What use super majorities when our party has failed to relate simple facts?

[jpgray]

One of the most salient is the nature of the budget, and where most of our spending actually goes. From Baseline Scenario:

Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican Leader, quoted in Bloomberg: “We have seen the consequences of giving Washington a blank check. My message to the president is simple: It’s time for Washington to focus on fixing itself. It’s time Washington take the hit, not the taxpayers.”

That sounds good (if you don’t like “Washington,” that is), but what does it mean? McConnell wants people to think that their tax dollars go to feed some animal named “Washington,” and therefore our budget problems can be solved by simply feeding Washington less — without “taxpayers” taking the hit.

That might be true if “Washington” simply consumed money for its own sake, but the problem is that most of the federal budget isn’t consumed by the federal government.

Of the $3.8 trillion in outlays in President Obama’s proposed FY 2012 budget, more than half comes in one door and immediately goes out another door back to ordinary people, the vast majority of whom are or were previously taxpayers. $742 billion gets paid out in unrestricted cash by Social Security; another $762 billion goes to pay for people’s health care expenses. Other entitlement programs such as retirement benefits for federal employees (civilian and military), food stamps, and unemployment insurance add up to another $716 billion.* There’s no way to reduce this spending without directly hurting “taxpayers.” You can argue that some of these programs should be eliminated, but you can’t argue that you can eliminate those programs without hurting ordinary people.

http://baselinescenario.com/2011/06/27/what-is-this-washington/#more-9127

Every compromise made by our party to GOP policy represents a betrayal of basic truths that are easy for everyone to understand. We appear anemic in justification for our ideology because each grand deal opens another vein. No one trusts our party to maintain the enormously popular social programs on which we founded our past ascendancy. What else don't people understand?

There is a lack of demand. Businesses are reposing on mountains of cash, but are not investing because the sales will not be there. The only entity that can make up the lack of demand currently is the government. Austerity will worsen this crisis and raise unemployment. Not only will Obama -still- be painted as a profligate socialist, but the increasing misery of the electorate will associate its suffering with Obama and our party's compromises.

[jpgray]

1. A chart for describing the current and future misery:

[Angry Dragon]

2. the Traitorous Tortise has been in Congress since 1985

all the debt since then is on his head
it is really nice to see he blames everyone except himself for the failure of this country
lying sack of slime

[jpgray]

3. What's worse than the lying is that the lies are believed

There is no strong, consistent opposition to the ideological framework of GOP dishonesty.

[truedelphi]

4. Last night, I was watching a panel of young people

Circa January 2009, As they described how great life would be under President Obama.

One of the things they mentioned was how incredibly smart his team of people had been to get a website up and running. This website existed to counter any lies that the opposition came up with while he was making his run for the Presidency.

So apparently he really wanted to decimate lies while a candidate. Now that he is the President, I guess he has chosen the path of pragmatism over the path of truth.

[jpgray]

5. It's difficult to understand what precise political benefit they expect to gain from this

In embracing the premises of the GOP, moderation in enacting their policy will not make sense to the average voter (or anyone else). We make sense of it by ascribing the behavior to political considerations, but what those are exactly is up in the air. Donor concerns we aren't privy to, perhaps?