political rant

[peggy]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204791104577110573867064702.html

Well, so they extended this and set themselves up for more gridlock and argument in 2 months.
I know everyone positions this as 'we won, they lost' but really, it just saddens me. Why does it have to be a win/lose thing? Why does everything have to be a contest! Don't we all win? Wasn't the majority of Americans for this? So why did it turn into a contest? And how does the republicans doing something the majority of their own constituents wanted turn into a loss for them?

I'm just tired of this whole game. No one ever seems to do anything just because it's the right thing to do anymore. It seems they wait to see how the other side votes, then votes the opposite just because. There isn't any nuance anymore. They are just one dimensional cardboard cutouts. We know how they will act before they act. They could just phone it in.

Ok, rant over. >8) Happy Holidays everyone.

[Alan]

It starts at the top.

The President has been able to paint a one year payroll tax holiday extension, passed by the Republican led House, as an effort by Republicans to raise taxes on citizens by opposing the Democrat led Senate's 2 month payroll tax extension. http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/23/politics/congress-payroll-tax-cut/index.html

Boggles the mind doesn't it?

[ApatheticNoMore]

I think the whole payroll tax stuff is a bunch of nonsense and it saddens me greatly to think that this nonsense has dominated the political discourse for the past several weeks (months?). The triump of propaganda over substance. I think I have made clear enough what I think the truly important issues are (see my thread on this board, no issue is more important right now IMO).

But on the tax cut: so how is the tax cut to be paid for? Honest question: how is it to be paid for? See what I really think is it probably in the end does a PROFOUND disservice to Democratic party principles. I mean do we have a tax cut today and austerity tommorow? Ask the whole world who got in too much debt how that austerity stuff is working out for them! A tax cut today and a gutting of what programs tommorow? That's why I say it's a disservice to Democratic party principles .... in the long run we find ourselves so in debt we can't fund anything. See the Dems, if they were old fashioned Dems and the party of FDR, should be making sure the government is funded enough to I don't know, fund Social Security and so on for now and a long time to come.... not getting ourselves ever more in debt for tax cuts today.

For what $40 a paycheck? What a complete joke. I don't plan to spend the money, I may donate it to the ACLU and Amnesty International. Suffice to say I wouldn't mind giving them $40 a paycheck, and you can find that as radical as you like :)

(If you are not going to give to such worthy causes, I would recommend saving it, as I think a whole bunch of government programs in the future have been in effect (eventually in will be in actuality) defunded by continual fiscial irresponsibility like yes ... this tax cut for instance).

[iris lily]

I haven't followed the payroll tax issue because I think it is small potatoes and pointless grandstanding. They all just need to go home for the holidays. They are no persuading me that they are accomplishing anything of substance.

[bae]

The payroll tax cut is just a shell game anyways. People of both parties nattering on about it should be run out of office.

[LDAHL]

It gives the Democrats an opportunity to ring the redistributionist bell one more time, and it gives the Republicans another chance to display how anti-tax they are. Both sides see a chance to push some more of the problem onto the next generation. Nobody except maybe Paul Ryan seems willing to have an adult discussion about entitlement reform.

[Lainey]

The payroll tax cut is just a shell game anyways. People of both parties nattering on about it should be run out of office.

+1

[puglogic]

The payroll tax cut is just a shell game anyways. People of both parties nattering on about it should be run out of office.

+1

But oh what a lonely place it would be if all who deserved to be run out, WERE run out.

[Rogar]

Slightly aside, public radio had a feature today showing the appoval rating of congress at only 9%-12%, the lowest in the 30 years it has been measured. Several historians claim it is among the most disfunctional congresses in history and possibly the worse since the civil war. If only they could be run out of town. http://www.npr.org/2011/12/27/144319863/congress-really-is-as-bad-as-you-think-scholars-say

[peggy]

Well, when you have one whole half of congress making their STATED goal as just getting back in power, period, it doesn't do either side any good. It certainly doesn't do the country any good. When every vote, every decision, each and every move calculated towards that STATED (no hidden agenda there!) goal, how can anything get done? But, what's even more incredulous is the fact that plenty of people will still vote for these clowns, even though their STATED goal wasn't to fix the economy, wasn't to get folks back to work, wasn't to move the country forward, but to simply get themselves back into power. That's it. I hope folks got their money's worth.

[puglogic]

So one party has extremists that STATE their goal is to get reelected. The remainder of Congress simply has it as their UNSTATED goal. Both chambers, both parties, are ridiculous imho. Wish there were a big red clicky "RESET" button on top of the building so we could start over. But I suppose that's what happens when faced with problems impossible to solve. Absent any sort of solution that doesn't cause widespread suffering, both parties become preoccupied with pretending to do all they can to "solve" this unsolveable mess we're in.

[freein05]

Congress is no longer the peoples house of representatives. On the news today it was stated that the majority of the house is made up of millionaires. To run for congress even in a poor district requires $100s of thousand, if not millions of dollars. The people have lost their representative body to the dollar.

[ApatheticNoMore]

But I suppose that's what happens when faced with problems impossible to solve. Absent any sort of solution that doesn't cause widespread suffering, both parties become preoccupied with pretending to do all they can to "solve" this unsolveable mess we're in.

Their refusal to seriously deal with any of the real problems we face (like environmental issues, like oil dependence, like the deficit, heck even the housing market is all kick the can at this point) is only making these issues EVEN WORSE.

I share the disgust with congress and with the phoney issues like the payroll tax that they trot in front of us. It gives me hope that so many others see right through them as well.

[flowerseverywhere]

Congress is no longer the peoples house of representatives. On the news today it was stated that the majority of the house is made up of millionaires. To run for congress even in a poor district requires $100s of thousand, if not millions of dollars. The people have lost their representative body to the dollar.

I also read this article and it made me think long and hard last night about where we are as a country. What alternative do we have? I was lucky enough (not) to have a tea party candidate win our congressional seat and looking at her voting record and statements would be comical if the situation wasn't so serious. Some of her statements are just so far out there and so distant from what is happening in our district it isn't even funny.
I try to keep up with her voting in congrewss and the statements she makes and from what I can ascertain basically her platform has been if Obama wants it don't vote for it, and instead of focusing on the issues try to close down Planned Parenthood. Her level of wealth is so far above what even the upper middle class make around here I just can't see how she can represent me or my neighbors. I was shocked when she was elected but people were so sick of the status quo she squeaked in as a relative unknown. Well now we know which will make the next election even more interesting.

And the payroll tax....seriously. How about cutting spending. Oh yeah, they all said they were going to cut waste. Where are concrete examples, not blabbing about it.

[Gregg]

As much as anything I'm curious who the 9% to 12% that actually approve of Congress are?

[bae]

As much as anything I'm curious who the 9% to 12% that actually approve of Congress are?

I think the poll includes graveyards in Chicago.