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Eric Cantor loses primary

It shows how pathetic the GOP is when Cantor is considered not Conservative enough to hold office......
 
stevea said:
As compared to the US going dangerously into debt and still dragging badly on grown and jobs ?
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UK dept levels are also pretty horrible. There is little doubt at this point that we would have been better off holding off the cuts for a year longer. Debt level would have still be sustainable if horrible. It would however have meant that we should have avoided that dip at the end of 2011 putting us in a better long term position.
 
stevea said:
I'm not arguing for austerity, tho' certainly some TPers are. But it is well known the public sector spending has a lower multiplier and does not result in comparable economic growth as private sector spending encouraged my policies like lower taxes and lesser regulation. Go look up the Christina Romer's research.
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The fairly low rates on US government bonds make it pretty clear that the money being spent on them isn't availible for private sector spending. If people are prepared to buy government bonds at a sub inflation interest rate its unlikely that there is any situation where they would be prepared to move that money into the private sector.
 
This is a political earthquake. If a house majority leader can lose an election, let alone a primary, it puts every happily ensconced incumbent on notice. Democrats and Republicans alike.

Although I personally liked Cantor and am sorry to see him go (although it may only be for two years), I think this is a good thing. The Republican leadership was getting too cozy with what the business community wanted instead of what their constituents wanted on immigration reform, and this is just the shot across the bow that was needed.
 
jj said:
As to libertarianism, nice slip sideways there, now let's ask "where has austerity been tried in Europe"? Oopsie. The two are two peas in a pod
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Really huh? Germany, France, United Kingdom, Spain (etc) are libertarian? Who knew?
 
sunmaster14 said:
This is a political earthquake. If a house majority leader can lose an election, let alone a primary, it puts every happily ensconced incumbent on notice. Democrats and Republicans alike.

Although I personally liked Cantor and am sorry to see him go (although it may only be for two years), I think this is a good thing. The Republican leadership was getting too cozy with what the business community wanted instead of what their constituents wanted on immigration reform, and this is just the shot across the bow that was needed.
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No. This is an exception, not the new rule.

80% or more of incumbents will be re-elected as has happened every election in the past 50 years.
 
Spindrift said:
No. This is an exception, not the new rule.

80% or more of incumbents will be re-elected as has happened every election in the past 50 years.
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Yes, but only because now they know they can't stray too far from the reservation.
 
stevea said:
<snip>

I'm not arguing for austerity, tho' certainly some TPers are. But it is well known the public sector spending has a lower multiplier and does not result in comparable economic growth as private sector spending encouraged my policies like lower taxes and lesser regulation. Go look up the Christina Romer's research.
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I'm with you on everything except this, unless you're going to hang your hat on the "some" qualifier. TPers generally want smaller government AND lower taxes. That's not austerity. In some sense, TEA stands for "Taxed Enough Already." The liberal posters here think that the Tea Party is some sort of racist, fascist movement, but I think of it as more libertarian. The anti-immigration stuff is not particularly libertarian, but put in context with a growing welfare state, I think the usual libertarian principle (e.g. open borders) here is impractical.
 
Spindrift said:
Going into debt is what happens when you start a war, never mind two wars at the same time.
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Nothing wrong with the debt (the deficit is actually getting too low in my opinion), but the two wars were a drop in the bucket. The accounting cost was about $1.4T (and much of that involves double counting), and of course a lot of that spending comes back in the form of extra tax revenue. The total debt exceeds $17.5T, although perhaps you might only count the publicly held debt, which is about $12.5T.
 
I really wonder if this is highlights problems with the pollsters the Republicans are using. Cantor was clearly surprised and in particular due to what his pollsters were reporting.

http://www.campaignsandelections.co...torand39s-loss-leaves-pollsters-stunned.thtml

One analyst this morning on CBS (I forget which) commented that this and Romney's pollster who reported based on his analysis that Romney was leading the presidential election until he lost is indicative that Republicans have a problem with inaccurate polling data. However, it also appears to me that Cantors flipping in an extremely right wing district. Unfortunately, this election will discourage compromise of any kind because the Tea Party is not interested in compromise.
 
sunmaster14 said:
Nothing wrong with the debt (the deficit is actually getting too low in my opinion), but the two wars were a drop in the bucket. The accounting cost was about $1.4T (and much of that involves double counting), and of course a lot of that spending comes back in the form of extra tax revenue. The total debt exceeds $17.5T, although perhaps you might only count the publicly held debt, which is about $12.5T.
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The drop is a bit bigger than that.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...2a5dce-97ed-11e2-814b-063623d80a60_story.html
 
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