...Asking the voters to compare the two sides is the right thing to do. The trouble is, that isn't really what the Republicans want to do at all. How do I know this? Because the Democrats running for the House of Representatives actually have an agenda. Republicans aren't saying why the Democratic agenda is wrong, or why their own is better. They're just ignoring it. If you're like most people, you probably have no idea what that agenda is. Let me list it: ⢠Put new rules in place to break the link between lobbyists and legislation. ⢠Enact all the recommendations made by the 9/11 commission. ⢠Raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. ⢠Cut the interest rate on federally supported student loans in half. ⢠Allow the government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients. ⢠Broaden the types of stem cell research allowed with federal funds. ⢠Impose pay-as-you-go budget rules, requiring that new entitlement spending or tax cuts be offset with entitlement spending cuts or tax hikes. Republicans disagree with all these items. Indeed, the reason these items are on the Democratic agenda is that Republicans in Congress have blocked them from coming up for a vote. So where's the Republican rebuttal? Now, I'm not saying that the GOP needs to hold some Oxford-style intellectual debate. But shouldn't the party offer some rebuttal? You know, "Raising the minimum wage would kill millions of jobs," or, "Pay-as-you-go budget rules will require tax hikes or cuts in your Medicare benefits," or, "Why should we waste billions of dollars preventing terrorist attacks that haven't even happened yet?" These are just some off-the-cuff suggestions. I'm sure Republican political consultants could do better. My point is, we're not even getting a debate about a caricature of the Democratic position, let alone the actual one. Instead, we're getting things like this: GOP Rep. John Hostettler of Indiana is running an ad warning that if Democrats take power and California Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes House speaker, she "will then put in motion her radical plan to advance the homosexual agenda, led by Barney Frank, reprimanded by the House after paying for sex with a man who ran a gay brothel out of Congressman Frank's home." What is the homosexual agenda? The ad does not say. (Apparently it involves raising the minimum wage and cutting the interest rate on government-backed student loans. I can just see it if the Democrats win â all those gay Wal-Mart employees, cackling with glee as they use their fat $7.25-an-hour salaries to pay off their suddenly puny college debts.) Which is my point. Republicans don't want an actual choice election, they want to run against a mythological Democratic Party so frightening that the voters overlook all the GOP's failures. Not all the Republican campaigns are as vicious and mindless as Hostettler's. But nearly all of those campaigns are trying to run against a boogeyman. They raise the specter of a radical Democratic agenda, but they refuse to say what they don't like about that agenda. And there's a good reason for that: It's popular. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-chait29oct29,0,6701943.column?coll=la-opinion-center
Republicans don't want an actual choice election, they want to run against a mythological Democratic Party so frightening that the voters overlook all the GOP's failures. dddooo ______________________________________________ It must have been a myth when Carter and Clinton literally cost us millions in raised taxes when they got in. Hell will freeze over before we will be fooled again by this clever disquise of the Dems true agenda. Raise taxes and then buy votes with the revenue to stay in power.
Does either party have a plan for controlling spending? You mention a pay-as-you-go budget. However, what would stop them from simply creating new taxes and raising current taxes? Does either party have a plan for social security? What about healthcare coverage? The Physicians for A National Health Program website states that other than expanding outreach for children through the SCHIP program, the Democratic leadership has made it clear that comprehensive reform will not be on the agenda if they win. Do you really expect any substantial lobbying reform? That would be like asking members of congress to cut their own throats. Both parties are bought and paid for by corporations. They will give the sheep some table scraps every now and then (ex: Medicare Part D and the lovely doughnut hole), but there is no will among members to really do anything substantial. The status quo works great for both parties. They can play off each other and create wedge issues in order to divide the masses. At the same time, nothing substantial is accomplished(immigration?) and the country continues to go to hell while being robbed by corporations. My point is that there is increasingly very little difference between the two parties
Tax Spend Work. If your spouse spends too much money, you have to either cut them off or cut their budget, or work harder / pay more taxes. When any business has spun completely out of control with wasteful spending they need a change in management. If that change needs to pay the bills, they may have to run another shift or, in the govt's case, bring back some taxes. I hate taxes as much as anyone - but I hate letting the taxes we do pay go up in smoke by either party. I find it funny that most of those who defend the tax cuts don'e even benefit from them, they fall for the rhetoric. Too bad we can't get some real business people in charge. This rooting for my team, right or wrong seems absurd. Sounds like civil war, shiite and sunni, how stupid this has become. c
The Republicans have a clear agenda. Keep taxes low, control the borders, fight terrrorism. The Democrats also have an agenda. Advance the radical gay agenda, push abortion in all forms, raise taxes, surrender in Iraq, appease terrorism, put illegal aliens on social security, welfare and give them the right to vote and of course raise taxes some more. Investigate Bush and every part of the administration endlessly. Raise more taxes.
LOL, so they turn enormous surplus into enormous debt and pass it to future generations while giving corporate welfare to Enrons and Halliburtons and tax breaks to Paris Hilton. They keep the borders wide open 5 years after 9/11 and support an amnesty (aka the guest worker program), fail to catch Osama/Omar and create hundreds of thousands of new terrorists in Iraq. Hello, reality check, anyone? The original article actually addressed this very point: "What is the homosexual agenda? ... Apparently it involves raising the minimum wage and cutting the interest rate on government-backed student loans."
History teaches us that the congress will end up spending something like 110% of the taxes they collect. The best way to hold spending down is to hold taxes down. Republicans have failed at controlling the budget, but we have to remember that Democrats were arguing for even more spending. Some of the worst Republican programs, like the medicare drug benefit and No School Left Behind Act, were basically meant to be political insulation agianst Democrat arguments for even worse programs. As for the radical gay agenda, I'm sure you're well aware of it, even though your liberal heroes sure keep it under wraps at election time. Gay marriage, gays in the military, full partner benefits for gays, gays as a protected class entitled to affirmative action, etc, repression of religious speech that questions homosexuality (as is the case in Canada now), indroctrination of young school kids into accepting homosexualtiy as normal and equivalent to heterosexuality and, of course, Nancy Pelosi marching proudly with gays behind the NAMBLA float.
History teaches us that the congress will end up spending something like 110% of the taxes they collect. History teaches us that the only president who balanced the budget was Bill Clinton. History teaches us that this republican government borrowed more than all 42 previous administrations combined. History teaches us that some people never learn and keep believing garbage and nonsense fed to them by the republican noise machine despite all the evidence to the contrary, despite a very simple fact that after 12 years of majority and 6 years in the White House republicans have not delivered on a single one of their promises. The best way to hold spending down is to hold taxes down. Actually the best way to hold spending down is to spend less. Republicans want to spend more, much more than the democrats. Of course they want to spend on all the wrong causes (SDI, Iraq, corporate welfare, taxcut for Paris Hilton etc) and they don't want to pay for it. Republicans have failed at controlling the budget, but we have to remember that Democrats were arguing for even more spending. The dems want to negotiate drug prices, eliminate pork and corp welfare for oil companies. How is it going to increase spending? As for the radical gay agenda, I'm sure you're well aware of it, even though your liberal heroes sure keep it under wraps at election time. Gay marriage, gays in the military, full partner benefits for gays... Oh my god, what a nightmare, Mark Foley would be allowed to marry, have benefits and serve in the military. Where is the world going? LOL, while I personally could not care less about these issues, am against gay marriage and have very serious doubts that this agenda will be implemented, even if it is I won't lose sleep if Mark Foleys of the world will be allowed to legalize their status, get his husband's benefits and volunteer to serve in Iraq. I can assure you that 100 years from now gays all over the civilized world will have all these priveleges and people like you who stood in the way of social progress will be viewed as medieval dinosaurs.