PolicyMic

Paul Anderson Hey John - The best course of action is to write in his name in November of 2012.

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• 2 weeks ago

Paul Anderson Thank you for commenting, and thanks for your yeoman's work patrolling the internet in search of refuse.

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• 2 weeks ago

Paul Anderson Hold on - are you claiming that Bo Jackson should return to football?

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Paul Anderson While your comment is almost 100% untrue (IN PRACTICE, delegate selection has thus far tracked closely with popular vote share, whatever the rules say), I'm amused that Ron Paul's supporters so frequently deride our democratic system and su...

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• 2 weeks ago

Paul Anderson Here's a graph of all the Ron Paul vs Obama polls: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/general_election_paul_vs_obama-1750.html Not close.

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Paul Anderson Yeah - I mean, I used to like the guy, but his fans have convinced me that I should avoid him like the plague.

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Paul Anderson Why are straw polls important? I admitted in my story that Ron Paul's support is intense, and I've often mocked Romney for having timid/tired supporters. This results a better performance for Ron Paul in events where organizing factor...

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Paul Anderson Nearly every political pundit on the planet would agree with my assessment. The fact that Ron Paul supporters are so far out of the mainstream says something.

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Paul Anderson Huntsman was ill-suited for the GOP primary, but he was a two-term governor who served as Ambassador to China, a country that Ron Paul would have us cut off all communications with and never visit again, else we violate his principled stance against ...

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Paul Anderson He's against abortion, gay marriage, votes against free trade, and is against all international engagement. Sounds like the candidate of the future!

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Paul Anderson That's true. They could nominate more nutty candidates and take out electable GOP incumbents.

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Paul Anderson I'm sure he led in other state polls, but leading in one state is fairly insignificant. All of the candidates I listed had a consistent lead in several national polls. Also, only with Ron Paul can "using a candidate's own words"...

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Paul Anderson Wait...are you suggesting we should create a generation of genetically engineered Super Kids?

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Paul Anderson Well, now that I've been called... "full of crap" " part of the castrato choir, the whorespondent media slackers who get doggie treats every time they do doggie tricks to fool readers" "an embarrassment to 3rd g...

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Paul Anderson The NYTimes has the delegate count at 104 for Ron Paul and 966 for Mitt Romney: http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/primaries/delegates Santorum and Newt combine for 394. Most if not all of their delegates will go for Mitt Romney. Let's be c...

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Paul Anderson I'm not sure I follow you, but I think you're trying to argue that the Redskins shouldn't have traded away so much for RG3?

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Paul Anderson Why, because I'm kicking someone when they're down?

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Paul Anderson The other day you told me that I was getting my news from Zionist sources and that this was why I could not recognize Ron Paul's greatness. It's true. I only watch Zionist-sourced news. Each newscast begins with an exhortation that we m...

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• 2 weeks ago

Paul Anderson Good Lord. There could be 20 videos of minor irregularities and heated exchanges at these conventions, and it would be evidence of nothing. These conventions are messy. They get heated. and rulings are handed down by party leaders that some si...

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Paul Anderson Here's the problem I have with the RP fans arguments. It might not be you Wado, but it's many of you: You seem eager to simultaneously argue the following contradictory things: 1. Powerful GOP forces (including the MSM) have stolen th...

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• 2 weeks ago

Paul Anderson Most delegates are pledged. There are a handful of states that allot a handful of delegates through an organized process, and most of these states have a mix of pledged and unpledged delegates. This is how I projected that he'd get to around 200...

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Paul Anderson Well, he wrote some crazy/vile things in the 80s and 90s that he doesn't stand behind. Maybe he didn't write them, but that just makes him an idiot for allowing it to happen, and it still calls his character into question. And he's ...

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• 2 weeks ago

Paul Anderson Is it "Illuminati" or "Illumiati"? My spell check likes the former better. But beyond that: Who are the Illumiati? I've always wondered. They have such a pernicious influence over my life that I feel like I should pay more at...

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Paul Anderson Hayek had more of an influence on our political culture and as a sort of political philosopher than an economist. And no, MOST Austrian ideas have not received more respect. They are still considered a joke among conservative and liberal economis...

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Paul Anderson Well - that's just like, your opinion, man. Also - you do realize that Obama's Goldman Sachs donations are a function of the overall largess of his campaign haul in 2008, right? In an election when Bush turned GOP-leaning bankers against...

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Paul Anderson Well, it does go against common sense and basic economic theory. But no, those specific things you've mentioned don't mean something is a cult.

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Paul Anderson I think that's possible, Michael (that he created a grassroots movement that can be transferred to someone else). And if people were arguing that more often, perhaps I'd be a bit more sympathetic to RP's efforts here. Thing is - it&...

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• 2 weeks ago

Paul Anderson Talk to the people who stole the election from Ron Paul by somehow faking the votes of 50%+ of the GOP electorate. In order to accomplish this, I suspect that they'd need to have some sort of god-like powers.

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• 2 weeks ago

Paul Anderson Explain how this brokered convention will happen. Don't link to some nonsense that babbles about Zionism. Explain it yourself.

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Paul Anderson I'm of two minds on this: On one hand, I want Ron Paul fans to continue to blather against the GOP and frame it as a corrupt enterprise that wants to stop people from voting. On the other hand, the case for fraud here is complete nonsense ...

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Paul Anderson Yeah and frankly, the countries that are supposedly poised to overtake us have much less economic freedom than America. It's all very dramatic. America might decline and stop dominating the world. But that will have little to do with the Fed...

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Paul Anderson With all the noise on the internet, it's tempting to accept what you're saying. But no one in the GOP is listening to Ron Paul. They're not just continuing their tendency to embrace militant foreign policy - they're doubling down ...

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Paul Anderson Fascism? Here's my best and most effective rebuttal of your contention that there is a rising tide of fascism. There isn't. It's a simply argument, but very effective. You see, while Ron Paul supporters flog each other into h...

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Paul Anderson I'm not sure they're really future GOPers. Many are. Many will retreat to the sidelines again, disappointed. Many are future indies. Many democrats.

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Paul Anderson Well I'll agree with you that Bloomberg definitely doesn't represent swing voters.

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Paul Anderson I'm amused to see references to "Mission Accomplished". But you're right. Obama's treatment of Bin Laden's death is exactly like that. He's taking a huge risk by celebrating. It might backfire. Bin Laden might come ...

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Paul Anderson Yeah. The military spending boom (started under JIMMY CARTER) had a small impact on the USSR in encouraging further wasteful spending on their side, but Reagan didn't "win the Cold War" in the way people imagine it... The USSR would...

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Paul Anderson There's no question that Freddie and Fannie played SOME part in the mortgage meltdown. We can debate whether it was a small or large part, but it played a part. Beyond that, it's clear that Democrats and Republicans deregulated the financia...

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• 3 weeks ago

Paul Anderson The stimulus was almost completely temporary. Only the tax cuts and some of the tax credits have survived...and only with considerable pain in their renewal. They should (and will) be ended soon enough. If any of the spending survived (aside from the...

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• 3 weeks ago

Paul Anderson Yeah. I was amused to discover this morning that the Founding Fathers had a healthcare insurance mandate for seamen. But even this has no actual relevance to the modern economy. If there's an afterlife, the founders must be quite annoyed...

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• 1 month ago

Paul Anderson It's going down under Obama. In fairness, this is skewed by two things: 1. Permitting decisions under Bush. There's a lag between permitting and production. To Obama's credit, he hasn't really blocked these from going forwar...

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Paul Anderson Actually, the gas prices thing disproves your point. The fact that gas prices are rising and we're STILL not seeing inflation in non-durable goods and food is pretty astounding. The reality is that inflation is not occurring for one reason...

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Paul Anderson Wait...what? Actually, GDP stayed flat from 1998 (when the tax went into effect) until it crashed in 2000 Now...this had NOTHING to do with tax policy. I'm not claiming some sort of backwards math where supply side tax cuts hurt the econ...

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Paul Anderson David - Well, we already cut spending by almost $2 trillion over 10 years (in 2011/2012) without touching revenue. So...maybe it's time to raise some revenue. And I'm one of those people who doesn't believe in "campaign ploy...

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Paul Anderson Well, I can't argue with you. You're supposing that there's this supply-side utopia waiting for us that we just haven't realized. How can I argue with an untested and untestable theory of near-perfect market harmony? It'...

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Paul Anderson I'm just dealing with the idiocy Republicans regularly spew. You seem to agree with most of my points. Yes, spending cuts must be part of any deficit solution. Yes, increasing taxes on the rich will not fix our deficit problems BY ITSELF. Whe...

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Paul Anderson Amazing quote from GW Bush today: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/bush-tax-cuts-george-w-wishes-they-didnt-bear-his-name/ “If you raise taxes on the so-called rich,” he said, “you’re really raising taxes on the job creators...

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• 1 month ago

Paul Anderson It's not anyone's big plan.

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Paul Anderson I'm not sure you understand how inflation works.

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• 2 months ago

Paul Anderson Actually, every dime of government debt is financed at a profit to the government.

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• 2 months ago

Paul Anderson Give me a break.

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Paul Anderson Legislating morality is beside the point here. I'm arguing that they should persuade with morality. An argument with passion

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Paul Anderson David - Obamacare is the Republican plan. It's almost exactly like Ryancare. They can't offer an alternative because it was just enacted.

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Paul Anderson David - I anticipated this argument, and your point is sort of taken...but every legal argument has other persuasive qualities to it aside from general legalities...

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Paul Anderson What enormous costs does it put on individual purchasers? You have that flipped upside down. Most of the costs will be put on healthy wealthy people who already have insurance, along with the elderly (who will lose some of their Medicare advantage...

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• 2 months ago

Paul Anderson I'd agree with that.

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• 2 months ago

Paul Anderson Some people don't have photo IDs. They're charging in Texas.

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• 2 months ago

Paul Anderson Regarding Single Payer: No! He wouldn't! A couple of reasons why. Both are practical, but we live in a world of practical realities: 1. It's too late for singlepayer. We passed the point of no return on that front. The economy is too ...

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• 3 months ago

Paul Anderson One guy who opposes the bailout believes he was once abducted by aliens, and is widely known as one of the most disastrous city executives in Ohio history. The other guy who opposes the bailouts supports wacky conspiracy theories and wrote a racis...

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• 3 months ago

Paul Anderson Mic'd as I admire your consistency and you also followed my helpful instructions in my article. Quick question, though: are you voting for Ron Paul?

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• 3 months ago

Paul Anderson Gary - Your point is taken, but measuring the tax burden of the "poor" vs the rich doesn't really work. Most of the poor are (by definition) not making any money. That skews those numbers down quite a bit. And yes, we do have a p...

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• 3 months ago

Paul Anderson It was also wildly successful and will cost the treasury only $17 billion or so. Not a bad deal for saving the entire world financial system.

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Paul Anderson The top bracket was insanely high in the past. It was barely lower under Reagan, though he created the AMT to achieve some progressivity. % of total tax burden is not a reasonable measure. Think about it. If we had one billionaire and 9 poor peopl...

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• 3 months ago

Paul Anderson Taxation is conducted with the consent of the people. Tax rates are set by elected officials. If people don't want to consent, then they can move somewhere with a lower tax rate. And since libertarians don't believe in basic economics conce...

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson That's ridiculous. The US has supported some stupid causes and behaved badly, but to claim that US foreign aid has been "MUCH more detrimental" to the people of the world is a bit too far. You need to study foreign aid budgets and look...

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson I'm guessing she just likes the FDA and EPA.

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Paul Anderson Self-loathing Jews? http://www.redstate.com/mikeymike143/2011/12/30/a-redstate-exclusive-ex-staffer-calls-ron-paul-the-original-truther/

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson That's an article in Slate. It's a Washington Post-owned online magazine. It's been around for like 12 years, and it has some of the best reporters in the country. The guy who invented blogging, Mickey Kaus, started there. So no - I...

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Paul Anderson Most environmentalists support market-based schemes for dealing with problems like carbon. Cap and trade was the idea of a libertarian-oriented think tank.

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson Ayn Rand was a sociopath. She was a cult leader and a truly sick individual. There is more wisdom to be found in L. Ron Hubbard's writings. I mean...the list of crazy things that she said is just so long...the difference between her and other w...

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Paul Anderson I don't want to get into semantics here, but Dr. Paul seems to either not know or not care how his preferred policies would play out in the real world. How many people would die if the US cut off foreign aid? From the first article: "...

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson You should write a piece titled, "Should Libertarians Support Ron Paul". Ha ha. Would love to see that.

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson Joe - Your points about the government vs nonprofit social sector seem to ignore history. Government programs tend to be created because no one in the private sector has stepped up and solved a problem. Governments react (sometimes ineffective...

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson Joe - Many times, private charity works better than government. I don't think anyone will or should dispute that. Of course, private charities receive indirect government subsidies like nonprofit tax status and more flexibility to operate...

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Paul Anderson My piece was directed toward liberals. This definitely doesn't preclude the participation of libertarians! But you should argue against my point. Do you agree or disagree that liberals should support Ron Paul? Liberals tend to support FOREIGN A...

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson Funny you bring that up, Todd. The American people tend to overestimate foreign aid. They put it at 40% of the budget. It's a pittance, and it buys us more than people realize. The Marshall Plan was a pretty good idea and the principle still app...

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson Oh I agree that slavery (and all sorts of other things that happened in the 1800s) were not at all Big L Liberal. I'm just sensitive to arguments that try to argue that there was much of anything to be salvaged from the 1800s. Im not sur...

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson Mainstream economists (both conservative and liberal) agree that the bailouts prevented a massive world economic collapse along with worldwide chaos. It's difficult to use a counterfactual as evidence. All we can do is listen to credible economi...

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson I think my article kind of covers your last point. The reason why Ron Paul is SOMEWHAT popular with liberal-leaning young people is that he has never faced any criticism from the Left. Most young liberals who support Ron Paul (and the numbers are dwi...

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson You've made the libertarian case, and I thank you for that. But can you argue that today's liberals should support Ron Paul? Today's liberals support a market-based economy with a government social safety net implemented as a tool of l...

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Paul Anderson That's true, though I guess if this article was titled, "Should Voters Support Ron Paul?" you could say: Well, I guess this would depend how you define "Voters". To me, the definition has been skewed. Voter was used to imp...

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson On your first point: Ron Paul is a right-winger on all economic issues. He's well to the right of every single Republican in Congress. And obviously Obama. He takes a hands off approach to social issues, though he personally opposes gay ma...

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Paul Anderson I didn't vet the entire Farley piece. Just focused on foreign policy. At any rate, you have to understand my piece through the lens of who it was intended to reach: dovish liberals who claim that Ron Paul represents liberal values on foreign ...

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson Yes, but would he do anything about it? Ron Paul opposes many things right now. Good for him! Technically, I suppose he's even opposed to poverty! But he's also opposed to government intervention to address poverty. I suppose you can cop ou...

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• 4 months ago

Paul Anderson Come on, Max. The Democratic plan for taxes has always been to make it more progressive. Bill Clinton's 1993 budget deal including tons of goodies for the working class and middle class (along with that increase in the top marginal rate). ...

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• 6 months ago

Paul Anderson I'm going to agree with Amy (as someone who once rented Frank Luntz's best friend's house - ha ha). But not on the talking points thing. They work. They just don't work on people who write on this site. We're politically ...

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• 6 months ago

Paul Anderson RE: the stimulus: You're right. Very little went to infrastructure spending. Hundreds of millions went to demand-side tax cuts. Olympia Snowe and some other moderates forced that, because they lack the economic knowledge to understand that deman...

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• 6 months ago

Paul Anderson Does anyone want to even address the point of this article: that it's ridiculous to dismiss one arbitrary set of political arguments as "class warfare"? That's the point of the article. I'll be happy to debate whether the job...

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Paul Anderson My article addressed the use of rhetoric like "class warfare" to silence critics of tax cuts for the rich. I also never said that the middle class universally favor liberal policies. Many middle class voters believe that if we cut taxes on ...

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• 6 months ago

Paul Anderson How is this a straw man? Are you denying that conservatives shut down debate by calling people "class warriors"?

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• 6 months ago

Paul Anderson Huh? The chart seems to say that the rate went from 37% in 1979 to 29% in 2007............... am I reading it wrong?

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• 6 months ago

Paul Anderson Max - Obama proposed a plan that was well to the right of his deficit commission, and the Tea Party rejected it. So it hardly seems fair to fault him for ignoring a plan that had a 0% chance of passing....

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• 6 months ago

Paul Anderson Max - If you privatize Medicare for people under 50, you ***DO*** impact people over 50. Think about it. What do you think will happen to someone who receive Medicare during the last few years of the program's existence? Or during the seismic...

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• 6 months ago

Paul Anderson I'm already not allowed to argue for taxes on the rich, because it's "class warfare". It's harsh and divisive rhetoric! Now you're telling me that I'm not allowed to point out how that's not fair, because it...

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• 6 months ago

Paul Anderson I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying that medicare, medicaid, unemployment (etc) spending increased by 2.3 trillion over the last decade? I mean...I can pick that a part pretty easily. Medical costs have skyrocketed. The 2006 Medicare la...

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• 6 months ago

Paul Anderson And articles should not provoke outrage....?

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• 6 months ago

Paul Anderson I.......think you're replying to my comment where I mocked Ron Paul's assumption that he'd grow the economy by an average of 6.75% over the next 10 years....

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• 3 months ago

Paul Anderson Ok....thanks for this vague response. But would you enjoy taking medicine that poisoned you?

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson Yeah, I know that's the popular take on him. Also - have you read Ayn Rand? That's her whole point.

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson I wish I could update this article, because I totally missed this. Barry points out below: "I need to say one more thing. Look at the GDP totals in the summary table; Paul is saying, with no supporting documentation at all, that with his plan...

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson Ha ha. Yeah - I'm just cynical, I think.

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson Ha ha ha ha. I missed that hysterical claim.

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson If you're a Ron Paul fan, you're probably a fan of efficient markets. Having different inspection rules and regulations in 50 different states probably doesn't help with market efficiency.... But I'll Mic this since you'...

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson I'm not sure our massive inflation (which is nonexistent and only exists in your imagination) universally acts as a regressive tax. The people who are hurt the most are those who have a ton of money in savings. How many poor people do you know w...

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson Yeah...you might want to google "tax increase". Also - your math is wrong. 0.07% inflation is about .8% per year. Which is $8 per year. Now - we've experienced a variety of different levels of inflation over the last 3 years. You ca...

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson I can't find the original comment - but I should have said "can be". That's just how it is. Power corrupts. It's why we should be mindful of concentrated and unchecked power - whether it's corporations or governments.

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson I'm not sure how the FDA and CDC led us into the economic disaster. Or the lack of a gold standard, for that matter. The Federal Reserve made some mistakes in allowing the housing bubble to continue to inflate, but that's hardly evidence...

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson Seems almost like the 19th Century. Do you think he wants to replace the Department of Homeland Security with the Pinkerton Detective Agency?

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson @Richard - Especially if you start with a quasi-religious devotion to the idea that completely free markets create a world with near-perfect outcomes... The biggest mistake that libertarians make is when they over estimate consumer sophisticati...

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson (arguing with myself is fun) Good regulatory agencies work WITH the private sector to encourage responsible behavior and serve as a resource. They give entrepreneurs the space and piece of mind to take risks on products that have great promise bu...

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson Why do we need independent food safety inspections? Why don't food producers "self-police" in order to avoid bad PR or lawsuits? Libertarians often cite examples of effective industry self-policing as an argument against reg. agenc...

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson Thanks. No one is saying he doesn't have a right to free speech. I'm saying that the media has failed to fully evaluate the proposals of a candidate who commands broad popular support. Maybe they don't bother because dismiss them ...

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson Ultimately, I think he's a coward who demagogues the government with a simplistic message that makes him popular. He helps people blame an abstract scapegoat their problems instead of concentrating on pragmatic solutions. The government'...

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson When the government fires incompetent employees, that sounds like progress to me (and not an indictment on the social safety net).

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson Counterfactuals are almost impossible to prove. I suggest you read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". Corporations aren't bad. Most don't mean to produce unsafe products. It' snot in their interest. But the capitalist sys...

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson It's the FDA+CDC. It just seems like common sense to me. there are a variety of reasons why we can't count on lawsuits can't police bad corporate behavior. 1. The effects of many contaminants/bad drugs/slowly spreading disease...

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson I completely agree. But that's everyone's mistake. They don't evaluate the implications of these proposals because they know they won't pass. But without that sort of critical analysis of Paul's plans, he gets to skate by as ...

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson How is the FDA the source of much damage?

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• 7 months ago

Paul Anderson OK. Well, I'm telling you that this number doesn't matter. You're playing numbers games. In 389 years, $100 million will be worth $10,000 in today's money.

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson Yeah - I think it's clear to both sides that they're fairly far from each other. So they're both making their arguments and laying it all out there so that the voters can tip things one way or the other in Nov. 2012. I mean - it is wha...

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?chart=H0-fed&year=1792_2016&units=p I hope that chart links right. At any rate, debt as a percent of GDP has gone up an down a bunch. That's typically the measurement that economist...

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson Well i'd just disagree by arguing that a debate over tax reform is mutually exclusive from a debate over some tiny adjustments to the marginal rates of millionaires. One can happen while the other fails. Or vice versa. I'm not a big fan of ...

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson Ha - go for it! I'll be there to mostly disagree. But it's hard to fit 18 things in one story:) The problem with that argument is that I think it confuses a shift from: Democrats are losers who can't pass anything -> Democrats...

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson So - I haven't seen that yet (it's on my DVR as we speak), but my understanding of prohibition was that it was a movement that connected to progressives, not conservatives. Those terms are hard to jump around history and use, but in this ca...

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson Another quick thought: religiosity has dropped sharply over the last couple of decades. Typically when a calamity occurs, conservatives trot out the whole "I blame the moral and spiritual decay of society" trope. If we assume that the new b...

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson RE: the rise of Randian Objectivism: I have no idea. Some stabs in the dark: 1. It was always lurking below the surface. Traditionally, conservatives have scapegoated ethnic or religious minorities during economic crises, but that no longer fli...

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson My guesses on extremism: 1. the Dems were victims of their own success. In 2006/2008, they beat nearly every GOP moderate The rest either retired or flipped (Specter). The GOP was left with 95% conservatives and a leadership vacuum. 2. Economic...

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson Richard - I probably should have stayed away from things like NCLB that don't really align with the traditional left to right axis. Giving waivers to NCLB could be described as liberal (if the state receiving the waiver has a liberal program)...

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson I'm sorry that you find topics like ideology, partisan realignment, and historical context. Thanks for letting me know. Keep me apprised of any how my articles fit with your vision for Policy Mic.

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson I disagree. Spending cuts historically stick: http://www.nationaljournal.com/budget/fact-check-can-spending-cuts-stick--20110721 The biggest example of spending cuts NOT sticking is the whole doc fix debacle. It's a mixed record, but it...

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson The "45% don't pay no federal income taxes" thing is a bit misleading. Everyone pays regressive taxes like sales, gas, and other excise taxes. State taxes are flat. Federal payroll taxes are very regressive. But beyond that: 1....

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson I dunno. If it's coupled with a historic long term debt deal, I think it'll be a pretty big thing. On that subject - another advantage of a long term debt deal is that it erases the (currently over-hyped) "threat" of long term...

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson Historically, Obama should be losing by 10% right now. If you look at data on the economy and presidential elections, typically a President overseeing an economy this poor would be completely underwater. And yet, Obama is somehow polling ahead...it&#...

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson Actually, poll after poll shows that large majorities of Americans support raising taxes on the rich. I guess we have a radical country.

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• 8 months ago

Paul Anderson Romney just *looks* presidential. I think that's his biggest asset. He also has a business background. Regardless of the details of his businesses, many voters will simply use that as a heuristic and say, "CEO= jobs". Huntsman would...

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• 9 months ago

Paul Anderson Right - hence my satire. Sorry - was probably a bit too subtle. I was attempting to demonstrate the absurdity and extremity of the Tea Party's actions. It's a complete breakdown of our legislative system as I understand it. You don't g...

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• 9 months ago

Paul Anderson Ha, you missed the Satire tag. I'm not advocating this. I'm demonstrating the absurdity of it. If liberals tried something like this, they'd be run out of town. The media would go insane. They'd be accused of treason.

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• 9 months ago

Paul Anderson Get rid of the debt ceiling and any other mechanism that Congress can use to unilaterally create economic misery. That's the answer. I can't think of another example. Shutting down the government harms the economy, but not as badly as defau...

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• 9 months ago

Paul Anderson I can't think of another time in history where one party threatened economic ruin in order to get their way.

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• 9 months ago

Paul Anderson What are you talking about? I was making a hilarious comment about how 8% is merely 8% higher than 0%. Also - "hipster liberal"? Really? But back to your point about "democrats being getting destroyed". Which ones are you talking ...

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• 10 months ago

Paul Anderson What are you talking about? I was making a hilarious comment about how 8% is merely 8% higher than 0%. Also - "hipster liberal"? Really? But back to your point about "democrats being getting destroyed". Which ones are you talking ...

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• 10 months ago

Paul Anderson Huh? The tea party is incredibly unpopular. At this point, their favorability rating is near Bush's (low 30s). Among people 18-29, it's at about 8%. That's impressive. It's 8% higher than the favorability rating of the Nazi party!

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• 10 months ago