GOP senator: Reagan wouldn't identify with today's GOP

RCG Trader · May 15, 2012

Quote from Free Thinker:

The Republican Party has drifted so far to the right and become so partisan in recent years that President Ronald Reagan wouldn't even want to be a part of it, former Nebraska GOP senator Chuck Hagel told The Cable.

"Reagan would be stunned by the party today," Hagel said in a long interview in his office at Georgetown University, where he now teaches. He also serves as co-chair of President Barack Obama's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

Reagan wanted to do away with nuclear weapons, raised taxes, made deals with congressional Democrats, sought compromises and consensus to fix problems, and surrounded himself with moderates as well as Republican hard-liners, Hagel noted. None of that is characterized by the current GOP leadership, he said. In his eyes, the rise of the Tea Party and the influx of new GOP lawmakers in Congress have driven the party away from common sense and consensus-based solutions.

"Reagan wouldn't identify with this party. There's a streak of intolerance in the Republican Party today that scares people. Intolerance is a very dangerous thing in a society because it always leads to a tragic ending," he said. "Ronald Reagan was never driven by ideology. He was a conservative but he was a practical conservative. He wanted limited government but he used government and he used it many times. And he would work with the other party."
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/05/11/hagel_reagan_wouldn_t_identify_with_today_s_gop

Been saying this for months, do a search. Even tried to tell Max. But he has gotten the memo and gone off the cliff with rest of em. The party that Reagan built has become a Santorumstein.

jem · May 15, 2012

Quote from Ricter:

You posted:

"Sweden is another good example. The data show that after the recession, Sweden's finance minister, Anders Borg, not only successfully implemented reduction in welfare spending but also pursued economic stimulus through a permanent reduction in the country's taxes, including a 20-point reduction to the top marginal income tax rate. As a result, the country's economy is now the fastest-growing in Europe, with real GDP growth of 5.6 percent. Unsurprisingly, the Financial Times recently declared Borg the most effective finance minister in Europe."

So, was Sweden's economy great back then, or great now?

Sweden GDP since 1970:
http://www.ekonomifakta.se/en/Facts-and-figures/Economy/Economic-growth/GDP/

Sweden tax revenue per GDP since 1975:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tax-Revenues-As-GDP-Percentage-(75-05).JPG

See the correlation? Me neither.

You may have already studied the numbers... I have not.
But it looks to me that while sweeden was taxing the hell out of its people its economy hardly grew and that since the recession... its tax cutting and spending decrease, restored growth.

Lucrum · May 15, 2012

Quote from RCG Trader:

Been saying this for months....

LOL

You've been saying a lot of shit for months. Most of it documented lies.

Lucrum · May 15, 2012

Quote from jem:

You may have already studied the numbers... I have not.

Oh he has, it's one of his favorite go to cherry picked countries.

But it looks to me that while sweeden was taxing the hell out of its people its economy hardly grew and that since the recession... its tax cutting and spending decrease has restored growth.

More...

That's NOT the part he wanted you to notice.

Ricter · May 15, 2012

Quote from jem:

You may have already studied the numbers... I have not.
But it looks to me that while sweeden was taxing the hell out of its people its economy hardly grew and that since the recession... its tax cutting and spending decrease, restored growth.

Came across the following just now:

"The Secret to Sweden's Success: Currency Debasement
By Matthew Yglesias
Posted Tuesday, May 15, 2012, at 4:16 PM ET

"In an interview with Ezra Klein, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is too sophisticated to argue that massive immediate fiscal retrenchment is needed to avoid a national default or bankruptcy. Instead he worries that massive immediate fiscal retrenchment is needed to prevent a collapse in the value of the dollar. He argues that Japan is due for such a currency crisis very soon and that the United States will follow. He warns darkly of money-printing and inflation. And he praises the approach of the center-right government of Sweden.

"But guess how Sweden weathered the crisis? That's right, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=Linear&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1337112256212&chddm=3034057&cmpto=CURRENCY:SEKUSD&cmptdms=0&q=CURRENCY:SEKEUR&ntsp=0">massive currency devaluation:</a>

<img src="http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/moneybox/2012/05/15/the_secret_to_sweden_s_success/1337112704269.jpg.CROP.article568-large.jpg">

"And good for them! But this just goes to show how confused Coburn is. When you're talking about a depressed economy that has a lot of idle resourcesâunemployed workers, vacant office and retail space, factories running below capacity, cranes going unusedâthen a currency depreciation helps reactivate the idle resources and generate a higher level of real output."

trefoil · May 15, 2012

Quote from RCG Trader:

Been saying this for months, do a search. Even tried to tell Max. But he has gotten the memo and gone off the cliff with rest of em. The party that Reagan built has become a Santorumstein.

Lugar just got defeated the other day by some Tea Party loon. In all my time here I don't remember reading a single bad thing about Lugar from any of the far right nuts who inhabit this forum, so I don't think anyone regarded him as a RINO. I admit I could be wrong about that, seeing as how I don't hang out in the trailer parks in the swamps or the desert (long as its cheap and in a no income tax state, right? as if you'd ever actually owe any...) where this sort of thing gets bandied about while these "traders" polish their guns.
Yet he's gone.

Lucrum · May 15, 2012

Quote from trefoil:

Lugar just got defeated the other day by some Tea Party loon. In all my time here I don't remember reading a single bad thing about Lugar from any of the far right nuts who inhabit this forum, so I don't think anyone regarded him as a RINO....

http://www.rinolist.org/2011/03/rino-dick-lugar-has-a-challenger/

good ole boy · May 15, 2012

Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

Another embittered liberal republican, desperate to get in the news. Of course, the one sure way for a republican to get media attention is to attack other republicans.

Hagel is delusional. I'm sure Reagan would have preferred todays republicans over the scared little girls he had to lead.

Anyway, last time I checked we hanged our heretics. Typical.

String em up. Yeeehaaah!!!!

jem · May 16, 2012

This is an interesting point.
So is it possible to lower taxes, decrease spending and debase your currency at the same time.

That was change vis a vis the Euro... Is that when the Euo was spiking relative to the us as well?

If so lets do it once we bolster our export sector.

Quote from Ricter:

Came across the following just now:

"The Secret to Sweden's Success: Currency Debasement
By Matthew Yglesias
Posted Tuesday, May 15, 2012, at 4:16 PM ET

"In an interview with Ezra Klein, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is too sophisticated to argue that massive immediate fiscal retrenchment is needed to avoid a national default or bankruptcy. Instead he worries that massive immediate fiscal retrenchment is needed to prevent a collapse in the value of the dollar. He argues that Japan is due for such a currency crisis very soon and that the United States will follow. He warns darkly of money-printing and inflation. And he praises the approach of the center-right government of Sweden.

"But guess how Sweden weathered the crisis? That's right, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=Linear&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1337112256212&chddm=3034057&cmpto=CURRENCY:SEKUSD&cmptdms=0&q=CURRENCY:SEKEUR&ntsp=0">massive currency devaluation:</a>

<img src="http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/moneybox/2012/05/15/the_secret_to_sweden_s_success/1337112704269.jpg.CROP.article568-large.jpg">

"And good for them! But this just goes to show how confused Coburn is. When you're talking about a depressed economy that has a lot of idle resourcesâunemployed workers, vacant office and retail space, factories running below capacity, cranes going unusedâthen a currency depreciation helps reactivate the idle resources and generate a higher level of real output."

Ricter · May 16, 2012

Quote from jem:

This is an interesting point.
So is it possible to lower taxes, decrease spending and debase your currency at the same time.

That was change vis a vis the Euro... Is that when the Euo was spiking relative to the us as well?

If so lets do it once we bolster our export sector.

You mentioned the other day that you saw a word you liked, perhaps one you hadn't seen before: tendentious.

Allow me to introduce another rather obscure word: monomaniacal.

: )