capitalThe Virginia General Assembly convenes today.  This year is a short session so the lawmakers will meet for 46 days.  That seems like enough time for them to get us in to trouble.

I am holding my breath to see what they have in store for us this year.

I wish they would address texting while driving.  That looks like a good place to start.  What do you all thinK should be addressed this year in the General Assembly.  Maybe they should listen to OUR ideas.

158 Thoughts to “Open Thread………………………………………………Wednesday, January 9”

  1. Pat.Herve

    The dreaded debt ceiling – Congress, even those most vocal like Ryan, Cantor and Boehner – votes to spend all kinds of money, and then does not want to borrow to pay for it. We knew and they knew that the funding was not in place when they voted for this spending, yet they voted for it anyway.

    I just love how many people think that there was not a spending problem before Obama got into office, and all of a sudden there was a spending problem – and it was all Obama’s fault. Are we all that dumb?

    1. Pat is 100% correct.

      They all knew they were voting for borrowing money. now the debts must be paid.

  2. @Pat.Herve

    The problem is that the spending has incredibly accelerated, Obama and the Senate refuse to set up a budget, and then the spineless dweebs in the House pass the “continuing resolutions” to keep the money going.

    Since there is no budget, and its all “continuing resolutions” where is that extra spending coming from? You are right. Congress has no intentions of not spending.

    They need to stop borrowing. Let them spend. And tax everyone appropriately.

    1. They can’t stop borrowing. Look at the history of the country.

  3. Does no one understand WHY there is such a fight over the debt ceiling now?

    How many ways is there to force the spendthrifts to stop increasing our unsustainable debt? The analogy is that the liberals are at the front of the bus hitting the accelerator, the mainstream GOP is fighting for control of the accelerator, and the fiscal conservatives are trying to stomp the brakes before we go over the cliff. Since they can’t reach the brakes, they have to get the current driver to do it.

    WELCOME TO THE HUNGER GAMES: Washington’s Economic Boom: Financed By You. “There’s something unsavory about having a capital city doing outrageously well while the rest of the country is limping along — especially when its economy is premised in part on capturing wealth rather than creating it.”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/magazine/washingtons-economic-boom-financed-by-you.html

    1. The bills must be paid. We are in a recession. You have to get the economy stabilized before starting an austerity program.

      The people you are defending are going to destroy the economym

    2. Stop the wars and the lobbying and things might improve. @ Cargo

  4. Pat.Herve

    Cargosquid :
    @Pat.Herve
    The problem is that the spending has incredibly accelerated

    False. The CBO projected a budget deficit of 1.2 Trillion BeFoRe Obama ever took the oath of office. http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9957/01-07-outlook.pdf

  5. Starry flights

    Republicans don’t want to pay their bills. They are the party of deadbeats

  6. @Pat.Herve
    And that original spending, signed by OBAMA, in 2009, because Pelosi refused to send the budget to Bush, is what they are talking about.

  7. @Moon-howler
    The bills must be paid.

    What bills? Which ones get paid first? If we have trouble paying our bills, why are we incurring MORE bills?

    1. For starters, we pay the servicemen, SS benefits, federal employees, etc.

  8. Pat.Herve

    @Cargosquid

    nope – you can read all the blogs you want – the facts are that the spending was already done/committed before Obama came into office – http://www.factcheck.org/2012/06/obamas-spending-inferno-or-not/ even Cato Institute (hardly an Obama supporter) agrees – http://www.cato.org/blog/dont-blame-obama-bushs-2009-deficit

    Where are your facts – from a credible source?

    1. Pat is right. Any debt we are paying off goes back a long long way. Some of it even goes back to WWII which still isn’t paid off, I don’t think.

  9. Censored bybvbl

    Today makes me proud of my home state. You go, New york…

  10. Starryflights

    He, good for New York and Maryland for taking action, while our governor stands around scratching his butt

  11. Starryflights

    School canceled in Virginia county over obscure website’s Batman-related conspiracy theories
    The Daily Caller – Wed, Jan 2, 2013

    Students in Giles County, Virginia didn’t return to school as scheduled this week, because someone discovered a bizarre Internet rant on an obscure website dedicated to conspiracy theories, prophecies and UFOs.

    The wide-ranging article — titled “The Next School Massacre Target?” — revolves primarily around a map of attack sites that appears in a scene in the most recent Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises,” reports Roanoke’s CBS affiliate, WDBJ.

    http://news.yahoo.com/school-canceled-virginia-county-over-obscure-website-batman-214430377.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CZGFfZQI0UAH4nQtDMD

    1. There will probably be lots of copy cat crimes on that one!!!! Every school kid in virginia, for example.

  12. @Pat.Herve
    Is this the timeline that you are considering?
    1) Obama was president for more than two-thirds of FY 2009; 2) the Democratic Congress never submitted a budget to President Bush for FY 2009, instead waiting until after Obama was inaugurated; 3) Obama signed the FY 2009 budget in March of that year; 4) Obama and the Democratic Congress spent more than $400 billion more in FY 2009 than Bush had requested in his budget proposal, which was submitted in early 2008; and 5) the stimulus bill, which ballooned FY 2009 spending, was, as we all know, enacted by the Democratic Congress and signed into law by President Obama.

  13. @Censored bybvbl
    Why?

    What have they done that’s so respectable? I mean OTHER than sneaking through unread bills without comment or allowing the public to know about them,with draconian penalties and rules, that make the Patriot Act look like a libertarians dream.

    1. They had the courage to respond to what they see is a horrible problem instead of listening to a bunch of jibber jabber. People still have their rights.

      After that ad, I have lost all respect for anything the NRA says.

  14. middleman

    None of this will matter if the Republicans have their way in changing the way electoral votes are counted. Just like in the House with gerrymandering, the GOP has found a way to permanently make the president a republican: http://www.thenation.com/blog/171690/gops-new-voter-suppression-strategy-gerrymander-electoral-college#

    If people don’t stop this, we will no longer have a democracy.

  15. @middleman

    Changing the way electoral votes are counted is being quietly calculated and sneaked in behind the backs of everyone in those states.

    How do we stop it?

  16. Pat.Herve

    @Cargosquid

    cargo – your timeline is off. Read the Cato report. The spending, for the most part, was already signed off before Obama was sworn in (even the CBO says that). The budget deficit was already at 1.2 Trillion. I read the facts, and am done with this topic, you of course can believe what you wish.

  17. middleman

    Moon-howler :@middleman
    Changing the way electoral votes are counted is being quietly calculated and sneaked in behind the backs of everyone in those states.
    How do we stop it?

    We need to let people know about it.

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