So, my cabbie Enrique picks me up in downtown San Antonio yesterday for the quick ride to the airport. He is a chatty one, and ... vaguely remembering some saying about bringing knives to gunfights ... he flings open the saloon doors: "So, what do you think about that (Republican) governor of ours?"
I chuckled. Oh, Enrique, I thought. And then I said, "I'll tell you what. As much as an abject disaster of a government we have in Washington, D.C., I think that all other politicians are great by comparison and get a pass. This is the worst government I have seen in my life. For crying out loud, even Jimmy Carter looks good by comparison."
"You talking about Obama?," Enrique perceptively asked. I told him that indeed I was. Enrique reached for the playbook and told me that, yes, Obama had inherited a mess. Then I told him that, sure, there were challenges but that everything Obama had done made things much worse. Now, they are talking about letting the Bush tax cuts expire.
"Guess what is going to happen, Enrique, when they raise my taxes ... people like me will probably come to S.A. less and also will spend less money. That will mean less money for you and your family."
"Yes," he nodded gravely. "How is your business? I bet it's been tough," I said. "It's been really slow. I don't even work Wednesdays much any more," Enrique offered.
"Well, hold on. Obama and his buddies in Washington are doing things that will make it worse. Much worse."
Enrique is a good guy. He served in Viet Nam in 1967. He loves his country. Like many others, though, he hears crap on the news and goes with it. Not much offense played out here.
But we became fast friends. He gave me his card for when I come back.
In the short time we were together, he even confided in me his deepest, darkest secret ...
He voted for McCain.
19 comments:
"everything Obama had done made things much worse."
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, especially when you can't actually see over the fence and just assume it's better over there.
Now might be a good time to choose whether you whine about the deficit, or whine about the expiration of the Bush tax cuts (since letting the Bush tax cuts expire will lower the deficit quite a bit); I know you want to have your cake and eat it too, but that's unrealistic.
John, no whining here.
We're just preparing to beat you in November like a drum. Come back here Nov. 3 and take your medicine.
One more thing ... Name one thing that international embarassment Obama has done that has made anything better. One thing. Just one. Come on.
How dare that non-Anglo Enrique vote for the "party of no." Heh.
John.. while on paper your theory of the deficit being reduced sounds good, in reality you're as far from correct as Paris Hilton is from sober these days.
The money that those "rich folk" lose when the tax cuts expire sure ain't coming out of their bank accounts and into the grand public trust fund in Washington.
More like it will come out of honest hardworking people's backsides - people like DC's friend Enrique, who then will have less income, pay less taxes...
And when you multiply that amount over and over, plus stagnate the economy because "rich folk" ain't spending, nor is Enrique or others like him who earn their living providing goods and services to "rich folk"...
Well, if you don't get it by now, you're not gonna. It's all about reducing spending, brother... and government jobs are not the free market solution, they're just more spending.
English-speaking cabbies?? Where is this magic land, San Antonio?
The exit of the Bush tax cuts will welcome in the reduction in tax revenues. Hello Depression.
We're just preparing to beat you in November like a drum. ..love it!
Solo & Wetzy, exactly. I wonder if John was alive during the 80s. Oh, well ... the issue with the deficit is spending, as you say.
Onward.
Get the drums.
Murkowski conceded tonight, I see.
Zio ... it's the land of milk and honey, I tell you.
John Toban's First Principle of Income Distribution For Dummies:
"Irrationality is rational because true understanding of the present is impossible. Any attempt to understand reality is childish and weak.
Therefore spend yourself and your heirs into bankruptcy because you might get a raise in income, or you can break into your children's piggy banks."
Rhod, he's a good post-modernist, see? He sees everything you see clearly as cloudy, and vice-versa.
I was going to say that we have, uh, stats, numbers, and all to measure how much we are spending, etc., but what does it matter. It is hard to argue faith.
Here's a stat for you: the last time the budget was balanced? Under Clinton (clearly pre-Bush tax cuts.) Remember the booming 90's under Clinton, and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 that didn't get a single GOP vote? Good times for the economy. Whatever short gains the Bush tax cuts got us were destroyed by the long term effect of the deficit.
Why don't you guys stop pretending to care about the deficit?
"You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don't matter," -- Dick Cheney to Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.
John, I can cite you a few things that Clinton did that worked ... and more than a few that didn't. One thing Clinton said before '94 was that he screwed up in raising taxes too much. It stifled economic growth.
Lowering taxes on the higher brackets increases revenue, period. We've verified this through three decades now.
Back to my point ... I asked a simple question: Name one thing. One. Just one ... that B.O. has done right. He is an incompetent fool who can't say his name right if it's not on the screen in front of him.
Want some help? He reappointed Bush's Sec. Def., who at least is not utterly incompetent like the rest of the cabinet. Oh, and here's another: He put Bush's general in charge of Afghanistan, too. Remember, this is the guy whose surge Obama opposed. Now, it's different, I guess. He also massively increased civilian deaths in Afghan/Pakistan by using drones. I wonder if you think this is good or not.
And finally, his Demo colleagues are contemplating brining back the Bush tax cuts. Hilarious. If they do so, I will applaud them for doing the only responsible thing.
So, name one thing that Obama has done right ... and copying Bush policies doesn't count.
In Ohio, by 50-42, people want Bush as president instead of Obama.
Why should I name one thing Obama did right? I'm actually registered GOP, which is how I stumbled upon your prissy little blog. Truth be told, I haven't voted for a GOP candidate in years-- I didn't leave the GOP, they left me. My God, the GOP has moved so far to the right that by today's standards Nixon would be a socialist (relations with red China, OSHA, the EPA, he even almost got a national health care program passed with Ted Kennedy!)
Yes, I voted for Obama, and I AM truly registered GOP (no joke), but I had little choice-- Palin scared the crap out of me; never have I seen a person so proud of their own ignorance. After 8 years of Bush's obvious incompetence, I'll take Obama over McCain/Palin no problem.
How about you tell me what your ideal president would do, and detail all the trickle-down pipe dreams you predict would happen.
Politics today has turned into a sport, where everybody is cheering for their team (party) and doesn't really give a crap about how policy really effects the country. So you can taunt me with the "beat you like a drum" jokes, but you're really beating America, including yourself.
John "Registered GOP" ... or is it Tim ... who is unable to say one positive thing about the pathetic Obama. What a steaming load of crap. But, I understand. I feel your pain. You're a sad creature.
The reason why you answer the question is 1) you support this admin and one would think you'd have a number fo things that you could just rattle off as shining examples of hope and change; and 2) common courtesy ... you came here made statements and were asked a questions to support the statements you were making -- i.e., that the Obama Admin is far better that that evil Bush Admin and its tax cuts (which are presumably in the minds of the left in large part responsible for the economic "malaise" that we find ourselves in).
If it's such a simple proposition, you back it up. I had a lot of issues with Pres. Bush, but I can tell you many things he did right. I can tell you some things Clinton did right (as I mentioned previously). Obama? (Crickets).
You are too cowardly even to defend the abomination that is the Obama Admin even under the cloak of anonymity of the internet. I could care less whether you call yourself "Registered GOP" or that Communist Party in Chicago that Obama used to hang out with. You are part of the problem.
Yes, the drums draweth nigh.
I wouldn't bother, DC. He's as controlled, consistent and capable of argument as the UniBomber.
I'm particularly impressed with his last paragraph, with its fallacy-per-word ratio, and its grandiose self-satisfaction. The politics-as-sport whinge is very hackneyed but it polishes up his moral, good citizen creds, which is the point, after all.
Registered GOP? Holy effing wow!!
Who cares?
Wonderful sequential logic, too, where he notes that being registered GOP absolves him of having to name one thing Obama did right, then says he voted for Obama. Maybe he's in a fugue state.
I like "prissy". Poor usage, but cute.
Here's a good one: "...never have I seen a person so proud of THEIR own ignorance". A trivial complaint, maybe, but probably Palin knows more about tense and pronouns than this genius.
Let him babble, DC. Save your energy.
John,continue. This is fun. We're acting out your comments as dialogue to see who can do the best John Houseman.
The winner gets a "Registered GOP But Voted for Obama" lunchbox.
I want one of the lunch boxes.
I think he's Goomba. Look, he's back.
No, DC, he isn't Goombaa, because no matter how Goomba tried, he couldn't impersonate a tenth-rate thinker like Toban.
Once you hear the complaint that "everybody" is fixated on party rather than policy, and combine it with the complainer's ideological bitchiness about his side, you know that you're not listening to a serious thinker.
First, Toban doesn't know everybody, he just knows who he likes and dislikes, so it's unproveable. Second, politics is about nothing except the distribution of power, and policy is the tool of power. Why is his contempt for conservatives in the GOP different than his high-minded condemnation of "everybody" (else).
He's laughable. You treated him better than he deserved.
"but probably Palin knows more about tense and pronouns than this genius."
heh.
Rhod, I credit you for getting all the way to John's last paragraph.
As soon as I read, "Yes, I voted for Obama, and I AM truly registered GOP" I got so dizzy from all the spinning I had to stop reading.
My head still hurts...
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