Posts Tagged ‘Congress’
Thanks to CNN.com!
Just this once? House refuses to pass debt ceiling increase.
Wish they would have told us sooner! Cell phones may cause brain cancer!
Big spender: Obama nominates new Secretary of Commerce.
If you hadn’t heard, PBS was hacked!
And, Balloon Boy’s dad is selling his balloon?!
It is easy to think that the political system in Washington is broken… There seems to be little agreement on issues big and small.
But fixing the big issues in the country today isn’t easy. Take the economy…
Most agree that US Government debt is an concern for the economy. The disagreement comes from how and when to solve this problem.
Well, one man (and his party) claims to have a solution.
Speaking in the video above Republican Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, outlines his answer.
Analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office Ryan’s plan is expected to accomplish its goals as presently
debt held by the public is projected to rise from about 62 percent of GDP in 2010 to about 90 percent of GDP in 2050.
…Under the proposal, the ratio of debt to GDP would be significantly smaller over the long term—falling to 48 percent in 2040 and 10 percent in 2050.
What seems even more impressive is that this is done WITHOUT RAISING TAXES! How you might ask? Well as Free Exchange’s G.I. notes this is accomplished
Through an eye-watering assault on entitlement spending, in particular health care. Mr Obama’s health care reform would be ditched, Medicaid would be converted to block grants, and traditional Medicare would be replaced with vouchers.
The end of Medicare as we know it, the end of government guarantees for seniors, is generating the most anger. Over at Democracy in America, M.S. after analyzing the proposal states:
I agree with Mr Ryan that the government needs to limit taxpayers’ exposure to Medicare cost inflation. I think this plan is a fundamentally immoral way to do it.
With so much emotion felt over the issues of both Federal debt and social safety nets its no wonder that even Republicans are tentatively approaching the proposed budget.
Fears of the political fallout from such a plan Catherine Rampell notes have sunk past budget solutions and that
The country’s budget problems are not a failure of policy ingenuity, but a failure of political willpower.
Which has us wondering; what ever the right answer is will Washington ever actually find AND more importantly implement it?
With the recent arguing in Washington, we got to thinking about compromise.
Henry Clay (1777-1853), was an American patriot known as the “Great Compromiser.” He served in both chambers of the Congress and in the White House, and knew quite a bit about the necessary and proper workings of American government. Here is his take on compromise:
All legislation, all government, all society is founded upon the principle of mutual concession, politeness, comity, courtesy; upon these everything is based…
Let him who elevates himself above humanity, above its weaknesses, its infirmities, its wants, its necessities, say, if he pleases, ‘I will never compromise;’…
but let (all) who are not above the frailties of our common nature disdain compromises.
Dear everyone, the Web has even outdated that very salutation…
Is your Snuggie not enough? Make it electric!!!
Some birther interrupted Congressional proceedings today. “Help us Jesus,” to quote her.
And, in weird “superhero” news:
Light the fireworks!
As of Wednesday, the brand-spanking new Congress is back in action. This time with more Republicans!
These new conservatives are promising lots of fireworks in Washington in the months ahead.
Number one target in their sights: the health care reform passed in early 2010. These new Republicans are determined to get rid of “Obamacare”… a campaign promise which catapulted many of them to victory.
Some congressional newcomers have gone as far as turning down their own government-funded health insurance.
Though the GOP claims to have a mandate from the American people to reverse President Obama’s health care plan, the Republicans are in a tight spot.
They only control the House of Representatives… leaving the Democrats in control of the Senate (and let’s not forget the White House).
Yet, against all odds Republican leadership is fighting on…or just wasting time? What do you think?
What would we do without gloopy newborn baby pictures? One Maryland hospital is banning cameras during childbirth.
Being less cynical as a new year’s resolution? Ha, as if that would even work.
Watch the new Congress unfold and look at the little nervous freshers!
And in must-see videos of the day… Josh Groban puts into song the tweets of the Great Kanye West:
The results are in!
Census 2010 reported 308,745,538 people living in the United States on April 1, 2010. Now what?
We’re glad you asked.
The answer is reapportionment.(editor: Huh?) That’s the act of reallocating the 435 seats available in the House of Representatives. The outcome of the Census tells us how many congressmen/women are awarded to each state. As a matter of fact, this is why we have a census in the first place.
In Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution you can find the Founding Fathers’ plans for the census and apportionment process.
Still confused? Check out this video from the U. S. Census Bureau.
Obama's split lip just shows how tough he is, politically.
Four more years! Apparently Obama is lookin’ good as far as the 2012 election goes.
Could charges be brought upon the WikiLeaks dude? Answer: yes, maybe. We’ll see.
Hide your Representatives, hide your Senators: Mother Jones gives a brief visual history of Congressional violence!
Are James Franco and Anne Hathaway weird hosts for the Oscars next year? Could be… But check out these weirder hosting jobs!
It is often said the only thing everyone cannot avoid is Death and Taxes…. and Congress will tax you to death.
Well, right now there is an important battle to the death going on in Congress about an ENORMOUSLY GIGANTIC tax bill.
Here’s the deal:
Way back in June of 2001 George Bush introduced a 10 Year tax cut law. Among other things, this law lowered taxes for the richest Americans.
The 10 year lifespan of the Tax Cut is nearly over and now Congress is in a mud wrestling match to see if the “Bush Tax Cut” will be renewed or die.
Republicans and some moderate Democrats want the tax cuts kept ; other Democrats, lead by the President, want a more limited version to remain.
Last week, USDemocrazy kicked off its seminal 2010 election for BEST CAMPAIGN AD (of the year) EVER. This week, we’ve got entry number two for you, brought to our attention thanks to The Washington Post.
In the ad you see above, things get a little theatrical, with Nancy Pelosi portrayed not so kindly as the Wicked Witch of the West from a beloved film, “The Wizard of Oz.”
Spolier alert: John Dennis, challenging Madame Speaker Pelosi for her California congressional seat (who’s got as much of a chance in this race as the lion has courage… pre-Wizard visit). He defeats Pelosi in the ad by throwing on her a nice cold bucket of water that’s labeled “Freedom.”
Do you get it?
Did you like it? Did you think it was silly? It was probably meant to be silly.
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.
