Iowa Liberal

Over at CPST, DNW told a weird anecdote about how he was watching a film by French director Francois Truffaut, and he noticed something peculiar. An extra was holding an axe wrong! Thus, it had to be, that the socialist French director Truffaut and all the Frenchies on set were clueless liberals who were out of touch with real working class folks.

Heh. So anyway, Sarah Palin apparently can’t shoot or fish properly. I mean, c’mon…pointing a shotgun at other humans? Man, she could pull a Dick Cheney, and whoever got shot would have to apologize to her. REAL MERKINS DON’T STEP IN FRONT OF A REPUBLICAN HOLDING A GUN!

Republicans use crap like this to try to turn politics into a culture game. Hey, Republicans may be responsible for our massive deficits and economic collapse, and they may have no solutions, but they shoot, and they hunt, and they go to church, and they wear suits, and they don’t swear, and they know how to build a porch, etc. etc. etc. Until they don’t, and then it doesn’t matter, because they’re on the side of those who do. And it doesn’t matter if liberals do those things too, because they’re crazy for not being Republicans, because Republicans shoot, hunt, go to church, etc. It’s really a great recipe for selling tax cuts for the wealthy, polluting the earth, and campaigning against health care for all Americans. Hey, I just had a kid, it’s time to start voting Republican! It’s bullshit, and if you don’t see the con, you’ll get conned.

-hw

Here’s my take: 69% tax increases, 31% spending cuts.

It’s kind of reassuring knowing that with some relatively modest tweaks the deficit situation is solvable. Of course, we live in a political environment where Republicans gleefully campaign promising explicit tax cuts and vague spending cuts, telling voters they can have something for nothing. My position is that most spending programs can be altered but are essentially popular and desired by the public, and thus should be paid for. It’s something for something, and it balances out, doesn’t it? Don’t believe me, go look for yourself.

-hw

UPDATE: This is a good look at the kind of things missing from the calculator.

Wonder why Democrats passed a health care reform bill based on Republican ideas and Republicans ran against it as tyranny? Ezra provides a look back on Democrat efforts to cover all Americans since Truman:

In other words, Democrats have been willing to adopt Republican ideas if doing so meant covering everybody (or nearly everybody), while Republicans were willing to abandon Republican ideas if sticking by them meant compromising with the Democrats.

Better move to the right, President Obama!

-hw