It’s the Democrats’ Turn
Democratic platform on health: We have no idea what to do next.
Democrats on climate change: we don’t know what to do about this problem either.
On the budget: Trust us; next time we’ll be responsible.
Democrats on big government: Obama approved fewer regulations than Bush did.
Yglesias: Five bad ideas in the Democratic platform.
Worst message at the Democratic convention: “The government is the only thing we all belong to.”
Paul Ryan said it best when he said (paraphrased)we can be a people of “free Stuff”, or we can be a people with “freedom”, but we cant be both.
Where is H L Mencken when we need him?
“On the budget: Trust us; next time we’ll be responsible.”
Funny, that seems to be the Romney/Ryan platform as well. They’re basically recycling the same policies that blew up the deficit initially and tanked the economy. But we’re supposed to trust them because Paul Ryan is “serious” about deficit reduction, even though he was complicit in policies that increased the deficit under the Bush administration, and even though their vacuous policy proposals don’t provide the details to verify that they know what they’re talking about.
Eric,
By complicit with the Bush Administration’s increased deficit (during a recession which often demands deficit spending, and in the midst of two wars; guess we can just ignore that bit), you mean Ryan failed to use his supercongressman budget veto power?
I’m not certain, but if you’re talking about the housing crash, part of the catalyst for the crisis which required the recent bailouts came from the repeal of Glass-Steagall under Clinton. Even Clinton’s economic advisor (Stiglitz) said he dropped the ball on that one.
Obama flat out ignored his own B&S commission, and instead pushed classist demagoguery at their constituents. Now the blues are the ‘fiscally austere?’ Hah.
Who in their right mind would approve a message like that? Talk about echoes of a totalitarian state…
Yglesias: Five bad ideas in the Democratic platform.
Yglesias had it right for the most part — but I didn’t agree with his conclusions across the board. For instance, cutting government spending is a good idea. It’s a good idea for the sake of lowering the taxpayer burden on future taxpayers. Don’t fudge and pretend government spending is an investment in things that benefit children yet unborn who will have to pay for today’s deficit spending. If there was a reason to blast reduce government spending as part of the Democrat’s platform, it’s because the goal is disingenuous. The Democrats only plan to use cutting government spending as a sound bite in their campaign platform; not actually do it if re-elected.
@ Saul Fuller
I like that! Europe is a collection of free countries where taxes are outrageously high because everything (government believes) you need is free. The stuff government doesn’t believe you need must be paid for with after-tax dollars that are few and far between. But is that really free?
Thanks for the links! I found some great stuff in the articles and managed to get some very specific plans.