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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Yes, that is it, and Obama said something along the lines of "and I am prepared to use the Simpson-Bowles plan to fix our economy."
And before you ask, "Why is Simpson-Bowles bad?" ask Our Lord Paul Krugman
, who is much better at explaining these matters, or Fighteer.
No need for me to step in and say why Simpson-Bowles is terrible; you already got it. Of course, inside the Beltway, the Very Serious People, up to and including many of Obama's economic advisors, strongly believe that we desperately need to cut the deficit, when this is completely contrary to fact.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"I do blame him. He hired those people, after all.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Does he have any reason to not believe their findings would be trustworthy? That's my problem with blaming him. Yeah he hired terrible people but was anybody telling him they were terrible? The Republicans have muddied the waters so much when it comes to economics that it's probably hard for him to tell who he should be trusting and who he shouldn't be.
edited 12th Feb '13 7:59:41 PM by Kostya
It's hard to tell precisely how much blame is due Obama and how much due the general political climate in Washington, but with people like Krugman shouting so loudly and so popularly from the outside, it's his job to listen to those voices and ask why they are so popular and so loud.
ETA: The President has to be the person listening to those outside voices precisely because he is at risk for being captured by the information bubble of the White House and the mainstream press. His subordinates won't spontaneously start offering outside advice.
edited 12th Feb '13 8:47:44 PM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"As a speech, this was probably Obama's strongest State of the Union.
As a policy proposal? I don't know. Everything he said seemed reasonable...but I just don't know what counts as reasonable among the Republicans these days.
Edit: Read the responses. Rubio's response is a good speech. Paul's is raving lunacy in places. Rubio seems to understand something about policy. Paul's ideas about economics seem to have never progressed past The Wealth Of Nations. Which, by a bizarre coincidence, he cited in his speech.
edited 12th Feb '13 10:00:11 PM by Ultrayellow
Except for 4/1/2011. That day lingers in my memory like...metaphor here...I should go.Random note regarding the President (and this is 90% speculation so feel free to ignore it if it pisses you off)...
So, I was reading through his Executive Orders regarding gun control and I caught the bit about him wanting the CDC and the ATF to start looking at gun violence. Apparently they are supposed to get back to him about what they find out.
I really like this for one reason; the dude wants facts. I mean, how much invective is flying about regarding guns? Do we really know anything solid at this point? IMO, not really.
My take; Obama wants some hard data to work from before he makes a decision that will affect millions of his constituents. He wants to make a good decision based off real information rather than pander to this or that group. He wants to solve stuff.
If I'm right...well played, Mister President.
If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~![]()
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I know that my uncle is frothing at the mouth over what was said, and did play-by-play rebuttals on Facebook.
He mostly had issues with the topics of climate change (because winters are still cold), education (because it's unfair to aborted babies?), minimum wage (because people in poverty just aren't working hard enough), and gun control (he just wants to take our guns to massacre innocent civilians).
"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -DrunkscriblerianI support the CDC having the ability to do some actual research into the causes of violence and giving a clear and concise report, hopefully without political bias. I'd rather not see the ATF have their ability to be expanded until after such a time that there is a clear path.
Right now, there are too many people saying too many things, and trying to do too much all at once.
Glove and Boots is good for Blog!
That's because they really aren't much of an authority on firearms, except on how they are now. They were basically re-purposed to oversee interstate commerce on the A and T, then when prohibition ended, they were given Firearms as a way to justify their part on the payroll.
Which is why after Fast and Furious, it's probably better to hold off on expanding their powers until they are either restructured or given a clear set of goals, rather than being part of the conversation on how to achieve them.
Glove and Boots is good for Blog!

Eh, the most likely outcome right now is probably Clinton vs. Santorum.
I know neither will happen but I would love to see either Clinton vs. Bachmann or Castro vs. Rubio.
edited 12th Feb '13 7:35:12 PM by Kostya