Reexamining GOP obstruction in the obama era

Digger said:

Neither party cares about the debt. But only one party uses the debt as an excuse to shut down the government, harming the economy. Only one party keeps passing massive tax cuts while increasing spending. The other party proposes tax increases to pay for the money they want to spend. Democrats have become the party of fiscal responsibility. Just look at the last few decades. Every time a Republican president gets a Republican Congress, the deficit explodes!

Click to expand...

Yeah, the GOP harps on the debt, but it's all talk. What I looked at was during the G.W. Bush presidency, almost all Democrats voted against raising the debt ceiling, almost all Republicans voted for raising it. Them comes Obama and both parties did a 180. Now it was the Republicans voting against raising the debt ceiling, Democrats voting for it. No core value there. Just something to be used politically by the party out of power.

What one forgets is all spending bills must be written, passed by the House. During Reagan and G.H.W Bush, it was the democratic House that went along. The GOP controlled house for the last six years of Bill Clinton. The last two years of G.W. was a Democratic controlled House with the last six years of Obama, the GOP controlled the House.

Digger said:

Yes, you can draw a line from the subject of the post to what you're talking about. But you've still wandered off topic. The topic is the government shutdowns during Obama's presidency and the small business administration loans, among other things, whose absence hurt the economy.

You want to talk about how you don't like how Trump pressures the Fed. That's cool. I don't just don't see the relevance to the topic at hand. Yes, they both have to do with interest rates.

Click to expand...

NO. Can't you comprehend? Or, are you purposely ignoring? The topic was not, as you state, "the government shutdowns during Obama's presidency and the small business administration loans, among other things, whose absence hurt the economy." It was, quite literally, as I just got through telling you in the prior post, as titled "Reexamining GOP obstruction in the obama era". The OP discussion in the body went, somewhat, elsewhere but was in the ballpark. As was mine. My post relevance was, quite literally with the topic, Trump obstructing the normal process of the Fed in setting interest rates.

My post may not be how you want it to align with the body of your post, but it is relevant to the topic for being continued obstruction by the GOP (Trump IS the GOP) even after the Obama era but also relevant to Obama because Trump cites Obama getting low interest rates as justification for why HE should get lower int rates, even though the economy, as Trump touts all the time, is booming and does not need lower int rates.

RealityNow said:

You should think about that every time you post some stuff talking about "lefties"... Geez.... your one sided tunnel view concept, blinds you from applying your commentary to YOURSELF.

Click to expand...

I'm not insulting the hell out of voters, you are. I don't think people are stupid or evil, just wrong about some topics or subjects. There is nothing one sided, you should stop projecting.

Perotista said:

Yeah, the GOP harps on the debt, but it's all talk. What I looked at was during the G.W. Bush presidency, almost all Democrats voted against raising the debt ceiling, almost all Republicans voted for raising it. Them comes Obama and both parties did a 180. Now it was the Republicans voting against raising the debt ceiling, Democrats voting for it. No core value there. Just something to be used politically by the party out of power.

What one forgets is all spending bills must be written, passed by the House. During Reagan and G.H.W Bush, it was the democratic House that went along. The GOP controlled house for the last six years of Bill Clinton. The last two years of G.W. was a Democratic controlled House with the last six years of Obama, the GOP controlled the House.

Click to expand...

In order for big changes to happen, Congress and the President need to agree. When the Senate is behaving itself, 60% need to agree. That doesn't happen very often. Usually the opposition party in Congress can put the breaks on whatever the President wants to do, and we get partisan gridlock. Which is kind of how it's supposed to work. When the President and Congress are all the same party, that's when things happen. And they can happen pretty quickly because they know they don't have very much time probably.

It happened once when Obama was elected, and once when Trump was elected. They each had two years where they weren't restrained by the other party much at all. What did the Democrats do? Obama got the worst recession in 80 years under control and saved the auto industry. And he overhauled healthcare without blowing up the deficit.

The recession ended, although more sluggishly than it would have if the Republicans had agreed to a second stimulus package after his first two years, and everything was getting back to normal. Sustainable growth, just like Obama promised.

Then Trump got elected, and it happened again. One party had Congress and the President. They could do what they wanted. Finally, we would have balanced budgets, repealed and replaced Obamacare, an austere, fiscally responsible party had taken over. It was time to think about the future with... another round of massive tax cuts!!!
Democrats always have to show how they're going to pay for their plans. That's the big question. How are we going to afford to pay for all of these programs? Warren has to answer. She can't just put it on the credit card. It'll boost the economy and we'll grow our way out. How many rounds of tax cuts are we going to take before enough is enough? This isn't working.

Digger said:

In order for big changes to happen, Congress and the President need to agree. When the Senate is behaving itself, 60% need to agree. That doesn't happen very often. Usually the opposition party in Congress can put the breaks on whatever the President wants to do, and we get partisan gridlock. Which is kind of how it's supposed to work. When the President and Congress are all the same party, that's when things happen. And they can happen pretty quickly because they know they don't have very much time probably.

It happened once when Obama was elected, and once when Trump was elected. They each had two years where they weren't restrained by the other party much at all. What did the Democrats do? Obama got the worst recession in 80 years under control and saved the auto industry. And he overhauled healthcare without blowing up the deficit.

The recession ended, although more sluggishly than it would have if the Republicans had agreed to a second stimulus package after his first two years, and everything was getting back to normal. Sustainable growth, just like Obama promised.

Then Trump got elected, and it happened again. One party had Congress and the President. They could do what they wanted. Finally, we would have balanced budgets, repealed and replaced Obamacare, an austere, fiscally responsible party had taken over. It was time to think about the future with... another round of massive tax cuts!!!
Democrats always have to show how they're going to pay for their plans. That's the big question. How are we going to afford to pay for all of these programs? Warren has to answer. She can't just put it on the credit card. It'll boost the economy and we'll grow our way out. How many rounds of tax cuts are we going to take before enough is enough? This isn't working.

Click to expand...

A politician or elected official only looks toward the future as far as the next election. Anything past the next election is someone else's problem. None of them want to jeopardize their reelection chances. To do something about the massive debt requires a lot of spending cuts and raising taxes. Road block. Democrats don't want to cut spending or programs, Republicans don't want to raise taxes. Hence your credit card approach.

OpportunityCost said:

I'm not insulting the hell out of voters, you are. I don't think people are stupid or evil, just wrong about some topics or subjects. There is nothing one sided, you should stop projecting.

Click to expand...

You should look up the word "Wrong" and pay attention to the synonymous meaning... before you make such a claim.

Wrong

Synonyms: Noun
bad, evil, evildoing, ill, immorality, iniquity, sin, villainy
Synonyms: Adjective
bad, bastard, bush, bush-league, crummy (also crumby), deficient, dissatisfactory, ill, inferior, lame, lousy, off, paltry, poor, punk, sour, suboptimal, subpar, substandard, unacceptable, unsatisfactory, wack [slang], wanting, wretched

Click to expand...

Perotista said:

A politician or elected official only looks toward the future as far as the next election. Anything past the next election is someone else's problem. None of them want to jeopardize their reelection chances. To do something about the massive debt requires a lot of spending cuts and raising taxes. Road block. Democrats don't want to cut spending or programs, Republicans don't want to raise taxes. Hence your credit card approach.

Click to expand...

No, that's what I'm saying. Only the Republicans run up the credit card. Split government, you've got gridlock. Democratic control, you've got changes but tax increases to pay for the new spending. Only under undivided Republican government do we get deficit ballooning policies, usually in the form of massive tax cuts that are justified by pie in the sky theories about how they'll pay for themselves. How many rounds of tax cuts are we going to give the rich before we realize that this isn't working?

RealityNow said:

You should look up the word "Wrong" and pay attention to the synonymous meaning... before you make such a claim.

Click to expand...

Hair splitting bull****. By wrong I mean specifically incorrect about certain matters. Not the pejorative.

Conservative said:

The thread topic is GOP obstruction to Obama and as stated the GOP had nothing to do with interest rate hikes nor the authority to do so. You want to discuss the reasons for the hikes start another thread. This is just typical of what we get from people like you, charges against the Republicans with nothing to support those charges. Liberalism has created people like you who cannot accept the basic fact that most of the problems in this country today were created by Democrats not Republicans

Click to expand...

Please see my post #32 and #52.

bluesmoke said:

Please see my post #32 and #52.

Click to expand...

What you continue to show is total lack of understanding of the Private sector as did Obama and what Obama actually proposed and did, promoted the public sector, bailed out the unions including teachers, and when his economic policies failed implemented ACA. That isn't leadership that the American people want which is why he lost the House in 10-12-14-16 and the Senate in 14-16. The American people will not vote for anyone proposing massive gov't entitlement programs. If obstructionist means preventing massive growth in the central gov't and UHC, then count me among the majority in this country. Not sure how Trump obstructed the Federal Reserve!!

Access Denied

The Democratic primary field has been the most diverse in history, featuring African-Americans, women, a Latino, an Asian-American and a man in a same-sex marriage. The lineup has Democrats bragging about how their offers represent modern America, tempered by worries about the ''electability'' of the nontraditional candidates.

But according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday, Americans overwhelmingly are just fine with voting for a woman, as well as a black, Hispanic or (to a somewhat lesser extent) gay candidate. The sort of candidate a majority of Americans reject?

Socialist.

Click to expand...

Conservative said:

What you continue to show is total lack of understanding of the Private sector as did Obama and what Obama actually proposed and did, promoted the public sector, bailed out the unions including teachers, and when his economic policies failed implemented ACA. That isn't leadership that the American people want which is why he lost the House in 10-12-14-16 and the Senate in 14-16. The American people will not vote for anyone proposing massive gov't entitlement programs. If obstructionist means preventing massive growth in the central gov't and UHC, then count me among the majority in this country. Not sure how Trump obstructed the Federal Reserve!!

Access Denied

Click to expand...

So, you said I was off-topic and now you come in with the whole 9 yards. Ffffunny! Funny like the "failed" ACA the voters favor. Funny like the massive entitlement programs the American people won't vote for like SS, Medicare and Medicaid. Hilarious.

bluesmoke said:

So, you said I was off-topic and now you come in with the whole 9 yards. Ffffunny! Funny like the "failed" ACA the voters favor. Funny like the massive entitlement programs the American people won't vote for like SS, Medicare and Medicaid. Hilarious.

Click to expand...

ACA led to Obama's loss of Congress so where is the support? Only radicals and others who believe someone else should pay for their personal responsibility issues support ACA. Not sure where you get your information but healthcare is a state and local responsibility for that is where the liability and costs lie

You also continue to ignore what taxes fund SS and Medicare thus making it a federal responsibility, those supposed self funding programs are quite different than Medicaid and ACA

Digger: During Obama's presidency, the GOP shut down the government several times. Everyone agrees that this harmed the economy. But Republicans at the time argued that the issues they were being stubborn on were so important for the long term health of the economy that it justified the short term damage.

Cougarbear: There was no damage that Obama hadn't already caused with his raising of taxes, increasing burdensome regulations that chased manufacturing out of the country, burdensome regulations that caused small businesses to cut employee's hours from full-time to part-time and laid off millions causing the labor participation rate to plummet, caused trade deficits to expand, black and brown unemployment to skyrocket putting million of more people on food stamps and welfare, blaming white cops to spark race wars in the city streets, destroying our healthcare system causing the vast majority to have to pay more for their insurance while giving free healthcare to illegal aliens. Ya, Obama was doing a really great job.

Digger: What were these issues? They wanted to repeal and replace Obamacare, they wanted to reduce the deficit. And they wanted to extend Bush's tax cuts for rich people.
What can we learn from their actions upon taking power in 2017 about the sincerity of their arguments? Well, they didn't repeal and replace Obamacare. They didn't reduce the deficit. They did give another huge stinking tax cut to rich people. I conclude from this that the GOP doesn't really care about deficits and Obamacare. They harmed the economy for disingenuous reasons. Why did they do it? Maybe they think tax cuts for rich people are so good for the economy in the long term that it's worth hurting the economy in the short term to get them.

Cougarbear: While Obamacare wasn't completely destroyed all at once, it's just about gone. 180 million people have their own independent insurance now and through their jobs and unions that they love. Trump destroyed the individual mandate that effectively gets rid of Obamacare. Good riddance. Insurance that was supposed to be cheaper with huge deductibles making it impossible financially to use. Then, the premiums skyrocketed for most people. The only thing the government has been able to do really good is the military. Social Security and Medicare will be broke in 6 years. And, Democrats want to make Medicare for all? Do Democrats have any brains whatsoever? Damn socialists!

As to the tax cuts. Keep spewing the lies of Democrats. It's only going to see Trump re-elected and the GOP take back the House and keep the Senate. Keep it up. We love it! See, it was corporations that got huge tax cuts which they have been able to re-open manufacturing plants and higher many more people. Not only that, large and small businesses now have put people back into full-time after Obama pushed people to part-time because of the mandates of Obummercare. So, millions of more people are participating in the labor force with higher wages without the Government mandating higher wages. Capitalism works when the Government gets out of the way of the people with lower taxation and regulations for employers of the people. Duh! Also, 90% of the people have seen their taxes go down that were paying taxes. That's the middle class. So, stop lying.

Digger: But I posit another explanation. Instead of good but stupid, maybe they're evil but smart. McConnell let the truth slip when he said his highest priority was to deny obama a second term. Not create jobs, not help the economy. Hurt obama. The tax cuts for the rich increased the deficit. Repeated shutdowns slowed the recovery. The GOP caused these things, and then complained that "Obama's deficit" was to big and "obama's recovery" was too slow.

Cougarbear: Obama hurt his legacy by destroying manufacturing putting people out of work, including minorities. It's why Trump is getting as high as 26% support from Blacks and Hispanics in many polls including Gallop. When will Democrats figure out Government can't create jobs. It's the private sector that creates millions of jobs that are necessary to pull people out of poverty. That requires the private sector employers and entrepreneurs not to be saddled with heavy regulations and taxation. Exactly opposite of what Obama and the Democrats did their first 2 years in power. Instead, Obama and his other two musketeers, Pelosi and Reid, pushed through Obamacare causing higher taxation and regulations on businesses. They raised corporate taxes that caused the manufacturing to disappear. You have a real slanted view of the truth.

What I still want to see when Trump is re-elected and the GOP has full control of Congress is the National Debt be the focus and reduce it. Obama more than doubled the National Debt in eight years. Trump hasn't done anything about it because he first had to fix the manufacturing and employment problems Obama caused. He had to re-build the military that Obama destroyed. He had to first fix the bad trade deals of the past from Clinton to Obama. He still has to fully fix immigration in which the Democrats did nothing when they were in full power. Democrats did nothing about infrastructure. Remember Obama's "Shovel Ready" $780 billion dollar bill that didn't produce one new job nor fix any infrastructure in which is was supposed to be used for? Where's that money? STOLEN!

Instead, Obama with his henchmen; Holder, Hillary, Horseface Kerry, Hill and others, ran illegal gun running operations in Mexico from Libya, had assassinated the ambassador and 4 others in Benghazi, started a huge war with Afghanistan, sided with the Russians (Hot Mike), sided with the Ukrainians in corruption and interference in the 2016 election spying on an American politician, the GOP candidate Trump and his political team. Obama's leftovers have destroyed the Country with years of lies in their impeachment efforts and Russian collusion crap. Clean up your own crap before blaming others.

Conservative said:

ACA led to Obama's loss of Congress so where is the support? Only radicals and others who believe someone else should pay for their personal responsibility issues support ACA. Not sure where you get your information but healthcare is a state and local responsibility for that is where the liability and costs lie

You also continue to ignore what taxes fund SS and Medicare thus making it a federal responsibility, those supposed self funding programs are quite different than Medicaid and ACA

Click to expand...

“ACA led to Obama's loss of Congress so where is the support?”

What evidence do you have that the ACA was the primary reason for the Dems loss of Congress? What makes you think, what is your evidence, that the ACA is a "failed" program?

“Only radicals and others who believe someone else should pay for their personal responsibility issues support ACA.”

Under a federally funded ACA, everybody who pays taxes would pay for the federalized program. Everybody that is paid enough in wages would pay taxes is where the personal responsibility is feasible.

“Not sure where you get your information but healthcare is a state and local responsibility for that is where the liability and costs lie”

When the private market is not providing that market for all that should have access, that is when the federal gov’t should step in. At that point it would be a federal responsibility, though I suppose it could be argued that though subsidized by the fed gov’t through taxes it could be managed by the states. Not sure what made you think I didn’t know that healthcare, by the Constitution, is not given the federal govt and thus given to the states. It isn’t specified, so the Feds can decide to make it theirs whenever they want.

“You also continue to ignore what taxes fund SS and Medicare thus making it a federal responsibility, those supposed self funding programs are quite different than Medicaid and ACA”

All I said was that SS, Medicare and Medicaid are “massive entitlement programs”, which they are. I didn’t say anything to do with their being state or federal.

Can’t you get anything right?

bluesmoke said:

“ACA led to Obama's loss of Congress so where is the support?”

What evidence do you have that the ACA was the primary reason for the Dems loss of Congress? What makes you think, what is your evidence, that the ACA is a "failed" program?

“Only radicals and others who believe someone else should pay for their personal responsibility issues support ACA.”

Under a federally funded ACA, everybody who pays taxes would pay for the federalized program. Everybody that is paid enough in wages would pay taxes is where the personal responsibility is feasible.

“Not sure where you get your information but healthcare is a state and local responsibility for that is where the liability and costs lie”

When the private market is not providing that market for all that should have access, that is when the federal gov’t should step in. At that point it would be a federal responsibility, though I suppose it could be argued that though subsidized by the fed gov’t through taxes it could be managed by the states. Not sure what made you think I didn’t know that healthcare, by the Constitution, is not given the federal govt and thus given to the states. It isn’t specified, so the Feds can decide to make it theirs whenever they want.

“You also continue to ignore what taxes fund SS and Medicare thus making it a federal responsibility, those supposed self funding programs are quite different than Medicaid and ACA”

All I said was that SS, Medicare and Medicaid are “massive entitlement programs”, which they are. I didn’t say anything to do with their being state or federal.

Can’t you get anything right?

Click to expand...

Poorly formatted, DISMISSED!!!

KevinKohler said:

Politicians are hypocrites.

Click to expand...

I agree. I think the answer to the OP is this.

Obama is history and has been out of office for 3 years Trump is President and has generated the best results of any President in history for his first three years in office. Results matter and the American people will have a choice in November, believe what the left tells them or look at their own bank account and financial situation. If they want to risk electing a socialist to replace Trump then they run the risk of destroying 3 years of incredible result. I will be voting for Trump in 2020, not because I like him but because his results deserve re-election

Digger said:

During Obama's presidency, the GOP shut down the government several times. Everyone agrees that this harmed the economy. But Republicans at the time argued that the issues they were being stubborn on were so important for the long term health of the economy that it justified the short term damage.

What were these issues? They wanted to repeal and replace Obamacare, they wanted to reduce the deficit. And they wanted to extend Bush's tax cuts for rich people.

What can we learn from their actions upon taking power in 2017 about the sincerity of their arguments? Well, they didn't repeal and replace Obamacare. They didn't reduce the deficit. They did give another huge stinking tax cut to rich people.

I conclude from this that the GOP doesn't really care about deficits and Obamacare. They harmed the economy for disingenuous reasons.

Why did they do it? Maybe they think tax cuts for rich people are so good for the economy in the long term that it's worth hurting the economy in the short term to get them.

But I posit another explanation. Instead of good but stupid, maybe they're evil but smart. McConnell let the truth slip when he said his highest priority was to deny obama a second term. Not create jobs, not help the economy. Hurt obama.

The tax cuts for the rich increased the deficit. Repeated shutdowns slowed the recovery. The GOP caused these things, and then complained that "Obama's deficit" was to big and "obama's recovery" was too slow.

Click to expand...

Don't forget to discuss Obama obstruction during the Obama era. Just to be clear, since you seem a bit confused; the Dems held absolute control of Congress for his first two years, and controlled the Senate until his last two years. Obama's dismal recovery sits squarely on his shoulders.

Just out of curiosity how many "shutdowns" did the GOP actually cause?

Bullseye said:

Don't forget to discuss Obama obstruction during the Obama era. Just to be clear, since you seem a bit confused; the Dems held absolute control of Congress for his first two years, and controlled the Senate until his last two years. Obama's dismal recovery sits squarely on his shoulders.

Just out of curiosity how many "shutdowns" did the GOP actually cause?

Click to expand...

Yes, Obama had an undivided government during the first two years. He could get whatever legislation he could get all 60 Democratic Senators to vote for. The GOP was filibustering everything they could, so the Democrats needed every single vote in the Senate every single time. And with Kennedy dying and recesses and some other shenanigans it turned out that they only had like 50 days of legislating time. I figured it all out one time, but I don't remember the details anymore.

But anyway, they did what they could with their time. And Obama saved the auto industry and the banking industry, which for some reason Republicans complained about at the time. It was a government takeover! And his stimulus got the economy out of free fall. Oh, and he got tens of millions of Americans health insurance without raising the deficit.

But you're right, after the GOP took back the House and then the Senate, nothing much changed for the next 6 years. They kept refusing to do more stimulus spending while complaining that the economy was sluggish, and shutting the government down over and over to force austerity measures during a sluggish recovery. Thanks Republicans!

Digger said:

Yes, Obama had an undivided government during the first two years. He could get whatever legislation he could get all 60 Democratic Senators to vote for. The GOP was filibustering everything they could, so the Democrats needed every single vote in the Senate every single time. And with Kennedy dying and recesses and some other shenanigans it turned out that they only had like 50 days of legislating time. I figured it all out one time, but I don't remember the details anymore.

But anyway, they did what they could with their time. And Obama saved the auto industry and the banking industry, which for some reason Republicans complained about at the time. It was a government takeover! And his stimulus got the economy out of free fall. Oh, and he got tens of millions of Americans health insurance without raising the deficit.

But you're right, after the GOP took back the House and then the Senate, nothing much changed for the next 6 years. They kept refusing to do more stimulus spending while complaining that the economy was sluggish, and shutting the government down over and over to force austerity measures during a sluggish recovery. Thanks Republicans!

Click to expand...

Obama is out of power and his record is there for all to see but you are blinded by an ideology that ignores the actual record which the voters rejected. Obama lost the House in 10-12-14-16 and the Senate in 14-16. He generated the worst recovery from a recession in modern history and yet you keep trying to prop up the failures.

You will have a chance to return to Obama era economics and national security in November. Want to wager how that is going to turn out? Only radicals are here instead of out working like the majority of Americans. Guess you aren't in the 56% that support the job Trump is doing helping put food on the table, clothes on the backs, and a roof over head. Are you better off than 3 years ago?? Most are. Why can't you address actual issues and tell us all which of the following really bothers you and will cause you to vote for a Democrat?

RealClearPolitics - Election Other - President Trump Job Approval - Economy

It will always be the economy that drives the American people to the polls and these numbers aren't very good for the left as the American people won't risk returning to Obamanomics

Unemployment Rate 4.7% January 2017 vs. 3.6% today

Employed 152.2 million January 2017 to 157.9 million today so 6 million job growth from 2008 to 2017(146 million to 152 million) is celebrated but 6.7 million growth I the last two years isn't!! LOL

U-6 in January 2017 9.3% vs 6.9% today? Wow!! 2.4% better U-6 obviously meaningless to you

Part time for economic reasons, 5.7 million January 2017 vs. 4.2 million today? Looks to me that incredible job growth you claim was boosted by part time jobs

African American unemployment 8.0% vs. 6.0% today? That explains the surge in support from African Americans for Trump

Digger said:

Yes, Obama had an undivided government during the first two years. He could get whatever legislation he could get all 60 Democratic Senators to vote for. The GOP was filibustering everything they could, so the Democrats needed every single vote in the Senate every single time. And with Kennedy dying and recesses and some other shenanigans it turned out that they only had like 50 days of legislating time. I figured it all out one time, but I don't remember the details anymore.

Click to expand...

So, you're arguing that the Dems weren't proposing positions that were palatable to their entire caucus? And they couldn't even convince ONE Republican to go along? Boo-friggin'-hoo!

Digger said:

But anyway, they did what they could with their time. And Obama saved the auto industry and the banking industry, which for some reason Republicans complained about at the time. It was a government takeover! And his stimulus got the economy out of free fall. Oh, and he got tens of millions of Americans health insurance without raising the deficit.

Click to expand...

LOL, he saved neither. Each was more than capable of rebounding along with the economy

Digger said:

But you're right, after the GOP took back the House and then the Senate, nothing much changed for the next 6 years. They kept refusing to do more stimulus spending while complaining that the economy was sluggish, and shutting the government down over and over to force austerity measures during a sluggish recovery. Thanks Republicans!

Click to expand...

Nothing much happened except the economy continued to struggle back as well as it could dragging the Obamanomics boat anchor behind. Deficits started declining and became a thing of the past as the GOP solidified its hold on the House.

jmotivator said:

"Everyone agrees that it hurt the economy"... uh, no they don't. That was the big scare tactic of the Democrats trying to fear monger their way into getting what they want, but it didn't actually happen. Everyone got paid, the majority of the government wasn't even sent home, and life went on.

In fact, it might have even helped the economy... I know here in the DC metro area it was far easier for private commuters to get to work, and for private trucks to get where they were going.

The same held true last year:

The government shutdown was expected to hurt the economy. It didn’t. - The Boston Globe

Click to expand...

When the GOP shut down the government, I instantly lost 10% of the month's profits in the first 72 hours. I had to scale back my orders; which meant my vendors took a hit from the loss of business. I continued to lose profit the entire time. I had to scale back my labor hours; I had employees who only worked three shifts during the whole shutdown when they would normally work 5 shifts a week. We also run on a profit-share bonus...that meant the annual bonus check for my employees was less...through no fault of their own. The business was a beer and wine store with a bar. Let that sink in...I had trouble selling booze. My fellow stores and bars also faced similar hardships.

That shutdown hurt my vendors.

That shutdown hurt my business.

That shutdown hurt me.

Worse of all, that shutdown hurt my employees.

Just to get at Obama....

Moderate Right said:

Republicans took over one thousand seats from Democrats, gaining both the House and the Senate and yet the left became the resistance against what voters wanted. And yet Obama seemed to forget that elections have consequences and tried his best to thwart what Americans wanted during his second term.

Click to expand...

What the voters want is not Republicans or their ideals. Both in the Obama years and now the Republicans represented fewer voters than the Democrats but picked up more seats due to gerrymandering, voter suppression and other electioneering tricks. 2018 gave a taste of what voters really want; this year regardless of who 'wins' the electoral college in the election, when you look at the turnout and count the votes, you'll see again what the voters really want.

Digger said:

I conclude from this that the GOP doesn't really care about deficits and Obamacare. They harmed the economy for disingenuous reasons.
[snip]
The GOP caused these things, and then complained that "Obama's deficit" was to big and "obama's recovery" was too slow.

Click to expand...

One quibble. While the GOP definitely doesn't give a damn about deficits, they do care about stripping millions of health insurance. They came within one vote of doing so.

But yes, the GOP is more than willing to extend unemployment and all the damage that implies for as long as there's a Democrat in the White House. But when there's a Republican, let the red ink flow!

As Paul Krugman writes:

Think of the effects of unemployment: Suicides, divorces, broken families. All that was no problem for Republicans; they had a president to defeat. :-(