Of Congressmen and Things
This just in: the best way to reduce budget deficits is to give people raises and cut taxes. I knew I should've taken accounting...
If you haven't yet heard of the latest round of Congressional antics, I'll give you a brief rundown. First, there was harmonious passage of the roughly $3,000 cost of living increase for members of Congress, raising their income to about $165,200/year. I hope they'll be able to get by on that. The cost of living increase happens automatically every year, unless Congress votes to block it. They didn't. Go figure.
But like I mentioned earlier, it's ESSENTIAL that we cut the deficit. To make this work, the Senate cleared a measure (at 1:30 in the morning) to cut $60 billion in taxes over the next 5 years. Wait...it gets better.
Here's where the reductions in spending finally come in. After midnight last night, the House cleared legislation to reduce deficits by $50 billion over 5 years. The vote was 217-215 (all the Democrats and 14 Republicans voted against it).
Why would so many oppose reductions in spending? Don't they want the deficit to shrink? Check out what most of the Republicans voted to cut: "The House-passed measure attacks deficits by limiting spending for the first time in a decade on Medicaid, food stamps, student loans and other benefit programs that normally rise with inflation and eligibility." http://apnews.myway.com/article/20051118/D8DV66EG1.html
Umm...I think I'll let you guys take it from here.
If you haven't yet heard of the latest round of Congressional antics, I'll give you a brief rundown. First, there was harmonious passage of the roughly $3,000 cost of living increase for members of Congress, raising their income to about $165,200/year. I hope they'll be able to get by on that. The cost of living increase happens automatically every year, unless Congress votes to block it. They didn't. Go figure.
But like I mentioned earlier, it's ESSENTIAL that we cut the deficit. To make this work, the Senate cleared a measure (at 1:30 in the morning) to cut $60 billion in taxes over the next 5 years. Wait...it gets better.
Here's where the reductions in spending finally come in. After midnight last night, the House cleared legislation to reduce deficits by $50 billion over 5 years. The vote was 217-215 (all the Democrats and 14 Republicans voted against it).
Why would so many oppose reductions in spending? Don't they want the deficit to shrink? Check out what most of the Republicans voted to cut: "The House-passed measure attacks deficits by limiting spending for the first time in a decade on Medicaid, food stamps, student loans and other benefit programs that normally rise with inflation and eligibility." http://apnews.myway.com/article/20051118/D8DV66EG1.html
Umm...I think I'll let you guys take it from here.
posted by Joni at 7:07 PM
7 Comments:
I was actually comtemplating posting about this.
Somebody needs to explain to me why they feel the need to cut social programs and taxes at the same time they fund $229 million on a bridge to nowhere (http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-10-23-bridge-edit_x.htm), just as an example. Cutting pork isn't the entire solution, but it sure seems like a better place to start than cutting higher education etc.
Check out Hastert's blog, http://www.speaker.gov/journal/051118_hr4241.shtml for some more issue dodging. Sometimes I honestly think that freshmen accounting students could do a better job balancing the budget. Or maybe we just need a Dave. Anybody know where we can find a Bush look-a-like?
DAVE! :)
The thing is, probably the closest thing we have to a look alike is Jeb, and does anyone really want to go there?
To Congress's credit (a little) it looks like the funding for the bridges to nowhere was dropped. Alaska's still getting the same money, but now they can use it in several ways. I'm not sure how much good that actually does, but here's where I got the info: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/11/17/MNGF5FPI7N1.DTL
Sorry for being a comments hog, but I wanted to share that my favorite part of "Denny's" blog entry was where he criticized Democrats for being consumed by politics over policy after he spent the WHOLE POST talking about how Republicans were awesome and wore superhero capes (well, that's what he meant) and Democrats were dumb and didn't care about the American people.
Ladies, especially Victoria: Your "You might be from HC if..." is making its rounds on HU campus... :o) They love it! :o)
Just thought ya'll would like to know.
Secular? Rick, any time you want to have a little sacred/secular showdown between your school and mine, just say the word. Oh, and one more thing...
HU, buddy.
Joni, I don't think that was very nice to say to Rick. And we don't use our school name as profanity, young lady.
It's not my school name, or her's either. I think we can use it however we want.
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