lesson from New Jersey

NJlonghorn

2,500+ Posts
There is an interesting editorial in this morning's Star Ledger (Newark, NJ) pointing to a silver lining about the debt deal. The editorial talks about how the NJ political scene was in gridlock until Steve Sweeney (Democratic NJ senate majority leader) broke ranks with his party and allowed major legislation to pass with bipartisan support, despite opposition by over half of his party. Since Sweeney did that, the extremists on both sides have been marginalized and the moderate Republicans (led by Chris Christie) are actually getting things done up here.

Hopefully, Romney's latest move will enable the moderate Dems and the moderate Reps to work together and get things done. It is noteworthy that there were significant "nay" votes on this deal from both sides. In my book, any deal that angers both the left and the right is worthy of consideration.

article from Newark Star Ledger
 
That's actually a lesson from a lot of state capitols. Most state legislatures have moments of partisanship but aren't built around partisanship, and it doesn't drive every important decision they make. For example, the Texas Legislature has long had bipartisan leadership teams. Even though the GOP runs everything, the Speaker and Lt. Governor appoint some Democratic committee chairmen, and the reverse was true when Democrats ran everything. If you're on the Speaker's or Lt. Governor's good side (meaning you generally support his agenda at least on a limited basis and don't screw with him), he doesn't care what your affiliation is. I've never understood why party affiliation has to drive everything in Congress (especially the House). If Boehner appointed a pro-defense Democrat to chair Armed Services or a fiscal hawk Blue Dog to chair Budget or Appropriations, people in DC would lose their minds. That's stupid.
 
If you believe that Compromise is good then yea you are right.

When you have been compromising for years and getting bent over as the average American Taxpayers have been then it is time to end the compromise.

If you don't know what I am talking about, do some research on the debt, $16T in one book and $60T in unfunded debt that is going to bite me, my kids and grandkids in the *** some day. Thanks dad, granddad and great granddad, you call yourselves the greatest generation, I call you the greatest thieves in the world!!!!

Somebody has to put a stop to the madness that is this spending, there should be no compromise on that at all!

This compromise you speak of will go down in history with the 3/5ths compromise, one of the biggest atrocities in the history of the world.
 
I'm fine with the compromise if they are able to get real spending cuts in order to raise the debt ceiling. If I were the republicans, I would have focused on the spending in the fiscal cliff compromise even at the expense of taxes. I am much more concerned about spending than income tax levels that big earners will manage to only pay a fraction of.
 
I'm starting to think we are looking at this all wrong and asking the wrong questions.

Maybe the question we should be asking is when is the best time to default. It's only a matter of time and I say sooner rather than later.
 
The issue of the 3/5 compromise was a true kick the can down the road and what over a 1Million people were killed 70-80 years later?

Counting a human being as anything less than single person was as barbaric as slavery.

They compromised yea you can have slavery but each one of those people only count as 3/5 of a person in population.

That is just barbaric and as stupid as stupid can be......it is all about the money grab and all politicians are robbing us blind.
 
I know Deez, it is just one of those things that chaps my backside when people say compromise compromise compromise. It is not always about compromise.

The 3/5ths Compromise was about money plain and simple. Who would control Congress and it was the only equitable split of Congress. It was and is still barbaric to think that human could only be counted for 3/5 of a person, and for my conservative image please don't compare me to JJ, you can in private just not in public. Thanks, lol.
 
compromise is not a bad thing. you just need to ask for more than you want oe thinkyou will get initially. perfect example is Healthcare Reform. President Obama started with the compromise and ended up getting much less than he wanted.
 

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