Budget talks: This is getting nasty

Bush also inherited an economy that was running smoothly and a budget that had a surplus. Obama inherited an economy that was threatening to see Bushvilles pop up in Central Park and a budget that didn't include a war that was kept purposely off the books.

 

You're dead-on re S&P's motivations for the action they took, especially since none of the other rating services followed suit. Petulant jerks, in a field full of them.

 

I'm not sure how pointing out valuable regulations is somehow a defense for unnecessary, unfair, burdensome regulations.

No one is saying that all regulations should go away.

 

My understanding is that Obama-era programs are responsible for about $1.5 trillion of the debt created under his watch, while the remainder, $3.1 trillion, are from the continuation of Bush-era programs, mostly namely the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

You are clearly smarter about this than I am, but agreed. Are you really Jeffery Toobin? He laid into S&P on CNN last night.
Some of the brighter lights seem not to notice that S&P is the least regarded of the big three credit agencies and both Moody's and Fitch are sticking to the AAA rating.
As far as the other things, even the S&P guy seemed to imply that, yes they had made a $2 trillion calculation error in their numbers and that they weren't going to require that AAA-rated companies lose their rating because the sovereign nation was no longer AAA.
Another CNN guy, Ali something, said big houses that require AAA "paper" weren't going to drop the U.S. either because America has something like 75 percent of the world's bonds and investors simply had no other place to put their money.
This downgrade has all the look and feel of more political theater.

 

Oh no? How about getting rid of the EPA?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/27/999482/-Republicans-Want-to-Gut-Job-Killing-Regulations-

http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/07/27/280925/gop-2012-epa/

Or again, how about those pesky "overtime" regulations? Guess what? The GOP wants to get rid of them too, under the guise of "Reform for the 21st Century"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/14/fair-labor-standards-act-reform_n_898332.html

 

And besides YF, you pointed out a case in which a business was told not to use natural strawberries for fear of bacteria. Maybe it's a legitimate fear. Maybe it's not.

But we just had a recall of 35 million pounds of ground turkey for salmonella poisoning, which included one person dying. Do we want to take the risk that someone dies because of bacteria in the strawberry ice cream?

 

This is spot on. My whole point is that whenever anything goes bad, it was the right-wing, it was the Tea Party. That's because liberals here think liberalism has never been wrong. Blame goes in all directions because this is really about the ruling and working classes, disguised at the top in ways that protect the ruling on both sides.

 

But your solution won't do anything but pass down the burden because the ones that get socked initially will do that. Not that I disagree with the principle, it just ain't gonna work.

I do believe of whom much is given, much is expected and these people have money they'll never spend, so why are they complaining about giving up more in taxes? The more burden you put on the middle class, the more people in need you'll create; the more people in need you create, the more poor; the more poor, the bigger the social problems; the bigger the social problems, the more expensive our social services are and if you cut there, crime will go up. You may rob Peter but you'll pay Paul, but the ruling and rich will always deflect the darts tossed at them.

It's not about legislation. It's about who we have become as a people.

What we need is an overhaul of conscience, an awakening if you will. But most of you don't want anything to do with that because it might be spritually laced.

 

In case you forgot about Europe...

Hide your wife. Hide your kids.

 

The Golden Rule should serve.

 

So Italy is too big to succeed?

 

You can't rest when you're playing defense against these vermin. They're relentless, in the service of their masters. They love the smell and taste of shoe polish.