You know, as much as I feel the Pubs are going about this Debt the WRONG WAY,

[napi21]

I'm kinda gladthey did it. They made spending an issue. DC HAS been spending too much and on lots of the wrong things. There's no reason to have millions of tax credits that are for the exclusive benefit of one corp. of one business line, OR for only one class of people for that matter. Shrub should NEVER have been allowed to start and expand wars as he did. I really don't think my bias is showing when I say ALL AMERICANS want social security and Medicare, and if those programs cost more then they would approve of a small across the board tax increase to support them.

Congress has gotten completely out of control over many years and I can't think of anything that would reign them except a group of (perhaps) crazies that is large enough to make things happen. MAYBE, just maybe, this stunt will at least prevent a lot of future lobbiest appeasement and flat out stupid spending for starters, and if we're lucky, Enough both Pubs & Dems will back off the corporate gravy train.

[KittyWampus]

1. They've exposed themselves. Theirs words say deficits=bad but their actions=exact opposite.

[emulatorloo]

2. I think it has been proven once and for all that the Republicans are not serious about deficit

reduction. Their actions in the last few weeks are so obvious.

[HereSince1628]

4. When Norquist said shrink it so as to drown it in a bathtub

everyone thought he meant drown it in water.

Based on the historical empirical evidence we should probably conclude that he meant drown the gov't in debt.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Igel]

10. No side has clean hands.

The moaning over the * deficits was immense. He was irresponsible. The deficits were unsustainable. They were a drag on the economy. The (R) Congress was hypocritical, having complained about deficits in the '90s and then racking them up in the '00s.

In fact, campaigning in '06 and '08 included lots of (D) bloviating about the deficits and how the adults would be more fiscally responsible.

Largest deficit that the (D) detested in the '00s? $450 billion.

Average deficit that the (D) believe is just fine in the '10s? $1,350 billion. Yep: Apparently the deficits were unsustainable because they'd need to be 3x larger to be sustainable. :crazy:

But no. They're weapons to use against political foes; but when done by a member of your own house, well, they can't be all bad.

So now the justification is that we need high deficits because of slow growth, slow job creation. Does anybody remember talk about runaway job creation and explosive, unsustainable economic growth under *?

Right. The only thing in our favor is that we've recently complained rather less about humongous deficits being bad and people just won't remember Pelosi '06 or Obama '08, or what was said by (D) in '03 and '04 and '05 and '06 about the deficits.

[reformist2]

3. And they've been spending trillions on tax cuts that don't produce jobs.

[spanone]

6. republicans are not talking about tax credits...they are talking about social programs

[mike_c]

7. I think just the opposite....

Yes, Washington DOES spend too much money, but it spends it on things that the present debate is utterly ignoring, and in that sense the "spending debate" is really a smoke screen that OBSCURES the real spending problems and dodges discussion of them. The real spending problems are a military budget that is exceeds all other nations combined, the costs of maintaining a global empire, and the costs of institutionalized exceptions to normal market dynamics, i.e. subsidized industries. Instead, the focus is squarely on cost cutting in social programs, which necessarily target the weakest, oldest, youngest, sickest, poorest, and least powerful constituencies while maintaining the unmentionable gravy train for the rich and powerful.

So while I wholeheartedly agree with you that Washington's spending is out of control, I disagree that the current discussion is doing anything to shine a light on the real sources of that problem. Instead, it's obfuscating them.

[dkf]

8. Have you ever looked at the numbers behind SS and Medicare?

The problem is we've never had to support such a large population of beneficiaries and our birthrate isn't very high either.

If you do some research at the Government sites you will see it gets to be a huge problem. But you really should look at it or you won't know what all the fuss is about.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. That's What Teabaggers Say

Now, it's obvious that what you consider wasteful spending and what they consider wasteful are two entirely different sets of things. And, i'm on your side of the argument.

But, an out of control Congress can be in the eye of the beholder. They think farm subsidies are a waste, they think Social Security is a waste, they think Medicate is wasteful. You and i don't, but where do we get to a point where everyone agrees on what is waste, when we've got people still believing tax cuts create jobs?
GAC