[ExI] Warren Buffett is worried too and thinks Republicans are "asinine"

[John Clark]

On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 3:43 PM, Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com>wrote:

>> Easy, if you're in congress you vote to spend less money.
>
>
> > Uh, that just never happens.
>

Yes it never happens, your Tea Party buddies vote to buy more stuff and
then when the bill comes due they vote to break their word and declare that
just refusing to pay what the owe will solve the countries economic
troubles.

> And if things don't come out your way you try to convince others to come
>> around to your way of thinking so that next time the outcome is different.
>> What you DON'T do is have a temper tantrum and try your very best to
>> destroy the world because you're angry that you lost.
>>
>
> > So Obama in stating that he would not negotiate with the other side is
> MORE rational?
>

Yes, much more rational. I don't even like Obamacare but negotiating with
terrorists is worse. And below is a list of the demands that at various
times the Tea Party insisted that Obama submit to in order to avoid
default.

*1.* A balanced budget amendment

*2.* Approving Keystone XL

*3.* Eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood

*4.* Medicare privatization

*5.* Tax reform, as outlined by Paul Ryan

*6.* The REINS Act, which would require Congress to approve significant
federal regulations

*7.* Means-testing Social Security

*8.* Defunding Obamacare

*9.* Allowing employers to eliminate insurance coverage for birth control

*10.* An expansion of off-shore drilling

*11.* Preserving all the Bush tax cuts

*12.* “Trillions” in budget cuts

*13.* Slashing funding for food stamps

*14.* Protecting mountaintop strip mining

*15.* Stripping the EPA of authority to regulate greenhouse gases

*16.* Loosening regulation on coal ash

*17.* Delaying Obamacare implementation by one year

*18.* Repealing a tax on medical devices

*19.* Eliminating Social Service Block Grants

*20.* Expanding drilling on federal lands

*21.* Restricting the child tax credit

Just as virtually everybody predicted months ago, even the non-hillbilly
Republicans said so, the Tea Party ended up getting NONE of their demands,
zero zilch nada goose egg. All they got was the contempt of the American
voters for Republicans, the lowest favorable rating either party has ever
gotten in history.

> > See, there you go calling the Tea Party terrorists.
>

I make absolutely no apology for calling somebody who uses terrorists
tactics, such as the Tea Party fools did last Wednesday, a terrorist.

> That's not the way to build consensus, even amongst us friendly
> individuals.
>

If I can’t speak my mind without worrying about political correctness on
the Extropian list where can I? And it has been my understanding that most
Extropians have libertarians tendencies, but other than advocating lower
taxes and less government spending (except in my district!) the Tea Party
is about as far from libertarian as its possible to get. For example, that
Tea Party favorite the NRA is uncompromising in its defense of  the Second
Amendment, but as for the First Amendment not so much. NRA president Wayne
LaPierre wants the government to censor stuff, he said “Guns don’t kill
people. Video games, the media and Obama’s budget kill people.”  And on a
issue that should especially interest those involved in Cryonics, nobody is
more paranoid about the potential evils of euthanasia than the Tea Party.

>> wars are very expensive, the Republicans started 2 and refused to raise
>> taxes to pay for them.
>>
>
> > I was never in favor of the first or second Iraq war. I was not in favor
> of the expensive nation building in Afghanistan.
>

Your opinion of the merits of the war, or rather of the wars, is of no
importance whatsoever and neither is whatever buyers remorse the House of
Representatives may have today. Regardless of what they may think about it
now the fact remains that they voted to purchase those 2 white elephants,
and votes have consequences and bills need to be paid.


> >> I don't know how you determine the position of the Tea Party about
>> anything except by looking at the position of Tea Party members, and nearly
>> all of the most prominent ones are creationists, and very vocal and
>> militant ones too. And there is a connection, if you don't think logic is
>> important in one subject, like biology, then you probably don't think logic
>> is important in another subject, like economics. At any rate it would
>> certainly be irrational to claim that there is not a very strong connection
>> between the Tea Party and creationism.
>>
>
> > There is indeed a strong correlation. I just find it irrelevant.
>

Ask yourself this question, what attribute would a mind need to have such
that it believed that both creationism and defaulting on the debt were good
ideas? It sure as hell isn’t a fondness for logic!

> I don't think it's all that wild. Silver did a bigger jump [than bitcoin]
> in 1978 and everyone sees that as money.
>

No they don't, being valuable and being money is not the same thing. These
days it's very rare for somebody to exchange silver (or gold) for goods or
services, they use greenbacks instead. People buy gold and silver for
jewelry and for a few industrial applications, but mainly they buy it as a
speculation, the same reason they would buy a stock.

>> government can print money and corporations can't. Printing money can be
>> a wonderful thing, or a terrible thing, it depends on the circumstances.
>>
>
> > I think it's a terrible thing to print too much of it.
>

I agree, and printing too little money can be just as bad as we found out
in the 1930's.

> In what sense has the dollar not lost value? Gold has gone up a lot. Oil
> has gone up. Everything of real value has gone up.
>

Gold has gone up recently because of investor fears that Tea Party
knuckleheads would destroy the dollar, so they dumped dollars and bought
gold. But overall prices have gone up only 1.4% over the last 12 months and
that is the lowest its been in decades; in fact its too low, most
economists think that in a economy that isn't stagnant inflation shouldn't
get below 2%.

  John K Clark
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