WASHINGTON – Pointing with concern to "red ink as far as the eye can see," President-elect Barack Obama pledged Wednesday to tackle out-of-control Social Security and Medicare spending and named a special watchdog to clamp down on other federal programs — even as he campaigned anew to spend the largest pile of taxpayer money in history to revive the sinking economy.

Maybe we should take a poll on who is happy they voted for George - Obama isn't even in office yet- he didn't make the mess we are in.

Before I reply I might ask, doesn't this belong in the Political Discussion forum?

Whatever deficit that Barack Obama inherits when he takes office in a couple of weeks will be the result of the governance and absence of leadership of the administration which was in power for the last eight years. So far, all Obama has done is to nominate some very smart and experienced people to help him run the government, put together some very important legislative plans to address the disastrous problems facing the country, and conduct repeated press conferences to let the people know what he plans to do and why. He will make a major speech tomorrow to explain the depth of the financial crisis we face, how he plans to reverse it, how much it will cost to do so, and how long he expects it will take to repay the cost of fixing the problems.

What's wrong with that? Or is it more desirable to have a political leader who continues to say that things are OK when anyone with an ounce of thoughtfulness knows that they're not? "Stay the course" was the mantra, even when we all knew things weren't going well. The fact that we haven't been attacked since 9/11 was used as the justification for letting the country and the economy fall apart.

Yes, I'm glad to have a President who is showing respect for our intelligence by explaining the situation we are all facing and how he plans to lead us out of it. That instead of just "staying on message" and repeating statements that were thought would be believed if they were just repeated often enough.

But so far, Barack Obama hasn't influenced anything any more than a single U.S. Senator out of 100 could do. I only wish the outgoing administration had so little influence. We'd all almost certainly be far better off.

I agree that this belongs in the political forum.

What I don't get is the perceived need to throw everything but the kitchen sink at this problem. No one doubts that we are in a recession right now, but to make it sound like we are in the worst situation that we have been in since the depression only aggrevates the problem (it's that "only thing we have to fear is fear itself" thing). In this case Obama seems to be fanning the flames of fear.

Clearly inflation, interest rates and unemployment were far worse in 1980 than they are now. Yet we were able to come out of that without throwing a trillion dollars at the problem. As retirees, many are very vulnerable to inflation. It would seem that racking up trillions of dollars in additional debt will cause inflation to get out of control and eat our pensions up. Maybe I'm missing something on this.

You know I think it was Barney Frank who said everything was just fine with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. While the Bush Administration bears some blame for the sub prime mess, Congress (yes and Chris Dodd too) does come in for a large share of the blame. Most of them, unfortunatly are hanging around after the 20th. Good luck to the President Elect.

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Before I reply I might ask, doesn't this belong in the Political Discussion forum?

Whatever deficit that Barack Obama inherits when he takes office in a couple of weeks will be the result of the governance and absence of leadership of the administration which was in power for the last eight years. So far, all Obama has done is to nominate some very smart and experienced people to help him run the government, put together some very important legislative plans to address the disastrous problems facing the country, and conduct repeated press conferences to let the people know what he plans to do and why. He will make a major speech tomorrow to explain the depth of the financial crisis we face, how he plans to reverse it, how much it will cost to do so, and how long he expects it will take to repay the cost of fixing the problems.

What's wrong with that? Or is it more desirable to have a political leader who continues to say that things are OK when anyone with an ounce of thoughtfulness knows that they're not? "Stay the course" was the mantra, even when we all knew things weren't going well. The fact that we haven't been attacked since 9/11 was used as the justification for letting the country and the economy fall apart.

Yes, I'm glad to have a President who is showing respect for our intelligence by explaining the situation we are all facing and how he plans to lead us out of it. That instead of just "staying on message" and repeating statements that were thought would be believed if they were just repeated often enough.

But so far, Barack Obama hasn't influenced anything any more than a single U.S. Senator out of 100 could do. I only wish the outgoing administration had so little influence. We'd all almost certainly be far better off.

PLEASE...the Democrats in congress actually mocked President Bush when he talked about SS...they said there was no problem and made fun of him.

Barney Frank and the Dems in leadership said that Fannae Mae, etc were in good shape and why, oh why, are folks saying bad things...everybody is in good shape.

People have tried to bring many of the problems to the forefront and been thwarted.

Now, the President elect, a self avowed socialist has a comedian in the senate from Minn......an ex black panther from Ill who the LEADER of the senate said would never be there, not on his watch. They are added to those who had a lower rating than the one you all like to bring up about the President.

I am sorry...Kahuana...I hope he does well but there is NOTHING to be optimistic about and it just seems to get worse daily and he has not even been sworn in yet !

Oh and did you read the lastest about the school district which has been run by our new Secy of Education...

"Chicago public school bureaucrats skirted competitive bidding rules to buy 30 cappuccino/espresso machines for $67,000, with most of the machines going unused because the schools they were ordered for had not asked for them, according to a report by the CPS Office of Inspector General.

That was just one example of questionable CPS actions detailed in the inspector general's 2008 annual report. Others included high school staffers changing grades to pump up transcripts of student athletes and workers at a restricted-enrollment grade school falsifying addresses to get relatives admitted."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/educati...pect07.article

I've never been happier with my vote in my life.

Yes, I voted for Obama! No surprise there.

What a powerful speech today! I am very impressed. I do hope he can pull this off as this country is in very serious do-do. Seemed to me like he was giving congress some hell as well and major business and wall street too. Good for him. He sounds like a no BS guy, I really do hope so. And you know, I wasn't planning to vote for him but who ever said I was always right..... NOT!!

Originally Posted by chelsea24

I've never been happier with my vote in my life.

Yes, I voted for Obama! No surprise there.

Nobody is talking JUST about the President Elect..at least I am not.

I am speaking of the total package of Dem leadership. It had a lower approval rating than the much maligned President.....its leaders mocked the President when he said there was a problem with SS, and now take that banner and wave it proudly.

That low approval congress added....a comedian in Minn....and a black panther in Illinois who about a week ago was totally unwelcome and actually was told...NO WAY. Now, after a heart to heart with the President Elect, he is welcome.

Now, you tell me what I said that was wrong.....or tell me how it has improved and not gotten worse !

President elect is a great orator...NOBODY denies that...somebody on here said he made a "powerful speech"...he always does. Folks think I am not being honest when I say I hope he succeeds....my point is, that he has not been sworn in and the congress that will control this country has done what I spelled out plus much more.....and I posted the news about our new secy of education.....please tell me what OTHER THAN THE SPEECHES...is there to feel positive about !!!!

I don't believe there's much to be optimistic about either. "Anxious" is a much better description of how people should feel.

It's all but certain that 2009 will be another bad year for the economy. It's equally clear that if the new administration did nothing other than cut some taxes and try to get Congress to control spending, the recession would last several years and probably would become a full-blown depression. So the "kitchen sink" plans being put together are nothing more than a big acceleration of spending with the objective of reducing the unemployment rate, pumping money into the economy in an attempt to increase economic growth, and most importantly try to improve consumer confidence so that they will begin spending as well.

Our economy operates like a giant steam engine--when it's running fast, only minor adjustments, small amounts of fuel (stimulus) are needed to keep it ticking away. But when it slows to a near stop as is the case today, major amounts of new fuel (money, stimulus) needs to be thrown on the coals to accelerate it up to top speed again.

Some have proposed that another wave of rebates or tax reductions to consumers would be sufficient stimulus to reverse the recession. Unfortunately, the rebates given last year didn't have that effect. Taxpayers simply saved the rebates or paid down debt, but did not provide any stimulus to the economy by spending the rebates buying new, preferably big ticket items. The idea of another big rebate this year as the foundation of the stimulus has been rejected by almost all economists because of the high risk that taxpayers again would not spend the rebates but save them, producing no positive effects on the economy.

So other means of pumping money into the economy appear necessary. The Obama economic team decided that simply permitting Congress to decide how the stimulus money would be spent presented as much risk as hoping that the consumers would spend and not save. They thought that Congress would tend to spend a lot of money on pet projects that would provide little long term benefit to the country and may not even get the economy re-started.

So the new administration decided to pump the money into the economy in the form of grants to construct or improve much-needed infrastructure that would produce long-term benefits to the domestic economy--a "kitchen sink" of proposed projects. Roads, bridges, schools, a new energy distribution system, money for alternative energy research are all projects which would not be a waste of the taxpayer's money and they would be expected to have the effect of restarting the stalled U.S. economy.

The only real question is how much money will it take to produce the desired economic results. No one has an answer to that question, so the approach being taken is to err on the high side in case more money is needed to begin to produce economic growth.

Will some money be wasted? Certainly. There's no way that a trillion dollars can be spent in a short time without some wasteful expenditures. That type of spending will get all kinds of public criticism and they should. But the factors that the public should be attentive to at the same time is whether unemployment is declining, whether economic growth is rebounding, whether tax revenues are increasing, and whether the consumers are feeling better about the future. If those things occur, the economic stimulus plan developed by the Obama economic team will be working.

But again, the proper feeling we should all have is anxiety. Regardless of how much is spent, there's no guarantee that the economy will rebound. What it boils down to is that this is a trillion dollar economic experiment. Neither the poiticians or the economists have ever faced this type of problem before, so their proposed solutions are totally theoretical. But what is known for sure is that if the new administration didn't press for this type of action, all of our lives, our country and our economy would be far, far worse off than they are even today. If their plans don't work we'll all be a part of a total collapse of the American society. We should all pray that the plans being curently developed and described work, and work quickly.

i

You know my granddad had a saying....you can argue with a mule but all you're going to get out of it is a headache and a very ****ed off mule.

The people that are worshipping at the alter of Obama are the very ones that truly believe that FDR got us out of the depression of the 30s.

Obama said today that we need to spend our way out of this problem (sounds like HHH and FDR to me). Gee if I had known I could spend my way out of debt I would be mega rich right now.......

Originally Posted by diskman

WASHINGTON – Pointing with concern to "red ink as far as the eye can see," President-elect Barack Obama pledged Wednesday to tackle out-of-control Social Security and Medicare spending and named a special watchdog to clamp down on other federal programs — even as he campaigned anew to spend the largest pile of taxpayer money in history to revive the sinking economy.

you all missed the reason for my post which, should have been in the political forum.
WHY pick on social security and medicare? surely there are other places! How about we stop sending monies to other countries and ask them to call CHINA this year!
In pre election chatter i never heard Obama talk about ss or medicare!
Don't get me wrong i voted for him just not happy with this news report and neither should anyone who is or is about to collect social security & Medicare.

Originally Posted by diskman

you all missed the reason for my post which, should have been in the political forum.
WHY pick on social security and medicare? surely there are other places! How about we stop sending monies to other countries and ask them to call CHINA this year!
In pre election chatter i never heard Obama talk about ss or medicare!
Don't get me wrong i voted for him just not happy with this news report and neither should anyone who is or is about to collect social security & Medicare.

I got your point./..perhaps got carried away with the generalities of it..but got your point.

I am very angry that I need to worry about or be concerned about something that was red flagged years ago and deemed to be just fine.

Suppose this is part one of taking from...well will make it personal...take it from ME, who is retired and needs both...and insure that we can do for the rest of the world (the Global poverty act), or for those who just plain do not choose to earn their own way in this country....that ticks me off.

President elect seems to be bent on taking it away from those who earned it and give it to those he deems to be worthy !!!!

Originally Posted by diskman

you all missed the reason for my post which, should have been in the political forum.
WHY pick on social security and medicare? surely there are other places! How about we stop sending monies to other countries and ask them to call CHINA this year!
In pre election chatter i never heard Obama talk about ss or medicare!
Don't get me wrong i voted for him just not happy with this news report and neither should anyone who is or is about to collect social security & Medicare.

And any discussion by the Pres-Elect or Congress to muddle with SS or Medicare is total distraction.

The balance of payments deficit for 2008 totalled -$700Billion. (http://www.census.gov/indicator/www/ustrade.html) Hmmm...$700Billion - where have we heard that number before? ? ?

As long as money is being shipped out of the country, our currency just keeps getting to be worth less and less in the same rate than more and more of it end up in foreign banks.