Friday Open Thread
Welcome to your Friday open thread. It’s Friday of our holiday-shortened work week. How was your week? I’m already ready for the weekend. Blurgh.
Rep. Paul Broun, freedom clown:
Today, I introduced a unique bill that goes in a completely different direction than everything else we’ve been hearing out of Washington. It would force politicians to start practicing what they’ve been preaching by lowering the debt ceiling from $14.3 trillion back down to $13 trillion. Admittedly, this is not your run-of-the-mill kind of law, but it would make it imperative for Congress to think outside of the box and come up with ways to pay off a portion of our debt while drastically cutting back spending. Since 1996, the national debt has increased by an inexcusable $8.79 trillion. I firmly believe that this calls for emergency measures to reduce the debt.
I don’t think the media has been very good at explaining the debt ceiling but not raising it means a 40% cut in the budget. Since domestic spending is only 18% of the total budget that means all programs like NASA would be gone and the rest would have to come from the Pentagon and entitlements (Social Security & Medicare). A 40% cut would be devastating, but I guess that’s not devastating enough for Paul Broun.
Senator Inhofe sure is a privileged arsehole. Remember the story of Inhofe landing on a closed runway and scaring the crap out of workers on the runway? He was sanctioned by the FAA for that and now he’s introducing a bill as revenge.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) is pushing a bill that would protect pilots from “agency overreach” by the Federal Aviation Administration, in response to his own experience at the mercy of the FAA after he “scared the crap out of” airport workers last year when he landed his Cessna on a closed runway.
“I was never fully appreciative of the feeling of desperation until it happened to me,” he said.
The bill is expected to be introduced Wednesday and called the “Pilot’s Bill Of Rights.” As Jim Myers of the Tulsa World reports:
Inhofe said his bill also would address what he called the “rubber-stamp” approach routinely taken by the National Transportation Safety Board when FAA actions are appealed; would allow a pilot to appeal to a federal court; would simplify the so-called Notice to Airmen system for providing relevant information to pilots; and would require a review of the current medical certification process.
“It’s our job in Congress to ensure that there are appropriate safeguards in place to prevent agency overreach,” Inhofe said. “This bill provides that.”
“Now that is just a matter of fairness,” he added. “If a person is going to be accused of something, he has to know what he is being accused of.”
Oh how noble he makes his bill sound. Jerk.
Tags: Open Thread
You know, I wouldn’t mind offering up a few cuts to Medicare costs like eliminating Medicare Part D, or removing the prohibition against drug price negotiation. I wish Pelosi would slap that down on the table. I wonder if she tried.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leading advocate of shrinking entitlement spending and the architect of the plan to privatize Medicare, spent Wednesday evening sipping $350 wine with two like-minded conservative economists at the swanky Capitol Hill eatery Bistro.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/rep-paul-ryans-pricey-pinot-noir.php?ref=fpa
I don’t care how expensive or how much wine the greedy power-barons drink but I believe standing silent while our own elected Democrat President decides to offer vinegar to those most in need is equally offensive. The offer of a manipulation of the CPI index to artificially suppress much needed minimal increases for the most impoverished is abhorrent, unconscionable and as regressive a policy that I’ve witnessed (even from the most desperate conservatives). It is poor, negligent, and shortsighted economic policy to deprive those people who spend virtually every dollar of their dwindling resources to support all businesses (large and small). It is offensive to suggest that these types of regressive cuts are anything other than an attempt to engage in political swagger that could lead to a decimation of the middle and lower classes in America while resoundingly supporting the rights of the rich to get much richer. If the President I voted for and supported continues down this sad trail I will not campaign for him, financially assist him or vote for him.
John Kowalko
Anyone up for a drinking liberally at the beach sometime soon?
Wasn’t it cute how Obama and the Dems pissed away 18 months crafting a health care debacle that benefits about 12 people instead of, say, doing something to encourage businesses to hire? Adorable!
Also pretty cool that he saw Bush’s two wars and raised him one! That was pretty exciting!
He’s just awesome. Just AWESOME!
Too bad you didn’t look at the content of his character before deciding he was the man for the job. How ironic.
Most reputable economists say that the stimulus package was too small. I’ll grant you that.
No link JK? That is the first I’m hearing about the CPI manipulation.
It’s on the front page of today’s news journal as a “new inflation measure”. Read the entire article. My apologies as a senior citizen with limited intellectual growth capacities I’ve never learned to “link”.
John Kowalko
Of all the bad alternatives the CPI thing seems the least bad.
I wonder though; how does it scale up during a time of high inflation? I’ll have to put on my math thinking cap. It might be a while.
“CPI index”
LOL
Here is a letter my daughter Johanna sent to the President. I couldn’t be more proud of her and her ideals.
John Kowalko
Dear Mr. President,
The nation is in a crisis. It is now that we need a strong president. The Republicans are
holding the debt ceiling hostage. In exchange for raising the debt ceiling, they want to
destroy the social programs that protect our most vulnerable citizens, the elderly and the
poor. This cannot be allowed, and you are the person who has the power to stop it.
Throughout my adult life, I have watched a war waged on the middle class. While their
wages have stagnated, the wages of the wealthiest have soared. While they lost their
jobs during the recession, the men and woman and companies who caused the recession
got richer. The public schools they send their children to are under attack, and both
your administration and Republicans have sought to destroy what is left of organized
labor. Social security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the only things that are keeping many
working, middle class people out of the abyss.
Mr. President, while many of the wealthiest people in this country seem content to see
our society regress to one of many serfs whose labor supports the few aristocrats, we
the people, the middle class, who voted you into office to represent us, want no such
thing. I am writing to ask you to prevent this, by refusing to sign any deal compromising
the future of the social programs that the people of this nation rely on. We elected you
because we believed you could be a strong President, and could stand up for our rights.
Now is the time for you to prove to us that that is who you are.
Sincerely,
Johanna Kowalko
Drinking Liberally is scheduled. I’ll put up a separate post.
Allelujia!
Just club soda for me.
Well said, Ms. Kowalko.
Cillizza relinks to this site:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/the-best-state-based-political-blogs-2011-edition/2011/07/07/gIQAejSB2H_blog.html
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/fix-notes/the-best-state-political-blogs-2.html#more
Obama has spent more than $40 million smugling arms to Mexican Narcos… does that count as war number 4?
more new words from the Ministry of Truth:
Obama Adviser Admits We’re Not Experiencing “Job-Less Recovery” We’re Going Through a “Growth-less Recovery” (Video)
Verum Serum caught this speech by former Chair of White House Council of Economic Advisers Christina Romer on April 12 of this year. This was after she left the administration. Romer admitted in her speech that they managed to create a “growth-less recovery.”
Romer also admits that Barack Obama knew just how bad the economy really was when before he took office because she told him how bad it was.
(Excerpt) Read more at thegatewaypundit.com …
in the old days growth equaled recovery…
yet here we are 2.5 years after the “green shoots”, having “turned the corner” 7 or 8 times, in the middle of our second “recovery summer” enjoying a “growthless recovery”.