wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (04/03/84)
Well, now Tim S. has gone and done it again. He sounds like a campaign spiel straight from Democratic headquarters. This is the same tired rhetoric the Democrats have been spouting for years. Confuse the electorate and they will fall for anything. Get the monkey off Congress's back and blame everyone else. Mr. Sevener made seven accusations which I think should be answered. 1. Congress and Congress alone is answerable for the deficit. It is Congress that approves the budget. If they wanted to cut the budget, they had every opportunity to do so. They did not. They added to the budget to make it as large as it is. 2. I'm glad you used the term 'adjusted for inflation' so I can also use it. The cost of one mid-sized automobile today, adjusted for inflation, would buy a damn nice 4 bedroom house in 1942. The term 'adjusted for inflation' is hogwash. How about using a realistic figure such as percentage of the Federal Budget. WWII took over 60% of the Federal Budget. Miltary spending today is less than 26%. Using this kind of rhetoric is typical of political hacks who are trying to snow the masses. 3. Sure this is the largest Federal Budget ever. Can you name one year that the budget was NOT larger than the last one? Apply your 'adjusted for inflation' logic here and see what happens. 4. Thanks to Jimmy Carter, yes. 5. Congress made those cuts in social spending. Again, stop following the party garbage and read what really happened. 6. The tobacco subsidy is Congress's baby. Talk to them. They vote for it every time. The Administration has nothing to do with the subsidy other than handing out the money that Congress has mandated to be handed out. Ford tried to eliminate it, but Congress said no. Jimmy liked it. Reagan has not said anything about it. 7. What alternative energy sources. Be specific. Then go ask your Congressman why the expenditures are approved every year. I don't like nuclear plants either, but we are stuck with them until something better comes along. Would you rather close them all down tommorrow and go back to fossil fuels, daming rivers, and generally playing havoc with the environment? I am sorry that this has turned into a flame, but I get my dander up every time somebody starts mouthing the Democratic Congress line. They make it sound as if Congress just sits there and rubber stamps everything coming out of the White House. It is, and always has been, the Congress that decides where, when, why, and how much money to spend in this country. A basic knowledge of Government is all that is needed to understand this. Congress, because it has made a ton of bad decisions over the years, keeps pointing the finger at the Administration just to take the heat off them so they can get themselves elected every time. If the general populace really understood what the hell was going on down there in Fantasy land, the would rise up and throw that gang of carpetbaggers out on their collective ears. I am of the opinion that no congressman should hold office for more than two terms. Maybe then we could get some honesty into the system instead of the continual chicanery that prevades the atmosphere in Washington. If you really want to find out what your congressman is up to, instead of reading his press releases and local consumption news articles, get ahold of the Congressional Record. Compare his votes in the Record with those he claims back home. You will receive a real shock. And, if he says he sponsered a bill in Congress, check up on him. To sponser a bill means nothing anymore. It only means he signed on to support it along with everyone else. They can even sign on AFTER the bill has been passed. Sponsering a bill is the way these phoneys manage to get onto the bandwagon to show the folks back home that they are right in there pitching, while they were, in reality, off on some junket and had no more idea about the bill than the man-in-the- moon. So, what this all means is that too many people listen to too few voices and don't do enough real checking before they try to jive others. T. C. Wheeler
chenr@tilt.UUCP (Raymond Chen ) (04/04/84)
<Living Sacrifice> Normally, I don't like to flame that much about politics, but some of this is getting a little ridiculous: >>Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxa.UUCP >>Path: tilt!princeton!allegra!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxa!wetcw >>From: wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) >>Newsgroups: net.politics,net.flame >>Subject: An Answer to Sevener >>Message-ID: <670@pyuxa.UUCP> >>Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J. >> >>Well, now Tim S. has gone and done it again. He sounds like a campaign >>spiel straight from Democratic headquarters. This is the same tired >>rhetoric the Democrats have been spouting for years. Confuse the >>electorate and they will fall for anything. Get the monkey off Congress's >>back and blame everyone else. Mr. Sevener made seven accusations which >>I think should be answered. >> >>1. Congress and Congress alone is answerable for the deficit. It >>is Congress that approves the budget. If they wanted to cut the budget, >>they had every opportunity to do so. They did not. They added to the >>budget to make it as large as it is. >> >>2. I'm glad you used the term 'adjusted for inflation' so I can >>also use it. The cost of one mid-sized automobile today, adjusted for >>inflation, would buy a damn nice 4 bedroom house in 1942. The term >>'adjusted for inflation' is hogwash. How about using a realistic >>figure such as percentage of the Federal Budget. WWII took over 60% >>of the Federal Budget. Miltary spending today is less than 26%. >>Using this kind of rhetoric is typical of political hacks who are >>trying to snow the masses. >> >>3. Sure this is the largest Federal Budget ever. Can you name >>one year that the budget was NOT larger than the last one? Apply >>your 'adjusted for inflation' logic here and see what happens. >> >>4. Thanks to Jimmy Carter, yes. >> >>5. Congress made those cuts in social spending. Again, stop >>following the party garbage and read what really happened. >> Ok, first things first: 1) Mr. Wheeler, have you ever heard of the term "balance of power"? Sure, I'll agree that Congress isn't a rubber-stamp, but neither is the Presidency. Remember the budget fight in Reagan's first year in office? That fight wasn't an instance of Congress trying to cram something down the Administration's throat, it was Reagan that was doing the cramming and he did a darn good job at that. If you want to get picky, sure, Congress PASSED the budget, but that was because Ronny was bringing PRESSURE to bear on a lot of key members. 2) First, 'adjusted for inflation' isn't hogwash. There's a reason why 5-cent cigars don't cost 5 cents anymore. There's also a term known as "real dollars". Secondly, during WWII, we were supplying the entire Allied alliance with arms and supplies (and losing a lot of it to U-boats, battles, etc.) on a WARTIME basis. 26% seems a little high to me, seeing as we are supposedly at peace, and the equipment loss rate should be nowhere near as high now, as it was back then. 3-4) I'm not going to address seeing as I didn't read the original article (maybe it's time to start reading net.politics again). 5) See #1. If I remember correctly, Reagan rammed them down the throats of the Congressional Democrats (who were screaming all the way). Don't blame Congress for EVERYTHING that's gone wrong. That's just as unfair (or fair) as blaming the President for everything. It's very rare that a President gets it all his own way, and even rarer for Congress since the President has got this handy thing called a veto. Usually things end up being compromised, and that's the way the writers of the Constitution intended it to be. -- From the Random Fingers of -- Ray Chen {allegra | ihnp4 | mhuxi}!princeton!tilt!chenr "It's amazing what a thousand monkeys and a few typewriters can accomplish..."