Originally Posted By ecdc <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/26/obamas-spending-freeze-a_n_437017.html" target="_blank">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...017.html</a> If our country keeps going like this I'm going to snap, stop bathing, hitchhike to Anaheim, buy an AP, and be seen wandering around Disneyland unkempt, muttering to myself about my "happy place" while caressing the woodwork and attractions. This will continue until I'm discovered asleep in my makeshift home behind the lion's den on the Jungle Cruise. I'll spend out my days in a mental hospital where visitors will soon learn to never, ever mention politics, words like "National" and "Review" in the same sentence, or anything sounding remotely like "Huffington." I swear to your god....
Originally Posted By mawnck >>I'll spend out my days in a mental hospital<< No you won't. There won't be any free mental hospitals after The Crash. One step forward, two steps back. Jeez, Barack, WTF? This is change I can barely even believe, let alone believe IN!
Originally Posted By skinnerbox Personally, I believe this is a big game of chicken, and Obama is digging in his heels, waiting for the Republican Senators to flinch. No way this will pass the Dem controlled Congress, and it's one sure-fire way to paint the GOP into a corner they won't be able to spin. Don't you see? It's rather brilliant. The GOP Senators won't dare filibuster a bill that calls for spending freezes, since that's their mantra regarding the deficit. But, they're not about to vote for it, either, since they're the ones on the receiving end of most of these programs. The red southern states especially need those Fed dollars to stay alive; they take far more from the Federal government than they ever give back. Without those programs, these states wouldn't exist for more than one year, tops. Obama has found a nifty way to get these Senators on record. So far, the constant stream of filibusters has prevented them from establishing a solid voting record which their election challengers can site during campaigning. But this one, a spending freeze, will force them into a no-win situation. If they filibuster a spending freeze, they'll look like liars. If they vote against a spending freeze so their states continue to receive vital Fed funding, they'll look like liars. If they vote in favor of a spending freeze, their constituents will hate them for throwing them under the bus during a recession with high unemployment. I think this one will finally put the spotlight on the Republican hypocrisy and their stalling of recovery efforts in the Senate.
Originally Posted By ecdc I wanna believe there's a larger plan, Skinner. I really do. But I just don't think it's so.
Originally Posted By DAR <<Without those programs, these states wouldn't exist for more than one year, tops.>> Which will lead to one superstate known as Texarkansastenneseekentuckysouthnorthcarolinageorgiaalbamamississippilouisana
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << I wanna believe there's a larger plan, Skinner. I really do. >> While I don't believe there's a larger plan, I worry that this isn't even a cynical maneuver that skinnerbox describes. We have serious fiscal problems with our government. I worry that the rest of the world already sees this and the government bond market is going to tank big-time -- leading to surging interest rates. There's not an indication of this right now, but the Fed has also signed on to buy our debt and mask the market peturbations in the short-term. What if the Fed is already buying the bulk of our debt? That won't last very long. Health care reform was fundamentally a policy designed to reduce the future debt burden. You can paint a picture of it as a way to get people access to health care or improve our health care system, but the bottom line is this -- without health care reform, the U.S. government has no way out of the debt spiral unless it cuts Medicare and Medicaid altogether. I'm afraid that the spending freeze is just a maneuver to try and broadcast to the world that we are doing something about our debts so that somebody on the market will be suckered to buy more. Perhaps, in the past 2 weeks, the world markets see an end to our health care plan and correctly interpret that the U.S. is headed for financial oblivion sooner than later?
