Obama Has made his point

[Guest]

Bush left a deficit of less than 200 billion bucks after 8 years. This took more than 200 hundred years to occur.

Obama has given us a deficit over a trillion in much less than 2 years.

Intelligent people would say "use you brains and get rid of this guy".

[Guest]

Not only your brain cashman. Use your power at the polls. You wanna know whose a@@ to kick? Obama's. Kick his _ _ _ out November 2012.

[Guest]

There's a rumor that if Obama continues on his path of destruction.....Hillary may be the Democratic candidate in 2011.

[Guest]

typo....2012

[Guest]

The GOP broke all records when it came to deficit spending.

Then the Democrats came in and made it worse.

Explain to me again why I should vote for the GOP when they inherited a surplus and handed a trillion dollar deficit to their successors?

This cycle of the 'new guy' being worse than the 'old guy' has got to stop and I don't see either party having the stones to take a good hard look at things.

Here's a hint as to why the deficit seems harder to tame than before - we're not running quarter-trillion dollar surpluses in Social Security anymore to hide the general deficit. We're breaking even and heading into a deficit in that column.

[Guest]

Find a candidate that is qualified and can do the job regardless their party affiliation, religion, color of their skin, smoked pot at 16, and all the rest of the meaningless negative dribble.

I do not believe in party line, party talking points or party first no matter what.

I still believe in the novel concept of the best man/woman for the job.

Based on best qualified candidate for the job, Obama would not make a short list. That's what party politics and campaign BS can do in America. Such a pity.

btk

[Guest]

Explain to me again why I should vote for the GOP when they inherited a surplus and handed a trillion dollar deficit to their successors?

I don't think you should vote for the GOP. Stick with Obama, he's your man.

[Guest]

Really. They complain about a Bush deficit and then the dems take over and TRIPLE what Bush spent.

How's that stimulus doing?

Where are the promised jobs?

Where is the promised low unemployment?

Where is the transparency?

Where is the Gitmo closing?

Where is the end of the wars?

Where is the end of racism?

Where are the people who voted for him? Why are they not here defending him?

[Guest]

It would help our country if people would stop throwing up roadblocks just to defeat our President. We need to work together. This is America and we have proven throughout history that we can do anything if we work together. He knew he was taking on a mess that was created by people who put greed before country.

[Guest]

It would help our country if people would stop throwing up roadblocks just to defeat our President. We need to work together. This is America and we have proven throughout history that we can do anything if we work together. He knew he was taking on a mess that was created by people who put greed before country.


What do you mean?: "It would help our country if people would stop throwing up roadblocks just to defeat our President."

[Guest]

I just would like to know why "qualified" translates to big money, regardless of party or lack thereof. Is this stated somewhere in the list of qualifications for the position of POTUS (or any other office for that matter)?

[Guest]

A defeat for this president, is a victory for America!!!

[Guest]

If that were true he would have been campaigning about the mess and how he was going to clean it up.

And donja know messes in Washington are not packaged conveniently by presidential terms as some of you continue to purport. Messes are a continuous by product of the broken system in Washington, regardless of party. Yes one can refer to this or that happened during this or that's POTUS tenure. But blame?

Are you suggesting we should be rallying behind Obama because he is the President? Even when he is doing what most of us do not want....whether we like it or not? That is why there have been varying degrees of revolutions in this country.

The only thing I would support in the Obama presidency/congress is it's predictable end and clearing the deck for new stock that has out country and we the people as a priority. This administration does not.

btk

[Guest]

It would help our country if people would stop throwing up roadblocks just to defeat our President. We need to work together. This is America and we have proven throughout history that we can do anything if we work together. He knew he was taking on a mess that was created by people who put greed before country.

Can you explain what you mean?

[Guest]

We need to work together.

So we need to work together to implement bad policy? This administration works with no one but their own socialist ideology.

How about we work together to get rid of the people who are implementing bad policy, ignoring the constitution, circumventing the will of the people at literally every turn?

He knew he was taking on a mess that was created by people who put greed before country.

And this Administration puts their own socialist America last agenda before the country.

[Guest]

The GOP broke all records when it came to deficit spending.

Then the Democrats came in and made it worse.

Explain to me again why I should vote for the GOP when they inherited a surplus and handed a trillion dollar deficit to their successors?

This cycle of the 'new guy' being worse than the 'old guy' has got to stop and I don't see either party having the stones to take a good hard look at things.

Here's a hint as to why the deficit seems harder to tame than before - we're not running quarter-trillion dollar surpluses in Social Security anymore to hide the general deficit. We're breaking even and heading into a deficit in that column.

DP, I fully agree that the shift of social security from taking in more than it payed out to being a deficit program has significantly contributed to the deficit.

However, I must take exception to the oft repeated statement that Bush inherited a surplus. He did not. At the time he took office, the United States's economy was contracting not expanding, consequently lower tax income. The real kicker was the dot.com bubble crash in March of 2000. The Clinton surplus was built largely on capital gains taxes from the tech stocks. When the bubble collapsed, the income from these ceased as the first 'Bush' fiscal year began on October 1, 2000 after the capital gains tax revenue ended and just as the economy was entering a recessionary period. The problem was compounded by the events of 9/11.

I do fault Bush for not cutting government spending to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I also fault him for never vetoing congressional earmarks.

[Guest]

Find a candidate that is qualified and can do the job regardless their party affiliation, religion, color of their skin, smoked pot at 16, and all the rest of the meaningless negative dribble.

I do not believe in party line, party talking points or party first no matter what.

I still believe in the novel concept of the best man/woman for the job.

Based on best qualified candidate for the job, Obama would not make a short list. That's what party politics and campaign BS can do in America. Such a pity.

btk

The more I read Newt Gingrich's books he not only identifies the real problems facng America but he also offers solid solutions and yes, he is willing to put blame with Bush too for the mess that Obama inherited. Newt demonstrated a willingness to work with Bill Clinton when he was Speaker of The House. To rule him out because folks say "he has baggage" is to eliminate him without hearing what he has to say and maybe missing out on having the best person for the job.

[Guest]

BBQ: You're right, I was a bit brief in my description of Bush's performance. He inherited a surplus and the economy WAS slowing down - everyone knew it and the dot-com bubble made it worse. His performance, however, made things worse. I should not have implied that it was TOTALLY his fault.

[Guest]

He absolutely did not inherit a surplus from Clinton. Bush started with a $133.29 billion deficit in Jan. 2001.

[Guest]

don't have to be reasonable, rational or true!

btk

[Guest]

It would help our country if people would stop throwing up roadblocks just to defeat our President. We need to work together. This is America and we have proven throughout history that we can do anything if we work together. He knew he was taking on a mess that was created by people who put greed before country.

Please explain this. Do you have an example of these roadblocks?

What has Obama done to help us work together?

The financial crisis in the financial markets was caused by the actions of Barney Frank and other Democrat moves and you blame it on the greedy without any examples.

Back up your comments or do not make them.

[Guest]

The GOP broke all records when it came to deficit spending.

Then the Democrats came in and made it worse.

Explain to me again why I should vote for the GOP when they inherited a surplus and handed a trillion dollar deficit to their successors?

This cycle of the 'new guy' being worse than the 'old guy' has got to stop and I don't see either party having the stones to take a good hard look at things.

Here's a hint as to why the deficit seems harder to tame than before - we're not running quarter-trillion dollar surpluses in Social Security anymore to hide the general deficit. We're breaking even and heading into a deficit in that column.


I never could figure out why we would fight 2 wars and not expect any sacrifices made to pay for this. I don't think a tax cut for those with incomes over 250K was the answer. We never saw the caskets of our men and women who sacrificed their lives. Maybe we will forget?

As far as the two parties, maybe we need a third party. Both are sleeping with the banks.

Wouldn't it be interesting if Congress wore NASCAR jackets with decals showing sponsorship of their lobbyists and special interest groups.

[Guest]

I never could figure out why we would fight 2 wars and not expect any sacrifices made to pay for this. I don't think a tax cut for those with incomes over 250K was the answer. We never saw the caskets of our men and women who sacrificed their lives. Maybe we will forget?

As far as the two parties, maybe we need a third party. Both are sleeping with the banks.

Wouldn't it be interesting if Congress wore NASCAR jackets with decals showing sponsorship of their lobbyists and special interest groups.

To understand tax cuts you have to learn some history.

In the history of taxes whenever taxes are reduced production increases
and tax revenues rise.

[Guest]

I thought we were fighting only one war, The War Against Terrorists.

Would you call WWII fighting 6 or 7 wars because we fought in different countries, like Japan, Germany, France etc. etc.?

[Guest]

mitchbr47, I hope you aren't someone who plays "hit and run" in this forum. So with that in mind, please allow me to ask you, with all due respect, if you realize the Democrats under Obama have allocated nearly as much spending in one month, that is one month, than President Bush spent in seven years on the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan and Hurricane Katrina combined — in one month.

In one month, the Democrats passed the $31 billion expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program passed in January plus the $787 billion stimulus bill passed in February. That adds up to $818 billion.

The bill for the Global War on Terror under Bush was $808 billion according to the Government Accountability Office report. Tacked on to the $132 billion for responding to Hurricane Katriana, that is $940 billion.



http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09233r.pdf

[Guest]

He absolutely did not inherit a surplus from Clinton. Bush started with a $133.29 billion deficit in Jan. 2001.

Are you sure?

http://www.davemanuel.com/history-of-deficits-and-surpluses-in-the-united-states.php

That says 2001 (fiscal year runs from October 1, 2000 to Sept 30, 2001) was a $127.3B surplus.

Are you talking about, perhaps, numbers that do or don't include the Social Security Surplus?

Check out page 26 of the following:

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy02/pdf/hist.pdf

It shows that Bush inherited a surplus and the White House (in 2001) was predicting continuing surpluses for the next several years.

[Guest]

Read this djplong and tell me what you think. There is another article, I can't remember where I read it, but I'll try to find it and post it also. I'm really not good with numbers and budgets and such, seriously. Posts by Villages Kahuna really interested me because he was so schooled with numbers. Anyway, I know you are better with numbers than me so tell me what you think.

http://www.craigsteiner.us/articles/16

[Guest]

Quite a dry read but I kept with it and, sure enough, it mentions Social Security. I suspected that was the case. Last time the press really reported anything about the use of Social Security surpluses to mask the deficit was in the 1980s or so.

Either way, yes, the public debt went up but the holders of many of those notes were the SSA (Social Security Administration). "Bottom Line" numbers had the government taking in more than it spent. Remember, we actually DID have "reverse auctions" of T-bills in there a few times.

But now as the baby boomers are retiring (1946 + 65 = 2011, and some retired at 62) that surplus is GONZO. If memory serves, it's razor thin now and for a year or two and then really starts heading downhill from there.

[Guest]

Please explain this. Do you have an example of these roadblocks?

What has Obama done to help us work together?

The financial crisis in the financial markets was caused by the actions of Barney Frank and other Democrat moves and you blame it on the greedy without any examples.

Back up your comments or do not make them.

Cashman, why are you such a hateful little person, be civil....debate is a great thing with out the ZINGERS!

So the GREEDY financial market didn't have anything to do with this collapse, or the deregulation??????....Yea right, Let's blame it on Barney Frank! What a guy!

[Guest]

Most of it all started right here. The truth at the very beginning of this mess. In their own words...if you dare to listen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yga7TlsA-1A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPSDnGMzIdo&feature=related

[Guest]

So just who was it that protected Freddie and Fannie that ultimately triggered the mess we're in now? (D). Who warned trouble was coming? (R) Who blocked efforts in congress to fix it before it happened? (D).

Nicely done Barney! Oh by they way, he's still there running things.

[Guest]

Please explain this. Do you have an example of these roadblocks?

What has Obama done to help us work together?

The financial crisis in the financial markets was caused by the actions of Barney Frank and other Democrat moves and you blame it on the greedy without any examples.

Back up your comments or do not make them.

Cashman, why are you such a hateful little person, be civil....debate is a great thing with out the ZINGERS!

So the GREEDY financial market didn't have anything to do with this collapse, or the deregulation??????....Yea right, Let's blame it on Barney Frank! What a guy!


Only a hateful, uncivil little person would call someone that and also avoid issues by answering a legitimate question with an illigitimate question.

If you refuse to answer questions I suggest you don't raise them.

[Guest]

dklassen, the big sweeping reform of the banking and financial industries the liberals and democrats are patting themselves on the backs for pushing through...doesn't include any regulations regarding Fannie or Freddie. God help us.

Thought I'd give the proof from the left:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38250967/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy

[Guest]

...Either way, yes, the public debt went up but the holders of many of those notes were the SSA (Social Security Administration)...

What is the difference in debt and deficit?

[Guest]

What is the difference in debt and deficit?

As far as my checking account goes, nothing. If I spend more then what is in there, I will have a deficit and be in debt.

[Guest]

The deficit is what the annual budget is bleeding.

The debt is the total amount of red ink since the Revolutionary War.

Every year the deficit adds to the debt OR, if there is a surplus, that surplus reduces the debt.