Republicans Still Suck

Congress Looks for Ass with Both Hands as Debt Hits $8 Trillion
Reuters.com (via Yahoo News)
By Richard Cowan
Mon Oct 24, 5:11 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in Congress will try to pass spending cuts this week, after war, anti-terrorism efforts, hurricanes and big tax cuts helped push the government's debt load through the $8 trillion mark.

Sources in the House of Representatives said it likely would be mid-week before Republican leaders know whether they have enough support for spending reductions, including cuts in health programs for the elderly and poor, that go beyond the $35 billion sketched out last spring.

Congress is also debating a Republican-backed plan for more tax cuts, mostly for the wealthy.

The Senate is sticking to the $35 billion benchmark for spending cuts, amid pressure from conservatives in both chambers to cut more money to help pay for $62.3 billion in emergency aid for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

For either approach to become law, Republicans, who hold a majority in both houses of Congress, will have to do it alone.

Democrats opposed the Republican budget plan enacted last spring and none have said they are on board for a new round of cuts, coupled with the tax cuts.

"I'm appealing to my colleagues in the majority, don't do this. Postpone this effort," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said on Monday.

So they're trying to figure out if they have support for $35 billion in cuts. $35 billion. While the debt is $8 trillion and they just added $62 billion in spending in the past few weeks!

The best part:

Congress is also debating a Republican-backed plan for more tax cuts, mostly for the wealthy.

Another tax cut? For moi? That's hot.

Record debt is washing over the Treasury Department, recently breaching the $8 trillion mark in money owed to foreign governments, private investors and the Social Security retirement fund used to finance deficit-spending.

Republicans, who also control the White House, have now presided over an increase in $2 trillion to the national debt over four years or so, despite contending that they are the only U.S. political party that practices fiscal discipline.

Eight years of Democrat Bill Clinton's presidency resulted in around $1.6 trillion being added to the U.S. debt, but with the possibility of paying it all off by 2015.

I love Reuters. Biased reporting?

"Republicans, who also control the White House, have now presided over an increase in $2 trillion to the national debt over four years or so, despite contending that they are the only U.S. political party that practices fiscal discipline."

Biased toward the TRUTH. Hurts don't it? He just called 51% of you stupid.

God you're idiots. That's hot.

Perhaps if all the lobbyist donate their earnings and give it to help the American people the deficit will be reduced.

But more money will be use to fight back the cuts that the congress is trying to do.

Hey lets get rid of the poor and old, it will be plenty of money to go around. Right?

What kind of political leaders take away from the poor and the old to keep the rich and privilege.

I almost sound like I am Bible preaching here Amen.



[edit on 24-10-2005 by marg6043]

Aren't the Republicans also pushing for all federal funding to PBS to be cut? Because we all know it's better to spend to kill people in another country than educate kids in one's own. And besides, I'm sure that Sesame Street makes kids homosexual

What I don't get is how do the Rich think they make all that money? If you get rid of the poor and working class, they won't have anyone to buy their products, or make them, or do anything like work... So what will the rich/republicans do once they wipe out the poor/working class? I can just see GWB working a Power Plant, or Cheney at a Gas station filling up 100,000 dollar cars. Can't you?

No really. You're killing us.

Taxing Issues
Republicans Plan Ahead
Two Term Former Florida Republican Senator Connie Mack Explains the Plan

CM: The Congress and the president can address that issue. Of course, the president already has addressed that issue. He said there won't be any increases in taxes.

NYT: Indeed, he is still calling for tax cuts. He would like to eliminate the estate tax permanently.

CM: I think there is a likelihood that Congress will deal with that issue before this term comes to an end. I would vote to eliminate, as we refer to it, the death tax. I think it's an unfair tax.

NYT: Really? I think it's a perfect tax. The idea behind it was to allow people to postpone paying taxes until they die, at which point they presumably no longer care. Why do you call it unfair?

CM: Well, let's say, if you are in the farming business [yes, let's say that] and you have the desire to pass this farm on to your children. The problem is that when your parents die, you have to come up with cash to pay the estate tax. One thing you don't have is cash. You've got plenty of land. So I just don't believe it's a fair tax.

NYT: That strikes me as a red herring. The issue is not really small farms, but zillion-dollar estates made up of stocks and bonds.

CM: I don't know what the percentage breakdown is. [of course you don't] I still go back to the same notion that these individuals who have accumulated these resources have paid taxes on them many times in their life, and then to say, when you die, now you pay more taxes on it? There is a limit. [and we're cutting that too, for the zillionaires

]

NYT: Well, the U.S. government has to get money from somewhere. As a two-term former Republican senator from Florida, where do you suggest we get money from?

CM: What money? [bwahahahaha]

NYT: The money to run this country.

CM: We'll borrow it.

NYT: I never understand where all this money comes from.

CM: When the president says we need another $200 billion for Katrina repairs, does he just go and borrow it from the Saudis?

In a sense, we do. Maybe the Chinese.

NYT: Is that fair to our children? If we keep borrowing at this level, won't the Arabs or the Chinese eventually own this country?

CM: I am not worried about that. [Course not.

] We are a huge country producing enormous assets day in and day out. We have great strength, and we have always adjusted to difficulties that faced us, and we will continue to do so.

Your Telling Me?

Look at all the # our Blockhead in Chief, W, has pulled! Starting fradulent wars and passing on the blame! Passing the No Child Left Behind Act and not funding it. If George Bush doesn't suck, who the hell does?

Tim

Republicans, Democrats--SAME DIFFERENCE.

They're just flip sides of the elite coin, that's all. And they're all pretty whacked...a good 99% at any rate.

Yeah, it's hard to believe the nation could be pile-driven into a hole so quickly. And on so many fronts which are so fundamental to healthy government, Liberty and, in the end, real national security.

Certifiably insane monetary policy when it comes to spending vs. taxation

Certifiably insane foreign policy regarding how to "win friends and influence people"

Certifiably insane domestic policies regarding corporate influence on government, the influence on politics of our more "theocratically minded" fellow-travellers. The lack of an enforced, fair, and generous immigration policy with the enforcement being the key word here (heck, they are all key words, but nothing matters without enforcement). Uncontrolled immigration is an unsound domestic policy driven by the greed of business at the expense of the desperate.

The development of a radio-based mass-media aimed at spewing ideological "harshness", to put it mildly, whose effect is to provide a great majority of the voting population who rarely read or think dispassionately on issues, with a ready-made interpretation of why things are the way they are. And it's "the usual suspects" of course...

And your basic everyday graft and corruption which rivals the Grant administration.

It goes on and on, and not all of it can be laid singly at the feet of our current "servants of the people", although I certainly give Bush & Co. the highest of marks in the "Screwing Things Up Practically Beyond Repair" category.

Still, it's amazing to see things unfolding the way they are. The world is facing enormous challenges. I think maybe LBJ had it right, in the infamous "Goldwater Ad", that we are going to have to learn to live together "or go into the dark".

his is funny...apocalypticon claims to be a professional psychiatrist (otherwise the actions of a differing ideology wouldn't be certifiable, just, in the opinion of someone from a different ideology, insane), ghost made some fantastic points, well backed up, and legitimate, RANT...well, I'm going to ignore rant because I don't feel like doing any research at 3 in the morning and RANT's annoying like that (makes coherent posts), Full Metal explained to us that business owners are only as talented as the individual who screws in screw 19 on the assembly line, Otts pointed out that Republicans prefer to kill people over educate them (I know I do! Die before you learn the truth! Die!), marg6043 explained to us that cutting taxes for the upper class, down from 74%, causes the poor, who don't pay taxes, to have to pay more taxes, and finally, RANT refered to God and called Him idiots (again, don't want to look into the information right now, and you're the only poster who makes legitimate points that should be addressed. It's three in the morning...instead, I'll attack on semantics )

Clearly, this is a thread that is really getting to the heart of the matter, delving into truth, and exposing the republican party for what it is. A bunch of insane, baby killing, assembly line working, mathematically inept, poor hating, lobbyist pandering groupies who are complete idiots. Well, thanks for the lesson. Since I'm sure you all were trying to educate, and not just toot one another's own horns, I can see now that my choice of becoming a Republican was wrong. I didn't mean to kill all those babies, kick all those poor people, make 2+2 = 0, and be stupid. You've shown me the light, and now I'm a democrat .

Oh yeah, and I suck. Dang, sure does suck to be me.

You're here, the fiscal policy initiatives by the GOP branches of government are as quotable as the gospels your life is directed by.....so where's the retort to the thread author's post?
Shoot that chafe all you want about the "pile on" posts following it, but please speak to us, educate us, as to why any of these economic initiatives make any sense whatsoever, given the economic conditions & cost centers currently in play?

I'm going to ignore rant because I don't feel like doing any research

Not to pick on you, but that's the problem....nobody who does any legitmate research supports this agenda.

You've shown me the light, and now I'm a democrat

Geez, I hope not....just don't be what you are, S.I.C. a Single Issue Conservative, Jaayzus knows you sure didn't vote your economic or social intrests in voting for Bush.

[size=-4]Psst, Bout, read the rest of the line you quoted

I'm going to ignore rant because I don't feel like doing any research at 3 in the morning

Now, take a look at when that post was made. On my screen, it says it was "posted on 10-27-2005 at 09:24 PM" then you explain to me that it's 10:30 in the AM on a post "posted on 10-28-2005 at 03:29 AM"

And I have to agree, I never do any kind of research, I am very uneducated on the issues, and the only issue I care about as a conservative is...Wait, I can get this one...Er...family name?

To the issue RANT brings up, I think the current administration and the Republican controlled congress are not holding to what their party's stance is on government. They're spending more and more and making government bigger and bigger. The JJ don't like that.

On the other hand, in regards to tax cuts, they have been shown time and time again through history to stimulate the economy, bringing in more tax dollars because people are making more and more people have higher paying jobs.

So do I agree with the spending? No. Do I agree with the tax cuts? Yes. Is it 10:30 in the AM? No, I'm central time, it's only 9:45, but I'm awake and more aware now...and that lack of a "T" at the beginning of my post is really bugging me...

well, jake, since I am not a "professional psychiatrist", just remove the "certifiable" from my post.

Feel better?

Good.

And we've been robbed and sodomized.

Powerful points BT.

Jake I laugh and joke because I can't cry anymore. It hurts to see what's happening to this country. You laugh and joke I suppose because you refuse to see what's happening to this country. Or have another agenda for it. That's your business.

But it's true the single issue voter is really the problem. Rove was publicly accoladed not only for turning them out in 04 as promised, but helping make them. People that never bothered to vote before, at best because they don't care about the governance of this country, at worst because they're idiots, did for one reason. To vote to ban gay marriage.

That little afterthought addition to the Ohio ballot alone returned possibly the biggest failure in US history to the White House. Well that and the abject theft of the Ohio election by Tom Noe, indicted for conspiracy and Federal Elections Campaign Act violations yesterday.

But stealing Ohio state funds to award Bush the White House isn't on the news today is it? No, plenty of other diversions like Bush's Miers failure and the "criminalization of CRIME" as Rove celebrates another day skirting justice.

Glad you're willing to "play" Jake but the issues behind the outrage you mock are real.

Your party is increasingly nothing more than a criminal enterprise. And if the best defense anyone has come up with to date remains well, democrats are just as bad then you've already surrended your vote, mind, soul and country as far as I'm concerned.

We got a democrat this week too. Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman for a "widespread racketeering conspiracy." GOOD!

Bad guys belong in jail, not Governor's mansions or DC. Not a partisan issue.

But the Republlican Party being the worst thing to ever happen to this country is no longer a partisan issue either. It's reality.

EDIT: I see you added "tax cuts" to your rationale for evil. Good one. Kerry had one for you too, but I'm sure you didn't trust him like you did Bush.

[edit on 28-10-2005 by RANT]

Originally posted by RANT
EDIT: I see you added "tax cuts" to your rationale for evil. Good one. Kerry had one for you too, but I'm sure you didn't trust him like you did Bush.

If that was the only issue I cared about, you'd probably be right. Sadly, my income level is too low to benefit substantially from either's plan. I was looking at the bigger picture for the country's economy. Besides, maybe then I could get a better paying job!

To the laughing and joking point, I do so because I try not to take things too seriously, especially myself. Plus, I'd rather be laughing than punching a monitor...Hurts the wallet and the hand.

As to the election theft issues, you don't hear much about anything in the media, both against the dems or the reps.

So the Republican Party is just a criminal enterprise. Ok, you can believe that. However, what does the Democratic Party stand for today except to point out that the Republican party is just a criminal enterprise? I hear a lot of complaints about things the Republicans are doing, a lot of complaints about Bush, a lot of complaints about things the Democrats supported 8 years ago (politics as usual, though...Reps said the same thing the Dems are today about Iraq 8 years ago), but I'm failing to hear any solutions. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Point fingers all you'd like, that doesn't fix the situation. Or could it be the Democratic party doesn't want the situation fixed until they're in power again, and the only way they think they can get back in power is by attacking everything the Republicans do without suggesting anything themselves?

We've had this conversation before.

Solutions? Is the criticism not explict enough? Does the "solution" evade you still?

Stop torturing people. Stop stealing. Stop lying. Stop spending. Stop letting wingnuts run the country. Stop ignoring your advisors. Stop ignoring your military leaders. Stop selling off our natural resources to the highest bidder. Stop rewarding outsourcers, tax cheats and your other co-conspirators against the people like corporate healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

Every solution is swift boated into the ground anyway. A tax credit for the middle class to use for private insurance? Why that's communism!

Alternative energy research? What? When Yogi Bear has been holding out on us?

I understand the purpose of the popular "Hannitized for your deflection" criticism: if you're so smart, why not build a parallel virtual model of America we don't keep screwing up then run that to tell us how you'd fix all our mistakes so we have something to criticize while we just keep making more problems for you to fix later...

But how about this? Stop. That's the solution.

Here's your point in a nutshell.

I don't see you coming up with any "solutions" to support an unjustifiable war, break social security or repeal civil liberties.

Know why? I'm not crazy. I don't hate America, it's people or the past century of progress.

Though this may sound unreasonable to a crazy person, here's an idea on how to "fix" the Republican Party's mistakes. Just implode. Go away.

Stop making Osama Bin Laden's permanently. Or at least catch the one's you made. You can't do anything without it taking 20 years off the life of this planet and 200 years off American progress. You really can't do anything! But talk about "values" of course and the "conservative credentials" of Supreme Court nominees.

Right. Thanks. Bang up job on "both" fronts in the war on us.

Originally posted by RANT
Stop torturing people. Stop stealing. Stop lying. Stop spending. Stop letting wingnuts run the country. Stop ignoring your advisors. Stop ignoring your military leaders. Stop selling off our natural resources to the highest bidder. Stop rewarding outsourcers, tax cheats and your other co-conspirators against the people like corporate healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

Ahh, now I get it. You want politics as we know it to go away in America. I'm all for that, I'd love for this country to move to having politicians who are more interested in the welfare of the country and its people than their own career, party, etc. That would be fantastic. Unrealistic, but fantastic. Also, just because it is unrealistic, that is no justification for accepting self-serving politicians running all levels of government. We still need to call them on it and hold them accountable. Who knows, maybe one day they'll stop thinking about themselves and actually think about their country.

Oh...wait...I might have misunderstood...Were you implying it is only the Republican party that is guilty of those things?

Originally posted by junglejake
Were you implying it is only the Republican party that is guilty of those things?

Of course not. They're just exceptionally good at them.

Pretty much their raison d'être. It's what they do.

And they're currently in charge.

I'd rage against the Democratic (or Libertarian) Machine too if that weren't equivalent to blaming the moon for my sunburn.

Well, Jake, it's good that you feel better. I would have sent it to you "u2u" but I do not have quite enough posts for that yet. Soon, though...hopefully... .

And I still can't believe that massive tax cuts while going to war was a particularly smart thing, whether by Repub's or Dem's.

Granted, it was impossible to forsee the natural disasters which have hit the Gulf areas of the US, and the need for an increase in available funds for them. That cannot be laid directly at the Republican's doorstep.

But it does seem, to me that the fiscal policies pursued by this administration haven't helped matters any.

We are in a position now where we are cutting funds to those programs whose outcomes are designed to be beneficient to the future of the country at large: Headstart, Medicaid, scholarship assistance for those from poor families... these seem like programs whose funding has long-term value, no matter what side of the isle you are on.

And, since I brought up Headstart, why is Government allowing the groups functioning under this umbrella to discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion, when the program receives taxpayer funding?

And why is the Government using tax monies to fund "faith based organizations"? Granted, these groups have an infrastructure well emplaced, tried and tested in responding to social needs, as well as disaster relief (my own church has two major organizations which are designed for national and international relief response).

But doesn't this actually relieve Government of its responsibility to get its act together and provide for the common good, at the expense of Jefferson's and Madison's ideas about church/state separation?

Speaking as a Christian I also do not believe in tax exemption for churches, especially when they are as involved in the political process as they have become. Among some interesting comments JFK made to the Protestant Greater Houston Ministerial Association during the presidential campaign of 1960:


[align=center]...[being a Catholic] it is apparently necessary for me to state once again--not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me--but what kind of America I believe in.[/align]

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute--where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishoners for whom to vote--where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference--and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

Taxpayer funding for church schools (vouchers), taxpayer funding for churches (faith based programs)?

An excellent book on this subject is Frank Lambert'sThe Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America (Princeton University Press, 2003).

I could also mention the "unspoken" (well, barely) religious test which seems to be at the heart of the Supreme Court's ongoing nomination process...by both sides....I thought this country had enshrined within the Constitution (our basis for law) that a religious test for holding public office was not to be allowed?

The voter's themselves "ratified" this idea defacto in the Presidential Election of 1800, which underlines nicely the dejure stipulation of the Constitution.

The debate over the necessity of religion for a stable and moral society is as old as history itself.

And this is one area (not the only one) where I would agree with you that Government is becoming "too large": by actively trying to outmaneuver both the Constitution and the Framer's intent (those who won the day, that is, I grant you, they were not a monolithic group, as the debates over ratification, as well as the Election of 1800 demonstrate.)

Originally posted by Otts
Aren't the Republicans also pushing for all federal funding to PBS to be cut? Because we all know it's better to spend to kill people in another country than educate kids in one's own. And besides, I'm sure that Sesame Street makes kids homosexual

PBS will be fine without federal funding. Many of the shows that are currently being aired are allready recieving corporate backing and they will continue to survive quite well. PBS should no longer recieve anymore of our money.

And just because I feel that way does not mean that I support killing people in other countries.