Gene, (at #13)

Welcome to the club!
H. sapiens

LOL ASMAOOMC

(* and slinging mud all over our monkey cage)

Seems to me, on that he’s dreaming, wilfully blind, and just plain wrong.

Anybody here disagree?

Perhaps I am just upset and not thinking rationally, but I really don’t see any other course. It seems as if we are on the inevitable path to bankruptcy. Everyone who is intellectually honest and willing to accept historical fact knows with an almost 100% certainty that the path the Democrats want to take will lead to only 1 place. Every time taxes on income and dividends are raised the federal government brings in less money. The only exception would likely be if the middle class has their taxes significantly raised because those folks don’t have the luxury of evading high tax rates and modifying their behavior. So either we raise taxes on everyone and cripple the economy or we raise taxes on the rich, bring in less revenue and cripple the economy.

On top of this, employers are already talking about reducing workers to part-time (i.e., less than 30 hours a week) so they don’t have to pay for health insurance. So we will have a part-time, uninsured economy where the federal government has guaranteed health insurance for all those without. This will make the Medicare $40+ trillion in unfunded liabilities look like the least of our problems I’m afraid.

The only thing that gives me pause is this… was this election about a whole lot of people voting for a President they think is “cool”… for whatever reason? Will the youth vote go back to normal now that he can’t run again? Will the African American vote go back to more traditional levels moving forward? Will the Latino vote not be quite as lopsided if Republicans work to solve immigration and nominate Senator Rubio?

If this is the new normal turnout and Latino voters don’t become more even in their voting between the parties then I see no other path than the path to ruin.

-Gene

The problem with that plan, which of course the election results dictates we have to follow, is that the number of folks who have become dependent on government will have risen from 47% to over 50% and have the power to outvote the productive segment of the population. They will keep voting themselves handouts until the whole country is bankrupt. Trying to curtail any of it will provoke riots in the streets, like Greece… or worse.

Are you suggesting that Republicans have at any time suggested an end to social security? Neither party has suggested an end to social security, but rather that it needs to be fixed. Fixing so it exists in the future is hardly ending the program.

As far as raising taxes, if you actually look at the amount of money that the Federal Government brings in each year the amount of revenue goes down when taxes go up. I realize that seems counter-intuitive, but if you check you will see it is correct. So the quickest way to make things worse will be to raise taxes. Of course, the people have spoken and the majority of Americans seem to want to stall the economic recovery by raising taxes. Likewise, they seem to want to pretend that there is no trouble with Medicare and Social Security.

I say we follow the Democrats plan and let folks get a feel for what it is like to live under Democrat fiscal policies. It won’t be long before we are like the many failing economies in Europe.

-Gene

I expect the extreme economic positions (ending social security not dealing with our budget shortfall by rising taxes at all on anyone) will turn off some the social positions are turning of many that support us economically.

Renee

Not sure if I would classify the Supreme Court vacancies in the same light as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. One can think of Bork and Kennedy as examples of the need to pick more to-the-center candidates as well as unpredictability of a candidate to behave “as expected” once in the post.

Three more reasons to be cheerful?

Previous to your article, I had no idea there were public observers at the polls. Don’t know if that’s a state-by-state process / option; or if it’s just that no one around here partakes in these activities.

And no one ever offered me a piece of pizza and a soft drink while I waited in line to vote. (Darn!)

I too, am sorry that we’re not going to have a change in the white house; but am encouraged that this might mean that Mr. Kappos and his leadership team will continue doing their good work for our nation.

-Gene

I agree with you completely. When the Tea Party started out the “tea” actually stood for “Taxed Enough Already.” The Tea Party is hardly a monolithic entity, and seems to quite clearly have been corrupted by those with outside the mainstream views. The things that were said about rape were staggeringly stupid in my opinion. The comments displayed a breathtakingly insensitive viewpoint.

I agree with the “Taxed Enough Already” views that many regular people have in common with the Tea Party, but the open-mouth-insert-foot tendencies of some of the untested and unvetted candidates that win demonstrates that the Tea Party movement has jumped the shark. Those that care about fiscal matters have been supplanted by those who seem to vote in primaries. Sad really.

For every Ted Cruz and Rand Paul the Tea Party gives us two extreme candidates. We should have at least 4 more Republican Senators over the last 2 cycles but for terrible candidates backed by people who prefer to lose with a radical candidate than win with someone who shares 90% of their beliefs.

At times yesterday I wondered whether I was one of only a few Republicans that cared. That stinks.

-Gene

I do have one observation prompted by your comment: “Governor Romney was victorious in Indiana and Missouri but bad Republican (or Tea Party Republican) candidates for Senate were trounced”

The atrocious things about those candidates were their goofy ideas about abortion. The Tea Party was about fiscal discipline, government-wise and citizen-wise (or, more precisely, the lack of such discipline), not the so-called social issues. The truly sad thing about this election is how abortion and contraception got thrust into the limelight, when the only critical issue was the economy.