What does this mean...

[Guest]

I dont want to read more into this statment than what the President meant but sort of scares me in regards to taxes to come...

"Obama Says U.S. Long-Term Debt Load ‘Unsustainable’ "

"President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJsSb4qtILhg&refer=worldwide

[Guest]

It means hide your wallet.

[Guest]

Then why does he continue to borrow?

[Guest]

There is less and less appetite from those countries that have purchased U.S. debt at the bi-weekly auctions of Treasury notes, bonds, etc. At the last couple of auctions, the number of prospective buyers that showed up to bid dropped by more than half, from 43 earlier in the year to 20 most recently. China has also made no secret of their flagging interest in any further investment in U.S. paper. They have officially notified both the State Department and the Treasury Department twice in recent months. Our "credit card" is at it's limit.

There are only two or three possible solutions to this conundrum...

-- The country has to begin spending less than the tax revenues it takes in.

-- Or, revenues have to be increased to match the level of spending. Simply put, a tax increase.

-- There might be a third possibility. The Congress could simply authorize the Treasury to begin printing money for them to spend. The reduced value of the dollar will cause even less interest among foreign buyers of our debt. And it would result in a fast and dramatic increase in both interest rates and the rate of inflation. The result of increasing the money supply won't be hard to miss.

I've analyzed the makeup of tax revenues on this board before. The bottom line is that even massive increases in corporate taxes, import duties, fees, and the like can't even come close to bridging the deficit gap. Our revenues are predominantly personal income taxes.

So, I'll leave it to you to figure out what will happen. By my reckoning, it'll have to happen soon. If you see interest rates begin to rise noticeably and the value of the dollar continuing to decline, read that as a signal that the buyers of our debt are going to demand more and more in interest payments to attract them to our debt. If you read that the U.S. dollar is being abandoned as the currency that OPEC will accept as payment for oil, you'll know that disaster has struck. It won't be hard to figure out when it happens. If you see inflation escalating and the money supply increasing, it'll be safe to assume that Congress has decided to neither cut spending or increase taxes. They will have chosen the easier but far more expensive alternative--printing more money.

Note that the Congress has not yet even begun to address President Obama's budget proposal. That might be the time--hopefully--when some serious cutting and slashing of proposed expenses will happen. Along with that--again hopefully--the PayGo provisions of federal spending that were enacted in 1991 but permitted to lapse in 2001, will be permanently re-enacted.

This is going to be a wild ride.

[Guest]

I said this from the very beginning. Mark my words, tax payers and the middle class in general are going to pay and pay dearly for Obama.

Once they get done with their spending binge, they are going on a taxing binge... wait and see.

"95% of Americans won't see their taxes go up one dime" is what he promised.

:a20:

[Guest]

Since we're so deeply in the "I told you so" mode, I saw this coming 6 years ago when we invaded Iraq.

Wars are expensive. Viet Nam was followed by years of high interest, high inflation, while we paid that one off.

We embarked on this one, without raising taxes to pay for it. Probably because those who desired this war knew resistance would be much higher if we actually had to pay for it.

A trillion dollars later, and not one of those dollars going for the aching needs of our domestic situation like education, healthcare, a more efficient energy plan....

Basically we're screwed. But the screwing didn't start with Obama. It started with you know who.

so, yeah, open your wallets.

[Guest]

If it makes you feel better to keep diverting attention from what's happening today, have at it. That's right, the screwing didn't start with Obama but he is taking it to new levels unprecedented in American history by any other President. And it's his baby now. But just keep telling yourself it's everyone's else's fault too. It makes the Obama vote a litter eraser to swallow I'm sure.

[Guest]

If it makes you feel better to keep diverting attention from what's happening today, have at it. That's right, the screwing didn't start with Obama but he is taking it to new levels unprecedented in American history by any other President. And it's his baby now. But just keep telling yourself it's everyone's else's fault too. It makes the Obama vote a litter eraser to swallow I'm sure.


The point is these things (education, health care, energy infra-structure) were all things that needed to be taken care of. But instead of tending to that, the Bush administration was off spending a trillion- no!! excuse me- BORROWING A TRILLION- for his invasion of Iraq...


But guess what? Our domestic problems didn't go away, the larder is worse than empty, and we've got to deal with these domestic issues.

So yeah...you, and I, and generations to come are going to pay for this. But if Obama doesn't deal with it now, two things are for dead certain:

The price will just be higher later

and

Should the Republicans send another right wing conservative administration into the White House, they aren't going to make the tough decisions to fix any of this. They'll just say "we can't afford to fix any of this" while they run off and BORROW another trillion, IF, they can find someone stupid enough to lend it to us.

[Guest]

Bush was not a right wing conservative. Not by a long shot.

[Guest]

Bush was not a right wing conservative. Not by a long shot.

What I can't remember is exactly when he fell out of favor with the far right.

He certainly had their support in two elections.

Of course, if you are far enough to the right, everybody looks to be too far to the left.

[Guest]

The reason I supportrd Bush is because I thought he would be more like Reagan than his father. I was wrong, but I still considered him better than the altenatives. I agreed with much that he did and tried to do. I didn't agree with his amnesty decision, way to much spending and signing McPain-Feingold. Also, I thought he needed to defend himself. He let the media destroy him and didn't say a word.

[Guest]

So you are anti-war, we get that. We are however fighting a global war on terror like it or not. Obama and the liberals in congress like to ignore that fact as do others. Wars cost money, always have and always will. Don’t think for one minute we are safe. I believe we are less safe since Obama is systematically crippling our counter terrorism efforts among many other things.

So you have Obama on a mad spending spree all in the name of stimulating the economy… it won’t work, never has never will. Obama is making the money we spent on the war look like lunch money.

The dirty little secret is he doesn’t care about fixing the economy. His agenda is to remake the USA in his own twisted hate America image which includes taking over as much of it as he can including working to turn a good bit of it over to the unions that heavily financed his election. It’s all going to fall on the backs of tax payers and small business who by the way create most of the jobs in America.

Even if we had all the money back we spend on Iraq it would probably pay for one year interest on Obama’s spending and takeover binge.

This is his economy now and no other.

[Guest]

So you are anti-war, we get that. We are however fighting a global war on terror like it or not. Obama and the liberals in congress like to ignore that fact as do others. Wars cost money, always have and always will. Don’t think for one minute we are safe. I believe we are less safe since Obama is systematically crippling our counter terrorism efforts among many other things.

So you have Obama on a mad spending spree all in the name of stimulating the economy… it won’t work, never has never will. Obama is making the money we spent on the war look like lunch money.

The dirty little secret is he doesn’t care about fixing the economy. His agenda is to remake the USA in his own twisted hate America image which includes taking over as much of it as he can including working to turn a good bit of it over to the unions that heavily financed his election. It’s all going to fall on the backs of tax payers and small business who by the way create most of the jobs in America.

Even if we had all the money back we spend on Iraq it would probably pay for one year interest on Obama’s spending and takeover binge.

This is his economy now and no other.


Actually, a good post !!!

[Guest]

Education, health care, immigration, government social spending - these issues have been going on in high gear since FDR. And the result despite a herd of presidents from both parties, and Congresses of all cloth, are:

1. Public education has been on a downward spiral since 1960.
2. Health care costs have gone up higher than anything else (but we ar living longer than ever)
3. Immigration (legal and illegal) has been handled in apathy and funded by pittance since 1946 by both parties, all administrations, and every Congress.
4. Government social spending has continued to rise despite WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf I, Panama, Grenada, Haiti, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and a couple of other incursions which haven't received press.

And by the way, the quality of life and standard of living has increased in this country despite all of the above, mainly at the expense of the family unit in the quest to have more money to buy extras that greed and good marketing have make desirous..

It's easy to blame "war" for all of the financial problems of the nations. Unfortunately, the "wars" are what keep us free and able to seek greater and greater opportunity to care for others. That's a nasty truism which almost everyone wishes wasn't true.

I used to drive by areas inhabited by Amish. Their anti-war position is legendary, but the only way they can live the way they want is because others have provided them the protection to do so despite their reluctance to participate in their own defense. Again, an ugly truth, but a truth nevertheless.

I am no fan of any war, having participated in the experience firsthand. However, I accept that species homo sapiens is not the logical, sane, and agreeable critter we wish it was. That's why there are about two dozen wars ongoing around the globe today.

There is a fine line separating living in peace and living in tyranny. That line has diplomacy at one end and war at the other. If only diplomacy worked all the time.......

[Guest]

The downturn in the economy was nothing more than an excuse to have his way with the American people. As long as they keep giving the blame to previous Presidents and not hold him accountable for what he’s doing today, they give him a free get out of jail card to do whatever he wants all in the name of he had no other choice.

Fact is there were many choices. His left wing radical remake of America will not pull us out of the recession and will cause untold long term damage to interest rates, jobs, inflation, the middle class, business, the housing market and more.

Personal hatred for Bush is causing people to turn a blind eye to his actions and he knows it.

His own chief of staff said "Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before." Any boy are they doing it while we all sit back and watch.

That translates into remaking American in the most radical socialistic way including spending massive amounts of money we don’t have on every conceivable program they can think up and talking over large parts of the private and public sectors.

[Guest]

And the alternative to fixing the current situation is????

[Guest]

"Half the respondents said that fiscal and monetary stimulus has provided the basis for a sustainable recovery."

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/107082/Economists-See-Long-Road-to-Recovery

[Guest]

"Half the respondents said that fiscal and monetary stimulus has provided the basis for a sustainable recovery."

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/107082/Economists-See-Long-Road-to-Recovery

We need to define "recovery."

If "recovery" means that worth-less cash has flooded the marketplace, and that the worth-less cash has provided money today (which must be paid back in the future at interest by e veryone) to bail people and businesses from bad decisions, then "recovery" is happening.

If "recovery" means we have corrected the problems which created the fiscal fear (terrible balance of payments, Communist-made goods flooding the market and sold at "dumping" prices, federally-backed home loans to people who could never afford to make the payments unless all conditions are perfect), then we are far from even coming close to recovery.

Without a fix to the conditions which created the mess, the mess will reoccur.

[Guest]

I’m sure some of you will disagree as you look at big government as the answer to everything but..

Here's my fix to the conditions, just to name a few.

Freeze all new government spending.
Balanced budget amendment.
No bailouts.
Capital gains tax cut.
Abolish the death tax.
Make the Bush tax cuts permanent.
Then revamp tax code to a flat tax.
Congressional term limits.
Reform Freddie and Fannie. (Return to loaning money to people who can actually pay it back)
Reform SS and Medicare (make it a real lock box, not the lock box they lie to us about)
TORT Reform.
Then look at health care when the books are back in order.
Cut funds to the UN.
Expand nuclear, clean coal and natural gas.
Oil - Drill here drill now
Cut all funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and any other totally useless social programs funded by the tax payers.
Further welfare reforms.
Secure our borders including deporting the one’s we can find who entered illegally.
No free health care for illegal’s.
No more citizenship for babies born here if you entered the US illegally.

Then watch the economy and consumer confidence rebound... and stay there.

[Guest]

Since we're so deeply in the "I told you so" mode, I saw this coming 6 years ago when we invaded Iraq.

Wars are expensive. Viet Nam was followed by years of high interest, high inflation, while we paid that one off.

We embarked on this one, without raising taxes to pay for it. Probably because those who desired this war knew resistance would be much higher if we actually had to pay for it.

A trillion dollars later, and not one of those dollars going for the aching needs of our domestic situation like education, healthcare, a more efficient energy plan....

Basically we're screwed. But the screwing didn't start with Obama. It started with you know who.

so, yeah, open your wallets.

Well put.

[Guest]

dklassen, You are so correct. Unfortunately, it will never happen. Congress would lose their power. I've decided that our fearless leaders in Washington, in both parties, don't care about the country. They just want all the perks and prestige that they get. Even worse, I think some, I won't name names, want this country brought down.

[Guest]

Dklassen, you nailed it. Unfortunately, Sally is right, too. I don't have a solution as to how to implement what you see as working. Hopefully, someone does and is working on it now. I still want to know why only those with boo-koos of money run for office and get elected. Maybe that's where we need to start. It bothers me that they all campaign about helping the "common man and the poor" while spending millions running around the country patting themselves on the back. How many hungry would that feed instead? Why are we so concerned about getting someone else's economy fixed when our own is in shambles? Why are we so concerned about the conditions some other kids live in when we have the same in areas of our own country? All they seem capable of is talking, talking, talking and some of them (Pelosi) can't even do a good job of that. Sorry, didn't mean to ramble.

[Guest]

All we need to do is elect the right people... most of them not incumbents. 2010 is our chance. A big turnover and the majority back to the conservatives and they will get the message.

[Guest]

Education, health care, immigration, government social spending - these issues have been going on in high gear since FDR. And the result despite a herd of presidents from both parties, and Congresses of all cloth, are:

1. Public education has been on a downward spiral since 1960.
2. Health care costs have gone up higher than anything else (but we ar living longer than ever)
3. Immigration (legal and illegal) has been handled in apathy and funded by pittance since 1946 by both parties, all administrations, and every Congress.
4. Government social spending has continued to rise despite WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf I, Panama, Grenada, Haiti, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and a couple of other incursions which haven't received press.

And by the way, the quality of life and standard of living has increased in this country despite all of the above, mainly at the expense of the family unit in the quest to have more money to buy extras that greed and good marketing have make desirous..

It's easy to blame "war" for all of the financial problems of the nations. Unfortunately, the "wars" are what keep us free and able to seek greater and greater opportunity to care for others. That's a nasty truism which almost everyone wishes wasn't true.

I used to drive by areas inhabited by Amish. Their anti-war position is legendary, but the only way they can live the way they want is because others have provided them the protection to do so despite their reluctance to participate in their own defense. Again, an ugly truth, but a truth nevertheless.

I am no fan of any war, having participated in the experience firsthand. However, I accept that species homo sapiens is not the logical, sane, and agreeable critter we wish it was. That's why there are about two dozen wars ongoing around the globe today.

There is a fine line separating living in peace and living in tyranny. That line has diplomacy at one end and war at the other. If only diplomacy worked all the time.......

I generally agree with most everything you post. I would like you to explain how our efforts in Viet Nam helped to keep us free from tyranny.

[Guest]

So you are anti-war, we get that. We are however fighting a global war on terror like it or not. Obama and the liberals in congress like to ignore that fact as do others. Wars cost money, always have and always will. Don’t think for one minute we are safe. .

We can never make ourselves "safe" from terrorism. We can make ourselves less vulnerable. But there will always be a danger. If someone is willing to trade his life for the chance to kill a bunch of us, we will be in danger.

There are just too many places for them to hide and re-organize.
What we can do is decimate our resources trying to something that is impossible.
And that is what we are doing.

No matter how long we are there, no matter how many we kill, no matter how many dollars and human lives we sacrifice, as soon as we are gone, the re-organization will start.

[Guest]

I’m sure some of you will disagree as you look at big government as the answer to everything but..

Here's my fix to the conditions, just to name a few.

Freeze all new government spending.
Balanced budget amendment.
No bailouts.
Capital gains tax cut.
Abolish the death tax.
Make the Bush tax cuts permanent.
Then revamp tax code to a flat tax.
Congressional term limits.
Reform Freddie and Fannie. (Return to loaning money to people who can actually pay it back)
Reform SS and Medicare (make it a real lock box, not the lock box they lie to us about)
TORT Reform.
Then look at health care when the books are back in order.
Cut funds to the UN.
Expand nuclear, clean coal and natural gas.
Oil - Drill here drill now
Cut all funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and any other totally useless social programs funded by the tax payers.
Further welfare reforms.
Secure our borders including deporting the one’s we can find who entered illegally.
No free health care for illegal’s.
No more citizenship for babies born here if you entered the US illegally.

Then watch the economy and consumer confidence rebound... and stay there.


Most of what you have on there, I'd agree with.

I'd add, getting out of Iraq ASAP,

I'd be a little worried about "drill here, drill now"..I'd like to see some effort to reduce our need for so much oil...

I kind of like National Endowment of the Arts...

as far as the flat tax, I have a hard time asking the guy who makes 40 grand pay the same % as the guy who makes 500G...

But the rest would be good by me

[Guest]

I generally agree with most everything you post. I would like you to explain how our efforts in Viet Nam helped to keep us free from tyranny.

Please see: http://www.geocities.com/matlock.cvma/why-vietnam.htm

[Guest]

Please see: http://www.geocities.com/matlock.cvma/why-vietnam.htm

With all due respect, these "gains" he describes are very very questionable.

I hope I am allowed to make a distinction between my support for those who served in Vietnam, for whom I have nothing but respect and admiration, and my loathing for the policy that was the war.

I don't want to hijack this thread to start a point by point dialogue between you and me on purported gains of that war.

Let me just say I don't agree with him.

[Guest]

With all due respect, these "gains" he describes are very very questionable.

I hope I am allowed to make a distinction between my support for those who served in Vietnam, for whom I have nothing but respect and admiration, and my loathing for the policy that was the war.

I don't want to hijack this thread to start a point by point dialogue between you and me on purported gains of that war.

Let me just say I don't agree with him.
The "he" is me.

I am not praising the American policy, but am recognizing that other nations had their reasons, totally distinct from the Kennedy/Johnson viewpoint, for their participation. The "law of unintended consequences" applied due to the Vietnam War, and no one in the Kennedy/Johnson administrations ever considered anything but their points of view. That's why it is so important not to look at the world solely through one set of nationalistic eyes. That's why having a robust, insightful and pragmatic intelligence collection-and-analysis operation not concerned with current-administration political posturing is critical to diplomatic and military planning and operations.