Official October 2005 Budget Thread

[The Duke]

Amazingly, for being a "chainsaw" budget cutting bill, it doesn't actually quite bring us to an acceptable deficit.

I'm gonna let you all in on a little secret.  Without a tax increase and/or draconian cuts, you'll never make it.  Here you have draconian cuts and still come up short.

[The Duke]

Amazingly, for being a "chainsaw" budget cutting bill, it doesn't actually quite bring us to an acceptable deficit.

I'm gonna let you all in on a little secret.  Without a tax increase and/or draconian cuts, you'll never make it.  Here you have draconian cuts and still come up short.

I'm guessing the John Ford answer would be an amendment repealing the balanced budget part of the Constitution, correct?

I didn't vote for the Amendment and I wouldn't vote to keep it.  We cut and cut and cut, and each time we cut we find we've made no progress because the economy keeps shrinking as revenue keeps drying up.  Cutting spending won't balance the budget, and balancing the budget won't save our economy.

[The Duke]

I intend to remove myself from Senate debates, but not public debates, because I am not a Senator.

[The Duke]

I hope I'm not out of place in asking this, but what does the Health and Human Services Department do exactly?  I just wondered because it's what we're spending the most on.

Medicaid and Medicare.

[The Duke]

They go too far and you're not a senator.

Cheesewhiz, when was the last time you visited a poorer part of the area you live in?

When was the last time you talked to people who need free and good healthcare and education?

Being a libertarian is SO bloody easy if you're middle class. But seriously, next time you see a homeless person, talk to them. Most probably, they're not even accessing the services that are provided. How about talking to the family with a mother with terminal breast cancer, a father with a 12-hour night shift, and three kids?

You can't tell them that you are going to slash healthcare funding, especially medicare and medicaid, and then say 'but it'll make the budget balanced!' and expect them to celebrate the fact. You can't slash education spending and force the kids into a manufacturing job that'll dissapear to China when they're 32 and expect them to celebrate because the budget'll be balanced.

When I was elected, I was elected after promising the people of the pacific to increase the quality of our healthcare. I might not be able to do that because of the budget; not at the moment, anyway.

But I can, I hope, prevent the situation from getting worse.

If you can find cuts in the healthcare budget that doesn't affect the quality of services, i'll probably support it.

If you can do the same with education, great.

But until you know the effects of your 'liberty', don't laugh about the policies you support.

If they pass, many Atlasian's won't be.

Cheers from the rafters!