Posts Tagged ‘Congress’
We here at USDemocrazy are not exactly history experts (too short of an attention span), but we were pretty sure that the Cold War was over. But then yesterday there was all of this news circling around about Russia and nuclear weapons and treaties and stuff.
So, we began to wonder — did we get sucked into some kind of “Back to the Future” plot?
Turns out no. (Would have been fun.) Actually, as we know, nuclear weapons are still a huge deal in foreign policy post-Cold War, and so the U.S. and Russia’s nuclear relations are getting more lip service over the past few days.
Basically, the United States and Russia have reached an agreement that would reduce their nuclear arsenals and would replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1991 (START), which expired last year. Exciting! …read more.
Thanks to Wikicommons.
We at US Democrazy were excited to hear about a serious grilling going on in Washington yesterday (although less so once we found out they had run out of potato salad).
We were also disappointed to learn there was no burgers or ribs and instead the menu featured the head of Toyota car company and The Federal Reserve.
Akio Toyota and Ben Bernanke were grilled by congressional committees. Here is a look at yesterday’s BBQ (Brake issue & Bernanke Question).
Reigning champions of the Mobile World Cup, South Korea takes the title of fastest texters.
Who’s got the big bucks? Check out Congress men of money.
Are Democrats scared to play rough?
Now that you’ve grown to appreciate USDemocrazy’s thoughtful and insightful predictions for 2010 (what, you don’t agree?!), we hope you’re looking forward to the elections coming up this year.
All of the recent banter over health care and President Obama’s performance in office is raising a question… which party will be victorious in 2010?
Some such people spoke out on The McLaughlin Group on Sunday. ’Political oblivion’ is discussed in no uncertain terms in the video above.
You can find what the panelists thought on other topics of yearly importance, including the most original thinker and the worst politician of 2009, here.
The McLaughlin Group, for those of you not always tuned into PBS (we saw it while waiting for Sesame Street to come on this week) is a public affairs round-table show with big-mouthed panelists and some fun debates. Not everyone is enthralled with their styling of arguing debating, as shown in this video below:
Peter Orszag, who heads the Office of Management and Budget
We are told nothing in life is free, (except the useless advice given to us by our editors). With this in mind, we at USDemocrazy regularly set out to find websites that have real value.
With all the talk of billions of dollars being spent by the government… we wanted to find out how something of real value (our money) is being spent. …read more.
Thanks to the Austin Chronicle
We here at USDemocrazy are always looking for new ways to drown out the constant blather of our bothersome editors.
One way we like to do this is by watching movies. We will watch anything to blot out their presence.
Take Orson Welles’ film Citizen Kane . It is generally regarded as a cinematic classic. Some may find it a bore, but it beats our editors any day of the week! …read more.
If you are disillusioned with politics in Washington, we at USDemocrazy sympathize. It seems that folks in Congress today are less interested in good governing than with grinding gridlock.
But NO!!! WE could be wrong!!!! (this is not a new experience for us).
There are some who dare to tackle the stagnant status quo. …read more.
QUESTION:
What is the surest way to make a healthy person sick?
ANSWER:
Ask them about their health care.
Yes folks, health care is back the news… and this time it isn’t about swine flu! Er… we mean H1N1 virus…)
Just this week, President Obama met with business leaders in health care to talk about trimming their mega-huge budgets.
The health care community is acknowledging their mega-huge problem and, as the Washington Post says, are:
Volunteering to “do our part” to tackle runaway health costs, leading groups in the health-care industry have offered to squeeze $2 trillion in savings from projected increases over the next decade, White House officials said yesterday.
So we’re all on the same playing field, right? Congressman Patrick Kennedy from Rhode Island posted on the Huffington Post, that:
The recent outbreak of the swine flu serves as a stark reminder about the need for comprehensive health care reform in this country. Every citizen in this country should have access to affordable, high quality health care.
Affordable, high quality health care! Who can argue with that?!? How do we get it!?!
That’s where the arguing starts…
Janet Adamy at the Wall Street Journal gives her thoughts here on one option, taxing health care to sustain health care:
The idea of taxing employee health-care benefits to raise money for an overhaul of the health system is gaining strength in Congress, although it drew criticism from Barack Obama when he was campaigning for president.
The NYTimes released their editorial on the situation. They say there is a middle of the road plan, and that’s letting the government toss its hat into the health care plan system:
It should be possible to design a system in which public and private plans could compete without destroying the private coverage that most Americans have and for the most part want to keep.
One thing is for sure. What we’ve got now just isn’t going to cut it in the long run.
Former Clinton budget adviser Matt Miller, referring to the talks between President Obama and health care businesses, weighs in over at the Daily Beast:
Even if this goal were achieved over the next decade, America’s health-care system would still be radically inefficient compared other advanced nations.
So, what is the path ahead for health care? The path will be about as straightforward as the Burma Road (pictured below for all you history enthusiasts).
But where will it lead? Have any ideas?
