Community | April 10, 2011 | 225 comments

What the Republican budget plans tell us about Republican values

source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/10/965103/-What-the-Republican-budget-plans-tell-us-ab...

Image
bundlebear
The Republicans want you to believe that they're concerned about the deficit. Of course, that concern is a lie. They don't care about the deficit. They only care about using the deficit as an excuse to pursue their extremist agenda. And the single most extreme part of it is their war on people. On workers. On women. On immigrants. On the environment that keeps us all healthy and alive. If they cared about the deficit itself, they'd have noticed that the previous three Republican presidents produced consecutively the largest deficits in human history, each outdoing his predecessor, and the most recent Republican president not merely shattering his father's unprecedented standard, but actually having to destroy the federal surplus built by a Democratic president in order to do so. An impressive feat, by any measure. But when Republicans talk about deficits, you know they are lying. Republicans destroy surpluses and create record deficits. That's the truth.
If Republicans cared about the deficit, they wouldn't have held middle-class tax cuts hostage for a ransom of tax cuts for the very wealthy, tax cuts that the very wealthy do not need. Tax cuts for the wealthy that won't create jobs or stimulate the economy. Tax cuts for the wealthy that added to the federal deficit, the same federal deficit Republicans now pretend to be so worried about that they need to slash and burn federal spending. Spending for such things as food assistance for low-income Americans, which Republicans want to cut even as they retain farm subsidies. Spending for such things as life-saving immunizations. Spending for such things as food and health assistance around the world, without which some 70,000 children could die. And not content to make Americans go hungry and die of preventable diseases, and for tens of thousands of children around the world to starve to death, rather than have the very wealthy pay more taxes, Republicans also have their "hearts" set on eliminating Medicare and eviscerating Medicaid. And they want to repeal the Obama health plan, even though doing so would make the deficit even worse.

Let's not pretend that Republicans actually care about the deficit. If they did, their approach in addressing it would be responsible and humane. Republicans don't care about the deficit. They only care about cutting government programs that help people in need. It's part of their larger agenda of blatant class warfare. Republicans prefer that millions of people suffer, and that at least tens of thousands of people die, rather than that the very wealthy once again pay the taxes that eliminated the previous Republican deficits to create the previous Democratic surplus. Leave it to the mental health professionals to diagnose the psychology of such values. If anyone can afford mental health professionals, with states now also in budget crises thanks to the genius of tax cuts.

But lest you think that Republicans don't have any spending priorities at all, keep in mind that they do want to use federal money, just so it is spent in pursuit of their Medieval social agenda. But that's just relative pocket change. While Republicans seem actually to want for people in need to suffer and die, they also want to throw unfathomably budget-busting pallets of cash at their favorite budget sinkhole. As reported by Ryan Grim:


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/10/965103/-What-the-Republican-budget-plan...
  1. groups:
    Community,   Politics,   Culture,   US Politics,   21 more
  2. tags:
    Republican,  Republican Party,  Republican Values,  Republicans are Stupid,  1 more
  3. recommended by:
    remanns,
    Vierotchka
  4.     
    |

225 comments // What the Republican budget plans tell us about Republican values

  • sammykatz
    • +1
      sammykatz  

    • http://Order.ca

      Facts are both anathema and irrelevant to the Tea Party; they are the puppets of the Bircher corporate sponsored GOP. The corporations are pulling the strings, employing every marketing technique available including prejudice, propaganda, and pursuasion. The Tea Party members are sincere and well intentioned dupes of the Kochs, Waltons, Princes, et al, and will be thrown under the bus as soon as corporate goals are realized.

      Methinks it's time to reissue and require as reading Charles Dicken's novels about industrialization in England, as well as our very own muckrackers of the 19th/early 20th century. Throw in some Thomas Nast political cartoons as good measure, too. Collectively they represent the GOP's vision for America: The New Old World Order of Plutocracy.

      Our democracy is under unrelenting attack from within, paid for by the unfettered wealth of corporate America. Pogo said it best, "We have met the enemy and he is US!"

    • 1 year ago
  • Tyr
    • +4
      Tyr  

    • This is a subject who's seriousness transcends the usual bickering between political opponents on web sites such as this one. By reading the different comments by people like Warren, Paratus, oppressed 1 et al I was struck by how closely they reflect what are clearly the same sense of right and wrong that the European aristocracy held at one time, with one exception, the European Aristocracy took it even a step further by putting forth the concept that it was God himself who had awarded them with their position in life by virtue of the accident of birth! They believed that if you were born poor it's because God wished it and you were going against the "masters plan" if you spoke out against the inequity. Those of you who advocate the idea that "hard work" alone provided you with your comfortable place in life have simply replaced the word God with "hard work"...I'm here to tell you this, there is nobody working harder than a Mexican field worker in the Coachella valley in California using a short hoe to weed between lettuce plants when it's 115 degrees and he sure as Hell isn't going to be made rich as a result of his "hard work"
      If you have not yet i would suggest you read some history books, they will offer you some much needed insight as to what happens to the wealthiest when the numbers of the poor grow so large and their lives so miserable that they feel they have nothing to lose...research the French revolution, the Boshevik revolution, pay close attention to what happened to the wealthy and those who attempted tp defend them...I can't fabricate history, I can't conjure up the boogy man of "class warfare" and "fear mongering" what I can do is offer you the lessons of history and acknowledge the simple fact that a two tiered society is unstable and that the lessons of the past teach us that in such societies where the rich are unwilling to share the bounty... that same society is unable protect the rich from the poor.
      As a footnote let me share something with you, the numbers of unemployed young men in this country is growing as is their feelings of frustration and with your attitude that "they just need to work harder" ...believe me you are filling their hearts with resentment and that resentment towards you will not be made quiet by telling them they have made their own beds , now lay in them......to tell a man with no job three kids and is losing his house he just needs to work harder when he has NO job because some corporation has moved the factory where he used to work to China so guys who live off the "hard work" of the stock market can further line their pockets with profits generated by employing virtual slave labor in a police state...that attitude will one day boil over and God help those who have created that resentment.

    • 1 year ago
  • Wetdog
    • +2
      Wetdog  
    • Tyr:

      Excellent post.

      Today is the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. The war over "states rights". Freedom and states rights. A very noble sounding cause. However, the "states rights" that they were talking about was the "freedom" to hold other people in slavery. The freedom to live a life of wealth and luxury while they bought and sold humans forced to work in the fields to support their wealth and luxury.

      The "states rights" against a vile and tyrannical Federal government that was going to "force laws down their throat" was a war by a small minority of wealthy and priviliged class who wanted to maintain their wealth an privilege by forcing their status quo order down the throats of others, slaves. In spite of the clear majority who viewed slavery as immoral and an obvious contradiction to every principle America was founded on.

      Today, we have the same mind set trying to destroy American Ideals by destroying democracy and take away the power of the people to form a government to make laws "to promote the general welfare". This means, that if you want to enjoy the benefits of freedom and democracy, you must pay the price of freedom and democracy. The more benefits you enjoy---the greater the price that you must pay.

    • 1 year ago
  • Tyr
  • Paratus
    • -2
      Paratus  

    • Every year, for as long as I can remember, this same mantra has been trotted out by the Democrats. Why do the Dems see fit to wage class warfare, particularly so laden with lies, at the drop of the hat? As Warren states so well below, it is actually the Democrat Party that is the party of fear, the party of hate, the party of no tolerance.

    • 1 year ago
  • Arizona_Huey
    • +2
      Arizona_Huey  
    • Paratus:

      Keep swallowing that Teapublican kool-aid - that's it... finish every single drop. When you're done, turn on Fox and you'll understand exactly what to say when anything logical and reality based is presented to you! Ignorance is bliss as long as you drink your daily gallon of Teapublican kool-aid

    • 1 year ago
  • Warren_Merrill
    • -1
      Warren_Merrill  

    • Pull the age old rhetoric off the shelf ...

      - people will die
      - people will starve

      And the Republicans are the party of fear? Pa-lease! Scrolling through the posts I see everyone is capable of watching Markey rather than expressing their own thoughts.

      Good 'ole Ed Markey. The people who live on the street of his registered address in his district say he's never there. Maybe it's because he actually lives in wealthy Chevy Chase, MD and not in the blue collar middle class town he represents. Just another case of liberals in charge claiming to be for the common man. They don't want to live like you. They just want live well and tell you how you should live.

    • 1 year ago
  • Wetdog
    • +4
      Wetdog  
    • Warren_Merrill:

      Sort of like you want to live rich and tell the rest of us that you are rich because you deserve to be because you are rich, and everyone who is not rich deserves to be because they are lazy and worthless.

      This all boils down to one thing, you think you are better than everyone else therefore it doesn't matter what happens to anyone else-----you are just a hyena growling over at everyone else over a chunk of meat.

      I don't think you deserve to keep that chunk of meat. From what you've told me, you are nothing but a Wall Street scavenger who made a fortune scavenging off of the people who do work hard.

    • 1 year ago
  • oppressed1
    • -7
      oppressed1  
    • Wetdog:

      You become rich by working hard, that is kind of the point.

      The argument of well i deserve something because im American is bullshit. If you are born poor and die poor, it is because you didnt work hard enough.

    • 1 year ago
  • Tyr
    • +3
      Tyr  
    • Wetdog:

      you took the words right out of my mouth...to argue that cutting off funding for food for poor children will cause them to be hungry is not fear mongering, it is a fact..

    • 1 year ago
  • Warren_Merrill
    • -2
      Warren_Merrill  
    • Wetdog:

      I'm not sure what your post has to do with anything I said. I said the Democrats are pulling out the same old tired rhetoric. A lot of the people on this thread are parroting Markey. I just wanted to point out what a hypocrite Markey is. He's a typical do as I say, not as I do liberal.

      I got in my position by building a company with two partners a corporation saw enough value in to purchase for a significant amount of money. Where I come from that's called the American dream. We took personal risks and reaped the rewards. We also could have gone broke. Each year I use a significant amount of the earnings from my investments to help the disadvantaged. The difference is it's my money, not taxes. I can get it to people who need help rather than the government and politicians who wastes a significant portion.

    • 1 year ago
  • Warren_Merrill
    • -2
      Warren_Merrill  
    • Tyr:

      In many cases there are many departments of government replicating the work of each other. A lot of money is wasted in administration (about 2/3rds). Getting rid of some of these departments and consolidating will provide the same services. There are 46 federal organizations addressing poverty. There's enough federal money invested in poverty to buy a half million homeless people homes. Do you think some could be consolidated and get the same results? The issue is, if the problems are solved Democrats lose their constituents.

    • 1 year ago
  • Wetdog
    • +2
      Wetdog  
    • Warren_Merrill:

      -----" We also could have gone broke."-------

      So it was pure luck, not hard work.

      ----------" Each year I use a significant amount of the earnings from my investments to help the disadvantaged. The difference is it's my money, not taxes. "-------

      So that the few you help can give you their acclaim and gratitude for your generosity out of your endless bounty? The French Aristocracy did the same thing before the revolution. You want us all to be impressed with your great wealth and generosity---but you have no reason to be wealthy other than sheer luck, Generosity without sacrifice is vanity. The people I work with every day have sacrificed their health and wholeness so that you can have your American Dream---many of them even sacrificed their lives-----so that there would even BE an America. What have you sacrificed? You begrudge even paying taxes to support America because:

      --------" The difference is it's my money, not taxes."----------

      I guess that says it all right there. People don't matter----so long as you get what you want. America doesn't matter, as long as you get what you want. Your generosity is boundless---so long as it doesn't cost you anything.

    • 1 year ago
  • Paratus
    • -1
      Paratus  
    • Wetdog:

      I deserve to keep what I have worked for. So do you. Your labor is not more honorable because you wring wrenches rather than push pencils. If I educate myself, work, invest and save then absolutely yes, I deserve what is mine. You certainly do not have a claim to my property. Frankly, from your post, it sounds like you think you are better than anyone else as I get the impression that you believe you are due Merrills earnings either because he may have wealth or worked on Wall Street. Pitiful.

    • 1 year ago
  • wolfess
    • +1
      wolfess  
    • Wetdog:

      From what you've told me, you are nothing but a Wall Street scavenger who made a fortune scavenging off of the people who do work hard.
      If warren is really all that rich and important and busy WHY does he have so much time to make all his stupid comments on EVERY story here on current? I think he spends his day in a public library surfing the web because he's homeless and needs to find shelter for at least part of his day. AND I think he lives in his very own comfortable little fantasy world where what he TYPES becomes his reality -- at least as long as he is in that library, typing away at a computer we taxpaying citizens bought with OUR taxes for those that aren't as lucky as we are.

    • 1 year ago
  • wolfess
    • +1
      wolfess  
    • Warren_Merrill:

      Each year I use a significant amount of the earnings from my investments to help the disadvantaged.
      WHAT disadvantaged people/groups of people/'worthy causes' do you give to? If you are going to put a statement like that out there we have a right to know what causes you contribute to.

    • 1 year ago
  • Warren_Merrill
    • 0
      Warren_Merrill  
    • wolfess:

      You don't have a right to know anything about me other than what I offer. I'm not going to list the organizations. By having the courage to not hide behind a chat name I've indentified enough about myself to receive a death threat and threat of physical harm to my daughter from someone on this site who ID'ed where I live within a few miles.

      I work with or give money to the following causes: homeless, poor children, injured veterans families and sick and disabled children.

    • 1 year ago
  • Warren_Merrill
    • 0
      Warren_Merrill  
    • Wetdog:

      I don't know how to respond to this kind of drivel. All I can tell you is we were both at the fork in the road. I took one road. You took another. You're angry and jealous. I'm living happily ever after.

    • 1 year ago
  • Warren_Merrill
    • 0
      Warren_Merrill  
    • wolfess:

      Who said I'm important? I guess I was when I employed a lot of people. Now I'm only important to my friends, family, the charities I help and the clients of my one person consulting firm.

      It would be easy to go on a fiscal conservative board and do a group hug. But I don't need the reassurance and self esteem boost. I come here to exchange ideas and debate the intelligent people on this board. Unfortunately you're not one of them. Have a nice day.

    • 1 year ago
  • Wetdog
    • 0
      Wetdog  
    • Warren_Merrill:

      I am not mad. I am not jealous.

      =========" All I can tell you is we were both at the fork in the road. I took one road. You took another."===========

      That is true.

      Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

      Whose woods these are I think I know.
      His house is in the village though;
      He will not see me stopping here
      To watch his woods fill up with snow.

      My little horse must think it queer
      To stop without a farmhouse near
      Between the woods and frozen lake
      The darkest evening of the year.

      He gives his harness bells a shake
      To ask if there is some mistake.
      The only other sound's the sweep
      Of easy wind and downy flake.

      The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
      But I have promises to keep,
      And miles to go before I sleep,
      And miles to go before I sleep.

      Robert Frost, New Hampshire, 1923

      I am not mad. I am not jealous. I do not have much in material things----but I do not need much.

      Enjoy your money.

      If you want me, I will be:

      Sitting by the roadside, on a summer's day,
      Chatting with my mess mates, passing time away.
      Lying in the shadows, underneath the trees,
      Goodness, how delicious, eating goober peas.

    • 1 year ago
  • wolfess
    • 0
      wolfess  
    • Warren_Merrill:

      I come here to exchange ideas and debate the intelligent people on this board. Unfortunately you're not one of them. Have a nice day.
      Wow! More talking points ... from your responses to me it would appear I hit a nerve -- you did nothing to clarify your viewpoint, you just attacked me (unfortunately you're not one of them). Your response shows I nailed you. And YOU have a nice day!

    • 1 year ago
  • Straighttalker
  • good_stuff
  • mitekillem
  • madammarsh
  • sammykatz
  • BigAL72
    • +6
      BigAL72  

    • Republican values do not work in a modern America. Conservatism combined with a highly religious environment is not only turning off people but frightening them too. Watching how much right wing candidates have to lie to America's most ignorant to get elected these days just shows how unpopular their backward thinking idealogue is.

    • 1 year ago
  • JohnA
  • SFirman
  • JohnA
  • bike10
  • sammykatz
  • oppressed1
    • -8
      oppressed1  

    • Typical liberal cookie cutter story. 70000 children are going to die hu? The only thing the story is missing is smothering grandpa, and feeding granny dog food.

    • 1 year ago
  • CreditFigaro
  • bailey78
  • bailey78
  • ii386
    • +1
      ii386  
    • oppressed1:

      You must've become a soldier because, by the looks of it, you have a great capacity for depth and articulation of your arguments. I can see why the military would want someone your academic superiority to join their ranks. I mean, instead of counter-arguments, you just bypass the whole thing and shrug it off as nonsense. Someone so confident in their intelligence and analysis must surely have at LEAST a college degree, if not several...

      Unfortunately, I am being sarcastic and your thoughtless responses lead one only to assume that you don't have anything of any substance to offer...ever. GTFO TROLL!
      We all know the military takes whatever dumb pieces of shit it can get. People join because they have NOTHING else going for them--sounds like you! Did I mention your comments irritate me?

    • 1 year ago
  • mspray11
  • oppressed1
  • oppressed1
    • +1
      oppressed1  
    • ii386:

      o btw soldier aant as retarded as u limosine liberals thunk we are. Sometimes as beings as smarts as you edumicated folks are we just chooses to take up arms against the enemies and do what the country ask. I wish i haz a lioghters to brurn ups mu draft card. Or had enoughhs brains to not enlists durins a wars.

      narf

    • 1 year ago
  • ii386
    • -1
      ii386  
    • oppressed1:

      I'm glad to see I struck a chord with you and you feel the need to qualify yourself to me via the internet but in reality you're likely a lying sack of shit. The truth is that your comments speak for your intelligence level. Claim to be as bright as you want but when your comments consist of "liberalism is a disease" then you have taken on the idiot role and you wear it surprisingly well...I can only imagine why...

    • 1 year ago
  • oppressed1
    • +2
      oppressed1  
    • ii386:

      lol sorry about that didnt mean to go all crazy on the internet. Im on leave and was drinking last night.

      I wasn't lying, but it doesn't matter how smart i am or at least think i am because of some standardized testing. I became a soldier, because there was a war going on and i was the right age to fight. The nation has asked its youth to fight many wars, and i didnt want to say when i was 75 well during the 10 years we were at war i sat around and smoke pot in my dorm room. After i get back from my deployment in 2012. I am going to go back to college. Sorry i got all crazy : /

      friends?

    • 1 year ago
  • budsnews
  • bailey78
  • KB723
  • mspray11
  • KB723
    • -1
      KB723  
    • mspray11:

      Indeed I got sick of it... It's almost like saying, "Yeah I know our lack of standing by the required OSHA laws has caused you to lose your arm. but at the End of the Day, you still have the other...." Total BS!!!!

    • 1 year ago
  • mspray11
  • KB723
  • mspray11
  • KB723
  • grandavi
  • Tyr
    • +7
      Tyr  
    • grandavi:

      would you care to address the fact that the deficits run up by the last three Republican presidents dwarf any other administration? You see, you wish to argue the fact that during the Clinton years there was in fact a balanced budget...but that never occured during any of the Republican years...yet there was not one peep heard about the deficit during those years...and a guy like yourself who seem to often state that they are neither a Republican or a Democrat annoy the Hell out of me, either state and support a position and or all you are doing is making noise. Interestingly enough it's always the empty wagon that makes the most noise.

    • 1 year ago
  • grandavi
  • JohnA
  • Tyr
  • Tyr
    • 0
      Tyr  
    • grandavi:

      When an individual cannot offer any relevant rebuttal they often resort to the Ad Hominem attack, name calling etc..so thanks for reinforcing my original assessment of both you and your post.

    • 1 year ago
  • KoolMonkey
  • littlwarrior
  • Arizona_Huey
    • +12
      Arizona_Huey  

    • I don't blame the Republican Teabagger party for this - I blame the American idiots that continue to vote these types in based solely on the fact that they are Republicans! It is ridiculous to continuously vote based on strictly a party affiliation, especially when those elected officials year after year after year after year do nothing but pass legislation and tax cuts/credits to the determent of those middle and lower class ignorant fools that voted for them, and to the betterment those who earn multi-millions per year. The bad news for this country - you can't cure stupidity, apathy, and ignorance of reality!

    • 1 year ago
  • MikeMaddigan
  • gatormouth
    • +12
      gatormouth  

    • The people plundering America are very rational people who are ruled by their own self interest and greed. To call those who de-industr­ialized and outsourced our jobs, manufactur­ing, and industrial capital as somehow incompeten­t is a misdirecti­on. They knew and know what they did. The decades in which they slowly eroded and re-wrote OUR laws to give Multinatio­nal (or better, Post National) corporatio­ns power over the destiny of our nation was not incompeten­ce in action. It was deceit and subversion for power and money, but it was not incompeten­ce.
      And although the Republican party was the champion for the Post Nationals in this by allowing lobbyists to buy their votes in a "Pay for Play" model resembling that of a brothel, BOTH major parties were involved. Neo Cons and Neo Liberals are opposite faces of the same bogus currency. Too many in congress are in the pay of non-nation­al interests intent upon changing our nation into a corporate directed colony. This is the threat, national or foreign, that these oath breakers swore to protect us from! Instead, they use wedge issues to keep us distracted and divided, and quietly push the Corporatis­t agenda. Once the word "Quisling" was used to describe this kind of collaborat­or.

    • 1 year ago
  • madammarsh
  • MikeMaddigan
    • +5
      MikeMaddigan  
    • gatormouth:

      You've nailed it here. The only thing I'd add... the crackpots and crazies coming out of the right wing to run for office lately are the home grown, hand picked stooges of the plutocracy. They provide the Republican party with non-questioning mouth pieces for spreading propaganda. They vote the party line as robotic automatons, while giving the rest of us comic relief AND the false impression that Republicans are simply incompetent and misdirected. Wrong! The Repubs working the strings are very calculated long range planners and executioners who are killing the American middle class by design, not by mistake. The far right hijacked the debate in this country a long time ago. While GOP operatives talk circles around our President and Congressional leadership, their powerful consituency (the top 1%, Wall Street, and the multi-national corporations) quietly steal America blind. No resistance from the majority of Americans. We choose to let the theft continue while buying into the bogus argument that Americans must accept doing more with less. Lowered expectations are more acceptable to the average American than questioning the system which allows millionaires and billionaires to take more and more of our national wealth while everyone else sacrifices the future for more gains by the top 1-2%.

    • 1 year ago
  • HarukoHaruhara
    • +6
      HarukoHaruhara  

    • Republican values: "I got mine. Screw you.

      Unless you're a faceless, nameless fetus. We care about you. Just as long as my taxes don't ever go toward you after you're born, and after we've told your mom what she can and cannot do with her own body."

    • 1 year ago
  • Kitten_of_D00M
  • chrisntom
    • +3
      chrisntom  

    • the more the far-right is allowed to voice their opposition to America , the more I want to have them brought up on traitorous charges. REally? they don't care...they are not genetically able to comprehend the good in giving to the less fortuanate......yet THEY are the CHRISTIANS....got news, TEABAGGERS, you will be turned to "salt" because you just keep form loving all the destruction you have caused...you love it....chaos beats logic!

    • 1 year ago
  • hoosierdaddy
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
    • +5
      COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM  

    • It all comes down to how effectively republican corporate activists can block the public from benefiting from use of it's money. It all comes down to how directly, and how much, they can channel our money directly into the pockets of corporate Big Wigs and Fat Cats.

      I say: FUND PEOPLE! NOT WARS!

      I say: No tax cuts before ending all wars, closing the thousands of foreign military bases which are sucking up our money, and forcing corporations to pay all of their current and past taxes!

      I say: FUND PEOPLE! NOT CORPORATIONS!

      Text it, tweet it, facebook it and take it to the streets.

      NO BUDGET CUTS WITHOUT ENDING THE WARS AND COLLECTING TAXES FROM THE CORPORATIONS!

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
    • +5
      remanns  

    • - - -just bare in mind,.....in my opinion,.....anything that ACTUALLY does even BEGIN to curb the power of the "elites club",.....to any real and lasting extent, will cause the clubs and guns and thugs of the police state to be displayed in earnest,......they only even go through the MOTIONS of "talking and playing nice", while they are successfully taking YOUR money with little hindrance.

      Its just good to keep that in mind. Be ready.

    • 1 year ago
  • zeropiate
    • +5
      zeropiate  

    • I, quite frankly, don't care what values are possessed by Republicans. No pun intended. Maybe, if Democrats broke themselves of their neurotic obsession with and defined themselves independently of their ideological opponents on the other side of the aisle, they would have had more electoral success in the last 40+ years. Know thyself, for God's sake! I am sorry but, rightly or wrongly, the average man on the street has only two views of our modern electoral system. The one with the party they know but may or may not agree with, the Republicans, and the one that is solely defined by opposition to it, the Democrats. Granted, the latter is so revolted by the monumental ignorance and stupidity of the former that the only thing they can offer is reflexive absolute opposition. Which plays perfectly into the hands of Republicans by putting the Democrats behind-the-eight-ball in the minds and hearts of most voters. Thus, does the fool confound the scholar. Votes don't need to be stolen because voters have already deceived themselves into thinking that at least they are not voting for the "other" party that opposes everything. All in all, it is a brilliant strategy, outweighed only by its evil.

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
    • +2
      remanns  
    • zeropiate:

      That is an interesting take. +^d The difficulty the Democratic party has in forming a cohesive comprehensive platform,...is that it is a "everyone and the kitchen sink" PROBLEMATICALLY pluralist and diverse rag tag bunch of the "everyone else but the plutocrats and fundamentalists " sets ! ( Its sub sets really DONT necessarily agree with each other and share the same priorities.

    • 1 year ago
  • wolfess
  • thedirtman
  • dinm76
    • +5
      dinm76  

    • Republicanism = Cult
      To be a Republican requires two things.
      You first must be controled by (Believes) which do not require factual backup. They call this (Faith) Very important because that will absolve them of any (quilt) they may feel when reality hits them in the face, (every time!)
      The second is a complete lack of (Empathy). Empathy is considered a (Foolish weakness).
      The GOP is a cancer on our society and it should be seen as the (Social Disease) it truly is.

    • 1 year ago
  • royulery
    • +4
      royulery  

    • the republicans want the deficit it makes their money more valuable. look at what happened in the great depression; the wealthy built fantastic castles (like hearst castle) in the country sides and threw lavish parties. my father had a salvage business and we scrapped out many of those lavish castles, the opulence was obscene. one salvage business built a resort out of pieces of over a hundred castles, every room a different theme.

    • 1 year ago
  • SindeeGaeta
  • moodyblue
  • NC54
  • SFirman
  • alexandrek
  • SFirman
  • wayseeker
  • twinite
    • +7
      twinite  

    • Wow....looks like unless you a middle aged white fat cat with a corporate job, your screwed. Nothing new however.....

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • Milieu
  • chrisntom
  • SFirman
    • +1
      SFirman  
    • chrisntom:

      I hate to think he really believes giving more tax breaks to the rich and cutting entitalments will make things better. This man needs to go. Same old republican values.

    • 1 year ago
  • Richard_Wyatt
  • thedirtman
  • samthesixth
  • samthesixth
  • letsliveinpeace
  • sammykatz
    • +14
      sammykatz  

    • The actions of the GOP and their corporate sponsors are tantamount to waging a civil war over states rights issues again: They absolutely hate the Federal system of government we have, and want to see the National government so weakened by the lack of revenue, that it is rendered useless. The war being waged in Washington, D.C. is aimed at the national government; newly elected GOP governors are waging war on the citizens of their respective states to increase the power of the state: we're heading back to the good ol' days of the Confederacy, only this time CSA will stand for the Corporate States of America.

      Ryan's Path to Prosperity is a road back to the 19th century, and the glory days of no government regulations, no unions, no civil rights, no child labour laws, no safety net for the disadvataged or ill, etc. It is a path to pure laissez faire economics of hands off in the worst sense. There is no compassion, no empathy, no accountability, and no social contract. We need to let our representatives, and especially POTUS, know that Ryan's plan is not acceptable. Nor are any of the budget cuts to social programs that POTUS is proposing. The Congressional Progressive Caucus has a fair and balanced budget plan that needs to be enacted.

    • 1 year ago
  • letsliveinpeace
  • sammykatz
  • David_H
  • sammykatz
    • +4
      sammykatz  
    • David_H:

      The GOP and their corporate sponsors are advocating for total deregulation of businesses, and abolishing taxes for the wealthiest 2% and corporations: that IS laissez faire economonics. I agree with you that Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, et al should have been allowed to fail. The Glass Steagall Act, which would have guarded against banking malfeasance, was scraped (under President Clinton to further his NAFTA agenda with the full blessings of both the large corporations and the banking community) leaving the banks to self regulate. Relying on the banks to regulate themselves is allowing the fox to stand watch over the hen house. However, had the banks been allowed to fail, the cost would have been enormous (FDIC payments) and a worldwide depression would have ensued.

      It's disturbing that in the US the word socialism is considered an expletive deletive. It is a term that describes an economic model where there is both government ownership of resources and private ownership. Britain is a social democracy, as is France, Germany, etc. Their governments control and regulate some goods and services for the public welfare (another word we shudder at here), while allowing private ownership as well.

      It is totally understandable to be frustrated with DC and confused about different budget plans and their impact on us individually. I would suggest pulling up both Ryan's Path to Prosperity and the Congressional Progressive Caucus People's Plan and read both. Take notes, make a venn diagram to compare and contrast the two, and ask yourself, which plan benefits the majority of the population the most; which one helps seniors; which one helps the disadvantaged and the sick; which one helps students; which one helps homeowners; which one protects the environment--the air we breath and the water we drink--the most; which one protects the health and safety of workers; which one will generate the most revenue and from whom; which one will rewrite the current tax codes to make them more equitable; which one will generate jobs (and it is not not paying taxes: the corporations are sitting on over two trillion dollars in net profit--they are not putting that money back into our economy); and so on...I know you will find that unless you are a multi millionaire and/or a major corporation, the CPP plan would be the most beneficial, fair, and balanced.

      The reality is that President Obama's plan is somewhere in between the two plans above; citizens need to inundate POTUS and their legislators advocating for the CPP plan. We can not afford to continue subsidizing corporations who pay little to no taxes (using our existing tax codes) and who refuse to create jobs in this country until regulation and taxes are gone or severely reduced. And the same applies to the extremely wealthy who pay the lowest personal income tax since 1950. Closing loop holes and raising the tax rate on corporations and the top 2% will neither bankrupt the corporations nor send the top 2% into poverty.

      It is totally unconscionable to continually cut programs that benefit the greater good when times are economically difficult., or to expect those struggling the most to continually be the sacrificial lambs for the greedy. (That's my closing "commie, pinko" cry for the night!)

    • 1 year ago
  • Wetdog
    • +6
      Wetdog  
    • sammykatz:

      Tomorrow is the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.

      According to the secessionists(rich aristocracy) the war was about about states rights, and excessive government. The "state's rights" they were talking about was slavery, their right to legally own people.

      Ironically, the president who opposed them, Lincoln, was the first Republican.

      Now, we are having the same battle all over again. The difference now is the battle is not just over Negro slaves----the battle now is over economic slaves. It doesn't matter what color or ethic background you are, if you make less than $250,000 per year, they think you should be their slave.

      It is strange how times change, but people stay the same.

    • 1 year ago
  • madammarsh
    • +3
      madammarsh  
    • sammykatz:

      Agree with you but in order for it to be a war or a battle, both sides have to be armed. For the moment we are, but they are busy taking them away: unions, which, like corporations, are considered people and have the same rights in campaign fund contributions; free speech and freedom to assemble; and, most importantly, our vote. Wisconsin is the first battleground for these basic 'armaments' of the citizenry. Once they've wrested these from us, it's no longer a war but a massacre. And all of this will be expedited if we allow ourselves to be distracted by red herrings like Glenn Beck or 'reality' shows. Circuses, without the bread.

    • 1 year ago
123
1 - 100 of 225
more from Community:
from the community

top videos