# 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:** 562
**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:** [October 16, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11221 "2013-10-16T19:42:46Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Bulgaria won’t return our calls about the scheduling. Maybe Mali? They need to take a vacation trip to Belize. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11222 "2013-10-16T19:45:58Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Question still is, is this debacle finally enough to teach the Republicans they _lost_? No, it’s training them that holding up the government every few months pays off. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11223 "2013-10-16T19:49:03Z")
> [@bup](#): > > No, it’s training them that holding up the government every few months pays off. Sad but true. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11224 "2013-10-16T20:06:16Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > I assume this is a rhetorical question. Those idiots are stupid enough to repeat this debacle – probably even stupid enough to repeat it next October. 😛 If only. I hear the deal is to keep things running through January or February. Apprently, this is now an ongoing series with a new episode quarterly. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11225 "2013-10-16T20:24:38Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Ah shit, I never should have raised the issue. Please, I’m begging you. Don’t fuck up my country by sending him here. You all sent him here first. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11226 "2013-10-16T20:37:54Z")
I’m willing to bet that their Corporate Overlords have laid down the law on the Pubbies: Cut this shit out, it’s bad for business! Any serious attempt to repeat this cycle will result in a smack-down. No, I think they’ll use different tactics next time. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11227 "2013-10-16T20:38:39Z")
Israel has long recognized a right of return. OK, so Cruz isn’t a Jew and Canada isn’t Israel. Piddling details. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11228 "2013-10-16T20:38:55Z")
> [@bup](#): > > No, it’s training them that holding up the government every few months pays off. But every time they do it they get closer to November 2014 and worsen their position for the midterms. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11229 "2013-10-16T21:07:41Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Ah shit, I never should have raised the issue. Please, I’m begging you. Don’t fuck up my country by sending him here. Please, let them do it. Isn’t Alberta the place where there are outbreaks of Mad Cow Disease, as well as _Salmonella_ due to lax food inspection ? Maybe we can schedule an _accidental_ ((;), ;), nudge, nudge) one ? ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11230 "2013-10-16T22:36:24Z")
news says shutdown has cost 24 billion. ---
**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:** [October 16, 2013, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11231 "2013-10-16T23:31:30Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > news says shutdown has cost 24 billion. When’s the Fox News Headline: “Obama’s stubbornness costs us 24 Billion” ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11232 "2013-10-16T23:49:20Z")
Finally, there has been a slight let-up in Republican stupidity, just in time to save the world from falling into global recession: [At 11th Hour, G.O.P. Blinks in Standoff.](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/us/congress-budget-debate.html?hp) [QUOTE=The New York Times] Chastened Senate Republicans said they hoped the outcome would be a learning experience for lawmakers in the House and the Senate who shut down the government in hopes of gutting Mr. Obama’s signature domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act. Instead of using the twin deadlines of an end to government funding and borrowing authority to address the drivers of the federal deficit, conservatives focused on a law they could never undo as long as Mr. Obama is president, several senators said. “We took some bread crumbs and left an entire meal on the table,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. “This has been a really bad two weeks for the Republican Party.” [/QUOTE] Of course, they will renew their stupidity, and probably sink to new lows, when the current deal expires in January. ---
**Author:** ![sylmar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@sylmar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sylmar)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2013, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11233 "2013-10-16T23:57:51Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > When’s the Fox News Headline: “Obama’s stubbornness costs us 24 Billion” Have to wait on Fox, they’re still freebasing Maloox. But The Week had some interesting [takeaways](http://theweek.com/article/index/251275/winners-and-losers-in-the-government-shutdown-battle) along with some context on the costs. > [@](#): > > “Overall, the shutdown cost the government some $24 billion. _All to end up right where we started._” And the Tea Partier’s claim they’re #1 priority is balancing the budget? By “balance” perhaps they mean sink like a lead balloon. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11234 "2013-10-17T00:36:13Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Are you kidding? I can’t wait to hear how McConnell, Boehner and Fox News announce that this was a total GOP victory. I came across [this](http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/16/obamas-victory-on-debt-ceiling-comes-at-terrible-price/) accidentally while looking up details on the final agreement in the Senate. Reading it makes my head hurt: > [@](#): > > **Obama’s victory on debt ceiling comes at a terrible price** > > To end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling without accepting any meaningful GOP conditions, President Obama has resorted to falsehoods, wounded American democracy and damaged U.S. global leadership. > > The $17 trillion outstanding national debt funded past spending, and raising the debt ceiling is all about the government spending more than it taxes going forward. > > The House was given this power, because it is closest to the pulse of the people, who in 2012 elected a majority of representatives promising to cut spending and reduce deficits. > > Obama’s victory in the 2012 presidential election turned on many issues, including immigration, foreign policies toward China and in the Middle East and the environment. It is disingenuous to say his election affirmed voter support for the Affordable Care Act. > > Poll after poll – at the time the ACA was passed, during the election and now – revealed the majority of Americans don’t like the law and want it substantially revised or repealed. > > The ethnic breakdown of the 2012 election results indicate Obama’s victory was much more the result of Governor Romney’s inability to appeal to Latino and Asian voters. > > To pressure House Republicans, Treasury Secretary Lew has purposefully cultivated fear in financial markets by falsely stating the U.S. must default if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling. > > His doomsday rhetoric makes the U.S. government appear inept and irresponsible, has eroded the primary standing of U.S. securities in global markets, and will weaken U.S. economic leadership in global forums for many years to come. > > The president’s victory will be accomplished through deception and demagoguery, by violating the will of voters expressed in the 2012 congressional elections and the Constitution, and damaging U.S. global standing. Those are mighty high prices to pay for a president’s refusal to negotiate changes to a health care law voters clearly want changed and reducing budget deficits voters want slashed. It’s like the author put a slew of demonstratively wrong things on a dartboard and threw 100 darts. This is why Fox News is an echo chamber. This is why Fox News viewers constantly poll to be far more uninformed and misinformed on matters of current political events than the people who get their news from anywhere else, a comedy network or even nowhere else. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11235 "2013-10-17T02:23:33Z")
It’s Fox, a lot. But it’s not just Fox. Newt was on CNN today, talking about how divisive and polarized the government (and the nation) is, and how it’s mainly because of bullying and name-calling … …by Obama. If only we’d let the gentle, peace-loving GOP and Tea Partyists who are the true lovers of this country HAVE THEIR WAY without “bullying” and “name-calling” by THAT MAN, everything would be sunshine and roses and unicorn farts! That’s the crazy thing. The right suffers so severely from Obama Derangment Syndrome that all the problems of the nation trace directly back to him, and the right talking heads say it on Fox and Rush and Hannity and CNN, even!, and the people who mainline that crap lap it all up and believe it without question. Anyway, I realize the reason Newt was even blathering on CNN was because he has a show there now (the new Crossfire!), but why a discredited Representative/husband/general human being even has a public forum to keep talking … I just don’t even … and they call CNN part of the _liberal_ media? It is to laugh, if it weren’t so very, very sad. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11236 "2013-10-17T02:33:36Z")
Wait a second. Newt? Mars colony Newt? “I love America so much it made me horny” Newt? That Newt? “Crossfire”? Stop, you’re killing me, who is it _really_? ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11237 "2013-10-17T03:04:14Z")
Some people don’t get any less wrong even in defeat. [“While you and I and he and everyone else knows the debt ceiling issue will not actually throw us into default…”](http://www.redstate.com/2013/10/16/ted-cruz-is-doing-the-right-thing/) Then what leverage does it have?! And politicians apparently actually LISTEN to this man. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11238 "2013-10-17T03:21:36Z")
> [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](#): > > I came across [this](http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/16/obamas-victory-on-debt-ceiling-comes-at-terrible-price/) accidentally while looking up details on the final agreement in the Senate. Reading it makes my head hurt: > > It’s like the author put a slew of demonstratively wrong things on a dartboard and threw 100 darts. This is why Fox News is an echo chamber. This is why Fox News viewers constantly poll to be far more uninformed and misinformed on matters of current political events than the people who get their news from anywhere else, a comedy network or even nowhere else. Believe it or not, [_The Nation_](http://www.thenation.com/article/176694/even-when-gop-loses-it-wins) has an even **more** pessimistic take. > [@](#): > > Because the deal only includes minor concessions, the Beltway consensus is that it represents a resounding defeat for Republicans, who “surrendered” their original demands to defund or delay Obamacare. In the skirmish of opinion polls, that may be true, for now. But in the war of ideas, the Senate deal is but a stalemate, one made almost entirely on conservative terms. The GOP now goes into budget talks with sequestration as the new baseline, primed to demand longer-term cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. And they still hold the gun of a US default to the nation’s head in the next debt ceiling showdown. > > Surrender? Any more “victories” like this and Democrats will end up paying tribute into the GOP’s coffers. > > This debate started in 2011 when the president accepted that he couldn’t get support for jobs programs and instead called for “balanced” deficit reduction that included tax increases on corporations and the wealthy and spending cuts. In response, Republicans threatened to default on America’s debts, forcing through the Budget Control Act, which cut nearly $1 trillion in spending over ten years with no tax increases and exacted another trillion in cuts either by agreement of a “supercommittee” or, failing that, automatic across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion over ten years. Now the Republicans’ “surrender” locks in that sequester while pushing for further reductions to basic safety net programs—all while tax increases remain off the table and the threat of default is still pointed at the country’s head. Tea Party zealots may have lost their bid to torpedo healthcare reform, but the right continues to set the terms of the debate. > > This is particularly perverse because austerity only adds to the country’s troubles. More than 20 million people still need full-time work. Incomes are still stagnant. The top 1 percent continue to capture what little growth there is. The International Monetary Fund says even that will slow, projecting a rate of 1.6 percent growth in the coming months. We are closer to a renewed recession than a healthy recovery. Meanwhile, deficits are falling more rapidly than at any time since the demobilization after World War II. More spending cuts will only cost jobs and slow growth. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11239 "2013-10-17T03:23:24Z")
> [@Uncle\_Jocko](#): > > It’s Fox, a lot. But it’s not just Fox. . . . It’s [_Fox in Socks,_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_in_Socks) sir! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2013, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/11240 "2013-10-17T03:24:48Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Wait a second. Newt? Mars colony Newt? “I love America so much it made me horny” Newt? That Newt? “Crossfire”? Stop, you’re killing me, who is it _really_? :o I got better! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=561) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=563)