
Associated Press
Republican Party leaders realize they have an image problem. Today's GOP, especially after the most recent national elections, is perceived as a party committed to protecting the wealthy at all costs, which in turn alienates the middle class and makes it awfully difficult to win.
So, some prominent Republicans are eager to change that perception. It'd be more compelling if their pitch was matched by policy.
A month after Republicans lost their bid for the White House, a pair of party leaders said Tuesday that a greater emphasis should be placed on improving the lives of the middle class if Republicans hoped to expand their appeal and confront the nation's changing demographics.
Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the former vice-presidential candidate, declared: "The Republican Party can't make excuses." Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said the party should pursue policies aimed at allowing "the poor to rise into the middle class -- not by making the rich people poorer, but by making poor people richer."
It certainly sounds like a more compelling public posture. Ryan and Rubio want to make clear that they have no use for Romney-esque rhetoric on the parasitic "47 percent"; they insist they want to look out for working families and their visions are built around the goal of making a material difference in struggling Americans' lives.
The problem, of course, is the distance between the rhetoric and the reality. Are Ryan and Rubio offering new, more populist, more progressive policy measures, intended to help the middle class? Of course not; they're offering the same far-right ideas, but framing them in a different way.
In other words, Ryan and Rubio are putting a fresh coat of paint on the same far-right agenda. Instead of saying, "Let's forget the 47 percent and focus on tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, and deep cuts to social insurance programs;" these future Republican leaders are saying, "The middle class might benefit if we focus on tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, and deep cuts to social insurance programs."
Meet the new conservative plan; it's the same as the old conservative plan.





Republican intransigence and obstinacy are wrecking the country.Never before in our modern political history have we seen a party with limited power use it for the sole purpose of advancing an agenda of gridlock and inaction with no benefit besides appeasing a shrinking and extreme party base. Republicans have lost their right to govern America in their reckless behavior that has literally pushed the country and the government to the brink of disaster. Even a drubbing in an election they were convinced they would win has not seemed to change their toxic mindset from one of delay and obstruction. The GOP is protecting the wealthiest people on the planet while letting the rest of the country suffer for no reason. - progressive
They think they're in High School. Where have all the cowboys gone? The Republican men are whimpy, whimpy, whimpy. Spoiled little rich children, pouting and stomping their feet. But, Daddy said I could be President someday, what happened where are my G.I. Joes? Who threw away my he-man action set? Who am I supposed to be fighting? Our own people, well of course. Sounds vaguely familiar, we don't actually live in Syria do we? Impeach, while they're still hot under the collar.
Are you asking about Jon Voight, or about Jake Gyllenhaal? Heath Ledger is dead.
Such hogwash summed up in a few ridiculous lines. Want to know what IS real? 47 Million Americans on Food stamps thanks to this Welfare Maven...Manufacturing contracted to the lowest point this month since the beginning of this failures Administration. Americans in the Coal Industry with good paying Union jobs being put on Hussein's bread line because of this failures Anti-business EPA and the multitude of new Regulations forcing American Companies off shore. Liberals have a way of blaming everybody EXCEPT the culprit. This K-I-C has been in office 4 years and the Economy is STILL in a death spiral and this failure has his elbow out and palms up for more taxes for yet more failed Social programs. You guys are real winners...LOL
How about Paula Cole?
Scott, while you insist on dragging negative and must I say, vacuous examples of what you perceive to be unethical activity in the Democratic Party, you are completely avoiding the topic of corruption and cheating in your party.
If ANY charges will be filed...I'm guessing it will be the AG or possibly impeaching this President for hiding with executive privilege the documents pertaining to the death of the American Border agent in the Fast and Furious scandal or the "Big Lie" about the death of 4 Americans in Syria.
@scott - either you don't have "reading for comprehension" or you're just being willfully blind and watching FAUX NOOZ - either way you are a perfect example of what's the problem with republicants and the sheeple that support them. That Border agent killed during "Fast & Furious" which was started under Shrub's misadministration - that case has been closed and Issa and his big mouth have possibly put the lives of other agents at risk! Are you referring to the "death of 4 Americans in Benghazi Libya" - again please get your facts and references correct because you're confused and confusing - but that is under investigation and if you actually pay attention to reality then you'll find out when the rest of US find out!
Oh, those 47 million Americans that are on foodstamps - they were put there because of Shrub's misadministration and policies enacted that have allowed for the hemorrhaging of jobs to low/no wage nations, have allowed for the mortgage meltdown, have allowed for the banksters to rip US all off, have allowed for the 2% to garner 40% of this nations wealth even as working Americans wages have stagnated - again don't blame the current President!
And if you must "blame" someone, please start by looking in the mirror and realize that it has been you and people like you that neither understand the issues, don't choose to research the issues, believe the talking points because you want those "easy" answers - when the reality is is that there are no "easy answers" and everything is not a "sound bite"! It is you and people like you that continue to vote against your own best economic interests (& ours) every time you vote for a GOTP'er!
Scott
I tried Urban Dictionary without success. What exactly does K-I-C mean? I'd like to know why you would find it more descriptive than POTUS.
"Talking points"? They are called facts and figures put out monthly and quarterly. And for Liberals to still blame Bush 4count 'em 4 years into this losers administration speaks to the idiocy and basic untruthfulness of Liberals. Manufacturing CONTRACTED again this month...Bush's fault. Hardly worth ANYBODY'S time listening to such tripe. And to hide document's pertaining to the deaths of Americans? Or lying blatantly to the American people?
Why are you lot wasting your time with that ignorant scott clown? It's blatantly obvious that he's only trolling you, and you're letting him succeed at it. Just ignore the obnoxious twerp.
Ouch...that whole truth thing...
@scott - sorry but you weren't speaking truth, more like talking points from your leaders! You're right manufacturing contracted - but I didn't blame Shrub, but in case you don't recognize that people aren't spending money like they used to, because they don't have that "extra" money to spend - so therefore "contraction" happens. And while this President has had 4 years, 2 of those years have been with an obstructionist Congress that passed how many pieces of legislation - maybe 100(?) and that would be generous! And as "legislation" is passed by Congress and signed by the President - they aren't doing their jobs, because their efforts to repeal the ACA along with regulating my womb have been the only things that they've voted on for most of this current Congressional session! Most of the legislation that was passed (over 200 pieces) was passed when Nancy held the gavel.
Decent try though....Next...
Scott is Mr. Grumpy today. Go call Doc he always makes you laugh. Somebody got off on the wrong side of the bed today. Just go relax and have a nice cup of tea, no need to get your blood pressure up, we can discuss things very calmly later .
I'm still waiting for Mr. Budget-Wonk Ryan to explain why he voted for every single Bush era expenditure and when he found Jesus in the form of fiscal responsibility. They think we're stupid.
Sure, because the best way to stop something from rotting or rusting is to just slap on a new coat of paint.
Yet the stench remains...
I get tired of hearing how new taxes will hurt the "job creators". Jobs were humming along great...until Bush decided that the best way to deal with that pesky budget surplus was to make major tax cuts. How did that do for the "job creators"? Well, eight years under Bush had the weakest job growth in decades. This, despite the fact that some the the biggest corporations, such as GE, actually got refunds totalling billions of dollars. I guess a negative tax rate isn't good enough for them. All the folks on food stamps? Thank W for that, as he crashed the economy, and then when Obama tried to get a stimulus plan passed, it ended up being over 50% in tax cuts at the insistence of repubs, even though tax cuts have been shown to have the least stimulative effect of all. So, millions lose their jobs under Bush, and the stimulus is gutted at repub insistence. So millions end up on food stamps and unemployment due to repubs, and it's somehow Obama's fault??? Now American businesses are sitting on $3 trillion in cash. I guess they could use it to start hiring, but they won't because why ramp up production when demand is still low in so many areas? People need jobs before they spend money, jobs that would be there if state and local governments hadn't been laying off hundreds of thousands of workers. Follow the repub's austerity plans, and millions more will be out of work, requiring more food stamps and unemployment. Maybe repubs want to follow Ted Nugent's latest idea, "slaughtering" (his word), social security, medicare and medicaid. So what if that means millions would be homeless and starving? He also says that if you are on government assistance, you lose your right to vote. So much for the elderly on social security, folks on medicare and medicaid. In wacko repub world, you are subhuman, a financial drag on society. Maybe you should just all kill yourselves so we can save a few bucks for the exalted folks at the top. Just offing a dozen seniors or handicapped folks should be enough to get that new Ferrari, right?
I can't blame those CEOs/CFOs for not increasing their workforces, but there is no reason for not increasing wages of those they already have employed.
Well, except that an increase in employee wages might decrease the $10-20 million paychecks the Ceo/CFO are getting...
You can mix it by hand or use a salad tosser or use salad forks and spoons to mix, but it all comes out about the same. You can dish it out, but you can't take it yourself, then why are you pushing this crap on us. We know better we also learned how to read between the lines, politics 101. Why do they have to fight for the rich, they don't need any help, the poor need that revenue, that special kind of revenue that can only be given by the rich. Eat the Rich! They've had their sun in the fun now it's the elderly,poor and middle class that want some of that pudding. How can you have any pudding, if you don't eat your meat? Just don't ask their mistresses that one.
It's crazy enough that it just might work. After all, a majority of American citizens think that the "fiscal cliff" is going to increase the deficit.
Somehow their plan will label everyone with less than $100,000 as illegals and try to get them to self-deport. If that doesn't work they can build a second detention area called GETMO' to punish those unable to get more. It will take a lot of spin to get the public to accept for-profit debtor's prisons but Fox can crank up the rhetoric about the unfairness of poor people using their oxygen.
nomoremagicalthinking, thanks for the clever and hilarious post! You put a smile on my face this morning.
"Hey poor people! Just so you know, when we want you to pay higher tax rates to subsidize lower tax rates for the wealthy, it's just so you can get good jobs as their servants."
Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.
Good Lord, I feel like I'm dyin'.
All right - find this one:
Rubio and Ryan are offering a Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging! -Kevo
"Turd polishing central , May I help you?"
Stuff like this always makes me remember Mel Brooks History of the World Part I and the part where the Roman Senate is debating...
Leader of Senate: All fellow members of the Roman senate hear me. Shall we continue to build palace after palace for the rich? Or shall we aspire to a more noble purpose and build decent housing for the poor? How does the senate vote?
Entire Senate: F%$# THE POOR!
Fine, give all that land back to it's original owners. Let's grow some winter vegetables. Everyone is going to have to learn how to garden and plant seeds. My summer squash didn't make it, but I'm gonna try melons.
@Dragoon - I hear you. The sad part is even some of the poor vote for those that say "F*^% THE POOR"! The dumbing down of Americans always leaves me SMH!!
Chait vigorously concurs, with other telling examples.
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/12/paul-ryan-marco-rubio-rebranding-selves.html
Does Ryan have to give up his other career as Playgirl Bunny? He could sell locks of his hair.
These guys and their rhetoric remind me of the adage "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." We know what is in the horse, but too many people are fooled into thinking they will get something from the word salad the Republicans put out.
man, am i enjoying this! for thirty years, i've been waiting and wondering when the light bulb would finally go on for a majority of voters. once you've seen the little man behind the curtain, its hard to take the great and wonderful wizard seriously again.
Lipstick on a pig!
That is soooo 2008!
The thing is that a person can always deny reality until reality punches them in the face. Once that happens, denial is a lot more difficult (although still possible by the totally indoctrinated).
Since the republican program will result in a lot of people being punched in the face, eventually, despite their rhetoric, they will lose more and more of their base. The problem comes in how much damage our country can absorb before the republicans are consigned to the dumpster of history.
You Liberals are hilarous...punched in the face to a Liberal REALLY means not getting a handout from the Government. Shameless. Under this complete failure Welfare and food stamps are at record highs and manufacturing at it's lowest point since this miserable failure has taken office. Every WORKING American has been "punched in the face" by this Welfare maven.
Scott do most of us a favor and actually think before you speak, or in this case type. Because most of the time, you make absolutely no damn sense at all, seriously, use your brain, at least sometime before you die.
Your point?
^^ You just proved it. You are now officially the Scarecrow form The Wizard of Oz.
Right there...that is the difference between yourself and I. You just post nonsense and then nothing in the way of facts and numbers...where as I tend to post on ACTUAL points.
Scott, your "actual points" are @!$%#. Full stop.
My family has some first hand experience getting punched in the face by "job creators". Losing $40,000 (yes, that is correct) in pay over the past 8-10 years, as well as affordable health insurance tends to hurt like a mofo.
Maybe "liberals" don't want others to suffer the same @!$%# they've been through.
Let me ask you this: When 6 CEO's come in and run their company into the ground, should they still get bonuses worth millions?
Are contracts signed and binding?
Actually Scarecrow if you click on my name you can read some of my other posts. Most of which do have substance and facts based in reality. So you can stop projecting your insecurity on me, and just own up to the fact that, you do not have a clear understanding of what you are talking about.
Here's a fact for you. In Sep. of 2009 50+ million people received food stamps. That number doesn't include those with Disabilities and The Elderly living strictly off of SS. Today roughly 47 million people are on food stamps, total. So your argument that more people are on food stamps today that 4 years ago, is a lie. No matter how you add up the numbers.
And the number of African Americans who received 'welfare' in the last 12 years, went from 41.8% down to 31.9%. While the number of White Americans, went from 28.6% to 31.9%. Hispanics went from 20.1% to 30.6%.
Actually, In 2009 50 MILLION DOLLARS were spent on the food stamp program,not people on the rolls. Where that figure in DOLLARS would be 71.8 MILLION dollars today chief. And i am looking at the welfare numbers now.
Really Scott? Because the state of Mass (2009) asked for and received over 300+ million dollars for their SNAP (Food Stamp) Program. Secondly the Federal Government allocated 10 million to roughly every state, for SNAP Administration/Processing Fees in 2009. So saying that the program only spent 50 million in 2009 isn't true. So whatever your are reading is either A) not the entirety of the dollars spent on the program, or B) you're reading it wrong.
isn't this like changing the syntax of the statement?
Proud Yoda would be.
Vulture capitalists cut jobs (Bain, Hostess) while giving themselves $$. Then scorn the unemployed they created. Corporate profits are at record highs, with workers absorbing more work from layoffs for the same wages and CEO's give them selves $$. Corporate welfare (Oil subsidies, no bid Halliburton contract) wastes billions that are then used (at lower tax rates) to buy our elections. And the republicans want to suck $$ from social security, medicare, medicaid, and give it to the rich. If a legislator has been bought, pay attention! Why would anyone, who works for a living, vote for this?
Rubio voted yesterday with The Mouth-Breathers Caucus to shame the Senate and make Bob Dole look like a fool, a war hero. Rubio is not making an effort to be a man of the truth...
You wrap yourself in the UN? You are a blind befuddled fool...as NOTHING is affected in the US with this "Treaty" and you cannot ENFORCE it with China or Russia...real big help...REALLLY Important.
Scott: Your quantity of posts is outstanding, you need to work on the quality. I have read semi-literate wingnut posts before, and I suggest you try to look some up to elevate your game...
How about making a point instead of babbling incoherently?
Scotty: Russia and China have no GOP, so both ratified the Treaty. Thats what I mean by quality, the quality of your posts is quite low. It's rich to be accused of babbling by a fella that has 19 posts in a single thread.
China and Russia is a Member of the UN now...how's those Human rights coming along,doofus? Sign all day long...now ENFORCE it. *rolling eyes*
Enforcement is up to the individual countries that sign the Treaty. The ADA was championed by Republicans, so the irony of you wingnuts going crazy about it is astounding. The message that Americans sent in November about being reality-based is obviously lost on Republicans who are afraid of Primary opponents even stupider than themselves. Be proud, these are your folks...
What good does signing false pieces of paper that have no basis in reality? Get a Clue....
It's not "false" to people who are disabled. It's not "false" to the American Legion, Veterans Of Foreign Wars, and virtually every Veteran organization in America. Think of this as a toll bridge, every time you wingnuts go off the rails, you folks pay a toll. This last November was payday for the tolls. Marco Rubio will get crushed in 2016 if he continues to tow the wingnut line, and thusfar he has made no attempt to join us in reality.
Scott: China and Russia are two separate countries. Therefore, "China and Russia are now members. . . " not China and Russia is members. When you reference two countries, you have a plural subject and need a plural verb.
(Sorry old English teacher reaction.)
Why can't you filthy lying democrats ever win elections on merit or honesty?
Like this article proves they are seething with hate for those they can never measure up to and must continue to lie and smear them. That is why 85% of felons support democrats.
Paint huh? The paint job last time was hard-line Economics wonk and the Fresh face of GOTP diversity.. This painting looks like Eddie Munster (with the music!) and a low-rent but cherubic Biblical theocratic fruitcake who may still have a political future..
Gawd help us.
What is "Liberal Diversity"? Breaking American immigration law? Moronic hogwash.
You keep using that word. It really doesn't mean what you think it means.
It satisfies me to no end you critique my verbiage...but NOT the points behind it...Liberals *Sigh*
Scott, everybody's been criticizing your points; you're just to much of a troll to acknowledge that. But it makes you feel good to argue with "Liberals," whether you have a coherent point or not, so it doesn't matter if anyone addresses your "points" or not. You act like a troll, you get treated like one.
Filthy liars pulling dope fiend moves call anyone who exposes their criminal organization a troll. What a defense.
Please explain why 85% of felons support the democrat party of perpetual fraud and yet you accuse your betters of what in fact your side is guilty of.
These arrogant slicksters actually believe that the majority of the 47% DON'T HAVE BRAINS!!! They think they can tell the masses one thing and behind closed doors or maybe not, vote to implement their agenda.
Also, I can't help noticing the cookie cutter similarities between a lot of these young GOP pols. What make them tick and who is their ring-leader?
When you re-elect a guy that has had the 4 years with the economic numbers this guy has had and continues to generate...yes, some would think Liberals to be a tad..well....naive.
Yes Scott, because 8 years of piss down economics worked so well. Oh, that study that showed over 65 years worth of piss down economics hasn't worked just poof...disappeared.
Republicans need a new game. "Give more to the rich and "job creators" and they'll create gobs of jobs jobs jobs!" isn't quite working. Maybe cause they have $20+ trillion sitting in off shore accounts?
And Liberals do not? And what study are you citing? And Until the Fannie/Freddie collapse which OF COURSE was caused by Liberal policy...things which liberals like to conveniently dismiss.
Under the GWB administration, Unemployment low,stock market at record highs....Fannie/Freddie Bursts and drags the economy with it. Whose baby was Fannie/Freddie?
Scott - If you're going to offer up stale talking points that were debunked literally years ago, you're going to continue to be laughed at and insulted.
Scott needs to be shut down. He's clogging the whole blog with his bs. Please don't answer him so he goes away.
Well, genius...debunk the fact that Fannie/Freddie is second in total bailout money only behind the banks they crashed. So please, spare me the Fannie BS. And @Jane...Like all good liberals. if it doesn't fit your "everything's peachy" storyline with this administration...you don't want to know about it. Liberals are really ridiculous.
Mr. Benen has posted an article and you've provided absolutely nothing to refute what he wrote. Acting like a drunken/stoned Middle Schooler is not refuting, it's rambling. Not an attractive trait in anyone who's seemingly semi-literate, semi-numerate and unable to answer a direct question.
If you believe Mr. Benen is incorrect, provide us with the proof that shows him to be incorrect. You could start with government studies that cover every topic you've whined about, most are available via the internet.
Well, except for the ones the Republicans like and throw hissy fits, stamping their little Honey Boo Boo heels to have them taken down...
Scott, your heroes have been running up the debt and cutting taxes since Reagan with the hopes of blaming it on the social safety net. Google "starving the beast' at Wikipedia. Of course you will choose trickle down since it appears much of your intellectual DNA apparently trickled down your parents' legs.
LOL NMMt, you do have a way with words! luv it!
What a buffoon...42% of the Budget is Social programs, 47 MILLION on Food stamps under this guy....WHO is "running up the debt"? These Social programs has been what is driving the debt and what does Hussein do? Give socialized medicine bennies to illegals and deadbeats off the backs of the American taxpayer. Liberals just sling crap and hope somebody will buy it. Under this failure the debt has doubled, America's credit rating cut and this guy just keeps piling on debt. Liberals could care less about the future of this country.
Scott please explain how we had a budget surplus under Clinton, with the prospects of paying the debt off entirely. Your party under GWB squandered every penny and ran the economy into free fall under the premise that deficits don't matter. We are paying off the bills of 8 Bush years, something he did not even have the balls to acknowledge. To quote a famous American conservative icon. 'Stifle it meathead.'
Ignorant troll is ignorant. And lying.
You MUST have missed the "Republican Revolution" during Bubba's terms where Welfare reform and Budgets were the order of the day. WHEN was the last time this administration even put out a Budget?
@nomoremagicalthinking, as is often the case (and there is always one post on an almost daily basis on a variety of threads) you have managed to site the surplus years under Bill Clinton and are quick to blame GWB for the current crisis that the current president inherited. While I am certainly not intending to defend the Bush era psuedo-conservative administration and the massive amount of debt accumulated during his presidency, I am simply seeking to expose the hypocrisy of your argument.
According to your logic, for better or worse a President inherits a situation based upon the acts/decisions of previous administrations. As is often the excuse, democrats are quick excuse and blame our economic predicament on GWB. However, you seem to defy logic by assuming that Bill Clinton generated surpluses without the benefit of policy decisions of previous administrations.
Also, there is an argument to be made that the surplus generated under Bill Clinton was artifically manufactured. This generally can be attributed to his passage of the Community Reinvestment Act (ultimately leading to the housing bubble imploding during GWB term) and the passage of NAFTA which generated some of the largest trade deficits this county has ever seen.
No, there is no factually-based argument to be made that places any blame for Wall Street's self-inflicted collapse on the CRA.
Not even a good try, really. You must have been counting on arriving after Scotty the numbers freak, thereby hoping to appear rational.
Didn't work.
Curiously, the Administration prior to Clinton's record of four years of budget surpluses was the first term of Clinton. Or was Quixote alluding to HW Bush, who ran up record debt in his four years to hand off to Clinton?
They have an image problem? Well, if what they have done since the election is any indication... they do not care. Business as usual.
Regardless of polls. Regardless of critical slams from every side. Regardless of saying they are going to work on their image...
Do you really think they care? Money and power is all the care about. The puppets of the ultra-rich.
And... if you look at those who have spoken out about how they need to change... they turn right around and do something that says otherwise.
Just look at how they say things... the word, "but", is part of it. They'll change, but...
Take a look at the Disability bill that just failed to pass. Take a look at the names that voted no. How many of them have gone on record and said their party needs to change direction.
In every Republican "fiscal cliff" press conference, I NEVER hear about what is good for the poor and the middle class. Am I wrong? All of sudden they are just so concerned with everything that will screw the middle class and the poor. People who really need their benefits. "Spending"... blah blah blah.
No, Democrats are not perfect, but at least I know they are on the side of the people of U.S.
The Tea Party (especially), some Republicans and their ultra rich puppetmasters need a good dose of what being human is. Not to mention, humane.
It is really nice that Ryan and Rubio have discovered that there are poor people in this country and that they vote.
I see alot of democrats posting that Ryan and Rubio are junk. I acutally like their message of economic opportunity, personal responsibility, small government that is efficient and effective, and protecting social security and medicare. If they would get rid of the party line against abortion and gay marraige and focus on the above, alot more people would listen to their message. Currently its the right wing social loons that seem to get all the coverage from the press which does hurt republicans in the eyes of most of the voting public when it comes to national elections.
Unfortunately, whilst they do seriously believe in economic opportunity, they also really, REALLY, believe in anti-gay legislation, person-hood legislation, and small government that is so small, it can fit in to a uterus, regardless of what your doctor thinks. Whilst Ryan/Rubio might be the bright new faces of the GOP, they are TRUE BELIEVERS in the same tired old ideas...
Susan Charlene, I don't think you'd like their "message" if you looked into how these two plan on "protecting" Social Security and Medicare; which is by investing SS funds in the stock market and givnig out vouchers that don't cover the costs of medical care, respectively.
Economic opportunity? When middle and lower class wages have remained level for thirty years? In other words, the only group to have improved its' economic standing in the last thirty years has been the top 10%. Wages have not kept up with either productivity or corporate earnings. So how is one to be "personally responsible" when it takes two, or more, jobs just to keep a family supplied with the necessities? Let alone any luxuries!
Small government? Do you mean the small government that results in $300 billion a year in income taxes not being collected - because we have to cut the number of people working for the IRS? Or do you mean the people receiving various government benefits that don't really need them because it's "cheaper" to cut the departments that oversee who receives those benefits? Except that it's not?
It's a con game and Ryan and Rubio think we're the marks.
Doug if I could stop paying into social security and medicare today and instead invest that money into the stock market myself, I would be first in line to do so. if I had a choice of a voucher or the government, I would take the voucher. Alot of us would and this is what they are saying-take your choice.
I came from a very poor family. I got one new shirt a year Doug and that was for the first day of school. I wanted more, so I did all the right things. it was hard as hell, but today I am a millionaire according to Obama-you know just above 250K. I got sick of giving my boss all the money so I started my own business about 8 years ago. Today I employ about 30 people and I treat them well when I see they work their butts off to make this company successful.
Yes small government Doug. You cite an unreasonable example about government. Small operations are far more efficient and effective. Our government today is being ripped off by the top and the bottom and everyone in between. And politicians have the nerve to ask me to pay more to subsidize this.
Listen to both sides with an open mind. I honestly believe if we leave the social issues behind, that the republicans have it right. The democrats scream from the rooftop that the rich man holds you down-yet I have never once experienced this and in fact its the rich guy who gave me my first job. Concentrating on what others have versus what you have is a waste of time. if you want something-work for it. People who do this are what make this country so successful. I am currently turned off by the dems who call anyone who disagrees a racist or some other label that doesnt even apply in the real world. Work hard Doug-aspire. Its what I teach my kids and what we should all be teaching our kids.
Obama put a fresh coat of paint on Rach Maddow and company at the white house yesterday. I didn't know they were on the pay roll but, I do now. AAAUUUGGHH who is not on the obama payroll...??!!