Thread: The Politics of Austerity

Why do conservatives and Tea Party hate Carter so much? Too bad they let Reagan wreck it. From 1979, sound familiar?


http://www.thedailybeast.com/newswee...austerity.html

"Carter's steel-belted budget and his spare State of the Union Message may be, in spirit if not cost, the most conservative any Democrat has offered since the New Deal. His commitment to a politics of austerity sets him in opposition to the activist wing of his own party and sharpens the risk of an election-year recession in 1980


But it is, in the wintry opening words of his Budget Message to Congress, "lean and austere." Its sacrifices to the war on inflation bloodied the cutting-room floor with lost Federal beneficences—158,000 public-service jobs, 250,000 summer jobs, 25,000 subsidized housing units, $400 million in school lunch subsidies, $600 million in social-security trims and much more. The squeeze, moreover, was only beginning; the President pledged, over the best guesses of his economic brain trust, to bring the budget into de facto balance by fiscal 1981.

The air was smoky with rebuke from the left even before this week's formal unveiling—the more so when word got out that the Pentagon budget would be up nearly 10 per cent, to $125.8 billion, at the expense of domestic spending.

Carter has mortgaged his future to events—to the highly uncertain chance that his strategy will abate inflation a bit without seriously increasing unemployment.

While I enjoyed Ronny's cowboy style in telling the Iranians he was going to fuck them up and to let the hostages go, that was the last thing he did that I approved of. Jimmy Carter was better for this Country IMO. I always felt the dood wasn't appreciated as much as he should have been.

After all these years, you like me. You really really like me.

Always did Jimmy 1979 was a bad year for you 1980 was a little better. You made the biggest mistake in US political history though, Americans will never turn down the thermostat and wear sweaters.

Originally Posted by Chugachjed

...Americans will never turn down the thermostat and wear sweaters.

This is the real reason the US empire has failed.

On what possible grounds can a president remove a working solar hot water panels from the roof of the white house? Talk about a waste of finances.

Without Carter, what would have happened at 3-mile island?

Originally Posted by shaft

On what possible grounds can a president remove a working solar hot water panels from the roof of the white house? Talk about a waste of finances.

Nancy thought they looked terrible with the new drapes and china.

Jimmy Carter was histories greatest monster before Reagan took the helm then saved America and won the Cold War. Ronald Reagan > anything

Originally Posted by 4matic

Nancy thought they looked terrible with the new drapes and china.

I thought the psychic said they were blocking the cosmic energy

Originally Posted by Hugh Conway

I thought the psychic said they were blocking the cosmic energy

I kind of remember that. Fucking psychics. Couldn't tell the dood he was going to lose his marbles down the road. Put Archers Avatar on them.

I enlisted in the Air Force in June 1978. After tech School in Biloxi I spent 30 months in Germany.
My first 2 yeats in the Air Force I felt I was treated as a second class citezin when people found out I was American military.
The last 4 years things got better and better. I went from kinda keeping my head down to FUCK YEA Iam an american!!

If Ronald did nothing else he made us all proud of who we are. And he did colapse the USSR. That in itself was a big favor to the world. And it was all about the additude.

Obama and etal seem to be going for the same effect as Carter.

Never be ashamed to be an American

Originally Posted by MTT

I enlisted in the Air Force in June 1978. After tech School in Biloxi I spent 30 months in Germany.

My first 2 yeats in the Air Force I felt I was treated as a second class citezin when people found out I was American military.

Go figure. The Vietnam War was still fresh on people's minds.

The last 4 years things got better and better. I went from kinda keeping my head down to FUCK YEA Iam an american!!

If Ronald did nothing else he made us all proud of who we are. And he did colapse the USSR. That in itself was a big favor to the world. And it was all about the additude.

I hear this one all the time. Defeating the Sovs was a team effort; it began with Truman and ended with the smarter Bush. Reagan had a hand in it, but he can't claim all the glory. Neither can Kennedy.

You were a fair-weather Patriot. Goddamn, that is pathetic.

Obama and etal seem to be going for the same effect as Carter.

Weird. Carter green-lighted Eagle Claw and more aggressive submarine patrols against the Sovs. Obama green-lighted Osama's killing.

Never be ashamed to be an American

Never have been. Sorry to hear you once were.

Teddy K really fucked poor Jimmy over.

Originally Posted by MTT

And it was all about the additude.

To bad the Air Force never taught you how to spell.

^^^^^^^^^

Hey - you can't spell your way out of being a pud.



At least Jimmy had a kind of solution: "Put on a sweater". Obama's got nothing.