Quote Originally Posted by Hoosier View Post
I hope not. Bailing out the banks and auto industry has a short term cost, most of that money will be/has been recouped. The bigger problem was the bailout was that these companies were deemed "too big too fail" and as a consequence of the bailouts and the many failures/acquisitions of smaller institutions they are now ever larger. We should probably require them to break apart into smaller institutions, and one of which could be allowed to fail. That's seen as government intervention and is frowned upon.

Obama's big bet, the recovery acts, totaled approx $1T, but half of that was in tax breaks -- which the GOP would have done in the same situation. In the end the recovery legislation probably did shorten the recession, but of course that will be debated ad nauseum. I think the GOP would have done similar things because politicians can't be seen as doing nothing if they want to be re-elected.

I don't know what gratification came from a black president, I don't believe Obama was elected because he is half black, I think the only telling factor is that he wasn't defeated because he's black, as would certainly have been the case less than 50 years ago. The real question, to my mind, is how long before we could elect an avowed Atheist president? I don't see that happening anytime soon.

I think that what our kids think in 50 years is really going to depend on how we continue behaving. If we keep waging trillion dollar wars, if we keep our tax rates low while debt skyrockets, if we continue to kick infrastructure down the road these things will come back to bite us in the ass.

The real problem is that Americans, and thus American leaders, haven't had to cohones to raise taxes and reduce spending to actually acheve a balanced budget, let along the surplus we must have to pay down the deficit. It's as if we've been left with the tab for the past thirty years of American Exceptionalism, and now we're faced with the question of: Do we pay it, or do we keep adding on to it for the future to deal with?

H.

so the .gov having a hand in and ownership of privately owned companies is short term? aren't most .gov interventions supposed to be short term?

what about all the pork that was attached to those stimulus and bailout packages? we are still in a recession. 9.8% unemployment last I heard/checked. apparently it really hasn't worked as well as they hoped. now we just have to wait for the super-inflation to hit and sink back in again. I am already seeing some of the effects across the country such as higher gas prices, higher food costs, fees being added on to shipping, flights, transportation etc. yet all the while, jobs aren't being created or are barely being increased. I think 190,000 increase was the latest increase in the private sector. raises are on hold, especially for federal and state employees, but also for a lot of the private sector according to people I have talked with while traveling.

so you are telling me that 98% of the black population that voted, who voted for obama has nothing to do with obama being black?...please. the liberals, ACORN, democrats all bussed people in from low income areas to vote. the obama T-shirts were rampant down here in the southern US. why would we want an atheist president? Last time I looked we are one nation UNDER GOD. there isn't anything from the entire history of this country that says otherwise. our money, our founding documents, our country's songs etc etc. there is no way in hell that an atheist should ever be president.

the wars are not the problem. the money spent mostly comes back to the US. pay to the soldiers, building of fighters, tanks, vehicles almost all made is the US. ammo, weapons, clothing again all made in the US for the most part. that money is being circulated back into the US.

The problem is giving other countries aid, giving them help and getting nothing in return. we should have 20 cent a gallon gas after doing what we did for Iraq, and what is happening in Afghanistan.

you go ahead and pay more taxes. I will keep my hard earned money and spend it as I chose. not hand it away to illegals, to people sucking the tit of the system, extorting it by having children, faking problems, getting free housing, reduced heat etc etc.

Katrina is the greatest example. 4-5 years after Katrina I saw massive amounts of homes with blue tarps on the roofs yet newer vehicles with big spinner rims parked out front. they received money from FEMA to help cover the cost of a new roof, yet somehow a blue tarp seemed to be just fine and the new set of rims was a priority.

social security is on my list as well. there is no way I need to pay that much money into a system that allows illegals to come in who haven't paid a dime into the system to receive those benefits. the system was not designed for it, and I don't want it. I want to cut my losses and get rid of the whole damn system. I don't want to be forced to pay into it.

welfare, medicaid, medicare all need to be cut completely and rebuilt from the ground up. I am all for helping those people who are down and out, who have lost their job, but I don't want to see it become a way of life. It has got to that point, and there is no denying from either side.

raising taxes right now will do nothing more than continue the recession further or dig us deeper into the recession. even the dems recognized this enough to bite their lip and kept taxes down. people are struggling to hang on as it is. gas prices hit $4 and we are going to see another dip in the wrong direction. the .gov needs to cut spending. they can start with the TSA. I see twice as many TSA agents than are operationally necessary at almost every airport I go to in the US.

I'm too tired to keep writing, half falling asleep now or I would continue. maybe tomorrow.