4est_4est_Gump
Run Forrest! RUN!
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Sequester
- Thread starter Ishmael
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4est_4est_Gump
Run Forrest! RUN!
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Ulaven_Demorte
Non-Prophet Organization
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hogjack
Permanent Pause
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Republicans just can't catch a fucking break...
Big cuts spur calls to Congress from irate constituents
Polls so far show most Americans blame Republicans rather than Obama and his Democrats for the standoff.
Source
Hopefully the nation can survive the calamity of this faux crises.
Most Americans are not very bright nor informed that $85 billion is chicken-feed and seriously inconsequential. The US is $16 Trillion in debt thanks to the ineptness of the Republicans and Democrats [both power-hungry political parties with entrenched leadership]. That's not counting over half the states are running major budget deficits some to the point of junk-bond status on their borrowing.
The Democrats want their version of Big Government.
The Republicans want their version of Big Government.
The President lies but is never called on it. But he has no shame and no clue.
The Republicans are simply completely inept and disingenuous.
Nobody gives a fuck what some stupid citizens answered on a phone call with a doofus pollster reading from a script. Using that data really proves a point. Did the pollster ask the citizen what kind of beer they were chugging while talking? Who their senators are? How many branches of government there are? No. Ask a dumb-ass citizen, get a dumb-ass answer.
4est_4est_Gump
Run Forrest! RUN!
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Amen.
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Ishmael
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Hard to argue with that. Fortunately the conservatives have dug in their heels this time around. The question is, "can they make it stick?"
The issue is relatively simple, you can't grow government spending at 7% a year while the economy is growing at 1% per year (or even if the economy was growing at an optimum 3% per year) without the government becoming the entire economy at some point in the future.
What ever happened to the "laser like" focus on jobs?
Ishmael
Ishmael
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Not to mention the operatives using the force multipliers of Twitter and Emails. Is it any wonder that the members of congress ignore same, or that the press so loudly trumpets same?
I've attended two Town Halls out here hosted by our single Republican congressman. He's done an excellent job explaining to his constituents what the situation is and there have been remarkably few criticisms, criticisms that he's answered quite well.
Ishmael
mercury14
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The other day you were saying that the cuts were way too big, especially in defense. Then some Republican talking head told you to think something else and you did, unquestioningly.
hogjack
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No. No. No.
Most US citizens operate by their emotions and instincts. There are so many numbers tosssed at them daily and, frankly, a vast majority do not have the capacity to digest it, understand it and make decisions based on it.
The Republicans have not figured out - or have forgotten - how to communicate effectively with the majority of citizens who are either too distracted, too dumb, too busy or too jaded to deal with facts. Treat Americans as innumerate. Don't give them data unless it is very pocketbook oriented (and gives people someething).
The President is a master at the rhetoric and trigger phrases as was Bill Clinton before him and Ronald Reagan before that. The Bushes were semi-competent in their rhetoric but neither mastered the "People's" oratory (except when it came to war).
The numbers are the numbers and they are inarguable. But to WIN - to change the tide of the President's agenda - it will take someone who knows how to change the data into a message that reaches an average American (not a genius, that's for sure).
It shouldn't have to be that way, of course. Elected representatives should be doing the right thing. We have representative government instead of direct government BECAUSE not everyone is intelligent, smart and good at understanding economics, law, etc. But Washington, DC is a fucking cesspool of the corrupt, misguided, self-serving and incompetent.
Both Parties take advantage of the System. Right now the Democrats are the masters of it.
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Ishmael
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He got fair coverage.
And memo's are starting to leak indicating that the administration has no intention of managing the sequestration in a manner intended to lessen it's impact. Indeed, the indications are that they are intending to maximize the impact for political gain.
It appears that the administration is not only at war with the republican, but with the general population as well.
Both the house and the senate have offered up legislation that would allow the president to even further moderate the effects of the reduction in the rate of government spending (Not a "cut" as the democrats and press have so eagerly characterized it) only to have the president vow to veto such legislation should it reach his desk. Why would any president who was faithfully fulfilling the office make such statements?
This is NOT responsible governance, this is NOT responsible leadership, this is nothing more than raw power politics with the citizens being used as pawns in the game.
The notion that the government can't make due on 4% more spending this year than it spent last year is laughable.
Ishmael
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You mean: "Republican control of" the House...
...because Republicans do "control" the House today, just as Democrats "control" the Senate.
The House and Senate make-up Congress...
...so, neither Democrats or Republicans hold "control of congress" at the moment.
Thus...
...neither can lose in 2014 what neither have now.
Ishmael
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I wouldn't bet on that one way or another. 19 months is several years measured in political lifetimes and Obama won't be on the ticket as a draw.
Ishmael
mercury14
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Dept of Defense schools are furloughing their teachers one day per week and cutting their salaries 20%. Overseas military bases are trying to figure out how child care is going to work when every Friday military families can't show up for duty because they have to take care of their 3rd grader. Base child care services are also being cut 20%.
Stupid.
Stupid.
You wish to be a pedant? What you meant was The Republican party's majority in the United States House of Representatives.
Oh, you thought your post was 'informative and clarifying'.
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Ishmael
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Glad to see you're signing your posts these days.
You sure know how to expand on the facts and omit quite a few as well.
Let's start with the teacher furloughs. April, May, and Sept. only sparky. I don't think the children are going to suffer much considering that base schooling is more like a prep school seeing as how the DoD has complete control of the curriculum and the staff. The schooling is FAR superior to the shit they drivel out in the public schools. Doing a little schedule shuffling isn't going to hurt a bit. Summer schooling is unaffected.
Why does it end in Sept.? Because that's when the new fiscal year kicks in and they can move their budgets around to accommodate the mere 4% increase in spending they'll have to live with next fiscal year, poor babies.
So some teachers will see a temporary reduction in pay-----Boo Fucking Hoo.
And ALL of this doom and gloom bull shit is predicated on an extended sequester.
Ishmael
KyleW
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I like the concern of boo fucking hoo, there is for teachers. So sad I guess that lower middle to middle class families will suffer. God damn those teachers. Sure some areas teachers make enough to take a reduction in pay. What about those that make 24k a year? It's going to hurt.
Life hurts when you realize there is a world outside politics and the internet.
