GOP'ish candidates

[franalexes]

Originally Posted by smc

I The private sector doesn't fix roads and bridges, build schools, or take on any of the other infrastructure projects that modern societies undertake.

"schools",,,, be carefull with that one. Most colleges are private even thou they receive government grants. At lower levels, private schools of faith based origin are being financed totally free of government support.

[smc]

Originally Posted by franalexes

"schools",,,, be carefull with that one. Most colleges are private even thou they receive government grants. At lower levels, private schools of faith based origin are being financed totally free of government support.

Of course, anyone reading this would have reasonably assumed I meant public schools, K-12. But you are technically correct.

I could have listed lots more examples of how government creates jobs by building for society. But perhaps you'd like to defend the notion put so eloquently by Grover Norquist: "I'm not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

[franalexes]

Originally Posted by smc

Of course, anyone reading this would have reasonably assumed I meant public schools, K-12. But you are technically correct.

I could have listed lots more examples of how government creates jobs by building for society. But perhaps you'd like to defend the notion put so eloquently by Grover Norquist: "I'm not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

First, I am not anyone. I am Franalexes. By what assumption do you believe I should assume? You say I am technically correct. Then are you technically in-correct? Should I assume that's what you meant?
Why do you think conservatives want to kill government? We want the same things you do. We just disagree on the manner that government does things.
I have no idea who this "Grover" is, nor do I care, and furthermore I do not find his notion eloquently stated. Am I obligated to defend it just because you asked me to? Probably not.

[smc]

Originally Posted by franalexes

First, I am not anyone. I am Franalexes. By what assumption do you believe I should assume? You say I am technically correct. Then are you technically in-correct? Should I assume that's what you meant?
Why do you think conservatives want to kill government? We want the same things you do. We just disagree on the manner that government does things.
I have no idea who this "Grover" is, nor do I care, and furthermore I do not find his notion eloquently stated. Am I obligated to defend it just because you asked me to? Probably not.

I'll let you play your rhetorical games while I engage in serious discourse.

You are correct that I should have stated more precisely that I meant public schools. But pretty much anyone with a brain who was also inclined to have a serious discussion would have known what I meant, and that I did not mean that private schools are built by the government (although nearly every private school in this country, even those of what you call "faith based origin," get some government funding in one form or another). There ... satisfied now?

And while you may claim not to know who Grover Norquist is, I dare say that you certainly know of his work. He is the founder and leader of Americans for Tax Reform, and the author of the ridiculous "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" that has been signed by 95 percent of all Republicans in Congress and all but one of the 2012 Republican presidential candidates. You know the pledge; it's the one that makes Republicans do ridiculous stuff like working against extending the payroll tax cut extension because it can be interpreted (only in the most asinine way) as a tax increase by simply turning logic on its head.

That pledge, by the way, of which you are aware (I know this, franalexes, because you could not possibly be aware of many of the things of which you write without being aware of the pledge, since they are mentioned in the same sentences on websites, in news reports, and elsewere, without respect to party or end of the political spectrum, and to be unaware of it would require a type of filtering of which the human brain is not capable), reads as follows:

ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and

TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.