Budget talks: This is getting nasty

Which was to monkey-wrench American government as an act of ideological sabotage.

 

Az - in your words what did the Tea Party want?

 

See one post up, Boom.

 

I'm not sure why the Party not holding the Presidency should be expected to do anything other than to try to stop the President from accomplishing his agenda.

That's what they do. Only when it's in the self interest (ie. re-election concerns) do individual members go along with the President.)

And, Republicans are always going to favor less legislation than Democrats. We're not trying to reinvent the country.

 

Americans have too much of everything.

I wanted to get a fishing pole a year ago and within five miles of my house, I had the following choices...

Wal mart (2)
Target (2)
Bass Pro Shop
Gander Mountain
Green Top
Dicks

That's eight stores for me to buy a freaking fishing pole. How can all those businesses survive enough to pay their employees anything?

And look at all the different school divisions we have right now in my state. Why can't they be centralized into one district? I know this sounds crazy, but it would not be that hard to do. Does McDonalds section itself off by county or city? Then why do police departments and all other public services?

 

Yes. The bigger and more intrusive the government is, the more inevitable this kind of thing is.

It becomes insatiable.

 

Yes. This is our problem.

If I recall, it's what brought down the Soviet Union -- too many consumer choices.

 

All human institutions reflect human weaknesses.

It doesn't mean that you do away with human institutions. It means you have to fight to improve them.

I agree - generally - with Ragu's description of government corruption. But our government has been corrupt in one way or another since the founding. Especially following the Civil War, when we birthed our first generation of professional politicians.

That doesn't mean, however, that we stop trying to hold it, or ourselves, to account.

I don't object to the Tea Party on principle; I object to the Tea Party in practice.

Again, they aren't the least interested in try to improve government. Only derail it.

 

The cheap goods of Walmart have ruined America. When I was growing up and wanted a fishing pole I could walk to my local sporting goods store owned by a kindly gentlemen who did everything from fixing baseball mitts and selling shotguns.

 

No, not enough money to go around, so America creates money to satiate all these business and their huge coorporate owners.

But if you start creating money out of nothing, it will eventually bite you in the ass which is what is happening in America today.

 

There is kind of a larger economic point in here. I'm told that we as a country aren't spending money because we're worried about the economy, but how much of our not spending is driven by the fact that a lot of us really don't *need* any more stuff? If consumer spending is based on want and not need, and the "want" has been sucked out of us because we don't have a job and/or we're turning our collective backs on crass consumerism, how does the larger economy deal with that reality?