Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

[Raz]

Re: Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

Nice hit-job from the Rolling Rag.

Taibbi did an excellent piece on the Financial Bailouts, but this "newspaper" has
clearly returned to the condescending, bohemian, Leftist Ass-Rag that it always was.

In other words, everyone who supports the Tea Party "monster" is an ignorant, unenlightened, hypocritical racist, while all of the "thinking people" support the Nanny State.

[blazespinnaker]

Re: Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

Maybe Ron. Not so sure about Rand...

Unfortunately, Rand Paul is a newcomer. He has to have a base and raise money. I'm sure he's well funded by a lot of doctors. However, I believe he is his father's son and we will see great things come from him.

[karim0028]

Re: Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

Nice hit-job from the Rolling Rag.

Taibbi did an excellent piece on the Financial Bailouts, but this "newspaper" has
clearly returned to the condescending, bohemian, Leftist Ass-Rag that it always was.

In other words, everyone who supports the Tea Party "monster" is an ignorant, unenlightened, hypocritical racist, while all of the "thinking people" support the Nanny State.

No, not everyone who supports the TP is an ignorant unenlightened racist Its just that the majority seem to be.... You are intelligent and an all around nice guy.... But, the rhetoric coming from the TP seems to be disengenious...

The people want change, i just dont see the TP giving it to them. Also, they want change and spending cuts in everything except what they get to keep from the machine... The tea party demographics are clear as day in their rallies and their rhetoric... Its mostly middle aged/older folks afraid bc they are seeing their expected lifestyle slip out from under them like icecream on a hot summer day... So what do they fall back on? God and an "us vs them" mentality.... If it is as Matt Taibi makes it out at those rallies then its not really hard to understand that point of view...

I am all for spending cuts in our military in exchange for keeping our social safety nets in somewhat of the same place... But, you get the republicans telling us we should vote them in bc they will cut deficits without raising taxes or cutting anything... And democrats in such a haze from continually bending over for the bankers.... Sorry, I'm just not that gullible.....

But, perhaps through the seeds of an incipient movement you will get some real change... I for one just wont vote for them until they get that f#u$tard Palin off their party mantel and put someone who actually has an ounce of intelligence behind them... And start mentioning some solid initiatives aside from god, guns and gays... As Groucho Marx once said "I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER"... In this case; any club that will accept a hypocritical, mentally deficient idiot like Palin as a party leader is not a group i want to be associated with, bc if its any indication of the group and its intellectual capacity its time to run....

And as a disclosure i no longer count myself as Republican or Democrat, so its not me railing against republicans.... Just a frustrated voter that sees no credible electoral alternatives at this point... Voting for either party is a moot point at this juncture... Its time to vote for individuals in and of themselves and their platforms; not parties.

[don]

Re: Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

The American people have spoken, but it’s impossible to decode their incoherent message. Drunk with their capture of the House of Representatives, the Republicans thunder that the verdict of ballot boxes from Maine to Hawai’i is clarion-clear: the ultimate evil in America is government, specifically government as led by President Barack Obama. But when exit pollsters questioned voters on their way to those same ballot boxes, as to who should take the blame for the country’s economic problems, 35 per cent said Wall Street, 30 per cent said Bush and 23 per cent Obama. The American people want a government that mustn't govern, a budget that must simultaneously balance and create jobs, cut spending across the board and leave the Defense budget intact. Collectively, the election makes clear, they haven't a clue.

Has the Tea Party changed the political map? Scarcely so. In concrete terms, it ensured that a significant portion of the political map didn’t change at all. Unlike the House, the U.S. Senate will stay in Democratic hands, albeit with only a tiny edge. As I wrote last week, purely on the basis of cui bono – who stands to gain – one could make a sound case that the Democrats invented the Tea Party out of whole cloth. If it wasn’t for Tea Party lady, Christine O’Donnell, the Republicans would be counting victory in Delaware. But the sometime-Satanist ensured the surprise victory of a dreary Democratic unknown, Chris Coons.

Just over half of the 17,000 respondents to a national exit poll said that their votes in House races had nothing to do with the Tea Party, pro or con. The other half was split, pro and con. Over 60 per cent said the all-important issue is jobs; 87 per cent said they are worried about economic conditions. Between government laying out money to create jobs and government slashing expenditures to reduce the deficit there’s also pretty much an even split.

Is there anything new in all this? Of course not. Republicans always campaign on homely pledges – economically illiterate – to balance the government’s books the same way as their household budgets. Pressed, as many triumphant Republicans were last night, as to exactly where they would start cutting the federal budget to achieve this end, they invariably slid into the programmatic shadows, with hoarse ranting about freezes and “across the board” budgetary carnage, except for military spending.

As always, these days in America, our last best friend will be gridlock.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11032010.html

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

+1. They chortle on about runaway spending and the deficit, but when asked what their #1 priority is they reply "no new taxes" (i.e., making sure the top 1% keep their Bush tax cuts). When pressed about what programs they will cut, not a one has named a specific. Not a one.

The GOP has shown its true colors for the last 30 years. Cuts? Not going to happen.

Time and again the voters accept a broad goal as if it were a workable plan. The politicians know this, and campaign only with goals like "creating jobs" and "reducing spending", and we elect them because we like the goals. Then we the people have the nerve to act surprised when the goals are not achieved or the plan gores our favorite ox. The public discussions by the punditry are complicit, they also intentionally obscure the differences between a goal and a plan.

[BigBagel]

Re: Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

The Tea Party also gave Nevada to the Democrats by nominating another kook. The deficit, a problem that I believe is scaring many informed Americans, will continue to explode. End result: more of the same until the implosion occurs.

[we_are_toast]

Re: Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

No. The president/senate can not raise the debt limit without the OK of the Congress.

Also the budget will require passage by the House. Here's where the Austerity will hit the fan. I don't think Obama has the guts of Clinton to actually shut down the government, but if he does, the new Republicans will not back down. The shutdown will go on for a lot longer than people expect and markets are going to get real nervous. I rank this as high possibility for a trigger event into another crises scare. I'll hold my shorts on the S&P until we get a better feel on it.

1st test will be extension of the Bush tax cuts. If Obama and Dems punt on this, they won't have the guts to play chicken over the budget matters.

[don]

Re: Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

The Tea Party also gave Nevada to the Democrats by nominating another kook. The deficit, a problem that I believe is scaring many informed Americans, will continue to explode. End result: more of the same until the implosion occurs.

A change in sheet music for the Titanic's band....

[ViC78]

Re: Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

If Obama and Dems punt on this, they won't have the guts to play chicken over the budget matters.

The fact that he did not force a vote on this tells me a lot about Obama and the current democratic party. A political no brainer, if there was ever one.

[c1ue]

Re: Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

No. The president/senate can not raise the debt limit without the OK of the Congress.

The debt limit and the Fed balance sheet, however, are completely unrelated.

[Raz]

Re: Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

No, not everyone who supports the TP is an ignorant unenlightened racist Its just that the majority seem to be.... You are intelligent and an all around nice guy.... But, the rhetoric coming from the TP seems to be disengenious...

The people want change, i just dont see the TP giving it to them. Also, they want change and spending cuts in everything except what they get to keep from the machine... The tea party demographics are clear as day in their rallies and their rhetoric... Its mostly middle aged/older folks afraid bc they are seeing their expected lifestyle slip out from under them like icecream on a hot summer day... So what do they fall back on? God and an "us vs them" mentality.... If it is as Matt Taibi makes it out at those rallies then its not really hard to understand that point of view...

I am all for spending cuts in our military in exchange for keeping our social safety nets in somewhat of the same place... But, you get the republicans telling us we should vote them in bc they will cut deficits without raising taxes or cutting anything... And democrats in such a haze from continually bending over for the bankers.... Sorry, I'm just not that gullible.....

But, perhaps through the seeds of an incipient movement you will get some real change... I for one just wont vote for them until they get that f#u$tard Palin off their party mantel and put someone who actually has an ounce of intelligence behind them... And start mentioning some solid initiatives aside from god, guns and gays... As Groucho Marx once said "I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER"... In this case; any club that will accept a hypocritical, mentally deficient idiot like Palin as a party leader is not a group i want to be associated with, bc if its any indication of the group and its intellectual capacity its time to run....

And as a disclosure i no longer count myself as Republican or Democrat, so its not me railing against republicans.... Just a frustrated voter that sees no credible electoral alternatives at this point... Voting for either party is a moot point at this juncture... Its time to vote for individuals in and of themselves and their platforms; not parties.

Thank you for your kind description of yours truly. Please note that from my chair I feel the same way about you.

The green highlights find us in agreement while the red highlights find us in at least some disagreement.

I have two friends from High School days who are involved in the Tea Party movement. One is 55 and the other is 61, both are intelligent, and while biased to some extent (as are we all) they are certainly not racists.
They are finally beginning to come around to my political viewpoint concerning Ron Paul, the disaster that is the American Empire, and the fact that "cutting taxes" is no more a solution to all of our problems than "let the Federal Government provide the service".

I have never heard Republican candidates saying that they would restore sanity to the federal budget "without cutting anything". What I do hear many of them say is that National Defence must have priority. I'm mostly in agreement with that sentiment, especially concerning our naval forces. But what most of those ignoramuses mean is "Empire" Defence, not National Defence.
The NeoCon nitwits need to be flushed like an industrial toilet, and the "empire" with them!

I don't think Sarah Palin is stupid, nor do I believe her to hate homosexualists, labor unions or anyone else.
I do believe that she is very ignorant, a likely prey for the Neocons who have wrecked our foreign policy, and that as a result of spending too much time in the forest with a rifle and not enough time reading she is not sufficiently knowledgable or competent to be POTUS - and never will be. And I do think the Tea Party is more about what people don't want
instead of what is reasonable for them to expect.

There is a Republican Congressman from northwestern Louisiana named John Fleming, a good aquaintance of my wife, and a medical doctor, not another lawyer. He introduced a bill four years ago that would require every member of Congress to (a) retire with Social Security - NOT their own little private pension plan, (b) be served with the exact same medical plan as the one they legislated for the American people, and (c) be subject to the exact same laws that they place upon the American people.

Pelosi deep-sixed the bill but there was such an uproar (even from some Democrats, mostly Blue Dogs) that she allowed a partial enactment, making ObamaCare apply to Congress.

Let's see what Boehner and the Republicans do with this bill from Mr. Fleming. If they don't pass it in its entirety, then we will know for certain what you and I both strongly suspect -- that a Third Party is the only hope for the United States.

[WDCRob]

Re: Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

I couldn't be more at odds with the Tea Party and think that the majority of their anger about Obama is rooted in the fact that he's so completely "different" - culturally different (Harvard educated, intellectual, elite), ideologically different (left-center), philosophically different (humanist, scientific orientation), racially and geographically different (Afr-Am, funny name, Kenyan family, time living in Indonesia).

And while I believe 90% of the distaste isn't about policy or legislation, race is only one one part of that.

[blazespinnaker]

Re: Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

The debt limit and the Fed balance sheet, however, are completely unrelated.

Uhh, no. Not sure you're clear on how this all works. The fed doesn't pay government workers.

[flintlock]

Re: Republican Victory = Austerity + Money Printing?

A successful third party will only occur through a coalition of existing groups with SOME goals in common. You are not going to get anything that amounts to a hill of beans by insisting on a ultra pure, ultra perfect party of saints and virgins. Instead of hysterically latching on to the mainstream media portrayal of the Tea Party as a bunch of redneck nut jobs, we should be trying to find some common ground with them and build on that. This is why NOTHING ever gets done in Washington anymore. The myths about each party gain precedence over the truth. The real truth is, most people just want what is best for our country. And your average Joe is not on the extreme left or right as portrayed in the media. But they ARE uninformed and easy to mislead. Always portraying the other side as a cartoonish imbecile means no common ground will ever be found, and hence no third party. The Dems and Republicans love it. They keep their power, their banker friends keep theirs, and the rest of us get the shaft as usual. Keep on playing along. Just don't bitch about it when nothing changes.