So, what are we going to do now?

Can things get any worse? The market crashed, real private sector jobs dropped again, Fannie Mae needs more of our money to operate, the gov't just jacked up our debt ceiling so BO can spend more....what's next? I guess everything will be okay though because our leader doesn't seem concerned- he had a bunch of his millionaire buddies spending $35k a head to help his re-election effort a couple of nights ago & opened up the White House last night to his other rap, sports & entertainment buddies.....let them eat cake, right?

 

Yep, things have really gone to hell since they passed Boner's Budget Plan.

 

Oh yeah, BO was supposed to restore our standing in the world yet other countries are treating us like children with their condescending treatment & advice.
I also just read where the average income dropped $3500 from 2009 to 2010. Yayyyyy!!!!

 

Nah! It is all Bush's fault.

 

Gotta love Jake Tapper:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalp...-create-jobs-todays-qs-for-os-wh-842011-.html

With idiots like Carney speaking for the president who needs Fox? Well, I guess Carney doesn't have much to work with, does he?

 

I got news for ya. It's not going to get better any time soon. We have years of excess to pay for. Especially since the best the 2 parties can come up with is illustrated in the latest debt plan. It should be obvious that neither party is going to do anything that will really solve the underlying problems we have because they know the American people would vote them out of office if they did. The population, as a whole, does not have the will necessary to accept the sacrifices and pain needed to get ourselves out of the pit we are in. They would rather blame and deny and believe that their chosen leaders are the ones who have the Real Plan for Solving The Problems that the other guys are causing. It is in the politicians best interest to keep the populace divided and distracted.

 

How timely...

Govt officials: US expecting S&P downgrade

Official reasons given, one official says, will be the political confusion surrounding the process of raising the debt ceiling, and lack of confidence that the political system will be able to agree to more deficit reduction. A source says Republicans saying that they refuse to accept any tax increases as part of a larger deal will be part of the reason cited. The official was unsure if the bond rating would be AA+ or AA.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2011/08/govt-official-us-expecting-sp-downgrade.html

Even if the politicians are able to apply enough pressure to get them to not do it, it will just be smoke and mirrors. It is obvious they think it should go down. And it will be just prolonging the inevitable once again because we don't want to face the pain of the actual reality.

 

We could tax the "job creators" and make a significant down payment on the debt. Maybe even erase some of those special tax loopholes that they have bribed out of the GOP and even some Dems. But then again they are doing such a good job creating those jobs, we should give them even more of the money this country needs to remain fiscally healthy. Yeah! Trickledown is just working out so well isn’t it?

 

TARP was trickle down? Good one!!!

 

Amen. The military budget is probably at least 250 billion more than it could/should be. More than that if, like me, you think we should prioritize defending our own country and borders over defending other countries.

The Great Obama Compromise on the Bush Tax Cuts decreased revenue by about 400 Billion a year over what was planned a decade ago. We probably also need to cut the rest of (non-military) discretionary spending about 250 billion a year. Eliminate and combine programs. The First Lady's new Vet program is a good example of that. Why create new programs when there are programs already out there? The VA has programs already. It has to be cheaper to fund existing programs than create new ones. I know the First Lady needs something to do but gimme a break. Knit socks for the Vets. Get a job at a soup kitchen. Whatever. Also, we need to cut the federal workforce. Change military and federal retirement programs going forward. Eliminate Foreign 'Aid'. Etc. And with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid being almost 1.5 trillion of the budget, we have to find a way to get at least 200 billion is savings through reducing entitlements. That all adds up to over a trillion dollars a year.

The fact is that we cannot do everything we want to do for everyone and we are not as prosperous as we think we are. Both tax increases and spending cuts are going to be painful to the economy and to individuals. But, right now we have about 1.3 trillion dollars boosting our economy every year that is 'fake'. Everyone, in one way or another, is sucking at that government teet and benefiting from that in one way or another even if it is just from a fake boost to the economy. We have to learn how to prioritize.

I think it is obvious we can't make up 1.2 trillion dollars a year in a single year. But a lot of the stuff could be done in 5 years (phase out of the tax cuts and military savings and much of the discretionary spending). Maybe 10 years for entitlements and retirement program changes.

And, really, it might not have to be that drastic. It isn't really even the debt itself that is the problem. It is the increasing rate of the debt, the massive deficit, that is the problem. Paying the actual debt down would be great but even if we had a deficit of a couple of hundred billion a year in the short term (10-20 years), it really wouldn't be a big deal and it would be a whole hell of a lot better than the status quo.

Revamping the tax code is another big need but it is not clear that would change the overall debt situation by much. But it could certainly reduce influence and graft as well as the shotgun approach we use to re-distribute tax income.

 

Yep, typical far left talking points being parrotted again by dr moen, phd...nothing changes.
BO's economy is in the tank, BO's unemployment rate is still too high, BO got our credit rating downgraded, BO's wars are still raging, our enemies are getting stronger, bolder & richer, BO's spending is still out of control......but what's the answer from the left? Tax the job creators. I suppose the thinking here is that if BO can create a national monster the people will rally behind him & forget (or excuse) the devastation he has created.

 

Hey Polly! Typical Right-wing con there. Blame everything on Obama. I think it's called Obama derangement syndrome. Polly want a cracker? Screech!

 

I rec'd an email that contained montages of various BO speeches....like 12 clips of him promising to focus like a laser beam on jobs (the country assumed he meant creating jobs, not eliminating them), multiple clips of him promising to end the wars & bring troops home (no mention of expanding our fight from 2 to 3 fronts), multiple clips of his assurances that he knew what our economic problems were & he knew how to fix them....and I can go on & on. The truth is BO knew what he was getting, promised he had the solutions, has had 3 years to do remedy the situation but our problems have only gotten worse and continue to deteriorate. So, yeah, given this argument this is BO's conundrum to fix (afterall, he said he could & said he would, right?). The far left whacks you mimic so well can dodge, excuse, justify...whatever...all you want but you can't change the facts.

 

I don't blame Obama much for the downgrade. I blame both parties of Congress. From what was reported, Obama proposed about 4 trillion in reduction, put spending cuts - including entitlements - and revenue increases on the table. But, Congressional Democrats wanted no part of entitlement reforms and Congressional Republicans wanted no part of revenue increases. And that put the 4 trillion out the window. Which is pretty much exactly why S&P said they downgraded us.

near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed.

 

My point is that BO unscrupulously used the downgrade & default as instruments to get the debt ceiling increase passed temporarily & tabled from serious discussion until after the next election. He manipulated both parties in his own self interest with no regard to the impact it could have on the country.

 

At the end of the day, all the President can do about a budget is propose. If the parties in Congress are not willing to entertain the ideas of entitlement reform (his own) and revenue increases (the opposition), he can't pass any deal on his own. And the biggest thing I remember him saying he would veto was an even shorter, smaller deal - which I think it is safe to assume probably would have resulted in an even lower downgrade (probably to AA).

If you look at what Obama said and did and how it progressed, it is 'almost' appears as if he had a real good idea of what it would take to avoid a downgrade by S&P...which was a big deal including entitlement reform and revenue increases. Congress was willing to do neither.

 

And now S & P are saying there is a 1 in 3 chance that a further downgrade will happen unless the US gets its house into order! heck even China is berating you and all I see is It's President Obamas fault LOL what about all those people you guy's elected to office? dont they possibly have something to do with it?
Also on the wars David President Obama removed combat forces from Iraq (just in case you didnt know) and he stated many times that he would increase troops to Afghanistan which he has done and given a timetable for withdrawl. Lybia as far as I am aware there are no grunts on the ground there (please feel free to correct me if you know diffrently)
At the moment the US is looking at the possibility of another recession and all your politicians can do is bicker! You need to not only cut programes but also raise tax's Withdraw your troops as soon as you can, cut forign aid and create jobs within the US if that means Goverment sponserd work such as rebuilding your highways etc then so be it but get people off benifit and into work (work = increased consumption = increased revenue via direct and indirect tax & increased consumption = increased jobs)

 

Actually most presidents try to lead. Reagan succeeded, Clinton succeeded, and even Bush succeeded a bit. BO just ain't making it either proposing bill or leading.

 

De Orc, you wanna know why there is so much concerted efforts at spin over this downgrade? It is because the S&P report is a dangerous document. If people actually read the reason for the downgrade, they would realize that both parties in Congress are incompetent and incapable of solving our fiscal issues and that they failed miserably in their biggest test to date.

So both parties have to work extra hard to keep the partisan bickering alive and, indeed, ramp it up to keep the public from understanding what the report actually said (since almost none of the electorate will actually read it). So each side has to reword it, rewrite the history and get their party talking points out to the media in massive force. Otherwise, they are in deep trouble.