Quote :

"Jobs: - Stop job-killing tax hikes - Allow small businesses to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their income - Require congressional approval for any new federal regulation that would add to the deficit - Repeal small business mandates in the new health care law Cutting Spending: - Repeal and Replace health care - Roll back non-discretionary spending to 2008 levels before TARP and stimulus (will save $100 billion in first year alone) - Establish strict budget caps to limit federal spending going forward - Cancel all future TARP payments and reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Reforming Congress: - Will require that every bill have a citation of constitutional authority - Give members at least 3 days to read bills before a vote Defense: - Provide resources to troops - Fund missile defense - Enforce sanctions in Iran"

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20017335-503544.html

http://www.gop.gov/resources/library/documents/solutions/a-pledge-to-america.pdf

I'm not a Republican--never have been. But I have to say, what I've seen of this new pledge looks pretty good to me--I agree with most of the bullet points.

If the Republicans will stick to this, I think it will be good for them and the country. We'll see what happens with it.

9/23/2010 2:04:35 AM

Quote :

"I'm not a Republican--never have been."

IMO you prefer the greatest misnomer in American politics: the Constitution Party

9/23/2010 2:22:24 AM

Quote :

"I'm not a Republican--never have been. "

Ya, we know. You're a special snowflake... who just happens to side with republicans 90% of the time.

9/23/2010 2:22:52 AM

[Edited on September 23, 2010 at 2:33 AM. Reason : Double post. ]

9/23/2010 2:33:11 AM

Just stating the facts for the record. Do you have anything to offer on the topic?

9/23/2010 2:33:11 AM

Where have these proposals been the past 2 years?

I like the 3 days to read a bill thing. Everything else seems pretty trite or old.

[Edited on September 23, 2010 at 2:51 AM. Reason : ]

9/23/2010 2:44:55 AM

^ I've seen bits and pieces of it here and there. But they haven't put it forward in one cohesive document before.

[Edited on September 23, 2010 at 2:58 AM. Reason : Well, except for '94.]

9/23/2010 2:57:49 AM

Well, I'll wait for the speech tomorrow before passing formal judgment. I hope it won't be as vague as I'm expecting it to be.

9/23/2010 3:01:57 AM

Fair enough.

9/23/2010 3:07:23 AM

Quote :

"Repeal and Replace health care"

You know, at least when we repealed prohibition not long after starting it, everyone was thoroughly and permanently convinced of what a terrible idea it was. That's not the case here. So fantastic, now each successive administration will launch a new massive alteration of health policy, reversing that of its predecessor, until we go back and forth so often that there's no stability to the system at all and, subsequently, no medical care to treat the wounds or dysentery received in the next civil war.

I'm fine on Defense and the "Reforming Congress" parts.

9/23/2010 3:12:04 AM

^ Americans are opposed to key parts of the health-care reform legislation at issue. And if it's so great, why are Democrats running away from it?

9/23/2010 3:27:08 AM

I am really tired of folks talking about either repealing or supporting health care. Just about everyone likes health care.

The debate is over so-called health care reform bills and legislative/regulatory proposals.

Democrats love to frame the debate as being for or against health care, rather than the regulations, taxes, etc. This is pretty smart, actually, and is exactly what the CNN producer did when making this list.

I've seen Republicans with "STOP HEALTH CARE NOW" signs.

Usually I can dismiss idiot protesters, or a news anchor who forgets to add 'reform bill' or something similar as a suffix to "health care." You don't see it in written form as much, at least from folks outside the tea party.

Not much point here. It just bugs me.

[Edited on September 23, 2010 at 5:27 AM. Reason : s]

9/23/2010 5:26:08 AM

America has a tough road ahead of it no matter which path is taken. The Republicans still don't actually seem to be interested in cutting real spending and taking real leadership of the problem. Why? Because doing so, despite all the noise the Tea Party is making, won't get them elected as they'll be cutting the spending of everyone who supports them, retirees, defense companies, the military.

Their proposals are good but are pissing in the ocean at this point. And it isn't because the Democrats overspent the past couple years, it's because the fucking country overspent the past decade and a half.

Nothing they propose will have people hiring in any meaningful way over what is happening now. The American consumer hasn't delevered, and as such demand can only go down if credit gets tightened even more.

Also, I find it sad and telling that they are wanting to reform GSEs but not reform (and were opposed to reforming) Wall Street. Two sides, same coin.

9/23/2010 7:26:26 AM

So their plan is to keep peddling the same platitudes they've been peddling for two years now. That's some cutting edge shit right there, boss.

9/23/2010 8:44:36 AM

Quote :

"- Stop job-killing tax hikes ... - Require congressional approval for any new federal regulation that would add to the deficit"

does not compute

9/23/2010 10:02:14 AM

Contract with America ][: THE PLEDGE CONTINUES

9/23/2010 10:21:54 AM

Fool me once...

9/23/2010 10:41:06 AM

I'm all for cutting spending. Let's start with the fucking military.

9/23/2010 10:41:55 AM

Pledge To America

LOLOLOL

Wow, How totally original. who is the political genius who came up with this?


Hey, wait a minute... is like the Contract With America? the one that Congressional Republicans fulfilled after getting the majority?

And by "fulfilled" i mean, of course talked about for a while, then ulitmately ignored.



jesus christ you people are fucking tools.

9/23/2010 11:28:40 AM

exactly

Quote :

"- Establish strict budget caps to limit federal spending going forward"

and

Quote :

"- Provide resources to troops - Fund missile defense "

Also

Quote :

"- Give members at least 3 days to read bills before a vote"

Cut out the stall tactics. There was plenty of time to read everything in the bill and a few small changes to preexisting language doesn't require 3 days to figure out.

9/23/2010 11:34:17 AM

Quote :

"jesus christ you people are fucking tools"

uh...who are you addressing here? i think everybody recognizes the obvious comparisons to the contract with america. nor is anybody spooging themselves about how great this thing is, with the possible exception of hooksaw

9/23/2010 11:37:05 AM

Vague and misleading. And this from the GOP--I'm so surprised.

9/23/2010 11:38:24 AM

Tea Party talking points mixed with vague crap that is nothing new or innovative. In fact alot of it points to the same policies of the GOP past that contributed to this mess in the first place.

9/23/2010 11:42:22 AM

On Jobs: All of those basically equate to "Dear God please let the public forget the decade of failed Republican economic policies and let us double-down on them to line our backers' pockets"

On Cutting Spending: Replace it with what? The lot of it was Republican proposals dating back 20 years, there's nothing left to replace it with. And Republicans have never shown any desire to cap the budget or balance the budget and it'd require an amazing leap of faith to think they'd start now.

Reforming Congress: Meaningless babble. "Citation of Constitutional Authority" is just jibber unless they're going to create a parallel branch of the government to enforce the word and meaning of the Constitution (but that'd be pointless since the original three branches are already supposed to do that).

Defense: Again, they're hoping that Americans will forget the last decade of expensive wars, useless missile defense tests that only end up funding military suppliers with grant money, and the complete lack of resources afforded to the troops during the Iraq and Afganistan wars (remember all the drives to help armor the troops with scrap metal because administration wouldn't approve getting them actual armor? that happened under REPUBLICAN watch).

The sad thing is that it's a pretty solid bet. Americans have the attention spans of gnats and will easily forget that the Republicans have tried most of these before and it's what got us into this economic mess in the first place.

9/23/2010 1:03:34 PM

I like the idea of capping/controlling spending. I also liked the idea of paygo... will probably be just as effective. However, I KNOW what the dems in office will ignore their own budget rules to keep spending, its time to get them out and try someone new. And if they do the same BS we can get them out in a couple years too. Its about all we can do, other than bitch and moan.

9/23/2010 2:03:32 PM

Quote :

"Americans are opposed to key parts of the health-care reform legislation at issue. And if it's so great, why are Democrats running away from it?"

Of course, that contract didn't talk about repealing "key parts" of the legislation. It talked about repealing it, period, And of course some people are backing off of it, because my party seems to have long ago how to stand for much of anything except its own power, which it achieves by fighting brutal political battles unburdened by any great surplus of truth.

Quote :

"However, I KNOW what the dems in office will ignore their own budget rules to keep spending"

Haha, and you don't KNOW this about the Republicans? During years of Republican control over the White House and Congress we spent our tits off. Let's not try to act like the one's shit is rosier than the other here.

9/23/2010 2:29:16 PM

^I agree. And what happened? THey lost all three branches. Dems took over and doubled down. Its time to switch again, bc clearly they arent getting the message or we arent getting the right people in there.

9/23/2010 2:31:51 PM

Whoops, missed a key word in there. But I don't think you'll find a lot of people who say they voted against Republicans during 06/08 because of their spending.

[Edited on September 23, 2010 at 2:36 PM. Reason : ]

9/23/2010 2:33:28 PM

no they wont, and its the main reason I didnt vote in 2006. It was time to give the dems a shot bc I didnt like what the pubs were doing/spending.

I dont have a time machine to go back in time a revote, but we do see what this current group is doing and its time to send them home. Hopefully we will get better people in there who are serious about cutting spending/debt. I know its a pipedream to find a politician or party who has the balls to reform our entitlements....that is until the money runs out.

My hope grumpy is that the teaparty will have an impact on the GOP and weed out the RINOs. Of course I had once hoped that they would focus on small govt, spending, tax issues and steer clear of the religious stuff (where I think the future of the GOP is), but it looks like Ill have to wait longer on that one.

[Edited on September 23, 2010 at 2:44 PM. Reason : .]

9/23/2010 2:38:14 PM

I found the rest of it:

Quote :

"Education Reform - Putting Intelligent Design in our schools - Pulling our kids out of our schools whenever a non-republican President speaks - Prevent Comprehensive Sex Ed Environment - Deregulate the Oil Industry - Also, what's an environment and why should I care? Economy - Tax cuts for the wealthy, paid for with borrowed money - End all government programs without regard to positive or negative externalities - Filibuster small business tax relief & loan programs unless the GOP is in control to get credit for it Protecting the Constitution - By amending it to make flag desecration illegal - By amending it to ban marriage equality - By amending it to keep people born here from being citizens Women's Rights - End abortion - If that doesn't work pass as many body controlling laws as you can to make it more difficult - Oppose efforts like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act - Return Domestic Abuse to the status of pre-existing condition - Oppose efforts like Franken's anti-rape amendment War - Yes please* - *No gays allowed openly fight for their country"

9/23/2010 3:01:46 PM

Quote :

"uh...who are you addressing here? i think everybody recognizes the obvious comparisons to the contract with america. nor is anybody spooging themselves about how great this thing is, with the possible exception of hooksaw"

qntmfred

Talk about "not helpful"--that was just stupid. My OP was measured--I clearly indicated that (1) I haven't seen all the points of the pledge and (2) it'll only be a "good" thing if Republicans actually stick to what they have pledged.

Care to revise and extend your remarks? And don't take cheap shots at me and think that I won't fire back.

And, Grumpy, I'll respond to you when your post is more coherent. Drunk poast?

9/23/2010 3:22:57 PM

At 2:30 in the afternoon? No. I may drink a lot but I manage to keep it confined to the evening hours, thank you very much.

I'm not sure what part of it is incoherent. The contract in the OP describes "repealing and replacing" the health care reform legislation. That sounds broader than "key parts" to me, because of course it is. The Republican Party doesn't want to adjust the reform, they want to throw it out the window. Maybe that's a good idea and maybe it isn't, but let's call it what it is.

Ah, never mind, I see the mistake -- well, two mistakes. "And" should start a new sentence and the phrase should read "my party seems to have long ago forgotten how to stand for much of anything except its own power." I must've edited it and accidentally omitted a word. My apologies.

Quote :

"My hope grumpy is that the teaparty will have an impact on the GOP and weed out the RINOs."

Fuck you. It is not upon you or the goddamn Tea Party to decide who is and who isn't a "real" Republican.

Quote :

"I know its a pipedream to find a politician or party who has the balls to reform our entitlements"

Do you mean "reform" or "get rid of?"

---

Oh, and as for this part of the contract:

Quote :

"Allow small businesses to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their income"

Apparently a small business help package including billions in tax breaks just recently passed the Senate after three months of Republican opposition.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/23/smallbusiness/small_business_legislation_house/index.htm?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

I suppose we should consider it fortunate that the Democratic political strategists are too stupid to make much of the mixed message.

[Edited on September 23, 2010 at 4:36 PM. Reason : ]

9/23/2010 4:30:43 PM

Found this in the opening statement on page 3 of the document:

Quote :

"We pledge to honor families, traditional marriage, life, and the private and faith-based organizations that form the core of our American values."

No gays, no abortions, more public $ for religious organizations.

9/23/2010 5:36:31 PM

Yeah, pretty much.

I really wish that people were capable of logical thinking. The constant appeal to emotion that politicians utilize does nothing to advance society.

9/23/2010 5:44:35 PM

Quote :

"Do you mean "reform" or "get rid of?""

Reform, you will never be able to get rid off them completely. I dont think anyone is seriously calling for that. SS would have been fine if govt didnt piss away the excess. Getting more of that out of their hands is a good alternative imo.

Quote :

"Fuck you. It is not upon you or the goddamn Tea Party to decide who is and who isn't a "real" Republican. "

Good lord, pump the brakes dude. You were just bitching on how much the republicans spent, and hte dems doubled down... So at least another group is having an impact of bringing spending/deficit into the discussion and weeding out a lot of the ole status quo. Republicans tend to call these people RINOs. To me bush's spending puts him up there. Dems hate that he spent more domestically than clinton and like to think Gore wouldnt have taken us to war... which I would disagree with.

Think of this aspect of the teaparty movement as having a Perot type effect, which is a good thing for the nation. imo

9/23/2010 9:03:11 PM

Quote :

"Ah, never mind, I see the mistake -- well, two mistakes. 'And' should start a new sentence and the phrase should read 'my party seems to have long ago forgotten how to stand for much of anything except its own power.' I must've edited it and accidentally omitted a word. My apologies."

GrumpyGOP

NP. And I wasn't trying to give you shit. I was just trying to make sure I was understanding you correctly.

In any event, I guess reasonable people can disagree about the intentions behind "Repeal and Replace." It's often easier, however, to just scrap something and start over, rather than trying to tinker with problem parts--I think a growing number agree that ObamaCare falls into the former category.

9/23/2010 9:30:20 PM

http://theleftinme.blogspot.com/2010/09/america-spoke-but-gop-ignored.html

Quote :

"Have you been to the Republican website, the one where they are asking Americans for advice on what to put in their "A Pledge to America" plan?.........they call it a new governing agenda built by listening to you and focusing on your top priorities. OH REALLY??? First, the top two ideas are legalize marijuana"

I had heard about this. They made the mistake of using an online poll to get input on what they should include in this "pledge" and that legalize it was the top result. Their top item from their pretend public input poll wasn't used.

In trying to find an article about that, I came across this:

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/120035-top-republican-obama-administration-encouraging-use-of-marijuana

Quote :

"Republican: Obama administration fosters use of marijuana 09/21/10 0 Rep. Lamar Smith (Texas) accused the administration of being too lax in its enforcement of drug laws. President Obama's drug policies are encouraging increased marijuana use, a top Republican lawmaker charged Tuesday. Rep. Lamar Smith (Texas), the top Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee who would likely become chairman of the committee under a GOP majority, accused the administration of being too lax in its enforcement of drug laws. "The administration is clearly sending the message that they don't think it's bad to use marijuana," Smith said on Fox News. "So they're encouraging the use of marijuana. And that simply is not a good thing to do." Smith blamed the administration's decision to not enforce federal laws against marijuana dispensaries in states that have legalized the drug for medicinal purposes. Smith blamed the administration's approach on drug laws for recent statistics showing an increased use of marijuana. "

9/24/2010 3:17:35 AM

^
Yes you're going to get some GOP wackiness. But right now it is more important to stop the Obama economy-killing agenda.

9/24/2010 10:42:12 AM

for the lulz
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-september-23-2010/postcards-from-the-pledge

9/24/2010 10:58:57 AM

^ Absolutely nails it!

Sadly what it comes down to is the Dems had no backbone and have fallen flat in watered down, special interest laden bills and the Republicans have nothing new to offer except ideas that contributed to the grand mess in the first place. We are really left with no viable choice at this point.

9/24/2010 11:31:48 AM

Quote :

""The administration is clearly sending the message that they don't think it's bad to use marijuana," Smith said on Fox News. "So they're encouraging the use of marijuana. And that simply is not a good thing to do.""

Mind your motherfuckin' business and let a thug smoke

9/24/2010 11:34:41 AM

Sometimes, personal responsibility means the government telling you what you're allowed to do to your own body.

9/24/2010 11:42:25 AM

Quote :

"On Thursday, House Republicans released their “Pledge to America,” supposedly outlining their policy agenda. In essence, what they say is, “Deficits are a terrible thing. Let’s make them much bigger.” The document repeatedly condemns federal debt — 16 times, by my count. But the main substantive policy proposal is to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, which independent estimates say would add about $3.7 trillion to the debt over the next decade — about $700 billion more than the Obama administration’s tax proposals. True, the document talks about the need to cut spending. But as far as I can see, there’s only one specific cut proposed — canceling the rest of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which Republicans claim (implausibly) would save $16 billion. That’s less than half of 1 percent of the budget cost of those tax cuts. As for the rest, everything must be cut, in ways not specified — “except for common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops.” In other words, Social Security, Medicare and the defense budget are off-limits. So what’s left? Howard Gleckman of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has done the math. As he points out, the only way to balance the budget by 2020, while simultaneously (a) making the Bush tax cuts permanent and (b) protecting all the programs Republicans say they won’t cut, is to completely abolish the rest of the federal government: “No more national parks, no more Small Business Administration loans, no more export subsidies, no more N.I.H. No more Medicaid (one-third of its budget pays for long-term care for our parents and others with disabilities). No more child health or child nutrition programs. No more highway construction. No more homeland security. Oh, and no more Congress."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/opinion/24krugman.html?_r=1&hp

Krugman said it so you know it isn't true.

9/24/2010 12:42:09 PM

Quote :

"“No more national parks"

Sweet so this means we can finally rape Alaska without any pesky opposition

9/24/2010 12:48:22 PM

^^I think the big myth floating around is that, at some point, we're going to reduce deficits, and even start running surpluses, allowing us to pay off the debt eventually. Make no mistake, that will never happen. We all know what would have to be cut to get us back to the point of running a surplus, and you'd have to be an idiot to think that Republicans will do that. The debt will be wiped out by default or inflation, not austerity.

Quote :

"Will require that every bill have a citation of constitutional authority"

Wait, that's a reform? I'm pretty sure that's how it was intended to work to begin with.

Quote :

"Give members at least 3 days to read bills before a vote"

When bills are now 2,000 pages, is 3 days really going to cut it, especially when half of Congress is senile?

Quote :

"Establish strict budget caps to limit federal spending going forward"

There already are caps. Congress just votes to raise them.

Quote :

"Defense: - Provide resources to troops - Fund missile defense - Enforce sanctions in Iran"

I like how in one breath, they'll condemn spending and deficits, and in the next breath, they'll cite the need for spending and running deficits. The sanction thing is just despicable. Sanctions don't work, they hurt the common people.

Some of these bullet points sound good, until you realize that it won't happen. We need to repeal a huge number of laws that remove liberty.

[Edited on September 24, 2010 at 2:04 PM. Reason : ]

9/24/2010 1:53:22 PM

Quote :

"Where have these proposals been the past 2 years?"

Probably blocked by Dems in committees, when they even bother to let any Republicans in behind the locked doors.

Quote :

"does not compute"

You do realize that Congress has given blank checks to some agencies to pass regulations, right? Does the EPA not ring a bell? Did you not notice that the ObamaCare bill sets up regulatory agencies that will *gasp* make regulations? Did you not notice that the Financial Reform bill created a regulatory agency that will *gasp* make regulations? Many of these bills are fucking awful because they didn't actually spell out what was to be the law. They just simply made agencies that will, in effect, make law.

9/24/2010 3:05:43 PM

Quote :

"No more national parks"

Is that really in there?

9/24/2010 3:53:51 PM

of course it's not. it's just DNC propaganda, dude.

9/24/2010 3:54:41 PM

Quote :

"Sometimes, personal responsibility means the government telling you what you're allowed to do to your own body. --eyedr(inaboutanhour)b"

did you get that from the Right To Life brochures you hide in the LensCrafters office furniture?





[Edited on September 24, 2010 at 5:02 PM. Reason : ]

9/24/2010 5:01:45 PM

Quote :

"Sometimes, personal responsibility means the government telling you what you're allowed to do to your own body."

I hope this is a sarcastic comment.

9/24/2010 5:15:20 PM