“We’ve just had a debate about public finance comparable to a debate about the moon program in which no one had heard of gravity.”
Category: Best Line of the Day
Clever turns of phrase, special splashes of wit, provocative insight — all in a sentence or two.
Bubba Smith 1945-2011
“They say he died of natural causes. I didn’t realize that the Baltimore Colts, Oakland Raiders, and Houston Oilers are considered natural causes.”
Best line of the day
“Obama: Debt Ceiling Deal Required Tough Concessions By Both Democrats And Democrats Alike”
Best redux line of the day
From two years ago.
“I have been married to Ed for more then 20 years. I can truthfully say that I love him more today than on either of the two times I married him (long story). Having admitted that, there are times I would gladly trade him for an iced venti cafe mocha with an extra shot from Starbucks.”
Line of the day, so far
“If too many Americans don’t believe in or understand what government does to help them, to offset recessions, to protect their security in retirement and in hard times, to maintain the infrastructure, to provide educational opportunities and health care decent enough to offset the disadvantages so many are born with…if those functions are unknown, underfunded, and/or carried out poorly, why should they care about how much this deal or the next one cuts?”
Best about sums it up line of the day
“So the President is happy, the spending cutters are happy, the entitlement slashers are happy.The anti-tax folks are happy, but they might gripe if defense is cut at all at some point in the future. And the Democratic base can go fuck itself.”
Best line of the day
“Every person should carry in one pocket a slip of paper reading ‘I am but dust and ashes’ and in the other, a slip of paper reading ‘For me the world was made.’”
The Talmud
Found at Norman Lear’s website. Mr. Lear is 89 today.
Best line of the day
After a terrible blown call to end the game:
“I hear [umpire] Jerry Meals has missed some time this year while serving on the Casey Anthony jury. May be why he is rusty.”
Ed Rainey on Twitter
Best line of last night
“That’s your idea, call your congressman? Did the president just quit? I mean seriously, you’re the president, you’re asking us to call the Congress?”
Jon Stewart
A Courtesy Announcement
Some of my tweets are just links back here. But a number of best lines show up only there.
You don’t have to join Twitter. My tweets and those of others that I have retweeted are posted at the bottom of the home page sidebar.
Truest lines of the day
“The debt ceiling is a joke. It serves no purpose except political posturing. It is not about the deficit – it is about paying the bills, and the U.S. will pay the bills.”
“The Treasury’s lawyers should simply announce at 9 am Monday morning that (a) since the Constitution prohibits questioning the validity of the national debt, and (b) since the continuing resolution that mandates spending through September 30 was passed later in time than the restriction on borrowing, that (c) the debt ceiling is a dead letter. This is so by the oldest of the principles of black-letter law: a law inconsistent with a previous law is deemed to repeal the previous law even if it does not do so explicitly.”
Line of the Day
“What a disaster.”
Paul Krugman speaking of the President.
Best redux line of the day
First posted here two years ago today.
“I wouldn’t want to work from home myself but I wish my coworkers did…”
From a RT by Nora of Linda Messing (lindamessing) on Twitter.
Best lines of the day
On its face, “cutting government spending” sounds to most people like a good idea. Even “cutting public spending” doesn’t sound too bad.
But what do we cut when we cut government, or public, spending? We don’t just cut the disbursement of funds. We cut what those funds purchase. And what do they purchase? They purchase goods and services. National parks. The U.S. Navy. Some slight assurance that our air, food, and pharmaceuticals won’t poison us. Public safety (not “government safety”). Education. Highways. Air traffic control. Bridges that don’t fall down. Enforcement of the rules that make a “free market” free, sort of. Basic research. The Smithsonian.
Best line of the day
“Congress consistently brings the government to the edge of default before facing its responsibility. This brinkmanship threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans benefits. Interest rates would skyrocket, instability would occur in financial markets, and the federal deficit would soar. The United States has a special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations.”
President Ronald Reagan
September 26, 1987
Best redux line of the day
“Well, according to the latest Zogby poll, 10% of Americans are giving [the President’s] economic policy the thumbs up. The other 90% using a different finger.”
Jay Leno
Best line of the day
“We’re all here because we are not all here: Truth or Consequences, New Mexico”
Bumper stickers for sale in T or C.
Best line of the day
“A woman who grabbed her baby and jumped out of a moving car to escape a carjacker says, ‘I’m not a hero. I’m just a mom.’ There’s a difference?”
Best line of the day
“A number of commentators seem shocked at how unreasonable Republicans are being.’Has the G.O.P. gone insane?’ they ask.
“Why, yes, it has.”
Best line of the crisis, so far
BUFFETT: I can— I can— I can end the deficit in five minutes.
BECKY: How?
BUFFETT: You just pass a law that says that any time there’s a deficit of more than 3 percent of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. Yeah. Yeah. Now you’ve got the incentives in the right place, right? So it’s capable of being done. And they’re trying to use the incentive now we’re going to blow your brains out, America, you know, in terms of your— of your— in terms of your debt worthiness over time, and that’s being used as a threat. A more effective threat would be just to say if you guys can’t get it done, we’ll get some other guys to get it down.
Best line of the day, so far
“What Obama has offered — and Republicans have refused to accept — is a deal in which less than 20 percent of the deficit reduction comes from new revenues. This puts him slightly to the right of the average Republican voter.”
Paul Krugman commenting on the findings of Nate Silver.
Best line of the day
“In the latest gambit in the debt limit talks, the GOP has figured out a way to make Obama take all of the blame for keeping interest rates down, paying Social Security recipients on time, and continuing to pay soldiers. No, wait. That wouldn’t be blame, that would be credit. We’re so confused.”
Best line of the day
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
Henry David Thoreau, who was born 194 years ago today.
Best line of the day
“You can’t make any sense of American political discourse if you give everyone credit for really wanting what they claim to want. My sense is that there are very few true deficit hawks; the vast majority of those who claim that title are really just using the deficit to pursue the goal of a more unequal society.”
Best line of the day
“America didn’t just win. America overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to win, and insurmountable odds is a more popular opponent than any nation on earth.”