Dave Loc: Upstate New York

AnnMarie Loc: Madison, Wi

Wasn't r****t.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

So does that mean everything is acceptable including morals?

Dave Loc: Upstate New York

Glad you were able to pick that up - despite her self identity as a tea partier -

jasfourth401

I can't find anything r****t in this opinion piece. It's perfectly valid from the writer's point of view. But it only tells part of the story and misses the real reasons why this country is going bankrupt. The author writes:

" But the world according to the big government, morally relative left is much different. In this view, yes, nobody is forcing me to agree that personal responsibility and traditional values don’t matter. But in their view it’s also only fair that I pick up the massive costs of their failures.

Take, for instance, poverty."

Yes. The points the writer makes are quite accurate. Poverty is a disaster. Poverty costs billions. But poverty is not a GOP or democratic issue. It's an issue of poverty.

To use the writer's logic and statement, you can also make the case that the so called "left" has a point as well. "But in their view it's also only fair that I pick up the massive costs of their failures." And these failures are on the record, undeniable and can be dated. They all occurred in the decade of 2000. You can certainly argue about who is responsible. But that's not my aim. My aim is to document the four federal budget items that have bankrupted us. And these are the unfunded middle east wars, the unfunded tax reform and relief act, the unfunded medicare Part D and the ongoing unfunded carry forward interest. These four items...just these four...added 10 trillion to the national debt. These make the spending on helping impoverished people look like peanuts.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Big government is the problem, war on poverty just alone is around 15 trillion and has been fought since the 60's.

Dave Loc: Upstate New York

I've seen charges from the left that tea partiers are r****t. She self identifies as a tea partier. That is the basis of bringing race into the conversation.

As to the article - she doesn't suggest that these moral failings are the entire reason for our deficits, so your argument against hers is nothing more than a strawman. Meanwhile, he point you ignore is that poverty is often a function of life choices - and these choices result in the need for others who make better choices picking up the cost of the poor choices - and she noted that 40% of all births are paid for by Medicaid. If that point doesn't concern you, you are choosing to ignore a very large, and growing, problem.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

If in fact they are so r****t when why are more and more b****s joining?

Dave Loc: Upstate New York

The simple fact is that they are not, nor have they ever been, r****ts. The charge is one leveled by l*****t with the confidence that their supporters would mindlessly accept that allegation and thereby render any real discussion of real issues moot. It seems to have worked with the many mindless supporters of the left.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

The b****s I talk to (mostly middle class) say if anyone is r****t it's democrats with all their programs. Those programs have trapped millions and then coupled with few jobs has just compounded the problem.

Dave Loc: Upstate New York

Agree - the entire approach the Dems use regarding b****s assumes that they are less capable to do many things - even as simple as procure ID's - than others. And, as you state, many of those programs make that assumption self fulfilled.

rumitoid

I do not see it as r****t; I see it as simply irresponsible. Blanket statements about an entire group is called prejudice, the group here being the "moral relative" liberal. The suggestion that the group cares nothing for traditional values, and if fact, has no real values being morally relativistic and advancing a lifestyle of dependency rather than being responsible and productive is slanderous.

The massive costs of what failures? Do you know how much goes to entitlement programs, that have been steadily improved upon over the decades? Do a google search of how many people lost their jobs, and those that lost their homes, and were forced onto assistance because of failed Busch economic policies and Wall Street greed: 2.6 million in 2009. Those people did make poor life choices, the government did. In just the first month of 2010, more than half a million more jobs were lost. Who picked up the tab for those massive costs?

Dave Loc: Upstate New York

First, the article talks specifically about people who make bad choices that render them almost certainly to live in poverty - ignoring that point is not responding to it.

As to the failed Bush economic policies, that is nothing more than a mindless meme - what specific policies of Bush's do you suggest created the problem.

As to Wall Street greed, another mindless meme - Wall Street greed is a constant - it existed before Bush and has remained a constant after Bush.

jasfourth401

We agree. Government must shrink. Every program must be cut.

AnnMarie Loc: Madison, Wi

No...it means what it says-the piece was not r****t. I was very curious as to why you thought it WAS r****t.