TomAiello

And if guys you don't (Republicans) like are being fiscally irresponsible to help guys you don't like (bankers)...that makes it ok for guys you do like (Democrats) to do the same thing to help guys you do like (unions)? What happened to your fiscal responsibility, John? Only when convenient to your political causes? You sound a lot like George W. Bush, actually. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I am certain that every newly elected President thinks that sort of thing. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I have had to explicitly agree (several times) not to use software in any attempts at global domination. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I didn't say that. Regardless of whatever issues are in play, "the public" has punished officeholders who raise taxes. The public has shown itself to be pretty one sided on both taxes and spending. The public likes (and rewards politicians who provide) lower taxes and increased spending. Raise taxes and the voters punish you. Raise spending and the voters reward you. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Good CNN editorial on this subject here. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Well, calling people out on name calling (which is within the forum rules) isn't really a mod task--it's just something we do in all our free time. Actually, there's a multi-hour waterboarding session in Sangiro's dungeon. Those who seem to enjoy it are assigned to moderate Speakers' Corner. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Yep. Aside from FDR, deficit spending was a creation of Reagan. But it was so politically successful (who's not going to vote for getting "free" stuff?) that now it seems like everyone is doing it. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

If you're interested, check out The End of Overeating. There's a Washington Post review of it here. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

To be fair, have you seen how the government handles it's own finances? In DC, this is the height of fiscal responsibility. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

If you're interested in anything other than attempts to rile you up, interwoven with straight party line democratic agenda, you're better off to be done with him altogether. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Nah...that's my job. Sorry if I haven't been doing it enough. I'll try to chime in more. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

True - Reagan and GWB proved that. To be fair, every President and every Congress in the last 30 years has done that. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

How do you know this? I'm guessing it's a deduction based on the way the public punished him in the next election. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It is however, an important requirement for becoming dictator of Cuba. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Some Presidents do get a coach ahead of time, or at least practice. Hopefully Bush got the practice back when he was the GM of a professional baseball team, rather than while he was president. Honestly, I've got no issues with the president taking time out to play baseball (or basketball) or whatever else he wants to do to relax. The dude's got one of the highest pressure jobs in the world. He ought to take some time off and relax every now and then. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Worse, because just holding the cars and hoping for a climb in value is not a viable strategy. Hey, pushing people to be financially irresponsible got us here--surely more of the same will help now, right? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

To be fair, the real explosion occurred under Reagan and a Democratic Congress. The only real episode of fiscal responsibility (well, not really, but at least borrowing money slower) came under Clinton, with a Republican Congress (the "Contract with America" bunch). That was a reflection of both the president (Clinton really was interested in fiscal realities) and the Congress (more deficit hawks in the Congressional leadership than at any other time). A large part of the current debt is W. Bush's fault. It was during the Bush administration that (a) we launched two wars on borrowed money and (b) he missed a golden opportunity to clean up, because he had a strong position in Congress, and could have pushed for it successfully. That doesn't mean that Obama isn't expanding the debt at an unprecedented rate. His proposed (and already done) spending makes Bush look almost responsible by comparison, which, given that the past 8 years were by far the most free spending in history, is really something. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

And yet, they're the ones who will most benefit from HR 3200. Curious, isn't it? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I think the interesting part here is that the Obama team obviously had a plan to try to break this promise in a politically savvy way. Rather than tie the tax increases to the massive spending which requires it, they do the massive spending on borrowed money, and then they have to raise taxes to reduce the deficit. It's a clever spin, actually, because you'll get to hear a lot of: "GOP come lately to fiscal responsibility! What, you want debt? Don't you care about the deficit?" Basically, while borrowing and spending the country into a generation of financial servitude to the Chinese, the administration is also trying to portray themselves as fiscally responsible, and the "obstructionist" opposition party as fiscally irresponsible. I'm curious to see how it plays with the voters. It's an obvious sham (which hasn't stopped such things from working on the public before), but they do have the personal magnetism of Obama working on their side to sell it. Oh, and remember, you heard it here first--how long after the tax increases are proposed will it be before the opposition is labelled as fiscally irresponsible for opposing them? I give it less than a week from the time of proposal to the first attack on that grounds. But heck, it could be within the same paragraph of the first announcement--preemptive blame shifting is one of the fortés of this administration. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

To quote Capt Slog: "Irony Score 10/10." -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

My thought was actually; Geez, and we know the guy is athletic. Couldn't they have at least given him a pitching coach for a couple hours before hand? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I wonder how long until we get to the point where you couldn't mathematically do that in one 4 year term? In theory, even with a 100% budget cut, and 100% taxes, you'd only have the GDP to use. At what point will total debt exceed 4 times the GDP? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Hoo-rah! More finger pointing! Wouldn't want to actually start digging out of this whole we're in, would we? What would be the point of that when we can just keep blaming someone else while we're all digging ourselves in deeper? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Oooh, the blame game. It's just another way of saying "I don't give a rip if we're in trouble--just as long as I can point the finger at someone else." Here's a revolutionary idea. Let's stop pointing fingers across the aisle and start trying to solve the problem. Nah...that would never fly in DC. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Are those public universities free? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com