Associated Press: 'Raw Video: House Rejects Balanced Budget Measure'

Source:Associated Press- U.S. Representative Bob Goodlatte (Republican, Virginia) Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

"The House has rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have forced Congress to balance its budget every year as a way to reverse years of deficit spending. (Nov. 18)" 

From the Associated Press

With the vote in the House of Representatives of 261 votes for the House Republican Balances Budget Amendment, at least the House Republican Leadership knows how many seats they have to pick up in the 2012 general elections. They need twenty-nine more votes to pass a BBA, probably won't get them for the next Congress. They probably have a better chance of losing twenty nine seats in 2012 then gaining them. 

Nancy Pelosi: 'Leader Pelosi on GOP's BBA Constitutional Amendment'

Source:House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Democrat, California) talking about the House Republican Balanced Budget Amendment.

"This week, the House is considering a GOP "Balanced Budget" Constitutional Amendment (H.J.Res. 2) which would destroy jobs, drastically cut Medicare and Social Security, and give federal judges power to raise taxes and make spending decisions.  H.J.Res. 2 not only provides that there be a balanced budget every year, unless three-fifths of the Congress votes for a specific excess of outlays over receipts; it also requires a three-fifths vote of the Congress to raise the debt ceiling.  It is likely that H.J.Res 2 would require balancing the budget by about FY 2018 (it states it shall take effect beginning with the fifth fiscal year beginning after its ratification; if ratification occurs in 2013, balance would have to be achieved by FY 2018.)" 

From House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

Anyone who believes that taxes are necessary in any country to fund government, understands that government's can't borrow indefinitely. And at some point bills have to paid, not borrow money to pay other bills, but actually pay up your bills. Otherwise taxes wouldn't be necessary and we could just borrow indefinitely to pay for anything. And I don't know anyone who believes that. The question is how do we pay our bills and to what point does our credit run out. 

If the United States were to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution tomorrow, not just Congress, but at least thirty-four States, two days from now we would still have a Federal debt of 15T$ and a Federal deficit approaching 2T$. A year from now we would still have a debt and deficit approaching those numbers, because Congress wouldn't agree to cut 2T$ from the Federal budget for one year. They may agree to cut 200B maybe 500B, pass tax reform that raises new revenue to cut the deficit in one year. 

If we passed a deficit reduction plan not over five years or so, but a year from now we would still have a deficit of over 1T$. And maybe even five years from now we would still have a deficit. So passing a BBA alone does not balanced the Federal budget, it just requires the Federal Government to do that. But doesn't lay out how to do that, just tells them they have to do it. But leaves it up to the Administration and Congress who lately can't agree on the time of day or the weather outside (It's chilly. No, it's cold!) on how to balanced the Federal budget. So any BBA would at best be a first step in balancing the Federal budget. 

VOA News: 'Struggling Detroit Seeks Economic Boost'

Source:VOA News- talking to John Mogk.

"Voice of America (VOA) is an American international broadcaster funded by the United States Congress. It is the largest[2][3][4] and oldest U.S. funded international broadcaster.[5][6] VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in 47 languages which it distributes to affiliate stations around the globe. It is primarily viewed by foreign audiences, so VOA programming has an influence on public opinion abroad regarding the United States and its people.

VOA was established in 1942,[7] and the VOA charter (Public Laws 94-350 and 103-415)[8] was signed into law in 1976 by President Gerald Ford.

VOA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), an independent agency of the U.S. government.[9] Funds are appropriated annually under the budget for embassies and consulates. In 2016, VOA broadcast an estimated 1,800 hours of radio and TV programming each week to approximately 236.6 million people worldwide with about 1,050 employees and a taxpayer-funded annual budget of US$218.5 million." 

From Wikipedia 

"Detroit, the heart of America's car industry, was once one of the richest cities in the United States.  But car manufacturers have downsized their work force, and, in recent decades, more than half of Detroit's population has left. Today, the city is one of the nation's poorest." 

From VOA News

With the decline of the City of Detroit the last twenty years or so, with three recessions including the Great Recession, with the decline of the American auto industry which is just starting to rebound and of course with Detroit being the American capital of our auto industry, Detroit has had their own personal recession (if not depression) the last 20 years or so.

And with the decline of public education in Detroit and the rising crime rates. Detroit as a city has been taking a whipping for about twenty years, to the point where they've lost half of its population. 

In 1990 Detroit was a city of about 1.5M people and a metro center of about 5M people, about the size of Philadelphia. The fifth or sixth largest city in America and one of the top ten metro centers in America and of the the wealthiest cities in America. To today they are still a big city but about half the size and one of the poorest cities in America. 

Detroit was so tied to the auto industry, sort of how Los Angles is tied to the entertainment industry, that when the auto industry is doing well, Detroit is doing well and when the Auto Industry is not doing well, neither is Detroit. And when the auto industry plummets like the last ten years, Detroit has plummeted. Their tax receipts have plummeted and as a result so have their public education, crime has gone way up and people have moved out as a result.  

When a city, even a big city like Detroit depresses, they tend to lose their population. As least the people who can afford to move out, like well-educated, middle class people, and the wealthy. And they take their money with them, which has cost Detroit a lot of people, but economic activity and development as well.

Democratic Media: '1960 DNC: John F. Kennedy Teams Up With Rival Lyndon B. Johnson'

Source:Democratic Media- U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy (Democrat, Massachusetts) accepting the 1960 Democratic Party nomination for President, in Los Angeles, California.

"JFK's choice of LBJ helps to deliver Texas and shows running mates can help win elections." 

From Democratic Media

This is obviously a photo of then Senator John F. Kennedy (Democrat, Massachusetts) and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat, Texas) running for President and Vice President together in 1960, after Senator Kennedy nominated Leader Johnson to be his running mate at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California.

Source:Heritage Auctions- JFK and LBJ teaming up in 1960.

1960 was the last presidential election where a Vice Presidential nomination was the difference in who was elected President. Because Jack Kennedy already had the votes of the Liberal and Progressive Democrats. Especially in the North who could care less about Senator Kennedy being an Irish-Catholic, Northeastern Liberal from Massachusetts. 

But because of those factors Southern Democrats (who are Conservative Republicans today) weren't convinced that Jack Kennedy was acceptable enough to be President of the United States. Which is why Lyndon Johnson who was also the Leader of the Senate at the time, was so critical to this ticket, because he was a Southern Democrat at least regionally.

With the Kennedy-Johnson ticket, this meant Democrats could win both the Northeast and South, as well as California. Because Kennedy could work the liberal states and Johnson could work the Southern states. Because the Northeast was probably going to vote for Kennedy anyway, but with Johnson on the ticket, Johnson could convince Southern Democrats that an Irish-Catholic, Northeastern Liberal was acceptable enough to be President of the United States. And Senator Kennedy's speech to Southern Baptists in 1960 in Houston where he came out for being in favor of Separation of Church and State and that he wouldn't take orders from the Pope in policy and decision-making.

In some ways Democrats in 1960 had a dream ticket, with the future of the Democratic Party. A real superstar in the best sense of the word, not a flash in the pan running with the most powerful Democrat in the country. Someone who was more than qualified to be President of the United States 1960. 

This is not the last or first presidential election where the Vice Presidential nominee was important. It was also important in 1952 with Richard Nixon, 1976 with Walter Mondale, 1980 with George Bush, 1992 with Al Gore, 2000 with Dick Cheney, 2008 with Joe Biden. But 1960 was the last one where the VP nominee was able to deliver votes and states for the ticket. 

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James Miller Center: FDR Fireside Chat 7: 'On the Social Security Act- The History of Social Security'

Source:James Miller Center- President Franklin D. Roosevelt and company. 

"Edited version of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's seventh fireside chat, delivered April 28, 1935."

Source:James Miller Center

When Franklin Roosevelt became President of the United States in 1933, he had a mountain of challenges in front of him that he had to face. Dwarfing anything that President Obama inherited in 2009. The Great Depression was just starting and the country had at the time nothing to deal with it. No plan to get out of it and no safety net other than private charity to help sustain people as they go through it. These challenges were so big that it wasn't until World War II almost ten years later that America recovered from the Great Depression. Which is why President Roosevelt and others developed the New Deal and other legislation to deal with the Great Depression. And to establish a safety net in America.

Like Social Security, Unemployment Insurance and Welfare Insurance. Insurance programs that people can turn to when they can't support themselves. President Roosevelt brought economic progressivism into law in America. Something that we had very little of in America before that. We certainly didn't have a welfare state or even a safety net prior to the New Deal. We were basically an economic libertarian society before that, where everyone was on their own. And of course a lot if not most Libertarians would like to see us move back to that libertarian society. Where all Americans are responsible for taking care of themselves whether they are able to or not. Whether they have access to a pension or not, lose their job, makes mistakes early in life. Like having kids before they are ready to take care of them, etc.

Now I disagree with how a lot of these programs were designed originally. I believe most Americans would reform these programs in some way. Progressives would expand them, Liberals such as myself would decentralize them and turn them over to the states. Presidential candidate Gary Johnson has a plan to do that. Conservatives would privatize them all together and Libertarians would end them calling them unconstitutional. But what the New Deal and later Great Society in the 1960s, did was at least provide a basic floor for people to turn to. When for whatever reason they weren't able to fend for themselves and has been successful in doing that.

All of these programs need to be reformed in the financing like a lot the programs in the Federal Government. They didn't get us out of the Great Depression, at least on their own. World War II did most of the work on that, but the New Deal did for the first time in America, provide us with a basic safety net for the country. But a lot of these programs seventy-five plus years after they were created, need to be reformed. Because of how they were designed and need to be reformed to save them so they are there in the future. Part of President Roosevelt's legacy is that he transformed America into a country where we were basically on our own, into a country where at least to a certain extent we look after each other. Whether we want to or not, as Libertarians might phrase that. But the New Deal is not responsible for getting us out of the Great Depression. World War II and our involvement had a lot to do with that. 

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Napalm Captain: Michael Dukakis For President 1988- 'A New Era'

Source:Napalm Captain- Governor Michael Dukakis (Democrat, Massachusetts)

“Michael Dukakis: We’re going to build the kind of America where hard work is rewarded, where American goods and American workmanship are the best in the world. That’s what this election is all about.

Narrator: He turned around the ten-year economic slide and created a boom that has made Massachusetts one of the hottest economies in the country. He brought people together, created over four hundred t jobs and pushed personal income to the highest levels in the nation. He erased a massive deficit, balanced ten budgets in a row and cut taxes five times. It wasn’t a miracle. It was leadership.

Michael Dukakis: By working together to create opportunity and a good life for all, all of us are enriched, not just in economic terms but as citizens and as human beings.

Narrator: For a new era of economic greatness in America, Michael Dukakis for president.”

From Napalm Captain 

On paper going into the 1988 presidential election, Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts was a perfect presidential candidate to go against Vice President George Bush. He was a popular successful governor of a major state, a heavily Democratic state. Unlike Walter Mondale he had no ties to the Carter Administration. He was an outsider a governor. Someone with considerable executive experience running a major state.

Governor Dukakis, was an outsider running against the ultimate insider who since 1967 when George Bush took his seat in the House, was working in Washington and the Federal Government in some capacity. Except from 1977-81 when he was running for president and later vice president.

The Democratic Party had just won back the Senate in 1986 and added to their majority in the House. Iran Contra was still fresh in people’s minds politically speaking. Governor Dukakis was similar to Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Mike Dukakis was of course a Northeastern or Massachusetts Liberal as he was labeled by Vice President Bush and others. But not some Far-Left Socialist which is how Reverend Jackson was labeled, but a Classical Liberal Democrat. Someone who believed in individual liberty and limited government.

Governor Dukakis, supported things as Governor of Massachusetts that became law by the Federal Government 5-10 years later. Like Welfare to Work, Three Strikes Law that was in the 1994 Crime bill, gun control same bill, deficit reduction. Mike Dukakis’s politics were pretty similar to Jack Kennedy, another Northeastern Massachusetts Liberal Democrat.

Mike Dukakis was even likable, reserve and cool sure which hurt him with connecting with voters in the general election. But he was up 17 points over George Bush when the Democratic Convention was over. So the Bush Campaign made a similar calculation that they did when they were trailing Bob Dole back in January and February 1988. That they aren’t going to beat Dukakis by showing America how great a guy George Bush was. That the way to beat Dukakis was to make him look like a bad guy, as someone who was Un-American, unpatriotic, soft on crime, etc. Someone who was a Far-Left Democrat that’s unacceptable to be President of the United States.

That’s why we saw the controversial Willy Horton ad, and the commercial of Mike Dukakis in a tank. All thanks to Lee Atwater George Bush’s chief political strategist. And with the Dukakis Campaign playing dead on these ads thinking that Americans won’t believe them and take them seriously. This is where we heard the term an attack that’s not responded to, must be the truth. And these ads killed Mike Dukakis’s chances of winning that campaign. Mike Dukakis brought a twig to a Gun Fight and got his head handed to him.

Mike Dukakis represents to me how not to run a presidential campaign. That its good to share your personal story and your family history and how you worked your way up in America. And what you want to do as President, but that you also have to understand that presidential elections are also wars. That if you don’t fight back it’s just as good as surrendering and you’ll get beat. And this is a lesson the Bill Clinton learned in 1992, with his War Room with Jim Carville and others. And while they were so able to respond to any attacks that were thrown at them in 1992. 

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Firing Line With William F. Buckley: Christopher Hitchens & Emmett Tyrell- 'Is There a Liberal Crack-Up? (1984)'

Source:Firing Line With William F. Buckley- self-described Socialist writer Christopher Hitchens, when he wrote for the socialist magazine The Nation, on Firing Line With William F. Buckley, in 1984.

"Episode S0629, Recorded on December 11, 1984. Guests: R. (Robert Emmett) Emmett Tyrrell Jr., Christopher Hitchens. For more information about this program, see:Hoover Institution" 

From Firing Line With William F. Buckley 

"The 1984 election suggested, as WFB puts it, "the collapse of liberalism as we

have known it during the past half century," and he asks his two guests, one on the right, the other on the far left, where liberalism is likely to go from here. Messrs. Hitchens and Tyrrell actually talk more about the past than about the future, and it is illuminating (when they don't indulge in billingsgate) to get such different takes on the same set of events. CH: "I believe that the American Left, in starting the civil-rights movement for black Americans, in combating an unjust war in Indochina, and in beginning the emancipation of women ... changed the way everyone thinks and the way everyone lives ... the whole world is in debt to the American Left for these three enterprises." RET: "In the Sixties and Seventies the liberals achieved most of the things they set out to achieve, particularly welfare and civil rights, and then were overtaken by a lust for power. They refused to notice that they had indeed achieved these things ... 

From the Hoover Institution

By the time the late 1970s came around, it was rough time to be a Democrat. The Democratic Party was becoming divided and running out of ideas in where to take the country. So-called Progressives (Democratic Socialists, in actuality) wanted to pass the next installment of the Great Society, what's called the Fair Deal: single payer health care, universal higher education, return to the high tax rates of the 1950s, etc. 

The New Democrats (the real Progressives) wanted to freeze new social insurance spending and balanced the Federal budget. And Conservative Democrats were becoming Conservative Republicans. 

Progressivism was the ruling political ideology in the Democratic Party and in the United States from 1933-81. There was a feeling that the Federal Government wasn't big enough. Conservatives make a big comeback in the late 1970s just as the Far-Left of the Democratic Party wanted to take over the party and move it way to the left and the Democratic Party becomes divided as a result, with the Progressives wanting to govern the party and country from the Center-left. 

There was a tax revolt in California and in other places in the country led by Howard Jarvis and his group, Kemp-Roth is proposed in Congress (Senator William Roth and Representative Jack Kemp) 1978-79. Which became the Economic Recovery Act in 1981 signed by President Reagan. And after having their clocks handed to them (to put it mildly) in 1980, the Democratic Party wasn't sure where to go. And I believe they basically settled for Walter Mondale in 1984, who was President Carter's Vice President.