Are Republicans Intentionally Sabotaging Economy For Political Gain?

Source: Daily Ticker (Wall Street publication)

Basically, <according to the argument>, Republicans are doing everything they can to ensure that the economy remains a mess when it comes time for the 2012 election. The Republican hope here, Dan explains, is that Americans will vote with their wallets in 2012--and, in so doing, vote more Democrats out of office.

Now, there's no question that voters do vote with their wallets: The deteriorating economy in 2008 helped President Obama get elected. And there's nothing wrong with stumping for policies that you honestly believe will help the country over the long term, even if you think they will cause some short-term pain.

But there's a big difference between that and intentionally doing things that will sabotage the economy over the next 12 months just to influence the next election.

If this is actually what some Republicans are doing, Americans of both parties should be outraged. The first loyalty of any elected representative should be acting in the best interests of the country., and advocating policies that you know will hurt the country--or stonewalling ones that will help it--is a gross dereliction of professional and civic responsibility.



Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/republicans-intentionally-sabotaging-economy-political-gain-164843992.html;_ylt=AtVR9wua9FDJMDQes08CcO67YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTFjbXQxOTQwBHBvcwMzBHNlYwNGUERhaWx5VGlja2VyQmxvZwRzbGsDYXJlcmVwdWJsaWNh

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f'rinstance by refusing to restore Big Corporate Money tax rates to those
of the Clinton era and before when we were prosperous. Trickle down never
worked!

The answer is yes - for both parties.

a filibuster proof majority. Lieberman wasn't a Democrat; he was an Independent.

How many jobs did Bushy-Cheney tax cuts create?

ANS: they created our long term Great Depression for US
which spread globally.

Obama needs to grow a pair and fight cut, cuts, cuts, cuts
& put what's left our our wealth to work
at least as much as Clinton did.

Why are Dems saying it's going to take time, just wait.
Tax the Top Two Percent, put the money to work creating
jobs and an economy instead of bubbles!

WE ARE APOLOGIZING FOR THE SHIT THEY HANDED US!

That's why. And Bill Clinton didn't fight cuts. He went along with Republicans on welfare. On NAFTA, and on a host of deregulatory initiatives. He even admitted as much. But, Clinton's problems were not just handed to him by Republicans; many Democrats went along with the Republicans on a host of issues.

It has been the same with Obama, but much worse given the economy that he faces.

two crypto-fascists on the Supreme Court, who under oath said
they would observe precedent, turned us one big step closer to
fascism when they turned Big Corporate Greed Money loose for
Right Wing Propaganda ads in the election. It was this money that
funded the Tea Potty and the Republicans.

Obama and very few pointing the finger at Republicans who are deliberately trying to destroy this country to get back into power.

Jim DeMint told us the truth right to our faces! And so did Mitch McConnell!

Why can't we Democrats open our eyes and see what's happening?!??!

*so frustrating!*

I've been screaming this all along. WHY in the world would republicon politicians and small business owners want to hire anymore employees or support any jobs bills that might make this President look like more than a failure? Wonder why the banks aren't lending? Wonder why the big companies have the largest surplus of cash in history? Because they simply are NOT going to invest in this country so long as we have a Democrat, and one by the name of Barack Obama, in the White House.

Jesus....did you just figure this out? As long as this President has been in office, he has done NOTHING right. Even the clown, w, is trying to be credited with killing OBL. This is a nation of complete morons...and sore losers.

They will do anything ANYTHING to bring down Obama.

I've been wondering the same thing for a while now. This is probably the most anti-American thing that could be done and I have a feeling the GOP made a secret deal with corps (who are holding historic record profits) to do this very thing. Probably some BS promises of lower taxes and healthcare repeals. It's disgusting and it shows how anti-American the GOP and corporations can be.

I'd love to see this framing used by Democrats and progressives. it's simple and to the point. The agenda is to bring down this country from the inside. We don't need an outside Al Qaeda boogyman when we have a whole Party of kleptocrats willing to do the bidding of the top 3%. When the rubes that vote Republican finally wake up and connect the dots, these people are going to have to make a very quick exit out of this country.

He's giving them everything they want AND providing a way for them to blame the Dem party for all the damage the pukes cause.

They're wrecking the economy in order to take all the money.

Think of it as economic fracking.

he'll be blamed, no? Why would he deliberately sabotage his own chances at reelection? It makes no sense.

It's about anyone who in any way impedes their imperialist designs, even in the smallest way. "They" want to destroy both the knowledge base and the working class itself, with all the money going to the top. They are willing to destroy our economy because they have enough to live well, screw everyone else, more power to them and only power to them. Rick Scott is the perfect epitome of the Repug politician - a complete liar and theif who gives a damn about no one other than himself and the other ultra rich power brokers.

Of course the fact that the person who doesn't give them EVERYTHING they want is black, certainly riles them even more.

Just have to let the sheep know not to buy any extras until the election is past. Also, the rich can just go overseas if they want to buy cars. Delay purchasing a house or redecorating. It's really simple.

The 2010 results rewarded the Party of No for their hard work in killing a recovery. Will a majority of voters double down on the dumb and give them the whole government in 2012? Stay tuned!

It has been the Republican plan since Obama took office.

Party first, people 2nd, or 3rd or...

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/are-democrats-talking-down-the-economy

George Bush and Dick Cheney did it in late 2000 when they started talking about how weak the economy was. The Democrats in the lame-duck Clinton administration squawked that the incoming leaders were talking down the economy, making things worse just by talking.

I mean, what did they gain when they held the House, Senate, White House AND Supreme Court?

:crazy:
rocktivity

Democrats really need to wake the fuck up and start pointing the finger in the right direction or this country is DOOMED!

Republicans want us to blame the president. That was always the plan. Change wouldn't come quickly enough because they blocked EVERYTHING in the Congress. So, what happened? Impatient voters went to the polls and put Republicans back in power. Now we wonder why we can't get anything done. Why is it that the president can't be MORE progressive? DUH!! He can't because the House is now in the hands of the Rethugs!!!!!!!

WAKE UP, DEMOCRATS!!!!!!!

I've been saying that for a couple years now. ReThugs haven't passed one bill that would help the economy or stimulate jobs. Everything they vote for is detrimental to the economy. A bad economy is their only chance to win back the WH. Corp. are also in cahoots as they won't hire because it will mean more jobs...bad move! That's why the banks won't lend out small business loans. No loans...No jobs! The last thing Corp. want is have Obama continue in office. They will do everything they can to help Rethugs regain the WH and their doing it! Then if a Rethug wins the election... wallah...there will be a gazillion new jobs and the ReThugs will claim it's their corrupt policy that created all those jobs. That has been my greatest fear for a long
time. Why aren't the Dems and MSNBC pointing this out. They need to start calling Rethugs unpatriotic.

As far back as I can remember the adage has been "republicans break it and democrats fix it" but now the republicans want it broken permanently and too large a number of dems are just like Walkers fake dems...fake dems.

To be a republican means self above community and party above country.

You need to understand that in their minds they aren't our servants...we're theirs.

Washington DC. has the highest average income per capita of any "country" with the rest of this country coming in at less than half that average...

Is it really a mystery that policy is being shaped for millionaires almost exclusively?

They really just don't care what happens to the rest of us so long as they gain total control.

The Repuk's are the most anti-patriotic group of jerks in the country. They are also the most hypocritical.

they represent a narrow slice of the population -- the ultra-rich and their agents (themselves included).
they have taken the view that the economy is a zero-sum game and they want to take more than their fair share at the expense of the rest of us.

will a bad economy benefit them politically? only modestly, most likely, as most people continue to blame shrub for the mess and see obama on their side, more or less. at least most people these days think democrats are better than republicans when it comes to the economy.

in any event, it's a side benefit to them at best. if they thought they could profit from a better economy, they'd do it. but in their narrow little pea-brains, they think that jump-starting the economy will cost them and benefit poor people, and they just can't for the life of them figure out how giving poor people jobs translates to more profit for rich people.

it's as if their attention span is so short they fell asleep after the first word of "supply and demand".

They are certainly trying to kill off any real measures that might help, like a jobs bill or funding needed infrastructure building. But then they don't get economics. They are stuck believing that supply-side economics works, even though the empirical evidence is in and it doesn't.

So while they are absolutely trying to prevent Obama and the dems from doing what they know is right, it is hard to tell if the repukes are economic simpletons, or so ideologically partisan that they intentionally tanking te economy in order to prevent OBama re-election.

They may also just be stuck on still giving ever more to their corporate benefactors and the wealthy.

In either case, they are playing with fire. If they push the country too far over the edge, then history says the wealthy risk a new revolution where instead of a simple reasonable tax rate, they will have ALL their wealth taken from them and they will be lucky to only be removed from their gated communities.

I am inclined to believe they are delusional and ignorant, as all their other pronouncements seem to be disconnected from reality and this is no different. That doesn't make them any less dangerous to yhe country and the world though.

It is an increadibly effective tool for taking money from the middle/working class and handing it to the rich without any of them going to prison.

Part of its mechanism is to convince people that it has an entirely different purpose.

would be a "Yes."

For the economic gain of their benefactors? :shrug:

For shits and giggles because they like watching the poor suffer? :shrug:

Because they can? :shrug:

I don't even think they are doing it intentionally, they can sabotage it without even trying.

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how soon do some people forget that it was Little Boots who basically announced before the election "ooh, we're screwed, y'all better do something before everything goes down." There were DUers who saw how initiating a bogus war in Iraq while shoveling our money to war profiteers while giving even more tax breaks to the rich and infamous was having a deleterious affect on our infrastructure and labor. I remember when Little Boots wanted to count burger flippers as manufacturing jobs. Unemployment was already going up and they attempted to "fudge" the figures.

What was needed after Obama got into office (and was not heeded) was what Krugman, Stiglitz and other economists suggested--they needed to pour money into public works (create jobs) and offer major incentives to businesses for hiring (and I don't mean slave wages). Instead, most of the rich and infamous took their tax breaks over seas or are sitting on it.

Maybe more people should have paid attention to Little Boot's businesses (how daddy's friends helped him), alleged insider trading and how deregulation screwed Texas. Also, the possibility that two of his choices (Dept of Labor and Housing) were going through a federal investigation before he was selected. Apparently, both investigations just disappeared. But no, all wanted to have a beer with him. Right?

My own belief, is that many repugs are sociopathic at heart-they wanted to "drown" any form of safety net, and that includes one for grandma. They want to corporatize every fekkin thing which brings about even more corruption, no accountability and will cost us even more. After all, a corporation is profit based. Repugs can wave the flag all they want-but most only believe in the golden rule of profit, power and greed.

You think Little Boots actually had concern about sending our soldiers to Iraq, into harms way or do you think he thought how KBR, Halliburton and the oily corporations could make more moolah?

Hey Speaker Boner, where are the Job Bills!!??

What they've been doing in Washington and in multiple states is giving red meat to the base, and advantages to the top 1 percent, while trying to disenfranchise everyone below the top 1 percent.

Remember when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the top priority was making Obama a one-term president? Michele Bachmann reiterated that last Friday. Nothing in there about jobs.

You've read the book - now see the movie! Coming soon to a theatre near you.

can come to our rescue with their "solutions".

As Exhibit A, I'd like to present this comprehensive list of job-creating legislation that has come out of the House since the GOP took over:

for eight long years. Now they're worried about the deficit, now they say they have a solution. Unfortunately, their solution may shovel even more money into the hands of the "have mores", while screwing us-of course after we're completely decimated then we don't have to worry about the leeches feeding us BS anymore.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1104652

I was extremely disappointed that so few actually agreed with my premise. I wanted people to pick up the ball and run with it because I truly believe the Republicans are hindering economic recovery for political gain.

Today I heard a couple of thoughts on this subject starting to surface in the mainstream news. I think this is a very important topic which should be constantly brought to the forefront. Questions need to be asked, and Republicans need to be held accountable. Some things are more important than politics, and the well-being of the citizens of this Country should come first.

I hope this continues to be a subject of great (and frequent) conversation in the days ahead.

Sam

I didn't see it back then - I agree, however.

1st off, great posts so far. All of them.

Anyway, of course their own fanatical support of supply-side economics makes sense to them in that it enriches their plutocratic base...useful idiot "values" voters notwithstanding.

Didn't Bush snidely remark in some gathering of supporters about how people say they're rich and out of touch...but Bush proudly called them "my base"?

It aint like they're bashful about it anymore. Gotta pillage what they can before they're put in check.

Of course they are.

and want everyone else desperate to take low wages. They always try to screw everyone but the richest 2 percent.

That's what Grover Norquist (Americans for Tax Reform) has long called it. Keep the country so far in the red that social programs HAVE to be slashed or everybody goes under.

Permanent untenable deficit & economic hardship also keeps the citizenry riled up against government.

Molly Ivins used to say something similar about how Shrub ran the economy in Texas: 1. Don't fund it. 2. It breaks. 3. Blame government. 4. Eliminate public regulation.

The GOP, it's where underachievers find their calling!

They are Intentionally Sabotaging the Economy
for 'Both' Political, and Financial Gain. Tax
Cuts and Breaks for Corporations are handouts
from The US Treasury, all made legal thanks to
republican policy. Of course Profits are up for
Big Business. When Raiding the US Treasury is
your only function, how could it be otherwise?

The Rich are paying the least Tax in History,
so it isn't their money being pilfered. The
Taxes of the Masses legally given to a Wealthy
Few. A working Man who Votes Republican, is
the same as a chicken Voting for Colonel Sanders.

and what were they/we told?? STFU - we got this...

Unfortunately, the "I told you so's" that are justified won't fix the economy.....

what else matters? :shrug:

It's the only chance they have of beating Obama.

tomorrow. :patriot:

Edited for spelling

At such a fragile time, we can ill afford political gamesmanship. It's almost like people who try to sell water for five bucks a gallon after a hurricane has hit-- only it's much, much worse, because these guys are causing the hurricane in addition to trying to profit from it.

On the other hand, maybe not. Maybe this is the best they can do. The Teabaggers are dangerous idiots who do not understand the forces they are dealing with.

OF COURSE.

They have been saying so since the day he took office. Every move they have made has been to undermine the present administrations efforts to improve the economy. First they made sure the stimulus was heavy on tax breaks instead of being targeted to communities, they block efforts to extend unemployment, they have actively sought to slash medicaid and any social program that benefits the poor and most vulnerable, they are trying to un-do HCR by voucherizing medicare, challenging HCR in courts, and trying to defund it.

Republicans desperately want the economy to falter and fall further in the hopes they can: push to privatize as much as possible and roll back all remnants of the New Deal and hopefully score more seats as voters become so desperate, and so confused they vote for someone else.

They are getting very good at it, doing much of their undermining on the state level.

I still believe that health care could have been a real boost to the economy. My plan, if we had gotten a good single- payer health system, would have been to start my own business. That would have opened my current job to someone else looking for employment. As it is, I am forced to stay at my current job.

Republicans are worst than what AlQueda. Always has been. They are evil to the core. But the lame stream media dont show just how evil they are. Dems dont call them out on it. Just like the bs with medicare. They dont have to sign on to that crap but they will. The stupid freaking dems forgot their plans was in "Obamacare". One party is evil the other party are its minions

They all know they're going to land on their feet no matter how bad things get here. The way they see it, we're all just collateral damage.

..then we are ENTITLED to every penny back that we paid in.

the president gets most of the blame. Republicans know this, and they also know Americans and the American media won't pay attention to the inner workings of Washington and how Republicans are working to sabotage Obama. It's a coordinated plan between Republicans at the state level (Walker, Scott, Kasich, etc) and in Washington to tank the economy & not do anything to create jobs. I mean, why would any governor turn down hundreds of millions of dollars in federal rail money - it would create thousands of jobs that would likely last them through their re-election (3-4 years) - unless they wanted Obama to fail?

From a Limbaugh sermon:



http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_011609/content/01125113.guest.html



My apologies for the link.

Does an ursine mammal defecate in dense timberland?

Is Sarah Palin cognitively challenged?

Will tomorrow morning's sunrise occur on an oriental horizon?

Tune in for the answers to these exciting mysteries!

sarcastically,
Bright

Republicans are to stuck in their idiological bubble, that they can act in the most amazingly stupid ways. It is possible that they are just being stupid.

Even if it succeeds, it's BAD

BAD BAD BAD

are primarily to blame for our economic woes at this point, imo. Republicans are going to continue to obstruct and just be the supply siders that they are. No big surprise. Democrats should have been much bolder when they swept into power.

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The Fed's spate of easy money lacked a diffusion mechanism onto Main Street, so it drove up asset prices, and most especially commodity prices.

Congress and the President (both Democratic, btw) decided last December to do away with the MWP tax credit and substitute the FICA 2% employee side rollback. This did two things - it overtly raised taxes on the lowest income earners compared to 2010, and it gave an absolutely HUGE tax break to the high earners.

So a couple each earning 15K a year, net 30K, ended up paying $200 more in federal taxes, but a law professor and a doctor couple, each earning over 100K, got a $4,000 tax cut. Naturally, the professors and many government employees really favored this! Why any Democratic politician should have is another question....

Because of the inflationary effect of the Fed's actions, the real income of the 30K couple fell much more than just the cost of the tax increase, although why the hell we are increasing taxes on the lowest earners in an economy like this is beyond me!!!

However the inflationary cost of basics for the higher income couple were relatively minor, because they spend much less of their incomes on transportation, food and utilities, plus they got a 4K tax cut. So they went out and spent it. This made everything look hunky dory for a while, so delusional Fed bankers, delusional Congressmen, and yes, a delusional president could tour the country talking about the great recovery.

But now, when the slow erosion of lower income earners has started to bleed through the economy to the higher earners (doctors, lawyers, business owners), we are left standing like idiots wondering what happened, and trying to blame it on the Republicans.

Success requires taking responsibility for your actions. The Democratic party will not win the next election unless it realizes what it did wrong and why it hurt the economy. Anyone who cares about Democratic principles should be pointing out why what is happening was doomed to happen.

Giving tax breaks to business owners isn't going to help. The problem is the loss of jobs and incomes for the lower end earners, and until we get serious about the problem and stop beating people over the head the economy is going to continue to degenerate.

YOU CANNOT FIX AN ECONOMY AFTER A WHACK LIKE THIS BY POURING MONEY INTO THE TOP. IT WILL ALWAYS FAIL AND DO MORE HARM.

Yes, I AM shouting!