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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (199305)	8/30/2012 1:02:51 PM
From: stsimon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542970

All Obama has to do if the Congress can't pass reasonable debt reduction and tax increase legislation is to let Sequestration happen. He can't run again so he has nothing to lose by going over the Fiscal Cliff.

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (199305)	8/30/2012 1:08:04 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542970

Pragmatically speaking; even as the Tea Party have a valid point, creating deadlock could make things worse. In the end it is Obama's problem if reelected and all the finger pointing in the world won't do him one bit of good. Ultimately he will be forced to lead and find a way to negotiate........ Well, the deficit has gone down slightly each year since Obama's first year (which, we apparently need to keep reminded some people, was Bush's last budget). And, as has been posted here before, government employment has gone down during Obama's term (see graphic below), and barring another recession, it should keep going down if Obama has a second term. But you can't negotiate with people who won't negotiate and who have been given minority rights in the Senate which allows them to stymie all but very large supermajorities--and supermajorities are nearly impossible to get. You can talk all you want about "leadership," but sometimes people simply can't be led. And in our polarized state, I am sad to say, that is the case today. One thing we can be pretty sure of, though--If Romney-Ryan get into office with a Republican Congress, all bets are off. They will enact their tax cuts almost for sure, and will explode the deficit just as Reagan's tax cuts did and Bush 43's tax cuts did.

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (199305)	8/30/2012 1:17:04 PM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542970

Steve, didn't you caucus with the Paulites in Washington state? Didn't you report they were, well, a little beyond quirky? I may be misremembering. I tend to mock the Tea Party, of course, but mostly I think it's like Gertrude Stein said about Oakland - there's no there there. It was always presented as a populist uprising, but my impression is that all the official groups bearing the name are headed by old retread hard core conservatives like Dick Armey. I'm sure there are people genuinely worried about the deficit out there, like you are. Given the generally elderly skewage of the broader "Tea Party" base, though, it's hard to take the overall deficit hawkage of the group too seriously. I guess they'd be happy enough with the Ryan plan to fix Medicare by voucherizing it in 10 years for people 55 and under now, but real here and now cuts? Real pushback against the Republican tendency to include Defense under the budget axe? I know the Paulites want to cut defense, but they ain't getting a lot of respect from the national party. For true deficit hawks, there's always the dreaded fiscal cliff, which would actually do wonders for the deficit if it didn't totally crash the economy. Still, I could accept that risk a lot more easily than some Ryan derivative that upholds the Republican prime directive of tax cuts for rich people first and foremost.

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (199305)	8/30/2012 3:11:28 PM
From: Metacomet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542970

Democrats would be fool hearty to not address the debt issue with some renewed honesty. Ah for Christ's sake Steve How can you guys keep pounding this thing knowing full well that the only workable solution is to add revenue and knowing that no one in the GOP has the balls to take on Norquist, hence the only possible solution is to dump the Tea Party dolts There is nothing that Democrats could possibly do to address the debt issue without GOP co-operation So your criticism is nonsense and you know it

To: Steve Lokness who wrote (199305)	8/31/2012 11:01:42 AM
From: John Vosilla	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542970

Pragmatically speaking; even as the Tea Party have a valid point, creating deadlock could make things worse. Probably as good a reason as any for those undecideds to vote Romney. I don't need or want more wars, housing bubbles and tax cuts for the super rich creating a false sense of prosperity in 3-4 years but so many have fatigue after five years of hell yearning for the gogo days of the middle of the last decade no matter how phoney it was. Don't kid yourself total control by the GOP means attempting to grow our way out with 6-7-8% GDP + via all the pent up demand from this slack period. Sucking too much out of the public sector will never achieve those goals. Will be a tough balancing act for anyone..