Solution to the Debt and Deficit Issue?

[Wry Catcher]

Poll to follow

Should the President be given the Line-Item Veto?

Should the Presidential Term be limited to one of Six years?

 

[TNHarley]

What would term limit have to do with it?

 

[Wry Catcher]

What would term limit have to do with it?

A President with only one term might be more inclined to do what's best for the country and not for his party or so beholden to those who funded his/her final campaign.

 

[g5000]

What would term limit have to do with it?

A President with only one term might be more inclined to do what's best for the country and not for his party or so beholden to those who funded his/her final campaign.

Obama is in his second, and last, term. Do you see a change in his behavior?

I don't.

 

[g5000]

What would term limit have to do with it?

A President with only one term might be more inclined to do what's best for the country and not for his party or so beholden to those who funded his/her final campaign.

Why does a special interest donate money to a Congressman's or Senator's campaign?

To get tax breaks and favorable regulations.

Ban all tax breaks and you remove a powerful campaign cash incentive.

Return regulatory authority back to the states where it belongs and you make regulatory capture damn near impossible, and you remove the other powerful campaign cash incentive.

Presto! No need for campaign finance reform or term limits.

And when you ban tax expenditures, you have just shut off red ink that is costing us over a trillion dollars a year.

 

[ima]

Reduce the military to 20,000 or so Seals. Go from $500 billion in spending to around $100 B. Save lives and $400B/year, debt is paid off in what, 25 years? 30?

 

[nodoginnafight]

Ban all tax breaks and you remove a powerful campaign cash incentive.

Or regulate campaign finance much more carefully.
I believe that is just as easy.
But go ahead and close the loopholes too - we have a deficit to deal with.

 

[DiamondDave]

Line item veto to eliminate spending.. not to eliminate cuts or reductions or eliminations.. fine with me (can cut line X on the budget by veto to eliminate spending on project Y... cannot cut line P which already cuts funding or eliminated program Q)

Term limits have nothing to do with this

 

[nodoginnafight]

Oh yeah - I do favor the line-item veto.

 

[g5000]

I also favor a line item veto. It would be fun to see a President veto a line item for a study of Chinese basket weaving and then have the Congressman who put it in the budget have to defend it when the list of vetoed items is published.

They make good picnic baskets!

 

[Wry Catcher]

What would term limit have to do with it?

A President with only one term might be more inclined to do what's best for the country and not for his party or so beholden to those who funded his/her final campaign.

Obama is in his second, and last, term. Do you see a change in his behavior?

I don't.

I do. He's being more confrontive with those who spent his first term hoping and working for him to fail.

That said, I was speaking to future Presidents not the current one; any change to our Constitution would take several years.

If the President had the Line-Item Veto he would have no one else to blame if things went awry. A President with such a power would be able to cut at will, which would be problematic if he were to punish the people of a district or state because of his/her disdain for their representatives. Of course members of Congress might be less inclined to call him or her a liar, commie, or Nazi, or to disrespect his spouse or kids (though this might have the effect of bringing civility to the process of governance).