“Maureen Dowd is off today.”
They should run that under her column, too!
Now that you mentioned, her, rules are rules...
Posted on 09/29/2010 11:46:17 AM PDT by WebFocus
There are actually two Tea Party movements in America today: one you’ve read about that is not that important and one you’ve not read about that could become really important if the right politician understood how to tap into it.
The Tea Party that has gotten all the attention, the amorphous, self-generated protest against the growth in government and the deficit, is what I’d actually call the “Tea Kettle movement” — because all it’s doing is letting off steam.
That is not to say that the energy behind it is not authentic (it clearly is) or that it won’t be electorally impactful (it clearly might be). But affecting elections and affecting America’s future are two different things. Based on all I’ve heard from this movement, it feels to me like it’s all steam and no engine. It has no plan to restore America to greatness.
The Tea Kettle movement can’t have a positive impact on the country because it has both misdiagnosed America’s main problem and hasn’t even offered a credible solution for the problem it has identified. How can you take a movement seriously that says it wants to cut government spending by billions of dollars but won’t identify the specific defense programs, Social Security, Medicare or other services it’s ready to cut — let alone explain how this will make us more competitive and grow the economy?
And how can you take seriously a movement that sat largely silent while the Bush administration launched two wars and a new entitlement, Medicare prescription drugs — while cutting taxes — but is now, suddenly, mad as hell about the deficit and won’t take it anymore from President Obama? Say what? Where were you folks for eight years?
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Then cut “Health and Human Servicies” along with all its programs (from Wikipedia):
The Department of Health and Human Services’ budget includes more than 300 programs, covering a wide spectrum of activities. Some highlights include:
Health and social science research
Preventing disease, including immunization services
Assuring food and drug safety
Medicare (health insurance for elderly and disabled Americans) and Medicaid (health insurance for low-income people)
Health information technology
Financial assistance and services for low-income families
Improving maternal and infant health, including a Nurse Home Visitation to support first-time mothers.
Head Start (pre-school education and services)
Faith-based and community initiatives
Preventing child abuse and domestic violence
Substance abuse treatment and prevention
Services for older Americans, including home-delivered meals
Comprehensive health services for Native Americans
Medical preparedness for emergencies, including potential terrorism.
Health care reform
Hey, reversing all of Zerobama’s/Reid’s/Pelosi’s government expansion legislation is a great start to a plan to restore America to greatness. Actually, impeaching Zero and throwing him and Biden out of office would really give momentum to restoring America’s greatness.
It’s interesting that he obviously doesn’t think BO is doing such a hot job.
Eliminating HHS will save $860,000,000,000 each year.
This might sound like heresy, but I actually believe we can trim our defense budget and make it more efficient without affecting our ability to have an efficient fighting force.
We could also look seriously into asking some of our allies to SLOWLY shoulder more of their own defense responsibilities ( e.g. Germany and Japan ).
You forgot to add the mega “barfer” tag line.
Friedman writes: “Where were you folks for eight years?”
We were talking about overspending but being ignored. Like everything in modern America, the Tea Party is a media creation, at least in the consciouness of the American people. We were here all along, now we’re being noticed.
Give us time, we are just getting our sea legs. This movement is young, growing and determined.
You want spending cut specifics? Fine, here’s a place to start that saves money and cuts no services:
Bring bloated public employee pay and benefits into line with the private sector. That will require massive cuts in salaries and benefits. Then freeze that pay until GDP posts 4 consectutive quarters of growth about 4.0%. Then index pay and benefits for govt employees to the CPI. Bingo, no service cuts and many billions in savings. If govt workers want out there are plenty of competent people waiting for those jobs, and they are even American citizens.
Immediately freeze all non-defense spending for 36 months.
Abolish the Dept of Education. Cut the budget of the EPA by 35%. Abolish the federal gasoline tax and let the states maintain their own roads. The states can raise their highway taxes on gas to cover the costs.
That’ll do for the moment. Let me know when we have gotten that far and I’ll have more.
The Tea Party is nimble. In the Colorado governor race, it is quickly dropping it’s first preferred candidate and switching to Tom Tancredo. Here is Tancredo’s latest internal poll:
Lickenpooper: 44%
Tancredo: 34%
Maes: 15%
The Tea Party ... is what I’d actually call the “Tea Kettle movement” — because all it’s doing is letting off steam.
We are BUILDING UP steam, and it’s going to be partly let off on November 2, and the rest in 2012.
My favorite part of the full column at the NYT site is the line:
“Maureen Dowd is off today.”
They should run that under her column, too!
Oh, my!
Tom Friedman IS the "tea kettle" movement, n'est ce pas?
.
Cut Social Security to WHO F’ING PAID in.
401K the Government workers.
Close the Border. Deport by the millions. Repeat.
Repeal Commie Care.
End the EPA.
End the NEA.
End all Carbon Tax Proposals.
Cut capital gains to 0%
Cut individual taxes to 15%
Close useless military bases.
End farm subsidies.
End foreign aid.
Close UN in NY, move it to Switzerland.
Hamper labor unions at every turn.
Invetigate Van Jones, Holder, Obama, Soros, the ACLU, SPLC, etc. under RICO statutes.
Voter ID for every social service and voter booth.
Flat tax. Eliminate IRS completely.
End the Fed, move it back to Treasury.
Audit Fort Knox.
English only.
Review all text books for Liberal bias.
Privatize NPR and PBS.
End AA.
I want to run, will I win?
November 3rd, when the full extent of the Democrat devastation is evident, will tell the tale, Mr. Fried Man.
Friedman writes: “Where were you folks for eight years?”
I guess it took an out and out Marxist being elected to wake everyone up. Does that answer your question, Tommy?
I guess Tom isn’t aware that you can get a nasty burn from steam...
One more marginalized outsider trying to be the definitive voice of a movement he knows nothing about.
To be fair, from a classical groupthinkers point of view he’s thinks he’s making a point.
” — because all it’s doing is letting off steam. “
A quick review of groupthink behaviors from which all progressive thought flows from Charlatan to Dupe...
See # 1, “excessive optimism” a perfect match and # 3 “collective efforts to rationalize” why that’s a twofer.
I
Thou shalt create an illusion of invulnerability shared by most members to foster excessive optimism and encourage extreme risks taking
II
Thou shall not allow any member to question the group’s inherent morality, instead members shall be encouraged to ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions
III
Thou shalt promote collective efforts to rationalize in order to discount warnings, or other information that might lead members to reconsider their assumptions before they recommit themselves to their assumptions
IV
Thou shalt reinforce stereotyped views of enemy leaders as too evil to warrant genuine attempts to negotiate, or as too weak and stupid to counter whatever risky attempts are made to defeat their purpose
V
Thou shalt self-censor any deviation from the apparent group consensus, inclining each member to minimize the importance of their doubts and counterarguments
VI
Thou shalt create and maintain a shared illusion of unanimity concerning judgement conforming to the majority view
VII
Thou shalt apply direct pressure on any member who expresses strong arguments against any of the group’s stereotypes, illusions, or commitments, making clear that this type of dissent is contrary to what is expected of all loyal members
VIII
Thou shalt appoint mindguards to protect the group from adverse information that might shatter their shared complacency about the effectiveness and morality of their decisions.
Friedman misdiagnoses the Tea Party's identification of the problem.
To the Tea Party, the problem is the people in Washington who are making the self-interested decisions, not the specific program or agency that needs cutting.
To the Tea Party, the solution is to replace the people in Washington with others who will focus on the right things and make the right decisions.
And as far as I can tell, they are having an impact.
-PJ
taly had an unfortunate experience with that concept also.
Russia and China didn’t do too well with it either. Zimbabwe’s experience is not edifying nor was Uganda’s. North Korea is still waiting for Utopia to arrive before all have starved to death.
Moron. The word you want is not 'affecting' it's 'effecting.'
These smug elitists want to lecture us about some subject matter that they've "studied" for a couple of weeks and become instant experts in, yet they can't even do their own jobs.
It's the English language Tommy, learn it.
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