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Cantor has been leading,"obstructing," behind the scenes, with his merry little band of extremists all along. It matters little who is officially called the House Speaker. With Cantor it's all about the Koch, ALEC-fueled, Tea Party agenda.
Chuckle: What little I do decide to buy...I carefully scrutinize the receipt and often times I'll find that I was either double charged for an item or the price was not the "sale" price. They are sneaky that way...all of those Supermarkets (or any merchants) have to be watched...but if you are in a hurry...and don't watch what is being rung up, you will likely never know you got cheated. I lost count of all the times some cashier tried to short change me when I pay cash for something.
Pretty much proof of what we always suspected. The Tea Party is not a grass-roots movement. Its a group of paid thugs for a few far right gazillionaires. They have zero allegiance to their constituents - 100% to their bosses.
It looks like 2 more years of chaos. Then they will be gone and the reconstruction can be started.
I'm sorry, Mathboy, I was pissed off at some of the comments but your definitions of what I call myself are, without wanting to be nasty, common for the dumbed down society.
Self-educater (educator): I think you need to go get professional education--concentrating especially on understanding the facts, plus how to reason, logic, and writing a cogent statement.
I'm sorry, but that was just so obnoxiously ignorant, like if you didn't see it on Oprah or some stupid TV show you don't know about it.
I wonder about your definitions, including "progressive."
What are you talking about when you say there's no discussion on spending? What do you think the republicans are talking about when they urge cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicare, veterans' benefits, tax credits for child care and unemployment benefits.
You are not a government. The government operates by quite different standards than a family does. Unless, of course, you make your own money.
A deficit is not necessarily a bad thing, up to a point. Lack of jobs is a bad thing. We can run a deficit if we use money to help stimulate the economy which brings in more money. That's why we need to put money into people's pockets. Only people with money can stimulate the economy. Businesses have tons of money that they are sitting on and not using to create jobs. For example, IRS figures show that in 2009 nonfinancial companies held $4.8 trillion in liquid assets, which equals $5.1 trillion in today’s dollars, triple the Fed figure.
You don't print your own money.
Obama should do an LBJ.
Obama should have Boehner, McConnell, Cantor and other key twa party leaders escorted to oval office by an armed escort. In the office he should tell the GOP Leaders that they either get their members to support the tax hike to 40% marginal on incomes >= 300K/Yr or find themselves witnessing a forced confiscation the the top 2% excess wealth starting in 36 hrs. And have the armed escort serice take them back to Capitol Hill..
Well, we still have spending problem, do we not? Why is there no discussion on spending?
And by the way, I'm a progressive, but like my own finances, I can't spend more than I have!
Just a thought!
In my professional life (now some years past) I taught history (western civ) to 9th and 10th graders. If only schools would still teach that history, Americans would know the meaning of Socialism and Liberalism and Communism as well as the long and hard fought history of the development of western democracy, going back to the Middle Ages, as well as the parliamentary form of government now practiced in Europe. Instead these words are tossed around without knowledge or regard for their meaning. You, Thom, are most helpful with your remarkable and detailed knowledge of US history - thank you for the insights which you bring. History has many wonderful testimonials to the human spirit and its capacity to guide us all. Although its study does not lead directly to a waiting job, it does a great deal to lead us to a good life. May we continue to celebrate and value a "liberal education." (The term comes from the Middle Ages in Europe - the "seven liberal arts.")
Mauiman,
Dick Durbin has said that Social Security shouldn't be on the table and Medicare and Medicaid needn't be cut.
Why should I explain, again, how this works? You don't ever listen, willfully so, it seems.
Once more. I think your numbers - although I am not sure, will have to check - are off, again. Tax the rich, the top 2%, at Clinton era levels, I heard, on pretty good authority (I think it was Dick Durbin) - but, again, will have to check - will yield significantly more than $100 billion. It will bring in 40% of the deficit. Cuts to the military are easy as that budget was gratuitously increased in the last few years but that also won't be enough.
However, as I've told youse many times before, it's ok and even desirable to run a deficit during a recession. Only government will make the investment necessary to restart the economy. Each of the two times in the last 60 years the budget was balanced - each time under Democrats, it was Republican Administrations that spent like sailors and deficit spent and ran up the deficit we're dealing with now - it wasn't just tax increases that brought it about but tax increases in combination with a robust economy that brought in the revenue. Tax cuts might help for a little while but more than likely, while making some individuals richer and freer of obligation, they will make the economy more anemic.
Business already has more money than it knows what to do with right now but what they don't have is customers. They have no reason to expand and invest. Only government will do that.
I don't think you wanna hear what I'm saying. I don't think you're being truthful or honest.
I'd like to see the books opened on the Republican Party Underground Slush Fund and War Booty which is coming to Light.
You don't speak for Canadians but one, Kend, nor do I trust most of your math and stats I don't have time to check.
Thanks so much, Thom - I am hoping that we go on "off the cliff." No compromise. Let the Rs come to us. Debby
Me too.
I'm a Libertarian Socialist but not yet a complete Anarchist.
You have to be honest to understand it and not insist on false definitions of Socialism and false dichotomies of Leninist Communism and live and let die, predatory, Lassiez Faire Capitalism.
Respectfully, Mathboy, you have no idea what you're talking about.
Don't hurt yourself Global. That you haven't heard of any of it and can't even seem to comprehend, for example, that your rights can't be at the expense of everyone else's, means that you're either way out or full of it.
It looks to me like the Mayan end times refer to the implosion of the Republican Party as we have known it since 1980.
All their long time strong arm tactics aren't working any more. People see through their lies. Their lock-step mentality died when they stopped being an unbeatable force in the Nov. presidential elections.
They can't negotiate -- they don't know how. That looks too soft and weak to them.
They can't learn -- they don't know how. That would require them to be able admit they are human. And again that looks too soft and weak to them.
They can't change their dogma -- they are still owned by the same folks who have always owned them and have their dogmas written for them. Without a script they don't even know what it say.
:P How weak is that!!!
Libertarianism and socialism are not compatible.
I know what a libertarian is, I lean that way. Mark S is a libertarian socialist anarchist etc... That is what I am trying to understand.
It is okay to walk through the aisles of Safeway, but please do not buy anything.
I really wish people would stop referring to the 6-year-olds that were killed as "babies".
I say tax the crap out of those who actually benefitted from unpaid wars, federal weapon contracts, huge unpiad tax cuts and privatizing the US Treasury. Yup, the very richest of the rich Americans!