"A Liberal Super Majority"

[cannon_fodder]

quote:Originally posted by pmcalk


As for unions, many states, including Oklahoma, have right to work laws, so the idea that 50.1% of employees can force you to pay dues is just wrong, unless you live in a state that allows closed shops.  
. . .
again, something has to be done.
. . .
As for regulation, do you not agree that we need to overhaul banks & wallstreet?  When no one even knows how many CDF exist, you know something is wrong.

Finally, even if Democrats get a supermajority, that doesn't mean that they will act in lockstep.

Good points.

The union laws in Oklahoma, or any other state, will be trumped by a change in federal law.  Such is the nature of our Republic.  If the feds pass a law that says 50.1% on an open petition = mandatory union shop, then so be it.

I agree that something has to be done on health care and social security.  Unfortunately, I do not believe making someone else pay for it is the correct solution.  Social security was never meant to be a socialized retirement plan nor medicare a universal heatlh system.  These are not modication of ane existing system, but the creation of new entitlements under the guise of an existing one.

Per Wallstreet... more transparency and discretion is needed.  The publics faith has been shaken.  Unfortunately, in general, Federal regulation of the last 30 years has not advanced that goal.  At the end of the day, you can not regulate greed in a such a way as to bennefit from people's intuition and desires and at the same time protect people from themselves.  You take care of the booms and busts, but end up with an overall slower growth curve.  Not sure what the answer is, but over reactive window dressing is not it.

And finally, you have a good point on the majority probably not acting in lock step.  However, the Democrats have moved considerably to the left as the Republican rhetoric has moved to the right.  Thus, the fear that a leftist agenda will be pushed through with safegaurds against nudging it back to center in the future (as outlined above).

And once more, this is not a Democrats are evil thing.  The Republicans would do just as bad. In our two party system the encentive is to go one way or the other, not down the middle.

[USRufnex]

I remember the draconian Gramm-Rudman budget cuts back in the late 80s.  Yep, I remember having to work graveyard shifts at Village Inn to make up the difference when a Pell Grant disappeared and student loan discontinued.... so what have YOU sacrificed to reduce the federal deficit, Conan?

And now... The rest of the story....

[nathanm]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71


You apparently have no grasp on how large, wasteful, and deft our government is.

Oh, I do. The problem is that most of the waste (and spending) is in the nearly untouchable military.

Don't take that to mean I'm some sort of peacenik, but we do spend far more than we need to on the military and military related items. Much, if not most, of the DoE's budget, for example, is really military spending, as it goes with many other departments.

Perhaps we could set a goal of spending only three times what the next most profligate military spender does, rather than well over ten times. We'd solve our budget issues in no time.

[Hometown]

I'm going to be 55 this year and we have been at war in one form or another all of my life.  When do we get to vote on whether or not we want to be world police?

For us Technology is a fun new trinket or the prospect of someday traveling to the moon.  For peasants in parts of the Middle East, Technology is a U.S. drone dropping bombs in the night.

[TulsaFan-inTexas]

quote:Originally posted by TheArtist

I think the dems are painting themselves into a serious box if they do get a "liberal super majority".

If they are in control of everything, anything and everything that goes wrong is going to be their fault. The conservative republicans are going to have an absolutely, joyous, field day with that.

My sense is that yes the dems are going to want to push some liberal things through. But the current economic environment is really going to put a BIG damper on how far they go on matters. Plus I get the feeling that the tide has changed, that being more fiscally conservative, more efficient, etc. has sunk in as something that has to be given its dues, for whatever programs a liberal may want to put forth.  

I also get the sense that Obama will be more centrist than many liberals may like. Yes I know he is supposed to be "Mr Liberal", but I dont really think he actually is as much as some would paint him to be. I think he and other politicians are very aware that they are going to have to cater to some fiscal conservatism. There is almost no choice at this point for many reasons. The tide has just shifted in that direction. What your likely to see is a division emerging within the democratic/liberal camp and more fiscally conservative dems joining with the republicans. The trick with that hopeful scenario is that the republicans will want to NOT let anything positive happen under the democratic watch so that they can finger point and hope for the pendulum to swing in their direction in the next elections.

Anyway, definitely will be interesting to watch lol.

I'm with you on this one Artist.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by USRufnex

I remember the draconian Gramm-Rudman budget cuts back in the late 80s.  Yep, I remember having to work graveyard shifts at Village Inn to make up the difference when a Pell Grant disappeared and student loan discontinued.... so what have YOU sacrificed to reduce the federal deficit, Conan?

You just had to ask.  Grab your barf bag and read on [] :

How have I sacrificed?  I've gotten up every morning for well over 20 years (okay, I might have slept in a time or two on a weekend to nurse a hang-over), gone to work, earned enough money to stay off the dole, worked harder to earn more every year, paid my share of taxes as dictated by various gov't authorities, saved, put money into the economy as a consumer and business owner, and contributed to charity with regularity.  I've also always maintained my own health insurance when I didn't work somewhere that offered it, even when it was incredibly costly to insure a family of four when I was self-employed.

I'm also paying the lion's share of my daughter's college tuition from my hard-earned savings (she gets a small tuition credit for academic achievement which is about 10% of the total tuition r&b, books, etc., she will have an athletic scholarship next year which still will not cover all her expenses).  

My second daughter will start college in a little less than three years.  She's decided she wants to take cosmetology at tech her Jr. & Sr. year so she will have a skill she can use to help pay for college and have something she could always fall back on.  That's on her insistence, not that of her parents.

There's been a lot of personal sacrifice in bringing up two members of the next generation  as productive citizens who will not increase deficit by needing a lot of government assistance or funding.

According to popular sociological models, I should not being doing as well as I am nor be a contributor but rather than a taker.  Broken home, college drop-out, drug use in my younger years.  I even went through a period of near-homelessness and destitution, but never took public aid.  I got myself into it and worked my way out of it.  I worked when I was in college too, it's not easy.  I'm not going to get into a big d**k contest over who had a harder educational career or upbringing with you though.  Everyone has their own walk, it's not up to me to decide I had an easier or harder upbringing than someone else, as I've not walked in their moccasins.  

I can honestly say, I don't know what it's like to have a Pell Grant cut off nor student loans curtailed.  Personally, I think higher education and vocational training are the very best investment our government could make.  I honestly wouldn't have a problem with more government programs which would have allowed someone like yourself who wanted a college degree to finish without stress and not have to worry about where your next meal was coming from.  

There should be more access to a complete grant program with minimum hour requirements, grade requirements, and number of semesters allowed to finish without having to do anything other than focus on school.  Either that or a loan program which could be partially or entirely "paid off" at graduation based on academic performance.

I don't think any of this makes me one iota better than the next person.  But you laid down the gauntlet and asked what I've sacrificed to help reduce the deficit.  This has been my own contribution to try to reduce it, though that's never really a conscious thought in my daily life.  I've never really woken up and thought of my daily existence as:  "What I'm doing will help reduce the deficit today."

Call me a blowhard, flame me, whatever, but you asked.