i'm going to apologize in advance that this is going to be a bit rant-y, so reading past this point may be infuriating....

there is a distinct difference between "flawed policy" and "purposely ignoring facts to try to make a political point that serves no purpose". no matter how many times non-partisan studies show that you can't cut your way to prosperity, and austerity doesn't work during a recession, and that the rich have way more wealth than they've ever had before and don't need any more tax breaks, the House GOP still insists on taking the economy to the brink and holding debt ceiling hostage to try to get more cuts to entitlements and other programs that actually help people struggling to find work. we can civilly disagree all day about plenty of other things policy-wise, but the blame for how badly the general economy has been doing for the last four years at the federal level is a direct result of the republicans in the House trying to pressure dems into accepting cuts to entitlements and other programs, when both sides should come together and pass something bi-partisan.

so instead of working on something that can get through both chambers of Congress, we get hostage-taking and brinkmanship, and the first ever credit downgrade in US history. but still the GOP insists it's obama doing the damage. the latest push to move the debt ceiling vote and the compromise to avoid the "fiscal cliff" tells me things *might* improve soon, but given the talk from people like boehner and cantor, a refusal to allow FEMA to be funded after Sandy not long after begging for FEMA money for their own states' disasters, and a new bill to completely abolish the federal tax code, i'm not holding my breath that things will get any better before that March vote.

i will grant that there are plenty of reasonable people at all levels of politics on both sides of the aisle (and not in a Godfather kind of reasonable way, although that's also a possibility too ). but at the national level, there are way too many loons on your side of things, many of whom signed on to sponsor the current bill to abolish the tax code. i'm sorry that the republicans are currently in the midst of doing lots of crazy things recently that i feel the need to point them out to people. when they stop doing stupid and/or crazy things i promise i'll tone it down and let things happen as they may. i have no problem with the GOP (or dems for that matter) doing reasonable things as a matter of principle. it's when they do crazy stupid things and blame it on principle that i take offense to their actions.