They have saved taxpayers $1.2 trillion, that’s not nothing. That’s the difference between Obama’s budget requests and what they actually gave him over the last six years.
Meanwhile, the infrastructure is still crumbling.
Nonsense. There’s always a battle between Congress and the Admin, and often the budget is cut.
Spending control under Republicans since 2011 has actually been better than normal. The budget has only increased from $3.45 trillion to $3.6 trillion over six years.
Fear Itself, your criticism is legit and infrastructure will have to be dealt with. The problem is that we don’t think the administration can be trusted to not use it as a political slush fund. The next President might be more trusted.
The GOP has been in favor of more spending, not less. What was the cost of the Iraq war? GWB got us into the budget problem, not Obama.
Hillary will be pleased to hear that.
snicker
Also, can you show the the TeaParty wing of the GOP is responsible for this, as opposed to the GOP as a whole?
My opinion has always been that we can do business with the Clintons. Plus while they have their ethical issues, the Chicago style political machine tactics are not part of their repertoire.
Oh, the Tea Party is definitely responsible. The latest budget deal that busts the spending caps is opposed by the Tea Party and will represent the first major increase in spending since the GOP won the House. Ryan really wanted a deal to show he could get things done and gave away too much.
Fair question. As a movement they failed, so nothing. By the same token, I’m not sure the Occupy movement could make any stronger claim other than make a number of over-educated white folks feel good about themselves and feel like they’re sticking it to “the man”.
Of course they don’t say “the man” anymore.
Hmmmm.
Have you considered the possibility that you might be a dead spirit posting, and nobody can hear you but me, like the sixth sense?
Go into the light.
I still don’t get why the assumption is that the Tea Party accomplished that. What sign is there that, without the Tea Party, the GOP would have let Obama’s budget through?
Seems to me that, if you’re going to come up with a number, it needs to be based on what both the Republicans and the Democrats were willing to agree with if it weren’t for the Tea Party.
We do have an example. This year’s budget numbers, which were worked out primarily by Ryan and the Democrats, rather than between factions of the GOP majority.
I don’t blame Ryan, as the Tea Party has still not learned the art of getting things done.
Dusk of working years to full retired.
Typical SDMBer: “the Tea Party has obstructed Obama’s program. He hasn’t been able to implement his agenda since 2011, when the racists took over the House.”
He continues:" The Obama recovery has been incredible and beats Saint Ronnie’s by a mile."
In all seriousness, one thing the Tea Party did that was good was the budget sequester(before they pretty much reversed it). Keynesians were claiming the end to civilization as we know it if the minuscule cuts were implemented. What happened was increased job growth, and the same Keynesians lauded the “Obama recovery”.
Did the recovery accelerate after they reversed the sequester?
Quite possibly because they don’t care about getting things done. They don’t care about getting anything done, primarily because they lack the sentience to do so. Their command of language doesn’t go much beyond “Ugh- Democrat bad! Republican good!” They exist to carry the water for the Koch Brothers. As we can see in Kansas, a Teahadist government is by definition a complete failure.
Thanks for that. Nice to know that some actual conservatives still walk the Earth.
Shhh! The Left is waiting until the Republicans are saddled with Trump before they put a bit into Trumps mouth and ride that ass.
I think it’s more that they are absolutist about their principles and they’d rather see spending go up 10% and have had nothing to do with it, rather than see it go up 3% with their fingerprints on it. They care more about their moral purity than getting things done. Plus I don’t think they know how to make deals.
They do actually have some principles that are different from the corporatist GOP and where they’ve sided with some of the harder progressives. The Tea Party and Bernie Sanders banded together to kill the Export Import Bank. The Tea Party and most hard left progressives oppose bailouts. The Tea Party and a lot of progressives teamed up to kill the 2nd F-35 engine, which was unnecssary and a clear example of defense pork.
But even there, those things only happened because the far left and far right just agreed. More useful would be if the Tea Party learned how to actually talk to the power brokers in Congress, or better yet, to President Obama. Even if you’re going to be a total dick, there are ways to use your leverage to get what you want and the Tea Partiers are very clumsy about it.