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Chat Thread 56: Are You Not Entertained?

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I freaking love the summer time, but I always seem to work jobs that are at their busiest during the summer months.
 
I have about 15 minutes left on my pork tenderloin on the grill. My mouth is watering.
 
Newsroom was good, finished watching that while getting the coals ready.
 
Which foursome would you rather bang? The Golden Girls or the Ninja Turtles?
 
deacphan said:
no one is for massive government or huge debt. in fact, it was neocon massive government that brought on huge debt. the disagreement is largely on where government should grow or shrink, and how best to fight the growing debt. your statement was bs right-wing rhetoric. not a thoughtful assessment.
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I'll ignore the irony in the fact that you called my argument "not a thoughtful assessment" though your response includes not only assumptions but blanket statements and straw man arguments as well. First of all there are posters here that are for massive government. Of course "massive," "huge" etc is relative but when I consider points including income redistribution, mandated purchases of goods or services, increased taxes and many more, that to me smacks of large government both in practice and philosophically. In each way, these modify the role of the government in our lives and in each way the government's role is enhanced.

This notion that Bush and his neocons solely created this mess shows a fundamental misunderstanding of history but it does make for an easy excuse, doesn't it? By saying that my argument is "bs right-wing rhetoric" you lump me in neocons that is neither consistent with my politics or beliefs. You speak of the huge debt brought on by neocons but this can't be considered in a vacuum. Large debt isn't, in and of itself, a bad thing. When the economy is humming, you'd want to borrow as much as possible so long as you can produce a profitable return. The size of the budget in the final W years is the result of a confluence of issues, not just some neocon conspiracy. I'm not saying this burgeoning debt was right or wrong, if Afghanistan and Iraq were justified, if tax cuts were needed, etc. However, at the time, the nation faced a crisis which destroyed more wealth than any event in history. This crisis didn't arise independently as I have explained ad nauseum. The triple crash crushed the economy and it was triggered before the term neocon was a twinkle in some pundit's eye. When the housing market collapsed it did so under the stress of leverage. Leverage used recklessly sent a tidal wave through the economy both home and abroad. The tidal wave had been brewing for a decade; loosened lending standards, subprime loans, NINJA loans collapsed under their own weight pulling down home values across the board. We had been living in a house of cards because the Clinton administration thought more Americans were entitled to mortgages. This government intervention was the shot across the bow. I won't waste my time explaining the domino effect of this. So to consider the size of these debts without context and history is naive and partisan. The size of the debt and the ability of the government to control it was directly undermined by the financial crisis. If you exclude the two wars, the Bush tax cuts and consider the financial crisis in and of itself, you'll see just how deleterious it was. Trust me, no one on my trading desk was saying "the DJIA's down 35%, Lehman's collapsing, fuck those neocons, if only we weren't in Iraq!!." But hey revisionist history never hurt anyone.

I believe the current debate transcends policy much as it did in Europe's elections. I believe these arguments are a proxy for who is more capable of running your money and life; yourself or the government? But we have an election approaching so pragmatism should trump all. If you believe the government multiplier>private sector multiplier by all means grow the government just know that's been resoundingly rejected.
 
Wow? Really? 5,000 word political posts on the CT? Ooooo wee, what up wit dat?
 
what up wit dat what up wit dat oooooooooooooo ooooo weeeeeeeeeee what up wit dat what up wit dat

Whaaaaatttt uppppppppppp witttttt daaaaaa aaaaaatttttttt
 
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