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Monday, February 23, 2015

What We Need From This Congress


Indeed, what we need from this Congress and what we've needed for some years.

8 comments:

Sevesteen said...

Interesting that it is congress to blame. What we've needed for a long time is for our presidents to stop getting us involved in wars, and to get us out when they inherit one. Spend those billions on something productive, or at least fun.

Mo Rage said...


We agree that presidents need to stop getting us involved in wars. Great for us, sincerely. If only Dubya' and Dick and that Republican administration hadn't been such a foolish, irresponsible war mongerer, we wouldn't have jumped into Iraq,illegally, as well as Afghanistan and created our longest war ever.

That said, thank goodness this president got us out of--mostly--Iraq and Afghanistan, both.

All that aside, it's up to Congress, of course, to write, propose and pass legislation for funding infrastructure repairs and updating same. So since they don't want the US to be successful on President Obama's watch, they're putting their political party's success ahead of the nation's, as most of us know and acknowledge.

Dang shame, all this.

We have got to cut the Defense Department budget, without doubt.

Sevesteen said...

I'm not defending Bush at all here. If Obama had got us out of the war a lot sooner (and didn't bomb new people) I'd give him credit--but too little, too late.

As for infrastructure--Federal is the wrong level for most of it. My town was about to get a fancy million dollar plus roundabout at an intersection at the edge of town. This intersection isn't generally a problem, the main justification was that federal funds were available, so it was "almost free". We've got an amazing, astonishing and grandiose library for a town of 20,000... http://www.mkcinc.com/images/interior%205.jpg You paid almost as much for that as I did. I'm not anti-book at all, we have a couple thousand in our living room, and for years went to the library regularly--but a library should be functional rather than luxurious.

We don't need the fed to spend more on anything..we need them to stop taking the money from us and let us decide how it should be spent.

Mo Rage said...


First, you admit Bush was wrong but all you can say, like most people do about him now, that they just "can't support him." They run from him because he really was that horrible. Chances are, so many of them, then, at the time, supported him and what he was doing. Shameful.

Now? You say, rather grudgingly, and admit that President Obama did the right thing, getting us out of these two debacle wars we were in, that what he did was right but it was--your words--"too little, too late." You just can't bear to give him any credit of any kind, huh?

Anyway...

I'll never understand what it is about the Right Wing today that objects so to us working together to bring about good things. In this case, it's a library you bring up. You think your town can do all it can and all it is capable of by itself, on its own, than if we all stand together as a nation and help one another?

Really?

Honestly, I'll never get why you don't want to stand together as Americans. We're all on our own.

Stunning.

Sevesteen said...

Do you admit Nixon was corrupt? Admit is a loaded term in context, implying that I once supported Bush. YOu keep assuming that if I don't support Obama, I must be right wing--when from my point of view the differences between them are not much more than skin deep. Involving us in wars, No child left behind/Common Core, growing the federal government. They even managed to ruin gas cans and refuse to fix it.

Did you bother to look at the picture of our library's lobby? Twenty Two Million Dollars--and now the library needs more money than when in their old building to operate. What does gilded woodwork and a grand piano have to do with a public library? There's plenty of empty commercial lots in town to build a simple, functional library with just as much useable space-and the leftover could have been used to build another library or two somewhere that needs one. For streets, we need potholes fixed and the stoplights synchronized--but there's apparently no grant money for that so we were going to get a roundabout at the edge of town that you would have paid for, that we don't want in the first place.

Money should be raised and spent at the most local level possible. My town would do a better job of allocating our money than the fed will, or that we would allocate the fed's money. There's places where 'cooperation' makes sense-things like interstate highways are a good use of federal money. But federal money spent on most local concerns winds up costing everyone more.

I assume you don't want "cooperative" food where some federal agency taxes you then decides what you should eat. Where then is the line where central planning is better than local control?

Mo Rage said...


I've never once, in my entire life, let alone here, on this blog, ever, ever wrote support for "central planning."

I would say the same, that " interstate highways are a good use of federal money" but never said anything about central planning.

Sevesteen said...

"Stand together and help each other" in the context of a federally funded $22 million library building or a million dollar intersection is central planning, even if you don't use those words.

My town has much bigger problems than whether our library is pretty enough. Don't tell me you looked at that picture and can still say with a straight face it's a good use of money. If it had been local money it would be far more likely to go where it is needed--but you paid for the library, I probably paid for something equally unnecessary in your town, and neither one of us would pay any less by being sensible with each other's money.

Mo Rage said...


I said we need to stand together, as Americans, and support America and our infrastructure and each other.

Then you mentioned a 22 million dollar library.

That's your issue, not mine.

What this began about was the fact that we need jobs in America right now. Americans need jobs. Our infrastructure needs work. Our highways, as a best example, need work, improving and updating and finally, our economy needs a boost. No, money should not be wasted and yes, I am, more than anything, talking about our national highway system. That's all.

I refuse to go off on some non-related tangent.