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08 Feb 05 - 01:27 PM (#1402697) Subject: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: GUEST,Art Thieme An idea put forth by a caller to Dianne R. show: I thought it profound in it's simplicity---and seemingly exacly what's been happening for a long while now. The idea of Bush and his cohorts is to bankrupt the federal government of the USA so there will be no money for any federal programs. The FED will be impotent and will continue their mantra about "no new taxes"---while the cash all winds up in corporate hands. Art Thieme |
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08 Feb 05 - 02:25 PM (#1402753) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: GUEST That is exactly what this right wing agenda is: to bankrupt all the social service institutions, and make the military industrial complex and their Wall Street buddies even bigger fat cats than they already are. So the challenge, when you hear someone pontificating the "no new taxes" crap, or those who claim Social Security needs to be "fixed" is: ask them why they hate the US government, and are working to destroy it from within? |
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08 Feb 05 - 02:52 PM (#1402788) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Donuel http://www.angelfire.com/md2/customviolins/bushdeficit.jpg Its currently way below this graph |
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08 Feb 05 - 03:48 PM (#1402866) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Don Firth Deficit or surplus is the difference between what the government takes in in taxes compared to what it spends. The National Debt is the accumulation of annual deficits. It's not that much different from your household budget. How much do you spend in relation to how much you make? Do you pay off your credit cards every month? Or are you digging a deeper hole? George W. Bush has given the wealthy massive tax cuts within the last few years, reducing the government's revenue by a substantial amount. He has started an unnecessary war, and wars are expensive. Last I heard (a couple days ago), last year's deficit added $412 billion to the previous year's deficit, and Bush's new budget calls for an additional $400 billion + of overspending this year. Ronald Reagan said specifically that his intention was to reverse or rescind all of the "New Deal" programs spearheaded by FDR and passed in the Thirties—and Reagan wasn't just targeting social welfare programs. His agenda included the Securities and Exchange Commission (because they were asleep at the switch, scams like Enron happened), anti-trust laws, and other laws intended to rein in the free, unregulated exercise of corporate greed. And, of course, Social Security, one of the most successful programs of all. Basically, he wanted to return this country to the pseudo-feudal status (corporation as the Lord of the Manor, workers as serfs) that existed prior to the Depression, an event largely caused by unbridled corporate greed and stupid management. The George Bushes, I and II, are dedicated to completing what Reagan started. Grover Norquist, one of the daggers behind the throne of the Bush administration, has stated that his goal is to "shrink the government down to size, drag it into the bathroom, and drown it in the bathtub." No social programs. No social safety net. Why not? Sorry! No funds. We can't afford it. Study the graph Donuel posted and note who was president when. It tells the story pretty clearly. As Europe gradually moves toward civilization, there are those in America—currently in power—who want to return to the feudal system of the Middle Ages, but in a modern, industrialized version. Don Firth |
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08 Feb 05 - 08:36 PM (#1403222) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Little Hawk Yes, that is accurate. And they do it by appealing to people's myopic greed. They offer a carrot ("tax cut"), held temptingly in front of Joe Public's nose, while quietly making off with his refrigerator and his freezer and all their contents. But...what a lovely carrot! promise of tax cut = a very big lie But no American politician dares to tell the whole truth about this particular scam. |
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08 Feb 05 - 08:41 PM (#1403226) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Bobert And the Dems? Just watchin', thank you.... |
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08 Feb 05 - 08:49 PM (#1403231) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: dick greenhaus I think it's called "The Wealthfare State" |
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08 Feb 05 - 08:51 PM (#1403233) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Amos From today's Times: Spearing the Beast By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: February 8, 2005 President Bush isn't trying to reform Social Security. He isn't even trying to "partially privatize" it. His plan is, in essence, to dismantle the program, replacing it with a system that may be social but doesn't provide security. And the goal, as with his tax cuts, is to undermine the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt. Why do I say that the Bush plan would dismantle Social Security? Because for Americans who entered the work force after the plan went into effect and who chose to open private accounts, guaranteed benefits - income you receive after retirement even if everything else goes wrong - would be nearly eliminated. Here's how it would work. First, workers with private accounts would be subject to a "clawback": in effect, they would have to mortgage their future benefits in order to put money into their accounts. Second, since private accounts would do nothing to improve Social Security's finances - something the administration has finally admitted - there would be large benefit cuts in addition to the clawback. Jason Furman of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the guaranteed benefits left to an average worker born in 1990, after the clawback and the additional cuts, would be only 8 percent of that worker's prior earnings, compared with 35 percent today. This means that under Mr. Bush's plan, workers with private accounts that fared poorly would find themselves destitute. Why expose workers to that much risk? Ideology. "Social Security is the soft underbelly of the welfare state," declares Stephen Moore of the Club for Growth and the Cato Institute. "If you can jab your spear through that, you can undermine the whole welfare state." By the welfare state, Mr. Moore means Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid - social insurance programs whose purpose, above all, is to protect Americans against the extreme economic insecurity that prevailed before the New Deal. The hard right has never forgiven F.D.R. (and later L.B.J.) for his efforts to reduce that insecurity, and now that the right is running Washington, it's trying to turn the clock back to 1932. Medicaid is also in the cross hairs. And if Mr. Bush can take down Social Security, Medicare will be next |
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08 Feb 05 - 08:52 PM (#1403234) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: jaze Interesting indeed. I was surprised at Jimmy Carter's relative levelness. |
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08 Feb 05 - 11:44 PM (#1403342) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Rapparee I got my credit report yesterday: I scored 794 points; the average here is 650 and the highest ever seen in this area was 850. My credit rating is excellent. I pay off my credit cards every month; the only money I owe (apart from piddling amounts for gas) is for the house and a car. To get here my wife and I had to work at it. We did what we could to bring in more money, not reduce our income. Yet that seems to be what the current administration is doing. Worse, at least to my mind, they are borrowing the money they need to make up the difference between income and outgo. That money is NOT borrowed from US citizens, but from European and Asian governments and I suspect that one of these days those folks are going to want to be paid back with the promised interest. The US dollar is not the prefered world currency anymore -- the Euro is. I thought the label "tax and spend Liberal" was nasty, but I can only label the current administration as "borrow and spend Neo-cons." Not Conservatives -- these folks don't seem to care about a balanced budget OR a whopping national debt. Barry Goldwater is spinning in his grave, I'm sure. |
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09 Feb 05 - 12:44 AM (#1403375) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: DougR Sorry, Art, makes no sense to me at all. Bush just submitted his budget to the Congress. It calls for the leanest spending budget in decades. And Repaire, latest reports are that the dollar is strenghtening. As our enconomy continues to improve, the dollar will again become more competitive. DougR |
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09 Feb 05 - 02:42 AM (#1403423) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Little Hawk I hope you're right, Doug, cos every dollar my business makes is a US dollar at this point. :-) It has come up a little in the past month...from the all-time low of $1.18 Cdn to about $1.23 Cdn now. It used to be around $1.50 to $1.60 Cdn, before the recent wars. |
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09 Feb 05 - 03:18 AM (#1403451) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Peace Little Hawk: The all-time low was decades ago when the Canadian dollar was worth MORE than the American. I am guessing you mean recently. |
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09 Feb 05 - 03:32 AM (#1403459) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Kaleea Perhaps if the USA is bankrupt, then WE can start getting foreign aid, for a change, from some of those really rich countries, like Saudi Arabia. |
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09 Feb 05 - 12:19 PM (#1403632) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: GUEST,Don Firth (having log-in problems) I don't know where you're getting your information, Doug, but everything I've read and heard says just the opposite. In fact real conservatives are showing some nervousness and concern. With all due respect, you really should get away from Fox News Service and find out what's actually going on in the world. Don Firth |
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09 Feb 05 - 05:49 PM (#1403808) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Little Hawk The USA IS getting foreign aid! It's the World's biggest debtor nation. If those other creditor countries, particularly China, were to call their loans to America, Kaleea, the USA would be totally bankrupt...and we might have either another great depression or a 3rd World War...or both. The USA is a society that lives on a credit bubble, just as it encourages its public to do. Meanwhile, China and the other Asian countries make actual commercial product, rather than pushing paper, selling fast food, and turning out cruise missiles and smart bombs for military adventures abroad. |
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09 Feb 05 - 06:49 PM (#1403859) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: GUEST When you can blast a building to smithereens in Iraq from a bunker in Nevada via a drone aircraft, you run the world. When the world says pay your debts, you say No, what are you going to do about it? The bully has always been like this. |
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09 Feb 05 - 07:19 PM (#1403880) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Little Hawk That's true. However, note the eventual fate of past bullies such as the Black Donnellys, Baby Face Nelson, Al Capone, the Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, The Spanish Empire, and Imperial Rome, to mention some small and large examples of well-known bullies. |
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09 Feb 05 - 08:05 PM (#1403923) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: GUEST,TIA DougR - Head in the sand as usual. Lean budget my arse. How many expenses were left out of the budget he submitted? Do they talk about the "supplementals" on Fox News? And, spending is only half the story. How does it match up against revenues? Please get informed. Oh, wait, I know, just "my opinion". |
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09 Feb 05 - 08:09 PM (#1403926) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Bill Hahn//\\ Well put,Little Hawk--to Guest. To add a little more fuel to incenerate the hypocrisy of the admistration's budgetary priorities and ideas----Think about the following: 1) There is a war on thanks to them and they want to cut VA benefits and charge a $250 fee for those above a certain income for the VA serevices---as well as raise the Rx deductible. I guess they don't sport those "Support our Soldiers" stickers on their cars. They are smarter than that--or they would be hypocrites. 2) They cut taxes---so the budget is in a bad state. The tax cuts benefit the wealthy (who can afford all the services being cut--med,etc;)---the service cuts that follow hurt the poor. Democracy in action---NeoCons in action. 3) The president is on a "campaign tour" to promote his policies re: Social Security because he will have trouble peddling it to both parties in Congress----they know where their votes lie and, hopefully and doubtfully, the FDR legacy. El Presidente has, I am sure, his hand picked audiences as always for the sound bytes. 4) The good news is this: Dubyas last term in office (short of his tryinjg to get an ammendment passed to change that). Amazing---a man who has run, I don't recall how many, busineses into the ground is advising the nation and urging it in financial matters. Businesses that he has run into the ground include those that started out pretty solvent from people who involved him into the business. Oh well, since he is the faith based guy he is perhaps he did not have the faith in those days---and now he does. So---does that mean that "faith" will guide our destiny? If the market fails I feel sorry for the people with "privatized Social In-Security". The Lawd was not lookin' out fo yah---my best Dubya accent. Bill Hahn |
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09 Feb 05 - 09:33 PM (#1403986) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: DougR Don:I'd urge you, for a change, to view news that is fair, balanced, and unafraid! You might learn something other than that crap you read in the New York Times and the news you watch on network news. Fox News Network! DougR |
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09 Feb 05 - 09:44 PM (#1403996) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Greg F. Hard to believe Doug could actually be as fu$king stupid as he comes across. Perhaps he's just trying to be "cute" and "amusing"? If so, it ain't working. Seems to think this is all a sporting event of some sort & doesn't impact people's lives. |
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09 Feb 05 - 10:26 PM (#1404039) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Once Famous Well, Greg F. you sure don't impact anyone's life. How about some cheese with all that whine you post every day? |
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09 Feb 05 - 10:32 PM (#1404044) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Don Firth Unfair, strongly slanted, and misinforming. Fox News is the Bush cheering section. Bill O'Reilly and his cohorts couldn't tell the truth if his life depended on it. Hell, everybody seems to know that but Doug. Well, whatever makes you feel comfortable. Don Firth |
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09 Feb 05 - 10:52 PM (#1404058) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Little Hawk We all have things we like to complain about and things we like to praise.... Which brings to mind William Shatner! |
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10 Feb 05 - 08:32 PM (#1405272) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: GUEST,Art Thieme Martin, It does seem as if you are not a nice person. Art Thieme |
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10 Feb 05 - 09:04 PM (#1405304) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Bobert "Fox" and "news" are like oil and water.... |
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11 Feb 05 - 01:32 AM (#1405452) Subject: RE: Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S. From: Peace "Bush agenda: bankrupt U.S." Interesting. Does he have a choice? |
