Conservative lurkers: Did you get the SMALL government you voted for?

[bluestateguy]

whistling...

[KitchenWitch]

1. ...

:popcorn:

[Neil Lisst]

2. True dat - fiscal conservatives my foot

Good call. What happened to fiscal conservativism? Pay as you go? Balanced budget? Accountability?

Talk about the PIGS and Animal Farm, this bunch of hogs in Washington now really fit the role.


-------
my progressive political comic
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst/

[LynnTheDem]

5. There's never been any such thing; total MYTH

http://www.cbo.gov/

[mandyky]

9. I was trying to figure out where I saw this graph

as I am watching CSpan and the 1994 GOP takeover of Congress segment.

[mandyky]

3. I've been thinking that Dems could triangulate this one

but figured my post would sink like a rock. Dems could try to work on efficiency and practical purposes, not by hating it and wanting to drown it in a bathtub.

Now, since Katrina, the public knows our government is not able to do their job. Many cabinet level departments could cut personnel in DC and send money to states to "experiment with". Especially when it it comes to education and healthcare. The only thing is cronyism is alive and well and also living in many states. Right now here in Kentucky, Gov. Ernie Fletcher is hiring and firing based on political affiliation and such, much like DeLay had K Street enact.

Other depts that should be more concentrated on states is labor, interior, and agriculture. The DC depts should be more oversight and grading the states on how well the money was spent. I think this would require state level dept heads need to be elected rather than appointed. This might require changes in state constitutions.

About the state level experiment suggestion. The plans of each state should be submited to the federal govt, and also voted on in referendum at state level to be implemented.

As the OP says while the GOP claim to be for smaller govt, it doesn't do anything to make programs efficient and well running.
It almost seems like they wanna pay people to do nothing and expect the People in the US to foot the Bill for nothing tangible.

[patricia92243]

6. Dems could try to work on efficiency and practical purposes, ............

"Dems could try to work on efficiency and practical purposes, not by hating it and wanting to drown it in a bathtub"

- EXCELLENT. Should be one of the main Democrat slogans - now if we could just get it to some of our leaders so they could say it - over and over again.

Democrats = Efficiency and practical purpose. Now if some of the Republicans won't steal the slogan before we get a chance to start using it...

I like this so well that I am going to put it in my signature line (with your permission) - I change mine every so often.

[mandyky]

7. Sure

I posted this same proposal in the Democratic Party forum and intend to email the DNC about this topic. -
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=296&topic_id=5315&mesg_id=5315

This has been on my mind since the 2004 elections.

[blondeatlast]

13. I've been trying to make this point too, over and over again.

I keep being shouted down that it's a losing issue for us.

Riiiiiight--it lost for Reagan and GWB. :sarcasm:

As I say downthread--shrinking the bureaucracy but bloating the administration is doomed to failure--which may be precisely what Norquist, Rove, etc, want.

[mandyky]

16. Really, isn't part of the beauty of this American experiment that we have

50 diverse govts and states to really experiment on social and legal issues? Healthcare and education solutions need to be experimented in different ways, according to population, need, and obstacles. Each state has different environmental issues. FEMA in each state know what types of "acts of God" occur in their regions. Housing and urban development vary from city to city and state to state.

The federal government should be sending money back to states, and only concentrate on surveys, studies, and efficiency once programs are implemented, as well as oversight of spending.

[Rodger Dodger]

18. You get what you pay for

There are no profits to be gleaned from the public sector, just unethical or illegal advantage. The public is unable to distinguish between public sector and private sector management. Indeed many believe government should be run like a business. The public has become imprisoned by the false "common sense" economic propaganda.

An unflattering synonym for common sense is shared prejudice. According to the sociologist Peter Berger. "Get enough people to assure each other that a particular way of looking at things -a particular world-view - is true, and for them it becomes more real, true and everlasting than the stars is heaven." Every Weltanschauung,, (i.e., world-view) is a conspiracy. What you believe as common sense, you believe only because you are the willing victim of a conspiracy. In a word, you are imprisoned by your neighbors propaganda.

Propaganda, to be efficient, must not be recognized as such. And this cast is the case with, so called, "common sense." Nothing is further from being considered as propaganda. Rather, common sense stand for what is real, for "what everybody knows to be true." In other words, this common sense world is completely taken for granted. It doesn't enter anyone's mind to question common sense.

There's a dictionary definition for it - Petitio principii- a logical fallacy in which a premise is assumed to be true without warrant or in which what is to be proved is implicitly taken for granted.

Smaller is not always better: and the difference between Government and business is - business must make a profit, the government doesn't!

[marmar]

4. Conservative lurkers: I hope you're happy with this mess...

Bet you're wishing the Florida vote count hadn't been tampered with, huh?

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. Funny, nothing of them seem to mind big military though?

They want to drown the Federal Government in a thimble, so they can spend all the money turning us into a military state.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

10. i think one of the saddest things

is that there're all these poor, mostly uneducated, people out there that really and truly are honest believers in the Republican ethos. They sing the mantras, but year after year they are lied to, used, and kicked to the curb while those at the top laugh all the way to the bank.

They never truly realize that the "small government" mantra was a lie all along. It never occurs to them that "fiscal conservatism" is actually quite the opposite.

It's really sad to me that in many ways it's their poverty, anger, and lack of education that keeps them in the dark about these things. I feel sorry for them.

[mandyky]

11. In honor of matcom's encounter

last night!

[blondeatlast]

12. Shrink the government but bloat the administration of it.

That's what is happening in my workplace now (I'm a civil servant) and so it's very apparent to me that it is occurring in Washington.

Top heavy institutions are predisposed to failure.

[1932]

14. An how about lower taxes? Who do they think is paying for that "small"

gov't?

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mandyky]

17. At least LBJ was trying to help the masses

GWB just lines the pockets of his base, you know, the have and have mores.