We could solve this entire fiscal problem and spend the 200 billion on schools and health care with free clinics with what it costs to have elections. Everyone who qualifies (education wise, good health, decent IQ, drug free and has criminal back ground checks, successful fiscal experience AND compassion with respect to community service) should have his or her names entered into a lottery for a one time-only six year term. That way there is NO influence by big business and NO lobbyists! And no stupid popularity contests that have been rigged from the onset.
That way there would be no COLA for long term politicians who have made a career out of running for office and stay in there 40 years or more or life time pensions just because they can give it to themselves. It's obscene.
October 22, 2010, 3:07 PM
$200 Billion in Ads, Mr. Biden? That’s Real Money
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
Conservative groups have not dumped $200 billion in political ads on the heads of Democratic candidates.
It evidently just feels that way to the White House.
In an interview with Al Hunt of Bloomberg News scheduled to be shown Friday night, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. commented on the need for disclosure when corporate interests contribute to political groups.
“I was amazed at the amount of money, this $200 billion of money that is — where there’s no accountability,” he said. “When I say accountability, we don’t know where it’s coming from. There’s no disclosure, so the folks watching the ad can’t make a judgment based upon motive when you say it’s paid for by so-and-so.”
Mr. Biden clearly meant “million” with an “M,” not “billion” with a “B.”
But his tongue slipped again a moment later. “So it really — I’ve never seen this before, so the only caveat I’d put in terms of the House is how much impact this $200 billion are going to mean.”
Mr. Biden was elected to the United States Senate, representing Delaware, a few years after the departure of Everett Dirksen, the Republican Senate minority leader for more than a decade, who died in 1969. It was Mr. Dirksen, from Illinois, who once said, “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you’re talking real money.”
That way there would be no COLA for long term politicians who have made a career out of running for office and stay in there 40 years or more or life time pensions just because they can give it to themselves. It's obscene.
October 22, 2010, 3:07 PM
$200 Billion in Ads, Mr. Biden? That’s Real Money
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
Conservative groups have not dumped $200 billion in political ads on the heads of Democratic candidates.
It evidently just feels that way to the White House.
In an interview with Al Hunt of Bloomberg News scheduled to be shown Friday night, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. commented on the need for disclosure when corporate interests contribute to political groups.
“I was amazed at the amount of money, this $200 billion of money that is — where there’s no accountability,” he said. “When I say accountability, we don’t know where it’s coming from. There’s no disclosure, so the folks watching the ad can’t make a judgment based upon motive when you say it’s paid for by so-and-so.”
Mr. Biden clearly meant “million” with an “M,” not “billion” with a “B.”
But his tongue slipped again a moment later. “So it really — I’ve never seen this before, so the only caveat I’d put in terms of the House is how much impact this $200 billion are going to mean.”
Mr. Biden was elected to the United States Senate, representing Delaware, a few years after the departure of Everett Dirksen, the Republican Senate minority leader for more than a decade, who died in 1969. It was Mr. Dirksen, from Illinois, who once said, “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you’re talking real money.”
