Mark Twain was a bitter, bitter, miserably unhappy old man, as his biography now being published shows.
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And how is Government to do anything without taxes? Oh, I know: Government shouldn't do anything. We should all put our lives and health in the hands of the corporations!
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It truly is amazing that so many people would disapprove of tmtee4four's obviously correct observation. These must be the people who love recessions and what they do to decent people.
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Your figures for how much Republicans increased the national debt are WAY LOW. Actually, Reagan TRIPLED the national debt, and Bush I added another third to what Reagan had already increased, so at the end of the Reagan-Bush years, the national debt had QUADRUPLED. During the 8 years of Bush II, the national debt again DOUBLED. So in the 20 years of Republican misrule, the national debt QUADRUPLED. [Oops. S/h/b "OCTUPLED".] But you are quite right: why do Democrats allow themselves to be tarred by the tired accusation of "tax and spend Democrats" but not BLAST the irresponsiblde "don't tax but still spend" Republicans?
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The Bush Administration controlled the regulators, and the regulators REFUSED to regulate "derivatives" of any kind. They didn't even understand them. Nor did the investors.
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Congress does NOT pass budgets over the head of the President. The PRESIDENT submits the budget; the President signs the budget legislation. I do not recall Bush EVER vetoing any budget and being overridden by Democrats.
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The corrosive nature of the whole process, including the corrupting and exhausting need to raise millions of dollars for elections every two years, has produced disgust by many Representatives who decide they do NOT want to stay in office.
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So you want the rich to get richer and the poor and middle class to make up the shortfall. Do you make $400,000 a year? If not, why would you want people who have more money than you will ever see in your lifetime to get even more obscenely rich? Of course, if you do make over $250,000, you are just concerned about yourself, not this Republic.
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The Senate is NOT authorized by the Constitution to operate on anything but simple majority rule for any step in the preparation and passage of ordinary legislation. That is, the 60% supermajority to override a filibuster is insanely UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Vice President Biden, who is President of the Senate, should simply rule that 50% + 1 is all the Constitution requires, so the Democrats can ram thru what the people want them to do, and the "Party of No" can cry themselves to sleep at nite. Democrats should also warn EVERYONE, in every part of the Nation, that if the no-no-1,000-times-no behavior of the Republicans works, and produces a shift in power toward the Party of No, the Democrats will in the next Congress learn their lesson and become the Party of HELL No, and block every single thing the Republicans try to do, and use the same fierce rhetoric against Republicans that Republicans have used against them.

- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 12:52 PM