Dealing With Clueless Bush Supporters Like My Sibling

[ulTRAX]

Talking to a sibling the other day I raised the topics of the Bush deficits and Social Security. S/he said they didn't know anything about the federal budget but thought foreign aid was probably the biggest problem causing the deficit. That foreign aid is blamed is hardly uncommon. But when I explained how much we give to, say Israel, and asked if s/he knew how much was spent on interest on the national debt I got first a blank stare then a guess of one million dollars. How can I share genes with this person?

I don't think that even the 320 BILLION for interest figure even registered. Many can't tell the difference between a million, a billion, and a trillion. After all... it's just adding 3 more numbers each time.. right? Politicians... including Democrats... hide their fiscal irresponsibility behind abstractions. Kerry even did it in the last campaign.

We have to make these budget numbers known and understood. Maybe then these clueless Bush supporters will wake up to how Bush is a danger to the nation. I still think the visual approach is best: http://www.crunchweb.net/87billion/ BTW.. their math is off and understates the true volume of cash.

[thefloyd]

1. You can also bring up the similarities between

Reagan's trickle down and Bush's economic policies. For some reason Democrats do not make the connection in public. Also, supplement the argument with good ol David Stockman's article.

[ulTRAX]

8. generally Dems have done little to discredit Voodoo Economics

The Right has been busy the past 10 years doing an Orwellian rewrite of the Reagan Era. They have fabricated a phony revenue boom and to explain away Reagan's massive deficits they just blame the Democrats for overspending.

Even though it's quite simple to do so... the Dems have done little to expose this propaganda leaving the Right free to hoodwink all too many American's like my clueless sibling again and again.

[Warpy]

2. Explain a billion this way

A rich man married a trophy wife, only to discover she insisted her mother move in with them. Not wanting to disturb the ongoning honeymoon with the trophy wife by evicting his mother in law, the rich man decided to send the old gal shopping. He gave her an allowance of a thousand dollars a day, told her to come home when it was gone.

At that rate, a million dollars would keep his mother in law out of his hair for a little less than three years.

At that rate, a billion dollars would keep her gone for nearly three thousand years.

And that's how much a billion is.

[RuleofLaw]

7. Thank you so much!

[TwentyFive]

3. It's not genes - your sibling is part of a cult

Call it the Limbaugh effect if you want, but I've found most republicans only mouth off the talking points given to them by their leaders.

Get them outside the talking points, and they really have no clue what is going on.

The problem is they don't ever question the validity of what they are told...probably because the leaders have set themselves up as defenders of the country. Very similar to a cult. Scary!

[thefloyd]

9. A friend of mine tried to kick me out of his house

for raining on his little propaganda parade. I hear the same talking points from every Neoconservative I talk to. They always bring up "Kerry volunteered for vietnam for his career" I am like really does that make sense for a guy that went to Yale.

[okieinpain]

4. that's why banning gay marriages is so much more easier to

deal with.

[sarcasmo]

5. At least your wife isn't a Right Wing nut like mine, the Social Security

issue is making my wife see the error of her ways. She said I didn't know he was going to do this to Social Security, LMFAO. At least my vote washed hers and the Dems won Michigan.

[ulTRAX]

10. it ain't my wife

As I said... it's a sibling.

[KissMeKate]

6. republicans cant deal with cognitive dissonance, so they believe any lie

if the truth interferes with their set belief system.

[ulTRAX]

12. the Right has no monopoly on irrationality

After all many if not the vast majority of those in the Democratic Party would claim to believe in democracy when their Party actually perpetuates an anti-democratic system by trying to game it instead of pushing for democratic reforms.

[ulTRAX]

11. Here's How to Visualize the Bush Deficit/Debt

According to the CBO the Bush 05 deficit was estimated to be $368 billion and with another $173 borrowed from various federal trust funds their TRUE deficit estimate is $541 billion. Source" http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=1944&sequence=0

But the Whitehouse wants another $80 billion for the war and they issued a statement that the deficit would be $427 billion... which is $59 billion higher than the CBO estimate. But assuming that's true.... that $173 Billion STILL must be added in making the deficit estimate an even $600 BILLION.

Since few have any sense what a billion is.... here's what $600 Billion looks like.....

$600 billion is 26238580.8 cubic feet of tightly packed $1.00 bills. A regulation football field is 360x160 including end and side zones.

The Bush deficit would cover a football field with a stack of cash 455 FEET tall.

According to http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/~www/opdpen.cgi Bush ran up $1,886,272,564,469.73 since he took office.... that would cover a football field with a stack of cash 1430 FEET tall.


Figures derived at using the following math which should probably be rechecked:

A dollar bill is 6.125" x 2.625" x .0047"

$1.00 bill = .0755671 cubic inches

$22867.09 in a cubic foot... at least mathematically.

$1 Billion....... 1000000000 / 22867.09 = 43730.968 cubic feet


BUSH DEBT:
01/21/2005 $7,614,468,360,651.30

01/22/2001 $5,728,195,796,181.57

TOTAL DEBT $1,886,272,564,469.73