Blog - Why Does it Take 60 Votes to Pass the Stimulus?

We need to take a stand. If you think of the U.S. as a human body, the brain as the government, the banks and so on, the heart is the people. When the heart stops you don’t stimulate the brain you stimulate the heart. Give the money to the people to get things going again, not to the ones that made everything stop in the first place. The people need to have money to spend or things will stay the same. Until the people get the money they can’t buy the house, the car, or keep the jobs that are not there. What happened to the goverment for the people? Without the people the government will not survive. Why can’t everyone see this.

I do not believe that giving money to the people will help much. $5,000 or even $10,000 will not last very long and then what happens? What we need are jobs and our President knows how to create those jobs. By going to the states to begin rebuilding the infrastructer and then help businesses begin to create jobs again because of the money the workers are making on all those jobs there is money to spend on products, cars, homes, etc.. People need jobs with the idea of a future before they will begin to spend again. Giving business a tax break only helps once per year and that has never worked. The trickle down effect. The trickle down may have gotten as far as the business owner’s family but no farther.

Give the middle class jobs and they will spend money. Give them a bunch of money and they will hang onto it to buy groceries and medicine with. That will help a little but that is not what this country needs right now.

I think it is time to stop the old politics of leaving the poor and middle class out to dry. For the last 8 years it is this section of the public that has been paying the taxes and reaping no rewards. That little $300 in check was used for gas folks. It has also been a 8 year list of failed programs and incentives by for and of the rich. Its time that the middle class and poor get a break. Yes, they need jobs to sustain that break, but a break in the beginning would be nice to so that they don’t lost their homes. all in all, John Maynard keynes was RIGHT. You have to get the oats down where the goats can get it.

Now to answer the question why it takes 60 votes: The Senate needs 60 votes because that is the number of votes needed for “cloture”. This prevents the subborn minority from stopping all action. However, it als means that over the last 20 years an new instrument has become apart of the process, the Unaimous Consent Agreement. This is a formal agreement to the rules of debate agreed to by 60 Senators. It puts time limits on debate, not always but it can. In addition, it can limit or prevent the introduction of amendemnts, depending on what the UCA states. I do think it is time to change the rules to end the demand for a 60 vote majority to end debate. Other legislature throughout the world a perfectly content to use the majority rule system why can we?

When a knowledge worker (i.e., strategist, risk analyst, insurance salesperson, banker, etc.) loses her job because of the economic slowdown and demand destruction, should she to be content with a ‘shovel ready’ infrastructure job? Does that make the advocate for redistribution of wealth to the middle class by fiat happy? What message does that send about the ‘American dream’?

The only sure thing that is likely to come from this ‘stimulus’ package is a bigger government.

As for ‘Energy Infrastructure’, is it too difficult to understand that educating and training 100,000 nuclear engineers and physicist—to support a nuclear energy revival—would do much more for national wealth creation, future job growth and emission reduction, than would hiring dirt movers to erect inefficient and intermittent non-base load solar and wind farms.