Overview
Sen. Bernie Sanders
Both of those articles are about the upcoming Budget Conference Committee.
The Budget Conference Committee will consist of the entire Senate Budget Committee and select Republicans and Democrats from the House. It was called to hopefully resolve the differing House and Senate budgets.
Usually, when a Conference Committee is called, the entirety of the respective standing committees in both the House and the Senate are called. That is, at least to the best of my knowledge. However, only seven representatives have been invited. I'm not necessarily making a point I'm just pointing out an abnormality.
Now, what I'm excited about is the fact that Sen. Sanders will be on the Committee. Though it isn't unusual - as he is on the Senate Budget Committee, I am nevertheless still happy that I have someone who adequately represents my views on the Conference Committee. Sen. Sanders is guaranteed to be a voice vehemently opposed to cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other such programs.
Despite my excitement regarding Sanders, I doubt the Conference Committee will accomplish anything before their deadline of Dec. 13th. When the similar such Committees have been called in the recent past, notably the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, they accomplished little-to-nothing.
Aw man. This is both the blessing and curse of our government: We can't get anything done very quickly, unless we are all about to die. I'm glad that Roosevelt was given a blank check in the great depression, but I doubt that something similar will ever be done again. When Obama was elected the first time, he immediately tried to deal with the recession. As he did so, many acts and bills were brought before congress and were signed. Although a blank check was not issued to Obama, he was able to get quite a bit done. (I'm not going to discuss the effectiveness and legality of what he did and is doing here, that's for another time.) I'm just surprised that the rest of our government wants to strip so quickly the gains that brought us out of the recession.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't call what Roosevelt got during the Great Depression a blank check, unless you're talking about WWII. Many of Roosevelt's programs got overturned by the Supreme Court and overall Roosevelt's programs were relatively conservative. The programs which Roosevelt imposed only really halted the Great Depression from advancing any further, not to say that they were/are bad programs. The massive amount of government spending which happened as a result of WWII is what kick started the economy out of the Depression.
ReplyDeleteI also agree, I do not have faith that the Committee can accomplish anything before their deadline. There are too many "my way or highway" or unyielding politicians concerning defunding Obamacare or the opposite. I don't think a compromise is inevitable. Just like there are politicians vehemently opposed to cuts on medicare and social security like Senator Sanders, there will be politicians vehemently opposed to funding Obamacare.
ReplyDelete