See Vice President Calls the Show to Defend the Budget Deal at The Rush Limbaugh Show (dated May 2, 2017).Excerpt:
...RUSH: If this is what happens, Mr. Vice President, why vote Republican? What is the point of voting Republican if the Democrats are gonna continue to win practically 95% of their objectives, such as in this last budget deal?Read the rest HERE.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, look, respectfully, Rush, I actually think this was, as the president said a little a while ago, I think this was actually a clear win for the American people....
What are your thoughts about the recent budget deal?
I didn't hear Pence on the Rush show, so thanks for the link. I prefer to read things anyway.
ReplyDeleteUnless I've lost all ability to think rationally, Pence makes perfect sense. Expecting Trump to "drain the swamp" in 100 days doesn't strike me as rational.
Just as my "gut" had me supporting Trump from day one, my "gut" is also telling me things are going along just fine.
Pence is going to tout the 21 billion the same way he touted the Carrier jobs when in fact the reality is quite different.
ReplyDeleteBut, when you spend 100 million to lob cruise missiles at empty jet hangars you're going to need some tip money to replenish "the arsenal of democracy".
I will give Trump until the September attempt at a budget to hold my final opinion. This doesn't bode well in my mind. Ryan is the one to focus on. Trump can't do anything without him, and unless he has changed his stripes, he will block Trump on most of his agenda.
ReplyDeleteTrump caved. The swamp got him.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't like Pepe the Frog craved a desert.
DeleteHe just wants to be "loved," more.
DeleteIf Trump Tweets that a shutdown might be a good thing in September, it would be even better NOW!
ReplyDeleteY'all thought Trump was a Republican? Why?
ReplyDeleteTC,
DeleteWell, politics has reached such a sorry state that being GOP is not a compliment in the eyes of many of us.
Dems and GOPers = Uniparty. To a great extent, anyway.
The parties have core beliefs that distinguish the two. Sure there's overlap in areas, and some dissention in the ranks of both.
DeleteBut what Republicans claim to believe, absolutely none of that is Trump. Trump is a Democrat, and has always been a Democrat. Democrats gotta Democrat. That's why Trump and RINOs get along so well.
TC,
DeleteHow about comparing and contrasting with specific beliefs of each Party?
Not necessarily what they CLAIM to believe, but what they actually act upon.
The GOP has core beliefs? Ne ce pa?
DeleteWhat are they and when has that party ever acted on those beliefs?
Viva le #Resistance Pink hats!
Actually, many may have voted for President Trump because they knew he was not a Republican.
DeleteA Republican politician is what you get when you cross a creepy, reptilian televangelist with a lobotomized mental patient.
SF,
DeleteA Republican politician is what you get when you cross a creepy, reptilian televangelist with a lobotomized mental patient.
LOL!
AOW,
DeleteStart here and read through to the end. It's a pretty good summary of the stated positions of both parties. It will, of course, seem bizarre because the majority of the listed policy positions on various issues from the Democrat side of those issues are precisely President Trump's positions. To the letter.
America elected Hillary Clintob with a penis rather than a grating voice.
Clinton*
DeleteTC,
DeleteFrom HERE, found via the link you left:
On many issues, the candidates' positions align with the political platform of their party — Clinton is pro-choice, Trump is pro-life; Clinton supports the DREAM Act and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, while Trump wants to deport all undocumented immigrants and build a wall on the Mexican border; Clinton wants to expand gun control legislation, Trump does not; Clinton wants to raise taxes on high-income households while Trump wants to cut taxes for all income brackets.
More differences and similarities are provided at the link in a side-by-side chart.
So, there are differences between DJT and HRC. Those differences swung my vote to Trump.
Another major factor for me:
DeleteI cannot abide Tim Kaine!
Agreed on Tim Kaine.
DeleteBut look at the gimmes. Abortion? Clinton wasn't going to stop funding to Planned Parenthood. Trump wants PP to split into subsidiaries to hide their fungible assets going towards abortion from the government better. Immigration? Hillary wanted a path to citizenship, Trump has no path to build a wall or deporting anyone. Guns? Nothing seriously threatening gun rights will ever be heard in this Congress. Even lefties are stockpiling arms now. Trump might as well have supported fhe sun rising. Taxes? Trumpcare is a tax.
Whatever "differences" Clinton and Trump had were superficoal or safe bets on intractable status quo.
He even believes she shouldn't be in prison now.
TC,
DeleteConservatives have long said that EPA regulations have been smothering our economy. Hasn't Trump pruned the EPA? IMO, HRC would never have done so.
As for illegal immigration, it appears that existing laws are now being enforced more consistently. Something else I just can't imagine HRC would have done.
Agreed that this Congress would not implement more restrictions on 2nd Amendment rights. But at the SCOTUS level, gun rights might well have been eroded. I can't see that happening with Gorsuch on the bench.
For what it's worth:
ReplyDeleteBill Funds Border Security--in Libya, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Egypt....
Pssst. Trump duped you.
ReplyDeleteNope, the republican rino's are owned by the lobbyists and are part of the swamp that needs to be drained.
Delete"....part of the swamp that needs to be drained.
DeleteHear, hear!
Thought Criminal's plaintive whine will eventually reach such a high pitch that we will praise Allah not longer be able to hear him.
Deletepssst... The GOP duped you.
DeleteFree markets? HA HA!
Cutting Budgets? HA HA!
Small Government? HA HA!
You're a dupe, "Thought Criminal"
Nope. I'm a libertarian. I gave up on Republicans when they nominated Romney.
Deletethen you should be pleased at the destruction President Trump is visiting upon your former party.
DeleteYour criminal thoughts appear scattered. You defend the Republicans over there, then reject them over here.
Hindsight is 2020. The purge of RINOs in 2018 will be glorious, and whoever becomes President in 2020 will have defeated Trump AND whoever the Dems field.
DeleteThis was not a win for Americans who voted for Trump's agenda. Honestly, how hard is it to defund planned abortions. For any slow thinkers - Women could Still get abortions, we just wouldn't have to pay for them anymore.
ReplyDeleteYou know, funny thing but all those welfare mothers that had six kids (they didn't get any more tax payer money from the Government for more than six then) managed to get their abortions.
DeleteI know this for a fact as I did gratis social work for the St. Vincent de Paul Society then. For over eight years. Needless to say, SVDP didn't pay for abortions.
Kid,
DeleteWomen could Still get abortions, we just wouldn't have to pay for them anymore.
Exactly!
The GOP will screw up and end up owning the entire healthcare nightmare.
ReplyDeleteTheir mistake is proceeding from a Democrat-statist foundation based upon statist-leftwing assumptions.
Well said. That's been the M.O. for decades, at least.
Delete- CI
SF,
DeleteUpvote!
Deeming health care as a right is the root of the problem. Abuse of the general welfare clause of the Constitution's Preamble.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that Obama did accomplish the general acceptance of the idea that health care is a right.
How can health care be a right if it is a purchased service?
Deeming health care as a right is the root of the problem.
DeleteYES! Thank you. The presumption of healthcare being a right predates Obama by years...but it has consistently been the Left who has pushed this meme. Now if we could only hammer that - and - the indisputable fact that the Federal government has no power to enact this [sans an Amendment]...but that the States absolutely do.
- CI
Allow me to join in your hallelujah choir. Unfortunately, we are singing in the wind...
DeleteWhy isn't DC starting by implementing market reforms that would lower health care costs?
File this in the bla bla blal, yadda yadda yadda category, but since we're all commiserating in tune...
The Demican-Republicrat District of Criminals is one giant and powerful crime syndicate.
Republicans are shameless, craven, statist liars. Ignore the blather issuing from their stinking pie-holes and see what they have done. They are no different in practice from Democrats.
SF,
DeleteThe Demican-Republicrat District of Criminals is one giant and powerful crime syndicate.
Republicans are shameless, craven, statist liars. Ignore the blather issuing from their stinking pie-holes and see what they have done. They are no different in practice from Democrats.
My conclusion, too!
Can somebody prove that Silverfiddle and I are wrong?
I wouldn't say you are wrong, per se. But I do wonder how you got to the belief that Donald Trump would be different / more preferable to Hillary Clinton without the prerequisite smoking of 36 pounds of crack.
DeleteTPP and Justice Gorsuch are two quick differences that come to mind.
DeleteUnfortunately, Trump seems to be falling in line of foreign policy. Gotta keep the MIC happy and filled with taxpayer dollars...
President Trump is marginally better, but it's not looking good. A final benefit of President Trump: The rage-filled, hateful left has dropped all pretense and revealed themselves to be the grubby horde of totalitarian fascists we always knew they were.
You're really fixated on this Trump thing. I spent months mentally preparing myself for the Harridan's victory. Sometimes you just gotta go sit with Bob Ross and paint trees. Or cap off a few rounds...
TC,
DeleteI do wonder how you got to the belief that Donald Trump would be different / more preferable to Hillary Clinton
My Number One reason:
1. Trump is not a career politician.
Career politicians are a plague upon the land, IMO. They are immersed in The Swamp. They do not view themselves as elected public servants, but rather as wise rulers who know better than the peasants beyond the moat (middle class).
Another factor:
2. At this point in time, America is no longer capable of electing "a true Conservative" to the Oval Office.
For a long time, I supported Ted Cruz for POTUS. Then along came the change in the electorate -- plus those videos of Cruz's father giving Ted the kings-and-prophets blessing, which smacks of theocratic cultism.
BTW, I've never been registered as GOP. I've always been registered as an Independent.
-----------
I do think that the old Conservative-Liberal-Progressive paradigm is obsolete -- at least for the time being. We are too much a nation of the new world order globalism, promoted for the first time by a GOP candidate by George H.W. Bush. From that point on, the GOP swung to internationalism instead of guarding the American interest.
I take solace in my 3rd party vote for Gary Johnson, despite my contempt for Bill Weld. And I'm happy Republican Senators and Congressmen won in their states and districts garnering more votes than Trump did in their states and districts (there's the true anti-Hillary vote, nobody wanted a Congress that would support Hillary in anything). My solace comes from the fact that any threats from Trump to rally against any Republican Senator or Congressman that doesn't acquiesce to his welfare statist, anti-trade, Keynesian f*ckery can be responded to with "shut up, prick, I got more votes from my constituents than you did." This also forced Trump to nominate a cabinet the thin but present conservative and right-libertarian factions would allow to be confirmed. They get to block Trump stupidity as much as they would have blocked Clinton imbecility. If RINO - Republican In Name Only - means anything, it surely means those that roll over for Trump's leftward agenda. You don't and won't see Trump leading the fight for anything conservative or libertarian. The guy's played more golf than Obama had at this point in his first term. For what it's worth, Paul Ryan might as well be President - not that I'd want that, but in a gradient of degrees, it would be better than Trump's buffoonery.
DeleteTrump already declared war on elected conservatives and libertarians, and by extension, their supporters. Let him have the whiff of grapeshot in 2020.
[I]1. Trump is not a career politician.
DeleteCareer politicians are a plague upon the land, IMO. They are immersed in The Swamp. They do not view themselves as elected public servants, but rather as wise rulers who know better than the peasants beyond the moat (middle class).[/i]
Let's be honest. Anybody that the Republicans would have run against Hillary Clinton would have trounced her in the Electoral College count. She's been a marked target for 25 years. My dirty socks would have trounced her. The woman is just that despised. Winning the Presidency was baked in to whoever won the GOP nomination. That's why there were 17 candidates in that cakewalk.
Which means we could afford to be picky. Instead, Trump got $3 Billion in free airtime from the media that come hell or high water was not going to let a conservative or libertarian have a voice. So, we have Hillary without the Shrillary, and only the most diehard of people willing to drink Coke over Pepsi even if the formula changed to sewage and NutraSweet dispute that.
There's much that I agree with here.
Delete- CI
"Let's be honest. Anybody that the Republicans would have run against Hillary Clinton would have trounced her in the Electoral College count
DeleteThat is speculation and unprovable. Do you have any polling data?
I went to RCP 2016 polls, and for what they're worth, they do show some Republicans beating Hillary:
Rubio, Kasich, and (some polls) Christie.
I don't think any of those men would fit your criteria for a true conservative or a small-government, libertarian-flavored conservative.
So, here we are in Realityville. The best we can say of the GOOP is that their House and Senate majorities slow the nation's inexorable march toward a Brave New Progressive World.
The Obamacare v Republican plan debate is riddled with spin and propaganda. It's all take with one hand, give with the other.
If the GOOP produces a replacement, it will simply be a different economically-ignorant, statist insurance scheme that does nothing to address underlying inefficiencies in the market for health care.
Thanks to Democrats and Republicans, most Americans think health insurance and health care are the same thing.
The Demican-Republicrat DC Gang has also injected into our mainstream the ridiculous idea that a junk food-fed, diabetic slob who smokes should pay the same rate as a healthy person like me who doesn't smoke and takes no medication.
So, while I share your frustration, I believe we have wasted too much time, energy and brain-space on politics.
We can slow some things down, but the progressives hold the high ground of academia, entertainment and "news" media. The Progressive Panzer Korps rolls on no matter what.
Drain the swamp? The Swamp is draining President Trump, and it won't pave the way for a Ted Cruz presidency.
Conservatism is a coherent, philosophy-based ideology that faces reality and deals with it. Americans don't want that, it takes too much work to understand it, Colbert says it sucks, so just give me my free crap and let me get back to watching Swinging with the Karkrashians.
That is speculation and unprovable. Do you have any polling data?
DeleteJust that the #NeverHillary crowd was huge enough to draw Democrat voters and malicious enough to vote for Donald Trump when that remained the last ditch. Trump didn't win, Hillary couldn't win.
TC,
DeleteAnybody that the Republicans would have run against Hillary Clinton would have trounced her in the Electoral College count.
Sorry, but I don't believe that. The Republicans blew it from 2014-2016 by never turning the Democratic Party into the Party of No.
GOPers should have put bill after bill on Obama's desk and make him veto -- then gotten out in front of the cameras and driven home the point of "The Democratic Party is the Party of no." Over and over again.
One reason that Trump won is that he knew how to use the media (cable and social) to his advantage. The GOP has never learned how to do that.
SF,
Delete1000 up votes for your comment @ 11:06 AM!
Thanks to Democrats and Republicans, most Americans think health insurance and health care are the same thing.
Did you happen to catch Limbaugh talking about what any insurance is supposed to be? By definition of the word insurance, I mean.
From HERE (emphasis mine):
The Republican health care plan, the repeal, replace, smack down of Obamacare, whatever it is, it is hinging on the entire procedure, methodology, policy, how we’re gonna deal with insuring people with preexisting conditions. And I’m gonna explain what all’s going on in the monologue segment of the next hour. But I want to say something before we get there, and it illustrates that we’re not really talking about insurance here.
When you get down to it, we’re told that the argument here is about health insurance and the costs, the deductibles and the premiums and the copays, but that’s not it. Health care long ago ceased to have anything to do with insurance. And when you’re talking about preexisting conditions, we’re not talking insurance.
If you know what insurance is, I mean what the business plan, the model, if you know what the definition of the insurance business is, if you know that, then you would know automatically and instinctively that people with preexisting conditions cannot possibly be insured. In a real world, it isn’t possible. That makes insurance essentially welfare.
You’ve heard the old argument that — and people understand this. This is a dirty little secret. People understand this. The health care in this country has slowly evolved to an entitlement program that nobody wants to admit is an entitlement program so we all fall for the idea that what we’re buying here is insurance. We’re not. We’re buying a welfare plan but having to pay a little bit for it. That’s called our insurance premium. But we’re not buying insurance. We’re buying into an entitlement. Once the government got involved in this, there’s no way we’re buying insurance.
If you have a house but you don’t have any insurance on it, A, you might be in violation of the law, you probably couldn’t get a mortgage. But let’s say that you’re a shifty guy and you’re able to buy a house with no homeowners insurance. And one day you’re on your way home and your home is on fire, you can see the smoke, you can see the flames before you get to the driveway.
You pull in the driveway, oh, my God, the fire department’s not here yet, who do you call? Your insurance agent and ask for homeowners insurance? No, because you know why? Because you know you’d be laughed at. You know there’s no way you can buy insurance at that point. Nobody will sell it to you. It’s not the purpose of insurance. Insurance is insuring against the odds something’s gonna happen to you. It’s based on mathematics and actuarial tables, and it’s a real live business.
But it isn’t in health care. The minute you start tacking preexisting conditions on to what you’re going to call health insurance, you’ve just blown up the whole argument that what we’re talking about here is insurance, because you cannot — how many people do you know, if you think that I’m whistling Dixie here (no offense to Dixie), how many people do you know who have driven home and they’ve seen their house on fire and called an insurance company?
You don’t know anybody because nobody’s ever done it because everybody knows they couldn’t get it. There’s no way. The same thing with an automobile. I know the law says you have to have it, but how many people do you have an accident with that don’t have insurance? It happens more frequently than the law says should. So you have an accident, you don’t have any auto insurance, you gonna call somebody, “Hey, I just totaled my car, I need insurance.”...
Eliminating the individual mandate will, in essence, destroy the insurance business model. Any insurance pool of insureds must have low-risk insureds to way outbalance the high-risk insureds.
DeleteIronically, with health insurance, many low-risk potential insureds will not buy health insurance. They see that kind of purchase as a waste of money.
BTW, I'm not a regular listener of Limbaugh. My CD player in my Hyundai fritzed out, so now I listen to talk radio about 15 minutes a day. I happened to catch the above segment on Limbaugh's show the other day.
DeleteI know several people who have serious pre-existing conditions. How did they get insurance that works for them? They went out and got a job that provided health insurance -- in most cases in this area, a government job, federal or local.
DeletePre-existing conditions didn't count against them (i.e., raise their premiums) as long as these people got a job with a big enough pool of insureds.
In a smaller pool of insureds -- I was a part of such a pool for the 1996-1997 school term. The others in the pool got pissed off at me: what was running up everyone's premiums was that Mr. AOW had pre-existing conditions (including diabetes and a recent surgery for a brain tumor).
On a national level, we may well have enough high risks that they skew the entire pool of insureds, thus shooting up premiums.
Not to mention, of course, the cost of medical care today: expensive diagnostics galore, but usually necessary to treat the patient. We ain't living in our grandparents' day with the intuitive general pracitioners.
Nothing wrong with Rush Limbaugh.
DeleteThe progressive Democrat totalitarians knew what they were doing when they crammed the fatally unworkable Obamacare up our wazoos.
Now, Trump and the Ryan GOOPers have set the stage for a total failure that makes everyone mad and ushers in single-payer.
SF,
DeleteThe sound of the anger in Limbaugh's voice stresses me out!
But I'm sure that he's spot on about the health insurance matter and the business model for insurance.
Single payer is next. I'm not sure how soon. Maybe three years from the GOP's version of the ACA? Honestly, from what I've seen of the House version, there is no way that the GOP's ACA solves anything insurance-related.
A lot of people in the 55-65 age group will opt out of getting health insurance because of the premiums -- and the government along with medical providers will have to pick up the bills.
I also foresee that more employers will now opt out of providing health insurance for their employees.
SF,
DeleteI think that Limbaugh might be wrong about that 4% figure for people with pre-existing conditions. It seems to me that a lot more than 4% of people have pre-existing conditions which will result in increased health insurance premiums. Especially in the 55-65 age group.
Just sayin'.
One reason that Trump won is that he knew how to use the media (cable and social) to his advantage. The GOP has never learned how to do that.
DeleteHow's that working out for you?
TC, You're very touchy.
DeleteI don't see that statement as a defense of President Trump. Just a statement of fact.
The GOOPers are media-stupid buffoons, and the Democrats continually eat their lunch.
If conservatism is going to gain any traction, the GOOP has to become conservative and then learn how to sell it without coming off like creepy morticians and oily televangelists.
My statement about Trump's ability to use the various was not purposed to defend him.
DeleteAs SF said: The GOOPers are media-stupid buffoons.
In today's politics, the inability to use the media to advantage matters more than ideology.
IMPORTANT PS:
DeleteIf conservatives cannot get elected, they cannot effect political change. To get elected, they must be able to use the media effectively.
I dont see Trump as a master of anything outside his coke mirror.
DeleteAs far as what conservatives "must do," they'll just have to wait until people believe urban decay and insurmountable debts isn't as cool as making fun of the Jesus freaks.
What these United States really need is a good five-cent cigar... and a conservative party to counter-balance the two progressive ones.
ReplyDeleteThis are the questions that I want answered:
ReplyDelete1. Exactly what ARE the core beliefs of the 21st Century GOP?
2. Exactly how do the GOP's beliefs and actions differ from those of the Democratic Party?
Excellent Questions.
DeleteAnyone foolish enough to attempt to answer in defense of the GOOP cannot use rhetoric, campaign slogans, pamphlets or talking points. We all know what those are worth. A manure pile at least gives nutrients to the soil.
Whoever answers these questions needs to cite laws, concrete outcomes.
SF,
DeleteWhoever answers these questions needs to cite laws, concrete outcomes.
YES!
My only answer is that the very few respectable members of Congress we have are Republicans, and they are too few in number to elicit anything but President Trump's vows to crush them.
DeleteI just read this at another blog site:
ReplyDeleteTwo GOP legislators are introducing legislation to let states annually import 500,000 foreign blue-collar workers and white-collar professionals to replace Americans who have fallen out of the workforce and into drug addiction.
True?
This seems like something that we, absolutely, DON'T NEED! Americans CAN do these jobs. Paying them not to while, they destroy themselves with drugs, is pure insanity!
Deletehttp://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/05/04/gop-propose-american-workers-replacement-bill-amnesty-immigration/
Jon,
DeleteI agree!
The Swamp is a bottomless cesspool!
ReplyDeleteSee Lynch Stated: "She would do WHATEVER it took to PREVENT Charges frm being brought against Hillary".
budget deal sucks.
ReplyDeleteNobody REALLY knows what's in the budget deal and the Republicans, as usual, do a lousy job of selling.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't really matter; it'll never come out looking other than what the Left wants once it hits the Senate.
What we need is a Republican like Pence to speak to all Americans, telling them the details, and why Americans can't continue going into debt, that competition works, etc. But that'll never happen.
Did you notice the new DNC meme about this bill is "monstrosity?" I've heard it used several times by Dems now. They got the memo.
Also, have you heard them talk about NOT HAVING READ THIS BILL? Are they REAL? After Pelosi's ridiculous comment about how you have to pass the bill THEN read their ACA? They never stop amusing, do they.
Z,
DeleteThey never stop amusing, do they.
That's one way of putting it. I, however, all it political malpractice.
The GOPers are showing themselves to be both tone deaf and incompetent.
Damned discouraging!
beyond discouraging, isn't it....hideous. Stupid.
DeleteAnd we were so excited after the election.
Of course, nobody expected this Democrat DROOLING hate...nobody could have.
Disgusting people proving themselves to be who we always thought they were.
Z,
DeleteYes, these Dems are proving themselves to be who we always thought they were.
But there's something else, too:
So many of GOPers on Capitol Hill are proving themselves to be who we thought and hoped they were not. All their seven-years-long noise about repealing ObamaCare, yet they churn out from the House the flawed-beyond-belief AHCA. And the recent continuation resolution is a beast.
Both political parties have merged into a big-government uniparty. The few GOPers who aren't of the big-government school of thought are spitting in the wind. Their salvos are like beebees rolling off the hide of the big elephant.
All the political theatre is getting on my last nerve:
ReplyDeleteHouse Health Care Repeal Won’t Be Considered By The Senate.
The Senate realizes there would be a lot of backlash in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania to the disruption in Medicare caused by the House bill.
DeleteThat bill was strictly kabuki.
The GOOP is all kabuki.
DeleteGotta give it to the Dems. Their policies are terrible, but they know how to rule and ram through legislation.
Reading this blog has given me a nauseous headache. The cynicism and determined negativity are sickening to both Soul and Body.
ReplyDeleteDon't you people ever get tired of endless complaint and the denigration of everything and everyone in sight?
Don't ANY of you EVER allow yourselves to express affection, devotion, admiration, approval? Does nothing EVER energize and inspire you to reach for greater heights with confidence and optimism?
Anonymous,
DeleteNobody is forcing you to read this blog -- or to comment thereto.
Your scolding lecture is evidence of your own narcissism.
My life is full of uplifting, affection, devotion, confidence and optimism. DC politics is the one dark cloud...
Delete"Don't ANY of you EVER allow yourselves to express affection, devotion, admiration, approval?"
DeleteYES and it all goes to Donald Trump!
Jon,
DeleteGreat response!
But I must agree with SF: DC politics is the one dark cloud
Honestly, integrity in that area has disappeared.