←
→

Open Thread: Romney Will Pay for Massive Tax Cuts, Reduce Deficit, by Firing Big Bird

Posted: October 4, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, just because, open thread, Surreality, U.S. Politics | Tags: , , |54 Comments

PBS funding represents 0.00014% of the budget!!

This meme needs to stick to Romney!  Bin Laden vs. Big Bird.

Mommy, why does Mr. Romney want to get rid of Big Bird?

Excuse me, Mr. Romney, but what did I ever do to you?

Will Big Bird be thrown ino the street homeless?

No, Mitt Romney will have him for dinner, of course.

 

 

54 Comments on “Open Thread: Romney Will Pay for Massive Tax Cuts, Reduce Deficit, by Firing Big Bird”

  1. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    October 4, 2012 at 9:47 am

    This was the debate’s most memorable moment. Someone please explain how that makes Romney a winner.

    • Pat Johnson's avatar Pat Johnson says:
      October 4, 2012 at 10:05 am

      Perception. It always comes down to perception.

    • roofingbird's avatar roofingbird says:
      October 4, 2012 at 12:23 pm

      It’s a direct appeal to the right wing base. They have been trying to slice and dice PBS for years. All the big media groups have been trying to take over that air space. Under Bush’s FEC they almost got away with it. You could say it was about money but you would be mostly wrong. Think of all the people we depend on at PBS for information and debate. Look what happened to Bill Moyers and David Brancaccio’s “NOW”. They got Moyers kicked off, though the show managed to keep going for a while and Brancaccio was a good replacement. I’m grateful that Moyers is back on.

      MSNBS has taken the title of the “NOW” and transformed it on pay TV with Alex Wagner. I haven’t seen it and it might be an interesting show, but this is an attempt to dent and direct public speech. Wagner may be good at her job but she is being used. Her show will be gone as soon as the public has sufficiently confused the two programs and maybe also conflated the show with the National Org for Women.

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

      If this seems farfetched, remember that Bain Capitol owns Clear Channel, who pays 50 mil a year to Limbaugh, who hates PBS. Control of the airwaves is HUGE. Already we don’t have public C-Span. The debates should be on PBS as well.

      If Obama was willing, it could be a real debate point. There would have to be some public education first, however. PBS is struggling right now because none of us have the money to donate. The Federal Government needs to help them and us.

      • ecocatwoman's avatar ecocatwoman says:
        October 4, 2012 at 2:52 pm

        Lots of nonprofits are hurting because the middle class has been decimated. It’s the middle class, not the aristoclass that gives to most small to medium nonprofits. I’ve heard many stories of food banks whose “customers” now once donated to the food bank.

  2. Pat Johnson's avatar Pat Johnson says:
    October 4, 2012 at 9:56 am

    “Snippet” of last night’s debates:

    LEHRER: Gov. Romney, please comment on the last 4 years of the Obama Administration. And take all the time you need.

    ROMNEY: Thanks, Jim. “Lie, lie, lie, blah, blah, blah, job creator, vouchers, sympathy, MA”.

    LEHRER: Mr. President, you have three seconds to respond. Watch your time.

    OBAMA: Thanks, Jim. “I ……..”

    LEHRER: Sorry, time’s up. Now, as you were saying Governor…

    ROMNEY: “Lie, lie, lie, blah, blah, blah, blah, job creator, vouchers, sympathy, MA”

    LEHRER: Sorry, time’s ….. Oh, okay, please finish.

    LEHRER: Mr. President, how do you respond?

    OBAMA: I agree.

    Jesus, can it get any worse than this?

    • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
      October 4, 2012 at 10:43 am

      Except that Obama actually spoke for four more minutes than Romney did. I refuse to be discouraged. There is very little evidence that debates swing elections. Obama is leading in every swing state, and he doesn’t even need them all. If he wins Ohio, Romney will lose.

    • Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)'s avatar Mona (aka Wonk the Vote) says:
      October 4, 2012 at 11:12 am

      Brilliant snark-script!

  3. Pat Johnson's avatar Pat Johnson says:
    October 4, 2012 at 10:04 am

    I need to go run the vacuum or something because I am this close to losing it.

    It looks like I just prepared a skit for “Saturday Night Live” all on my own.

    Better to wait for the announcement that Bobby V has been sent packing and will carry the load for the 2012 season where the Red Sox managed to secure the basement position while the players “outperformed” themselves in managing to finish last.

    At least we have the option of “looking forward to next year” when it comes to baseball.

  4. Ron4Hills's avatar Ron4Hills says:
    October 4, 2012 at 10:12 am

    it makes sense Mitt Romney is Guy Smiley.

  5. ecocatwoman's avatar ecocatwoman says:
    October 4, 2012 at 10:17 am

    I’m going to assume that I’m way out in left field on this, but here goes anyway. Looking at the debates in recent history, how much weight have they had in the outcome of the election? Doesn’t seem like much to me. What percentage of the electorate are influenced by the debates? What percentage of undecideds actually watch the debate or do they simply read the after party spin barf fest? I just don’t think the final presidential debates move the bar very much.

    One final thought: comparing this debate to the last debates we watched – the Repug Clown Fest – this certainly wasn’t entertainment. As repulsive as the Repug field was, it was a helluva rollercoaster ride, with nastiness, stupidity, over the top arrogance, $10,000 bets, you name it free for all. Any debate following these couldn’t help but disappoint. Just saying, I feel like I was expecting a few fireworks and there were none. My expectations were set too high.

    • RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
      October 4, 2012 at 10:27 am

      Personally, I don’t think this debate will matter much at all in the election. That wouldn’t have changed if Obama had stomped him either. If debates mattered, we would have had President Kerry.

      One thing the debate has shown though is that Democrats panic at every opportunity. We need to put out the fire in our hair and keep on trudging til November.

      • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
        October 4, 2012 at 10:44 am

        I don’t think the debate matters either. If I’m wrong, we’ll know in a few days and not before.

      • janicen's avatar janicen says:
        October 4, 2012 at 10:45 am

        I don’t think so either, RalphB. We will win the election and hopefully, Obama will learn something from getting his ass handed to him.

      • Fannie's avatar Fannie says:
        October 4, 2012 at 12:23 pm

        I know what you mean, do we have to keep doing the same number over and over, and over.
        I just wonder if Obama is giving the same talk today, over and over.

    • Pat Johnson's avatar Pat Johnson says:
      October 4, 2012 at 10:30 am

      But there is another angle to be considered:

      Mitt was after those idiot undecideds who have no idea about the differences in these agendas. He may very well have succeeded in that he looked “presidential enough” because they haven’t been following the monumental flip flops he performs on a weekly basis.

      It is the libs that concern me. Most of us here would rather lose a leg than not vote. We keep up current events and have a pretty good grasp on the issues.

      But there is a segment of the lib population who need encouragement come November to make the effort to get out there and vote. 2012 looks a lot different than 2008.

      But if the guy you are supporting essentially just stands there and nods, refuses to lift his eyes or his voice in opposition to the bullshit being slung his way, some may take the attitude of “why bother?” These people need to feel inspired and secure in the knowledge that someone – let’s say the Standard Bearer here – actually gives a damn enough to fight back.

      It is those people who worry me the most. That “indifference” could be the loss to a party that will create more harm in the long run. This adds greatly to my indigestion and pessimism because Obama failed to show up for his own debate.

      • ecocatwoman's avatar ecocatwoman says:
        October 4, 2012 at 10:43 am

        But there is a segment of the lib population who need encouragement come November to make the effort to get out there and vote. 2012 looks a lot different than 2008.

        I don’t understand this. Maybe I’m dense, but the liberals that I’ve known – those that aren’t afraid to proclaim their liberal POVs – vote/voted. If I or they depended upon encouragement/inspiration none of us would have voted since George McGovern. I know I’ve been voting for the least worst pretty much my entire life. But my exposure to a community of liberals is relatively limited. I live in Florida, after all.

      • RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
        October 4, 2012 at 10:48 am

        If someone doesn’t vote for Obama because of this debate, they weren’t much in the first place. I haven’t come across many indifferent liberal supporters myself but I’m not exactly surrounded by them either.

      • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
        October 4, 2012 at 10:50 am

        I’m surrounded by liberals, and I guarantee this debate will have zero effect on them. Let’s see if Romney’s numbers come up in MA, then I’ll buy into the panic.

    • janicen's avatar janicen says:
      October 4, 2012 at 10:43 am

      Someone on my FB page mentioned that Kerry beat Bush in their first debate in ’04. How did that turn out?

      • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
        October 4, 2012 at 10:45 am

        Kerry beat Bush in every one of their debates–he crushed Bush. Bush was ghastly in the debates in 2000 also.

  6. Beata's avatar Beata says:
    October 4, 2012 at 10:21 am

    There’s no room for government takers like Big Bird in Mitt Romney’s America. Good riddance to his yellow-feathered victim act.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt2Ne7kkH7s

  7. RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
    October 4, 2012 at 10:45 am

    Bernard Finel at balloon-juice says what I’ve been thinking since last night.

    Depending on the Kindness of Strangers

    But here is the problem. For the life of me, I don’t know how to respond to a performance like Romney’s. At the core, the only thing you can do is accuse of Romney of acting in bad faith, of being a dirty liar. And then he’ll give that smug smile and respond, “the President knows his record of failure, so he is engaged in personal attacks.”

    THAT is what happened last night. Romney calculated that he could brazenly lie and that Obama would be unwilling to call him on it because doing so would make Obama look defensive and desperate. There is a certain lunatic genius to this approach.

    • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
      October 4, 2012 at 10:46 am

      Exactly. If I were Obama, I would have been in shock and dissociating. Of course he needs to be better prepared next time to simply call Romney a liar, and prove it.

      • RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
        October 4, 2012 at 10:54 am

        I was frankly amazed at Romney’s performance. His whole campaign has been based on lies and he did himself even better last night. It was freaky and I believe now that he really is a sociopath.

      • ecocatwoman's avatar ecocatwoman says:
        October 4, 2012 at 11:13 am

        Like I said on the previous thread, how does one prepare for a shape shifter? I think Obama, at some point, needs to say to MIttens’ face – Which Romney am I debating now? Is it the MA Gov, is it the Repug primary Mittens, is it the Repug candidate, is it Bain CEO, is it the Olympic turnaround guy? Talk about multiple personality disorder!

    • janicen's avatar janicen says:
      October 4, 2012 at 11:07 am

      Yep, it’s classic bullying behavior. I grew up around people like that and you can’t win at their game unless you are as big a sociopath. You have to walk away from them but Obama couldn’t do that. If I learned anything from last night it’s that we have to double down. We have to do everything we can to keep Romney and his ilk out of power.

  8. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    October 4, 2012 at 10:55 am

    NYT editorial: An Unhelpful Debate.

    The Mitt Romney who appeared on the stage at the University of Denver seemed to be fleeing from the one who won the Republican nomination on a hard-right platform of tax cuts, budget slashing and indifference to the suffering of those at the bottom of the economic ladder. And Mr. Obama’s competitive edge from 2008 clearly dulled, as he missed repeated opportunities to challenge Mr. Romney on his falsehoods and turnabouts.

    Virtually every time Mr. Romney spoke, he misrepresented the platform on which he and Paul Ryan are actually running. The most prominent example, taking up the first half-hour of the debate, was on taxes. Mr. Romney claimed, against considerable evidence, that he had no intention of cutting taxes on the rich or enacting a tax cut that would increase the deficit.

    That simply isn’t true. Mr. Romney wants to restore the Bush-era tax cut that expires at the end of this year and largely benefits the wealthy. He wants to end the estate tax and the gift tax, providing a huge benefit only to those with multimillion-dollar estates, at a cost of more than $1 trillion over a decade to the deficit. He wants to preserve the generous rates on capital gains that benefit himself personally and others at his economic level. And he wants to cut everyone’s tax rates by 20 percent, which again would be a gigantic boon to the wealthy.

  9. RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
    October 4, 2012 at 10:59 am

    Paul Krugman: Romney’s Sick Joke

  10. RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
    October 4, 2012 at 11:08 am

    Opening shot from OFA…

  11. RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
    October 4, 2012 at 11:16 am

    This may help alleviate some of the panic. The NYT had a reporter at a debate party with Independents in Ohio and they didn’t fall for Romney either.

    NBC First Read

    *** Who wins the post-debate? If Romney won the instant reactions from last night’s debate, it is more than possible that the Obama camp can win the next 24 hours. Why? Because Romney said several things that could make life difficult for him today or in the next debate. First, Romney declared, “I will not reduce the taxes paid by high-income Americans.” But in addition to supporting the extension of the Bush tax cuts, which are skewed heavily to the wealthy, the non-partisan Tax Policy Center says that Romney’s tax plan would give the Top 0.1% an average tax cut of more than $246,000. Next, he stated that “there will be no tax cut that adds to the deficit.” While he has said his plan will be paid for, he’s yet to lay out any SPECIFICS on how he’ll pay for it. Romney also said, “I’m not going to cut education funding. I don’t have any plan to cut education funding.” But the Ryan budget plan, which Romney has said he’d sign into law, leads to long-term spending reductions in education. And Romney also didn’t disagree with the description that his Medicare plan would consist of “vouchers” for future retirees. Winning a “debate” is always a two-part deal—the night itself, and then the aftermath. This is now an opportunity for Team Obama and a challenge for Team Romney.

    *** Watching the debate in Ohio: NBC’s John Yang watched the debate with six undecided voters in Ohio. As Yang writes, “Most of them—like most voters—have not been closely following the campaign, and this was their first close look at Romney, other than from the TV ads blanketing the airwaves. In this introduction, he favorably impressed at least two of our voters who backed Obama in 2008. These two said Romney came across as better than the out-of-touch millionaire they’d heard about.” More Yang: “Despite the flurry of statistics in the debate, all of our voters still said they wanted to hear more specifics. One ’08 McCain voter said he heard more specifics from Obama and is still waiting to hear some from Romney. Two of our voters—both 2008 Obama voters—said the President came across as ‘arrogant’—though one voter said that was a good thing because she wants that in a leader.”

  12. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    October 4, 2012 at 11:52 am

    Business Insider: Romney didn’t win hearts in debate according to Twitter.

    Even though yesterday’s presidential debate looked like a big win for Romney, the tweets tell a different story.

    Researchers at SAP, a software company, tallied the tweets and analyzed their sentiment and discovered some surprises.

    Folks on Twitter generally thought that Romney won the debate. But he didn’t win their hearts.
    The negative sentiment towards Governor Romney far outweighed the positive.
    In contrast, the sentiment towards President Obama outweighed the negative.

    Translation: People think Romney’s a dick.

    • Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)'s avatar Mona (aka Wonk the Vote) says:
      October 4, 2012 at 11:54 am

      I agree with that Business Insider /twitter assessment. I don’t think it was a good debate for Romney…just a particularly off one for Obama

    • RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
      October 4, 2012 at 12:20 pm

      From a comment at SteveM’s …

      Romney had the madman’s glassy-eyed but focused glare and machine gun patter of a Wall Street boss who’d just snorted an 8-ball of coke and drank a bottle of tequila at midnight in his office and wanted to lecture about free markets to the over-night cleaning crew at his firm.

      • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
        October 4, 2012 at 12:32 pm

        I was thinking crystal meth, but since Romney never takes stimulants, it could just as well have been 5-hour energy.

  13. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    October 4, 2012 at 12:00 pm

    Breaking news . . . Bobby Valentine will not be back with the Red Sox next year.

  14. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    October 4, 2012 at 12:18 pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jebDlVAcpGo&feature=player_embedded

  15. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    October 4, 2012 at 12:31 pm

    Gallup daily tracking poll – Obama’s job approval 54-42%!

    http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/gallup-daily-obama-job-approval.aspx

←
→