5 Responses to “Budget deal…”

1. holmes Says:
   April 9th, 2011 at 3:07 am

   It looks like a permanent deal is in place as well.

   One thing this highlights is how dependent so many facets of life are on the federal government. Flights, schools, meals, every kind of service imagineable- all provided by a monopolized bureaucracy (one that I work for, by the way). And each time you try to shrink it, the dependency is highlighted. What if the 1790 level of services were provided instead? Would we be a backward state? Or would everyone just yawn as some conflict like a budget battle arose?

2. rickl Says:
   April 9th, 2011 at 5:03 am

   holmes:
   My understanding is that prior to the New Deal, the average citizen paid little attention to the doings of the federal government. Local, county, and state governments had much more of an impact on their daily lives. That’s the way the Founders intended it.

   There has been a massive usurpation of power by the Feds. The seeds that were planted by the Progressive Teddy Roosevelt’s “trust busting” and the 16th and 17th Amendments began flowering in the New Deal, and today we have quite a jungle on our hands.

3. MT of Hollywood Says:
   April 9th, 2011 at 10:30 am

   When you are the sane one in a dysfunctional family (Washington, DC) you have to be incredibly strong and lucky to survive.
   Boehner was lucky that Obama was stupid enough to say that he’d not pay the troops. The Republicans were lucky that Democrats were stupid enough to say out loud that Republicans were in favor of killing women and old people.
   It is possible that the dysfunction of big federal government is now so blind and headstrong that it will crumple under its own preposterousness. It has nothing remaining except stupidity with which to defend itself. We people are smarter than that. Even some Dems are becoming sickened by the callousness in their own ranks. It does not work.
   I moved from being a dumb I-hate-Bush-inspired liberal to being an independent in 2008 when I began to recognize the strength of the intelligence of the American people and how that was being obscured by Obamanic rhetoric, duplicity, and theatrics–as if borrowed words could ever be a substitute for work and authentic inspiration.
   We are very lucky to have been born and live in a country that honor(ed) the wit and wisdom of the people over the government. We will persevere and bring back faith in people and state and local government. We must, or we perish.

4. J.J. formerly Jimmy J. Says:
   April 9th, 2011 at 1:28 pm

   rickl said, “There has been a massive usurpation of power by the Feds.” Just so.

   Go to a city council meeting sometime and see how many issues are driven by Federal grants, regulations, and policies. It’s particularly bad with respect to education, the environment, and urban renewal. Our cities, even small ones like mine, are under the yoke of the masters in D.C.

5. Parker Says:
   April 9th, 2011 at 11:09 pm

   “and see how many issues are driven by Federal grants, regulations, and policies. ”

   The feds impact nearly every aspect of our daily lives. And it is “particularly bad with respect to education”. I see the bureaucratic hoops teachers and administrators have to go through in order to make sure the district remains eligible for the ~10% (of their) funding that comes from DC.

   Keep the money in state, don’t send it to DC. Starve the beast.

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