Damnocrat vs. Repug - by Andy Rooney

[Timber Loftis]

I think Mr. Rooney summed up the two positions well last night on 60 minutes. This is a very insightful little bit into the spin used by the parties - and why I HATE (did I say hate? - howabout DESPISE) them both.

CBS) A weekly commentary by CBS News Correspondent Andy Rooney.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm envious of the Dole-Clinton/Clinton-Dole debates because between them, they can take both sides of an issue.

If I could take one side for a minute and then take the other, it would be a lot easier, for me.

Say, for example, I wanted to argue about being a Republican, or a Democrat.
__________________________________________________ __________
ANDY: The trouble with you Democrats is you think the solution to all our problems is more government. Government IS the problem. Let me give you the titles of just three government jobs we could do without.

These are actual positions:

Special assistant to the assistant secretary of shipping.

Associate general deputy sssistant secretary.

Associate deputy assistant secretary of public affairs.

Democrats oppose the President's tax cut because they say it's good for the wealthiest Americans. Why are Democrats against the rich? What have poor people done for us lately? The wealthiest 5 percent pay more than 55 percent of all income taxes.

Why tax people for being successful? They ought to be encouraged, not penalized.

President George W. Bush has restored American pride and our prestige in the world by freeing Iraq of Saddam Hussein. He's a great president. We should carve his likeness on Mount Rushmore while he's still in the White House.
__________________________________________________ ________

ROONEY: Republicans like you talk as if they want less government but every time they get elected, the bureaucracy gets bigger. They fire 10 government workers to make it look good, then they hire a consulting firm with 175 employees to do the work of the 10 government workers they fired.

You say government should let business alone. Well, it left Enron alone and look what happened. Big business pretends it doesn't like big government, but big business and big government are in business together. The government is the biggest customer big business has.

The economy is down the drain under George W. Bush, the rest of the world hates us and now that our soldiers - most of whom are Democrats - have won the war in Iraq, Bush doesn't know what to do about the peace.

Tony Blair makes him sound like a high school dropout. You Republicans would be smart if you didn't even nominate him for a second term.
__________________________________________________ ________________
ANDY ROONEY: You know one of you is a lot better than the other one at this.

[Attalus]

Actually, Timber, the military votes overwhelmingly Republican. And, why dump on Bush about the peace which is only - what? - a day old? And, the economy started heading south at the end of Clinton's term. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Timber Loftis]

Spoken like someone who is capable of only one view, my good doctor. The only point you made that I'll concede is how the military votes. Oh, and the flames against Dems can be just as easily refuted. As someone who works in one of those large firms that sucks money from the government, I'll point out that he's bang-on on that one.

And, claiming the economy tanked at the end of Clinton's era is like claiming Clinton owed all of the economic success of his era to the economic genius of Bush 41 and his *cough* ability to turn the economy around in 4 *cough* short years despite (say it in monotone with me) "gridlock Democratic Congress" (it's got a certain cadence, doesn't it) only to have it occur for Bush41 too late, while he was a lame duck waiting to exit what later became Clinton's "Oval Orifice Office." The "likeness" between these two anti-Clinton arguments is typical Repug-speak regarding the "business party's" poor economic performance, which is essentially "duck and weave, duck and weave."

I don't know Rooney's politics, but the "what have the poor done for us" he spouts while he's taking the "Republican side" makes me suspect he is Damnocratic - and I'll give you that. Regardless, he makes some good points and generally presents a fair comparrison.

[Attalus]

The most telling quote that I can give on Rooney's politics is, "You know, whenever the students at any University start to protest, I find they are inevitably on the correct side." I guess he forgets the anti-Semitic riots in the German Universities of the late 30's. And, as for being unable to see more than one point of view, I will readily admit it, having been a Republican from age 12 onwards, much to my father and mother's disgust. I laughed out loud when I read that Clarence Day, Jr.'s father used to wonder aloud why God made so many damned fools and Democrats.
Edit: typos

[ 04-14-2003, 08:04 PM: Message edited by: Attalus ]

[Seraph]

And, the economy started heading south at the end of Clinton's term.

This is true, however the attempts to "fix" the problem have only been serving to reduce the number of jobs avaible. 3 years ago most of my friends (engineers) would have had no problem finding a job, now most of them are going to graduate school because theres no work avaible thanks to Bush.

[Timber Loftis]

*bump* Surely I can lure out a few more responses to this.

[Attalus]

Oh, and I forgot that the main reason that the economy is bad is 9/11, not anything in the Adminitration's policies. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I like Andy and pretty much agree on most of what he said.
You do have to admit though that Enron happened under 8 years of debauchery in the white house.

1. We need a flat tax with NO loop holes.
2. We need smaller government.
3. we need fewer laws.

My three absolutes

oh and we should set an absolute spending cap for congress beyond which they cannot go. [img]smile.gif[/img] I know...wishful thinking.

[Timber Loftis]

MagiK, I hate your first premise, but like the others. I absolutely cannot abide a flat dollar amount tax. Now, I think that the income tax is broken, and I do not advocate taxing success.

Me, I'm for taxing waste, not work. Perfectly sensible. And, you *can* place a flat "per unit volume" tax on waste, scaled for the type of waste of course (1 pound of PCBs certainly do more harm than 1 pound of dirty Kleenex). And, you can avoid the tax by reuse and recycling obviously.

What's best about the waste tax is that it makes the BigDirty.Co businessmen who oppose it implicitly admit they are bitching about having to pay to pollute. [img]graemlins/evilhaha.gif[/img]

Oh, and the absolute spending cap is a pie-in-sky dream that I would love as well. But, like campaign finance reform and Congressional pay raises, we are relying on those who benefit from the injustice to voluntary change the injustice. NOT. [img]graemlins/dontknowaboutyou.gif[/img]

[ 04-15-2003, 02:08 PM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]

Taxing waste is a cool idea...would never fly though, too many lobyists