Oh, no! Please, anything but the dread bipartisan commission on debt reduction!!!! I was about to point out the dismal history of similar attempts but it appears that you are aware of the history. And yet you propose yet another commission. What in the world makes you think this one will work any better? Committees and commissions are simply tools by which politicians kick difficult cans down the road, or at best create a villain at whom the committee creator can point fingers/hide behind. This one, if it is ever formed, will do the same.
What is needed is an actual plan to attack the problems you describe, pitched to voters, and approved in an election. It's not that nobody knows what steps need to or should be taken. It's that nobody in either party has the guts or will to do it.
These are not opinions, they are facts, borne out over decades. Anybody who campaigns on "forming a commission" as an answer to fixing the debt will lose my vote. Period.
You are right. Dems love them some commissions, task forces, etc. Not a campaign winner. However, a man with a plan--nix the commission part--would be sellable.
Ready for you to be a loud (or even the loud) voice of the Dems! Somebody needs to forthwith. And these Simple-but-not-Easys are a road map that should be seen by more than those of us following along on your Substack.
Jake - Honestly? Who - amongst our Democratic Party - possibly might win the next Presidential election? I love the positioning and your messaging, but we have to start promoting someone to win. Somewhat subtlety, yes, but -- Now! - And we need a party spokesperson to step up. DNC has no one.
There needs to be some sort of trigger for pain for both parties if a deficit-reducing budget is not passed. Suspension of Congressional pay is a start, but I'm thinking more like automatic program cuts and tax hikes on the rich if a budget is not passed.
What you are really talking about (with the word commission aside), could only work if the party's standard bearer actually campaigned and was to prepared to follow through on a platform to bring us all together, with bipartisan kitchen table, educational and economic specifics that would create a moral rather that a party mandate (JFK and RFK did a pretty good job). That's what is needed to try to tackle many previously unsolvable issues for everyone's children. Americans are traditionally short sighted before a crisis hits them -- the question is whether the next two years and our secret police like state wakes them the hell up. Keep lighting those weekly matches Jake.
Sorry, but the idea of an unelected commission that can present a comprehensive proposal to Congress on a take-it-or-leave-it basis is a non-starter. It is not just undemocratic, it is anti-democratic. And, for all its faults, the democratic process of back-and-forth, give-and-take is in the end much superior to the product of commissions. Put another way, if the proposed commission does its job well enough, Congress will adopt its proposals.
Oh, no! Please, anything but the dread bipartisan commission on debt reduction!!!! I was about to point out the dismal history of similar attempts but it appears that you are aware of the history. And yet you propose yet another commission. What in the world makes you think this one will work any better? Committees and commissions are simply tools by which politicians kick difficult cans down the road, or at best create a villain at whom the committee creator can point fingers/hide behind. This one, if it is ever formed, will do the same.
What is needed is an actual plan to attack the problems you describe, pitched to voters, and approved in an election. It's not that nobody knows what steps need to or should be taken. It's that nobody in either party has the guts or will to do it.
These are not opinions, they are facts, borne out over decades. Anybody who campaigns on "forming a commission" as an answer to fixing the debt will lose my vote. Period.
You are right. Dems love them some commissions, task forces, etc. Not a campaign winner. However, a man with a plan--nix the commission part--would be sellable.
Ready for you to be a loud (or even the loud) voice of the Dems! Somebody needs to forthwith. And these Simple-but-not-Easys are a road map that should be seen by more than those of us following along on your Substack.
Jake - Honestly? Who - amongst our Democratic Party - possibly might win the next Presidential election? I love the positioning and your messaging, but we have to start promoting someone to win. Somewhat subtlety, yes, but -- Now! - And we need a party spokesperson to step up. DNC has no one.
There needs to be some sort of trigger for pain for both parties if a deficit-reducing budget is not passed. Suspension of Congressional pay is a start, but I'm thinking more like automatic program cuts and tax hikes on the rich if a budget is not passed.
What you are really talking about (with the word commission aside), could only work if the party's standard bearer actually campaigned and was to prepared to follow through on a platform to bring us all together, with bipartisan kitchen table, educational and economic specifics that would create a moral rather that a party mandate (JFK and RFK did a pretty good job). That's what is needed to try to tackle many previously unsolvable issues for everyone's children. Americans are traditionally short sighted before a crisis hits them -- the question is whether the next two years and our secret police like state wakes them the hell up. Keep lighting those weekly matches Jake.
Sorry, but the idea of an unelected commission that can present a comprehensive proposal to Congress on a take-it-or-leave-it basis is a non-starter. It is not just undemocratic, it is anti-democratic. And, for all its faults, the democratic process of back-and-forth, give-and-take is in the end much superior to the product of commissions. Put another way, if the proposed commission does its job well enough, Congress will adopt its proposals.