Or possibly, fringe like this ? Earlier today Politico broke the astonishing story of Joe Biden supporting the charge by Democrat Congressman Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania that Tea Party Republicans had âacted like terroristsâ over the debt issue. According to Politicoâs report, based on eyewitness accounts: Vice President Joe Biden joined House Democrats in lashing tea party Republicans Monday, accusing them of having âacted like terroristsâ in the fight over raising the nationâs debt limit. Biden was agreeing with a line of argument made by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) at a two-hour, closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting. âWe have negotiated with terrorists,â an angry Doyle said, according to sources in the room. âThis small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.â Biden, driven by his Democratic alliesâ misgivings about the debt-limit deal, responded: âThey have acted like terrorists,â according to several sources in the room.
I wouldn't dismiss the possibility out of hand. Debt ceilings were never an issue in the past. There was never the drama. Budget deficits, yes. But the ceremonial debt ceiling increase? I don't think so. As we all know, it was raised 18 times during Reagan's administration alone. And look at the proportions by which Reagan and W had increased the national debt. But I don't recall debt ceilings ever receiving this much air time. So let's ask ourselves: What's really different this time?
I don't think Biden actually uttered those words. A Democrat congressman did. Over the top? Perhaps. But did the Tea Party congress members not threaten to shut down the government? Those who favor a functioning government might share his view. So while you focus on what a SINGLE congressman SAID, which Biden commented on analogously as having at least taken away their "weapons of mass destruction" (i.e., so they could not shut down the government to the peril of the entire country), you may wish to consider what MANY Right Wing congress members actually DID: try to shut down the government to the peril of the entire nation. Which is worse: isolated frustrated words, or orchestrated destructive conduct? Which is more deliberate? Which is more repugnant?
"try to shut down the government to the peril of the entire nation" You really are a dolt. If the best you can profer is to simply repeat the Dem talking points ad nauseum, then why bother starting a thread with a hypocritical value statement about the quality of the political discourse here on ET as a complaint ? It's called political leverage. The Congressional majority is the power of the purse. That is their official function as defined by the Constitution. The majority in Congress had a very simple mandate: don't spend any more money than you take in. If you want to raise your immediate spending limit by "X", cut your future spending in to the future over several years by smaller increments which total the value of "X". Quite a reasonable demand - is it sustainable to borrow 40% of what you spend every month ? BTW, Congress passed Health Care Reform on Christmas Eve with Pelosi threatening all kinds of "nuclear options" in terms of legislative 'sleight of hand'. Maybe stay with the Daily KOS - you should stay immersed in one dimensional conversation and you certainly can't construct a logical arguement.
Listen, in terms of logical powers you are simply argumentative and nothing more - just like Pee Drinker you are like arguing with a two year old. You are a "2" on a scale of 1 to 10. You do not bring external information into your posts and you do not know how to correctly build and frame an arguement that holds up. Ricter has sooooooooooo much more game than you do. Orders of magnitude.
So now Gabby is starting P&R threads in the Feedback forum and then complains about the "dumbing down of ET". What a self absorbed moron.
So true. Ricter is light years ahead of this guy. Don't tell him I said that. I don't want it to go to his head.
I agree that Ricter is a very smart guy. One of the principal differences between him and me is that he still seems to give you guys the benefit of the doubt from time to time, and treats you like thinking human beings. I stopped banging my head on that wall a long time ago.