I fully understand that now thank you FarSeer I was just wondering most needed bills to be paid and we are struggling with the economy I hope more good things come to fix it but as he said it would tak time and pateince before this crisis is fixed.
Heck, I pledge 100 trillion dollars to the rebuilding of Gaza! Why not? It seems that if you are 10 TRILLION dollars in debt you can promise to give away 1 more! It just feels good to say it.
Source 5
Oh yeah...and we are going to reduce the debt in half by 2011. Apparently, we are hoping for quite the windfall from our future purchase of Citi...
At what point did we elect Bernnie Madoff as president?
Fiscal responsibility is a new mantra following the signing of a nearly 800 BILLION dollar spending spree at Banks Mortgages and Beyond! Does anyone else find this the least bit ironic. For me it is like a coke addict snorting about 3 kilo's of blow over a "never to be remembered again" weekend and waking up just in time to teach a "Just Say No" class to 5th graders.
Source 1
Well, it certainly is a good thing we are going to start exercising fiscal management. We wouldnt want anyone to just be able to write checks for 900 million without being able to pay for it, would we? So it is a good thing we are getting the 2009 Fiscal Responsibility Act.
Source 6
Hmmm...but didnt we have something like this before? Why yes, in '82 we had TEFRA - Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act.
Source 9
Well, gee whizzz, how many acts does it take to be fiscally responsible? In my home, it is pretty simple. If we have $100 dollars, then we can spend up to $100 dollars. If we only spend $50, we dont call it a surplus and try to find projects to blow the remaining $50 on. Typically, we also dont pledge more money than we have on hand, but then again...we dont just print our own!
If we played the game Monopoly like we run this country, the game would never end. You could just run with a negative surplus turn after turn after turn...
Edited: Vincenzo on 25th Feb, 2009 - 6:41am
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 863 86.3%
"We Will Rebuild": In National Address, Obama Offers Ambitious Pledge on Economic Recovery, Healthcare Reform
In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama vowed the nation will be able to rebuild and recover from the economic crisis that has left millions unemployed and pushed millions out of their homes. Obama called on Congress to invest in areas like energy, healthcare and education, while admitting that hard decisions need to be made to reduce the federal deficit. President Obama also said he would soon announce a plan to end the war in Iraq and eliminate no-bid contracts to military contractors. Ref. Source 3
Why does this sound like he is playing robin hood. wanting to take everything from the rich and give it to the poor? Maybe I am just reading it all wrong. Plus throwing more and more money into money pits instead of just letting the corps fail is something we need to relook at.
QUOTE |
I hope he can do the things he said he can do it will give us more dollars for the stuff we need. |
International Level: Politician / Political Participation: 109 10.9%
The worship is a fad and will soon fade. I think Debate made some good points here: Source 1 that shows how he is handling things will lead to a 'new' America that might really be socialist in nature.
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 3230 100%
I do believe that much like the "New Deal", this will lead to a different role for the Federal Government. The Federal Government is being used to right mistakes in the private sector at any cost to not sustain a huge setback. The reason for that is politics. No one wants to see it get really bad under their watch. That will take years to fix and no one wants to be in charge when it happens, so we are trying to spend our way to a cushion. I totally disagree that this will lead to longterm national socialism in the US. The US already has some socialistic characteristics or rather economic socialist rationalizations, but I do not see them going all Venezuelan in anytime that I will be alive. The US has social security, wellfare, medicare, medicaid, FCIC, FDIC, etc... That are government entities.
The US is not a national socialist country, but we have already put our toe, foot, leg and upper tarso into this area long ago.
The Federal Reserve (and its quasi government status), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been manipulated like the gas and break pedal on your car. For a long time, we, the tax payer have been supporting this government manipulation of our private sector. Think of them as constant mini-stimulus packages. Greenspan was the captain and we were all aboard the USS Goodtimes. Through our careless deregulation of the mortgage industry (under the Clinton adminstration...although he claims no responsibility), we did enjoy an economically fantastic 90's decade and the first half of 00's decade, but the bill is due. We gave lifesupport for almost 2 decades to the housing industry that should have been allowed to grow and contract with the market naturally. Instead, the government forced banks to make loans to people that really were high risks through legislation.
Now because we want to be re-elected, because we dont want to be in charge in the darkest of hours and because we want to be seen as doing "something", we are trying our best to "forge...ry" our way through it. We are looking 6 months ahead and not 10 years. Obama better cut that deficit that he just helped inflate another 12% within the first 30 days in office. The first real sign of inflation is going to totally rock the dollar and if the dollar drops significantly the bottom hasn't been found yet and there wont be a recovery for quite some time!
The government and administration will have you believe that it was bankings fault for what has happened. Read the acts that were passed in the 80's that paved the way for this debacle. Now we are trying to spend our way out of it. If it works, he will be a hero. If it fails, Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter are going to have some company on the worst presidents list in the future. There is still no legislation that has been passed to fix the root cause! Why is that? The answer is...they want you to start buying houses again!
My advice...at a $1.5 per share and the US government becoming the major stock holder, buy a couple of thousand shares of Citigroup if you got the cash. That will be a nice payback in about 5 years.
Oh, one move that Obama is making really soon is getting his name off a earmark, since he promised no earmarks in his government...
Source 1
Notice the earmark is not being removed...just reassigned to some other senator. Washington is changing so much I hardly recognize it!
Edited: Vincenzo on 28th Feb, 2009 - 6:19am
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 863 86.3%
Well let's look at this... So far Obama in his short term in office has:
1. Raised the US deficit by trillions more than ever placing the US in decades of debt. In other words the US will be dependent on government.
2. Banks are begging the US government to take huge shares (Citigroup gave up 40%), so its a nationalizing of the banking system
3. He wants to pull out troops from Iraq but at the same time leave as much as 50,000 there? He seems to be following the Bush line of thought and is even losing some power with the Democratic party over that decision.
4. He wants to nationalize medical care with the government having access to your medical records (which they probably already do).
The point is... Everything important to life is going to be specifically controlled by government with the idea that private enterprises must be punished from taking too much money from the people when it is the people that made the CHOICE to spend wildly without thought for down days.
Keep in mind he has been in office for about a little over a month!
International Level: International Guru / Political Participation: 3230 100%