I subscribe to Tim McCulloch's line of thought. That most of Washington has been doing it's job, and that this small minority, (manufactured through gerrymandering, and even built/manufactured by very wealthy outsiders) {gerrymandering was ok to give blacks their own districts} that to my mind does not even represent the overall Republican party, can not get their way via the regular process (precisely because they are in the minority), so they are holding the rest of process, and by extension the whole country hostage. Bohener is in a tough spot on this, and I like Obama's current position. Bring it to a vote. And let us, the American people, see exactly who is holding us hostage. Because as bad as the Tea Party looks now (Mike Lee's stock is dropping fast in Utah), it would be even worse for the conservatives politically to have to show it on an up or down vote right now.
To my mind the money has already been spent. The question now is how to pay for it. {well,no,it hasn't been spent,it has been proposed.It's like you plan on buying a new car,but untill you buy it,you haven't spent the money}
The spending was done in the form of two unfunded wars, and more so, that the interest in that decade was higher then than now. {It isn't the wars that will bankrupt us,it is the social programs}
There is also a fair amount of money being paid for the bailout. A lot of that has been repaid from the other end.
This is one of the few things that I do think Bush got right. And went out on a positive note, in a very negative time. As a sitting duck, it looked at first like he would just pass, and let the new guy take it.
But I give him credit for realizing the severity of the situation, and getting going on it. {Nice of you,really}
Here is how I look at this. The money is already being spent to the tune of almost 20% of our GDP. ACA is not free. But, it is better than what we had. {Don't count your chickens until they hatch.It will get worse}
Yes you and I are paying for others health insurance. But we already were paying for their health care, via more expensive ER methods.
If everyone has access to regular visits, and thus more counseling and information about their health, instead of just ER visits when things have gotten to a critical stage, we as a society will save money, and that will translate to us as individuals. My health insurance via my wife has come down in cost this year for the first time in over 30 years.
Also, Social Security tends to get thrown in the "free Sh_t" pile, but it is self contained, and nothing free. Pay in. Save. Withdraw upon retirement. { Here,we agree}Medicade and medicare are two programs that I consider good , but more prone to corruption. {According to the Medicare Trustees,Medicare is scheduled to go broke in 9 years and Obama took $790 billion out of Medicare to fund Obamacare}
Two programs that I do have a big problem with are disability, and the farm bill.
That to me is free sh that is running put of control.
Or at least that is the face that they put forward. To me, the Tea Party constituency has been completely duped by their leaders, and those that founded the party.
This was brought to my attention about seven years ago, before the Tea Party began.
My leaving the Republican party started long ago, and I had never been able to put my finger on exactly what triggered it.
I know lots of the little things, but what was the big thing.
I heard a professor from BYU on the radio (KBYU) go on a rant. And he laid out a lot of things that had disquieted me.
Such as, when he was growing up, conservative meant conserving the environment. And then he lowered the boom on neo-cons. He was mad. {Conserving means many things}
He did not like that his party had grown away from everything it used to stand for, and what was dear to him. He went on with many more examples.
And that it is now run and co-opted by those who's sole goal is money. Profit. { Profit is why I went into business }
And that was it. He said, "Republicans are no longer conservative. We are the party of Wall Street, and nothing about us is conservative."
I thought, there I go, I am no longer a Republican, because the Republican party is no longer conservative.
As an example, I give you military spending. Every budget to come out of the Tea Party (Paul/Ryan) has increased spending for the military.
There is no bigger blow job to big business than military spending. Yes the military employees lots of people. But think of all the money that Halliburton pulled in from the wars.
And that was just a decade of gravy. The whole military spending has been out of control for decades now. { Our military has keep us free since day one.It is more important now than ever since most European countries don't pull their share of the load}
And in an ironic twist, or just to bring this point full circle. There is one person who has been able to curb the military spending.
The president was able to pull off the sequestration, and cut military spending by 10%. And between that and the automatic roll back on Bush era tax cuts, we are now the closest we have been to a balanced budget in over 10 years. Yes,sequester was Obama's idea and the Tea Party went along with it.Then Obama tried to deny that it was his idea.You can't have it both ways}
Yes, the most conservative person in Washington is Barack Obama.{ Hahaha,now that's funny.I don't care who you are.Thanks for the laugh}
Try that on for size. Chew it around in your head a bit. Don't knee jerk reaction. Mull it over while you are driving to the gig.
The governments idea of cutting cost for medicare system is to just unilaterally reduce payments for procedures. The result is many doctors refuse to treat medicare patients. While that is a gross simplification it is not far from the thinking. I guess they assume everybody is making obscene profits so they can just mandate lower prices. 