Your future in 20 hours

So we all know that congress rushed through the bailout packages in record time. So fast that while republicans complained that they didn't have enough time to read the second bill Democcrats were "shocked" later to discover that they had actually authorized the bonuses to AIG executives. I guess it is important to actually read the bills one signs.

No matter. It is not like the bill spend record amounts of money and tripled the national debt making it so high that every single American's personal share of it amounts to more than $50.000. No matter. Our kids can sell themselves into slavery to pay it of plus interest. And of course the massive amounts of money were spent wisely. So wisely in fact that several governors wanted to return the money rather than accept it with the future spending it will require their states to shell out. In fact in Nebraska alone the amount of money they are required to audit how they spend the stimulus money is almost equal to the amount of money they received (about one and a half billion for the bailout and slightly less for the audit). Yep, no waste there! But again, don't worry because our president has managed to think about removing 100 million in waste from the entire US budget.

No matter that we have not seen any results from the stimulus packages. No matter that the Congressional Budget Office itself says that most of the money is not stimulatory at all. Why should we worry if the real intention of the money is to alter the fabric of society. Surely a politician is adequately prepared to be a social engineer. Surely the norms and values that have evolved over thousands of years are fully understood and it is no big deal  for our President to change then how he sees fit even if about half of Americans disagree with his plans.

Which brings us to the title of this thread. The senate has just passed a bill that paves the way for a new universal health care plan to be pushed through congress wit new rules. new rules that will let the dominant party enact a health care bill with virtually no input from the other party and in a mere 20 hours of debate.

But don't worry. Surely there is no need for two parties in congress; it's not like that offers any sort of check or balance. Surely the bill they pass will be a fine representation of wisdom and benevolent virtue with no ill effects on a health care system that truly is the best in the world now providing better care than any other country will more convenience and at an only slightly higher price tag (unless one counts the hidden costs in those other countries).

Natural economic hardhips would have been better than the artifical ones we are suffering now.

It is not a depression and it barely meets the definition of a recession.

Yes the war may be unlawful though not for the reasons you would no doubt post. Congress is the only branch that is able to declare war. But they gave up their constitutional right and told the president he could declare war. (a very dangerous precedent since his powers are supposed to be limited). Meanwhile the constitution says we can declare war for any defensive reason and does not place any limits on how silly those reasons can be. Clearly Saddam posed at least a silly threat to our security and more likely a real though still only growing threat.

No the republicans did not do that much better with the economy. Two reasons: 1) governement just can't manage an economy well and 2) the pubs are almost as progressive as the democrats.

I hope that the republicans become irrelevant then maybe we can get a party in there that makes sense and actually follows the constitution as written. Alterantively they could actually decide to obey the constitution and then there would be no stopping the American people in their support of that party.