# Stupid Republican idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1848
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36942 "2018-03-06T19:58:43Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > The money’s coming out of Medicaid. Hooray for reducing health care for poor kids! Maybe this is part of a plan to reduce class sizes. I saw somebody who quoted an unnamed legislator saying, “If you can’t get healthcare, blame a teacher.” But I can’t find that quote on any news site. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36943 "2018-03-06T19:59:59Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I’m sorry, I’m a tetch unclear here. Are you blaming the teachers for the GOP’s Snidely Whiplash impression? I think the implication is that cutting Medicare = death of students = lower class size. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36944 "2018-03-06T20:05:06Z")
Well, yeah, but I don’t remember **The Tooth** standing out as a particularly idiotic right-winger before. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36945 "2018-03-06T20:10:46Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Well, yeah, but I don’t remember **The Tooth** standing out as a particularly idiotic right-winger before. I think the implication is is that is how the GOP legislators balance the books. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36946 "2018-03-06T20:14:05Z")
Guys, I KNOW what he was saying. I’m unclear on whether it was sarcastic on his part or if he really does actually blame the teachers (or teachers’ union) for it if it’s going to happen. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36947 "2018-03-06T20:23:09Z")
It was sarcasm on my part. The Republicans are as always the bad guys in this. WV is swimming, if such a thing is possible, in coal. There’s no need to cut any sort of services to give teachers a pay raise. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36948 "2018-03-06T20:26:24Z")
I mean, what kind of lowlife would say in earnest “Hooray for reducing health care for poor kids!”? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36949 "2018-03-06T20:33:00Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > It was sarcasm on my part. The Republicans are as always the bad guys in this. WV is swimming, if such a thing is possible, in coal. There’s no need to cut any sort of services to give teachers a pay raise. You do no that coal is a dying industry, right? ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36950 "2018-03-06T20:34:09Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > Not if you arm teachers. Duh. All of my teachers had arms (two even) - there were a few farmers with partials due to accidents, but the teachers were all fully armed. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36951 "2018-03-06T20:56:17Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > You do no that coal is a dying industry, right? Er. \*know ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36952 "2018-03-06T20:57:17Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > I mean, what kind of lowlife would say in earnest “Hooray for reducing health care for poor kids!”? Skirting with Poe’s law, there. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36953 "2018-03-06T21:00:42Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > I mean, what kind of lowlife would say in earnest “Hooray for reducing health care for poor kids!”? Hence why I asked for clarification, because you’d never struck me as that type of person, but you never known nowadays. We have mean-spirited fascists crawling out of the woodwork ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36954 "2018-03-06T21:02:37Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > You do no that coal is a dying industry, right? I had forgotten, in fact. Does that leave Medicaid cuts as the only other alternative? This smacks of the right pitting teachers against poor parents, nothing else. Don’t have health care for your kids? Blame teachers, says the GOP. They made us cut Medicaid. Not our fault. MAGA. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36955 "2018-03-06T21:07:29Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > I think the implication is that cutting Medicare = death of students = lower class size. I think you meant Medicaid. (You probably already noticed that.) Medicare is insurance for old people. Medicaid is insurance for poor people. Even though words look/sound alike, they can be quite different, and that difference can have impact. Kind of like “its” and “it’s.” 😉 > [@The\_Tooth](#): > > …Does that leave Medicaid cuts as the only other alternative? No, but… > [@](#): > > This smacks of the right pitting teachers against poor parents, nothing else. Don’t have health care for your kids? Blame teachers, says the GOP. They made us cut Medicaid. Not our fault. MAGA. You’re gettin’ it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2018, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36956 "2018-03-06T21:17:59Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Skirting with Poe’s law, there. Give me a minute to change and I’ll do it backwards and in heels. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2018, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36957 "2018-03-07T01:59:11Z")
Paul Waldman: [“The Republican Congress is officially giving up”](http://theweek.com/articles/759119/republican-congress-officially-giving) > [@](#): > > …the GOP has essentially given up, like seniors in their last semester of high school. > > Although the last 14 months has felt more like 14 years, the record of policy accomplishments from this Republican Congress has been remarkably thin. That wasn’t what they had in mind when they took complete control of Washington for the first time in a decade, nor what many of us expected. It was supposed to be a smoothly running assembly line, with the House and Senate stamping out bills on conservative priorities as fast as President Trump could sign them. But once they failed at their first big priority, repealing the Affordable Care Act, the wind seemed to go out of their sails. They’d succeed at the one goal more important than all others — a big tax cut for corporations and the wealthy — but once that was done they seemed to collapse, breathless and sated, all their legislative energy exhausted upon the completion of that most glorious task. > > And now, huge numbers of Republicans in the House — at least three dozen so far — are choosing to retire, heading off for lucrative lobbying careers or some other greener pasture. > … > And what about all that legislating they were going to undertake? Well it turns out that once you remove the stuff that’s too politically dangerous to touch, there isn’t much left to do.\* Sure, Republicans would like to dismantle Medicaid, privatize Medicare, slash the safety net, and outlaw abortion. But when the Democratic base is already energized and angry, all that doesn’t seem like such a good idea if you want to hold on to your seat. > > And the truth is that Republicans just aren’t ideologically inclined to pass a lot of laws. They believe that government should do as little as possible, particularly when it comes to addressing social ills. They don’t want to start new programs, and on many issues like guns, the status quo is fine with them. They’re happy to see the Trump administration sabotaging the Affordable Care Act and undermining Medicaid, but they’d just as soon not go to the trouble of working on some complicated piece of legislation with political risk to accomplish the same thing. > … \*Who knew legislatin’ would be so [del]hard[/del] much like work? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2018, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36958 "2018-03-07T13:34:04Z")
“Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one.” - Sam Rayburn ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2018, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36959 "2018-03-07T15:32:38Z")
[Brought to you by Rafael “Ted” Cruz](https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/06/politics/ted-cruz-mocks-beto-orourke-name/index.html): > [@](#): > > As Tuesday’s primaries were closing, Cruz’s campaign released a 60-second radio ad that was a country music jingle prodding O’Rourke for going by “Beto” rather than “Robert.” > “Liberal Robert wanted to fit in, so he changed his name to Beto and hid it with a grin,” the song says… ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2018, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36960 "2018-03-07T15:49:28Z")
… ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2018, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/36961 "2018-03-07T21:52:50Z")
The ACLU is suing Kris Kobach over his shenanigans in trying to prevent as many non-Republicans as possible from voting. Mr. Kobach is so worried about the evil pro-voting contingent that he asked the court if he could bring a gun with him. Denied. > **[Kris Kobach, worried about voter registration types, asks if he can bring a...](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/7/1747217/-Kris-Kobach-worried-about-voter-registration-types-asks-if-he-can-bring-a-gun-to-court-DENIED?detail=facebook)** > > The court case of ACLU v. Kobach took another odd twist this morning, as the Kansas Secretary of State noted that he had some concerns, and would feel better if he could bring a gun to court. > > www.kansascity.com/… > > > On his way into a federal... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1847) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1849)