• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Is it just me or are Republicans just really really bad for the country?

Page 8 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Isn't amazing how the GOP have become fiscal conservatives now a Democrat is in the White House? Where were they during the GWB years? Too bad the country is in the worse recession in decades and the GOP keeps talking about cutting spending in response to an increase in unemployment.

I hope the unemployed and anyone worried about losing their jobs remember the great GOP fiscal conservatives next November.
 
senseamp said:
I guess your claim here is that Republicans don't grow the government when in power?
Click to expand...

Merely that the Republicans grow government more slowly when in power. The Republican Congress under Clinton was excellent; Clinton only had to veto things he thought had too much cuts (read: slow-downs in growth; there are seldom real cuts in government.) The (largely) same Republican Congress under Bush was horrid. But when the Dems took over under Bush spending increased even over the now-irresponsible Republican Congress, and when the Dems took the White house too spending increased again. Government is always overhead; government consumes, but produces no wealth. At best government can improve the conditions for others to produce wealth, but the larger the government, the more wealth is consumed by government.

Lemon, you cannot gear government toward the lowest level in society and expect any success. What drives society forward is wealth production, not wealth consumption. Without ever-increased wealth production, a growing society must inevitably grow less wealthy overall. You can disguise it for a time with debt as with Greece or the USA, or allow government to choose winners and losers, but a sustained decrease in wealth production always means a poorer society. Consumption is required (else the wealth produced is worthless) but cannot in and of itself drive a society to anything but bankruptcy.
 
Siddhartha said:
I hope the unemployed and anyone worried about losing their jobs remember the great GOP fiscal conservatives next November.
Click to expand...
They're more likely to lay the blame on the Democrat's doorstep. You know...the people currently driving this bus. The "but, but Bush" mantra doesn't play well when you're struggling to put food on the table.
 
Doc Savage Fan said:
They're more likely to lay the blame on the Democrat's doorstep. You know...the people currently driving this bus. The "but, but Bush" mantra doesn't play well when you're struggling to put food on the table.
Click to expand...

You're advocating not blaming the people causing the problems. If something doesn't pass because Republicans filibuster it while Democrats generally vote4 for it. the blame belongs with the Democrats.

The Democrats might be driving the bus, but hte Republicans have a kill button and a very itchy tricky finger which is why it's not moving.
 
Craig234 said:
You're advocating not blaming the people causing the problems. If something doesn't pass because Republicans filibuster it while Democrats generally vote4 for it. the blame belongs with the Democrats.

The Democrats might be driving the bus, but hte Republicans have a kill button and a very itchy tricky finger which is why it's not moving.
Click to expand...
I wasn't advocating blaming anyone...I was making a simple prediction...out of work voters won't give a damn about Bush this November. Incumbents are going to take the fall for the economy regardless of whether they deserve it or not. Go to sleep!
 
Doc Savage Fan said:
I wasn't advocating blaming anyone...I was making a simple prediction...out of work voters won't give a damn about Bush this November. Incumbents are going to take the fall for the economy regardless of whether they deserve it or not. Go to sleep!
Click to expand...

Fair enough, as a prediction I think you're pretty right. How the economy is doing has a very influiential role in the voting for incumbents, at least the presidency where I've looked, I suspect Congress is similar.

Republicans did sabotage things pretty well for the Dems. Nearly all of Obama's budget priorities are wiped out in order to deal with the crisis.

I'll go see if I can sleep for a bit.
 
ProfJohn said:
You are clueless.

Your whole thread is partisan and based on nothing more than meaningless talking points.

Cuba has better healthcare than the US?

Republicans are spewing out lies??

Palin shouldn't use a computer without supervision?

There is no real thought behind this thread. It is just one worthless attack after another.
Click to expand...

Oh, the irony
 
Whats bad for this country is so many people that are so damned convinced that their way of thinking is the only way of thinking and that any other standard will destroy the nation.

An idea can't be called good or bad unless it is challenged.
 
BoberFett said:
Forgot about the early 2000s already have you?
Click to expand...

Wish I could. However as 2007 and onward show, as bad as the Republicans are, the Democrats are worse. Each new Congress seems to be bound and determined to double down when it takes over. Best case recently seems to be Republican Congress and Democrat President. Democrat Congress and Republican President sucked during Reagan (still waiting for those promised spending cuts) and one-party government has sucked since Johnson and Kennedy.
 
Cogman said:
Whats bad for this country is so many people that are so damned convinced that their way of thinking is the only way of thinking and that any other standard will destroy the nation.

An idea can't be called good or bad unless it is challenged.
Click to expand...

While there are millions of things I could do I'm basically limited to the following as I'm just a college student.

1 ) Support the Democratic Party in trying to correct Healthcare.

2 ) Support the Republican Party in trying to correct Healthcare.

I've chosen to support the Democratic Parties efforts because there plan at the moment is in my opinion the best possible solution. While I am severely disappointed with seeing the Public Option gone and the excise tax limited until 2018, I still believe it's for the best. Thirty million Americans will now receive healthcare and no one will be turned down due to pre-existing conditions.

The Republicans on the other hand are engaging in some of the worst political tactics I've ever seen in my lifetime and if the Healthcare plan is as bad as they say it is - then there's absolutely no need for it. Yet, the lie about death panels is repeated and repeated. Their parties leaders are knowingly spreading lies and there "supposed" solution to the healthcare problem is tort reform, which is estimated to reduce costs by less than a percent.

If the bill isn't passed things won't stay the same, they will continue to get worse. Premiums will continue rise faster, increased co-pays, obscenely high-deductibles and more companies will continue to drop health insurance all together.

You can say that I'm stubborn and I'm being irrational about the need to pass this obviously-not-perfect healthcare bill but personally I don't have a problem with it - I'm just that confident. I believe it's extremely important and if we don't do it things will get worse.
 
Last edited:
Siddhartha said:
Isn't amazing how the GOP have become fiscal conservatives now a Democrat is in the White House? Where were they during the GWB years? Too bad the country is in the worse recession in decades and the GOP keeps talking about cutting spending in response to an increase in unemployment.

I hope the unemployed and anyone worried about losing their jobs remember the great GOP fiscal conservatives next November.
Click to expand...

Sadly you have too much faith in Americans.

They have proven to have no ability to remember and learn.
 
werepossum said:
Wish I could. However as 2007 and onward show, as bad as the Republicans are, the Democrats are worse. Each new Congress seems to be bound and determined to double down when it takes over. Best case recently seems to be Republican Congress and Democrat President. Democrat Congress and Republican President sucked during Reagan (still waiting for those promised spending cuts) and one-party government has sucked since Johnson and Kennedy.
Click to expand...

I fully expect that after a few years of Democrats people will turn back to the Republicans, after which the Republicans will quickly make the past few years of Democrats look downright frugal.

"The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy." - Oscar Wilde
 
BoberFett said:
I fully expect that after a few years of Democrats people will turn back to the Republicans, after which the Republicans will quickly make the past few years of Democrats look downright frugal.

"The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy." - Oscar Wilde
Click to expand...
Quite possibly. With the notable exception of the Republican Congress during the Clinton years, each Congress tends to increase spending and the rate of the increase in spending. Each shiny new Congress is better than the next.

Love that Oscar Wilde quote BTW.
 
Tab said:
I've chosen to support the Democratic Parties efforts because there plan at the moment is in my opinion the best possible solution. While I am severely disappointed with seeing the Public Option gone and the excise tax limited until 2018, I still believe it's for the best. Thirty million Americans will now receive healthcare and no one will be turned down due to pre-existing conditions.
Click to expand...
Any guess on who is going to pay for the healthcare of those 30 million people??

I'll give you a clue, it aint them because if they could pay for healthcare they would have it today.

When you graduate from college and realize that 25% of every penny you earn is taken by the government and that much of it is "given" to people who refuse to take care of themselves or make the right choices then perhaps you will come to your senses.

OR

Why don't you quit college and take the money you would spend on tuition and instead give it to some poor family so they can have healthcare. Stop being so selfish and spending on that money your self and instead share it with those less fortunate.
 
Tab said:
1. Life expectancy is not an good indicator of healthcare, not even close. Drug use, violence, auto accidents and wars keep the US life expectancy far lower than it would be if you adjusted those deaths out of it.

Okay, adjust it then.
Click to expand...
Read this paper

http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=psc_working_papers

Will educate you on life expectancy and healthcare.

Or just read the conclusion
Life expectancy in the United States fares poorly in international comparisons, primarily because of high mortality rates above age 50. Its low ranking is often blamed on a poor performance by the health care system rather than on behavioral or social factors. This paper presents evidence on the relative performance of the US health care system using death avoidance as the sole criterion. We find that, by standards of OECD countries, the US does well in terms of screening for cancer, survival rates from cancer, survival rates after heart attacks and strokes, and medication of individuals with high levels of blood pressure or cholesterol. We consider in greater depth mortality from prostate cancer and breast cancer, diseases for which effective methods of identification and treatment have been developed and where behavioral factors do not play a dominant role. We show that the US has had significantly faster declines in mortality from these two diseases than comparison countries. We conclude that the low longevity ranking of the United States is not likely to be a result of a poorly functioning health care system.
Click to expand...
 
Tab said:
I've been thinking about this for the past month given the rather high amount of drama going on in Washington.

It's totally obvious that Sara Palin is absolutely unfit to be vice president or let alone even use a computer without adult supervision. With that said, isn't it stunning to see how she was chosen by the republican party / McCain to be the next-VP? It just shows a massive lapse in judgement and really poor decision making by the GOP just in general. Not to mention the complete a total disaster Bush left the state of the country in.

Now, we have the healthcare debate and the Republicans are spewing out some of the most vile and outright lies - death panels. Plus, they're still continuing to spread a outright lie even after Obama explicitly discussed it!

In the beginning of the healthcare summit Republican Minority Whip Eric Cantor comments that these healthcare abuses by the insurance companies are merely "alleged", during it you have John Boehner outright lying about funding of abortions only to have Pelsoi correct him and plus you've got McCain resorting to talking points only to be aggressively smacked down by Obama. Which I thought was awesome to see Obama's experience as a lawyer come out but sad to see someone like McCain whom was largely respected by Democrats/Liberals but go off to the deep end and play politics at the healthcare debate.

Now, I know you can tell me Democrats did this and this but seriously Republicans are just really terrible, and their sucky-ness can't even be compared to the Democrats as they're not even on the same scale. I'd also like to say for the Republicans reading this, I don't find the Democrats that appealing but goddamn with the Republicans around they sure as hell look a whole lot better.

EDIT - So, what do you think will happen in the next decade? Personally, I'm predicting Obama wins in '12 relatively easy, the only question is how much of a fight can the Republicans put up or how much legislation will they be able to block? If the TeaParty gets off it's feet and actually becomes a real movement instead of a bunch angry-old-white people we might have something.
Click to expand...

It's just you.... It is Washington politicians in general that are bad for the country. Party affiliation seems to have very little to do with what's bad for the country anymore. The whole Washington political scene is so corrupt and dominated by special interests that the will of the people is usually just an afterthought if it is thought of at all.
 
NesuD said:
It's just you.... It is Washington politicians in general that are bad for the country. Party affiliation seems to have very little to do with what's bad for the country anymore. The whole Washington political scene is so corrupt and dominated by special interests that the will of the people is usually just an afterthought if it is thought of at all.
Click to expand...

Quite true.

It would however be quite amusing to make a list of everything that is "quite obvious" to college students. (Speaking of which, you don't find hospital patients bragging about how healthy they are, so what's up with college students?)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top