Out of touch with America

[sadaist]

Walker is just endemic of the Ryan rationale that balanced budgets are more important than the quality of people's lives, and Mitt Romney is right alongside him in sharing that philosophy.

Why should I admire Walker's resolve for doing the wrong thing?

Austerity smacks of retreating in the face of a threat. And the current republican embrace of austerity and balanced budgets only applies to cutting services and programs for those who need them the most, while offering savings in costs and taxes to those who need them the least.

Obama's presidency is clearly a letdown to progressives, but the alternatives are even greater leaps backward.

Perhaps the people who need them most won't once things start to get straightened out? And that starts with our governments spending no more than they receive.

[Nitro Express]

Enough of this partisan bickering. How about how both Republicans and Democrats in Washington basically say they have the rights to everything and us citizens have no rights including those documented in the constitution itself. I'm sorry but when the US president and a majority of the US Senate decide to violate their oath of office we have big problems. We have a rogue government right now and a bunch of these people need to be elected out, repealed and impeached out of office. You have friends of the president literally steal billions of dollars and nothing has happened to them. These are the big issues. It's called runaway corruption and you really have no law and order or even a functioning government when this becomes the norm.

[Hardrock69]

You're kind of mixing up your mythologies there a bit.

Hey, how do you know Pavlov isn't in Hell? Totally possible.

[Nickdfresh]

You can vote for Gary Johnson.

I could also vote for Mickey Mouse (and a dozen other candidates), but the system is predicated on him not winning also...

[Nickdfresh]

it's a shame huh

I don't disagree, I've stated here that the U.S. Democrats and GOP should be divided into at least four or five parties. But one must also acknowledge the relative stability of a two-party system and that has some merit...

[Nickdfresh]

I think the people do more to reinforce the two-party system than the parties do. Criticize one party, the other party is immediately brought up. Pavlov would be proud.

Oh please. Whose doing the "criticizing?"

[Dr. Love]

Oh please. Whose doing the "criticizing?"

Maybe you and I haven't been reading the same thread, much less the same forum??

Go read the first two posts in this thread if you want an example.

Lol.

[DLR Bridge]

Is that Roger Clemens at :16? As the smear campaign gets under way...

[Dr. Love]

I don't disagree, I've stated here that the U.S. Democrats and GOP should be divided into at least four or five parties. But one must also acknowledge the relative stability of a two-party system and that has some merit...

I don't know that a system with more parties would lead to our government collapsing more often... I think that has more to do with a parliamentary system than ours. Congress would be comprised of multiple parties, the executive would still be one. The judiciary would be staffed with people from several.

Diversity of viewpoints can only be better on balance I think (which we agree on).

[ZahZoo]

The number of federal employees grew by 123,000, or 6.2%, under President Obama, according to the White House's Office of Management and Budget.
Much of the hiring increases came in the departments of homeland security, justice, veterans and defense.
The federal payroll has been expanding since President Bush took office, after declining during the Clinton administration. But it's still a tad smaller than it was in 1992, said Craig Jennings, a federal budget expert at the progressive think tank OMB Watch.
The federal government has been one of the few areas that's grown during the economic downturn. The private sector remains down 1.1 million jobs from the start of 2009, while state and local governments have shed 635,000 positions.

I guess it's whether you trust the white house statistics over the department of labor statistics. I was once told if you want to go broke, trust government statistics.

The stats you used are pretty close to what's currently on the federal payroll... but it's not the whole picture. Because of the relative easy access to federal employment numbers congress and the white house has been carefully utilizing federal contractors at an alarming rate. This isn't recent... been going on for a few decades. Nor does it have any party boundaries...

It enables Washington to say hey look the government payroll has not changed all that much... but if you factor in federal contractors... well it's boomed... a ton.

[Nickdfresh]

Maybe you and I haven't been reading the same thread, much less the same forum??

Go read the first two posts in this thread if you want an example.

Lol.

I was talking about the original "out of touch" video, wiseass...

[knuckleboner]

That wasn't what I meant ... and it wasn't just a comment on this thread. Anyone, almost anywhere in this forum or around the world, criticizes Obama -- someone else will invariably attack Romney. Or the GOP. Anyone criticizes the GOP, here or elsewhere... someone else will shoot back at the Dems and Obama.

My only point is that I don't think that "well the other guy sucks too!" has ever been a meaningful or effective argument for putting someone forward as a preferred candidate.

yeah, i agree with you completely on that. both sides.

[knuckleboner]

Notice I did not say word 1 about Republicans. Thought we were talking about Obama? The whole "but the other guys" schtick is getting tired & getting us no where.

dude, you were agreeing with a slanted republican political ad. (yes, democratic political ads are no better.) this wasn't a random criticism of obama, of which there certainly are reasonable arguments. this was nothing more than partisan politics. so any discussion of that video that pretends otherwise is incomplete.