[dirtboy]

Still hungover? A good zot of electricity will fix that in a jiffy.

[Constitution Day]

[showme_the_Glory]

Mmmm. Ozone. I love that smell

[Holly_P]

Joined today to post this crap did you?

[deport]

Bottom line: You can have doubts about Howard Dean's electability.

---

Nah...... no doubts.

[FourtySeven]

Welcome to Free Republic!

Might I suggest a flame retardant suit? There are some lovely after-Christmas sales on right now; you should take advantage.

[ChadGore]

You may hear a buzzing sound as the capacitors charge.

[NeoCaveman]

Great name, it would agree with this premis.

We got a live one here

[Cyber Ninja]

It's only gonna hurt for about a year.

[NeoCaveman]

One extra ctrispy zot here!

[VRWC_minion]

I'm convinced the liberals are convinced they cannot win, therefore if they are going to lose anyways they may as well got down in flames.

[Jack Black]

For the last FREAKING TIME YOU LIBERAL IDIOTS AND LIARS: (directed to author of column not poster 'still hungover'

THERE WAS NO SURPLUS IN THE CLINTON YEARS !!!

As proof of my radically controversial statement I offer you the official U.S. Government listing of the PUBLIC DEBT, from their own web site.

To review the basics, if there had benn a "surplus" (i.e. more money taken in then spent) then for whatever year that occurred the debt would go DOWN. It did not. Thus the surplus was notional, a fraud, dependent on strange accounting rules. What it was not, even close, was an actual year that we ended up with more than we started with. Clinton did not pay down 1 penny of debt in his eight years. To say otherwise is to lie.

09/30/2000 $5,674,178,209,886.86
09/30/1999 5,656,270,901,615.43
09/30/1998 5,526,193,008,897.62
09/30/1997 5,413,146,011,397.34
09/30/1996 5,224,810,939,135.73
09/29/1995 4,973,982,900,709.39
09/30/1994 4,692,749,910,013.32
09/30/1993 4,411,488,883,139.38
09/30/1992 4,064,620,655,521.66

[Revolting cat!]

Affordable health care for the 44 million uninsured.

It's 44 million now? It was 41 a month or two ago. I suppose that 10% number of US population being homopederasts is higher now too? 25%? And what, 10 million homeless, up from zero in the second week of January 2000? How much did you say the RIAA loses due to downloading? $15 billion a year?

[4mycountry]

The Viking Kitties say, BEGONE!

[MHGinTN]

Democrats are bold-faced liars! The 'journalist' writes, "But in reality, the notion that Dean is somehow radically left on domestic policy, or has "dissed" Bill Clinton, is nonsense." I recall Howard'Killer'Dean actually saying that the clinton era is over and he's gonna fix what sinkEmperor broke.

[OldFriend]

Dean's lies are more breathtaking than those of the grifters.

[4mycountry]

[Tijeras_Slim]

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>>What "radical" goals would Dr. Dean urge the party to pursue, in what he now calls a "New Social Contract for Working Families"?

It's not the goals, it's Death Md's prescription that bear further examination.

>>>>>Affordable health care for the 44 million uninsured.

At a rally in Brooklyn he called for universal government health care. This system is failing in every major country in which it is tried. The private health care industry comprises 14% of our nation's $10tril per annum GDP.

Assuming that the government could do this at 1/2 price due to economies of scale and that no one would waste a dime of the tax money involved, Howard Dean needs to acquire an additional $700bil per annum to fund this mandate.

>>>>>Affordable child care. Universal preschool for millions of poorer kids who don't have it.

As Vermont Governor, Dean attempted these programs. They exist, but are only affordable for those who don't pay taxes. The overall state tax burden in Vt. is now 46% higher than when Dean took office.

>>>>A new commitment to make college more affordable.

College is no longer affordable because the level of government payments, rather than the budget of the typical family, determines the cost of tuition. College tuitions have outpaced the CPI by more than double for well over two decades. The increased tuitions have vastly outpaced the increase of individual wealth in the US over that period of time. Colleges would not be charging more unless someone could afford to pay this cost. That someone is Uncle Sap.


>>>>>>>A modest increase in the minimum wage.

If this is modest enough so that it doesn't exacerbate the very unemployment that Dean and his fellow partisans gripe about, I'd have no objections to this aspect of Dean's agenda.

>>>>>>>>New efforts to encourage savings for average citizens.

Raising someone's taxes by 46% doesn't encourage them to save much of anything.

[montomike]

Yeah, right!

[Bullcrap alert]Clinton's great achievement on "defense" was to move the country from large budget deficits (which put Democratic domestic ambitions in a straitjacket) to unprecedented budget surpluses.

The republican takeover of congress in '94 and their restraint on govt spending as well as the "internet bubble economy" resulting in the large increase in capital gains taxes lead to the reduction in the deficit.

Clinton had nothing to do with it. He was too busy getting knobbed by Monica (35 times by her own admission) and others to pay any attention to the economy and the budget deficit and terrorists and the environment and the military and anything else. He was a totally ineffectual president who was much more interested in the trappings of power and the requisite adulation and perks. The perception of doing something is easier and much different than actually doing something

One man's opinion.