Could have sworn the GOP was all about the spending cuts but lo and behold they will fight tooth and nail not to cut spending? There was this law passed awhile back, you might have missed it that actually did reform healthcare while reducing the deficit. Might have an aide check on that for you. 1986 and 2001 called cutting taxes does not increase tax revenue no matter how much you wish it would. We have more than enough proof of the previous two blunders with this policy. So instead of doing the only things that actually reduces the deficit, increase revenues or cut spending you will ignore one and sabotage the other. How does anyone vote for these Republican clowns?!
I remember reading something about polls done that the overwhelming amount of Americans believe that someday they will strike it big, get lucky, and become rich. It is a remnant of the American dream that "anyone can make it big, so why can't I." Because most people believe that, many of them vote republican to protect the wealth and money they will eventually get. Also, because they consistently believe that they will escape their current situation, they are often okay with increased taxes, regulations, or decreased benefits. However, the reality is that virtually none of them will make it big. It is a reflection, not that the belief one can make become successful is flawed. It the the sense of entitlement that has become tied to it, and the overall lack of "ownership" of the government despite the fact that same people vote these people into office or in most cases fail to vote and have to feel any responsibility for putting them office or are just freaking too lazy.
I called it. MIC fear mongering went into overdrive over the last few days, and the super committee members (most mega-tied to the MIC) are going to blow this whole thing up rather than risk infringing upon partisan bull**** rhetoric or sabotaging our country's most outrageous corporate welfare. For all his smarts, Obama just can't seem to understand that his opponents are not interested in compromise. EDIT: I'm not even sure they're interested in "fixing" anything.
They spent 8 years and billions of dollars get to where we are: unregulateable international banking, record high corporate profits, record high top management income, record low corporate taxes. They aren't budging.
The democrats will get their revenue raises - the Republicans will sign on to increased payroll taxes and anything else that's regressive and hurts the poor and middle class, hoping to benefit from it in future elections.
This is probably the only "real" option that has a chance to pass. And all it takes is for one Dem to cave. I'll take those odds. Woohoo, plutarchy!
For every article like that, there's one like this: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...nt-under-the-bus-on-tax-increases.php?ref=fpa We should have learned from the last several contentious debates over health care, the 2010 compromise, and the debt ceiling debate that people like talking and making ultimatums that sometimes hold, sometimes don't. In the end, it doesn't mean a lot until we see what the end result. Everything else should be taken with a grain of salt. Something you don’t see very often in the Capitol: a Wednesday morning press conference with dozens of House and Senate members of both parties - including Republicans - acknowledging that they’d support a big deficit reduction proposal that includes higher tax revenue. But wait, aren’t several of those Republicans the same ones who recently signed a letter, written by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), asking that the Super Committee recommend “no net tax increase”? Indeed they are. And asked to address the inconsistency, one of those signatories basically said they don’t feel bound to DeMint’s demands. “Each of us have stated our preference for what we would do if we were doing it our own selves,” said Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), referring to the terms of the letter. “And the Republicans who have said that they don’t believe that raising taxes right now is the right way to approach the solution come from that perspective. What we are here today, however, to say is that we are ready to make compromises and build the solutions that can help bring all the parties together.” Who knows whether the “Go Big” caucus would really stick together if the Super Committee recommended a package of $4 trillion in unpopular budget cuts and tax increases. But a substantial number of them are very publicly breaking from their negotiating positions. That’ll tick off DeMint, but the question is whether the showing is big enough to make Republicans on the Super Committee feel they have enough of a cushion below them to cut the conservative movement loose. “So the fact that you may have members standing here who have different ideas about how far they would personally like to go on taxes or how far they would personally like to go on entitlement reform does not mean that they are not ready to stand here and make the kinds of decisions that will help us as a nation to solve our fiscal crisis,” Crapo said.
I wish I could be as optimistic as you Major, and I sincerely hope you are right, but I do not trust the Republitards to do what is right for America. I believe that they will abort any super committee agreement containing increased revenue and then spend all of 2012 working to nullify the automatic cuts that should result. To clarify, they will spend all year "compromising" the military cuts at the expense of social programs.
The super committee is a very undemocratic concept designed to cut social security and medicare and medicaid something that the Congressman and Obama know is not popular with the public so they have appointed a small group to do it.
To be clear - I'm not suggesting that this will work. My only contention is that the Dems have all the leverage to force the issue. If the GOP doesn't want to deal, then let the trigger occur. The GOP can't kill the trigger without Dems' help, so if they want to eliminate the defense cuts, Dems can just say it's all or nothing. Then Dems basically get the deal they originally wanted: a debt ceiling hike without equivalent cuts. The Dems may very well cave - but here, they have no excuses. They control all the leverage - unlike each of the previous gun-to-the-head negotiations we've had (2010 tax compromise, 2011 debt ceiling).
The deal they originally wanted: to allow routine government functions to continue instead of causing global economic doomsday by virtue of the exploitation an anachronistic procedural vestige by a minority party of eco-nihlists. What a great deal.
So once again republicans hold the country hostage. "Either privatize medicare or we blow up the budget".
I think we need to split the country in two, blu states get half, red states get half. Clearly, we've become too polarized to do anything.
It's almost funny, in a "oh my god you guys are ****ing the country" kind of way. The GOP is such a joke - how can anyone believe their claim to be the "party of small government"?
