a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by 45usp
45usp  ·  2927 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Ryan’s Budget Proposal Runs Into Opposition From Some Hard-Line Republicans

Republican obstructionism.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/us/politics/06spend.html?_r=0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_debt-ceiling_crisis_of_2011

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/senate-rejects-obama-budget-republican-alternatives/2012/05/16/gIQAUA3WUU_blog.html

http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/politics/shutdown-showdown/

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/03/25/478B-Infrastructure-Bill-Blocked-Senate-GOP

This is just in the broad strokes, too. Delving into more of the details reveals just how stupid and short-sighted the Republican strategy has been and what a disaster it's been for this country. What we could have accomplished without them holding us back. To think they actually met in a room when Obama was elected and said 'We're not going to work with this guy at all!' (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-republicans-plan-for-the-new-president/) It sounds like it belongs in some work of satire or a dystopian comedy.

The problem isn't merely that Republicans have en masse moved to the right, either. They've scorned facts, reason, knowledge, rational discourse, and the very notion of compromise. For instance, in my own state, the Republican-led legislature opted to 'combat' climate change by banning the use of scientific data (http://abcnews.go.com/US/north-carolina-bans-latest-science-rising-sea-level/story?id=16913782) in policy decisions.

Back in the national arena, Republicans now blame Obama for refusing to compromise with THEM (http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/gop-theme-blame-obama-114311). It is the height of absurdity, and psychological is a defining aspect of sociopaths (http://angiemedia.com/2010/11/12/sociopaths-in-our-midst-hate-the-truth-and-its-advocates/#.VvLebWH6wx4). Yet people like you all across America eat it up. You keep electing people that are fucking you and lying right to your face. They're fucking us all and you just keep voting them in and telling yourselves stories how things aren't your fault and one day your time will come. In reality we've had 30 years of predominantly Republican-led, rightward shifting (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/06/12/five-charts-that-show-how-conservatives-are-driving-partisan-rancor-in-dc/) policy-making to turn this country into your supposed utopia, and it hasn't happened. We have internet and smartphones and family sedans with ridiculous amounts of horsepower, yet income inequality is worse than ever, our infrastructure is crumbling, major companies pay no taxes into the systems that support them, and a single accident or illness is enough to force a person or a family into bankruptcy.





hootsbox  ·  2912 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I have read all these pieces, some opinion and some dutifully completed, with interest. So, several items of note come to mind. One, the process of budgeting in Washington (which has gone on this way for almost 80 years), two: the other highlighting a couple of states run by Republicans which seem to have been unsuccessful, and three: the “obstructionist” labels placed on the Republicans alone (in these articles).

First, the process of budgeting in Washington is broken because of so many “omnibus” bills instead of separate spending bills. Even the more moderate think tanks such as the Brookings Institute note this.

Reimagining the Federal Budget Process

There is broad agreement federal budgeting is not an orderly process that reflects the nation’s needs and priorities.

Improving the Federal Budgeting Process

Part of the issue is these massive (not completely read) omnibus bills that don’t allow much time for amendments and other normal legislative debate. And I still say we need to go to zero based budgeting for all agencies and programs and get away from “baseline budgeting” that spends two to three times the amount of dollars as the cost of living or inflation (as a general rule). This is how we end of with wasteful expenditures placed on the backs of all people (well-to-do, middle class and others). Don’t forget that the upper 20% pay most of the taxes anyway. (http://www.wsj.com/articles/top-20-of-earners-pay-84-of-income-tax-1428674384)

Secondly, the two examples, Kansas and Louisiana, are surely noteworthy and I, personally, would have to delve deeper into both examples to see the details. However, what is the “elephant in the room” in these discussions are the disaster examples of California, Illinois (and Chicago comes to mind), and New York are not mentioned at all (and they are all Democrat controlled states and legislatures and have been for some time) and some more successful Republican examples like Florida and Ohio. We won’t even begin to mention Detroit which was driven into the ground by Mayor Coleman Young (decades long Democrat) and his “public sector” expansions, tax hikes, and corruption. So, if we are going to have a circumspect (and not slanted) discussion, let’s include them all shall we.

Thirdly, let’s discuss “obstructionism”. I can remember a health care bill passed in the “stealth of night” so to speak, which allowed no Republican discussions, amendments, or debate, and it was passed without most members even reading it. As it turns out, the major premises of the bill: reduced health care costs for the average family, keeping the same doctor, and keeping the plan you currently liked, have all been proven false and baseless claims. That folks is “obstructionism” at its pinnacle and it was all Democrats! So, the old axiom applies here, “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones”! I need not mention the “obstructionism” of the Democrats that fought the Civil Rights Act of 1965, and it was Republicans that made that happen under President LBJ. As to the “difficulty” of the legislative process, it was designed that way to provide “checks and balances”. So, if I, as a legislator in any governmental body, have legitimate concerns, I have to be a “rubber stamper” or not object otherwise, I am an “obstructionist”? If you talk about the current holder of the White House, there can be plenty of concerns about his public policies that one could question (the ACA being one area that was “bullied” through both the House and Senate) a lot of pauses given his upbringing (both parents ardent communists, statements, his adherence to Saul Alinsky’s tenants (and yes I have read Rules for Radicals), and other inclinations. So, I have to be either a Republican (and I throw stones at their shortcomings too) or Democrat automaton and go along with everything somebody wants. That is a BROKEN process for sure, and gives us great danger. We should have debates, we should object to what our respective constituents want of us. We should find compromises that are realistic (shall I mention Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, John Kasich, Dick Armey, and Pete Domenici for example) who came up with a real compromise on the federal budget (and cut taxes) that came up with surpluses. We should object and discuss if we feel we should. Otherwise, we live in a Fahrenheit 451 or Anthem world of totalitarian control and mindless masses.

45usp  ·  2908 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thanks very much for taking the time to write cogently; however, you're drawing a false equivalency between the two major parties. It's true that Democrats have plenty of examples of political shenanigans, illegal activities, and general selfish, elitist behavior. But Republicans have been doing all the same things for longer and more egregiously, so much to the point that they've institutionalized it. They've become a mockery of themselves and in the process mock the very foundations of compromise and rational discourse. You really have to dig deep to find clear examples of Democratic shenanigans, whereas Republicans outdo themselves on a weekly basis. For instance in the present, two of the top political stories aside from the presidential nomination process are Rick Scott (R-FL) embarrassing himself again, NC (R legislature, R governor) embarrassing itself again, both with stupid-headed legislation based not in fact or practicality but in religious and moral demagoguery; and more Republican obstructionism in re refusing to consider Supreme Court nominees. Jonathan Bernstein has written some good material about the unprecedented number of judge and department head positions that are currently vacant because of Republican stonewalling.

I don't wish to write more in direct response because you're incorrect or heavily biased on almost every example (you can't blame the failure of Detroit on any one person; the ACA was debated at length and was subject to Republican obstructionism not Democrat "bullying;" there are no "disasters" in California or Illinois; an article from the WSJ saying that rich people pay too much tax? color me shocked; etc.), and I just don't have the time for that. I will say though the one thing we agree on is that the process is corrupt and broken. Regular people like us can try to understand and argue rationally, but ultimately why cut each others' throats? We can never be fully sure whether we've been lied to about certain facts and elements of history by our so-called leaders. Plus the entire political process is designed to minimize contributions and effects by common citizens anyway. The rise of anti-establishment candidates on both sides of the aisle is a sign that citizens are sick to death of 'business as usual' politics. It's clear to everyone now that the interests of the establishment are 180 degrees from the interests of the common person. Rich elites were able to spin Occupy Wall Street as a bunch of lazy, disaffected, drug-addled young people and bums, crisis averted. They were able to both bail out the banks and keep all their cronies out of jail. But their inability to firmly entrench their desired presidential candidates this year has them quaking in their shoes.