8 years ago
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Republican candidate Bush vows Washington culture shake-up
U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush vowed on Monday to cut government spending and more tightly limit lawmakers' connections with lobbyists if he reaches the White House, part of an attempt to separate himself from a large pack of Republican rivals... By Bill Cotterell.
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http://www.reuters.com
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Jeb Bush Slams Lobbyists Despite His Close Relationship With Them
Jeb Bush on Monday returned to the Florida capital to deliver a speech slamming lobbyists as a corrosive influence on public policy, and railing on the practice of public officials becoming professional influence peddlers. The jeremiad may have come as a shock... By David Sirota and Andrew Perez. -
The Only Realistic Way to Fix Campaign Finance
For the first time in modern history, the leading issue concerning voters in the upcoming presidential election, according to a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, is that “wealthy individuals and corporations will have too much influence over who wins...” By Lawrence Lessig.
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+6Submitted 8 years ago by spaceghoti
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+3Submitted 8 years ago by AdelleChattre
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+1Submitted 8 years ago by AdelleChattre
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So the champion of the status quo promises to buck the status quo? I call shenanigans.
Shenanigans is almost the word I had in mind.
I was trying to avoid being vulgar, although I agree it would not be an inappropriate use of language.
I see no downsides to that, as long as you believe that there's nothing that is in dire need of emergency funds and we should optimize current spending before increasing it.
No. I don't like this. It may sound nice when there's a stalemate in congress, but giving presidents the ability to pick and choose parts of a bill to pass would make some bills either just break or work in ways not intended by the authors. Someone who is not part of the conversation when it is being constructed has no right to remove portions after the fact. We have something in place already for when a president vetoes a bill. It's sent back and reworked. Send it back with comments on what you have a problem with, and reasons, and the representatives and senators will rework it or overrule you. That's the process, and it's a good one, at least in my opinion. Line item gives too much power to the executive, essentially allowing them to supplant the legislature in lawmaking process. Executives don't make law (at least not like that).
As for shaking up the Washington culture, I'm all for longer cooloff periods before ex-congress members can lobby. I'd like to hear some more about campaign finance reform though, as that is the part of Washington culture that needs to change in order for the rest to be really "shook up".
I'm all for optimizing spending and cutting waste. But an amendment requiring the federal government to maintain a balanced budget is inviting disaster. States that have balanced budget amendments fare the worst during economic crisis. There are so many reasons why this is a bad idea I can't list them all in a single post.
Absolutely. A better approach to a balanced budget amendment would be to limit what portions of the federal budget would be exempt from a balanced budget amendment, or ensure that there were methods to suspend the rule for situations like economic crisis. I would steer clear of the first one though, as entitlements like Social Security and Medicare/aid are hot button for both power parties, and trying to broker a deal to make it exempt would all but stall the idea. Having a super majority suspension option though, would be helpful.
I know it's political taboo for many, but looking to other countries is a great idea. I always default to Switzerland or the Scandinavian countries, and looking now, today is not an exception. Switzerland has a unique take on the runaway budget/debt problem. Rather than force a balanced budget, they have a "Debt Brake" system. It's less of a "Let's jump straight to the most extreme", and more of an incremental step. Here's more about it.
Yes, now instead of passing office envelopes of checks to the left, he'll have manila envelopes with cash passed to the right. Brilliant!