Political Discussion

[newbeginning]

bandit,

the turn around that occurred during Reagan's admin. was certainly not under the same circumstances as it is today. not the same... not to mention that many of the deregulation that occurred during his admin. (et. al) helped contribute to this financial debacle. too much faith in the CAPITALIST system at the expense of common sense consequence of GREED. like i've said before, this has been festering for decades. no one cared as long as the UGLY side of it didn't rear its head. it has now...

hey, i'm with you on the whole two party system/failure. i'm no great fan of Obama, but i do pray for him and our leadership to get things right (whatever that entails). one thing that i have mentioned that we cannot go back to is the way IT WAS... that would be counter-productive...

if after Obama leaves office w/o doing what set out to do and all we get is another entrenched politician that is unwilling to look outside the box for meaningful change, then we all are truly doomed...

jmho

[JRScott]

I voted for Obama, frankly, because he seemed to "represent" something remotely idealistic. Worried about what is happening now, certainly, but not much we can do now but PRAY that our sensible politicians take this scary, but best opportunity, imho, to make some painful changes that should have been made decades ago:

1. Health reform: Don't give the industry an option! The health industry will have no choice but to follow new laws. They're not going to leave the USA for some place else. The problem has always been tied to the burdening profits that the industry enjoys at the expense of the taxpayers, citizens. BTW, tax credits are a joke (GOP plan)! Unless these tax credits are going to be huge (further increasing deficit), they will certainly do nothing to stem the increasing cost of health insurance.

2. How ironic. I've said this before, but we are indebted and dependent upon the largest, most repressive COMMUNIST country in the world to keep us afloat. Nothing against the Chinese, they deserve the peak of wealth they are enjoying, but our foreign policy has long been hypocritical and cowardly. Keep the tiny island Cuban Communists down, but as long as MONEY and potential consumer growth continues from the People's Republic, no embargo, no boycott, etc.

3. Financial regulatory reform: Need it. Can't trust the individuals making the decisions to keep our capitalist system honest w/o hurting the common citizen. Once again the MORE BUSINESS FRIENDLY/LESS GOVERNMENT (not true, of course) GOP resist the idea.

4. Read recently that the vast majority of the insane deficit is a result of what Obama is inheriting. Funny we don't hear about that. We don't hear that the GOP insistence on keeping the tax breaks from previous is a good chunk of the deficit bloating.

5. Pork. Obama's fault? BOTH parties abuse this.

Boy, do i have more to share, but won't. I love this country, but have little faith in the citizens in recognizing that WE ARE ALL TO BLAME FOR WHERE WE ARE NOW. Think about it. How many of you jump for joy when someone says "tax cuts." Do you realize that when our politicians buy your vote by promising tax cuts, that someone has to pay for those tax cuts? And in the end, the cuts are not significant enough to make a dent in our overall lives for the most part.

Oh, well. I'm blabbering. Gotta go. I need to figure out how i'm going to spend my share of the tax cuts we're now getting...

1. We can't afford what they are doing in Congress and even Congress is starting to realize that. I told someone months ago that I doubted they'd ever see National Health Care because we can't afford the plans proposed. Keep in mind the CBO always under estimates costs of programs and overestimates revenue from taxes. It is the one thing they do consistently. Should we do nothing, no. There are some simple reforms that do not require national health care that could lower the costs of health services thus lowering the cost of medical care.

A. Limit Malpractice Payouts. It is time to reign in what has been seen by many shifty lawyers and individuals as a gold mine. It is unreasonable to pay out any award that would be greater than the individual would have earned in their liftetimes. Limit payout to 30x annual income plus burial and medical costs. Properly invested 30x the annual income should provide sufficient relief for the family for some number of years going forward. Although sad that children occasionally die under the care of a doctor I don't think a large payout is warranted. They were no providing income prior to death and certainly should be after death, however the insurance should have to pay burial and medical expenses due to malpractice for children.
B. Limit Medicare/Medicaid payment increases to the rate of inflation. Currently companies bill non Medicare/Medicaid patients the rate + 15% in hopes of raising the payouts of Medicare/Medicaid in the future.
C. Windfall tax on Pharmaceutical Companies who average around 26% profit a year which is almost four times the profit rate of big oil. If they lower their profit margin to around 8% yearly then they don't have to pay the tax, beyond that they have to pay the tax which should be burdensome so as they'll stop doing it. (8% is around the rate of Forbes 500 companies and is a highly reasonable and respectable profit).

2. Andrew Jackson would be appalled by the indebtedness of our nation today especially after he paid off the national debt when he was President, the only President to ever do so.

3. The reform we need is not what Obama's administration is proposing. Giving more power to the people who failed us in the first place is not the answer. What we need to do is disband the Federal Reserve Bank by nationalizing it and then moving the US gov't deposits to local/regional banks. (Much like Andrew Jackson did while he was president when he destroyed the private Bank of the United States, a forerunner of the Federal Reserve Bank we have today). The Federal Reserve bank is the reason we have bubbles and collapses, it is the sole purpose of the bank.

4. The United States had no debt at the end of Andrew Jackson's administration. He was the 7th President of the United States. It took George W. Bush 8 years to double the deficit. At the rate he's going currently with this Congress President Barrack H. Obama will double it in 4. This doesn't include the ongoing massive unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. President Obama is robbing the Social Security Fund at twice the rate President Bush was. We simply cannot continue the spending. It is not just the President's who are to blame but the Congress who has steadily spent more money than they have taken in since R and D became the main parties 150 years ago. I fully believe every single one of them that has voted on any budget or bill and they knew we did not have the money and every President that signed the bill should be rounded up and charged with Treason, it is no different than if they had gone and took up arms against this nation.

[JRScott]

Here you go, Bandit....your 'economy is improving' facts published a week ago - http://www.moneymorning.com/2009/06/...ession-ending/

Eleven unbiased economic indicators show we aren't out of the woods yet, but things are slowly looking better.

You might consider changing the channel from Fox News every once in a while and get a less biased look at the real world around you. I also encourage everyone watching only MSNBC to do the same.

Historically you might look at this as good news. However keep in mind between 1929 and 1935 more wealth was created than at any other time in the country's history. There were many small gains and then deep losses.

We are looking at ARMs resetting for the next 5 years.

We are also looking at the entitlement programs going insolvent within 10 years.

We are looking probably at rising unemployment for at least another year with NC for instance predicted to top out at over 12% unemployment.

Basically during the next decade we will see sporadic rises in the economic condition then deep declines as the next wave hits like ripples in a pond.

[Bandit]

hey, i'm with you on the whole two party system/failure. i'm no great fan of Obama, but i do pray for him and our leadership to get things right (whatever that entails). one thing that i have mentioned that we cannot go back to is the way IT WAS... that would be counter-productive...

if after Obama leaves office w/o doing what set out to do and all we get is another entrenched politician that is unwilling to look outside the box for meaningful change, then we all are truly doomed...

Um, Obamaboywonder isn't going to do what he said any more than bushboy jr. did. I hope it doesn't take you 4 years to get that. He has already renigged on what he said. I have never been a fan of obama either and I never voted for him as senator as well.

I disgaree that going back to the way it was would be counter productive. We need to go back to the freedom we used to have. We need to go back to the days of a middle class being a true opportunity, we need to go back to making a real choice when we vote. We need to go back to the time when a father could raise a family on a fair wage. We need to go back to when owning a home was possible for all. We need to go back to days that 12 year old children weren't sending nude pics of themselves over a phone. The days when you could fall to sleep all summer long with your front door and windows open and the screen door unlocked, listening to the sound of crickets singing. Believe it or not, there was a time when you could actually trust people.

Reaganomics will in fact jump start the economy and do it quickly but we can't do it because we gave up the basics of life by selling out to foreign lands. From that point forward is where things cannot go back to where it was...that we are in agreement on. Your current lazy, self serving government you have voted for doesn't want you to be all that productive any how, so either way you lose. It wants to make you think and believe you NEED that government and you can't survive without them.

I do not see it as two parties but at least we agree that reps & dems have failed. IT (not they) isn't two parties. We were brainwashed into believing it was two parties to make us think we have a choice. it is ONE crooked party with the same agenda each year and that is to supress the people through fear, economics and power while making absolutley sure that no one outside of the one rep/dem party gets a fair chance to win. Hello? The rep/dem party has created a pyramid of power that no one can stop by duping the people into believing they have a choice when they vote, when they are voting on the same one party every election. The power that has been taken from the people by global elitists and american politicians has been done very wisely in deception. The rep creates problems for dem to fix, then dems create problems for reps to fix and this is its primary agenda to keep the power in that system and not allow for trying another system.

I think the only thing that is going to stop it, is an uprising, a revolution against its government. They know it and they fear it.

The rep/dem are the people who have caused the problems who steal our money and squander it, who gave our jobs and economy to foreign people to make the richest people in the world richer. It is the rep/dem one party theives who has sold our buildings, sold our roads and bridges to foreign people and now the rep/dem one party system is selling our homes to the wealthy foreigners instead of caring for its own. If citizens keep voting on this same idea & mindset, which is the same thing as voting on the same person, then the people will continue to be thrown into turmoil and be doomed.

Do you know what rep/dem one party only voters always say to me? They say the same thing year after year while they keep voting the same garbage people into office and then they claim, it would'nt have mattered who gets into office because no one could fix it. -If it wouldn't matter- then that should tell you something is wrong with the system you are voting for and need to give someone else and something different a chance. Then they claim that no other party or independent can fix it either. BUt! that is not factual, that is brainwashing from the one party only system. Do you know why the rep/dem party has gotten away with this? Because you fear real change. You fear anything different. You fear real success and opportunity as a nation and an individual. Voters have allowed the people in that one party only system to plant fear into your heart and mind and taught the people that voting on something different would be a waste of your vote! Fear voting for something different than the rep/dem system. Kind of sounds like the current muslim Ayatollah in Iran and christian popes in Rome..."shut up and sit down or we will shut you up."

The rep/dem one party system has robbed you of everything this country was founded for and then you wonder why the laws against the people are unconstitutional. It amazes me how the masses believe so many lies and look right past the truth. Does anyone even bother to question why so many new laws are harming the people, when they claim you will be safer & healthier with this law? New laws are passed and you don't even know they exist. So hey, instead of listenting to this sad song, go right ahead and keep voting on the repdem one party only system.

[Bandit]

We are looking probably at rising unemployment for at least another year with NC for instance predicted to top out at over 12% unemployment.

Some towns in Indiana are above 15% for a few months now.

[Bandit]

We are looking at ARMs resetting for the next 5 years.

We are also looking at the entitlement programs going insolvent within 10 years.

We are looking probably at rising unemployment for at least another year with NC for instance predicted to top out at over 12% unemployment.

Basically during the next decade we will see sporadic rises in the economic condition then deep declines as the next wave hits like ripples in a pond.

What is your view with current Social Security problem?

I dont really know for sure what to think but I do know that people in their 40's right now should be very concerned about the money the rep/dem party is taking from them for retirement. Do you think SS will be extinct by the time the 60's people retire and they lose this small retirement?

They did not consider at all that people would be living longer back when they created the tax which is clearly contributing to the problem. I mean, the only option I can see is to make a new law so you have to be 75 or 80 years old before you can get your money back. I hope this is not the case but it has already been changed to age 70.

[JRScott]

What is your view with current Social Security problem?

I dont really know for sure what to think but I do know that people in their 40's right now should be very concerned about the money the rep/dem party is taking from them for retirement. Do you think SS will be extinct by the time the 60's people retire and they lose this small retirement?

They did not consider at all that people would be living longer back when they created the tax which is clearly contributing to the problem. I mean, the only option I can see is to make a new law so you have to be 75 or 80 years old before you can get your money back. I hope this is not the case but it has already been changed to age 70.

Social Security is a smaller problem than Medicare and Medicaid and actually would be easier to fix. The fix for Social Security is doing what is politically inconvenient for the members of congress. Peg the age that you receive benefits to the life expectancy. When originally set up in the 1930s, Life Expectancy was around 62 years of age, and so they made full benefits at 65. So peg the age of collection to the life expectancy of the individual based upon their birth year + 3 years for anyone 50 and younger. Those over 50 go ahead and let them collect at the current scheduled time.

Medicare and Medicaid is where most of the unfunded liabilities are and to be honest there is no simple fix, no magic number. Since they've robbed these two there is no way to really make up for it even if you doubled current taxes to support them you'd have to cut benefits within the next 10 years to make them solvent.

[Bandit]

Check and Thank you.

[newbeginning]

bandit,

all those "you's" are hopefully not directed at me personally. i'll take them as collective "you's." once again, Reaganomics of the 80's will not be the answer to today's probs. if it were, wouldn't you think more of the GOP would be offering that as an option. once again, what Reagan had to deal with is not comparable to what is happening today...different worlds.

you're advocating an uprising? what that involve violence? anarchy? talk about a platform for utter chaos....but, i'm going to assume you're not. and clearly i am a proponent of change. i have always expressed so do not fear it.

when i say going back to the way it was, i meant as of the last 20-years or so. when did we have a choice in voting for more than 2 legitimate parties? in this century? realistically?

SS and Medicare/cade...more areas needing reform.

oh, btw, do you truly understand the impact that Reaganomics had on the country as a whole? Not rosey and still paying for it... you should do some objective investigation of it.

[FLBK7]

I did not miss it at all. In case you missed it, his pre election promises have quickly disappeared from his site kind of like the same thing he did as a senator when he could not even vote on the issues. if he cant vote on them then he cant fix them. Wimpy man when you cant even acces his public records from his executive order. That really helps create jobs.

You keep passing the buck to the past. Sorry, as much as you would like to dismiss Obamas failures and lies the first 6 months as if someone else is in the white house right now, but he is a chicken doing absolutley nothing but singing and dancing around the problems and he is doing nothing to resolve the crisis.

I think the trend you are speaking of is the republican/democratic party trend and that is the trend you voted for. So you pass the buck on the past leaders as if Obama is not even exisiting in policy, then vote on the same exact system in the present you are claiming is at fault.

Obama may be many things. We already know how you feel about him. However, he's certainly NOT a magician.

And at this point in time, only a magician could undo the errors of the past decade and fix the current crisis as quickly as you seem to expect/want it.

Let's not be absurd!

[FLBK7]

bandit,

the turn around that occurred during Reagan's admin. was certainly not under the same circumstances as it is today. not the same... not to mention that many of the deregulation that occurred during his admin. (et. al) helped contribute to this financial debacle. too much faith in the CAPITALIST system at the expense of common sense consequence of GREED. like i've said before, this has been festering for decades. no one cared as long as the UGLY side of it didn't rear its head. it has now...

hey, i'm with you on the whole two party system/failure. i'm no great fan of Obama, but i do pray for him and our leadership to get things right (whatever that entails). one thing that i have mentioned that we cannot go back to is the way IT WAS... that would be counter-productive...

if after Obama leaves office w/o doing what set out to do and all we get is another entrenched politician that is unwilling to look outside the box for meaningful change, then we all are truly doomed...

jmho

Thanks for this post. You echo my sentiments exactly.

[FLBK7]

Social Security is a smaller problem than Medicare and Medicaid and actually would be easier to fix. The fix for Social Security is doing what is politically inconvenient for the members of congress. Peg the age that you receive benefits to the life expectancy. When originally set up in the 1930s, Life Expectancy was around 62 years of age, and so they made full benefits at 65. So peg the age of collection to the life expectancy of the individual based upon their birth year + 3 years for anyone 50 and younger. Those over 50 go ahead and let them collect at the current scheduled time.

Medicare and Medicaid is where most of the unfunded liabilities are and to be honest there is no simple fix, no magic number. Since they've robbed these two there is no way to really make up for it even if you doubled current taxes to support them you'd have to cut benefits within the next 10 years to make them solvent.

I agree with you completely on SS, Medicare and Medicaid. I've always felt that SS was the smallest of the problems and the most easily fixed with the tweaking you mentioned above. In my circle we've often discussed an identical or similar "fix." I AM over 60, but one of my children works as a consultant (1099) and refuses to pay into the SS system, choosing to invest his money elsewhere and in other ways. He's had some losses in his investments lately, of course, but he's young enough to remain focused in diversified investments. He has claimed for years that by the time he's 65, there will be no SS at all, so he's taking care of his own retirement. Kudos to him, I say.

Medicare and Medicaid are now rearing their ugly horns, which of course took decades to grow to this dangerously critical point. There are no easy answers but I'm afraid the politicians will have no choice but address these issues soon, and I mean, very soon.

[Bandit]

Obama may be many things. We already know how you feel about him. However, he's certainly NOT a magician.

And at this point in time, only a magician could undo the errors of the past decade and fix the current crisis as quickly as you seem to expect/want it.

Let's not be absurd!

yes he is a magician and has plenty of errors of his own to undo. all the promises he made to get you to vote for his affairs are vanishing just like magic. 2.2 million jobs have disappeared before your very eyes thus far during his administration, just like magic.

and to be quite frank, I have absolutley no expectations whatsoever from Obama, so you really don't know how I feel about it.

[Bandit]

I've always felt that SS was the smallest of the problems and the most easily fixed with the tweaking you mentioned above. In my circle we've often discussed an identical or similar "fix." I AM over 60,

easy to fix for you since your age bracket isn't the one being threatened of never seeing the money that has been taken from you.

[Bandit]

bandit,

all those "you's" are hopefully not directed at me personally. i'll take them as collective "you's." once again, Reaganomics of the 80's will not be the answer to today's probs. if it were, wouldn't you think more of the GOP would be offering that as an option. once again, what Reagan had to deal with is not comparable to what is happening today...different worlds.

you're advocating an uprising? what that involve violence? anarchy? talk about a platform for utter chaos....but, i'm going to assume you're not. and clearly i am a proponent of change. i have always expressed so do not fear it.

when i say going back to the way it was, i meant as of the last 20-years or so. when did we have a choice in voting for more than 2 legitimate parties? in this century? realistically?

SS and Medicare/cade...more areas needing reform.

oh, btw, do you truly understand the impact that Reaganomics had on the country as a whole? Not rosey and still paying for it... you should do some objective investigation of it.

re read my post.