The Glade 4.0

No ****, did Rick Santorum just mention gay rights in his tirade about Iran's nuclear program? The same Rick Santorum who got his name turned into an internet slang term because he shot off his mouth about how gays should be illegal because they would destroy the American family and turn us all into ****?

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Yes, except it's the black and white morality **** that's going to sink this country more than anything else. Liberals won't cut entitlements and conservatives won't raise taxes, period. Both sides demand that they get all of what they want, no compromises period. If Congress seriously put up a plan that completely balances the budget and does it with 80% entitlement/spending cuts and 20% tax increases, I'm willing to bet you guys would all still hate it and demand the impeachment of anyone who signed off on it. The black and white morality people will watch this country drown in a death spiral of debt and the suffering of millions before they sign off on cutting entitlements or raising taxes by a single dollar, because that's "wrong."

Some things are black and white. If you think something is wrong, you don't negotiate a way to do only a little of the bad thing. Some of the things we do as a country are wrong and I don't want a politician that will lower his standards to "get things done." Sometimes I don't want "things" to be done at all.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Actually, that's exactly what you do, when the alternative is having, "I was right." written on your tombstone.

Depends, does that 20% tax increase come as a flat increase across all income brackets? If so, i'm game. If its the usual bull about increasing taxes on the "rich" only, than no, I'm not for it.

I'm also for closing tax loopholes and decreasing the complexity of the system... I'd suggest something like a flat 15%-20% income tax that you can't worm out of, with decreased sales tax on necessities (food, energy, etc) and an increased sales tax on luxuries. But thats just my opinion.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

As many have stated. The only time the country should be spending more than its taking in is in the event of a declared war.

The only debate should be what services the government provides and how much money it needs to function.

They are supposed to, but they all fall short. They all simply try to maintain their own power base.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Given Paul's participation in the political arena, how do you feel someone having an "authoritarian bent" would disqualify Paul from consideration?

What if someone had a bent towards a candidate who realized that change needs to be incremental? Paul's inclination to pursue unrealistic goals seems "crazy" because of the magnitude of change required to achieve them lacks the required popular support, ie. his bid for the presidency. It's like the man wants to be considered a fringe player. I understand his position though... his insistence to maintain his philosophy speaks to the strength of the present two party system's requirements to be inclusive in order to successful.

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In time, this too shall pass.

So you'll kill them if they don't give in?

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

If it was 80%/20% and done immediately then no problem. 20% tax raises with the "promise" of 80% entitlement cuts in the mythical future is the typical plan put forth. And no I would not accept that as a compromise because we all know how it really works. The cuts never materialize because future Congresses are not bound by previous agreements. We need to deal in reality. You want increases, then give us immediate and binding cuts. Anything less is not a deal its a scam.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

I meant character wise. If the majority of politicians are power hungry expletives who only care about their own advancement, it's because the majority of Americans are the same way. The founders realized this and that's why they tried to limit the amount of power any one of the S.O.B.s could have over any one citizen.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

I think Paul thrives on the edges but I'm not sure he'd know what to do with himself if he got real power.

He'd make a terrible president, because he will never represent more than a small portion of the population. If somehow he ever did get elected, he would be hated, and opposed, and even if he had all the solutions it wouldn't matter. I don't think he could overcome the strong majority that disagree with him. He'd be completely ineffectual, or... he'd bend his views and become like everyone else.

I don't think that Ron Paul will be the one to realize these goals, but eventually we will be able to look back at him and say "yep he was right". Much like we are doing now with his comments in 2008, 2007, 2006 etc. I like the man, he makes sense, and because everything is so out of whack, if he were to be President, the system would go into shock. Don't get me wrong, I think the US needs that shock, but with most political powers heavily vested in keeping the status quo, they would use every trick in the book to neuter him as President.

In my opinion, the US is going to go through that shock regardless of what we do. We can either go through it on our terms and in a somewhat controlled or at least aware manner, or the US can keep itsself in denial and be "suprised" when it comes. The crash is going to be financial, social or political. One of those is going to be dramatically reset and bring the others into line.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

As an incumbent? He lost almost if not all of the primaries last time around. Or do you have a very specific definition of "never lost an election".

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

The polls show a majority of the public supports tax increases, I think, but that's because it's "tax the rich". offer up a plan that has across the board tax increases and see what happens to the poll numbers.

Let's get something straight, liberals do not believe that the "rich" paying 50% of their income to taxes is "not enough" and that they should actually pay more than that. Liberals believe that through various loopholes and political favors, the "rich" pay a far lower percentage of their income in taxes than the middle class, and that's why they should pay more.

Not so much "the rich" as "someone else" though the two are likely synonymous.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Again I ask what about the people who tell me that they really are paying 50% or more to some government agency or another. Are they lying to me?

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

If the rich are actually not paying any taxes because of loopholes, and the poor are not paying any taxes because of credits and lower rates, one wonders where what revenue the government does get is coming from.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Noone said they're not paying anything. The idea is that they pay at a lower rate, but because they are just so much wealthier than everyone else, this lower rate still results in them paying over half of all the taxes.

I'm talking about people who tell me that they are actually paying 50% of their gross income out in taxes. Yet you are telling me "pshaw that doesn't happen"

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

To be perfectly honest I have no idea what the true situation is. The tax code is way over my head. There are plenty of rich people who also claim they pay far less.

Why then do you argue about it so much?

Which is why we need to de-weaponize and simplify it instead if just keep pulling levers.

Yet you seem to decry when conservatives want to do just that. Yet somehow we are the ones with the "black an white morality" who dont want to listen to ideas just cause they are born on the other side of the isle.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

This is just flatly false, Xeq. "It wasn't in writing!" is just a dodge Republicans are using to obscure the fact that the Dems really did offer to cut entitlements in a variety of ways, and polls clearly show that a large majority of self-identified Dems and liberals favor compromise, whereas a large majority of self-identified Reps and conservatives oppose it. "A pox on both your houses" is just the faux-balance of the media, and ironically, it actually makes compromises harder to attain because it allows the groups that are genuinely anti-compromise to hide behind the illusion that everyone's to blame for the gridlock when it's really just them.