Direct political contributions are limited and thanks to the Supreme Court Super PACs are not. Super PACs will dwarf direct contributions:
Republican Super PAC Contributions So Far $48,358,357
Democrat Super PAC Contributions So Far $37,665,650
It is odd that Republicans how found religion on the debt after the Bush administration ran the debt up 85% while President Obama’s administration has only run it up 41%.
http://mixermuse.com/blog/2011/12/08/all-you-need-to-know-about-politics/
Let’s not even think about discretionary and non-discretionary parts of the budget.
In any case, I think most of us can agree debt is important.
I guess the next thing in line after debt for Republicans would be quality of life or as they would have it, the misery index.
For me, the next thing would be life or the lack of it, death. For Iraq and Afghanistan, 7,648 of our children have been killed.
Bush started these absurd wars. I know from personal experience with two older brothers that wars create misery and death. Additionally, the cost of both wars is estimated at $1,284,743,552,321.
http://nationalpriorities.org/en/blog/2011/08/16/How-Safe-Are-You/
The cost of the wars, make the national debt look insignificant. I am not a Ron Paul supporter but I like his stand on foreign engagement. He is the only Republican candidate that is not itching for another war. If you really care about the debt, misery and/or body count you should vote to re-elect President Obama.
Mitt recently stated, “The president says he wants to transform America, I don’t want to transform America into something else. I want to restore it”
Mitt Romney along with Sarah Palin is fond of mocking President Obama for his promise of “hope and change”. So, what is the alternative to hope and change? Is it hopelessness and changelessness?
Or
Let’s see, restore it to…
…the Bush administration
Bush started two wars and bankrupted the economy. President Bush increased the national debt more than twice as much as President Obama. During his administration unemployment went up 90% more than during the Obama administration.
http://mixermuse.com/blog/2011/12/08/all-you-need-to-know-about-politics/
…prior to Medicare and Medicaid?
“Before Medicare, only 51% of people aged 65 and older had health care coverage, and nearly 30% lived below the federal poverty level.”
http://www.usgovernmentbenefits.org/hd/index.php?t=define+medicare
…before women had the right to vote and blacks and gays were hung for entertainment?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_in_the_United_States
…before Social Security?
“the best estimates show that the elderly poverty rate in 1935 was probably somewhere in the range of 70 to 90 percent.”
…before the civil war
Slavery
…from the beginning
In 1800, the mean life span in the United States was about a quarter century
In 1900 the mean was about 50 years
http://www.longevity.ca/info_life_expectancy.htm
Do you REALLY want to go there?
The Republicans are painting a fantasy picture for voters that need to believe fantasies of the past – it NEVER happened. The fact is that we have progressed from a dark past albeit in a bumpy and messy way. It is absolute insanity to want to go back to the way it really was. There was no earlier, greater time than now for the United States. Yes, a few things may have been better but don’t let them fool you, things are better now than they have ever been for folks.
So, here is the question, do you want to transform our future or restore our past?