GOP No Longer The Party Of Business?

The Skinny: Heavy Spending Weakens Party's Grip On Fiscal Conservatives

(CBS)  The Skinny is Keach Hagey's take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.

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The Republican Party has been spending money like a shopaholic housewife with a new credit card, and now America's business community wants a divorce.

That's the gist of the Wall Street Journal's lead story, which tracks a multitude of indicators suggesting "a potentially historic shift in the Republican Party's identity" away from its century-long handle as the party of business.

The most prominent sign of dissatisfaction has come from former Federal Reserve Chief Alan Greenspan, a long-time Republican who blasted the current state of his party in his new book. In an interview with the Journal, he said: "The Republican Party, which ruled the House, the Senate and the presidency, I no longer recognize."

In a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll in September, 37 percent of professional managers identify themselves as Republican or leaning Republican, down from 44 percent three years ago.

And, increasingly, financially attuned people's money is going to Democrats. Hedge funds last year gave 77 percent of their contributions in congressional races to Democrats, up from 71 percent during the 2004 election. Overall, Democratic presidential candidates have raised more than $200 million this year, about 70 percent more than their Republican rivals.

Perhaps the grimmest news for the GOP's economic standing recently came from one of the party's own pollsters. Tony Fabrizio conduced a massive survey this year of the party's voters and compared it to results a decade ago. In 1997, about half of the party cared about economic issues and half about moral ones. Today, the culturally conservative wing is the same size, but economic conservatives accounted for just one in six Republicans. Meanwhile, the "deficit hawks" - fiscal conservatives of the Bob Dole and Bush 41 variety - are "all but extinct," the Journal reports.

"Democrats are the new conservatives," claims one former Reaganite corporate chairman who now helps with Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign. Republicans "are still talking tax cuts. It was one thing when Ronald Reagan was doing it and the top [income-tax] rate was about 80 percent. Now tax rates are reasonable. So what if I have to pay 5 percent more in taxes?"

Most Americans Want Cost Of Iraq War Trimmed

More grumbling about the Bush administration's spending habits showed up on the front page of the Washington Post this morning, in the form of a poll showing that most Americans oppose fully funding President Bush's $190 billion request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bush's approval rating tied an all time low of 33 percent in the Washington Post-ABC News poll. Congress is even less beloved, with a 29 percent approval rating.

All this unhappiness stems from the fact that most Americans do not believe Congress has gone far enough in opposing the war, with liberal Democrats especially critical of their party's failure to force the president into a significant change in policy. Overall, 55 percent of Americans want congressional Democrats to do more to challenge the president's Iraq policies.

Seven in 10 adults want the proposed $190 billion allocation for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars reduced, with 46 percent wanting it cut sharply or entirely.

While people may be fed up with Congress, Republicans are catching most of the blame. By a 2-to-1 margin, those who see few accomplishments in the Democratic Congress's first nine months place more blame on Bush and the GOP than they do the Democrats.

Candle In The Wind LLC

It seems Marlyn Monroe will never get any peace - not even decades after her death.

USA Today reports that her only heir is pushing for laws giving estates of dead celebrities sole control over marketing their famous personas. The feud is playing out in New York and California, which have very different approaches to the celebrity afterlife.

In New York, the right to market images dies with the celebrity. A bill to hand estates power over the images stalled, despite support from Al Pacino, Yoko Ono and the estates of Babe Ruth. The bill is likely to be reintroduced.

While In California, where lawmakers are more sympathetic to the entertainment industry, newly passed legislation would expand a state laws that allws estate to control the marketing of dead celebrities' images.

"Usually the motives of the estates are purely monetary," said one attorney.

Sometimes, they're very, very monetary. Monroe's heir - the third wife of her acting coach Lee Strasberg - has made $30 million from Monroe's estate, according to court papers. In 2001, she formed Marlyn Monroe LLC to manage it. It sells key chains, handbags and T-shirts with Monroe's image.


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[realpatriot1]

LARS008,

Do you even look at how what you say/read adds up? You claim that the "peace dividend" led to a half trillion cost reduction over 8 years then you claim its $100 billion per year. A half trillion($500 billion) divided by 8 =$62.5 billion, not $100 billion.

For the sake of argument I won''t quibble with that. I''ll give Reagan some credit(although not complete like you) for ending the cold war resulting in a peace dividend with positive results for the budget.

Now how does $100 billion per year result all by its lonesome in the elimination of a $400 billion deficit and why didn''t GWB #41 benefit as much from this as Bill Clinton?

How is it that Clinton deserves no credit for what happened on his watch on an issue he cared about and his predecessors ignored completely?

[lars008-2009]

The second effect of the Reagan years was to launch America into what is now widely regarded as a remarkable 15-year low-inflation, high-employment bull market (the Dow was at 800 in 1982, 8,000 today)--interrupted only mildly in the middle Bush years. These 15 years of prosperity were propelled by Reaganomics: lower tax rates, a long-run decline in inflation and interest rates (which also lowers tax rates), freer international trade and a strong dollar. Even with the anti-supply-side Bush and Clinton tax hikes, the top tax rate today of 40% is far below the towering 70% tax rate that disabled the economy in the 1970s. The end of the Cold War has created an international environment of peace and stability, nudging the economy into still higher gear in recent years.
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6107

[lars008-2009]

The historical irony is that the person most responsible for deficit reduction gets very little attention in the national media. The president who deserves the most credit for the fast-approaching balanced budget we are now witnessing is not Bill Clinton. And the Republican who deserves the most credit is not Newt Gingrich. Rather, the politician whose long-run policies are most responsible for leading us to a potential balanced budget next year is Ronald Reagan. Yes, Reagan, the man vilified by Clinton for "tripling the national debt in the 1980s."

Reagan''s legacy affects us dramatically today in two ways. First, Reagan''s anti-Communist foreign policy and his military buildup hastened the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In the past eight years, America''s victory in the Cold War generated a half-trillion-dollar peace dividend. That peace dividend grows every year, and it fell like manna from heaven into President Clinton''s lap. The budget deficit is falling, not primarily because Clinton raised taxes and not primarily because the congressional Republicans committed themselves to a balanced budget, but because the defense budget is nearly $100 billion lower today than when the Berlin Wall came down.

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6107

[pepperp1]

The GOP core base is rancid, it is made up of flim flam artist hiding their corruption behind Jesus talk, the anti social personality disorder types former addicts of *** drugs you name it, and their faithful following who are riddled with fear and a belief in their own inadequacy spawning faux righteousness in an attempt to cloak their lack of ethics, smarts, height and good looks and pull others down to their general mediocre level. And the Neo Conservative Billionaires puppeting them all, propping up war and conflict in the ME because they hate Islam it appears, seems at least the supposed Christian right may have finally caught on, those donations gone with the Bull Schit. You want to know who is controlling Bush research Freedom Watch types.

[realpatriot1]

Lars008,

Can I respond 24 hours later?

Yes, the Republican Congress deserves credit for approving a balanced budget and Clinton deserves credit for presenting a balanced budget for them to approve. Congress approves the budget but they work off the White House/OMB document. If the WH proposes
a deficit budget it becomes very difficult for Congress to work against that so it only happens with Presidential leadership.

Signof4,

It''s a pleasure to debate with you as well.
I''m not in a position to say that Reaganomics didn''t lead to increases in revenue, but other factors may have played a role as well(such as continued population growth). Much of what was predicted by the trickle down supply side Reagan economists did not pan out and even the Chief Guru David Stockman has admitted that it was a fraud.

Rahther than continuing a partison pissing match, which we always seem to come back to, we should be asking how we can get back to the kind of bipartison consensus we had on the budget when a Democratic President and a Republican Congress gave us that balanced budget.

[abbe91]

"I was merely pointing out ot Lars that pedophilia is a mental sickness and not the result of a social or political agenda.
Posted by rafterman1 at 03:10 PM : Oct 02, 2007"

But the cover-up can be result of a political agenda. Remember Foley ...

[abbe91]

"GOP No Longer The Party Of Business?"

Still the party of dirty business ...

[homespunlady]

It''s obvious that the GOP LEADERSHIP has manipulated a LOT of gullible people fascinated with fantasy National Enquirer "aristocracy" down the garden path to the financial guillotine.

I remember a couple of years back being "reminded" by a friend that the US was a "republic" and not technically a "democracy".

I suspect that the metastasizing long term economic, political and international repercussions that developed from such self righteous, elitist, attitudes and short sighted choices by a NEOCON run leadership may change that perspective.

The NEOCON takeover like so many other "Animal Farm" style sets of beliefs has come to symbolize unforgivable manipulation, excess, use and finally ABUSE of their respective followers.

We need to go back to something resembling a country with a RESPONSIBLE forward looking Democracy and RESPECT for the Constitution.

[lieslies99]

***** Stop The War & Corporate Corruption *****

Why Don''t You Know Ron Paul??????

The corporate media will not give Ron Paul any Exposure. Because, NBC is owned by GE. GE is one of the world''s largest war-makers. They make things that go boom. They make $Billions on war. A Ron Paul administration would be bad for business. CNN is owned by AOL. Majority share holder is Saudi Royal Talal who is also partners with GHWBush in The Carlyle Group. Another major warmaker. And on and on. You get the picture. This is why they are doing a Media Blackout on him. Because they don''t WANT YOU TO KNOW THE TRUTH!!!!!

Who is Ron Paul?
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Join A ReVoLuTiOn Group In Your City:
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RESTORE YOUR LIBERTY & FREEDOM
SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT RON PAUL 2008!

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GET UP AND GET ACTIVE TODAY!!!
Paul Is America''s Last Hope!

[kansas1946]

The Republican Party has been spending money like a shopaholic housewife with a new credit card, and now America''s business community wants a divorce.
********************
Gosh, ya'' think???? I guess no one has noticed this for the past six years? Bush never, and I repeat never, vetoted a spending bill, and in fact, never vetoed any bill, until expanded stem-cell research. It is telling about this guy that the first spending bill he vetoed in six years in office was one that could help millions of Americans. He has turned the Republican party on it''s head. Bigger govenrment, more spending, more intrusive into personal privacy. He is no Republican or conservative.

[finewoven]

it will take a generation who are not aware of how much a plague the GOP is . . .
Posted by toldyouso21 at 04:51 PM : Oct 02, 2007

The GOP, the party of Lincoln, certainly is not what it could have been. My assessment brings me back to that truism, "Absolute power corrupts . . yada yada . . absoulutely. Republican Congress with a Republican President, and then add the Judiciary--spelled major problems.

We are meant to have a balance of power, and keep in mind the greater power--is that of choice! It''s what makes our nation great.

My opinion of President Bush has that "hindsight is 20/20" angle. I remember the look on his face when he received word that the Twin Towers were hit, and could there have been a more sincere expression? People chid him for that expression, but I felt his depth of concern as well as his astonishment. And, I feel he rightly launched operations on the Taliban for harboring a violent criminal they refused to imprison.

But after that . . .

[finewoven]

But I do have constrained finger agility, and that "s" is really close to the "d" on the keyboard
BIG GRIN

Constrained Perception Disorder (CPD)

[finewoven]

Even now you people cannot admit he lost.
Posted by mudrose at 04:44 PM : Oct 02, 2007

People with a Constrained Perception Disorder (CPS) have difficulties with ultimate realities. I wouldn''t fall into that category. My difficulty with that situation was that Congress didn''t take care of it. The hanging chad then, and today the electronic voter machine, is a vehicle for skewing election results.

And the sad thing is that Gore (the better man for the job) did lose.

[mcvet]

Yup. You got that right. This is exactly where Hillary will pick up and I''''m hoping the American people will see it coming. Otherwise, we are in really big trouble.


Posted by mudrose at 04:07 PM : Oct 02, 2007
+ report abuse

Really!! Well tell us swastika breath how many BALANCED BUDGETS have the Fascist Presidents ever presented to congress... Don''t hurt yourselves there...we wouldn''t want that. The answer is ZERO!! NEVER... NA DA... NOT ONE... That''s right Not ONE from Reagan to Sir Lies-A-Lot has EVER presented Congress with a Balanced Budget. Now what in the the world would make anyone believe they can live within a budget and get this nation off the 450 MILLION DOLLAR tax increase that is hidden in that INTEREST on that hugh debt? You do know the tax payers pay for that INTEREST don''t you? Sieg Heil Y''all.

[toldyouso21]

Posted by toldyouso21

Still crying over spilt milk? Well, you''''ll be crying a whole lot more. We will defeat Soros in the next election. He is actually your next President.


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Posted by mudrose at 04:54 PM : Oct 02, 2007


Sorry, I''m not a Democrat so I don''t follow ''Soros--but like I said--ANYONE EXCEPT a Republican, when you look at what they offer (more of the Bush regime) America is saying no thank you. But keep talking, you were a big mouth right before the November elections too. Prognostication is definitely NOT your strong point. LMAO

[mudrose-2009]

Posted by toldyouso21

Still crying over spilt milk? Well, you''ll be crying a whole lot more. We will defeat Soros in the next election. He is actually your next President.

[mcvet]

Republicans Keep Their Promise: Balancing the Budget and Reducing Taxes
Getting to this point has not been easy. Prior to Republicans assuming control of Congress in 1995, President Clinton refused to embrace the idea of a balanced budget. Clinton''''s first budget called for an astronomical tax hike of $220 billion that Democrats in Congress increased to $240 billion. Clinton''''s first three budgets -- released in 1993, 1994, and 1995 (for FYs 1994, 1995, and 1996 respectively), left deficits of $241.4 billion, $201.2 billion, and $194 billion by his own estimation (which CBO scored at $228.5 billion, $206.2 billion, and $276 billion respectively). In the meantime he vetoed the Republicans'''' budget in 1995 -- a budget that would have cut taxes and been the first to have balanced since 1969. Not until election year 1996 did he even aspire to balance, producing a budget that left an $81 billion deficit in its final year.
http://www.senate.gov/~rpc/releases/19
97/BUDDEAL2.JT.htm

Posted by lars008 at 03:32 PM : Oct 02, 2007
+ report abuse

Man you are so full of it, it''s rediculous!! Clinton ran his ENTIRE champaign on the Deficit and balancing the Budget. He raised taxes on the rich to do that AND he forced the Fascist to shut down the Government to prevent them from giving Tax Cuts to the rich, which would have STOPPED a balanced budget. Now I know you freaks have bad memories but you are really the worst!! Check the CONGRESSIONAL Record Sparky... Sieg Heil Bush!! ROFLMAO

[toldyouso21]

Yeah, like telling Gore to stop counting in the Florida counties of his choice? The Court intervened because Gore tried to steal the election. Even now you people cannot admit he lost. Now you have more of the same on the horizon and you think nothing of it. This time they will steal more than an election. The will steal your country. Isn''''t that Hilarious too?


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Posted by mudrose at 04:44 PM : Oct 02, 2007


Democrats stealing the election from Republican rule is like OJ stealing his stolen collectibles. First we consider the source. Second we consider the state of the country and how it has fared and came to be in Republican hands and finally, we consider that being stolen or in any way getting away from the present owner is not a bad place to be.

By and large, most Americans cannot stomach the idea of Republican rule for another 2 years, let alone 4--it will take a generation who are not aware of how much a plague the GOP is, to allow them to rise out of the earth in about 12 years of so--and attempt to devour it again.

the GOP =The political locusts of our time.

[dmgenet]

It''s amazing how many times moderate, socially responsible and true fiscal conservative Republicans will listen to the dog and pony show about smaller government and less government. Then when they leave, they leave us with a huge deficit. Bush and his neocons are no exception. They''re credo is to advance their agenda at all costs...to the middle class, working poor, and the poor.

They still hold onto their quaint "liberal" idea that the wealth trickles down to the rest of us. How quaint. This so called economic pholospophy amounts to the "let them eat cake" philosophy.

All of it mere fodder for the cattle of the republican middle class. Bill Clinton was the last true fiscal conservative in the White House. What does that tell you?

[mcvet]

Yeah, like telling Gore to stop counting in the Florida counties of his choice? The Court intervened because Gore tried to steal the election. Even now you people cannot admit he lost. Now you have more of the same on the horizon and you think nothing of it. This time they will steal more than an election. The will steal your country. Isn''''t that Hilarious too?

Posted by mudrose at 04:44 PM : Oct 02, 2007
+ report abuse

Gore DID NOT lose Sparky! You pathetic Nazi''s can''t seem to accept the FACT that MORE Citizen''s of this NATION... you do remember the NATION don''t you? The citizens of this nation by several THOUSANDS wanted Gore as President. Maybe someday in our future we will fix the problem in our constitution that allowed the WORST in our history to get into the White House. Sieg Heil Y''all.