The conflicts between labor and management kept getting worse, escalating bureaucracy made change increasingly difficult, and a creeping sense of entitlement sucked away its competitiveness and creativity.
They yearn for a radical who will yank an out-of-control federal government up by its roots, or at least starve it of revenue, prune entitlements, chop away job-strangling regulation and free (or force) citizens to take more individual responsibility for their pensions and health care.To many Republicans this is an inspiring prospectus.
"We see tremendous anxiety with the potential of the U.S. to go into recession and one of the greatest way to restore confidence is, not to have a speech and not to lay out a set of vague principles, but to see the elected representatives of the American people working on entitlement reforms right away".
Our solutions are awesome, because when you don't fund entitlements, they go away, and then you don't have an entitlement program.
Labor unions and other liberal groups that helped re-elect President Obama are starting a push this week to make sure that any new budget deal does not chisel away at entitlement programs.
That's because those who are piggybacking on others' journeys do not only have more channels to flaunt their cluelessness and sense of entitlement (Iggy Azalea, walk away from Twitter) but they are also being called out on it more.
Mr. Beck's themes were ones he returns to on his radio and television shows, and people in the crowd echoed his ideas, saying that "progressives" were moving the country toward socialism and that the country must get back to a strict interpretation of the Constitution, which would limit the role of the federal government and do away with entitlement programs.
And, as Jonathan Chait points out, the president is actually getting a pretty good deal:It appeared that Obama blundered into a hostage crisis he didn't need, and then wound up offering Republicans an absurdly generous deal, trading away major entitlement cuts in return for a pittance of revenue -- no higher than what will be raised if the Bush tax cuts expire on schedule.
Furthermore, this refusal to contemplate a tax increase — which I'd characterize as an extreme Republican stance — has brought what seems to be an extreme Democratic response: President Obama's latest budget plan is moving away from entitlement reform and embracing multiple tax increases on the wealthy.
The G.O.P.'s refusal to contemplate any tax increase, added Cowen, "has brought what seems to be an extreme Democratic response: President Obama's latest budget plan is moving away from entitlement reform and embracing multiple tax increases on the wealthy.
