Fiting Rightwing Crazies Again — A Liberal's Recreation. A story on AOL News about "Five Programs Obama Wants to Terminate" in his new budget brought out a lot of the Radical Right crazies who haunt AOL's comments areas. I was feeling combative, so struck back over the course of several hours, mostly while watching television in the background. Many diverse topics were addressed, so my comments address many points. I present below 103 of my comments, totaling about 6,000 words, which excludes some that merely reproached people for repeating posts, slandering people, etc. Liberals who want some ammunition for answering Rightwing loons on their own may find some of my argumentation useful. You should be able to discern the points I was responding to. I don't care to give those objectionable points more exposure. (I have left some minor typos.)
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The Obamas are multimillionaires. Michelle Obama's personal credit card is paid for from their well-deserved fortune.
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You're talking trivia. So the President of the United States should stay a prisoner in the White House, should he? Or perhaps he should bump dozens and dozens of commercial air passengers for himself and all the Secret Service agents and Presidential advisers he must take everywhere he goes, and still not have room enuf, even in first class, to operate in the event a major national or international emergency arises. Air Force One is configured for conferences and communications with all parts of the U.S. Government's operations around the world.
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So when you can't get your tax refund because IRS workers are on furlough, and corporate criminals in banks steal from you with fee after fee they are not entitled to levy, because Government regulators are on unpaid leave, or interstate drug pushers commit murders because the DEA is sidelined by unwanted days off, or thousands of illegal aliens sneak into the country when Border Patrol agents are forced to stay home, or unsafe foods get out into YOUR supermarket and YOUR cupboard because inspectors are told they aren't essential workers, that would be alrite with you, would it? No, we don't need a Federal Government -- until suddenly it's not there, and you realize it is NOT dispensable, and all that talk about Big Government being a worthless boondoggle is just b.s.
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That assertion about all people in government being wasteful crooks and liars sounds like a lie to me. And illegal aliens do NOT get Government benefits. They HIDE from the Government; they do not line up at Government offices for benefits. As for ending the export of jobs, yes, we almost all agree on that -- except the rich and the corporations they own, which are the only people the Republican Party cares about, so the Republicans REFUSE to repeal the loophole in the tax code that encourages the export of jobs.
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Yes, by all means, let's cut grants for education. Who needs an education, just because India and China are turning out millions more college graduates in technology and science than we are? As for the USPS, which is NOT a Government agency, it gives us the service you want in everything -- bad, with long lines and long waits. How do you think the work of Government gets done except by people? Or should Government workers provide all the services we demand, out of the goodness of their heart, and refuse payment?
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Yes, by all means, let us separate families on their vacations, and keep all those people from flying with the President just because he needs to be able to deal with a crisis at any time? So Iran launches a nuclear missile at the U.S. when the President is away from Washington. Surely that can wait until tomorrow or the next day. As for cutting foreign aid, let's start with Israel. If you are all in favor of cutting off Israel without a dime, then we can talk about the entire rest of the world, which gets only what's left after we send $3B a year, year after year after decade, to Israel. $3B for Israel, $11B for the entire remainder of the planet. And "loans" to Israel are NEVER repaid. So let's collect that, oh, $100B or so from Israel, OK?
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So you think the President writes the budget, do you? He has not help. Those hundreds and hundreds of advisers and professional accountants who staff the Treasury Department's budget-writing division play no role, eh?
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China INVESTS its money here because it is safer than it would be in China or anywhere else. It's called "diversification of risk".
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The President's vacations do not cost billions. Stop talking nonsense.
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Right. Who needs art? Who cares if poor people can never set foot in a museum or library, or hear noncommercial points of view? Corporations should control everything we see and hear, right?
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That 67% tax increase brought Illinois' income-tax rate up from 3% to 5%, to cut a $13B deficit. So we're really talking about a 2% increase, aren't we? That is not relevant to the Federal budget, which is the topic here, but does speak to the harm people are suffering from the economic collapse caused by the rich and super-rich in the banking industry and the vast export of jobs by the super-rich who control corporations.
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There already is a Presidential term limit written into the Constitution: two full terms, max; or one elected term after serving out more than two years of someone else's term. A Constitutional amendment, not simple legislation, would be required to impose term limits upon Congress.
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There are NO open Marxists in Congress or the White House. "Marxist" actually means something. It is not an empty insult, like "poopyhead".
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Yes, we want all people who can't work to die of starvation, right? That's the "Amurikan way", is it? You may want to seek professional help.
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To whom, pray, does Obama have to pay any "political favors"? He's been in office for over two years, and any political favors he may have felt have long since been repaid, or voided by events. That remark is just anti-Obama b.s., without any basis in any conceivable fact.
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And I shouldn't have to pay for your police or fire protection, or anything else, right? No, everybody should stand on his or her own feet, and if a criminal invades your home, or a wiring problem starts a fire in your house, that's your problem, right? Nobody owes anybody anything. "Society" is a fiction, and loving your neighbor as yourself is Communist drivel, right?
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That is complete madness, based on fantasy about how much Congress costs. Each member of the House of Representatives has over 700,000 constituents, and the number increases every year. How many staffers does it take to tend to constituent services for 700,000 people? If you cut staff, you cut constituent services. And what person of quality is going to work cheap in such a difficult job, for which they receive no appreciation -- except millionaires, and we already have too many of them writing laws for the rest of us. What "protection detail" are you talking about, the kind of security that was NOT around Congresswoman Giffords when she was shot? The Nation was so happy when a Congresswoman was shot, wasn't it, so we should look forward to more such shootings, should we? Or were we appalled? Now, 700,000 people in Arizona have no voice in Congress. I suppose you think that's a good thing. How do such ugly, foolish, antisocial and anti-American sentiments spread?
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Nancy Pelosi's money comes mainly from NON-governmental sources, such as book royalties, real estate investments, and a winery. Do you resent ALL rich people's wealth? I thought admiration for wealth was a fundamental value of the Radical Right. Harry Reid is relatively poor, with a fortune of only about $3M, mostly from real estate investments, presumably in what was for a long time a very hot market, Las Vegas. As for members of Congress not reading every word of legislation, be assured that SOMEBODY read every word, including not only Congressional staff attorneys but also Executive Branch staff attorneys and hired consultant attorneys who helped draft the legislation and ran it past each other to check for inadvertent loopholes, which they then worked together to close. Do YOU read every word of all the contracts you sign, such as credit-card agreements, software licensing agreements, etc.? Do you read every update you get in the mail or via email about alterations to corporate privacy policies and changes in your credit-card agreement? I very, very seriously doubt you do. Did you read (and understand) every word of your lease and lease renewal, if you rent an apartment, or every single word of all the paperwork that was involved in the purchase of your house, if you own a house? I doubt it. We almost ALL skim the various long agreements we sign, physically or electronically, and TRUST that what we THINK we're signing is what we were told we were agreeing to. SHOULD we all read every word of those software licenses, etc., that we agree to? Maybe. Maybe not. But when you hire a lawyer to read things for you, and s/he says it's alrite, that it does say what you want it to say, you sign it on his or her say-so. No biggy.
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Indeed, why do Republicans get a free pass? They have no budget of their own, and no suggestions ready now, but feel they have the right to criticize when they have nothing to bring to the table themselves.
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Stop the "birther" crap. As for the national debt, it can be paid OFF simply by taxing the rich at the rates they used to pay before 1986.
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The bulk of our trade deficit is with COMMUNIT CHINA, and there is no free-trade agreeement with China.
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Whatever saving we might get from withdrawing troops from Afghanistan would be more than made up in horrendous losses if Afghanistan again lets Al-Qaeda set up training camps and launch attacks on our soil once well trained and funded. Iraq is another story. We certainly can and should withdraw from there -- as Obama RAN ON.
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Absolutely. And corporations should not be allowed to make a profit, and banks should not be allowed to charge interest, not even at 1/10 of 1%, and nobody should make money from anything. Why should ex-Presidents have the rights of citizens?
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If you would like us to "support" you in prison -- you seem to regard that as a great way to live -- just commit some crime and we'll give you that 'benefit'. You are making up the "billions" we spend on illegals. That is a fantasy of the Radical Right. The Labor Department enforces labor laws. You wouldn't hear about its activities unless they WEREN'T doing their job. The United Nations saves us a fortune in treasure and lives by stabilizing regions that we would have to invade or otherwise defend against. Most Federal employees have NOT "accumulated huge wealth". If they are "overpaid", that is mainly because everyone else has been progressively impoverished by thieving corporations that ship jobs overseas and force those of us left behind to take lower wages and benefits or lose our jobs entirely.
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The amounts involved in busing for racial balance -- which appears to be the object of criticism -- is trivial. No way in the world does it amount to "billions".
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I'm sure we would all be indebted to you if you could point out exactly which jobs can be eliminated without reducing essential services. Absent some specifics, reasonable people have to doubt everything you say.
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It is SINFUL to cut what little that people of modest means get from Government when we really need it. What has possessed Obama to think of cutting heating assistance?
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Stop making up ridiculous figures. Wikipedia says these are the actual amounts: >>The pension amount is determined by a formula that takes into account the years served and the average pay for the top three years in terms of payment. In 2002, the average pension payment ranged from $41,000 to $55,000. For example, a member of Congress who worked for 22 years and had a top three-year average salary of $153,900 would be eligible for a pension payment of $84,645 per year.<< What made you think you could get away with such a ridiculous fabrication
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Yes, the President should live in a shack, and make do with one secretary. Let's sell the White House to Marriott, so they can make it into a luxury hotel for the rich. And the President of the United States doesn't have to travel anywhere. He can stay isolated in his shack. He doesn't need to conduct foreign policy or know anything at all about the world, right?
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What ridiculous nonsense. Illegals more commonly PAY INTO the system, they do not take from it. But most illegals hide from the Government; they do not stand in line at Government offices waiting to be arrested and deported.
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Yes, it's a really good idea to let the planet get worse and worse, more and more desperate, more and more violent. That couldn't possibly come around to bite us in the butt.
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Define "pork". Is a bridge to replace one that is about to collapse and kill people "pork"? How about a dam to replace one that is starting to weaken? I think much of what we call "pork" is something that benefits others.
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What a bunch of nonsense. NOBODY is talking about half the population not working but stealing from the other half. Taxation is NOT theft. The rich do NOT earn their excess funds, and NOTHING most wealthy people do is remotely worthy of the kind of income it provides. The bulk of the rich are in fact socially USELESS parasites, who live off OTHER people's labor. Ronald Reagan TRIPLED the national debt. You do not create wealth by creating debt.
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The State of Hawaii has seen BARACK OBAMA's birth certificate and ruled that it is absolutely valid, so will not any longer take any time away from public employees' tax-funded work to answer idiot challenges. One Hawaii legislator has indeed proposed a law that would charge anyone $100 to see the President's birth certificate. I hope that passes. Then you and every other "birther" can help fund Hawaii's state government.
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How much do you think we spend in foreign aid, for a planet of almost 7 billion people? It's on the order of 1% of the budget (tho exact figures have become very hard to come by since 2007). Much, or most, of that aid is used to buy products and services from the United States. That is not "kickbacks", and it benefits American businesses, not politicans.
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It is not Obama but the major corporations, aided and abetted by Republicans, who have exported MILLIONS of jobs that SHOULD have stayed here and gone to Americans.
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Good idea. We have 535 people to legislate for and tend to constituent services for 308 million Americans. Surely that can't take much time, intelligence, or dedication. $1.48 (one dollar and 48 cents) a year should be adequate payment for anyone in Congress. Never mind that corporate executives with lots less responsibility make MILLIONS of dollars a year. They "earn" it, and do so much GOOD for the Nation.
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The State of Hawaii has OFFICIALLY PROCLAIMED that Obama's birth certificate is genuine, but YOU know BETTER. No, you really don't. And don't insult my intelligence. In all likelihood I am HUGELY more intelligent than you are.
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We already had welfare reform under Clinton. Illegals get NOTHING in Government benefits, but pay taxes on jobs in the aboveground economy, in sales taxes, gasoline taxes, etc. Have you any idea whatsoever of what members of Congress get paid? I doubt it. Each Representatives provides constituent services for 700,000 people. How much is that worth? "Most" working citizens do NOT eat only one meal a day, and mistreating prisoners is a violation of the Bill of Rights. Lawsuits cost taxpayers almost nothing, because court costs are paid by litigants. In short, just about everything you say is utterly invalid.
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Kindly SPECIFY exactly what Govenrment programs illegal aliens benefit from. There AREN'T any.
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Oh, please. What do you call all the tax-deductible expenses of exploring, drilling, pumping, transporting to the refinery, transporting FROM the refinery, and every other operation of fossil fuel production and distribution? Those are 'legitimate business expenses'? They are in truth PRECISELY as much subsidies as anything done with alternative fuels.
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You are an expert on Federal personnel levels, are you? YOU know what the professional managers do NOT, that "a lot of jobs are repetitive/duplicate" that could be eliminated? You know no such thing. If you did, YOU would be hired to trim the excess personnel.
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So helping young people to get a college education is evil, eh? Yes, we will have a much briter future if our kids are ignorant and uneducated.
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Asian carp can be eaten. Why hasn't the free market solved this problem by harvesting this cheap -- indeed, plentiful and free! -- food source? Nobody is "letting" Asian carp enter the Great Lakes. A lot of money is being spent to prevent it. Sometimes we just can't control everything, but you want to blame Obama for an Asian carp problem that was with us for several years before he got into office. As for wealthy farmers, the bulk of American agriculture nowadays is in the hands of huge agribusiness corporations that nonetheless receive subsidies intended for family farms. But why aren't Rightwingers in favor of ending all farm subsidies? Aren't farm subsidies a form of hated "welfare"?
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Pls produce a credible source for the intrinsically dubious assertion that Michelle Obama has 50 times as many staffers as had Laura Bush -- and that they are paid by the public, not from the Obamas' own wealth.
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Foreign aid is 1% of the budget, to help a starving planet of 7 billion people before they conspire to kill -- and eat? -- us.
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Actually,the PENTAGON wants to cut spending on various items it says it does not need and does not want. How much is a Congressman or Senator worth? Each Representative serves over 700,000 people. Senators from large states serve millions of constituents. But you want to cut their salaries. I guess you don't value yourself or your fellow citizens if you think we should get the services only of people willing to work cheap. And the bulk of jobs outsourced to foreign countries go to countries that receive NO foreign aid.
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We have elections every two years. Egypt had none in 30 years. Big difference.
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If we raised taxes on the rich, we can pay for anything we need, as a civilization, to do. The Radical Right keeps bragging about how we are the richest country in the history of the world, but somehow this rich country is too poor to do the right thing.
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Yeah! Who needs a Federal Government? Let's just defund the military and Border Patrol, and DEA and FDA, and just let whatever's going to happen, happen. How could that turn out badly?
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The Tea Party hasn't come up with ONE proposal to trim the budget in any way. Are they the Mouse That Roared? Or are they just conferring among themselves until they can come up with something brilliant? I'm WAITING.
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Social Security is NOT bankrupt, despite the best efforts of Radical Right Republicans to destroy it. All we need to do to make Social Security work really well is end the cap on income subject to Social Security tax and means-test the program so that the rich get NOTHING from Social Security, and then the people who really need it can get enuf to live on.
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Absolutely false. You're talking trivia. If illegals dare to take advantage of any such program, they risk deportation.
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Teachers get an annual salary based on the time that the schools are open. It's just paid out in regular installments. If it is paid out only during school months, some small proportion of teachers would spend it unwisely and have serious trouble getting thru the summer. Further, moneys in municipal bank accounts would be depleted, and the interest paid on it would drop.
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The $700B over ten years relates only to the Bush tax cuts on the rich. If we go back to the tax rates of, say, 1978, when the top bracket paid (coincidentally) 78%, and HANGED tax evaders and the "smart" accountants who co-conspire in tax evasion, we could pay OFF the national debt while still doing everything we need, as a civilized society, to do.
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You offer lots of red meat for the Radical Right, followed by an incongruous appeal to the Leftist sentiments of the Sixties, all packaged to incite the mob, while producing no lite, only heat. You want to eliminate housing assistance, so MILLIONS of people will be living on the streets and BEGGING to pay for their next meal? That is not the "kind" of society any sane person wants. Even most Rightwingers pretend to want a "kind"er, gentler society.
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How is it that everything that happens now is Obama's fault, despite Republican obstructionism thru his entire term so far, but nothing was President Bush's fault, but only a Democratic Congress's? -- even tho the Democratic Congress did NOT obstruct any of Bush's program?
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So you want 50 distinct State governments deciding what the Federal Government will do, do you? 50 separate foreign policies; 50 separate military policies, immigration policies, economic policies, with no coordination and no national standards in anything? BRILLIANT!
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So YOU want, personally, to read thru over 1,000 pages of the Federal Budget, do you? And you expect every other citizen to read thru over 1,000 pages of the Federal Budget, on top of all their other responsibilities, do you? And then, of course, they'll all have to make their recommendations -- in a referendum with thousands of suggested cuts, eh? Get real, and stop wasting our time with nonsense.
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Stop making up RIDICULOUS "statistics" -- "billion dollar percs of coffee and bottled water". Whom do you expect to believe such preposterous assertions?
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All drivel and trivia, including a nonexistent ACORN, "czars" that are just managers, infinitesimal expenses for the 537 members of the top echelon of the elected national government, whom we are to treat shabbily but still expect to care about treating us well!
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Kindly stop making up statistics on alleged U.S. aid to Mexico to stop illegals from invading from Central America -- altho the bulk of such immigrants use Mexico as a transit country for illegal migration into the U.S. U.S. foreign aid amounts to 1% of the Federal budget, to help people who are STARVING. But you want them to starve. No skin off our nose, right? The UN provides policing to lots of places that WE would otherwise have to send OUR kids into, so THEY can be in harm's way. Good idea, defunding the UN so the world becomes ever more violent, and more Americans have to die in foreign wars! The "wisdom" of isolationism was revealed on September 11, 2001, when people who trained in far-off Afghanistan and other 'inconsequential' countries destroyed a large part of Downtown Manhattan, costing us what? $100 billion dollars and more of damage to the national economy. Fortunately, YOU are not one of either Obama's or Congress's advisers.
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Bllions of dollars on food at the White House? I suppose that's the Radical Right's idea of comedy.
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What a great idea. Let's remove Secret Service protection from former Presidents. We always feel so good about ourselves as a Nation when a President is assassinated.
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You're right. Offshore oil drilling is certainly not worth investigating, off OTHER people's shores. After all, what could possibly go wrong here? Are there wasteful Federal spending programs? Surely. But biodiversity is important, and a country that loves to brag about how rich it is should certainly be able to do more than just pay the rent.
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Radical Rightwingers just LOVE to make up statistics, don't they? -- complete, ridiculous fabrications plucked from the clear blue sky. I could retaliate by making up my owns statistics, such as that 92.7% of all charitable donations are made by Liberals, and that studies have shown that 97.4% of conservatives have never given any time or money to any charity, because they are completely selfish. But Liberals don't make up statistics.
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It is indeed incomprehensible why Obama would propose infrastructure cuts, and other cuts that adversely impact the poor and middle class. The people voted for a Liberal Democrat, but got a reactionary Republican. Tragic.
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The great majority of American retirees rely upon Social Security, and even the rich get it -- which they shouldn't. So what is your problem with Social Security, and Medicare? -- which, again, the rich get and use.
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Whatever the rich pay is a lot less than they could easily afford to pay. And they would have NOTHING if it weren't for the rest of us, who do all the WORK of society. They wouldn't have a pot to pee in if poor people didn't make that pot, nor a roof over their heads without construction workers to build it. Nothing they do that makes them ridiculous amounts of money would be possible without "the little people" who actually make, build, and service EVERYTHING the rich need. So of course the rich begrudge everything the poor and middle class want, from decent wages and fringe benefits, to low taxes and equitable distribution of wealth.
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More fictitious "statistics" from the Radical Right. Whatever increase in reliance upon Governmental benefits that may have occurred -- which is in any event NOTHING like the made-up "statistics" you offer -- are due to a catastrophic economic crash that nearly took down the entire planet's economy, produced by the rich of the U.S. banking and corporate segments. Why can't the Radical Right EVER tell the truth?
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Are you only now realizing that Obama should be called "Barack the Faithless"? He has sold out the people who put him in office, again and again and again.
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The Radical Right is not only dishonest and selfish, but also absolutely humorless. They wouldn't know comedy if it pushed a shaving-cream "pie" in their face. Not that that would be funny, ordinarily.
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The Republicans actually voted AGAINST closing the tax loophole that subsidizes the export of jobs.
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What is a "Democrat" entitlement program? Government programs of long duration were enacted and have been funded by both parties.
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Yes, that's why President Obama won office by almost 10 million votes. Alas, we didn't know he would sell us out to the Republican opposition. So we'll see. Maybe Liberals will push him out, without any Republican help.
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You're talking trivia and nonsense. There are 308 MILLION people in this country, and only 535 members of Congress to serve them. You want even FEWER members of Congress? No, we should have MORE members of Congress, so there are a lot more smart people to divvy up the research and other work needed to give us wise legislation and policies that can succeed. As regards limos, how many Congressmen use how many limos just to get around? And do they need to conduct business at the same time as they are moving around? Do you really want Congressmen so distracted by the people's business that they can't pay attention to the road, and run over pedestrians, plow into other cars, and get themselves and others seriously injured, even killed? YOU try serving 700,000 constituents (per Representative) or MILLIONS of constituents (per Senator from a big state) and see how well YOU can tend to all the details of personal life at the same time as conducting legislative discussions, and how well you can drive when you are distracted by weighty matters of public policy. I DEEPLY resent the pettiness of so many commenters here about giving enormously important people, respect and the comfort and staffing they need to do a good job for the people.
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There are NO Communists in the Obama Administration, Bill Ayers never killed ANYBODY, and Glenn Beck is seriously disturbed if he really believes the insane things he says.
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So you want more oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, and more catastrophic explosions and massive devastation to wildlife, tourism, the fishing industry, etc., eh? Very smart.
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Nobody knows how many people died at the hands of Saddam Hussein, so you're just making that up. Statistics about Iraqi deaths during or after Saddam's regime are very hard to come by, but http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ gives a figure for deaths produced by the U.S. invasion as between 99,704 and 108,856, and Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War) gives various figures, up to "1,033,000 deaths as a result of the conflict", so don't even TRY to justify the invasion of a country that never attacked us by pretending it was to rescue the Iraqi people from Saddam. Saddam kept the peace in a place where that is very difficult -- as we have discovered. A figure of 800,000 people killed by Saddam in his 24 years in power is a FABRICATION, but is in any event LESS than the death toll in the 8 years since the U.S. invasion. Millions of people have died in the Sudan, but the U.S. has not lifted a finger there. In any case, it is long since time for the U.S. to get out of Iraq, which will eliminate a source of conflict AND save us billions of dollars we can use at home.
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So, the Bush Administration, which desperately wanted to find WMD's but couldn't, somehow missed them? Or suppressed the information that their only justification for the invasion, was valid? Just STOP, just stop the crap.
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The Iraq and Afghan wars are entirely different. Do not confuse them. Afghanistan's Taliban government launched attacks upon us. Iraq never did.
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"Teabagger" is sexually derogatory only if you insist on transforming a neutral term into an obscenity. One of the most famous images of the Tea Party movement is a foto of a woman wearing a hat with tea bags hanging from its brim. "Teabagger" is plainly an appropriate term for that, and tho I looked it up once in the Urban Dictionary, I do not remember what the vulgar sexual meaning is. So you are bringing a lot of our own "bag"gage into this discussion. MYRIAD terms can be transformed into obscenities if a person is imaginative enuf.
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Welfare reform under Clinton and a Republican Congress was supposed to have abolished long-term welfare. In that I do not know anyone on welfare, I can't say if it truly did, or if not, why it did not.
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Kindly cite to a reputable source for that preposterous $25K "statistic". NYC and a few other major districts have a very large number of students from (legal) immigrant families, who require extra attention and expense to educate. But $25K from the Federal Government alone sounds absolutely false.
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U.S. Foreign Aid is about $14B a year. The only way that can be counted as "billions and billions and billions" is if you take each "billions" to mean 4B. The Obama budget is $3.7 TRILLION. Do the math, and you will see you are talking TRIVIA in complaining about foreign aid to countries that are STARVING. NPR gets $26 MILLION dollars from the Federal Government (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPR#Funding). Not BILLION; MILLION. Governmental expenditures for medical care for illegal aliens is not known, since illegals hide from the Government, they do not apply for Government benefits, lest they be deported. Welfare was reformed during the Clinton Administration. Try again.
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I am endlessly amazed at how deluded so many people are about how LITTLE money we devote to foreign aid. A poll revealed that many people think that 25% of our budget goes to foreign aid, whereas it is actually less than 1%. Eliminating all foreign aid would have NO impact on our deficit, but would hurt U.S. interests abroad, and that could prove very costly indeed.
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Ending foreign aid would save $14B. Ending the U.S. occupation of Iraq would save over $10B. Withdrawing from Afghanistan would save $118B in the short term, but if the Taliban resumes control and relaunches its attacks upon the U.S., it will cost us massively in life and treasure.
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You did a randomized survey of public opinion in all those countries, did you? And what exactly are the tiny number of like-minded people you spoke with -- who would give you the time of day -- "laugh" about? Our President or the Tea Party, the Republican "Party of No", or something else entirely? Since when has the Radical Right cared two shakes of a rat's tail what foreigners say?
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NO Democrat thinks we have one-party rule. That has to be the champion ridiculous comment from the Radical Right in this entire discussion.
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Drill, baby drill? Fine, if you are content to be thrown into the next oil spill.
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There is NOTHING Socialist about the Obama Administration, and how can you have small government but HUGE corporations?
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"Dem thugs"? Oh, that's reasoned discourse, isn't it? So Democrats are the ones who launched a war against a country that never attacked us? That's thuggery.
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Stop talking trivia, and stop attacking people who work harder than almost anyone else in this country, trying to get people past problems with the Veterans Administration or immigration or Pell Grants, on and on thru hosts of constituent services for 700,000 people per Congressional district and MILLIONS that the Senator from a large state has to deal with. Would you really want people to die on the streets because a vet couldn't get his VA benefits, or some hardworking legal immigrant deported or a brilliant kid be unable to go to college because his Congressman didn't have the staff to deal with their problems? Cut the crap! Each member of Congress has 700,000 people to serve. How many people, exactly, do YOU have to serve in YOUR job?
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Conservatives wanted the United States never to happen. They were Tories, and we forced some 200,000 of them OUT of the United States at the end of the Revolutionary War, when we had only 2.8 million people, the equivalent of 22 million today. Let the vicious Radical Rightwingers of the United States find some place more congenial than a country that would elect a Barack Obama. Oh, that's right: they CANNOT find a more conservative country anywhere on Earth, and NOBODY would want them.
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Obama had NOTHING to do with the causes of this recession, nor the mass export of jobs by greedy corporations controlled by the super-greedy super-rich.
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So all the top executives of corporations, who demand MILLIONS to do what anyone of moderate intelligence could do, are Liberals? Golly.
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What matters with ANY budget is not just outlays but income. Donald Trump spends a lot more money than you or I. That does not make him poor. There are thus TWO ways to balance a budget: to reduce outlays OR to increase income. And the way a Government raises income is by raising taxes on the people who have the money but do not use it for public benefit.
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I don't hear any Republicans in the new Congress demanding a new formula for Social Security's Cost of Living Adjustment. Two years without any increase, when EVERYTHING else has gone up.
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Liberals do not defend disgusting cuts to aid for the poor and middle class. It is Conservatives who rally to the defense of their own, even when they disagree. Liberals aren't tribal. We don't defend the indefensible just because someone who is SUPPOSED to be Liberal proposes it.
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The United States has 308 million people. We can't manage all our responsibilities on a dollar forty-nine.
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Please cut the crap about people who receive public assistance flying high. YOU try to live on what they get, and you'll be talking out of the other side of your mouth. It's very odd that Republicans praised "investment" when business does it but decry it when Government does it. Corporations put out bond issues for billions of dollars, but we are not to see that this is DEBT. Corporations believe they can get rich by going into debt, but that's just fine with the Radical Right -- debt in the service of private corporations. But debt in the service of the public, that's wrong.
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Insane. Welfare is NOT remotely a major part of the Federal budget.
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I imagine you don't realize that what you are talking about is profoundly antidemocratic and antisocial, verging on pathological. What you call "politians" (s/b politicians) are the people who are willing to take the time and energy to tend to public needs, not pursue private profit. By far most are honest and very hardworking, and without them, we would have NO SERVICES.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 4,436 — for Israel.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 3:13 AM