• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Bark louder, little dog.

šŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ šŸŽµ

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

ā€œWhat are Republicans afraid of?ā€ Everything.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

Nothing says ā€˜pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Stupidity / Unfunded Mandates

Unfunded Mandates

by John Cole|  July 4, 20057:53 am| 12 Comments

This post is in: Republican Stupidity

FacebookTweetEmail

Conservatives used to be against them:

States are openly resisting a provision of the Medicare law that requires them to pay billions of dollars a year to the federal government to help finance the cost of the new Medicare drug benefit.

Texas is leading the charge against the requirement, which states see as more onerous than the mandates imposed on them by the 2002 education law, the No Child Left Behind Act.

Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, has vetoed a $444 million appropriation covering the Texas contribution for the next two years.

In his veto message and in a letter to other governors, Mr. Perry said he objected to the federal requirement in principle and to the way it was being interpreted by the federal Medicare agency.

“For the first time,” Mr. Perry said, “state governments would be expected to directly finance federal Medicare benefits with state tax dollars. In effect, states will be billed on a monthly basis for the cost of federal services.”

Bush administration officials say the federal Medicare law clearly requires states to make the payments, starting in January. One purpose of the 2003 Medicare law was to relieve states of prescription drug costs for low-income elderly people. But as states do the arithmetic, many have concluded that they will lose money because they must give back most of the savings and will incur new administrative costs.

The Prescription Drug Plan gets better and better with every news story. I say we blame the media.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Happy 4th
Next Post: More Good News »

Reader Interactions

12Comments

  1. 1.

    Shawn

    July 4, 2005 at 8:12 am

    John, don’t keep trying to blame the media. Silly! it’s obviously Clinton’s fault and those latte drinking, volvo driving Liberals.

  2. 2.

    Rick

    July 4, 2005 at 11:35 am

    Conservatives are still against unfunded mandates, and other “free lunch” schemes. Guess this shows there not much “conservative” or “right wing” about the administration, and congressional Republicans.

    The odd thing is, the behavior against “type” doesn’t earn them the Strange New Respect accorded to, say, McCain or Christopher Shays.

    Cordially…

  3. 3.

    J. Michael Neal

    July 4, 2005 at 12:33 pm

    I don’t have a whole lot of respect for Shays. As for McCain, what dmiration I do have exists not because I agree with him on policy matters; for the most part, I don’t. It’s due to the fact that I think that he has principles and sticks by them. This respect is draining, however, as he demonstrates that he stands by his principles only so long as it involves talk, but that when it comes time to vote, he abandons them to stick with the administration.

    In this case, the administration isn’t standing by any recognizable principles, and it’s pushing really bad policy. Rick is under the misapprehension that, as a liberal, I like spending for spending’s sake, rather than to try to accomplish something worthwhile.

  4. 4.

    Rick

    July 4, 2005 at 6:41 pm

    My “misapprehension” is the result of years and years of apprehending liberal policies, which basically amount to anything for which a plausible claim for funding can be made, then overfunding is even better. Worthwhile accomplishments take the hindmost.

    Cordially…

  5. 5.

    Jess

    July 4, 2005 at 9:39 pm

    Rick,
    Are you against liberals or against fiscal irresponsibility? It seems clear to me after the last four presidents that the two are not automatically linked.

  6. 6.

    Rick

    July 4, 2005 at 9:48 pm

    I don’t see it as either/or. Hypocrisy being the tribute vice pays to virtue, I hold the GOP Presidents (since maybe Coolidge) to be hypocrites, but at least bowing to the virtue of limited government.

    The liberals/Democrats are free of the hypocrisy, because they tend to view limited government as a vice.

    Cordially…

  7. 7.

    Jess

    July 4, 2005 at 10:05 pm

    Well, I think there are a range of positions on how limited the government should be on both side of the spectrum. Policing the private lives of citizens is definitely (but not exclusively) one of the hallmarks of the right, for example. I’m still attracted to the libertarian view, but my real-world experiences have taught me that the natural course of things without government intervention is for the gap between the powerful and the powerless to widen, leading to extreme destabilization and disenfranchisement. Intelligently run social programs can keep a society more vital, cohesive, and truly competitive by providing relatively equal opportunities to all. There’s no need to automatically reject them all (although corporate subsidies might be a good one to reconsider). Of course, I’m not an economist, so I’m open to what others have to say on the subject. My views are based on living in several different countries, and seeing a variety of approaches to the problem and their consequences.

  8. 8.

    Bob

    July 4, 2005 at 10:44 pm

    Rick, limited government? Bend over, it’s the Justice Department calling.

    Or maybe you meant “limiting government,” as in a government limiting your civil liberties?

    This latest incarnation of the Republican Party is the most intrusive government ever. These are the spawn of the Dulleses, the bankers for the Nazis, those rich with a taste for jackboots.

    Rick, you’re a fool. Calvin Coolidge has morphed into something monstrous.

  9. 9.

    Jess

    July 4, 2005 at 11:09 pm

    Now now, Bob–no one listens to the person calling them a fool. And futhermore, there’s plenty of foolishness to go around–we’ve all drunk from that cup.

  10. 10.

    Mike

    July 5, 2005 at 8:18 am

    Oh yeah, blame the media instead of blaming the Republicans who passed the Medicare bill through Congress or pres bush who signed it. Nice going…..coward

  11. 11.

    Rick

    July 5, 2005 at 11:18 am

    Bob,

    Thanks, but I’ve read some of your thumb-sucker comments before about this and that fascist/Nazi nexus.

    I meet your declaration of my foolishness with an enormous amount of relief.

    Cordially…

  12. 12.

    Sojourner

    July 5, 2005 at 11:23 am

    Talk nice.

    Cordially…

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • schrodingers_cat on Righteous Rant Open Thread (Apr 15, 2024 @ 5:29pm)
  • Msb on Righteous Rant Open Thread (Apr 15, 2024 @ 5:29pm)
  • Geminid on Take the Fucking Win (Apr 15, 2024 @ 5:27pm)
  • lowtechcyclist on Righteous Rant Open Thread (Apr 15, 2024 @ 5:27pm)
  • HumboldtBlue on Righteous Rant Open Thread (Apr 15, 2024 @ 5:26pm)

šŸŽˆKeep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon JuiceĀ (Spoutible)
WaterGirlĀ (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!