And this is what it feels like outside. BRRRRRRRrrrrrrr. This new weather is just cruel.
I always thought Igloos were made of snow blocks that resembled sugar cubes!
What shoe will fall this week in South Carolina?
97 Thoughts to “Open Thread ………………………………………………………..Sunday, January 15”
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- Citizen Tom
- Counts of Monte Cristo. The
- Derecho, The
- Dixie Pig, The
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- New Dominion Project
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- PW Conservation Alliance
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- She the People
- State of NoVA, the
- The Jeffersoniad
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- You, Me and the Lamp Post
Took a field trip to the Town of Haymarket in the daylight yesterday. Looks like WestGate/Sudley has been replaced on the field trip list. 🙂
Homemade potato soup for dinner tonight!
Are you sharing that soup, Lafayette?
Why is Haymarket more on the field trip list than Sudley Westgate? I am assuming it isn’t over gang grafitti?
I saw graffiti and three houses of blight, without blinking an eye. I can only imagine what I could see if I were a passenger. Checkout my FB page. Maan, we are lookin’ good.
Soup is available for pick-up only. Ready about 6pm.
Sounds like I just heard someone on their way back from the local hell hole Giant. 👿
@Laf:
I think the hell hole you are referring to was McDonalds if you mean the red blaze….
I guess the delivery service is no longer available?
When left with only the Mazda…I consider myself wheel-less.
Worry about winter! Cordova, Alaska, has had 18 feet of snow as of yesterday. Try to imagine 18 feet of snow!
I can’t imagine. @punchak
Try your hand at the Independence Day quiz. http://games.toast.net/independence/
Apparently only bloggers and blog readers are passing. 😉 Supposedly 96% of high school seniors that take the test fail.
24 out of 30 is passing.
I got 100% right but will admit that I guessed on two and got lucky.
Thanks for posting that quiz, cargo. I got all but 1 right. I guessed and missed. (the ratification one)
I don’t know if high school seniors would fail. I would say many probably missed 5-6 though.
Huntsman is voted off the island.
@Starry:
Huntsman was the one who wasn’t shrill and hysterical. He was also a conservative. That’s too bad. He brought in a little class.
Nearly half of the 100-member body has served four years or less in Richmond.
Lots of greenhorns down there is Richmond. Expect lots of stupid legislation.
And the “experienced” ones don’t put out stupid legislation?
Is Politician. Is Stupid Legislator.
@cargo
That was a given. Just expect more stupid legislation. At least the old ones know a little better how to craft a bill.
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/30315
Some words to reflect on today.
Steve, please repost that link. The one you left goes to an employment section.
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/303515
M-H, Hopefully this one will work.
/thanks Steve. My 2 favorites:
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.
— Letter, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 13, 1962
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
— From Strength to Love, 1963
There is an excellent legislative section in the January 2012 section of Cooperative Living. It includes pictures, maps etc.
Also covered under my FB and a fellow MH poster pointed me to this…
According to the survey, if the November election were held today and Romney were the Republican presidential nominee, 48% say they’d vote for the former Massachusetts governor, with 47% supporting the president. Romney’s one point margin is well within the poll’s sampling error.
The poll also indicates Paul statistically tied with Obama, with the president at 48% and the longtime congressman at 46%. But according to the poll, the president is doing better against two other Republican presidential candidates. If Rick Santorum were the GOP nominee, Obama would hold a 51%-45% advantage over the former senator from Pennsylvania. And if Newt Gingrich faced off against the president, Obama would lead the former House speaker 52%-43%.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-governors-education-plan-for-virginia/2012/01/12/gIQAFxfi1P_story.html
Washington Post gives the Governor credit for his education agenda this year.
Mr. McDonnell, whose biennium budget includes $438 million for teacher retirement costs and other funding for kindergarten through 12th grade, unveiled a series of initiatives aimed at increasing school rigor and providing more learning alternatives. These include tightening regulations to end social promotion, better accountability on how school monies are spent and more flexibility for districts to remove ineffective teachers by ending Virginia’s practice of continuing contracts, which is akin to tenure.
“You perform well, you keep your job. You don’t perform well for an extended period of time, you don’t get a guarantee,” was Mr. McDonnell’s common-sense argument. The success of the initiative will depend upon the strength of a more rigorous evaluation system, the details of which have yet to be fleshed out, and expected opposition from the Virginia Education Association, representing the teachers.
VEA should oppose doing away with continuing contract. Yearly evaluation requires a good evaluation tool. Additionally, yearly evaluation will require more personnel hired to evaluate rather than teach.
Continuing contract is not tenure and ineffective teachers can be fired, just not without very definitive due process. It shouldnt be too easy to fire teachers with experience. They cost more. Therefore they are often targeted to save money if continuing contract isn’t in place.
Much of the education money is not new money. It is going to pay back the money the state ‘borrowed’ from the VRS.
@marin
I just watched the 90th birthday celebration for Betty White. I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. She is so great and the jokes about her were wonderful.
Even President Obama got into the act. In a recorded skit, he’s writing to her….states, “….90 years old….I can’t believe it. No. Really. I can’t believe it. Please send me a copy of your long form birth certificate…..”
I fell on the floor laughing. Props to the Prez.
@Cargo
Sorry I missed it. I talked to Elena and listened to the debate.
Spent the morning with Darling Daughter at Lobby Day. Joined the VCDL in lobbying the state Senators and Delegates. Got there late so I joined the team that met with Senator Stosch. Turned out I was the only constituent. We met with his legislative assistant who gave my daughter a small desk flag to bring to school and show the teacher. She’s getting extra credit if she brings something back. Wait until he gets the “Guns Saves Lives” and “Freedom is not a Loophole.” stickers that were handed out. She also was photographed with Senate candidate Radtke and with DC Supreme Court case winner, Dick Heller. We met Bob Marshall and his wife. We wore our orange Guns Saves Lives stickers all day, getting odd looks at Krogers.
@Cargo, good on you for going to Lobby Day. Did you win the .50?? 🙂
The Betty White special was funny. Man she has a dirty mind.
MH, do you think the WashPo has gone off the deep end by supporting the Gov’s agenda of making teachers accountable?
I didn’t read it but teachers have always been accountable. Who do you think has been accountable all these years? To imply that they aren’t accountable is extremely insulting.
Mitt Romney refuses to release his tax returns as Gov Rerry called on him to do last night, breaking a 50 year tradition among presidential candidates.
I wonder what Mitt Romney is hiding in his tax returns?
“I wonder what Mitt Romney is hiding in his tax returns?”
Probably that he makes a lot of money. I wonder what Obama is hiding by not releasing his college transcripts?
More than likely his resistance to release them is because he thinks he is in the 15% tax bracket. Now that is obscene and the very thing the Democrats have been howling about.
@Starryflights
I question whether he has broken anything at all. If we are going to have discussions, at least start from a position of facts.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/17/politics/truth-squad-romney-taxes/
@marinm
You mean yesterday’s WaPo editorial? They need to go back to school for starters. McDonnell isn’t suggesting a longer school year. He wants to remove the post Labor Day start date. That would mean schools could start before Labor Day and end sooner. The WaPo interpretted that as a longer school year. Not so.
Teachers in Virginia have always been held accountable. The yearly evaluations will only mean increasing the number of administrators to conduct the evaluations which translates into losing 1.5 teachers from the school’s roster of actual instructors. That’s about 45 students per 5 period classes or roughly 225 fewer kids without a teacher. DUH!!!!! Our leaders don’t always think things through from start to finish.
Administrators cost more than teachers. If the administrators were doing their job in the first place, they would week out the ineffective teachers during the first 2 years when they can simply not be renewed, no questions asked. Once a teacher is on a continuing contract, you actually have to given them documented reasons why they are not being renewed. Continuing contract teacher can be fired. The administrator just has to go through the process and document the cause. Rubber stamping won’t work. If most of them had done their jobs in the first place, that person wouldn’t be in the classroom anyway.
Re Romney and his tax returns – here it the latest – http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/17/10174817-romney-pegs-his-tax-rate-at-around-15-percent – yes, Romney figures he pays about the 15% rate, as most of his income is from investments -or at least structured that way.
I have no problem with Romney paying only 15% on his investments, same as I do. I figure he pays 15% on a hell of a lot more than I do. But…I do have a problem if he has earned income him paying 15%. I would like to see that rate increase a bit. I expect the 15% hurts me a lot more than it hurts him.
As long as he is paying on investments and dividends …I will remove him from the obscene column.
However, in my snooping around on dividends, I see where they go back to being treated as normal income after this year. Is that true?
Keep the Labor Day start. You can still end it sooner. Last year, my daughter had 10 days of school after final exams. Nothing but parties. If you don’t use the snow days…end the school year after finals. This middle of June end day is stupid.
@Cargo,
Rule of law. The school year must be 180 days. Its difficult to do end of course testing in a timely manner and then fool students into thinking course work counts after those tests have been taken. Start earlier end earlier. No one ever wants to start and everyone always wants to end. This middle of June is how its pretty much always been in Virginia, I am sorry to say.
Hmmm….kill the MLK holiday. Extend the testing to the end of the year if we MUST go to mid June. No spring break…that’s for college students. If the kids can make to the school to go sledding, they can make it to school. Change the law to less than 180 days. Make the school day longer. My daughter goes from 8:30 to 3:10. In elementary, it was 7:50 to 2:30.
Make the school day 7:30/7:45 to 3:15/3:30 for all schools. Buy more school buses if we must. I’ve never understood why school starts so late in Virginia.
@Cargo, it starts late in Virginia because of tourism. The reason given was that that all the tour places hired kids to work and they didn’t close until after Labor Day. You think I am kidding? I am not
Kill the MLK holiday? you are kidding of course, How do you think THAT would be received?
Extend testing until the end of the year? School need the result back in a timely manner.
NO spring break? Parent and kids WANT spring break.
Change the law to less than 180 days? Most jurisdictions would like to lengthen the school year.
What grade is Squidette in now?
Most school systems use the same buses for all 3 levels of school so the start/stop times must be staggered.
Probably the fact that he didn’t graduate Columbia with honors, which means he had less than a 3.3.
You don’t get into Harvard Law with a sub 3.3 without (ahem) “help.”
You have to admire Romney for taking on some part-time work to help supplement his income. While he said he only paid tax at about a 15% rate on his unearned income, he did have some earned income that was taxed at the higher rate normal working people pay. He said he did a few speaking engagements, although he said what he earned was “not much.” He did 9 talks between Feb 2010 and Feb 2011 for which he was paid $362,000. I’d probably use “not much” to describe finding $3.62 in an old coat pocket, but I can’t imagine saying $362,000 a year was just a little incidental pocket change.
@Moe, chump change?
@Moon-howler
She’s in 6th grade.
I see the schedule and wonder how the Louisiana school systems did it because my classes started at 7:30 and ended 3:15. Elementary school thru 12th.
Did they have buses for all kids? @Cargo
50 minutes ago the online protests against SOPA have started.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/17/source-online-protest-threatens-piracy-bill/
Sarah Palin is clamouring about a 2008 candidate not being vetted carefully enough. Is she speaking of herself? She sounded like such a fool saying that.
The captain of the wrecked cruise ship is being called Chicken of the Sea since he left the ship immediately before most passengers were even off. This guy needs to be shot.
As predicted, RPV has rescinded the “loyalty oath” requirement to vote in the March primary.
@Moon-howler
I guess. I rode the bus through elementary and high school. My friends were riding the bus during Middle school. I was at boarding school 6-9th grade.
@cargosqsuid
Your folks couldn’t handle you maybe 🙂
Middle school is tough on both kids and parents.
Good news, Steve. You did indeed predict that one. We’ll have four at the primary this March. 🙂
@Laf
I am not sure I care enough to go vote in the primary. I have never been less impressed with the choices. I guess it could be worse….guess being the operative word.
I have no intentions of voting for either of them. Romney gets less impressive every time he opens his mouth. Paul was never an option. He reminds me of someone’s strange old uncle they keep sort of tethered to home.
@Cargo
Where did you go to boarding school?
..Enough signatures collected to recall Wisconsin governor
By Brendan O’Brien | Reuters – 18 hrs ago..
MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) – Organizers of the petition drive to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker submitted what appeared to be more than enough signatures on Tuesday to force the first-term Republican to defend his seat in a special election.
The group United Wisconsin, which opposes the collective bargaining changes and other measures Walker pushed into law last year, said it gathered more than 1 million signatures to recall the governor by the January 17 deadline — roughly double the 540,208 signatures required.
http://news.yahoo.com/wisconsin-governor-recall-petitions-filed-190838792.html
Hoo-boy, 1 million signatures! How about that?
I tell y’a, this could have significant consequences in the presidential election as well. Wisconsin is a swing state, and in a close election if the Republican candidate supports Walker, an unpopular governor, it could tip the balance toward the Democrats’ way. I’d be very careful if I were the Repug nominee.
@Starry,
I am not a union type person. I prefer to live in a right to work state where I can join or not join–my choice. However, Scott Walker enrages me. Its the way he treats public employees and the say he talks about them. It is like they are less than human. Its time for him to go. I totally support Wisconsin unions. If they were in Virginia, I probably would not.
@Moon-howler
I’m probably going to vote for Romney in the primary at this point, largely because of electability. We won’t survive four more years of Obama. I like a lot of what Ron Paul says, but he adds some wacky stuff too and would be easier for Obama to beat. I differ from many fellow Republicans in that I like Ron Paul’s foreign policy ideas about non-intervention, opposing nation-building, and shutting down hundreds of Cold War-era and no longer needed military facilites around the world. However, he is wrong in arguing that we should not have whacked bin-Laden. The President made the right call there. I’m also concerned about Ron Paul’s desire to abolish the Federal Reserve and go on the gold standard. Both would have catastophic consequences for the economy. Ron Paul has said that he understands that neither will happen, but the fact that he considers them good ideas is concerning.
I am curioius as to what you think will happen if if President Obama is re-elected. We won’t survive? Country implosion or what? I survived 8 years of George Bush.
I think we will do fine under President Obama–not perfectly fine, but we will be ok.
@Moon-howler
I hear you, Moon. Some people believe public employees provide tremendous value to our communities, especially first responders in emergency situations. They deserve five times what they make and ought not to have their constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and negotiate taken away by a power hungry tyrant.
@Moon-howler
St. Stanislaus, in Bay St. Louis, MS. Went there for summer camp and decided to stay. Brothers of the Sacred Heart run it.
@Cargo, it was a good experience?
What makes Romney “electable?” He’s been running for 6 years, can’t get above 25% unless its New Hampshire. He lost to the man who lost to Obama. He’s not any more electable than any of the others.
I predict that, if Obama wins, we will have a move to the left on the Supreme Court. We will have an imploding domestic energy industry. Our military will be gutted. Our credit rating will be slashed. Our spending will skyrocket. Our debt will double by the end of his term, and the deficits will not go below 1 trillion dollars, and the recession will continue until he is out of office. I believe that, without needing to be re-elected, Obama will try to raise taxes, increase regulation, kill jobs, demonize success, and ignore federal laws to increase his power. Unfortunately, Congress will NOT fight back. I believe that we could fall into a full depression. Jobs WILL NOT return, nor will businesses that have moved overseas.
@Cargo, that sure is doom and gloom. Do you really think all that is what he wants? I don’t. But, for the sake of argument, let’s say it is. How is he going to get all of that past the House and probably the Senate? He isn’t a miracle worker?
I expect gridlock as usual if he is re elected and if he isn’t, I expect to be trampled and to lose most of my sources of income.
I would like a move to the left on the Supreme Court. I have not been too impressed with what I have seen lately. People United is horrible, for example. I would like to think that reporductive rights remain codified. In fact, that is my main reason for supporting President Obama. I have seen what a right wing court does and I do not like it. I would like a court full of Sandra Day O[‘Connors actually,
@Cargo
Who do you see as more electable than Romney?
@Moon-howler
He’s already stopped the Canadian pipeline. He has a moratorium on drilling in the gulf. He wants to raise taxes, and barring that, will have the EPA regulate coal into skyrocketing prices. He will appoint far left Supreme Ct hacks like Kagan. He will attempt gun control which is what Fast and Furious was all about. He will continue to abuse executive power, relying on signing statements and misuse of recess appointments. He will continue to give money to political allies, like Solyndra, etc. He’s already blown through the last debt ceiling raise that was supposed to last until 2013. Now he wants ANOTHER 1.2 trillion.
We can’t AFFORD this guy.
@Cargo, so having a Canadian pipeline bisecting our country could save America?????????
Moratorium on drilling in the gulf. I think most of that was lifted abotu a year ago. Better safety standards are required. We are still cleaning up from that last spill though.
Raise taxes- not on you and me. Just on those making a million. I am ok with that. They can afford a little nudge. I can’t.
I like Kagan. I hope he appoints more supremes like her. What has she done to earn your ire? Oh yes, she’s a LIBERAL. Well, I don’t want another THOMAS.
He will attempt gun control. I haven’t heard anything about that. Perhaps that is just you being paranoid.
He will abuse executive power. that’s what all the Democrats said about George Bush. We all survived.
Obama blew the debt ceiling–are you surprised? Did he tell you he wouldn’t? Why did he do that? Nooooooooooo Remember, that’s for money already spent.
I don’t recall anything about 2013 being the magic year for raising it again.
We couldn’t afford George Bush either but somehow we all survived.
Now for the surprise. Put any one of those Republicans in office and they will find themselves facing the same problems with limited solutions. I keept waiting for the job market to be fixed like we were promised would happen before the last congressional election. BWAAAAAAhahahahahaahahahaha.
I don’t see anybody as MORE electable. I just don’t see Romney as THE “electable” one. At this time, Reagan was last in the polls. At this time, no one knew who Obama was.
Now…if Romney wins SC….he’s going to get the nod. But its still a 50-50 election. The choice is Progressive vs Progressive lite.
Yes, at this time everyone knew who Obama was. I have known who he was since the Democratic Convention in 2004. He was their fair-hair child.
I don’t necessarily think Romney is the electible one. I think he is more electible than the others because he doesn’t make the moderates cover their eyes and ears and go screaming off into the sunset. He might be about as appealing as John Kerry in the personality department but he doesn’t bring about fear and revulsion.
@Cargo
“Now…if Romney wins SC….he’s going to get the nod. But its still a 50-50 election. The choice is Progressive vs Progressive lite.”
This will be the first real test of how much real support each candidate has within the GOP, sans independents, as this is the first closed primary contest. I am watching closely to see where the heart of the GOP is, without the additional x-factors. Iowa and NH indicate popular support, but SC will show party support. What I really want to see is how Ron Paul fairs.
When you figure it out, Steve, please give us your analysis.
@Moon-howler
Pipelines ALREADY cross America. This one is no different. But, if you would rather that China get the oil and we continue to import it from the Middle East…..
There is still a moratorium: http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/5360-obama-admin-imposes-7-year-drilling-moratorium
More safety measures…you mean like not letting the Coast Guard use improper techniques for putting out a fire thats burning on an all steel derrick, making it sink…….
Kagan lied in her deposition to the Senate.
The Democrats in the Senate wanted and got a deal that raised the debt limit an amount that was supposed to last until 2013. Of course, they also got in the deal an agreement to raise it without fuss if it needed to be raised.
My question is….how are we spending money that we haven’t borrowed yet? And if we have to borrow money to pay for spending AFTER THE FACT, why did we increase the spending by $1 trillion in NEW spending?
I say, screw the debt ceiling. Its a joke. Either stop it now or get rid of it completely and start printing our money like Zimbabwe money. I mean..that’s what our money is worth.
Our debt exceeds our GDP. In peace time. And he wants to borrow 1.2 trillion dollars more. You say to pay for past spending. I guarantee you that he will use that to pay for NEW spending.
“Obama blew the debt ceiling–are you surprised? Did he tell you he wouldn’t? ”
No I’m not surprised and yes he said that he wouldn’t. Remember HE said that he was going to cut spending. He lied. I credit rating died. I predict that our rating will get cut again by this time next year because of spending this year.
And what did Ms. Kagan lie about? We already know what Thomas lied about.
Restrictions apply but companies are drilling for oil in the gulf now. That article is again, not mainstream. It has a John Birch advertisement on it. You are kidding me, aren’t you?
I am simply not going to discuss what happened to get that debt ceiling raised. It was wreckless and irresponsible to take the nation to that point. I get too angry every time I think about what it did to my portfolio to have all of that happen by a bunch of freshmen congressmen trying to prove a point.
I don;t know what you are talking about regarding the coast guard. Trust me, you will survive Obama and so will the country. I am sure things will stand totally still as they are now given the Congress.
Let’s pretend that the debt ceiling isn’t raised. How do you pay the bills? You don’t. It is money already spent to run the country. You don’t just not pay the military, or the federal workers or all the various obligations.
Gawd, why are you picking on Kagan? Whaat has she ever done to you? Your parisanicoat is showing!!!!
I don’t understand why you think it’s OK to pay less taxes on unearned income than on income which people earn from working. Most working people don’t have enough extra money to invest (gamble) because they live from paycheck to paycheck. Why should those with extra moola pay less? You yourself called it “normal income”. Consequently, unearned income might be called
“abnormal income”. I don’t understand.
@punchak, because it encourages people to invest. I don’t know if it is fair or not. It probably isn’t. I don;t know how a dividend is considered qualified but I do know your capital gains have to be from stocks held a year or you pay at your ‘normal’ earned income rate.
Truthfully, I don’t know what the rationale is. Consider that people who aren’t wealthy invest in the stock market. It is worth your while to hold on to your investments for a year to gret the tax benefit.
On Kagan…..
Senate Republicans also sent another question which asked her: “Have you ever offered any views or comments regarding the underlying legal or constitutional issues related to any proposed health care legislation, including but not limited to Pub. L. No. 111-148, or the underlying legal or constitutional issues related to potential litigation resulting from such legislation?”
Elena Kagan again answered, “No.”
The newly released documents strongly suggest that at the very least, Kagan was not completely honest in her answers to questions from Senators that were part of her confirmation process and, perhaps, that she willfully lied. Beyond simple lying, these e-mails show a distinct lack of objectivity about litigation challenging Obama’s healthcare legislation.
On the debt ceiling….if the goal was to cut the budget….why do we need ANOTHER 1.2 trillion dollars. We ADDED NEW SPENDING. Again, how do you add spending without the means to pay for it? If you don’t have the money, why increase spending?
From RedState: http://www.redstate.com/dhorowitz3/2012/01/18/the-budget-out-of-control-act-in-numbers/
On August 1, the total federal debt stood at $14,342,358,440,969.10. Today, it stands at $15,236,288,061,558.65. That’s an increase of $894 billion. What’s the significance of August 1? That is the day Congress passed the Budget Out-of-Control Act. It took us from the country’s founding until 1982 to accrue $894 billion in debt, yet we have accomplished that in a half year.
You keep saying that we have to increase the debt ceiling to pay for past spending, but Obama is asking the debt ceiling to be raise for FUTURE spending. How about this? Cut the budget elsewhere and pay the damn bills that way.
Besides, how can Obama know what he needs? There is NO budget. The Senate refuses to write a budget.
DEBT–money spent.
Kagan– she probably should have refused to even consider that question since it is about a specific case. However, that doesn’t mean she lied.
She sure isn’t the only person sitting on the court who has been accused of lying, now is she?
Those investments on which you pay capital gains rates of 15% were purchased, usually, with after tax money. That money is already been taxed.
But I have a great idea….15% flat tax on all income over…..an arbitrary $20000/year/per individual. That way really poor people don’t have to pay.
@Cargo, you are paying capital gains on the money you made on them. sell price minus purchase price. If you owned the stock less than a year and sold, you don’t pay capital gains rates. It is treated as regular income.
People who have an 8% tax rate aren’t going to like that plan, Cargo.
@Moon-howler
Yep….not everyone can be happy.
Kagan stated that she had not considered the ObamaCare case……she was the Solicitor General FOR the case.
Debt….money spent. Right. Obama wants to raise the ceiling to get money to spend MORE money. Not pay down the debt. And, eventually, you have to stop spending money. Or at least stop borrowing money to pay debt…..and cut your spending. What is wrong with that approach? You need 1.2 trillion more to pay the down the debt? Cut the budget by 10%. Our budget is spending 15 trillion. That gets you 1.5 trillion in savings. Use that money to pay whatever it is you need the NEW 1.2 trillion for. I’m sick of the lies coming out of Congress about their supposed “cutting” and then gouging another 1 trillion in new spending.
I dont think you can be a solicitor general FOR a specific case when it is in the legislative stage of development. The solicitor general deals with the supereme Court, not crafting legislation.
@Cargo
Why don’t you hold your congressional freshman responsible for some of the spending you want to cut? Congress can knock out a whole bunch of spending if they would get busy and stop whining. They are really the ones who appropriate the money.
So where would you like them to start? It sounds like you want to blame OBama so badly that you were willing to circumvent Congress and what they have been authorized to do.
@Moon-howler
“People who have an 8% tax rate aren’t going to like that plan, Cargo.”
Who has an 8% tax rate?
In my plan…if you make $20K or less…you pay no taxes. On every dollar after that, you pay 15%. The tax plan now is 0-8500 – 10%. Which I could do also. 8500-34500 – 15%. But…. I can lower my limit….I picked $20K arbitrarily. Lets keep it as this…but make it two tier so that everyone has skin in the game. Just cap the highest rate at 15%.
People can work their rate down around 8% if they have enough deductions.
So do you think you would end up with enough money with your 15%? How about mortgage interest rates? Would there be any exceptions?
I am trying to figure this one out – http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/19/santorum-got-34-votes-more-than-romney-in-iowa-caucuses-report-says/
When Romney was up by 8 votes, he was the winner of the Iowa Caucus – now that Santorum is up by about 34 votes, it is declared a virtual tie. No doubt that Romney is the Establishment candidate.
@Cato the Elder
But you can go to Yale as I doubt George W. needed any help.