IBCoupe wrote:
I'll be sure to stop once you stop denigrating your fellow citizens for disagreeing with you.
My point did not denigrate those who disagree, my point was that the moochers really dont matter as much in the elections because most dont even bother to let go of the teet long enough to vote.
IBCoupe wrote:
Much of the problem is that the American Right, when you get right to it, are all talk. Philosophically, they're conservative. In practice, they're liberals. I got into it last week with a coworker. He's a diehard Republican; thinks big government is per se bad government. But now his panties are in a bunch because the newly elected independent (formerly Republican) Governor of his state has a platform that promises to eliminate all sales tax exemptions, and impose at least a 1% sales tax on those formerly exempted items.
The problem? This includes a sales tax exemption for artificial limbs for injured veterans. The problem with Republicans is that they don't have the guts to follow through on their pledges to shrink government. Because the actual act of shrinking government means touching every "third rail" there is. It means cutting defense, which means fewer jobs. It means cutting medicare and social security, which means losing the mostly-Republican-leaning elderly (who came out in droves this year, compared to 2008). It means doing unpopular things that most Americans don't like.
You want Republicans to get back to their "true conservatism," but I'm betting that the Democrats would like nothing better.
And so how do you work out your personal budget? Lets say you lose your job and have to accept another that pays 5% less. Do you then say, well my budget was pretty tight already so EVERYTHING will just have to suffer 5%. I can only pay 95% or my house note, and my electric bill, and my cell phone bill, and my entertainment cut, and my clothing cut, and my savings, EVERYTHING 5%.
NO! At least I hope your answer would be NO!
You cant cut your house note 5%, aside from perhaps refinancing or changing apartments when your lease is up. You cant cut your electric bill, at least not directly, you can do things to make it less, but you cant short pay your bill. BUT, you absolutely CAN cut your entertainment spending 100%, you CAN cut your clothing spending a good bit more than 5% im sure. My point? Does cutting spending mean we will have to cut defense? Perhaps some, does it mean we will have to cut SS? Maybe, but theres sure a HELL of alot more that we can cut FIRST before we start messing with essentials. The internets are riddled with stories where we fund research on mating patterns of river otters, or whether gay rats liked Michael Jackson songs. Lets start there for Gods sake, call a moretorium on ALL research funding perhaps, or aleast glean to the absolute essential. Then the abuse of the governments virtually non-existent oversight on the goods and services it purchases. All the stories where we paid millions in shipping for 3 nuts or 6 washers. Sh*t like that needs to be fixed, and how much would that save us? Once we get all that under control, and yes that includes all the bridges to nowhere as well, then we'll get alot closer to where we need to be. Get all that fixed, get us spending just what we absolutely HAVE to spend to stay viable and defensable, then we can start a debate on where else to cut, or whether to borrow more, or whatever.
