The Grand Delusion

[JulesMaximus]

The number one budget holes are military spending and medicare/social security, mostly medicare on the second one.

I've yet to hear a single candidate for any party talk about real deficit reduction with regards to cutting these programs. This is where ALL of the money is, not 2 billion here and there for pork projects or teacher pay.

Any talk of cuts to defense is strictly off the table, thus nothing will change. Most of the rest is just tired platitudes about strengthening small business and getting the government out of the way - meaningless shit that warms the hearts of rubes.

I've yet to hear ANYONE in the tea party offer any real solutions to any of the problems we face in government spending today.

 

[zsdersw]

Sure it will be effective.

No it won't. Lots of politicians, probably since we've had them here, have talked the talk on the campaign trail only to not walk the walk once in office. There's nothing to suggest this election will be any different.

If we had the post Nov 2 makeup of the house and senate, things like the health care bill would not have passed. This is not the goal state, this is just going to be step one in fixing the country.

A delusion like any other.

 

[Craig234]

I've yet to hear ANYONE in the tea party offer any real solutions to any of the problems we face in government spending today.

Carly Fiorina was interviewed on Fox, and the interviewer asked her *seven times* what she would cut, unable to get an answer and finally gave up. *Fox*.

 

[Craig234]

Things won't change all that much, but this election is simply an effective tool to put the brakes on the runaway liberal Obama/Pelosi/Reid agenda. Nothing more, nothing less.

First, there is no 'runaway liberal agenda'. If there were, we'd be better off by far.

Second, it's not about that - if Republicans gain power, they have the same corrupt agenda that destroys the country they had before.

They'll continue all kinds of harmful policies as much as they can by trading to get them, and block good policies as they do now.

 

[werepossum]

Exactly, because that's not what people really want.

Conservative Talk is good at focusing people's general angst so they can position themselves as the solution to their manufactured "One True Problem." But take away the focusing and people really don't care. This allows Republicans to go right back to doing nothing -- a rather effective strategy they employ so that they can't be blamed for anything.

Medicare. Medicaid. Social Security. They're here to stay. Conservative Talk can scare the uneducated masses with the trivial healthcare reforms the democrats managed to pass because they're new. Once it's no longer shiny and new and scary, and conservatives see that the universe did not implode just because certain edge insurance practices were regulated away, it will be a non-issue.

Really, I can't think of a damned thing the Democrats have actually done in the last two years. They've been too busy dealing with the problems they inherited.

Spoken like a true progressive. The people may think they want Obamacare overturned, but progressives know what the people really want - more nanny state!

It's amazing that people who are so enlightened and so much smarter than the rest of us can't seem to handle providing their own college education, health care, day care . . .

 

[DominionSeraph]

Spoken like a true progressive.
The people may think they want Obamacare overturned, but progressives know what the people really want - more nanny state!

Spoken like a true idiot flipping through memes searching for any interpretation that will validate his beliefs.

It has nothing to do with being progressive. It's observation of the analogous situations in the past and analysis people's response to infer their underlying psychological state.
We've been in this situation dozens of times before, and it takes a heckuva lot for there to be a real push for change in the opposite direction. Prohibition took 13 years. Marijuana has been 73 years and it's still not fully formed.

If there was real uproar over the government doing anything the government wouldn't be able to do anything.
There just ain't.

 

[werepossum]

Spoken like a true idiot flipping through memes searching for any interpretation that will validate his beliefs.

It has nothing to do with being progressive. It's observation of the analogous situations in the past and analysis people's response to infer their underlying psychological state.
We've been in this situation dozens of times before, and it takes a heckuva lot for there to be a real push for change in the opposite direction. Prohibition took 13 years. Marijuana has been 73 years and it's still not fully formed.

If there was real uproar over the government doing anything the government wouldn't be able to do anything.
There just ain't.

The government can do whatever it wants as long as it holds the White House, a majority in the House, and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate - or is willing to find some arcane rules to bypass those requirements where needed - and is uncaring of the public's wishes and its response. In this case Obamacare WAS the real push, moving health care insurance from a state responsibility to a federal government responsibility in one fell swoop. Much easier to overcome an unpopular change in the status quo, against the public will, than to make that change against the public will.

 

[DominionSeraph]

The government can do whatever it wants as long as it holds the White House, a majority in the House, and a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate - or is willing to find some arcane rules to bypass those requirements where needed - and is uncaring of the public's wishes and its response. In this case Obamacare WAS the real push, moving health care insurance from a state responsibility to a federal government responsibility in one fell swoop. Much easier to overcome an unpopular change in the status quo, against the public will, than to make that change against the public will.

Can we please get a predicate that follows from its subject-verb?

You have shit hanging all over the place there.

 

[PingSpike]

Yeah, not sure why everyone thought Obama was going to change anything. If he wasn't lying about what he was going to do, he quickly found out that any attempts to deviate from the path would be violently resisted by all entrenched players. I secretly hoped something worthwhile might happen with health care reform but instead we were treated to another half baked turd that fixes no fundamental problems.

 

[quikah]

Carly Fiorina was interviewed on Fox, and the interviewer asked her *seven times* what she would cut, unable to get an answer and finally gave up. *Fox*.

Lets be fair, she only knows how to cut jobs, you think that would play well in the current economic environment?

 

[BoberFett]

Really, I can't think of a damned thing the Democrats have actually done in the last two years. They've been too busy talking about Republicans.

Fixed

 

[Moonbeam]

It will probably take a hundred years for the half of the country that doesn't vote to notice that something happened.

 

[Moonbeam]

I guess is that when the Tea Baggers take power and try to run things, there will be a new party formed, the Pitch Fork Party, to come and get them.

 

[trenchfoot]

Yeah, I'd really like to see how the TeaBagger agenda compares with the repub agenda, because I'd like to see how they're going to fix what the repubs broke.

Oh wait....I remember seeing a TeaBagger looking at her reflection in a mirror and there were these little flying pink elephants circling over her head, and upon closer inspection one looked like Sarah Palin, the other looked like Sharron Angle and the one behind it looked like Chrissy O'Donnell......crap! we are truly and thoroughly screwed.

Repubs on the one hand and some teabagging loonies on the other.

Eh, could be worse...they all could be joined at the hip....Oh wait!