Pres. Obama's Mathematical DC Challenge

FACT: There are many savy political folks on this Board.

FACT: There are many folks who understand math here.


FACT: The House of Representative must pass a bill if it is to become law -

MATH FACT:
There are 242 Republicans in the House
There are 193 Democrats in the House.

MATH FACT: In order to pass a bill, a majority by one has to vote in the affirmative for any bill.

FACT: If a majority doesn't vote for a particular bill, it cannot move on to become law.

MATH QUESTION: Why do Republicans have a majority in the House?
FACT BASED ANSWER: Because more voters recently voted for more Republicans then they did for Democrats.

QUESTION:
Who are these voters who voted for Republicans in 2010 to take over the house?

MOST LIKELY ANSWERS:
* Voters who are Republicans
* Moderates and Indies who were convinced in 2010 that divided government would work best
* Uninformed Voters who don't pay attention much until they hear the media propaganda right before they go vote
* Voters generally dissatified with our state of affairs and therefore voted opposite of their previous vote
* Voters who might have voted Democratic, but stayed home, thereby giving Republican candidates the advantage

QUESTION:
Which way does our Mainstream Media POV lean?

MOST LIKELY ANSWER:
* Rightward


QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED:
Which Party in the House does Pres. Obama have to convince to vote his way when discussing a bill he wants passed?
Democrats or Republicans or both?

Which voters hold the most sway over the party that Obama must convince in order to pass a bill he wants passed by a majority?
Democrats or Republicans or both?

How does he get that done?
and if he doesn't, what happens to the bill he wanted passed?

If a bill that the President wanted passed doesn't pass, what happens then?

and yes....I'm truly interested in answers.......

:hi:

Just wanted to say HI.

OT, daughter's wedding Sept. 2. Yours OK?

E

Daughter's been married for 3.5 years now!
They bought a house last year,
Got her Masters in May
and is moving on
to her PHD.
Her collaborative work on Childhood Obesity was published
as the cover story in the National Register
http://www.nationalregister.org/

All of that, and she's just 24!

Also, the youngest is also doing fine..but has a way to go still.... ;)


:hi:

Mine getting her master's in occupational therapy; after honeymoon, will begin internships. Younger also has a way to go.

Great to see and chat w you.

:hi:

The article is quite interesting.
It is her 3rd publication!

She's also helping write my book!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=258x11148

:shrug:

What a turnoff.

:evilgrin:




Need I say your post should be axiomatic, but alas...

Guess it is most difficult to argue against mathematical facts. :shrug:

:shrug:

Well done.

(mam or sir... :) )

Interesting and transparent. :rofl:

except their impending doom if they fail to raise the debt limit. Obama should ask for a one-sentence bill raising the debt ceiling with no strings attached. Essentially the same bill that Reagan got 18 times and Dubya got 7 times.

If they fail to do this, country will crash and burn and the GOP will be to blame!

No cuts...and no compromise!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/us/politics/01fiscal.html?pagewanted=all :shrug:

My guess is that those numbers will look a lot different today because the debt ceiling deadline is closer and a number of deals have already been shelved because of disagreements over the approach to deficit reduction/

Obama should keep talking about Republican obstruction and the need for a quick up-or-down vote on a one-sentence debt ceiling bill.

They'll cave eventually.

Count on it.

and isn't the house still majority Republicans?
The same ones currently holding out?

They may cave eventually, but that doesn't change the current math as of today! :(

proposing - a Super Congress, made up of senators and congresspeople either not running for re-election next year or in very secure seats, with the authority to bi-pass the rest of congress - the President will be able to get what he wants.

Since we know he appointed the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and has stated on many occasions he supports the Simpson-Bowles resulting report (which recommended corporate and high-end tax cuts, along with cuts to Social Security, Medicare, veterans' benefits and a host of other social programs), it's not unconceivable that in order to break the current stalemate, a Super Congress would move legislation.

Now, whether or not this new congress would be constitutional is another matter - one legal people could argue on for years.

If President Obama and Senate and House leaders quickly agreed on this Super Congress, you can bet they'd put in a stipulation that only a simple majority to pass anything would be needed. The old commission needed 14 of 18 members to approve the plan in order for it to advance to Congress for a vote. The commission fell short, but did win a majority.

May not be the math answers you were looking for, may be the new math we'll be dealing with...

But I will be looking into it! Thanks.

How much does he raise the debt ceiling by, on his lonesome, and when would he have to do it again? Do you know? :shrug:

And this is just my understanding... that he could functionally raise it to wherever he wanted. I would assume he would raise it high enough to be functional for something around the 18-24 months time frame based on current spending trends. That said, he has already said his lawyers have said it wasn't constitutional. Of course, they said that about Libya too and he disagreed and did it anyways. In the end, I don't know what would happen. The Constitution says nothing about "debt ceilings". Yet it does say that Congress has the power to take out loans.

Frankly I think the 14th Amendment is the best bet. We know Congress is too divided to do anything. And, this is really just as I said... a hostage crisis. Worse comes to worst and some Tea Partier sues the US government over raising the debt ceiling and they fight it out in court. From there I don't know how it would play out.

but we bet the house, the senate and the presidency on it and hope it works?

Well, his was a candidancy based on hope.
So I hope the Republicans don't take over....
cause that loss to the American people might not have made the bet worth it.
Don't know if Obama wants to take the gamble.....but we will soon find out.

So, here ya go . .

FACT:
Boehner is not in control of his own party in the House!!

LoL

Some people just really hate math.

kick.

:patriot:

It would seem that you only need 25 (193+25=218) to get to a +1, assuming all Dems vote party line. They can't get 25? That's just over 10%. Is it possible that more than 90% of the house Republicans are frothing let-it-burn lunatics?

Yeesh.

They know it, and we don't!

It's been one of our biggest problem all along.

...campaign ad. They don't have the guts to simply say in their own ad "I raised the debt, because I didn't want the United States to enter in a new depressive era."

Sad that "How a Bill Becomes a Law" has to be reiterated over and over on DU. Definitely time to pull out the Schoolhouse Rock episode.

# of Tea Party Caucus members: 60 (per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_Caucus#Members.2C_112th_Congress )
# of votes needed to pass a bill in the House: 218
# of Republicans: 242

242 - 60 < 218

The Tea Party Caucus, which has demonstrably stated that they will not raise the debt ceiling under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, has enough votes to veto every damn "compromise" that Obama & Boner might come up with.

They are are political terrorists with economic suicide vests strapped on.

They ACTIVELY and ON PURPOSE wish for a default of the US Government, and they WILL force one.

EVEN if Obama caved *completely* and literally agreed to 100% spending cuts in equal measure to the debt increase, such a measure would obviously fail in the Senate, ergo: Default.

People in the media, the general public, and Wall street do not seem to understand that the Tea Bagger cock-us are quite literally bat-shit insane enough to bomb our economy to kingdom-come, on pure ideological (read: terrorist) grounds.
They cannot be "convinced" :rofl:

We are well and truly fucked.

and what we are seeing now was the Republican plan
they came up with instead of passing a clean bill....
and guess what? The bill didn't pass due to the MATH,
plain and simple! Doh! :crazy:

Additional Fact: Most media is owned by those who support the Republican philosophy....
and Citizen United will be spending beaucoup money to "move" the numbers from this point on....
like it or not.

Fact: If FDR was alive and running in 2012, he wouldn't get elected to shit.

And surrender to the media?

and we should understand how it works and what it does,
and understand that the Bully pulpit as was known has
been severely taken over by the media. If we understand
and acknowledge these things, we won't simply point our finger
at one person and yell....Make it happen or else--
cause the only thing you will find yourself left with
is far more worse than what you started with.

You're using common sense, logic, and clearly you've had an "education" if you can show off all of that fancy "math". Stop doing that here.. this is a place where we want to be free to bitch about the guy that most of us voted for because he hasn't done every single possible thing that we think/want/know he should have done by now. With a huge GOP Oppossition of idiots. He should figure it out.

:)

Nice post Frenchie!