The header is self explanatory....you'll see what I mean. Read on. Sorry Joey!
Jonathan Zucker
I
wonder if Romney is for spending money and increasing our deficit
(which our kids will have to pay back to China), in order to clean up
this mess (Hurricane Sandy) or if he's, instead, for austerity and cuts
to programs to pay for it.
Don't think it's the same as the '08 economic collapse? You're right. One was caused by an over leveraged financial market and the other was caused by weather.
N
Don't think it's the same as the '08 economic collapse? You're right. One was caused by an over leveraged financial market and the other was caused by weather.
N
either was caused by government over spending.
How are they similar now? They're two messes that need to be cleaned up. The fundamental question is how do you pay for it. Do you use deficit spending (FEMA, federal assistance dollars....) and then grow the economy to pay for that spending or do you cut government spending (no government assistance since Romney called for privatizing FEMA during the primaries), further depressing the economy and then hoping it gets cleaned up by the private sector?
Hmmmm. Funny how Republicans say they want a smaller government....until there's a problem and they need help.
How are they similar now? They're two messes that need to be cleaned up. The fundamental question is how do you pay for it. Do you use deficit spending (FEMA, federal assistance dollars....) and then grow the economy to pay for that spending or do you cut government spending (no government assistance since Romney called for privatizing FEMA during the primaries), further depressing the economy and then hoping it gets cleaned up by the private sector?
Hmmmm. Funny how Republicans say they want a smaller government....until there's a problem and they need help.
D.j. Ledina and Nathan Zucker like this.
Joey Folkman Republicans
dont believe in no govt, they just believe in limited government.
Government should be available for circumstances such as this, where
there really is no effective way for private enterprise to fix municipal
infrastructure.
Joey Folkman Government,
however, does need to intervene in those things that CAN be fixed by
private spending. For example, raising taxes to pay for govt programs
that are created solely to create temporary jobs makes no sense if that
same money would remain in the hands of the taxpayer and used by them to
create sustainable commerce.
Jonathan Zucker Thank
God a voice of sanity! Hi Joey. I completely agree. I don't believe
that any sane politician professes to be in favor of big government.
Those days are long gone. We need to keep taxes as low as possible in
order to maintain a government that our society demands.
However, that said, today's Republicans have totally abdicated any claim that they used to have (when we were growing up) to being financially responsible. When in power they continued to pretend that trickle down economics works in spite of 30 years of proof that it does not. That doesn't mean that we need high tax rates, we don't. It just means that trickle down, i.e. the belief that if the rich get richer, then the middle class and the poor will benefit as well, has been debunked. The rich have gotten richer while the rest of society has seen their wages stagnate and the divide between the rich and the rest of society has grown to levels not seen since the Great Depression. Trickle down is a proven failure.
While in power under Bush '43, Republicans continued to spend like it was going out of style and cut taxes thinking that it would all balance out. I guess they didn't learn the econ 101 principal of diminishing returns. Of course we don't want to go back to 90% rates like under Eisenhower but we also can't cut taxes so far and think that it will always have a stimulative effect and increase government revenues. They knew that and still didn't care. Cheyney mocked financial responsibility with his famous quote that "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter". Reagan increased taxes when he realized that he took the tax cutting too far. He would be considered a RINO today. Today's Republicans are fiscal frauds.
Republicans call for doing away with Social Security (Bush wanted private accounts as does Ryan), privatizing FEMA (Romney called for that during the primaries) and basically doing away with the social safety net which they describe as a "hammock". Yes, there are people who game the system but the exceptions to the rule do not invalidate the rule. No, I'm not naive. But I'm also not cynical enough to believe that anything other than a small minority of the 4,300,000 people on welfare, who need it and are trying to get off it, are simply out to lay in their hammocks.
In times of crises, like 2008 or today with Hurricane Sandy, we need the government to play a part. In the first example they needed to provide demand where there was none in order to avoid an economic spiral leading to collapse. In the second example they need to provide disaster relief to everyone effected and not just to the highest bidder which would happen if a job like FEMA's (or the cops or firefighters for example) were privatized. Instead of recognizing these clear facts, Republicans assert that government is always the problem. These morons always like to claim they're for small government. Until, that is, something really bad happens and everyone demands a federal response.
Can you imagine what would have happened in 2008 if the feds simply said "we have nothing to do with it..."?! There would be blood in the streets of DC.
The feds weren't the cause of the economic collapse of 2008. I'm in finance. I'm in fixed income and traded CDOs and know a thing about hedging with CDS. I KNOW what caused the collapse as well as everyone else in finance. It's a joke and the game is still being played with Republicans claiming that government regulation needs to get out of the way. IN FINANCE!!
This hurricane is another example of Republicans professing to hate the Feds but then demanding their assistance in the next breadth.
I just can't stand it anymore. Their hypocrisy is astounding. They hate handouts but don't see a tax loophole geared to the fractional 1% (carried interest) as a problem. The ultra rich paying 10-15% taxes isn't a problem when the middle pays over double. America used to be known for economic mobility. It was supposed to be a meritocracy. If you worked hard you would do well and could move up. If you were a lazy bum then you would be a bum. But today the U.S. stands dead last out of the top ten economies (PEW Research) in economic mobility. That's a travesty.
Don't even get me started on the religious crazies that have kidnapped the party.
When I was in school as a kid I was a "Michael P. Keaton" Republican. To paraphrase Reagan, I didn't leave the Republican party. They left me.
However, that said, today's Republicans have totally abdicated any claim that they used to have (when we were growing up) to being financially responsible. When in power they continued to pretend that trickle down economics works in spite of 30 years of proof that it does not. That doesn't mean that we need high tax rates, we don't. It just means that trickle down, i.e. the belief that if the rich get richer, then the middle class and the poor will benefit as well, has been debunked. The rich have gotten richer while the rest of society has seen their wages stagnate and the divide between the rich and the rest of society has grown to levels not seen since the Great Depression. Trickle down is a proven failure.
While in power under Bush '43, Republicans continued to spend like it was going out of style and cut taxes thinking that it would all balance out. I guess they didn't learn the econ 101 principal of diminishing returns. Of course we don't want to go back to 90% rates like under Eisenhower but we also can't cut taxes so far and think that it will always have a stimulative effect and increase government revenues. They knew that and still didn't care. Cheyney mocked financial responsibility with his famous quote that "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter". Reagan increased taxes when he realized that he took the tax cutting too far. He would be considered a RINO today. Today's Republicans are fiscal frauds.
Republicans call for doing away with Social Security (Bush wanted private accounts as does Ryan), privatizing FEMA (Romney called for that during the primaries) and basically doing away with the social safety net which they describe as a "hammock". Yes, there are people who game the system but the exceptions to the rule do not invalidate the rule. No, I'm not naive. But I'm also not cynical enough to believe that anything other than a small minority of the 4,300,000 people on welfare, who need it and are trying to get off it, are simply out to lay in their hammocks.
In times of crises, like 2008 or today with Hurricane Sandy, we need the government to play a part. In the first example they needed to provide demand where there was none in order to avoid an economic spiral leading to collapse. In the second example they need to provide disaster relief to everyone effected and not just to the highest bidder which would happen if a job like FEMA's (or the cops or firefighters for example) were privatized. Instead of recognizing these clear facts, Republicans assert that government is always the problem. These morons always like to claim they're for small government. Until, that is, something really bad happens and everyone demands a federal response.
Can you imagine what would have happened in 2008 if the feds simply said "we have nothing to do with it..."?! There would be blood in the streets of DC.
The feds weren't the cause of the economic collapse of 2008. I'm in finance. I'm in fixed income and traded CDOs and know a thing about hedging with CDS. I KNOW what caused the collapse as well as everyone else in finance. It's a joke and the game is still being played with Republicans claiming that government regulation needs to get out of the way. IN FINANCE!!
This hurricane is another example of Republicans professing to hate the Feds but then demanding their assistance in the next breadth.
I just can't stand it anymore. Their hypocrisy is astounding. They hate handouts but don't see a tax loophole geared to the fractional 1% (carried interest) as a problem. The ultra rich paying 10-15% taxes isn't a problem when the middle pays over double. America used to be known for economic mobility. It was supposed to be a meritocracy. If you worked hard you would do well and could move up. If you were a lazy bum then you would be a bum. But today the U.S. stands dead last out of the top ten economies (PEW Research) in economic mobility. That's a travesty.
Don't even get me started on the religious crazies that have kidnapped the party.
When I was in school as a kid I was a "Michael P. Keaton" Republican. To paraphrase Reagan, I didn't leave the Republican party. They left me.
Jonathan Zucker ok. holy shit I just realized how much I rambled on. I guess I needed to vent. Sorry!
ML - October 17th
