Political Math explaining the Obama Budget Cuts

[wrobert]

I find it curious that every Repub I speak with was against all the govt spending under Bush's 8 years. It is shocking to me that Bush got away with all that spending when his entire base was against it.

This apparent contradiction between rhetoric and actual behavior is not lost on most of America. Combine the above contradiction with the utter vacuum of ideas from Republicans as to what to do about the mess they created and one can see why they are in such disarray.

Fear not though as the pendulum always swing back sooner or later. Please remember your cut Gov't spending mantra when you are back in the majority.

Personally I thought Bush was way to liberal of a spender for me. But let us say that I agree with everything that Bush did in the way of spending. Could we get Obama to come back to 66 or so miles per hour? They all spend too much. But give me a break, comparing what Bush was spending to what Obama is spending? Apples and oranges.

 

[Winnie]

They all spend too much. But give me a break, comparing what Bush was spending to what Obama is spending? Apples and oranges.

More like grapes and watermelons.

 

[rancid]

Personally I thought Bush was way to liberal of a spender for me. But let us say that I agree with everything that Bush did in the way of spending. Could we get Obama to come back to 66 or so miles per hour? They all spend too much. But give me a break, comparing what Bush was spending to what Obama is spending? Apples and oranges.

Thank you for illustrating my point about Bush's spending. All my Republican friends also seemed to be against all of Bush's spending and give a variation of your response.

Apples and Oranges indeed. Your apples would include 1) wasting money on war and rebuilding the same foreign country after said war
2) expanding corporate welfare for pet industries like oil and pharmaceutical companies
3) funding wasteful and pointless projects in the military-industrial complexes.


I would much rather spend money on health care reform and energy reform.
Even if the govt does waste a lot of money, I would rather waste it on these things instead of Bush's faves.

 

[Winnie]

Thank you for illustrating my point about Bush's spending. All my Republican friends also seemed to be against all of Bush's spending and give a variation of your response.

Apples and Oranges indeed. Your apples would include 1) wasting money on war and rebuilding the same foreign country after said war
2) expanding corporate welfare for pet industries like oil and pharmaceutical companies
3) funding wasteful and pointless projects in the military-industrial complexes.


I would much rather spend money on health care reform and energy reform.
Even if the govt does waste a lot of money, I would rather waste it on these things instead of Bush's faves.

And the oranges include 1) A stimulus bill to create jobs, that doesn't. 2) Energy reform plan that doesn't save energy but does make us pay more for it. 3) A health plan that is basically an insurance plan provided through the federal government paid for by tax dollars - maybe. I guess they may ultimately come up with something better than what they currently are talking about. If they could slow down and give these spending plans some thought and discussion.

It seems that the current spending plans are all the same. Find a problem, give money away to political supporters, and claim it will fix the problem. Oh, because we all agree there is a problem and the time to act is now or the problem will bankrupt our nation. I'm already tired of this change.

 

[wrobert]

Thank you for illustrating my point about Bush's spending. All my Republican friends also seemed to be against all of Bush's spending and give a variation of your response.

Apples and Oranges indeed. Your apples would include 1) wasting money on war and rebuilding the same foreign country after said war
2) expanding corporate welfare for pet industries like oil and pharmaceutical companies
3) funding wasteful and pointless projects in the military-industrial complexes.


I would much rather spend money on health care reform and energy reform.
Even if the govt does waste a lot of money, I would rather waste it on these things instead of Bush's faves.

So you are for government waste? Always heard that there were people like you in the world. Feel free to make out a check to the US Treasury, I am sure someone on the hill can find a way to spend it.

Realizing the whole time that Bush was in office and a few of us were griping about spending, we were constantly told, be happy he is not a democrat. Well rather or not I voted for Obama, I did follow along his campaign and was not that upset that he won. I mean he did say he was for open and transparent government, cutting waste, getting out of the war. All things I could live with. But my goodness, it is pretty bad when even Jon Stewart(my only news source) is starting to take shots at him for secret government, runaway spending, and continuing the war. I was watching one tonight where the Obama administration is now calling their visitor logs secret and trying to protect VP Cheney. This is all becoming very surreal to me.

 

[rancid]

And the oranges include 1) A stimulus bill to create jobs, that doesn't. 2) Energy reform plan that doesn't save energy but does make us pay more for it. 3) A health plan that is basically an insurance plan provided through the federal government paid for by tax dollars - maybe. I guess they may ultimately come up with something better than what they currently are talking about. If they could slow down and give these spending plans some thought and discussion.

It seems that the current spending plans are all the same. Find a problem, give money away to political supporters, and claim it will fix the problem. Oh, because we all agree there is a problem and the time to act is now or the problem will bankrupt our nation. I'm already tired of this change.

I am going to hold judgement until Obama's plans are in place for a while.
Comparing future health care reform and an energy bill that isn't even in law yet to Bush's confirmed bungling is indeed apples and oranges.

As far as your statement in bold above; this is different from the republicans how?

 

[Lynnie]

Nice apartment. Is defacing US Currency still a felony?

 

[Winnie]

I am going to hold judgement until Obama's plans are in place for a while.
Comparing future health care reform and an energy bill that isn't even in law yet to Bush's confirmed bungling is indeed apples and oranges.

As far as your statement in bold above; this is different from the republicans how?

What "confirmed bungling" of President Bush are you referring to? There aren't very many things he did as President I disagree with. Probably less than a dozen and most of those late in his second term. I wouldn't call them bungling, just things I disagreed with.

But, you are correct, it's unfair to judge President Obama on his hoped for Energy and Health Care Plans. They may not come to pass and if they do may be entirely different than advertised.

So lets just compare President Bush's TARP loans to President Obama's Stimulus Plan. I was against TARP, but it does seem to have worked. Money getting repaid - no large scale financial collapse so far - seems okay. How's the Stimulus Plan coming along? How about GM? Are you glad we kept pouring money into them since they "couldn't fail," up until we let them fail?

As far as finding a problem to pretend to solve so you can give tax dollars to your "friends." President Obama just spends soooo much more than anyone else and on top of that he is on the TV and/or radio all the time crowing about it.

This morning I heard him talking up the Cap and Trade Bill by trying to say how successful California has been!!! Maybe, just maybe, he could have us believe it is cool how they use less energy per capita than the US average, but when he tried to say that they are economically on par with the rest of the US, I about spit my coffee out. Come on. The big news for the last two weeks is how they are bankrupt and begging for federal dollars!
Please.