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Coca-Cola on 15 December 2011
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Bong Lover said:
Baalzamon said:
I have one very quick thing to say about this.

I have heard such an incredible amount of people talk about how the Republicans are the party of no. That Obama needs bipartisanship in order to get things passed, etc.

Could somebody PLEASE tell me when the Democrats have ever tried to work side by side with the Republicans (they say they try, yet their opinion of working side by side is for Republicans to simply accept what they want, not compromise and make it something that works best for both sides)? It is the biggest damned hypocritical thing I think I hear in every political debate..."blah blah blah, the Republicans just aren't willing to work with the Democrats."

STOP SAYING THIS. The Democrats aren't willing to work with the Republicans either. "Oh, but that is because the Republican stuff is bad."...um, right back at you? Maybe the Republicans are the party of no because they feel the Democrats stuff is bad too.

Seriously, continue having political debates, but stop saying Republicans saying no to everything is the issue, because the Democrats do the same thing to Republican stuff, over and over and over.

The single most important factor holding America back today is that the house of representatives is now overflowing with fresh new representatives that are not respecting their office, the office of president or the functioning of the Republic. This was prominently on display over the shameful debt deiling 'showdown' where a bunch of nimwits claimed that the US defaulting on their obligations wasn't really a big deal, not nearly a big enough deal anywhay to compromise with the Democratic party. This is irrisponsible to the point where I am surprised these representatives are not politically dead a long time ago. The same 'statemanship' is on display again over the stupid debate over the pay roll taxes. The current Republican party are obstructionist by design and will continue to be so until the next election at least. This can not be said of the Democratic party.

If you are looking for examples of Democrats working with republicans, it's happeneing right now if you want to see it. To get the Republican party to extend the pay roll tax cuts the Democratic party is now reported to be willing to drop all together the 'Millionaire's sur tax'. That is one example of Democrats giving in on one issue that is central to their politics, while getting nothing in return basically. What's more, this will mark the 4th time they come back with modified versions of this proposed tax increase to try to get a deal done with the Republicans. What have the Republicans concedeed in the discussions? Not a single thing as they continue to refuse any sort of compromise regardless of the fallout for the country and contrary to what the vast majority of Americans want to see happening.

Yet, due to an increadibly uninformed electorate the political debate is continously getting framed by meaningless Republican sound bites. One example being "You don't raise taxes during a recession". This talking point is even being spouted by Obama for whatever reason. No one demands an explanation to why or how beyond the ubersimplistic 'more money paid in taxes means less money to invest in jobs' and ignoring the fact that the US is no longer in a recession and hasn't been for over a year. Instead politicians keep feeding into discontent and pretend that it 'feels' like a recession. For someone who has lived both in the USA and in Europe, the level of the political debate in teh US is mindnumingly shallow and almost completely void of facts.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but i thought the pay roll tax was specifically for social security.  I think for the first time we are losing money on social security so we can't cut the pay roll tax.