How incompetent are Republicans?

[moondust]

Reagan raised taxes ELEVEN TIMES and still created an unprecedented mountain of debt that Bush I inherited and continued to grow.

Bush II was even worse. When he should have been raising taxes to help take care of that massive Republican debt he instead did the exact opposite and handed out massive tax cuts to the people who least needed them.

Some may call it incompetence while others may consider it a Republican master plan to do away with government (because they don't want to pay taxes :cry:). In either case, government is a life-support system for millions of Americans that should never be left to the whims of anybody who treats it as a boogeyman or simply does not sufficiently value its life-support role to do it justice.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. It's not taxes

They don't want a safety net for the rest of us.

[moondust]

4. It's both.

They don't want to pay taxes and they don't want government protections for workers and the environment and seniors, etc., because those things cut into their profits/wealth accumulation; it's all based in personal greed.

[TexDevilDog]

2. What does the chart look like, showing

who controls the purse strings, congress?

Just wondering.

[moondust]

3. Ultimately,

the purse strings are controlled by whoever wields the veto pen. I think that's why Republicans want the White House so desperately. Of course there may be a veto override from time to time but it's not a given especially in a deeply divided government like the present.

[TexDevilDog]

6. So, you are saying Obama controlls spending now.

?

[moondust]

7. Not completely.

Since neither party has a veto-proof majority in both houses of Congress, the Presidential veto is the final floodgate. If Obama lets enormous deficits go through and add to the already monumental debt created by Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II, then he will deserve his share of the blame.

[moondust]

5. Maybe this:

(the scales obviously don't match the OP)







http://www.samueljscott.com/2010/11/03/house-turnover-senate-turnover/