on PolicyMic
David Gray Well I didn't write it. The Founders did. Obviously the interpretation of what the "general welfare" means is up for interpretation. That is the beauty of the clause.
David Gray You continue to live in your little fantasy world. The facts speak for themselves. The Volt spawned a new marketplace which is now open season for competition among the major automakers. This new market will help drive up fuel economies and help reduce our dependence on foreign oil in the long run. The Volt, while not the only factor, was a major contributing factor to this becoming a reality.
David Gray So the feds can raise revenue for the general welfare but cannot provide for the general welfare? I think you are now struggling... Hamilton created the first national bank in order to serve the general welfare because he believed the monetary system under the Articles of Confederation was too weak. He used to powers under the Constitution, which were much less limiting, in order to create the first national bank.
David Gray Same clause, yet you say it can be used for one thing and not the other. I think that is called seeing what you want to see. Military spending goes well beyond the enumerated powers to raise an army.
David Gray I don't think I ever said "the govt can do as it pleases so long as it is in the interest of the general welfare." Maybe I did, but I don't believe so. What I have said is that Article I, Section 8 clearly gives Congress the right to institute taxes to pay for things which they deem in the interest of the general welfare. This shouldn't be a foreign concept. The same principle allows the government to enact taxes to pay for the military for the "common defense". There are many military programs I don't agree with, yet I am required to fund under that article. The same goes for the "general welfare". I am pretty sure Hamilton would have agreed with those concepts.
David Gray Ask Honda. Maybe it has something to do with being able to claim they have the highest rated fuel economy vehicle on the market? They were able to say that for almost a decade. Now they can't because of the Volt. Could Honda have been working on a plugin version of the Prius for over a decade? Maybe. But what precipitated them to release a plugin version? Hands down the answer is the Chevy Volt. The Chevy Volt has spawned competition in a marketplace that was non-existent before it came to market. The benefits of that new market and the competition between major players in the market will benefit society as a whole by moving us towards less dependence on foreign oil. How can you not see that?
David Gray We live in a Hamiltonian society where the government has much broader powers than Jefferson and anyone who starts a sentence with "The Founders would have..." would like. The problem with "The Founders would have..." argument is that Hamilton was a founder as well, yet most people tend to ignore his views that the government should have a much more expansive set of powers than you would like to admit.
David Gray You cite lots of information about how doing X causes Y. My question is more complex than that since X is not the only factor involved. Are vehicles with higher fuel economies today more or less safe than they were before CAFE standards were implemented? I think you will find it difficult to determine that vehicles today are less safe than they were prior to 1975. Finally, the suggestion that these new standards would squeeze out low-end buyers is unfounded. Do you really believe the entire auto industry would not be able to adapt and produce a car that low-end buyers could afford or do you think they would give up on that market entirely?
David Gray I appreciate the Hamilton quotes. Are your quotations designed to imply that Hamilton did not view the Constitution differently than Jefferson? Did Hamilton not create the first national bank and expand taxation to fund the creation of the bank under the guise of the general welfare? Actions always speak louder than words.
David Gray +1 for Godwin's Law.
David Gray Of course it was a smart strategy Benjamin. The Republicans were able to turn a debate that they would normally not want to have against Democrats. That is brilliant! It has the Democrats somewhat flustered too (likely because they didn't see it coming). Politics is about perception. Facts only matter some of the time. I won't say Republicans have the upper hand with the Medicare debate as of now, but they are without a doubt much further ahead than expected due to their strategy.
David Gray The bank bailout was necessary to avoid a depression. I've done my research into the situation. No bank bailouts would have been catastrophic and resulted in millions of job losses across this nation and the world. Did I like the fact that we bailed out the banks? No. The problem as I see it is that we let (and continue to let) the banks remain so large that if something happens again of that magnitude we will be forced to save them again. This needs to be fixed ASAP. Re-instituting Glass-Steagall would go a long way to solve the problem. Of course the bank bailouts happened under Bush and not Obama...
David Gray You were satisfied with the rising costs, unbelievable complexity, and little to no choice that our healthcare system provided Jesse? Where does that 80% number come from? Our healthcare system has been a mess for a while. It needed reform. Obama took it to task and succeeded where others were not able to succeed. Did he reform it the way I would have preferred? Not a bit! But do I think his reforms got the ball rolling, which will ultimately lead to a better system in the long run? Absolutely!
David Gray I honestly don't get the line are you better off today than four years ago. Four years ago we were just beginning to get into the depths of the recession spawned in late 2007, which really didn't hit the fan until late 2008. Are we better off today than then? Absolutely! The real question is, could we be doing even better if Obama wasn't President for another four years. Of course that is a much tougher question to answer and isn't as catchy. I've been impressed with Republican strategists turning around the Medicare 'raiding' by Obama to fund Obamacare (genius strategy). This angle I am not so impressed with.
David Gray If the core defining elements of the Tea Party are as you stated, then Ron Paul would have been endorsed by every Tea Party in existence since he covers all of those bases to the 'tea'. The fact that they didn't (in fact did any Tea Party endorse Ron Paul?), proves unequivocally that the Tea Party stands for more than just those three things. Now some would say it is Ron Paul's foreign policy that scared the Tea Party away. That makes sense, but what if it wasn't that. What if it was the fact that Paul wouldn't use the hand of government to force social policy on Americans. Yes, Paul is pro-life, but he refuses to use the government to enact policies to do his bidding. The Tea Party on the other hand, I do believe the Tea Party wants to do just that, which is why they didn't, no...couldn't support Ron Paul. They needed someone that was willing to use the power of government, not someone who would refuse to use it.
David Gray I am sorry that scientific terms scare you and sound "grotesque".
David Gray Fuel economy Gary. Honda enjoyed having the most fuel efficient vehicle for almost a decade until the Volt came along. That's what I am talking about. The Volt forced their hand and now they are offering a Volt style Prius for about $10k less than the Volt. The economy is much stronger today and would be much stronger in 2013 than it was when we bailed out GM. I would not support another bailout. Now if a double dip happened and then GM went bankrupt... it might be a different situation. We originally bailed them out to stop a recession from becoming a depression (same with the banks). If circumstances were similar, then it would be a tough call either way.
David Gray You are right about energy storage being the key Starley. We are one battery tech breakthrough away from no longer needing a gasoline based engine to take us 400 miles.
David Gray The difference and the reason for the bailouts was the timing that corresponded with the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Anything short of that and I don't think the people would support a bailout again. The Prius has been around for years and has owned the market. It wasn't until the Volt came out that Honda had to respond to competition that actually beat them. So no, without the Volt we wouldn't be where we are today with plugins entering the market.
David Gray I love Republicans that mix the term conservatives with Republicans as if it gives them a pass for everything the Republican party does that they don't agree with. I wonder if the is a similar term that Democrats have? Does anyone know?
David Gray Sure it's an investment. It just isn't being made by the government. It's being made by the car companies via government regulations. Ever heard of a belt less water pump? That's a green technology that increases fuel efficiency by reducing the load on the engine. CAFE standards helped make it happen! Estimates that I've seen of the latest CAFE requirements are an increase of about $3k in the cost of the vehicle, but the gas savings is approximately $8k. I'll take that net $5k thanks you. As far as safety is concerned, vehicles have not gotten less safe over the years. Quite the opposite. Sure a 1970s solid steel vehicle slamming into a lightweight Prius can cause some damage, but cars today are designed with crush zones which cushion passengers at the expense of the vehicle in case of a major accident. Throw in airbags all over and electronic stability control and cars are much safer today than yesteryear.
David Gray That plan works for me Starley!
David Gray Agreed!
David Gray Nye's critique was very specific in that he was talking about how the talk of creationism and all of its forms in the science classroom across the nation is holding our children back in the world. That is an absolute travesty! He is absolutely correct that we are somewhat unique in the world in that there is even a debate about whether or not to teach a non-scientific idea in science classrooms. It doesn't happen elsewhere! And then we wonder why our children have been outscored and out performed by similar children in other countries. We are doing our children a disservice everyday when we talk about 'teaching the controversy' or providing 'critical thinking' in response to natural selection theory. Break it even further down by region in this country. Guess where the lowest science test scores occur. In the same states where the debate on teaching intelligent design in science classrooms rages. Bill Nye was right on the mark. Believe what you want, but keep it away from children!
David Gray If you cried in a similar manner about other tax credits and subsidies that many Republicans clamor to hold on to (farm and ethanol subsidies come to mind) then I might believe you were sincere. All too often though people are upset about a subsidy they don't get whereas they guard the ones they do to the bitter end.
on PolicyMic
David Gray Well I didn't write it. The Founders did. Obviously the interpretation of what the "general welfare" means is up for interpretation. That is the beauty of the clause.
David Gray You continue to live in your little fantasy world. The facts speak for themselves. The Volt spawned a new marketplace which is now open season for competition among the major automakers. This new market will help drive up fuel economies and help reduce our dependence on foreign oil in the long run. The Volt, while not the only factor, was a major contributing factor to this becoming a reality.
David Gray So the feds can raise revenue for the general welfare but cannot provide for the general welfare? I think you are now struggling... Hamilton created the first national bank in order to serve the general welfare because he believed the monetary system under the Articles of Confederation was too weak. He used to powers under the Constitution, which were much less limiting, in order to create the first national bank.
David Gray Same clause, yet you say it can be used for one thing and not the other. I think that is called seeing what you want to see. Military spending goes well beyond the enumerated powers to raise an army.
David Gray I don't think I ever said "the govt can do as it pleases so long as it is in the interest of the general welfare." Maybe I did, but I don't believe so. What I have said is that Article I, Section 8 clearly gives Congress the right to institute taxes to pay for things which they deem in the interest of the general welfare. This shouldn't be a foreign concept. The same principle allows the government to enact taxes to pay for the military for the "common defense". There are many military programs I don't agree with, yet I am required to fund under that article. The same goes for the "general welfare". I am pretty sure Hamilton would have agreed with those concepts.
David Gray Ask Honda. Maybe it has something to do with being able to claim they have the highest rated fuel economy vehicle on the market? They were able to say that for almost a decade. Now they can't because of the Volt. Could Honda have been working on a plugin version of the Prius for over a decade? Maybe. But what precipitated them to release a plugin version? Hands down the answer is the Chevy Volt. The Chevy Volt has spawned competition in a marketplace that was non-existent before it came to market. The benefits of that new market and the competition between major players in the market will benefit society as a whole by moving us towards less dependence on foreign oil. How can you not see that?
David Gray We live in a Hamiltonian society where the government has much broader powers than Jefferson and anyone who starts a sentence with "The Founders would have..." would like. The problem with "The Founders would have..." argument is that Hamilton was a founder as well, yet most people tend to ignore his views that the government should have a much more expansive set of powers than you would like to admit.
David Gray You cite lots of information about how doing X causes Y. My question is more complex than that since X is not the only factor involved. Are vehicles with higher fuel economies today more or less safe than they were before CAFE standards were implemented? I think you will find it difficult to determine that vehicles today are less safe than they were prior to 1975. Finally, the suggestion that these new standards would squeeze out low-end buyers is unfounded. Do you really believe the entire auto industry would not be able to adapt and produce a car that low-end buyers could afford or do you think they would give up on that market entirely?
David Gray I appreciate the Hamilton quotes. Are your quotations designed to imply that Hamilton did not view the Constitution differently than Jefferson? Did Hamilton not create the first national bank and expand taxation to fund the creation of the bank under the guise of the general welfare? Actions always speak louder than words.
David Gray +1 for Godwin's Law.
David Gray Of course it was a smart strategy Benjamin. The Republicans were able to turn a debate that they would normally not want to have against Democrats. That is brilliant! It has the Democrats somewhat flustered too (likely because they didn't see it coming). Politics is about perception. Facts only matter some of the time. I won't say Republicans have the upper hand with the Medicare debate as of now, but they are without a doubt much further ahead than expected due to their strategy.
David Gray The bank bailout was necessary to avoid a depression. I've done my research into the situation. No bank bailouts would have been catastrophic and resulted in millions of job losses across this nation and the world. Did I like the fact that we bailed out the banks? No. The problem as I see it is that we let (and continue to let) the banks remain so large that if something happens again of that magnitude we will be forced to save them again. This needs to be fixed ASAP. Re-instituting Glass-Steagall would go a long way to solve the problem. Of course the bank bailouts happened under Bush and not Obama...
David Gray You were satisfied with the rising costs, unbelievable complexity, and little to no choice that our healthcare system provided Jesse? Where does that 80% number come from? Our healthcare system has been a mess for a while. It needed reform. Obama took it to task and succeeded where others were not able to succeed. Did he reform it the way I would have preferred? Not a bit! But do I think his reforms got the ball rolling, which will ultimately lead to a better system in the long run? Absolutely!
David Gray I honestly don't get the line are you better off today than four years ago. Four years ago we were just beginning to get into the depths of the recession spawned in late 2007, which really didn't hit the fan until late 2008. Are we better off today than then? Absolutely! The real question is, could we be doing even better if Obama wasn't President for another four years. Of course that is a much tougher question to answer and isn't as catchy. I've been impressed with Republican strategists turning around the Medicare 'raiding' by Obama to fund Obamacare (genius strategy). This angle I am not so impressed with.
David Gray If the core defining elements of the Tea Party are as you stated, then Ron Paul would have been endorsed by every Tea Party in existence since he covers all of those bases to the 'tea'. The fact that they didn't (in fact did any Tea Party endorse Ron Paul?), proves unequivocally that the Tea Party stands for more than just those three things. Now some would say it is Ron Paul's foreign policy that scared the Tea Party away. That makes sense, but what if it wasn't that. What if it was the fact that Paul wouldn't use the hand of government to force social policy on Americans. Yes, Paul is pro-life, but he refuses to use the government to enact policies to do his bidding. The Tea Party on the other hand, I do believe the Tea Party wants to do just that, which is why they didn't, no...couldn't support Ron Paul. They needed someone that was willing to use the power of government, not someone who would refuse to use it.
David Gray I am sorry that scientific terms scare you and sound "grotesque".
David Gray Fuel economy Gary. Honda enjoyed having the most fuel efficient vehicle for almost a decade until the Volt came along. That's what I am talking about. The Volt forced their hand and now they are offering a Volt style Prius for about $10k less than the Volt. The economy is much stronger today and would be much stronger in 2013 than it was when we bailed out GM. I would not support another bailout. Now if a double dip happened and then GM went bankrupt... it might be a different situation. We originally bailed them out to stop a recession from becoming a depression (same with the banks). If circumstances were similar, then it would be a tough call either way.
David Gray You are right about energy storage being the key Starley. We are one battery tech breakthrough away from no longer needing a gasoline based engine to take us 400 miles.
David Gray The difference and the reason for the bailouts was the timing that corresponded with the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Anything short of that and I don't think the people would support a bailout again. The Prius has been around for years and has owned the market. It wasn't until the Volt came out that Honda had to respond to competition that actually beat them. So no, without the Volt we wouldn't be where we are today with plugins entering the market.
David Gray I love Republicans that mix the term conservatives with Republicans as if it gives them a pass for everything the Republican party does that they don't agree with. I wonder if the is a similar term that Democrats have? Does anyone know?
David Gray Sure it's an investment. It just isn't being made by the government. It's being made by the car companies via government regulations. Ever heard of a belt less water pump? That's a green technology that increases fuel efficiency by reducing the load on the engine. CAFE standards helped make it happen! Estimates that I've seen of the latest CAFE requirements are an increase of about $3k in the cost of the vehicle, but the gas savings is approximately $8k. I'll take that net $5k thanks you. As far as safety is concerned, vehicles have not gotten less safe over the years. Quite the opposite. Sure a 1970s solid steel vehicle slamming into a lightweight Prius can cause some damage, but cars today are designed with crush zones which cushion passengers at the expense of the vehicle in case of a major accident. Throw in airbags all over and electronic stability control and cars are much safer today than yesteryear.
David Gray That plan works for me Starley!
David Gray Agreed!
David Gray Nye's critique was very specific in that he was talking about how the talk of creationism and all of its forms in the science classroom across the nation is holding our children back in the world. That is an absolute travesty! He is absolutely correct that we are somewhat unique in the world in that there is even a debate about whether or not to teach a non-scientific idea in science classrooms. It doesn't happen elsewhere! And then we wonder why our children have been outscored and out performed by similar children in other countries. We are doing our children a disservice everyday when we talk about 'teaching the controversy' or providing 'critical thinking' in response to natural selection theory. Break it even further down by region in this country. Guess where the lowest science test scores occur. In the same states where the debate on teaching intelligent design in science classrooms rages. Bill Nye was right on the mark. Believe what you want, but keep it away from children!
David Gray If you cried in a similar manner about other tax credits and subsidies that many Republicans clamor to hold on to (farm and ethanol subsidies come to mind) then I might believe you were sincere. All too often though people are upset about a subsidy they don't get whereas they guard the ones they do to the bitter end.