Sandy Hook

Sandy Hook

Sunday, July 24, 2011

"Rasmussen Reports" Says What? Holy Cow!!!

I'm still picking my teeth up off the floor after reading the following from Rasmussen Reports. Stunned! Speechless! Dumbfounded! It's absolutely delicious.

"As America lurches toward new and unfamiliar status as a nation that defaults on its debts, commentators around the world are wondering how the democratic government that was once the most admired in the world -- for many reasons -- is now so "dysfunctional," to use the polite term. But the truth is that the entire U.S. government is not dysfunctional. Much of the government functions well enough or better, and even the members of the troubled U.S. Senate seem to be trying, a little late, to deal with the problem before us.    
No, dysfunctional is the too-polite term for the House of Representatives, specifically its dominant tea party Republicans, who can be described in far less dainty psychological terms. Even the most extreme Republican partisans in the Senate seem to realize that their House colleagues, seized by some combination of ideology, madness and pig ignorance, are propelling the country and the world toward economic chaos.    
Of course, the tea party Republicans insist that no such thing will ever happen -- the warnings from economists, business leaders, financiers and public officials are merely so much "scare talk."    
When President Obama says that he won't be able to send out Social Security and Veterans Administration checks or meet the nation's obligations on Treasury debt come Aug. 2, he is just trying to frighten his opponents into giving up their principles. They don't accept the idea that we have to pay for financial obligations already incurred -- or that the rising interest rates caused by default will make future deficits much deeper.    
But they don't have to believe the president to understand that the threat posed by default is real. They could listen to ultra-conservative senators like Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga. -- members of the Gang of Six/Seven whose own profound ideological hostility to Obama and the Democrats still leaves space for prudence.    
Or they could listen to more than 60 business groups, from the National Association of Manufacturers and the Chamber of Commerce to the Telecommunications Industry Association and the American Gas Association, all fearful of the consequences of default.  Now those business lobbyists may find out why it isn't so smart to fund any bozo running for office who claims to support "free enterprise."   
It is revealing to listen to the congressional freshmen affiliated with the tea party as the debt clock ticks down and panic begins to set in. Many of them have repeatedly vowed to vote down any bill to increase the debt limit, but somehow they're sure that if those checks don't go out and that debt doesn't get paid, it will be the president's fault and not theirs. Some say there is no reason why the Treasury should miss any of its bond payments. Others have sent a letter to the White House, urging Obama to "prioritize" those Social Security checks if worse comes to worst.    
Such outbursts prove that the tea party is not only against taxes and spending, but is strictly opposed to arithmetic, which like climate science is probably just another socialist plot. They also prove the utter insincerity of these characters, who just voted this week for the "Cut, Cap and Balance" bill that would gut Social Security, along with Medicare, while erecting a constitutional wall around tax breaks for society's wealthiest individuals and corporations. They want to pose as defenders of the middle-class and the American dream, even as they promote legislation that would destroy the programs and institutions that are the foundation of that way of life.   
There is no need to look too far to find the source of our discontent -- our "dysfunction," if you must. It is in the Congress, which the American people mistakenly turned over to fakers and fools last November. Every poll shows that most voters regret that error now, and wish that Congress would tax the wealthy and preserve social insurance. Now those voter had better make their remorse heard, and loudly, if they hope to avert catastrophe."


Found via Republicans for Obama on Facebook

14 comments:

  1. Oh, well done! And stated almost strongly enough...by a very unexpected source that's been accused of bias by the moderate left. Adjusting for drift, then, it sounds like a call for the end of tea party influence in the House.

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  2. I HAVE HOPE!!! It feels great to have hope, doesn't it! LOL

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  3. As I just said on DemWit, the Tea Party members of the House are coming under attack - finally - by many conservative writers and organizations. It does give me hope indeed. I think we are seeing the beginning of the implosion.

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  4. If Assmussen (who is absolutely, positively biased-there is plenty of proof of that, and if you don't believe the data, then listen to Scott Assmussen) is putting something like this out, we may have a hair or two of hope.

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  5. It's about time people woke up! I dropped notes to the GOP members of the Ohio delegation to Congress telling them to start packing because they're all coming home to stay next year.

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  6. This is a good time for "tan man" to put down the over-exaggerated influence the Tea Baggers have in his party. It's time for him to become a real party leader.

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  7. Telling words indeed.

    The financial sector donated $20 billion to the campaigns of teabagger Republicans in the last election cycle. That is, they paid for the bomb they now realize is threatening to blow them up.

    I suspect they'll be a lot more careful about whose campaigns they fund in the future.

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  8. Douglas Adams recognized this years ago, back then the Teabaggers were called Golgafrinchams. The Teabaggers of today view money in the same way the Golgafrinchams did:

    "So in order to obviate this problem," he continued, "and effectively revaluate the leaf, we are about to embark on a massive defoliation campaign, and ... er, burn down all the forests. I think you'll all agree that's a sensible move under the circumstances."

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  9. "Now those business lobbyists may find out why it isn't so smart to fund any bozo running for office who claims to support "free enterprise."

    One would think so, but don't give the nation's Gordon Gekkos credit for seeing the error of their ways and making a rational determination to do differently. They're filled with arrogance, blinded by greed and see justification for what they do in how much money and power it's brought them.

    The only thing that will make them change — and only then for awhile — is if doing what they do backfires, costing them money and their grip on power.

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  10. @JR: There has been a growing chorus of conservative columnists, publications, economists and international media aiming criticism at the House Republicans. The trouble is, these people are so arrogant and so entrenched in their ideology that they just don't give a damn if they take the country over a cliff. The ones who might agree, if ever so slightly, don't have the strength of a wet noodle.

    @Kay. Good, keep up the good work. If the servers of certain congressional leaders have crashed due to overload is any indication, more people are jumping on the bandwagon.

    @Tom: Boehner helped create the monster with tacit approval, if not outright support. He's got his little yingy caught in a big yangy, which he royally deserves.

    @Infidel: I would hope so. There's been plenty of talk about voter's remorse. Maybe this is buyer's remorse?

    @Grung: Sounds like it, doesn't it? A bit depressing when you think about it.

    @SW: Unfortunately you may be right, especially given that old thingy about public memory being short. Since this is one of the worst crisis (sp) our country has ever faced, however, and if we do survive it, maybe it will take a little longer to forget.

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  11. L.P., unfortunately, our country is filled with distractions beyond anything the world has ever seen. At the same time, our society is filled with people who never learned the importance of paying attention to government and politics, and ones who feel they're above that sort of thing. All of which is why I maintain the typical American has an attention span only slightly better than that of a gnat when it comes to a bunch of things that require his or her sustained attention.

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  12. And, of course, the distractions divert attention away from what's really going on in the background, which is even more evil. By the time people wake up to it, it's too late. We have an ADHD society which is unable to pay attention to anything beyond their immediate gratification.

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  13. With the short attention span of the average voter I fear that the economy will be the dominate factor when it's time to vote. And with the obstructionist idiots in Congress the economy will not be good.

    I hate being a cynic, but I have little hope now.

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