Is the Republican Party not wanting to pay taxes and put money on social programs hypocritical?

[LightSun]

This troubles me. I know democrats, indeed all people must have blind spots. I am not purposely attacking conservatives. I can only point out inconsistencies.

1. Jesus said, “Give unto Caesar what is his.”

2. Jesus said “the kingdom of heaven is within.”

Yet I see blatant hypocrisy in that the world worship, “Fame, Power, Wealth, sex, beauty, and violence.”

3. Jesus said, “It is harder for a camel go through the eyes of a needle, rather than a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven.”

4. Jesus said to “feed and succor the poor”. Coming from Jesus, this is a commander.”

5. Jesus said, “What you have done to the least, you have given unto me.”

6. Jesus said why worry of earthly concerns. Does not the lord provide for the birds and animals?” Put our trust in him, and worry not.

Taking all these verses together we should as a moral responsibility to be willing to pay taxes in order to help our fellow man.

In the time of the Robber Barons of, Carnegie, J.p. Morgan, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller and Ford the tax on the rich was at 90%.

Yet these titans of industry I’ve mentioned were still exorbitantly rich and billionaires in wealth in todays money.

Anything other is hypocrisy. Republicans are fighting to be taxed a mere 2% higher. This is blatant, sheer hypocrisy. We worship, “Fame, Power, Wealth, sex, beauty, and violence.”

7. And on the last day Jesus will say unto those not helping our fellow brothers and sisters that he never knew us.

Republicans don’t want abortion. They fight for an unborn fetus. What to me is as sheer horror.is mankind’s slaughtering of feeling and alert animals for our consumption.

Republicans have a very dim few of the consequence of forcing women to have babies they don’t want.

According to research 2/3 of children growing up in dysfunctional homes for the rest of their lives have problems in one or more areas.

1. Mental Illness
2.Substance Abuse
3. Crime
4. Problems with jobs
5. Problems with relationships

8. Jesus said’ “Love thy neighbor and thy God.” Yet generally speaking Republicans will not stand up to the plate and spend money on social programs.

Republicans force these unwanted children that will statistically be raised in homes lacking love and nurture.

Generally republicans don’t want to pay for social services. They turn their back on the children they wish to be born into this world.

I think it cruel to bring children into the world that will then have problems but not the funds to help these individuals who had the misfortune to have bad parenting. It is cruel, immoral, unethical, and lacks humanity.

I am not putting down Republicans. I just wish to stress the importance that they learn and educate themselves. This is of the consequences of their pro life stance.” LightSun

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

We've been throwing billions in tax payer fund towards education with no result.

We've been throwing billions in taxes to fight the war on poverty with no result.

Show me a social program where the money was spent intelligently and solved the problem it purported to and you might find people a little less hesitant to throw money at.

The money doesn't achieve anything if the program doesn't work.

The money shouldn't ever be a measure of how good you get to feel about your self because you "did something".

Doing something always means more money, it almost never means improved results.

So no I find no contradiction between my faith and reluctance to fund staffing positions at non profits as opposed to solving problems.

 

[The Cat]

If they want us to really believe they are "pro life" they need to start respecting life outside the womb. Otherwise I'm reminded of some things I've read in this book...

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

But then I get the feeling a lot of republicans havent read and believed that book much themselves...
​

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

If they want us to really believe they are "pro life" they need to start respecting life outside the womb. Otherwise I'm reminded of some things I've read in this book...

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

But then I get the feeling a lot of republicans havent read and believed that book much themselves...
​

TLDR

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

This is the old meme of "I don't believe in Christianity, but you do, maybe if I clumsily try to annex it's arguments, I can make a point I don't believe in because a book about a spaghetti monster in the sky means nothing, but you might."

You and the horse you rode in on can Fuck off, unless you have an argument to make that you didn't crib from someone still dumber than me.

 

[The Cat]

This is the old meme of assuming as hostile attitude because you feel called out. Bold of you to assume what I do or do not believe in Christianity just because there's parts in the bible that you seem not to agree with. Growing up in the faith there's certainly been parts of the bible that, some have tried to wield as a sword against "people like me", and I've certainly heard my share of abomination in relation to how some in the church refer to me, and I am expected to find a way to live with it or repent and get in line with it. No one is suggesting that you do any such thing, until you blunder in and decide to pick up an offense you claim doesn't belong to you. Your potential conviction when you read the Bible, is between you and the living God.

And I didn't ride in on a horse, figuratively speaking I was just some thief hanging on a lesser cross asking to be remembered. To be perfectly honest, I don't really think about arguing with you, I've never really observed you to argue in good faith, nor change your mind, you seem to just want to fight, and by you getting triggered by my post, which from my perspective seems to say more about your own sense of feeling called out by the bible? I mean, I'm sorry your struggling with that kind of spiritual conviction, from personal experience it's not fun, but I hope ultimately you can come to some sort of sense of peace. I once found myself(again metaphorically speaking) on my own road to Damascus it can be really terrifying to fall into the hand of the living God, but he is also a merciful and loving, and forgiving God. All we have to do is seek him first yes? Love God with all your heart and soul, and love our neighbors as ourselves? Man some times it would be so much easier to do that if only we could love ourselves, the way we love those we actually love.

i guess tl;dr I'm sorry you feel called out by the bible, but your assumption that I don't believe it just because what's actually there convicts your guilty conscience, speaks of either cognitive dissonance, or just another attempt to find something to fight about and justify a spiteful reaction. Sad. I was rather hoping the vulnerability you showed elsewhere was a sign of that maybe there really was more to you than that. I'm sure past your pain and whatever internal inadequacy you wrestle with you are. But then a lot of that is hoping on my behalf as much as yours. It's lonely in the hell of heartbreak, and it really is one of those, I'd not even wish it on my greatest enemy...and here we're supposed to be wayward siblings in Christ... but then...we live in interesting times and all houses are divided. So this was never intended to be a fight for you to pick up...and you're free to put it back down...I'll forgive you the misunderstanding...happens to the best of us sometimes.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

This is the old meme of assuming as hostile attitude because you feel called out. Bold of you to assume what I do or do not believe in Christianity just because there's parts in the bible that you seem not to agree with. Growing up in the faith there's certainly been parts of the bible that, some have tried to wield as a sword against "people like me", and I've certainly heard my share of abomination in relation to how some in the church refer to me, and I am expected to find a way to live with it or repent and get in line with it. No one is suggesting that you do any such thing, until you blunder in and decide to pick up an offense you claim doesn't belong to you. Your potential conviction when you read the Bible, is between you and the living God.

And I didn't ride in on a horse, figuratively speaking I was just some thief hanging on a lesser cross asking to be remembered. To be perfectly honest, I don't really think about arguing with you, I've never really observed you to argue in good faith, nor change your mind, you seem to just want to fight, and by you getting triggered by my post, which from my perspective seems to say more about your own sense of feeling called out by the bible? I mean, I'm sorry your struggling with that kind of spiritual conviction, from personal experience it's not fun, but I hope ultimately you can come to some sort of sense of peace. I once found myself(again metaphorically speaking) on my own road to Damascus it can be really terrifying to fall into the hand of the living God, but he is also a merciful and loving, and forgiving God. All we have to do is seek him first yes? Love God with all your heart and soul, and love our neighbors as ourselves? Man some times it would be so much easier to do that if only we could love ourselves, the way we love those we actually love.

i guess tl;dr I'm sorry you feel called out by the bible, but your assumption that I don't believe it just because what's actually there convicts your guilty conscience, speaks of either cognitive dissonance, or just another attempt to find something to fight about and justify a spiteful reaction. Sad. I was rather hoping the vulnerability you showed elsewhere was a sign of that maybe there really was more to you than that. I'm sure past your pain and whatever internal inadequacy you wrestle with you are. But then a lot of that is hoping on my behalf as much as yours. It's lonely in the hell of heartbreak, and it really is one of those, I'd not even wish it on my greatest enemy...and here we're supposed to be wayward siblings in Christ... but then...we live in interesting times and all houses are divided. So this was never intended to be a fight for you to pick up...and you're free to put it back down...I'll forgive you the misunderstanding...happens to the best of us sometimes.

Is Christ Lord?

 

[The Cat]

Is Christ Lord?

Ah a test a test "Test all things" as they say nodding as good as winking when planks and eyes speck. I remember this test...
Yes.
The question of those who speak the name of the Christ the Lord and how and whom and what can abide such. The Christ The King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Name above all names, The Alpha and the Omega. Often Imitated and seldom duplicated. The Messiah, Son of the Most High God, the promised one, Emmanuel, the heir apparent, The Good Shepherd...The Lamb of God who sits at the right hand of the Great I am. In who's book there are names.

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Words that are spoken by Christ the Lord so seldom even spoken let alone practiced by many who would bandy about bigotry in his name. Often the question raises itself when I hear the hate preachers try to weild the sword of the spirit against the least of these, and I hear the words of scripture mark them. The blood crieth unto heaven. And by certain signs, tokens, a word, so that one may know another in the darkness as well as in the light.

Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Ah a test a test "Test all things" as they say nodding as good as winking when planks and eyes speck. I remember this test...
Yes.
The question of those who speak the name of the Christ the Lord and how and whom and what can abide such. The Christ The King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Name above all names, The Alpha and the Omega. Often Imitated and seldom duplicated. The Messiah, Son of the Most High God, the promised one, Emmanuel, the heir apparent, The Good Shepherd...The Lamb of God who sits at the right hand of the Great I am. In who's book there are names.

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Words that are spoken by Christ the Lord so seldom even spoken let alone practiced by many who would bandy about bigotry in his name. Often the question raises itself when I hear the hate preachers try to weild the sword of the spirit against the least of these, and I hear the words of scripture mark them. The blood crieth unto heaven. And by certain signs, tokens, a word, so that one may know another in the darkness as well as in the light.

Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?

Just a guy arguing with a pharisee.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Is showing you care more important that "doing" good? Shall the money you spend on a program, and the gov't you grow be the measure of goodness?

Our age has corrupted goodness. When the first PR agent realized in the early 1900's that to be seen doing good is more useful for advancement than doing good.

We have all these hallmarks of what makes a good person, caring, indulging those who make deleterious life choices so they can make them again just this time on the gov't dole.

Religion is a lot of things but a magic wand to give give give it is not.

It requires having a strong hand, and punishment occasionally so that you actually remedy social ills, not grow them.

So no I don't see a healthy society created. I see a mess that requires clean up.

The fruits of liberalism are rotten.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Hence my initial argument. If you tell me this is what doing good is, and then the results aren't good........

 

[The Cat]

Only an idiot argues with a fool. So I'm happy to let you lead with whichever role you like while we dance, you don't really speak like you're interested in any sort of real connection or discussion, so whatever you get out of this, in this venue, you have my sympathies, though I rather suspect despite having it, our pity is the last thing you want... but given that it seems the only thing you want is the one thing you can't have, well more's the pity. Time can, if you let it heal all wounds. But you won't find any healing as long as you keep up...whatever all this has been for...if this is your idea of victorious field for glorious battle...then clearly more than the Bible hasnt gone your way today. I hope you can find the therapy you need. You'll have more fun. Or at the very least, be less lonely as often as you can afford a session. Good luck with your spiritual crisis. We're all rooting for you.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

Only an idiot argues with a fool. So I'm happy to let you lead with whichever role you like while we dance, you don't really speak like you're interested in any sort of real connection or discussion, so whatever you get out of this, in this venue, you have my sympathies, though I rather suspect despite having it, our pity is the last thing you want... but given that it seems the only thing you want is the one thing you can't have, well more's the pity. Time can, if you let it heal all wounds. But you won't find any healing as long as you keep up...whatever all this has been for...if this is your idea of victorious field for glorious battle...then clearly more than the Bible hasnt gone your way today. I hope you can find the therapy you need. You'll have more fun. Or at the very least, be less lonely as often as you can afford a session. Good luck with your spiritual crisis. We're all rooting for you.

I'm rooting for you to address the points I make, but then I've been waiting for that forever.

Guess I can keep rooting.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

And for future reference brevity is the soul of wit.

 

[Kephalos]

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery." Charles Dickens, David Copperfield.

I think the accusation that Republicans want to reduce taxes without cutting spending, pejoratively called "don't tax and spend" (as opposed to "tax and spend"), is to some extent unfair. It is unfair because it does not sufficiently take into account, on the one hand, the institutional (constitutional) context where fiscal policy (taxation, public spending, and public debt policy) taxes place, and on the other, it does not take into account the political situation of the United States, viz. the fact that federal elections are usually won and lost by extremely narrow margins, which in turn causes the Democratic and Republican parties repeatedly to take turns at having a majority and for all sorts of areas of policy to suffer what are called "swings" (like a pendulum).

The superficial partisan analysis also fails to take into account a crucial fact about democratic politics in general, namely that voters as a whole have inconsistent preferences about public policy, they want things that are incompatible with each other from an economic point of view. In other words, tax reductions are popular, but increasing spending on all sorts of things is also popular. Combined with the constitutional constraints and the political fact of policy swings is how one gets the policy of "don't tax and spend". It is the outcome of the dynamic of American politics.

The way American politics has been working for quite some time now (many decades in fact) with respect to fiscal issues is that, when it is the Republicans' "turn" at having a majority, one can plainly see that they want to and intend to reduce taxes and also do some significant spending reduction, and that at the federal level at any rate they are successful in reducing taxes (which is popular) and unsuccessful at cutting spending. This is because cutting government programs is unpopular -- at least with the constituencies who benefit from any given spending program which include big government contractors and their representatives and all sorts of activists with a pet cause among others -- majorities are narrow, and also because the Democrats are actually successful and blocking spending reductions (constitutional constraints).

When it's the Democrats' "turn", the mirror image of what I just described happens. Democratic politicians want to increase both spending and taxation, are incredibly successful at increasing spending, and much less successful at getting some or other tax increase through. Again, this is because raising taxes is not very popular, because elections are close, majorities narrow, and because the Republicans are actually successful at opposing some of the spending increases (constitutional constraints, again), with the help of some of the more fiscally responsible Democrats although TBH even they have a habit of "going over to the dark side" after they've extracted some concessions).

This dynamic distorts politics in other ways. For example, notice how when the Democrats (Republicans) are the Opposition, they cannot stop talking about fiscal responsibility (Democrats and Republicans each have their own way of talking about fiscal responsibility which is not quite the same), but they seem to forget about all of that when they have a majority (especially when it is a majority in Congress combined with the Presidency), only to suddenly remember it all all again as soon as they lose their majority. And it's not only politicians that do this. Pundits like ex-economist Paul Krugman are also do this all the time. Other, much more worrying aspects of this is that this political equilibrium is that it encourages the use of inflationary finance and enables the explosion in the use of Executive Orders by presidents (with the full support of their party and the full opposition of the other party).

"Bernard, I have served eleven governments in the past thirty years. If I had believed in all their policies, I would have been passionately committed to keeping out of the Common Market, and passionately committed to going into it. I would have been utterly convinced of the rightness of nationalising steel. And of denationalising it. And renationalising it. On capital punishment, I'd have been a fervent retentionist and an ardent abolitionist. I would've been a Keynesian and a Friedmanite, a grammar school preserver and destroyer, a nationalisation freak and a privatisation maniac; but above all, I would have been a stark, staring, raving schizophrenic." Sir Humphrey Appleby, GCB, KBE, MVO, MA (Oxon).

 

[Lexicon]

We have all these hallmarks of what makes a good person, caring, indulging those who make deleterious life choices so they can make them again just this time on the gov't dole.

For the sake of clarity - who exactly are you referring to in this statement? It sounds like you're saying the majority people 'on the gov't dole' must've ended up there due to 'deleterious life choices.' Is that what you're conveying, here?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

For the sake of clarity - who exactly are you referring to in this statement? It sounds like you're saying the majority people 'on the gov't dole' must've ended up there due to 'deleterious life choices.' Is that what you're conveying, here?

If I was conveying that I think I would have said that.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

If I thought there was never a legit use of funds on social spending I would have said that too.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

At what point does the desire to protect people, yield to the reality that frequently that protection entails a lowered necessity to look after oneself.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

At what point does the inability to constrain spending crash the global economy? At what point does the service on our national debt eat every other priority, bc politicians were too scared to tell the people the truth.

That the party can't go on forever. This goes for social sec, and welfare, ed spending, and green initiatives.

We've sold ourselves this lie that gov't exists to right every wrong, limit any inconvenience or pain.

That every social problem CAN be solved by govt if we just believe in it hard enough.

Maybe we need to develop culture to handle some of this and give govt and our taxes a break.