President Obama isn’t serious, GOP – and you know it
December 3, 2012 at 12:00 pm in News by Dustin Siggins 30 Comments
This is going to be a very short post. In short, as Ed Morrissey and Charles Krauthammer have outlined, President Obama’s initial offer on the debt ceiling isn’t an offer. It’s a sell to the media, which he knows will back him. Even Ezra Klein can’t take it seriously.
In short, Tea Party Patriots has no faith that the President is remotely acting in good faith in the debt ceiling debate. Similarly, however, we know the GOP is likely to cave on taxes and spending, and most importantly on the future of America. Washington is more broken than ever, and once again the grassroots seems unable to pierce the Beltway Bubble on cutting spending and tax reform.
Krauthammer noted well that President Obama doesn’t want to preside over a ruinous economy. Unfortunately, both his party and the Republican Party seem intent on making the current economic doldrums the norm.
I agree we need more spending cuts. I think the first thing we should cut is the military. When the US Military is 12 times more powerful than all the other country’s combined I think they can afford less money.
What is wrong with you? The one thing you don’t cut is defense. You don’t cut the military and thank your lucky stars that we are 12 time greater and stronger than any other nation. You say that like it’s a slam against us. You don’t want a military that is just equal with the world. You want, you need a military that is much much stronger than anyone else.
I would be fine with some military cuts but people don’t realize the military is now a mere 18% of the federal budget. Entitlements have to be in play… But they won’t be. People have a skewed idea of the role if government.
It was not entitlements that put us in debt. It was 2 wars costing trillions that we put on a credit card. I don’t think we should punish the American people for bad decisions our Government made in the past. We just avoided a major depression. I don’t think more should be given to entitlements and I do think there should be a major reform to it but cutting it is not the answer.
No asshole. It’s idiot liberals ignoring sanity, logic and the Constitution.
The truth is, there isn’t enough available money in the economy to pay for the government. Government spending has to be cut. If we continue on the path we’re on, the government will collapse.
We, as a nation with a government selected by the people, allowed this to happen. We are responsible for paying for the insanity we allowed to happen in our government. It’s time for a flat tax where EVERYONE pays their fair share of what the government cost.
Today, those voting for a big government don’t have to pay for it. Those voting against a big government are the people paying all the cost of government. We need a system where EVERYONE has a vested interest in how much the government cost.
No more debt. Not for any reason. Cut what needs to be cut. If Congress can’t decide what to cut, then cut every goddam line item in government an arbitrary 10 percent every year until we get down to a size of government the economy can actually pay for.
Everyone allowed this to happen. Everyone has to pay for it.
Why should someone who lives in poverty pay the same as someone who lives on Park ave? There were a few who profited from the two wars we just had that but us in debt. Why shouldn’t they pay more than the guy who had to put his life on the line for that war?
Because, they vote.
And, if they live in what you call “poverty” in the United States, it’s because they chose that living standard. The United States is one of the very, very few nations that has ever existed where you can choose your own living standard. Here’s how to avoid being poor in the United States:
Take advantage of the educational opportunities offered to everyone in the entire country without exception, and study.
Get a job. Show up for work every day… on time. Do what you’re paid to do while you are at work. Become a student of your profession.
Don’t waste your money by doing things like going to casinos and not leaving until you don’t have another dime to give to them.
Live within your means. Support and love your family. Teach your children to be reliable in the workforce.
Do this for a career.
If you do these very simple things, you will never live in what you call “poverty” here in the United States…. provided the United States continues to be a Constitutional republic.
If a person made other choices, like playing basketball at midnight instead of getting some sleep so they could work all day the next day, then I am not responsible for their poor choices, and they have to live within the living standard they chose.
And, if they vote, then obviously they should have to pay their fair share of what they voted for.
We are in this situation because of two unpaid wars and tax policies that allow the super-rich to not pay their far share of taxes.We need to purge the Republician Party of Karl Rove and his super rich buddies.
Pertaining to the vaunted “2 wars on a credit card “. Ever notice that a credit card balance goes up AS IT IS SPENT-not after the fact. Please bear in mind that we can either palaver ourselves bloody upon the verbage du jour. Or we can face the fact our public servants, right up to potus, have served poorly, both parties, and until we get past their straw-man, they will continue to do so.
No baggers. No way. No how.
Everyone knows Medi-Care is a huge expense and must suffer cuts, but both the Republicans and Democrats don’t want to be seen as the party to cut Medi-Care.
GOP needs to create “Contract with America 2.0″.
I agree completely with the article. If we do not change Speaker of the House, we should not expect any change from the previous 2 years, which are no different than the previous 4 years to include the 2 years when the Democrats had a super majority in the Senate and a dominant majority in the House.
Paul Ryan should be the next Speaker. We need to thank Boehner for his time, and put someone in as Speaker that won’t cower to the Democrats.
No more debt. Not for any reason. Make Congress grow up and conduct government business with some fiscal sanity.
If all they have been able to produce in the past 4 years is doubling the debt and creating a fiscal cliff, then let the cliff come. Then, live with it. Whatever it takes to reduce government spending.
By the way, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Anyone who has been observing Obama will know he’s not even involved in government. Clint Eastwood described it accurately, an empty chair. Obama is nothing more than a cardboard cutout commercial to make it appear as if someone is actually president. He isn’t in charge of anything and he doesn’t make any decisions. That is why it appears he’s not serious about the catastrophic fiscal situation we’re in today. He isn’t serious. He’ll still be playing golf and zooming around in Air Force One for some junket or another on our dime even if all the social services go bankrupt and everyone loses their benefits. He’s never done anything in his life but ride in the gold seat on the government gravy train. That’s all he knows how to do. That will never change. He’s been too successful at it.
I agree that we need a new speaker. Boehner has no backbone. We need cuts in all areas of spending. We do need to cut entitlements and reform welfare and the Tax system. I am for a flat Tax as well everyone pays the same percentage. We need to stop Tax credits that allow people who pay nothing at all to get refunds.
Blue and DBWriter – please do everyone a favor and cool it. I bet no one even reads your posts. You two need to get a life. No offense…
Please don’t use my name and that embicile’s in the same sentence.
Thank you.
The crux of the matter is not a matter of private umbrages. It is to clearly define the duties of any government.
Our framers of the constitution defined that as maintaining order and seeing to the common defence.
To maintain order a common language and culture are needed, this would require a rudimentary level of education, not free college for aspireing civil servants and loafers.
To see to the common defence, one must first define how dependant we are on progecting the “american interest “. You cannot hope to depend upon other nations for essentials without first being intent upon secureing your sources of supply.
With that in mind, it seems to me, we cannot cut our military without first cutting the wanton expenditure on social programs the feed upon our private sector trade.
Solution- buy american, and don’t ask for free stuff.
Instead of cutting military funding, which IS NECESSARY, let’s get PBS!
Yes, we can save $300 million and purchase a single F-35B Lightning Variant for $235 million.
Yeah… and my dog thinks I should cut the funding for the fence around the chickens.
If Americans, in general, were the type of people who wanted to achieve self-reliance, then we woulnd’t even be having this discussion. The only reason we’re having this discussion is because the American population has degenerated to a point where half the population expects the other half to give them what doesn’t automatically fall out of the sky onto them.
Lot’s of luck trying to compete in the world with a country full of free-loaders.
We need to do the things that cause the bulk of the Ameerican population strive for self-reliance.
A country full of free-loading leeches won’t support the living standard we inherited.
What’s the plan to move the American population in that direction, back to where it was when all that we have was created and given to us?
Blue – Last time i checked Medi-Care is a cost. I see a huge deduction for it from my paycheck every 2 weeks. Not sure what you mean it is not a cost?
Blue – you need to work on your critical thinking skills. I’m not saying to get rid of it. Just that it needs to be changed. I’m fully aware that insurance companies won’t insure older people because economically it is not profitable. But Medi-Care is getting cut and changes are coming.
The problem is what “rich ” is. The silver spoon Kerry’s and Pelosies’s are hiding behind the owner operator truckers and one man plumbers that do a little ditch digging. We may as well face the fact that if you employ a thief to steal back what you think you were robbed of-only the thief gets paid. Being a thief, you expect anything out of him?
I agree Blue. We could actually and easily defend our country with probably 25% of the military we now have.
I haven’t noticed Obama and his team of “progressives” doing anything but spreading our military even further across the world and intervening in even more countries.
Talk to them about this, will you?
Wow Blue…get a life. I just happened upon this site surfing the web and your obviously trying to over compensate for something. Try to explain to all these people why: We have a government that spends $12 per day per citizen into debt, why our government has a tax system that NO ONE MAN can understand, why our governmental officials have passed laws that they themselves are not subject to, why our governmental officials go to Washington broke and leave millionaires and why 5% of the populace that makes 26% of the income pays 40% of all taxes? It’s ok to ask these questions. Our government has become a web of unnavigable bureaucracies. I’ve lived in poverty, I have family and friends that struggle every day. You cannot disregard someone else’s ideals just because they are not your own. Big government solves nothing. Every thing they touch turns to crap. Most of the scientific breakthroughs come from the private sector. The largest growths ever recorded in economic times were in unregulated industry FACT. Regulations kill business. Anyone that argues government is good, is obviously benefiting some way, in some form, from the government.
I believe your assessment is inadequate. I won’t argue that there can be cuts to military spending. But promoting a number like 25 percent of current spending is not realistic. There is still a state of war with the Islamists, and they are advancing leaps and bounds, taking control of major countries. Their intent and motivation has not changed, while ours has become self-depricating defeatism and condiliatory.
I would suggest removing all military from Afghanistan, to begin with. There’s no reason to be fighting against the Taliban when the president is guaranteeing them safe passage throughout the country. And, if we’re not going to fight the Taliban, there’s no other reason to be there. Our presence only hampers Karzai’s efforts to maintain control of his government.
I would be interested in knowing which projects you think are unnecessary. For instance, do you think we should decommission all strategic bombers? Do you think we should mothball the carrier fleets? Do you think we should eliminate the Marine Corps’ amphibious capability? Do you think we should eliminate several Army divisions? Do you think we should cease all weapons systems design and development procurement efforts?
Can you provide some specific elements to cut, and your justification for cutting them?
Your argument is missing a crucial element. So-called “demand” economics requires a supply of money to create that demand. You reference no mechanism to create that money. Tim Geithner referenced a mechanism for that: Just borrow without any limit. You can’t get more insane than that.
The fact is, the economy is global. To use Exxon for an example, Exxon pays 12.3 billion dollars to the government just because they are an American company, but their profits from investments in the United States only equals 9.6 billion dollars. If you owned Exxon, wouldn’t you be thinking about getting the hell out of here and moving to some country like Russia or China or India where you would pay less to that government than you earned in that country? The ONLY reason Exxon doesn’t move is because they are first and foremost an American company. Exxon can move to any location in the world it chooses, and an entire industry will follow them.
For America to compete, we must fit into the economic strata of the world. That means Americans have to add more value to the products and services than our competitors, given the same level of investment of time, effort and money. That will be difficult to do considering the fact that the so-called “progressives” destroyed what was previous to their assumption of control the finest education system in the world, and replaced it with the most expensive education system in the world that generates the most ignorant workforce in the industrialized world.
Unless we fix our education system, the outcome of our living standard plummetting is inevitable. And, more money isn’t the answer. It’s already the most expensive education system in the world, and the worst performing education system in the industrialized world.
We have to do that so you can have:
1) the money to party with;
2) a place to party; and
3) the right to free assembly, i.e. a place to party.
Go have a good time. Leave the serious decisions like what the government should do to the grownups. Come back when you grow up. We’ll talk.