Mike Luckovich for January 18, 2023

Republicans whine, whine, whine about debts, deficits and spending when Democrats are in power, but they are the ones who have consistently driven up debts, deficits and blown holes in budgets with their corporate welfare and tax giveaways for the few richest elites who already had the most, unbridled spending on military boondoggles to enrich “defense contractors” of the “military-industrial complex” that Eisenhower (the last fiscally responsible Republican) warned us about and wanting to DEFUND THE BUDGET POLICE (the IRS sector tasked with actually enforcing revenue collection, wanting to cut funding for enforcement of tax collections for those with incomes over $400,000 [$800,00 for joint filers]).

Republicans spend money on gifts to the rich that are unfunded and not paid for.

When Democrats spend money, it is for the benefit of real people in need, and it is money that is INVESTED — in education, infrastructure and job training to get people off welfare and become productive tax payers. An educated populace and reliable infrastructure are tools that make our economy more productive. Democratic INVESTMENTS grow the economy and expand the tax base and, as a result, lead to reducing annual budget deficits and occasionally, as in the case of LBJ and Bill Clinton, eliminating the deficits altogether and running budget surpluses, something no Republican has done since Eisenhower.

The payoffs that result from Democratic INVESTMENTS, which grow the economy and tax base, are the reason that Democrats are able to consistently reduce (or even eliminate) budget deficits. A more prosperous economy benefits everyone, including the tax collectors (the revenue side of deficit reduction). In the words of John F. Kennedy: “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

That rising tide lifts from below; it does not “trickle down” from above.

A Corvette (Beautiful)

So, cutting spending is somehow dangerous…

I ask again:

Can ANYONE name ANY Republican legislator who is moderate?

.

They ALL support Kevin, Perjury Taylor Greene, Gym Jordan, Matt Gaetz, George Santos (whatever his name is), and the rest.

Upon default, immediately stop all salaries for members of Congress, federal judges, and attorneys, and cap all other government salaries and benefits at $35,000. Do not pay for any congressional activities and turn the lights off. Let’s see what happens.

Here’s what I do not understand.

An unmarried woman gets pregnant, cannot get an abortion or much in the way of antenatal care because she has no health insurance since she only works part time. Baby is delivered, she has no community resources and depends on government assistance for her and the child’s welfare. There is no free day care where she lives but she knows that “a woman’s place is in the home” so she takes care of her child, relying on food banks, Section 8 housing and medicaid. Child goes to school and mother gets parttime jobs. Fast forward to mother’s senior years when the only hope for her is Social Security and medicare which is now being threatened. And she may possibly qualify for only the lowest bracket of SS.

I know this is oversimplifying but it is very close to the situation many women find themselves in as seniors or if they have to be on disability.

Nothing new here. The repugs have been trying to run the economy into the ground to favor their rich overlords for decades. Blaming the Democrats’ for what they are actually doing is practically a reflex.

That’s the strategy for pretty much everything they do. Accuse the Dems of doing what you are going to do, then when you do it claim you are only doing it because the Dems already did it.

PERFECT!

Whats new!

We were driven off a cliff a long time ago, in a vehicle with two steering wheels. A $1.7 trillion dollar budget passed in almost no time suggests we’ve reached terminal velocity.

History shows that Repubs run up the debt / deficit by giving tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and corporations and starting unfunded wars and increasing an already bloated military, and as long as a Repub is president “deficits don’t matter”. As soon as a Dem becomes president, the debt and deficit are crushing the economy and rather than reverse their bad actions, Repubs want to cut Social Security and Medicare.

How many times can their voters fall for this?

Yeah? Then what?

Since the Democrats control the Senate and Presidency, the Republicans are not driving anywhere. They are the backseat drivers only wishing they could do something.

Two-part plan to return to National solvency :

1. Return to the place where the rich pay their fair share to support their Country.

2. Cut military spending significantly.

Otherwise we will continue to make our children pay our debts.

This House is the result of the lack of good education. I highly doubt many of the magas in Congress have any knowledge of economics… and if they do, they don’t care. Another element used to cause chaos and the end of our democratic republic. Naked power is their panacea.

The loony GQP says they want to cut spending. Yes, on programs that help the middle class and lower, economically. Maybe they should recind the massive tax cuts for the rich and big business they ram rodded through when their orange, grifter, conman was president. Just a thought.

“Drive off while convincing passengers it’s Dems fault” is not just a two-part plan- it’s their SOP and has been for years. Still boggles the mind that the passengers believe it.

Kinda the plan both parties use—blame the other party.

@braindead I take your point, but I also add the rest of the picture. While we have reasonable turnout for general elections in this country (despite the many obstacles placed in the path of voting, mainly by the GOP, and despite our miserable performance compared to other Western democracies), partisan primary elections are frequented mainly by the party faithful, the loyalists, door knockers, phone bankers, regular contributors, ideologs, and (yes) extremists and fanatics. So no wonder the Republicans end up with extreme rightists and Democrats with extreme leftists, and so many votes in Congress come down 100% along party lines on both sides of the aisle.

Needless to say, this leaves out the massive moderate middle of the electorate, many of whom choose not to vote at all rather than having to try to figure out which of the two evils is actually lesser.

What we need is ranked-choice (AKA instant-runoff) voting, which would do away with partisan primaries altogether. Any candidate who could gather enuf signatures on a nominating petition could get on the general-election ballot and could choose to list a party affiliation or not, as he or she saw fit. Parties could endorse certain candidates or not, as THEY saw fit. State parties and national parties could disagree on which candidates to endorse. They could choose to endorse multiple candidates. And any candidate who wanted to could campaign on the basis of “I’m not beholden to ANY party. I’ll base my decisions as your representative on the facts and the best interests of my actual constituents.”

It would take a majority (not a simple plurality) to win election. If nobody had a majority after the initial count, the lowest vote-getter would be dropped out of contention, and all of those ballots would go to their #2 choice. And so on. And you’d probably be amazed at how many candidates who weren’t the #1 choice of any party but were acceptable as #2 or #3 choices to both parties would get elected.

George Santos raised money for a disabled vet’s dog’s surgery, then pocketed the money?

“Disabled Veteran: George Santos Took $3K From Dying Dog’s GoFundMe”, Sweet reported late yesterday that in March 2016 the disabled veteran Richard Osthoff, who was living in a tent in an abandoned chicken coop in Howell, NJ, had a problem with his service dog Sapphire, a pit mix given him by a veteran’s charity. Sapphire had developed a stomach tumor that would be deadly without surgery, and Osthoff learned that surgery would cost $3,000. A vet tech steered Ostoff to a pet charity named Friends of Pets United, a charity that it turns out was run by Anthony Devolder — who now calls himself George Santos.

The story gets worse when Osthoff finds out that the surgery won’t happen and writes to Santos: Santos brushes him off, saying that Osthoff is trying to mooch off Santos’s charity!

As Josh Marshall wrote: “This is deep level sociopathy.”

So it’s perfect for a Republican, no? Is it any wonder that McCarthy and his fellow DC Republicans are still backing Santos?

Kevin McCarthy’s philosophy: I’ll drive off that bridge when I come to it!

Basic Economics 101: “If you spend MORE then you make, you WILL go Bankrupt!” The rest is just details.

When we almost went off the cliff during the Obama presidency part of the negotiations that broke the deadlock was an agreement to make Obama seem to take more of the blame, according to an interview with one of the negotiators heard on NPR today

It looks accurate to me.