Too bad there are not interesting topics to comment on right now. If all you uber-conservatives can come up with is Spring break for kids or showing gross ignorance about Constitutional law, it is not interesting and deserves an attempt at humor. True, I am not in Bill Maher's or Jon Stewart's league but it is better than worthless rants.

Originally Posted by buggyone

Too bad there are not interesting topics to comment on right now. If all you uber-conservatives can come up with is Spring break for kids or showing gross ignorance about Constitutional law, it is not interesting and deserves an attempt at humor. True, I am not in Bill Maher's or Jon Stewart's league but it is better than worthless rants.

How about the threads I began on foreign policy....not much coverage by the left on any of those. They tend to love the threads like this, Augusta, Palin, etc.

"If all you uber-conservatives can come up with is Spring break for kids"

Once again missing the point of the thread and word smithing to suit your purpose/cause/party/whatever.

I won't waste my time trying to re-emphasize the point of the thread as it would erroneously assume someone is listening or cares.

We need to hear from you folks on some of the real issues instead of just what you want to tear apart.

btk

Originally Posted by billethkid

"If all you uber-conservatives can come up with is Spring break for kids"

Once again missing the point of the thread and word smithing to suit your purpose/cause/party/whatever.

I won't waste my time trying to re-emphasize the point of the thread as it would erroneously assume someone is listening or cares.

We need to hear from you folks on some of the real issues instead of just what you want to tear apart.

btk

Well, last week (or maybe the week before) there was a discussion on the Paul Ryan proposed budget. Someone asked how he intended to account for the 4 trillion dollars in spending cuts to go along with the massive (surprise) tax cuts.

Never did see an answer to that.

Originally Posted by coralway

Well, last week (or maybe the week before) there was a discussion on the Paul Ryan proposed budget. Someone asked how he intended to account for the 4 trillion dollars in spending cuts to go along with the massive (surprise) tax cuts.

Never did see an answer to that.

From the beginning comments......

" Both budgets achieve about the same tepid levels of deficit reductions.

Neither proposal suggests any real spending cuts to entitlement programs.

The Ryan budget "takes back" the defense spending cuts previously agreed to by the GOP as part of the agreement to form the super committee, actually increasing defense spending by $600 billion.

Both budgets address only the 12% of federal spending categorized as "discretionary domestic spending".

The Ryan plan achieves it's results primarily with cuts to social programs and education to fund further tax decreases and increased defense spending. The POTUS budget also decreases business taxation, but increases taxes on the wealthiest Americans. The POTUS budget also cuts discretionary spending, but less deeply than the Ryan plan.

Neither budget materially reduces the unsustainable rate of increase in the national debt."

Then some more from the same thread...

"but Ryans budget, albeit far from perfect, finally addresses those uncomforable issues that need to be addressed. As you have said many times over the years, we are heading to be another Greece without severe and hurting cuts. He had the nerve to actually address the never ending welfare state that we have begun."

"You don't have to explain the items, but can you just give a list of "those uncomfortable issues" which are not addressed in the President's budget, but are in Ryan's? "

"I happen to like Ryan's increase in military spending."

These are just from one thread and there have been other mentions of the fact that the budget was intended to address the welfare state, etc. If you need very specific items, and dont know how to search for them, I would be glad to try and find specific wording for you.

well I know I did answer a couple of threads having to do with the budget/etc. But what has that to do with the questions asked of you on THIS subject?

btk

The original post had to do with "Obama's kids going to Mexico on the taxpayers dime and falls along the same lines as the close to a million the GSA spent on a convention.

Boondoggles are a way of life in both the public and private sectors. People who don't get to go can be labeled as being envyous.

However there are other reasons. For instance underlings as insructed from their higher ups could be working to contain expenses while the upper echleon travel to exotic places. I don't think envy is the feeling these underlings would be exhibiting toward their superiors in this example.

The same applies to te president and congress. They are our leaders and they should lead by example but they don't.

There is also one other aspect to this scenario too often those that reward themselves in such manner rarely deserve it.

Boondoggles are elitist and divisive but they will always be because some folks just think too much of themselves not to want such rewards. Sad commentary but true

Rubicon is right on this issue. The GSA convention in Las Vegas is not the first of it's kind. They are with just about every federal agency and if it is not Las Vegas, it is somewhere else like Orlando. Downright stupid to make a video of employees singing a song about ripping off taxpayers. Hopefully, they will not be working long after the uproar it has caused.

This is not just a Democrat thing; it has happened in every administration for many years.

If the President put an Executive Order out banning the conventions, it might help but I kind of doubt it could be done. Those conventions bring a lot of revenue to the cities.

One thing - can we PLEASE stop saying we're becoming "Greece"? Everything in this country is headed AWAY from that. Yeah, we certainly have a spending problem - but at least our deficit is going down (just too slow), employment is picking up (again, too slow), retirement ages are being INCREASED (we never got close to the 'everyone retires at 50 and doesn't pay taxes' stage like they're at in Greece).

Yeah, we have financial problems - and ours are more like the rest of Europe - not Greece.

djp: "From your lips to God's ears." However, we are still not out of the woods yet as government has to be reduced and public unions have to make some serious concessions and tax policy must accomodate capital growth