Why We Need a Compromise on the Debt Ceiling

The clock is ticking for the Congress to reach an agreement on the Debt Ceiling. The Debt Ceiling was created in 1917 and is used to cap the amount that Congress can borrow. The original Debt Ceiling was set at 11.5 billion dollars, and now the ceiling is at 14.26 trillion. Debt ceiling is usually raised at the time of a spending  hikes or tax cuts is the reason for the raising of the ceiling.

Now today's impasse is that Republicans with the help of their Tea Party base are finding the raising of the Debt Ceiling unacceptable, unless drastic cuts are made to lower the deficit. The cuts that the Republican propose are for 2.5 trillion dollars of cuts for the next ten years in exchange for the Debt Ceiling to be raised.

The Democrats on the other hand want to make it an 80/20 split between cuts and tax increases. Some of the options that the Democrats have mention was to get rid of tax breaks for items like yachts and private jets, and have even gone as far to rescind the Bush Tax Cuts from people that make more than 500,000 dollars. Meager hikes that only affect the wealthy individuals on luxury items.

The problem that arises is the the Republican Party does not want to increase taxes on anything. The idea of raising taxes on yachts or private jets is a non-starter. Pretty much it means do not tax anything or anyone, but only accept budget cuts to social programs. This is disturbing in American society. What is being set up is Un-American.

Here is why. One America is about setting up equal opportunity for all of its citizens. Hence in the Declaration of Independence our founding fathers wrote all men are created equal.( Now we know their understanding and what is accepted now are different, but the idea stays the same.) If all men/women are created equal should be allowed to have the same opportunity. This is where social programs helped equalize the opportunities  for people that were at a disadvantage.

 People who argue with this rationale say that once a person made it to the top that they are a self made man and owe no one for their success or should pay higher taxes. This is laughable. Anyone who was successful has had help. Lets take a store for an example. Minimum wage is 7.25 nationally. Living wage is considered about 11 dollars an hour. The person who starts a business usually pays minimum wage not living wage. Once some one has more money the wages do not change. These people that work 40hrs a week on minimum wage are more likely to rely on government assistance than people who make more. The sad thing is that its their labor that makes huge companies successful.

I do agree we need to lower our debt. If we do not we will be on a course to ruin, but we have to be reasonable human beings and not allow our greed to hamper this process. We are only as strong as our weakest link, and if we follow with only cuts we will become a weaker nation.

Protests in Wisconsin Shows Peoples' Anger to Governor Walker's Budget Measures

In the past week since the fall of the Mubarak Regime in Egypt protests have been springing up against governments in the Middle East and in Wisconsin. The uprisings in Middle East come from anger of autocratic rule, but the protests in Wisconsin about state governments taking away unions to produce collective bargaining agreements.

Collective bargaining defined by the Legal Information Institute from Cornell Law School states, " Collective bargaining consists of negotiations between an employer and a group of employees so as to determine the conditions of employment. The result of collective bargaining procedures is a collective agreement. Employees are often represented in bargaining by a union or other labor organization." The benefits of this are that individual workers join together to gain a better deal, and management is able to work more efficiency by listening to one voice instead of many. Overall, a win win situation for both sides.

In times of economic prosperity, collective bargaining groups do not reap the financial compensation that is awarded to the private sector counterparts, but receive a better benefits package instead. The problem that occurs in times of hardship,the recession, groups that collectively bargain seem to have a better situation than private individuals due to the agreements made previously. A real world  example would be if someone would buy a hundred gallons of gas at 2 dollars a gallon, and could reap the 2 dollar price even if the price rose to 3 dollars a gallon. People who did not lock in the price would be upset  of the benefits received by the person who locked in the price. Now if the price went down to a dollar the person paying two dollars a gallon is still stuck with the price unless he renegotiates, and would only get it dropped to 1.50 instead of the dollar. The person with the gas contact would not have to worry about the market fluctuations, but might might not get the best deal all of the time.   In a time of economic distress and high unemployment people see Unions as a target.

Now to the issues in Wisconsin and their budget fight. The problem lies with a 137 million dollar shortfall that needs to be paid by July 1st. Governor Scott Walker's plan to cover this shortfall is to not allow collective bargaining by public unions except for pay, and that could not rise higher than the Consumer Price Index. If this arrangement would be passed by the Wisconsin State Legislature, public unions would not be able to collectively bargain for their benefit packages. Walker is quoted in an ABC News article by saying,"If we don't do this, there will be layoffs. By July 1, when the next budget starts, we'll have to have layoffs of 5,500 state workers plus a similar number of county and city workers."

The issue that arose from this is how did this 137 million dollar deficit form? Some sources argue, such as Ezra Klein from the Washington Post, that a majority of this deficit came from actions done by Walker in a Special Session of the Legislature in December.  The Wisconsin Fiscal Bureau stated that earlier estimates put the state budget at a 120 million dollars in black, until the December session with the passage of  health savings account, tax cuts for new and relocated businesses, and tax exclusion for new employees. This helped cause the 137 million dollar shortfall. According to Brian Beutler from Talking Points Memo, states it best, " public workers are being asked to pick up the tab for this agenda."

So what is being done to prevent this bill from passing? First is that the Wisconsin Democrats in the Senate have fled Wisconsin to Illinois. By doing this, the Wisconsin State Senate only has 19 members. This makes the Senate one member short from making a quorum. Without a quorum, the Wisconsin State Senate cannot take up any legislative business. Therefore the Wisconsin State Senate is suspended indefinitely, until the Democrats come back. This is a major win for opponents of the bill because when the bill passes the Wisconsin State House it cannot be taken up by the Senate.

In addition to the flight of the Senate Democrats, Union members and students from the University of Wisconsin Madison have also started protests, teach ins, and walk outs.  These protests have been very successful in the amount of people that have came to them.  The average protest numbers at the capital have ranged from 15,000 to 30,000 people and the estimate today was at 40,000 people. At first it was more Union members, but then increased with students and citizens as the week progressed. Even with all of the protesters in Madison the Police report that it has been very peaceful assembly. Teachers throughout the state have been doing their part at all academic levels. Other than protesting teachers have been informing the public of the plan and calling in sick. In Madison school had been cancelled since Tuesday due to the protests and now in Milwaukee school was cancelled today due to the absence of teachers.

The protesters have made their case clear and they are supported by various groups. The most obvious group have been key Democrats such as former Senator Russ Fiengold, Senator Dick Durbin, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and President Barack Obama. The Superbowl Champions the Green Bay Packers have also weighed in and are supporting the protests. Other support has also came protesters in Egypt.  Overall, many different groups of people are supporting protesters.

Supporters of Walker are coming to his aid. Many political commentators such as Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee, and Joe Scarborough are supporting Walker's proposal. In addition to these political commentators Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Speaker of the House John Boehner have also supported Walker's bill. Not to be outdone by protests,  Red State announced that  Andrew Breitbart  is staging a counter protest on Saturday in support of Governor Walker, and against those"union thugs and clue less college students." Unlike the current protests, which are a large majority of Wisconsinites, the proposed Brietbart/ Tea Party Patriot counter protest will look more like an astroturf protest because of the busing in of out of state protesters.

Granted now both sides by Saturday will have outside influence, and the nation has now taken notice. It will really depend on how both sides handle themselves. The pro-Union side has made overtures to Governor Walker to reach a settlement, but Walker has not responded except for staying the course. Wisconsin Union leaders have done the right thing by fighting for their rights. Governor Walker could have prevented this crisis by not allowing the tax breaks in December or meeting with leaders in January to find common ground in working on a compromise, but his brash ideology brought upon these protests and disruptions. 

Overall, the Unions are doing what they are suppose to do, protecting their workers rights. No one should complain that the protests are unnecessary. Protests are part of democracy. When the Tea Party shows up with their heroes to support Governor Walker lets hope that the peaceful protests will continue, and hope that they will not act in the way of Mubarak protesters in Egypt and cause a violent confrontation. For democracy to work the best it needs to be done in a peaceful and respectful manner, and we hope these issues are resolved peacefully and that both sides are content with the outcome.

Six Dead and Eighteen Shot at Arizona Democratic Congresswomen's Cracker Barrel

Today at about 10 a.m. Mountain Time in a North Tucson Safeway during Representative Gifford's Cracker barrel a gunman, Jared Loughner of Tucson, open fire on the Giffords and the crowd. In Loughner's shooting spree he killed 6 people including Federal Judge John Roll, and 18 people were wounded including Representative Giffords.  Most of the wounded are in critical condition, but hopefully they will all recover.

Now many areas of the web both sides are trying to pin the shooting on different political identities. The more Liberal blogs like Talking Points Memo have pointed out to the web and rhetoric of the shooter matches some of the rhetoric of the Tea Party. While some Conservative blogs like Red State argue that their rhetoric had nothing to do with this and that we will find out that the shooter was a leftist radical.  Both sides are trying to use this as a smear on the other side, but also giving their condolences. It is sad in America today that each side uses a tragic incident like this as political leverage against the other side.

Outlets like Fox News and Tea Party pundits like Sara Palin, Michelle Bachmann, and Glenn Beck are the easiest to blame in this situation because their rhetoric is often includes violent language that excites people. They are not to blame for this shooting. All current signs show that they did not influence the young man that committed this crime. The problem though it has been the aim of Conservative pundits to use violent language in exciting their base. If you go to a Tea Party or watch Fox News you will see throughout the day a reference of revolutionary violence either against the 111th Congress or the Presidential administration. Television leaders like Sara Palin, Michelle Bachmann, and Glenn Beck help stoke the conspiracy theories by playing them out or creating new ones.  When people believe in conspiracy theories, they start to morph fiction into reality.

Now Liberals are not out of the woods on this one yet. The shooters was not a Tea Party member and had a broad reading list. The overall theme of the list was anti-government not anti-Democrat or anti-President Obama. Talking Points Memo interviewed the Tucson Tea Party and their spokesperson Allyson Miller, said,"she knows the members of her tea party, who she called "reasonable individuals" closer to her age of 55 than the suspected shooter's 22." Yes the Tea Party's average age according to a February 2010 CNN Poll is closer to 55 than 22, but that does not mean the rhetoric only stays with people around the age of 55.  That is the problem today.

The rhetoric used by Politicians, Pundits, and Everyday people is to the extreme. We as Americans now do not hash our differences out now at a coffee table or at a cafe, but with loud speakers and weird signs. Both sides have started an arms race in who can go to the furthest extreme and have the most followers. This is madness. John Stewart was correct in having his Rally to Restore Sanity. By doing that he showed that their are sane people, and they want a voice in government. For us to survive as a country we need to stop the insane rhetoric and to talk to each other as human beings. We need not to call names, but buy each other coffee. If we do that we can bring back civil discourse back to the United States and accomplish something.  If we do not, we could see more of these tragic events. My suggestion to all of you is to by your political opposite a cup of coffee and find some common ground.

Congress in Defiance: Congressional Democrats and Republicans Saying No to the Obama Tax Plan

Two days ago, the Obama Administration presented a bipartisan plan to stop the gridlock on the Bush-era Tax Cuts and created a tax compromise with Congressional Republicans. This compromise; would extend all of the Bush-era Tax Cuts for all income levels for two years, index the alternative minimum tax for inflation, drop the estate tax down from 45 percent to 35 percent on all income above five million dollars, an extension of Unemployment Benefits for all that apply, a payroll tax holiday of 2 percent, an extension of all tax credits, would allow businesses to write off their capital improvements, and also allow business to keep a research and development tax credit. Overall, with this plan, everyone wins, but this does not help the country to become more fiscally responsible, help the people in the greatest need.


The cost of this plan would be 990 billion dollars. That is 171 billion more than the Stimulus spending in back in 2009. Republicans back then and during the 2010 general election argued that the Stimulus spending was a waste of taxpayer money. In article published in August of this year at the Brookings Institute Senior Fellow Gary Burtless argued, "there are many indications that these policies have been successful in achieving
their intended goals." The tax compromise though, does not look like a policy that will help all Americans.

Today in the Huffington Post Jason Linkins reports that wage earners that make between 20,000 and 40,000 dollars will see an increase in their taxes due to the reduction of available tax credits for that income bracket. While the richest people get the greatest benefit. For example, the richest Americans will benefit from the tax cut, the estate tax, and benefit from the payroll tax holiday. Granted the poorer Americans will receive the payroll tax holiday, but their benefit from the tax holiday is smaller than the lost tax credits.

Overall, the Obama Tax Compromise should not be passed. Obama administration made the best compromise possible with Congressional Republicans, but the problem is that the rich get richer while the poor become the pawns for the powerful. Obama promised during the 2008 election that he would not extend the Bush-era Tax Cuts for the wealthiest. This compromise breaks that promise and should not be supported by Congressional Democrats.

It would be for the best for Congress to reject this plan, because what the nation will give up will hurt us in the end. Example this plan increases the deficit by 990 billion dollars over two years. This plan is supported by Republican leadership, which argued that by electing them they would help cut the deficit. This plan does not do that. If Republicans are serious about deficit reduction, they need to vote against the plan.

Compromise is a great item and should have been used more often during the 111th Congress. Unfortunately, though, this is not one of those times. A new plan needs to put on the drawing board that limits the impact on the deficit, but does the greatest Common Civic Good.

House Democrats Finally Showing Some Backbone

Today the leadership of the House Democrats announced that they will proceed with a vote on extending the Bush-era tax cuts for wage earners that make less than 250,000 dollars. This is a major step forward made by the Democrats. Instead  allowing the cuts to expire or having the Republicans bully them into extending the cuts for all wage earners, they finally showed some backbone. They are following through with the President's promise to only extend the cuts to people making 250,000 dollars of less.

The problem that arises from this move by the House Democrats is that Republican Minority Mitch McConnell (Ky)  stated that that Republicans in the Senate will not take up any legislation unless all of the Bush-era tax cuts are extended for all wage earners. This means that the tax cut extension to the middle class will be delayed or will possibly not get passed. With the Senate bogged down with the possible incoming battle on who will have their tax rate extended, the outlook of other possible legislation passing  through the Senate during lame duck session is minimal. The problem with this is that many things that the American people want are stuck in the Senate.

For success in the lame duck session both houses of Congress need to go to work and stop playing political games. Political games will not lead to success in passing any legislation that will help the American people. Overall, Senate Republicans need to learn that they need to compromise instead of playing hard ball.

Republicans Stall Unemployment Vote in the Senate and 2.5 MILLION people wait for 30 Hours

Yesterday the Senate voted 60-40 for cloture to move forward on passing an extension. This finally passed on the fourth time. Two Republicans from Maine Senator Snowe and Collins voted with the Democrat majority. Now it will go up to a vote in the full Senate. The only procedural method that the Republicans have to slow the vote is to use all 30 hours for debate.
Republicans biggest reason for opposition is the cost of 34 billion dollars. They argued that this bill would increase the deficit. Their solution to help employment is to keep the Bush Tax Cuts. They think that this would help spur job growth.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, it is statistically shown for every dollar given out in unemployment benefits the economy gets $1.62 back. For a tax cut, a dollar given out 30 cents is spent. If you look at this, 34 billion dollars turns into 55 billion dollars. That is a 20 billion dollars injected into the economy, which is almost 2/3 the amount Congress has allocated.
These benefits are needed for Americans to hold on until the economy comes back up.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/21/unemployment-extension-re_n_654083.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/20/unemployment-extension-bi_n_652805.html

Representative Boehner is Upset with Obama's Healthcare Proposals

Hopefully everyone knows by now that President Barrack Obama is having a healthcare summit with both political parties to come with a compromise on some healthcare measures. This will allow bipartisan support to healthcare legislation.  Prior to the meeting he has released an 11 page document stating the proposals that he wants to see in the final legislation. Today, House Minority Leader John Boehner complained that Obama's proposal was too small at 11 pages. To put this in perspective, the Republican plan that posted by Minority Whip Eric Cantor is only one page. In the past Boehner complained that the House bill was too long. Now in a reverse fashion he says Obama's proposal is too small. The newscycles only pick up on Boehner's detesting of Obama's proposals instead of what is in the proposal.

Now the problem that might occur is political positioning instead of bipartisan discussion. Granted, differing of views is important to the political process, but compromise is also important. Understanding the othersides view on the manner is very important. In this process of healthcare debate we have seen the Democrats bend over backward to appease the Republicans. Now it is time for the Republicans to bend for the Democrats. Both parties are walking into a meeting and should lookout for their constituents not their political party. This summit will be a great way to show that Congress is not broken.

Why Government is Broken

All the rage on today's Sundays Talk Shows dealt with the public's perception of why Washington is broken. Republican representatives argue that it is the Democrats tactics via the administration and Congressional leadership as the main reason why Washington's is failing, while the Democrats argue it is the inflexibility of the Republicans that do not allow the movement of governmental policy. To their credit, they are both right and because they are both right we as a nation lose.


With the Republican blaming the Democrats for the failings and the sluggishness of Washington politics argue that the Democrats have full control of both branches of Congress and do not care about Republican ideas or amendments. Granted, this is true that Democrats do not need the Republicans blessing to pass many forms of legislation. The problem that the Republicans have is not that they disagree with the Obama administration's view on items, but actually put out legislation that is successful make a good counter argument. Example in November, the House Republicans put out a health care bill on their ideas of healthcare reform. When the Congressional Budget Office scored the bill, it said that it would only cover 3 million Americans instead of 36 million that the Democrats proposed.

That leaves Republicans with their favorite tactic deny that the Democrats have done anything and call them names. If this is not true an examples of Republicans failings of actually debating policy is when they tell the public about "death panels" and "killing grandma". Both of these items are not true, but they can stir emotions of people that do not have favorable views of Democrats and cause them to protest. Another example is claiming the stimulus package did not work, but request funds for their home state. Granted, the argument that if the money is being spent that all states should have a piece is valid. In reality though, they get to position themselves in a politically favorable view and get to receive funding at the same time.

Now the Democrats blame the Republicans as the Party of "No". This is evident by their non willingness to go along with any of the Democrat's major bills such as Healthcare and the Stimulus. The Democrats had an interesting position by having filibuster proof houses of Congress. By having this it allowed them the option to pass anything, but infighting and a strong Republican resistance caused the biggest problems. To help the Democrats out would be a branch of bipartisanship to the Republicans, but the problem with that is that the Republicans do not want to do anything that might help a Democratic agenda.

The problem going with bipartisanship is that people are not going to like the change. Liberal Democrats do not like the catering to the Republicans and Republicans do not like the catering to the Liberal Democrats. This leaves a problem with the Democrats in control of the Congress. If they lean too far toward the Republicans, their base is angry, and if they stay with their base the Republicans argue that they are too partisan. The best measure for the Democrats would be to go with what they can get for the American public.

The gridlock will continue if the political policies are still enacted. We have lost our political middle. The need to have moderates that are willing to work across the aisle is the only solution. For both parties if moderates are willing to broker a deal between both sides comprehensive legislation can be accomplished. Unfortunately, we as a nation have become polarized in our views of political policy and by our actions have helped caused this gridlock. The answer though does not come from the Tea Party or T.V. Pundits, but from the Youth of the United States. We as youth are able to move with our ideas and bring unity to this country for the common civic good. Instead of yelling at your opponent, have a good conversation and agree to disagree at least.