Whatever. I’m in favor of it (or would be, but see below). All those Baby Boomer TEA Partiers were very happy to torpedo a Medicare expansion, let them lose Medicare for their votes. I’m just sorry it doesn’t get their fellow travelers who are already over 65 off the payroll tax tit. Single-payer for all or for none, I say.
That said, the fool proposal doesn’t even cut the deficit. Ryan is clearly mad as a Dali painting.
Heh. I intentionally didn’t suggest that.
I have faith that the Democrats will shoot themselves in the foot and end up focusing on the carbon tax.
Should we follow the Logan’s run model or the Soylent Green model?
Don’t know. I’m not a Republican.
The danger is 58 percent of Republicans are for Medicare. They are threatening their base as well , pissing off old people and sick people, while solidifying the Dems. How can that end well?
It appears to be a bad political move.
Well, the soylent green model might succeed in driving down food prices.
I don’t know. The GOP, on economic and social safety net issues, has almost nothing in common with many voters but they win elections anyway.
The majority of the public want job creation, not union busting and abortions. Also most people want progressive taxes and a stronger safety net. But the GOP gets elected anyway.
I think there is a disconnect on where people stand on the issues vs. which party they vote for, at least on economic issues.
I admire the GOP for it though. They lie incessantly and support unpopular ideas, but they win elections anyway. They don’t timidly follow the public like the dems, they lead the public. They may lead by misinforming people and ignoring their wants, but they still lead.
Also ‘independents’ have voted against the party in power for 3 cycles in a row now. Back in 06 and 08 the GOP was seen as the party in power, so independents voted dem. In 2010 the dems were the party in power, so they voted GOP. Polls now show a 20-30 point swing away from the GOP for those independents. But so what honestly, they will just vote against whoever is in power again come 2012, 2014, 2016, etc. at this rate.
I personally have no respect for lying con-artists. The part bolded is the very definition of that. GOP policies have resulted in a fool war, torture, unemployment and great suffering for Americans, and many other people. How’d GOP policies regarding banking deregulation affect America and the world?
They’re policies would only drastically increase suffering, for the benefit of a few. They are monsters, selfish, empathetic, unfeeling garbage. How else do you explain their policies about torture and safety nets?
Quite frankly that Bush, and his Republican handlers still walk free, not having faced justice for the crimes against humanity they lead speaks volumes about Republicans who still like him. It also speaks volumes about us as a people, Republican and Democrat alike.
However it was Republican lies that enabled his crimes. Anyone who supports Republicans is either stupid or evil. Probably both.
banking deregulation was bipartisan. Glass-Steagall was repealed under Clinton with bipartisan support. And Lawrence Summers is head of the NEC under Obama.
Also torture (in the form of rendition to nations that torture, which is against the Convention Against Torture) started under Clinton, with Gore’s support. That is another reason it hasn’t been pursued, any pursuit would lead to high ranking dems being brought up on war crimes too.
Either way, the GOP actually leads and gets things done even if they are unpopular. The dems can barely pass legislation that 60% of the public supports.
If you took progressive policies plus the GOP’s ability to lead w/o worrying about being liked by the least informed voters in the nation, then you’d have a party.
Lovely. Clearly they’re the same thing.:rolleyes:
Are you actually claiming Clinton practiced torture like Bush did? Did Clinton every have anyone water-boarded? Did he send people to some Cuban base to be tortured?
Do you have a cite of someone actually being tortured by Clinton or Gore’s directive?
How many people has the Republicans “getting things done” killed, disfigured, and left to struggle daily?
Yea play on paranoia, jingoism, and lies. Can you name one government that followed those policies for the betterment of the world?
Because that’s what Republicans do. I can sure name some terrible governments that followed Republican tactics to their logical end.
Can you name a respectable government that did?
The guy who started the extraordinary rendition program for hte CIA has admitted it started under Clinton around 1995.
Current AG Eric Holder, who was a deputy AG during Clinton also played a role. So there will be no serious investigations into human rights abuses in the US since both parties have high ranking people who are guilty. Hence Obamas ‘lets look forward instead of backwards’ excuse to avoid upholding the law.
Dems are better than the GOP by far on the issues. But they have a lot of problems too. Either way, human rights abuses and financial plutocracy have a part in both parties, even if the dems are generally better about it than the GOP.
Mayor McCheese used that tactic successfully to put away the hamburlgers in McDonaldland during the crack epidemic of the 1980s. I think. That may have been a dream I had and not a real event though.
Logan’s Run. I don’t want to eat some diseased old Boomer.
This was actually advocated as a voting … strategy? policy? by some in the media in 2006.
Glass /steagal was ended in a lame duck congress in the middle of the night. Summers and other Libertarian types were fighting to get rid of it for years. Yep, Clinton signed it as one of his last presidential acts. But it was at the behest of the bankers and financial pros who had plans.
It passed by a straight party line vote in the Senate, it was NOT bipartisan in Congress, though the HOUSE voted for it in a bipartisan vote. Clinton signed it into law, and it was the stupidest thing he ever did. he triangulated himself right into history as the damn fool who signed the repeal of Glass-Steagal into law. That said, Phil Gramm was the true advocate of the bill, and if one person can be blamed for the Great Recession, Gramm would be our very best candidate. Hell, Wall Street now pretty much OWNS our top leaders in both parties … Gramm may be the person most responsible for destroying democracy in America, if we can’t get this thing fixed.
We can’t. The bankers don’t want to fix it. They have killed banking regulation. The rich are doing fine and do not want to change anything. Senators are very rich people and will not vote to hurt themselves.
Gramm was McCain’s financial advisor in his presidential campaign. That should scare the hell out of you.
The final version passed the senate 90-8.
Jobs are not created by cutting government programs and reducing taxes for the rich. Anything that puts more money in the pockets of those who are not rich leads to job creation. Those people buy more. To produce more employers hire more.
Also, Medicare is a very potent issue for the Democrats, just as Social Security is. George W. Bush began by trying to privatize Social Security. When he ran into effective resistance, he expanded Medicare benefits.
The only people who really want cuts in government spending are affluent Republicans. Working class whites who vote Republican do so for other reasons.
Whenever Republican politicians get beyond the campaign speech rhetoric about “making the government live within its means,” to making specific cuts they run into effective resistance. The resistance does not come from elitist liberals living in Georgetown. It comes from rank and file voters, many of whom vote Republican.
Affluent Republicans have difficulty understanding this, but life feels differently to those who make less than $50,000 a year with little or nothing in the way of job benefits, job security, and money in the bank. This is true, even when those people vote Republican because of social issues.