Ted Rall for December 08, 2010

We’re trapped in economic desperation.

Clark needs to get real. He wants to have the wild party and not have anybody pay for it.

@beenthere(not really)41:

Pay attention. The top 2% have been having the wild party and their purchased lackeys have just extended it.

Can you really think that the republican party stands for fiscal responsibility? When they have been in power they spend and borrow. When out of power they blame democrats for the mess.

Look at what happened to the Irish - bail out the bankers, and you have to put the entire load on the backs of the workers. The rich get richer, and the rest get screwed. Another reason why the Republicans are against education - the less you know, the more likely you are to get all your news from Fox and continue to vote Republican.

I wouldn’t have been able to go to the party anyway. I have a job. For now. That’s where your protest is.

And Ruff… in terms of richest members… have you looked at Al Gore recently? Just curious. The reality is you have to be very wealthy to get into high offices (even many lower ones) in politics nowadays regardless of what party someone is in. It’s a failed argument from your side to use a person’s wealth as a judgment of character or leadership ability. There are other, non-demonizing, ways of making a point and the only way to make an intellectual one.

The reality is, if someone is very wealthy, they had to come by that wealth somehow. At least if they have run a business they did it by leading and understanding complexities involved in payroll, benefits, expenses, etc. There are people on both sides of the isle that fail to meet that example and those that do meet it. But it still doesn’t ensure that the person is good or bad in their leadership nor does it explain in what method they will lead. That has far more to do with ideology, character, and experience as well as other factors.

@Saltwatercroc

Interesting point. Somehow, Republicans want everyone to be uneducated, brainwashed, morons, yet Reps are the ones pushing for vouchers so the more low income families can get a better education at a private school (many of which are not religious)… hmmm.

Oh, but there’s more. It just so happens it’s ONLY the people on the left that want all of conservative thought (and for many even religious, specifically Christian thought) completed snuffed from every medium.

And speaking of education, how come 90% of American colleges are farms for leftist ideology? Oh the stories I have of my experiences and my friend’s experience at college.

He’s a reality check Croc, conservatives regularly read liberal newspapers and see liberal news broadcasts and get bombarded by liberal and leftist thinking from every side (media, schools, entertainment, socializing, etc.). Compare that to the amount of conservative thinking that members of the left actually confront and there is no equality of result :) as conservatives’ thoughts are far more challenged daily than liberals’/leftists.’

Apt name, croc, because what you said was a total croc. ;)

Dj: Ever wonder why there might be a correlation between education and progressive thinking?

jrmerm - the stimulus was necessary; the GOP blocked what it would take to make it more successful. Ask an economist. And “Obamacare” is, as I have pointed out repeatedly, a Republican plan created by Mitt Romney which gives more guaranteed money to the insurance industry. It is, properly speaking, Romneycare. Romney was glad to claim it for Massachusetts until he became a born-again radical right-winger. Obama’s first choice was single-payer, which was impossible; his second choice, a nonprofit self-supporting health insurance company to compete with the for-profit companies, was BLOCKED by the GOP.

motive, throwing more money at a problem is never necessary, that’s just history. Especially play paper money. I’m all for bringing the troops home and cutting federal spending in all sectors. I’m reading about how corrupt Karzai and Afghanistan is, I don’t think anyone can justify our spending on it anymore, unless we get some of those “trillions” in natural resources out there (like that’s gonna help the common American). In other words, I think conservatives who call for so many cuts in Federal spending should really include the war budget, as well.

You are correct, Romney would be a travesty for the health industry in America on a national scale just as much as Obama’s proposals will be.

“The concept of massive govt spending to stimulate the economy is a proven failure (do research on Japan and its “lost decade” of the 1990’s, or the USA in the 1930’s)”

With all due respect, Japan had quite a bit of government intervention in the economy before that - when it was known as an economic miracle. It also had a lot of cooperation between the state, businesses and unions. You probably know better than me all the little tricks their government used to limit competition and promote local business. I find the idea that it was government spending that caused its lackluster performance in the 90s a little dubious. There is your position, and there are others opposing it - stating that without the government funding, Japan would have found itself in an even worse situation.

As for the US - if I am not mistaken, after 1932 the US economy started recovering, but there was a secondary recession in 1937. I don’t believe the fact that it came after the rollback of some new deal policies was just a coincidence. Nor that the economy fully recovered after WWII - a period of massive government spending and deficits.

While government spending certainly has its downsides, I find the justification for it being a “proven failure” to be flimsy at best.

None of that sounds like trickle-down, though.

The only organized protest movement we have is the Tea Baggers. And those dimwits are supporting the party that got us in this mess in the first place.