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November 3, 2014
Late afternoon, Dunn's Marsh.
Open thread. Write whatever you want.
And if you have any shopping to do, please use the Althouse Amazon portal.
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14 comments:
Where be the dunbonnet?
Nate Silver gives Republicans 75.5% chance of taking the Senate.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/interactives/senate-forecast/
What should they do when they take it?
What are your suggestions?
My suggestions: I would like to see a little more competent rebellion than we’ve had the last few years.
1) Cease fighting over the debt limit. It’s a stupid idea. Pay your bills. If you don’t, you crash the USA’s credit. Don’t do it; it’s the wrong issue to fight about. In fact, I’d be in favor of a bill that cancels the whole idea of a debt limit. Whatever Congress authorizes, the Treasure is authorized to pay for.
2) Get rid of the filibuster rules. That is, get rid of the recent modifications where you don’t need to actually filibuster. If Democratics want to speak for hours, they can filibuster. Historically, no one does that except for the most extreme causes, and that’s what it’s good for. Otherwise, majority rule – this has been the situation for almost all of the history of the Senate.
2) Republicans will now be able to pass any bills they want. They can pass a budget that defunds Obamacare and the Department of Education. However, Obama will veto it. If they hold out, we get a government shut-down with everyone blaming everyone. If they just pass a continuing resolution to tide us over, Obama will just veto everything else. Congress controls the budget, but what’s the solution?
Instead, pass the budget in pieces. Anything that is clearly necessary and desirable for the government, pass as separate bills. Will the president veto a bill funding the Coast Guard? Or the FAA? Send him a bunch of such bills and dare him to veto them.
Assure the American public that we’re not cancelling everything else, but we're going to have a big argument and we want to get the essential stuff funded so things won’t shut down while we’re arguing. Once those are signed, _then_ write a budget and let the president veto it if he doesn’t want anything else funded, or let him deal. Congress controls the budget.
3) Do some tough stuff. We don’t need all the military spending that we have. We just don’t. We should not be paying for NATO’s military, for Japan’s military, for South Korea’s military, for most of the UN’s military. Those Republicans who agree with me should buck the rest of their party and get together with the Democrats; this is a place that spending should be cut in a bipartisan way. I’m sorry if it will upset other Republicans. Not all Republicans are pro-big-military. They should stick together on things they agree on, not on this.
4) Reform the tax laws. Deductions are a giveaway from the government, taking from other tax-payers to pay people who own houses, people who are farmers, etc. I don’t understand why Republicans should be supporting these things. Low taxes doesn’t mean that you have to pay me for my house. Bowles-Simpson suggested getting rid of a large chunk of deductions all at once to help with the political fallout, and that’s how it should be done.
5) Do not infuriate poor people, help them. Talk to them, and tell them that with all the government programs that we are planning to defund, that doesn’t mean we are going to defund you. We care about you, not about the bureaucrats who run those programs. The US government is currently spending tens of thousands of dollars on welfare programs per person in the US. Poor people don’t get most of it, lots of it stays in Washington. We’re going to take the same amount of money and cut you a single check, every month. You’ll get every dollar; you’ll get more than you’re getting now, without having to visit twenty different agencies and fill out forty different forms. The US government is very good at cutting checks to millions of people.
Look, I know that Republicans don’t approve of welfare. So what? This idea doesn’t cost anything, should refute a lot of the stuff that poor Americans think about Republicans, and would almost completely get rid of one of the largest and most important Democratic power blocs: federal workers. And it would be better for the poor; they could decide what to do with their money. Charles Murray suggested it long ago.
Beautiful photo. Then the radio played "Sister Christian."
Oh, good. It's aright side up one...I think.
wow.
You should read the Business Insider article where a Polish MoD official is quoted.
Here's a teaser:
"He thinks he's on Oprah"
Somebody missing on the ol' blogroll?
Andrew Luck is just awesome. I think he'll be the NFL MVP this year.
Cease fighting over the debt limit. It’s a stupid idea. Pay your bills. If you don’t, you crash the USA’s credit.
That's not really the problem. A trashed credit rating just means you can't deficit spend anymore.
The real problem we face is that neither party has any stomach for making the kind of draconian budget cuts that would be necessary to balance the budget. Republicans wet their pants when someone proposes slowing the growth of military spending by a tenth of a percent, and Democrats are the same way about Medicare and Social Security. Well, you have to trim two of those three things, kids. Otherwise we eventually go bankrupt.
MSNBC doesn't know Scott Walker from Scott Brown
My hometown liberal newspaper didn't endorse a candidate for WI governor. I suspect that deep down in places they don't talk about at parties, they want Scott Walker on that wall, they NEED Scott Walker on that wall.
The football season is over in NY/NJ.
Giants.
Jets.
Rutgers.
End of story.
Frees up a lot of time on my weekends.
"A trashed credit rating just means you can't deficit spend anymore." No, a trashed credit rating means that a much larger fraction of our spending goes to paying higher interest on the national debt - immediately. It's a really bad idea. Don't apportion money if you aren't going to cover the checks.
Marsh Pennywort
Marsh pennywort repays in dividends
As it multiplies interest, its coin-
Rounded leaves, dangling thin purse-strings for fronds,
Supports inflation of its foreign green –
Hard currency in wetland’s liquid time,
Precious specie preponderating pond-
Economies with toad-spawned tadpole slime,
Necessarily blessed because so fecund.
Now too, the marsh will pay what seasons played,
Yet holds interest in soil across the board
While reed and rush enriched by fluid coins
Of marshy realms devalue winter’s trade.
Resplendent sense sees pennywort prepared
To issue species: nature’s greener groynes.
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