New Rules for the Blog - Sad But Necessary

The main purpose of this blog is for me to have a place to talk to myself. Because I spend so much time away from home working, I decided to create a site where I could share my thoughts and share all of the original source information I gather in my research. What I did not intend was to create a place where anonymous people could attack me, or call people names. I didn't think anyone was paying attention until last night when I noticed, for the first time, that some were reading my posts and commenting. Unfortunately, most of the posts were unacceptable. I know the difference. In another forum, I debate with "conservatives" all day long without this happening. We never agree with each other, but we respect each other. Maybe the difference is that we know each other. It is sad to see that so many people say so many hateful things under the cover of anonymity. On this site, there is a bit of a solution. Since I am the Administrator, I can remove posts that violate the rules, and I have done so. Just to be clear the rules are:

1. No name-calling
2. No personal attacks
3. Stay on topic

Please continue to read my posts, and comment if you like, but with respect, or the comment will be removed. Have a good day!

This is What is Really Going On!

Every day we hear about the Federal deficit/debt - morning, noon and night. For some reason, it was not Topic #1 when Reagan tripled it in 8 years. It was not all we talked about when George W. Bush doubled it in 8 years. It didn't seem to matter when President Bush arranged the prescription drug benefit in 2003 that gave half a trillion dollars to the pharma industry with borrowed funds. It sure didn't seem to matter when the largest tax cuts in history were passed in 2001 and 2003 that increased the debt by more than $2 trillion. For some reason, we barely talked about it when we launched two wars with borrowed funds that has added $1.1 trillion to the debt as of last month and continues to add $1 billion every 3 days. Now, although it is all anyone seems to want to talk about, we are preparing to pass an extension of the "Bush tax cuts" that appear to have created no jobs in 5 years, in order to allegedly create jobs, and add yet another $4 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years, with $700 billion of that for millionaires. By the way, do you know what happens when you give a millionaire a tax cut? No, they don't create jobs, they go buy a Rembrandt painting for $5 million, stash the money in an offshore bank account, or buy a 4th vacation home in a foreign country, that's what they do. So President Bush, just on the topics of his tax cuts, prescription drug benefit, two wars, plus interest, raised the debt by over $4 trillion. President Obama inherited a situation that every sane economist agreed was the worst economy since the Great Depression. Everyone agreed that if we didn't do something, we would end up in a worldwide depression that would last 10 years. We are not out of the woods yet. Due to TARP and Stimulus, the economy and unemployment has stablized, although at an unacceptable level. Remember, there are two things any economist will tell you that you do not do during a recession, raise taxes or cut spending. There is no risk of raising taxes, since Republicans cannot utter the T word. I am beginning to think that if an asteroid was approaching Earth that would destroy all life on the planet, Republicans would refuse to raise taxes to build a laser to destroy it. Remember the second part of the equation? Don't cut spending! Apparently we are going to do just that. Why? Because of the Federal deficit. Now we have 8.6 million Americans drawing unemployment or extended benefits. That is costing us $100 billion a year. If they had jobs and were paying taxes, that would generate another $75 billion a year. So we are talking about adding $175 billion to the deficit in the next year because of our unemployment problem. If we care about the debt, the best way to fix it is to get people back to work. But instead, we are talking about cutting Government spending which every single economist on earth will admit will reduce jobs, not increase them.

Any politician who says they care about unemployment/jobs, then supports cutting government spending at the time of a recession is either lying or stupid, or both.

Any politician who says they care about the deficit/debt, then supports cutting government spending during the time of a recession is either lying or stupid, or both, because they just effectively cut jobs, which drives the deficit up, not down.

Did you know that President Kennedy dropped the top tax rate from 91% to 70%?
Did you know that President Reagan dropped the top tax rate from 70% to 50%?
Did you know that President Clinton dropped the top tax rate to 39.6%
Did you know that the Co-Chairs of the Deficit Commission want the top tax rate dropped to 23%?

We now have reached a point where the very richest Americans are paying the lowest taxes they ever have, and some want to cut that record low rate almost in half. We, as a nation, have the lowest total tax as a percentage of GDP, at 28%, of any developed nation on earth. The reason we have a deficit is because we don't pay for what we buy, we borrow rather than have a reasonable tax rate. I know, I know, you are convinced that we pay obscenely high taxes. The fact is - we don't.

Is it any surprise that the initial recommendations from the Co-Chairs of the Deficit Commission are to cut Social Security benefits, cut Medicare benefits, freeze federal pay, reduce government employees, and...... to cut taxes? Everything is on the table, except actually paying for what we use!

Professor George Lakoff predicted years ago that conservatives were so determined to dismantle the social net we have created in society, that they would intentionally create huge budget deficits so that, other than national security, we would all agree that we could no longer afford government programs. That day is not here yet, but conservatives have become impatient. They have fulfilled the first part of Professor Lakoff's prediction of busting the budget on purpose, now they are screaming about the deficit they themselves created as justification for slashing the programs that made us the great nation that we are. They have made it impossible for any politician to even mention taxes as part of any deficit solution by demonizing the word to the point where the mere mention is political death. They have created a nation of people who have become too irresponsible to even consider paying for what they use. They have engineered a moment in time when they think they can win the argument, because they have spent 20 years framing the argument with every speech they give.

I would like to ask everyone to read my post "The 'Good Old Days' Are Today." The facts I cite are the facts. The greatest nation in history was created AFTER the Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid were put in place, not before. Our income increased 4-fold since the days of FDR. We are the result of Public Education, Public Health, Public Welfare and Public Safety programs put in place by FDR and LBJ, not in spite of those programs.

What to do? Pay attention. Some very well-intended people, many, but not all, in the so-called "Tea Party" are being misused to further goals that are not in their best interests. How can Republican, and some Democratic politicians, look you in the eye, invoke death-like comparisons when they describe the FEDERAL BUDGET DEFICIT, and then talk about tax cuts that will raise the deficit even higher in the next breath?

Make them tell you the truth. Keep asking questions until you get a straight answer. Don't vote for or support people who lie to you. Be grown-up enough to take responsibility. If you buy something, pay for it. If the Government buys something, insist they pay for it....but after the recession, not during.

We are the greatest nation in history. We can work this out. We don't have to throw in the towel. Keep the faith!