Fiscal Conservatives...

... my ass.  And yet misinformed yokels fall for it every time.  Because if the perception is that someone other than they is getting a piece of the pie, it's wastefully spent, undeserved entitlements.

Paul Krugman explains.

Can A Republican Brother Get A Party Sanctioned Lap Dance?

I don't care about what Michael Steele spends money on. I don't care what he does at night. I don't care if he prefers to frequent lesbian-and-bondage-themed nightclubs and uses private jets and chauffeured limousines to get there. Just don't use public funds, asshole.

On Monday morning, the Daily Caller reported that the RNC spent thousands of dollars on high-end travel arrangements, swanky hotels and, most remarkably, "meals" at a lesbian-and-bondage-themed nightclub in West Hollywood. The latter expense, naturally, grabbed most of the attention and the cleverest of headlines -- prompting the RNC to simultaneously state that it would investigate the expenditures and that it wasn't Steele who went to the club.

But the damage had already been done. While several GOP strategists are willing to grant Steele a pass -- under the rubric that one has to spend lavishly to raise lavish amounts of money -- several big donors and party officials are completely baffled.

"For those donors who truly believe in conservative values, this latest news about Steele has to be very disturbing," said Douglas MacKinnon, former press secretary to Majority Leader Robert Dole. "No matter which side of the aisle you find yourself, if you are giving a political party your hard-earned money, you should have no doubts that it is going to be spent as advertised and not to provide a spoiled, egocentric, out-of-touch chairman with frivolous luxuries which are out of reach of the vast majority of the American people. Michael Steele needs to resign and let the RNC vote in a man or woman who understands that his or her needs do not come before the needs of the nation or the party."

If the Republican National Committee doesn't sack his ass over this, then we can and should call them out on their hypocritical, holier than thou, fiscally conservative, family values bullshit.

That is all.

Sarah Palin's Tea Party Convention Check Clears

Asked what her advice would be to conservatives as the November elections approach, Palin first lavished praise on the Tea Party movement, calling it "a grand movement" and adding, "I love it because it’s all about the people."

But she quickly pivoted to the broader question of whether the Tea Party movement might successfully field its own candidates in national elections, and on that point she sounded far from convinced.

"Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party," Palin said. "Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’."

Shorter Palin: Thanks for the hundred grand, suckers. Now vote Republican because you aren't a real party. And even though every time the so called "smaller government, fiscal conservative" Republican Party has NEVER, EVER come through with smaller government and fiscal conservatism whenever we were in power, we think you're so fucking stupid, you'll fall for the bullshit again, you betcha!

Earmarks By The Numbers

The Omnibus bill currently being debated in the Senate is being attack by the right as just more pork with thousands of earmarks categorized as wasteful spending. But the people doing the most talking account for practically half of all the earmarks. That's right, almost half.

Bob Cesca: Okay, so it's time for another wingnut revolution (get a permit!) to protest the staggering amount of pork in the omnibus bill that's moving through Congress right now. So let's go, wingnuts. Get your little tea bags and your awesome signs and get going.

Here are the top three offenders (solo earmarks):
1) Senator Byrd (D-W.Va.) - $123 million
But Byrd supports the earmark system, so of course he's going to take advantage. He always does. But look...
2) Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) - $114 million
3) Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo.) - $86 million

Senator Inhofe? $53 million. Senator Cochran? $76 million. Senator McConnell? $51 million.

Could this be correct? I don't doubt that Cesca's numbers are wrong, but you'd think that the fiscally responsible Republicans would tone down the rhetoric if they were just as guilty of adding earmarks to the 2009 Budget. But I tend to forget that for the most part, they are idiots.

So here's what I found when breaking down the numbers (Excel file) provided by the non partisan group Taxpayers for Common Sense even further:

SOLO EARMARKS:
6 of the top 10 solo earmark procurers were Republicans for a total of $454.4 million.
The remaining 4 Democrats in the top 10: $312.9 million.

Of the 78 Senators asking for solo earmarks, 40 were Republican.
Of the 22 Senators that didn't ask for solo earmarks, only 5 were Republican.
Of the seven Senators that didn't ask for ANY earmarks, only one was Republican.

Total amount for 55* Democratic Senators: $681.3 million.
Total amount for 45* Republican Senators: $665.8 million.

EARMARKS (SOLO AND WITH OTHER MEMBERS):
Democrats: 3,956 earmarks for a total of $4.75 billion.
Republicans: 3,536 earmarks for a total of $4.6 billion.

PERCENTAGES:
Democrats: 52.8% of earmarks totaling 50.8% of the money.
Republicans: 47.2% of earmarks totaling 49.2% of the money.

So there you have it. The fiscally responsible Republicans in the Senate who have been front and center complaining about earmarks as pork account for basically HALF of the earmarks... with less members.

But we're supposed to take them seriously as they grovel at the feet of Rush Limbaugh, see Bobby Jindal as the future of the their party and play identity politics with their choices of Sarah Palin and Michael Steele.

* list includes members that are no longer in the Senate.

Things Republicans Don't Mind Spending Money On

Guest-posted by Fraulein

Here is what is infuriating about the uproar over President Obama's economic stimulus package: the very same people who are screaming that the U.S. government is setting taxpayer money on fire by using it for upgrading the electrical grid and fixing crumbling bridges, had, and STILL HAVE, absolutely no problem with the trillions of dollars the U.S. has spent on the Iraq war. Money flushed down the toilet. Wasted--for nothing. Well, except guaranteeing that most of the Middle East will continue to hate us for generations to come.

This is a major point that you rarely hear made by the TV news empty suits. Why is "government spending" a horrible travesty when the money goes to building schools and cleaning up toxic waste sites in our own backyards? Why is it not only OK, but utterly necessary, according to the Republicans, to spend trillions of dollars of public money on wars of choice? Because putting on a show--homeland security theater, if you will--trumps all other considerations? Because as long as their buddies in the defense and oil industries are raking in the cash, that's all that matters? That's what it's about, and the leadership of the GOP knows it. The question is when ordinary citizens who tend not to pay attention to politics are going to figure this out.

I wonder if we are beginning to see a shift in public thinking on this issue. I think Obama's election was just the beginning. As people's 401ks and other investments continue to tank and their jobs become more precarious--as more and more people lose their homes--the consequences of eight years of indiscriminate tax cuts for the uber-wealthy are becoming increasingly clear. The math just doesn't work. You can't simply remove a vast chunk of the public wealth from the government's coffers, in the form of the war spending and the tax cuts, and then expect things to magically continue to function as they always have. Infrastructure falls apart after a while. Schools crumble. If you never spend money to fix anything, well, things don't get fixed. I think people are starting to figure this out. It's really not that complicated.

The peril for the GOP will be the moment when a critical mass of Americans FINALLY gets this point. Once people realize that for the past 30 years, this line they've been feeding us about how "government is the problem" is actually bullshit, the Republicans are done. And they know it. This is why they are fighting Obama tooth and nail over this stimulus spending. The outcome of this fight will determine what trajectory our country takes over the coming generations.


Cross-posted at Purple Ink

Advice To Fiscal Conservatives

Republicans found religion when it came down to voting on President Obama's Economic Recovery Bill. After multiple meetings with the President, inclusion of their ideas in the package (if you care to call their rote tax cuts an idea) and removal of what they deemed objectionable programs in the bill, the Republicans in the House of Representatives decided to vote against it anyway. All of them. All 177 Representatives. They thought there was too much stimulus in the stimulus package.

These so-called fiscal conservatives, who helped George W. Bush set a 50 year record for the National Debt are all of a sudden worried about paying too much for a stimulus package while standing on the edge of a cliff, as more and more of us fall into the unemployment chasm week by week.

So I have some advice for these born again fiscal conservatives. When the bill passes (and it will pass despite the obstructionism) take a pass on the money. If you're really worried about the cost of the package when it comes time to dole out the stimulus, don't stand in line. After all, if you are truly representing your constituents I'm sure they will understand, so there's no need to worry about your job come election time as the unemployment in your individual districts reaches double digits.

For the time being I'm going to take them at their word. After all, the Republican Party wouldn't dare play games with something this important for a political ploy, would they?

Fiscal Conservatives

(H/T C&L)