So you believe the claims of Republicans over their actions, but hold the Democrats to a different standard?
Fascinating.
Can you point out where I said anything remotely like that? Heck I’ll even take a tin foil hat type connection!
Ah, you’re right, my bad. You didn’t say you actually believed the Republicans’ lies that they were, in fact, in favor of smaller government.
I apologize.
The little multi-quote button (quotation mark and a plus sign) to the immediate right of the “Quote” button helps immensely. Click that on each post you want to respond to, then click “Quote” on the last one. That’ll automatically quote each of the source posts, saving you copy/paste hassles.
I believed them as much as I believed in Hope and Change, Country First, The Original Maverick and It’s All Bush’s Fault.
How about you, which one did you believe?
Thanks. I will do my best to not screw it up!
I believed that the possibility of getting some meaningful reform into the system was better than the certainty of of getting no such reforms.
While I still believe that McCain would have been a worse President than Obama, I’m disappointed that I was right, and that none of the top four meaningful reforms I thought possible will happen.
It’s tough being right, sometimes.
Pretty much the only solid platform.
Don’t they all promise possibilities?
Sure, but if I promise you a dollar and a homeless bum off the street promises you a million, you’re going to discount the latter and possibly believe the former.
Not if they are one and the same!
Don’t take that wrong. I’m not saying you’re a homeless bum or that you wouldn’t give me a dollar. It’s just that there hasn’t been much difference between the two partys in the past 50 years or so.
Houngan
1594
Pffft. Hello? Tie color, anyone? You got served.
H.
Is there any way possible to find out of Eric C. Heartle or his brother David contributed to the Republican campaign’s in Wisconsin?
They were pushing for government deregulation at the same time they were producing bacterial infected alcohol wipes and “sterile” sanitary products. CEO Eric Heurtle refused to cooperate with the FDA, refused to clean things up, refused to shut the plant down - so it took U.S. Marshalls to come in and shut them down.
Lord knows how many people they’ve killed and it being attributed to other maladies.
http://www.huliq.com/10473/h-p-industries-inc-closes-doors-after-arrival-us-marshals
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm247658.htm
Okay, jesus fucking christ. Are you planning on wading into EVERY single thread and filling it up with meaningless generalities and platitudes? We get it: you’re not a “thinker” kind of guy. That’s fine, but trust us when we say we’ll remember and you don’t need to remind us once every five minutes.
For the record, I already think you should go back to your old way of posting: on different forums.
Government responsibilities are in general going to have more of Baumol than private sector jobs; the government does very little manufacturing and technology by comparison to the private sector because most of its responsibilities are service, unautomatable, and little productivity gains are available from adding capital. Education is a poster child for this.
Jason, I think there’s a lot of room for productivity improvement in the government.
Somewhere in this thread I think there was mention that the postal system is a major government employer. I think there’s likely a lot of room for productivity improvement there, and probably also a fair amount of room for adjusting the size of the overall organization to fit weakening demand for their product.
There is some room for productivity improvement in the military, though I think a fair amount of it has already been realized. On the heavy, equipment driven side of the armed forces (planes, ships, tanks, artillery), I would guess that our “productivity”, compared to say 1970 on both an absolute basis (combat effectiveness and/or firepower per pilot/sailor/tanker/gunner) and probably on a relative basis (versus our potential adversaries) has improved. Even on the more fleshy side of the military (infantry, marines), I would guess there has been (or should have been) productivity improvement, though less than with the other stuff.
As for education - I suspect that even here there is room for significant productivity improvement (education delivered per teacher). Obviously, there is a lot of value to teacher to student interaction that gets diluted if class sizes increase. But I think there is at least the potential to either improve educational outcomes with class sizes held constant or hold educational outcomes constant with larger class sizes (or find some point on the curve in between). I would like to see both more room for experimentation in education and more robust measurement of outcomes (so we can see what kinds of improvements really help). It can be hard to measure some of this stuff, but still…
Coming back around to your point - yes many areas of the government probably will see less productivity improvement per unit of time than a widget factory. But I would be careful to avoid assuming that there is NO room for government productivity improvement…
Are you thinking of automated tests, Phil? Scantron, I believe they are called. Is that what you are referring to?
I thought it was fishy at first, too. However, we get this from the Democratic member of the Waukesha County Board of Canvassers, said: “We went over everything and made sure all the numbers jibed up and they did. Those numbers jibed up, and we’re satisfied they’re correct.”
As a Democrat, she said, “I’m not going to stand here and tell you something that’s not true.”
Also, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that the “corrected” tally is more in line with what normally would be expected from Waukesha County, a county that is considered a Republican stronghold. Before the found votes were added, Waukesha was a huge outlier.
So, as Raife notes, the Democrat is probably going to be left with having to pay for a recount, if she wants one. And you normally don’t make up that kind of total in a single state recount.
What really interests me now, is what this means politically for the ongoing battle over public union collective bargainning. It may be that the outrage statewide isn’t that strong or isn’t going to translate into enough votes to make a real difference. The result of this election (with a stronger turnout than normal for this kind of election, but still small compared to a general election) turns out to be pretty much Wisconsin as usual. The normally Democratic areas voted Democrat and the normally Republican areas voted Republican.
For the immediate issue of the recall efforts, I’d say you have one Republican senator in a Democratic district-the one where the petitions have already been submitted-who is in real trouble. You have maybe two Democratic senators in swing districts who are in minor to moderate trouble. The result will probably be a turnover of one district from Republican to Democrat, leaving the Republicans still in control of both chambers of the legislature.
