WALSH: BE HONEST - WE'RE TO BLAME EVERY BIT AS MUCH AS OUR POLITICIANS
By former Congressman Joe Walsh -
At a townhall meeting on Sunday, I said that it’s very easy to rag on our politicians for the mess we find ourselves in — huge debt and deficits, sluggish economy, lack of jobs, pension crisis, lousy schools, and a government we can’t afford. Our politicians deserve all the blame we give to them. But be honest, we as a people have fallen down on the job, as well. We’re not as educated as we used to be, not as informed, not as engaged as we should be. We’ve grown lazy, distracted, and yes, too many of us have gotten stupid. We’re easily manipulated by the media. We know more about Jay Z and J Lo than JFK and Janet Napolitano. More of us watch American Idol than pay attention to the budget battles in DC.
But think about it — if we don’t like our politicians, who keeps voting them into office? We get the government we deserve. If we, as a voting public, don’t start getting more informed and more educated on issues and concerns, we’ll lose this great republic. That’s what Thomas Jefferson said … and he’s right.
Go ahead, blame the politicians if it makes you feel good, but we have not been doing our jobs as voters for years — staying informed, responsible, and educated. Until we understand that, we will never truly fix our problems.
If we as a nation continue to be more concerned with who will win Dancing with the Stars than we are with how we can reform Medicare and Social Security so they are around for future generations, then we deserve everything that happens to us.
Amen brother.....oh no , can we still say that ????? The uninformed have taken over. Was the 47% comment during the pres campaign that far off. The media doesn't help so inform yourself. Use the Internet for something other than following the housewives of who gives a shit......
ReplyDeleteJoe is the best. We had the good fortune to spend time with him a year ago while in DC. We the people are for sure more interested in these silly tv personalities and obsession with sports. Jefferson clearly imagined an informed electorate and that was the case until 50/60 yrars ago. There is all sorts of blame to go around and perhaps the best place to start is our view of the political system and how traditional Chicago democrats view politics as 'where's mine'. Policy in the interest of the commonwealth is simply not understood. One would be hard pressed to find a Civics class in CPS.
ReplyDeleteJoe got beat by a lightweight and redistricting.Heaven forbid we have someone from the Chicago delegation with a mind.
Witness terrorist Bobby or goofy pro gay Quigley and everybody's favorite Louie. Danny boy showing some spunk of late
and hey why not put the ole man on the payroll. Danny looking Ok.
Morality and Politics in Chicago/ Forget about it
The fairy tale that Walsh and his ilk embrace and advocate is that Medicare and Social Security are the problem; these programs are self-funding, well-paid for, and extremely successful. It is one thing to say if my taxes when into the general fund and then were disbursed for these programs, but they are not. For some reason, some on the right, hate the most successful government programs in our history: medicare and social security.
ReplyDeleteOur budget is in disarray BECAUSE OF DISBURSEMENTS from the general fund. But where do they go? Defense. It is not the FBI. It is not salaries for government employees. It is both our defense and offense budgets; that is where the vast majority of money goes. If you look at a pie chart, remember that Medicare and Social Security are self-funding programs. Are reforms needed? Yes.
Our budget is in disarray BECAUSE OF REVENUE; we are not taxing banking or finance, and this could be easily accomplished with a Wall St. transaction tax. All of our transactions are taxed. Why can't Wall St. be taxed for its transactions? In fact, when I fill up my tank, just about everyone is taxing me. Wall St. used to be taxed in fact on its transactions, now we only tax the little, ordinary workers. It is bad policy, causes governments to go bankrupt.
We are not broke because of social security; in fact, social security returns a PROFIT to the general fund each year. We are broke because waste, fraud, and abuse in spending (see gov. contractors, no-bid contracts, etc.) and a lack of revenue sources due to politics.
The Democrats are now proposing more "revenue" - that still means HIGHER TAXES,,,,AGAIN. They just raised our taxes 90 days ago! They have no other solution but more spending of our and our childrens money, and bigger and bigger government. Always we must spend more. Kill the link cards for 90% of the leeches. Kill the Obama phones for everyone. No more "free" breakfasts at school, no more "free" lunches at school. I am sick of supporting people who WILL not, not CANNOT take care of themselves and their kids. It is not the governments job to feed your kids. The vast majority of people find a job within three weeks of losing their unemployment benefits. Not the job they want but a job nonetheless. 47 million Americans on food stamps is a joke !
DeleteSee, this is the ridiculous argument, and you are gullible to buy into it. One, school lunches are yet another program that works - gasps! Yes. Works. What is the point of you and me spending all this property tax money and federal grant money on education if the students are not learning? For many of these kids, the school lunch is their ONLY meal - all day and every day. It is not merely compassionate, but good policy. If the kids are hungry, they will not learn. I would rather spend money on this than more prisons.
DeleteTwo, you are referring to food stamps, which is about $1.60 a meal (or a day, cannot remember). This is a pittance; this is not even survival food. In a country of our vast wealth, no one should go hungry.
Speaking of the poor, Pope Francis talks about the poor, and let's look to Argentina. I was there on business, and I have plenty of stories. But talk about a generous welfare state. If you are poor in Argentina, you get all sorts of meat and food allowances. And Argentine beef is the best in the world. I digress, but $1.60 is not even survival food and ABSOLUTELY NOT contributing to our nat'l debt or deficit. It is a ruse, and a poor (no pun intended) one.
Last, let's end corporate welfare. Let's end subsidies to energy (including "green" energy). Let's demand our royalties from oil companies drilling on OUR lands (you and me pay for the maintenance of these lands). Why are you always attacking poor people as if poor people are influencing the budget? I used to call food stamps chickenfeed, but it is not enough to even be chickenfeed.
Your party wants to keep the Obama healthcare tax increases (bad policy in my view) and reduce taxes on the wealthy. Even worse, dismantle social security and medicare. I agree generally with Republicans on subchapter S taxation and so forth, but I do not want to delve into that. I do not get how Ryan's pretend budget is a "sustainable plan." It is a reversal of robin hood and will not help the economy nor reduce the debt/deficit.
Joe Walsh is a good guy. I almost now judge people by the level of good or bad treatment they receive in the press. The more the media like someone the more I suspect that they are a rat. And vice versa. That being said, the Dems got smart and ran a good "gal" and a good candidate against Joe. I suspect though, that Tammy might alienate some people with her liberalism. The Dem candidates are good at hiding their leftist ideology from the voters...but eventually they vote, and hopefully we can take that seat back in 2014. Time to start now
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the month, Joe Walsh will now host two hours of talk on AM 560 WIND
ReplyDeleteIt will air daily from 7 pm to 9 pm. Could be interesting.
Boy, these quotes of Thomas Jefferson. If you only knew who Thomas Jefferson was. Read his opinions are religion---and especially priests---influencing public policy. See Jefferson's views on public education: universal AND free. You tea-party people would brand Jefferson a "socialist" for his views on education alone.
ReplyDeleteLibertarian AND liberal.
Liberal yes....libertarian? Not likely. Liberal orthodoxy has created the nanny state we live in today. You may put on your tie dyed shirt, smoke your medicinal marijuana, and talk about how tolerant you are. But liberals like to control people much more than conservatives do. They are pro choice on crushing babies skulls and vacuuming the remains out of the mother and disposing in the trash. Thatis just fine. But do not by a certain gun to defend yourself, do not have a lemonade stand, do not drink a 32 oz glass of soda, do not use plastic bags, do not use "too much" gasoline, do not use certain light bulbs, do not bring certain foods for lunch at school, seatbelt laws, motorcycle helmet laws, no Energy Drinks, no trans fats...on and on and on...In their worst nightmares would our Founding Fathers even believed we would warp our Constitutional Republic to the point it has and they certainly would not have embraced the Democrat Statist Party. Your dreams are their nightmares.
DeleteWhat NANNY state, man? Who is getting all of this STUFF? I see big banks get bailed out. I see "preferred tax rates" on dividends and capital gains. I see subsidies to defense contractors to the favorites of Senators.
DeleteWhere is the nanny state? The food stamp program is not even survival food. School lunches does not create a "nanny state."
I never wored a dyed-die shirt, never smoked marijuana (not even in Amsterdam). But, I suppose I am "tolerant" - but I think I prefer "open minded," but I will not argue this point.
Questions:
(I will leave out the who, for your benefit to make it easy)
1) When, where, and how were you prevented from having a lemonade stand?
2) When, where, and how were you prevented from drinking a 32oz soda?
3) When, where, and how are you not allowed to use plastic bags?
I am going to stop here. Am I in the bubble, ladies and gentleman? No one is stopping me from any of those things.
Motorcycle helmets? Energy drinks?
I am literally and honestly too confused to continue. But, I think you are agreeing with me that even in your view Thomas Jefferson was a socialist and a "nanny statist."
The nanny state feeds kids breakfast and lunch in many areas today. The food Nazis are all telling us what where when and how much. These are liberals/Socialists who have a State mandated answer for every real and perceived social ill there is. Or 60 Percent of the government spending is for "entitlements". Somebody is clearly getting this "stuff". Quinn has raised taxes on EVERYBODY in the STate. He doubled almost the tolls in ILLinois. Preffered tax rates and capital gains benefit anyone investing today. Not everyone is "rich" who benefit from not being taxed a second time on their income at high rates. And it is proven and Obama did not deny it that when you actually cut the RATES on capital gains you get MORE overall money in the treasury. Obama the candidate brushed that aside and said it needs to be more "fair". Why should ANYONE, including the government get to TAKE 40% of what YOU made (through your own efforts). That is what we talk about when we call the Democrats Socialsts. Obama has been around radicals his whole life. As my Pappy once said "show me your friends and I will show you who you are". Obama has buddied with radicals and was raised by a whole clique of screwed up lefties. He is only behaving as any brainwashed leftist would. Let people make money and stop asking for more and more - every 90 days they want more.
DeleteYou are a liberal so it is understandable that you are easily confused. However I know you understand me completely. Liberals are the real control freaks and those that they worship (the hippy generation) would call the new Left Democrats a bunch of fascists.
DeleteApparently the poster hasnt been paying attention to the news. Bloomberg in New York passed a ban on soft drinks over 16oz. There were cities that banned plastic shopping bags. We had our own mental midget aldermen ban.foi gras. And the statements made earlier about how well funded Social security and medicare are is a fantasy. There are more people collecting from SS ( ever hear of Baby Boomers?) There will be less people contributing due to less people being employed. Add to that the number of people receiving SSDI benefits that never worked a day in their lives. The government has stated repeatedly that SS and medicare will be out of funds if nothing is done, not some rightwing blogger.
DeleteI am going to shock you (and perhaps Murph), but I do agree. I think there is a bit of a nanny state with Bloomberg (a "republican" by the way, or now an independent, I suppose). Some of the wealthy liberals---Bloomberg, Pelosi, etc. with estate plans that mirror republicans---do want to regulate our lives on a micro level.
DeleteSome of the greatest threats, however, of regulating our lives comes from republicans; e.g., marriage, marijuana, and "morality".
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ReplyDeleteLOL. Do you think that he really believe that there were spies, or is he just joking? I cannot tell either.
DeleteBut I agree with you;there is a tremendous amount of pension abuse throughout this state.
Murphy, ya gotta be kiddin' me, posting anything by Walsh.
ReplyDeleteUS Senate Democrats actually are putting forth an actual annual budget for consideration. (first time in 4 years). And yes it includes MORE taxes ! No- if you are thinking that I am confused with the taxes they and Obama rammed down our throats at the beginning of the year..... (approx 76 days ago)...no that was LAST month. This months they are seeking MORE "revenue" (that is taxes for those too dumb to see through their word game. Ahh yeah, lets just keep rasing taxes, over and over and over again. That is the solution ! The Democrat/Socialist solution.
ReplyDelete