by Jack
RECENT HEADLINES:
- American families got poorer in the first decade of the 21st century. The wealth of the median U.S. household — the family at the middle of the middle class — fell from $106,000 in 2001 to $77,000 in 2010.
- According to a new study from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, the rate of poverty is rising among Americans and especially older Americans.
- The numbers tell us America is in decline… if not outright collapse.
- The proof is in the numbers: How in the world can anyone claim that things are getting better? Sometimes the numbers are so clear that they simply cannot be denied. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, median household income in the United States fell from $51,726 in 2008 to $50,221 in 2009 and it continues to decline. In other words, America is getting poorer.
- Congressmen’s incomes triple while America gets poorer.
This headline is really unintentionally funny, considering that for the vast majority of the time period you’re talking about, Obama was not president.
Like I said Chris, W brought the ball to the 50 yard line, but it was Obama that drove it home. These things never happen by just one party or the other. Somebody has to be the negligent party and somebody has to have an hot agenda and together that spells trouble for… us.
Obama’s policies kickstarted the recovery. The stimulus and the bailouts worked, as I have shown in comments to other articles today. The PPACA is set to reduce the deficit. Your party is against all of these measures and will increase the deficit while also decreasing social services and lowering taxes on the wealthiest Americans. The choice is clear.
Both of these parties are corrupt and immoral.
They both will take us to national bankruptcy and to hell, just with different routes and timetables.
But make not mistake, the train’s destination is the same.
All aboard!!!
The left will do whatever it can to convince the people that the rich are hording selfish greedy takers at the expense of the rest of us.
Those who care about more than politics can read other points of view here:
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/11/07/income-inequality-vs-wealth-inequality/
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2011/11/income-inequality-and-the-education-of-jonathan-chait/
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2011/11/the-one-chart-that-explodes-the-myth-of-us-income-inequality/
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2011/11/the-one-chart-that-explodes-the-myth-of-us-income-inequality/
http://www.columbia.edu/~wk2110/bin/estate-NBER.pdf
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/confusing-wealth-income
THE QUESTION THIS ELECTION IS DO YOU WANT TO LIVE IN A COMMUNIST COUNTRY? IF YOU DO VOTE FOR OBAMA AND THE ELIXABETH WARRENS OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY.
My heart breaks for my son, Chris, all the other young people their age and their children. They’ve been robbed of having a better future then we did.
Read the last line twice! “Lowest ever measured.”
How sad, todays Rasmussen Report shows, “just 14% believe todays children will be better off than their parents. Thats the lowest level of optimism ever measured.”
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
Peggy, I’ve never seen this country is such bad shape and I’ve kept a pretty close on eye on what’s going on since I was in my 20’s. It is really scary. To see our debt equal to the national product is almost beyond comprehension. And yet some people like Chris think Obama is doing a wonderful job? He ran up a credit card at the bar and bought everybody drinks, it might feel great at the time but that doesn’t mean anything, because tomorrow we all get to pay his tab. How’s that helping solve anything?
“THE QUESTION THIS ELECTION IS DO YOU WANT TO LIVE IN A COMMUNIST COUNTRY?”
No, that is not the question. Only a hysterical idiot would think it was.
“Reagan proved deficits don’t matter.” –Dick Cheney
It really is sad Jack to believe the next generation will not have a better life because theyll be paying for what we did. Parents used to save for their kids college education, but not any more. They need it to just survive, pay the mortgage if theyre still fortunate enough to have a home, or the rent if theyve lost one.
I gave up trying to get my degree so I could put in the overtime, work a second job, sell real estate to insure my boys got their degrees and had a better life. It wasnt easy doing it alone their last ten years of education, but Id do it again in a minute. Education cost are out of control now. Student loans and grants are a guarantee the students life will most likely not be better for 10-20 years paying their loans off and the taxpayers paying off the grants.
Education should be controlled at the state and local levels. Shut down the federal level. Money that is going to support whats going on in DC should stay local.
Now, everyones drinking at that bar yelling for another round expecting the next group of people to do the same. Its the biggest Ponzi scam in the universe, and we all know how they end.
Like I said its sad. With so many thinking they can have it all by just putting it on a credit card its guaranteed their lives wont be better then ours. It will definitely be worse because of all the additional taxes and higher taxes theyll have to pay instead of having a better life.
Why cant they see or understand that running a government is basically the same as a business and even a family budget? You cant spend more then you have. You cant go on vacation if the money is needed for rent, food, clothes.. You just dont! Not now, not ever!
Just look at what the GSA and the Ninth Circuit Court is doing. Spending millions and millions for conferences in Los Vegas, Hawaii, Florida. We send billions to countries that hate us. We spend trillions on wars in countries that the Muslim Brotherhood cant wait to take over.
StopStop it all. Tell the judges to hold their conference in San Francisco where they have the facilities to hold conventions for huge corporations. Why do we have to pay a million dollars for them to have a vacation in Hawaii? Senator Sessions tried to get them to cancel it, but they refused. Someone must be in charge to make them.
Where is that someone? Its us, and if we dont stop it now it never will.
What we know is Obama hasn’t done it and probably won’t or can’t, because he doesn’t have the ability to do so.
Chris: “No, that is not the question. Only a hysterical idiot would think it was.”
Thank you for sharing.
Dick Cheney was right, in context. Deficits don’t matter when growth to GDP is kept within reason. Debt can be handled when there is a strong and growing economy. Under Obama we have the opposite. The economy is bumping along at the bottom of the pool threatening to drown and debt is growing and growing and growing. We won’t be able to manage the interest, let alone the debt, if this trend continues.
Most presidents prior to Obama kept the debt to GDP ratio under 20%. I just posted the following in another comment but so what:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/the-facts-about-the-growth-of-spending-under-obama/2012/05/24/gJQAIJh6nU_blog.html
The thing that makes this level of spending even more dangerous (stupid) today is the Baby Boomers and the unsustainable plans that will be sucked dry and then some in the next few years. Republicans have tried for years to do something about it. What does Obama do…he adds another plan that will be just as costly and just as unsustainable while at the same time spending money like a drunken sailor.
Chris you called me an hysterical idiot. I will not call you names but I will suggest this is your future debt that is piling up. The rich do not have enough money to cover this debt. The government will come after the middle class…that will be you if you can find a job. If you cna’t it won’t matter…we will all be communists then.
Smarten up…you are being taken for a terrible ride into the worst kind of hell and you are just too young and inexperienced to know it.
If you wanted to grow your own personal wealth would you ask President Obama or Mitt Romney for advice? Hint: The O man doesn’t have a clue.
Tina, can you give me your definition of what a communist country is? And are there any industrialized nations left in the world that are NOT communist countries by your definition? If so, what are they?
Israel has a nationalized healthcare system with far more government control than Obama has advocated. Are you willing to call Israel a communist country?
Mitt Romney isn’t. In perhaps one of the most ironic political moves ever, Romney heaped praise on Israel’s nationalized health care system during his recent visit. Romney said:
“When our health care costs are completely out of control. Do you realize what health care spending is as a percentage of the GDP in Israel? 8 percent. You spend 8 percent of GDP on health care. And youre a pretty healthy nation. We spend 18 percent of our GDP on health care. 10 percentage points more. That gap, that 10 percent cost, let me compare that with the size of our military. Our military budget is 4 percent. Our gap with Israel is 10 points of GDP. We have to find ways, not just to provide health care to more people, but to find ways to finally manage our health care costs.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/30/romney-praises-health-care-in-israel-where-strong-government-influence-has-driven-down-costs/
Chris which countries are communist isn’t the point. The point is policy that is communist inspired rather than capitalist inspired…that values power in Washington over freedom…that values the collective over the individual.
I have no desire to play student to your teacher so no, I will not name countries for you that I think are communist. I think you are smart enough to know that yourself.
I will say that to the degree that democracies have adopted communist principles we find they are also deeply in debt and lacking in economic opportunity for the majority of the people. We find a growing swath of capable people that are totally dependent on others (takers) or if they work greedy about keeping state mandated perks (long paid vacations, paid time off work for illness, death in the family, dog to the vet, birth of a child, pensions, healthcare) Business cannot sustain an economy that has such low production from the citizens working or not working and make no mistake…business is where wealth (the economy) is generated.
“Israel has a nationalized healthcare system with far more government control than Obama has advocated. Are you willing to call Israel a communist country?”
Israel is the size of Rhode Island. If Rhode Island wanted to create a state sponsored health care system I wouldn’t live there but I would honor the right of the people to make what I consider a mistake.
As for health care costs no one has argued that they need to come down. We have argued about how to achieve that goal in America. Another big FAT government bureaucracy isn’t the answer.
Leave it to liberals to jump on Romney’s remarks and make them something they were not. His praise was for their cost efficiency:
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2012/08/01/mitt_romney_praises_israeli_health_system_even_though_it_is_more_government_run_than_obama_health_law/?page=full
Embracing or settling for an inferior solution for this country is not smart, especially when it will cost much more for the bureaucracy than projected and drive other costs up. The tax on medical devices is one example. Higher insurance premiums is another.
I’m in favor of fixing problems in our health care. This big bureaucratic federal solution is not the wise way to go. The federal government can help…by enacting policies that inspire and incentivize the private sector to bring costs down.
Regarding communist countries John Sununu had a brief exchange with Juan Williams last night on Hannity’s show. Said Sununu:
“Obama gets endorsed by Hugo Chavez and Romney gets endorsed by Lech Walesa”
Lech Wilesa earned his Nobel Peace Prize and established a republic in the midst of the soviet bloc countries. His country still suffers from the effects of that oppressive system, including a failing healthcare system.
Like I said. This election is about whether or not you want to live in a communist country. A vote for Obama is a vote for more government control over every aspect of your life…a move toward a communist model and general decline.
No, no, no … we are not going to forget who made the poor people poorer. The worst you can say about Obama is that his policies haven’t turned it around.
But I’m not sure I’m going to let you say that, because for half of his first term he’s been saddled with a Congress that won’t enact nothin’ at all. We’s just wallowing.
So, make up your minds. Either you retire the Freshman Class or you elect Romney. But DO something!
Jack this is terrific! A man that describes our entitlement society and has nonpartisan solutions!!!
From the second link in your article…
http://www.stansberryresearch.com/pub/reports/201112PSI_issue.html
On political corruption:
On corporate corruption:
The problem is the sense of entitlement…how do we elect people with the fortitude to act on these solutions…and then follow through year after year…and without education reforms as well how do we recreate a responsible society?
Still a very good read!
Half of his first term he had a super majority congress…they didn’t need a single Republican vote…and nothing was done to kick start the overall economy.
Instead they saddled the country with piles of new expensive regulations, impending taxes, and another unsustainable entitlement program. The administration is downright hostile to the energy industry. Spending down a rat hole seems to be the favored game and that includes war spending…where’s the uproar over that Libby?
ALL of this and more acts as a deterrent to business, hiring and economic growth.
The freshman class will get along just fine with Romney. God help them…the hole we’re in is very deep and filling with water fast.
“Half of his first term he had a super majority congress….”
And the big banks didn’t implode. I know lots of us would have experienced a great deal of visceral satisfaction if they had … but it’s probably better they didn’t.
We’re actually starting to see positive benefits, monetarily speaking, from the Healthcare Act, in only three years; that’s very good for a policy change.
Down here in Urbanville, we’re seeing lots of road, bridge and public transit work. That’s all to the good.
It could be better, but in the circumstances, we’re doing well enough.
But if the Freshman Class is not retired … I shudder to think.