What I Learned Today

This question is asked on several talk shows.  I think it's an interesting wrap up to a show.  A few days ago I learned that Congressman Allen West of Florida does not live in the district he represents and that the practice is legal.  The Constitution only requires residency in the state for service in Congress.

I wonder if the people that voted for him care about where he lives.  Ironically he lives in Debbie Wasserman Schultz district and he could not vote for himself and probably would have lost to Wasserman Schultz had he run against her.

Sunday evening I learned that passage of the debt ceiling in the House of Representatives will require a lot of conservative and moderate democrats vote along with a relatively small number of republicans.  I know the legislation to be passed is complicated and relates to a plan to reduce the deficit along with passing the increase in the debt ceiling and won't satisfy the more extreme positions in either party.  Yet I feel sad that there are individuals that would threaten not to pay debts previously incurred as leverage against concerns about current and future policies.  I would suggest that serious legislating requires more than continuing resolutions and some hard decisions about closing the gap between revenues and expenditures and should probably include serious adjustments in both revenues and expenditures.