Friday, August 7, 2015

How is Congress Doing

As is expected, the Liberals over here are saying that Congress (ie GOP) is still failing.
MinnPost How is Congress Doing This Year?

I keep asking them what they would see as success, but am getting no answers. So here is what I think the Far Left folks would see as a successful Congress:

  • Raise and create more taxes.
  • Increase spending on existing programs.
  • Create new programs to fund.
  • Eliminate medical insurance choice.
  • Create more regulations, requiring more paperwork / oversight.
  • Pardon aliens who budged in line in front of legal immigrants and took American jobs.
  • Stifle religious freedoms and force them to they associate with people who believe differently.
  • Stifle fire arms freedoms.
  • Fund light rail, bike paths, arts, etc. 
  • Raise the cost of living and doing business in the USA by increasing the minimum wage significantly.
What else should the Congress be doing to be deemed successful from the Liberal view?  Personally I think the checks and balances are work well.

19 comments:

Sean said...

If you want a serious discussion of these issues, perhaps set the cartoon stereotypes aside. I can write an equally outlandish set of "proposals" for the GOP, but it gets us nowhere. Why don't we talk about what has, you know, *actually* been proposed?

John said...

Now I may have exaggerated on the bike paths and arts, however the rest seems pulled from recent headlines:
CPC Proposal
Bernie Sanders Issues
Hillarys Issues
Democrats on the Issues

John said...

So if you were to ignore my foolishness. What would Congress need to do to be deemed successful from your perspective?

Sean said...

How about you go on the record for a change and lay out your criteria?

John said...

Overall little change is good with me. Some things I would like to see:

- Move welfare, medicaid, etc out of the Federal budget. Those are State issues.
- Require training, good choices, service work, etc in exchange for benefits.
- Get National government focused on Defense, Commerce, etc
- Leaving SS, Medicare, etc at the Feds is okay since the time between collection and disbursement is long and people move.

- Balance the budget and start paying down the national debt
- Slow spending and close some blatant tax policy gaps

- Enforce the current laws and deport illegal aliens.
- Lock down the border to stop the flow of aliens and drugs.
- Expand legal immigration if more low knowledge/skill workers are needed.
- May want to hold off until wages start going up for those employees.
- May need to find way to push welfare folks to "unpleasant jobs".

- Expand the availability of Birth Control Implants
- Limit abortions to <20 weeks unless specific defined criteria are met
- If on welfare and Woman gets pregnant. The fetus is aborted or adopted to some you is more responsible. Preferably the womans's tubes are tied. (with rights come responsibility and consequences) Same for men, if a baby Daddy name keeps showing up... It is time for a free vasectomy.

- Leave LGBT issues to the States for now.

There is a start. Now I am back to trimming trees.

Sean said...

Avoiding a government shutdown is pretty much where I set the bar for this GOP Congress.

John said...

That sounds like a good goal for the Democrats to aim for also.

If a shutdown occurs, how will you decide who is at fault? Or is it always the GOP?

Unknown said...

by my memory the majority of the public usually agrees in blaming the GOP.

John said...

Interesting criteria. It will be interesting to see if the "public" agrees if Obama chooses to veto something.

As usual, I am a pretty strong believer that it takes 2 to argue and to fail to reach a compromise. At least that is what I teach my girls.

Unknown said...

The president vetoing something is a normal function of govt. Shutting down the govt is not. In most disagreements the parties are not equally at fault. About the federal govt shutdown in 2013:

"By a 22-point margin (53-31 percent), the public blames the Republican Party more for the shutdown than President Barack Obama, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. That’s a wider margin of blame for the GOP than the party received during the last shutdown in 1995-96."


Government shutdown: Most Americans blame Republicans. But will it matter in 2014? (+video)

John said...

However since we know the results of the 2014 election now, it appears enough people support their penny pinching to get them elected.

Maybe they should have asked "Do you support a government shutdown if it can reduce your tax bill next year?"

Unknown said...

the GOP won in 2014 due to gerrymandering and only one third of the people voted.

"In 2012, the first congressional election after the last round of gerrymandering, Democratic House candidates won 50.59 percent of the vote — or 1.37 million more votes than Republican candidates — yet secured only 201 seats in Congress, compared to 234 seats for Republicans. The House of Representatives, the “people’s house,” no longer requires the most votes for power."

Unknown said...

Here is a critique of the Modern republican party I cam across that I thought you might enjoy, John.

The Moderate Republican’s Case for Trump
Only Trump can make the GOP sane again—by losing in a landslide to Hillary Clinton.
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John said...

"The House of Representatives, the “people’s house,” no longer requires the most votes for power."

And thank heavens for that. I would hate to have the city and rural dwellers up in arms because the urban majority were forcing their will on the rural minority.

Have folks learned nothing by watching the Shiites ignoring the concerns of the Kurds and Sunnis, and the civil war that followed. There is a reason we are not a national democracy.

John said...

I will need to read it later, however the opening line leads me to think something is wrong with this individuals self perception.

"a moderate Republican who voted for Obama"

Both McCain and Romney were "Moderate Republicans"...

Unknown said...

check out the pictures of a few gerrymandered congressional districts. Is this what democracy should look like?

America’s most gerrymandered congressional districts

and if you find Bruce Bartlett interesting or not sufficiently republican here he is again on why he voted for Obama:

One Year Of Obama

John said...

I read the One Year of Obama link. It was interesting and got me curious...

Bruce 2012

As for gerrymandering, I assume both sides do their best to play the game within the rules. The maps remind of the MN school district maps, a bit illogical due to their history.

Unknown said...

Just because it is legal doesn't make it right. I think there are court challenges being made in states where gerryamndering is the worst. Districts in MN seem to have reasonable shapes.

John said...

Well that is why we have courts, however it seems I have been hearing about the gerrymandering thing for many years / decades.

As for legal and right... Each of us has our own definition of right, that is why we need laws and courts.

By the way, I forgot to mention that McCain's adding Palin to the ticket in 08 was almost enough to get me to stay home... Having that bimbo as President would have been a scary thing...