(06-13-2011 10:28 PM)MG61 Wrote: Recession - When your neighbor is out of a job.
Depression - When You are out of a job.
Recovery - When Obama is out of a job.
Obama might not then think its "a bump in the road."
BTW, I am not a big fan of Romney or several of them, but any of them, and several not there, including Perry, and Palin, would be far better than the clown in there now.
So, people from Alabama, Texas and Tennessee are not going to vote for the President? Shocking!?! I'm pretty sure he isn't counting on those electoral votes coming in. Not a big fan of his economic policies, so for me he's got a lot of work to do in order to get my vote. However, I really didn't see anything last night that made me stand up and take notice. I wish Giuliani would run as he would get my vote hands down.
(06-14-2011 08:22 AM)FIU Panther Fan Wrote: So, people from Alabama, Texas and Tennessee are not going to vote for the President? Shocking!?! I'm pretty sure he isn't counting on those electoral votes coming in. Not a big fan of his economic policies, so for me he's got a lot of work to do in order to get my vote. However, I really didn't see anything last night that made me stand up and take notice. I wish Giuliani would run as he would get my vote hands down.
My mind is open about who I'd vote for. I'm a registered Republican but I've crossed lines before and I may do so again depending on how things are going come election time.
There are people who wouldn't vote for President Obama even if he achieves world peace and has the economy booming so much that everyone is living like Tom Brady.
(06-14-2011 09:00 AM)AtlantaJag Wrote: My mind is open about who I'd vote for. I'm a registered Republican but I've crossed lines before and I may do so again depending on how things are going come election time.
There are people who wouldn't vote for President Obama even if he achieves world peace and has the economy booming so much that everyone is living like Tom Brady.
Ditto here. I know a couple of folks who get on the internet and berate Obama, and they didn't even vote. Puhlease.
(06-14-2011 08:22 AM)FIU Panther Fan Wrote: So, people from Alabama, Texas and Tennessee are not going to vote for the President? Shocking!?! I'm pretty sure he isn't counting on those electoral votes coming in. Not a big fan of his economic policies, so for me he's got a lot of work to do in order to get my vote. However, I really didn't see anything last night that made me stand up and take notice. I wish Giuliani would run as he would get my vote hands down.
My mind is open about who I'd vote for. I'm a registered Republican but I've crossed lines before and I may do so again depending on how things are going come election time.
There are people who wouldn't vote for President Obama even if he achieves world peace and has the economy booming so much that everyone is living like Tom Brady.
A Romney/Bachmann ticket would suit me just fine if the election were held today, but who knows what will transpire before election day? I'm a registered Republican also, but wouldn't hesitate to cross over if I believed it to be the right thing to do. For those who refuse to vote because they do not like any of the candidates are to be pitied, IMO. Texas, Tennessee and Alabame aren't the only states that produce slackers and anyone believing otherwise are kidding themselves.
CNN deserves a butt kicking for putting together a terrible event. Cash or Elvis? What sort of questions are those?
I want a real discussion.
Let's start with the idea of transitioning Medicare to a voucher public sector system. The premise advanced by one of my Senators is that doctors are leaving the system because reimbursements are too low. If a person is barely affording the current premiums and out-of-pocket how will they afford a plan that improves reimbursement. Medicare has depending on who you believe an overhead of 0.5% to 1.5%. Private insurance needs overhead of roughly 10% to 15% to handle the load and to make a profit for shareholders. So we are going to skim off a greater percentage of the money and reduce the total dollars in the system. Reimbursements cannot increase unless seniors pay a huge increase in premiums, it cannot even maintain status quo without a big increase.
No one is talking about this element. Medicare is one of the three items killing the budget. It spends 3X what it collects. Something has to change. I'm not prepared to rule out the Ryan plan but I don't support it until Americans know what they are getting.
There is doom over Social Security and its programs but predictions of future insolvency are based on assumptions about workers who have not even been born yet and their place in the economy. Social Security is the least of worries right now.
Other entitlements like SSI, Medicaid, SNAP (formerly food stamps), and housing and utility subsidies are the second budget wrecker. All have good elements but all have room for improvement. All are plans that we knee-jerk to distrust because of some of the applicants but all can think of scenarios where they are good and important. Some reform has to take place to get them budget friendlier while preserving their initial aims. Where are the proposals???
The third budget killer is defense. It has become the largest stimulus program in the nation. We currently spend 6X more than the next closest nation in spending. Pick any six nations and combined they spend less than we do. It provides a lot of employment not just for soldiers, sailors, and airmen, but also is propping up American shipbuilding, a huge percentage of US tech production, a huge part of US aircraft production and vehicle production. We are borrowing vast sums to buy products from Boeing, Lockheed, Northrup, and even Dell Computer. That's a massive part of the so-called private sector economy, US companies making things for the Department of Defense. Can we sustain that level of spending? Can we sustain the impact if we stop that level of spending?
We need to take a hard look at tax policy. Americans generally believe that if companies and wealthy people have dollars in hand it is good for the economy and tax cuts spur growth. There are certainly periods in US history that make the case. Today we have an odd situation. Corporations and the wealthiest individuals hold more cash on hand than at any time in US history but the stock market is sliding downward and the job market is weak. Our core problem is you can't start adding shifts and production lines to make more product when you are barely clearing your inventory at current production levels. There is simply no economic growth to be gained in this economy with a tax cut on corporations and the wealthy because they've got nothing to invest their money in that will spur the economy. You can't invest in building houses because home prices suck and in most markets homes are selling at discount compared to three years ago. Why build more cars when there are no buyers to take the added production.
Right now we have a shell-shocked middle class that is paying down debt and holding what cash it can. Until you reverse that there is no reason for any job creating investments. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates can only buy so many meals, TV's, cars and homes. Growth has to come from the middle class given the circumstances TODAY. We aren't in the economy Reagan inheirited where companies were struggling to find the capital to engage in business.
Where is this discussion? It's not going on.
We still don't have a real energy policy. Democrats don't want to talk about national security they want to talk about Greenhouse gasses and climate change. Republicans are so busy attacking that they are missing the chance to take the lead. Everyone is getting ready to run in Iowa and wants to buy in to Ethanol from corn which has driven up food prices by making the grocery store more expensive and raising costs of meat producers. The facts here are simple and cannot be argued against. While the US is not one of the biggest buyers of Middle East oil, oil is a world market. If the US cut oil purchases by 20% world demand falls 5% cutting prices. Outside of North American production, the bulk of what is produced comes from nations generally hostile to US interests. We have massive natural gas supplies. Maybe we want to declare war on fuel usage and find a way to get America moved over to CNG.
There are some HUGE issues out there but nobody seems to want to talk about them.