What, are you nuts or something????

[Tom]

that was the reaction of the congress today when they defeated a balanced budget amendment bill. I guess 14.3 trillion dosen't make anyone on the Hill think there is a problem.


What a bunch of morons!!!!!!
Hasn't congress outlived it's usefulness?
They solve no problems and only create new ones.

We need to take along look at our constitution - it is broken and needs to be junked. In the electronic age, there is no need to have a bunch of crooked, lying middle men - we need to go to pure democracy and forget the idiotic idea of a representative government.

[rastajenk]

Good lord, Tom, you really don't want that. Really, you don't.

[lamboguy]

why not, he's right

[skate]

Originally Posted by rastajenk

Good lord, Tom, you really don't want that. Really, you don't.

welp, not really , but how bout a little change.

hang all lobbiest.

term limits...maybe.

[ArlJim78]

we all want the budget balanced, but how do you achieve it? some believe that a BBA is nothing but a license to raise taxes.

[Tom]

You do it just everyone one of us does it - when you run out of money, you stop spending. Period.

Simple concept. Don't spend what you don't have.
If I know I have 50 bucks to last a week, I make sure I buy food and gas before beer and chips.

There is no reason intelligent people cannot do this - but then, the word intelligent and congress seldom go together.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by ArlJim78

we all want the budget balanced, but how do you achieve it? some believe that a BBA is nothing but a license to raise taxes.

If they try, we now have our reaction laid out for us - take to the streets.
It is high time OUR side shut down this GD country. Let the 47% see what it is like when WE stop carrying their worthless asses. Shut it down.
No work for Americans. No tent,s no mobs, no marches, just NO WORK. No spending. No paying taxes. Shut her down.

[skate]

Tom...beer and chips come first.

now...if you have not noticed, it is you and Judy Woodruff that remain as the only workers left.

shes got the lights, you grab the beer. and no hankey -pankey.

[Zydeco]

If the opposite of "pro" is "con" then the opposite of progress is congress!

[mostpost]

Two bad ideas in one thread-in one opening post. A balanced budget amendment is a bad idea because it ties the hands of the government in a time of crisis. You balance the budget at the beginning of the fiscal year and a catastrophe strikes. You have no way of dealing with the crisis. Then there is the matter of how do you balance the budget. Democrats say raise taxes. Republicans say no. Republicans say cut entitlements. Democrats say no. Gridlock.

True democracy in place of representative democracy? An even worse idea than the first, if that is possible. First problem is the security of the vote. Is everyone supposed to vote on their computers. Computers can be hacked. The computer that counts the votes can be hacked. Yes votes can be changed to no and vice versa. This has already happened.

Problem number two: Hundreds, maybe thousands of bills come before congress every year. Most people do not care about most of them. Most people would not understand the nuances of most bills. A typical bill involves changes to existing bills. Bills are written in legal language. This is necessary in order to ensure they cover the subject.
Congress has experts it can call on to testify. Experts will not come to Tom's house to explain the nuances of a new tax code. He wouldn't understand anyway. Neither would I.

Problem number three. The typical person is susceptible to false information if that information reinforces his beliefs. That has been proven here many times.

We have a good system. It is flawed as all human generated systems are, but it is infinitely better than letting everybody vote on everything.

[mostpost]

Originally Posted by Tom

You do it just everyone one of us does it - when you run out of money, you stop spending. Period.

Simple concept. Don't spend what you don't have.
If I know I have 50 bucks to last a week, I make sure I buy food and gas before beer and chips.

There is no reason intelligent people cannot do this - but then, the word intelligent and congress seldom go together.

You can budget your household. Wonderful. What does that consist of?
Mortgage or rent. Food. Gas. Insurance. Electricity. Telephone. Internet and cable. Car payment. Taxes. Maybe a few other things. All for one little house in one little town in upper New York state. you don't have to worry about an Army. You need not worry about the roads. The schools are not your concern.
It does not matter to you if the food being sold at the grocery store is safe. If the fire truck has no gasoline why should you care? (Unless your house catches on fire.)

All these things are essential to the smooth functioning of our society. You can't stop providing these services because money is short. You can do without beer and chips. A community can not do without police and fire. The country can not do without the Armed Forces.

[Greyfox]

Originally Posted by Tom

If I know I have 50 bucks to last a week, I make sure I buy food and gas before beer and chips.

her.

Gotta agree with skate here. Tom maybe you should see a "shrink."

[bigmack]

Originally Posted by mostpost

The country can not do without the Armed Forces.

Lookie you, getting all protective of the "Armed Forces." They'll have what they need, within reason. But your buddy, Chu, and all the other bureaucratic, G-people geeks, won't have a nickel to flush down toilets anymore.

[BlueShoe]

Originally Posted by Tom

We need to take along look at our constitution - it is broken and needs to be junked. In the electronic age, there is no need to have a bunch of crooked, lying middle men - we need to go to pure democracy and forget the idiotic idea of a representative government.

Think that I may have felt the earth tremble, because, on this issue, for perhaps the first and only time, I side with Mosty and not Tom. The Constitution is not broken, just the men and women that have ignored and bypassed its principles. A pure democracy is a terrible idea, it would be mob rule and send us into total chaos. A balanced budget amendment is a good idea, but it must include a clause that would suspend it in time of war or other extreme crisis.

[ArlJim78]

Originally Posted by mostpost

You can budget your household. Wonderful. What does that consist of?
Mortgage or rent. Food. Gas. Insurance. Electricity. Telephone. Internet and cable. Car payment. Taxes. Maybe a few other things. All for one little house in one little town in upper New York state. you don't have to worry about an Army. You need not worry about the roads. The schools are not your concern.
It does not matter to you if the food being sold at the grocery store is safe. If the fire truck has no gasoline why should you care? (Unless your house catches on fire.)

All these things are essential to the smooth functioning of our society. You can't stop providing these services because money is short. You can do without beer and chips. A community can not do without police and fire. The country can not do without the Armed Forces.

what utter nonsense to say that Tom doesn't have to worry about those things like roads schools firemen etc. He is paying for all of that along with his own bills.
smooth functioning of our society my ass, the only things that run smooth are the things government doesn't touch which is very little.

when the government has an emergency its no big deal because they can run a deficit, print money or raise taxes or all three. when Tom or anyone else has an emergency they have to keep paying the freight for all of government (which is loaded up with crap that we don't need and wasteful boondoggles) and still manage their own emergency which means dipping into savings or doing without or lowering your standard of living or all three. government NEVER does without. It's the only growing entity in our society. We're now past the point of no return in my view and government will now always grow more than the private sector, which mean sooner or later we're screwed. just wait until we start defaulting and you'll see how many of what you consider essential government services that we can do without. we could lop off 3-4 agencies right now and save billions and they would never be missed.