It's over

[Anonymous]

The military is unsustainable. How many of those new fighters are going to be build. The country will continue in recession and tax revenues will continue to fall = bigger deficits. Good for republicans, not good for the country, but the military will be cut.

[Anonymous]

I am watching how many dems vote yes on this deal. Every dem vote gives cover to a tea partier to vote no and stay on their high ground. The dems need a purge!

[Anonymous]

This will be like the TARP vote. Initially the House will narrowly vote it down and then the Dow will go down 1000 or so points in a couple days. Then on Friday amid

The two-tier thing Boehner was proposing was only to make Obama fight this battle a year from now; that was a bad move as the GOP wouldn't want this potentially boomeranging on them. I'm glad we've got this battle fought for the next year -- I'm pretty sure the various appropriations bills haven't been paid attention to of late.

We need to decide if we're going to be a social welfare state with an activist military or a minarchy that seeks to avoid intervention in foreign wars (the two are somewhat related but not impossible to separate.) Then, we need to tax accordingly. The nativist/less educated wing of the Tea Party seem to be of the "get government out of my Medicare" variety and they are susceptible to "them scary Republicans will cut your Medicare" gambits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It chills me to think what the teapartiers want this country to look like, as evidenced by their fiscal priorities. Armed to the teeth, grabbing everything you can and stepping on anyone who grabbed slower than you.

It chills me to witness such a self-rightious drama queen. Like you don't live in a house 99% more valuable than what the average world citizen lives in.

[Anonymous]

The military is completely unsustainable, unless you want us to become an impoverished country with decaying infrastructure and atrocious education and health care. It is simply not a productive investment to build tanks and drones and weapons and to pay poor people to go blow them up abroad in the name of exporting our "democratic" model (since that's worked so well in the past....).
Never mind the people fighting abroad, right-wingers are constantly complaining about the Feds but no one complains about the legions of military paper pushers who are soldiers but in name, who have astronomical benefits and who only exist because our defense budget is so ridiculously bloated at the taxpayer's expense.

[Anonymous]

If you haven't tried this, I highly recommend it:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html

It's encouraging in that it's so easy to balance the budget, then saddening/infuriating when you think of how far we are from doing anything useful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It could have been worse. Obama resisted what must have been a strong temptation to back the BBA and throw in a tax cut. Such a backbone he has!

But I think I understand his motivation: The Republican field is not looking very strong, so he is thinking of going for the GOP nomination instead of the Dem. Can you think of a better explanation?

Heh. Soon he'll be patting himself on the back for this, too, like he did with continuing the tax cuts for the rich. I look forward to seeing that in correspondence sent to my wife, since I haven't voted for or given money to either of these right wing parties in decades.

[Anonymous]

I do not understand why the Republicans did not include making abortion illegal, a poll tax and a list of judges that need to be confirmed. Well, they always have next time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not understand why the Republicans did not include making abortion illegal, a poll tax and a list of judges that need to be confirmed. Well, they always have next time.

That will just be the Democrats' opening offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I dread hearing about the details. Obama does not seem to stand for anything and he is a terrible negotiator. This country has darker days ahead. The economy is going to get worse and the Republicans have the perfect 'socialist' foil to blame for the state of affairs.

Obama and the Dems caved. He should have pulled a Clinton and put the blame on Boehner, McConnell. No wonder McConnell has such a big smile. Obama is such a loser.

[Anonymous]

Romney does not support the "compromise". I thought his appeal was that of a practical businessman, but he now seems to have joined the DeMint - Bachmann BBA-or-default wing of the party. Jon Huntsman seems to be the closest to a "major" candidate who still espouses sanity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is it that the Republican plans always showed smaller cuts than the Dems?

Because the Republicans refuse to address the biggest drain of them all-- the military.

military is not unsustainable - medicare is.

Close, but no cigar. What's unsustainable is health care spending. Medicare is actually quite a bit better on this than the private sector; the Affordable Care Act actually addresses long-term health care costs. But, yes, providing health care to old people (which is what Medicare does) is going to be expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you haven't tried this, I highly recommend it:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits-graphic.html

It's encouraging in that it's so easy to balance the budget, then saddening/infuriating when you think of how far we are from doing anything useful.

Well, right, but that's because no on actually cares about the deficit--least of all the Teabaggers. What the conservative movement cares about is slaking it's thirst for "retribution" against perceived cultural enemies. That's why they're hugely supportive of, say, gutting school lunch subsidies at a savings of a few million dollars, and have no problems whatsoever with bloated defense spending.

[Anonymous]

So funny...and they think they can afford to take over healthcare? Our entire system is a really badly played joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It chills me to think what the teapartiers want this country to look like, as evidenced by their fiscal priorities. Armed to the teeth, grabbing everything you can and stepping on anyone who grabbed slower than you.

That would be WORKING as hard as they can. You may not agree with their political ideas, but they're not the folks who're trying to grab a bunch of freebies.

Right. Michele Bachmann is a woman of extraordinary principles:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bachmann-benefitted-from-federal-home-loan-program/2011/07/19/gIQAI12raI_story.html