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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
Swimming in LEB tears.
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Yeah if only we had McCain in the White House equivocating and making excuses for not upholding his previously stated views. McCain makes John Kerry look like The Decider.
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dirtbag
climber
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Time to Kill the Fil. 42 senators threaten to hold up everything unless they get their way. The spineless Dems won't do it, though.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/12/01/gop.senate.demands/index.html?hpt=T1
Filibusters are supposed to be a device to reign in excess, not stop everything.
Washington (CNN) -- Senate Republicans promised Wednesday to block legislative action on every issue being considered by the lame-duck Congress until the dispute over extending the Bush-era tax cuts is resolved and an extension of current government funding is approved.
All 42 Senate Republicans signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, vowing to prevent a vote on "any legislative item until the Senate has acted to fund the government and we have prevented the tax increase that is currently awaiting all American taxpayers."
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dirtbag
climber
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STFU Mitch McConnell
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dirtbag
climber
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Thanks God we have deficit hawks, who are so concerned about the deficit they are going to not fund unemployment benefits for millions of struggling Americans in the days and weeks before Christmas...
...until the rich get their tax breaks.
(But leave it to the Dems to not get that message out.)
(And btw, such tax breaks often go into savings, which does not stimulate the economy, while unemployment bennies are spent almost immediately and creates jobs.)
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dirtbag
climber
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Yeah locker...
I almost feel guilty for PSing that photo.
It's definitely a "Come here and f*#k me doggie style" pose.
Which also makes it perfect for a McConnell paste.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
Swimming in LEB tears.
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DOW Jones staying above 11,000 solidly. Companies reporting record profits. Unemployment still near 10% and middle class incomes still down from a decade ago. According to Republicans Obama is both bad for business and that when the rich do well and corporations do well everyone else does well too. Weren't Republicans all supposed to be innately good at economics or something? Seems like we're shattering all kinds of myths here.
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dirtbag
climber
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Confusion is my one talents. :-)
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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Jingy
climber
Somewhere out there
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"Why are those Republicans so wrong on everything"
 Because the current GOP says they will block everything until the Buche tax cuts are extended.... For the rich!!!!
Now that's thinking of America....
except that it's really only thinking of the upper income brackets..
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Jingy
climber
Somewhere out there
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Because I think it needs to be stated again:
"This. The "small government" mantra we hear so frequently is from people who have absolutely no problems with the DHS/TSA, massive military spending, giving their corporate buddies subsidy and bailouts. They believe in a government that "minds its own business" unless you're homosexual, polyamorous, a scientist with a controversial finding, an artist with a controversial piece, or a female making a choice. They believe in a nation that has a freedom of religion - as long as you pick one of the many varieties of Christianity. While they shout about shutting down the Dept Of Education, the FDA, EPA, and any number of government departments they have no problem with infinite amount of 'security' departments - NSA, CIA, FBI, DHS, and I'm sure if they wanted to create 10 more their voter base would support them.
Because the grand majority conservatives in this nation only believe in "small government" when it affects them - mostly nationalistically authoritarian, WASPy hetero-normative, patriarchal motherf*#kers who are either upper class or are under some redneck working class delusion that one day they too might be upper-class. If you don't fit into this paradigm - you'll get more government intrusion in your life than you can imagine. That's the world they want.
Look at the class division alone - the republican's shout about "socialism" all day, but their actions clearly state they want capitalism for the working class and the poor, but have ZERO problems with socialism for the rich. Government handouts to their buddies is no big deal at all.
If it has do with their brand of xenophobic, paranoid, macho perspectives on "security" that treats civil rights as something only pussies worry about, when it has to do with waging the culture war against any kind of "otherness", when it has to do with waging the class war against the working people - "big government" is 100% A-ok to these schmucks.
Unless the person I meet is a token libertarian or anarchist (who are a vast minority), I simply don't believe people when they say they're for small government. They're either deluded hypocrites or they are liars, or they are idiots regurgitating neo-con/tea-party/moral-majority/republician/fox-news/am-radio one-liner slogans.
When conservatives can divorce themselves (en masse) from the moral majority and bigger military for the sake of bigger military mentality, when they bitch about the deficit and promote budgets that DECREASE THE SIZE OF THE DAMNED DEFICIT and when their desire to decrease the size of government treats corporate subsidy/bailout with the same furor and outrage that the welfare state does, and when they believe civil rights trumps national security - I'll respect them. Until then - eat sh#t, because at best they are intellectually dishonest and at worst they are morons. "
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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The Republicans insist that the current tax rates for everyone be extended before the lame duck session does anything else. Nothing is more important for the economy right now.
John
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dirtbag
climber
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The Dems already said they would go along with continued cuts for the under $250,000 year folks.
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howlostami
Trad climber
Southern Tier, NY
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F*ck those guys. Seriously. $3 trillion added to the deficit and counting, but we can't let them expire or else the economy will be hurt? Way to take any semblance of personal responsibility and fincal accountability and turn it into a completely partisan sham. The party of fiscal responsibility my ass. Their consituents deserve representative who will ignore party and vote for country.
I actually feel bad for the tea party supporters, they had good intentions and pushed for fisncal responsibilty, but instead they were just marginalized and used as a voting block by people who have no intentions of changing or supporting their agenda in a meaningful way.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Way to take any semblance of personal responsibility and fincal accountability and turn it into a completely partisan sham. The party of fiscal responsibility my ass. Their consituents deserve representative who will ignore party and vote for country.
How is that taking away personal responsibility and substituting partisanship if we raise taxes on some, but not others? The Republicans insist on no tax increases because overwhelming econometric evidence shows that a tax increase will hurt the economy. They're not the ones trying to drive a wedge into good policy.
John
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howlostami
Trad climber
Southern Tier, NY
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I'm all for everyone paying taxes, and paying an equal share. What I want and what we all need is a budget with a surplus so we can start paying down this debt.
Guess what, each and every one of us has this debt over out head as a stakeholder in this country.
Personal responsibily means that every voter (so not Locker) owns this debt, because we put the people in office who created the debt. We all did it to outselves, like it or not.
As for the rich paying more, well, they gain the most so why wouldn't the pay the most, that's how it works. They still pay the same as the rest of us up to $250k, and their incremental tax rate above that would STILL be lower than it was under Saint Reagan if the tax rates go back to pre-bush levels.
I'm not a fan of an unfair playing field, or of punishing the high performers in our society, but bringing the tax structure closure to a level that would increase wealth across the entire socio-economic spectrum seems a whole lot closer to being fair than the current rigged system that consolidates wealth growth in the upper eschelons of society.
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howlostami
Trad climber
Southern Tier, NY
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"They're not the ones trying to drive a wedge into good policy."
The bush tax cuts were bad policy from day one. Unpaid for and biased towards the rish, just a reverse robin hood that robbed from us all and gave to those who had enough already.
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Bob D'A
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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John wrote: The Republicans insist that the current tax rates for everyone be extended before the lame duck session does anything else. Nothing is more important for the economy right now.
Which goes along with the republican mantra "deficits mean nothing/don't matter".
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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howlastomi,
It may seem odd for a Republican to sound like a Keynesian, but a surplus now would not help the economy. That isn't just an argument against tax increases, but the way. If the government reduced all of its spending, that wouldn't help the economy, either.
What we need is, first, doing no harm. However you want to couch it, tax rates go up for 2011 unless Congress acts. They should not go up now. It would kill off the recovery.
The long-term problems, on the other hand, do need to be brought into balance. Generally, the problems remain entitlements. We can lower everything else (including defense), but lowering an established entitlement has become political suicide. The Deficit Reduction commission makes a lot of good suggestions that are, unfortunately, all anathema to one or the other political parties.
I also disagree that the Bush tax cuts were bad policy. They came about in a recession, and led to a strong recovery. The bad policy was spending more for war and entitlements without paying for them, and wasting "stimulus" money on less important projects at inflated costs. Both parties can share the blame there.
Finally, why do only voters need to own up to national debt? Refusing to vote's only consequence should be forfeiture of the right to criticize. If you live in this country, you own part of its problems.
John
John
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howlostami
Trad climber
Southern Tier, NY
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John;
I'm with you on most things here, and do believe that the best thing for our economy is to let it heal over time and get the government out of it.
The 24 hr news cycle and hyperpartisanship doesn't really allow for much time to pass before judgement gets passed, but I do believe we are so far on the right path out of it and on a good course for the future.
I totally agree that "do no harm" is the way that we need to proceed, and government meddling is the most sure fire way of screwing up a recovery. I'm not sure if limited tax increases would stifle the recovery, even the rich wouldn't get increases for their first $250k/yr, which is pretty livable. And we're talking 2-3% beyond that, raise my taxes 2-3%, please, I want to do my part to shut people up about the deficit.
I'm completely with you on entitlements too, I will never get social security, but am all for paying it out as long as it lasts to help cover the last of the greatest generation, the ones who made this country what it is. Consider it an homage. Anybody after that who didn't fight, well, you don't really deserve it much.
The only people who seem concerned about medicaid and medicare growth were the entire democratic party last summmer. That's all. The health care reform bills number one goal was to reshape medicaid and medicare to make them more viable for the future. Sure it's not perfect, but at least it's a start and something to work from.
I like a lot of what was in both deficit reduction plans so far (4 & 6 trillion respectively). You are right that bipartisan support is lacking, but I really hope that changes and changes soon.
"The bad policy was spending more for war and entitlements without paying for them. Both parties can share the blame there."
OK, that just made me laugh out loud. Bipsartisanship at its finest. The Bush doctrine is all the republican parties. They can have it.
The voter comment was just a joke, Locker has a stake in the country too, like it or not, and yes, we all own the problems in this country.
And you know what, our problems are really small and our country is pretty friggin amazing.
-Tim
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