…support a socialist welfare state?
Not for long.
[Update a few minutes later]
“…everyone knows that when you’re using your MasterCard to pay your Visa bill, it’s the person who doesn’t want the limit raised who’s the real source of the problem.”
Yeah, let’s blame the Tea Party.
[Update Monday morning]
Greece could have used a Tea Party, no?
Hey, they blamed the Tea Party for Jared Loughner, too. They always blame the Tea Party, because they don’t like the Tea Party, and they want Americans to dislike it, too, so they can continue with business as usual until the last possible moment. And if Greece had had a Tea Party, all the apparatchiks would have called it crazy and destructive too, because it would have threatened their short-term interests, which, as has become clear, is all apparatchiks think about…
Well, not all, but certainly it’s the highest priority. To hell with the grandkids.
Plus, “Tea Party Downgrade”? They can’t possibly sell that:
Let’s take a walk down memory lane. What did the Democrats do with respect to federal debt during the four years they controlled both Houses of Congress? Here is a summary of the deficits the Democrats racked up during that time:
FY 2008 — $460 billion
FY 2009 — $1,410 billion ($1.4 trillion)
FY 2010 — $1,300 billion ($1.3 trillion)
FY 2011 — $1,600 (estimated) ($1.6 trillion)Of the $14.5 trillion national debt, nearly $4.8 trillion–one-third of the total – was incurred during that four-year period when the Congress was exclusively controlled by the Democrats. Moreover, and equally important, during that time the Democrats did nothing to assure the markets that they have a long-term plan to deal with the country’s burgeoning debt. On the contrary, for more than two years the Congressional Democrats have refused to adopt or even to propose a budget! If you are looking for the reason why rating agencies have lost faith in the ability of our government to get its spending and debt under control, you need look no farther.
But they will remain desperate to continue looking, or blame it on the only people who are actually interested in really reducing the deficit. Because the view in the mirror is far too ugly.
[Bumped]
[Update a while later]
“If the car is speeding off a cliff & you blame the passenger for wrestling with the wheel & trying to hit the brakes, #youmightbealiberal.”
Yes, until it can’t.
Not as long as the recipients can continue to vote themselves increases.
In a democracy how much is spent on welfare will be decided by the average man, and because the average man is far wealthier now than he was 100 years ago, he can afford to be more generous to “those less fortunate”, so the increase in wealth (a product of advances in technology) over time has led to increased welfare spending by the state. Of course, when nations wealth decreases (because of higher costs of inputs or mismanagement) it’s easy for states to end up in the position of not being able to finance all that welfare, and so average man will feel the pinch in his own pocket and hopefully reverse his historical leftward stagger and instead stagger to the right (lower taxes) in his voting pattern.
Sure.. we’ve been supporting NASA for 53 years.
In a democracy how much is spent on welfare will be decided by the average man
Absolutely. It has nothing to do with the ‘leaders’ that authorize the spending… leaders like this… http://www.cnbc.com/id/44051683
This is why tea party members are both Democrat and Republican.
I wasn’t talking to you… http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/125755/
When I saw the talking heads on Sunday blaming the Tea Party for causing S&P’s downgrade, and continued reports of how “The White House is fighting the downgrade and trying to get it overturned”, it reminded me of how that’s been the SOP for this administration from almost the start.
Something goes bad? Blame someone else, and keep on doing things the way you always did.
Unreal…
Andrew,
but how does it work in a republic like ours? We’re NOT a democracy!
Currently we are more of an Idiocracy.
Especially given the number of people who believe that we are down graded because of a political groups beliefs, a group with NO power to legislate or spend, as opposed to blaming the ACTIONS of those WITH power who continue to OVER spend.
Weren’t they all saying just last week that there was no danger of a downgrade? Now it’s shifted to “it’s all their fault.”
Yo, I’m sure BHO’s threats to default had nothing whatsoever to do with the downgrade. The emperor’s clothes look fab-u-lous.
Well, when the S & P press release says things like:
“The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed”
“It appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options”
“Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.”
there’s more than a little reason to blame the “political brinksmanship” of the Tea Party.
There’s a lot more reason to blame not only the “political brinksmanship” of the Democrats but the actions they’ve taken since 2007. Spending has increased sharply since then. Add to that the approximately $800 billion corruption and pork-laden “stimulus bill” they passed in 2009. In violation of the Budget Act law, the Democrat-controlled Senate has not passed a budget in over 2 years. As a result, the federal government has been under continuing resolutions ever since. That $800 billion that was added as a stimulus package was supposed to be a one-time event but without a real budget, it has been part of the baseline.
When we point out these inconvient truths, the Democrats call us “terrorists.” Well, for what you’re doing to our children’s futures, you’re a bunch of economic pedophiles. You’re screwing their financial futures for political gain today. Own it.
““It appears that for now, new revenues have dropped down on the menu of policy options”
It appears the dem’s are more intent on lecturing us than having the balls to do on their own what they are instead trying to pawn off on some other group as a political liability. If raising taxes is such a slap your forehead “duh” way to resolve this, then why didn’t the democrats do it when they had complete control of the federal gov’t for 2 whole years?
Besides I think all the Tea Party people you ask will agree that we need to raise revenues. We need to raise them by lifting the economy back up. We need to raise them by creating more tax payers, not more taxes rates.
People would be a lot nicer to the tea party if they’d just take the advice of Thomas and actually become a third party. That would insure Obama’s 2nd term by splitting the vote. They’d still blame them for everything, but it would be targeted at their ‘leader’ and they would just call the ‘followers’ stupid rather than evil.
Sometimes Thomas is just so right. We should all just listen to our betters.
Can A Capitalist Market Economy…?…support a socialist welfare state?
Sure the US has been supporting the European socialist state(s) for the last 66 years . By absolving the European governments of the need to spend their money on national defense, the US taxpayer has been shouldering much of the burden of the European cradle-to-the-grave welfare state.
And we would still be doing it today, without much thought or complaint, if our own politicians, both Dems and Repubs, had not been trying to move us closer to the European model for the last 40+ years.
And then when it became apparent in late 00’s (Aughts?) to anyone who was paying attention that the European model was absolutely unstainable, even with all the security welfare from the US, along comes Obama and Pelosi and Reid and GWB to set the USS Deficit Spending to flank speed.
Larry J and Josh Reiter – take your arguments up with Standard and Poors, not me. Those are direct quotes from the press release.
“It’s the tea parties fault.” Keep selling that horseshit Chris. See ya in 2012.
Pretty selective there Chris. Here are a few others:
This
willis notendending well.Hey, don’t sweat it Titus, we’ll just do like Alan Greenspan says and print more money. It’ll all work out.
That’s gonna leave a mark, Curt.
“there’s more than a little reason to blame the “political brinksmanship” of the Tea Party.’
When you are spending too much, like hole digging, the 1st thing to do is to stop. You can blame them but they are right. We haven’t even stopped spending too much but just slowed it down, a little. Unless and until people who think like Chris lose at the ballot box, we are doomed.
Chris, you might want to read this from an interveiw with the head of the S&P (emphasis added):
Asked about the prospects for a further lowering of the U.S. rating, Beers said, the agency’s negative outlook meant that “risks are on the downside.”
He also said the downgrade announced on Friday was not due to the budget positions of any political party and that on any future agreement, “We think credibility would mean any agreement would command support from both political parties.”
Beers called the U.S. Treasury Department’s criticism of the credit rating agency’s analysis a “complete misrepresentation.” Even with the debt limit agreement passed by Congress, he said, “the underlying debt burden of the U.S. is rising and will continue to rise over the next decade.”
Furthermore, according to another S&P official:
A Standard & Poor’s official says there is a 1 in 3 chance that the U.S. credit rating could be downgraded another notch if conditions erode over the next six to 24 months.
The credit rating agency’s managing director, John Chambers, tells ABC’s “This Week” that if the fiscal position of the U.S. deteriorates further, or if political gridlock tightens even more, a further downgrade is possible.
Chambers also said Sunday that it would take “stabilization and eventual decline” of the federal debt as a share of the economy as well as more consensus in Washington for the U.S. to win back a top rating.
To paraphrase Carvelle, “It’s the debt, stupid.”
There’s also this chart from the Heritage Foundation. Using CBO numbers on the growth of entitlement spending and the historical average of tax revenues as a percentage of the GDP, they predict that entitlement spending will consume 100% of all tax revenues by 2049.
To paraphrase Carvelle once again, “It’s the spending, stupid.”
Chris Gerrib — take your arguments up with Barack Obama. That’s a direct quote from him.
All Gerrib has left is hope and change. We’ve seen the change, and its a downgrade and high unemployment. That leaves hope that Gerrib can convince others that Democrats failure to pass a budget in 3 years means they are the fiscally responsible party. Good luck with that theory.
All Gerrib has left is hope and change.
How’s this for a bumber sticker: “They promised us hope and stuck us with a dope.”
“U.S. credit rating could be downgraded another notch if conditions erode over the next six to 24 months.”
Economic conditions could go either way but the political condition will be a CAT 5.
This is biblical prophesy coming true. I had more faith in the american people than god. My mistake. Hope to see ya all on the other side.
Or Perhaps I could hitch a ride on a Dragon?
In light of Greek economic woes, do Obama’s Greek columns make sense now?
Actually, when I read about all of Obama’s parties and fundraisers while the economy tanks, this is the image that comes to mind.
Larry, ya just don’t understand. It’s just so important to raise a billion dollars for a half million dollar job. Ride ’em cowboy!
Is that racist?