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I’ll be on CBSN Thursday night talking about the McConnell/Schumer/Trump budget deal and they’re going to ask me “what do grassroots Republicans think of all this deficit spending?”
I care! For what it is worth, I have e-mailed my representative. Where is the tea party?
I care. This is one of the top three reasons I am no longer a Republican. I’d rather admit to being a windmill-jousting member of the Constitution Party than have to try and “defend” the fiscal nonsense I see in the GOP.
You said,
“Most Americans just don’t care” about Russia…
or defecits.
You know I’m right.
You said, “This is the job that I thought we elected Republicans for… managing our fiscal house.”
ROTFL – what about Trump could possibly have given you that impression? His election was a clear signal that there is no significant interest among voters (on left or right) to do what would be necessary to deal with the debt.
You sounded so disheartened this morning.
I won’t gloat. (LOL)
Now repeat after me,
“I like big budgets and I cannot lie…
So, fellas. Yeah. Fellas! Yeah!
Has your government got the budget? Hell yeah!
Tell ’em to shake it. Shake it. Shake it. Shake it.
Shake that healthy budget.
GOP have fallen victim (not in the victicrat woe is me way) to the Lefts’ centralized state-funded largesse whereby no one wants commercials of them throwing granny over the cliff (and yes, that actually happened). IMO the problem is more to do with the state of perpetual campaigning and the voters shallow understanding of economics (thanks to Econ 101 being taken out of classrooms). So, a decrease in the increase in spending is seen as killing people (Nancy’s and Chucks tired trope never get’s questioned, so why, not. People will DIE!!!)
It’s a question of congressional honesty and courage, two words that haven’t seen much daylight since Newt’s Contract with America.
Paul Ryan is the Speaker of the House. You would think that position would come with some power to do something. Trump has some bravery to at least speak his views.
The Deficit Hawks just seem to be frightened cowards.
Rand Paul had his ribs broken and was almost shot earlier this year. You would think he that his golfing with the president would lead to … something.
Trump seems much more willing to sell out on immigration, his signature political issue, than controlling federal spending. What’s up with that?
Who else is left besides Paul R. and R. Paul?
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/07/conservatives-slam-budget-deal-397452
Mike Lee? Jeb Hensarling? Dave Brat? Jim Jordan? Bill Cassidy and Steve Daines?
And why is up to a bunch of white guys to do all the work when we are supposed to be living in the Age of Diversity?
Seriously though– we really HAD to get rid of the sequester.
Most of the adults in the White House are military and that is their #1 priority. I think the entire senate (except for Rand Paul) was agreed that the sequester needed to go, and this kind of a spending package was always going to be the price for getting rid of it.
All things considered this wasn’t such a bad deal. It could have been a lot worse.
I care, but it’s not a current priority. I don’t think that conservatives who support Trump, albeit reluctantly, ever thought that he was going to be a deficit hawk.
It is not good that we are kicking this can down the road, but I don’t see any politically viable alternative at present. I prefer to focus on positive accomplishments, like the tax reform already passed and the immigration reform that has a decent chance of passage.
I understand the complaints about principle, but it is rather frustrating when people don’t face political reality. We have a narrow and fragile majority in both houses of Congress, and an unpopular President who did not win the popular vote. It’s better than a busted flush, but it’s not like we’re holding four-of-a-kind. Republican leadership has to play the hand that they have.
The first thing Trump did in office is ask heads of many departments to cut and reduce the government payroll in their departments and streamline. In the Mike Pompeo interview, he said he cut that dept by 40%. He is bringing corporate money and jobs back home. Doesn’t that equal more revenue, more employed now paying taxes and getting off assistance? The infrastructure projects will be a mix of public and private funds – all least he’s being creative. Obama ran up the deficit greatly. It’s only been a year. Let’s see where it goes.
The only way governments ever make cuts is in when they run out of money.
I am for maximizing spending in order to get the country over the cliff as fast as possible. For only when they are literally staring a financial crisis dead in the face, will politicians do whats necessary.
Government spending is evil, but you realize it’s practically always better to be born in the future, right? More technology, more choices, more wealth, bigger economy. Our grandchildren will be richer beyond our wildest dreams.
10 years from now, if GDP grows at an average of 3% with 2% inflation, it will be about $30 trillion. 500 billion a year is 1.65% of that. Current federal spending is 21.5% of GDP. That means only 7.6% of federal spending will go do interest payments.
You have to put these things in perspective. This is why people have been complaining about the “imminent debt crisis” for as long as there was debt and yet it’s never really materialized. There’s no excuse for government spending, but I’m so sick of hearing about our poor grandchildren who in all respects will be far better off than we are now.
I care.
But if by “grassroots” you mean the common or ordinary people, I submit that there are none of those on Ricochet. And no, most of those people are opposed to deficits only until eliminating deficits begins to pinch.
I commented on the topic on the other side. The deficit means we’re funding spending by borrowing. It becomes a problem when we borrow from abroad. If we had sufficient domestic savings to cover our own spending it would be ok, indeed better than taxing savings or investment. We could privatize SS and tax consumption instead of work. Of course we could cut most Federal spending by at least half and every Department and agency cut would be better off. But I don’t think it would be wise to cut Defense by so much. Does it matter? Yes, but not because our grand children will have to pay for it, but because everyone with financial savings at some point will be wiped out by run away inflation that originate with a collapse of the dollar. We can’t know when.
I said that to rib you about when you’d said you would not gloat about the Moore election and the general feeling was that there was some gloating going on. I think part of that goes beyond just what one says that people don’t care for, but just when someone is unmistakably cheerful while others are depressed. I’m really happy to be rid of the sequester. I think it created bad policy and worse outcomes when people tried to institute the screwy policies. (Fingers crossed that Trump gets rid of the debt limit next.)
I do find it a bit amusing when people get really upset even though they’re getting good policies- maybe 80% of which is stuff they wanted. I’m kind of the mirror image of a libertarian, agreeing with the right on many more issue stances than the left, but feeling that there are many circumstances under which bigger government is better for the country.
At least the libertarians get a convention.
Then again their conventions seem to attract escapees from the lunatic asylums, so I suppose I shouldn’t be envious.
Trump ran as a big government guy. This is simply him living up to his campaign promise to cut taxes and spend more.
Our grandchildren will be fine … all the baby boomers will be dead by then. It’s us who are going to be screwed like Debbie in Dallas to pay for their old age welfare and health care.
Deficit Hawks are probably less common than people who believe they are actual hawks with wings.
There is no constituency for cutting programs across the board whatsoever. Most of the Tea Party people realized that the GOP did not care about the deficit. Issues shifted to trying to avoid having a Birkenstock planted on our faces forever.
There is a constituency for cutting budgets but none of them live in Washington DC.