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Subscribe to RSS“Senate Democrats appear poised to swallow the House GOP’s $4 billion spending cut package to avert a government shutdown this week but are trying to figure out how to avoid getting squeezed again in two weeks,” Roll Call writes.
Democrats are highlighting this Wall Street Journal story. “Federal spending cuts passed recently by the House would slash grants for antiterrorism work at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by two-thirds, or some $22 million. A preliminary breakdown of the budget bill passed by the House earlier this month would lower the Port Authority's share to $11.2 million from $33.8 million, part of an overall move to shrink the port security grant program to $95.5 million from $288 million.”
Not that a minority leader can do much of anything in the House, but “House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is showing no enthusiasm for the new proposal from Republicans to avoid a government shutdown, putting her at odds with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). … ‘Republicans want to cut an additional $4 billion, which includes stripping support for some pressing educational challenges without redirecting these critical resources to meet the educational needs of our children,’ Pelosi said in a statement. ‘This is not a good place to start.’”
Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), who is a nuclear physicist and five-time Jeopardy champion, beat Jeopardy computer “Watson” in a round on Capitol Hill organized by IBM, which makes the computer. “At the end of his round, Holt (right) had 8,600 points to Watson's 6,200. Holt's fellow Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) (left) also competed in the round and scored 1,000 points,” The Hill reports, adding, “Cassidy and Holt were among the five members of Congress taking part in Monday's bipartisan ‘Watson vs. Members’ tournament. They were joined by Reps. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.). Holt may be the only member to have beaten Watson, but Himes, a former Rhodes Scholar, became the crowd favorite when he bet all his points on a double jeopardy question about a chicken recipe, and won (the answer was ‘coq au vin’). Himes was the only lawmaker to play in two rounds, besting Polis and Hayworth, but not Watson.”
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My thought on all of this is the fact that the Republicans are a faction of some suppressed evil that has lay dormant for the last 60 years. The actions that are being taken to suppress anyone that is different than them reminds me of a certain type of corruption and hatred that no one in their right mind would want to seek out again in any type of society, much less a civilized society.
As Charlie Sheen said, “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist…” to figure it out. Ouch… bad enough when you can quote a person with issues to a group that is the issue.
HAHA, oh the irony.
"shrink the port security grant program to $95.5 million from $288 million.” how many times have the democrats had to listen to the gop mantra, "they (the gop) are the only ones who stand strong for national security and are the only ones standing for freedom?" after the 9/11 tragedy, our ports were shown to be one big vulnerability but now i guess it is okay to shrink their budgets. ah, they must be going for privatization like everything else. we all know how well, efficient, cost effective and moral contractors have been say in iraq and afghanistan.
Our ports are vulnerable but where do you start with the cuts? Education and Security seem to be taking a huge hit. It seems that it would be better to adjust taxes, get rid of the Earned Income Credit and Tax breaks on the high income, and fix the defense budget.
The biggest concern is that the Dems are allowing Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare to leak into the deficit debate. These are fundamentally different programs with different funding sources. FICA was a dedicated tax, never intended for the general revenue. If the FICA tax was imposed on the same percentage of total income as it was when Reagan fixed the system - it would be solvent indefinitely. In 1983 the FICA tax was imposed on 90 percent of all income, but because of income shift to the more affluent, it now only touches 84 percent of all income. Social Security and Medicare were designed to be programs for all citizens. Adoption of means testing unfortunately starts down the slippery slope where some will view the programs as only for the poor. Then, like Medicaid, it becomes much easier to cut benefits because fewer people have a vested interest in the programs and the programs become more dependent on the social conscience of the electorate and elected officials.
Wm - let us not forget that ever since the SS trust fund was combined into the general fund in the late 60's politicians have seen fit to raid it for pet projects or to expand the SS act beyond its original intent. Based on US budget reports revenue for SS still exceeds payoutsbut still the SS trust fund containds nothing but trteasury IOU's.
Elected officials and the electorate have a social conscience?? Only for their personal use, not for the good of the country. FDR had it right in the 30's for SS and its intended use and our politicians made it into an abomination since the 60's.
SS was not designed for all citizens as a friend of mine once pointed out. As a federal employee he was not covered by it nor were farmers covered until the 50's.