[OFB Cafe] JOE BIDEN: RIAA STOOGE

[Timothy Butler]

>>       Agreed, to an extent. But, if you let major investment banks go
>> under, it would have rocked the entire economy, not just the
>> investors. It wouldn't have been trickle down economics, it would  
>> have
>> been downpour economics.
>
> You seem to think that money can be invented out of thin air by the
> government with no consequence. The 15% inflation we saw in 2008 is a
> result of the government devaluing the currency by throwing $30
> billion here, $600 billion there, without raising taxes to cover the
> increased spending.

	No, that is not what I said. You'll note I said we should spend less.  
Now, as I asked before, what do you present as an alternative? Let the  
investment banks go down with the companies that depend on them? Who  
do you think employs all the workers Obama is so worried about?  
Bailouts are really nothing new or novel. They are somewhat of a  
necessary evil.

>
>
>>       There's more to McCain's remark -- he goes on to say (using  
>> what
>> might be best called a dash and not a period) that he supports  
>> keeping
>> troops there for 100 years in the same manner they are in South Korea
>> (i.e. not fighting).
>
> US troops are already supposed to be in Iraq in a
> peacekeeping/occupying role. What sort of role do you think that
> McCain plains for them for the next 100 years, if not exactly the same
> as they are today?

	Note that we do not occupy South Korea. We do not battle insurgents  
in Germany. We do not have casualties in Japan. Given that those are  
the sorts of places that McCain linked to his plan, I think clearly we  
are not in the role he proposes. The role he is arguing for is one  
that can spring into action if something goes terribly wrong, but  
would let the Iraqi state handle its own affairs. If it cannot, well,  
whatever he would do, that quote clearly does not address it.

> McCain wasn't Bush until this year. Karl Rove significantly altered
> McCain's positions on just about everything so that McCain could
> retain votes from the core republican base.

	Last I checked, Karl Rove is just a talking head these days. Have I  
somehow missed his employment by the McCain campaign?

	To the point, I think if you compare McCain on the issues, there are  
only a few he has shifted on -- off shore drilling, for example -- a  
shift on which could be justified by means other than purposefully  
becoming more Bush like. McCain is too blunt to do something so  
politically driven. I mean, c'mon, we're talking about a guy that goes  
to Iowa to talk about how he wants to reduce farmers' subsidies.

	-Tim


---
Timothy R. Butler | "Turning and turning in the widening gyre
tbutler at ofb.biz   |  The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
timothybutler.us  |  Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
uninet.info       |  Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world..."
                                                 -- W. B. Yeats