The GOP Convention MegaMittensThread!

[Valmy]

Valmy, yes, it's about Texas state government that's supported, funded, and steamrolled by the GOP. If Romney is elected, expect to see this happening across the nation.

It would go against their own political ideas for them to do this.  Which means they probably will.

[derspiess]

Sounds like Clint Eastwood will indeed be the surprise speaker tonight.

[Razgovory]

You know, I admire Derspeiss's enthusiasm on this.

[Neil]

Reducing government spending of money we don't have?  The monsters!!

Courageously cutting all the programs they oppose anyway!  What courageous deficit warriors they are

Isn't that the best place to start cutting?  Would you expect a government to cut programs that they feel are a good use of tax dollars?

[crazy canuck]

Reducing government spending of money we don't have?  The monsters!!

Courageously cutting all the programs they oppose anyway!  What courageous deficit warriors they are

Isn't that the best place to start cutting?  Would you expect a government to cut programs that they feel are a good use of tax dollars?

Yes, that would make sense, if they were not also increasing spending on other things like the military.  The thing about budget cuts and balancing budgets is the process works best if everyone buys in because everyone shares the pain a bit.  But in the US it seems to be a winner take all proposition.

[Valmy]

Isn't that the best place to start cutting?  Would you expect a government to cut programs that they feel are a good use of tax dollars?

Hey if this is just the start I shall hail the day this first step was taken.  But they have been acting a certain way for decades so I need to see a bit more action.  And anyway it seems we are talking about state money here anyway and not Federal money.  Texas does have deficits from time to time, sometimes it is a big problem, but it is hardly something equivalent to the Federal problem.

[Razgovory]

Reducing government spending of money we don't have?  The monsters!!

Courageously cutting all the programs they oppose anyway!  What courageous deficit warriors they are

Isn't that the best place to start cutting?  Would you expect a government to cut programs that they feel are a good use of tax dollars?

It's all so the place to start (and stop) for a person who isn't actually interested in cutting deficit and only wants the use the issue as a means of getting rid of things he doesn't likes.

[derspiess]

Yes, that would make sense, if they were not also increasing spending on other things like the military.  The thing about budget cuts and balancing budgets is the process works best if everyone buys in because everyone shares the pain a bit.  But in the US it seems to be a winner take all proposition.

Quite agree.  There is at least a vocal minority in the GOP that does not consider military spending such a sacred cow.  Hopefully their numbers grow.

[derspiess]

You know, I admire Derspeiss's enthusiasm on this.

Thanks.

[sbr]

Fact check on Ryan's speech last night. 

http://news.yahoo.com/fact-check-ryan-takes-factual-shortcuts-speech-070905927.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan took some factual shortcuts during the Republican convention when he attacked President Barack Obama's policies on Medicare, the economic stimulus and the budget deficit. His running mate, Mitt Romney, was expected to speak later Thursday in the convention's culmination.
A closer look at some of Ryan's remarks Wednesday at the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla.:
___
RYAN: "And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly. ... So they just took it all away from Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama."

THE FACTS: Ryan's claim ignores the fact that Ryan himself incorporated the same cuts into budgets he steered through the House in the past two years as chairman of its Budget Committee, using the money for deficit reduction. And the cuts do not affect Medicare recipients directly, but rather reduce payments to hospitals, health insurance plans and other service providers.
In addition, Ryan's own plan to remake Medicare would squeeze the program's spending even more than the changes Obama made, shifting future retirees into a system in which they would get a fixed payment to shop for coverage among private insurance plans. Critics charge that would expose the elderly to more out-of-pocket costs.
___
RYAN: "The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare and cronyism at their worst. You, the working men and women of this country, were cut out of the deal."

THE FACTS: Ryan himself asked for stimulus funds shortly after Congress approved the $800 billion plan, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Ryan's pleas to federal agencies included letters to Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis seeking stimulus grant money for two Wisconsin energy conservation companies.
One of them, the nonprofit Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corp., received $20.3 million from the Energy Department to help homes and businesses improve energy efficiency, according to federal records. That company, he said in his letter, would build "sustainable demand for green jobs." Another eventual recipient, the Energy Center of Wisconsin, received about $365,000.
___
RYAN: Said Obama misled people in Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wis., by making them think a General Motors plant there threatened with closure could be saved. "A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: 'I believe that if our government is there to support you ... this plant will be here for another hundred years.' That's what he said in 2008. Well, as it turned out, that plant didn't last another year."

THE FACTS: The plant halted production in December 2008, weeks before Obama took office and well before he enacted a more robust auto industry bailout that rescued GM and Chrysler and allowed the majority of their plants — though not the Janesville facility — to stay in operation. Ryan himself voted for an auto bailout under President George W. Bush that was designed to help GM, but he was a vocal critic of the one pushed through by Obama that has been widely credited with revitalizing both GM and Chrysler.
___
RYAN: Obama "created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way and then did exactly nothing."

THE FACTS: It's true that Obama hasn't heeded his commission's recommendations, but Ryan's not the best one to complain. He was a member of the commission and voted against its final report.
___
Associated Press writers Tom Raum, Andrew Taylor, Henry C. Jackson and Bradley Klapper contributed to this report.
EDITOR'S NOTE _ An occasional look at claims made in political campaigns and how they adhere to the facts.

[Neil]

Yes, that would make sense, if they were not also increasing spending on other things like the military.  The thing about budget cuts and balancing budgets is the process works best if everyone buys in because everyone shares the pain a bit.  But in the US it seems to be a winner take all proposition.

And they won't be cutting that.  They spent all last night beating the 'heroes' drum.

A guy who would cut spending by folding the USAF back into the Army, that'd be my hero.

[MadImmortalMan]

Ryan's plan was a joke. It took 30 years to balance the budget and only added twenty years of life to Medicare.

[derspiess]

RYAN: Said Obama misled people in Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wis., by making them think a General Motors plant there threatened with closure could be saved. "A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: 'I believe that if our government is there to support you ... this plant will be here for another hundred years.' That's what he said in 2008. Well, as it turned out, that plant didn't last another year."

THE FACTS: The plant halted production in December 2008, weeks before Obama took office and well before he enacted a more robust auto industry bailout that rescued GM and Chrysler and allowed the majority of their plants — though not the Janesville facility — to stay in operation. Ryan himself voted for an auto bailout under President George W. Bush that was designed to help GM, but he was a vocal critic of the one pushed through by Obama that has been widely credited with revitalizing both GM and Chrysler.

Wrong.  The Janesville plant stayed in operation through most of 2009.  Even CNN grudgingly gives Ryan this one.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/30/politics/pol-fact-check-ryan-gm/index.html

[MadImmortalMan]

That Factcheck thing is pointing out Ryan's hypocracy, not refuting his assertions. Hey Factcheck--check facts, don't debate.

[Maximus]

Same way Mitt did, I would guess.

I'm not sure how likely it is to have the entire field of opposition commit seppuku in mass twice in a row. Could happen, I suppose.

Most of them aren't even Catholic