Not Your Grandfather's Republican Party; Obama and Romney Nearly the Same

Townhall.com ^ | November 26, 2011 | Mike Shedlock

[Kaslin]

Not your grandfather’s Republican Party

My lifelong friend and high-school classmate had an wonderful op-ed on iPolitics today. Please consider Not your grandfather’s Republican Party by David Wise.

One of the most negative things to have happened to the increasingly dysfunctional political system in the United States has been the transformation of the Republican Party over the last generation into the party of fiscal deficits. At one time, the bastion of balanced budgets and no free lunches, 70% of gross public debt through the last fiscal year was accumulated under the last three Republican presidents who ran deficits twenty out of twenty years averaging 3.9% of GDP.

Having inherited a budget surplus from Bill Clinton, George W. Bush presided over a doubling in federal debt, simultaneously cutting taxes while running two wars on credit. Railing against domestic spending, the same administration implemented a large new unfunded prescription drug benefit. Yet now, as the opposition party, Republicans pontificate about the dangerous levels of gross public debt (now at 101.1% of GDP) and last summer set about playing chicken with a possible default on our financial obligations. In now trumpeting national debt as a paramount evil, the Republicans approach the debate by taking tax increases and defense spending off the table – which is somewhat like resolving to set about losing weight by eschewing dieting and exercise.

Conservatives are right to raise issues about what they see as a tendency to throw money at domestic programs, yet refuse to apply the same logic to spending on the military. In a world with no existential threat such as we faced during the Cold War and in which 85% of global defense spending is by the US and its allies, the US defense budget is higher now on a constant dollar basis than it averaged during the Cold War. There is probably no part of the Federal government that is more poorly and wastefully managed than the US weapons acquisition programs where massive cost overruns are common.

The current situation is dangerous and unsustainable. This year the US government will collect taxes equal to 14.4 of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – the lowest level since 1950 – yet spend 25.3% of GDP. Serious people know in their hearts what has to be done. ....

Here again is the link to the entire article: Not your grandfather’s Republican Party.

President Obama and Mitt Romney are Nearly One and the Same!

I do not know which candidate my friend backs, if any. It is easy enough to make a case that every candidate is flawed.

However, I am in 100% agreement with the central thesis of his article: "Serious people know in their hearts what has to be done."

To that idea, I have a few questions.

Do You Want More Bailouts? More War-Mongering? More Nation Building? More Federal Spending? More Status Quo?

Let me phrase the above in a single question: Do you want more of the same?

Polls suggest you don't. Your votes say you do. So which will it be?

If you want more of the same, then vote for President Obama. If you want more of the same you can also vote for Mitt Romney or Herman Cain.

Whether you voted Democratic or Republican in the last election, it did not matter. The non-super budget committee proves it as does Obama's carry-over of Bush's bank bailout policies.

The sad fact of the matter is a vote for Obama is a vote for Mitt Romney. Likewise, a vote for Mitt Romney is a vote for Obama.

As preposterous as it may have sounded at first glance, Obama and Romney are nearly One and the Same!

Neither will tackle the budget deficit. Both will keep military spending intact. Both support the "un-patriot" act.

To be fair, Romney is more likely to start a devastating trade war with China (in fact he has guaranteed it), while president Obama is more likely to waste money on social programs and big labor.

Some choice!

The simple fact of the matter is: it does not matter much if you vote for Mitt Romney or Barrack Obama. Both will destroy the country. Both support wars. Both will spend the country into the ground (but perhaps in different ways).

[gunnyg]

‘Taint yer Grandad’s anything no more.....’cept fer a damn few who still remember...that’s a-changing...daily...

Semper Watching!
*****

[MindBender26]

I'm far from a Romney supporter, but this is simply another attempt by this poster to get FReepers to believe there is no hope in 2012.

[ExCTCitizen]

I know FR hate Mitt, but it seems that every GOP candidate has FLAWS. I doubt if Jesus was running some FR members would not support him, because of his stand on taxes.

That said, Mitt is not my candidate, but if it between him or Obama, I'll vote for him (or Huntsman) before I'll let my vote be soiled with a 3rd party moron, who'll just draw votes for Obama.

FReepers, I'm not telling what to do, but I'll never vote 3rd party again, I did it twice -- and Bill Clinton got elected.

[maxwellsmart_agent]

If Romney wins the primary, why vote?

[ml/nj]

Willard might be my last choice among the active Republicans, but suggesting that he and Obama are birds of a feather is rather absurd.

Just consider their friends. I don't even know who Romney's friends are, but I doubt he has even one like Ayers, Wright, Khalidi, Jones, etc., etc. (Let's not forget Michelle, either.) My guess also is that Romney's life before he was out of college isn't some sort of off limits black hole.

ML/NJ

[Condor51]

Not Your Grandfather's Republican Party; Obama and Romney Nearly the Same

Oh come on now. Let's not get ridiculous. I'm not defending Mittens but there's a HUGH difference between the two:

• When young Barry ingested Dope. Mittens ingested Milk.
  
• Barry's parents were Commies. Mittens' were loyal Americans.
  
• Mittens went to college. Barry 'allegedly' went to college.
  
• On Sundays Barry went to a anti-American Hate Fest rally. Mittens went to church.
  
• Barry is into Big Government. Mittens is into Big Government AND, Big Hair.
• Mitten's is 6'-2" tall, Barry is 6'-1½"
  
• Obama is a half-black liar. Mittens is a half-ass liar.

But prolly the biggest difference between the two is ........

Mittens had many a paycheck to make.
Barry never saw a paycheck he didn't want to take!

:-)

[businessprofessor]

Basically, between romney and obama, the choice is Purgatory or Hell

You are correct about Obama but wrong on Romney. Romney is not my first choice but I will strongly support him if he wins the nomination. Romney will be different than Obama in most policy areas. Romney has Bush-like tendencies in trying to appease the left. These tendencies are dangerous but conservatives can put lots of pressure to reverse them. Here is a list of areas that Romney will have sharply different policies than Obama: - EPA regulation of green house gases - Overzealous EPA regulations on ozones - Defacto card check support - Defacto amnesty support - Stimulus proposals - Obamacare support - SEIU residency in the White House - Soak the rich tax policies - Green energy subsidies - Slashing of defense spending

[jacknhoo]

I’d take Bill Clinton over Romney, but you won’t find my vote for either of them ever.

[Kaslin]

He might win the primary in your state. So if he wins the primary in your state, are you going to sit home in the general election?

Last but not least, who says he will be the nominee, the pundits? What do they know

[Kaslin]

Correct and we must make it clear to the GOP we do not want the lamestream media dictate to them and to us who the nominee should be

[algernonpj]

There is a major difference between the fact that every one has flaws and the fact that some flaws are completely unacceptable.

[af_vet_rr]

I'm far from a Romney supporter, but this is simply another attempt by this poster to get FReepers to believe there is no hope in 2012.

There is hope as long as it's not Mittens. If the GOP has truly shifted to the left and Republicans select Romney, then the GOP will have made it clear that Conservatives are no longer welcome and we'll do our own thing. The GOP will find out that it's nothing without Conservatives.

I'll be damned if I'm going to support a would-be socialist with an (R) next to his name.

[af_vet_rr]

You are correct about Obama but wrong on Romney. Romney is not my first choice but I will strongly support him if he wins the nomination. Romney will be different than Obama in most policy areas.

You'll be pretty alone on supporting him around here.

You can tell yourself Romney is better, but in the end, he's still wanting to push us down the road to socialism just as surely as Obama is, just not quite as fast.

I, on the other hand, am at a point in my life where I have 20 years left if I'm lucky, and I'll be damned if I waste it supporting people like Romney. A closet socialist is still a socialist, and they are hoping that we will blindly support them as long as they have an (R) next to their name.

We're running out of time to turn things around and if we support people like Romney, we are letting the clock run out on us. It's time to stop the clock and make a stand and not bend over for these people.

[Cacique]

Romney loves the ruling class he is a part of. The America he loves is not the one the populus loves.

[grumpygresh]

I will STRONGLY support romney if he is the GOP nominee. Not at all because I think romney is very good, but because obama is very bad.
There is simply no peaceable way to restore the republic under obama. If obama is re-elected, it means secession and revolution.
Live free or die.

[af_vet_rr]

I will STRONGLY support romney if he is the GOP nominee. Not at all because I think romney is very good, but because obama is very bad.

If you think that Romney is a lot better than Obama, you're smoking something that's probably illegal... the only difference between the two is how fast they want to take us down the road to socialism. You're still supporting a wannabe socialist if you support Romney.

There is simply no peaceable way to restore the republic under obama. If obama is re-elected, it means secession and revolution.
Live free or die.

Excuse me for being cynical, but you talk about secession while saying you'd support Romney so I have a hard time taking you seriously. Plus, I recall people talking about "secession and revolution" if Obama was elected in the first place, and we're still the same nation.

But for the sake of argument, which states are going to secede and how would they secede? I can tell you it won't be Texas - not enough support and Rick Perry made it clear that he is against secession. Florida? No, they went for Obama in 2008. As for some of the other Southern states, there is not nearly enough support for secession.

But please, since you seem to know that people will secede, let us know which states so that people who want to secede can start preparing to move there.

[grumpygresh]

We can just all give up and go into the FEMA camp.

[af_vet_rr]

We can just all give up and go into the FEMA camp.

So the choice is we support Mitt Romney or we go to a FEMA camp. Or we secede.

Okay....

[Awgie]

OK...I know there is a Romney hate fest going on here.

But Romney equals BO?

I'm not drinking the kool-aide.

[grumpygresh]

The first choice is to find the best anti-Romney conservative. But if that fails, we must defeat obama. Any other ideas?
After 4 more years of obama, this nation will never recover.
Is that okay?