Friday, October 18, 2013

The Gephardt Rule

Dick Gephardt
There are things I know I'm ignorant about right off (pretty much everything), and things I don't even know I'm ignorant of (pretty much everything else). At the risk of falling into a bottomless well, I thought I'd bring you a little clip from Rachel Maddow the other night, which explained how, once upon a time, the debt ceiling crisis was fixed. Although some say this wouldn't work now, what's most interesting to me is how so completely a simple solution has left the common discussion. 1979 isn't that long ago, people.

 


Here's a good article about the context of the Gephardt rule and an explanation of the more recently proposed McConnell Rule, which sets things up in a slightly different way, but also steps around the madness we have recently been involved. We may have cause to remember these all too soon.

4 comments:

  1. I'm not surprised you claim to be uninformed about the Gephardt Rule, Seana.

    The "Washington Post" link I have tried to read has left me feeling dizzy.

    I don't know if you came across this...

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/11/here-are-three-options-for-ending-the-debt-ceiling-crisis-forever/

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  2. Thanks, Maria. I hadn't come across that specific article, but I have heard those discussions in the past. As we've been in the midst of this crisis, many people have pointed out the need to get rid of the debt ceiling all together, but the article you gave the link for does give us some historical context for why it was first enacted and why it is no longer necessary.

    I am just surprised that in all the endless discussion about the debt ceiling in the past month or so, it was only after it was all resolved--for now--that I had heard any mention of an earlier fix.

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  3. Thanks to you and to Rachel WHO WAS SIX at the time.

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  4. Yeah, I try to overlook that. Less easy, the fairly frequent times when she mentions she feels old...

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