Not news: Congressional Republicans are way out of touch with a majority of Americans. In particular, their seemingly religious proscription against raising taxes isn’t a value shared by most Americans.
A new Gallup poll asked respondents on what methods should be used to reduce the federal deficit. There were five answers ranging from “Only with spending cuts” to “Only with tax increases”.
Not surprisingly, almost nobody (4%) opted for “Only with tax increases.” But just 20% said the deficit should be reduced with spending cuts only. Another 30% said “mostly with spending cuts.” And 32% wanted equal doses of spending cuts and increased taxes.
So half of Americans fall on the “mostly–to–all spending cuts” side of things. But “mostly” isn’t part of the ethos of many Congressional Republican. Rather, they have entrenched themselves in a “zero tax increases” mindset, and one they share with but 20% of Americans. To them there is a world of difference between the two options—there is a line drawn that cannot be crossed, lest they commit sacrilege before the eyes of their God (by whom I mean, of course, Grover Norquist).
Common sense, logic, reality, education, hunger, unemployment, investment in the future, the reputation of the U.S., the security of the U.S., the fiscal solvency of the U.S. all be damned! (“Norquist Will be done.”) No tax increases of any type for any reason! (“By the Grace of Grover.”)
It’s not just out of touch with 80% of Americans, when their religion compels them to hurt America, it’s treasonous.
News: Congressional Republicans are out of touch with Republicans. The same Gallup poll looked at the question by party identification:
We see that 68% of Republican respondents will accept tax increases at some level to fix the budget deficit.
In other words, only a quarter of American Republicans worship at the Altar of Norquist.
As August approaches, Congressional Republicans have a big decision to make: Grover or Country.
Pray they choose wisely….
If you are asking me to pray for republicans to choose wisely, why not ask me to pray for climate change to disappear or to pray for the Mariners to win the world series….either of those events is more likely than to pray for wisdom to suddenly strike republicans.
Of course, the Republicans will lie and claim that Obama’s position was for “ruinous” taxes on “job creators” (Boener’s words). It’s amazing how much lie they can get out of such a few words:
(a) It exaggerates the President’s position beyond all recognition;
(b) Cutting tax loopholes on corporate jets, etc., is hardly “ruinous” taxation. Heck, we aren’t even talking about rate increases for the wealthy Americans, we are just asking to pay taxes at their current rate on things which most Americans will never be able to afford in their lifetime;
(c) Tax cuts for the wealthy DO NOT equal job creation. If that were so, the tax cuts made during Bush’s presidency would have resulted in a HUGE decrease in unemployment. Won’t they EVER put this lie to bed? They should be ashamed for even uttering it!
By the way, it looks like Murdoch’s empire has an effective negative tax rate. They channel their expenses to businesses where they would be expected to pay taxes, and their profits into tax-haven countries in the Carribien. They would be required to pay taxes on those profits if they were brought back into the U.S., but instead they use it as collateral for other obligations around the world.
It looks like Murdoch became a U.S. citizen (and moved some of his corporations into the U.S.) just to take advantage of the favorable tax policies we give to extraordinarly rich people and corporations. Of course, that doesn’t mean he actually pays taxes – he just takes advantage of the system. And those are just the types of loopholes which the President is trying to close.
It’s no wonder the right wing is about to have their heads explode at the mere prospect of closing loopholes – a lot of the richest people get by with paying little or no taxes at all under the current system. These reforms are an even bigger threat to them than a small incremental tax increase.
Of course, this is not news, really. We don’t need a poll to tell us what everyone knows.
If there were a viable opposition party, with viable leadership, we would have been well down the road and on to bigger and better things.
Slingshot @ # 4:
The Tea Bag Party likes to talk about the “American Spirit”. But everytime it comes to actually doing something, they say “Nope, too expensive, we can’t do that right now, or ever again”.
China has built high-speed trains (approaching 350 MPH) on two routes connecting Beijing with Shanghai and another major city (I forget which one). Sure, there are some bugs they are working out, but that didn’t stop the population from flocking to the trains to the point where the airlines had to reduce air service to those points. China is also looking seriously at establishing a long-term space station on the moon. They also became the first country since the 2003 invasion to drill and develop new oil production facilities in Iraq, which just started exporting last week – to China, of course.
Somehow the Republicans insist on trying to convince us that we can’t compete with other countries, including China, on education, manufacturing, space exploration, etc. I find this entire attitude to be very anti-American.
They might as well have not included the “only spending cuts” option because we can’t make any sort of meaningful reduction in the deficit with only spending cuts.
@5: rhp
Well, what do you expect from a party that has bankrupted the country, tortured people, screamed about the budget deficit but run away from real negotiations.
What is boils down to is that the Get Obama Party (GOP) is really about lying as much as possible to support their corporate buddies and to make sure that millionaires pay the lowest income tax rate possible (and have the maximum loopholes). Everything else is just window dressing for these crooks.
These new-breed Republicans are fanatics. There’s just no negotiating with them. They so obviously want to rule this nation rather than govern it. To reach an agreement, McConnell and Boehner are likely going to have to do it without the teabaggers. That’d likely be political suicide for them and any Republicans who go along, what with teabaggers wanting to lynch any of the remaining sane Republicans. And the party’s chances in 2012 would be fucked, a split party and all that. But at least the nation might not go over a financial cliff. It wouldn’t mean anything to them, but I’d show the sane Republicans some respect if they bolted from the krazies in their party.
In his attempt at spinning, Darwhyle shows that is the democrats who are more out of touch with the American public than the republicans are.
well done.
That’s why “Teahadist” is so very apt.
This is “faith based” to them (just like their fervently held, fundamentally twisted religious beliefs, etc.) and therefore not subject to rational discussion or negotiation.
They’re literally terrorists. Even stodgy old Tweety used the T word the other day. And negotiating with terrorists is never a good strategy.
9, whose handle reveals he never studied English grammar:
Darryl’s post reveals precisely how the GOP’s House no-tax-increase wingnuts are so out of touch with the American public. Here’s another piece displaying your ignorance:
http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/1.....?hpt=hp_t1
@11
9, whose handle reveals he never studied English grammar:
Its a quote from a movie you stupid communist fuckhole.
have a fucking clue about pop culture dipshit, then you can pop off – until then, go lick your bust of Lenin.
god damned clueless communists.
@12 “god damned clueless communists”
Not me. I’m a rapacious capitalist! I’m waiting for you guys to push the stock market off a cliff so I can buy stocks from you real cheap and flip them back to you at a markup. Man, I love doing business with Republicans!!!
What MAX-imum dipshit DOESN’T knoe about anything would fillfucking Puget Sound and then some.
“you stupid communist fuckhole.”
Gee, Maxie, can’t you do better than that? Rightwing boilerplate insults like that just make you sound like one of the crowd.
@14
I love it – Rujaxoff telling me I dont “knoe” anything..
self-ownage, rujaxoff-style.
@15
it might be boilerplate for some people, but in your case it is dead nuts accurate.
Maxie @ 17
Ideological idiocy is no place in which to dwell, m’lad. I suspect, however, that you will never find that out for yourself.
Arent you late for a Politburo meeting?
Ah shit, did I miss yet another Politburo meeting? Hell, that means I won’t have my talking points tomorrow. Fortunately for you, Maxie, all you have to do to get your talking points is to turn on the television or the radio. I have to go to a clandestine meeting.
rhp @5, Not only are we not progressing but we’re actually regressing. The National Parks & Forests have a backlog of billions in repairs waiting to be done (just as one example). I was out at the Hoh the other day; a couple foot bridges are half cordoned off with scrounged 2×4’s to detour visitors away from the rotted half. Colonel Bob trail @ Quinault has been closed for 2 years because of unattended repairs. Dosewallops road has been washed out for a decade or more. This scenario is repeated throughout the country. It’s a national embarrassment.
We had an extra 4 trillion to shove down rat holes in the near east though.
A theory on the clinical nutbaggery of the current crop is the sociopathic tendancy of the American right-wing mind. What better way to avoid responsibility for failure than shunting it off to the innocent?
# 21: With unemployement stuck at 9%, and with young high school graduates (and college graduates) struggling to find jobs, maybe it’s time for another Civilian Conservation Corps? Lots of the facilities in national parks were built by the original CCC in the 1930’s, I can remember sleeping in three-sided log shelters in the 1960’s and 1970’s while hiking on the Appalachian Trial – most of them had CCC placards affixed to the walls.
If you want a quick comparison of how we treat our national treasures, compare the New York and Canadian sides of Niagra Falls. I’ve never been there myself, but everyone I’ve spoken to who has been there said that they go to the Canadian side, where it’s a national park and the facilities are much, much better. The New York side was left mostly to private development, and is just – well, tacky.