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Return to Article: Democrats unveil 'pay go' bill with 155 backers

• 81156
  

  Ms. Pelosi is an embarrasment to America Americans and herself. How long can you media types continue to print her fabrications. I am ashamed for our country to have her in such a position. She has been in power long enough to take some responsibility for the sad state of our nation. Nancy step aside.

  ben Posted June 24, 2009 3:21 PM
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  Hey Dan, I'm CS, and I make FAR less than $117 per year. Too many people believe that CS employees make that kind of money. A majority outside the beltway make less than half that... We'd all be for that kind of pay raise!!

  Ugster Posted June 22, 2009 4:11 PM
• 80885
  

  We must be one of them Tom, lol.

  Rick Posted June 22, 2009 1:16 AM
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  I agree with G Louise every american should be enrolled in FEB and if costs and premiums go up so be it. All americans should be included in CRS or FERS for retirement rather than SS and all americans should earn what CS make $117K per year

  dan m ketter Posted June 19, 2009 5:44 PM
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  I would like to know why "estate taxes" are being exempted from this bill. It seems to me the folks who have an "estate" are the very ones who are best able to pay a higher tax. Oh...I forgot...foolish me, we have to placate the Republicans and the wealthy elite that they represent in order to get anything passed on a bi-partisan basis!

  no one special Posted June 19, 2009 5:10 PM
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  Good for you Jeremiah! Right on the truth!

  Neal Posted June 19, 2009 2:36 PM
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  Isn't this like shutting barn door after the horse left? And you think they would interview Republicans? What a silly idea. We no longer have a two party system. We have a one party system. Everyone who isn't a Democrat is one of "them". I agree with Scott. It's an election ploy.

  Suz Posted June 19, 2009 11:22 AM
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  But basic health care coverage should be an entitlement and not an OPTION??? What a crock! No where in our constitution does it specify that healthcare is something to be provided and funded for every citizen by our government. Where has personal responsibility gone? Healthcare is a commodity to be purchased not a priviledge to be given and it should stay that way. Pay-Go should be in place. The only problem I see with it is that people who think the government should take care of them and give them healthcare would likely support underfunding our national defense mechanisms in order to pay for that free healthcare. Oh, and by the way, national defense is specified in our constitution as something our government is supposed to do.

  Maverick Posted June 19, 2009 11:02 AM
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  Oh, it sure would have been nice if Pelosi could have just talked about the Bill without the backhand to the Republicans. Its not helpful and moves the debate off of the Bill at hand. Lets just get stuff done and stop the squawking.

  LN Posted June 19, 2009 10:51 AM
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  Great first step to get back to the fiscal restraint of the Clinton administration. Another thing I'd like to see is the White House using the same economic assumptions that CBO does so budget analysis can be done, apples to apples. Jeremiah, great to see you lauding a centrist Republican in Warren Rudman. He was a joy and often worked in a bipartisan fashion whether it be Gary Hart or Fritz Hollings whom you conveniently scripted out in your revision of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act. Because the automatic cuts that Act were declared unconstitutional, a revised version of the act was passed in 1987. However, it failed to result in reduced deficits. A 1990 revision of the act changed its focus from deficit reduction to spending control. But hey, they worked together across the aisle to get that done. More than we can say about today's congress.

  LN Posted June 19, 2009 10:47 AM
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  Believing Nancy "The COA Lied TO Me" Pelosi is like believing Chris "The Republican Made Me Do It" Dodd, Chuckie "LIttle Porky" Schumer, Barnie "Freddie and Fannie Lined My Pockets" Frank and good ole Helicopter Ben. I don't and their previous actions tell me that they will say whatever they want, reqrite history and any other trick in order to try and make us believe they are there for us and not the rich and Wall St.

  Best thing that could happen is these folks are voted out of office as soon as possible.

  Eddy Posted June 19, 2009 10:05 AM
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  Now that we have given billions or is it trillions of dollars to the auto industry and banks, we are going to institute pay/go. Sounds good on paper and the nightly news, but let's see you make it work. How is anyone going to end the pork and earmarks in this run away government. This will take HONEST people (congress) who want to do right by this country and not just fill their already gold lined pockets.

  Just me again Posted June 19, 2009 9:13 AM
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  Every legal American resident should receive the same basic health care benefits as our elected officials. If people want to purchase their own private health care insurance then let them. But basic health care coverage should be an entitlement and not an OPTION. Let's get on with it!

  G. Louise Posted June 19, 2009 8:27 AM
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  Sure...now that they've run up a multi-trillion $$ deficit. How about a 2:1 offset...any future spending of a dollar MUST be offset by $2...only then will the deficit begin to come down.

  Scoutldr Posted June 19, 2009 8:03 AM
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  What hypocrisy! Spend one trillion plus dollars on anything and everything..now we are going to go fiscally conservative and save the country from ballooning deficits! Amazing how they believe the crazy things that come out of their mouth. This is nothing but cover their tail come election time. This is real change!

  Scott Posted June 19, 2009 7:01 AM
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  The good Madam Speaker is getting increasingly skilled at revisionist, "memory hole"-driven versions of history, as seen again very recently in her rather most ungainly attempts to evade acknowledging her awareness of the interrogation techniques used on al-Qaeda captives, and now on her claim that the Democrats championed PAYGO principles in the 1990s. Tsk, tsk. Ms. Pelosi must be betting heavily that the American electorate's chronic short term memory will accept whatever pabulum she and her fellow tax-and-spendocrats dish out. As she knows quite well, it was the Republicans, especially in the persons of Senators Phil Gramm and Warren Rudmann, who sought to impose fiscal stringency on the budget process in the '90s. Also, again as she's quite aware, Clinton was the beneficiary of the post-Gulf War period's draw down in military spending, itself also an artifact of the implosion of the USSR - due largely again to Republican anti-communist firmness (with honorable help from a minority of Democrats such as "Skip" Jackson) over the decades - and the booming economic times in the mid and laate '90s that were the fruit yet again of earlier Republican policies. So enough of this alternative universe history from the Speaker, Senator Reid, and their ilk. The current version of PAYGO is essentially DOA in any event, given the fantastic deficit projections of the Democrats themselves over the next decade. The fiscal horses have long been out of the budgetary stable for the belated, jejune efforts to put a fig leaf over the nakedness of the hypocrisy to which we're being again exposed.

  Jeremiah Posted June 18, 2009 6:09 PM
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  Not one republican interviewed for this piece?

  Tom Posted June 18, 2009 1:29 PM