Politics As Usual

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
In fairness to club, he recognizes how bad Bush has been from a fiscal standpoint. He dispels his cognitive dissonance by imagining that (a) as bad as Bush is, Kerry must somehow be worse, and (b) Bush will be a different man once he's re-elected.

So he thinks that Bush's redeeming quality will be his ability as a lame duck to implement policies opposed by a majority of Americans? Charming. Democracy in action. I guess the fun part will be watching GOP Reps getting ass-fucked in 2006 and 2008. The South will rise again!

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
Are you still living in hope that there's someone in the GOP who will grow a pair of balls and do something that endangers the GOP's congressional majority?

Much as I'd like that to happen, I doubt Sens. Collins and Snowe really want elephant nuts.

[the Spartan]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
You can't possibly be this naive. Have you been reading the papers these last four years? If spending cuts were politically viable, wouldn't we have seen them instead of deficits so the GOP never would have had to abandon its reputation for parsimony? Did you miss the part of Bartlett's column noting that "most people support still more spending for education, health, and other programs"? Your party reads polls. Are you still living in hope that there's someone in the GOP who will grow a pair of balls and do something that endangers the GOP's congressional majority?

A million dollars in spending cuts in 2006 is a million dollars not spent in some congressional district or another in 2006, 2007, and 2008. A slight rate increase in 2006 can be sold by the GOP as a way to "leverage" all the massive growth we're expecting in the economy from 43's wisdom and foresight. A GOP vote in 2004 is pretty much a lock for 2008, even if the GOP is responsible for jacking up rates --- shit, most of you guys are being honest about 43 abandoning GOP values, but you're still voting for him in 2004, aren't you? Think that's gonna change? Your electoral votes all come from states where they vote for the candidate who loves Jesus more.

Bartlett doesn't take spending cuts off the table. He's writing about the viable options available to the two major political parties, both of which want to have its candidates elected to various positions in the next decade. You have the luxury of postulating a world, and a GOP, that is consistent with your personal values. Good luck with that.

I want a constitutional convention. Reorder the system into a looser confederacy with the central government providing defense and diplomacy. period. those are the only services for the common good that it is capable of providing with any effectiveness or efficiency.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
So he thinks that Bush's redeeming quality will be his ability as a lame duck to implement policies opposed by a majority of Americans? Charming. Democracy in action. I guess the fun part will be watching GOP Reps getting ass-fucked in 2006 and 2008. The South will rise again!

GOP representative will continue to deliver the spending and tax cuts that big business wants, thereby ensuring themselves a stready flow of campaign contributions and lucrative post-government jobs. GOP voters like club and Penske, who have this weird redemptive faith, will be ass-fucked (in the prison sense, not the NTTAWWT sense).

[the Spartan]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
In fairness to club, he recognizes how bad Bush has been from a fiscal standpoint. He dispels his cognitive dissonance by imagining that (a) as bad as Bush is, Kerry must somehow be worse, and (b) Bush will be a different man once he's re-elected.

eta: I was going to liken this to religious faith, but in any event Penske makes the point more effectively than I could.

Straight up my man, fo shizzle.

[the Spartan]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
The South will rise again!

Yes. At the GOP Convention. When Zell Miller takes the podium.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by sgtclub
That was a joke

So was mine. Sometimes you can respond to a joke by pretending to take it seriously. I'm sure you've heard of that.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch

• Since fiscal year 2000, the federal budget has gone from a surplus of $87 billion to an estimated deficit of $675 billion. In the last four years, the national debt has increased by almost $2 trillion and will continue to increase for many more years even under the most optimistic scenario, absent legislative changes.

$675 billion? When did that number come out?

I think I got it out of the Bartlett column we were discussing. -- T.S.

And when does G-2 make his own "read my lips" pledge?

Incredibly, the tax cuts have barely begun to take effect.....

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
What is there to cut of a magnitude to keep pace with the tax cuts? Most federal spending is on defense, entitlement programs, and interest payments for the money Bush has already borrowed. You can't get $675 billion out of other cuts, even if people would stand for it.

I'm predicting there will be a push to begin the long progress of "fixing" SS and Medicare. You are hearing mild stirings of this now with HSA and self directed retirement accounts, but after the election and with the backing of Greenspan, there will be a bigger push.

Or maybe I took the wrong pill today too.

[the Spartan]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
GOP representative will continue to deliver the spending and tax cuts that big business wants, thereby ensuring themselves a stready flow of campaign contributions and lucrative post-government jobs. GOP voters like club and Penske, who have this weird redemptive faith, will be ass-fucked (in the prison sense, not the NTTAWWT sense).

How do you know? Maybe we will parlay (parlais) our campaign contributions into lucrative pre-government jobs.

Ironically, in a paradoxical way, I got an autographed picture of 43 and the lovely Laura in the mail yesterday.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
GOP representative will continue to deliver the spending and tax cuts that big business wants, thereby ensuring themselves a stready flow of campaign contributions and lucrative post-government jobs. GOP voters like club and Penske, who have this weird redemptive faith, will be ass-fucked (in the prison sense, not the NTTAWWT sense).

The SF posters use the term "ass-fucking" a little too freely if you ask me. It is really not something I'm familar with and so the image doesn't help me "see."

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
$675 billion? When did that number come out?

And when does G-2 make his own "read my lips" pledge?

Incredibly, the tax cuts have barely begun to take effect.....

I'm buying my daughter a pony with the tax cuts!

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
GOP representative will continue to deliver the spending and tax cuts that big business wants, thereby ensuring themselves a stready flow of campaign contributions and lucrative post-government jobs. GOP voters like club and Penske, who have this weird redemptive faith, will be ass-fucked (in the prison sense, not the NTTAWWT sense).

What's the Matter with Kansas?

[the Spartan]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
So was mine. Sometimes you can respond to a joke by pretending to take it seriously. I'm sure you've heard of that.

I have. There's a whole class on it at the Dat Phan School of Comedy.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by the Spartan
I want a constitutional convention. Reorder the system into a looser confederacy with the central government providing defense and diplomacy. period. those are the only services for the common good that it is capable of providing with any effectiveness or efficiency.

Your particular utopian fantasies are irrelevant, since the federal budget is overwhelmingly devoted to military spending, entitlements to pay for the retirement and health care of our elderly, and interest on the Bush deficits. If a fairly representative government headed by a bunch of so-called conservatives lacks the political will to cut these things -- i.e., to get rid of Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare -- this constitutional convention is going to happen only in your dreams.

In any event, people don't want to cut government spending for things like transportation, national parks, education, environmental protection, law enforcement, etc.

And since these things are usually a rational response to market failure, your "effectiveness or efficiency" point is silly. If the common law did a decent job of protecting us from dioxin, etc., we wouldn't have needed the EPA. It turns out that we needed civil rights laws to address racial discrimination. And so on. But you know this. The point is, you just don't want to have to pay for it.