'Fiscal Responsibility' Theme at Today's White House Economic Summit
I hate it when Obama gives credence to the right wing's "Social Security is broken" meme (not to mention their oh-so-inconsistent fixation on the deficit), but by most accounts, the planned changes to Social Security sound like positive ones, like raising the cap on earnings. We'll be keeping an eye on it:
WASHINGTON - Just one week after President Obama signed a stimulus package designed to give a short-term boost to the economy, some of the nation's top budget analysts plan to deliver a stark warning today at a White House summit that an even more foreboding long-term crisis will unfold unless Obama quickly fixes Social Security, health care, the tax code, and more.
While the $787 billion stimulus plan relies on tax cuts and increased spending, the list of problems to be addressed at the "Fiscal Responsibility Summit" could result in a series of painful political decisions that might eventually include tax increases and cuts in government benefits.
And although the stimulus package was passed almost entirely by Democrats, any significant changes on taxes and entitlements are considered unlikely without bipartisan support.
The measures to control the federal deficit are considered so controversial that some members of Congress are urging that Obama create a powerful commission, composed of leaders of both parties, to reach a "grand bargain" that would be subject to an up-or-down vote in Congress, possibly with no amendments allowed.
"The stimulus was political nirvana: cut taxes and raise spending," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the fiscal watchdog group Concord Coalition, who is among those invited to the summit. "This is the opposite; it is the political agenda from hell."
Dave N.: Obama's framing at the opening speech of the summit was superb:
Obama: In the end, however, if we want to rebuild our economy and restore discipline and honesty to our budget, we will need to change the way we do business here in Washington. We're not going to be able to fall back into the same old habits, and make the same inexcusable mistakes: The repeated failure to act as our economy spiraled deeper into crisis. The casual dishonesty of hiding irresponsible spending with clever accounting tricks. The costly overruns, the fraud and abuse, the endless excuses. This is exactly what the American people rejected when they went to the polls. They sent us here to usher in a new era of responsibility in Washington, to start living within our means again, and being straight with them about where their tax dollars are going, and empowering them with all the information they need to hold all of us, their representatives, accountable.
Well, good luck with that.
Good speech, smart guy but
it is a 'Predator State'.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
..we had a budget surplus where we could shore up Social Security and maybe give everybody, that's everybody-not just the wealthiest Americans, a moderate tax break...oh wait, wasn't that the situation eight years ago before we allowed a Republican in the White House?
Oh yeah, it was the second time W screwed us! That assumes I mean him stealing the election by having his daddy's nominee on the SCOTUS appoint him President was the first time he screwed us.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
Why give the wealthiest Americans a tax break at all?
My question to anyone with more than ten millions dollars is:
Why do you need to take so much?
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Who is to say what is too much? You?
This is Murica! What are you some kinda fascist, pinko socialist homo?
If I make MILLIONS...it trickles down on the poor. Tax cuts are God's gift to humanity. They help us to spread his word and goodness.
The economy was great...until demon Democrats won office...using the power of Satan I might add...so God destroyed the economy in retribution for our sins.
But...it is his law that the tax cuts should stay in place...so as to prepare the world for the coming of his way.
Say Alleluia...Say AMEN!
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
a redulous concept
if you made millions on the economy it HAD to start from the bottom and work it's way UP, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND
you can ONLY become wealthy if you inherit your wealth or make it using the economic prinicples that allow those who produce to gather from the fruit of their labor
wealth CANNOT possibly "trickle down", it migrates up
Why give the wealthiest Americans a tax break at all?
My question to anyone with more than ten millions dollars is:
Why do you need to take so much?
the problem is framing it the way you just framed it, wealth uses exponentially more of the economy and they need to pay the exponential costs, when they make believe the wealth should not be paying their bills they just want welfare
taxes should be called "useage fee"
for instance, if I own a walmart I use the road system thousands of times more for customers to come to my place of business
this progressive cost MUST be payed by that entity otherwise they are living off of the rest of us
Time Machine
The S&P has broken through the NOV '08 low, we will see where they close. The DJIA is below the 2002 low. That puts them both back to 1997.
That will not be the end. My prediction (as in mark my words), S&P 580, DJIA 5000.
If we really are in a time machine. Japan's market is where they were in 1981.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
See...everything is gonna work out. We can reuse all those chinos, quiana shirts and platform shoes in our attics!
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
I never stopped wearing mine.
... I can have a cigarett while I enjoy my cognac on the airplane again. :-)
As long as your lighting ONLY your cigarette
And not your shoes.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
.
.....if your rich enough to own your own jet.
"My life fades. The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos. Ruined dreams. This wasted land. But most of all, I remember The Road Warrior. The man we called "Max". To understand who he was, you have to go back to another time. When the world was powered by the black fuel. And the desert sprouted great cities of pipe and steel. Gone now, swept away. For reasons long forgotten, two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all. Without fuel, they were nothing. They built a house of straw. The thundering machines sputtered and stopped. Their leaders talked and talked and talked. But nothing could stem the avalanche. Their world crumbled. The cities exploded. A whirlwind of looting, a firestorm of fear. Men began to feed on men..."
I'd pursue this theory further, but I'm off to Home Depot to stock up on razor wire for my compound...
Back, back take me back before Ronald Reagan, PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE.
Update:
Both the DJI and S&P are back to before turn of century levels. 1997.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
We have been lied to so many times, with lies based on dishonest statistics or deceitful compilations of statistics, that it is impossible for me to believe anything the government says regarding Social Security. Those who should be impartial observers or overseers all end up having a political agenda. I personally think that all stories of the S.S. being in trouble are pure BS, but if Obama wants us to believe that S.S. is genuinely in trouble, he can order a third party audit of the entire system by a credible accounting firm....preferrably a foreign firm. Swiss would do. Let them also assess revenues, liabilities, population/demographic trends, immigration projections (new payers into the system), and all related variables. Then, publish the entire accounting/study results. Let that be the basis of any public discussion going forward. There is no way I'm going to trust anything that has GOPer or corporatist finger prints all over it, because they've proven that they have ideological objections to anything and everything that might help the common person.
My bet is, especially given that this depression has wiped out the retirement savings and made it impossible for multi-millions to ever retire, that the Social security system as it currently is configured is good into the infinite future. In other words, it's sustainable.
.
"We're obviously all hugely worried about the American financial system and about the financial system of some other countries," the Canadian Prime Minister said in an interview in New York with Fox News.
"Frankly...until that problem gets fixed, it's hard for me to see how we're going to turn the corner on this recession that we're in now."
My supposed Prime Minister gives his 2 cents to Faux Snooze.
I had to look that up. I keep forgetting that guys name. Of course, the guy before him wasn't very memorable, either. For the sake of us down here in the states - and probably the rest of the world, could you guys maybe consider bringing back Chretien? THAT guy was memorable.
Or maybe Harper might consider contracting Bell's Palsy (though it's supposedly HELL to endure) and affecting a Maurice Chevalier accent. All in the name of international gravitas.
Don't feel too bad remembering him. Most Canadians don't either. Hell, we hardly see the clown. Usually he's hiding somewhere eating burgers. Worst part is, there is nobody even on the horizon worth voting for. That in a nutshell is Canadian Federal politics 101 and the overwhelming main reason that the last few years nobody can win a majority government.
Isn't there some larger-than-life Canadian, some cultural icon that could unite your country? On your behalf, I tried thinking of some, but they all had major drawbacks. Gretsky would be the obvious choice, but he's a U.S. citizen now. That legendary Canadian hero Dudley Do-Right is, to my surprise, a fictional character. Who knew that? And Tim Horton, hockey star and famed restaurateur, has been dead 35 years. Maybe one of the original 'DeGrassi' kids is old enough now? One of the guys from Rush or BTO? Is Michael J. Fox a U.S. citizen? How about McGyver? Surely a man who could, on short notice, make a bomb out of baking soda, vinegar and a hot water bottle could unite Canada?
would be Celine Dion. Gag. Sputter. Although, like Chretien, noboby in any official language can understand her. But that voice! Ahhh. Makes the ears bleed.
Sorry, but you guys would SO get nuked for that...
Lorne Greene left for the Ponderosa.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
accountability is not a word the gop recognizes.
deceipt and lying are more to their repertoire.
they are morally inept.
"I hate it when Obama gives credence to the right wing's "Social Security is broken" meme (not to mention their oh-so-inconsistent fixation on the deficit), but by most accounts, the planned changes to Social Security sound like positive ones, like raising the cap on earnings. We'll be keeping an eye on it:"
It was your post just a week ago that gave some credence to the ranting of Dean Baker. Your repeated links to the Washington Post article which took a simple response of Obama to a question about deficits and blew it up into a beltway meme about cutting Social Security benefits also helped further alarm.
Finally, Obama himself addresses the issue in his own words and on his own terms and "the planned changes...sound like positive ones."
Guess I will go back to sippin Kool Aid and put the razor down from my throat.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
I'm 35.
lol, am I really supposed to believe that in 30 years, there will be plenty of social security money left around for me to retire and live comfortably?
we already had spiraling long-term funding. now we're exacerbating the problem by paying off half the mortgage for a butt ton of today's working class.
about the only thing social security is really good at these days, is maintaining a database of ID numbers to track citizens, and cutting checks to 30-somethings livin large on welfare fraud.
because you are about 180 degrees off from my point of view.
I would, however, love to see you point to "30-somethings livin large on welfare fraud" paid for by Social Security. I think the only things fraudulent here are your reading of my comment, the writing in your comment, and the notion that Social Security was ever meant to provide a comfortable retirement for anybody. It was and is a safety net.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
dude, I know of three, personally. one of them? you're going to love this. she has "chronic pain" that allows her a medical marijuana prescription. and she has PTSD and agoraphobia that prevents her from leaving the house, and that affords her SSI / disability. she gets $900 checks every month from the United States Treasury, and lives in a very nice house paying about 1/5 what her neighbors pay to live in comparable houses.
plus? she just got a settlement. so - you're going to love this - she's buying a house. because banks can't afford to give loans to regular joes who actually work for a living, but federal laws force them to give loans to dangerously underqualified people like this lady.
so the government gives her money because she's paranoid, and weed (which makes her paranoid).
but it gets better. she earns income on the side by selling art and having poems published in independent books. she advertises her art/poetry by keeping herself active in the scene - meaning, this incredibly paranoid person attends art exhibits and introduces herself to new people fairly regularly, and attends open mics & poetry slams and reads her poetry on stage to a room full of strangers fairly regularly.
even *she* lols about it. personally it irritates the crap out of me, but what can you do.
and the irony is, these kinds of welfare queens exploded - under the Bush administration.
but please - don't try and tell me that Social Security is strong. they're bleeding dry and running out of money - and the way they survive is by cutting costs in case management and oversight. which - ultimately - leads to more one-offs who help bleed the system even worse.
trust me, I don't blame the dems for this one. I really gotta blame the GOP for gutting oversight, and for demanding the folks who kept their jobs focus more on attacking liberal politicians than on actually doing their damn job.
but Bush was right about two things. (still worse president ever, imho). and Obama is *also* right about two things.
we *are* addicted to oil and need to pursue alternative energy. and Social Security is in *serious* danger of going away if we don't do something to fix it, quickly.
Rather than indict the system. My experience3 with SSI is that it is usually damn hard to get.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
a mid tier manager with a vested interest in ensuring SSI fraud stays low?
sure, I'll do that. and you go ahead and go back in time and turn in Peanut Corporation of America to the FDA. lemme know how that turns out for you.
the truth is - Bush cut operating costs by cutting QA/QC positions, especially rabble-rousing, rock-boating left-leaning QA/QC employees. the US Attorney scandal was just the tip of the iceberg.... and how has that lawsuit been going, again, anyway? you know, with the new administration...
and the truth is, once someone has successfully coerced and manipulated a bureaucracy, that bureaucracy will fall all over each other covering up their compromise. this has *always* been true, but is *especially* true post-Reagan. too many bureaucrats were embarrassed.
this isn't a "left wing" thing, or a "right wing" thing. its a "system" thing. its a "them" versus "you and me" thing. so - well to come back to my original point?
bigups to Obama for openly stating (and re-iterating what both Bush and Clinton stated) that the Social Security Administration needs a f*cking enema. because, well - they do.
now let's just see if he actually follows thru. I still got a lot of hope/faith/confidence in the guy...
As a retired physician, and a disabled Medicare A.B & D receipient, not to mention the sole caregiver of my 80 plus y/o mother, I feel more than a little qualified to speak upon the merits and demerits of the Medicare/SSA system as it stands.
The system is quite broken. The reimbursement to physicians, hospitals and labs is laughable. For a recent E/R visit and hospital stay of mine, I carefully scrutinized the bills, and matched them to the CMS (Centers For Medicare Services) statements as to what Medicare actually paid the providers. Some things on the bills were of course, GROSSLY overinflated, thats the way it works these days. But the majority of the billing charges were perfectly reasonable. What was actually paid to the providers was NOT!
Medicare paid no more than 50 cents on the dollar. The hospital was forced to write off the majority of the rest of the charges, so that my billing portion would reflect my contracted co payment. In many cases, the CMS denied the charges for essential services, and even though a 'code key' was given on my statement, it made no more sense to me than if they'd said I couldn't have pain meds after my surgery because I'd just stubbed my toe.
The system certainly does need reform. Part 'D' was a stop gap feel good bill thrown to the public for votes only. It's never been funded, the pharmacy companies are all eating themselves to become monopolistic players, especially the mail-in and online pharmacies. Mine has has changed ownership four times already. But I pay very close attention to those statements. One drug I take, costs over $1050.00 for a 3 month supply. My new Part D insurance company, (owned by CVS) pays $659.00 to itself for it. My co-pay is $6.00. The insurance company and the pharmacy are THE SAME COMPANY!! Isn't that a blatant conflict of interest?? But who's paying the balance? Is there even one? Is the original cost figure just fictional, so that the amount reimbursed will be higher? These are the questions that need to be answered, since EVERY one of us on Part D has exactly the same issues.
I practised emergency and family medicine for over thirty years, and got out before the whole shebang crumbled around me. I care about those people I served sure, but I certainly couldn't help them in a health care system that just didn't work anymore. President Obama was not my choice for his office, but then again, certainly nor was McCain.
I wish the President well, and hopw that he can help the estimated 50 million uninsured in this country get access to primary health care, outside of E/R's. I would gladly come out of retirement, and even volunteer my time, were we to have community based health care clinics that were accessible and bill on a sliding scale or free of charge.
You, like many people do not appear to understand how Social Security works.
Social Security and Medicare have been very popular. They are two major social programs with great success.
They both are pay as you go systems. Your deductions made today pay the benefits of your fellow citizens today.
Social Security is not a personal retirement account. The amount that you have paid towards others' benefits is a credit towards what people in the future will be expected to pay towards you.
It is a social contract of the generations. Just as with public education.
You educate your children and you fellow countryman's children so you have a country of educated citizens.
It is the contract that Ronald Reagan, public enemy number one, and his followers, sought and seek to break.
What they don't explain to you is that they are the Fat Cats, they have everything they need and they don't need you or your country, except as canon fodder.
Back to Social Security, the amount of deductions today exceed current account outlays. Those are maintained in the Trust Fund. Its current account balance is $2.2 trillion.
Just off the top of my head, deductions will exceed outlays until about 2017. Then Trust Fund will be needed bridge the gap, as the numbers stand now that will be until about 2041.
Then outlays will be in negative territory. Presumably sometime before that the curves will be adjusted.
Just keep doing your civic duty to uphold the social contract and hope we have a country when social security is expected to be there for you.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I guess I'll have to keep the snarky old Corvair parked in the garage. Couldn't have said it better.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
People have been voicing that worry since the inception of Social Security. But, it's been there for everybody, without fail, and the only thing it takes to keep it going is the will to do it. That's all.
This is a social contract supported by one public leg and two private legs. The alternative (given that the private legs of this system - pensions, which are becoming a thing of the past and 401Ks/personal savings, which are subject to losing most or all their value in inevitable cyclic market "corrections"...as is happening all around us today)? Endemic poverty among the elderly. The only leg of this system that is retaining value and safety is Social Security. You can count on this: there will be some kind of social safety net, or there will be 10's of millions living the entirety of their final years in need, as was the case before Social Security was created. This 3-tiered sytem of pension, personal savings and Social Security, wasn't intended to make you rich, but merely make a difference between living in poverty and being able to achieve a measure of financial comfort. The only reason that Social Security was created in the first place was that the cost of mass poverty among the elderly was too high a price for society to sustain. We've already been there, we've already done that.
Given that one leg of this safety net, pensions, is rapidy disappearing from the landscape, and given that the personal savings and investment leg is clearly the riskiest and most uncertain part of the whole structure (the only sure assumption you can make is that your savings and investments will always be controlled by those who don't care whether you love or die), Social Security is becoming all the more important...more so than when it was created. It can't be allowed to disappear, the alternative is unacceptable.
Your 35 now. In an endless series of in-the-moment "now's", the time is going to slip away, mostly unnoticed. You're going to wake up, before your realize it, to wonder how the hell you suddenly became 60+ years old, wondering where the time went. That's how it goes for everybody. And when that day comes, so long as our society itself endures, you'll see that Social Security is still there...and people will still be voicing their doubts that it will be there when they retire.
As regards the 30-something who is on Social security? I'm fine with that...it's tough as hell to get on social Security before retirement age. Those in that group can only qualify if their life is a disaster of dire misfortune. If my tax money is going to give them a leg up, the only thing I need to know is where I need to go to sign up to help. It's a better use of my money than paying for illegal wars of agggression, illegal occupations, or a hundred things that Republicans consider to be worthy causes. No contest. No contest at all.
Once any of these thieves get SS on the table, they'll gut it.
They'll make it LOOK like cosmetic surgery, but they'll eviscerate it. That's been the long-term goal of the whole apparatus of the 'corporat state' since Roosevelt got it passed...
has been working to gut SS since Roosevelt passed it, they are either incompetent or you have been doing a hell of a good job fighting them, Woody. You've held em off for over three quarters of a century.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
... twenty years from now if we're legitimately pursuing universal health care? It's a lot like S-Chip: completely irrelevant if actual, universal health care is to be for real.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
It should concern us all Hilary even needs to make public statements like this, I think China is getting tired of loaning us money. All our stimulus is going to come from China should they decide to maintain the process.
Clinton Urges China to Keep Buying U.S. Treasury Securities
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206010...
China prepares to buy up foreign oil companies
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysect...
This is not great news either
Latvia's government collapses
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/20/europe...
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
we need foreigners to buy our "debt" but guess what easier said than done. inorder to attract buyers we need to increase interest rates which is a conflict of interest if you will under these current economic times. unfortunately the fed needs to finance the stimulus or it won't work. keep the paper coming or else. this is much worse than we're being told.
I welcome our Chinese overlords.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa2aCC-1JEs
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000826/news#ni068...
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Monday, February 23, 2009
"American Express Wants To Help You 'Simplify Your Finances' -- Will Pay You $300 If You'll Close Your Account"
Snip - Well, this sure is a different kind of deal. Instead of paying you a bonus to join, New York-based American Express will give you a $300 American Express prepaid card if you agree to say goodbye. :-)
[ http://www.creditmattersblog.com/2009/02/amer... ]
Study the symptoms not the virus...
A few more summits, a couple more thousand meetings, and maybe a special investigation team, should stall this financial mess until it either cannot be ignored any longer, or the global economy corrects itself. From G7 meetings, to G20 meetings, to economic summits, to begging the Chinese, not a helluva lot seems to be happening. Unless this is all one big dog and pony show again, and they already know what stunt they are going to pull off, and would like to point the blame on "experts".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQXECBdPgEA
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I wish democrats would start talking abour reclaiming the funds that were
stolenborrowed from ss by reagan to fund his gifts of middle class assets to the wealthythe man RAISED taxes, the right wing credits him with lowering taxes, he BORROWED more then he raised, the right wing credits him with being fiscally responsible, he INCREASED the debt, they called that economic concervatism, he GREW government more then any president before him, the right wing called that "shrinking government"
I want my money back, he "borrowed" it to fund his depraved asset redistribution and I want that debt repaid AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
with interest.
Wall Streets response today is a -215.76, or 2.93 percent sell off, to 7,149.91, after earlier falling to its lowest level since Oct. 28, 1997.
once Citibank stock reaches zero...the market will turn around.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
wiping out a lot of Americans in the process.
some humans may need to be sacrificed.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEOQqnHMSMc
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
the deaf, the dumb, and the blind I suppose.
we're economic liberals.
We're gonna fuck EVERYONE!
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
While the Social Security system isn't broken yet the $trillion that bush "borrowed" from the Social Security Fund sure did put a hurting on it.
in which Obama--in the instance--will finish Grover Norquist's (owner-approved) business of drowning the Government.
but it is the end of the middle and lower class.
it was fun while it lasted.
Slavery can be so liberating.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
no more lower class. I would think that could be a good thing. Don't you mean an end to the middle class?
to the lower class that can be lower? Think Africa.
This crisis has been a boon to the lower class - it's ranks are swelling with new members!
have phrased it "redefining the lower class". As in, what do you have left? Give it to us.
it's become so much more diverse!
See...GOP does believe in a rainbow coalition!
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
I know it's hard to remember with politicians, but occasionally people actually mean what they say. It's been made a joke of a catchphrase by Republicans for a long time, but you talk as if genuine fiscal responsibility would be a bad thing.
And I, for one, think this kind of environment is the perfect time to enact SS reforms in order to make sure it stays viable, because it demonstrates why plans like privatization would be so catastrophic, and why SS needs to be there in the first place.
it will be for the purposes of gutting it, no matter what they say.
Just like healthcare talks in Canada, as soon as the subject comes up, you know politicians don't want to "fix" it or make it better. They are eyeing the cash. Nothing more. But hey, what else is left, eh gang? They've bankrupt banks, put corporations out of business, and unemployed millions. Why not just drive the stake through everyone's heart and get it over with?
how much of the pain can be shoved forward in time to people now in diapers and their descendants.
George the owners are "coming for your social security"
In Ron Susskind's book about the former Secretary of the Treasury Paul ONeil (2000/01) O'Neil said that he and Greenspan were going to take the Clinton Surplus feed the Bush sharks their tax cuts and then roll the rest of the surplus into the upcoming Social security shortfalls for the boomers. Geez what happened to that surplus?
They sure didn't place it in Gore's "lock box". Gore warned what would happen if bush gave those tax cuts, but not enough people listened.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Gore was a tree hugger and a goofball that said he invented the internets.
We got GW Bush...a man of wisdom, intellect...and yet a homey feel of someone we could have a beer with.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
George "the owners of the country are coming for your social security"
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/61955/
The only honest debate ever made about politics, is always made by comedians. Politicians and the media? Nil.
Eleven years of market gains wiped out, so far...
http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/3820
the economic experts keep saying "we didn't see it coming".
No one could have guessed that terrorists would have flown derivative securities into our economy!
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
Private Eye, Current
And one from 1995, when Nick Leeson single-handedly caused the collapse of the 200+ year old merchant bank in the world, Barings, doing the same shit that was done on a massive scale here. It's very apt for today. In the mid-nineties, Lloyd's failed as well. Baring's was the bank where the Queen kept loads of her dosh.
Private Eye, Barings Collapse
me-oww!
I must be phsychic. I saw it coming.
I did too, Ron. I have been saying this was coming for at least six years. My husband will attest to that.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
the both of you are rich then?
We're raising your taxes.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
jumping out of the way,and making book on who gets hit are different things. Perhaps they are penniless but happy to be left alive.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
I don't know about Ron but at least my husband and I have zero debt. We made it a priority to pay off everything as soon as we could so we didn't get stuck in the credit trap.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
You have to have something before you can be rich. I was fired from my last real job on 1/1/2001 when Bush was appointed.
And I'm not trying to one up you here. It's just logic. Nothing is infinite. And I didn't need my sister's financial degree to figure it out. We live in a finite world. It follows that at some point, if one is not at all careful, one runs out of shit to buy make eat drink ship trade...I think I pretty much got it through my mom, who was always worried about a crash, Pink Floyd's 'Money' lyrics.
And you end up in this country with 90% of the population working for the upper 10% who are fucking ingrates. And you end up with this country using resources well beyond its world population percentage and its own needs.
me-oww!
When a house that cost sixty thousand in 1983, brand new, was marked to sell for three hundred thousand twenty years later, you just knew something was wrong.
That's the sort of thing that was happening all over the place down here. These young families were buying those over priced houses and then using their credit card to furnish their over priced home. Mom and dad were driving new cars too. There was no way in hell these people were going to survive this....and they didn't.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
My parent's first house they bought $20,000. 30 years later, the first new car I bought $17,000.
The second house, 35,000 1968 Sold in 75 for 35,000 ($200 month 20 year mortgage. Makes ya weep, doesn't it?). in 1990, it sold, as a fixer upper $150,000. And I saw it after the guy fixed it. here First house today's price here
me-oww!
for 60 grand. Fixer upper. 2 months later, the bank told me it was worth 90,000. 8 years later, same bank said 129,000. I kid you not. Greed will destroy this world.
For at least 2 decades, when I'd see a huge rise in the Market, I'd hope fervently for it to chill out. So much of market growth is artificial, and a lot of gains were made everytime some asshole took a company over and laid off gross numbers of the workforce. Bad for workers, good for market.
And tying our economy to the vagaries of the stock market? We led with our face. Fool me once, in 1929, Shame On You, Fool me twice, Looks like I got fooled again...
me-oww!
all one big lie.
Indeed. Too much focus on immediate ROI, and too little on long term growth. If all you do is buy and sell, you contribute very little to growth. If all you do is buy-up and sell-off, soon there is nothing left to buy.
they are filming today. After thanking his "advisor" for coming in early to meet him, the man takes out a .45 and caps his ass.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
now. It's a gambling casino for guys who play the markets.
who were already rich by the time the Dow hit 2500 decades ago. Now it's all just gambling cash.
Yeah, and everyone is card-counting.
I'm not against raising capital via selling shares, it's a great way to finance growth. But that original concept has very little do do with the stock-market today. My concern, for the last couple of decades, was that we were becoming a nation of bankers. We lost our manufacturing, our communications, our services, and our technology edge. What we had left was a whole lot of corn, and a whole lot of bankers.
...maybe we should eat the bankers.
Afterthought: We got really big guns too. Maybe the bankers should eat those.
and preventative measures are ALWAYS dismissed as "too costly."
It's a lot cheaper to feed clothe and educate people from a very young age, than it is to house them in prison once they reach adulthood.
It's much cheaper to treat a small tumour than a large one. If you get to the doctor in the early stages of disease, it's cheaper to treat.
The eye here has always been on next quarter. and it's led us into a culture of 'Crisis Management.' Which is very costly. But the guy who cause the crisis, Platinum Handshake, and he dumps it on the next guy who lays off half the workforce and Boom! problem solved. More Platinum Handshakes all around...
me-oww!
One of he most short sighted corporations on the planet is GE. They bill themselves as a company that buys and sells companies. They buy a company, run it into the ground, squeezing blood from a turnip. Short-term ROI is all. Quality process, executed so that everybody loses sight of what the prize is. Entire kingdoms erected through turf wars waged by self-serving careerists. A corporate structure that does nothing except parasitize the productivity of those who actually prodce things (or attempt to). Impose their own self-defeating culture upon the unfortunates they acquire. Then, when they've destroyed the company, driven off it's customers, they sell it to some chump. Old corporate debt keeps getting bundled into new debt, and debt keeps snowballing. There is always a huge swathe of destruction left after their passage. Worst thing is, other companies with leadership as clueless and devoid of vision as GE's, view GE as a role model. The blind end up leading the blind. Part of that role is social parasitism as an integral part of a business plan. A huge corporation that is in a death-spiral, beieving it's lean and mean.
A pox on all of them.
If you start with cutting the military budget by about 30% and take SS out of the budget, keep the money and surplus separate when reporting the deficit. Then tax the people making over about 3 million at about a 60% rate. Use tariffs to bring labor costs of goods inline with a living wadge in this county. Then I will start listening to this fiscal responsiblility talk.
sheltering (hiding) his ill gotten gains?
In his booty.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
or some very large bills.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
Trustee Says
February 23, 2009
A week after Friday the 13th, Bernard Madoff’s victims got some more bad news: The accused hedge fund fraudster hadn’t invested a dime of their money for at least 13 years.
Classic Ponzi.
Social Security is probably one of greatest social programs in US history... It is a trust fund off the budget and continues to run a spectacular surplus. If people actually understood what SS does, how it runs, and what it funds ... we would half way to proving how disingenuous the Republicans are ...
Medicare OTOH is on-budget and a general fund expense. It is a serious problem.
That said, Medicare is SIGNIFICANTLY better at delivering health care to more people at a lower cost than the other alternative (the crappy Private System) we currently have.
Again ... I wish more people knew and would question the Republican talking (i.e. Lying) points!
The corporatists can't make any money off of it.
That's why they hate it.
They see this big pot of cash, and they can't get their hands on it.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
See my comment on Social Security above here.
Medicare was a very efficient system.
Bush and the Corporate Trained Seals in the Congress significantly damaged it with part D which guarantees huge payments to big Pharma without using the Government's inherent ability, were they to use it, to force prices down.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I never had any copays until Part D showed up. Half an hour of paperwork (Keeps social workers employed) and all of the sudden I have to pay for drugs. And THEN what happens, is I fill out more paperwork (every three months) to get a charity allowance to pay. So now, a charity fund takes care of my copays.
All this fucking paperwork costs.
me-oww!
Part D co pay(s) to me this is part of the strategy to discourage people from using the plan. this plan was brought to you by the so-called anti government/anti social politicians. they want people to hate government involvement in healthCare. they partly create the ineffiencies so that public just hears government healthCare is all bad. ie. no bidding for pharm. prices.
My son like the seals at Sea World. They are corporate trained.
He does not like our Congressman, who married into the Clear Channel fortune.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
You said it all. If we passed HR-676 and managed it like social security, the healthcare problem would be solved.
Nothing but bonds in there, a.k.a. IOU's, in the last 8 years social security was simply listed as a off-budget item. The new 2008 financial report is out now for our viewing pleasure and a refreshing and starkly frightening breath of fresh honesty is within.
Complete FY 2008 Financial Report
You can get it here
http://www.gao.gov/financial/fy2008financialr...
or here
http://www.fms.treas.gov/fr/index.html
Read Henry Paulson’s commentary on the first page in the document titled GAO's US 2008 Financial Report and then read the Acting Comptroller General’s introduction on page 25 by Gene L. Dodaro (David Walker resigned out of frustration of warning our government for years to no avail) on page 119 it states.
On Page 118 there Figure 1 shows Other Government Accounts are borrowing from the trust funds we pay into to fund other government spending. The following pages are replete with chart after chart show candidly between 2017 to 2019 money inflow to the trust funds will be exceeded by government borrowing outflows. If we do not fix this issues our economy will enter into a Weimar Germany hyperinflationary situation unless drastic action is taken to reduce spending.
I discuss some of the reasons why in this post, in short the Gen –X is 1/3rd smaller than the baby boomers and the numbers needed to hold up the retiring generation is insufficient.
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/f...
Our former head comptroller David Walker details these issues here
Fiscal Stewardship: A Critical Challenge Facing Our Nation
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-07-362SP
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
After 2017 the Trust Fund will be required to bridge the deduction versus outlay gap which it is projected to do until 2041.
The curves will need to be adjusted.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
it's the size of the succeeding generation needing to be held up by the smaller generation. There will be more sellers than buyers. So much in our economy is dependent on the succeeding generation being larger than the retiring. The best case scenario is a flat economy.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
There is even a larger view that considers the limits of the earth on which we live.
We have been taking too much and the consequences will be dire.
From that stand point, as I see it, it is all doom and gloom.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Just fun fun fun until daddy took the world away
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
How can any government, anywhere do this with a straight face, and still think that they can "fix" economies???
Washington sends $1 food stamp checks to 250,000
The Associated Press
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The state of Washington sent out $1 checks to the 250,000 food stamp recipients in the state.
The director of the Community Services Division for the Department of Social and Health Services, Leo Ribas, says the checks mailed Feb. 17 trigger an additional $43 million in federal food benefits. They also connect recipients to an energy assistance program.
Ribas says the $1 check is a one-time move to leverage the federal money. He says next year the state will be able to trigger the federal assistance through a routine deposit in food stamp accounts.
As a $14 per month food stamp recipient in WA state, I do certainly hope for that $1 check. Assholes. We have fucking FOOD BANKS with bare cupboards. They could have sent that money to NW Harvest.
I wouldn't even make a trip to the bank for an assholey check like that.
me-oww!
That's what we will have sunk into AIG if they get the next $80Billion they are requesting.
Imagine if we had sunk $230Billion into green technology. Imagine the new jobs. Imagine the manufacturing. Imagine the elimination of fossil fuels and the savings to the environment as well as not being held hostage to foreign oil.
Now, call on the government to NOT give AIG $80Billion, but to put the company in receivership. It's time to close the failure down.
That is fiscal responsibility.
I whole-heartedly agree!
applications for Section 8 housing:
http://news.tradingcharts.com/futures/2/4/120...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
And here I thought a Section 8 was a discharge from the military for being coo-coo bananas.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
He said all the right things, I will keep a guarded optimism on action, lets all hope there is real beef here.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
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