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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / IOUSA

IOUSA

by John Cole|  September 10, 20081:21 pm| 51 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Movies, Did You Know John McCain Was A POW?

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This trailer to the movie IOUSA was mailed to me, and it is worth watching:

The other crazy thing about the McCain/Palin gambit to lie repeatedly about the Bridge to Nowhere is that they are making earmarks the central focus of their campaign, as if earmarks were the major problem. Now granted, no one likes wasteful spending, but really, some perspective is necessary:

For my part, I think the Republican preoccupation with earmark reform reveals a truly bizarre view of what is wrong with the federal government and how its dysfunction might best be fixed, as if pork-barrel spending were the main problem with Republican governance over the last decade. Still, this is the field where McCain and Palin have chosen to fight, and this is what they are choosing to lie about, so it seems fair that they pay some political price for that.

The total national debt, as I write this, is $9,679,000,000,000.00 (nine and a half trillion).

The Budget for 2008 is close to $3,000,000,000,000.00 (three trillion).

Our budget deficit for this year is going to range in between $400-500,000,000,000.00 (four hundred to five hundred billion, give or take a few billion).

The total value of wasteful earmarks in 2008 (according to CAGW) will be approximately $18,000,000,000.00 (eighteen billion).

In other words, when McCain talks about earmarks, he is talking about 3% of our annual budget deficit, .6% of our annual budget, and a number too small to even report when discussing our national debt. Or, put another way, he is talking about two months in Iraq, something he wants to keep going indefinitely.

Not only are they lying about Palin’s involvements with earmarks, they are just not being serious about the horrible economic problems we face. These are not serious people.

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Reader Interactions

51Comments

  1. 1.

    Dreggas

    September 10, 2008 at 1:25 pm

    They’re lying about where “Our” natural gas and oil resources are going as well

  2. 2.

    Xenos

    September 10, 2008 at 1:28 pm

    They are pretty serious about winning, even if it causes the country to completely collapse politically in the process. So it appears we have a pretty serious problem on our hands.

  3. 3.

    Michael D.

    September 10, 2008 at 1:34 pm

    McCain’s up 48-43

    Not giving up here, but America deserves the president it gets.

  4. 4.

    HumboldtBlue

    September 10, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    But …. but Obama called Palin a pig!!! Can’t you see how that is hurting the country even more than staggering debt and an economic plan that resembles a Pnzi scheme?

    I can’t believe you damned dirty hippies are talking about money when Palin is being unfairly attacked in the most vicious and sexist ways by that bastard Obama and the liberal media.

  5. 5.

    R. Porrofatto

    September 10, 2008 at 2:35 pm

    $18 billion is what we’re spending in Iraq every 6 weeks or so. If McCain pulls us out in 99 years instead of 100 we’ll save 8 years worth of earmarks!

  6. 6.

    Incertus

    September 10, 2008 at 2:38 pm

    But Cheney said deficits don’t matter, and if you cross him, he’ll tear your heart out with his teeth.

    And Michael D., there’s been some claims that Gallup is screwing around with their voter models again. I wouldn’t pay attention to any national poll for at least another week, maybe two.

  7. 7.

    Doug H. (Fausto no more)

    September 10, 2008 at 2:39 pm

    McCain’s up 48-43

    Diageo/Hotline has it a tie, and Rasmussen has Obama back up by one.

    One of these things is not like the other, one of these things is not the same…

  8. 8.

    handy

    September 10, 2008 at 2:39 pm

    Now that’s change you can believe in. Loose change, that is.

  9. 9.

    bartkid

    September 10, 2008 at 2:42 pm

    >a truly bizarre view of what is wrong with the federal government

    It is called misdirection.
    The bricks of greenbacks dropped into the military-industrial complex, especially since 2003, could fund univerisal health care for all of the U.S. several times over.
    It would be nice to hear this fact just once from the MSM.

  10. 10.

    LiberalTarian

    September 10, 2008 at 2:44 pm

    You know what I would love to see Obama say?

    “They said I mentioned Sarah Palin when I said, ‘you can’t put lipstick on a pig.’ If I’d been talking about Sarah Palin, I’d have said you can’t put lipstick on PORK.”

    For a barracuda, she sure is thin skinned, isn’t she???

  11. 11.

    oh really

    September 10, 2008 at 2:45 pm

    Everyone who’s had third grade math knows that the way to balance the budget is to:

    1) Cut taxes (especially for the rich);
    2) Get rid of earmarks (which represent at least 85% of the deficit each year);
    3) Increase the defense budget (because spending on war is free);
    4) Spend most of your time talking about lipstick and pigs.

    Mission Accomplished!

  12. 12.

    Rick James

    September 10, 2008 at 3:34 pm

    Palin team stocked with Bush veterans.

    Change we can put lipstick on!

  13. 13.

    DougJ

    September 10, 2008 at 3:38 pm

    Were people this dumb before television?

  14. 14.

    liberal

    September 10, 2008 at 3:39 pm

    Screw the IOUSA guys.

    Pete Peterson is heavily connected to them, and he opines all the time how Social Security must be curbed, yet is also against reforms that would disallow hedge fund managers from claiming the lower capital gains rate on income which is ipso facto not capital gains but ordinary income.

  15. 15.

    handy

    September 10, 2008 at 3:39 pm

    Everyone who’s had third grade math knows that the way to balance the budget is to:

    1) Cut taxes (especially for the rich);
    2) Get rid of earmarks (which represent at least 85% of the deficit each year);
    3) Increase the defense budget (because spending on war is free);
    4) Spend most of your time talking about lipstick and pigs.

    Mission Accomplished!

    Fehh…what kind of politician in today’s sophisticated world would run on THAT platform? I mean, who would take such a person seriously? No, really, who? No, no, I mean it. Who would even give them the time of day?

  16. 16.

    Walker

    September 10, 2008 at 3:41 pm

    McCain’s up 48-43

    Diageo/Hotline has it a tie, and Rasmussen has Obama back up by one.

    Look, when you have this much variation for polling the same time period, it suggests that everything is so close that the models are breaking down. And unless you know their methodology and are an expert, you are not going to be able to determine which models (if any) are solid.

    The best thing to do is to remain calm, ignore the polls, and remember to vote. The worst thing that polling can do is to demoralize you enough that you do not vote, and make the poll a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  17. 17.

    Richard Bottoms

    September 10, 2008 at 3:41 pm

    Dude, what the fuck is wrong with your server?

  18. 18.

    mr666

    September 10, 2008 at 3:45 pm

    Why would people who believe we’re in End Times give a fig about the national debt?

    Jesus is c♥ming, and he’ll balance the damn budget if he feels like it.

  19. 19.

    Dreggas

    September 10, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    Richard Bottoms Says:

    Dude, what the fuck is wrong with your server?

    He’s been linked to twice by the GOS today.

  20. 20.

    NonyNony

    September 10, 2008 at 3:47 pm

    The best thing to do is to remain calm, ignore the polls, and remember to vote.

    Definitely ignore the daily polls – they aren’t very meaningful. Unless they motivate you to do something about the low numbers.

    But the best thing to do is to volunteer and give money as well as remembering to vote yourself. Your individual vote is almost the least important thing you can do in a political system – especially a first-past-the-post system with the winner takes all electoral college. Which is yet another reason our democratic process is so FUBARed in this country right now.

  21. 21.

    Cris

    September 10, 2008 at 3:58 pm

    He’s been linked to twice by the GOS today.

    John, stop being so eminently linkable.

  22. 22.

    mr666

    September 10, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    This is interesting.

    Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties improperly engaged in sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday.

    The alleged transgressions involve 13 former and current Interior Department employees in Denver and Washington. Their alleged improprieties include rigging contracts, working part-time as private oil consultants, and having sexual relationships with _ and accepting golf and ski trips and dinners from _ oil company employees, according to three reports released Wednesday by the Interior Department’s inspector general.

    The investigations reveal a “culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” by a small group of individuals “wholly lacking in acceptance of or adherence to government ethical standards,” wrote Inspector General Earl E. Devaney. Devaney’s office spent more than two years and $5.3 million on the investigations.

    Time for a sternly-worded letter, I’d say …

  23. 23.

    oh really

    September 10, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    DougJ Says:

    Were people this dumb before television?

    Harding. Coolidge. Hoover.

    So, I guess the answer is yes.

  24. 24.

    Richard Bottoms

    September 10, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    WordPress, two words:

    Database Scalability

    I have a DBA who works for me if you’d like to look into it.

  25. 25.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    September 10, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    Were people this dumb before television?

    I don’t think they were.

  26. 26.

    dr. luba

    September 10, 2008 at 4:34 pm

    As to the polls…it seems that the pollsters have changed the ratio of Dems and Repubs in the polling mix in the last few days. More Repubs, of course, and suddenly McCain is ahead.

    Coincidence?

    From the Huffington Post today:

    Monday’s USA Today poll had a 48-47 split between Democrats and Republicans surveyed. That represents a nearly 10 point shift in party identification toward Republicans since USA Today’s July polling.

  27. 27.

    Laura W

    September 10, 2008 at 4:52 pm

    I tried to post this same point, in my own far more excited words, 40 min ago in real time, but for some reason, the loading ball kept spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning and it was already 5:10 and I needed to go make my Ketel One and Tonic.

  28. 28.

    John Rohan

    September 10, 2008 at 5:02 pm

    It would be nice if someone made an attempt to look at issues objectively here.

    Do any of you realize that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden also voted for the “bridge to nowhere”?

  29. 29.

    Brett

    September 10, 2008 at 5:04 pm

    As to the polls…it seems that the pollsters have changed the ratio of Dems and Repubs in the polling mix in the last few days. More Repubs, of course, and suddenly McCain is ahead.

    Coincidence?

    From the Huffington Post today:

    Is that a national poll? Unless Obama is 20% behind, just ignore those; they don’t mean anything. What matters are the state-by-state polls, since that will help determine the Electoral Vote come November.

    As for the post, John’s right. Earmarks tend to be more symbolic than real in the damage they cause to the government, and focusing on them belies the fact that Palin really hasn’t done much in her time as Governor other than find ways to break corruption.

  30. 30.

    Jake

    September 10, 2008 at 5:07 pm

    Do any of you realize that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden also voted for the “bridge to nowhere”?

    And that McCain voted for the $3M project to study bear DNA? You know, the one he always makes fun of?

    Biden and Obama voted for the omnibus transportation bill. It contained many things, but the bridge to nowhere wasn’t one of them, because it had been stripped out of the bill by Congress.

    Now, to be fair, the money to Alaska was kept in the bill. But again, it’s not as though that bill was about one issue and one only. Same thing with the bear DNA bill McCain “voted for”.

    Suggesting these guys voted for it is either disingenuous or just plain ignorant. Take your pick.

  31. 31.

    Joey Maloney

    September 10, 2008 at 5:12 pm

    either disingenuous or just plain ignorant.

    In future times, logicians and political scientists will refer to this as “The Bush Dilemma”.

  32. 32.

    Cris

    September 10, 2008 at 5:12 pm

    Do any of you realize that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden also voted for the “bridge to nowhere”?

    Do any of us realize that neither Obama nor Biden has been publicly and repeatedly claiming to have voted against it?

  33. 33.

    John S.

    September 10, 2008 at 5:12 pm

    Suggesting these guys voted for it is either disingenuous or just plain ignorant. Take your pick.

    I think either can be attributed to Mr. Rohan considering that he penned this gem:

    But attacking her “inexperience” seems a little strange; she has: almost 12 years of experience in public office (20 months governor, 6 years mayor, 4 years city councilman), vs. less than 11 years for Barack Obama (7 years in the Illinois State Senate, less than 4 years in the US Senate, with almost half that time devoted to the Presidential campaign).

    Actually, after reading that again, I think Mr. Rohan is both disingenuous AND ignorant.

  34. 34.

    oh really

    September 10, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    John Rohan Says:

    It would be nice if someone made an attempt to look at issues objectively here.

    Do any of you realize that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden also voted for the “bridge to nowhere”?

    Are you missing the point intentionally, or do you think pretending to be obtuse is cute?

    Just in case —
    The criticism of Palin is directed at her claims (aka LIES and MISREPRESENTATIONS) versus reality, not against the “bridge” itself.

  35. 35.

    Jake

    September 10, 2008 at 5:23 pm

    So I just checked out John Rohan’s blog, The Shield of Achilles. That’s five minutes of my life I’ll never get back (wingnut hell), but there is unintentional comedy here.

    Get this: he’s military intelligence. I mean, you can’t make this stuff up. I guess what George Carlin said was true.

  36. 36.

    Hypatia

    September 10, 2008 at 6:05 pm

    Dave Walker is one cool accountant.

    Former comptroller general of the US. it’s a 15 year appointment. I first saw him on CSPAN several years ago…making sense…so he kinda got my attention. Then he resigned this year to TRY to convince people to fucking wake up and see what is happening. this documentary is his attempt to do so. i’m sure it will fail….i saw jane mayer on CSPAN this weekend saying that the whole torture issue would never get much traction because “people do not care about it”. let’s face it: to a nation of gossips and panty-sniffers, torture is MUCH more interesting than budget deficits.

  37. 37.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    September 10, 2008 at 6:22 pm

    It would be nice if someone made an attempt to look at issues objectively here.

    Do any of you realize that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden also voted for the “bridge to nowhere”?

    You’ve got to hand it to him: This is a substantive point, much better than all the phony garbage the McCain campaign wants to talk about lately.

  38. 38.

    John S.

    September 10, 2008 at 7:22 pm

    This is a substantive point

    Sure, but in the context that Mr. Rohan is providing we would have to ignore that often bills with merit have several items without merit tacked on.

    In similar context I could also say that Republicans have consistently voted to NOT FUND OUR TROOPS!

  39. 39.

    ronathan richardson

    September 10, 2008 at 8:10 pm

    Someone put up the clip where when Stephanopoulous asks McCain about how to cut spending, and he says something like “there’s 100 billion in earmarks we could cut out right away!”

    There’s a logical answer for people to have here. Earmarks aren’t bad for wastefulness–we’re essentially redistributing tax money to the companies that carry out the projects. A simple law prohibiting anyone receiving earmark money from giving campaign contributions to the chief sponsor of that legislation would solve the minor problem.

  40. 40.

    vbdietz

    September 10, 2008 at 8:49 pm

    Great job on the numbers. I see you survived the link from the GOS.

    Hope you caught the Business Week assessment of Obama vs. McCain. Definitely in favor of the Obama tax plan. Imagine that… business conservatives liking the Obama plan more.

  41. 41.

    numbskull

    September 10, 2008 at 10:11 pm

    Two things about that Am Con piece that you link to:

    1. It’s oddly satisfying that there are only two comments to it (from humans, anyway), and one of those is the Am Con author! Not that I disagree with his central point, I just think they all should have their asses kicked, in part because of…

    2. The Am Con author says that the Obama campaign and the press are basically two heads of the same animal, implying that the press in biased towards Obama and against McCain. Now, you have to be a special kind of stupid to make that argument in the middle of your op/ed piece that decries the fact that the Republicans running McCain’s campaign are allowed to lie with no consequences. Who in holy Jesus’ name does the idiot think is supposed to be holding McCain responsible for lying, but is apparently shirking their duty?

    Duh that’d be the same press that that that Am Con moron thinks is against McCain…

  42. 42.

    ...now I try to be amused

    September 10, 2008 at 11:38 pm

    Not only are they lying about Palin’s involvements with earmarks, they are just not being serious about the horrible economic problems we face. These are not serious people.

    “[They] make a big election about small things.” — Barack Obama

    I so admire that line. It’s a good response to just about everything they say.

  43. 43.

    Chris Huston

    September 10, 2008 at 11:56 pm

    The sad truth is if McCain is our next president, this century will likely belong to China.

    Four years from now, McCain would look back and realize after cutting taxes, raising military spending while doing the equivalent of flossing to cut calories with earmarks we’ll have even greater debts than we do now.

  44. 44.

    Rome Again

    September 11, 2008 at 8:20 am

    The sad truth is if McCain is our next president, this century country will likely belong to China.

    Improved for accuracy.

  45. 45.

    Sarah Palin

    October 3, 2008 at 11:00 am

    I agree with your post. Which is not something I will usually do! :) I enjoy reading a post that will make one think. Also, thanks for allowing me to comment!i

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. Jesus, look at the economy « Stuff ‘n stuff ‘n more stuff says:
    September 10, 2008 at 4:00 pm

    […] John Cole nails it: […]

  2. Feministe » Lipstick and Pigs says:
    September 10, 2008 at 5:23 pm

    […] […]

  3. RealityBites says:
    September 10, 2008 at 9:03 pm

    Required Reading: Balloon Juice

    John Cole does such a good job on this. The total national debt, as I write this, is $9,679,000,000,000.00 (nine and a half trillion). The Budget for 2008 is close to $3,000,000,000,000.00 (three trillion). Our budget deficit for this year…

  4. Department of Visual Aids § Unqualified Offerings says:
    September 18, 2008 at 10:18 pm

    […] to my whole body, is the proportion of earmarks to the budget." Posted by Jim Henley @ 11:18 pm, Filed under: Main « « Poetry for Palin | Main| […]

  5. Look! It’s an ear-mark! « Upturned Earth || John Schwenkler says:
    September 19, 2008 at 12:32 am

    […] to the budget.” No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTMLallowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> […]

  6. Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Missing The Point says:
    October 30, 2008 at 9:50 am

    […] cameras and pull a tire gauge out of his ass. All the while, McCain could pepper his speech with folksy rejoinders about earmarks. And now that we are done with a hypothetical Republican 30 minutes, how did McCain actually […]

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