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1. 

   dtroutma said, 7 months ago

   Rall’s summary is good, but still incomplete. Want America to drown? Just give Mitt a shot at your wallet, just like the 22% of the companies HE "invested in " and chose to send to bankruptcy as opposed to the 8% who got federal funding.
2. 

   SwimsWithSharks said, 7 months ago

   Careful, Ted. Remember what Dubya said, “We don’t want to play the blame game.”
3. 

   TJDestry said, 7 months ago

   So, okay, Ted doesn’t understand the concept of small government. Add that to the list.
4. 

   mattro53 said, 7 months ago

   Wow! As Mr. Rall correctly points out there are essential government services. Little Lord Fauntleroy and many other wing nuts want to privatize and/or gut FEMA. Check out the Green Party’s platform for that and many other reasons. There are compelling reasons to vote Green.
5. 

   edinbaltimore said, 7 months ago

   Unfortunately, Green, et.al. don’t have a snowball’s chance of winning anything worthwhile, just take away votes from the big two. (Whether this is good or bad for the country is a different discussion.) If Nader doesn’t run, Gore gets elected. Third parties will only succeed once they get a local, responsible ground game going. Currently they are just we’re not them, shrill true believers that have not been able to convince others they have a real agenda past their ideology. And they would still have to work with Congress if their candidate got elected.
6. 

   jonesb said, 7 months ago

   How did this country grow like it did with small government for 150-200 years and yet go bankrupt with a huge government police state.
7. 

   SwimsWithSharks said, 7 months ago

   @jonesb

   It might have something to do with the military industrial complex Eisenhour warned us about.
8. 

   Ms. Ima said, 7 months ago

   Welcome to the world of Obama. Did you all get the change you wanted? Still hope for more?
   So taxing people will end the ‘global warming hoax’?
   The President rides around with a fleet of gas-wasting vehicles, where’s the anger at that?
   Levees and flood walls, really? How will that keep out the rain?
   Not enough zoning laws? Get on the board if you are offended and make your own rules.
   Budget cuts with a trillion dollar stimulus? How can that be? Is it no matter how much is spent it is still called a ‘budget cut’? Or is it because xxx above existing spending is proposed to be spent, and xx is approved so the ‘x’ is a ‘budget cut’?
9. 

   Chillbilly said, 7 months ago

   @Ms. Ima

   Please tell me that you haven’t passed your genes along to a new generation.
10. 

    SwimsWithSharks said, 7 months ago

    @Chillbilly

    He’s like a conservative radio show host in need of Ritalin.
11. 

    rightisright said, 7 months ago

    The libtards are blaming Romney when Lord Ears is still sitting in the Big Chair (not for much longer though)
12. 

    SwimsWithSharks said, 7 months ago

    @rightisright

    

    See this flag?

    Obama’s country. Every time you see one waving the next 4 years, remember that. Obama’s country.

    Makes you mad, doesn’t it. Obama’s country.
13. 

    TheTrustedMechanic said, 7 months ago

    @Ms. Ima

    Wow, a post with some thought. Erroneous thought but thought nonetheless. I don’t think you will understand this, incapable or unwilling doesn’t matter you just won’t but I’ll try anyway.
    1)Taxing undesirable behavior puts downward force on demand. For example: taxing carbon emissions will trend the industries toward lower carbon activities.
    2)Nothing will keep out the rain. However rain is not what flooded NYC’s subway and train tunnels and the Ground Zero pit, it was storm surge, or tidal wave, or tsunami, or just plain ol’ big wave of water comin’ in from the oshun. And water from the Ocean would be mitigated by levees and flood walls. There are many European countries who mitigate their flood risks this way. Get it yet? Didn’t think so.
    3)Zoning laws are what has lessened the devastation, destruction and loss of lives in Cali from earthquakes. Private industry and the free-market would NOT have developed the earthquake mitigation measures in place in new building construction that allows building to remain standing in tremors where before they would have fallen like a house of cards. Likewise in NYC, Chicago and other cities with mega-story buildings they don’t fall over in hurricanes or tornados not due to any private sector desire but do to zoning laws and regulations. Sure the private sector doesn’t want them to fall over of be destroyed but if it weren’t for the government and zoning regulations, with inspections to prove that proper procedures were followed, private sector greed-lust in pursuit of massive profits would lead to shoddy workmanship only made evident in the event of a failure. It happens now, but not nearly to the extent it would if there weren’t laws and regulations in place.
    4)To call a spending increase a budget cut is wrong, you are correct. But I’m not sure what you are talking about here because you twist reality into something unrecognizable with your party’s propaganda of lies, manipulations, innuendo and half-truths. But in the event of an economic downturn like we had, every credible, non-partisan economist says that austerity is the WRONG approach and will do nothing but exacerbate the problem. For an example just look at Greece. Their whole problem is rooted in the fact that tax-evasion was a national sport. There was not patriotism. There was only nepotism that when a newly elected official gained office they installed friends and relatives into government jobs that really produced nothing but extra expense. And then the private sector paid a “tax” in order to avoid actually paying their taxes to support the government they allowed. Sort of like here, we have a certain sector that wants to pay nothing, but when disaster hits they want everything, and then some. But as for your specific point, not you alluded to point, you are correct, an increase in spending cannot be called a budget cut, unless the increase has already been accounted for, such as you know your utilities will go up next year so you cut back in other areas so your net increase is less than anticipated, then yes you cut your budget even though it increased form this year. It’s all in the terminology and interaction of the different facets of the budgeting.
14. 

    SwimsWithSharks said, 7 months ago

    @rightisright

    
15. 

    Nos Nevets said, 7 months ago

    “Today is the day the oceans cease their rise.”
    Obama, 1/20/2009
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