I don't find their views maddening. Just remarkably consistent.

Worthless minds produce worthless solutions.

Rep. Boehner's party added 8.5 million to the spending bill so that they could maintain the Republican staff at the same level that it was when they were in the majority. The first step in dieting, Congressman Boehner, is to push yourself away from the table.

But but but but... Then they let Boehner on the show and he claimed (without challenge) that Republicans had a better proposal based only on tax cuts that would create more jobs with less spending.

Clueless Bob does not know enough to challenge this BS which is why they can get away with it.

When you consider the fact that the entire planet is

dealing with the fallout of the Bush Era, it doesn't make sense that

the loudest voices are from the same entities that prodded our

global economy off of a cliff.

The inane stuff is beyond pathetic, and yes, it is dangerous.

In theory, a budget based on tax cuts could spur employment andeconomic growth. LOTS of philosophies & concepts of governance work on paper. But they all rely on people in charge who a: are competent; b: are intelligent; c: are compassionate (understanding that some people are always going to need some help some times) and d: are ethical, who understand that the economy grows best when everyone benefits (they don't all have to benefit equally, but you leave anyone behind, either). That rules so many Republicans, SO many Masters of the Universe, out. Their philosophy is based on "let me get everything what I want with no regulations & no repurcussions and everything else will work out. It's capitalism turned cannibalism. The people decrying Obama's plan are the reason we need Obama's plan.

It would be just nifty to knock off these two clowns, Boehner and Cantor, in 2010. I hope the Obama admin points some extra aid into their districts. That way plenty of their constituents will keep their jobs, their homes and their health care because of policies Coco and Bozo have so loudly and idiotically opposed.

...they can't imagine why anyone would have the audacity to think the planet is round.

They know damn well. They're just laying the groundwork for a few years down the road when, after the economy recovers, taxes will go up to pay back the stimulus. "See, we told you so!" they'll be able to say.

I know there are people who take these guys seriously. I just don't know why.

Because it works, Steve. Doesn't take much for haters of Obama to be guided into hating anything and everything he stands for. We have to be 100 times louder.

I was just out at friends yesterday, and some asshole whipped out one of those San Bernardino County Obama dollars and I went pit bull on him. One even called him the "N" word. Funny thing was, everyone in the bitching circle there received government services of one kind or the other.

Needless to say, I won't be invited back. But as Jon Stewart said, "If you don't stick to your values when they're being tested they're not values: they're hobbies."

The fight will be a long one.

I keep noticing I often agree with Miss Mudd. Brava, and keep up the pit bull stuff - we progressives are too often lenient on clearly bad guys in the name of tolerance. Tolerance is crucial, but not in the situation you described.

I agree with Cantor.

The Government should tighten its belt.

Filibusters slow down government and make it less productive.

I think each Senator who votes no on cloture should pay $10,000 from their salary. It won't actually cover the cost of a filibuster but $400,000+ should help make the government more efficient and help the deficit too.

If they really wanted to lead by example, they'd cut their own salaries.

MissMudd, good for you. However, it is so hard to ever convince the other side on anything. A couple in our neighborhood hold an annual holiday party in Dec. Total opposites; she a lovely progressive, he a RepuG WWII combat vet. Two years ago, he was waxing poeticially about the wonders of W*M - "Oh, they hire older workers and take such good care of their employees" - Four of us launched upon him about the many despicable practices of W*M. He became very quiet. The next year, he was relatively quiet. Even had stopped spewing the Swift Boat canards. However, this past December, my wife walked past him in the living room - Heard him tell someone new, "We shop at W*M because they hire older workers and take very good care of their employees".

They will never hear, learn, or change. But, never hold back a counter-attack upon them.

It should come as no surprise by now that Republicans reflexively relate every major issue to Tax Cuts, Family Values, Sex and Safety. If relating a macro-economic issue to family budgets doesn't get them the desired network air time they'll just try one of the other Big Four until their face is blabbing on screen for more than five seconds.

Airheads fighting for air time. How appropriate.

Over the last 30 years, apparently any intelligent human life in the Congeressional Republican party has been washed out and replsced with the puppets of rhetoric. The problem is the repetition of the rhetoric sticks at times. So intelligent beings have to lower the bar and respond to this riduculous rhetoric. The Republican party's agenda includes the destruction of America and Americans to retain power and greed.

What happens when the G20 Summit begins and they hopefully agree that all governments should spend more to boost the world economy?

Right now the US has invested about 2% of GDP, above UK & Germany at about 1.5%, but below China at 3%.

The Republican remarks are that we should not spend any? Somehow I bet even without the stimulus our government spends more than any other nation to stimulate the economy, maybe we should get raw figures of the overall world economy and see what would happen if the US stopped spending anything.

O I know, Bert. And thanks Richard :) I held back but they kept saying, "Oh it's just a joke! Lookie!"

Temporary jihadist. Guilty as charged.

I heard Evan Bayh make the exact same point yesterday. Somehow, he's for the stimulus, but the omnibus needs to tighten its belt. The logic is just weird. You had Shelby arguing for earmarks and the omnibus. McCaskill arguing against earmarks, and for the omnibus, and Bayh having put earmarks in the bill, but arguing against both earmarks and against the bill... I don't get any of these people anymore!!!

I don't get any of these people anymore!!!

Kevin, I don't ordinarily comment on language, but your use of "abject stupidity" strikes me as wrong. Stupidity is a biological issue, not a moral or behavioral one, and we shouldn't look down on people who have it any more than we would talk about abject autism or abject homosexuality.

Of course, the fact that stupidity is biological doesn't mean we have to let them have any influence on public policy.

Steve, the Republicans are not "confused". They are not "ignorant". They are not "insane".

They are frauds. They are con artists. They are liars. Why are you unwilling to say this?

The Republicans are pushing the same policies they have always pushed -- policies to enrich their ultra-rich white-collar-crook corporate cronies at the expense of everyone else.

And since they obviously realized they can't sell that agenda to the American people, they misrepresent it as policies that will address the economic crisis.

They are not stupid -- they know their proposals are irrelevant to solving the economic crisis. They are simply lying in order to cheat and steal from gullible dupes.

You laugh at the Republicans, saying that they think tax cuts are the answer to every problem. The fact is that the Republicans don't think tax cuts are the answer to every problem -- the Republicans don't care about solving problems, they care about cutting taxes on their ultra-rich cronies and financial backers. They simply market tax cuts as the solution to every problem.

Please stop making excuses for the Republicans -- lamenting their supposed "confusion" -- and call them out for the liars they are.

I know there are people who take these guys seriously. I just don't know why.

That's an easy one: because they are stupid.

It's just more signs of mental illness. Conservatives increasingly do not seem to be able to distinguish reality from fantasy - where all of their policies are wonderful. Rational people know when their ideas have failed in the real world - crazy people do not. David Brooks is even calling them 'insane'!

I just went over the republicanleader.house.gov website, where Boehner has been trying to get credentialed economists to weigh in against stimulus spending and in favor of tax cuts, and noticed that, while there are a lot more minor league academics that are willing to put their crackpot theories out there than I would have imagined, the list hasn't been updated for almost 2 months.

I skipped over the usual morons...uh, suspects, like AEI scholars and Donald Luskin, and looked at some of the comments of the "real" academics. I found this one to be truly moronic:

“The stimulus plan will most probably turn quickly into pork spending. Marginal rate tax cuts would be a much more effective way to stimulate demand along with cuts in the capital gains and corporate tax rates. Evidence shows that marginal tax cut multipliers are much higher than spending multipliers. In addition the Fed is still not out of ammunition.�
� Joseph Zoric
Associate Professor of Economics, Franciscan University of Steubenville

Starts out strong with an assertion that is beyond reproach...large scale government spending will almost always contain plenty of pork. Of course that doesn't necessarily mean that it won't be nourishing. But after that it goes off into a bizarro world rant, where tax cut multipliers are greater than spending multipliers. That will come as something of a shock to just about every mainstream economist I've read on the subject. And the Fed still is still not out of ammunition? With interest rates effectively down to zero, what ammunition is he speaking of. Are they going to throw rocks now?

But, to his credit, I notice that Boehner hasn't been touting his list of the coalition of the idiotic in opposing the stimulus and the spending bill. Just making bald assertions and hoping for the best. Maybe the Fed can use that tactic and pretend that it is ammunition?

Economics is a pseudo-science, and the Econ 101 crowd who parrot idiotic dogma that makes no sense are prime examples of in-the-box, kneejerk thinkers.

We're broke. It's that simple. No voodoo is going to matter, be it mega-spending voodoo or tax breaks for the rich voodoo.