So now our deficit hawks want to continue the Bush tax cuts, enact more tax cuts for the rich, expand our already bloated defense budget, and now they have even given up on their token issue to pretend they cared about spending:
Hypocrisy alert: House Republican freshmen are begging their leaders to bring back a certain type of earmark so that they can help companies back home in an election year.
In a letter to Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, 65 House Republican freshmen — or roughly three-quarters of the class — asked that the House consider a miscellaneous tariff bill jam-packed with special provisions to suspend duties on various foreign goods, even though it runs counter to the earmark ban Republicans campaigned on in 2010 and instituted when they took power.The push is a sign that freshmen who arrived in Washington talking up their anti-pork principles are now worried about what — if anything — they’ll have to show constituents when they hit the campaign trail. And, in typical Washington fashion, they think they’ve found a loophole that will get them past the ban.
Because, you know, they are fiscal conservatives. Why anyone believes these bullshit artists is simply beyond me.
Martin
They’re still going to fuck over the poor and minorities, right?
Really, that’s all that matters.
gaz
People believe because they are paid quite handsomely to do so.
I don’t know what the problem is with the other pathetic saps.
KG
What? I thought they were taking back their country! And defending freedom! Isn’t that enough?
Bubblegum Tate
@Martin:
Of course; that way, they can legitimately say they’re sticking to core conservative values.
gex
Why? The big three: n****rs, c**ts, f****ts. This is exactly the formula the GOP has used to get the votes they need to push their fiscal policies.
Mark S.
@KG:
It should be enough, but you know, stupid constituents.
How are all these tariffs legal in regards to the WTO? Or is that just something we enforce on third world countries?
kdaug
And thus Washington turns the Tea-Party rubes into politicians.
What the fuck did these guys think was going to happen?
Y’all ran for the office not understanding that your job was to raise money and bring home cookies?
So sorry. *Pat pat on the head*
“FREEDOM! Oh, wait, fuck.”
Odie Hugh Manatee
Meet the new pols, same as the old pols.
Elias
The size of the Social Security Trust Fund is such absolute and utter bullshit. It is nothing but an indicator of how much extra poor and working class Americans have paid in Social Security taxes over the past 3 decades in order to finance tax cuts for the wealthy. Think about it.
In 1983 Alan Greenspan tells us that by increasing payroll taxes (that the rich barely pay) and cutting benefits to poor and working class Social Security recipients we can make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years. So we do it. And the Trust Fund soars to trillions of dollars over the next couple decades. All of that money gets loaned to the general fund to maintain existing services in the face of income tax cuts (that the rich really benefited from).
30 years later we’re just starting to tap into that huge trust fund that we created and what do the very serious people say? We can’t do that because it would increase deficits in the general fund!
Do you see exactly what happened there? Poor and working-class Americans got screwed out of trillions of dollars to pay for tax cuts for the 1%. All in the name of “saving Social Security”. It’s a heaping pile of bullshit.
amk
stupid voters = corrupt pols
Spaghetti Lee
Because I’m a rational person, I understand that congresspeople encouraging economic development in their district through government spending is not in fact SOCHULISM but part of the freakin’ job description, and if used wisely can be quite helpful to that district, and that it’s a stupid thing to get your panties in a wad over because earmarks are such a small percentage of the budget anyway.
What I don’t understand is why Republicans, from the congressmen right down to the voters, have to lie about it constantly. “GRRRR, WE’RE RUGGED CONSERVATIVE HE-MEN! WE DON’T NEED NO GUMMINT-ooh, are those farm subsidies? Gimme gimme gimme. Where was I, oh yeah, WE DON’T NEED NO GUMMIT SPENDING!” It’s not like there’s anything shameful about it, either, in my opinion. There’s not a single state or industry out there that doesn’t benefit from government spending in some way. Why do we have to do this stupid chestbeating-followed-by-panhandling dance every frikkin’ time?
Jamie
There needs a hippy being punched. Stat!
Mark S.
@Elias:
You are correct in your analysis. That’s why when some Very Serious Person starts talking about fucking with SS, I want to kick them in the teeth, Pete Peterson.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Jamie: Oh, bother.
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If you’re going to punch a hippIE, SPELL IT RIGHT!!!
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/was trying to be a hippie but my hair fell out/
Mnemosyne
@Elias:
IIRC, it’s even a little worse than that, because part of the agreement was that the 99% would pay more in payroll taxes so the rich could have their tax cuts that would totally increase revenue, and then 30 years later, the 1% would let their taxes go back up to repay what was essentially a loan.
And now when we point out that it’s time for them to pay their half of the bargain, their only reply is, “You fucked up — you trusted us.”
mattH
Hahahahahahahahaha. Too bad there isn’t a way to strip out all the pork the Freshmen put in there. It’d be great to watch them all get kicked out for being true to their pledge.
Villago Delenda Est
@amk:
Alas, this is true.
Of course, it helps that the vermin of the Village aid and abet this crap in the interest of corporate profit that is fueled by the utterly bogus coverage of politics in this country.
Of course, the same people who think Republicans are “fiscally conservative” also think that National Socia1ism was a left wing movement because the word “Socia1ism” is in it. They are, to put it mildly, utter fucktards.
PeakVT
Tax cut pork and spending pork are completely different. Republican math says so.
mclaren
Talk is cheap, huh? You mean, like this?
jl
RNC spokesman says that GOP economic platform will be Bush policies, just updated:
”
ESPUELAS [interviewer]: Now, how different is that concept from what were the policies of the Bush administration? And the reason I ask that is because there’s some analysis now that is being published talking about the Bush years being the slowest period of job creation since those statistics were created. Is this a different program or is this that program just updated?
FRANCESCHI [RNC spokeperson]: I think it’s that program, just updated. ”
RNC Spokeswoman: Republican Economic Platform Will Be The Bush Program, ‘Just Updated’
By Pat Garofalo on Apr 23, 2012 at 10:45 am
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/04/23/469123/rnc-spokeswoman-republican-economic-platform-will-be-the-bush-program-just-updated
I found this link in one of today’s Krugman blog posts.
They have gone mad, mad I tell you.
Or they think that their only chance to get all the branches they want is to drive their base into a fenzy, and suppress rest of turnout. So, they have given up on dogwhistles and code words on all issues, (racial, social wedge, economic, everything) and are using air horns and circus steam calliopes instead.
FlipYrWhig
@Spaghetti Lee: Because that way every few years they can pretend that The Government took their voters’ money and gave it away to Negroes, and by sending them to Washington they’ll totally go look for it. Well, that is, after they pass a few bills about increasing pollution and shutting down women’s health clinics. Then, they’ll get right on that investigation of how the black people took your stuff, probably in cahoots with some dudes who only speak Spanish and a college professor who thinks we came from monkeys.
amk
@mclaren: yeah, like it was in CA, the supposedly librul den ?
JGabriel
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Clueless rich people say clueless rich people things. NewsTimes:
Shorter Ann Romney: I LOVE that there are so many poor people out there, with no choices, that my husband can choose from to exploit — and fire when they get uppity.
Way to go, Ann! Really connecting and bonding with the hoi polloi there.
Via TPM
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Yutsano
@JGabriel: I need a better winnut translator or something, because I have absolutely no idea what the fuck she is saying there.
Spaghetti Lee
@JGabriel:
Ann Romney obviously cares about working moms. Truly and deeply. Not like that horrible Obama.
JGabriel
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Yutsano:
No, you don’t need a translator. Ann Romney is speaking in perfect English — you’re just too gobsmacked and flabbergasted to comprehend that anyone could be that selfishly insensitive and sociopathically self-centered. To repeat, this is what Ann said:
Ann loves that. It’s such a beautiful view. They all look like li’l ants scurrying around in their pre-determined despair from her cozy quarter-billion-in-assets perch high above the rest of us.
.
Yutsano
@JGabriel: Oh Lawd. It’s worse than I thought. Where’s my damn TARDIS key?
The Republic of Stupidity
It’s because they really are that stupid…
They’re the kind of people that believe Elvis is still alive…
That women only use birth control because they’re SLUTS! SLUTS! SLUTS!
That Obama’s birth certificate MUST BE FAKE… simply because… because… because…
That people like Darryl Issa and Rush Limbaugh and Grover Norquist really do care about them… no… they really do…
That parading around the town square w/ an unloaded 6 shooter strapped to their hip really does prove they’re manly, studly kinda guys…
And you don’t understand them… simply because you’re NOT stupid… and NOT stupid people NEVER understand stupid people… it’s kinda like matter… and anti-matter…
JGabriel
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The Republic of Stupidity:
To be fair, it’s not that they think Issa, Limbaugh, and Norquist care about people like them; it’s that they think Issa/Limbaugh/Norquist/et. al. hate the same people as they hate.
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JGabriel
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Sigh.
Alone again. Naturally.
I should probably link that. I guess I’m just not feeling that cruel at the moment.
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gex
@JGabriel: Pretty much what I said, but not as blunt.
JGabriel
gex: Question: Is f****ts supposed to be “fuckwits”, “fascists”, or some other term of obscenity/revilement?
.
ChrisB
@amk: Exactly. What percentage of voters will ever hear about this? And how many will care?
Alison
@JGabriel: Hm. Maybe it’s late and my snark detector is sleepy? but if you’re asking in seriousness, I assume gex was referencing a slur for gay men (one that would probably get caught in a spam filter were I to use it?).
Elias
@mclaren:
See, that is an issue that really does piss me off. I live in NorCal. Not San Francisco. Actual NorCal. You know, where marijuana makes up the bulk of the local economy in some counties and provides one of the few decent-paying jobs for youth in this economically-depressed area. I remember being offered $15/hr to trim. Sure as heck beats $8/hr to ask “would you like fries with that”. And sure as heck beats the plethora of kids who can’t even do that so they get $0/hr because there aren’t any jobs available. I politely refused that job offer.
Most of you live outside the area so I thought I’d bring this up… we actually had a pot bubble crash. It bubbled in 08/09/10. Enforcement was really lax, profits were really high, and tons of people tried to get in on the action. I’m not certain what current prices are precisely, wholesale or street (I don’t smoke), but talking to people involved in that industry it’s a disaster. Wholesale is apparently a small fraction today of what it was just a couple years ago and it’s virtually impossible to simply recoup the costs of growing the stuff, let alone to pay yourself a sub-minimum-wage rate for the time you put into it.
Kind of an interesting phenomenon… watching a black market bubble build and then crash. I kind of wonder what the implications are. They saturated the market. Supply exceeded demand by a lot. And demand really didn’t respond that much in this case. Demand didn’t seem to be very elastic. Surprises me honestly. But it may have some implications for drug policy.
Joseph Nobles
@JGabriel: Think LGBT.
Yutsano
@Joseph Nobles: Or the French word for bassoon. Or a bundle of sticks (but not a fasces).
TheMightyTrowel
@Yutsano: Or a variety of British ‘meat’ball
jl
@Yutsano:
Excuse me, woodwind player here. The French word for bassoon is basson. And bassoon in Italian is fagotto, not faggot.
BTW, have the NYT political editor and the NYT ombudsman Brisbane been fired yet for pre emptively caving into teagagger demand for Obama vetting, for no reason other than the teabaggers would like that?
jl
First AND second responses in moderation due I think to a bad word I did not know about.
Excuse me, woodwind player here. The French word for bassoon is basson. And bassoon in Italian is f A g 0 tt 0, not f * gg * t.
BTW, have the NYT political editor and the NYT ombudsman Brisbane been fired yet for pre emptively caving into teagagger demand for Obama vetting, for no reason other than the teabaggers would like that?
jl
@Elias: thanks for comment on an increasingly important NorCal industry. I think I read that the mary jane growing counties were opposed to a recent attempt by CA to de fact decriminalize it. I think it was a new regulation and tax measure for medicinal pot.
Edit: I heard they were afraid it would lower prices for important county marijuana exports.
Triassic Sands
It’s a mystery to me, too, but the difference is that for most of your adult life, John, you bought into GOP bullshit. I’m not writing this to be confrontational or critical. I’m sincerely curious — can you explain why, for all those years, you accepted this nonsense, and what, finally, made you realize the error of you ways?
I’d really like to know. You’re an educated, intelligent person, but up until a few years ago you apparently were quite a devout Republican. Why? How did you convince yourself that pure bullshit — and it was just as much pure bullshit then as it is today — was believable?
I think if you could answer that question, you might help us figure out how to fight against the jaw-dropping manure pile that is the Modern Republican Party.
Joseph Nobles
@JGabriel: As much money as Mitt and Ann Romney have, you think they’d hire someone to fuck those chickens.
TenguPhule
The Dangers of Lead and Mercury Poisoning on four generations of humanity.
Elias
@jl:
Yes, that was the exact argument I heard from actual growers. That if marijuana was legalized by the state proposition large-scale manufacturers (they’d point out Marlboro) would move in and undermine the cottage industry that currently exists. My understanding is that this isn’t true at all but I can understand concerns about saturating the market post-legalization.
What is interesting is that legalization never occurred but the market saturated anyways and the industry was beset by disaster. There’s a fantastic econ paper here for an ambitious grad student: the analysis of a bubble and its burst in the black market. Whoever wrote that paper would be breaking new ground in the econ literature. I would love to read it.
WereBear
Why does anyone believe bullshit? Because they want to.
It does something for them; shores up shaky self-esteem, for instance. If society manages to look down on half of the population right off the bat (women) and then creates a permanent underclass based on skin color (African Americans, Latinos, Asian backgrounds) then your basic white male doesn’t have to improve themselves one whit.
Or, even, actually do anything.
Part of what drives the teabaggers sense of complacent privilege is that they had it: know the right people, look the right way, land in a job that is not that demanding and has benefits to it; there are fewer and fewer of these, and by ruthlessly suppressing any rivals, they can keep these kinds of jobs for them and theirs.
danielx
What, they’re just now figuring out that a significant number of their constituents regard bringing home tax dollars as constituent service? Screaming freedom and cutting spending isn’t enough? People actually want the government to spend money and provide jobs and services, directly or indirectly?
Now these elected-in-2010 morons are finally getting the idea: people like government spending, as long as it’s spent on them and not on those people. You know, immigrants. Brown people. Hippies. Strapping young bucks buying t-bones. Teachers. Firemen. The list of people the Teabaggers don’t want money spent on is endless, but they know very clearly where they do want spending directed.
When the spending is in the other guy’s district, especially if he or she is a Democrat, that’s pork barrel. If it’s in your district, that’s called bringing home the bacon. Of course, when you say things like “I didn’t come to Washington to be part of a team”, like Raul Labrador (R-Shithead), people aren’t going to bend over backwards to help you out when you have to show your constituents something besides Freedom and potential government defaults.
As campaign slogans go, “I helped to almost drive the country into bankruptcy!” is not full of win.
Shorter version: when it gets down to nutcutting time, nobody in Washington really gives a shit about the deficit, and that includes Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor.
JGabriel
@Alison:
Heh. Nope, but it could be that I was sleepy and didn’t catch the most obvious option. In my defense, a surprising number of words fit the f****ts template, especially if you’re just eyeballing the number of asterisks instead of counting them.
@Joseph Nobles: @Yutsano: Alison got there first, but thanks, guys.
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Lojasmo
@mclaren:
Oh Jesus Christ. I can fly to Oregon, California, Colorado, and whatever other state has MM, visit a doctor, and have an ounce of weed within two hours of hitting the Tarmac. STFU already.
R. Porrofatto
The fact that deficit hawks always ignore:
In 4 years, George W. Bush turned a $240 Billion surplus into a $413 Billion deficit.
What could possibly erase a huge surplus and create that large a deficit in just 4 short years? (Hint: It wasn’t 9/11, and it wasn’t increases in entitlements and other programs deficit hawks want to cut now. Another hint: The deficit tripled under Ronald Reagan for the exact same reason. Must be a coincidence.)
Suffern ACE
@Lojasmo: At the same time, I think it’s a little disengenuous to claim that you’re not going after cancer patients-just their supply. And state that you won’t go after dispensaries that are in compliance with state laws, but then decide that there mustn’t be any in compliance so raid away. He should tell holder to give it a rest.
Lurking Canadian
@JGabriel: She probably thought she was saying something about free enterprise and/or land of opportunity or something, that she loves not living in a nanny state where mothers don’t have to worry about their children going hungry…
Hmmm. There’s no way to spin it, is there?
Villago Delenda Est
@R. Porrofatto:
Innumeracy pervades the American political discourse.
And I’m not talking about anything so advanced as fractions or set theory. I’m talking about fucking addition and subtraction. The Teatards represent this phenomenon perfectly.
rikyrah
I never had problems with earmarks, but here was my thing.
if you voted against them, your ass shouldn’t get any.
none of this bullshyt of voting against them, then in the middle of night, sneaking in your earmark requests to the different Gov. Agencies – fuck that. those requests should go into the garbage.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah:
The thing about “earmarks” is that it’s an utterly bogus thing to be outraged about.
All an earmark is is a provision that says “x dollars will be spent on this project/program”. For example, on a highway bill, Congressman Joe Blough gets an earmark for $250 million for some bridge to somewhere or nowhere in his district.
There’s nothing inherently sinister about a congressman insisting that some amount of a larger appropriation be spent in a specific way.
John McCain, on the other hand, doesn’t like these guys dipping into the Arizona Water Project money pool for some project in Bumfuck, North Dakota. He wants all that money for Arizona. So he’s pissed. Fuck him.
RalfW
Because, you know, they are fiscal conservatives. Why anyone believes these bullshit artists is simply beyond me.
Indeed. As I mentioned y’day in another BJ thread, our fiscally conservative Minnesota GOP “conserved” about $100K by refusing to pay rent on their state headquarters.
Eviction proceedings have begun. Now, can we evict these fraudulent assholes from the state Capitol?!
acallidryas
@jl:
Regarding the NorCal counties and decriminalizing marijuana, my husband and I took a vacation traveling up the Pacific coast right when that was going on, and it was all the local radio stations were talking about. It was actually quite interesting. Growers seemed to generally support the measure, but did want to make sure the people who’d been putting in the effort over the last several years could benefit. In Humboldt County, at least, the growers had done the ground work to make a certification body that would certify that pot was locally grown, and also an environmental certification program. The point of which, as I understand it, was to keep big corporations from swooping in and undermining the local economy. Quite interesting. If the measure comes up again, someone in need of a sociology or economics dissertation should get there post haste.
acallidryas
As to the topic of the post, an organization affiliated with the one I work with, that provides residence, educational programming, job training, childcare, etc., to teen parents who got kicked out of home, is having a major fundraising crisis and may need to shut down because our local congressman got them an earmark every year, which comprised a decent chunk of their budget. The tea partiers are going to keep that kind of earmark out, but specially lower duties on foreign goods to help themselves? Bastards.
But hey, I guess if those girls had just kept aspirin between their knees they wouldn’t be in this situation, so who cares about them, right?
RalfW
@danielx:
I’d shift the focus slightly:
Now these elected-in-2010 morons are finally getting the idea: people like government spending, as long as it’s not paid for with taxes.
People love government spending. They resent paying for it. So they love the GOP since the GOP pays and pays and borrows and borrows. Democrats are the boring, naggy people who make you PAYGO. That sucks. Total downer. Vote them out and shout Freedumb!
FlipYrWhig
@RalfW: I think what they love is the idea that their local project happened without sticking anyone who works hard and plays by the rules with a bigger bill. They think everything that the government does should be paid for by cutting “welfare” and “waste” because those are obviously dumb uses of money. Taking THAT money and spending it on stuff for your community is just ducky. That’s their view: don’t make me pay for it because I already pay enough. Pay for it by cutting off the gravy train for moochers.
tones
No one does believe them , that is why they need the media to constantly pretend that what they say is somehow related to reality when of course, it is not.