I enjoy my YouTube subscriptions here in China and I watched this video today that made me ask these questions,
So in short a Sequester is a mandatory cut in federal spending to help with the long-term budget problem. This took effect because Congress isn’t willing to compromise with each other and they didn’t create a budget that cut 1.5 trillion dollars over ten years. This is a very important thing to remember, that news agencies try to not remind people of, the president, it doesn’t matter if it’s Bush, Obama, Reagan or whoever don’t set the tax rate and don’t set the budget. They can ask Congress nicely and they can put in their suggestions, but when all is said and done it is up to Congress, and when Congress can’t work together we get a bill like the Budget Control Act of 2011, that has a ticking time bomb in it. And that is what this Sequester is, the explosion of a time bomb that wasn’t averted by our congressmen and women. Oh how I love that congress allowed this to happen, in a recession allowing for something to take effect that would allow for greater job loss. I am curious what will happen next. The national news seems to be focusing on the fact that the White House has shut down tours, while they aren’t focusing on the human impact of the choices they make. I can’t wait to see what happens at election time.
And why is Sequester fun to say, because it has a “Q” in it. New word for Words With Friends I guess.
I find political commentators amusing. I find them amusing because these people always complain about something. President Obama has made statements about the safety of NFL players. This is a serious issue that is being discussed by the NFL in a rational manner and is also being discussed in schools because parents do care about their children. Glenn Beck goes on his show and calls President Obama a “girl” and tells him “to stop being such a chick” as though it is bad to be a person who cares about the safety of others. He then says that he has revoked the president’s “man card.” I didn’t realize that caring about people makes you less of a man.
Funny thing is politicians and news media outlets do the same thing on both the right and the left. I remember when Bush was in office and we would see all the articles about Bush being an idiot and the political missteps of Bush, and the right crying about the horrible, liberal bias, of the media. I feel as though you only see bias when it isn’t on your side. Everyone thinks there is bias in the media. Not everyone knows how to read it and look past it. That’s why I like to read a lot before making up my mind.
If you haven’t realized this yet, I’m in China, so I receive most of my sources second-hand. This time though I actually know one of my sources on this matter personally. A friend of mine from university was at President Obama’s inauguration, and to paraphrase him, it was an amazing sight to see. I sometimes wonder as a person with a degree in history and political science whether or not Obama will be remembered for his actual presidency, or for what he has, or hasn’t, accomplished (depending on your point of view). President Obama has done many things in his first four years in office, and will do many more in is second four years, but I sometimes wonder what history will remember this man for. Will they remember the man who fought for healthcare and business reform, or will they remember him as only “the first African-American President.” And don’t get me wrong, that title is amazing. I honestly didn’t believe that I would see a person with that title in my lifetime, but is that the only legacy Obama will leave?
image via guardian.co.uk Photograph: Zuma/Rex Features
I know I know being on the HuffingtonPost.com sometimes you come across ridiculous stories. Then I found this one, 14th Amendment Option: ”Nancy Pelosi Urges Obama to ‘Just Go Do It’ (Video)” In this Video Pelosi states that the Congress doesn’t have the right to not pay its already incurred debts and that under the 14th amendment President Obama should just raise the Debt Ceiling without the permission of Congress. Now let’s look at this argument, the 14th amendment states, in Section 4, since I am assuming this is the part of the 14th amendment she is talking about states,
“Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.”
In plain English this means that any current public debt the US has shall be paid and not questioned. But that isn’t what raising the debt ceiling is about, it isn’t about paying old debt, it’s about creating new debt, and paying off old debt. Neither party disagrees that is a bad thing. In a recession however…. that is a different argument. I am just amused that Nancy Pelosi is trying to turn the debt ceiling into a constitutional issue when it isn’t. The White House has stated in December, ”This administration does not believe that the 14th Amendment gives the president the power to ignore the debt ceiling — period,” said White House Press SecretaryJay Carney. The Congress has to pay its debts, but it doesn’t have to create new ones. I hope Pelosi and Congress realizes this fact.
This post is going to be a big long frustrated rant. So if you aren’t into that sort of thing, please move on. Now I ask this question because as we watch the debate between the debt ceiling and the fiscal cliff I wonder why and how this happened. The fiscal cliff is basically a series of tax hikes and spending cuts, that in the long run, will benefit the economy in the long run, but in the short-term due to fear mostly will cause a recession. These spending cuts and tax hikes were put into place in 2011, this is a bill that was agreed upon to cut the national debt and to bring spending into control. Did these Senators not think that two years aren’t really that far away? Did these Senators assume, and I am speaking of Republicans now, assume that Obama would lose and that the Republicans would control everything and they could reverse the entire Obama presidency, not realizing that Obama would still be the president now win or lose. I feel as though politicians live in the land of ideology more than thinking about the average American and what he or she needs. I love discussing ideology all day long, but ideology doesn’t always equal action.
Since these terms had been confusing me as well I decided to look into them a bit more.
So the Fiscal Cliff is basically this, there are a series of laws that would: raise taxes, cut spending and lower the budget deficit by half. This bill was put into place during the budget negotiations in 2011. The big Debt Ceiling crisis. These laws unless changed will go into effect January 1, 2013.
The Debt Ceiling is the amount of borrowing Congress can do to pay for its budget each year.
I just wanted to give these basic definitions to you since I was getting these ideas confused in its media portrayal.
I wonder if all of you realize how historical this election is. I know most people care about Obama getting a second term, but an incumbent president winning a second term isn’t very historical. What people aren’t thinking about as much are state and local elections. The first amputee and first openly gay woman was elected into Congress. But here is some bigger news, Puerto Rico voted yes on becoming a state. Now don’t take down your flags yet. It doesn’t work that fast. So basically every election the Puerto Ricans have had the right to choose whether or not they would become a state, and had always voted no, they got most of the benefits of being an American but paid way less in taxes. This last election, and many think it has to do with the economy, Puerto Rico has chosen yes to being the 51st state. That’s great, right? Well for a new star to be added to the American flag 2/3 of the House and Senate have to agree to this, and many think that, especially republican senators, wouldn’t agree to this because the number of members of the House is set in stone at 438, so some states loose representatives to give Puerto Rico some, and many believe that they would all be democrats. And in this day in age when we can barely get enough votes to create a majority to run government, how will congress get their heads out of their butt to do the people’s will? I don’t know but I am curious to see how this all unfolds.
Yippy! It’s election day in America. That means the news can now spend the next few weeks analyzing why Ohio, Florida, and other states voted the way they did. Your TV commercials can get back to their regular scheduled program of selling you stuff instead of people, and MAYBE politicians can get back to the difficult work of running a nation. I know crazy idea, but still, the economy isn’t great, unemployment isn’t below 5%, the national debt is still climbing, and our nation’s healthcare debate I am sure still isn’t over. I am happy that for at least a few months our politicians can get to work being leaders of the nation again instead of campaigning for themselves or their friends. So no matter who you are, if you are American and vote please do so, and tell our politicians to get their butts back to work.
I was thinking about this, sitting in my bed with a fever. Do I feel more or less informed in this 24 hour news cycle world. It is absolutely true there is more information for a person to have. We know more about what is happening in government than ever before, and we know more lies and spin than ever before. The one thing I learned at university is, there is no unbiased history, and there is no unbiased journalism. While the facts may all be true, the facts you choose to tell and how you choose to present these facts color the opinion of the reader. I feel as though journalists are modern historians in a way. In fifty or sixty years when historians and political scientists are trying to make sense of the early 2000′s they will look at all of this “news” and probably have trouble understanding it. And that is the problem with all of this news, it is difficult to figure it all out. I admit that I have a busy schedule, I only look at a few news sources. I know there is a bias in all news sources so I try to look for common information and decipher what I read. I know that I look for what is important to me, and I don’t always pay attention to other things. I think it is nearly impossible to be fully informed on every issue, if you have a job, a social life, unless it is your job to be informed on every issue, such as the White House Press secretary. So do I feel more or less informed. I feel less informed because simply, I don’t know what is important anymore for our nation. I only know what is important to me. And while I am important to a lot of people, I am not the most important American. Please vote tomorrow, it is the one-act of active participation in government that lazy people can do. I don’t care who you vote for, just vote.
As if you didn’t know, there is an election coming up. And I am sure that people will say the same things over and over about voting, how it doesn’t matter and what is one vote, and about that Electoral College that they don’t understand. I would like to tell you why I feel that voting is one of the greatest rights and privileges that I have as and American, and that any other American of voting age reading this should pay attention. First of all voting is an active choice we make, it is the place where we as individuals have the ability to say I choose person X,Y, or Z to lead my country, be my sheriff, judge, or whatever other position that is up for grabs. That is another thing, there are more positions that just President, and members of Congress up for grabs. Local positions have a lot of effect over the lives of the people living in that city, state, or county. The most important reason is this, our votes matter, or votes say we want or don’t want change. Money and votes control public policy. This is a fact we cannot deny. While it seems as though the candidate with the most money ALWAYS wins, this isn’t the case, he/she has the most publicity. But if a message is able to get big enough and strong enough a change can happen, normally it is on the local level first. Not voting in elections leads to poor local officials, then to poor state officials, and inevitable to poor national figures. We have the ability to choose who leads us, and we have to take that power into our hands and actively use that power. I am not telling you who you should vote for, I just say vote.
We over here at Petdal have finished up the long awaited delivery of The Sexy Politco website. We gave the site it’s own scheme of purple and orange and made it 100% interactive with the users. It’s not just a blog, it’s a place for real knowledge developed by great political commentators. We would like [...]
