(10-14-2021 06:30 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(10-14-2021 05:16 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  

(10-14-2021 07:52 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(10-14-2021 06:52 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-13-2021 05:51 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  I’m really interested by that pragmatic term you used, since a hallmark of conservatives in government over the past decade plus has been to do nothing and not fix any problems - sort of the opposite of pragmatic.

Maybe some of those "problems" are not so much problems as opportunities to manufacture a crisis that you can then not let go to waste.

And not every problem, whether real or artificial, requires a government solution. And not every problem that requires a government solution is best addressed at the federal level.

So the federales jumping into the middle of every "problem" is hardly pragmatic, except perhaps if the only goal is to seize ever more power from the people.

I agree with what you say - not every problem people say is a problem is real, nor is every one solved via government. I don't want the federal government to jump into the middle of every problem, but I do want government (from federal on down to local) to act pragmatically and actually address problems that they can.

I see too many problems that need to be addressed by state and federal governments not being addressed, speaking from personal experience. And a lot of this is focused on infrastructure and environment - areas where market forces don't often drive change.

Just look at Texas, the state government has continued to drag its feet on major flood mitigation and storm surge protections along the Gulf Coast since Ike - we're only just now getting a feasibility report for a coastal protection regime in the Galveston Bay area. You mention the Dutch a lot - talk about an example of a pragmatic government in regards to flood protection! Nothing major happened after the winter freeze - the bills that passed seem to be ineffective bandaids at best.

At the federal level, I don't know what the Republicans are proposing in regards to infrastructure improvements, do you? There are so many issues we could be tackling - removing lead-lined pipes, expanding broadband access, repairing and building new bridges, updating aging infrastructure - that have real and tangible benefits outside of just producing jobs, but I only see one party actually trying to get things moving.

I guess you dont want to acknowledge how the system works. Awfully hard for 'Republicans [can] propos[e] [anything] in regards to infrastructure' 'at the federal level'. If you havent noticed the opportunity to amend any bill, let alone get one onto the floor, from the minority is pretty much non-existent these days. Has been for close to two decades.

Not quite what I meant. There is an entire media landscape they could use to put forth their proposals to try and negotiate with Dems to find a middle ground.

C’mon, have a little creativity!

Seemingly the issue is, as has been said before, there arent that many who are opposed to *true* infrastructure. You think it the newest most fantabulous thing since sliced bread ----

And, what you overlook, is that every 'infrastructure' bill the Democrats put out, that, while there is a nugget of 'infrastructure' in the proposals, it is covered up in the cream pie, elf dust, and unicorn farts of GND crap, 'clean energy agenda', and a new fing social program found every day. That is, along with the same self-serving crap of a new minimum wage yada yada yada.

You act as though the democrats **** for shinola introduction of a salami and strwaberry jam hoagy with a all covered with a glop of kimchee and hot mustard is somehow grounds for crowing about 'going for infrastructure'. Hate to tell you -- it is the same progressive and Democratic crap served afresh with a dollop of infrastructure to give it a name.

Sounds fun to me.

All the while, all the faithful followers blithely and blindly crow about *exactly* what you do previously. I mean, when you look at the **** sandwiches that have been continuously served up as 'infrastructure' by your fellow travelers in the last 20 years....

Last I remember, when Trump made an 'infrastructure' push, one attempt was torpedoed by as teh air got sucked out of the room when shitbird Comey testified before Congress at the outset of the 'collusion' pile of crap.

Another push was torpedoed when your fellow travelers that specific week deliberately misquoted Trump's Charlottesville comments.

And the topic of raw bridges and **** like like that (that is real infrastructure issues, absent the omnipresent social agenda crap that the progressives roll out) doesnt seem to hold the interest.

And your solution is 'negotiate'? Uhh... yeah, that's been a real fing possibility ever since Obamacare, or the collapse of the Grand Bargain. Hate to tell you lad, the role of the progressives is to shove items down the throat of the government and people. Without negotiation, without give. Hell, they have even made 'reconciliation' a normal fing thing in their 'quest for bills'.

Twenty years ago, one would have been absolutely askance at the passage of an omnibus item with the Charleston hop scheme of 'reconciliation'. Democrats normalized that short circuit for major bills with Obamacare, and have made it their 'go to' move for such items since. I mean, look at today's questions and tell us it is not -- we *are* talking 3.5 fing TRILLION via the short circuit model that the Democrats have normalized.

So, no -- dont give us the 'they can negotiate' schtick that you retreat to. That simply doesnt reflect the political landscape that the Democrats have tilled so fing carefully, lovingly, and assiduously for the last score years or so.