Quote Of The Day - GOP Convention Reaction Edition

Aug 30th, 2012

"Paul Ryan demonstrated that he is an appealing, energetic campaigner comfortable with the sort of looseness with facts voters perpetually reward."

-- The Economist's Will Wilkinson on the stunningly dishonest spectacle that was Paul Ryan's acceptance speech for the VP nomination.

Newt Watch - He's Just Not Honest

Nov 29th, 2011

With the spectacular flame-out of the last, most recent, front-runner for the GOP nomination, Herman Cain, nearly complete, it does seem that Gingrich is getting what some are calling a "Cain bounce." The latest numbers from Public Policy Polling certainly bear this out.

Here We Go Again

May 6th, 2011

One more time. The Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) plan is still just as ridiculous today as it was when it came out a month ago. It's still based on massive giveaways to the rich, it's still absent any meaningful defense reform and as Bruce Bartlett notes in the Financial Times, its implementation would still raise the total federal debt by over 5 trillion dollars in the next decade. Which means it's still provably dishonest. It also makes Ryan's hard line on the debt ceiling inexplicable.

From Bartlett's piece:

"At the risk of belaboring the obvious, the federal budget deficit didn’t just suddenly arise solely because of actions taken by Democrats over the last two years. As a recent report from Pew makes clear, the bulk of it results from a recession that began in December 2007 and actions taken by Republicans when they were in power: huge tax cuts, two unfunded wars, and new spending programs such as Medicare Part D. Furthermore, Republicans themselves admit that even if their budget plans were enacted in every detail and spending is slashed, the government would still run deficits of more than $5 trillion over the next 10 years; that is what would result from the budget drafted by Rep. Paul Ryan, which all but 4 Republicans in the House voted for on April 15.

For the record, these are the deficits that House Republicans officially support (fiscal years): 2012: $995 billion; 2013: $698 billion; 2014: $489 billion; 2015: $431 billion; 2016: $478 billion; 2017: $407 billion; 2018: $378 billion; 2019: $415 billion; 2020: $405 billion; and 2021: $391 billion.

To vote for $5 trillion in additional deficits – not to mention all of the legislation that got us to today’s deficit – and then oppose allowing the Treasury to borrow funds to cover the lost revenue from tax cuts and the spending Congress enacted into law is nothing but reckless grandstanding."

It's not merely reckless, it's outright dangerous.

The War On Unions, Cont...

Jan 25th, 2011

The labor movement is under attack from the American Right with a force that hasn't been seen in decades. Public sector pensions in particular have been targeted as the primary villain in budget shortfalls at the state level. Completely ignoring depressed revenue due to the recession, the wildly irresponsible tax code modifications of the last 30 years and even the most basic principles of contract law, a near hysterical meme is gaining traction. It is the argument that we must find a way to dissolve or otherwise dishonor these legal obligations.

There is one problem with the rising level of alarmism. The facts simply don't support it. The average state cost of public sector pensions is an average of 3.8% of GDP. The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College completed an exhaustive study this past October on the actual impact of these commitments.


It should be required reading by every so-called "fiscal-hawk."

Crying Boehner, ctd...

Dec 20th, 2010

Writing for The L.A. Times, Tom Lutz hammers Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) on his continued water works:

"He does, I believe, worry about the children, and yet his entire political philosophy is devoted to limiting the federal government's ability to help them. He has voted against providing health insurance for children (many times), against student aid, against unemployment benefits, against equal pay, against food safety, against money for teachers, against raising the minimum wage, against tobacco education, mine safety, alternative energy, pollution control, whistle-blower protection, science and technology research. If he were making his decisions based on what government programs might help today's schoolchildren reach their dreams, like the Kennedy- and Johnson-era programs that helped him, his voting record would be very different. It is a deep enough contradiction to make him weep for the future."

Steve Grant Confirms Hitchens... Unintentionally

Dec 12th, 2010

With the much deserved buzz swirling around Christopher Hitchen's brutal take-down of The Tea Party in the latest issue of Vanity Fair, it was with a mixture of stunned bemusement and genuine alarm that I read Steve Grant's latest piece of unreasoned insanity over at "The Tenth Amendment Center."




As Hitch so plainly argued: 
"There is an old Republican saying that “a government strong enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take away everything you have.” This statement contains an essential truth that liberals have no right to overlook. But it is negated, not amplified, if it comes festooned with racism and superstition."

Now, only days later comes Grant with passages like these:
"In order to understand the origins of the tea party movement in the Bible we must start near the beginning." emphasis mine

And:
"God promised Abram’s (sic) descendants financial wealth, national stability, and a host of other promises in the years to come."


And, just to make sure you don't misunderstand his message, Grant drives it home:
"I believe the current Tea Party movement is ordained by God.  As you rise up with others to reclaim our nation, you too will have your place in history.  It’s our turn now.  Let’s go forward for God."


Read them again, just in case the resultant spit-take followed by face-palm made you wonder if you were being put on.


Therein lies the core of the TP movement: God made the Tea Party because God loves the accumulation of wealth. 


I'll leave it with this from Hitch:
"I don’t remember ever seeing grown-ups behave less seriously."

Dissecting Dinesh

Sept. 28th, 2010 


Very conservative writer Heather Mac Donald demolishes the recent insanity of Dinesh D'Souza:

"D’Souza argues that Obama’s policies are motivated by a hatred towards American power absorbed from his Kenyan father.  He offers exactly zero evidence for his hackneyed psychological theory.  But the most laughable weakness in D’Souza’s thesis is the fact that the policies which D’Souza presents as the “dreams of a Luo tribesman” have a decades-long American pedigree and are embraced by wide swathes of the American electorate and political class.  If support for progressive taxation, greater government regulation of health care, stimulus spending, and conservation make one the tool of the African anticolonial movement, then Paul Krugman, Robert Reich, Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, John Kenneth Galbraith, FDR, and the Sierra Club are all Third World agents provocateurs."

Hannity Deceptive? You bet.

Sept 12th, 2010

Hannity is clearly taking lessons from his pal, Breitbart.