What the democrats and President Obama must do

[grimmyx.livejournal.com]

What the democrats and President Obama need to do to save the American economy .
The most important thing the democrats need to do to save our economy is to stop engaging the republicans on this false narrative that the defect has anything to with social security , Medicare or school teachers pensions. This is a flat out lie. This defect has been caused by the same thing that always causes defects. Military spending. The US has been at war for over ten years. Wars that were waged to keep Americans safe. This is the most important point as it counters the republicans point. The republicans point it that it is unfair to expect the upper income earners ( the “job” creators) as well as corporations to pay higher taxes to fund programs for “special interest groups” AKA: the poor. By changing the focus of the debate to talk about military spending fueling the defect the debate changes from special interest groups making demands on the all Americans and becomes. It is the duty of ALL Americans as well as all American corporations to support the military. Support the troops. Sound familiar? All during the Bush administration anyone that had any issue with policy was shouted down with “YOU MUST SUPPORT THE TROOPS!” Well there are two ways to support the troops. One: throw your arm out of it’s socket waving the American flag, listening to god awful Toby Keith songs NEVER be without your American flag lapel pin. Two: pay the bills for the wars that keep ALL American safe! The bill for these wars are past due and now the upper income earners as well as the corporations that benefited from the “blanket of safety and security” provided by the military as much as anyone. But these people have decided that they don’t wish to pay. They have dispatched Their employees in the “liberal” media as well as their minions of the republican party to cloud the issue. This is despicable as well as dishonorable. These people are saying to our troops, our young men and women that it’s ok for them to sacrifice their lives. It’s OK for them to leave everything behind. To lose their arms and legs. It’s ok for them to lie in a pool for their own blood and watch their friends die. That is an appropriate sacrifice. But to ask that the upper income earners surrender some of their wealth , No. That is a unacceptable sacrifice. It is my contention that the rich and the corporations are Un-American and do NOT support the troops. The fact that they are willing to stand by and watch the American government go into default and disgrace to protect their own fortunes says to me that the rich and corporations are worse that Un-American. They are traitors. Sadly I do not expect any democrat or President Obama to say anything like this.

Comments

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Cough (http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/file.php?2,file=21325,filename=walloftext.jpg)...

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

You always beat me to it. How do you do that...

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Talent.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Here, you need something for that. (http://www.ewrd.com/ewrd/index.asp)

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

you are not supposed to attack the poster, only their position.

Rule 1

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The military is only one of four things that have to be addressed. We've seen that gutting social spending and increasing military spending is a disaster, inverting that just changes the disaster and not the actual problem. All of them have to be addressed at once.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

Specifically, the DOD budget. More specifically black ops.

Who needs an intelligence community when we have google earth, twitter, facebook and /b/?

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

If he doesn't do it, you'll still just vote for him right?

[telemann.livejournal.com]

What's the alternative?

[grimmyx.livejournal.com]

I'm going to voting for the lesser of two evils. As usual. I would be nice to be able to vote FOR someone instead of voting against someone. But what are you gonna do?

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure where you are getting your talking points, however you might want to go take some basic math classes.

Yes, you are correct, Medicare and Social Security is not the prime driver of the 15 trillion national debt *YET*.

This does not mean it is not a significant driver of it just that it is not the primary driver. But then neither is military spending.

Yes, we spend more on the military than the rest of the world combined. However given that and even though we have been at war for the last 10 years we spend less on the military today than we did in 1990 (in terms of percentage of GDP). If we take 100% of US Military spending over the last 10 years. Not just the spending on the wars, ALL Of it. You get 6 trillion dollars. A mere 40% of the total Federal Debt.

That said there is an even bigger problem with your diatribe. See the 15 trillion dollar debt, is only a small economic problem. We could pay that off with little difficulty without cutting much spending or raising taxes, just limit the growth of spending to be a little slower than it is today. No Medicare and Social Security ARE the economic problem we have today because at current benefit levels they will consume 100% of government revenues within 15 years and they just go up from there. Basically the current benefit structure of SS and Medicare create an unfunded liability of more than 110 Trillion dollars, more than 7 times the size of the Debt.

Now, as far as the rich paying more. Again your rhetoric sounds all nice and everything. I mean we could fix all of our problems if we just taxed those evil rich bastards more right?

Well, not so much, you see lets just assume that we were going to tax 100% of all income over $200,000 a year. We'd be swimming in money right? Well not so much, we wouldn't quite close the current years budget deficit. It would only raise about 1.4 trillion in additional tax revenues per year leaving us with a $200 billion deficit and this assumes that there is no decrease in economic activity as a result of those new taxes (a laughable assumption).

Any realistic assessment of the actual economy and the incomes of the rich would conclude that as a practical matter you could not realistically raise much more than an additional $100 - $200 billion a year by taxing them.

So, lets say we whack them for $250 Billion a year somehow and then we cut Defense spending to 1/3rd of where it is today what's that get us?

We cut the annual deficit by about 2/3rds leaving it at $500 Billion being added to the Debt every year for the next few years until the growth of SS and Medicare spending causes the debt to start to grow near exponentially.


Whatever the republicans say expecting the rich to solve our countries economic problems is not unfair, it is UNREALISTIC because there just aren't enough rich people.

[grimmyx.livejournal.com]

I don't use talking points. This is all my own opinion. Don't be confused. I don't think government spending doesn't need to be cut. I'm saying ALL Americans need to pay. Corporations as well Such as G.E. who paid no taxes last year. I say pass the hat and EVERYONE pays.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Summary: blah blah blah, whine whine whine, they must cater to me and my silly notions, blah blah, I know they won't and I'll vote for them anyways.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Well done armchair warrior. Stay true to yourself.

[stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com]

Is that your theme song? America pretty much throws your candidates in the shitter every election.

[404.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I didn't get most of your rambling complaining, but I am sure come 2012, Obama and Co. will get your vote. If you bitch and moan about Obama not doing what you want, support a party which does, and there are plenty of fringe parties that are out there which do.

[brockulfsen.livejournal.com]

Split the budget.

Corporate and Millionaire taxes pay for Military expenditure, Politicians salaries and retirement benefits and paying off loans & bonds. Nothing else. Not one penny of welfare. Politicians salaries, staff, and benefits are paid after everything else, only if there is enough money.

All the other taxes pay for everything else. Not one penny of Military expenditure, debt retirement or political salaries.

Lets see how high corporate taxes go under that scheme...

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Seems fair, given that the military is primarily a tool for creating markets and securing resources for the corporates.

Oh whoops, I mean they're "keeping America safe". LoL.

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

the democrats should pay for all their pet projects and the republicans should pay for all of theirs.

[sandwichwarrior.livejournal.com]

The Big Three of the US federal budget are Social Security, Medicare, and the Department of Defense in that order.

We could cut EVERTTHING in the budget except for those three and still not break even. Therefore any serious attempt at balanceing the budget will involve cuts to someone's sacred cow.

Quit your whining and grow a pair.

[raven-blue.livejournal.com]

Your point is really absurd. It all boils down to this. You advocate that some outside group force another group (the wealthy) to surrender what they possess. I advocate that no outside group force anyone to surrender anything. My way of thinking means that everyone gets to do what they want with what they have. Your way of thinking means that at some point somone could knock on your door and force you to give more than your share. The men who will knock on your door in the night will be there at your invitation.

I am far from rich (and have been poor in the past) but I would rather keep Scrooge McDuck swimming in his gold vault than have someone open my wallet and take what I worked hard for.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

While Scrooge McDuck proceeds to in the future take your family's land and leaves it as either slaves or to starve. To Hell with this Roman mentality of a land of slaves cowering before their masters born booted and spurred, crucifying mankind on the cross of gold.

[grimmyx.livejournal.com]

But what the rich want is for them to have everything and settle the budget by stripping the old and poor of what little they have. I'll say it yet again. It's the duty of ALL Americans to pay higher taxes to pay for the wars that kept Americans safe.

[malakh-abaddon.livejournal.com]

Really what needs to happen is a dis-guarding of Reagan's economic plans. We need to be rid of Bush the elders NAFTA, we need to axe Clinton's, and Bush the second's free trade agreements. Then we need to re-enact tariffs, making far to expensive to import "crappy" products from China, Taiwan, and every other nation in the world.

The results should look like this; more jobs in the US. Because of the increase in jobs, we have less people looking for work, which means higher wages. These wages would then be spent, which would lead to the need for more jobs and employees, and higher wages yet. Of course a side effect of this is more tax revenue, which in theory can be used to bail out the current useable social policies, and pay the national debt.

[malakh-abaddon.livejournal.com]

Of course, there is always the fact that these corporations will simply shut their doors, because their precious profit is being cut into.