Congressional charade
DONALD L. GARREN
Reconsider
The Democrats won't balance the budget; they need all that money to buy more votes. They won't close the border; they see the illegals as their constituents. They offer free medical care; in return the illegals vote Democratic.
RICHARD MERLO
Elkin
Half truths
Cal Thomas' column "America downgraded" (Aug. 11) uses half-truths to lay the blame for the downgrade in America's credit rating on his usual suspects: "liberals" and the president. The plain and simple truth is the downgrade occurred after the Republican dog, wagged by the tea-party tail, hijacked a routine procedure and threatened default unless its demands were met.
To Thomas' other point: No one is "penalizing the successful," as he claims. However, it is plain selfishness that the rich won't participate in a shared sacrifice to help this nation that provided the environment, resources and manpower for them to get rich in the first place. Shame on them, and shame on the politicians who held us all hostage.
ALEXANDER W. PITCHER
Winston-Salem
The biggest problem
The single biggest problem facing our country is not the economy, the wars in the Middle East or the long-term deficit, though undoubtedly they are all major issues. It is the fact that everyone in Washington seems to be playing games and making political maneuvers that benefit their parties and their own careers with little worry about the effect on the common good.
If we actually had people in leadership who could put those games aside, we might be able to solve the other problems we face.
E. RAY TAYLOR
Winston-Salem
High figure
On page one of the Aug. 13 edition of the Journal there is an article relating to Todd Poole, the chief of staff for Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th ("Foxx's chief of staff faces charges"). The article states that his salary is $131,833 per year.
This high figure is absurd, especially in today's depressed economy. I resent our tax money being spent in such a manner, especially since staff members do little except work for the re-election of their bosses. If all 435 representatives pay their chief aides the same salary, that means we are spending $57,347,355 per year to pay chief aides.
Your Aug. 14 "Correspondent of the week" ("Back to basics") suggested such salaries of federal employees be reduced by 25 percent. A 50 percent reduction would be more appropriate and would go a long way toward reducing the federal budget deficit.
RALPH BARE
Laurel Springs
All of the recent ballyhoo in Washington about getting our national finances in order was nothing but a charade. Nothing was accomplished about our problems of overspending, balancing our budget or paying off the national debt. What was actually done (assuming the agreement is implemented) is that over the next 10 years, instead of increasing our national debt by $10 trillion, it would only increase by $7 trillion. Most of the claimed cuts are reductions in the planned spending increases over the 10 years. Smoke and mirrors.
The federal government now borrows about 44 cents of every dollar it spends. How long would the average family exist if it borrowed that percentage of its expenditures?
Standard & Poor's was actually overdue in reducing America's credit rating. We do not deserve to have a top rating when we owe over $14 trillion, have an annual deficit of over $1 trillion and have over 9 percent unemployment. The mainstream media and Democrats are blaming the tea party for all our problems. The tea-party representatives are the only ones on Capitol Hill making an effort to actually do something about getting the nation's financial house in order.
Our greatest hope of surviving as a nation is to replace all of the members of Congress up for re-election in 2012 with tea-party candidates.
DONALD L. GARREN
Lambsburg, Va.
Those of us who, emulating our grandfathers, continue to vote for Democrats, should seriously reconsider. Our grandfathers wouldn't recognize the current Democratic Party. No longer Harry Truman's, it has become the party of pander, and the source of food-stamp federalism.
No longer the party of JFK, the Democrats have become latter-day Bolsheviks. So none of us should be voting Democratic — unless, of course, we want socialism.
RICHARD MERLO
Elkin
Half truths
Cal Thomas' column "America downgraded" (Aug. 11) uses half-truths to lay the blame for the downgrade in America's credit rating on his usual suspects: "liberals" and the president. The plain and simple truth is the downgrade occurred after the Republican dog, wagged by the tea-party tail, hijacked a routine procedure and threatened default unless its demands were met.
To Thomas' other point: No one is "penalizing the successful," as he claims. However, it is plain selfishness that the rich won't participate in a shared sacrifice to help this nation that provided the environment, resources and manpower for them to get rich in the first place. Shame on them, and shame on the politicians who held us all hostage.
ALEXANDER W. PITCHER
Winston-Salem
The biggest problem
The single biggest problem facing our country is not the economy, the wars in the Middle East or the long-term deficit, though undoubtedly they are all major issues. It is the fact that everyone in Washington seems to be playing games and making political maneuvers that benefit their parties and their own careers with little worry about the effect on the common good.
If we actually had people in leadership who could put those games aside, we might be able to solve the other problems we face.
E. RAY TAYLOR
Winston-Salem
High figure
On page one of the Aug. 13 edition of the Journal there is an article relating to Todd Poole, the chief of staff for Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th ("Foxx's chief of staff faces charges"). The article states that his salary is $131,833 per year.
This high figure is absurd, especially in today's depressed economy. I resent our tax money being spent in such a manner, especially since staff members do little except work for the re-election of their bosses. If all 435 representatives pay their chief aides the same salary, that means we are spending $57,347,355 per year to pay chief aides.
Your Aug. 14 "Correspondent of the week" ("Back to basics") suggested such salaries of federal employees be reduced by 25 percent. A 50 percent reduction would be more appropriate and would go a long way toward reducing the federal budget deficit.
RALPH BARE
Laurel Springs
All of these LTEs but the last one have to do with the fact that our nation is at the end of an era. This era was from WW2 until about 2007. We are too high in debt on the public sector side and still too high in the private sector side. Any series of solutions will be painful. Any series of solutions will threaten many career politicians. In turn, this threatens the Governing Class in DC. Anyone who focuses on this debt problem(s) to the degree it becomes fixed in the mind of the electorate is automatically attacked as an extremist. We as a nation will either begin to fix this problem ourselves-witness the private sector paying off debt and refusing new debt- or eventually the buyers of our government's debt will refuse to participate anymore. Solutions will be forced on us and it will be ugly.
ReplyDeleteGood AM, WW! Your point re private sector debt is well made, and is a factor that is pretty much ignored, insofar as I can tell.
ReplyDeleteLTE1: Tea Party people would have sent us into default. Cutting one's nose off to spite one's face is very poor plastic surgery.
ReplyDeleteLTE2: I'm not so sure that the Dem Party has moved that much, as it was a creature of organized labor during both Truman's and Kennedy's Presidencies, as it is now. However, the Republican Party is definitely not the party of my younger days. In the main, both parties ignore the American political center.
LTE 3: There are hostage-takers on both left and right. Refer to LTE1.
LTE4: This LTE is correct, but lacks suggestions re possible leaders.
LTE5: The chief of staff is no doubt involved with campaign matters, but Foxx' office is noted for excellent constituent services, so the LTE writer is off the mark. As for the COS' pay, DC is an expensive town, and the COS' duties would probably warrant higher pay in the private sector. And cutting the pay of Congressional staff would not go a long way to resolving budget problems. It would put more True Believers in Congressional offices however, with less effective constituent services.
Stab...wow! My screen never showed that my comment even posted so I placed it over on the LL where it did...I think. I trust you are happily at work?
ReplyDeleteMr Merlo.....you're absolutely correct. Democrats want to indirectly 'buy' votes by giving amnesty or whatever you want to call it to illegal immigrants. It's out and out corruption. Democrats know no boundaries of shameful behavior
ReplyDeleteRemember the infamous images of the Democrats on the White House lawn clapping when Clinton was impeached?
Hey WW. Yes, at work, emotionally neutral, however. I hope all is well with you and your patients.
ReplyDeleteStab, you have apparently fallen for one of the Democrats' famous talking points. The US would not go into default simply because of congress' failure to raise the debt limit.
ReplyDeleteFor such a smart person, Stab, you make some boneheaded statements.
And another thing, I meant to slam you for you position in respect to legalizing drugs. How can you advocate for lower health care costs with such a position? Consider yourself slammed.
Good AM, Bucky.
ReplyDeleteVery well, I consider myself slammed. But, please explain how we would have not defaulted when we hit the ceiling.
As for legalizing drugs, that so-called war is as much a quagmire as Iraq has been, and much less winnable. We are spending billions, and what we have are American border residents at increasing risk. And I daresay drug usage is suppressed very little, if at all. Legalize it, tax it, and LWOP to those who distribute to minors.
We have another war that needs fighting in this country, and that is against our corroding physical infrastructure. Far better that the drug warfare dough be spent fighting rust on bridges.
Slam away as you will.
Just what we need more drug crazed people driving around, killing people, along with the drunks. What a hamheaded idea to legalize drugs!
ReplyDeleteYou've been beating on people heads for so long with Bibles, that I think yours is partially cooked.
LTE #1..... " the only ones on Capitol Hill making an effort to actually do something about getting the nation's financial house in order."
ReplyDeleteKinda like the fire department saying: Your yard is on fire, so we are goiing to tear down your house so it doesn't burn to the ground, too.
LTE #2.... Bolsheviks? hmm, nevermind. "What people recognize is that there's a fear that the United States is in an unstoppable decline. They see the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the Soviet Union and our loss militarily going forward," Bachmann said on Jay Sekulow's radio show.
"You're travelling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination—next stop, the Twilight Zone!"
LTE #3....yes. and remember the "rich" includes mostl...y corporations who have amassed trillions in cash on their books. One hears: "the rich work hard and take all the risk" What about all the men and women in uniform? All they risk for this nation is their lives. All we're asking the job creators to do is , create some jobs, our nation suffers, and you are the only ones with the means to really do anything about it. Men and women risking their lives and what do you risk? a smaller return on investment by putting your capital in America rather than China or India?
LTE #4.... yes the biggest challenge we face is obstinance coupled with brinkmanship, a very dangerous combination.
“I should tell my story,” Mr. Romney said. “ I’m also unemployed.” So I'm going to demolish my 3000 sq ft beachfront property and build an 11,000 sq ft house. It's all th rage amongst the unemployed.
ReplyDeleteBob...at least if Romney does so he will stimulate a bit of economic activity. It's not just the well off who are sitting on their money. In the last 2 years, many have fallen out of the upper middle class. It is hard to reach upper middle class status and even harder to stay there, especially if the person "borrowed himself wealthy" with equity gain. The ranks of the 200k people have been thinned a bit.
ReplyDeleteThat's odd, when I place my pointer on the picture of Barney Frank in the Members section, the little pop-up says O.T. Rush.
ReplyDeleteMy my, Bucky, did you wake up on the wrong side of the floor this AM? You seem to be a bit cranky today.
ReplyDeleteAs for my Bible, I have not cooked it. As for beating people over the head with one, I am unashamed of my faith, but respect that of others' or others' right to disbelief. I am not a missionary but I extend an invitation to you to visit at my mainstream church. And I wish you well.
"A gentle word turneth away wrath . . . "
Proverbs 15:1
How does your head feel?
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteI noticed that anomaly last week, don't know how to correct it. Since both O.T. and Bucky appear to be able to post, I am ignoring it for the time being.
Good afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: Just me, or are all of these LTE's just regurgitations of the same talking points using the same (and wrong) analogies? (sigh) The debt is a symptom, not the underlying issue. The underlying issue is a limping economy that is not producing enough jobs to lower the UR. High UR means fewer revs and higher exps which translates into higher deficits. The tea party's solution of curtailing govt spending would only shrink the GDP further making matters worse. Get the economy moving, reduce UR and the deficit will take care of itself. Btw..what pct of a typical household's budget would a mortgate, car payment and credit card payment combined make up?
LTE 2: TB rant. The Republican party is no longer the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, nor Reagan for that matter. Thanks to gerrymandering, both have to answer to the extreme 3 - 5% of each edge.
LTE 3: Thomas is quite good at generating LTE's, so he's doing his job. The downgrade had to do with politics instead of number crunching which is what a rating should be about. It's a done deal, but S&P's downgrade and reasoning was full of crap.
LTE 4: I'm in agreement, but the way the system is currently set up is not going to allow for having a Congress filled with those who put country first.
LTE 5: I was a bit surprised at the salary myself, however, DC is an expensive place to live therefore raw salary comparisons between DC and the local market aren't valid. The effect on the deficit of the proposed reduced salaries would be miniscule.
"The US would not go into default simply because of congress' failure to raise the debt limit." Bucky apparently flunked arithmetic.
ReplyDeleteI think that Bucky boy has pretty much flunked life. If he could have gotten into the submarine service as a young man, his life might have turned out entirely differently.
ReplyDeleteNATO is pretty much saying that Gadhafi is finished in Tripoli. But DEBKAfile's intelligence analysts are asking 7 tough questions before they join in the celebrations:
ReplyDelete1. Where are the six government special divisions whose loyalty to the Libyan ruler and his sons was never in question? None of the 15,000 trained government troops were to be seen in the way of the rebel advance into the capital. The mystery might be accounted for by several scenarios: Either these units broke up and scattered or Qaddafi pulled them back into southern Libya to secure the main oil fields. Or, perhaps, government units are staying out of sight and biding their time in order to turn the tables on the triumphant rebels and trap them in a siege. The Libyan army has used this stratagem before.
2. How did the ragtag, squabbling Libyan rebels who were unable to build a coherent army in six months suddenly turn up in Tripoli Sunday looking like an organized military force and using weapons for which they were not known to have received proper training? Did they secretly harbor a non-Libyan hard core of professional soldiers?
3. What happened to the tribes loyal to Qaddafi? Up until last week, they numbered the three largest tribal grouping in the country. Did they suddenly melt away without warning?
4. Does Qaddafi's fall in Tripoli mean he has lost control of all other parts of Libya, including his strongholds in the center and south?
5. Can the rebels and NATO claim an undisputed victory? Or might not the Libyan ruler, forewarned of NATO's plan to topple him by Sept. 1, have decided to dodge a crushing blow, cede Tripoli and retire to the Libyan Desert from which to wage war on the new rulers?
6. Can the heavily divided rebels, consisting of at least three militias, put their differences aside and establish a reasonable administration for governing a city of many millions? Their performance in running the rebel stronghold of Benghazi is not reassuring.
7. Debkafile's military and counter-terror sources suggest a hidden meaning in Qaddafi's comment that Tripoli is now like Baghdad. Is he preparing to collect his family, escape Tripoli and launch a long and bloody guerrilla war like the one Saddam Hussein's followers waged after the US invasion of 2003 which opened the door of Iraq to al Qaeda?
If that is Qaddafi's plan, the rebels and their NATO backers, especially Britain and France, will soon find their victory wiped out by violence similar to – or worse than – the troubles the US-led forces have suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Barney Frank.....don't you just love him? A fine example of how sophisticated a gay man can be.
ReplyDeleteIt's no surprise that Rush/Kit adopted his photo too.
Stab....I'll bet if one those pot heads would ram a car up the badend of your car, you'd change your mind.
ReplyDeleteBarney..........Bucky.....who da man? Beat it, kick it .....yeeeeeeeeeeeeh hiiiiiii!
ReplyDeleteWell daddy's little Buckaroo, I think it's your bedtime.
ReplyDeleteAw, come on mom, can't I stay up and watch Gunsmoke?
ReplyDeleteDon't make me get a switch. And stop that pouting. Just you wait 'till your other daddy gets home.
ReplyDeleteHey....Kit! You look a lot better as Barney. I'll bet you still miss those submarine days, when the 'badend' was the 'goodend' for you.
ReplyDeleteGood evening, folks!
ReplyDeleteBucky, let's cool it on the bad end commentary. Enough for this evening. Your posts are resembling DChunter's after a 12-pack.
O.T.: interesting post from Debka.
1. I'd say those 15K soldiers decided over time that discretion is the better part of valor.
2. I'd say part of the answer to this question also answers #1. I suspect that some of the fighters joined sides, and brought their T-55s with them.
3. The "loyal" tribes may well have decided to sit it out and see how things go. They also may decide to go their own way, balkanizing Libya.
4. I suspect Khadhafy's control is pretty much limited to his compound, now.
5. The rebels have all the refineries. It would be hard to coordinate defense and counterattacks with dwindling fuel, and with NATO owning the skies.
6. These are the details in which the devil resides. Lots of questions, here.
7. Khadhafy says lots of things. It is indeed possible for Tripoli to follow Baghdad's lead, but Tripolitans haven't lived through years of warfare and privation. They may not be so receptive to that turmoil.
And my suppositions may be wrong on all counts.
Stab...I don't drink, and I don't do drugs. So don't worry. While you're handing out lectures, why don't admonish your boy Kit? He brought up the submarine lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteIf somebody opens the door, I'm willing to walk through it.
I have seen many references to bad ends, fewer re submarines. Moderation, LG, moderation.
ReplyDeleteBob...my "other daddy"? How did you know about that.
ReplyDeleteTravel back in time. Bad little 5th grader OT goes nuts and yanks Jane Austen Smith's cute little pigtail. It's all about love, but teach doesn't see it that way, so bad little OT has to stay after school for a switching. Which is worse...thinking about it all afternoon or actually getting it?
Then he gets home late and has to explain that to his momma, so claims that he took a "short cut" home. So momma puts 2 and 2 together and he gets another switching, which wakes daddy up early for his second shift job, thus a third switching.
Daddy leaves for work and his other daddy shows up, finds out what's been going on and administers a fourth switching.
Jeez, people worry today about serial killers and rapists. How about serial switchings? Which is worse?
After all of this I have made at least one rational decision. I don't really want to stay up and watch Gunsmoke after all. Night momma, night daddy, night other daddy.
Maybe Jane Austen Smith will have a cold tomorrow and stay home from school and I'll get to go home with all the other kids.
Cataleya is a young woman who has grown up to be an assassin after witnessing the murder of her parents as a child. Turning herself into a professional killer and working for her uncle, she remains focused on her ultimate goal: to hunt down and get revenge on the mobster responsible for her parents' deaths.
ReplyDeleteCOLOMBIANA
Sounds like a good movie.
Hey, Kit....ever been to Bucaramanga? It's right after Midway on Old U.S. 52. Heee Heee....you gotta love it. Hint: You can't take a submarine there.
Not only that, Bucky, but you have been using the same metophoric references in posts now for nearly a year and a half and on a constant basis. At some point you have to ask yourself: Just what is it I'm trying to accomplish here?
ReplyDeletelol, that's funny O.T., I just saw the picture and responded to that as if it were Bucky
ReplyDeleteThe Giants are layin' it on the Bears.
ReplyDeleteSee Bobby.....there you go jumping to conclusions. What am I going to do with you?
ReplyDeletelol, my jumping days are over. Well I don't know, what did you have in mind? ♥♥♥
ReplyDeleteBut whatever you decide, we'll have to wait until after the game.
ReplyDeleteYou place or mine this time?
ReplyDeleteA Boy Scout Leader was killed while leading a Scout Troop in Indiana. Now I know the country is going to hell.
ReplyDeleteStab... our problems always boil down to suppositions.
ReplyDeleteIn 1898, the US supposed that the Spanish-American war had settled matters once and for all. Then the Philippine-American War broke out and did not end until 1902. It was not really resolved until 1946, and even then it was not over. Today, the Philippines is the site of the longest running "insurrection" in the world, dating all the way back to our supposition in 1898.
In 1918, we supposed that the Treaty of Versailles had ended the war to end all wars. Of course, the harsh terms imposed upon the Germans opened the door for Hitler and his minions and led directly to WW II, which was NOT the war to end any war.
In 1950, we supposed that a quick intervention in Korea would send the North Koreans reeling and bring a quick victory for the western cause. Some 2-3 million deaths later, in 1952, the "war" ended in a draw. Today, 59 years later we still have about 28,000 troops there. And the isolation of North Korea continues to be a serious problem in the region.
And so it goes. In 2003, Dick Cheney supposed that the Iraquis would greet us as liberators. Subsequent events have proven him wrong.
That same year Cheney's puppet took the foolish risk of landing on an aircraft carrier to deliver his supposition of "mission accomplished." That turned out to be a bit premature as well.
I have come to be extremely suspicious of supposition. I have also learned that the boys at Debkafile are more often right than wrong.
I hope that in this case they are wrong. But I will not hold my breath waiting to see what Libya's bad boy has up his sleeve.
I've heard it takes a gay man about 4.5 seconds to figure out if another man is gay or not. I think we're way past that point, Bobby.
ReplyDeletesuh-LAMMED!!! and good night.
ReplyDeleteThere's a flag on the play so you still have some time.
ReplyDeleteWas that flag for a block in the bad end?
ReplyDeleteLMFAO!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYea, there's still a lot of uncounted for weapons I heard today, including mustard gas and sarin gas.
ReplyDeleteWell, football is Bucky Boy's dream. Can't help but notice how the players are always patting each other on the bad end.
ReplyDeleteAnd the relationship between the T formation quarterback and the center must send Bucky into paroxysms of ecstasy. Which would he want to be, center or quarterback...probably both.
When I was a kid, the transition was taking place between the old single wing, in which the center hiked the ball about 4 yards to the tailback (is that a term that drives our Bucky wild?) and the T, where that QB/Center relationship began to get intimate. The funny thing is that we never for a moment thought anything about it.
We were much more interested in fantasizing about the center being a cheerleader. And once or twice, it might have happened...not in the stadium, of course.
Bucky's real fantasy would be a new professional league, still the NFL, but known as the Naked Football League. Now that would bring a whole new concept to the QB/center relationship, including serious leering replays.
Imagine this repartee on the part of the announcers:
Terry: Bucky, we're going to replay this one. Notice anything?
Bucky (as replay runs): Yep Terry, I see that Johnson is leering at #69.
Terry: And why is that bad?
Bucky: Because, as you can see, Johnson's johnson is pointing right at #69, which is where the play is going.
Terry: So that's why he got creamed on the play?
Bucky: Yep. Tipped it off.
Rush/Kit.....since Stab won't give you one, I'll give you a warning. That's enough about 'badends'.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Stab has two sets of rules. One set for me, and another for you and Bobby.
Good AM, Bucky.
ReplyDeleteThe preponderance of comments over time about "bad ends" has originated from you, thus I have watched the return fire without comment. Last night's volleys addressed that imbalance somewhat, sufficient for all the combatants to terminate bad ends, stop butting heads, and return to the LTE's and other news. No ifs, and, or buts.