Do You Think Obama is a Socialist... Do You Care?

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akuma587 said:

Kasz216 said:

A lot could be cut in the defense budget.  It's just the stuff people never talk about.

 

Like the new Presidential choppers.... that the president doesn't want.  The new airplane engines  Piterus doesn't want.

 

Etc.  People keep getting shit they don't even want because Senators are looking for pork barrel jobs for their states.

 

I once saw  C-span where a senator tried to convince an unbudging VA director that he needed more money for the VA. 

Everyone is a fiscal conservative until they actually have to give up something.  Hell, the Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R), has gotten a crazy amount of pork barrel spending for his state.  This is why I find very few people out there to be credible when they say they are fiscally conservative.  That and when they ignore the fact that tax cuts have lead to large deficits just like spending.  George W. Bush was in the red every year he was in office even when the economy was doing well.  Same for Reagan.

George Bush Sr. was the only recent Republican President one who I can legitimately call a fiscal conservative.  And his party hated him for it cause he raised taxes.  Many people who claim to be fiscally conservative are more anti-tax than pro-fiscal responsibility.  Where was all the fiscal restraint when Republicans were in office?  I mean at least the Democrats are honest about what they are doing.

I do not think anyone is debating that there is a lack of political will to adhere to the fiscal conservatism that is desperately needed at the moment.  Republicans are absolutely guilty of failing to live up to those principles - but their failure to live up to those principles is not an indictment of them. 

What you say here I do not think anyone disagrees with in principle.  But if the Republicans were fiscally behaving like Democrats who are "honest" about their spending intentions why is Obama going to be any different?  He recently re-affirmed his "no new taxes" pledge and his spending is far beyond what Bush did.

So we should be able to agree that Obama and his currently stated policies are disastrous, right?

 

akuma587 said:

I agree, it is complete bullshit.  The public has been pissing and moaning about Congress not being fiscally responsible.  Now when they (i.e. the Blue Dogs, Dems, and Republicans) start coming up with legitimate ways to reduce the long term yearly budget by controlling the growth of Medicare costs, people freak out.

The epitome of this hypocrisy is people telling Congress to "keep the goverment's hands off Medicare" even though the goverment runs Medicare.  People have no idea what they want, and then when they get it, they are unhappy.

People are mostly freaking out about the prospect of government run healthcare - which is the end goal for Obama and Pelosi, I do not think anyone even doubts that do they?  I can't really be sure what you think though since you decided to ignore my attempt to clarify and understand your position.

As for those freaking out about changes to medicare:  First do we actually know if these people are objecting on the grounds of fiscal conservatism or simply that they only trust the government to screw it up?  Second, it is pretty disengenous to say the healthcare bill is just some reductions in medicare - the overall bill has been pegged at a fairly sizeable additional cost which means there is a legitimate fiscal conservative based objection to it.