Stop the Spending!!!

[Guest bengalrick]

[url="http://politics.slate.msn.com/id/2126601/#TheWages"]click here[/url]

[i][b]The Loot Stops Here[/b]
How to stop members of Congress before they spend again.
By Bruce Reed
Updated Friday, Sept. 23, 2005, at 11:58 AM PT

Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005

The Wages of Sin: At first, like most Americans, I was appalled by the television images of irresponsible behavior and rampant looting. How could this happen—in America! But with the passage of time, I have come to understand, if not forgive. Dennis Hastert is right: Those members of Congress couldn't help themselves, and if you don't want to see their looting and reckless acts of desperation, don't watch C-SPAN.

[b]Yesterday, House conservatives announced a project to repent of their wanton ways. "Operation Offset" outlines $100 billion in potential federal savings that could help counter the soaring relief costs of Katrina. As John Dickerson has noted, these fiscal conservatives are lonely, desperate people—and likely to stay that way.[/b]

The GOP plan is hardly a serious blueprint for deficit reduction. House members ruled out the most obvious routes back to fiscal responsibility—[b]such as reconsidering the Bush tax cuts[/b]—in favor of such conservative standbys as auditing poor people and cutting Medicaid, teen family-planning, and public television. In a lovely piece of palace intrigue, House Republican budgeters even proposed a symbolic cut in staff funding for their counterparts down the street at OMB.

[b]But the most interesting aspect of Operation Offset is that it's like a rewind button for the last few years of Republican rule in Washington. It calls for delaying the Medicare prescription-drug bill, repealing the pork in this latest highway bill, and cutting homeland security funding for communities that are unlikely terrorist targets. Conservatives also would dump Bush's 2003 hydrogen-fuel initiative and scrap the moon mission the administration proposed just this week.[/b]

In fact, the list makes a convincing case that when it comes to destroying fiscal responsibility, natural disasters aren't the problem—Congress is the problem. The new motto for members of this Congress: Stop Me Before I Spend Again.

The Has-Been applauds the leaders of Operation Offset for these individual acts of courage and repentance. All of us can sit back in the comfort of our own homes and condemn what members have done in the past. But walk a mile in their shoes and ask yourself: Amid that atmosphere of chaos and moral breakdown, who among us would not have grabbed every scrap for our district that we could?

Compassion for Conservatism: [b]In the new spirit of Operation Offset, the next Katrina package should include a good Samaritan provision to guarantee members who decide to oppose pork they once supported full immunity from charges of hypocrisy and flip-flopping. As the Good Book says, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the repeal of an earmark to go through committee.[/b]

How could looting go on in the most indebted country on earth? Instead of condemning desperate individuals, we should lay blame where it belongs: on the failure of local leaders who should have known better.

Even now, those leaders are refusing to take responsibility or change their ways. Tom DeLay—whose performance, most would agree, has been a disappointment from the outset—warned that reopening the highway bill to cut pork would invite others to put still more pork back in.

That is our deepest fear: that the looting will happen again. Too many of the greatest offenders don't even consider it looting—they call it "borrowing."

Never Again: While we commend this new effort to learn from past mistakes, the most important lesson is to take all necessary steps to prevent disaster in the first place. This time, leaders must be willing to take the drastic measure that some experts have urged for years: an immediate, mandatory evacuation of Congress before it's too late.

A complete evacuation will not be easy. Some members cannot afford transportation. Some will need money to get by. Force may be necessary for those who insist on staying put.

[b]Yet we can no longer turn our back on this crisis, not in America. For too long, America has ignored the hard truth that we have "Two Congresses"—one that preaches endlessly about fiscal responsibility, the other that spends like drunken sailors. Many members live in one Congress, but are just a press release or subcommittee vote away from falling into the other.[/b] [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons//41.gif[/img]

This Congress cannot endure, half rich and half broke. If we don't our best to get them out of there, we'll have to live with it the rest of our lives. ... 10:29 A.M. [/i]


_____________

i pretty much agree w/ this article... time to back track...

i think the main debatable issue here though, is not raising taxes... i think that the tax cuts were and still are essential... i could see some small increases, like things homer and i talked about a while back, but we need to keep low taxes, ESPECIALLY now that we are going to have somewhat slowed growth from these devistating storms... we need to continue to promote businesses and spending by us consumers... of course, if we dont' figure out something w/ oil soon, that will be a mood point...

its time for both sides to figure out which parts of the ideologies work, and go w/ them... we have to make tax hikes, but smart ones... very smart ones... but i think we have to raise it somewhat... making adjustments to the bush tax cut... but keep in mind that we are estimating huge returns from the investment returns we're getting, dispite cutting taxes on them... so tax cuts are a good thing, if done wisely... they were an absolute necessity after the disasters we endured the last 5 years... the still are... the have proven time and time again that they work...

[mikeman]

[quote name='bengalrick' date='Sep 23 2005, 07:30 PM'][url="http://politics.slate.msn.com/id/2126601/#TheWages"]click here[/url]

[i][b]The Loot Stops Here[/b]
How to stop members of Congress before they spend again.
By Bruce Reed
Updated Friday, Sept. 23, 2005, at 11:58 AM PT

Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005

The Wages of Sin: At first, like most Americans, I was appalled by the television images of irresponsible behavior and rampant looting. How could this happen—in America! But with the passage of time, I have come to understand, if not forgive. Dennis Hastert is right: Those members of Congress couldn't help themselves, and if you don't want to see their looting and reckless acts of desperation, don't watch C-SPAN.

[b]Yesterday, House conservatives announced a project to repent of their wanton ways. "Operation Offset" outlines $100 billion in potential federal savings that could help counter the soaring relief costs of Katrina. As John Dickerson has noted, these fiscal conservatives are lonely, desperate people—and likely to stay that way.[/b]

The GOP plan is hardly a serious blueprint for deficit reduction. House members ruled out the most obvious routes back to fiscal responsibility—[b]such as reconsidering the Bush tax cuts[/b]—in favor of such conservative standbys as auditing poor people and cutting Medicaid, teen family-planning, and public television. In a lovely piece of palace intrigue, House Republican budgeters even proposed a symbolic cut in staff funding for their counterparts down the street at OMB.

[b]But the most interesting aspect of Operation Offset is that it's like a rewind button for the last few years of Republican rule in Washington. It calls for delaying the Medicare prescription-drug bill, repealing the pork in this latest highway bill, and cutting homeland security funding for communities that are unlikely terrorist targets. Conservatives also would dump Bush's 2003 hydrogen-fuel initiative and scrap the moon mission the administration proposed just this week.[/b]

In fact, the list makes a convincing case that when it comes to destroying fiscal responsibility, natural disasters aren't the problem—Congress is the problem. The new motto for members of this Congress: Stop Me Before I Spend Again.

The Has-Been applauds the leaders of Operation Offset for these individual acts of courage and repentance. All of us can sit back in the comfort of our own homes and condemn what members have done in the past. But walk a mile in their shoes and ask yourself: Amid that atmosphere of chaos and moral breakdown, who among us would not have grabbed every scrap for our district that we could?

Compassion for Conservatism: [b]In the new spirit of Operation Offset, the next Katrina package should include a good Samaritan provision to guarantee members who decide to oppose pork they once supported full immunity from charges of hypocrisy and flip-flopping. As the Good Book says, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the repeal of an earmark to go through committee.[/b]

How could looting go on in the most indebted country on earth? Instead of condemning desperate individuals, we should lay blame where it belongs: on the failure of local leaders who should have known better.

Even now, those leaders are refusing to take responsibility or change their ways. Tom DeLay—whose performance, most would agree, has been a disappointment from the outset—warned that reopening the highway bill to cut pork would invite others to put still more pork back in.

That is our deepest fear: that the looting will happen again. Too many of the greatest offenders don't even consider it looting—they call it "borrowing."

Never Again: While we commend this new effort to learn from past mistakes, the most important lesson is to take all necessary steps to prevent disaster in the first place. This time, leaders must be willing to take the drastic measure that some experts have urged for years: an immediate, mandatory evacuation of Congress before it's too late.

A complete evacuation will not be easy. Some members cannot afford transportation. Some will need money to get by. Force may be necessary for those who insist on staying put.

[b]Yet we can no longer turn our back on this crisis, not in America. For too long, America has ignored the hard truth that we have "Two Congresses"—one that preaches endlessly about fiscal responsibility, the other that spends like drunken sailors. Many members live in one Congress, but are just a press release or subcommittee vote away from falling into the other.[/b] [img]http://forum.go-bengals.com/public/style_emoticons//41.gif[/img]

This Congress cannot endure, half rich and half broke. If we don't our best to get them out of there, we'll have to live with it the rest of our lives. ... 10:29 A.M. [/i]
_____________

i pretty much agree w/ this article... time to back track...

i think the main debatable issue here though, is not raising taxes... i think that the tax cuts were and still are essential... i could see some small increases, like things homer and i talked about a while back, but we need to keep low taxes, ESPECIALLY now that we are going to have somewhat slowed growth from these devistating storms... we need to continue to promote businesses and spending by us consumers... of course, if we dont' figure out something w/ oil soon, that will be a mood point...

its time for both sides to figure out which parts of the ideologies work, and go w/ them... we have to make tax hikes, but smart ones... very smart ones... but i think we have to raise it somewhat... making adjustments to the bush tax cut... but keep in mind that we are estimating huge returns from the investment returns we're getting, dispite cutting taxes on them... so tax cuts are a good thing, if done wisely... they were an absolute necessity after the disasters we endured the last 5 years... the still are... the have proven time and time again that they work...
[right][post="155755"][/post][/right][/quote]

[mikeman]

[quote name='mikeman' date='Sep 23 2005, 08:29 PM'][right][post="155777"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]
Government has shown itself over and over again to be inept, greedy, and shortsided. The problem is human nature. People are only concerned for the most part about themselves. For example, tax money that is alloted for welfare, only 9 cents on the dollar goes to help those people. The rest is overhead and goes God only knows where. The Liberal response is to raise more taxes without reforming a broken system. The Conservatives response is to cut taxes and watch our deficit balloon out of control and continue to spend like a druken liberal into a system that needs reform. I don't know about you all but if disaster strikes like it did in New Orleans I will not be looking to government officals to be my saviour. Think about who is governer in your state and who is mayor in your city. Now try to picture them coming to your aid when disaster stikes. It really is absurd. Its every man for himself. Just as you saw those poor people on the bridge in New Orleans waiting for help or those people stuck in traffic for days on end in Houston, that is you or I in a similiar circomstance. Soon you will see other politicians come out of the wood work saying what they would have done different and how they will save you next time it strikes when in reality all that happens is beaurocracy is heaped upon beaurocracy and a bad situation is made worse. In the end all that is done is that they politicize a disaster for thier own political benifit.