Brave Newish World

Well, Comcast has apparently deemed that my blogging, or internet use for that matter, is not worthy of their services so I forced to resort to drastic measures: iPhone. Yes, the one time I really needed a certain technology it failed me and I was forced to find a new source of mass communications. Praise be to Steve Jobs and his creation.

Appropriate enough to the theme of my post, but ultimately inconvenient

Anyway, now that my troubles are off my chest, let us find our way back to the post. I feel as though I am have been chasing my tail around in circles trying to prove why this is important, but because of the recent events I have a shining glimmer of hope that this argument may be pointless. With Congress attacking itself from all sides, maybe the American people will get so angry they will use their right to vote in staggering numbers. But, just in case I will continue.

The budget is the new source of my argument. Last post, I stated how Congress found a way to use up all the time on the draft clock and finally come to a decision, a decision which has left us and them at a crossroads.

Congress now has to raise the debt ceiling to $14.3 trillion and try not spending that money and start bring down the debt so the ceiling can be brought down. In most recent years the Congress has decided to raise amount of the credit card limit with no intent or forethought of how it was going to pay it back.

The national debt has been a concern of the American people and the government for some time. Nobody likes debt, except for us apparently. Since the WWII we have been building on debt. We chipped away at it immediately following WWII, which peaked just shy of 3.9 trillion dollars, lowering it to about 3.4 trillion dollars at the beginning of the Reagan years (Just to show that while I do lean to the right I am playing no favorites in my blame game) and kept the debt ceiling within range. With Reagan came a massive debt and subsequent raises to the debt.

The ceiling on spending stayed pretty good considering things like inflation and other rising nations. The fact that Congress seems split and there is a lame duck house doesn’t matter. All happened under Clinton’s eight seasons in the White House and nothing seemed to phase his ability to not only balance the budget but lower the debt and the percentage of the GDP taken up by that debt. Clinton raised the ceiling from 5.5 to 5.9 billion dollars in 1997 and it never moved and, like I said, the debt went down. So for the sake of political fairness (I would like to point out that this not oriented towards one party) let’s see how many members of the Senate and House of Representatives were a part of that. Because these numbers represent the last time they took office numbers could be in favor against my points because some members of the Senate not accounted for were in the House during these times.

SENATE DEBT LIMIT

100 All Senators in 2011 14.7 Trillion
58 current Senators have served since 2005 8.1 Trillion
45 current Senators have served since 2000 5.9 Trillion
37 current Senators have served since 1997 5.9 Trillion

HOUSE DEBT LIMIT
433 All Reps in 2011
262 current Reps have served since 2005
166 current Reps have served since 2000
137 current Reps have served since 1997

Over half of each house has been faced with raising the debt ceiling over and over again and each time they have continued to waste money or not do their jobs and not matter what, people aren’t voting them out. Why? I don’t know. These numbers are not good.

37 Senators and 137 Reps have raised the debt ceiling multiple times since 1997 by almost triple. If a quarter of a committee at a job continue to mess up then they must be fired for the good of the business. Massive spending such as these come from the most senior members of Congress. Continually doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is Einstein’s definition to insanity, and if they choose to repeat their mistake again I can see no other way than term limits to washing out the old ideas.

Just like the previous failure of the internet at my house I had to find an new way to write this post when what I knew failed me and I ultimately found a way to fix the situation.

sent from my iPhone.