At least one person finds some humor in this debt mess. Arab-American comedian Remy Munasif has done a catchy viral rap video about it for the libertarian Reason.tv site (“$14 trillion in debt, but, yo, we ain’t got no qualms. Dropping hundred-dollar bills and billion-dollar bombs”). Meanwhile, Time blogger Alex Altman notes the challenge for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in getting the “hell no” caucus, including Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, to say “yes” to something. “The debt-limit debate is the showdown for which the tea party has been girding all along, the perfect forum for a principled stand,” Altman writes.
Another month, another member of Congress exits over allegations of improper sexual conduct. This time it’s Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., who said Tuesday that he’ll resign “effective upon the resolution of the debt-ceiling crisis” and used the obligatory language about children, family, etc. Too bad he didn’t think about them before his alleged unwanted sexual encounter with an 18-year-old. For anyone who’s counting, the Republicans and Democrats are tied for sex-related resignations from Congress for 2011 (Wu and New York Rep. Anthony Weiner for the Democrats, Nevada Sen. John Ensign and New York Rep. Christopher Lee for the Republicans). Don’t members of Congress learn anything from others’ mistakes? Or does each really think he’ll be the one to get away with it?
Steve Anderson, budget director for Gov. Sam Brownback, suggested to the Wichita Pachyderm Club that conservatives could have been more vocal in defending the governor’s controversial move to ax the Kansas Arts Commission and its state funding. “In hard economic times,” Anderson said, “I would have thought that cutting funding for the arts would have been a fairly easy thing to do. Boy, I got an education up there at the Capitol.” The trouble is, Anderson and Brownback apparently learned nothing: Brownback ignored the public outcry, overruled the Legislature and, though he couldn’t kill the commission, zeroed out the modest funding lawmakers sought for it. And though Brownback just named six people to the commission, giving his appointees control, many still think the state now has disqualified itself from accessing $1.2 million in funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mid-America Arts Alliance.
At least one person finds some humor in this debt mess. Arab-American comedian Remy Munasif has done a catchy viral rap video about it for the libertarian Reason.tv site (“$14 trillion in debt, but, yo, we ain’t got no qualms. Dropping hundred-dollar bills and billion-dollar bombs”). Meanwhile, Time blogger Alex Altman notes the challenge for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in getting the “hell no” caucus, including Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, to say “yes” to something. “The debt-limit debate is the showdown for which the tea party has been girding all along, the perfect forum for a principled stand,” Altman writes.
