Worst of times

Margo Rocks wrote:

Enough with the attacks on Palin. When is the last time you heard Barack Obama say the Pledge of Allegiance or mention the Bible?

What? Why should he? To make YOU feel better? What does the a pledge made up in the 50's and God have to do with the war, failing economy and housing crash? Enlighten me please. Should we all just sit around any pray? lolo. You're living in LaLa Land lady.

manimal wrote:

<quoted text>
Yeah, keep believing that it was all Bush's fault and vote for Obama. We're all doomed!!

Can't wait.

elephant hunter wrote:

It would seem there are a whole lot of folks getting into this game very late;.
Obama made it a point in the Primary (much to my dismay) to mention his faith more than any Dem candidate since JFK. He was stopped by a heckler at the start of a speech a few weeks ago and challenged to lead the crowd in the pledge of allegiance - he recited it flawlessly.
If Thomas Jefferson were alive today he would gladly buy William Ayers a drink. History will have greater respect for somebody who took up arms against a government he considered unjust than a bunch of whiny bloggers hiding behind a keyboard with their pants around their ankles.
You think Obama is going to hurt small business? The last 8 years of expanded free trade policies and low tariffs have already taken care of that. Keep shopping at Walmart while you opine over the future of small business in this country.
Republicans need to turn their anger towards their own leaders for fracturing the Conservative movement and allowing the grass roots power of the party to fall into the hands of religious zealots. Somewhere on this long hard road, Conservatism became synonymous with gigantic government, obscene spending, pre-emptive war, nation building, and the suppression of individual rights.
How dare you question anyone's judgement on the qualifications of a Presidential candidate. You elected a semi-literate, aristocratic dunce TWICE!
And for an encore, you nominate a failed soldier with a christ complex and his deranged sidekick who doesn't believe in evolution?
It would be funny if it wasn't so frightening

Right on! I couldn't have said it better myself!

MDK wrote:

<quoted text>
Can't wait.

Yeah, I can't wait until you figure out that the messiah can't and won't change anything. Should be interesting on the Daily KOS and HuffPO websites, shouldn't it?

John Galt wrote:

<quoted text>
Yeah, I can't wait until you figure out that the messiah can't and won't change anything. Should be interesting on the Daily KOS and HuffPO websites, shouldn't it?

You may be half right. It may be that if he is elected President, he won't be able to change anything. That would be because Congress has to get involved in a positive way.

The "won't" part is wrong. He will -- IF he can get Congress to cooperate.

And how is McCain or worse yet, Palin, going to change anything? So far they've presented nothing. All they seem to be able to do right now is hum that old favorite tune: "Oh, the swiftboats are a'comin, their sails are in sight ...!"

I can't believe that after all that has happened that folks still want their taxes cut. Can't you see that we can't wage 2 unjust wars, bail out multi-million dollar investment banks, as well as the big 3 domestic car companies and continue to send Israel money without paying taxes? Something has got to give. This irresponsible, dangerous, security threatening deficit that 'W' has run up has threatened all of us. This deficit is a security issue.

It shows how little McCain understands of the economy when on one hand he says he's going to cut government spending but then on the other hand we need to stay in Iraq until we win.

That's a contradiction. If not Iraq, what government spending will he cut? Medicaid? Education? This is dangerous and irresponsible. Government already doesn't have enough money for decent roads, school funding, social support, etc. Yet, we can occupy a country that no longer wants us.

Wake up republicans.

Margo Rocks wrote:

Hey GetReal - Do what your name says and GET REAL. Yes I am serious and was also invited to be a member of Mensa. So while I may not agree with your views, I am certainly not a **** or moronic!!!!

Yes you are. Mensa means nothing. Intelligent, maybe. Smart, hardly.

Margo Rocks wrote:

Enough with the attacks on Palin. When is the last time you heard Barack Obama say the Pledge of Allegiance or mention the Bible?

I do not understand how saying the Pledge - the last time I said it was in high school, 35 years ago - or mentioning the bible - only one of many purported holy books - has anything to do with anything.
Please stop trying to place a "Christian Taliban" in charge of America! Stop it now!

Wait until the other shoe falls on WALL STREET !

Wonderful article Mr. Keillor Thanks for putting some things in perspective.

In these times I think we need to remember that laughter IS the best medicine. It will see us through. And the GOP has given lots to cry about but lots to laugh about too.

Garrison should be required reading for John Kass.

travel bug wrote:

I can't believe that after all that has happened that folks still want their taxes cut. Can't you see that we can't wage 2 unjust wars, bail out multi-million dollar investment banks, as well as the big 3 domestic car companies and continue to send Israel money without paying taxes? Something has got to give. This irresponsible, dangerous, security threatening deficit that 'W' has run up has threatened all of us. This deficit is a security issue.
It shows how little McCain understands of the economy when on one hand he says he's going to cut government spending but then on the other hand we need to stay in Iraq until we win.
That's a contradiction. If not Iraq, what government spending will he cut? Medicaid? Education? This is dangerous and irresponsible. Government already doesn't have enough money for decent roads, school funding, social support, etc. Yet, we can occupy a country that no longer wants us.
Wake up republicans.

Three points:

1. If you want to pay more taxes, please go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you from doing it now. So, if your view is higher taxes are good and you don't pay higher taxes (voluntarily) right now, you are simply a hipocrit.

2. School funding is supposed to be handled on a state/local level. The Federal government should have no participation in it at all.

3. I find it rather curious that everybody always seems to miss the point on the deficit (by the way, it's been around quite a lot longer than GWB). It isn't how much you tax, or collect, it is how much you SPEND!!! As long as our bloated federal government spends $1.30 (or more) for every dollar it collects in taxes/fees/etc., we will continue to spiral down to financial collapse. Once again, it is how much they SPEND!!!

Oops... that is, of course, "hypocrite".

Thank you Garrison! We are retirees who are spinning and rembering the stories our parents told us about the depression. Luckily, there is a little under the mattress to forestall the invested retirement account. And we were voting for Obama from day one. He is truly our hope for the future.

Knock knock wrote:

<quoted text>
The economy has tanked.

Hasn't the government just nationalized our banks? Under the Bush administration and didn't we all lose more than 5% of our retirement income thanks to the current economic situation? Does anyone remember that we had a budget surplus under the Clinton administration and the republicans created this heavy spending, deregulated, bloated government? My worry is that President Obama will have such a mess to deal he will be blamed for not getting us out of this mess fast enough.

Joyce wrote:

<quoted text>
Hasn't the government just nationalized our banks? Under the Bush administration and didn't we all lose more than 5% of our retirement income thanks to the current economic situation? Does anyone remember that we had a budget surplus under the Clinton administration and the republicans created this heavy spending, deregulated, bloated government? My worry is that President Obama will have such a mess to deal he will be blamed for not getting us out of this mess fast enough.

Joyce, there was NEVER a budget surplus under Clinton. Don't believe me? Check the Treasury Department website.

Please, for all our sakes, don't listen to the propaganda coming from the media.

Oh and, by the way, just as Democrats blamed Bush for Clinton's recession when Bush came into office, as well as 9/11 eight months later, so to will Obama be blamed by the Republicans for everything that happens once Obama takes the oath of office. And, quite frankly, how can you blame them after the constant eight years of attacks on their guy?

Couldn't agree more; however I have lost faith in the American voter. I cannot comprehend the mindset that allows them(the voters) to not see GW & his croonies for what they are & what they have done to wreck this country. The USA is the greatest country in the world; the sad part is "what it could be" with honest & moral people at the helm.

John Galt wrote:

<quoted text>
Joyce, there was NEVER a budget surplus under Clinton. Don't believe me? Check the Treasury Department website.
Please, for all our sakes, don't listen to the propaganda coming from the media.
Oh and, by the way, just as Democrats blamed Bush for Clinton's recession when Bush came into office, as well as 9/11 eight months later, so to will Obama be blamed by the Republicans for everything that happens once Obama takes the oath of office. And, quite frankly, how can you blame them after the constant eight years of attacks on their guy?

Stop misinforming people!

II. Facts and Figures

Perhaps the simplest and most obvious way in which the fiscal landscape has been revolutionized is the stunning change in the numbers:

In FY1992 - the year before the Clinton Administration took office - the unified deficit of the Federal government ran a record $290 billion, or 4.7 percent of GDP. By contrast, in FY2000 - the fiscal year just completed - the Federal government set a different and more enviable record, with a surplus of $237 billion, or 2.4 percent of GDP.
In 1992, the debt held by the public was nearly 50 percent as large as the GDP, and projected to increase to roughly 65 percent of GDP by the end of FY2000. In fact, the debt now is only 35 percent as large as the GDP, and is projected on prudent assumptions to be eliminated by 2012 - even taking account of the President's spending and tax-cut proposals.
This turnaround in the numbers has brought real benefits to individual Americans:

The net interest payments of the Federal government in FY2000 alone were $125 billion lower than projected in early 1993. That amounts to more than $1700 for every American family.
Fiscal consolidation has helped reduce mortgage interest costs: a typical American family with a mortgage of $100,000 might expect to save about $2,000 annually in mortgage costs because of our new path of fiscal discipline. Low mortgage rates in turn have helped to make housing more affordable; the homeownership rate increased from 64.2 percent in 1992 to 67.7 percent in the third quarter of this year.
The swing in the Federal budget from deficit to surplus has resulted in nearly a doubling of the net national saving rate, making more funds available for private investment.(And incidentally, the improvement in the Federal budget deficit - now a surplus - accounts for all of the improvement in national saving.) Surging investment, especially in equipment incorporating the latest advances in technology, has contributed to a pickup in workers' productivity growth - and ultimately, in their wages.
III. Unified budget accounting versus on-budget accounting

A second respect in which the fiscal landscape has been transformed has more to do with the institutions of the budget process than with the performance of the budget itself.

Until the past couple of years, the political debate about the budget focused on allocating unified surpluses - or, to be more precise about it - reducing unified deficits. A few insightful observers understood that balancing the unified budget should not be the ultimate goal, but believed that the more ambitious objective of balancing the on-budget account was so far out of reach that highlighting it as a potential objective might actually undermine our collective resolve rather than solidify it. And they were probably right.
But in the summer of 1999, buoyed by the progress of the preceding six years, President Clinton was able to shift the terms of the political conversation by putting forward a plan for allocating the projected on-budget surpluses over the succeeding ten years, and for setting aside all of the off-budget surpluses - the Social Security surpluses - for debt reduction.

http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/ls1088.ht...

Straight from the Treasury's website.

John Galt wrote:

<quoted text>
Joyce, there was NEVER a budget surplus under Clinton. Don't believe me? Check the Treasury Department website.
Please, for all our sakes, don't listen to the propaganda coming from the media.
Oh and, by the way, just as Democrats blamed Bush for Clinton's recession when Bush came into office, as well as 9/11 eight months later, so to will Obama be blamed by the Republicans for everything that happens once Obama takes the oath of office. And, quite frankly, how can you blame them after the constant eight years of attacks on their guy?

Stop misinforming people!
II. Facts and Figures
Perhaps the simplest and most obvious way in which the fiscal landscape has been revolutionized is the stunning change in the numbers:
In FY1992 - the year before the Clinton Administration took office - the unified deficit of the Federal government ran a record $290 billion, or 4.7 percent of GDP. By contrast, in FY2000 - the fiscal year just completed - the Federal government set a different and more enviable record, with a surplus of $237 billion, or 2.4 percent of GDP.
In 1992, the debt held by the public was nearly 50 percent as large as the GDP, and projected to increase to roughly 65 percent of GDP by the end of FY2000. In fact, the debt now is only 35 percent as large as the GDP, and is projected on prudent assumptions to be eliminated by 2012 - even taking account of the President's spending and tax-cut proposals.
This turnaround in the numbers has brought real benefits to individual Americans:
The net interest payments of the Federal government in FY2000 alone were $125 billion lower than projected in early 1993. That amounts to more than $1700 for every American family.
Fiscal consolidation has helped reduce mortgage interest costs: a typical American family with a mortgage of $100,000 might expect to save about $2,000 annually in mortgage costs because of our new path of fiscal discipline. Low mortgage rates in turn have helped to make housing more affordable; the homeownership rate increased from 64.2 percent in 1992 to 67.7 percent in the third quarter of this year.
The swing in the Federal budget from deficit to surplus has resulted in nearly a doubling of the net national saving rate, making more funds available for private investment.(And incidentally, the improvement in the Federal budget deficit - now a surplus - accounts for all of the improvement in national saving.) Surging investment, especially in equipment incorporating the latest advances in technology, has contributed to a pickup in workers' productivity growth - and ultimately, in their wages.

http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/ls1088.ht...
Straight from the Treasury website.

Joyce wrote:

<quoted text>
Hasn't the government just nationalized our banks? Under the Bush administration and didn't we all lose more than 5% of our retirement income thanks to the current economic situation? Does anyone remember that we had a budget surplus under the Clinton administration and the republicans created this heavy spending, deregulated, bloated government? My worry is that President Obama will have such a mess to deal he will be blamed for not getting us out of this mess fast enough.

You are correct, GWB43 has left quite a mess for President Obama, our budget will be incredibly drained. Also, John is quite incorrect, we were left a $1.9 trillion on budget surplus by the Clinton administration. GWB will leave office handing us a $11.3 trillion deficit and owing $1 trillion of that to China. A mess indeed.