or perhaps even irreversibly. This is the wrong bill at the wrong time.

Maybe not. Maybe the world of Twitter can be even more effectively leveraged in the future, with less generals trying to promote their own agendas (myself included at times) and more foot soldiers willing to mount a coordinated effort to stop bad government decisions. America needs it. There is no government body dedicated to 'sober second thought' now - it's up to the people to do that for their elected, unlistening politicians.

Meanwhile, SLOW CLAP for John Boehner again. Excellent effort Congressman.

3 comments:

  1. I think America lost it's way back when all was working well, we were actually running a surplus on an annual basis and could begin to pay down the debt and a republican 'won' a contested election.And changed the status quo.
    Tax rates were much higher but did NOT preclude people wanting to make money through their efforts, life was actually way better for way more people. If, of course, your concern is only a narrow slice of the populace, you may have a different take on those years. If you are rich, ridiculously rich, you might not like what is to come. But some of those types of people are fine w/ it, for instance W. Buffett.

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  2. Laura,

    The budget surplus you speak of was mandated by a Republican Congress, and not the President. The Congress passes the budget not the President. President Clinton was afraid to veto their budgets and to go against welfare reform because of the victories of the Republicans in Congress as a result of the contract with America.

    Secondly Clinton enjoyed what was termed a peace dividend that came as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union - that credit belongs to Ronald Reagan (a point to lengthy to argue here).

    The United States is like a massive ship - changes that Reagan made in the 80's that were reinforced in the 90's took time to be fully felt through the economy. The tax increases under Clinton began to be felt in the late 90's and into the 2000's.

    Ironically, Bush's tax cuts while initially cost ineffective led to huge increases in government tax revenue. The reason the country has gone off the rails is SPENDING. You can see the time series of spending versus revenue by year here;

    Revenues;

    http://www.heritage.org/research/features/budgetchartbook/federal-government-revenues-have-more-than-tripled-since-1965.aspx

    Spending;

    http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1980_2014&view=1&expand=&units=b&fy=fy10&chart=F0-total&bar=1&stack=1&size=m&title=Total%20Spending&state=US&color=c&local=s

    Which brings me the last point - life will be better for no one with massive debt. Health Care will add at a MINIMUM a trillion dollars of new spending and debt. Taxes will be higher, the interest on the debt will be higher and you will 'get' less from your government in exchange for the taxes you pay as the debt servicing becomes a higher and higher percentage of the government spending - in addition to the unsustainable costs of Medicare, Medicaid andSocial Security. You are arguing for more government while you are praising surplus budgets. You want both but will end up with neither.

    If you insist on seeing the world through 'blue-dog Democrat rose colored glasses', at least do yourself the favor of researching to see if the factsare consistent with your 'stolen election' views.

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  3. Dean_L,

    Why would I care how the surplus came to be? We had a surplus. Bush was 'elected' and then we didn't have a surplus. Doesn't take a genius...I did not credit the surplus to Clinton, if you will read what I said. Contract with America was just another republican political gimmick, used to decimate society while handing more wealth to the already rich.

    Nothing about Reagan interests me either. This is the year 2009. Eight years of republican (actually conservative)"governance" has ruined just about everything including our reputation and perhaps the dollar. Reagan blah, blah. Not pertinent to anything.

    Bush's tax cuts did not lead to increased revenue and I do not care what the Heritage Foundation has to say about that. It was people spending like crazy, even on credit, even using their equity and using inflated housing values as security to obtain credit they then spent that propped up the economy and contributed to revenues not falling as far as they should have under Bush's tax cuts. Tell yourself what you like but that is the plain truth.

    How do you think health care will increase by trillion dollars? The plan is to reduce the cost of health care, it takes an upfront investment to get the savings later. Sounds to me like you have been listening to Joe Scarborough, he plays the same game with the same misstated facts. Yes, the spending is unsustainable. Yes, at this rate we would go bankrupt. Luckily, we are grownups who will deal with the problem before it comes to that. Leave it to conservatives to go around crying chicken little about a problem they created in the first place. Here is where I remind you, there was a nice surplus when George Bush and Dick Cheney came along and spent it and way more too, knowing they would pass the problem on.

    Why is it we are the only country that can't make sure it's citizens have health care? Why? Because we are infested with greedy, selfish, resentful people. It's so ridiculous. Businesses bear the brunt of the outrageous cost of health insurance, along with the millions who don't see a doctor and millions more who have had to file bankruptcy protection (which hurts other businesses) just to insure the insurance companies and the health business make 'unsustainable' profits.

    I don't understand why otherwise decent people are so hateful when it comes to politics. I don't understand why the people who don't want everyone to have health care are the same people who don't care about ruining the earth for future generations and are also the same people who were cheerleaders for an unnecessary war that killed 100,000 and are also the people who don't see the need for fairness or equality, the same people who love guns in some very weird way and who insist on the death penalty even though we know it gets applied to the innocent, the same people who want their neighbors to work for minimum wage in unsafe conditions and can usually be found at church on Sunday and sprinkling their language with 'praise the lord' this and 'Jesus' that during the week.

    My glasses are not rose colored. I am sad at the hate I see on the other side of the political divide. It's like the contest between good and evil. And I know which side I am on, and am sorry for those who are on the wrong side.

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