The Republican Myth, divorced from reality, Part CCCLXIV
In a brief pro-con in Sunday’s AJC, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss argued that Americans ought to be worried by the fact that with the seating of Al Franken, Senate Democrats will have a filibuster-proof majority.
“The last time the United States had a filibuster-proof majority was during the Carter administration,” Chambliss said, “and most Americans believe we have never recovered from the fiscal irresponsibility of those years.”
Most Americans believe that? What utter baloney.
Let’s go look at the record, shall we? In the four Carter budget years — 1978-81 — the annual federal deficit was $59 billion, $40 billion, $73 billion and $79 billion.
Now, if Chambliss believes that amounted to “fiscal irresponsibility,” what on earth would he call what Reagan did?
Again going to the record, Reagan took office in 1981, his first budget came in in 1982 and by 1983 the annual federal deficit had erupted to $207 billion. Over the next three years it was $185 billion, $212 billion and $221 billion.
And as I have pointed out time and again, Congress in those years appropriated almost exactly the amount of money that Reagan had requested they give him. In other words, you can’t blame it on the free-spending Democrats in Congress. They spent what the Gipper asked them to spend.
Increasingly, and to its increasing detriment, the Republican Party is wallowing in myth. It has invented for itself a Golden Era that never existed, and it insists that all its members and all its leaders subscribe to every detail of that myth lest they be cast out into the cold, real world.
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291 comments Add your comment
DB, Gwinnettian
July 6th, 2009
7:29 am
Mythology? Sure, but from where they sit, methinks it’s more like a stubborn refusal to let go of their old aspiration to create their own version of reality.
From that seminal NYTimes piece–
In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn’t like about Bush’s former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House’s displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn’t fully comprehend — but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.
The aide said that guys like me were ”in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who ”believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ”That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. ”We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.
I Report :-) You Whine :-(
July 6th, 2009
7:29 am
Bragging on the “malaise?”
Geez.
Some, objectivity.
jt
July 6th, 2009
7:29 am
Remember Jay, he is addressing Republican voters. They are probably as gullible as the democrats.
It works every election.
FinnMcCool
July 6th, 2009
7:31 am
The lies and deceit work for Fox News, Hannity, Boortz, et al. Why not jump on that bandwagon?
People will listen to what they want to hear.
FinnMcCool
July 6th, 2009
7:32 am
The Great American Bubble Machine
Matt Taibbi on how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression
MATT TAIBBI
The new carbon-credit market is a virtual repeat of the commodities-market casino that’s been kind to Goldman, except it has one delicious new wrinkle: If the plan goes forward as expected, the rise in prices will be government-mandated. Goldman won’t even have to rig the game. It will be rigged in advance.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_bubble_machine/print
jt
July 6th, 2009
7:33 am
And say what you want about Jimmy Carter, but he DID attempt to divorce wall street from Main street.
He wouldn’t have bailed out the global banksters.
How does that 37000 dollar debt feel on your shoulders. Banksters have children too.
FinnMcCool
July 6th, 2009
7:35 am
“And what caused the huge spike in oil prices? Take a wild guess….Between 2003 and 2008, the amount of speculative money in commodities grew from $13 billion to $317 billion, an increase of 2,300 percent.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_bubble_machine/print
Bud Wiser
July 6th, 2009
7:37 am
Wow, now this is what I call ‘reality journalism’, focusing on 30 years ago ancient political history, all the while Obowo is working strenuously to melt down our economy right now.
Keep on avoiding the truth about what the Democrats are doing to the economy RIGHT NOW, keep hiding the facts of the continually increasing joblessness RIGHT NOW, the lack of questioning from so-called journalists RIGHT NOW, and your conversion to the Dark Side will be complete.
Hope you are stropping that tongue nice and sharp so you can keep high on the list of boot lickers and cracker chasers, Jay.
DB, Gwinnettian
July 6th, 2009
7:40 am
Off topic, but from Finn’s linkee @ 7.35:
Here, now, are excerpts from Matt Taibbi’s piece
Finn, I’ve been hearing some dark murmurings here and there about Rolling Stone’s timidity about putting this piece online. You know anything about that? Why just “excerpts” now? (I realize it might be nothing more nefarious than a desire to sell actual printed copies of the magazine!)
FinnMcCool
July 6th, 2009
7:41 am
DB, how is that “created reality” working out for them so far? Mwuahahahahahaha
TnGelding
July 6th, 2009
7:42 am
Jimmy was a tightwad. Saxby is a dishonest opportunist. THE “MALAISE” was the result of the Nixon era. Remember wage and price controls? And it was three years into the Reagan administration that the fed chairman Jimmy appointed got it turned around. Fiscal policy was exemplary. The monetary policy neede work.
Franken will be his own man and not an automatic vote for the Democrats.
mike
July 6th, 2009
7:43 am
Stop the presses. Jay has a problem with Republicans.
Yawn.
Michael H. Smith
July 6th, 2009
7:43 am
In other words, you can’t blame it on the free-spending Democrats in Congress. They spent what the Gipper asked them to spend.
Jay, if someone asked you to spend a billion dollars you would spend it simply because they told you to spend a billion dollars? And, I should blame you for spending that billion dollars – some of it my money – because you simply did what you were told?
THE HELL YOU SAY!
FinnMcCool
July 6th, 2009
7:44 am
DB, I haven’t heard. In fact I didn’t know it was just excerpts. No wonder I couldn’t find the quote I really wanted to post.
I’m going to lean toward “they want to sell more paper copies” than “someone is breathing hot and heavy down RS’s neck”
jt
July 6th, 2009
7:44 am
Did ya’ll know that “gullible” is not a real word?
You will not find it in ANY standard dictionary. It is slang.
USinUK
July 6th, 2009
7:47 am
welp, I’m back from the land of beer gardens, schnitzel and nazi-fleeing nuns … Salzburg was lovely, the Alps were amazing, but the food … oy.
I just can’t believe I missed the Bailin’ Palin announcement …
as for today’s topic, the GOP la-la-LOVE to paint Jimmy as the Worst President EVAH, despite the fact that he was the one who appointed Volker to the Fed (and who, as head of the Fed, realized that you can’t treat inflation caused by external sources such as OPEC the same way you treat internal causes such as rising wages). And, if we listened to Jimmy and kept CAFE standards high and our dependence on petroleum low, we wouldn’t be in the pickle we now find ourselves.
but, hey. that’s just me. YMMV.
RW-(the original)
July 6th, 2009
7:47 am
Don’t look now but Obama is 2 trillion in the red and counting. If I was an AJC hack I’d ask Saxby about Carter and then rip his answer too just to avoid current reality.
Off to the forest….later!
TnGelding
July 6th, 2009
7:47 am
jt
July 6th, 2009
7:33 am
Well, the debt, tho huge, is still managable. But there is absolutely no reason, other than irresponsble fiscal policy, for a country this wealthy to be running deficits and building debt.
DB, Gwinnettian
July 6th, 2009
7:49 am
Oh, and Jay, and I heard some Villager on NPR regurgitating this same talking point last week, well before Saxby’s piece, about how them Demoncrapz best not be thinking they have any kind of mandate on account of what happened the last time they had this many votes.
Sometimes I really do think all the talking points really do come from these two guys, deep inside RNC headquarters…
jt
July 6th, 2009
7:51 am
TnGelding-
There is a reason for running deficits and building debt. It is called Statism and the quest for more control.
Michael H. Smith
July 6th, 2009
7:52 am
Thank you Jay Bookman for shooting your Democrats in the foot or hoof. No one elected to Congress should ever spend one red copper of a taxpayer dollar because the President asked them to no matter if that President is from their political party are not.
ByteMe
July 6th, 2009
7:54 am
RW lies. mike comes here to complain about the blog content not being to his liking.
SSDD from the wingnuts.
Michael H. Smith
July 6th, 2009
7:56 am
And before one of YOU slim-balls call me a hypocrite you should know how many times I’ve publically got on Saxby’s butt about carry Bush water! In others for giving Bush everything he wanted.
DB, Gwinnettian
July 6th, 2009
7:58 am
And before one of YOU slim-balls call me a hypocrite
Fine, just don’t call me “slim-balls”. Cuz mine are, like, massive.
later, all. Oh, and welcome back, Yooz’n'Yook!
Mrs. Godzilla
July 6th, 2009
7:59 am
slim-balls?
Best see your urologist….
Kayaker 71
July 6th, 2009
8:00 am
I bought a piece of land in Hawaii during he Carter years bringing me from a lease holder on the land to an owner of the land. Total price was 34K and my interest rate on the loan was 21.6%. Refinanced under Reagan….. interest rate was 11% and falling. Jimmie also gave away the Panama Canal which is now managed on both ends by the Chinese. Great president, great management of our country’s financial system….. in your dreams.
USinUK
July 6th, 2009
8:01 am
“Oh, and welcome back, Yooz’n’Yook”
thanks, Gwinecian!!!
FinnMcCool
July 6th, 2009
8:01 am
USinUK, the Alps were the first and maybe the last thing I ever saw that could really be described as “breath-taking”. The Grand Canyon would be a close 2nd, though.
Gawingnut
July 6th, 2009
8:01 am
Komrad Jay is very clever; his use of numbers is to help soften the huge blow of the trillion dollar defecit coming from this year’s budget alone.
All Bills of Appropriation come from Congress. The president can ask for money; Congress can say yes or no.
Reagan spent the Russians into oblivion and retored honor to being an American. Claiming the malaise was a hangover from Nixon is absolute bilge. A 17% prime rate was Carter’s incompetance, all the while spent searching the globe to restore “human rights,” while his staff wrote the World 2000 prediction, hardly any of which came to be.
Hang in there, Komrad Jay. Those of us that actually lived through the Jimmy & Billy years enjoy your novellas.
USinUK
July 6th, 2009
8:02 am
Kayaker –
you do realize that the President has eff-all to do with interest rates, don’t you … ??? the Fed is an independent body. the Fed director that brought interest rates down was Volcker, who, as I mentioned earlier, was appointed by Carter.
FinnMcCool
July 6th, 2009
8:03 am
We can always sell Texas if we need to raise capital.
Redneck Convert
July 6th, 2009
8:04 am
Well, the problem with Carter was he didn’t give no big tax cuts to the Most Productive people in the U.S. of A. It wasn’t till Reagan that the people that deserved not to pay taxes finally got a tax cut.
Some people in this country need to be paid by the guvmint to stay here. These people are called Republicans. They make Private Innerprize run and without Private Innerprize this country is nothing. So what we need to do is cut a big check to them every year just to say thanks for being so important to this country. If the guvmint needs taxes they can get them from the welfare bums and people with low income. People like the godly Reagan and My President tried to get the ball rolling but it’s hard to do when people keep electing librul Democrats.
So I say pour the money on people like Dave R., Sister Dusty, jt, the Whiner, RW and other people that think Right. And if things still don’t run too good put the blame on Carter. The worst President in the history of the whole world.
That’s my opinion and it’s very true. Have a good day everybody.
USinUK
July 6th, 2009
8:04 am
Finn – you say breathtaking, I say they were awesome, in the truest sense of the word. we spent a couple of afternoons hiking in the Alps and a couple bopping around the lakes – unpolluted, clean, clear alpine lakes … it was stunning.
and, no, I did NOT twirl around on the mountainside and sing like some kind of mental patient.
DoggoneGA
July 6th, 2009
8:05 am
“Did ya’ll know that “gullible” is not a real word?
You will not find it in ANY standard dictionary. It is slang.”
Try again:
“gul·li·ble (gŭl’ə-bəl)
adj. Easily deceived or duped.
[From gull2.]
gul’li·bil’i·ty n., gul’li·bly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company”
jt
July 6th, 2009
8:06 am
A 17% prime rate was Carter’s incompetance.
A 17% prime rate also made the dollar incredebly strong. All one needed was a bank account. Your savings did not have to filter through Golman Sachs. How did that work for you?
jt
July 6th, 2009
8:07 am
Doggone-
Thanks for proving my point. Are you a Democrat or Republican?
TnGelding
July 6th, 2009
8:07 am
Gawingnut
July 6th, 2009
8:01 am
The Federal Reserve Board controls monetary policy. NOT the president.
Joe Matarotz
July 6th, 2009
8:07 am
Here’s a crazy idea. Instead of posting on Jay’s blog today, send emails to Saxby Chambliss, Johhny Isakson, and you Congressional Representative (you do know who he is, don’t you?) Tell them that they need to work to repeal the Graham-Leach-Bliley bill. That is the bill that allowed banks to become brokers and really enabled them to put billions of dollars at risk. Of course, if you think that was a good think, then don’t bother.
For the rest of you, the Dems can jump on board because the bill was written by three Repubs, and the Repubs can hop on because it was passed on Clinton’s (Bill) watch. It should not matter who wrote it or who passed it. It is a bad piece of legislation that undid protection to the financial system after the Depression. For all of Obama’s bluster about fixing the financial system, he has yet to address the root cause. (Hint: Graham-Leach-Bliley was primarily responsible for the mess we’re in now.) Now stop reading and start emailing.
As the GOP Churns
July 6th, 2009
8:09 am
So, how is that Republican philosophy working out in all the Red states. Plenty of jobs, no state taxes, small government, everybody happy. Riiiiight. Well, how about on a local level. How are all of those Republican counties in Georgia doing, for example. All the party promises being upheld. Family values flowing abundantly. Uh huh!
reebok
July 6th, 2009
8:09 am
The Repubs and their media lackeys have known for years that if you say something often enough, most people will believe it. Remember how the Bush White House and Fox News convinced a majority of Amercians that Saddam Hussein was behind the 9-11 attacks?
TnGelding
July 6th, 2009
8:10 am
Michael H. Smith
July 6th, 2009
7:56 am
I guess the “slim-balls” would be me.
I’m still dumbfounded that the Republicans in Congress laid down for Bush like they did. If they’d stood up to him and worked more with the Blue Dog Democrats, they’d still probably be in the majority.
DoggoneGA
July 6th, 2009
8:10 am
“Thanks for proving my point. Are you a Democrat or Republican?”
I’m literal minded
Normal
July 6th, 2009
8:11 am
USinUK: Great to have you back! I also see that you haven’t lost your stuff while schnitzelin’…I hope you saved me some, I’ll be there next month…Keep stirring things up and ask Whiner about gettin’ kicked out of school…I’ll check in later, too much to do today…
TnGelding
July 6th, 2009
8:13 am
jt
July 6th, 2009
8:06 am
It was great for those of us that were saving, too.
TnGelding
July 6th, 2009
8:16 am
reebok
July 6th, 2009
8:09 am
Even the troops in Iraq thought that was why they were there.
Eric
July 6th, 2009
8:17 am
Fact: Reagan was a lousy president. I was there. I remember it very well.
Kayaker 71
July 6th, 2009
8:18 am
Redneck,
So true, so true. Who do you think provides the jobs that everyone keeps talking about? Along with the health care benefits, 401K retirement plans and the security that many American workers enjoy. It certainly doesn’t come from the 43M or so taxpayers who pay no federal income tax. It comes from the evil employers, most of whom run small businesses, the backbone of our economy. Let’s just saddle them with more taxes, more government red tape and more harassment to make them do their job better. Then let’s introduce about 20M or so illegals into the system who compete for these jobs. Boy howdy, that oughta’ work. But let’s don’t stop demonizing those who work for a living. It’s making you look more stupid than your probably already are.
ByteMe
July 6th, 2009
8:18 am
Thank you, Joe M, for that interlude of reality. You’re preaching to the wrong choir, but it’s good that someone is preaching something sane once in a while.
USinUK
July 6th, 2009
8:21 am
jt –
a strong dollar isn’t all its cracked up to be – strong dollar means our goods are more expensive to export. and, for the rest of the world, a strong dollar means expensive oil – meaning there’s less money to buy more expensive american goods, a double-whammy
As the GOP Churns
July 6th, 2009
8:22 am
Even the troops in Iraq thought that was why they were there.
Of course they did. They were given a deck a playing cards with Saddam and his followers pictures on them as the ones to go after. There was not a single terrorist on a single card in that deck.