The Republican Budget (Response) [PDF]
gop.gov
gop.gov
Whats actually concerning, is that unlike Democrats who came out of the 2004 loss by organizing towards the future, the Republicans seem to be digging in.
I mean, instead of spending the effort to attack Obama on his fiscal policy, they are attacking him on everything. I mean seriously, what exactly is the GOP hoping to gain, by making fun of Obama using a teleprompter?
I wonder if you would have gotten as many upvotes if you had called out Democrats for making fun of the way that Bush speaks, which was surely instrumental in destroying the Republican brand. To many people between the ages of 14 and 30, "Republican" is slang for "idiot", in part because of endless clips of Bush's speech stumbles being played all over the evening news + Jon Stewart.
I agree that politics should be about substance and not style. Isn't this alternative budget proposal a substantial critique?
No this isn't a substantial critique. Why? Because it just repeats the same stuff we heard before. Just a repetition of the same old mantra...low taxes! low taxes will fix everything!
36% tax rate = free market working at its best.
39% tax rate = marxist pigs, set out to destroy this nation.
There are plenty of Republicans to admire, unfortunately for the GOP, the only people at the front are the hypocrites who noone takes seriously any more.
I also find it interesting that they discuss ending bailouts when Bush gave the first bailout before leaving office (but no one actually monitored where the money was going).
The problem with spending big is that most people have no idea what's in the spending bills - witness all the ridiculous things (e.g. AIG bonuses and the questionable outrage that happened under Obama/Geithner).
As for the rich, they not only pay most of the taxes (that end up going to services they are least likely to use), but they also buy lots of stuff (increasing jobs needed), invest in companies/municipalities/fed via stocks and bonds, and save (which provides credit for others). So even the rich, just by being rich help others.
The US military industrial complex, the largest socialist institution in the world, exists in part to protect the wealth of this nation. If the US was a much poorer nation, we would have significantly less need for a large military (nor could we afford it). If you're wealthy, you're probably just as reliant on roads and airports, perhaps even more so than a poor person who probably walks/bikes more often. The wealthy are also completely dependent on affordable, readily available education (K-12 and higher education) to train the workforce. Then there's all the wealth created in the private sector that have been reaped from research originally conducted by NASA, the NIH, and for the military. And lets not get started on corporate welfare which props up everyone's investments in the domestic equities markets.
Most of what I've listed is an indirect benefit, but lets not pretend that the wealthy have decoupled themselves from the spendings of the US Government. Spending is rarely cut for just this reason: the big money backing the politicians doesn't want its share of the government cheese to disappear. It's no accident true small government proponents are marginalized and replaced with phony doppelgangers spewing platitudes about "small government" only to turn around and feed the very beast they've been elected to destroy.