Doesn't he look retired?

edmo: Ask them how much a loaf of bread costs.

I don't know why this -- or more commonly, a gallon of milk -- is considered such an acid test of whether somebody is "in touch" with ordinary people. I'm solidly middle class and I couldn't tell you. I have a pretty good idea how much I spend on groceries every month, and the grocery basket doesn't vary much, but I really don't pay much attention to what individual items cost. And I suspect that the same is true for most people who aren't living on a tight budget.

I'm waiting for him to burst out laughing during a press conference and say it's all been a joke and then light up a joint and walk off.

Unfortunately, I think he's serious.

R.A.Danny: Such a gaffe will not help the Texas governor as he seeks to combat the notion, fostered in debates, that he lacks the intellectual heft for the presidency.

Did CBS news just call Perry stupid?

It's about time

Unfortunately that's looked on as a bonus in the Republican Primaries.

czetie: edmo: Ask them how much a loaf of bread costs.

I don't know why this -- or more commonly, a gallon of milk -- is considered such an acid test of whether somebody is "in touch" with ordinary people. I'm solidly middle class and I couldn't tell you. I have a pretty good idea how much I spend on groceries every month, and the grocery basket doesn't vary much, but I really don't pay much attention to what individual items cost. And I suspect that the same is true for most people who aren't living on a tight budget.

I'm a foodie and mostly eat home-cooked meals and rarely go out to eat. I do at least half the grocery shopping, a duty I share with my wife. I have only the vaguest idea what a gallon of milk costs. I rarely buy a whole gallon, and don't pay attention to the price when I do.

/can tell you what a six of Guinness costs, though

The audience brought up a few of Perry's current and former rivals. To one man who asked whether he would consider making Herman Cain his Secretary of Defense - a position Cain has said before he would like to take on - Perry said it was a bit early to be deciding on his Cabinet. Still, Perry said that Cain "has all the characteristics of the type of people I'd bring forward."

This is way more worrying than his budget stupidity. How can you not shoot down the idea of Herman Cain as secdef?

pudding7: I would like to have a conversation with someone who really believes the either the EPA or FDA should be eliminated. I am fascinated by how they think things would work.

Or, better yet, how much they are willing to cut from CBP/ICE. Especially since these are the same people chanting "Close the border! Closer the border!" Maybe they think private companies (who are the ones hiring illegals in the first place) will privately pay for one of those magical double-barrier fences?

Well, to be fair, congress calculates EVERYTHING based on 10 year intervals for some ridiculously stupid moronically idiotic reason. So... he's probably referring to 500 billion a year.

Aarontology: themindiswatching: 4. US Mint

Nah,I"m sure they could find a reason to privatize that.

The Mint's in the Constitution, as is the Post Office.

But strangely, "Strict Constitutionalists" are able to justify ignoring the parts of the Constitution they don't like.

/I hate ideologues.

He never said per year. You can cut $5 trillion from a $3.7 trillion annual budget by not spending $500 billion each year over 10 years. Much how Obama's planned savings from Obamacare was calculated to decrease the deficit by $1 trillion over 10 years.

pudding7: I would like to have a conversation with someone who really believes the either the EPA or FDA should be eliminated. I am fascinated by how they think things would work.

A few folks I work with are like that. They're not real big on specifics, think everything will be fine and wont affect them and then change the subject. e.g.:

Tea Partier: The Federal Highways program was one of the worst decisions the US government ever made?
Me: Why? Because it encouraged more dependence on cars, less walk able cities and urban/suburban sprawl that's difficult to provide mass transit to?
Tea Partiier: No, because the government has no business building roads. If people want a road they will build it themselves.
Me: What if you want to go on a trip you don't do very often, like drive down to Florida?
Tea Partier: I've got a Jeep, I can just drive over the fields.
Me: It'll take you a loooong time and cost a ton of fuel, and wouldn't you have to negotiate access with every landowner on the way?
Tea Partier: At least I would be forced to pay for roads I don't want, and there would be a system in place to sort out routes and access.

At that point I belatedly realized that nothing of value would come from further discussion.

kingoomieiii: czetie: edmo: Ask them how much a loaf of bread costs.

I don't know why this -- or more commonly, a gallon of milk -- is considered such an acid test of whether somebody is "in touch" with ordinary people. I'm solidly middle class and I couldn't tell you. I have a pretty good idea how much I spend on groceries every month, and the grocery basket doesn't vary much, but I really don't pay much attention to what individual items cost. And I suspect that the same is true for most people who aren't living on a tight budget.

WRONGO, Comrade Chinaruskie! Bread is $2.00-ish, milk is close to $4.00 a gallon.

And, as Family Guy so accurately pointed out, if you aren't the person in your relationship that shops, it's perfectly reasonable to not know that. "I don't go to the store, so I don't know what rice costs."

I do go to the store, and I don't know what rice costs.

I do at least half the grocery shopping in my house. And I could have told you milk is somewhere between $3 and $4 a gallon. But more accurately than that? Don't know, don't care, doesn't matter. (I just checked the receipt from my shopping earlier today and it was $3.69).

But I guess that makes me an out-of-touch elitist chinarusskie, or something.

Alien Robot: He never said per year. You can cut $5 trillion from a $3.7 trillion annual budget by not spending $500 billion each year over 10 years. Much how Obama's planned savings from Obamacare was calculated to decrease the deficit by $1 trillion over 10 years.

You can cut 50 trillion from a $3.7 trillion annual budget by not spending $500 billion each year over 100 years. Perry is soft on finance reform.

LandStander: trim five trillion from Obama's 3.7 trillion budget

So we'll be up 1.3 trillion a year?! Well, Perry's got my vote!

Shouldn't he be getting 2 of your votes, based on his math?

Why is it sad that America already read "Dumb-ass from Texas is President" and don't feel like re-reading it? The plot sucked and the ending was predictable the first time.

Good for America.

pudding7: Yeah, that's about how I imagine it would go.

Get rid of the EPA!
But who would monitor and regulate pollution?
If Exxon spilled oil, you could just sue them!
You're saying if their spilled oil harmed you, you could just sue the largest company in the world?
Yeah, the free market would stop them from polluting!
So even if they sold gas at 25 cents cheaper than anyone else, you would not buy from them because they polluted some beach in Alaska?
Yay Free Market! RON PAUL!

That is disturbingly close to a discussion another coworker had with that guy about the EPA.

ghare: Why is it sad that America already read "Dumb-ass from Texas is President" and don't feel like re-reading it? The plot sucked and the ending was predictable the first time.

Good for America.

Given that, I don't understand why Perry is even in the running. Is his base the same 25% that was still supporting George W Bush when he left office?

GaryPDX: Aarontology: Whenever a politician says something liek this, someone should ask them what they wish to cut and how much each program costs.

25% across the board, every department gets a hair cut. Everyone.

EEEVVVVEEERRYYYOOONNNEEEE

Oh, gee. Look at this. GaryPDX has proposed something stupid, unworkable, simple-minded, counterproductive, and puerile.

This is my surprised face.

Perry's War on Numbers continues....

Math like facts have a liberal bias

Most budget cuts are framed in terms of 10-year periods. I'm 99% sure that's what Perry meant. He's an idiot and he'd never actually do it, but it's not mathematically impossible.

pudding7: Farking While Farking: pudding7: I would like to have a conversation with someone who really believes the either the EPA or FDA should be eliminated. I am fascinated by how they think things would work.

A few folks I work with are like that. They're not real big on specifics, think everything will be fine and wont affect them and then change the subject. e.g.:

Tea Partier: The Federal Highways program was one of the worst decisions the US government ever made?
Me: Why? Because it encouraged more dependence on cars, less walk able cities and urban/suburban sprawl that's difficult to provide mass transit to?
Tea Partiier: No, because the government has no business building roads. If people want a road they will build it themselves.
Me: What if you want to go on a trip you don't do very often, like drive down to Florida?
Tea Partier: I've got a Jeep, I can just drive over the fields.
Me: It'll take you a loooong time and cost a ton of fuel, and wouldn't you have to negotiate access with every landowner on the way?
Tea Partier: At least I would be forced to pay for roads I don't want, and there would be a system in place to sort out routes and access.

At that point I belatedly realized that nothing of value would come from further discussion.

Yeah, that's about how I imagine it would go.

Get rid of the EPA!
But who would monitor and regulate pollution?
If Exxon spilled oil, you could just sue them!
You're saying if their spilled oil harmed you, you could just sue the largest company in the world?
Yeah, the free market would stop them from polluting!
So even if they sold gas at 25 cents cheaper than anyone else, you would not buy from them because they polluted some beach in Alaska?
Yay Free Market! RON PAUL!

On Bold statement #1:
It's funny because that is exactly what we, as a people, did. We collectively wanted roads, and collectively we built them.

On Bold statement #2:
These are the same people who whine about tort reform. Guess what an oil spill is? A tort- a massive tanker-full of tort ready to take a tort right all over them. These people would be living in toxic waste dumps if it weren't for the EPA, and they don't even know it.

LouDobbsAwaaaay: When you are clearly labeled as "the stupid one" in this crop of GOP hopefuls, you don't have the capacity for the introspection you desperately need.

I'm trying to imagine how he could be elected governor. Maybe he has street smarts?

/seriously, I don't have a clue how he could be elected. I'm just grasping at straws here.

This is the greatness of Perry! He is going to put the government in the black by $1.3T. No one will have to pay taxes and the 1.3T will be divided equally among Americans making everyone rich! Yay Rick Perry!

Given Republicans' policy of basically selling off the government to the private sector, I don't think that was a mistake . . .

pudding7: I would like to have a conversation with someone who really believes the either the EPA or FDA should be eliminated. I am fascinated by how they think things would work.

Unless they were born and raised in a world without the EPA and/or FDA (or similar agencies in other countries) then they really can't make a meaningful comment on how it would work without such oversight.

Instead, hand them a copy of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. History is often a good guide to understanding why the world works the way it does today.

Okay, I know this is a longshot, but is there any chance he was thinking about basically abolishing all government spending AND all tax expenditures? That would total up to about $4.9 trillion, and $5 trillion could just be an understandable simplification to make the number stick in people's heads better than an exact figure out to the billions or millions.