United States Heading towards a Depression?

No Mia, the Democrats passed their stimulus legislation with Clinton's Inauguration that raised the taxes for the upper brackets and also was the pay-go legislation requiring funding for any new programs that no Republicans voted for at the time. That legislation is what Bush and the Republican Congress repealed in reference to Bushes tax cuts that also repealed pay-go that is the source of our national debt.

 

Like I said, you have the correct time line, just the wrong set of facts to go along with it.

Some of us are old enough to have lived through it. Not everyone reads the revised version of reality. Some of us actually remember it as it happened.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I know someone will) but to my knowledge, Clinton did NOT pay down the national debt. They passed a budget, declared a surplus, then spent the "surplus"!

Imagine if you have $1800 in monthly bills. One month you only pay $1600 and declare that you've saved $200 that month - and then you spend the $200 to finish paying off the rest of your bills.

The national debt continued to rise under Clinton.

BTW, just watched Rick's List on CNN. They discussed how the GDP and unemployment figures are out of wack. They hinted that either unemployment is higher, or GDP is lower, than the government is telling us.

There is also the possibility that Obama has screwed things up so badly by spending so much tax dollars in so little time - the fastest, most dramatic debt increase in history - that 9.5% unemployment may be with us for a very, very long time. Obama may have screwed things up for the next three years.

And need I remind those that disagree that China and the rest of the G20 have warned Obama repeatedly that his deficit spending was irresponsible and damaging to the U.S. economy.

 

The beauty of that "surplus" way of thinking is, that $200 never really existed. Democrats like to use money not spent as money found. Money that does not exist is not money at all.

I think Obama's plan is to create his own job security by ensuring that:

1. Those dependent on the government remain so - so they continue to vote for him.
2. Those now newly dependent on the government now vote accordingly.
3. Create a larger problem that you now convince those not on board that only YOU can correct them with another term.

 

Breeze Wood, I love you man. You just make it up as you go along, without a care in the world about facts, proof, or evidence. Long posts about how Clinton lowered the debt without republicans during his two terms. You just keep on truckin man. Whatever you do, don't start garbaging up your posts with links to facts that substantiate your claims. It would ruin the whole thing.

 

That was a while ago, not to many news releases presently to draw from but just look up pay-go and that explains the era - the Bush tax legislation that all three of you hide from is set to expire for the simple reason its passage had to be skewed because the OMB correctly predicted the massive deficits it would cause if enacted "permanently" so as typical the Republicans voted an expiration to hide from its reality and their own shadows. Also pay-go was repealed in the same legislation because under its provisions the giveaway to the wealthy could not be offset.

 

... and a partridge in a pear treeeeee....

 

Ok, it is like the doctor saying there may be a little discomfort from your hip replacement - another inside joke is printing the interest due on the 2.5% - 3% notes all those foreign countries have bought of ours and not spending a penny on any of them.....increasing liquidity at the same time.

 

For real, we are in Depression.

We have 10%+ unemployment and interest rates got cut.

Good news, at least they're trying not to make a new ridiculous bubble by making it super easy to get loans...But just you wait, they will in due time.

Or we're going to have to kill a lot of people and blow a lot of shit up so we can make businesses rebuilding everything.

There's a lot of useless shit we have lying around in our country, like crumbling (both old and new) housing developments. Let's make an industry set purely to destroy and recycle these materials to free up nature and reuse the HOLYSHITYOUCAN'TIMAGINEHOWMUCH amount of wood/stone/plastic/steel just LITERALLY lying around.

 

Heck, we still ain't paid off WWII yet...

 

I have to agree.

Obama and the Democrats have made the economy look better than it is ON PAPER, such as:
- Artificially inflating GDP
- Under-reporting inflation
- Under-reporting unemployment

I recently spoke met a loan officer at a bank who had a curious take on the difference between the two parties. Look at the Democrat's special interests, which are, at last count, 49 unions along with the health care and pharmaceutical industries. These are all depression-resistant industries because their jobs are either protected (as in unions) or economy-independent (as in health care). The Democrats have no vested interest in helping the economy.

Now, look at the Republicans special interests. Oil companies, cigarette companies, small businesses, banks & investment companies, communications companies, Microsoft, defense contractors - these are all companies that live and die based on the economy.

(Taken from "the Buying of the President" by Charles Lewis)

We were in a recession. But because the government spent so much, so fast, in such an historic manner, we are experiencing inflation. Anyone who took a high school class in economics can tell you that. Anyone who shops at a supermarket today can tell you that! The Democrats have created inflation - and they are not telling us. Our dollars are worth less.

It is because of that inflation that unemployment has remained at a constant, almost permanent 9.5%.

The Democrats spending has sucked the oxygen out of the economy.

Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have turned a recession into a Depression.

Vote Republican or Die Hungry

 

This is the change the American people voted for. I hope the people who voted for unemployment and recession are pleased with themselves.

I don't think four years of mild discomfort is going to be enough to really teach the voters the lesson they need to learn. It may just teach them to replace big government Democrats with big government Republicans. That sort of marginal improvement only lengthens the time frame to collapse.

 

Interesting the Republicans spend over a trillion dollars for a meaningless war and likewise praise the need for an equally meaningless surge they claim was a success - and attempt to gain politically for the conflicts conclusion that has resolved nothing and is increasingly inconclusive with each passing day. The Democrats should hope Boehner centerpieces the Republican Iraqi calamity and ride the issue into November would be to good to be true for the true disaster it was destined to become.

This is the change the American people voted for. - Yes, and with the legislative enactments of the past two years they have gained substance over rhetoric for future prosperity.

 

I can see November from my house.


Apparently somewhere between 80,000 and 600,000 tea partiers showed up to a Rally promoted by Glenn Beck on the anniversary of MLK's speech at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In contrast, Rev. Al Sharpton drew a crowd of 2-3 thousand people, made of of Union people in a counter rally on the same date. Can you say change is in the winds? Reading the mostly negative media coverage of the Beck event, and the positive coverage of the Sharpton event, I get the sense that these people think denial can prevent what is coming this November.

Jaime Contraras, president of the local SEIU in attendance of the small counter rally had this to say about the large crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial:

I wonder if he considers Martin Luther King's niece, who spoke at the Beck event, to be racist, or does she get an exemption because she is black. Keep in mind, this is the same guy who was arrested for civil disobedience at an anti Arizona AB1070 rally put on by the SEIU:

The irony of Union people marching in protest of enforcement of immigration laws which help bolster their wages is to die for. It is like these mindless drones are just political minions to be thrown at whatever political cause their masters decide they care about. My money says they would attend a Klan rally if they were instructed to do so by the SEIU.

Personally, I like this guy Contraras. When he calls people racist because they are pissed off that the average wage of a union worker doubles that of a non-union worker, it only encourages his political opponents to rally and builds their numbers. I hope he keeps it up.

 

Newsweek's coverage was "The Racial Politics of Glenn Beck's March on Washington" and the article was full of baseless accusations of racism. At the same time, Newsweek dedicated itself to maximum spin on this depression with the title "Decline in Tourism May Be a Blessing for the U.S." Yay depression!

ABCNews's article was titled "Glenn Beck Appeals to 'Restore' the U.S., Al Sharpton Commemorates Martin Luther King", as if the two events were in any way equivalent. The coverage itself wasn't all that terrible.

NBCNews titled their article "Love of country and God reign at Beck’s rally."

CBSNews titled their coverage 'Beck: Rally Is "Something Beyond Imagination"; At "Restoring Honor" Rally, Conservative TV-Radio Host Says "America Today Begins to Turn Back to God" | Al Sharpton Leads Counter-Rally'. They are the only one of the news organizations I reviewed which didn't bury coverage of Beck's event. They also estimated attendance at 87,000.

It seems clear that at least some of the "news" organizations which sold their souls to get Obama elected are now hoping to get a chance to reconsider the sale.

 

Well, you're correct.

In my brief time involved in politics, I still have an email from a political consultant who wrote me, "People do NOT want to think for themselves. They are naturally willing to endure almost anything and will mindlessly do or say whatever you tell them to do as long as their basic needs are met (food, clothing, shelter)". His strategy was simple - find someone that a group of people respect (Al Gore, Sharpton, Unions leaders, etc) and make it worth their while to repeat your message. You've now controlled the minds of millions of people by influencing only one. See, THAT is the business that people like Gore and Sharpton are in - they sell their influence.

Many of the sheeple in unions are there to be taken care of. They are not entrepreneurial minded. When someone is used to being taken care of, they lose their initiative to make informed decisions (think of a small child). They are gray, mindless drones that will cheerfully march to whatever political cause their masters decide to care about.

 

The problem is that these drones are far more attracted to totalitarian ideologies (communism, islam, unions, etc...) than they are to ideologies which promote freedom.

This is causing me severe intellectual turmoil. Frankly, I can't figure out how to beat totalitarianism over the long term. I'm not exactly preaching Hegelian historicism here, but I am seriously worried that perhaps the human species is not yet advanced enough to live as civilized beings.

 

Will we ever be? Had Rome continued on it's path 2000 years ago, we would have manned exploration of Alpha Centauri by now. Instead, we spent more than a thousand years massacring people for the crime of trying to educate themselves. It would take very little to throw the reset switch on our so called "advanced" civilization and put it back to the bronze age once again.

My initial thought was to blame lack of education, but considering the pedigree diplomas our President carries, it seems pretty obvious education has nothing to do with. What might strike closer to the heart of the issue is the fact Homo Sapien is one of the few species on the planet that will literally eat itself to death.

 

The family values crowd having their moment for self reflection.....the city state Roma likewise died of constricted boundaries.

 

"Businesses are sitting on nearly $1.8 trillion in cash — about $600 billion more than normal — as they wait to see the outcome of policy and regulatory decisions."​

Much like the cost of compliance with government regulations, this is another "hidden" cost of government manipulation of the economy.

Businesses are afraid to act, waiting to see what behavior will get rewarded with tax breaks and what behavior will be punished with additional fees. While Obama fiddles, the economy burns.

If we had some hope that the government would stay out of the economy, or even a reason to believe that the voraciousness of the federal government could be temporarily leashed, businesses would invest this money in growth. Instead, these funds are just sitting... waiting for brighter days.