Tom Carper: Could he be a bigger dumbass?
The DLC has a plan for Obama or Clinton to win in November:
Honestly, Carper must be the biggest idiot in Washington. In a year when everyone is running away from Republicans and failed Republicanism, Carper views loving on Grover Norquist to be a great strategy.
In putting together the analysis, Weinstein said that the DLC “worked and consulted” with several Democratic congressional staffers, including aides from the offices of Sen. Thomas Carper of Delaware
Okay. It was a Carper aid. But he is still a dumbass for hiring such a nit wit.
Tags: (h/t atrios)
Speaking of dumbas…, er, I mean, Senator Carper, heard a rumor that the Dem leadership, headed by dumbass, is sitting on Karen Weldin Stuart to get her to drop her primary against Gene Reed. Turns out Reed, Jr. and Carper get along a lot better than Reed, Sr. and Carper (for those of you who know the background story, Reed, Sr. still has an imprint of Carper’s love-tool on the back of his pants).
PAYGO is a farce and if that is the credentials the DLC seeks to prove fiscal responsibility they are mistaken by a long shot.
Someone on C-CPAN this morning was saying that it was Norquist who led the re-de-regulation [after the S&L repairs]of the money industry in the early ’90’s in the rush of GOPerhead Contract ON America nastiness. That would mean that it may have actually been penned by our own Pete duPont who co-authored the contract with Newt Gingrich. Carper is a DINO who carries Chateau Country water and fellow DLCer Lieberman is all over the intertubes today, crying over how the DEMs are being over-run by liberals.
Sheesh. Don’t.Elect.Another.Clinton
Protack talks like a guy with no credit limit on his Republicard.
What the heck is wrong with PAYGO?
What the heck is wrong with some fiscal responsibility?
We can’t beat people up over wiping our surpluses and racking up the Biggest Debts Ever and then pretend that talking about fiscal responsibility is a losing strategy. The repubs certainly have no track record or even interest in it and look where that’s gotten us.
Seriously, what am I missing here?
PAYGO was great. Republicans let it lapse to their eternal shame.
What I don’t like is the DLC trying to use frames which support the GOp’s version of fiscal sanity and undermine Democratic candidates.
I do not like that either Jason. The Dems need to stand firm against the GOPers; but Cassandra is right we need fiscal discipline. We could close 33 of our 733 foreign bases and have enough to fund most of the public schools in the nation. How about that for a change in the way we are doing business? Just a libertarian thought.
Which of these, from the article, are a bad idea?
“The DLC study offered a number of specific spending steps the Democrats could take to demonstrate their commitment to fiscal restraint: reducing the number of government contractors by 750,000, curtailing government travel, banning bonuses for political appointees, stopping acquisition of new federal office space, cutting the number of no-bid government contracts and establishing a corporate welfare commission that would reduce tax breaks and subsidies to companies. The study calculated that the total savings over a 10-year period from these steps would be more than $606 billion.”
Selander — I think the problem is that evil GOPers like me aren’t opposed to any of what you quoted, and neither are liberal Dems, so long as they get to redistribute the $606 billion.
I’m starting to come around on PAYGO, even though it nearly certainly means tax hikes. We can’t just deficit spend our lives away. And I think after a couple of juicy tax hikes, the pressure to cut spending would be unbelievable.
Of course, my ideal situation would be an extension of the current tax rates and significant spending reduction to match. But if you can’t achieve that with a GOP Congress and a GOP President, it ain’t happenin’. We blew our chance.
Is there anything more annoying to public discourse than the now-standard procedure of stating savings (or expenses, or tax cuts, etc.) in increments other than annual (or annualized) numbers? I guess $606 billion over 10 years sounds better than $60 billion a year over 10 years in a society where lottery players abound.
Dave this is something we need to work on too. Most GOPers are not evil, and most democratsd are not tax and spend frenzy dems. Some are. But I think most of the normal people who are part of the demopublican party are not. TPN is a wonderful guy, and you know what so is Dana, they do not agree with each other and fight like all the time…but I think both have very valuable ideas…and I want to see is some reconcilliation around the common needs of both our government and our society. The DLC report is not bad and I think the Yellow side of the dems is not wrong to promote the idea that we need to review government contracts or other pork barrell projects, while at the same time ensuring that about 400,000 of our citizens are not added to the rolls of the homeless. That is not a bad goal, it is just how you go about doing it that is often misguided, in my opinion.
I should read the link before commenting.
Here are two great links to satisfy the need for facts on PAYGO.
http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3763
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/budget-process/paygo.cfm
Simply put , PAYGO addresses future spending and taxes but does nothing about previous programs and as always with Congress it is now a procedural move and not public law.
Some parts of the budget are exempt and each chamber has their own version of PAYGO.
PAYGO principles are great but the execution has been very, very weak.
There is no fiscal responsibility with Congress. Dave is right , get ready for tax increases and a deeper recession.
I’m starting to come around on PAYGO, even though it nearly certainly means tax hikes. We can’t just deficit spend our lives away.
Little Dave if growing up right in front of our eyes.
Selander –
Democrats have to “prove” that they are responsible like Republicans to have “credibility” or voters will pick the real republican.
It strategy is utter horseshit. Hello….Iraq war anyone?
Some Democrats simply hate Democrats. I count Carper as one. He should switch parties.
Yeah, ’cause calling for spending reductions is a new thing for me…
What I don’t like is the DLC trying to use frames which support the GOp’s version of fiscal sanity and undermine Democratic candidates.
OK, I hear you Jason. The problem is that fiscal sanity is still all about spending no more than you take in and using your credit sparingly. I think that Ds, Rs and Libertarians can agree on that. The R’s credibility on this has been shown to be a sham and the Ds are largely handwaving their way through this issue. They are at least saying PAYGO periodically, but I don’t get a lot of warm and fuzzies when the pay-fors are discussed in ten-year terms. But I don’t see these guys invoking any repub frames – they are trying to reinvoke the Clinton-era approach to financial management.
neither are liberal Dems, so long as they get to redistribute the $606 billion.
Don’t even try this crap, Dave. Repubs are just as delighted to do redistribution too – they just hand over tax revenues to their friends at Halliburton, GE, Westinghouse, EXXONMobil, Blackwater, and the never-ending litany of Defense Contractors in bed with repub lawmakers. They, too, use those funds as leverage to their own lucrative out-of-Congress careers.
How government gets paid for really ought to be a more serious conversation than we usually get – from either side. The problem (illustrated by the last repub congress) is that it is simply too hard for pols (all of them) to keep their jobs without being able to point to local goodies. “Working hard for you” costs vasts amounts of money, evidently. I wonder if we have a model of Federal governing that simply won’t support the kind of fiscal discipline that states typically have to live with.
I read a great book that neatly illustrates and summarizes the current budget challenges called, Where Does the Money Go? that I ought to complete a review on to post here.
Earmarks…just cut out all earmarks. Go to: citizens against government waste and see how both parties spend billions every day, without debate, discussion…this is where both parties are hiding fraud, waste and abuse of our tax dollars.
sorry, Its all in the new “Pig Report”.
Cutting earmarks would have cut out about 8% of the 2005 deficit.
Just 8%.
The problem is alot bigger than our usual bête noirs…
The problem is entitlements…of all kinds.
All kinds. Espeically the corporate kind.