They're all old white men!

Nope!

Ted Cruz is a middle-aged ornery Latino...

One looking for a 2016 bid, because when I think of who *I* want to lead the country,I think of a man who was in favor of holding the national government at ransom by a tyranny of the minority whilst simultaneously denying hundreds of thousands of workers two weeks of pay.

Because THAT'S what I want in a leader!

Oh...oh...OH! You mean, gasp! They'r all...Tea Party Republicans?!

:O I...am...shocked! I really and truly am shocked.

...I'm shocked even we in America have let the insipid stupidity of the Tea Party get this far.

(And with that, I yield my time to the inevitable comment on krellin on how this is in fact all the fault of "the libtards," Please. Do enlighten us. After all, even FELLOW Republicans and the Speaker of the House is fed up with the Tea Party Republicans' Scorched Earth strategy...but no. Go on. Blame it on "the libtards," krellin.)

I would have voted the same way. The longer we put off the inevitable the more devastating it will be.

Rubio 2016

Gen. Lee, the Tea Partiers tried fearmongering, it didn't work. It won't work in the next election either.

I've been against the shutdown since before it started and hard on the GOP throughout this entire debacle, but even I don't see what the big deal is about voting against something that was sure to pass.

This just bolsters their HARDCORE CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES. Now they can go home to campaign and say "I voted to repeal Obamacare 10 times and voted against the reopening of the gubmint!"

Its just math 2WL.

Darn. I actually didn't even look at the list.

Keep it up, Gen Lee. it's people like you that keep getting dems in the White House, so thanks for that.

"favor of holding the national government at ransom by a tyranny"
During his election campaign he promised to do everything in his power to delay the implementation of Obamacare. This isn't holding the government at ransom, this was him doing what he was elected to do.

I'm sorry that its unusual to see a senator actually keep all his election promises, even if you disagree with them.

Also, only 32% of Americans support Obama, while 49% of against it. So it wasn't the will of the minority. Granted only 17% of Americans were in favour of having the government shutdown to delay Obamacare, I viewed it as a legitimate negotiation tactic.

"simultaneously denying hundreds of thousands of workers two weeks of pay."
Nope, he voted yay to keep paying the workers who we're laid off during the shutdown.

Keep lying out of your ass obi.

"Gen. Lee, the Tea Partiers tried fearmongering, it didn't work. It won't work in the next election either."
The Tea Party is trying to tell the truth here, while the debt limit is something the government can control, remember that countries like Greece don't have a debt limit and still almost went bankrupt.

CBO projects say at current budget estimates, we will be where Greece is today in 2027, there is one small difference between us and Greece:
Bailing out Greece cost $150 billion. Bailing out the US was cost an upwards of $10 trillion. Nobody has that kind of money.

The Tea Party is the only powerful group in washington that actually is concerned about the long run health of this country, and that is why I continue to voice support of the tea party movement.

I know I know, it's immature to react in-kind, but I can't help myself.

tea-tares

fucking auto correct fucks me every time.

teatards

Feces349 even if you believe in a balanced budget, this may not be the best way to get there.

I don't believe in a balanced budget, I believe in making sure long rung GDP grows faster then debt.

The problem is we have democrats (lead by Krugman) who think we can spend our way out of debt, which means this is the only way we can can achieve our goals.

Also please call me by my name, its fasces349, not feces349.

I like that nickname... keep it

My issue with Tea Partiers isn't that they want to cut spending. They want to cut spending in all the wrong places. Shutting down the government to save money was their brilliant idea, until it made veterans mad, at which point Cruz et al. got mad that the shut down government wasn't open. They don't want to cut spending, they just want to cut spending in programs that they philosophically oppose. Its not smart, its politics that appeals to idiots.

There are plenty of countries out there with higher debt/gdp ratios than us. The Obama years have been extra-ordinary in spending due to the recession but he's doing his best to cut the deficit down. It will take time, that I'm sure about. But over in Europe government debt ballooned much, much quicker than here in the US during the recession

@2wl: umm no, the republicans we're against the shutdown, they stated that multiple times leading up to the shutdown and passed 17 bills that would reopen government during the shutdown (granted all of them amended obamacare in some way).

Obama ordered shutting down of monuments and parks, and that didn't happen until the second day of the shut down, it wasn't a planned component of the shutdown.

Stop posting blatant lies on what Cruz et al. position was on the crisis.

@GF: No he isn't, he vetod the Bowles-Simpsons bipartisan proposals to reduce the deficit AND he has said he would veto any reform to social security, which is the biggest cause of our long term dept problems.

We don't have a short term deficit problem because as GF pointed out, we are in a recession, we will naturally leave a deficit without needing to cut spending or raise taxes in 2016 assuming current GDP estimates.

We don't need any shortterm cuts, we need long term healthcare reform that cuts the governments role in healthcare (not increases it like Obamacare) and we need long term social security reform.

While Paul Ryan's budget proposal has huge problems with it, I support it over every other proposal simply because its the only proposal on the table to actually solves the long run problems with our government spending.

If Republicans were against the shutdown, why was Michelle Bachmann et al super thrilled that the government shut down?

Why did the House refuse to go to a budget conference 18 times between April and October?

Sorry, fascist. This was a Republican show, and the blame is square on where it should be.

First...Social Security has nothing to do with the debt...it is funded by our payroll taxes and has it's own accounts within the government. The only connection to the deficit/debt is that it was borrowed against...thereby reducing the amount that should be in there now.

Second...if the tea baggers (their term, not mine...and sorry...you cannot change your mind if you realize later that your own nickname is a sex act) want to really reduce the debt/deficit tax increases need to be on the table. No country in the history of the world has balanced its budget by cutting alone. Taxes on corporations who make obscene profits would be a place to start.

Also...get the money out of politics. Government, on both sides, has become a thing of the rich, for the rich and by the rich. We have the best government money can buy...that has nothing to do with the average Joe and Jane.

Lastly...term limits. Even as a liberal I support this one. No one should make a living as pol. And they should be banned from being lobbyists after they finish their terms.

Now...let's hear it from the peanut (brained) gallery...aka the tea baggers.

3 Months...another $TRILLION in debt..that's what all you Democrat supporters were rooting for.

Morons...

Why don't you all do us a favor and cut a check to the Feds for about $2800 to cove the costs of the additional debt you now own.

Whatever percentage of cut it takes, do it across the board to everything. It will hurt, but its bullshit too pass the buck to the next generation where it will hurt worse.

Gen Lee -- Sequestration was supposed to be a step i that direction...but Obama and Reid have been trying to eliminate that, too. Not sure what changes were made yesterday.

Sad thing....Under Bill Clinton and a similar "rabid right wing" House, we balanced the Federal Budget and the economy boomed. I'm not sure why you retarded Democrats can't understand that the Bill Clinton model worked...and that adding a trillion in debt every 3 months is completely unsustainable.

"First...Social Security has nothing to do with the debt...it is funded by our payroll taxes and has it's own accounts within the government. The only connection to the deficit/debt is that it was borrowed against...thereby reducing the amount that should be in there now. "
Social security accounts for about 20% of federal government spending, is the largest single item on the budget and is our second largest creditor (behind the FED).

One of the recommendations Bowles-Simpson (the bi-partisan committee on deficit reduction) was to raise the retirement age to 68. Why cause social security costs a fricken fortune.

"Second...if the tea baggers (their term, not mine...and sorry...you cannot change your mind if you realize later that your own nickname is a sex act) want to really reduce the debt/deficit tax increases need to be on the table. No country in the history of the world has balanced its budget by cutting alone. Taxes on corporations who make obscene profits would be a place to start."
Tea baggers goal isn't to balance the budget but to make government smaller. Hence the need to cut spending without raising taxes.

"Also...get the money out of politics. Government, on both sides, has become a thing of the rich, for the rich and by the rich. We have the best government money can buy...that has nothing to do with the average Joe and Jane."
Funny thing, the less influence the government has on the economy, the less demand there is to spend money in politics. Also every study on the matter shows that popularity leads spending, and that doubling campaign spending will result in a 1% increase in votes.

"Lastly...term limits. Even as a liberal I support this one. No one should make a living as pol."
I agree to this, and so do the tea baggers so not sure why your bringing this up.

"And they should be banned from being lobbyists after they finish their terms. "
So lets take free speech rights away from past politicians. FUCK NO!

"Now...let's hear it from the peanut (brained) gallery...aka the tea baggers."
I was about to start a thread on this. A new study showed that the average intelligence among democrats is higher then republicans, but the average intelligence among tea party members is higher then democrats.

"Why did the House refuse to go to a budget conference 18 times between April and October?"
Citation needed, the democrats refused to go to budget conferences in September and October as reported by ABC.

"If Republicans were against the shutdown, why was Michelle Bachmann et al super thrilled that the government shut down?"
Michelle Bachmann is a retard. She doesn't represent the tea party and she doesn't represent me. She is a neo-con, while the tea party is a conservative-libertarian mix.

'Whatever percentage of cut it takes, do it across the board to everything. It will hurt, but its bullshit too pass the buck to the next generation where it will hurt worse."
umm no, there is such thing as good government and essential services. Entitlements are the only thing that needs cutting. Entitlements account for 60% of the budget and bowles-simpson recommendations to reforming social security, medicare and medicaid, + raising the retirement age

posted to early

Entitlements account for 60% of the budget and bowles-simpson recommendations to reforming social security, medicare and medicaid, + raising the retirement age to 70 (as opposed to just 68) would be enough to see balanced budget without the need to increase taxes.

Reforming entitlements and removing red tape are my two biggest priorities right now politically. The tea party is the most popular movement that agrees with me, so I support the tea party.

regarding budget balance, I'm talking about long term budgets, I don't give a shit about what next years budget deficit is. I'd be willing to run a 2+ trillion deficit if it mean balanced budgets down the road ad infinitum.

So Krellin, you would then support the tax rates as they were under President Clinton?

I mean, I JUST had a nice retirement planning meeting at work, and the financial advisor told us that it would be a decent idea to pay into a retirement fund that you pay taxes for up front, but no taxes upon withdraw, because of the historic low tax rates.

Gives lie to the fact that our deficits are due to excess spending, and not two unpaid wars, Bush tax cuts, etc.

Republicans haven't been fiscally responsible for years. This most current juvenile shitshow hasn't changed that.

And at least back in '96, you had adults in the room like Senator Dole who had the ability to reign in the right wing nutjobs. Thankfully, there are a few adults left in the Republican party, and we manage to avoid a Republican inflicted economic shitstorm. Mostly.

I agree...let's go back to the Clinton era style budgets. But guess what??? That means raising taxes back to those levels! OMG...the horror!!! But it should hopefully help us get back to a more balanced budget.