It's Official, Trump Is Now Part Of The Swamp

[HankD]

If the Lord grants you enough time on this earth, you’ll have you’re answer.

I will have my answer from heaven or earth.

Besides, I don't PLAN on dieing ANYWAY...

John 11:26 ... whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die...

 

[GoodTidings]

True. Now before the money is spent, either taxes need to be raised or other spending reduced, or a combination of the two, in order to not make our horrible national debt situation even worse.

We can start by getting rid of the immense number of duplicate offices/jobs that were created in our federal government because someone did a favor for someone else. We can start by getting rid of all nonessential offices in our federal government as well. I bet we should shrink the government by a third and use the money saved to build infrastructure. We can also stop giving out grants for people study incredibly stupid things like (and I am not making this up) transvestites in Vietnam and lessons for South African males about how to clean their genitalia.

 

[Adonia]

We can start by getting rid of the immense number of duplicate offices/jobs that were created in our federal government because someone did a favor for someone else. We can start by getting rid of all nonessential offices in our federal government as well. I bet we should shrink the government by a third and use the money saved to build infrastructure. We can also stop giving out grants for people study incredibly stupid things like (and I am not making this up) transvestites in Vietnam and lessons for South African males about how to clean their genitalia.

Shrinking the government by a third would bring it in line with it's constitutional mandate. There are only about 18 enumerated powers that the Federal government has, and most of everything else it does it has no business being involved in.

 

[KenH]

Shrinking the government by a third would bring it in line with it's constitutional

I’m think more along the lines of 90%. A third would just be a small start.

 

[KenH]

Those problems are now very expensive to fix. If infrastructure had been addressed 15-20 years ago, it would have been cheaper to address down the road.

“Having considered the bill this day presented to me entitled "An act to set apart and pledge certain funds for internal improvements," and which sets apart and pledges funds "for constructing roads and canals, and improving the navigation of water courses, in order to facilitate, promote, and give security to internal commerce among the several States, and to render more easy and less expensive the means and provisions for the common defense," I am constrained by the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling the bill with the Constitution of the United States to return it with that objection to the House of Representatives, in which it originated.” - President James Madison

http://www.constitution.org/jm/18170303_veto.htm

 

[InTheLight]

Shrinking the government by a third would bring it in line with it's constitutional mandate. There are only about 18 enumerated powers that the Federal government has, and most of everything else it does it has no business being involved in.

OK, and where does replacing infrastructure fall on the list?

 

[Rolfe]

It's concerning that both parties continue to spend like lottery winners in Vegas. Other than Reagan's half-hearted attempt in his first two years there has been no real spending discipline by government in my lifetime. I can only conclude that: a) it doesn't matter how bad our debt gets because we are the world's largest economy, or, b) politicians don't care about the debt, or a combination of the two.

I am inclined to think that politicians as a species don’t care about debt. Reasons: Other People’s Money and election cycles.

 

[Adonia]

OK, and where does replacing infrastructure fall on the list?

Nowhere really. The only infrastructure (roads) authorized by the Constitution are postal and military roads. Any other "infrastructures" should be done privately or by the individual states, and that is how things were done for the longest time. Of course, at some point the "Common Good" clause has been successfully invoked and that is where we are now.

 

[GoodTidings]

“Having considered the bill this day presented to me entitled "An act to set apart and pledge certain funds for internal improvements," and which sets apart and pledges funds "for constructing roads and canals, and improving the navigation of water courses, in order to facilitate, promote, and give security to internal commerce among the several States, and to render more easy and less expensive the means and provisions for the common defense," I am constrained by the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling the bill with the Constitution of the United States to return it with that objection to the House of Representatives, in which it originated.” - President James Madison

http://www.constitution.org/jm/18170303_veto.htm

And that might have been the solution at that time based on the challenges faced at that time. But you cannot project that upon Trump. You don't have all of the information Trump has that informed his decision to sign off on it. You don't see the big picture that he can see.

 

[GoodTidings]

Nowhere really. The only infrastructure (roads) authorized by the Constitution are postal and military roads. Any other "infrastructures" should be done privately or by the individual states, and that is how things were done for the longest time. Of course, at some point the "Common Good" clause has been successfully invoked and that is where we are now.

But we have an electrical grid that didn't exist when the Constitution was written and losing our grid would be a national security issue and needs to be addressed. I would rather see the federal government shore up our grid which is still running on 1970's technology for the most part. We are wildly vulnerable where the grid is concerned.

 

[InTheLight]

But we have an electrical grid that didn't exist when the Constitution was written and losing our grid would be a national security issue and needs to be addressed. I would rather see the federal government shore up our grid which is still running on 1970's technology for the most part. We are wildly vulnerable where the grid is concerned.

Hmmm....nationalizing the electrical supply. Sounds like...socialism.

 

[Revmitchell]

Individual states need to be taking care of the grid.

 

[GoodTidings]

Hmmm....nationalizing the electrical supply. Sounds like...socialism.

I didn't say that. I am talking about repairing it. Try reading what I said instead of putting words in my mouth. Think you can manage that?

 

[InTheLight]

I didn't say that. I am talking about repairing it. Try reading what I said instead of putting words in my mouth. Think you can manage that?

Sorry about that.

You said, "I would like to see the federal government shore up our grid", which is probably not nationalizing the grid.

My bad.