OK. No one likes running the red ink meter the way this massive whatever bill just did/will do.
But let's face facts.
What we KNOW from cold hard experience is that giving Thurston and Lovey, and even me, tax cuts, DOES NOT WORK. Neither do cuts in business taxes. Higher corporate tax rates encourage REINVESTMENT and EXPANSION rather than squirrelling away shareholder gain. We also know that the last generation of Republican economic ideology, including the eight years of the GOP's best friend Bill Clinton, has skateboarded us into this disaster.
What we don't know is WILL THIS HELP? And I have no idea. The point is though, that this is 1933 and then some all over again. We need to try THINGS. If they work, fine, if they don't, scrap them. The operative word now is PRAGMATISM, not (paging John Boehner) partisanship.
The Titanic has hit the berg. I'd rather NOT be Leo.
2 comments:
Same ol' battle lines...Where's the new coalition?
I've spent the last 16 years watching politics in this country swing wildly from one side to the other, without ever even coming close to settling in the middle where most of us are (despite claims that the parties are 99% identical. That's BS. men and women are much closer to identical then dems and repubs. 1% is all the difference in the world, in other words).
Republicans foamed at the mouth with anger during the clinton years, despite the fact that he was probably the least liberal democrat to take office since FDR. Clinton did it the "third way", paved the way for globalization/job losses with nafta, and even left a little surplus, what's a fiscal conservative not to like?
Nonetheless Republicans claimed to be offended by the clinton debauchery-- even impeached the goof for trying to cover up a hummer from a fat chick-- pounded the bible and stood for family values and protection of every human life (terry schiavo)-- then touted their toughness and willingness to "go over to the dark side" and start a war (iraq) for kicks after 9/11. family values? can you say hypocrite?
now, I'm not saying obama fans (short for fanatic) are hypocrites, but they appear to be no better than republicans in 2000 (can't explain '04...sigh)- namely, they look like they are in this game for revenge. don't make the same mistake folks, you'll breed a nasty backlash, instead of realigning for the future.
Republicans are smartly looking like fiscal conservatives again -- given, it's the easy position, always has been-- and dems are walking into their old position of optimistic big spenders. Dems, you're being set up!
Obama's election BURIED the red neck republicans. you have an opportunity to be the party of the future because you've managed to separate the previously unbeatable coalition of red necks and power suit mba geeks. LBJ abandoned the rednecks, and Obama wiped them off the face of the earth. so where's the new coalition? Not a good start, but I will try to be patient.
I WANT MY NEW EFFING COALITION AS PROMISED.
mg
m, I can't disagree with you, but sadly, as we say in a certain line of work you're familiar with, this is sui generis. I'm all in favor of co-opting fiscal moderates/reasonable Republicans (like a good friiend of mine and my lovely wife) but this is a hell on wheels emergency. The Bush wars and the "Give All Our Money to Halliburton" campaign has pushed us to the wall. Sure, we're probably going all in with a pair of deuces, but I'm not sure what choice we have?
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