Maybe we SHOULD negotiate with the Rethugs over the debt ceiling.

[Igel]

15. Quibbles.

1. The food stamp program cuts aren't in $--that's how the media reports things. For them, all things are money. It would cut the amount paid by the government for food stamps by removing waivers put in place as a result of the recession and restore things pretty much to how they were in 2007. If you're adult and able bodied you need to volunteer or be in a training program.

The comparable way to increase the amount spent would be to remove even more restrictions so even more people qualify. Which gets us back to how things were in the mid-1990s.

2. That's doable, but people on both sides like to cite only studies that support their position. It's a strange science and odd critical thinking that seeks first proof while seeking to avoid challenge to the idea. What would the effect be on the common good? Unknown, if only because no good controlled experiments have been done. (And, yes, people will cite studies. But people on both sides like to cite only studies that support their position. It's a strange ...)

3. Obama's said that the pipeline is in his jurisdiction, not Congress', so this "demand" would undermine his own authority. Granted, the Constitution says otherwise, but Congress has been asleep at the switch so long that it's easy to understand how a scholar with Obama's record of research in Constitutional law could make the mistake. Or, more to the point, how a president--any president--would want to appropriate as much power to his office as possible.