"How the idiot Democrats are going to manage to lose to a bunch of people whose only real domestic agenda is to hand out $100,000 bills to millionaires, busting the budget while doing it, makes me sick to my stomach."

That has to be one of the top five political quotes of the year.

WOW - that joe guy is right, this place really does mindlessly promote the administration and dems.

...the two parties' approaches to government get spelled out so clearly, giving the public a stark choice between two very different ideologies.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I agree, its not everyday we see these differences, but we are not actually seeing these differences here either!

Like most knee-jerk responses that shill for democrats, this one assumes that campaign trail rhetoric will mean action.

As we have seen - it does not, so the talk is meaningless.

And then, despite obama himself telling netroot nation to "hold him accountable" blogs like this endlessly rationalize doing the opposite.

Economic self-interest and a quarter will get you a cup of coffee in an election.

This is a country where there are always enough people to swing an election who would volunteer their own family to live in a cardboard box under a bridge, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod over an open fire, provided you guarantee them that the people in the next box over -- black, gay, foreign, liberal, different -- don't even get the sparrow.

In America, if the tumbrels roll, and the aristocrats go to the lampposts, it'll only be because all the gayimmigrantliberalcolored people are already dead.

"...the cost should just be added to that deficit Republicans pretended to care about last year."

Last WEEK, Steve. Last WEEK.

I remember being among all those happy faces in Chicago's Grant Park, shedding tears of joy probably for the first time in a generation, were the fools. We/they were played.

They were elected by the largest voter turnout, both percentage-wise and in raw numbers, in a long, long time to disinfect the fetid cesspool of DC. But they were just more e-coli bacteria disguised as cleanser.

They didn't try because that's not who they are. I might argue that they didn't play the game any better, but that's not the point. It is that they kept playing the same rigged game where they win and we lose.

Voting for Ds or Rs is a coin flip where heads means they win and tails means we lose.

OK, manty,
Give us your side of the story. What have Republicans contributed recently besided tax cuts for the rich, an out of control deficit, and endless war?
Or, is BWAHAHA-etc, all you have to offer?

Soak The Very, Very Rich
by James Surowiecki

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2010/08/16/100816ta_talk_surowiecki#ixzz0wOw401ZW

As a 'progressive deficit hawk', I am completely in favor of letting ALL of the Bush tax cuts disappear. It will cost me a few hundred dollars that I am willing to contribute to our country's future.

If the battle becomes ONLY between keeping all of the Bush tax cuts or only part of them, their are enough corporately owned dumbocraps (including my senator Bayh) to help the rethugs win the battle! When that becomes the case, I hope that Bernie Sanders gets enough help to keep any legislation from being passed and let all the cuts expire. Of course, killing legislation is only acceptable for repukes. I am not hopeful!

With The Obomination's financial advisors being from the Robert Rubin / Billy Bob Clinton corporate triangulation school of economic beliefs, I have no confidence that Obama will not cave on this as well.

Mike Whitney has a good take on all of this:

But it isn't the professional left's fault that Obama's numbers are in the toilet or that the Democratic Party is going to get trounced in the upcoming midterms.

Oh, no. Our strutting, celluloid hologram president managed that feat himself. All Obama had to do was "fight the good fight"; take on the corporations, the banksters, the Pentagon, the special interests.

No one expected him to win...

The winning-part wasn't even important. What was important was sticking up for the little guy who can't afford a high-paid lobbyist to help him keep his house or his job or avoid destitution because his kid broke his fu**ing arm on the school playground and he doesn't have the $150,000 to pay the fu**ing hospital bills.

That's all we expected; someone who'd represent ordinary working slobs. Not superman; just somebody who gave a sh1t.

More at:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/mike-whitney/30695/robert-gibbs-is-not-a-dildo

c u n d gulag - they did everything you mentioned with virtually 100 percent backing of dems!

Mindlessly cheering d's just means more of the r's

True, this would be a potent issue -- but Obama and the Senate are going to give in to the Republicans for the sake of futile bipartisanship, have no doubt. Look at health care: the Republicans mock Canadian health care; the White House mocks Canadian health care. Look at the economy: the Republicans fetishize deficit reduction even during a huge recession, and the White House does the same. Look at basic civil liberties, look at immigration, look any important issue.

"...[I]t's not every day the two parties' approaches to government get spelled out so clearly, giving the public a stark choice between two very different ideologies." Well, when you have a center-right White House and Senate and a far-right Republican Party, the difference really isn't that stark to begin with.

How the idiot Democrats are going to manage to lose to a bunch of people whose only real domestic agenda is to hand out $100,000 bills to millionaires, busting the budget while doing it, makes me sick to my stomach.

Word.

The smart thing to do is end all of Dumbya's tax cuts. It will do little to hurt the economy--it would be a lot better to raise taxes on everyone if it meant more government stimulus and the unemployed still are not going to be paying taxes. It will reassure the whole world that we can get our debt/deficits in order. And it is the only way that you will actually eliminate Dumbya's tax breaks for the filthy rich--if you keep lower rates on the under $250K crowd, the filthy rich pay those lower rates on their first $250K too. best of all the GOP can not change the outcome. This is an absolute no brainer. Dems can push to extend tax cuts for the under $250K. The GOP says only if you extend the tax cuts for the over $250K. Dems say that would be irresponsible in view of the debt/deficit and we actually get good tax policy and the GOP is responsible for those under $250K not getting to keep their tax cuts.By the way, this will mean my taxes will increase and pretty substantially. So be it. I would rather see my country recover from GOP mismanagement even if it means that I have less money in my pocket at the end of the day.

I think I figured it out. For Republicans, deficits are all right as long as they're used to destroy things. So deficit spending on pointless wars is fine, because most of the money is being used to kill people and blow things up, and of course deficits created by cutting rich people's taxes are great because they destroy both the government and the economy. But if you want to run up a deficit in order to build something--infrastructure, a viable health care system, jobs, etc.--that's un-American.

In response to c u n d gulag's query about what the rethugs have given us lately...

In addition to your short list, they have given us hate and fear based politics; they have given us torture as an amerikan value; they have given us spying upon the american people as being somehow virtuous; they have given us a belief in amerikan exceptionism as meaning that amerika if not subject to the same constraints that we demand of other countries; and they have given a portion of the amerikan sheeple the belief that it is NOT a christian value to care for other people.

Unfortunately, this is only the short, short, short starter version of the rethugnicans have given us over the last several decades.

Could it be that the reason many here defend Obama is because he is doing a good job? It is as simple as that and his record easily proves it. Quite simply, after facing all of the obstruction and all of the attacks Obama just keeps on passing legislation and steering us back to fiscal responsibility after sitting on the brink of economic collapse. This is fact and no amount of right wing spin can change it.

I have tried everything else: appealing to a sense of reason, reminding them of the Christian tenets of "do unto others," protested for peace-choice-ecology, donated time-money-stuff, voted, campaigned, blogged, argued, wept, cheered, and written letter after letter after letter.

There is only one option left for me now. I need to get filthy, stinking, "fuck-you" rich.

My fellow Washington Monthly commenters — all of you — are hereby on notice. I am going to claw my way to the top, taking every nickel and dime and drop of blood and ounce of soul from you that I can possibly wrap my gun-toting, gay-bashing, greedy-ass fingers around.

I'm either going to invent a death ray to sell to the military or write/direct/star in the greatest movie of all time or be a first draft pick for the NBA.

I'll work out the details while I'm boinking Rachel Weisz on a huge pile of money.

ADD Voters can't seem to discern the Middle Class takeover of our government isn't complete, and seemingly can't get enthused about turning out in November?

What a roller-coaster, ill-informed ride this electorate gives us every two and four years!

A vote for Republicans this fall is a vote for Manty's Proposed BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
policies to prevail, and we wouldn't want that to happen to our country! -Kevo

manty,
Believe me, I understand, and I don't totally disagree.
But there is still a difference, despite the similarities. And, if we can get real Democrats elected, not these Whoreporatists, we might yet be able to save what's left of the country.

Shouldn't life be dedicated to making the lives of the many dignified rather than making the lives of the very few excessive?

Why will Dems lose to Republicans?

Very simple.

All of Obama's so called accomplishments are in a sense sham.

Affordable Health Care is still something that's is going to happen, and even if it does, the provisions in it will make only minor incremental changes.

The financial reform bill is just a bill: the companies like Goldman Sachs have already found ways to get around it.

So financial and health care reform appear to be no more than resume padding by an eager high school student who wants to go to Yale despite having done nothing to deserve it.

Obama's policy on Iraq war is a mess. His promise to bring back troops is too clever by half, disguised as it is as a promise to bring back 'combat' troops.

Afghan war is just an extension of the Iraq war, a poorly thought out one at that.

Stimulus was not enough to make any dent in the unemployment woes. Nobody believes that absent stimulus things would have been worse for the numbers are already so bad.

When you try to split every political position in half between Republican and center left positions, you end up smack in the middle of nowhere where not a single person resides.

So in summary, in an effort to please the Republicans who would never have been pleased, Obama has pleased none except the small group of apologists.

Obama seems have tried very hard to to live up to the stereotype that his opponents painted of him during the campaign. Perhaps if someone combs through the minutiae of all the reforms bills that he has signed he would find a trail of good intentions. But people look at the overall results and the headlines. There is nothing there to suggest that he has even barely kept his promises.

Hmmmm... Maybe my "get filthy, stinking, fuck-you rich scheme [see above] should include spam-marketing clothing on a political blog [see immediately above].

gregor You are a never ending loop of GOP talking points. The health care bill is a great bill that is getting more popular all the time. The banking reform bill came out stronger than most expected. The stimulus has been rated a succes by many experts none of which seem to be on fox news but if you look hard enough you can find the true results of the bill. Iraq and Afghanistan are no win situations that will take years to resolve, not something you magically resolve overnight. Government is compromise and doing what you have to do to get things done. Not always pretty but that is the way the world works. The trouble is that there are people like you who spread negativity and do the work of the people like the GOP who only have one goal in mind and that is to make the rich richer. Nice way to spend your time gregor.

chrenson wins this thread. very funny.

You're assuming that most Americans can do math and read graphs. Given the state of our educational system, that's a highly questionable assumption, which is why the GOP is able to hoodwink so many people into voting against their own economic self-interest.

Someone needs to put that graph on a t-shirt ASAP. I'll be the first to buy a couple.

Seriously, this is the kind of graphic representation ("picture speaks a thousand words")that will enter the public consciousness if progressives wear in public.

Any takers? I'll place an order today!

bdop4: I'll place an order today!

I will gladly send you the T-shirt you describe for one million dollars. [see above]

And I DO accept PayPal.

It's working already!!!

mfw13,

The side-by-side circles spell it out pretty clearly IMO. I used to have a shirt that had three circles: a dot for educational spending, a slightly larger circle for domestic programs, and a massive circle for defense spending that occupied the entire front of the shirt.

It was pretty effective and sparked some interesting conversations. We need that kind of conversation piece this Fall.

On a separate note, while I have a fair degree of dissatisfaction with how Obama has handled a number of important issues, the truth lies in the future direction of each party. The Dems we can change. The GOP is beyond hope.

Progressives have to play their hand as best as possible. This is no time to fold.

Chrenson,

I will gladly pay for the shirts with a rubber check. The bank may not take it, but at least you can dribble it. :)

1. Republicans are in favor of deficits that transfer wealth from the have-nots to the haves.
2. It seems to me that Democrats and Republicans have been playing good cop/bad cop.
3. If Democrats manage to lose in the face of evidence such as the Washington Post tax cut chart, I say good riddance. Then maybe we can get better Democrats two years from now.

"The health care bill is a great bill that is getting more popular all the time." -- tiredofgreed

You know, I hear this argued all the time by Obama apologists, so maybe it's worth pointing out once again that it's completely misleading. Here's a summary of the last 16 months of polls on the subject:

http://polltracker.talkingpointsmemo.com/contests/us-health-care-reform

The health care bill's approval has stayed between 40 and 45% the entire time, holding steady at 43% for the past month. Now, opposition to the bill has varied quite a bit, and is indeed decreasing at the moment, though it still exceeds support. I suppose you could argue that fewer people outright opposing it and more people not giving a damn about it translates into "getting more popular", in the same sense that fewer people drinking Pepsi and more drinking water means Coke is getting more popular, even if the number of people drinking Coke remains the same.

If the republicans hold up tax cut extensions for the middle class it's time for the democrats to play hardball for once. Send the bill up time and time again and let the republicans filibuster it. Try a bit harder to get some MSM play on it.

Is see that graph as the exact opposite of "trickle-down."

It looks like raindrops getting larger as they fall, leading to the rich getting soaked in money.

What it should be is a reverse on the y-axis: the largest circle should be for the poorest - most tax cuts.

That it is the exact opposite of what it should be pretty much sums up our society in a picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words kind of way.

Tom Allen, take a look at this: "Interestingly, polling has shifted on the popularity of the new law. While a majority favored repeal (58 percent) in the months after President Obama signed it into law at the end of March, a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows opposition dropping to 35 percent from 41 percent in the last month, and 50 percent of the public had a favorable view of the law, up from 48 percent. Support and opposition tend to be partisan, but the trendline is certainly heading in the Democrats' direction."

Obama seems have tried very hard to to live up to the stereotype that his opponents painted of him during the campaign. -- gregor, @10:56

That stereotype being that he's a raging commie, with thuggish techniques taken straight from the Chicago mafia playbook. Is that what, according to you, he has "tried very hard to live up to"?

And here I thought that y'all's (the firebaggers and other "purists") bitch was that he *hasn't* lived up to all that "promise" (which y'all must have seen in your mind's eye, since it was not on evidence in anything he said or did)

So, the millionaire gets enough money ubder the Republicans, per million, to buy two new Mercedes each year.

Or 50,000 loaves of bread.

Obscene.

Where is madam guillotine when we need her?