| Author | Message | ||
     Ft_bstrd |
Hey, guess what! We opposed spending from the last administration too! If it sucked last administration, why would you defend increasing it 9 times more? | ||
| Sifo |
Hey, guess what! We opposed spending from the last administration too! If it sucked last administration, why would you defend increasing it 9 times more? Exactly. I really enjoy the idiotic statements about Glen Beck "manufacturing" this debate just to attack the Democrats. These people must have either missed Glen Beck during the Bush administration, or are counting on us having missed Glen Beck back then. Glen Beck is an example of someone who is being driven by conservative principles, not political ideologies. | ||
| Dwardo |
McCain lost the election because we was a wackjob pointless old douche party establishment tool. +100 on that. McCain lost the election because people like me (for the first time) sat on their hands rather than vote. I am so sick of the Republican party giving me these spineless, douche-bag, "me too" a**holes, rather than a real choice. I just decided to sit it out. Do I regret it? Maybe. Obama is worse than even I imagined. Makes Hillary look good. But ... he has pushed the country to the point that those who are willing to see, can see what is there to be seen. | ||
| Slaughter |
If I can't control my spending, the bank jacks up the interest rates - hoping that I will get my spending under control. They only let me raise my limit on my VISA a few times before they say NO MORE. | ||
| Sifo |
+100 on that. McCain lost the election because people like me (for the first time) sat on their hands rather than vote. I am so sick of the Republican party giving me these spineless, douche-bag, "me too" a**holes, rather than a real choice. I just decided to sit it out. Do I regret it? Maybe. Obama is worse than even I imagined. Makes Hillary look good. But ... he has pushed the country to the point that those who are willing to see, can see what is there to be seen. +1 Just please don't sit on your hands again!  I don't think McCain would have been the winner in the primary if we had a runoff style of election. If we could vote for 3 candidates with an order of preference you would effectively have the ability to have instant runoffs with no additional expense when a candidate drops out. | ||
| Sifo |
They only let me raise my limit on my VISA a few times before they say NO MORE. That is about to be done to our country in the form of losing our AAA credit rating. As soon as that happens the interest rates we are paying on $14.5 trillion (soon to be $17 trillion) will suddenly jump. Adjustable rate mortgages were the killer of many home buyers who were stupid enough to believe they could afford a big mortgage just because Freddie/Fannie rules qualified them for the mortgage. That's one of the factors that lead to our current economic problems. Now just like any addict, the solution becomes more of what you are addicted to. Ask Amy Winehouse how that turns out. | ||
| Dwardo |
I was always mad because Bush the Younger kind of got anointed without there being a proper primary, in my view. I don't know why Democrats hate him so much, since he pretty much destroyed what was left of the Reagan legacy. Selecting Bush the Elder was the biggest mistake Reagan ever made. But I digress ... time to get some work done. | ||
| Moxnix |
Way back in the '08 primary, the liberal press was pushing McCain fourteen ways from breakfast. They gave us Lame Brain McCain (gratuitous cheap name calling is my specialty). My heart sunk. That's the man who Obama can beat in a heartbeat, thought I. And he did. Two sides of the same bent coin. I want my country back. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Our choice was between a stinky sack of crap and a slightly less stinky sack of crap. It was the choice between a stone cold Marxist and a 1980's style Democrat. There was no conservative choice. Had McCain gotten to Washington in his "let's suspend the campaign and deal with this crisis" fiasco, saw the TARP deal and advocated against it, I think he might have picked up some conservative votes. Instead, he looked inept, weak, and feckless. Palin was the only potential bright spot for McCain. Conservative voters, while not completely sold on Palin, gravitated to the ONLY potentially conservative participant in the race. I like Palin as a bludgeon. I'm not sold on her as a candidate for the top slot. As a rogue advocate of conservative principles, she is very effective. The left and the left press know this which is why they must continue to attack her. Where ever she goes she draws a crowd. The crowd leaves energized. That makes her dangerous. | ||
| Moxnix |
I look at the Bushes, starting with Senator Prescott Bush, as New England social engineers with a shrub who went into politics in Texas. Prescott was very big in the organization preceding Planned Parenthood. I am not in agreement with family dynasties controlling our country. Ted Kennedy and the little family spawn were not John Kennedy, that's a given. They can afford to give your money away, as the family trust will keep them in caviar for another century. Rand Paul being the exception to the rule. I like Rand Paul. | ||
| Sifo |
McCain was the media darling. Right up to the day that he won he primary. That's the man who Obama can beat in a heartbeat, thought I. I think the media agreed with you. | ||
| Whatever |
f'n computer... now I have to re-type everything. This is what I would do to get our country back on track... 1. Deconstruct the military-industrial complex... aka quit feeding the beast that got us into this mess. When 60% of all jobs depend on DoD spending, then needless wars will continue over seas. Stop playing baby sitter and rescuer to the world until we get our own house in order. 2. ENFORCE Border Patrol and Illegal Immigration. No welfare for illegals, period. When the military gets downsized then employ at least half of those people towards a real solution to the illegal immigration problem... drug trafficking, illegals working illegally, human trafficking... welfare fraud... take your pick. 3. Campaign finance reform. Seriously, governing by the corporations for the corporations does not work. Baby Bush already proved this. I don't care how you do it... re-structure campaign contribution laws, lobbying rules etc. Quit letting the ENRON's of the world control our government so they profit from politicians. 4. Provide some sort of incentives for American manufacturing to return to the US. This is probably a huge nightmare, but start with the end of incentives for off-shoring production and customer services. It is not enough to just have direct gov spending have to buy American... all Federal contractor procurement should have to meet this requirement. I don't care if you are the tenth sub contractor to the original contractor. 5. SOLVE the dependence on foreign oil. I think the biggest mistake this administration has made was shutting down Gulf production. Yes, the permiting and practices of the Gulf oil production needs to be changed. But provide a way for provisional permitting while providing incentives for the BIG OIL corporations to move to sustainable solutions, whatever they are... wind, ethanol, hydroelectric, whatever... Helping to make the electric-hybrid vehicles practical and affordable would be another area to look at. Those areas are where I would start. (Message edited by Whatever on August 02, 2011) (Message edited by Whatever on August 02, 2011) | ||
| Cowboy |
Things to Remember. We can never have a robust economy till we have a good supply of energy---reasonably priced energy-----get rid of about 75% of gov. red tape---give our workers well trained background--longer jail time for crooked politions--make certain the tax structure is fare for the large investors.----make even the lowest wage earner pay some small amount of tax ( if every thing is free there is no pride left in a man.)--disband the EPA---let every one slary be based on merit ( no point in good workeers having to drag some dumb ass along) there is many more but I think you now see the path. | ||
| Whatever |
Corporations will only win by running from this country. Many will. Those who don't will be severely handicapped in the world marketplace. Greed is fine when it has checks and balances. That is what you see in the corporate world for the most part. It does get out of whack when the rules are set up to promote one industry over another though. There are select times when this may make sense, such as with utilities to make sure that the electrical grid has good saturation across the country. Too often rules are set up to reward political contributions. The problem here isn't greed where people want to earn money. The problem is greed where politicians want to take the peoples money from them to use in ways that reward themselves. This is the greed that will destroy the nation. This is the greed that has been on display in Washington for far too long. BINGO !!! Please see #3 above. | ||
| Court |
What a shame. Someone tell me what the congress passed. | ||
| Mtjm2 |
YOU HAVE TO PASS IT TO FIND OUT WHATS IN IT ( NANCY PELOSI )\ We will all find out soon} | ||
| Dwardo |
The biggest and easiest thing that could be done to bring business back to this country would be to eliminate corporate income taxes. Yes, eliminate. Corporations do not pay taxes, the people who buy their products do (that's us, when we can find an American product to buy). The only thing is, we have no way of knowing how much tax we are paying at that point. We have the highest or second highest corporate taxes in the industrialized world, not to mention the administrative costs of collecting them. Get rid of the taxes and watch the corporations come back as US as our labor becomes relatively cheaper. No gimmicks, no props to favored groups, no nothing. Just get rid of the tax. Wouldn't happen in a million years. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I agree with more of that list than I disagree with Char! Especially if you would add in a balanced budge amendment (whatever we decide we have to do, we have to fund, we can't believe in something so much we have to steal from our kids to achieve it). For campaign finance reform, I'm less concerned about trying to control how much anyone can "give", I'm more concerned about who can take it, and to require hig transparency. When I worked for GE Aircraft engines, and in my current role for another big company, one of the basic rules was that I couldn't take anything that would lead to even an appearance of impropriety. Congress and the Senate not only don't follow that rule, they don't seem to live on the same planet that rule came from. | ||
| Macbuell |
It is mind boggling to me that capping spending is considered a spending cut. Who in the hell came up with that backwards logic? I heard yesterday that some tea party folks are going to introduce a Zero Based Budget. This, along with a Balanced Budget Amendment, is what we need to do. We simple have to put together an expense Budget = to Revenues. | ||
| Whatever |
Don't get me wrong... government contract work is essential... my last job that I mentioned I would really like back was cleaining up an Army Ammo Plant. Problem was I got that job about 20 years too late to make a career of it... some very competent and awesome people to work for and with... (except #2 who liked to f with people's heads). I was crushed when I was layed off from that job... but every day I thanked God for it bc I knew it would not last forever... | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
Charlotte, Why don't you become a UXO Tech? | ||
| Whatever |
Because prob can't pass security for that. Although I would like to blow sh*t up... | ||
| Whatever |
Oh yeah... I like even numbers ! 6. Decriminalize MJ and tax the f out of it... need I say, I hate pot... hate being around it... hate getting second hand smoke... but the 'war on drugs' is a terrible money suck... and housing all the MJ offenders is just pointless. (Message edited by Whatever on August 02, 2011) | ||
| Xdigitalx |
Pelosi is the wicked witch of the west. Blame game queen. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
My buddy's website: http://www.globally-employable.com/index.html | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
1. Deconstruct the military-industrial complex... aka quit feeding the beast that got us into this mess. When 60% of all jobs depend on DoD spending, then needless wars will continue over seas. Stop playing baby sitter and rescuer to the world until we get our own house in order. PLEASE cite the source for this statistic. Really. 60% of ALL jobs depend on DOD spending? 60% of a $14.7T economy is driven by the $720B military budget? That's some great leverage. Why don't we put 100% of our funding toward this segment? 2. ENFORCE Border Patrol and Illegal Immigration. No welfare for illegals, period. When the military gets downsized then employ at least half of those people towards a real solution to the illegal immigration problem... drug trafficking, illegals working illegally, human trafficking... welfare fraud... take your pick. No arguments here. 3. Campaign finance reform. Seriously, governing by the corporations for the corporations does not work. Baby Bush already proved this. I don't care how you do it... re-structure campaign contribution laws, lobbying rules etc. Quit letting the ENRON's of the world control our government so they profit from politicians. would this include banning ANY funds contributed by or campaign advertisements by ANY collective barganing organizations? 4. Provide some sort of incentives for American manufacturing to return to the US. This is probably a huge nightmare, but start with the end of incentives for off-shoring production and customer services. It is not enough to just have direct gov spending have to buy American... all Federal contractor procurement should have to meet this requirement. I don't care if you are the tenth sub contractor to the original contractor. Why not trying to encourage the return of American jobs rather than trying to punish the offshoring. I have advocated a tax rate based upon the percentage of US workers utilized in production. If 50% of your employees are US based, your tax rate is 17.5%. If 100% of your employees are US based, your tax rate is 0%. Make offshoring financially less attractive rather than punishing companies for remaining and operating in the US. 4. I forgot what four was. Oh well... I must be getting old (no it had nothing to do with health care)... 5. SOLVE the dependence on foreign oil. I think the biggest mistake this administration has made was shutting down Gulf production. Yes, the permiting and practices of the Gulf oil production needs to be changed. But provide a way for provisional permitting while providing incentives for the BIG OIL corporations to move to sustainable solutions, whatever they are... wind, ethanol, hydroelectric, whatever... Open oil production EVERYWHERE we have it. The US has more oil resources than just about country on the planet yet we refuse to use them. Unlease the beast. Let us use what we have. It will lower the price of oil and provide American workers with jobs. We also need to create new nuclear power plants as well as build new refineries. Why should we spend billions of dollars to build a refinery in Brazil? Helping to make the electric-hybrid vehicles practical and affordable would be another area to look at. This will come with time. Economies of scale will bring prices down. (Message edited by ft bstrd on August 02, 2011) | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I agree on the war on drugs. Pointless. We are getting our asses kicked. I say build a 40' deep 50' tall wall across the entire border of Mexico. It will provide American jobs and keep the Mexican cartel scum on their side of the fence. I also like the idea of introducing alligators to the Rio Grande. | ||
| Court |
I too agree with a good part of Char's list . . . Rather than get too caught up in just pure numbers (if you don't get the need to spend less than you bring in, you won't get it) I wish there was a way we could return pride, honesty and ethics to American business. Before I die . . I'd like, once more, to by something like Vise-Grips, a Snap-On tool, a car or a motorcycle where MADE IN USA meant "with pride and to the best of our ability". It's the emotional and impossible to quantify part of this that bothers me the most. My bet is that if you returned pride to people, in themselves and in what they produce, that a good deal of the rest would follow. To really get what I mean . . . stand and talk sometime with someone who worked at Buell. At the risk of being laughed at . . there were a number of us who (pretty much) could have cared less if we got paid or not . . we were on a mission. Imagine a day on a team with Abe, Dave G, Gary V, Jon Bunne, John Fox and Tony S . . . you get that much pride and expertise and things are going to happen. I don't see that in government or industry in America. Why not a national sales tax? How cool would it be if the guy who made $18,000 a year and bought no so much and the guy who made $7,000,000 and bought a yacht (perhaps a bad example at the moment  ) both paid xx% on their purchases? Everyone would be happy. Well. . maybe not those 42% who are currently consuming and not paying a dime. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I'd love for the bottom 47% who are the "recipient class" and use the majority of the benefits yet pay nothing into the system to "have skin in the game". Maybe it might cause them to alter how they vote. "Is it really worth me giving up 5% or 10% of my income to get this government program given to me or could I make better decisions and provide that benefit for myself better?" When you get it all for free AND you pay nothing for it, even if it sucks, it's free. Just like when healthcare participants are required to pick up costs it alters their decisions and drives them to determine what care is most important, requiring the "recipient class" to have skin in the game will drive them to determine what is really necessary and what would best be provided for themselves. | ||
| Sifo |
This is what I would do to get our country back on track... 1. Deconstruct the military-industrial complex... aka quit feeding the beast that got us into this mess. When 60% of all jobs depend on DoD spending, then needless wars will continue over seas. Stop playing baby sitter and rescuer to the world until we get our own house in order. I like it - if you are willing to take it to it's original intent. A standing army during peacetime is a lot of power that is tempting for any leader to use. That is why our government was given power to maintain a navy, but combat forces were intended to be state militia. That means stop restricting the 2nd amendment. Would you favor allowing normal law abiding citizens to purchase and practice with fully automatic assault rifles, RPGs, all varieties of explosives, and pretty much anything else that is used on the modern battlefield? 2. ENFORCE Border Patrol and Illegal Immigration. No welfare for illegals, period. When the military gets downsized then employ at least half of those people towards a real solution to the illegal immigration problem... drug trafficking, illegals working illegally, human trafficking... welfare fraud... take your pick. I totally agree. I would also add a federal ID that establishes the right to work in the US. No ID - No work. Any employer who doesn't have a copy of an ID for an illegal worker suffers felony charges. 3. Campaign finance reform. Seriously, governing by the corporations for the corporations does not work. Baby Bush already proved this. I don't care how you do it... re-structure campaign contribution laws, lobbying rules etc. Quit letting the ENRON's of the world control our government so they profit from politicians. A couple of problems with this one. First it's not constitutional. The Supreme Court just recently decided that corporations, who are just a group of individuals have the same rights as other groups of individuals in this matter. Would you be willing to apply the same rules to other groups, such as unions for example? Environmental PACs? The simple reality is that taxing of corporations has created an entire industry of lobbyists that lobby for more favorable tax codes. The politicians benefit from this in a big way. Completely cut corporate taxes and you get rid of the need to lobby for tax exemptions. 4. Provide some sort of incentives for American manufacturing to return to the US. This is probably a huge nightmare, but start with the end of incentives for off-shoring production and customer services. It is not enough to just have direct gov spending have to buy American... all Federal contractor procurement should have to meet this requirement. I don't care if you are the tenth sub contractor to the original contractor. Again, simply eliminating corporate taxes will be a big first step in getting corporations to set up shop here. The incentive to move offshore is because of the taxes imposed on corporations. Sure there are other factors, but taxation is one of the few factors that the government has any control over. Right now they are providing the incentive to locate almost anywhere BUT the US. It's proving to be effective too. 4. I forgot what four was. Oh well... I must be getting old (no it had nothing to do with health care)... You will get used to senior moments.  5. SOLVE the dependence on foreign oil. I think the biggest mistake this administration has made was shutting down Gulf production. Yes, the permiting and practices of the Gulf oil production needs to be changed. But provide a way for provisional permitting while providing incentives for the BIG OIL corporations to move to sustainable solutions, whatever they are... wind, ethanol, hydroelectric, whatever... I would add nuclear to your list. Wind and ethanol are proven losers. We have huge amounts of resources right here in the US. We have just chosen to not use them, but rather make our enemies rich by using theirs. Helping to make the electric-hybrid vehicles practical and affordable would be another area to look at. It's a shame your point #3 didn't last a little bit longer. I thought it was a good one. It is mind boggling to me that capping spending is considered a spending cut. Who in the hell came up with that backwards logic? Feeling lied to yet? This insane logic has a zone where they can spend more next year than they did this year and call it a cut. Politicians who practice this sort of dishonest logic need to be thrown out like the leftovers from last nights fish dinner. Just leaving it alone really stinks up the place! |
