Senate Passes the Bill (Live Blog)

At the beginning of the speech there were a couple of tid-bits pointed out about previous presidential terms. Clinton has always been referred to as a great president, regardless of his misjudgement. There was a lot that he had done to help the people and the economy, such as, the millions of new jobs that were instated. Yet these jobs plus more were lost during the Bush administration. I was also amazed at the fact that at the start of Bush's term there was a surplus of $7 trillion dollars. What?! Where did all this money go over his eight years in office? Shouldn't this money have been used to pay our debts first then apply the remaining amount to future and new programs. It's obvious that the money was not used wisely. We should use people as an example and learn from them and their mistakes. If Clinton had such a successful run why not mimic some of his plans and branch off onto new and better ideas that would accommodate us at this time.

The speaker also mentions the need to have spending cuts in addition to an increase in revenue. And where will this additional revenue be coming from you ask? From an increase in taxes. Here we go again. If I receive X amount of money that does not cover the current taxes I must pay for then how is Congress to believe that I can pay for these additional tax hikes? Washington does realize that money does not grow on trees right, so how do they expect me to come up with this money?

The Democratic speaker next discusses a new joint committee that would be formed. Now will the members of this committee be composed of current representatives in the House and Senate? The same people who were putting up a fight to compromise? What makes things so different now that we are to believe this committee will have a 100% open mind?

In the end thankfully the Senate passed the bill with a total of 74 votes YEA and a total of 26 votes NAY. We are a step closer to implementing our "master plan." Now I can't wait to hear what the President has to say now that both houses and parties have reached an agreement.