The Business Congress Left Behind
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-08-06/business-congress-left-behind
Lawmakers have gone home for a five-week break, leaving a lengthy list of uncompleted work. Among the measures left behind are drought relief, postal reform, cybersecurity and a plan to deal with the Bush-era tax and mandatory spending cuts. Public approval ratings for Congress remain below twenty percent. Members campaigning for re-election are facing tough questions about their ability to find common ground on the big problems facing the nation. A panel joins Diane to discuss what the 112th Congress has, and has not, accomplished, and how that could affect the election in November
Guests
Thomas Mann
senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of "It's Even Worse Than It Looks."
Brian Baker
president of Ending Spending.
John Farrell
congressional correspondent for National Journal and author of "Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned" (2011).
Comments
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Sure Does Stink to be 'called out'
The conservative speaker simple got caught spouting the Party Speaking Points -regardless of whether they are true are not.
It sounds MUCH better to say " We borrow from CHINA"
than " We fund our own government"
I GUARANTEE Next time he publicly makes this comment again, it's gonna sound like this:
"We pay CHINA $.40 on the dollar"
He's gonna forget the 3% bit - again and again.
Finally, the real reason. The Boomers. It's time to get out of the way folks, you had your time in the limelight and changed the world. You raised the next generation and now it is time to trust us to carry on. Thank you for all you have done. The exit is on the right.
I am 58 years old and I agree with the 28 year old who called in and said he was fiscally conservative but concerned about social issues. I want a balanced budget but not at the expense of the environment and taking care of disadvantaged individuals.
As an embarrased and ashamed Texan, I would like to say that "the people of the state" did not elect Ted Cruz. Ultra wealthy corporations and rabid religious right minorities created an unholy powerful combination to put him in his candidacy. He will now be part of the Republican leadership that has kept our state at the bottom of ratings for health care services and delivery (51st), education funding, and a high percentage of hungry families deemed "food insecure." There was even a plank in the Texas Republican platform stating critical thinking should not be taught in our schools because it undermined what their parents wanted the childrens' beliefs to be. I think wealthy Republicans like to keep the electorate ignorant so they are more easily led by fear to vote according to Republican propaganda. And Texas is just one part of the country where this Republican agenda takes place. They don't care or know what "the people of America" want, they just want the 1% to continue to run the country and lead the 98% by the nose and keep them in their place.
The "GOV MENT" that the T-Party hates and wants to destroy has a name.This evil entity.The T-Party`s evil BOOGIE MAN.It`s called the United States of America.
Re the group "No Label"...most of these congressmen are millionaires and most probably do not need the money. They are in it, either in a spirit of service(ha ha) or to enable laws to be legislated that will support their businesses or establish contacts to further the needs of their businesses.
I agree. Someday when we look back at history and we ask who or what could have saved the American Republic from those that would destroy the state and hand it over to the economic elites and enforce an new feudalistic regime, we will say, "well, NPR could have done it but they caved to the extremists too." In the show they say if people knew about the Ryan budget they would be in the streets rioting. I've got news for you, YOU ARE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE TELLING US WHAT WOULD HAPPEN UNDER THE PAUL RYAN BUDGET! And not vague sums of job figures but what would happen on the streets, to schools, to roads, to teachers and maintenance workers, the FAA, EPA, etc.. Just because some people support these whack jobs and the mainstream media is a megaphone for the monied doesn't mean NPR has to be as well.
What seems to be happening to NPR reminds me of the movie The Insider. Little changes, slight language shifts, all over a drawn out period of time so people won't notice. What's one show where we don't mention exactly how right wing the talker is? It's just one show. The NPR today is not the NPR I knew 5 years ago. The NPR I used to know would have called these people out.
Yada, yada, yada; I'm so sick of the spin thrown out by Conservatives and Liberals alike. "Spin" is a "crafty art" designed to justify your own personal agenda and it seems to work idependently of this thing called "reality"! Rhetoric has been with us for our entire existence as a Country; yet we are letting it "muddy" the waters so that nothing gets done. We send our elected Representatives to Washington with all the best intentions. But the lure of wealth and power is sometimes so great; that they forget who put them in office and they end up in the pockets of Special Interest Groups and powerful Corporations. I would submit that it is this "corruption" that is keeping anything from getting done; not political ideology. Obama knew how corrupt Washington was and promised to clean it up when he was running for office. That has become "change" that no one believes in now. So it seems we are left with one of two choices. Etiher you want a Country that is capitalistic, or one that is socialistic. It would seem that both want "all or nothing"! And that is the problem!
You seem to hear Conservatives talk about their love for the constitution. So I don't get why so many of them want the Democrats in the Senate to go against the constitution an put forward a budget.
Article I
Section7
All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills.