Finally!
"Ideas abound for breaking logjam, but D.C. isn’t listening; Viewing the current stalemate as a grave threat to American democracy, political scientists and other experts offer ways to limit the sway of campaign money, extreme factions, and take no prisoners partisanship. In some places, such alternatives are already working" by Michael Kranish | Globe Staff, December 08, 2013
Last in a series.
Then I'm not going to get the article on the influence of AIPAC, WINEP, and other Jewish organizational influences in Washington I was so looking forward to! Damn!
One of the greatest crises in the nation’s history....
The system, they believed, was being undermined by an explosion in campaign money, the rise of political factions, and politically motivated redistricting.
The $y$tem is past fixing.
No one suggested that democracy be replaced with some other system. But many urged that fundamental elements be reshaped to repair what they called the nation’s “democratic deficit,” aiming to make a Congress dominated by extremes better reflect the public’s more centrist viewpoint.
That's making the assumption that we are "centrist," you corporate pos.
Related:
"Such an approach would likely require an upfront coalition of Republicans and Democrats.... In order to meet the 60 percent threshold, House Republicans might have had to jettison the Tea Party backers and strike a bargain with a bloc of moderate Democrats, and Senate Democrats would have had to work with center-leaning Republicans. That, in turn, might have led to a more moderate Congress."
That is what this is really about. It's about the agenda not getting through. Issues like immigration, climate change, and gun control have been stalled and that is what has compelled elite whining from the Boston Globe.
And with all due respect to Europe and Israel, and as much as I favor proportional representation, I don't want to go the parliamentary route -- despite the outsized influence "extremist fringes" like me might exercise (as we have seen in Israel).
The group concluded it had a moral responsibility to warn the public and propose solutions....
And just who is this group?
Two dozen of the nation’s top political scientists gathered privately in California....
They must be good elites, as opposed to the bad elites of Thailand.
It was at this point that I wrote "FUCK THIS" in the margin of my paper as the Globe directes to to turn in.
Indeed, the American form of democracy has been undermined in ways that the founders could never have envisioned....
Actually, they did, Globe. Madison and Jefferson were decrying the monied interests in the years that followed.
And before you talk about amending the Constitution, Globe, maybe it should be followed first.
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I think you know why I'm so sour on the Boston Globe.
Also see: More Broken Congre$$ Crap
And that is exactly what the series has been.
So what other great ideas does the Globe have for ending the alleged paralysis of this government when it comes to pushing the agenda?
Bucking tide of election dollars
An odd idea for solution coming from a whoreporate pre$$ and monied media.
Ideas to end the stalemate in Washington
Iowa keeping partisanship off the map
Nonpartisan primaries become a game changer
I'm sorry, but we have $een that nothing changes the "game" in Washington.
And they no longer have to worry!
"Congress appears near modest accord on budget; Boehner open to unemployment benefit extension" by Jonathan Weisman | New York Times, December 06, 2013
WASHINGTON — House and Senate negotiators closed in on a budget deal Thursday that, while modest in scope, could break the cycle of fiscal crises and brinkmanship that has hampered the economic recovery and driven public opinion of Congress to an all-time low.
But the leaders of the House and Senate budget committees — Republican Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin and Senator Patty Murray of Washington — encountered last-minute resistance from House Democratic leaders who said any deal should be accompanied by an extension of expiring unemployment benefits for 1.3 million workers.
“This isn’t interparty bickering,” said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader. “This is a major policy disagreement.”
It was not clear Thursday how serious a threat the demand posed to a deal largely worked out by Ryan and Murray alone. With conservative Republicans in the House likely to balk, Democratic votes will be needed to pass an agreement, and Democrats have not said whether they will make their support contingent on an extension of benefits.
Democrats were confident that if they held their ground, Republicans would agree next week to extend unemployment compensation — and Speaker John A. Boehner left open that possibility. Democrats have miscalculated before.
That is how we got sequestration.
“If the president has a plan for extending unemployment, I’ll take a look at it,” he said.
The deal would increase revenue by raising some fees and would shift some cuts away from domestic and defense programs, partly alleviating the squeeze of across-the-board spending cuts imposed last year, which are set to worsen in 2014.
Translation: higher taxes, more spending.
Spending on defense and domestic programs would rise to about $1 trillion for the current fiscal year from $986 billion, the fiscal 2013 level that remains in effect under the continuing resolution passed in October. Absent a deal, further cuts would go into effect in January, and discretionary spending would be cut to $967 billion for fiscal 2014.
But the agreement would leave to future negotiations the big issues of curbing future spending increases in the fast-growing entitlement programs and the proper level of tax revenues. It also would not extend unemployment benefits set to expire Dec. 28, or deal with impending cuts to Medicare health care providers.
Still, a deal would have a major psychic benefit to an economic recovery that seems to be gaining some momentum.
The endless trolling of that bullshit line is really sickening, folks.
I gue$$ the Globe is broken beyond repair.
With new “top-line” spending numbers in place for the next two fiscal years, the recurring threat of government shutdowns would recede for a time, providing more certainty to the private sector and room for budget negotiators to reach a broader deal.
But both parties clearly have an incentive to reach a final agreement before the House adjourns for the year next Friday....
The budgets passed out of the House and Senate this spring were vastly different in policy prescriptions over the long term, but only $90 billion apart in the spending at Congress’ annual discretion. Once negotiators gave up trying to reconcile House Republican efforts to drastically change Medicare and Senate Democrats’ push to raise taxes to finance new spending on infrastructure and education, the search for a more modest deal became far easier.
“This is a 3½-trillion-dollar budget,” said Representative Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican and one of the budget negotiators. “The idea that you can’t find either cuts or sources of funding in something that large to split the difference on $90 billion — there’s a way. There’s enough low-hanging fruit to give us a reasonable top line for ’14 and ’15.”
But the deal taking shape will be tough for members of both parties to swallow.
The fees that airlines pay to the Transportation Security Administration will almost certainly go up.
Ryan is pressing hard for an increase in the contributions that federal workers pay for their pensions — by as much as $120 billion over 10 years.
Related: Detroit Bankruptcy Means Government Can Break Promises
Keep that in mind, loyal and faithful federal bootlickers.
Such workers are already contending with a three-year pay freeze and unpaid furloughs from sequestration, and they have powerful advocates in Representatives Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking House Democrat, and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
Nothing but an outright lie because they all got paid (and it added billions to the deficit)!
“The only working people who have paid a price to reduce the deficit so far are federal workers,” Hoyer said.
I'm amazed how how many crap conventional myths that are repeated and repeated in the media illusion called reality. F*** you, Steny!
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Related: Budget deal expected this week amounts to a ceasefire
"Hagel says budget woes may ease" Associated Press, December 09, 2013
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Sunday offered troops a rare glimmer of hope on the department’s financial woes, saying a possible budget agreement back home could ease the automatic spending cuts that have hit the military hard.
Yup, all of a sudden things are getting fixed!
Wrapping up a two-day visit to Afghanistan before stopping in Pakistan on Monday, Hagel told Marines at Camp Leatherneck that an emerging deal would restore some money to the Pentagon this budget year.
Hagel’s time in Afghanistan was perhaps most notable for something he did not do —service members have repeatedly quizzed Hagel about the budget and the potential effect on the military. But his response to a questions Sunday sounded a more optimistic tone than he has used for months.
At the same time, he said that whether or not the deal goes through, insuring that troops are ready for combat will continue to be a priority....
So where is the next war, Chuck? China?
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NEXT DAY UPDATES:
Congress OK’s renewed ban of plastic guns
As they approve plenty of real ones:
House, Senate negotiators reach accord on defense bill
I told you they would get that done (with all the partisanship bs in both agenda-pushing to boot, I'm told!), and why is Kirsten smiling?
"Democrats set to push nominees; GOP may use procedural rules to slow process" by Alan Fram | Associated Press, December 09, 2013
WASHINGTON — Fresh from shackling the traditional blocking ability of the Senate’s minority party, Democrats are ready to muscle through President Obama’s nominees for judgeships and other top jobs.
Despite last month’s Democratic power play over the filibuster rule, Senate Republicans can slow, though not derail, Obama’s appointments.
Left unchanged were other rules that the out-of-power party could use to grind the chamber’s work to an excruciating crawl. Those range from requiring clerks to read voluminous bills and amendments to forcing repeated procedural votes.
Monday starts a two-week, year-end session in which Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, hopes to finish work on a modest budget deal and a defense bill.
You see? The important intere$ts are being taken care of.
Monday will also be the first test of how Republicans respond to the Democratic changes....
The article has been rewritten a bit with printed references to irritable lawmakers leaving town Nov. 21 for their Thanksgiving break eliminated.
Over the next two weeks, five more major nominees will come before the Senate, including Janet Yellen to lead the Federal Reserve, Jeh Johnson to head the Department of Homeland Security, and Representative Mel Watt, a Democrat from North Carolina, to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Does it really matter which members of which tribes staff the halls of the corporate governance anymore?
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"Atlanta Braves’ deal draws Tea Party ire" Associated Press, December 09, 2013
ATLANTA — A deal for hundreds of millions of dollars in public money to draw the Atlanta Braves north of their downtown home is pitting conservative Tea Party activists against the elected and civic leaders in the staunch Republican county.
Opponents say the use of public money to help a private business is not what American capitalism should be about.
Tim Lee, Cobb County Commission chairman, and other supporters say the argument for the deal is simple. Almost $400 million in county bonds and immediate infrastructure improvements, with debt payments approaching $600 million over 30 years, will generate enough economic activity — and, thus, tax revenue — to justify the spending.
$1 billion in debt so the baseball team can have a new stadium!
I'm glad Atlanta has no social service concerns.
‘‘This is a home run for Cobb County,’’ Lee said at a public hearing on the eve of the commission’s 4-1 vote, ‘‘and I’m confident the people of Cobb will come to understand that.’’
Nonsense, said Atlanta Tea Party Leader Debbie Dooley, whose group has a Cobb chapter.
It’s all ‘‘appalling hypocrisy’’ and ‘‘arrogance,’’ Dooley explained, particularly from the four Republican commissioners who pitch their conservative credentials and champion the idea of a free market.
We all recognize hypocrisy when we see it.
Dooley and other Tea Party members typically associate active, expensive government with Democrats, but it was the commission’s lone Democrat who cast the only dissenting vote.
So it is TEA PARTY and DEMOCRATS together in Atlanta? That's NOT the kind of BIPARTISANSHIP the whoreporate pre$$ wants to see!
Citizens’ groups have blasted both the financing arrangement and the secretive manner in which it came about.
That is the way true fa$ci$ts do thing.
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