How to stop the terrorists from taking more hostages

[Ruby the Liberal]

S&P: Balanced budget amendment would do more harm than good

This is what we need to message. NOT from S&P verbatim, but how a balanced budget would not allow us to react to the next Cat 5 hurricane, California massive quake or God forbid, attack of some nature.

“In general, we think that fiscal rules like these just diminish the flexibility of the government to respond” to crises, S&P managing director John Chambers told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Saturday when asked whether it’s important that Congress send a balanced budget amendment to the states in order to restore the country’s AAA credit rating.

WaPo: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/sandps-chambers-balanced-budget-amendment-would-do-more-harm-than-good/2011/08/09/gIQAElip4I_blog.html

Contrast with this, Little Eric Cantor on federal assistance for Joplin, MO:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Monday that if Congress passes an emergency spending bill to help Missouri’s tornado victims, the extra money will have to be cut from somewhere else.

TP: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/05/24/169075/cantor-disaster-relief/

Get out ahead of it and frame it. You know, like 'billionaires' and 'wealthy' magically all became 'job creators'.

We need to stop the terrorists from leaping from economic hostages to disaster hostages.

1. ANTICIPATE their next victim (or category of victim). Ask the CIA how to do that, or maybe a football coach. It isn't that complicated.

2. GET IN FRONT OF IT. No more reacting because we "trust them at their word". Those days are long passed. Call it out as a threat. Hell, put a color code on it for all I care - but IDENTIFY and CALL IT OUT

3. TALK to the American people like adults and plainly tell them what the deal is. Forget platitudes and bullshit words like "bipartisan". "They want to cut your SS to give Defense a bigger budget than what the Pentagon has today".

4. REPEAT, repeat, repeat.