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...and favors the scant plutocrats instead of ordinary Americans. The GOP plans call for no additional revenue and no cuts to defense, in order to balance the budget by 2023. That means that everything else must be savagely cut or it's mathematically impossible. So, the proposal is either mathematically impossible or politically impossible. Jonathan Chait column calls it: Boehner: Let’s Destroy Math Instead of the Economy
So, instead of increasing taxes in a way that mimics times when the federal government had the money it needed, without harming economic growth, the GOP has to propose insane ideas just to get their most right-wing members on board. That's the GOP's main Achilles heel.
Obama hasn't initiated any spending cuts and yet the Bush tax cuts weren't reinstated and he wants to increase our debt even more. You were sayng?
Folks don't like either political party. The real reason Romney lost was the fact that there really wasn't much difference between the two candidates. People were confused. We had the original creator of socialized medicine running against the new guy who supports socialized medicine. Romney was just another liberal Republican and there really isn't a lot of difference between liberal Republicans and Dems. We basically saw two liberals fighting in the last election. That's it.
Dems are too dictatorial. Anyone who loves freedom would never vote for them unless they just lose their minds or something. I personally see the libertarians gaining more popularity with the GOP. I can possibly see the two merging, but I could be wrong. Keep in mind that Ron Paul did have some youth support.
Yeah, if it wasn't for the Tea Party fueling the November 2010 republican house landslide of epic proportions (biggest single shift to one party since 1948), democrats would control the executive, house and senate. Also, people forget how big the huge republican state victories were as well, which allowed repubs to control redistricting. As a result, their house majority is safe for at least the next several election cycles.
So Obama beats Romney, a moderate, who was not at all a favored choice of the Tea Party.
What a failure the Tea Party has been.
I'm afraid you guys are sorely misreading the current state of affairs, but you'll find out in the 2014 midterms and big time in 2016. In the meantime, go ahead and gloat.
First, one shouldn't brag that redistricting makes Republican seats safe. That's admitting that it is ok to win -- not because your ideas are better but because you have your thumb on the scale. In the last House race more voters voted Democratic. The Reps may hold back democracy for a while but the tide will turn on them.
Second, it wasn't the Tea Party fueling the 2010 midterm elections, it was shadow groups, like Freedom Works, funded by billionaires behind the Tea Party pawns.
Third, where had that "2010 House landslide of epic proportions" gotten the Republicans? 60% of polled say this was the worst Congress ever and Republicans in the House have a 24% approval rating.
Fourth, what has all this gotten those billionaires funding the Tea Baggers? They may complain about the government but the truth is they like it just fine: too gridlocked to re-distribute, too divided to do anything but lower taxes.
It depends on what part of the country how you judge the GOP. In the mid section of the country, like Kansas and Oklahoma, Republicans have caught on quite strongly in recent years, became quite dominate and now are extremely popular with the people.
Folks don't like either political party. The real reason Romney lost was the fact that there really wasn't much difference between the two candidates.
if you think there was no difference between Obama and Romney, you weren't paying attention.
Obama wanted to raise taxes on the most wealthy and essentially leave social programs alone. Romney wanted to lower taxes on the wealthy; eliminate corporate and estate taxes; slash programs for the poor and middle class.
This is not so simple as a swing of the pendulum, IMO.
Republicans are losing because they are being irrational. They too are giving away "other peoples money " -- the only difference is that they give it to the rich. Or as they call them, the "Job Creators."
It is this adherence to redistributive supply-side economics that is killing the GOP. The WSJ op-ed page is a good representation of what these people think.
Being that way is making the GOP stronger in Oklahoma, not weaker. One Republican legislature wanted to ban aborted fetuses being used in food. Another one to ban homosexuals from the state national guard. Republicans also favor bills to help the rich, such as abolishing, or reducing, the state sales tax to attract job creators. Neither bills got anywhere, but this year, there will be more Republicans than ever dominating the Oklahoma Legislature.
It depends on what part of the country how you judge the GOP. In the mid section of the country, like Kansas and Oklahoma, Republicans have caught on quite strongly in recent years, became quite dominate and now are extremely popular with the people.
But there is significant concern in Kansas over the cost of the tax cuts, which is expected to total nearly $850 million in the coming fiscal year. In the budget he presented last week, Mr. Brownback proposed to help cover the cost of those cuts by keeping in place a sales tax increase that was scheduled to expire this year and by eliminating the mortgage interest deduction. Both proposals have proven unpopular among conservatives and liberals alike.
“I think it’s going to be a hard sell,” said Representative Ray Merrick, the Republican speaker of the House, who supports the income tax cuts.
Critics say Mr. Brownback’s tax cut was passed on the backs of low-income Kansans. The bill included the repeal of tax credits for food, rental housing and child care that benefited low-income residents. Because of those repeals, the poorest 20 percent of Kansans will spend an additional 1.3 percent of their incomes, an average of $148 per year, on taxes, according to a report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The top 1 percent, meanwhile, will see the share of their income that goes toward taxes drop by 2 percent, or $21,087 per year, the report said.
What I see in the Republican party right now is a party that is basically a haven to disgruntled whites. I know people don't want to bring race into every single political discussion, but I don't see how you can't talk about race when talking about the GOP. I acknowledge that they've involved more people of different ethnicities, but the politicians aside, their brand is what matters, and their brand of politics is all about catering to White Anglo Saxon Protestants, and like-minded people, even if they don't necessarily identify themselves as religious. Look at all the tea party rallies, the gun rallies, the anti-Obama care rallies...it's mainly a see of white faces. I'd say most of the crowds are probably 95 percent or more white. It's a home to people who feel like 'their America' is being taken away from them by liberals, by blacks, by Hispanics, by Asians, and by gays. The GOP sells nostalgia, but absolutely nothing in terms of ideas.
Those disgruntled white people are also disproportionately male and more likely than blacks or females to be tax payers.
Blacks, while 13.1% of the population, represent 16.3% of non-paying filers and 20.1% of non-filers.
Women are 54.0% of non-paying filers and 62.6% of non-filers.
Wouldn't you be disgruntled if other groups were spending your money and leaving your kids their debt?
As for these ideas of yours, looting the treasury is nothing new and hardly imaginative.
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