Political Punch

The Republicans under the Bush regime have left the country in such pitiful economic shape drastic measures are required - and nothing is guaranteed.

The best and brightest are being gathered under Obama (not show horse promoters) but still nothing is guaranteed.

What a mess the previous administration has left. Hundreds of billions of dollars of debt rung up killing and maiming other people on their own homeland - people who had nothing to do with 9/11. A gross and arrogant miscalculation which we are all paying for now.

It's just amazing, isn't it ? Hope and Change O, after years of the democrats whining Bush spent everything on the war, have declared TRILLIONS of dollars of deficit spending just ahead - before even entering office.
The worst part of it all is, the demcorats are going to hand TRILLIONS to their stock market pals and playas, all for their Union 401k's and personal family and friends unnacountable total THEFT scheme, just like they handed it all to Pauslon, and in the back rooms cut all the deals for themselves and their business partners and voting groups, then publicly claimed outrage and total ignorance, and blamed it all on the guy carrying out another LAW BILL they wrote up and FORCED into law.
We're seeing the END OF DEMOCRACY right now people, and we have the most slime filled lying con artist EVER about to take office.
As he speaks about hope and change, he declares tax cuts and breaks with a gigantic soaring national debt and deficit and TAKEOVER of the job market, the banks, the car industry, the public energy and water facilites- EVERYTHING.
THE NEW WORLD ORDER IS TOTAL COMMUNISM, NOT ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT.

"It's the Democrats turn. At least some of this money might make it into the health care, education of ordinary americans"

This is where I cant make sense of your approach. If you find something to be a negative, there is no 'turn' at doing it. Would you tell your wife it was your turn to crash the car?

You could imagine a system where 'goods' are prioritized against 'ills'. For instance the Republicans could say "increasing spending is bad, but we need to fight AQ and the conditions of Global Terrorism. Saddam has to go. A primary purpose of the Federal Government is to provide for the common defense, therefor the 'good' outweighs the 'ill'".

I dont think you have tried to make a similar argument for Obama's spending spree, other than to argue it his turn to do something bad. We already spend a lot of education- I am skeptical that x amount more will suddenly make a big difference. Likewise, the list of infrastructure project lines up (such as a Duck Park in San Diego) dont have enough apparent 'good' in them to offset the 'ill' of deficit spending.

Unless we have now completely abandoned the concept that the budget every needs to be balanced.

Supposedly there will be one week to look at the bill before people have to vote. Harry Reid doesnt even know the outlines of how much money is being requested right now. Thats ridiculous. If there is some argument, some spreadsheet somewhere that shows an eventual payback of the trillions through increased revenue I havent seen it. Where are the GDP growth projections? How are they supposed to be obtained through duck parks? There needs to be some justification for this Trillion dollar slush fund or the tax payer should just say no.

"

Yeah, the Republicans have set the standard for overspending and they have no reason or right to be criticising Obama or the Democrats.

It's the Democrats turn. At least some of this money might make it into the health care, education of ordinary americans and improve the environmental industrial approach instead of lining the pockets of the friends of the Bush and Cheney crowd - big oil, bankers, military/industrial complex . .."

Bert I presume nothing about your views but have a hard time understanding why some of the simple and clear things presented seem so difficult for your obviously intelligent brain to grasp.

I did not want any the hundreds of billions dollars of debt we have incurred spent on killing or MAIMING hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians who had NOTHING to do with 9/11.

That was one of Bush's great gifts to this country - the blood of hundreds of thousands of people on our hands and the amassing of BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars of DEBT to do it.

The hypocrisy and duplicity of the Republicans proclaiming themselves the guardians of 'small government' while repeatedly setting record deficit budgets and overspending disgusts me.

And - now that Obama and the Democrats are in power, it's absolutely fine with me if they also spend record deficits - at least some of this money might be used to provide health care, education, more sensible energy programs and less environmental degradation.

You'll soon be burning your Republican membership card.

With all due respect pefros, I'm a Democrat who simply disagreed with the DNC candidate - I didn't vote for McCain and 'humphed' when I selected Manchurian Candidate Obama. In MY opinion, Obama and McCain didn't represent the best candidate for the presidency.

Therefore prefros, please don't assume that my critical concerns regarding our President-elect reflect 'Right-wing' views. We are blessed to reside in the United States of America where we can have a difference of opinion regarding our leaders. I'm simply trying to keep my eyes and ears open while being bombarded by overly laudatory reports regarding our future Commander in Chief.
Believe what you wish, but after that DNC 2004 speech in Boston - I knew he was gunning for the presidency - I didn't think it would be so soon; but since he reneged on not running in '08....

...Let's just say that it was money well spent, and Axelrod is his Senior W.H. 'Adviser' now.

I still dont get it. If you arent against the bankrupting part why do you keep bring it up?

I am kind of taking you at your word that bringing up these budgetary details meant you cared about them, not that it was just a passing fancy that you adopted to hector President Bush.

If you really believe that, then you cant justify Obama going on a spending spree. Your only justification is that its only fair that he get to put his name on a bunch of stuff???

"The Bush regime decision on Iraq maimed hundreds of thousands of civilians.

And we get to go BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of dollars in debt, more and more every day. Smart thinking. Maim and kill hundreds of thousands of people in their homeland and bankrupt the country to China.

Who thinks up this crap?"

Too difficult to follow Bert?

"... bankrupt the country to China."

Hard to keep you straight. You are against the spending except when your guy does it.

Fasten your seat belts folks! All PEBO knows is political expediency! So we are in for a very bumpy ride to 2012! :(

And we get to go BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of dollars in debt, more and more every day. Smart thinking. Maim and kill hundreds of thousands of people in their homeland and bankrupt the country to China.

Who thinks up this crap?

The Bush regime decision on Iraq maimed hundreds of thousands of civilians.

I think that is arrogance of the worst kind Bert. The Bush regime decision on Iraq killed TENS of THOUSANDS of people, many Iraqi civilians. There is a huge debt to be paid for that . . . and oil won't begin to make up for it.

Ha now Saddam was a nice guy.

You are slipping off again without picking a course. Maybe no decision in 1993 is without consequences. Are you going to still have the embargo and the Oil for Food deal that Saddam was subverting? Are you still going to have a containment force in the dessert with inspectors being given the run around?

If nothing else its a good thing that Saddam is gone, the Iraqi people can move on, tens of thousands of terrorists have been killed and Iraq is now a moderating force in the region instead of a destabilizing one.

And before we go authorizing a decade long nightmare of financial tinkering like FDR got us into and Japan had, the GDP decrease in the 3rd quarter was 0.5 following a second quarter increase of 2.1%. Lets keep some perspective.

Obviously the huge bubble in gas prices and the liquidity problems cased by mortgage defaults were major economic drags. If Obama wants to build more pipelines and stop lending to non-credit worthy people I am right behind him.

Oh, and the U.N. inspectors were right . . . they found no evidence of WMD's and there were no WMD's.

Too bad Bush and company were too arrogant to cooperate - they had their own agenda. And it is still costing us BILLIONS of dollars per week.

Oh yes, and something like 70% of Iraqis think America is a piece of crap, should not have attacked and want them to go home.

That country is a complete mess.

Hussein was hung for killing 138 people after an assassination attempt on his life. How should Bush and Cheney and company be treated for the tens of thousands of lives they're responsible for?

Also, if you're willing to forgive Bush, Cheney and their regime for that decision and the GROSS hundreds and hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars that cost - then you're willing to cut Obama a little slack as he tries to pull back the nation from the almost complete economic turmoil currently being experienced.

Money to bomb the living bejesus out of somebody else's homeland (primarily for neo-con ideological reasons), but no money for your own country? I'd say those values are skewed, arrogant and presumptuous.

Oh . . and wasteful and fiscally irresponsible.

So what would the situation in Iraq be right now? Would we still be sitting in the dessert with 100,000 troops waiting for someone to enforce the UN resolutions?

"Wouldnt any administration have had a massive revenue decrease and spending increase after 9/11?"

Well, not if they didn't declare a war on a country unrelated to 9/11 and start spending BILLIONS of dollars per week on it!

But where is the context?

Would Clinton have had the ability to slow the rate of spending growth without the Peace Dividend from Reagan? Would Welfare have been reformed without the Republicans? Of course not. Its not sensible to apportion 100% of the credit to Clinton.

Wouldnt any administration have had a massive revenue decrease and spending increase after 9/11?