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But…but…Scott Brown’s election proves that the GOP is surging.
After Republican Scott Brown’s election to the Senate in Massachusetts on Jan. 19, a coalition of liberal groups released a survey of Bay State voters who backed Obama in 2008 and who voted for Brown or did not vote in the special election. The findings, according to MoveOn.org, one of the groups, showed that respondents “worry that Democrats in power have not done enough to combat the policies of the Bush era” and want “stronger, more progressive action on health care reform.”
Those findings parallel MoveOn’s priorities; other surveys might suggest another course for Democrats. But the poll illustrates a shift in tactics by liberal groups, which are increasingly funding polls that buttress their view that Democrats should govern as a populist, liberal party instead of from the center. The blog Firedoglake recently released polls showing the political weakness of some conservative Democrats, whom the blog has been criticizing.
The idea that Americans gave Democrats control of every lever of government just so they could act like Republicans never made much sense.
Some of the results of the new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll about the GOP are here.
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“The idea that Americans gave Democrats control of every lever of government just so they could act like Republicans never made much sense.”
True. But to a vast majority of independents “Blank Slate Obama” sold himself as the tax-cutting, waste-eliminating, sensible centrist.
Progressives in the Democrat Party assume that the country has moved more left but I believe that they are misreading the profile of the independent voter.
Fixed it for ya.
It’s a center right country and left wingnuts can poll, gnash their teeth, stomp their feet, whatever… won’t change it.
Speaking of left wingnuts – Olbermann and Kos on the same screen… that’s like the right’s Limbaugh and Hannity occupying pixals at the same time *shudder*.
Sure is early in the mornin’ for Troll Bingo
Wow! There must be an auto alert function bringing some folks out so quickly in the AM
How’s the rain over your way SD?
Had a little mist yesterday afternoon but that’s it. Here I was thinkin’ we’d been pretty troll-free for a while. Oh, well, all good things must come to an end.
Just do not feed Rove.
Oh look, an Obama apologist is interviewing another Obama apologist on a show that used to be called “Countdown Iraq” which helps spin lies to get us into the Iraq war.
Oh yeah, and didn’t that recovery dot gov website have to admit a couple months back that they had been screwing with the numbers of the “created or saved” jobs? And, in case I am missing something, didn’t Olbermann cover that story and get indignant over the fact that the site was fudging the numbers?
Marcos called Obama’s phony anti-bank outrage “Gold” right after the state of the union speech. Do I think we really need to keep hearing from someone you puts a vote-count value on something like that?
Then why are more GOPers than Dems retiring. With 10% unemployment they should all be staying what are we missing?
They made a better deal with lobbying firms.
the republicans succeeded in the beginning days, when they were all over the radio and tv telling everyone, “the democrats better govern from the right, this is a center right country not center left”
which of course rediculous, this country is center for sure, that’s the definiition of center, however the “center” is not the way the gop defines it, the real center would be defined by the gop as “far left”
we voted to get rid of the gop, that didn’t work, they are all over the teevee even when they fail, even when everything they’ve done has damaged the economy and the prospects for a comfortable future, they still get media play as if they are experts
more
better
progressives
I think it’s time we started marketing the third party, not as a stand alone, begin by marketing this party as “progressive democrat”, that will get a real third party happening without growing pains, it might even convert the existing democratic districts into progressive and it might just take over the party the way the “neo con” policies and the “libertarian policies” ahve taken over the gop
just as the gop is not even close to the gop of yore, nor are these democrats those of yore, we need more yore!
*”we need more yore”*…hmmm…might be a fine diary
They both call out the republicans for disagreeing with Gen Betrayus… yet, how long ago was it they they both DISAGREED with him themselves? Uh, it was right up until Betrayus started working for a democrat.
It is? Looks awful BLUE out here to me. Now if you mean its RED in all those open spaces like the minds of most Reich wingers & places like UTAH, OK, I can buy that argument. Your wrong the majority is not right of center its left of center.
True. But I am not alone. Exactly what are the policies of the Bush Era that had independent voters upset. 1)war 2)deficits, spending & taxes
Given that Scott Brown ran as a strong pro-Afghanistan, tough on terror candidate and also ran as a fiscal conservative while winning the LARGE majority of independent voters says it all.
Further, self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals in all 50 states of the union, according to the Gallup Poll. Independents surely make up a large part of that group.
Obama’s new budget will further anger and motivate the ‘fiscally conservative’ independent voter.
excuse me?
he was marketed by the republicans as “the most liberal democrat in government”
his tax cut strategy was aimed at the middle class who have been paying the price of reagan/bush wealthy tax cuts, a tax cut strategy that created the problems we face today
we needed middle class relief, we need jobs programs, we need assets for the investments made, when we use a “tax cut” as a stimulous it’s an investment that needs to be returned with product or revenue, unlike the rediculous “tax cut stimulous” marketed as “supply side”, a rediculous concept claiming if you give money to people who have more then they will ever spend, more money then what you gave them will make it into the economy
magical thinking and people bought it, we have to reclaim the original tax codes that created the wealth of this nation, that expanded the middle class, that made this country great
a fine first step obama is taking, and possibly the only thing I am happy with him so far, is allowing those rediculous gifts to the wealthy from bush to expire
that’s a first step, then he needs to reverse the redistribution of tax burden, then he needs to punish companies that use below living wage labor, and punish companies that export american jobs overseas because they can get children and slaves doing the work for pennies on the dollar
a host of things that needs to be done that might come close to fulfilling his campaign speechmaking
Lobbying firms are having a banner year under this administration.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/55_79/vested/42482-1.html?referrer=bk
let’s hope we can field strong progressives to take those seats
you know, I just thought of something;
the republicans have managed infiltrating the democratic party with blue dogs, (obama and lieberman come to mind)
we need a similar progran, we need to begin infiltrating the republican party with progressives
*how to do*
“we voted to get rid of the gop, that didn’t work, they are all over the teevee even when they fail, even when everything they’ve done has damaged the economy and the prospects for a comfortable future, they still get media play as if they are experts” Maybe, that’s what we thought we voted for. Looks to me what we got was just more GOPTV 24/7 and another slightly less toxic version of Corporatist Gov’t.
yup, we did not get what we thought we were paying for, that’s for sure
U.S. night raids, torture, disappearances in Afghanistan being described on democracynow.
As Marines Move In, Taliban Fight a Shadowy War
Good piece from NYT
If the GOP really believed they were returning to power they would stay in office. Retirements from office are linked to being the party out of power. Why GOPers are retiring now puzzles me.
Anand Gopal was the democracynow guest, talking about this article.
As I asked you a couple of times yesterday, what specific programs at all levels of government do you want to cut? Local, State, and Federal. I ask for all levels as the local and state governments receive large amounts of funding from the Federal government.
And if you’re a little confused on some programs, you might check out the Seminal diary from last night by Bill Egnor on how Colorado Springs is coping.
We need a tea bag type Progressive movement to put the blow torch to the Blue dogs and Dinocrats that have taken over OUR party. Its most of us that are the TRUE Dems. not the elite Corporatist that say they represent us. The tea baggers on the right of the Goper party have it easier because that party is already largely in the hands of the hard Reich wing anyway. They’re just being used though by the Corporatist to kill any REAL reforms and to maintain party discipline in the GOPer wing of the party. I know some of these creatures locally. They’re angry for all the wrong reasons. Scary heavily armed bunch of “brown shirts”. Many of them see America as a kind of Weimar Republic redux. Give them a good house painter with a pocket full of enemies and we’ll be fighting this crowd in the streets ala Germany 1928-1932 soon enough. We all see how that turned out.
I’m waiting to see what Bill Young does. He hasn’t had a viable challenger until now. He always waits until close to the filing deadline to announce. Charlie Justice, a state D senator is running against him but is saving his energy and dust to see what Young’s gonna do. Good move. Young will turn 80 in December.
Ya musta jinxed me. Now it’s rainin’. Light, cold rain.
Yes, you heard me right…Obama sold himself as something he is NOT.
Obama’s unsustainable spending and deficits will require that taxes be raised on all Americans and people do not buy into the rosy economic projections.
Further, those with the power to tax never learn from history.
Have you ever heard of the “revolt of the kulaks” phenomenon in which the producers of society would rather not produce than be subjected to confiscatory taxation. A related phenomenon is tax avoidance, in which people structure their lives so as so avoid creating taxable income.
When taxes are high, revenue falls.
Schadenfreude is not sound economic policy, however good it makes one feel temporarily. Forcing ‘the rich’ to pay their ‘fair share’ will not pay for all the spending, or the deficits created by this administration. There are not enough Bill Gates’ in the world to do that.
So those who make just over $250,000 but are decidedly NOT Bill Gates, will be hardest hit.
Tutors, personal coaches, landscapers, housekeepers, interior designers, florists, manicurists and a host of other self-employed and small business owners have already seen a decline in business, are barely keeping their heads above water or have already closed up shop. The ‘wealthy’, upon who these small business owners depend on for their livelihood, streamline their budgets and spending habits as they try to recoup investment losses earmarked for college educations and retirement and hold off on major purchases or projects until they see just how bad of a hit their wallets will take.
We would have had Obama not told all the national offices to cool it. At least it forced them to show their true colours.
You sound more like a Paulite libertarian than someone left of center.
Conservatives will never buy what the progressives are selling. “Infiltrate”?!
Good luck with that.
There have always lobbying jobs for politicians the party out of power retires to lobbying jobs the party that is or expects to be in power does leave to become lobbyists.
The Trolls can say what ever they want but this doesn’t fit.
If not a “house painter” they always the choice of a failed female tv sports reporter, or a multi-marriage “history” professor, or the “smart” brother of a failed president. The list is almost endless of the options they have to chose from who would restore the pride and the power of the homeland.
nor would democrats buy what the replicans are selling, yet there the party is, infilitrated
by the way, there are no cocervatives in the party anymore, the gop has been highjacked by wingnuts calling themselves neo cons
your party has already been infiltrated, you just didn’t see it, simple stuff infiltrating concervatives, simple indeed
I find it very interesting that progressives feel that the party is too centrist and centrists feel the party has been taken over by the far left. Quite the civil war brewing.
Obama has done nothing but confuse all of those who supported him. Voters thought they were getting a president who would end the wars and put a stop to runaway spending and exploding deficits.
The president has done neither. He has been exposed. This budget will further alienate the majority of voters who know that this type of spending is simply unsustainable.
I am decidedly NOT a Paulite. But I do have libertarian leanings. Individual freedom, economic and personal are at the core of my political philosophy. I am decidedly centrist in most of my views, which will no doubt cause many readers here to grimace.
The country has moved left my friend, it was mostly already there…otherwise a ‘black’ percieved liberal wouldn’t have been elected President ( commander in chief). It’s the President and some in Congress that moved away from the center of gravity which is solid left.
Seems like there is a lot of that going around lately.
I no longer grimace at centrists with libertarian leanings. I ignore them. xin loi.
I think you give Republicans too much credit.
The DNC wanted a majority of Dems in congress so they backed anyone who could win who would hang a D after his name.
That’s where the Blue Dogs came from.
I find it very interesting that you have skipped over Dakine’s question at 24.
Nah, I just had already gotten that over here
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/3244
You have theories from chicago school economists who have done a great job running the economy so far.
We have history even with an idiot king who losses almost every war France survived 73 years.
Bush almost destroyed us in 8 years.
tell me about it, this is why reagan and bush failed, all they did was spend spend spend, but they got nothing for that spending but a redistribution of middle class wealth
rediculouls right wing prooaganda, and you have fallen for it
when taxes are relieved to the weatlhy not only does revenue fall but production falls, a lose lose
the ONLY way you can get revenue to increase with tax releif is when that investment is targeted at industry that we need as a society for various reasons
tax deductions across the board can NOT increase revenue AND the sevices attached to those taxes will fall, services we voted in, serives that provide JOBS, living wage JOBS, permantent, productive, efficient JOBS
you do anything but go on with rediculous talking points as if they are facts?
doesn’t work here, try again on the corporate driven sites you gather the rubbush
jobs indie, jobs, real, living wage jobs, tax distribution back to the sucessful codes that made our middle class great
jobs, not corporate “pay as little as possible” work but living wage jobs
now, if you were on board with living wage laws, and on board with punishing companies who take living wage jobs overseas, and punishing foreign product comming from below living wage, then some of your points concerning private jobs over productive government job programs might be valid
otherwise they fail
me, off to work
Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.
US KIA Irak: 4,375
US KIA Afghanistan: 978
Iraki and Afghan casualties: estimates vary to over 1.5M
US MBS 2010: 3,968
Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.
Namaste
The inability to seperate opinion from fact is far more consistant with rush than with Ron Paul.
Did I miss the judge lifting the gag order on O’Keefe so he could launch his p.r. rehab tour with Hannity? Guess Sarah wasn’t available to come on and talk about her royalty laundering?
I think what we are seeing is the traditional GOP and Democratic parties are struggling to redefine themselves.
Under Bush the ‘Compassionate Conservatism’ undermined the fiscal conservatives of the GOP while the Evangelical Christian Right began preaching and trying to convert us all to their particular brand of ‘political religion.’ This caused many Republicans, who identified and experienced and subscribed to the Reagan brand of conservatism to move away from the party.
Bill Clinton captured many of these voter for the Democrats, successfully triangulating and co-opting many ‘conservative’ policies like welfare reform.
The growth of independent voters come from the ranks of disaffected conservative voters who have been swinging back and forth between the parties since Reagan left office.
heh greetings
Nice Comment add add some links and its a diary
What’s a living wage?
The average worker in China makes $4100 per year.
Does that count?
I am sorry but I do not consider freedom from racial prejudice to be the sole provenance of the Democratic party!
We will simply have to agree to disagree.
Your right going on tv after a gag order was issued the kid wants to go to jail to be a martyr he wants street cred I say give it to him I think he will find out its not easy.
I have replied to you. Education. Energy. HHS. EPA. Are just a few of the areas where reforms and cuts could be made. This does NOT mean that I do not favor any regulation/protections but I simply believe that a government that is closer to the people is the most effective.
I feel that Washington serves itself and its special interests.
However I do not claim to have all the answers. All I know is that I feel the country is moving in the wrong direction. Our spending & deficits are unsustainable. Handing over more power and control to a federal government, centralized in the corrupt corridor between Washington & Wall Street will do little to improve my opportunity to exercise my economic and personal freedom. In fact, I am not so desperate, depressed or dependent to surrender my liberty to the federal government and a bunch of ‘we know what’s best for you’ bureaucrats.
New post up top…
No we don’t the Dems have racists to like Harry Reid the GOP however George Allen Macaca, Trent Lott
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Lott#Resignation
Or lets put it another way just how many African Americans and Hispanics do you think watch Fox News?
Forcing ‘the rich’ to pay their ‘fair share’ will not pay for all the spending, or the deficits created by this administration. There are not enough Bill Gates’ in the world to do that.
The top 2% take the first 40% of the nations income. Claiming they shouldn’t pay 40% or more of the cost of running the country is absurd.
“Obama has done nothing but confuse all of those who supported him. Voters thought they were getting a President who would end the wars and put a stop to runaway spending and exploding deficits.” I agree he has caused more then a little confusion. For those that voted for him because they thought he was going to be a right wing conservative or a “real democrat” he’s been a disappointment. In reality he’s just what he is a Corporatist. I listened to one of his guys on TV last night Larry Summers ( whose face looks like its going to crack when he tries to smile) and he was trying to do the Obama 2 step which is to beat up on the Big CORPS. while telling us to our faces he spent the last week dining with their CEOS and that they really aren’t bad people. Talk about cognitive dissonance! As the Native Americans ( Indians) used to say Obamarahma speaks with “forked tongue.”
Specifics. All you’ve listed is generalities. What specific Energy programs? What specific Education programs? What specific EPA programs? What from HHS? What from your local government do you want to cut? From your state Government?
And how you want to pay for things at all levels as well.
Or do you want ALL these departments abolished?
If so, I hope your children will forgive you for allowing their future to be so polluted because of no EPA to enforce and try to clean up the environment.
Some deficit spending in necessary. Reagan did not fail, no matter how you try to rewrite history. Bush is another story.
Keynesian economics has gotten us into this mess with unsustainable entitlement programs and the runaway growth of the federal government.
The private sector is where it is at. That is where you will see freedom, ambition, creativity, productivity, and innovation transformed into successful technologies, goods and services that advance the well-being of humanity.
The question is not IF we should have a free-market, capitalistic economic system, but what level of involvement should our government have in promoting and regulating the private sector.
Right now we have ‘cronie capitalism’ where government picks the economic winners and losers. We buy a failing GM to protect the unions. We bailout Wall Street firms that are big political players.
We implement entitlement programs, loan programs, social programs to ‘level the playing field’ on a planet where ‘life is NOT fair’ in the hope of creating a Utopian society that will always be a mirage, while burdening our citizens with spending and debt that cripple our economy.
The federal government is too big. Just like a failing company, it needs to be streamlined. Broken up into parts. Successful parts stay, wasteful parts, disguarded.
Before we can even think about adding another entitlement to our budget we must first fix or get rid of what is broken.
That process is just beginning.
Probably more than you think. And way more than MSNBC!
I agree. The very HEART and SOUL of Progressive thought is just that! The RICH take the Lion’s share of the wealth and income and they should pay the Lion’s share of the taxes NOT the rest of us. I hear this absurd idea of a flat tax and that Russia has one now and that we should have one and I want to wretch. Go to Russia and see the results of a flat tax. A return to Czarism and a slow motion return to feudal rule in the countryside. In another generation or two serfdom will return to Russia. The same dynamic toward neo-feudalism exists here as well, if we don’t stop it. Reaganism is just that reduced to its essence as is so called Libertarianism.( AKA right wing anarchy.)
Well of course they’d watch Fox News.
Everyone likes to laugh
I am not going to be pulled into a wonky discussion. I simply do not have the expertise. I know what I believe and I hope to elect representatives who can transform my beliefs into sound policies and good governance.
Not all government is good government. Surely you must agree or are you just a blind ideologue?
You really are Chris Steiner of The Liberation Station, aren’t you?
So you want to continue to spew vague bumper sticker talking points, without specifics to back them up, and you don’t want to be challenged on them because you admit you don’t really know what you are talking about?
I certainly hope that you no longer accept the Compassionate Conservative catch phrase for W. He is narcisstic, selfish, and let many others set his programs. One cannot love war and be called compassionate. Please look for truer words. Read his treatment of Carla Faye Tucker or his history of killing small animals. Mean, cruel, yes; compassionate…Never.
Are clothes expensive in The Matrix?
Well,maybe you should start learning that wonky stuff before you come to a web site that covers all the wonky stuff.
It might give you some credibility rather than continually spouting the latest Libertarian talking points.
And I agree that not all government is good government. Just as not all businesses are honest and ethical and willing to work for the commonweal. The private sector has far more crooks and liars than government, who create far more lasting damage than the governments at all levels can accomplish. Companies like WR Grace, Altria, KBR, Halliburton, and many others have done far more to hurt people that most any government action could do from the departments you name.
Which is why I ask for what specifically you want to do away with (and why)
I never bought that line from W. IMO compassion is best practiced and implemented outside of government.
Again, I disagree with your assertion that the private sector creates far more lasting damage than the federal government.
Bailouts are a primary example. If GM had been allowed to fail we would have saved taxpayers billions of dollars. What would have happened to GM? Profitable entities could have been spun off and sold to creative, competent investors who would have seized upon the opportunity to form a viable, competitive company from the ashes of a failed business model.
Indie, your ignorance is clearly independent of your independence. Obama has inherited these massive deficits. That is a fact, and it is indisputable. He inherited the grotesque baseling, and an economy on the brink of implosion with state governments and individuals drastically cutting spending, which made it imperative that the federal government step in to stabalize final demand. So, the large deficit coming from Obama’s budget which is all the rage in the press is entirely a function of the legacy bequeathed to him by a Republian administration and many Republican (and one Democratic) Congress. That Republicans have been able to Jedi mind trick the woefully feeble mainstream media into forgetting that- into forgetting that in many cases the very same legislators decrying ‘Obama’s spending’ that arrived us in this mess- doesn’t change the facts, nor their indisputability.
And now that the facts are coming fast and furious like a rush of ice water over your hazy consciousness, I’ll throw on some more: the Obama budget is in fact an extremely responsible document, considering the economic context. For one, it doesn’t resort to the irresponsible gimmicks of the Bush administration, but one being the fact that (massive) Iraq and Afghanistan spending can be found in there, and not in ‘emergency supplementals’ years after said spending became predictable, and hence budgetable. Furthermore, there are both spending cuts and tax increases called for in the document, which start to bring the deficit down gradually. The President has additionally called for a bipartisan commission to come up with a package of spending cuts and tax increases to further improve the fiscal picture over the coming decades- this is a politically astute move, as the parties will only be able to move on the exceptionally politically unpopular decisions needing to be made if they do it together. Peter Orzag, a man infinitely more intelligent and informed than yourself, has done a fine job here.
Of course, there is the matter of an additional, smaller, stimulus package to lessen the possibility that slowed spending from the federal government does not threaten the economy, which is a non-trivial concern when final demand is growing at a measly 2% coming out of a massive demand slump. You wouldn’t know it from the political rhetoric coming from the right, but there is very little argument in the economic community about the importance of slowing changes in national all-sector savings rates. ‘Stimulus plans’ are the only way to accomplish this, and the stimulus plan that passed last year was critical in this regard. It may prove to be enough to sustain the economy without a second package, but there are many intelligent folks who believe otherwise, including some of the few that actually saw this calamity coming (btw, no ‘Chicago school’, aka Republican, economist fits in the latter category). It is based on their concerns and Democrats concerns about reelection in a 10% unemployment climate that a second stimulus has been called for.
You of course might not be impressed by that austerity which can found in Obama’s budget, but I’m willing to bet you that it is substantially more than the Congress will abide. And who will be at the vanguard of ensuring we march lemming like off the cliff of fiscal irresponsibility? Who else but those that got us here. Just have a cursory look at the Health Care debacle that Republicans and austere responsibles such as yourself would have as their finest hour to see my point.
The health care legislation that moved through Congress was projected to save trillions over the coming decade, mostly by provisions that Republicans fell over themselves demagoguing, i.e. cutting the Medicare Advantage subsidies, setting up Medicare spending oversight body, the excise tax on plans over a certain threshold, the Medicare buy-in, the public option, etc. etc. According to Republicans over the last year, every cent of spending on Medicare is sacrosanct and every change in tax incentives to waste money on healthcare is typical Democratic tax and spend politics. Nothing says fiscal responsibility like all that, right?
What I’d like to know is what in your esteemed independent ignorance would account for fiscal responsibility, if not for signature legislation that drives down the deficit by trillions over the next 20 years, and budget policies that set a course downward in spending and upward in revenues as a % of GDP? Are you to be satisfied by nothing less than brute force pile-driving a 10% unemployment economy into the pavement by cutting federal outlays by 10 and 20 percent? No doubt. So lets just all be glad that the only thing you’ll continue to have discretion over is the deep fryer at your place of employment.
what about all the suppliers to GM (who were/are also suppliers to Ford, chrysler, toyota, Honda) Are you going to let all of them fail? Or would you prefer to send all their jobs to China?
Many of these firms have been barely scraping by as it is with business spread across all the auto companies. Any stop of business from one has a ripple effect all across the industry. So you’d just let them all fail and tell the workers “Well, sux to be you, shoulda chosen another field?”
And once again, the “Bailout” of GM (similar in some ways to the Chrysler bailout of a couple of decades ago – it’s called a loan) is done from a look at the macro affects.
As it is, the auto industry had far more controls placed on their “bailout” than has been remotely proposed for the banking and financial services or real estate industries. And once again, you discuss the smaller portion of the problem while ignoring the biggest offenders. Why is that? Does the matter of the auto industry and GM still having unions come in to play per chance?
I don’t think you could have proved your intent to rewrite history in less words.
Keynesian economics hasn’t been tried since the end of WWII, the economy of our country has been dominated by the Friedman’s Chicago School boys since the 1960′s.
The private sector in the form of the Financial Sector has been in total control of our government since Reagan and it’s their ‘leadership’ that has run our country into the ground and to the brink of collapse.
People who think like you have had your way, your way has failed miserably, and anybody with even a small respect for the truth, and more than two brain cells knows it.
No. I have answered the question I have been asked.
I would like to see the federal government loosen its grip on public education. I would like to see the federal government and the teacher’s unions who hold parents and students captive allow choice and competition into the public education system. We have see year after year of budget increases for the Department of Education with little or no net positive effect. The problems still remain and the only solution acceptable is MORE funding and MORE federal control.
I would like to see the federal government promote and encourage ALL forms of domestic energy production. Successful, efficient technologies that meet the demands of consumers (economically and environmentally) will be rewarded with expanded demand. Washington should not be in the business of picking industry winners and losers while lining the pockets of politicans and cronies who manufacture windmills and solar panels while ignoring the possibilites of clean-coal or nuclear energy, as well as domestic exploration and drilling.
I am not vague, just giving a broad outline of my personal political philosophy. Fine if you do not agree, but I have yet to be convinced that my arguments are not without merit.
If your arguments held any merit you wouldn’t be living under a bridge.
Yes we all watch Glen Beck/s
Please make your points without the personal invective:
“living under a bridge”, and the like.
Obama is not only ending the Bush tax cuts, he’s ending his own.
Obama dropped a request to make permanent the payroll tax credit that fattened worker paychecks by $400 per person in 2010. In Monday’s budget blueprint, Mr. Obama proposed extending only through 2012 that credit, which was his signature tax-cut proposal for middle-class workers during his campaign.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107204575039132987274858.html
Another campaign promise has expired.
Now there is a compelling rebuttal. Ha.
Had he made it too compelling, clearly you would’ve ignored it; see, e.g. post 72.
As regards the abandoned payroll tax cut, which is it to be Indie- fiscal responsibility or voodoo economics? The record of the last three decades is here to tell you, you can’t have both.
Also fyi, the promise was never to cut the payroll tax outright, but to make its application more progressive, it being the most regressive tax on the books outside of implicit underwriting of financial sector risks and more arguably the sales tax.
Basically, the campaign threw out flares about disregarding the cap on payroll taxes and using the extra revenue from it to cut the rates at the low-end, round about early to mid campaign. It later shelved the rhetoric, if not the policy people who’s proclivities led to it, as the progressive community wasn’t buying it and they didn’t want to give Hillary ammunition. Progressive justifications were meritous but debatable- to oversimplifiy, the argument was that it would jeopordize the political will behind leaving Social Security alone.
But please go on spreading your uninformed misinforming squid ink. You’ve done an outstanding job on at least that count here.
Yes, you’re right of course.
I’ll keep that in mind.
“Tutors, personal coaches, landscapers, housekeepers, interior designers, florists, manicurists and a host of other self-employed and small business owners have already seen a decline in business, are barely keeping their heads above water or have already closed up shop.”
Not to mention plastic surgeons, offshore investment bankers, mistresses, limousine services, and gentlemen’s clubs.
ooooo, that’s awful wonky for this discussion.
Hair stylists, accountants, maids and butlers
It’s unfortunate that at the core of the philosophy of the libertarians is simple selfishness.
You are believing the corporatist propaganda. I know many folks who are “centrists” (many of them my relatives) and actually share precisely the same position I do when it comes down to directing Federal money toward Main Street and the Middle Class, rather than the wealthy. They know that your “trickle down” model has failed, repeatedly.
If trickle down worked we would be in an economic heaven right now…as all of Bush’s tax-cuts for the wealthy are still in place, in addition to his massive “corporate socialism” no-bid programs that were put into place in the wars he generated. In addition he created the largest Federal program in a half century…the Department of Homeland Security with billions in pork. He created, by his parties support of “easy lending-hard bankruptcy” laws a ticking time bomb of real-estate bubbles, construction bubbles, and financial bubbles that came crashing down on the heads of those middle-class families that have lost not only their homes but the tens of thousands of dollars in equity that they put into them. Whole communities have been ravaged by trickle down.
Yet we still had the economic collapse
I’ve been seeing that meme trotted out by folks for decades. I even identify myself as “conservative” at times, and I haven’t voted for a Republican candidate for national office since 1968. This is in part due to the hijacking of the term “liberal” by the right. But, polling for many years consistently shows that majorities support what most would call “liberal” social policies, such as Social Security, Medicare, help for the needy (if not administered as open-ended wastefulness), even tax relief for the “middle” of the middle class as opposed to tax relief for the rich. When Bush pushed his tax cuts for the welathy in the beginning of his term, polling consistently showed that majorities did not feel tax cuts for the well off were necessary at that time.
What “conservative” means to a lot of so-called self-identified conservatives, many, if not most, of the the ones you cite, is a belief in honest work for honest pay, a government that strives for efficuency, a decent national defense and eliminating graft and corruption.
This fiscally conservative voter was one of the statistically significant majority who voted last Tuesday to sustain the individual and corporate tax hikes passed by the last legislature here in Oregon, as a means to right the imbalance of the tax burden that favored the better off folks. I see fairness in tax burden as a conservative approach to a more stable society.
If your so-called ” ‘fiscally conservative’ independent voter ” takes the time to examine Obama’s newly proposed budget for how it affects the folks who it will help, and the amount it reduces the deficit over 10 years, then there will be no problem to speak of from that group.
So at a Federal level, let’s cut:
Education- and allow widely varying standards among states to create entire of pools of nearly unemployable young people in certain regions, thus increasing the burden on those in states with high standards.
Energy- and let laizzez faire energy companies do us favors and continue the ongoing economic instability that they engender through price manipulation.
HHS- and let the poor suffer so libertarians can indulge their schadenfreude on the less fortunate, in particular children (whom no doubt brought it on themselves).
EPA- with that one I’ve concluded that many libertarians are just essentially mean-spirited, maybe even misanthropic. Death to the poor! Poor health to those who cannot afford to move to cleaner air or water.
YMMV
Libertarianism is a younger person’s game (usually male). Cue, “Fame, I’m going to live forever…”
Good description.