Why Republicans should be blamed for the government shutdown

[The Whit]

SS isn't a broken program. In fact it is the most successful program in history...Moving SS into a retirement fund defeats one of the main  purposes. When the market crashes or banks fail people still have a safety net not effected by capital greed and mismanagement...

You say that, but you put this gem right in the middle of it.

The only thing "broken" about it is that republicans keep stealing from it to pay for bridges to nowhere, and $1500 toilets bought from corrupt defense contractors.

[The Whit]

As far as the War on Terror I say we just pack up our shit and leave.  What's the worst that happens?  Our troops stop driving through ambushes?  Our drones stop killing kids?  We save trillions of dollars on bombs and ammo?  They go back to killing each other?

[Atheon]

The answer to the question in the subject line is painfully obvious:

Because they did it.

[josephpalazzo]

It seems to me that the Republican party has become so fragmented and coopted that the only support they have left is the far right wing loonies.  While there are still plenty of those, they are slipping as a viable party among swing voters, and looking at hard times ahead.  They can't propose anything that makes sense enough to win over the crucial swing vote right now, because the loonies are so focused on their own perception of themselves as self righteous victims.

Their only hope is to stubbornly refuse to compromise on anything and stop any forward progress that might occur while a Democrat is in the White House.  They don't seek to destroy America, at least not in the long term, but currently, it's in their best interests to make such a mess out of government and the country that Americans will suffer severely, and enough independents will eventually vote Republican out of confused despair.

Clearly, this is not about moving America forward, it's about regaining power, regaining power at any cost no matter how much harms the country.  What else can you do when you are so hamstrung by the extremists in your own party?

Yeah, good luck with that is all I can say.

Thankfully, you can't win in this country by simply winning Texas, Arizona, and south eastern states. You have to win some swing states and places out west with at least some support from the north. Right now, the right has no fucking hope whatsoever of that happening, not just in this next election, but for some elections to come.

And eventually, a lot of people are going to like ACA like people now like Medicare, which is going to make these idiots look even worse because of all the fear mongering and scare tactics they used to try to stonewall. So they're left in the position of trying to look good to their base and be exposed as playing politics, in order to prevent a party divide that's even worse than what they have.

The GOP are MASTERS at LYING. And when I say that I don't mean your run-of-the-mill bending of the ruth that just about every politician must have some skill with, but devious, deceiving, outright lies. And there are too many Americans who fall for their tricks. And so not having been punished at elections, the GOP has developped this immunity that gives them all the confidence to continue along with what we see is happening.

[NatsuTerran]

As far as the War on Terror I say we just pack up our shit and leave.  What's the worst that happens? We save trillions of dollars on bombs and ammo?  They go back to killing each other?

Classic libertarian retardation. Who cares what happens as long as we can avoid acts of coercion and save money? Who cares if people suffer/die in the long run? Who cares about any consequences whatsoever as long as we can boost the economy and avoid using government? SMH SMH SMH. There's also a clear indication of tribalism here in that you care more about our people than their people. Everyone's well-being should be sought after unconditionally. Whatever makes the best results for people everywhere, regardless of subjective distaste such as govt. use or coercion, should be the end result sought after. (Not saying war accomplishes this, but sticking your head in the sand and ignoring problems through isolationism is just as bad).

[LikelyToBreak]

NatsuTerran wrote:

Classic libertarian retardation. Who cares what happens as long as we can avoid acts of coercion and save money? Who cares if people suffer/die in the long run? Who cares about any consequences whatsoever as long as we can boost the economy and avoid using government? SMH SMH SMH. There's also a clear indication of tribalism here in that you care more about our people than their people. Everyone's well-being should be sought after unconditionally. Whatever makes the best results for people everywhere, regardless of subjective distaste such as govt. use or coercion, should be the end result sought after. (Not saying war accomplishes this, but sticking your head in the sand and ignoring problems through isolationism is just as bad).

Classic Neo-Con Hegemony retardation.  Rule the world for its' own good.  Play Big-Brother to those who don't want a Big-Brother.  Kill 100,000 to make sure the bad guy suffers.  And don't worry about the economy, if will be fine as soon as the leader nationalizes business' and puts a five year plan in place.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

As far as the War on Terror I say we just pack up our shit and leave.  What's the worst that happens?  Our troops stop driving through ambushes?  Our drones stop killing kids?  We save trillions of dollars on bombs and ammo?  They go back to killing each other?

What the fuck does the war on terror have to do with what's going on in DC now? Nothing as best I can tell. The fight is over budgets and the ACA not the WOT. Try again and good luck.

[Colanth]

Fear of a looming U.S. default takes toll on stocks. Dow ends 64 points lower. Nasdaq and S&P fall 0.1%

I wonder, if someone knew when the looming U.S. default might end, could they make a bunch in the stock market?

Just buy call options for the more sensitive stocks with the right expiration date, and rent a railroad to carry your money.  (Not a single car, a whole railroad company, because you'll need it.)  The secret, of course, is knowing the date the stocks will surge upward.  Then you buy them at the option price (which, if you buy the option when the price is depressed, will be pretty low) and immediately sell them at the then increased price.  Or, if you bought an expiration date a few days after the prices surged, sell the options themselves.  (Sometimes the options make more than the underlying stocks do.)

[LikelyToBreak]

Colanth, obviously you know how its' done.  You aren't by chance a buddy of Boehner's, are you?

Seriously though, would the Speaker of the House screw around with millions in the country just to make his friends a few million dollars?  I mean we are talking about the Speaker of the House.  No Speaker of the House puts his own self interests above the good of the country.  It is against the law and everything.  And he is risking his $174,000 a year job, by not getting re-elected.  Even if some corporation was offer him a million dollar a year job, he still wouldn't do it.  It would just be wrong.  People elected to office can't do what isn't right, so it must all be about ideology.   #-o  

[The Whit]

As far as the War on Terror I say we just pack up our shit and leave.  What's the worst that happens?  Our troops stop driving through ambushes?  Our drones stop killing kids?  We save trillions of dollars on bombs and ammo?  They go back to killing each other?

What the fuck does the war on terror have to do with what's going on in DC now? Nothing as best I can tell. The fight is over budgets and the ACA not the WOT. Try again and good luck.

The debt ceiling is definitely going to be a major issue in the coming days that's going to throw in another dimension of bullshit.  That The WOT contributes to this considerably.

[Jason Harvestdancer]

As far as the War on Terror I say we just pack up our shit and leave.  What's the worst that happens?  Our troops stop driving through ambushes?  Our drones stop killing kids?  We save trillions of dollars on bombs and ammo?  They go back to killing each other?

What the fuck does the war on terror have to do with what's going on in DC now? Nothing as best I can tell. The fight is over budgets and the ACA not the WOT. Try again and good luck.

What does the prohibitively expensive and pointless (at best) war on terror have to do with arguments over the budget?

Seriously?

[AllPurposeAtheist]

It's a separate argument. I shouldn't have to point this out.

[Plu]

Seems to me like it's one of the huge drains on the budget, and ending it might fix part of the budget issues.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Hey, I happen to agree ending the sham war on terror as a money grab is a good idea, but so are farm bills, transportation bills and on and on, but right now this whole fight began over defunding the ACA. The senate won't budge, the president won't, house rubes know they lost their gambit and now we're stuck.
It has nothing to do with the war on terror or even the war on drugs.
You can play the rube game and try to muddy the waters, but we know what this is about.

[Plu]

Ah, yeah I agree with that part. This whole mess started with ACA.