House OKs $642 billion defense bill

washunut said:

I am not going to change my lifelong leanings because so many fellow party members have turned into lemmings for this administration. The Democrat party used to rail against deficits of Reagan and the Bushes, remember Clinton. My sense if he could really speak his mind he would reject trillion dollar deficits with no end in sight.

I have acknowledged that the defense budget in my view should be cut by at least $100 billion a year. I did go to a town hall meeting with by congressperson and told him I would not vote for him ever again if he voted to add troops in Afghanistan. I will wait for a real democrat to take him on in a primary.

That being said going back and forth with faux outrage about some tiny change to the defense budget seems stupid.

To keep calling one side or the other liars seems counterproductive, yet it seems that is all we get from this site.

Perhaps what has happened over the last couple of months is the frustration that an internet site, is probably a silly place to think there can be reasoned debate. Although from time to time there are some great nuggets.

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There's nothing faux about my outrage, and the amount isn't at the heart of it. My outrage centers on the fact that Republicans played Russian roulette with the full faith and credit of the United States, purportedly because they were concerned about spending, then finally agreed to automatic cuts at the 12th hour, and then reneged on the deal they made. I honestly don't know how anyone could NOT be outraged by it. It's bad enough that the right has become focused on jamming up Obama, as opposed to actually dealing with our problems. It's to the point now that they consider "moderate" and "compromise" dirty words; they've made it so difficult to accomplish anything that they had to agree SOMETHING even if a compromise couldn't be reached. And then they couldn't even stick to that SOMETHING. It's just unbelievable.

And that's not even considering the fact that they want to pay for this agreement-busting defense spending (including a star wars missile shield for the East Coast!) by cutting trivial **** like FOOD STAMPS for two million people and cuts to health care and other programs for the needy. I'd swear this was a put on by The Onion, but incredibly it's true. What will they do next? Tie an orphan to the train tracks to extract money for a millionaire tax cut?

AdamT said:

There's nothing faux about my outrage, and the amount isn't at the heart of it. My outrage centers on the fact that Republicans played Russian roulette with the full faith and credit of the United States, purportedly because they were concerned about spending, then finally agreed to automatic cuts at the 12th hour, and then reneged on the deal they made. I honestly don't know how anyone could NOT be outraged by it. It's bad enough that the right has become focused on jamming up Obama, as opposed to actually dealing with our problems. It's to the point now that they consider "moderate" and "compromise" dirty words; they've made it so difficult to accomplish anything that they had to agree SOMETHING even if a compromise couldn't be reached. And then they couldn't even stick to that SOMETHING. It's just unbelievable.

And that's not even considering the fact that they want to pay for this agreement-busting defense spending (including a star wars missile shield for the East Coast!) by cutting trivial **** like FOOD STAMPS for two million people and cuts to health care and other programs for the needy. I'd swear this was a put on by The Onion, but incredibly it's true. What will they do next? Tie an orphan to the train tracks to extract money for a millionaire tax cut?

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Perhaps it is time for a viable third party if that is possible. Maybe a Bloomberg who does not have his religion problems and probably not a mayor of NYC.

None of this crap seems to make sense to me. I don't believe that adding 3% to the tax rate of "job creators" will tank the economy, nor do I believe that you can add 30 million people to an already dysfunctional health care system and somehow that does not become a huge federal cost. I can't believe wanting to cut defense spending but applauding a president that adds, what 80K troops to Afghanistan. I can't believe either party wants tax " fairness" but can't get around to a fix on carried interest. The list goes on and on.

Simple question - Do any Conservatives feel this is NOT be a hypocritical move by the House Republicans? If not, why?