And the Republican War on Facts Continues

Discussion in 'Politics' started by joepistole, Dec 24, 2014.

  1. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Now that Republicans have control of both houses of Congress, it is time to politicize the straight shooting Congressional Budget Office. Republicans want to replace the Congressional Budget Office leadership with Republican partisans who will give them the budget numbers they want rather than the realistic budget numbers to which we have become accustom. If Republicans succeed, it will be another bad day for the nation.

    Even before Republicans have taken control of congress they have gutted Dodd-Frank and put "to big to fail" back on the table. Using fake numbers to support your political agenda over the health and wellbeing of the nation, well it is nothing less than traitorous. And people wonder why economic chaos reigns under Republican regimes. Well the answer really isn't that complicated. In the Republican realm politics trumps reality, evidence and reason time and time again. This is just the latest example of the Republican war on facts.

    Politics
    Republicans' Latest War on Facts

    62 Dec 23, 2014 12:59 PM EST
    By Jonathan Bernstein
    Dave Weigel at Bloomberg Politics got the scoop: Congressional Republicans have decided to oust the head of the Congressional Budget Office, economist Douglas Elmendorf, despite an impressive show of support for him from many conservative economists.
    Why? Because Elmendorf is a straight shooter.
    Democrats appointed him, yet various CBO estimates have caused no end of trouble for them. For example, the office refused to score Obamacare cost-cutting measures generously, forcing Democrats to find other offsets if they wanted to claim that the CBO endorsed projected budget-deficit reductions from the Affordable Care Act.
    Republicans don’t want a straight shooter. They want to rig the numbers in favor of tax cuts. So what are they signaling by axing Elmendorf?
    • Republican concerns about federal budget deficits are phony and have been ever since Ronald Reagan endorsed huge tax cuts without finding a way to pay for them. Republicans are the party of tax cuts. Democrats have been the party that values budget-balancing since the late 1980s.
    • Republicans don’t care about facts. Yes, that’s brutal, but deserved. Few theories have had more real-world testing than supply-siders' claims that tax cuts pay for themselves. The outcome is conclusive: They don't. Instead of accepting the results, Republicans choose to get rid of neutral expertise.
    • Republicans in Congress don’t care about Congress. The CBO exists so members of Congress can have reliable information, allowing them to compete on equal terms with the president, who has the Office of Management and Budget, the Treasury Department and other data sources. Destroy the CBO, and Congress will either have to rely on the president or on lobbyists or perhaps a Magic Eight Ball. (Is it time for huge tax cuts? “You may rely on it.”) While dumping Elmendorf alone doesn’t destroy CBO, it is a step in that direction. Who is going to work for an agency whose job is getting the results Congressional leaders demand? Serious analysts or partisan hacks?
    • Republicans remain more interested in talking points and symbolic gestures than in policies. It helps to have some neutral experts on board if you're serious about designing an alternative to Obamacare, for example, or to the current immigration system. Are we surprised that no such alternative legislation exists?
    I know it’s futile to point it out, but the people who should be the most upset about this are real conservatives. Republicans won a strong victory in November. They should be taking advantage of their majorities to formulate specific policies as well as engaging in tough oversight of executive branch departments and agencies. Instead, they appear more interested in harming the institutional capacity of Congress – just as they did in the 1990s, when the Gingrich Republicans eliminated the Office of Technology Assessment.
    Getting rid of the CBO or politicizing it won't produce conservative results. Unless, that is, “conservative” just means “tax cuts for the rich.”
    To contact the author on this story:
    Jonathan Bernstein at jbernstein62@bloomberg.net
    To contact the editor on this story:
    Katherine Roberts at kroberts29@bloomberg.net


    http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-12-23/republicans-latest-war-on-facts
     
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  3. Russ_Watters Not a Trump supporter... Valued Senior Member

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    I like the title: War of Facts means Republicans are using facts to wage the "war". I know it was a typo, but lol anyway.

    Hopefully, once the Republicans take over and "of facts" becomes a reality, the Keystone Pipeline will get approved and Obama's illegal re-writing of laws stopped.
     
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  5. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    A good example, Obama hasn't rewritten laws and he certainly hasn't done anything illegal. Unfortunately, Republican reengineering of inconvenient fact has become extensive and the norm rather than the exception. The war on the CBO leadership, making it a partisan organization rather than an objective source of fiscal information it has always been, is just the latest in a long series of actions Republicans have done to change inconvenient facts - in essence to lie. It is indeed distressing to see the Republican Party so reliant on misinformation.

    The unfortunate truth is you cannot run a nation on myths and misinformation. Just as Mr. Putin how well it has worked for him in Mother Russia.

    The Keystone Pipeline may or may not get approved. It's approval or rejection isn't really significant to the US.
     
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  7. OnlyMe Valued Senior Member

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    That is not really clear! While it will not create jobs in any significant sustainable way. How it affects world oil prices could be of benefit, and in this I am not referring to the price of gas in the US. Though keeping gas prices low, puts more spendable income into the hands of families that spend sometimes all of their income.

    You mentioned Putin and Russia which is having significant internal economic problems right now. The current price of oil contributing...

    As long as oil supplies stay close enough to or above world demand there will be economic pressure on a number of countries, not especially alined with US and even European interests. Anything that contributes to sustaining oil delivery to the market, at or near current levels, will in the long run be good for world economy.

    In the long run Canadian oil will get to the world market. As long as it can be piped safely and economically, at a lower cost than by rail, it will likely be an over all benefit.., globally.

    I don't know much about tar/oil sand and how it is piped, or about any safety protocols or provisions in the proposed pipeline. It has been my understanding that, that and environmental issues has been the subject of the debate.

    I also think it likely that in the longer run, demand for oil will drop off as many of its curent uses move toward alternate energies... Still that is the long long run as it seems today.
     
  8. pjdude1219 The biscuit has risen Valued Senior Member

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    Illegal re writing you mean like your boy dubya. another rightie showing exactly the point the op was doing. obama has illegally rewritten any laws. just because you don't like doesn't make him a criminal. try using some facts not that republican ever do. and the keystone pipe line requires approval in canada which in some parts is struggling.
     
  9. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    One of the most important facts that is missing in the national debate surrounding the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline is this — Keystone XL will not bring any more oil into the United State for decades to come. Canada doesn’t have nearly enough oil to fill existing pipelines going to the United States. However, existing Canadian oil pipelines all go to the Midwest, where the only buyer for their crude is the United States. Keystone XL would divert Canadian oil from refineries in the Midwest to the Gulf Coast where it can be refined and exported. Many of these refineries are in free trade zones where oil may be exported to international buyers without paying U.S. taxes. And that is exactly what Valero, one of the largest potential buyers of Keystone XL’s oil, has told its investors it will do. The idea that Keystone XL will improve U.S. oil supply is a documented scam being played on the American people by Big Oil and its friends in Washington DC.
    https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...rYCoAw&usg=AFQjCNE7TlkCRw8NqgG70tv2fSgq7h-_Vw
     
  10. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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