US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

such an infuriating experience to watch Voice Of America TV here in Peru, I saw some hideous woman from "Concerned Women For America" parrot every bit of right wing nonsense that's been mentioned in this thread so far. Then the Democratic "opposition" completely failed to call her on any of her ridiculous lies (such as, I kid you not, "education spending is at an all time high").

This country is doomed.

"education spending is at an all time high"

Hmmm. Well, if you only count spending in terms of unconstant dollars, unadjusted for inflation, and leave out any consideration of per capita spending to account for a growing population, and if you lump in college tuitions, technical schools, commercial driving programs, along with Headstart, preschools and K-12, then she might be able to make this claim stick.

Of course, a lot of that "education spending" is out of pocket private spending, not government spending, but I doubt the far right is that picky about their facts.

From the Department of Shared Sacrifice:

ATM manufacturer Diebold Inc. will receive at least $56 million in state assistance to keep its headquarters in Northeast Ohio

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2011/04/diebold_to_build_100_million_w.html

^Aren't those the same fucktards that made the electronic voting machines that didn't register the correct votes and left no paper trail?

So the Washington Post says Obama is going to endorse some combination of the majority plan from his bipartisan deficit commission(Right-wing Simpson plus corporate blue-dog Dem Bowles) and the Gang of 6 (right-wingers plus moderate and blu-dog Dems) Senate group. Alas, the plan that suggested cutting defense spending and raising taxes is not being considered. I wish there was a way for the House or Senate Progressive Dem caucus to push other ideas and to get some attention from the White House and the media on this.

Let's not let the perfect be the enemy of the pathetically disappointing

yes, how dare you expect a Democratic administration to be not-Republican.

i dont really understand at allllllll why obama is getting involved in dumbshit fights over the deficit, not even on a political gamesmanship level

Because the deficit is the only thing that matters! Obama's pollsters told him that (talking about jobs is so passe)

did anyone else learn in Econ 101 in their freshman year that "deficits don't matter," or was I just gettin NYU ivory-tower leftism?

Aren't those the same fucktards that made the electronic voting machines that didn't register the correct votes and left no paper trail?

yes. i think they spun that business off after it all went to hell.

i dont really understand at allllllll why obama is getting involved in dumbshit fights over the deficit, not even on a political gamesmanship level

I guess the underlying logic is:

a. a large majority of people in this country(/world) don't understand the difference between their own household's thrift and government thrift and probably will not understand it by nov 2012
b. that being the case it might be better to look like we're also 'very concerned' about the deficit so that the GOP doesn't get all the retardedly positive press on the issue

(b) is the reason any Dems do anything

this is long forgetten I guess:

O'Neill said he tried to warn Vice President Dick Cheney that growing budget deficits-expected to top $500 billion this fiscal year alone-posed a threat to the economy. Cheney cut him off. "You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don't matter," he said, according to excerpts. Cheney continued: "We won the midterms (congressional elections). This is our due." A month later, Cheney told the Treasury secretary he was fired.

Actually what he meant is that deficits under Republican administrations don't matter, but if a Dem is in the White House it's the biggest issue in the world.

forgotten

yeah watching O'Neill being interviewed on Frontline was especially enraging. the incontestable fact here is that the cuts did not work as promised. with a tech bubble bust and a dicey military situation brewing in the Middle East, O’Neill argued strongly against the initial cuts. he was promptly let go; the cuts are still in place. what was the economic benefit? Where Are The jobs?

fuck, even some Republicans (e.g. Reagan’s budget chief David Stockman and former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan) have urged lawmakers to let them expire and allow income tax rates to go back up to their levels during the Clinton administration.

Years ago at the apex of the Bush administration's power I had a chat with a customer at the book store: an extraordinarily well read regular whose dad was a economist with a book praised by Gore Vidal. When I complained about the deficit, he said only Washington insiders care. The deficit is unimportant. He was the first one to tell me that capitalist economies must spend more money during a recession to start getting moving again and instill confidence on Wall Street.

and now that wall street's able to finance campaigns again, fuck the rest of us? america!

the deficit is not necessarily unimportant (heya look at japan. we don't want to be that...) it just has to be put in the context of GDP/growth, cause hey, that's how we pay for shit.

the GOP doesn't care or not care about it. they want what they've always wanted (tax cuts for rich people, less government spending on poor people) and if they can use it as an vehicle to get that, hey, sounds good. it's a social issue for them more than an economic issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5kpXhq5nHM&feature=related

Something to lighten the mood

i dont really understand at allllllll why obama is getting involved in dumbshit fights over the deficit, not even on a political gamesmanship level

― ban drake (the rapper) (max), Tuesday, 12 April 2011 14:18 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

misread this as "dubstep fights"

i always wonder if the GOP's left hand knows what the right hand is doing.

as in, they have never had as much success as they'd like rolling back LBJ's work, let alone FDR's (Reagan's 'legacy' notwithstanding). but they've had really great success pushing down taxes over and over again. so it almost looks like a three step process: a) ruin the revenue base by demonizing taxes, b) watch the deficit balloon, c) eventually use deficit anger and default fears to cut what you'd never be able to dismantle outright. (i suppose in the interim d) people whose incomes are primarily interest can get reliable returns on the gov't issued debt)

but that credits them with a generational-length plan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yVLWTsNf_8

tbh if Obama's entire speech isn't a re-enactment of this ^^^ I will be sad

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/12/cnn-poll-trump-tied-for-first-in-gop-horserace/#more-154007
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/12/trump-now-considering-independent-run/

um

excellent!

yeah this can only be a good thing

sadly trump wont even mount a real run as an independent since it would require him to file a financial disclosure

trump/bachmann 2012

please

please

Hey, everyone knows that managing a budget is exactly like running a household budget. That's just common sense.

man, Trump

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Ocean_Resort_Baja_Mexico

Trump has no chance of becoming the nominee; it's his celebrity talking, and the attraction of Obama's citizenship to the extreme right

would love it if he ran a third-party campaign.

Alfred otm

agreed

GOP would never let Trump be nominated, just as Dems will never let a liberal be nominated.

Love this:

Bachmann wins conservative straw poll
By: CNN Political Producer Alexander Mooney

Washington (CNN) - Rep. Michele Bachmann is the winner of a recent straw poll among evangelical and Christian conservative voters, the latest sign the Minnesota Republican may enjoy significant support from that key voting bloc if she decides to run for president.

Bachmann took 23 percent of the vote in a Liberty University straw poll conducted after a two-day gathering of evangelicals at the Christian college that addressed a range of issues, including "abortion, the economy, religious liberty, marriage and homosexuality, and Sharia Law," according the school's website.

So right now she can't even attract the support of one quarter of religious fundies.

the latest sign the Minnesota Republican may enjoy significant support from that key voting bloc if she decides to run for president.

god political reporters really are bored aren't they?

a Liberty University straw poll proves how significant a key voting block is to her!

Rich Lowry, no fool (this time):

Another Sign She’s Running
April 12, 2011 11:42 A.M.

By Rich Lowry

Bachmann sounding cautious on Ryan plan.

but that credits them with a generational-length plan

You know that is their exact plan right? Grover Norquist's "drown it in the bathtub"? And they are winning. Combine this with the Gallup stat yesterday that the military is the best regarded part of government ... fuck.

i would be more concerned about 2012 if I thought any single one of these republicans had a shot in hell of winning the general election, but since the GOP seems hell-bent on running lunatics and retards, I think Obama probably doesn't have to worry. makes me wish he's stop being the Great Equivocator though.

nobody thought reagan could win, or bush junior

it was more nobody thought Gore could lose, really

yeah i think ppl need to start entertaining some worst-case scenarios here

i'm probably overestimating how batshit and entertaining the GOP primary is going to be. after a couple rounds the money people aren't going to take a whole lot of fucking around

Deficits don't matter until they do. Reinhart & Rogoff's This Time is Different has been widely feted as the most important finance book of the last year for documenting how predictable, and how sudden the phase shift becomes when lenders realize that a nation is bound for default or devaluation. The U.S. has chosen devaluation, which will suck for those Americans who buy food, energy, imported goods, or travel. On the other hand, once living standards erode U.S. labor may become globally competitive.

When the world's largest bond fund manager goes short U.S. Treasuries, the game is almost up. When Bush's Treasury Undersecretary Peter Fisher eliminated the 30-year and reduced the average maturity to 5 years (to reduce annual interest), he basically placed a ticking bomb under the national finances. Other indebted nations like Japan and Britain have average maturities out a dozen+ years, but the U.S. is forced to roll much of the debt very soon, into a market where the only consistent buyer of late is the Federal Reserve monetizing the debt (printing dollars).

I certainly don't agree with the particulars of the Ryan plan (it just shifts medical costs to states, and cuts top marginal income rates which should be higher), I give him credit for being about the only Washington politician with the cajones to present a plan that touches the third rails. I'd much prefer the Gang of Six plan, but even what we've seen of that probably doesn't go far enough reversing the "household budgeting" of putting Grandma's nursing home on the kid's credit card to avert serious, near-term consequences.

really guys, as much as I loathe Bam I don't want to forecast President Romney, but you're tempting fate here.

also, they all work for the same people.

yeah i think ppl need to start entertaining some worst-case scenarios here

i'm probably overestimating how batshit and entertaining the GOP primary is going to be. after a couple rounds the money people aren't going to take a whole lot of fucking around

― goole, Tuesday, April 12, 2011 1:21 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

both romney and huckabee are on top of obama in FL polls!

On the other hand, once living standards erode U.S. labor may become globally competitive.

hurrah

both romney and huckabee are on top of obama in FL polls!

neither Romney nor Huckabee can win CA so who cares