# 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:** 413
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8241 "2013-01-17T20:46:12Z")
Meanwhile, a Republican committee has issued report not only admitting, but [bragging that they only have a House majority because of gerrymandering.](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/01/17/1459991/rslc-gerrymandering-house/) ---
**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:** [January 17, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8242 "2013-01-17T21:26:08Z")
The Wall Street Journal publishes [a handy graphic](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323689604578220132665726040.html#project%3DWEALTH0105%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive) showing the devastating impact of Big Gummint tax increases on a cross-section of typical Americans (a single mom keeping the kid’s body and soul together with a $260,000 income, a retired couple surviving on $180,000, a single woman making ends meet with $230,000, and a family of four scraping by on $650,000). ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8243 "2013-01-17T21:35:01Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > The Wall Street Journal publishes [a handy graphic](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323689604578220132665726040.html#project%3DWEALTH0105%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive) showing the devastating impact of Big Gummint tax increases on a cross-section of typical Americans (a single mom keeping the kid’s body and soul together with a $260,000 income, a retired couple surviving on $180,000, a single woman making ends meet with $230,000, and a family of four scraping by on $650,000). And they all look so miserable. You’d think that at least the retired couple would appear relieved that their taxes didn’t change. You can get a pretty good quality cat food for $180k. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8244 "2013-01-17T21:35:18Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > The Wall Street Journal publishes [a handy graphic](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323689604578220132665726040.html#project%3DWEALTH0105%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive) showing the devastating impact of Big Gummint tax increases on a cross-section of typical Americans (a single mom keeping the kid’s body and soul together with a $260,000 income, a retired couple surviving on $180,000, a single woman making ends meet with $230,000, and a family of four scraping by on $650,000). But look at their faces! They are so sad they break my heart. If only Dickens were still alive, he’d write a stirring novel about… okay, not about them. But about someone who saw those pictures! ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8245 "2013-01-17T21:37:58Z")
I’m kinda surprised the people in those drawings don’t have huge, tear filled anime eyes looking pleadingly up at us. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8246 "2013-01-17T21:52:15Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > I’m kinda surprised the people in those drawings don’t have huge, tear filled anime eyes looking pleadingly up at us. Puss-in-Boots would totally sell it. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8247 "2013-01-17T22:08:26Z")
The single mom was asking for it. You can see in your eyes she left a good man and used the mom-favoring system to keep the kids. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8248 "2013-01-18T00:19:46Z")
Excuse me while I shed a tear for the poorest of the poor, those making $180000 a year and retired. How can we treat people this way? We might as well be Somalia ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8249 "2013-01-18T00:43:23Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > [Still working on that “outreach” thing](http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnstanton/top-republican-touts-minority-outreach-in-burwell): > > Maybe the GOP leadership should start its attempts to communicate with minorities and women on a more basic level, like transmitting a sequence of 1s and 0s whose quantity is the product of two prime numbers and which form an image when arrayed accordingly. I’m afraid I’d have to give them a pass on this one. I’ve been to many meetings in many conference centers with rooms of various names, and have never thought the room name had much to do with the meeting. Blame Kingsmill if anyone. BTW, we went to a real plantation in Louisiana Christmas Eve a year ago. It had a big exhibit on a slave rebellion. Having a meeting at a plantation might be educational for Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8250 "2013-01-18T01:05:44Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > The Wall Street Journal publishes [a handy graphic](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323689604578220132665726040.html#project%3DWEALTH0105%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive) showing the devastating impact of Big Gummint tax increases on a cross-section of typical Americans (a single mom keeping the kid’s body and soul together with a $260,000 income, a retired couple surviving on $180,000, a single woman making ends meet with $230,000, and a family of four scraping by on $650,000). Yes, that poor, poor single woman. She only makes 230K a year, and now she’s going to have to come up with another 3K for taxes! Imagine what she could have done with that 3K. She might have to forego that designer dress she was looking at. Or a 3rd Gucci bag. Maybe she might have to downgrade to a 4 star all-inclusive resort for her next holiday. One with NO PERSONAL CONCIERGE! I can’t imagine the future horrors she will face. ---
**Author:** ![slumtrimpet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@slumtrimpet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slumtrimpet)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8251 "2013-01-18T01:15:16Z")
I’m really more concerned about the family that has $650,000/yr. That $21,000 is coming straight out of the nanny’s pay. Or maybe the gardener and the housekeeper will take a cut too. Trickle down people, trickle down. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8252 "2013-01-18T01:15:54Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Maybe she might have to downgrade to a 4 star all-inclusive resort for her next holiday. One with NO PERSONAL CONCIERGE! > > I can’t imagine the future horrors she will face. I once had to go without a personal concierge. I almost died. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8253 "2013-01-18T01:53:29Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > [Twenty-two years behind the times in Mississippi](http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/mississippi-guv-criminals-can-get-high-capacity-magazines): > [@jayjay](#): > > Not only in Mississippi. Mitt’s campaign had that problem repeatedly last year. > [@Steve\_MB](#): > > [Still working on that “outreach” thing](http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnstanton/top-republican-touts-minority-outreach-in-burwell) Well, conservatives like to keep things as they have always been. Maybe they pine for the Good Ol’ Days of slavery and the Cold War. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8254 "2013-01-18T02:34:58Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > How in fuck did you people in Florida ever elect this guy??? 😕 > > Was the other candidate a guy who dressed like Hitler and sacrificed babies at press conferences? Or maybe the other candidate was Bigfoot? WTF??? The other guy was a woman, really smart and experienced, [Alex Sink.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Sink) To Floridian’s partial credit, the 2010 gubernatorial election was **very** close, and Rick Scott’s approval rating has been . . . Sinking ever since. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8255 "2013-01-18T03:14:16Z")
Does Rick Scott look more like Skeletor than James Carville does? ---
**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:** [January 18, 2013, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8256 "2013-01-18T03:18:31Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Does Rick Scott look more like Skeletor than James Carville does? Eh. I still say Rick Scott is one of the [Gentlemen](http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Gentlemen_SlasherSmile1_9609.jpg) from Buffy who’s managed to figure out how to insulate himself from the sound of the human voice. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8257 "2013-01-18T14:46:22Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Does Rick Scott look more like Skeletor than James Carville does? Rick Scott looks more like Skeletor than Skeletor does. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8258 "2013-01-18T15:12:25Z")
Are non-cognitive utterances by ordinary-people Republicans on-topic in this thread? I don’t know whether it will evoke your pity or your envy but, with the exception of my children and the face in the mirror, I’ve encountered only two Americans in person in the past three months. (I’m not completely isolated; during this time I’ve shared beers with a few Brits, Danes, Germans, Aussies and Thais). Last night I sat next to an American at a dinner. The conversation turned to politics only once. To ingratiate myself with him I mentioned the incompetent fashion in which my SocSec is being handled. He immediately responded with > [@](#): > > When Obama comes for my guns I’m going to shove them up his ass. This response was so quick and such a non sequitur, it reminded me of Pavlov’s dog salivating. (I did change the subject immediately.) ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8259 "2013-01-18T15:44:16Z")
Just take the idea to the extreme to see how stupid it is. If the President’s wife must do this, then so should the Senator’s and the Congressman’s, and the Judges’ and the Prosecutors, and the state governors and legislators, and the commissioner and mayor and dogcatcher. More fuzzy thinking from Fissa. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/8260 "2013-01-18T15:44:55Z")
Was it Ted Nugent? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=412) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=414)