Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Bipartisanship

What Bush says:

We're not the first to come here with a government divided and uncertainty in the air. Like many before us, we can work through our differences, and achieve big things for the American people. Our citizens don't much care which side of the aisle we sit on -- as long as we're willing to cross that aisle when there is work to be done.

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Together, we can restrain the spending appetite of the federal government, and we can balance the federal budget.

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So let us work together to reform the budget process, expose every earmark to the light of day and to a vote in Congress, and cut the number and cost of earmarks at least in half by the end of this session.

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So let us work together and do it now. With enough good sense and goodwill, you and I can fix Medicare and Medicaid -- and save Social Security.

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I have asked the Secretary of Health and Human Services to work with Congress to take existing federal funds and use them to create "Affordable Choices" grants.

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Let us have a serious, civil, and conclusive debate, so that you can pass, and I can sign, comprehensive immigration reform into law.

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Tonight, I ask Congress to join me in pursuing a great goal. Let us build on the work we've done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next 10 years.
What Bush does:

President Bush issued an executive order curbing the power of agencies to regulate industry through "guidance" -- informal advice that falls short of official rules yet can still cost companies millions of dollars to comply with. The order, which also calls on agencies to project the cost of new rules, among other demands, gives the White House more power to review how they write standards to regulate corporate behavior.

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Congress should be paying attention to the president's action because he is usurping the authority the lawmakers gave the agencies to regulate, according to Peter Strauss, a professor at Columbia University law school.

"It's maybe not surprising that having lost control of the Congress, the president is doing what he can to increase control of the executive branch," Strauss said.
What was it that Grover Norquist said about bipartisanship?

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fed chief Bernanke errs in concluding that boomers soon
to retire is the problem with social security. He told
Congress that in 1983 the Social Security and Medicare
trust funds were replenished by legislation but then the
Congress borrowed the money from and left IOUs, leaving
the funds now less than full as the law was intended.

The clearcut answer is right there: replenish those funds
with a new law which restricts the funds for the American
people. Congress is made up of representatives of we,
the people. They make no sense when to undo the law they
created for us. Bernanke told them about 80 million more
boomers will retire beginning in 2008, and the funds will
be broke in ten to thirty years.

A fund is not a fund if the funds are allowed to be used
for other purposes. So, the Congress we elected created
a law which made the funds solvent and then the same
Congress broke the law which benefited us, the American
people. I doubt they would want their own personal retirement funds to be treated the way they continue to treat the Social Security and Medicare funds of the American people. Our own
representatives are robbing us of secure retirements
and continue to tax us for a bogus fund. They are guilty
of creating a Ponzi scheme of the worst dimensions.

This is not rocket science, and does not need reduction
of benefits nor increase of taxes. The answer is simple
and not even Economics 101. Stop the talk and just do it:
fund the funds and leave the money in The Social Security
and Medicare Funds. Leave the funds alone for the
American people.