we could see if we qualify for any of this aid to foreign countries:

Here

That is possible. How about if you had not been diligent, though, in your putting money aside? How about if you had invested all your money with Bernie Madoff and you found yourself broke at age 68 with no family to bail you out? There is no Social Security to help you.

What becomes of you at that point?

I am sincerely happy for your good fortune and you are advantaged if despite a Democrat run country or a Republican run country has not changed your life in one way or another. You must be resolute in your political beliefs to have never changed your vote despite information provided on any forum including this one. And we can all agree that freedom of speech is great.

However, for many if you have good fortune it could slip away under the wrong stewardship. The country's debt problems began with FDR and heightened under the Johnson Administration and has become about crippled under Obama. The participation rate for jobs is at a low, median income has dropped, blacks and women are being affected at a higher rate.
The FED kowtowing to Obama is held captive to low interest rates which has affected retirees who have for several years had to forfeit interest on their savings. In fact in some banks people storing money have to pay for the privilege .

Obama policies and regulations have created such uncertainty that corporations find it more advantageous to initiate stock buybacks or engage in mergers many which are utilized as corporate inversions rather than invest and expand their business

Educational institutes have become the epitome of marxist inspired political speech wherein trigger warning and micro-aggression are the norm. where conservative students are threatened with failing grades for offering a conservative view. Where America's history is being revised to its detriment
Where male students are being denied their due process. where our founding fathers are being portrayed as hateful white racist. In fact the classics are not promoted at many universities because their authors are depicted as hateful white men . Everyday there is another story of a student who has been threatened for standing up for his/her conservative values.
Christians are also under assault in this nation. Yet the government has seen fit to establish winners and losers by providing protected classes , a system in which they continue to abuse.

The mainstream media has such a liberal bias they either refuse to report stories they dislike, manipulate the data, ignore pertinent facts or plain out lie. And the sad part is that some of those journalist believe that is what they are suppose to do. I mean only Black Lives Matter

Government regulations have strangled both corporate and personal lives. People have become so accustom to the encroachment on their lives they don't even notice. its like a lobster being boiled

Overall the moral imperative of this nation no longer exist. Its surprising we haven't yet reached bottom but we are getting closer because we are not resolved in dealing with the problems that face this nation.

Who would have ever believed that in this nation we would be having a serious discussion on whether we should continue to move toward a socialist nation and abandoned capitalism.

In Eastern Europe the communist were successful because of there salami tactic (ie taking away their freedoms one slice at a time).

I too am grateful for and thank God for many blessings. However unfortunately we have bad actors and their useful idiots that are bent on destroying traditional America, the traditional America that provide the opportunity for you and I to grow and thrive.

Personal Best Regards:

Social Security is practically a ponzi scheme and is almost at the end of it's viable lifespan. When SS goes bankrupt, the gov has the option of cutting our benefits or even terminating them. Instead of talking and defending SS as the great lifesaver and how good it is, someone needs to figure out how to save it. I keep hearing people say how it would/could, should fail if it was privatized. Well, we know for sure that it is going to fail in the near future, so something will have to be done to preserve it. If it takes allowing folks to make decisions for themselves by allowing them a chance to choose from several funds, such as is with the Thrift Savings Plan (just an example) then what would that hurt? Allowing they to invest a portion of their payroll taxes in that manner would not hurt. It would be better than being taxes knowing that they would never see that money again.

Democrats are always giving us grief about having an alternative to Obamacare, but won't shut up long enough to hear us. It's the same now. We come up with a plan and all you hear them say is how nothing we say will work. Well, we know that SS will not work as the plan goes right now.

Even other countries with SS type taxing for gov pensions, are now going bankrupt. The countries that Bernie and Hilary are bragging about are in deep trouble, especially with all the refugee/immigration problems.

The only reason that congress won't approve of privatizing SS is that they won't be able to borrow from it. They won't have any control on the money.

Ideas are out there on how to repair SS, and one of them is to privatize a portion of it. The way I look at it is that everyone complains about it coming to an end, but no one wants to try anything new. It's time for the Dems or congress in general to either put up (an idea) or shut up. It's going to be too late to scream about someone doing something AFTER SS runs out of money. Even the best, most optimistic predictions have it bankrupt within twenty years. That's right around the corner.

It's not about "we got ours so who cares" because some of us will live long enough to see it disappear.

And this not attack

Meet the press liberal socialist democrat propaganda program of the elite scholars. Naturally they would do ther best to beat down the party that might stop the worthless grants that keeps it the indoctrination going. O by the way includes abc, nbc, cbs, msmbc, national public radio. Do I need to include nation newspapers too?

Ask Bernie?

Well, one thing for sure, the Democrats are responsible for all the sins of the world. Republicans have never done anything wrong. Ever! If they have, it wasn't worth mentioning. Not word one about anything that they have contributed to everything you mentioned.

Debt increased the most under Roosevelt, and Johnson. Maybe just maybe the wars had something to do with that. Of course not, it was all the social programs they instituted. Republicans love spending money on wars, and the military. So, it had to be the social programs, like social security. Also, the civil rights legations under Johnson, that made the blacks feel like they were equal. The blacks weren't happy with the legislation. They wanted the US to pay for all the sons in the last. So, they wanted to become more equal.

Fox News doesn't have a bias in favor of the Republicans, After all, they are fair and balanced. How do we know this? Because they say so all the time. They don't lie, and always report the truth. The Republican hopefuls wanted fair and balanced moderators for their debates. That is why they want Limbaugh, Hannity, and the like to moderate a love fest, and not a debate.

Eastern Europe became communist, because they were salamis. It had nothing to do with Communist Russia wanting a buffer between them and Europe, after World War II, and their military was in these countries in large numbers.

The second Obama became president, all American companies ran overseas to manufacture their goods. The economy was doing great. However, the second he became president the economy went in the crapper. Everything that he did after that made everything worse.

Adopting some socialist programs doesn't make us a socialist country. That is just total nonsense.

What income taxes has Obama changed, that makes American companies are holding 3 trillion dollars in overseas banks? They are doing to avoid paying taxes. How American is that?

Lets have no regulations on businesses at all. The 2008 great recession wasn't due to unregulated Wall street, It was, because Obama took office. Everybody knows that.

The Ivy colleges are a haven for socialists. No graduate of these colleges ever go into Wall Street, or the banking industry. They all become community activists with becoming president in the not to distant future in mind, or becoming a liberal TV reporter, so they can lie with immunity.

No senior has money in the 401(K) mutual fund. We keep all of our money at a bank. So, we aren't worried that the stock markets will fall, if the Fed raises interest rates. Not our problem.

States requiring picture id to vote. That isn't a regulation designed to make it hard for minorities to vote. It is there to stop next to no voter fraud.

Have I gone overboard on criticizing this post? You bet I have. The post went overboard criticizing the Democrats for everything. However, that is a constant state of being on this board. Go crazy attacking me. It will fall on deaf ears. I know who I am, and I know who you are.

PERSONAL DISREGARDS.

Didn't expect you to HEAR this post, but you will read it. You may ignore it, but you will read it.
Look you liberals whine about how mean the conservatives are. I bet you complained about your parents too. Someone has to take responsibility and it has not proved to be the Liberals. So, please get over it and quit crying the blues about the big mean conservatives. You have had 8 years practically unopposed and you still complain. So stomp your feet and get over your tantrum because it's time for the adults to take back the keys to the car and get it road worthy again. You've run it into the ground, and have not taken care of it. So, you lose the right to control it. SO, give us the keys so that a mature adult can fix it.

If you don't like a predominantly conservative forum, then feel free to go elsewhere. There are plenty of liberal/socialist sites you can log in to that will make you feel all warm and fuzzy. You all control the TV networks and we have to listen to the Blamer-in-chief almost daily, either giving news conferences or on some comedy show, so don't get so irrate when you come across someone on a conservative forum that doesn't agree with you.

You are technically correct but the words trust fund are very misleading. We are now cashing in these so called bonds but all that is happening is those funds are being pulled out of the general fund and where we are running a continuous deficiet it is going directly to national debt and will continue to do so. I myself don't call this a trust fund. Just my opinion though.

Give YOU the keys so a mature person can fix it???
We are still trying to fix the blunder that Weasel did by invading Iraq in search of those WMD's that were never thete.

You are correct. While we are not cashing in these bonds yet, we will start doing so in 2019, right now SS still takes in more than expenditures, so we are adding to the fund, TEMPORARILY. "Trust Fund"---their words, not mine.

Interestingly, when you look at our 18.4 trillion debt, a little over 5 trillion is "interagency" debt---federal agencies that run at a deficit "borrow" money, thru T-bills, from those that generate a surplus---SS is the biggest example. I'm not really sure this should count, it's like saying a husband owes his wife $50. But since it is on the books, they count it. The next 6 trillion or so is owned by Americans---401K's, banks, insurance cos. This leaves about 7 trillion in "foreign debt". Of this 3.2 trillion is owned by China and Japan---which is in their interest to keep the dollar strong for export purposes. This leaves a little under 4 trillion spread around---however, two of the largest, in name, are "The Caribbean Trust" and Luxembourg. Both of these are thought to be fronts for hedge funds, so again, American money.

Now, you are again correct regarding the SS "fund"--when we start cashing in the T-bills in 2019 and SS runs at a deficit, we will have to auction off new T-bills to cover it. This will in effect transfer "interagency" debt of 2.9 trillion to the open market---be it foreign or domestic. But it will not increase the national debt, since this is already counted. But it will no longer be "all in the family"

Wrong. It's been proven that there were WMD's in Iraq. Mass graves are proof, and I was in Baghdad when they uncovered the graves. Victims were murdered by poison gas, a WMD.

Besides, Bush had a right and a mandate to attack when Sadaam refused to obey the No Fly Zone. So, get over it. Your problem is that you have no excuse for the poor performance of your messiah in D.C. By the way, does that make you Muslim?....:22yikes:

And Hilary and Kerry voted for the invasion.

Dear Guest: I re-read my post and can't see where I accused Democrats as all being bad and Republicans as all good. I pointed to FDR, LBJ and Obama because under their Administrations entitlements expanded by leaps and bounds. Obama spent more money then several presidents combined and he was winding down our military and our defense initiatives... soldiers couldn't get protective vests but Obama groupies could get free cell phones.
The progressives push for Civil Rights was just, but progressives being progressives over reached again and equal opportunity amounted and still does to this day to guaranteed equal outcomes.

While I believe Fox News is more fair and balanced than all of the alphabet stations combined I by no means believe what many fox commentators have to say without a trust but verify. As a side bar my go to news is WSJ which I trust more because its about how policy affects the economy and not party affiliation.....money is not red or blue but green

You must admit that CNBC and its moderators went beyond the pale.....

One of my friends escaped Eastern Europe and he would tell you what I related as to the salami theory is a true account following communist take over

Corporations are doing inversions because of taxes and regulations SOX and Dodd Frank 35% + tax rate are strangling companies and quite frankly I can't blame these corporations. Progressive use the canard its your patriotic duty to pay taxes. I say no not because I am not patriotic but because all politicians are reckless with taxpayer money and a few outright dishonest. Why should citizens hand over their hard earned money to feed the self interests of people who will not represent the people (ie taxation without representation)

You reference a few socialist programs not making a country socialist . This caused me pause wondering if we are watching the same presidential debate wherein progressive/socialist democratic party argues in favor of socialism over capitalism . Never in my wildest dreams did I ever believe that citizens of this country would take seriously the thought of America becoming socialist republic

Stories are replete wherein political correctness in our educational institutes with their trigger warnings and micro-agressions is rewriting American history because the factual events of this nation's history is causing PSTD among fragile students. And stories are replete wherein students with a conservative bent are actually being threatened. Let's hope you are right and many students after graduating adjust to the pragmatical America.

The FED has become our central planners and it is feeding only Wall street markets . The investment people at the top are living well off this sugar high while retirees you can't afford to risk losses can't even get interest on their money The FED originated in 1918 when our money was tied to gold. Since that is no longer the case the FED as it gained power is creating dangerous policy and no longer can continue to operate in the same manner.

Fraud and abuse abound in government programs and voter ID fraud is rampart. People can easily gain access to any identification needed for free stuff but they can't for voting.

I did not dump on democrats in my earlier post and did not question your contentions about state dept employees but have referenced some discrepancies here because you intentionally misrepresented my earlier post .

Again let's hope your fellow workers live by their ethical reputations and if they have factual information concerning Clinton's modus operandi (ie personal server, e-mails campaign contribution by foreign governments) they speak up for the benefit of the people the State Department represents.
And again because I do no take anything on this forum as personal and believe once shop talk is over that we all walk away friends. So

Personal Best Regards:

BS!