Rick Perry vs. Barack Obama

[blackshoe]

Every time the government, or people speaking for the government, talks about tax revenues as being "our" money, I remember the myriad of scenes in various tv shows where some poor schmuck finds a bag full of money, and ends up chased by the criminal who stole it, who wants "his" money back.

[PassedOut]

Every time the government, or people speaking for the government, talks about tax revenues as being "our" money, I remember the myriad of scenes in various tv shows where some poor schmuck finds a bag full of money, and ends up chased by the criminal who stole it, who wants "his" money back.

And those damnable credit card companies asking for "their" money just because we happened to run up a huge bill with them. The government and the credit card companies: two peas in a pod.

[jonottawa]

I like Ron Paul's ideas on foreign policy but that is as far as it goes for me.

 

Guess what President Paul would have control over.

 

Foreign policy.

 

He'd also force the 2 parties in congress to work together since there will be a lot of Paul vetos to override.

 

Is he the perfect candidate? No. But he's the most honest and principled candidate by a country mile. It would be nice to try having someone like that as president JUST ONE TIME.

[PassedOut]

Is he the perfect candidate? No. But he's the most honest and principled candidate by a country mile.

Although I disagree with some of their positions, I don't see Bachmann, Santorum, or Huntsman as dishonest or as unprincipled.

[hrothgar]

Guess what President Paul would have control over.

 

Foreign policy.

 

He'd also force the 2 parties in congress to work together since there will be a lot of Paul vetos to override.

 

Is he the perfect candidate? No. But he's the most honest and principled candidate by a country mile. It would be nice to try having someone like that as president JUST ONE TIME.

 

My understanding is that Ron Paul wants to (immediately) cut one trillion dollars from the federal deficit...

I think that this would be an unmitigated disaster...

 

Admitted, the budget process is one of those areas where congress can (completely) ignore the President.

Even so, I really worry what Paul might do with the veto trying to get his budget through

 

I also (really) worry about electing a 76 year old.

[Winstonm]

Although I disagree with some of their positions, I don't see Bachmann, Santorum, or Huntsman as dishonest or as unprincipled.

Bachmann is too stupid to be dishonest.

[Winstonm]

My understanding is that Ron Paul wants to (immediately) cut one trillion dollars from the federal deficit...

I think that this would be an unmitigated disaster...

 

Admitted, the budget process is one of those areas where congress can (completely) ignore the President.

Even so, I really worry what Paul might do with the veto trying to get his budget through

 

I also (really) worry about electing a 76 year old.

 

Yes, one Reagan was more than enough for a lifetime but we got him twice, and in two differest stages of Alzheimer's.

[blackshoe]

I suppose you'd rather have elected FDR for a fifth term.

[hrothgar]

I suppose you'd rather have elected FDR for a fifth term.

 

Roosevelt was born in 1882

He died in 1945

Sees to me that makes him roughly 63 years old at the time of his death...

 

Reagan was, what? 70 when he started his first term?

[Winstonm]

I suppose you'd rather have elected FDR for a fifth term.

 

As a teenage and influenced by my family, I hated LBJ and his Great Society. Now, as an elderly adult, I think other than the monumental mistake about Vietnam that LBJ may have been the best of them all.

[blackshoe]

Best of what all? Welfare statist presidents?

[Winstonm]

Best of what all? Welfare statist presidents?

 

Can you begin to imagine what the U.S. elderly population would look like without Medicare?

[hrothgar]

Best of what all? Welfare statist presidents?

 

How cute, Ed has devolved into the crotchety old man stage of senescence...

 

No attempts are any kind of positive argument, just bitter rambling, blind antagonism, and crackpot theories..

[blackshoe]

Yes, I can. So?

[Winstonm]

Yes, I can. So?

 

I was only wondering how the Civil Rights Act and Medicare create a welfare state. Or maybe the following simply don't fit in with the "let them eat cake" mentality of Ayn Rand acolytes?

 

Johnson accomplishments: Medicare; Medicaid; food stamps; civil rights legislation; equal employment opportunity; Civil rights Act 0f 1964

 

In contrast, Ronald Reagan cut domestic spending, reduced taxes on the wealthy, and dramatically increased defense spending to fight a strawman, a U.S.S.R. that was already collapsing of its own weight.

 

Federal expenditures for low-cost housing plunged during Reagan's watch from $32 billion in 1981 to just $7 billion in 1987.

 

At the same time, funding was slashed for a variety of social services, including public health, drug rehab and food stamps -- programs that were relied upon by the thousands of mentally ill people who'd been released from state facilities as a cost-cutting move.

 

Reagan nearly tripled the gap between the amount of money the federal government took in and the amount it spent. He did this by cutting tax rates by an average 25 percent, while aggressively increasing defense spending.

 

Yes, indeed I would choose Johnson again over Reagan - even a young Reagan.

[Winstonm]

I'm definitely not a Ron Paul fan.

 

With this said and done, Andrew Sullivan (who just endorsed Paul) raises some interesting points in the following piece:

 

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/12/recuse-yourself-chris-wallace.html

 

Richard,

 

What part of the phrase "Fox propaganda" comes as a surprise to you?

[PassedOut]

Johnson accomplishments: Medicare; Medicaid; food stamps; civil rights legislation; equal employment opportunity; Civil Rights Act of 1964

 

In contrast, Ronald Reagan cut domestic spending, reduced taxes on the wealthy, and dramatically increased defense spending to fight a strawman, a U.S.S.R. that was already collapsing of its own weight.

Johnson's presidency will always be tainted by his disastrous escalation of the Vietnam War, but he accomplished much domestically. It's important to note that, despite the increased domestic spending for Johnson's war on poverty together with his war spending in Vietnam, Johnson nevertheless reduced the US national debt as a percentage of GDP.

 

Indeed, every administration did so after WWII -- regardless of political party -- until Ronald Reagan ushered in the period of fiscal irresponsibility that started in 1980.

[blackshoe]

I didn't say any particular thing Johnson did "created" a welfare state. In fact, the creation was already done. Johnson just put icing on the cake.

 

As for the "straw man' comment, nice 20-20 hindsight there.

[Winstonm]

As for the "straw man' comment, nice 20-20 hindsight there.

 

It was no mystery to the intelligence agencies at the time that the U.S.S.R. was in trouble. Reagan's actions may have helped speed up the fall by coercing the Kremlin to try to match the US military build-up, but the death of the U.S.S.R. came from natural causes.

[blackshoe]

To be followed in the not too distant future, it seems likely, by the demise of our "noble experiment". :(

[JLOGIC]

Romney up to 67. Not considering selling.

[Winstonm]

This Yahoo! News headline probably picked the GOP nominee based on the qualifications:

Bachmann Wrong on Social Security, Jobs, Debt

[Winstonm]

Modern libertarianism is the disguise adopted by those who wish to exploit without restraint. It pretends that only the state intrudes on our liberties. It ignores the role of banks, corporations and the rich in making us less free. It denies the need for the state to curb them in order to protect the freedoms of weaker people. This bastardised, one-eyed philosophy is a con trick, whose promoters attempt to wrongfoot justice by pitching it against liberty. By this means they have turned “freedom” into an instrument of oppression.

 

www.monbiot.com

[blackshoe]

Bull. Banks "exploit" because government sets up laws and regulations that promote them doing so. Corporations wouldn't exist at all if the government didn't give them legitimacy. As for the rest of it, it's a con trick, just like it claims "libertarianism" to be.

[Trinidad]

As for the "straw man' comment, nice 20-20 hindsight there.

It was no mystery to the intelligence agencies at the time that the U.S.S.R. was in trouble. Reagan's actions may have helped speed up the fall by coercing the Kremlin to try to match the US military build-up, but the death of the U.S.S.R. came from natural causes.

Somehow, people in the USA are convinced that Reagan won the cold war. The rest of the world remembers that Reagan had nothing to do with it. If John Smith would have been the US President, he would have "won" it. In essence, it was the death of Leonid Breznjev that led to the end of the cold war.

 

After Breznjev's death, the USSR made some serious moves to end the cold war, starting with Andropov, put on ice by Chernenko during his one year of reign and continued by Gorbachev. Western Europe saw that and urged the USA to hold peace talks with the new USSR leaders, but Reagan essentially refused to negotiate seriously to the horror of the Western European population. Gorbachev made several attempts to bilateral talks. In the end, he just decided that the cold war just didn't make any sense and he ended it unilaterally.

 

In Europe, no one thought that the cold war was won by anybody (other than perhaps the people of Eastern Europe who due to Gorbachev had gained considerable freedom). As a matter of fact, there was a strong feeling that the cold war was lost by everyone who participated in it. My generation grew up in continuous fear and in the knowledge that the amount of nuclear shelters would be insufficient to take care of every one. The East and West had spent a large part of their resources on a useless conflict.

 

Actually the first time that I seriously heard someone utter the idea that Reagan had won the cold war was when I moved to the USA in '93. I was astonished.

 

Rik