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The People's Choice:Distrust-Collapsing Confidence in Government is Bad News, But There's a Way Out
Wall Street Journal ^ | GERALD F. SEIB

Posted on 07/21/2013 2:22:31 AM PDT by lbryce

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sat in an elegant room in the Capitol on Monday afternoon, knowing that the body he leads was in imminent danger of a partisan meltdown. A bitter dispute was still raging over a seemingly simple task—the confirmation of presidential nominees. The crisis led him to muse about the broader consequences of what sometimes appears to be permanent congressional dysfunction.

"When I ran the first time, the approval rating of Congress was at 45%," said Sen. Reid, who came to Washington from his home state of Nevada three decades ago. "Now it's at 10%. In all the time Gallup has been doing its polling, no institution has ever been recorded at lower than that."

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: obama; obamalaise
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What are you going to expect to hear? This article really pisses me off to no end as it pretends to have the solution about dealing with worst US crisis in decades (and so, posing a question of such magnitude and intimating you have a seemingly way out, no doubt you're going to wonder what the miracle solution might be while at the same time wondering why it hasn't been tried before. But your expectations are on edge, wondering, hoping what the way out offered is going to be.

The author says there's a way out but it's much more than disappointing, it's downright insulting in that it's part of what is taught in middle school, having heard this too many times before to react in any way other then WTF is your problem?

Offering the same stupefying, mind numbing, boiler plate solution,the standard crap we've only heared about a million times before, is that the way out you're talking about?

The Way out;
*The deficit has to be managed (Amazing that no one has suggested it before)
*Government has to work better, meaning that it needs to modernize and become more useful in our everyday lives
(You mean government is NOT working better? And here i thought..
*The political system has to be fixed (Like maybe eliminating the Democratic party?

And this is your way out, huh?

President Barack Obama chimed in with a proposed pulling the federal government more firmly into the 21st century by making better use of cutting-edge technology. (You mean like building a huge 21st Century network to spy, keep tabs on US citizens?) "We can't take comfort in just being cynical," he said. "We all have a stake in government success, because government is us.". Government is us is when the government is a democracy but not when you only you pull the levers of government without the need to even as much as consult with the other branches. Government is us meaning those you chose to help you build a police state.

"We can't take comfort in just being cynical," he said.That's funny, because being cynical is very easy to be when you hear cockamamie mantras about hope and change that doesn't mean a damn, and the solutions as offered in this article are just standard Civics class inanities that simply makes a fool of anyone believing it.

I actually had hoped the way out was to promise Mr.Obama that if he resigned we'd make him Ambassador to Kenya for life.

1 posted on 07/21/2013 2:22:31 AM PDT by lbryce
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To: lbryce
Maybe if you find out what is in the laws...I mean, before you pass them. Or how about keeping laws under 100 pages, writen in plain language without the easter egg hunt references/modifications to other legistation. Of course, you could end the power of agencies to write and enforce regulations that were never legislated.

Just saying.

2 posted on 07/21/2013 2:29:50 AM PDT by D Rider
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To: lbryce

I would suggest five simple ways “out”:

1. Limit Senators and Representatives to 100 days in DC, unless the President convenes them for an emergency.

2. Limit all of them to a maximum of twelve years of service in DC.

3. Dissolve the eight thousand pages of tax code, and limit everyone to a plain flat tax....to include industry and the private citizen.

4. The President gets a yearly travel budget, and can’t go beyond that limit. If his entourage is up to five hundred folks...there’s something wrong.

5. Give the federal government five years to trim the number of federal employees to sixty percent of what exists today. Once they fail at the task...start limiting Congressional and Senate sessions to one day a week.


3 posted on 07/21/2013 2:32:52 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: lbryce
Whose fault's that, Harry?


4 posted on 07/21/2013 2:38:17 AM PDT by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: lbryce

Given the stinking pile that the USG is, how can collapsing confidence in it be anything other than excellent news?


5 posted on 07/21/2013 2:42:42 AM PDT by cynwoody
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To: Timber Rattler
I trust these 100 Senators and President no more that I would have trusted the 100 Roman Senators and Emperor Nero as one of their slaves.
6 posted on 07/21/2013 2:54:41 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: lbryce
In the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, just 17% said they have confidence in the federal government...

Seventeen percent? So if you put blacks and liberal elites together they make up 17% of the population? Sounds about right...

7 posted on 07/21/2013 2:55:46 AM PDT by GOPJ (Department of Justice to Americans:'How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?')
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To: lbryce

Collapsing confidence in government is a very good thing. We need to recognize that big government solutions to our problems are going to be counterproductive. Anything government can actually do usefully was already added to government many years ago. All new expansions are bad. If we want improvement, we need a whole lost less government - so we can spend more of our own money usefully and in freedom. I don’t mean cut the rate of growth, I mean cut back by more than 50% of our existing federal government over a 5-10 year period.


8 posted on 07/21/2013 2:56:38 AM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: Timber Rattler

“Elly May done popped the buttons off her shirt again!”

“Now simmer down, Granny.”


9 posted on 07/21/2013 2:59:43 AM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: All armed conservatives.)
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To: pepsionice

Here’s a simpler solution - abolish withholding. EVERYONE writes a check quarterly to pay their taxes.

Things would start changing immediately.


10 posted on 07/21/2013 2:59:45 AM PDT by abb
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To: cynwoody
They will not and cannot see thier own arrogance, ineptitude, deliberate irresponsibility to the American people, infantile tantrums, refusal to follow the law and these are the people that have the audacity say there is a way out? Here is the way you......throw them all out! 2014 is our last chance
11 posted on 07/21/2013 3:00:04 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (Yesterdays conspiracies are todays truths)
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To: lbryce

The only way out is through secession or revolution.

That’s it. Barring a complete shut down and evisceration of Federal Government, these are the only other two options available to US.

It’s time to destroy it all, clean up, and build it back up using the original Constitution as a foundation.

Maybe not yet, but it’s either that or become slaves to a “free, democratic” government.....all in the name of safety(control).


12 posted on 07/21/2013 3:04:24 AM PDT by FreedomStar3028
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To: Pollster1

“Collapsing confidence in government is a very good thing.”
____________________________________________

Yes it is, but a day late and a dollar short.
The reelection of Obozo proves that the voting public is already brain dead, and America has almost no chance of recovering. The Marxist media and education system is seeing to that.


13 posted on 07/21/2013 3:08:36 AM PDT by AlexW
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To: pepsionice

Outlaw re-election. One term and out. No campaigning while in office.


14 posted on 07/21/2013 3:13:00 AM PDT by NRA1776
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To: abb

Seventy five percent wouldn’t be able to make the first quarterly payment. If we stopped withholding.... they would immediately spend the money on something pointless.


15 posted on 07/21/2013 3:21:43 AM PDT by kjam22 (my newest music video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7gNI9bWO3s)
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To: kjam22
If we stopped withholding.... they would immediately spend the money on something pointless.

As opposed to the political class spending it to buy votes?

16 posted on 07/21/2013 3:32:38 AM PDT by abb
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To: lbryce
"When I ran the first time, the approval rating of Congress was at 45%," said Sen. Reid, who came to Washington from his home state of Nevada three decades ago. "Now it's at 10%. In all the time Gallup has been doing its polling, no institution has ever been recorded at lower than that."

Look in the mirror, Harry. A large part of the problem is right there.

17 posted on 07/21/2013 3:40:50 AM PDT by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
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To: lbryce

The writer’s premise is fundamentally wrong: “The problem isn’t simply political dysfunction in Congress but something bigger: a collapse of public confidence in government across all fronts.”

And why pray tell is that actually a problem? Why do we need public confidence in government? It would seem that a lack of confidence is healthy and likely to result in people thinking about their OWN solutions to problems rather than relying on government to come in with it’s nonexistent magic wand and somehow make it all better.


18 posted on 07/21/2013 3:52:00 AM PDT by RKBA Democrat (GOTS: Food, water, guns, ammo, useful skills, cash, and precious metals.)
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To: AlexW

“The reelection of Obozo proves that the voting public is already brain dead, and America has almost no chance of recovering.”

Last week during the working day I went to my cellular carrier’s store to replace my basic 5 year old flip phone that will no longer charge, even after replacing the battery. All I wanted was another simple flip phone, not a mini computer with video. The selection of basic phones was poor and all were much more flimsy than my old one. The focus was clearly on smart phones and expensive data plans.

The store was crowded with urban youths playing with the smart phones. Women with two or three children were acquiring expensive smart phones for all of their children. Somehow I suspect they have plenty of confidence in government.


19 posted on 07/21/2013 3:55:04 AM PDT by Soul of the South (Yesterday is gone. Today will be what we make of it.)
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To: AlexW

“The reelection of Obozo proves that the voting public is already brain dead, and America has almost no chance of recovering.”

I respectfully disagree. I think you’re not looking at the numbers correctly. Keep in mind that a bare majority of the voting age population actually votes. In 2012 it was roughly 54% of the voting age population. That leaves 46% who didn’t waste their time and who are really submitting a vote of no confidence if you think about it. And with such stellar choices offered by the republicrat uniparty, I’m amazed that the number of people submitting a ballot is even a majority of the adult population.

So take the number of people who did not bother to vote and add that to the percentage of the population who voted for someone other than owebama in 2012 and you’re talking somewhere north of 70% of the adult population did not vote for the regime.


20 posted on 07/21/2013 4:03:51 AM PDT by RKBA Democrat (GOTS: Food, water, guns, ammo, useful skills, cash, and precious metals.)
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