One day in the future when the president is a republican, and both the House and Senate

[Dappleganger]

have a republican majority, this "Super Congress" is going to come back and bite we liberals in the ass--very, very hard. It will be misused and abused in much the same way The Patriot Act is today.

The Super Congress is dependent upon the "hope" that these people will do what is best for American citizens and their interests first. History has proven that is usually not the case. What protects us as citizens is a full arena of democracy allowing ALL voices to be heard and to dissent, not just SOME SELECTED FEW voices.

I am not comfortable with this drastic change in how our society is run and in fact, it makes me physically ill to know that we may see the destruction of our democracy even as soon as the next election cycle in 2012.

[FiveGoodMen]

1. I predict it's gonna bite us even before we have another presidential election

[Dappleganger]

7. You may very well be correct.

[TheWraith]

10. How? Someone answer me that. In detail, rather than in fearmongering. nt

[lumpy]

21. A lot of crystal balling going on around here. The balls need

polishing.

[alc]

27. 12 people can make a decision

The rest of congress has 2 options
1) Take it
2) Take the default cuts

Which ever way they go they will claim they had no choice (weren't allowed amendments, etc). Voters will believe them and they won't have to be accountable in the election. Even if the results are "good" the process is even worse than normal legislation. They are constantly finding new ways to avoid accountability and it's never good for us when they get away with a new one.

[CrispyQ]

31. An accurate & precise explanation of this awful legislation.

"They are constantly finding new ways to avoid accountability and it's never good for us when they get away with a new one."

Well said.

[William769]

2. And the truly sad thing is Republicans had help from our party to do it.

rec.

[Dappleganger]

5. Not just any kind of help, but anxious help...

they seem happy to do it.

[Zen Democrat]

17. George W. Bush had help from our party to do what he did.

The war in Iraq? The Patriot Act? Alito? None of it would have happened without Democrats. Don't think Obama is to blame for all the spinelessness in the Senate. We didn't get what we needed in any bill since 2009 because of Ben Nelson, Kent Conrad, Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu, Joe Lieberman, et al. Obama had to sell out just to get anything through because of the aforementioned.

He only had 58 in the Democratic Caucus for the Stimulus vote and that was including the people named above.

He was hamstrung from the beginning, and while Democrats such as Hillary Clinton enabled Bush, Obama found a united front of willing filibusterers to oppose him at every turn.

I'm sick of the people blaming Obama. The public option? Who killed that? It was Democrats who voted with Republicans against cloture.

[lumpy]

22. Thanks, you are another cooler head.

We need more like you.

[William769]

23. Not that I directed this at Obama.

But since you bring him up. Leadership skills? NADA!

[elleng]

3. Its not a Standing Committee, is it? Its just temp, for the current mess, I think.

[Dappleganger]

4. As was the Patriot Act.

[Davis_X_Machina]

9. No, it isn't. But this is DU...

...and facts aren't all that and a bag of chips.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Roselma]

11. It is a temporary committee to be disbanned soon after

November 23. It will either achieve its goals, or a default series of cuts will take place. Either way, cuts will take place.

[FiveGoodMen]

15. Bush's tax cuts were also temporary

[Davis_X_Machina]

18. And required an act of the legislature to be extended...

...as does this committee.

[William769]

26. And the Bush tax cuts were extended.

[TheWraith]

6. What "drastic change"? I think you're believing it's something it's not.

It has no power to pass laws. It has no continuing capability. It is a one time event to propose a specific bill, like the one-use committees that are routinely used for other issues.

[scheming daemons]

8. The "super congress" is just a committee of 12... and they only exist with regards to this bill

They aren't a new "body". Congress creates commissions all the time. The base-closing commission in the 90s. The deficit commission of last year. The "gang of six". The Warren commission. The 9/11 commission. Etcetera, ad nauseum.



It's not some permanent body. It is a group that will come up with a debt reduction proposal (or not), and that proposal will come up for a vote and win (or not).

[Ozymanithrax]

13. We don't have to wait until then.

If the Republican Congress doesn't like what the Super Congress says, and it can't pass Draconian budget cuts, it sits on its hands and watches them happen.

It is how you pass a bill to gut the government and the people without passing a bill.

[pnwmom]

14. Well, there will be one saving grace.

At least we will be hearing from fewer morons saying there's no difference between the two parties.

[B Calm]

16. We already have a republican president and a republican congress

[spin]

19. The "Super Congress" is unconstitutional in my opinion...

and hopefully will be overturned by the Supreme Court.

[Davis_X_Machina]

24. Isolate the constitutional violation...

...and we'll talk.

Unconstitutional, or DUnconstitutional (I don't like it.)?

[scheming daemons]

25. Then so was the 9/11 commission, the Warren commission, etc...

...and every other one of the hundreds of commissions that congress has formed in the past.


Do you even understand what the "super congress" is? It's just a 12-person commission to draft legislation that will then be voted on by the full bodies.


Nothing even remotely unconstitutional about it.

[spin]

28. Time will tell...

Chances are that you will be proven right. In my opinion the founding fathers are rolling over in their graves.

[Davis_X_Machina]

30. The authors of a Constitution authored in a convention..

....that was closed to the public, the press, and whose debates went unrecored, with Madison's journal only released decades later, would probably not be rotating all that fast.

[arcane1]

20. That day will come sooner than you think

I am guessing it will come the first time the super-congress meets to discuss anything at all.

[Marr]

29. Actually, the Super Congress is based on the assumption that

it's easier to force very unpopular policies through when only a few carefully-picked politicians need to put their fingerprints on it.