Did Jeb Bush really say today’s GOP would spurn Reagan?
A lot of people seem much more confident than I about what Jeb Bush meant in this rambling statement he made to Bloomberg:
“Ronald Reagan would have, based on his record of finding accommodation, finding some degree of common ground, similar to my dad, they would have a hard time if you define the Republican Party — and I don’t — as having an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement.”
Come again?
Streamline the statement, and it would appear the former Florida governor said:
“Ronald Reagan … based on his record of finding … common ground, similar to my dad … would have a hard time if you define the Republican Party … as having an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement.”
That’s how it’s being interpreted on the left, anyway. But Bush himself doesn’t even agree with that statement, as the “and I don’t” interjection makes clear. Instead, he appears to be agreeing with liberals that their common complaint that today’s GOP is out of step with Reaganism would be true, if only it weren’t false. Why he would put himself in the position of confirming a liberal straw man only to knock it down — knowing the confirmation would get more press — I do not know.
As we discussed just Friday, however, context is always helpful. And Bush book-ended the aforementioned statement with these:
“They got a lot of things done with bipartisan support, but right now it’s just difficult to imagine.”
and
“We’re in a political system in general that is in a very different place right now.”
Well, if Republican presidents used to be able to accomplish things “with bipartisan support,” and now that’s “difficult to imagine,” whose fault might that be? Bipartisanship requires two parties, so we can only guess he can’t see the Democrats going along if Reagan or Bush’s father were president today. Which is very different from the interpretation that today’s Republicans are out of step with their own predecessors.
The current president is a Democrat, so was Bush chiding the Republican members of Congress? Maybe, but that’s not necessarily what the rest of the Bloomberg report indicates:
Bush also criticized Obama for placing political gain ahead of negotiation in Washington — citing the failure of the president’s task force on debt and spending led by former Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming and Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton.
“If he was a transcendent figure, which is what he ran as, I think he’s failed,” Bush said of Obama.
The president “had a chance” to address the long-term deficit with the remedy that Simpson and Bowles recommended, a package of taxes and spending cuts, he said, but didn’t “for political reasons.”
“It was purely a political calculation,” he said. “He created Simpson-Bowles and then abandoned it at birth.”
In other words, you have an elder statesman of the Republican Party saying a Democratic president failed to lead on an important issue. Which isn’t much of a story — or wouldn’t be, if a certain elder Democratic statesman hadn’t had so much trouble staying on message lately.
As for Bush’s line about having “a political system in general that is in a very different place right now,” I agree. Once upon a time, both sides in an argument presented their solutions, upon which they could negotiate a compromise. Today, we have a House Republican budget that is dismissed out of hand by Senate Democrats; transparently base-pandering budgets from the president which Senate Democrats have declined to endorse; and the failure of Senate Democrats to produce any kind of budget of their own for more than three years running.
Do you notice a common thread there?
Senate Democrats, and White House aides giving them cover, like to blame GOP obstructionism for this abdication of their responsibilities. But budget bills are not subject to cloture rules. Harry Reid could bring a budget to a vote any time he wanted and pass it with just 51 votes, or 50 votes plus Vice President Biden as a tiebreaker. Of course, that would require his fellow Democrats running the chamber’s committees to produce a budget that could be voted upon.
Instead, they seem to adopt the stance Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner took earlier this year toward the House GOP plan on behalf of the Obama administration:
We’re not coming before you to say we have a definitive solution to our long-term problem. What we do know is we don’t like yours.
If Bush, or anyone else, wants to complain about do-nothingism and the lack of compromise, they ought to recognize that each side has to declare what it wants before the other can meet it halfway.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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174 comments Add your comment
dc
June 11th, 2012
2:47 pm
And JFK might have challenges getting the current Dem politicians to go along with one of the largest tax cuts in US history………..so I guess he “would have a hard time if you define the Democrat Party … as having an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement.”…. guess what, times have changed. On both sides.
carlosgvv
June 11th, 2012
2:56 pm
Kyle, if Jeb was running for office and toeing the conservative line, you would be on bended knee before him and exalting his acheivments. However, since he dares to critize today’s GOP, you call his comments rambling and imply he really doesn’t know what he’s saying. This is precisely what I would expect from a marching in lock-step conservative like you.
Furious Styles
June 11th, 2012
3:01 pm
Jeb knew what he was saying and you do too. Stop playing games Kyle, its annoying.
Ayn Rant
June 11th, 2012
3:07 pm
Fiddle-faddle! Who needs to parse Jeb Bush’s statement as if it was a verse of Scripture. He is saying that the present Republican Party politicians are too dogmatic to participate effectively in elective, democratic government.
Isn’t that obvious? Consider the “accomplishments” of Republican congressional politicians to date: obstruction of economic recovery, no budget for federal spending, downgraded US credit rating, etc.
Only a fool would disagree with Jeb Bush’s observation!
Kyle Wingfield
June 11th, 2012
3:09 pm
Furious: You really don’t think the “if you define” and “I don’t” don’t undermine the rest of the statement?
Kyle Wingfield
June 11th, 2012
3:10 pm
Ayn: The House GOP has passed a budget. The Democrat-led Senate has not.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
June 11th, 2012
3:11 pm
If you vote like a dummycrat and embrace all of their ideas wholesale and without any changes then you are a bipartisan.
If you disagree with dummycrats they spit blood at you and try to pull your hair out.
So yeah, what’s Bushie talking about?
sheepdawg
June 11th, 2012
3:12 pm
kyle, you’re funny trying to twist jeb’s words. typical GOP rhetoric
Mr. Obvious
June 11th, 2012
3:15 pm
Any party that would nominate Mitt Romney to perpetuate the so-called “Patriot Act” while spurning the *DOMESTIC* & Constitution-centric philosophies of Ron Paul would certainly spurn Ronald Reagan. (Let’s set aside Dr. Paul’s Foreign policy for a moment, for the sake of argument.)
Do you think Reagan would be allowing infants and law-abiding grandmothers in wheelchairs to be hand-raped by TSA screeners while the federal government increasingly spies on its own citizens?
I don’t.
iggy
June 11th, 2012
3:15 pm
Jeb Bush…ugh. Wonder what Jeb thinks of our stagflation?
Mr. Obvious
June 11th, 2012
3:16 pm
Can you guess what 0bama’s & Bush’s Presidencies expanding the federal government and THE WIND have in common?
(Yep, that’s right.)
Jefferson
June 11th, 2012
3:17 pm
Ever since 2000 the GOP has done nothing for this country unless it helped the GOP 1st. The middle class is losing and the blame is on the GOP entirely.
iggy
June 11th, 2012
3:20 pm
Worry not Jefferson. When Romney takes the Whitehouse and the GOP take the House and Senate, we will resolve this mess created by Obama and the Dems.
Help is on the way!!
That's Goofy
June 11th, 2012
3:25 pm
Reagan would not fit into today’s conservative – real American – GOP / Tea Party. He raised taxes. Did not over turn Roe v Wade. Worst of all: compromised with Tip and the American hating Liberal Democrats.
Reagan was a leader not a political lackey.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
June 11th, 2012
3:28 pm
When I hear obozo blubber about the GOP obstructing his solutions for America’s problems, I always let out a little cheer and send along another check to GOPAC.
Bless their hearts.
a dad
June 11th, 2012
3:30 pm
let me play middle-of-the-road peacemaker her (and possible shorten Kyle’s column). Having listened to the statement, I think Jeb was taking both parties to task for refusing to compromise, and hopefully, everyone who blogs here has the honesty to admit that regarldess of whether they have a R or a D as their political affiliation, neither side is willing to compromise on just about anything. And yes, I’m more than willing to see actual, FACTUAL examples of COMPROMISE by either side (and no, saying this is my version of a bill is not compromise). There. That last part will keep this blog going.
That's Goofy
June 11th, 2012
3:30 pm
iggy is right. Why I remember how wonderful things were when the GOP ran things from 2001 – 2007. Except for the economy and housing market beginning to tank in 2005. There were a few unfunded wars too. The tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy helped the “job creators” get rich.
1 Party in control is help We The People can live without.
Mr. Obvious
June 11th, 2012
3:32 pm
My friends call me an “Ultra-Right-Winger,” and I think the only major differences between George W. Bush and “The Kenyan” are dancing ability, basketball skillz and legitimate proof of US Citizenship.
Bush destroyed civil liberties in this country with the Department of Homeland “Security.”
“The Kenyan” merely through my gas on that burning of freedom while distracting the simple-minded among us with his NCAA Basketball picks.
!VIVA REAGAN!
iggy
June 11th, 2012
3:32 pm
Dont worry…Help is on the way!!
Bob
June 11th, 2012
3:34 pm
aynrant, no budget from the house ? get a grip ! And speaking of budgets, why didn’t a single dem senator vote yeah on Obama’s budget ? Do senate dems want Obama to fail ? And Goofy, you mention the housing market as if it were repubs fault that it tanked, why ?
Jefferson
June 11th, 2012
3:45 pm
President Reagan was the 1st of the neo con big spenders. Jeb’s dad had some sense.
Brosephus™
June 11th, 2012
3:47 pm
Ummmmm Jay
Wrong Blog.
Kyle Wingfield
June 11th, 2012
3:49 pm
That’s Goofy @ 3:25: “He [Reagan] raised taxes.”
Yes, he did — in exchange for promises of spending cuts — those “compromise[s] with Tip and the American hating Liberal Democrats” to which you referred. If you want to know why conservatives don’t trust an approach of definite tax hikes for promises of spending cuts, see the very “compromise” you hail. It wasn’t a “compromise” as much as a betrayal by those who said they’d cut spending.
Either way, when Reagan left office the personal income tax had been reduced from a schedule of 16 brackets, topping out at 70 percent, to one with just two rates: 15 percent and 28 percent.
This year’s GOP nominee, Mitt Romney, is now proposing six brackets, topping out at 28 percent and spread out over a larger range of incomes, making his plan more progressive than Reagan’s. So, tell me again how Reagan wasn’t conservative enough for today’s Republican Party?
Jefferson
June 11th, 2012
3:50 pm
Romney knows nothing about fair taxes.
MrLiberty
June 11th, 2012
4:04 pm
Today’s GOP would spurn Jesus as he would be calling for the same “golden rule” foreign affairs policy that Ron Paul calls for and is booed over.
I would figure that Santorum would probably make the nails and the cross himself just to shut Jesus up as quickly as possible.
Jay
June 11th, 2012
4:05 pm
That’s funny. Sorry Kyle, posting on the wrong blog!
Chuck
June 11th, 2012
4:06 pm
Reagan, Nixon, Goldwater none of this men would be able to get nominated by todays Republican party and it is a shame. The party has been taken over by bible thumping extremist. The first election that I voted in, I voted for Reagan, I ended up being very angry with Reagan for the whole Iran Contra Scandel, but that did not turn me away from the party, it wasn’t until Jerry Farewell, Pat Robertson, and the the bible thumpers stole the party did I turn to the Libertarian Party. Jeb Bush is right and it will hurt the Republicans in the long run, they just have been lucky and the Democrats have turned to the other extreme, and that is the only reason the the Republicans still have a shot at any national elections. KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OF MY MORALS.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 11th, 2012
4:08 pm
Earth to Bookman! Earth to Bookman!
Try replying on your own freakin’ blog, son.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
June 11th, 2012
4:09 pm
What’s kookman doing monitoring Wingnut’s blog?
Odd, isn’t it?
MrLiberty
June 11th, 2012
4:10 pm
Reagan loved big spending, starting wars, running secret government overthrow plots as did Bush the elder. How is that not consistent with today’s mainstream GOP? Certainly the Ron Paul revolution is trying to wake the GOP up to the insanity of these morally and financially bankrupting policies, but the mainstream still loves the big-spending, war mongering, empire building, police state. And likely Reagan would just change his rhetoric to win over those he needed to. He was just a puppet for the puppetmasters after all, and a professional actor who made it look easy. Bush was former CIA head so you know he would always fit in perfectly with those who actually run the show.
Now with Ten Percent Fewer Calories
June 11th, 2012
4:11 pm
If only Kyle, or better yet, Jeb, could offer up some evidence to support a claim that today’s Republican party is accomodative (note that some people denote that word to mean compromising).
Kyle Wingfield
June 11th, 2012
4:11 pm
It was an accident by Jay. He and I have cleared it up. Back to our regular discussion…
Rafe Hollister
June 11th, 2012
4:12 pm
Jeb has been walking around with a perpetual frown since the Florida primary. He is just disgusted that his views on immigration put him in opposite corners from most of those in the party. He is for amnesty and open borders, which is not going to get him elected as a Republican. His brother W, has the same views, but quickly dropped his advocacy, when he gauged the mood of the public. That is why he is so adamant that he is out as a VP candidate, he knows Romney is not going to inflame the party, with an immigration battle at this point.
His other conservative views put him at odds with the Democrats, so where does he go. He is retreating, until he hopes he becomes relevant again.
Cutty
June 11th, 2012
4:19 pm
Funny how Kyle takes everything Obama says at his word, but is somehow trying to climb in Bush’s mind and say he really didn’t mean what he clearly said.
getalife
June 11th, 2012
4:27 pm
cons run away from the truth.
You can run but you can’t hide from the truth.
Too funny.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
June 11th, 2012
4:30 pm
Allowing disagreement? Seriously?
Your leaders sign “pledges” like it’s the 3rd grade. It’s like Timmy down the street is starting a “No Girls Allowed Club”.
That is sooooo lock step, don’t get out of line. Pathetic.
Now with Ten Percent Fewer Calories
June 11th, 2012
4:35 pm
Your leaders sign “pledges” like it’s the 3rd grade. It’s like Timmy down the street is starting a “No Girls Allowed Club”.
No. That’s actually part of the GOP pledge too.
Dusty
June 11th, 2012
4:36 pm
Who cares what Jeb said? I don’t. He wouldn’t run for the presidency . He no longer is governor of Florida. He usually says nice things about Republicans so I imagine he is still being sensible. Anything liberals say about him should be ignored as prejudicial.
I admire his family. When he is on a presidential ticket I will listen more closly to what he says.
getalife
June 11th, 2012
4:36 pm
Looks like you missed the memo kyle.
You are supposed to be mad at jeb for taking sane and living in the real world.
CNN is talking about it.
wolf loves this yellow journalism.
Atlantan
June 11th, 2012
4:36 pm
Ignoring his self-appointed blue ribbon commission on cutting the deficit should be reason enough alone for the man to be sent back to Chicago for good this fall.
grated
June 11th, 2012
4:49 pm
I think I can safely translate what Jeb meant. The sentence is not confusing. He’s complaining about the Tea Party and their slash and burn policy against any and all dissent over their stand on the issues. Like birthers. Like tax cuts. Like entitlements. Like war. Like abortion.
If you don’t agree with the Tea Party, then you have no place in it. Reagan would have had a problem with the “no compromise” positions.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
June 11th, 2012
4:49 pm
Come on, Wingnut, that’s the second time that kookman has accidentally posted to this blog.
Is that weirdo spying on us?
Sam
June 11th, 2012
4:50 pm
take a look around kyle, he’s right. gop is in stall mode and has been for almost 3 years and its hurting our country. i know you’re not naive enough to think otherwise. you can say otherwise to appease your readers but you cant really believe it. or can you?
Hillbilly D
June 11th, 2012
4:51 pm
as having an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement.”
From where I sit, that could apply equally, to either party.
GT
June 11th, 2012
4:56 pm
So you are saying the Tea Party’s got their robes wide open and the problem here is those sorry Democrats. Now that is a shock that I am sure I will get over. What’s our credit rating? Somewhere south of perfect? And we had that problem how long out of hoe many centuries of doing business? Wonder what up and made the Democrats so difficult to do business with? Maybe it was one of those once every 2 or 300 year things.
Now with Ten Percent Fewer Calories
June 11th, 2012
5:00 pm
From where I sit, that could apply equally, to either party.
Sure. It could. Does it?
Kyle Wingfield
June 11th, 2012
5:05 pm
Cutty: All I’m doing is looking at what he actually said, not the juicy interpretation(s) of it.
Hillbilly D
June 11th, 2012
5:09 pm
Now with Ten Percent Fewer Calories
In my opinion, it does.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
June 11th, 2012
5:15 pm
What’s our credit rating? Somewhere south of perfect? And we had that problem how long out of hoe many centuries of doing business?
————————
We had that problem at the same time we started thinking it was OK to run $1.5 trillion deficits every year.
Fred ™
June 11th, 2012
5:15 pm
Just a note on clarity. If you are going to delete Jay’s comments, you should delete ALL of them and Brocephus’s. It doesn’t make sense what you left. But then again this IS a Republican blog so making sense isn’t exactly of prime importance……….
Oh, and Ronnie would be called a RINO by today’s weirdo Republicans.
Now with Ten Percent Fewer Calories
June 11th, 2012
5:15 pm
Hillbilly D,
Do you have any specifics to share that you draw on to formulate that opinion?
Fred ™
June 11th, 2012
5:16 pm
Lil’ Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward–Again)
June 11th, 2012
5:15 pm
What’s our credit rating? Somewhere south of perfect? And we had that problem how long out of hoe many centuries of doing business?
————————
We had that problem at the same time we started thinking it was OK to run $1.5 trillion deficits every year.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And when was that/ The first Bush unfunded war or the second one? Would that be 2001, 2002/ or 2003 and beyond?
yuzeyurbrane
June 11th, 2012
5:18 pm
Kyle, you are an excellent wordsmith but as far as logic goes you outdid yourself with the mental gymnastics required to reach your conclusions. You must have won the Boy Scout knot contest when you were a kid.
Rafe Hollister
June 11th, 2012
5:19 pm
The Libs are so enamored with Jeb today, which once again shows their duplicity. They absolutely abhorred W and there is not 2 cents worth of difference between W and Jeb on issues of substance.
If the GOP had selected Jeb for the nomination, you can imagine the ridicule, hue, and cry from the Dems about Bushie III. So, whatever they say, it is just an effort on their part to denigrate the GOP once again.
Rafe Hollister
June 11th, 2012
5:22 pm
Fred, I hate to burst your bubble, but W never had a Trillion dollar deficit, those all occurred under Barry Oblamer. Our credit was not downgraded under W.
Dave Francis
June 11th, 2012
5:22 pm
ONLY THE TEA PARTY WILL END ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Neither the Republicans, Liberal-Democrats are going to arrest illegal immigration occupation for good? Only the Tea Party that has assimilated every ethnic background, religion and tens of millions of ordinary people, frustrated with the fat cats in Washington. The majority of millionaire politicians live in isolation from the real world and no little, caused by illegal immigration nationwide.
SOME things that need to be critically observed by all Americans, specifically for those who want to see an end to the travesty called illegal immigration. First on the agenda is the fact that the miles of constructed border fence that Homeland Security says they have covered, is a downright lie and is misleading to the public. Just go to AMERICAN PATROL website and you can identify where the fence is, and where it doesn’t exist. Whether it’s Arizona, California, New Mexico or Texas the cost for not securing the border is staggering. TODAY it’s in every taxpayer best interest to get rid of the pro-illegal alien legislators, who come from both sides of Congress and throw them out. THAT includes the state assemblies that genuflect to the business, corporate and all special interest organizations. THEY are the ones subverting our hard earned money in subsidizing illegal aliens and their children. Both parties are untrustworthy and only the emerging growing membership of the TEA PARTY can stop this adversity to our liberties, freedoms and following the edicts of the U.S. Constitution.
H.R. 2885 – Already well sponsored is Mandatory E-Verify, which was initially sponsored by Senator Lamar Smith of Texas. The bill entitled ‘The Legal Workforce Bill’ (H.R.2885) has been blocked by House speaker, John Boehner of Ohio and Dave Camp of Michigan, who is Chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Americans must insist these lawmakers. E-Verify have gained a success rate nationwide, but are still only voluntary. We must insist both parties place (H.R.2885) to be presented on the house floor without delay. Millions of Americans that remain jobless would benefit highly from mandatory E-Verify. This computer based government application can detect illegal workers and reject them from every business—large and small—with heavy punishment for indifferent company owners. Farmers are just as incorrigible as they pay little or nothing towards the illegal aliens they employ, leaving the medical treatment, schooling and welfare benefits for the state taxpayer to cover.
H.R.140 – The Birthright Citizenship Act introduced by Rep. Steve King would end Birthright Citizenship, requiring that at least one parent of a child born in the United States be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. The U.S. is one of only two developed nations (Canada) to still offer Birthright Citizenship. This is a hundred billion dollar expenditure for taxpayers Smuggled children that inherit instant citizenship through misguided laws, which have not been tested in the Supreme Court. Another unfunded mandate, that is part of uncompensated mandates such as education through high school graduation, free health treatments from the common cold to expensive surgeries paid by YOU. An overcrowded prison system full of criminal aliens that is to blame for high percentages of wicked acts in the U.S. Then a profusion of welfare programs manipulated by both parties, giving access to programs, denied to our citizens and legal residents.
These two laws on their own would save over $100.000.000.000 annually? No! I’m not talking about millions, but billions that are cleverly extracted through taxes. Similarly little is said about the $40.000.000.000 that leaves this country by wire transfer to foreign banks. Another astronomical payout would be if the Democrats, Liberals and the Republicans passed an amnesty. The cost according to the Heritage Foundation would be in the region of $2.4000.000.000.000, ($2.4 TRILLION DOLLARS TO PROCESS A PATH TO CITIZENSHIP FOR 11 MILLION PEOPLE) to complete the processing and the whole carnival once again on the backs of taxpayers. The pro-sovereignty organization gives more credence, that there is at least 20 million plus unauthorized aliens in the United States.
These new amendments will be useful to the state of Arizona and all 50 states, with many convulsing under the Department of justice lawsuits, and the relentless financial bombardment of illegal aliens settled around the country. No matter the outcome of the U.S. Supreme Court, these laws and amendments passed by Congress could begin a major mass departure of foreign nationals.
There is a short list of premier contenders for second place, but Marco Rubio is held in high esteem and would bring a polarized bloc of Hispanics to the voting booth? Nobody is positive on the outcome of where the largest majority of LEGAL Hispanics stand, but the highest priority should be EMPLOYMENT, economy and the ‘Rule of Law’, and then they should be drawn to the Constitutionality of the TEA PARTY leadership? Not excluded is the African American community, who have ostracized by business owners, especially the teens who in the last ten years have been hit hard, by the illegal immigrant domination of start-up jobs. Even the general Caucasian young American has been alienated by the same discount labor and under the table labor wages, so millions of school population remains unemployed?
In academia, visas should only be granted to professional people with an advanced degree, STEM workers (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) for the U.S. workforce in an expedited process. However the STEM workers must be of the highest order, not undermining the top experienced priority of intellects citizens here? Farming and agricultural workers and other Guest labor must be well regulated, that benefits must be paid by business owner, not the taxpayer as it is the case now. Simply put, the company should pay for the health care, education for their children and other public assistance, not just their wages? OTHER THAN THESE ABOVE CATEGORIES, WE SHOULD NOT BE A MAGNET FOR THE POVERTY OF OTHER NATIONS.
Years of planned encouragement by both political parties, has erupted in a major response from anti-illegal alien organizations, including NumbersUSA, Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC), The Heritage foundation, The Federation for Immigration Reform(FAIR), Judicial Watch and thousands of more groups, blogs available to all readers across the Internet. Let your Senator or Congressman/Women know that they are not eligible for your vote, if they are discovered pampering the millions of invaders who have settled here illegally–phone DC. , Switchboard at 202-224-3121 Demand also that your state adopts a voter ID law, so no non-citizens, illegal aliens or felons or even the deceased can manipulate the pending elections, including the Presidential vote.
Ayn Rant
June 11th, 2012
5:23 pm
The Congress has not passed a budget; therefore congressmen (representatives and senators) have not passed a budget. The Ryan budget voted for by the Republican members of the House of Representatives is a strawman that no Republican or Democrat would dare support if it had a chance of becoming law.
The Republicans in the House vote for symbolic measures that they know cannot become law.
People will not stand for more tax cuts for the ultrarich, more development of useless cold war weapon, and cuts to the medical and retirement benefits that make us an almost civilized nation.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
June 11th, 2012
5:24 pm
Ronnie would be called a RINO
———————
You obviously don’t know much about Our President Reagan.
“Tear down this wall”? “Evil empire”? Star Wars? 600-ship navy? “Government IS the problem”?
Get a grip.
bu2
June 11th, 2012
5:25 pm
The Democrats had a huge majority in the House and 58 or 59 votes in the Senate and failed to pass a budget for the 1st time in the history of the republic. The Democrats can’t even compromise with themselves. They had trouble passing a budget the year they had 60 votes in the Senate.
There’s a no compromise element of the Republicans, but they manage to reach agreement among themselves at least. Both parties have shifted out of the center, but only one party repeatedly chooses Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi as their “leaders.”
Hillbilly D
June 11th, 2012
5:29 pm
Now with Ten Percent Fewer Calories
In the eyes of many Republicans, if you stray from the approved line, you’re a RINO. Same thing goes with the Democrats. I have mentioned in the past on here about how my family always voted as Democrats going back about 150 years and I was raised in the same way. But the Democrats don’t want a “conservative Democrat” anymore than the Republicans want a “liberal Republican”. Every time I’ve mention “old line conservative Democrats” on here, it usually isn’t 5 minutes until I get a rebuttal explaining to me that they weren’t Democrats, they were Dixiecrats, even though the Dixiecrat party only last about a year and involved one election cycle in 1948. So you can only be a Republican if you’re “the right kind of Republican” and you can only be a Democrat, if you’re “the right kind of Democrat. Otherwise, they don’t want you playing their little reindeer games. You see it on here and virtually anywhere you care to look, any old day.
That’s one reason why I’m a member of neither party. The both disgust me. I think people should’ve listened to George Washington when he gave his Farewell Address. He knew exactly what was going to happen.
TRUTH
June 11th, 2012
5:33 pm
Funny, Kyle… Jeb is only saying what the rest of the country is saying. The GOP is NOT the GOP of Regan, heck, its not even the party of Dubya. Further, the Tea Party movement WAS NOT grassroots. They are pawns of big business (a lot of people got misled…), now the country is left with a GOP that is straight owned by big business, Grover, Dick Armey, and the rest of them. Jeb said what was on his heart and you, in typical ReTHUGlican fashion run to a revisionist position basically claiming what he meant to say was, or he didn’t mean that… HOGWASH. Jeb was a sitting governor, you are a newspaper opinionist, so how, exactly, do you know what he meant? Yes, I am a liberal Democrat, yes I am voting for President Obama (not Obozo or any of the other derogatory names you self righteous neo-cons come up with). Romney is getting support, not from his platform, but from those Americans who still don’t want a man of color leading this country, because he is a Democrat, and because HE HAS BEEN SUCCESFUL.
C’mon, Kyle….even you can do better than that….
Sam
June 11th, 2012
5:34 pm
thank you Ayn..that House budget wasnt worth the paper it was written on. it was a joke on the american people.
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers
June 11th, 2012
5:35 pm
The Dems don’t want a budget because
a: they don’t want their spending increases scrutinized by fox news pundits, or
b: they have the collective intelligence of one of getalife’s turds
ReaganRIP
June 11th, 2012
5:36 pm
Reagan is dead and buried. Has been for a while. Was half asleep when he was president. Is this the best the rightists can do for a role model? Pathetic.
The Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers
June 11th, 2012
5:39 pm
At least Reagan wasn’t a teleprompter puppet and knew that there wasn’t 57 states. Hell I will even go as far to say that Reagan released his transcripts…
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
June 11th, 2012
5:41 pm
[OBOZO] HAS BEEN SUCCESFUL
————————
Six trillion in new debt…higher unemployment today than when he took office…record numbers on food stamps…Gitmo still open…Lost us our AAA credit rating…Wasted a year on an unconstitutional health care power grab…No reform of entitlement programs…Increased the cost of Medicare Part D…
Success.
weetamoe
June 11th, 2012
5:41 pm
The Reagan of 1964 would be right at home in today’s republican party. The TEA party cares nothing about the *birther* thingy which in fact began as a rumor circulated by the Hilary Clinton campaign. The TEA party does not oppose taxes, just argues that we are Taxed Enough Already and should live within our means. The cost or the wars was a reasonable percentage of the GDP and the US went into Iraq under a UN mandate. Under Obama the GDP has shrunk to less than 2%. The TEA party worked quietly within the system to elect conservatives at all levels of government. Occupiers thought that micturating and defecating on private property was the solution to inequality. The Occupiers and union thugs made death threats against Scott Walker after the election Union boss Richard Trumka volunteered to *take out* the TEA party if Obama wished him to do so…and so it goes..
Now with Ten Percent Fewer Calories
June 11th, 2012
5:42 pm
Thanks for the historical perspective, Hillbilly. I was interested in your perspective regarding the current crop of politicians in Washington and what examples you might cite that would lead you to believe, for example, that the Democrats are uncompromising while the Republicans are compromising (noting here that I do not know what you actually believe and am just throwing out an example for the sake of discussion). I saw just the opposite with respect to the health care legislation and the deficit/debt reduction negotiations. As for the spats that they like to put on for the camera that do not amount to anything of benefit to we the people, who cares. That stuff is just cheap entertainment designed to fill in blank space on line as well as on air.
Sam
June 11th, 2012
5:43 pm
lil barry, what the hell do those quotes have to do with the fact that reagan would be called a rino today? (raised taxes, immigration, huge deficits/debt)..where do those fit in?
JDW
June 11th, 2012
5:46 pm
@Kyle…sounds to me like he knew what he meant and then tried to back off. Fact is, as you, I and anyone else with half a brain knows Reagan and Bush 1 wouldn’t stand a snowball’s chance in a real hot place of winning a Republican Primary today.
getalife
June 11th, 2012
5:50 pm
The actor raised taxes and would be voted out by the tea party.
WAW
June 11th, 2012
5:52 pm
What Jeb said that got my attention – He didn’t sign the Pledge! That makes your argument nothing but spin Kyle. Because you can’t be a Republican today if you don’t sell your soul to the devil.
Rafe Hollister
June 11th, 2012
6:11 pm
Ten Percent
Example of Dem not wishing to compromise. Boehner and Oblamer had a deal on the debt ceiling increase, budget cuts and tax increases. I understand it was push back Oblamer received, that scuttled the deal.
For all of you wise acres that say Reagan would not fit into todays GOP, you are wrong, but yes the GOP is more conservative than it was in the Nixon/Ford years. The Dems are much more left than they were in the Truman or Kennedy years. So, tit for tat, JFK could not get the nomination today in the Dem party and Truman would probably be a Republican.
Hillbilly D
June 11th, 2012
6:22 pm
Now with Ten Percent Fewer Calories
I believe that with the current crop in Washington, it just depends on how they view their position, strategically. If the Democrats think they need Republican votes to pass something, they’ll compromise. By the same token, if the Republicans think the Democrats can’t pass it on their own, then they smell blood in the water and they won’t compromise. I think that pretty much sums up the deficit/debt reduction thing.
On health care, I personally think the President just blew that one right from the start. He turned it over to the Congress and sort of washed his hands of it, at least figuratively. He didn’t get out and sell it to the people and the Republicans capitalized on that and ran with it. I don’t like his health care plan, as I think the drug companies and insurance industry will be the real beneficiaries. I also think it’s unconstitutional, at the Federal level, to force people to buy a product from a private company. We’ll see if I’m right about that shortly.
If he believed in his program though, he should have spearheaded it and got out and convinced the voters that it was the thing to do. If he was successful in that, the voters could’ve pressured the Congress.
Personally, I’m for a single payer system. Granted, it would’ve been very difficult to pass but by taking that off the table right at the beginning, it insured it won’t happen any time soon. If his plan is struck down by the court, then they’re back at square one, with virtually no bargaining leverage. So from a strategic standpoint, I think the President brought that one on himself.
I have no doubt if the roles were reversed on an issue, the Republicans would compromise, if they felt they had no choice and the Democrats wouldn’t, if they smelled the blood in the water. I think that’s what’s important to both sides, is just to beat the other side.
Back when the great financial meltdown came, I was watching PBS on night and they had Barney Frank and a Republican (I forget who it was), explaining their positions on what had happened and what needed to be done. It was PBS, so it was a civil discussion without the usual screaming and shouting, even though their positions were about 180 degrees apart. Lasted 3-4 minutes but the really interesting thing came at the end. After they’d finished, and they were cutting away, the camera lingered a moment too long. Apparently thinking they were off camera, Frank slapped the other guy on the leg and said, “Good job”. They’re all career politicians, or turn into career politicians, and it’s largely a game to them, to my way of thinking.
Hillbilly D
June 11th, 2012
6:22 pm
Dang that was longer than I realized. Didn’t mean to re-write War and Peace.
Now with Ten Percent Fewer Calories
June 11th, 2012
6:25 pm
Rafe,
I understand that a debt/deficit deal was enacted into law (the ultimate agreement) and now the Republicans do not want to hold up their end of the bargain. Also, do you happen to have any details regarding the GOP budget proposal and its impact on the debt. I can’t seem to find anything indicating how much the debt will be impacted by the GOP’s proposal.
Now with Ten Percent Fewer Calories
June 11th, 2012
6:27 pm
Hillbilly D,
Thanks for the comments. I cannot find much to disagree with you about in there. I too would love to see a single payer system.
Tiberius - Banned by Bookman and proud of it!
June 11th, 2012
6:56 pm
Short answer to the question of your column:
No.
But it won’t stop the libs from desperately trying to make an issue out of it. Anything to distract from the miserable record of this president and his lack of leadership .
Just saying..
June 11th, 2012
6:57 pm
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin…
June 11th, 2012
4:09 pm: “What’s kookman doing monitoring Wingnut’s blog?
Odd, isn’t it?”
If there were derelicts in your neighborhood, wouldn’t you keep an eye…?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
June 11th, 2012
6:58 pm
Compromising with dummycrats only exposes you to their fiendishness and opens you to their trickery.
For instance, they will try to get you to look into their eyes where you will see the pit of hell filled with pestilence and depravity and you will be struck dumb by the sheer horror of it all. Then they will take advantage of you.
I don’t recommend it. It’s better just to ignore them.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
June 11th, 2012
6:59 pm
See, now I’m ignoring 6:57.
Logical Dude
June 11th, 2012
7:01 pm
Sooooooo. .. . nothing on the Republican’s “pledge” to Grover to not raise taxes, and they keep running into that corner when they know it helps destroy the country?
Really?
And sitting in the corner whining about the taxes?
Really?
Democrats dismissed that rightly because of the huge middle-class burden created to support the payoffs to the rich. Democrats also rightly dismissed Obama’s budgets. Republicans have done EVERYTHING they can to keep ANYTHING from happening. . . and you ask why a budget hasn’t been passed. Sheesh, if the Republican could do it, they’d filibuster anyone from going to the bathroom.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
June 11th, 2012
7:04 pm
kookman’s blog is a haven for the illiterate. They exchange trivial banalities amongst themselves with the occasional sobbing or whining. Facebook could bring a copyright infringement suit upon him at anytime.
Not to mention they’re booooorrrrrrriiiiinnngggg, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward--Again)
June 11th, 2012
7:05 pm
Maybe someone can explain how folks who pay nothing or almost nothing in income taxes can be burdened in any way.
As you well know, the rich pay the bills in this country.
Rafe Hollister
June 11th, 2012
7:13 pm
Ten Percent
You were asking about GOP budget proposals as related to the deficit. All I know is that CBO says it will take 28 years on the Ryan budget to eliminate the deficit. Dems will not vote for it, as it is “TOO EXTREME”.
For me, it is too ineffective. We need the deficit to disappear soon, rather than 28 years from now.
To Tell the Truth
June 11th, 2012
8:05 pm
Funny how the recent Auburn University shootings media and NAACP have not called out a bounty for the killer. Where are you Jessie and Al?
What a bunch of RACIST people those two are!!!!
iggy
June 11th, 2012
8:24 pm
Not to worry, libs, Romney/Help is on the way!!
@@
June 11th, 2012
8:32 pm
and I don’t see the left wanting to hear what’s being said.
Michael H. Smith
June 11th, 2012
9:04 pm
Doing nothing is not always a bad thing Kyle.
Would doing nothing on healthcare had been better than passing obumerCare?
Would doing nothing had been better than passing Dodd-Frank?
Would doing nothing had been better than buying the UAW a bankrupt car company – by the name of GM – on the taxpayer’s national credit card?
The Hippocratic Oath involves doing nothing rather than doing harm: I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.
Real Athens
June 11th, 2012
9:54 pm
Kyle:
Your “out of context” rewriting of Jeb’s statements (you can watch them on youtube or anywhere else and add vocal inflection, body language, etc.) to come to a differing conclusion makes me want to puke. You know damn well what he meant.
Is the AJC paycheck REALLY that important? You’ll sell your integrity as a journalist for … what? Geezus. I hope you’re getting paid by someone else.
Seriously, what would Fink think? You’ve struck a new low. Do you care about, recognize or believe in the Fourth Estate?
Pitiful.
You’re not qualified to shine Ralph McGill’s shoes.
The Kid
June 11th, 2012
9:59 pm
Having a Brother as Pres., has completely unhinged you white people. Get over it. There’s an antidote. Vote him out. He’ll ride richly off into the sunset, so you can again worship the likes of ; lying, draftdodging, war-criminal Cheney.
Real Athens
June 11th, 2012
10:03 pm
Hillbilly:
IMO you’re right regarding the individual mandate — a GOP spurned idea as an alternative idea to Hillarycare. They were for it, now against.
You want to fix out of control healthcare costs in America? Please read:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/august-2009/viewpoint/overview/our-prescription-for-health-care-ov.htm
The Kid
June 11th, 2012
10:20 pm
Hopefully Romney will somehow get a spine on his trip down the Yellow Brick Road.. He reminds one of a limp noodle, but…, he’s a rich All-American looking white boy so Zowie!!!
bill
June 11th, 2012
10:23 pm
I do enjoy reading the blog comments. Also, enjoy reading Kyle’s replies-everyone else is always wrong and Kyle knows the truth. Day in and day out. Year in and year out. Kinda like Alabama football fans.
bluecoat
June 11th, 2012
10:35 pm
Jethro makes more sense than his dad or brothers.This is the clampet family right.Our worth 40 o/o less and back to 92 level.
Gas was $1.81 gal when Bush left office
June 11th, 2012
10:44 pm
Ayn Rant – You wealth envy is SO OBVIOUS…..why don’t you do something about it?
Old Timer
June 11th, 2012
10:50 pm
After years of studying both major parties I have come to the conclusion that during Presidentail Election Time both candidates become disfunctional. Money becomes the route of all evil. Since I have only one vote I am forced to vote for the person who tell the least amount of fibs. Afterall they are POLITICANS not Statesmen. God Bless America.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 11th, 2012
10:52 pm
There’s nothing real about your thinking processes, Real Athens.
As has been explained earlier, just because an individual Republican brings up an idea, that doesn’t make it a “Republican” idea. It makes it an idea from a Republican. Fail on your part again on the individual mandate.
As to excoriating Kyle for his column, he is spot on. No other conclusion fits, as he is using ALL of Bush’s own words, unless your goal is to create even more distraction from the record of the worst President to occupy the Oval Office in the history of this nation, and that’s the current officeholder.
Hillbilly D
June 11th, 2012
11:11 pm
Speaking of health care, I posted this yesterday but I don’t think anybody read it. This man was a real doctor. (If you read it, read the comments at the bottom, too).
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/199/article/68603/
Oblama
June 11th, 2012
11:18 pm
Compromise to the Dems means you do it our way or else we will whine, cry, play the sex card, the race card the age card, the victim card, etc. etc etc.
Progressive Humanist
June 11th, 2012
11:20 pm
Kyle- You talk about Bush’s rambling statement. It’s difficult to imagine a more rambling piece than the one you’ve written here. It’s full of obfuscation and rationalizations in an attempt to twist and distort Bush’s words until you eek out a meaning you can live with. Very poor work, even for you.
And it’s simply a farce to suggest that Democrats have had a hand in the dysfunction. The problem is that the Democrats met the Republicans halfway from the get-go, and the Republicans would go off and sulk in a corner until they got everything they wanted, 100%. Democrats initially wanted a public option on healthcare, which would have been much more cost effective and far better for the country than the giveaway to private healthcare companies we ended up with. But in order to try and compromise right off the bat, Obama dropped the public option at the beginning, only to have Republicans try to block everything until we got the poor piece of legislation we finally got.
Cap and trade was initially a Republican idea, and the Republican presidential candidate endorsed it less than 4 years ago. But as soon as Democrats decided to compromise and try it out, the Republicans decided it’s now “cap and tax”.
Former Republican presidents Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II all implemented government stimulus packages and increased public sector employment when the economy was in trouble. Now Republicans call that communism.
No, Republicans are doing their very best to try to sabotage the U.S. economy and they’re doing a decent job of it. They don’t want compromise and have no intention of going that route. As the new Republican Senate candidate from Indiana said, compromise for them means having Democrats agree to everything the Republicans want.
No matter how you try to spin it, Republicans started this mess we’re in and are responsible for willfully keeping it going as long as Obama is in office. Now that’s patriotism (or more accurately sedition).
td
June 11th, 2012
11:21 pm
JFK would lose in a primary battle today.
“I did not leave the Democratic party, they left me” Zell Miller
Sam Nunn could not win a primary battle today in Georgia.
Here is a question for you libs: Could Bill Clinton win a primary battle with Obama in today’s Democratic party?
Hillbilly D
June 11th, 2012
11:23 pm
“I did not leave the Democratic party, they left me” Zell Miller
I’m not a fan of Zell’s but the man had a point.
Progressive Humanist
June 11th, 2012
11:30 pm
Real Athens,
Well, I heard Kyle was the top student at UGA while he was there (but calling a journalism student the top student at a research university is like calling a massage therapy student the top student at a medical college). But I agree with your assessment of his work here.
Progressive Humanist
June 11th, 2012
11:32 pm
It’s pretty clear that sanity left Zell before he left the Democratic party.
td
June 11th, 2012
11:36 pm
Real Athens
June 11th, 2012
9:54 pm
Are you freaking serious? You come on here and try to call out Kyle for (IYO) is something that every Lib journalist does everyday and far, far worse. You have to get the prize today for the dumbest post.
Progressive Humanist
June 11th, 2012
11:36 pm
td- A recent analysis out of UGA showed that Democrats have gotten more moderate than they were a generation ago while Republicans have gone off the deep end to the right. So your questions at 11:21 don’t really make any sense unless you’re living in your Faux News fishbowl. Or you’ve got a crush on Rush. I’m guessing it’s both with you.
td
June 11th, 2012
11:37 pm
Progressive Humanist
June 11th, 2012
11:32 pm
It’s pretty clear that sanity left Zell before he left the Democratic party.
Zell never left the Democratic party and I do not think they kicked him out.
td
June 11th, 2012
11:40 pm
Progressive Humanist
June 11th, 2012
11:36 pm
td- A recent analysis out of UGA showed that Democrats have gotten more moderate than they were a generation ago.
If this study was true then were have all the Blue dogs went too? What happened to Bill Clinton’s conservative Democratic caucus? How much has the progressive caucus grown in the past 10 years?
I think your study was flawed. Can you provide a link to the study?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
7:08 am
“Cap and trade was initially a Republican idea…But as soon as Democrats decided to compromise and try it out, the Republicans decided it’s now “cap and tax”.
——–
Cap and trade IS a great idea…for solving actual problems. When applied to phony Marxist schemes being pushed to destroy capitalism, it’s just another government money grab.
hryder
June 12th, 2012
7:12 am
Stop the purchasing of the votes of the ignorant with tax funds and VOTE OUT OF OFFICE ALL INCUMBENTS IN THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS.
To Tell the Truth
June 12th, 2012
7:23 am
I love how all of you STUPID MORONS that voted for Barry still want to point fingers at Bush!! LMAO, that Dumb A#@ in the White House has done nothing but try to Socialize America!!!
Barry is gone in November!!!!
iggy
June 12th, 2012
7:53 am
Not to worry, kiddys. The GOP will take the Whitehouse, House and Senate.
HELP IS ON THE WAY!!
Progressive Humanist
June 12th, 2012
8:00 am
iggy, you may want to look at an electoral map before you make your silly predictions.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
8:01 am
To vote for Obozo, you have to put party above country.
Act like Americans, Democrats, and help President Romney heal our country and fix the economy Obozo has trashed.
iggy
June 12th, 2012
8:05 am
“iggy, you may want to look at an electoral map before you make your silly predictions.”
You have the Nov 2012 electoral map? Impressive Sir.
Not to worry…HELP IS ON THE WAY!!
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
8:05 am
The last thing people need to do is to back and take any college course recommended by Progressive Humanist.
The old saying, “Those who can, do – those who can’t, teach” never applied so much as when referencing a Progressive Humanist post.
Former Reagan Republican
June 12th, 2012
8:09 am
Kyle, Jeb Bush is exactly right. I voted for Reagan twice and I don’t fit into the GOP any more either. Unless you are a gun toting,Bible beating,homophobe who is married to the military-industrial complex you no longer fit into the GOP.Jeb is also right about the tax debate. I would gladly take a small tax increase with large cuts in spending including the scared cows of the Demos and the GOP. We can’t get out of this debt problem without both increases in taxes and across the board cuts. Go Jeb !!!
Progressive Humanist
June 12th, 2012
8:33 am
iggy- Here’s a look at an electoral map site run by a hardcore Republican: http://www.electionprojection.com/2012elections/president12.php
Tiberius- So I guess a lot of scientific research gets done in the private sector, huh? And because I can’t cut it there I have to teach as a professor because no scientific research ever comes out of universities? You should have listened to your unemployed momma and never dropped out of 8th grade. Such a sad case.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
8:39 am
Progressive Humanist, trying to decide a Presidential election based on a map 5 months before the actual election, and one using data at least 3 weeks to as much as 6 months out of date is a fool’s errand, which is why you like to cite them, I’m sure.
And I’m sure that some real scientific research comes out of universities; just not any research you’re associated with.
I’d say you should have listened to your father, but you and your momma probably never knew who he was.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
8:40 am
You simply have no credibility if you claim to support Reagan and find Obozo preferable to Romney.
We all know you’re lying.
iggy
June 12th, 2012
8:42 am
Darn. And to think I was gonna vote in the 2012 Pres election. Silly me.
td
June 12th, 2012
8:58 am
Lil’ Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
8:40 am
You simply have no credibility if you claim to support Reagan and find Obozo preferable to Romney.
We all know you’re lying.
Best post I have read on these blogs in months. Only a total moron could think Obama has anything philosophically in common with the best President we had in the 20th century.
SBinF
June 12th, 2012
9:00 am
Awesome Kyle,
I’m so glad that we have you around to tell us that what Jeb said is not really what he meant. I don’t know how I’d get through life without you.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
9:06 am
“I’m so glad that we have you around to tell us that what Jeb said is not really what he meant.”
I think the point is, SBinF, that Kyle is simply warning people to not believe the libs when they jump on those comments, and is simply providing the materials for some of you to use so that you can think for yourselves for the first time in many of your lives.
Think of it as the kind of real-world education people such as Progressive Humanist just cannot provide.
Glenn
June 12th, 2012
9:13 am
Wow this is a pretty incredible article .
Why did Evan Bayh & Olympia Snowe leave office ? What moderates aren’t leaving or being voted out ? How many blue dog dems & established republicans are being removed by Tea Party supported candidates ? Are you really ignoring the Tea Party influence ?
What is a filibuster ? Who is called the party of no ?
Your own boy Kyle loves his title of Godfather of Gridlock . And this is my favorite Newt quote .
“What if [Obama] is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]?”
Read that quote & tell me they are ready to work with this President . This article is about as out of touch .
Ronald Reagan would be bullied by the rightwing today if there was any give or compromise on any major issue at all . Actually Mitt Romneys biggest virtues for Republicans are that he is spineless and stands for nothing . In theory he should be easy to pound into place .
SBinF
June 12th, 2012
9:15 am
Haha, whatever you say.
That might be true if he didn’t, in the same interview, say that the hyper partisan rhetoric is only temporary. Why would he say it’s only temporary if he didn’t believe it existed in the first place?
Kyle’s neglecting to mention that fact is a little disingenuous.
SBinF
June 12th, 2012
9:16 am
“Back to my dad’s time and Ronald Reagan’s time – they got a lot of stuff done with a lot of bipartisan suport,” he said. Reagan “would be criticized for doing the things that he did.”
—————-
Please Kyle, tell us what Jeb meant there, because it must be something completely different than what he said.
SBinF
June 12th, 2012
9:17 am
Bush said that Mitt Romney’s move to channel Republicans’ anger over immigration in the primary has put him “in somewhat of a box” in the general election. He advised Romney to offer a “broader and more intense” approach to the issue. He suggested Romney continue to campaign in Hispanic communities, that he recast immigration as an economic issue, and that he focus on the question of education.
“I do feel a little out of step with my party on this,” he said.
——————————-
Kindly translate this for us too.
Misty Fred
June 12th, 2012
9:20 am
Who cares what jeb bush thinks?
ragnar danneskjold
June 12th, 2012
9:21 am
Jeb perceives that Reagan was great because he compromised with PATCO, and with the Soviets at Reykajavik. Suppose that is why Tip O’Neil supported the Reagan tax cuts that drove the economy so well for 20 years. What a doofus.
iggy
June 12th, 2012
9:27 am
“Read that quote & tell me they are ready to work with this President . This article is about as out of touch .”
One doesnt compromise with little dictaters like ObaManure.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
9:29 am
How many blue dog dems & established republicans are being removed by Tea Party supported candidates ?
————
Not enough.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
9:36 am
“Back to my dad’s time and Ronald Reagan’s time – they got a lot of stuff done with a lot of bipartisan suport,” he said.
—————-
Please Kyle, tell us what Jeb meant there
—————————
He meant that Democrats used to compromise. Now, they either obstruct, or flee across state lines.
Progressive Humanist
June 12th, 2012
9:40 am
Tiberius- The next piece of scientific research you come in contact with will be the first. Please don’t embarrass yourself by trying to go that route. Your idea of science is getting a charlatan to tell you why there’s scientific “proof” that a magical primate telepathically created all energy and matter. Good stuff if you can’t tell the difference between fiction and science, but not the kind of stuff that a rational person would be suckered into believing.
You’re in denial if you think electoral predictors have no validity. You simply want an outcome that does not conform to what the data currently says so you deny the data and value your uniformed opinion to a greater degree. That’s typical and is how you function on most issues. You may want to go back and check the accuracy of certain electoral vote predictors. They have tended to be accurate on about 48 states and are only off by about 3% or so on the one or two they miss. But you’d need to know something about statistics to process that information, which means you’d need a college degree and maybe even a little background in research, so once again it’s likely over your head.
Don't Tread
June 12th, 2012
9:42 am
…or get their lawyers to file a bogus lawsuit.
td
June 12th, 2012
9:51 am
Lil’ Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
9:36 am
“Back to my dad’s time and Ronald Reagan’s time – they got a lot of stuff done with a lot of bipartisan suport,” he said.
—————-
Please Kyle, tell us what Jeb meant there
—————————
He meant that Democrats used to compromise. Now, they either obstruct, or flee across state lines.
Libs have never compromised they just lied. See the Reagan and GHWB grand bargains of tax hikes for spending cuts in which the Dems refused to cut the spending after getting the tax hikes.
Oblama
June 12th, 2012
9:53 am
How can anyone reason with that nut case Nanny Pelosi You can’t converse with a MORON.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
9:55 am
“That might be true if he didn’t, in the same interview, say that the hyper partisan rhetoric is only temporary. Why would he say it’s only temporary if he didn’t believe it existed in the first place?”
SBinF, if you actually read the comments and understood the English language, you’d know that Jeb was speaking about BOTH sides, not just Republicans.
Oblama
June 12th, 2012
9:55 am
“W” compromised with the Dems ………. Big spending on socialist programs in return for Dems cooperation on Iraq – and where did that get us?
Oblama
June 12th, 2012
9:58 am
Dems don’t know what compromise means……. to them it means do it our way. You can’t bargain with the devil.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
10:04 am
“Your idea of science is getting a charlatan to tell you why there’s scientific “proof” that a magical primate telepathically created all energy and matter.”
How many times can you be wrong in a day, Progressive Humanist?
I’m an Agnostic.
“You’re in denial if you think electoral predictors have no validity.”
They have great validity – about 3 weeks before the actual election, as state polls tend to lag behind national polls. You’d know that if you actually knew – well – anything.
“You may want to go back and check the accuracy of certain electoral vote predictors.”
I actually have. At the points when they become valid. Not 5 months before the election.
“They have tended to be accurate on about 48 states and are only off by about 3% or so on the one or two they miss.”
Yes, when judged at the 3 week time frame. NOT 5 months beforehand. See, that’s the difference between hopeful projection (your “scientific” method) and REALITY.
Oh, and I’ve forgotten more about statistics and how they should be applied and interpreted than you’ve ever known about them in your sorry lifetime of living off the government dole. Something I am proud to say I have never done.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
10:07 am
td, that’s why we need to see real, deep, painful spending cuts before even considering raising taxes.
Jefferson
June 12th, 2012
10:07 am
At least 2 of the Bush clan talk sense.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
10:12 am
Yes, at least.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
10:23 am
And ALL the Bush clan know how many states there are.
Rafe Hollister
June 12th, 2012
10:27 am
Government is not the solution to any problem, government is the problem. Ronald Reagan
You guys are getting desperate trying to remake Oblamer into Reagan. Barry, who is a one trick pony, government solutions.
Don't Tread
June 12th, 2012
10:35 am
I recall Zell Miller being called “Zig Zag Zell” (and worse) by his own party because he refused to vote in lock-step with the Democrat party leadership. Somehow I doubt he would gain any support from the Democrats if he were to run today. And you people complain about the other side not compromising…
td
June 12th, 2012
10:38 am
Lil’ Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
10:07 am
td, that’s why we need to see real, deep, painful spending cuts before even considering raising taxes.
I have been saying for years that we need real spending cuts for at least two years and then I will be willing to talk about tax increases to pay down debt.
bu2
June 12th, 2012
10:41 am
PH
You’re right. Obama is not a socialist. He really acts more like a facist. He wants everything run by the government and his preferred industrialists who he likes to give taxpayer money to. He wants to force his views on what is appropriate even on the Catholic church. He vilifies those who disagree with him (didn’t he get elected to be the President of all the people, not just those who agree with him?). Even Jimmy Carter wasn’t so clueless as to what the job entailed.
At the time I was glad he beat out Hillary because I thought he would be less divisive, even if a little more difficult to beat than Hillary. I was wrong about him being less divisive.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
June 12th, 2012
10:46 am
bu2….nailed it.
I said during the campaign that Obozo was “Hillary without the hate”. Wrong. More like “Hillary without a clue”. Obozo hates America and is actively working to weaken it.
Progressive Humanist
June 12th, 2012
10:55 am
Agnostic, huh? That’s the first thing you’ve ever written that made you look like you’ve got a lick of sense.
You’re still in denial if you think nothing can be accurately predicted more than 3 weeks out. Right now we already know how 42 states will vote. Of the last 8 states that are still up in the air, Obama won them all in 2008 and Romney will have to win all of them to get to 270 (Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, & Florida) . However you’d like to slice it, the electoral college looks bleak at best for Romney.
Yes, I’m sure you’re a real statistics wiz. And it’s pretty common that guys like you blogging from trailers know more about statistics than professors who conduct and teach research. Your fantasy world is pretty amusing to those of us who live in the real world. And didn’t you say one time that you are retired? If so, then it seems as if you are the one on the government dole, and I’m the one who has never been on it. You’re a strange, strange lady with strange, strange concepts of the world.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
11:15 am
“Right now we already know how 42 states will vote.”
No, actually, “we” don’t. You may “think” (a term I use very loosely when describing your abilities) you know how 42 states will vote, but you really don’t know.
And yes, I am retired, but I am not on the government dole. Unlike you who rely on employment at a government funded university for your subsistence, I retired early – very early – and don’t have to rely on government for my subsistence. However, when the time comes to retrieve the money that was taken from me by force, I’ll be first in line to get back what once was mine and will be mine again.
And I’ve never lived in a trailer, however, I do cruise the country in my mobile home enjoying different parts of this nation whenever I wish while you toil in obscurity teaching noting of significance to addle-headed liberal 99%-ers who leave your class not knowing anything more than when they entered it.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
11:26 am
Stephanie Cutter, Deputy Campaign manager for the Obama campaign, used as excuse for Obama not hitting his employment and deficit reduction promises in his first term as the following on The Daily Rundown on MSNBC:
“It took us a year and a half to realize what policies we needed to put together.”
Seriously?
What happened to Valerie “We’re ready to rule day one” Jarrett?
With surrogates like these (Booker, Rattner, Clinton, Ford, etc), who needs to campaign against him?
This joke of a President was clueless during the campaign and has remained so for every day of his tenure as the worst President in the history of this nation.
Progressive Humanist
June 12th, 2012
11:38 am
So you think that California will vote for Romney or Texas will go for Obama? That’s why we use probability in statistics. The probability of either of those happening is so low we can safely say we know how they will vote, yes, as far as 5 months out. Most other states fall into the same category.
Forced “retirement”, huh? It’s not a surprise that no one could put up with an @rse like you and you were shown the door. You’ve probably seen quite a few doors slam across your backside in your day.
I’m glad you admitted you’ll be the first in line to be on the government dole. Sounds about right for a Tea Party imbecile. Hypocrite.
Trailer? Mobile home? Same difference. It’s nice you finally fessed up to it.
Your powers of telepathy don’t seem to be very strong today, but you can continue with your baseless speculation about my occupational quality, my students’ political persuasions, and what my students don’t learn. I always get a kick out of your mindless delusions.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
June 12th, 2012
11:46 am
And you folks truly believe Salon.come is liberal rag?
What lies at the nexus of Obama’s targeted drone killings, his self-serving leaks, and his aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers is a president who believes himself above the law, and seems convinced that he alone has a preternatural ability to determine right from wrong.
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/12/leaking_war/
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
11:52 am
Progressive Humanist, once you started to make up quotes of mine, I knew you had lost the argument.
Retirement by choice, son. Because I made my pile and I don’t need to make any more. It is called success, something you’ll never see in your lifetime. The interest earned on my principle each year is likely more than you see in a couple of years of “teaching”.
And even a limited mindset such as yours should know the difference between a trailer and a mobile home. One is usually stationary and requires pulling if it were ever to move, while one is self-propelled. See? You learned something new today, a claim your students can’t make after leaving your presence.
And while there are always certain states that can be accurately predicted as to their voting patterns months in advance, 42 is an unusually high number in this particular campaign season and therefore not even remotely accurate. But accuracy isn’t really your goal, is it, Prog?
And tell me, why shouldn’t I get back that which was taken from me regarding Social Security? Make that case, son. It’s mine. I earned it. And I want it back when I am entitled to it.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
11:53 am
“And you folks truly believe Salon.come is liberal rag?”
One article out of 1,000 does not make a case that Salon is balanced, Finn.
Fail.
Again.
iggy
June 12th, 2012
11:57 am
Finn, Im putting a frowny face beside your name on the employee of the day calendar.
Nice work!
That Black guy
June 12th, 2012
12:12 pm
Progressive Humanist
June 12th, 2012
10:55 am
And didn’t you say one time that you are retired? If so, then it seems as if you are the one on the government dole, and I’m the one who has never been on it. You’re a strange, strange lady with strange, strange concepts of the world.
_____________________________________________________________________
I’m sure you know that you can retire and not receive a penny from the gov’t, right?
That Black guy
June 12th, 2012
12:16 pm
Progressive Humanist, is it possible for you to comment without the personal attacks?
Do you think your tactics help or harm your cause when it comes to undecided intependents?
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
June 12th, 2012
12:17 pm
Tiberius, that 1 in 1,000 is 1 more than Fox News will ever do regarding a Republican leader.
Progressive Humanist
June 12th, 2012
12:27 pm
Yes, Tib, you won the argument, but only in your own mind, as you do every day with everyone you “debate”. Well, I’ve got to go “toil”, and I’ve had my entertainment inciting the limp d–k old fart with the entitled attitude…
kelly
June 12th, 2012
1:20 pm
Reagan would not be acceptable to today’s republicans because he had the good sense to not start a war in the middle east. Other than that, he was a B actor. Oh, and at one time a union member. But it’s much easier to remember the fictional Reagan.
Tiberius - Banned from Bookman's and proud of it!
June 12th, 2012
2:23 pm
“Tiberius, that 1 in 1,000 is 1 more than Fox News will ever do regarding a Republican leader.”
First, Finn, that is a deflection.
Second, that is a false statement.
Third, you failed, again.
Kyle Wingfield
June 12th, 2012
2:46 pm
Progressive Humanist: For an alleged college professor, your name-calling would fit well in any kindergarten classroom.
Read these rules and follow them. If you can’t manage that, you’re not welcome here.
Kyle Wingfield
June 12th, 2012
2:53 pm
In four tweets today, Jeb Bush addressed the debate about his comments yesterday:
1. “Am reminded today why I rarely read headlines. #ContextIsImportant”
2. “The point I was making yesterday is this: The political system today is hyperpartisan. Both sides are at fault.”
3. “My dad & Reagan sacrificed political points for good public policy.”
4. “Past 4 years, Democrats have held leadership roles w/opportunities to reach across political aisle. For sake of politics, they haven’t.”
As I write this, he hasn’t sent any other tweets or, to my knowledge, made other comments via other media.
Progressive Humanist
June 12th, 2012
3:50 pm
Good one, Kyle. You’re getting sharper by the minute. Please don’t ban me from this bastion of intellectual debate, this Mecca of high minded philosophy, this oasis of civility. I don’t know what I would do with the 10 minutes a month I spend rolling my eyes at the foolishness I encounter here.
Kyle Wingfield
June 12th, 2012
5:00 pm
PH @ 3:50: I hope you’ll stick around, but that’s your choice.
fair and balanced
June 12th, 2012
7:22 pm
Reagan was pro abortion when Governor of California and had an affair with Nancy before divorcing his first wife. Worse yet he did not care about deficits and spent money on unnecessary military hardware. He helped Ben Laden and Islamic crazies take over in Afghanistan and turned tail and ran when Hezbollah killed 150 Marines in Lebanon and worse yet secretly gave military aid to Iran . Yeah the current right wing idealogues in the Repub. party would not give him the time of day.If he were a Democrat, Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck and the others would have him impeached.
ld
June 13th, 2012
3:44 pm
Reagan would spurn the GOP — he’d be libertarian?
Bipartisanship is not a magic word | Kyle Wingfield
June 14th, 2012
5:06 am
[...] Bush caused a stir this week when he said partisanship in Washington had gone too far. If that doesn’t sound like news, what really drew [...]
JDW
June 14th, 2012
1:54 pm
@ Kyle…”That’s a cute document you’ve got there, but a) federal budgets are done in fiscal years, not calendar years, and b) the appropriations listed for each year in your document are a couple of hundred billion dollars less than actual federal outlays during that time. So, even if we ignore the fiscal/calendar issue, either your document is incomplete, or it demonstrates that actual spending was in fact far higher than what presidents requested.”
You can thank the Library of Congress for the document (note the verification seal in the lower left). My guess is that the difference you see is the difference between budgeted vs. off budget expenses (mainly Social Security) and the fact that it is in constant dollars apparently around 1980 or so. Fiscal vs. calendar year is really irrelevant over an 8 year timeframe.
“”How much higher? If we assume your document is right about presidential requests, then the requests in the calendar years Reagan was in office — 1981-88 — totaled $4,587.4 billion. Actual outlays in FY81-88 totaled $7,089.2 billion. That’s a difference of $2,501.8 billion or 55%. The gap is even wider if we assume Reagan had more to do with the FY82-89 budgets.”"
Apparently the raw dollar numbers were in aggregate $7,357.6 requested and $7,554.9 spent but when the spent total is adjusted for budget items that are estimated in the original submission (unemployment, interest etc…). If you adjust for those numbers as the House Appropriations Committee did when they conducted a study that compared Reagan’s concrete proposals to what Congress actually passed you find that Reagan asked for $29.4 billion more than Congress passed.
So as I was saying…this myth that Reagan was mislead on spending or that Congress was responsible is HORSE HOOEY…the man got $29.4 Billion or 4% LESS than he requested.
You can read more analysis than I have time to give you here.
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/56More.htm
Kyle Wingfield
June 14th, 2012
2:06 pm
JDW: I wasn’t questioning the document’s origins, but its relevance. Anyway, this is more HORSE HOOEY from you. The (obviously biased) author of the site you linked thinks we should dock Reagan for not predicting the future accurately, even though the author admits only one of the years was truly a rosy scenario. (That also happened to be a year when the economy was expected to recover from a recession, but went back into recession instead because the Fed was tightening monetary policy to get inflation under control.)
The raw numbers, which suited you fine back when they appeared to prove your point, indicate spending was about $200B higher in 8 years than Reagan requested. As usual, you’re moving the goalposts to make up for the fact you were off the mark.