Can the GOP move past tea party "number crunching"?
Adding to the challenge is the Republican notion that Mr. Obama has refused to engage in a serious discussion about deficits and debt, or spending cuts. "While he refuses to talk about them, we've become fixated on talking about them," Holt said.
Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway, who attended last week's House Republican retreat, told CBSNews.com that her research following the presidential election bears that out. Republicans lost last year, she said, in part because they weren't framing their discussion about the economy in terms that matter most to voters (Conway's research shows voters largely care about economic security and affordability). Additionally, she said, the GOP's focus on the economy was just too overwhelming.
The economy, Conway noted, has for several years been the top issue for the plurality of voters -- around 42 percent of voters, she said.
"The Romney people thought [focusing on] the economy would be enough," Conway said. "It's not enough. The 42 percent dismisses the other 58 percent... [The GOP] put too much emphasis on the economy to the exclusion of things like foreign policy, immigration, education and, frankly, to the exclusion of necessities like using new media to reach voters."
Republicans are now working on expanding their agenda -- Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for instance, is leading the way on immigration. They're also working on updating their operations, so they can catch up to the Democrats' ground game and use of new media.
"We need to empower, equip and train our candidates, volunteers, and operatives," RNC Chairman Reince Priebus plans to say today at the winter meeting, "whether it's a college activist recruiting volunteers in Pasadena or a small businesswoman running for town council in New Jersey. Let's host Skype-based training sessions and Google hangouts on campaign strategy, fundraising, door-to-door advocacy, and digital tools... In the digital space, we don't want just to keep up. We want to seize the lead."
Priebus and Jindal are not only prescribing a more sophisticated technical network but also a stronger, broader grassroots network. Jindal said yesterday that the party needs to "re-orient our focus to the place where conservatism thrives - in the real world beyond the Washington Beltway." Priebus, in his planned remarks, notes that "it's time to stop looking at elections through the lens of 'battleground states.' We have four years till the next presidential election, and being a 'blue state' is not a permanent diagnosis."
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If not the GOP is destined to extinction...
Thanks for proving my point, even though AVERAGE post-WWII federal revenue is closer to 18.5% of GDP, which we NEVER attained after 2001, and it actually fell to a mere 14% of GDP which obviously cannot sustain our spending -- especially when our national security is costing us $1.3+ trillion each year!
You don't actually 'think' that 2011 gave us revenue of 18% of GDP, do you? That year we had revenue of a mere 14% of GDP, and still a $1.3+ Trillion bill for the military-industrial complex!
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No we didn't have 18% of GDP in revenues in 2011, 18% would have been 2.7 trillion we only raised about 2.3 trillion, so it was about 15.5%. The point is, even if we would have had 18% in revenues we still would have ran a deficit of over 900 billion. There is simply no way around it, we need to cut federal spending in a drastic way. Yes that includes the military industrial complex and a whole bunch of other things as well.
It doesn't, but economically-challenged teabagging extremists don't seem to understand what the current drivers of our deficits happen to be, and conveniently forget that the first time in our history, we waged the longest WARS while cutting taxes.
Our national security cost was less than $300 billion in 2000, and had ballooned to a whopping $1.2+ Trillion by 2008 -- definitely not sustainable while cutting revenue to 14% of GDP.
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Since 1950, revenue from all sources has AVERAGED around 18% of GDP(sometimes being higher and sometimes lower), despite top tax rates that have been anywhere from over 90% to 28%. Regardless of the many efforts to get more revenues, that's pretty much what the government can expect to have for spending.
If you take the GDP for 2011, 15.09 Trillion x 18% = 2.71 trillion. The amount spent in 2011 was 3.6 trillion, obviously we don't have a tax problem...IT'S A SPENDING ADDICTION. Yes, it is both sides of the isle in Congress and the President that are the problem here. It's called the welfare-warfare state.
Thanks for proving my point, even though AVERAGE post-WWII federal revenue is closer to 18.5% of GDP, which we NEVER attained after 2001, and it actually fell to a mere 14% of GDP which obviously cannot sustain our spending -- especially when our national security is costing us $1.3+ trillion each year!
You don't actually 'think' that 2011 gave us revenue of 18% of GDP, do you? That year we had revenue of a mere 14% of GDP, and still a $1.3+ Trillion bill for the military-industrial complex!
Article I gives the POWERS of Congress; Article II gives the POWERS of the President; and Article III gives the POWERS of the Judiciary.
Comrade Obama should be impeached for taking adavantage of the mentally impaired Liberals by getting them to vote for him.
Yes, and while I'm not holding my breath for our dysfunctional congress to start working for ALL Americans, nor for the rabid right-wing nut jobs to cease and desist with their vitriolic political rhetoric and attacks on everyone with a different opinion, look, sexual preference or religious belief.
The republican party has a terrible, perhaps fatal, case of indigestion. It swallowed the tea party and now can neither digest it nor rid itself of the rancid meal. Unfortunately, their indigestion is making all of America sick, and it's up to them to kick the extremists to the curb for good!
It doesn't, but economically-challenged teabagging extremists don't seem to understand what the current drivers of our deficits happen to be, and conveniently forget that the first time in our history, we waged the longest WARS while cutting taxes.
Our national security cost was less than $300 billion in 2000, and had ballooned to a whopping $1.2+ Trillion by 2008 -- definitely not sustainable while cutting revenue to 14% of GDP.
The once-battered housing sector is recovering, which is boosting construction and home prices.
More home building will likely increase job growth. And economists expect construction firms to add jobs this year as the housing recovery strengthens.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/01/24/unemployment-claims/1861011/
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YELLOW_BELLY replies: "You do know that's because of job growth in Red states that are involved with oil and gas exploration".
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Hey yellow_belly -- that's not true at all, and only one sector of our economy, since housing/construction has led in every post-WWII recovery EXCEPT from the bush/cheney Great Recession, where deregulation of the Wall Street GREED completely destroyed that economic sector for years!
I'm tired of listening to all you fox/rush parrots spewing the same GLOOM and DOOM B.S., recommending that we put all our eggs into one lousy basket for the OIL/GAS profiteers, when we need to grow our economy in all areas which also includes renewable energy.
Hey, and just look at the stock market which the mormon cultist told us needed him to soar. He lied like the rest of the scheming republicans!
EARLYSAID replies: "President Obama is the sane and responsible man with a republican party who don't believe in science, hate to admit to climate change and really do not want women to have rights even against violence. Republicans have alienated so many people in the country with hateful talk and mean actions. Now they think anyone but the most rabid Foxites believe them - Not going to happen".
The republican party has a terrible, perhaps fatal, case of indigestion. It swallowed the tea party and now can neither digest it nor rid itself of the rancid meal. Unfortunately, their indigestion is making all of America sick, and if they cannot remove this extremism of calling President Obama a "socialist" or "Marxist," and calling Americans "freeloaders" looking for "gifts" or "free stuff," their numbers will continue to dwindle.