Politics The Marginalization of Ron Paul (or How Media Plays Favorites)

So environmental regulations are a luxury we can do without? Or a woman's right to chose. Or a basic social safety net for American families that might need short term help as a result of no fault of their own.

Ask what you can do for your country? How about asking those who have the most to share some of the sacrifice rather than putting the burden on the backs of the working poor and middle class.

 

I want to answer this post but I have to go into town for a bit. I will respond though.

 

Discomfort like having to pay the same level of taxes that applied before the cuts (back when the economy was in better shape)? That kind of thing?

 

JFK's quote as applied to modern conservative economic ideas:
If you are rich: ask what your country can do for you. Answer: whatever you want, there, Mr. Job *wink* *wink* Creator.
If you are not rich: ask what you can do for your country. Answer: shut the fuck up and take it like a man, you ungrateful leech.

The problem isn't a spending problem, it's a priority problem. Greatness requires considerable investments of time and money.

 

I don't know about you, Eddie, but my belt's been so tight the last 10 years I can't feel my legs. Everyone I know is in the same boat. Us average folk are already roughing it. Loss of jobs, loss of pensions, loss of healthcare benefits, loss of homes, loss of savings, loss of a government to represent us. If you think we're all indulging the way we used to, you're obviously one isolated fellow.

How about we talk about the top 5% who haven't been roughing it at all? Those who have, in fact, been able capitalize on the very mess they've created.

Oh wait, they've earned the right to not have to, haven't they? Hardship immunity.

 

Wow, you really have a problem with placing blame on yourself and the rest of the 99% who plunged themselves into debt. No one held a gun to your head when you used those credit cards, signed that mortgage or agreed to those car and college loans. Take some responsibility for yourself and your decisions. You want the 1% to take responsibility for their actions, start with your own life.

Yeah, doctors don't over-prescribe in the U.S. I'm just imagining that.

Not a luxury, just an indication of where American's priorities rest.
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Roughing it? Eating rice and potatoes for 3 meals day? Sleeping 2 or 3 families to a home? Walking or hitchhiking to work so you can sling a pick for just enough to afford your rice and potatoes? Sending your kids to school in old, tattered clothes? Digging in a dumpster when the food runs out? Hiking down to the river to fetch the drinking water? Huddling together at night because there's no heat?

 

We've done that. We're waiting..................

Yes they do, in an effort to pass along a quick and relatively cheaper fix in an overburdened and expensive healthcare system. Big Pharma is thrilled.

Something tells me you are not at all competent to gauge such a thing.

 

Passing that buck again. Don't take responsibility for what you put into your body. Blame the MAN.

 

Is this the way you live?

Sounds lovely - very Norman Rockwell.

Let's all go back to the good old days, shall we?

Grandpa! Get yer shotgun. I see a squirrel yonder! Hot dang, we're gonna eat tonight!

 

Well, ya know, when you say "roughing it" I have to kind of scoff, because I'm not sure you've ever really roughed it, I don't think there's a lot of Americans that have.

 

wait wait wait

The Government is the father and the country is the mother and kids? and EDDIE (of all people) wants the father (government) making all the decisions while the family (citizens) shut up and do what they say?

You're mixing your metaphors, Eddie.

And when do the rich folks have to tighten their belts, Eddie? What is your insistence that the people with nothing somehow give up more (and are happy about it) so the 1% can continue to get all the preferential treatment?

 

So you're saying we shouldn't trust doctors. We should self-diagnosis and self-treat instead. That does work in some cases and would probably work in more but I wouldn't recommend it for everyone. Especially those with serious illnesses.
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My mother raised 5 kids. I was the oldest. When I was 13 my mother finally left my abusive alcoholic father and moved us from our own home in a nice community - to a tiny 2 bedroom apartment in a housing projects.

I wore the same pair of white shoes to school everyday with a large hole in each sole. I had two outfits. We never had enough food to eat - ever.

And that's only the tip of the iceberg. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

Trouble is Eddie, most of the time you have no fucking idea.

I await your one-upsmanship.

 

Sounds like you were living in luxury. I mean, just ONE family of 6 in a 2 bedroom apartment? You should have had THREE or FOUR families in there (and LIKED it). I mean, if you watched a TV program every once and a while then you have NO room to complain.

This is what Eddie actually believes.

 

Eddie knows all about sacrifice. He's been working the same job (that he got from his parents) his whole life and had to play sports to earn his way through college. He's clearly in a position to accurately judge 99% of the population based on characteristics he imagines them to have.

 

He can see everything going on down in the mud from his castle in the sky.

On a lighter note, it would appear that Ron Paul is a hit in Obama's home state.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...oll-goes-to-ron-paul-20111105,0,3298734.story

 

If you look at Ron Paul's plan that he put out, the level of military funding still is higher than the Clinton Presidency... but still more reasonable than Obama

Paul Projection
2013: 501 billion
2014: 508 billion
2015: 516 billion
2016: 523 billion

Obama Past (estimates for '11&'12)
2010: 667 billion
2011: 739 billion
2012: 701 billion

Obama Projection (I think these are right, I had a hard time finding them - http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/tables.pdf)
2013: 755 billion
2014: 793 billion
2015: 826 billion
2016: 846 billion

Clinton
1995: 321 billion
1996: 307 billion
1997: 305 billion
1998: 296 billion
1999: 298 billion

China
2009: 114-140 billion (high estimate)

UK
2010: 57 billion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

But, the media is giving him some time on Fox News Sunday tomorrow, so I wonder what they will talk about?

(If you want to see how cuts to certain programs will really affect your paycheck at the end of the year, go to this website.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/ta...ce=sidebar&utm_medium=image&utm_campaign=tout )

 

I grew up poor, on a ranch where everyone had to work every day. Building fence, bucking hay, cleaning stalls, when I got older it was tending to the cattle, driving and old tractor in 10 below weather at 7am to feed the herd. There were no days off. Sometimes after a sale we had some extra money, most of it went into college funds for the kids.

But usually, money was very tight. Our meals were basic, our clothes were hand-me-downs. I did all this because I love my family and yes, it was a sacrifice, my dad needed my help, he couldn't run that ranch by himself and he couldn't afford to hire ranch hands. Big money started to move into our area and buy up property for trophy homes. We live in a very beautiful valley and the rich like to build homes in beautiful places.

My dad sold a chunk of the ranch and retired. I kept the rest of the property and I still work it. So yeah, Bodkin, I guess I did get my job from my parents but I don't see how that's relevant. I could have taken my college degree and become a teacher, but I chose to stay on the ranch. And also, I didn't have to rely on my scholarship as my parents set up a college fund. But the scholarship meant that there was extra cash to be reinvested into the ranch, which is what I chose to do with it.
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I never said anything about the citizens shutting up and doing what the government says. I said we need to tighten our belts. And by saying that the government was the Father, I simply meant that the government has a distinct role, with leaders we elect to do certain things like keep the economy healthy and keep our Constitutional freedoms intact.
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My comment about people being over-medicated was in regards to my point that Americans have developed a detrimental, extreme aversion to any sort of pain and suffering. So much so that they can't even deal with the normal ups and downs of life without taking some sort of medication to keep them from feeling too bad. And when Americans are subject to suffering they play the victim, woe is me, life is so hard...it's not fair. And it's turned us into a bunch of softies, like what happened to the humans on Wall-E.

 

How do you know that the folks you criticize as entitled don't have stories similar to yours, Eddie? Why does it make sense to assume the things you do about these folks?