The Goat Pen

The war b/w DS's sprayed hair and his pop collar has been a long and bloody one...

I only use a little bit of hair spray and some gel. I have to use that shit. It's not that I want to use it. Without it, my hair is a fucking mop when it dries due to the waves and thickness/volume.

That can't be DS. Pink shirt, yes, but no pop collar...

Without it, my hair is a fucking mop when it dries due to the waves and thickness/volume.

Not for long.

Interesting choice in Ryan as VP for Romney. Probably his best bet although it still is problematic. It means he's still trying to get his base versus moving towards the middle. It does change the last few weeks though. Romney was getting killed nationally on his general plan to cut taxes without details. It allowed independent evaluations to say that it would mean an average increase in taxes for the middle class of $2000. Now, things shift to a specific plan.

Republicans will have to say that this is a way to save medicare. AS for medicaid, who cares? They're poor. Nobody cares about them. They don't vote in real numbers. It may cost Romney Florida though and without Florida, there is no way that Romney can win.

You not going to be able to convince most that by giving a $8000 voucher, that insurance for seniors will not cost more than that. Now they can mandate that insurance companies have to accept the $8000 voucher (not part of Ryan plan). Then the money will not be with Feds, but insurance companies will have to increase their rates to everyone else to pay for senior costs. It's hard to believe that Republicans wil support that mandate against insurance while Democrats won't support the shift from govt responsibility.

I'm 100% against any plan that shifts the cost of entitlements to the public while leaving defense a sacred cow.

Either we have entitlements or we don't but I can't imagine a large % of the population tolerating one group getting carte blanche healthcare while the have-nots pay for it.

The Ryan plan increases defense spending I believe by 2% while also providing tax cuts, leaning mostly to the most wealthy.

Owlman wrote:The Ryan plan increases defense spending I believe by 2% while also providing tax cuts, leaning mostly to the most wealthy.

and here I though Norquist was mostly useless

" Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, his would-be vice president Paul Ryan, and defense hawks in Congress are wrong that savings can't be found in the U.S. defense budget, according to Grover Norquist, the influential president of Americans for Tax Reform, who said that he will fight using any new revenues to keep military spending high.

"We can afford to have an adequate national defense which keeps us free and safe and keeps everybody afraid to throw a punch at us, as long as we don't make some of the decisions that previous administrations have, which is to over extend ourselves overseas and think we can run foreign governments," Norquist said Monday at an event at the Center for the National Interest, formerly the Nixon Center.

But Ryan's views are at odds with those of Norquist and other budget hawks, who argue that defense budgets can be trimmed. Ryan's budget plan provides for increasing military spending and doesn't suggest any tradeoff or specific defense reforms.

"Other people need to lead the argument on how can conservatives lead a fight to have a serious national defense without wasting money," Norquist said. "I wouldn't ask Ryan to be the reformer of the defense establishment."

Avoiding $54 billion of arbitrary defense cuts next year as a result of the Budget Control Act of 2011, in what's known as "sequestration," has been a focus of Romney's campaign and one of his main points of contrast with President Obama. Romney's views align him with defense hawks who are leading that effort on the Hill, such as House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who support closing tax loopholes and deductions to avoid sequestration.

"You will get serious conversation from the advocates of Pentagon spending when they understand ‘here's the dollar amount, now make decisions," Norquist said. "They want to argue you have to raise taxes -- you can't solve the problem."

Norquist vowed to fight any effort to use the money saved by tax reform to pay for military spending or to avoid the sequester.

"You have guys saying ‘can we steal all your deductions and credits and give it to the appropriators,' and then when we get tax reform there will be no tax reform," Norquist said, referring to defense hawks. "The idea is that you are going to raise taxes on people to not think through defense priorities."

But Norquist predicted that the defense hawks will lose the battle inside the GOP. The ultimate decision-makers, he said, would be the heads of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, not the respective Armed Services Committees. "

yet he believes that increasing payroll taxes is not a tax increase

Owlman wrote:yet he believes that increasing payroll taxes is not a tax increase

I just said he mostly useless

I have to admit, even though I'm arguing against increased defense spending and even cutting it, as a strict constitutionalist, national defense is a sacred cow.

I just don't trust the bastards in charge of it.

noted

So much for the death of the tea party. All Republicans (including Romney) will need to factor them in.

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/fl ... itics.html

Florida Veterinarian Appears to Take Down 12-Term GOP House Rep. Stearns

Owlman wrote:So much for the death of the tea party. All Republicans (including Romney) will need to factor them in.

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/fl ... itics.html

Florida Veterinarian Appears to Take Down 12-Term GOP House Rep. Stearns

tea party candidates will succumb to the thing they proclaim they despise - the moment they set foot in Washington they will become career politicians.

Probably, but they will define what the right is. Anybody to the left of them on more than one issue is likely to get a big challenge, including Romney.

More on what was spoken about above

Rand Paul peddles world-class wacky theory about Obama’s plan to suppress unrest among an angry citizenry

posting.php?mode=reply&f=3&t=10

link doesnt work

fix medicare and your 50% there

let bushes tax cuts expire along with ryans medicare budget and you fixed the budget.

wouldn't touch defense--just pulling out of iraq and afghjanistan will save money but many communities need defense contracts and bases locally to survive in this ecomomy.

health care and its rise and our refusal to cap helath care spending fo 90 yo grandma is our major problem