The two-part solution is campaign finance reform and enough Democrats to prevent such toddler-tantrum filibustering.
13) The budget is determined by the President, modified & passed into law by Congress. In Dubya's case, there is much spent that is truly off-budget, such as military funding (over & over) and the trillion-plus annual interest on the Republican National Debt.
14) America does not "tax corporations to death". Corporations are doing quite well, paying 15% in tax, while the dying Middle Class pays 28% or more. The last two years, savings in America has gone negative (and that is including what the Wealthy Class set aside) -- the first such condition since the Republican Great Depression. Hmmm.
15) You forget (or never learned) that "Labor is the source of all wealth".
16) "We are a Republic, based on capitalism." You obviously failed Civics Class. The United States is a republican democracy, or was until the Reagan Revolution, which changed America into a fascist-corporatist Oligarchy.
The Oligarchy now owns 65% of everything in America (similar around the world), and the Wealthy Class own 90%. The Middle Class is near dead, labor unions are prevented by law from organizing, and the goal of the Oligarchy is slave wages, a rubber-stamp Congress, and elections based on Fox News propaganda.
17) I am not a liberal, nor is liberal a dirty word. I am a progressive, and the Republican Party is told what to do by the Corporatist-Fascists, as delivered to them by the lobbyists of K Street, etc.
Disregard this Rovian propaganda and vote in November. But be very clear about the choice that you are making: If you do not vote to restore constitutional democracy, or if you do not vote at all, then you have voted for the Corporatist-Fascist Oligarchy.
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