The part here that makes a lot of sense to me is ‘if there is any debate, drop it.’ I would be interested in seeing how big a stimulus bill would if we only included those things that had a super majority of support.
Make it a simple process. Take every line item, have everyone fill out a yes/no check list. Anything that gets enough checks stays in, everything else leaves the initial bill and get a chance at round 2 in a month.
Why Democracies Fail…: “What won’t work is strong arming conservatives in the name of faux compromise with legislation filled with broken window spending, pork barrel projects and political grand standing. If it’s such an urgency, we should be cutting every debatable program to get something out the door. If the majority party were really interested in bi-partisanship instead of earning a political win, this would have been done already. “
(Via alexrudloff.com.)
A neighbor I respect a lot says that a big part of the financial crisis is that nobody (especially the banks and financial firms, but even other potential players in the mix) are not doing anything because they don’t want to act until they know what the government will do. Why write off or sell your bad assets for $1 if the gov’t might pay $3 (or even $10). In this view, definitive action is needed, but people would have to believe it would be stuck to (which kinda nullifies my “second round” in the first part here).
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