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		<title>A balanced budget amendment</title>
		<dateCreated>Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:50:06 GMT</dateCreated>
		<dateModified>Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:23:40 GMT</dateModified>
		<ownerName>Dave Winer</ownerName>
		<ownerEmail>dave.winer@gmail.com</ownerEmail>
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		<outline created="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:50:06 GMT" ctSaves="17" flPreview="false" id="2011.08.18.1228" server="xmlrpc://cms.scripting2.com:5337/RPC2" storySerialNum="1228" text="A balanced budget amendment" type="scripting2Post" url="http://scripting.com/stories/2011/08/18/aBalancedBudgetAmendment.html" username="davewiner" versionClient="0.44" versionServer="0.44" whenLastSave="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:23:41 GMT">
			<outline created="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:43:00 GMT" pgfnum="8822" text="I heard House Majority Leader &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Cantor&quot;&gt;Eric Cantor&lt;/a&gt; on the radio today say we can't spend money we don't have."></outline>
			<outline created="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:43:15 GMT" pgfnum="8823" text="Eric flunked the test. There is no such thing as us not having money. The United States has as much money as it wants. "></outline>
			<outline created="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:58:15 GMT" pgfnum="8831" text="Here's how it works."></outline>
			<outline created="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:44:04 GMT" pgfnum="8824" text="&lt;img src=&quot;http://scripting.com/images/2011/08/18/pie.jpg&quot; width=&quot;150&quot; height=&quot;91&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; hspace=&quot;15&quot; vspace=&quot;5&quot; alt=&quot;A picture named pie.jpg&quot;&gt;There's a file somewhere on some computer that contains the amount of money in the US checking account. &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bernanke&quot;&gt;Ben Bernanke&lt;/a&gt; has write access to that file. It's up to him and the Federal Reserve Board to say what number is in there. If they have a meeting and decide the US should have twice as much money, then here's what Dr. Bernanke does:"></outline>
			<outline created="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:02:39 GMT" pgfnum="8832" text="1. Sits down at his laptop."></outline>
			<outline created="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:02:44 GMT" pgfnum="8833" text="2. Opens the file."></outline>
			<outline created="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:02:54 GMT" pgfnum="8834" text="3. Changes the number."></outline>
			<outline created="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 23:02:57 GMT" pgfnum="8835" text="4. Saves. "></outline>
			<outline created="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:46:06 GMT" pgfnum="8825" text="Eric Cantor also &quot;thinks&quot; we should balance the budget, again based on the fiction that there's a number of dollars that we have. Okay, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/constitution/&quot;&gt;technically&lt;/a&gt;, if both houses of Congress voted for it and 2/3 of the state legislatures, they could have the amendment. It would make as much sense as passing an amendment to say that pi is 3, instead of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi&quot;&gt;irrational number&lt;/a&gt; that it is. They could have the amendment, but I'm fairly sure the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter wouldn't change."></outline>
			<outline created="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:54:20 GMT" pgfnum="8829" text="Some things, sad to say, are not subject to a vote of Congress. "></outline>
			<outline created="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:54:32 GMT" pgfnum="8830" text="We could pass a law that says none of us have to die. Oh wouldn't that be nice! :-)"></outline>
			<outline created="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:48:36 GMT" pgfnum="8826" text="The Republicans are &quot;simple folk&quot; and all this complicated elite nonsense is too damn complicated. Too. Complicated. We think life should be simpler. We decided that it is. And we're right! How do we know? We read Atlas Shrugged. Ayn Rand told us we were right."></outline>
			<outline created="Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:49:42 GMT" pgfnum="8827" text="Ohhhh kayyyy."></outline>
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