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January 30th, 2014
09:13 PM ET
GOP sell out of Tea Party?
Donna Brazile asks Tea Party Express chair Amy Kremer if House Republicans are abandoning their principles when it comes to considering immigration reform. What do you think?
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Posted by CNN's Christina Manduley Filed under: Amy Kremer • Debates • Donna Brazile • GOP • Neera Tanden • Newt Gingrich |
Meet the Hosts
Author, documentary filmmaker, historian, Speaker of the House (1995-1999), and 2012 Republican presidential candidate
Fmr. Obama Deputy Campaign Mgr. and W.H. Sr. Adviser, founder of Precision Strategies, fmr. Sr. Adviser to Maj. Leader Reid and Sen. Kennedy
Conservative columnist for New York Daily News, contributing editor at Townhall Magazine, commentator and author
Former Special Adviser for Green Jobs under President Obama, co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, author and attorney
There is NO Tea Party to sell out. There is no Tea Party registered in any state, or territory of this nation. The frauds who call themselves the tea party are registered as REPUBLICAN PARTY members, and they sell their party-the GOP-out every tome they pull some stupid shutdown type stunt..;or even just open their mouths.
The intellectually challenged Tea Baggers have no grasp of second grade math. They fail to realize that sticking together, shutting the government down, defaulting on the national debt, and ruining America's credit rating, and international prestige, will achieve nothing, even if it is done...since Obama will veto any string laden bill they do pass, and they would not have the votes needed to override his veto. They can't possibly win the fights they keep starting. All they can do is make the Democrats stronger by their fighting, and losing, no win battles....and angering voters thereby. When you delay too many welfare checks, military pension checks, government payroll checks, etc, keep people from making their rent, mortgage, electric bill, and car, etc payments, on time, and cause them pain thereby, and they WILL punish you in the voting booth.
Tea Baggers do not care if they destroy the GOP, since they hate, and want to destroy, ALL government. Continuing to work with Tea Baggers-rather than expelling them from the party-will only lead the GOP to extinction. The GOP's current relationship with the Tea Baggers, is like a starving man refusing to take the medicine which will expel the tape worms which are killing him. It is suicidal.
Time to smell the stink of the tea party. Republicans have gone to great extremes against President Obama and Democrats and what good did it do? More people won't even admit to being a republican. That is because the tea party started from Fox News. They were republicans who have little to no facts and are just full of hate and filth to say about the President of the United States. These tea party idiots are not reasonable and they are not right on any issue when all they are is led by the Fox misinformation news.
I love the tea party. I hope they keep pulling the Republicans further and further to the right. They are already completely out of step with most americans on every major social issue. As the Demographics change, eventually the Republicans will have to change or become completely irrevelant.
You love the Tea Party that much, you SOB. It's people like you that got our country in the gridlock it's in now. I hope something terrible happens to you. YOU ASKED FOR IT. IT'S BECAUSE OF A-Holes like you that created this ****** mess. YOU NO GOOD, PIECE OF **** Conservative. GO TO ****.
The cost of goods increase each year, either way. There is an inherent need to increase wages because 7.25 this year will not be worth that next year. You can blame the government all you want, but the reality is, with inflation and the increasing risks that climate change pose to farmers and other resources, not to mention geopolitical problems, the prices of goods keep increasing or get more volatile.
Look at all that wonderful "small government" back in the early 1900s. Child labour. Women were highly oppressed. Blacks were seen as inferior. We need to remove the greed and unregulated capitalism that destroys the environment, wages, and decreases the standard of living.
Let's get real and vote for those who do not just bend for the corporations and the elite class of wealthy who could care less if you suffer or lose everything. Vote Green Party and Vote Democrat.
The tea party is a lie! The tea party message is a lie! The tea party is like a huge anchor weighting down the rest of America from being successful.They want America to fail and are proud of it. All they do is point to what is wrong instead of what is right and never offer any authentic solutions. They want to embarrass everyone and anyone who tries to do the right thing. Their answer to bipartisan behavior is to demean the other side into submission rather than work together for compromise. They in fact are a cult born from gerrymandering voting districts so the radical rich can control what they lost at the polls. They do it for attention and big money and most of all,for themselves not caring at all about the consequences to America.
Long winded nonsense...!~
Short denial.
texasnotea
You wrote, "The tea party is a lie!"
Uh! Have you ever heard this before? "If you like your plan you can keep your plan, period!, if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor, period"
You wrote, "The tea party message is a lie!" .
Then why are liberals so worried about them? Your socialist liberal mind can't even comprehend that not only did Obama lie to America, he lied to you, period.
You wrote, "The tea party is like a huge anchor weighting down the rest of America from being successful."
Sucessful? duh! America is the greatest nation on earth, despite the attempts by this administration to make into something different! ! !
You wrote, "They want America to fail and are proud of it."
As stupid as your last sentence. We are proud that somebody has the b____s (nerve) to stand up for America."
You wrote, " All they do is point to what is wrong instead of what is right and never offer any authentic solutions."
According to you liberals there isn't anything wrong, duh! Jobs, stupid! The president has been using his pen still nothing! can you spell failure?
You wrote, "They want to embarrass everyone and anyone who tries to do the right thing.".
Liberals such as yourself are doing a excellent job embarrassing America.
You wrote, " Their answer to bipartisan behavior is to demean the other side into submission rather than work together for compromise."
What the ___k do you call this crap you put out
You wrote, "They in fact are a cult born from gerrymandering voting districts so the radical rich can control what they lost at the polls."
FACT, ignorance on your part does NOT constitute a fact. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for you.
You wrote, " They do it for attention and big money and most of all,for themselves not caring at all about the consequences to America"
I know this will hard for you to understand but maybe I can make it simple enough for you. Obama is rich, his buddy's are rich, some are super rich, while I'm at the lower end of middle-class but proud of my accomplishments, I am tired of the (LOW LIFE ,YOU OWE ME) attitudes. I am also tired of the socialist liberalism that has swept across this nation. Unlike you I believe it is Obama's right to gain wealth. Unlike you I don't believe it is his right to share MY WEALTH, as small as it might be, and I defend my right to keep it.
Spew your hate, that is your right!
If you're a Libertarian or Conservative, I absolutely have no sympathy if something happens to you. And he's right. They're weighing us down with their racists hatred of Obama. And they won't even admit it!
You see liberals through the Faux News perspective. That's rather distorted view. Bottom line is conservatives supposed to preserve status quo, that would only be good if the status quo was acceptable by everyone participating in a democracy, however conservatives stop progress, tea party is even worse because they would like the USA to regress to pre-1900.
You're absolutely right. They're like a cancer that will sell us out if given the chance.
Well said. Tea Party stands for regress. It is not even conservative which supposed to preserve status quo.
GOP IS A HEARD OF DEAD RINO's 2014 IS TEA TIME IN AMERICA!!!!!!
The tea party is done, finished, relegated to the dust bins of history. You allowed yourselves to be coopted by the religious right, who took over your small government low taxes agenda and replaced it with vaginal probes and anti-women philosophies. You're done. Accept it and move on.
So you thjink the 200 million people in the middle are just going away somehow?
The problem is a relatively small percentage of the "200 million in the middle" would vote for a Tea Party candidate.
Some of them are open to immigration reform. The tea party doesn't seem to welcome those who disagree with them on immigration.
Some of them aren't Christian. The tea party doesn't seem to accept those who don't agree that the christian set of values are what our country should follow.
Some of them are anti-gun. The tea party doesn't seem to accept anti-gun people.
Some of them are pro-choice. The tea party doesn't seem to accept pro-choice people.
Some of them are in favore of entitlements. The tea party doesn't seem to accept those who are in favor of entitlements.
The tea party is a group that doesn't want you unless you agree with 100% of their ideals. And when you toss out anyone who disagrees with ANY tea party plank... you end up with a small enough group that they can't win elections except in the most tea party heavy districts.
If the tea party really had just ONE plank... TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY.... then they might have a very broad level of support. But their "my way or the highway" views on surrounding issues like immigration reform, gun control, abortion, education, religion and gay rights make it so that they offend enough people that they have little chance of winning national elections.
Good Golly,
Unchecked Capitalisim is actually worse for the Economy. Whuld'ja run that by me one more time. Now, if I.m not mistaken, when someone wants to open a business they may borrow the money. Assuming they qualify for the loan, Banks are Regulated, you know, they borrow money that is known as Capitiol, no? Now where do those banks get that capitiol? From all kinds of places. People put some money in the bank. Banks may lend that money to a new start up business. Maybe people get hired at that new business. The only unchecked captiolisim is done by the Federal Government, now unchecked to the tune of over 17 Trillion.
Banks get much of their money from the Federal Reserve at a very small interest rate, less than 1% , they then lend it out at a much much higher rate , sometimes in credit card debt exceeding a 25 % interest rate. Not a bad business plan, except for the tax payer.
You, who professes to be an astute student of the financial marketplace should realize it is capital, not Capitol.
This TEA PARTY woman is an AH. The Tea Party stands for nothing except to destroy the USA and people. They get before the cameras and LIE< LIE, LIE. Voters destroy and defeat the Tea Party, they are the real TERRORIst of this USA.
What part of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government terrifies you most?
Smart people know the truth. It's just that we don't have enough smart people. The part that gets me is they support the Rich who take there jobs an the ones they leave are at poverty wages. There is no limit to stupid
If the hated Tea Party is so wrong, maybe the GOP and Democrats are too much alike which should scare everyone. The Bush's starting the NSA spying scheme. Clinton and Obama back it too. All wanted big government. I can promise the GOP this, they will NEVER win another Presidency when they keep picking moderates. If the candidate is not CONSERATIVE, I will not vote for a RINO, but Hillary Clinton. Same thing!
Minimum wage increases do nothing but cause the price of goods and services to be more expensive. Either the company lays off poor people, or they will pay more for groceries, utilities, and services such as plumbing, carpet cleaning, appraisals, and indirectly real property after the trickle up starts. The minimum wage should be repealed. You will not see a mad rush to lower wages, but greater opportunities for high wages, and more money for small business. If for example, Walmart drops the wages, workers will be hard to find. Most people nowadays are consumers because China can make it cheaper. They will work for some one else.
Regulation should be kept as small as a prescription pill that works. Government regulation on the federal side is out of control and is THE REASON unemployment is so high. Communism and socialism have always failed and always will. All it does is make the doers in business poorer who create the jobs, and the poor will feel a momentary bump if that in more real money. Most people think you can print your way out of debt, but that is only based on the US dollar strength which may soon be replaced. A dollar changes value every day trending in the way of inflation. The ONLY cause of inflation is printing money and is a hidden tax increase. Socialism will do away with the middle class so we all can be poor. Does it really make you feel better to have others do poorly? Envy is the real killer of prosperity, and hating those that have will keep you poor. This the great income divider.
Without corporations many would be homeless, unless you can create your own business. Well, maybe the employees are demanding too much pay so maybe it's not a good idea. I think some are stuck on school theories instead of the real world. Many have been duped by a liberal professor. I was, until I worked in the real world both as employee and company owner. Americans should get an entrepreneurial spirit and make your own money. Then there is no minimum wage, unless you want to expand and pay competitive wages of what the market will bear and Obamacare for them, and Federal Unemployment tax, etc.
The Federal government is for fining business that pollute or don't clean up. One example only. It is not supposed to be used to put certain business out of business like the coal industry. State government is for roads, licensing to make sure business are not violating license law, taxing, education, etc. Local government is for police enforcement, and small town stuff important to that community. I smile every time they say Congress is at fault, Congress IS the people, the only truly elected officials. The Presidency is done by Electoral College because the Federal government is a Republic. When the Presidency has failed, him or her blames the people, Congress, which are directly elected. Different parts of the country have different needs. Remember there is no middle class without Capitalism. I do not mean Anarchy. You can’t have cheaters in business, this is what needs regulation.
The problem is selective regulation. The Attorney General letting our party off, and enforce only laws to hurt the opposing party. It’s double edged sword and is divisive and dangerous. ANY professor who teaches socialism and communism as even OK, should have to go to a program for people that are brain washed into believing it. I did once, so did Ronald Reagan, but some of us eventually grow up through life’s hard path.
The Tea Party and the Republicans have been at odds for over two years and it will continue, thus "the Do Nothing Congress" theme. . The Republicans need the Tea Party and the Tea Party needs the Republicans....a marriage of convenience and various controls. The only problem is the what they believe America should do about the core issues. Ideally they should split, but, will not. My thoughts are the Republicans will oust the Tea Party folks over the next 5 years. The biggest thing the Democratss have going for them is the disputes between Repubs/Tea and don't look for it to end.
4Truth: You either have a bad memory or flunked Econ 101. At Yale, I was never taught that government is a burden on economic growth. That is true only when government has a lassez faire approach to economics, as Herbert Hoover did, which extended the life of the great depression by 4 or 5 years. You are dead wrong about the minimum wage and there are no data to support your assertion. Frankly, you are just one more far right gasbag, who makes up "facts" when the fancy strikes you.You better moderate your output; you guys throw off so much hot air that the EPA may have to regulate you as a significant contributor to global warming (which you probably don't believe in
I went to a small community college and was taught the same bunk. Every wonder why all of the economic genius's are teaching school? Because all of those theories don't work in the real world. As time goes on, you start to understand.
You are making a mistake in thinking that what works for the economy is what works for a business or individual (and vice versa). This is a mistake many people make.
For an individual, lowering spending is good for your finances. For a business, you want the individuals who are your consumers to spend, but you want your business to lower spending (expenses) to turn a profit. For a nations economy, you want EVERYONE to spend.
It's the catch-22 of economics... what's good for the whole is NOT good for the individual. People spending more then they make? GREAT for the economy... bad for the people doing it. You can't have the government manage the economy the same way a person manages their personal finances. Governments need to almost run themselves the opposite of that.
When times are bad, a government should NOT cut spending. They should borrow like crazy and increase spending. And when times are good a government shouldn't feel like they can spend more or make less (lower taxes). They should pay off the debt when times are good.
But most people continue thinking the nation is like their household or a small business. And that's just incorrect. If the politicians listened to the economists on this sort of thing, there would be a lot less problems.
After 2010, the Tea Party has been costing Republicans elections. It is time Republicans tell the nutjobs to get lost.
Tony: I couldn't agree more. Already, the business community and moderate Republicans have joined forces to prevent the election of far right candidates, to the point where they will fund far right opponents. To survive, the GOP will have to move to center right and disavow the Tea Party.
What has cost Republicans elections is people can't tell the difference between the Obamacare and amnesty offered by the Democrats and the Romneycare and amnesty offered by the Republicans. Conservatives haven't abandoned the GOP – the GOP has abandoned conservatism.
The USA is a middle of the road country, Radicals just won't get far in a national election !
If anyone watched Crossfire last night you would have seen Amy Kremer say something that no one else jumped on. She said that it wasnt the Presidents job to create jobs and fix unemployment. Yes she actually said that. No one on set felt the need to ask her why then does the Tea Party and other Republicans constantly blame Obama for the lack of jobs when you yourself said it is not his responsibility. This literally happened in the first 5 minutes of the episode and then completely ignored it.
Economics 101, Government is a burden on economic growth, so the best Obama can do is to be as minimal as possible. Min wage for example is the single most destructive laws over the years, and is what kept blacks from gaining workplace skills and having few choices to climb out of poverty other than crime. Obama could help the job situation by telling the truth about it and lessening the burden of government, but unfortunately for his own benefit he perpetuates the lie. Hope that helps.
Of course, if you progress into higher levels of economics you learn about how unchecked capitalism is actually worse for the economy.
One of the basic lessons that always stuck with me from business school was a basic lesson at the beginning of a class I took about how economics and government regulations worked. It had to do with polution.
Here's the gist of it.
A company who has a plant by a river has two choices to deal with their waste products. They can dump it in the river, or ship it to a safe disposal sight.
They look at the cost of dumping in the river. It's nothing... because that's where the waste is produced. Then they look at the cost of shipping it to a safe facility. Let's say it's a million dollars a year.
The company will dump it in the river. The only way government regulation can cause a company to NOT dump their waste in the river is to make the fine for doing so more then the cost of safely disposing of it.... that is more then a million dollars a year in this example.
The only thing a corporation exists for is to make as much money as possible for its stockholders. In many cases, that doesn't help the economy. That's not why corporations exsist... they don't CARE about things like polution, or building a stronger economy that will promote overall growth. They ONLY care about their stock holders financial interests. Left unchecked, companies will try to pay workers as little as possible, destroy their competition so they can run monopolies, do nothing for workforce safety, polute like crazy... as long as their stockholders make more money.
But for the economy, it's better to build a strong middle class of workers who can buy more goods, which then causes more demand for products and services and helps all the companies prosper. But the companies can't do that without the government forcing them to... because they'll be at a competitive disadvantage in the market if they do it and their competitors do not.
This is why having an INDEXED minimum wage that goes up with inflation would be a good idea. It can strengthen the purchasing power of the working poor (and thus increase demand for products and services, spurring growth across the entire economy). This increases the profitability of all companies in the long run, but can only happen if they prevented from pursuing a competitive advantage by lowering their labor cost.
Free market economics nearly always results in a huge income divide between workers and capitalists. It's where the rockefellers and carnegies came from. That in turn causes much more extreme market fluctuations as the smaller middle class results in less consistent demand... and demand is what drives the economy.
So government regulation is a necessary thing for an economy to be healthy in its growth rate. Now TAXES are always a net drain on the productivity of an economy, but that's a different animal then laws that regulate businesses. The economy would grow faster with no taxes... but if we want the government to provide services (such as medicare for the elderly, food stamps for the poor, roads, military or police), then taxes will have to be collected. We just have to accept that economic drain as the price for those services... voters can decide that at all levels of government.
"economics 101" Clearly a class you never took. Good lord you teahadists really are clueless to how economies work. You are probably one of those fools who blames Obama for gas prices.
I agree with all you said, it's a good lesson of why a governement is needed.
Except your last sentence: 'TAXES are always a net drain on the productivity of an economy'. That is not entirely true. It all depends on what those taxes are for.
Say that those taxes are to pay for free education: everyone gets the best education their brains can handle, not the best education their parents can pay. Educated workers is good for the economy as a whole.
The same for taxes that are used for healthcare: everyone that is sick gets healed, not just people with money. healthy people is good for the economy as a whole.
Taxes that go to free roads are another good example. Imagine a country with private roads only. Free traffic infrastructure is good for the economy.
It's true that part of taxes are a waste. But saying that the economy would grow faster with no taxes? No.
True, there is some spending the government does that have an economic impact. In addition to education, transportation infrastructure is another example. But there IS an argument that it might be more efficient if privatized AND regulated. Would our communications infrastructure be more or less efficient if the government created and controlled it as opposed to letting private industry do it but regulating it thoroughly?
I tend to think it might be better to be honest, but I can see that there is room for debate on how it would be best handled. The point though is that we as voters get to decide what the government is going to handle. And we tax to pay for that which slows the economy to some degree. Long term, there may be economic benefit (for things like roads and education). But in the short term... money coming out of the economy as taxes will reduce efficiency up front.