Grand Old Cult

[ugonow]

Has the GOP turned cultish with all their pledges?---www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-grand-old-cult/2011/07/02/gHQAOnlByH_story.html

[BeenThere...DoneThat...]

...I'm lazy about clicking... care to summarize the article?

[ugonow]

It just pretty much makes fun of all the pledges the GOP has been pressuring their members to sign on to. The Norquist pledge, the abortion pledge,etc, etc....

[floridayankee]

Jul 5, 2011 13:59:19 GMT -5 ugonow said:

It just pretty much makes fun of all the pledges the GOP has been pressuring their members to sign on to. The Norquist pledge, the abortion pledge,....

...the Pledge of Allegiance....

[henryclay]

ugonow said"

It just pretty much makes fun of all the pledges the GOP has been pressuring their members to sign on to

Not quite. Unless the liberals are in favor of tax breaks for ethanol production. The article says:

Thirty-four of the Senate's 47 Republicans voted to end a tax break for ethanol production

Isn't it true that ethanol production is taking food away from the poor by jacking the price of corn out of sight and putting it in less efficient, more pollutive gasoline that ruins engines and just feeds the already fat farmers and middlemen?

[ugonow]

Isn't it true this subsidy is an example of the reason rCantor and Kyle walked?Revenue increases?A lot of top republicans have publicly stated they think subsidies should go,including oil. Palin,Paul Ryan, and other fiscal conservatives have spoken out against them in the past.Suddenly they are silent.Why?

[henryclay]

ugonow said:

Suddenly they are silent.Why?

I hope it is because the Democrats are trying to sell taxes instead of "talking to their constitutients" (wasn't that the phrase Obama used?)

Other than the most sacerd of Democrat sacred cows, Medicare and Medicaid and the military, what has ANY Democrat said about cutting spending? Curious minds want to know.

[ugonow]

According to Cantor, they have agreed to framework to cut trillions. "----"Eric Cantor is pulling out of the debt-ceiling talks. But he’s not saying they should end. In fact, he’s saying they’ve been very successful thus far. “We have a blueprint to move forward to trillions of spending cuts and binding mechanisms to change the way things are done around here,” he said in a statement. Butr having agreed on spending, now the two parties need to agree on taxes. And Cantor doesn’t want to be the one to make that agreement. It’s time, he told the Wall Street Journal, for “the president to come in and talk to the speaker.” "

[ugonow]

Times change fast,don't they?---"In an interview for "This Week," Christiane Amanpour pressed House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., about these subsidies.

"Would you back ending subsidies to oil companies?" Amanpour asked.

"Oh yes," said Rep. Ryan. "I think we should clean up all those loopholes. And don't forget, there's a lot of corporate welfare spending that is in our budget put in there by both political parties because of powerful interests. We want to get rid of all that."

Ryan's comments come as President Obama dedicated his weekly address to encouraging Congress to eradicate oil subsidies.

"I do have a problem with the unwarranted taxpayer subsidies we've been handing out to oil and gas companies – to the tune of $4 billion a year," President Obama said in his address released on Saturday. "When oil companies are making huge profits and you're struggling at the pump, and we're scouring the federal budget for spending we can afford to do without, these tax giveaways aren't right. They aren't smart. And we need to end them."

Rep. Ryan insisted that his proposed budget would discourage these loopholes and eliminate them for industries beyond simply oil companies.

"What our budget does is we go after corporate welfare spending," Ryan told Amanpour. "There's corporate welfare spending on energy companies, both green and fossil energy companies. There's corporate welfare on large agri-business. There's corporate welfare on large financial companies. We want to get rid of all that corporate welfare."

[henryclay]

That's great, ugonow. We have 34 Republicans plus Ryan and Cantor who are willing to look at the tax code. Who are the 36 Democrats willing to look at the spending side, other than Medicare, Medicaid and the military? How about using the tax code to give people an incentive to find work by cutingt in half food stamps, welfare rent and utility payments, taxicabs for doctor visits and all the give-aways in earned income credit and student grants? Just half?

Has there been any Democrat voices willing to tackle that monkey's fist of vote buying knotted rope?

[ugonow]

According to Cantor,dems have pretty much agreed to the cuts proposed----"----"Eric Cantor is pulling out of the debt-ceiling talks. But he’s not saying they should end. In fact, he’s saying they’ve been very successful thus far. “We have a blueprint to move forward to trillions of spending cuts and binding mechanisms to change the way things are done around here,” he said in a statement. Butr having agreed on spending, now the two parties need to agree on taxes. And Cantor doesn’t want to be the one to make that agreement. It’s time, he told the Wall Street Journal, for “the president to come in and talk to the speaker.” " I don't think that is what the log jam is over.

[henryclay]

ugonow said:

According to Cantor,dems have pretty much agreed to the cuts proposed

That reads as if Cantor said it. And I still have not seen a single Democrat's name. Where are the names?

Heck, I might even find one or two of my own state people among them.

And I'll begin to think the Democrats are serious when one of them introduces a bill in congress to back up that seriousness. Somethng like ending the subsidies on ethanol will be a godd start. I'm have budget problems feeding my pet pig. He let's me know it if I don't put enough ground corn in his mush and I can't afford it and gasoline, too.