The Republican spending orgy

Boston Globe ^ | 7/20/2003 | Jeff Jacoby

[RJCogburn]

AT THEIR national convention three years ago, Republicans pointed with pride to the GOP's record of fiscal rectitude.

''In the four decades from 1954 to 1994,'' the Republican platform declared, ''government spending increased at an average annual rate of 7.9 percent, and the public's debt increased from $224 billion to $3.4 trillion.'' Those were the profligate years, when Democrats usually controlled both houses of Congress.

[ModernDayCato]

"Cutting off ones nose to spite ones face" is almost as reprehensible as someone who, when faced with betrayal by his own side, not only allows it to happen but ridicules those who try to point it out.

[sirchtruth]

What exactly is the difference between that boogeyman and the Bush administration?

If you do not want him there then your vote is just as good as anyone elses, unless your in the military where the dems will have it thrown out!

Go ahead make this country's day, elect another Dem/socialist and see what you get.

steadfast fiscal priggles is hardly a "personal attack".

All you so-called feet-to-the-fire conservative better get a clue on this or you are going to end up electing Al Sharpton!

[Lazamataz]

I imagine you steadfast fiscal priggles, whose agenda is purely fiscal in nature, want to see one of the current crop of Dem contenders be elected as this country's next President.

This is the typical response I get from BushBots, and it is insulting. It implies we must "stay on the plantation" because there's nowhere else to go. This is the sort of thing Democrats do to African Americans, and it is just as objectionable then as it is now.

We are asking perfectly reasonable questions -- like WTF is Bush thinking -- and this is the usual response we get: The jaw jutted out, the antipathetical "Whaddya gonna do abouddit?"..... well, guess what: We do have another choice, besides Republican or Democrat, and that choice is NEITHER. Watch as millions of Conservatives sit on their hands in 2004.

And the neat thing is, it won't be so much a conscious decision to sit this one out. It will only manifest itself as a vague sense of unease in diehard conservatives, and will result in them merely forgetting or being too busy to vote. It won't be a revolt, it will be a revulsion.

[Dane]

"Cutting off ones nose to spite ones face" is almost as reprehensible as someone who, when faced with betrayal by his own side, not only allows it to happen but ridicules those who try to point it out

Oh sheesh now trying to play the role of martyr.

JMO, but Bush is 100 times better than any demo. I know he is not perfect and I know that I don't live in a perfect world.

Do me a favor MDC, when you reach your destination called "the perfect world" would you send me a postcard. I have a notion that I will be waiting a long time by the mailbox.

[Lazamataz]

Ah, NO, you don't have it!

Then make me understand.

Your original quote: "...and it's not even a question of spending. It is a question of what we are going to spend on. What programs are really going to benefit people instead of the money going down the sinkhole like most democrats plans."

I'm not seeing the military as a program that benefits people, but as a Constitutional mandate. Therefore, I am led to believe you are referring to socialist giveaway programs. Correct me if I misunderstood you, then please make a very public clarification thereof -- at which point you will be asked about the cognitive disconnect between Bush's so-called conservatism, and the vast liberalism he is manifesting.

[Lazamataz]

Do me a favor MDC, when you reach your destination called "the perfect world" would you send me a postcard.

Cop out. There is an old quote, my eleventh-grader friend, that says "Never make the perfect the enemy of the possible." What that means, my high-school chum, is that you should never let the lack of perfection be an obstacle to incremental progress.

[HostileTerritory]

"JMO, but Bush is 100 times better than any demo."

Sorry, but according to the statistics on government spending, Bush is at least as bad and perhaps 2-4 times as bad as specific Demos we have had in the past forty years.

I guess if you're a subsidized farmer who wants government to pay for his viagra--and who is pro-life--Bush is the best President ever.

[sirchtruth]

We are asking perfectly reasonable questions -- like WTF is Bush thinking

Laz that's not the point, I ask the same question! The difference is I trust Bush as a resonable conservative, not as a fire and brimstone preaching fiscal conservative.

I don't like the spending either, but I don't think he is finished with the full program yet.

We do have another choice, besides Republican or Democrat, and that choice is NEITHER.

Well, if you decide to sit it out then I shouldn't hear all you tighwads complaining about the dem/socialist who is going to be elected the next time around giving us the largest healthcare expenditure ever and raise taxes high enough so you can't even afford to buy a box of fruit loops. The dems will make Bush's little spending spree seem like crumbs for the ants.

It won't be a revolt, it will be a revulsion.

Geez, I hope you guys are happy with Hillary's protological exam when she's elected!

[Dane]

Cop out. There is an old quote, my eleventh-grader friend, that says "Never make the perfect the enemy of the possible." What that means, my high-school chum, is that you should never let the lack of perfection be an obstacle to incremental progress

Cop out???? The only cop out I see is coming from you in admitting that you will never reach your "perfect world", but wish to bash those who are trying to negotiate the mine field called American politics, rather than trying to help and support them.

[Sparta]

I'm sure all this is to benefit the war effort, right?

[Dane]

I guess if you're a subsidized farmer who wants government to pay for his viagra--and who is pro-life--Bush is the best President ever

Huh? How come you all(malcontents) always leave out the fact that daschle was Senate Majority leader when the farm bill was passed.

[sirchtruth]

Correct me if I misunderstood you, then please make a very public clarification thereof -- at which point you will be asked about the cognitive disconnect between Bush's so-called conservatism, and the vast liberalism he is manifesting.

Ok...It never is all about money. You're talking about one issue here that he hasn't even finished with as a whole.

The figures don't lie, he's spent the hell out of the dems, SO? When's the last time you saw a Dem give us a tax cut?

I am supposing now that to you spending = Liberal?

[Dane]

Huh? How come your little chart there doesn't state the fact that the deficits under Bush are a smaller % of GDP than Reagan's deficits?

[profmike23]

Because Bush signed (and PRAISED) it. It does nothing to help the common farmer, it is giving our money to corporate farms.

[Dane]

Oh, BTW also, your little chart shows nothing about the changes in the Defense budget.

[rintense]

Go ahead and sit 04 out, RJ. But that means you weill have NO RIGHT to complain or even praise anyone from 04-08.

I honestly don't care who you vote for. But I simply cannot respect anyone who 'sits out' their vote for whatever reason.

[Dane]

Because Bush signed (and PRAISED) it. It does nothing to help the common farmer, it is giving our money to corporate farms.

Whew you all are spinning your heads like the girl in the Exorcist with your changes in spin, IMO.

In reply #107 HT accused me of being a small(common) farmer.

[hosepipe]

Takeing notes...
Lets see, democrats will blithefully vote for even a traitor. A proven fact, just as long he/she has a "D" by the name is the issue...

BUT... Republicans are more descerning and require some real beef in their hamburger and judge a tree by its fruit. Also, when you can "Read their lips(no new taxes)", you can count on honesty, truth, and the American way, or at least the psuedo-American way.

Upon cursory observations those 900+ FBI files (read blackmail) in "someones computer(s)" on elected and un-elected officals might have some major impact in D.C. politics -OR- someones playing BAD GUY(Clinton), GOOD GUY(Bush) with the voters(you and I)... and are laughing at us as I write this. Not to speak of the fact that GW Bush highly resembles Alfred E. Neuman(Madd Mag).

I will vote for Bush again since I have no other choice, but I really really don't like it. Dole then Bush Sr. then Bush Jr., is the BEST the republican party has to offer is incredulous in the extreme. Did I say incredulous.. Ah! good. Not that I know what incredulous means, heck, I'm a republican..

[HostileTerritory]

Did Daschle have 67 votes to override a veto?

Bush hasn't vetoed a single spending bill.

[HostileTerritory]

"In reply #107 HT accused me of being a small(common) farmer."

I also accused "you" of wanting government to pay for your viagra... it's weird of you to try to use a clearly rhetorical line to prove we're being inconsistent or something.