The Next Speaker of the House

[Joe Elliott]

"To secure to each labourer the whole product of his labour,
or as nearly as possible, is a most worthy object of any
good government."     -- A. Lincoln

Yes. It's hard to argue against this post. American needs to do better. And I believe that electing Democrats will help us do better. Though maybe not well enough. But certainly better than electing Republicans.

Of course, the U. S., on the whole has gotten a good deal wealthier in the last 40 years. So a graph of real wealth, not relative wealth, would show the wealthy getting much wealthier, while the poor remain the same, or go up a modest amount.

[Richard Smith]

Yes. It's hard to argue against this post. American needs to do better. And I believe that electing Democrats will help us do better. Though maybe not well enough. But certainly better than electing Republicans.

We could do better if we stopped sending all our money to "Europe" and the rest of the world.  They can only afford their socialist programs because the US has paid for their national defense for over seven decades and counting.  Imagine if the US could have spent the money allocated to defense to other purposes for the last 70 years.  Trillions.  Our schools, medical services, and other programs could have been funded beyond the wildest dreams of anyone. 

[Jon Banks]

We could do better if we stopped sending all our money to "Europe" and the rest of the world.  They can only afford their socialist programs because the US has paid for their national defense for over seven decades and counting.  Imagine if the US could have spent the money allocated to defense to other purposes for the last 70 years.  Trillions.  Our schools, medical services, and other programs could have been funded beyond the wildest dreams of anyone.

Wow. We're in agreement again. President Eisenhower was right about the Military Industrial Complex.

The circumstances are worse now because we've outsourced most of our civilian manufacturing to other countries. So our manufacturing economy sort of relies on Defense spending given that most of that stuff is manufactured here. Members of Congress don't want to cut spending that creates jobs for their districts.

And yes, Europe can spend more on social programs because they've outsourced their national defense to us. It would be nice if even a quarter of the money we spend on Defense was put towards free college for people who want to become nurses, engineers, computer programmers, etc. America desperately needs more skilled workers. The government could use incentives like free college (for careers like those that I mentioned) to get more Americans into skilled professions.

[Richard Smith]

Wow. We're in agreement again. President Eisenhower was right about the Military Industrial Complex.

The circumstances are worse now because we've outsourced most of our civilian manufacturing to other countries. So our manufacturing economy sort of relies on Defense spending given that most of that stuff is manufactured here. Members of Congress don't want to cut spending that creates jobs for their districts.

And yes, Europe can spend more on social programs because they've outsourced their national defense to us. It would be nice if even a quarter of the money we spend on Defense was put towards free college for people who want to become nurses, engineers, computer programmers, etc. America desperately needs more skilled workers. The government could use incentives like free college (for careers like those that I mentioned) to get more Americans into skilled professions.

Yes, socialism is a piece of cake if you can find another country that is willing to pay for it.   And the corrupt US political establishment thrives on spending this money.  It goes to lobbyists and cronies who support their political campaigns and hire their relatives and friends making them millions.  A vicious circle of corruption with folks like the Bidens and Bush families stealing the country blind.  The wars and fear mongering are the incentive to gain access to this money.  No one is ever held accountable for the lies.  Think of all the politicians, generals, and "experts" who claimed things were going well in Afghanistan for decades.  All of them were outright liars or incompetents or both.

[Michael T. Griffith]

I hope, before this is all over, Kevin McCarthy breaks down and shouts during the debate in the House:

Help! Wait! Stop! Stop and listen to me!... These people who're coming after me are not human!
Look, you fools, you're in danger! Can't you see?! They're after you! They're after all of us! Our wives, our children, everyone! THEY'RE HERE, ALREADY! YOU'RE NEXT!
Don't just sit there measuring me for a straightjacket, do something! Call for help! Oh, what's the use?!
Doctor, will you tell these fools? I'm not crazy. Make them listen to me before it's too late.

Such polemic paints you as a wingnut, as a fringe liberal.

I do agree that the delay in electing McCarthy as Speaker was embarrassing, but your rhetoric goes to a fringe extreme.

Both parties have their hardline (far-left, far-right) wings. I wonder if the hardline Republicans who delayed McCarthy's election have any idea how bad that made the GOP look in the eyes of many mainstream conservatives and sensible centrist independents.