Thursday, November 5, 2009
Congress / Politics / Silverman / The Economy Molly Secours Goes to Washington for "Tennessee Tuesday"
Posted by Jack Silverman on Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 11:40 AM
1. Sen. Bob Corker 2. Sen. Lamar Alexander 3. Congressman Jim CooperThe answers--along with a blow-by-blow account of what is known on Capitol Hill as "Tennessee Tuesday"--can be found here.
Comments (19)
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Sounds as though someone misled her, or she misled herself, about the nature of the Tuesday morning all-comers gathering that Tennessee's two senators have held regularly in DC for many years. Her post does not make clear how she got the idea it was to be a private breakfast meeting.
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There are a whole lot of people who headed to the nation's capitol today to oppose the democrat's socialized medicine scheme.
Guess how many Democratic legislators will listen to THEM "thoughtfully and respectfully".
Hey Tom, You are right. From what I understand this is a long standing tradition. Had I known it wasn't a breakfast meeting and just a 'howdy do', I wouldn't have attended. Given that the other meetings that were booked (including Rep. Jim Cooper) were all very serious and purposeful I expected the same... My bad. Now I know.
"There are a whole lot of people who headed to the nation's capitol today to oppose the democrat's socialized medicine scheme. Guess how many Democratic legislators will listen to THEM thoughtfully and respectfully."
No idea, Gilbert. Maybe they're deaf from getting yelled at in the town hall meetings (thoughtful and respectful yelling, I'm sure):
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/aug/08/hundreds-pack-boisterous-town-hall-meeting/
"There are a whole lot of people who headed to the nation's capitol today to oppose the democrat's socialized medicine scheme. Guess how many Democratic legislators will listen to THEM thoughtfully and respectfully."
No idea, Gilbert. Maybe those Democrats are deaf from getting "thoughfully and respectfully" screamed at during the town hall meetings on the very subject:
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/aug/08/hundreds-pack-boisterous-town-hall-meeting/
Wow; the sheer _hubris_ you've got.
Whoops. :> Admins, feel free to kill that duplicate Anon post. Didn't know it would do that.
I thought she was going to lose her house?
How she tooting around Washington possibly on the taxpayers dime. I would like to know.
Congratulations, John. You have just written the most insensitive and douchebaggy comment in PITW history.
THE WOMAN HAD CANCER, YOU ARROGANT TWIT.
She is a filmmaker - and after being treated, she's working on five different film projects to EARN MONEY. With a job. That she happens to be very good at.
"Wow; the sheer _hubris_ you've got."
Nope - the sheer hubris award goes to the liberal democrats who cooked up that massive and unconstitutional power grab in the first place.
They are the one's trying to steal my money. They are the one's trying to micromanage my life, dictate that I must buy insurance, dictage what that insurance must cover and initiate all sorts of tax increases that will both directly and indirectly increase my expenses.
And they dare to call this massive power grab and deliberate redistribution of wealth "reform".
Hubris indeed.
Hm. Would that be similar to the massive and unconstitutional power grab that allowed the government to spy on its own citizens through domestic wiretaps, violate international law and treaties through extra-legal renditions, and violate due process for accused parties through tribunals and secret prisons?
Or steal my money by allowing corporations to flout established accounting practices by turning a blind eye to existing, on-the-books regulations regarding financial independence? By encouraging the establishment of business practices that allowed untaxed entities to bundle high-risk investments with low-risk ones without requiring them to inform potential consumers in violation of longstanding GAAP standards through rescinding laws that had been on the books for over 150 years? By increasing the budget deficit to absurd proportions while simultaneously paying out tax rebates that, in hindsight, had almost no effect on the national economy and may have increased the "irrational exhuberance" of American consumers to the point where it may have indeed contributed to the rupture of the credit market?
Like I said, hubris. As if you have no ability to see things from the other side -- at all.
There's plenty I'm not happy about in any given piece of legislation launched on _either_ side of the aisle -- especially this one. But I find it noble that someone's at least willing to tackle the issue of the poor and uninsured, something that costs our medical system boatloads of money every year. And I'm glad that steps are being taken to help rein in the cost of health insurance in some way, because in the 25 years I've been in the workforce, they've gone up _every_ year for me, and that's just not sustainable in a modern economy.
It's easy to throw stones, Gilbert. Now it's time to grow stones.
Don't Ask,
You are clueless. You do not know what's in those bills and Congress does not know what's in those bills.
Everyone should have health care but if you think it can be done without restriction of access and rationing you are simply nuts.
And you support it because it's noble? This (along with the word douche bag) is more than I can bear.
Don't Ask, oh I see the claims that the other side makes and the premises they are based on - I just don't accept any of them.
The primary cause of the recession and the financial crisis was government meddling in the economy - not "dereglation" or irresponsible financial executives.
From the federal reserve creating a real estate asset bubble by pumping up the money supply and holding down interest rates in an attemp to "manage" the economy's exit from the last asset bubble (the dot com stock boom), to the politicians attempt to engineer increased home ownership by individuals regardless of those individuals actual ability to afford it, the government created the environment that enabled it all.
Were there irresponsible bankers and financial executives? Sure - but they were a symptom of the main problem - not the cause of it.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - both government created and backed entities - were conduits for the initiation and securitization of risky mortages. Bond rating agencies that had been given a government guaranteed oligopoly on the rating business gave those risky securities their blessing.
As for your remarks about the health care bill - I don't accept those premises either.
The major factor in driving up costs for those with private insurance is cost shifting from the existing entitlement programs of Medicare and Medicaid - not the uninsured.
Creating another massive entitlement program is not going to do anything to fix it. Every entitlement program the government has created has cost far more than was ever predicted at it's inception.
The CBO massively underestimated the cost of Medicare.
Government cannot "reduce the cost" of anything. All it can do is shift those costs around - or prevent the product or service from being consumed in the first place.
Of course beyond the economics of it, I do not agree with the underlying premise that it is any business of government to be involved in at all.
"Growing stones" does not involve endorsing antother massive expansion of the welfare state and contining to foster the entitlement mentality.
Growing stones means rolling back the nanny state and getting back to the concept of individual freedom and individual responsibilty.
"You do not know what's in those bills and Congress does not know what's in those bills."
Oh the Dems know all the various versions of their plans are stinkers all right.
That is why they are hell bent on jamming something through as fast as possible - it is all such a "crisis" you see that we just can't wait. But of course the effective date of the plan's implementation can wait of course - until 2013 - convienently after the next presidential election cycle. The taxation part has to begin immediately though, one of the accounting tricks used to try and make the 10 year cost proections look smaller (the direct government costs to the U.S. Treasury that is - not the actual costs imposed on citizens via all the mandates, etc.)
Pelosi is forcing a vote on Saturday precisly because she is attempting to keep the Blue Dog dems from digesting, analyzing and reflecting on the results of the Augst elections. She is deathly afraid that if they do she won't be able to browbeat them into walking the plank for the liberal wing of the party.
"The primary cause of the recession and the financial crisis was government meddling in the economy - not "dereglation" or irresponsible financial executives."
"Oh the Dems know all the various versions of their plans are stinkers all right."
Gilbert - Those are merely your personal opinions, right?
Of course Gilbert is right. The Dems do not know what's in the bills but they know where to go for the money.
What about the disgusting one word... douchebaggy? I do not understand why the gals on the board do not find this offensive.
Secours probably stayed at the Willard.
