Dec 19 2006
Too Late To Whine Now
I am with Rush Limbaugh on the fears expressed by Republicans that Bush may make a deal with the Dems to help social security by extending the income at which point SS cuts off. The fools should have thought of that 4 years ago when Bush was pushing is social security reform and they sat on the sidelines taking potshots. And the same goes for immigration reform and host of other issues Bush tried to get passed and Reps in Congress dismissed his overtures. Now the Reps have been dismissed and this Bush Conservative could care less about whining now. I wish there were other option, I am not keen about this one. But Reps had their chance, muffed it.
I have to agree with you.
I was also NOT happy with the Republicans’ behavior when Bush nominated Miers AND when the UAE port deal became publicized.
The Republicans made several tactical mistakes by not standing by Bush. Consequence? They lost the ’06 and will they get it back in ’08?
I don’t blame Bush for making deals with the Democrats.
Same here. The hard-liners stabbed Bush in the back.
They deserve the yob tvoyu maht he will give them when they complain to him about this (not to mention immigration) later.
And does anyone think he won’t get his immigration bill after all is said and done?
Politician at play here. Make a deal on Social Security with the Dems based on an agreement to work with each other on the war against Islamic Facism and Immigration. He may even be able to work through some court nominees as well once a working rapport is established. Better treatment than he got from his own party.
There is another option. Allow easy work permits for people that are currently of undocumented status so their pay can be withheld and put into the system like everyone elses. They are missing out on withholding from some 10 million laborers.
I would also favor a nominal national sales tax … say 2% earmarked for social security. That way drug dealers, hookers, illegals, anyone that makes under the table income still pays their tax when they spend it.
I have to say I agree with AJ, the other day I hear some guy whining about how bush had never stood with the real conservatives…and I thought to myself and did they ever stand with him or anyone for that matter…and who decides who the real conservatives are anyway.
I am not a liberal in most things. I supported Bush’s plan to bring some private enterprise into the social security and all those fiscal conservatives out there raising hell about the everything from the drug prescription plan the Dept of Education could have cared less. If they had put anywhere near the time and energy and effort into social security reform as they did bitching about immigration, Dubai and Miers this reform might have been passed. Now Bush will have to make a deal to save the program.
Maybe I’m missing something. But it seems that the hard line conservatives did a better j0b of supporting Bush than Graham, McCain, Snowe, Chafee, Hagel and their senatorial ilk. A Republican is not necessarily a conservative and a conservative is not necessarily a Republican …think Zell Miller.
This article by Gersen is an interesting take on this.
Buckaroo, Graham won his election easily in a state not known for electing liberals. He is a conservative, it is just that as far as some people ae concerned he is not the right kind of conservative.
He did not go ape over Dubai or Miers or immigration. And the Detainee Bill he helped write just passed a judicial hurdle which should be seen as a good thing, if it helps resolve the issue and the bad guys stay locked up.
McCain actually has a pretty high rating as a conservative as well. Snowe is moderate but won her last election with over 70% of the vote. But Snowe did not show her butt the way Tancredo did. There is no comparison. She might not always agree with Bush, but she does not go out of her way to hurt him either.
And it is not just about how some Senators vote either, it is about the fact that some Republicans out there do not know the difference between conservative and libertarian.
No! Bush is to presidential timber, what carboard is to a suitcase that folds.
It’s pretty obvious things went wrong in Iraq. In the beginning. And, when this stuff didn’t end up “slam-dunk” for the House of Saud, even the Bush’s are looking for excuses.
Social Security reform? According to Bush’s first Treasury Secretary, he couldn’t get to the TRILLION DOLLARS he needed to switch those 37 and under, to “private accounts.” Sometimes, ya really have to know your math.
And, sometimes leaders are much more curious that what we saw derive out of Bush’s decisions. Six years worth NOW.
As to labels, I think BOTH PARTIES will eschew them. That there will be a CENTER. (Where most of the voters go. Since both parties claim only the margins, when it comes to political identification.)
Biggest losers? Well, ya had a 12 year run in the majority. Now the GOP doesn’t.
And, Ron Suskind, who wrote about Paul O’Neill’s travails, working as the Treasury Secretary (2000-2002). The name on the book says it all: THE PRICE OF LOYALTY.
Not that there still aren’t “true believers.”
But a lot of good it did ya to alienate the RINOs. Or those who weren’t pure enough, for ya.
I expect the CENTER will show. I expect Bush will “talk a good game,” and still drag his feet. Since he’s still a “saudi boy.”
But the DISENCHANTED GOP LEGISLTATORS IN DC, own some chips. According to Suskind they’re the ones who are coming to him will all the information to expose what had been “the most secretive White House since Nixon.” (And, Nixon, at least, KNEW his game! And, demanded BRANDEIS BRIEFS! His questioning of his cabinet was not cursory. But intense.
So? Well, look what happened. Bush wasn’t curious about hearing alternatives to what he wanted to do. He used his gut. And, got into trouble. Those that knew better? SHUT UP. (Because to tell Bush anything he didn’t want to hear, shut off his eyes. While his legs danced under the table.)
Even if you don’t get it. Lots, and lots of people do.
That’s the nature of our republic. Calling democrats liberals? You might as well call movies “silent films.” Because that was what the industry once served.
Lots of people have moved on. And, no longer concern themselves with the goofy labels. Up ahead? Elections will produce choices. And, people will pick one door. Or the other.
The short term memory loss that is sweeping the country is appalling. Voters believed the dems would spend less. What a joke!!!
Seriously, SS has to be saved. And if the only way is to raise payroll taxes or raise the eligible age or increase taxes on the rich, so be it. Something has to be done and if this is the only way the dems will let it through then I wouldn’t blame Bush for accepting it. Millions of people in the future rely on it. The republicans had their chance to put everything Bush wanted through, but no, they had to fight him every step of the way. We reap what we sow.
I can see a few people here forgot who the democrats are. They aren’t going to do anything constructive but impeachment hearings and squabbling among themselves. They will not allow bush to pass any significant legislation that makes him look good unless it makes them look better.
As for you who want bush to work out an immigration plan with them, they probably will do it and they will turn a can of worms into a barrel of snakes. Crosspatch, the illegals out here working on fake SSN’s don’t pay taxes, because you can’t collect a refund on a bogus SSN they claim married and ten and nothing is taken out for taxes. If they were given taxpayer ID numbers, (Which they DO NOT WANT), most would still claim married and ten and get a big fat EIC refund back every year because that’s the level of pay they’re making. There’s probably about two million or more of them living withing a hundred fiflty miles of me and I’ve seen more hospitals close down because of illegals using them as family clinics and not paying a thing. They get food stamps, ADC, WIC, free education, free healthcare, and don’t pay squat in taxes except sales tax and they VOTE to keep it that way. Do you all really think that just allowing them to walk in and create several different identifications is going to make this problem better? I’m beginning to get the drift that most of you are living in areas where you don’t encounter so many illegals. I would like one of you to answer this question, How can you DOCUMENT the UNDOCUMENTED?? It is not possible people. Sure there will be some honest immigrants who give their true name and play by the new rules, but that is not what they want! They want us to let them do whatever the hell they want, pay no taxes, and collect benefits from social services. Most of them don’t believe the United States has any right to being a soveirgn nation. They think we don’t belong here! If we just simply accept everything they tell us as to who they are and how much they earn, they can and a lot of them will create ten different identities and collect benefits on all of them. I saw on the news one women they caught collecting welfare checks from eight different local social services offices. I know the situation sucks and nobody accepts deporting twelve million people as a viable possibility, but if we do this stupid thing, and baically have them walk in and tell us who they are and what they earned over the last twenty years, it’ll make the Katrina atm card handout look like somebody mugging a bell ringer. we’ll have thirty million more here in the next few years and they’ll be the same problem times ten.
One more thing, what makes you think that anyone will want to hire a mexican with no skills who can’t speak a word of english if they cant pay them illegal wages? That is the whole reason they get hired in the first place is because they get sub legal or sub standard pay. Then they work into other areas like construction, where they kill the industry by doing the job for a fifth of what a person raising a family in the US needs to make, and they move to somewhere with fewer illegals. If you legalize them, then they have to get paid more, AND ANOTHER DAMNED ILLIEGAL WILL COME UP HERE TO WORK FOR LESS THAN LEGAL WAGE!!! They will undercut each other!!What in the hell are you people thinking? This is how the systems works people. I’ve been down in SoCal for over twenty years now and I’ve seen this over and over. Does this really have to happen until the entire county is a barred window barrio before we wise the hell up?
Right you are.
Bush can’t count on his own party to back him, so he must make deals. Life in the Republic must go on.
The next two years will be gut wrenching as the media go into paroxysms of ecstasy with every leftwing Kool-aid drinking moonbat statement coming from congress. Learn some deep breathing exercises and try to stay the course. This too will pass.
Barbara,
“Seriously, SS has to be saved. And if the only way is to raise payroll taxes or raise the eligible age or increase taxes on the rich, so be it.”
…..
As one who is withing range of retirement (IF they can decide for me when that should be)…but STILL paying into this nighmare, I agree it is worthwhile to try to save Social Security for future generations I guess. BUT, as one who has completely given up on SS (my full retirement age is now 65 headed up toward 70) I am REALLY glad that I took steps on my own that take the decision of my retirement away from the government (who didn’t and don’t deserve to be entitled to make such decisions for me)! It torques me to no end when I hear some rich bozo in Congress tell me I can’t have control over even part of my own retirement while they retire (IF they ever do…i.e. Byrd, Kennedy, etc) into the lap of luxury that the Washington DC hog-trough affords them!
Having looked at my “latest statement” from the Social Security Administration, they have meted out what THEY think I am entitled to…and…BOY would I just LOVE to be able to tell them to STUFF IT!!!
Anyway, some good comments here on this coming crisis. Just don’t count on ANYTHING being done by Congress and you won’t be disappointed when it actually doesn’t happen.
Carol
AJ,
Agree. SS is here to stay and making more income subject to SS tax is probably the simplest solution.
Bikerken,
The illegals may not pay fair share in income taxes but they are paying into SS and not receiving the retirement benefits.
CH,
I don’t buy the idea that Bush is beholden to the Saudis or even that Chalabi sold us out. State and CIA sold him out.
State and CIA sold him out, how true.
Colin Powell guilty, guilty, guilty. I’d love to see him outed as the traitor behind it all, especially behind the Plame affair. Powell was well beneath the radar until the lefties got back in and now he’s all over the media again.
Powell like James Baker stabbed the president in the back and deserve to be exposed for the traitors they are.
TERRYE interesting point.
Graham won his election easily in a state not known for electing liberals.
I was living in SC at the time he was elected, and in fact, worked to help him get elected.
He got elected easily because he fooled a lot of people that thought he would be a good conservative.
I will never vote for him again. Because of his betrayal of Pres Bush.
I consider myself to be a conservative.
But then I don’t live in SC any longer, so I wouldn’t have the opportunity anyhow.
I only consider McCain a conservative on fiscal matters, but still like him. He wouldn’t be my choice for Pres, but I would vote for him ahead of any Dem. or independent.
Carol_Herman Your comment about Pres Bush and presidential timber.
Think about this question a little bit and tell me what active politician alive today would you rather have had to make the decisions that Pres Bush did after 9/11?
Then when you decide, thank God that you had Pres Bush to make them. He made many decisions that a lesser person would never had made.
John Kerry, he would’ve already invited UBL over to form a partnership. UBL would supply the white towel off his head for JK to wave in surrender.
Dems and Libs. labels don’t mean much. some libs would more accurately be labeled progressive (which is the name they changed to when they got tired of being called communist and socialist) Libs run the gamut from Progressive(furtherest left) to Liberal) Some Dems are conservative. but no conservatives are progressive.
The first treasury Sec under Bush. I personally worked with him for several years and his philosophy would never ever have worked in a conservative admin. He is too lib for that.
National sales tax, only if we do away with income taxes. Social Security, should be privatized with no limits on contributions, should be linked to 401K programs. Minimum benefits from SS would be guaranteed as long as the correct funds were invested in.
Pres Bush will never get an immigration bill thru if it includes amnesty and guaranteed citizenship. Whether anyone sells out or not, the American public is not going to stand for that.
See all these anti-immigrant laws that are being passed in cities throughout the country.
Terrye
Graham is aligned with McCain. I think he thinks he will be vice presidential nominee in 2008 with McCain.
Carol J
It is very foolish to depend entirely on social security. Everyone need to have their own savings as a cushion. Unforturnately, many people think ss is guaranteed and if it runs out of money the government will chip in. I wonder if any interest has been figured in the funds that should have been held that the government has spent.
Macker
We have an agreement with Mexico about social security. I got a letter from the government stating this. The illegals ss will go toward their retirement.
Erp
Colin Powell is the cause of a lot of our ills. Please remember after the Gulf War he could not decide whether to be a democrat or republican. Evidently he chose the wrong party for his poltical preferences. He is a back stabber and a trouble maker just like any liberal.
Barbara good assessment of Powell, if he had only been true to his boss, he would have been a great asset. unfortunately he decided to be true to himself and his lib beliefs, that’s why he was a failure.
Barbara,
Thanks for the info.
All,
Powell’s biggest failure was in failing to get an agreement from Turkey for us to enter Iraq from the north, thereby causing a lot of our problems.
Barb, isn’t that what I said? I wish I could forget some stuff, unfortunately, I remember it all too well