Specifically, I would:
1. Put healthcare and cap-and-trade on hold until unemployment is under 8%. No small business owner would hire somebody today when they don't know how healthcare and cap-and-trade will run up their costs.
2. If you don't like #1, then I would scrap the healthcare surtaxes because they will kill any job creation that's possible from small businesses. Pelosi's surtax will likely put us into a double-dip recession in 2011.
Let's also have a two-year suspension of the payroll tax holiday to put money directly in people's pockets. And if it's viewed as long-term people might change their habits rather than just getting a one-time rebate check in the mail. Those were a disaster under Bush.
The only way out of this recession is to create an environment where small business can thrive. Government spending does not increase GDP over time. It is temporary non-productive stimulus. It takes private investment to create jobs and increase productivity.
]]>Those are two different things. I interpreted your comment as accusing him of intentionally comparing Obama to a terrorist. And that's why I took offense to your post(s).
]]>I'm really not sure why US versus foreign soil matters. But do you think that if FDR had captured the Japanese military that bombed Pearl Harbor, we would have brought them back to Hawaii and tried them in federal court? No, instead FDR ordered his execution. That should tell you something.
As far as procedural technicalities only happening on TV, I hope you're right. (and I hope that you're a lawyer who knows better than me, because I'm not a lawyer but have spoken to others who are). While a procedural dismissal or acquittal is unlikely, just the fact that it's a remote possibility disturbs me.
And KSM's lawyers will have at their disposal all the rules available to any American defendant, including exclusion of evidence because torture was used or defendants were questioned too harshly. And how does KSM get a fair trial unless he and his lawyers have access to all of the classified and top secret documents which the government has put together over the last 8 years?
It already is a travesty because it will be such a media circus that could have been avoided if we kept it in a military court.
]]>Will there be a few people, such as Kowalski, that interpreted the senator's comments as referring to 9/11?? Sure. But does that mean the senator was comparing Obama to a terrorist or making a reference to 9/11?? I don't think so. It's the same as saying that you are driving a car off of a cliff or being the captain of a sinking ship.
And I haven't seen anywhere that the senator himself sees it as a reference to 9/11, but I'm looking forward to your source.
I think it's pretty clear that Schultheis said he did not intend the comment as a reference to 9/11. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_13764717?source=rss
]]>My guess is that one or more of these detainees will be released on procedural grounds, perhaps because they were not read their Miranda rights. And that will be a travesty.
Is that what you want?
And I bet you don't live or work in New York. Because this trial that Mr. Holder has convened will invite grave and unnecessary security risks with terrorists all over the world salivating at the opportunity to strike in NYC in front of a huge stage.
Foreign terrorists who wage war against the United States have no place sitting in a court that upholds the values that they so greatly detest. I think Mr. Holder has honored the mass murder of 9/11 just like it was any other crime.
]]>1) Reduce or eliminate taxes on the rich? Right, because that's what they did historically. That's why the top half of the country pays a greater share of taxes than they did 20 or 30 years ago.
2) Bust labor unions? Again, that's not something that they've done over the past 10 or 20 years but feel free to live the dream.
3) Carbon change - please show me the proof that our climate problem is man made and not cyclical. Please show me how much of it is driven due to the car I drive and its emmisions.
I could go on but Cmaukonen's list is so outrageous in the first place it's a waste of time. Once I read the parts about ethnic cleansing and Hitler's techniques I realized it's just a bunch of trash.
]]>Erica - please spare me talk of the "rule of law". If this was the primary consideration, the US already has a judicial process in place. The current special military tribunals were created in 2006 under bipartisan Congressional support after the Supreme Court's Hamdan decision said that the executive and legislative branches must approve a detailed plan to prosecute "enemy combatants" captured since 9/11.
Military tribunals are not a break from the 200+ years of American jurisprudence. Even Eric Holder said that the Guantanamo detainee responsible for the USS Cole would face military tribunals. But for some reason unknown to me, KSM and his colleagues deserve a civilian trial. Why the difference? Do you really think it's for legal reasons and not political motives?
]]>My "solution" is that he should be more focused on job creation than healthcare and cap-and-trade. We should be doing things that help small business, not hurt them. Instead we should be giving tax breaks and other incentives to small businesses that encourage them to grow and hire people. Instead the administration is focused on saving the big banks and big businesses. But the small business owners I speak with are too worried about future changes in healthcare and cap-and-trade that have discouraged them from making any long-term hiring or expansion plans.
I wrote about it here. http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/middleclassbill/2009/11/houston-we-have-a-problem----u.php#comments
]]>As you'll see in my other post, I wrote:
"Voters would like to see compromise on key points of healthcare to reduce costs, while the Democrats' plan is very much focused on expanding coverage. Many voters want something passed but less than a majority approve of the current bill. Most people would prefer a less costly bill that incrementally improves coverage, provides reform for pre-existing conditions and experiments with tort reform and competition along state lines. "
]]>Forget about what they "elected" him to do. That was a year ago and things are constantly changing. The polls say what they want him to do right now given the current circumstances we are facing as a nation. I don't think people voted for him to do "what he thinks is right". They voted for him based on the promises he made during his campaign. Big difference.
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