Secret Agent Man shows death panels aren't dead:
My counter: the democrats Obamacare will deprive seniors of their very LIVES!!!!ExTexasRedhead doubles down:
Pelosi, the Goddess of Death Panels, wants us to believe she cares about the elderly??NoLibZone makes no sense:
Her champagne and strawberries flights killed thousands of children.WinOne4TheGipper thinks liberals should do something to keep the seniors from going bankrupt. Like maybe vote against the bill?
If she’s worried about seniors going hungry, why doesn’t she and her fellow limousine liberals step to the plate?Gaffer eats corned beef hash...For FREEDOM!
I eat canned corned beef hash all the time...it’s really cheap at WalMart - tastes great. I’m 62 and am just getting ready to work my way up to developing a liking for Gravy Train and Ole’ Roy....the way Obama is bankrupting us, I figure I’m gonna lose whatever retirement money I’ve saved. But I will tell you this. I’ll eat that dog food if it makes these lazy ass socialist users get off the dole.
Medicare was predicated at a time when Americans life expectancy was less, people retired later and the ratio of younger to older people was much more. Now, we are broke. We cannot do it. Maybe if Pelousy and her left-wing buddies had not bankrupted the US, Medicare would still be viable. The riots in Europe and the bankruptcy of the PIGS is an ominous reminder that unless we do something drastic, we are headed to the same end point.
ReplyDeleteDemocrats as usual, demagogue, Oh noes the Repubs hate the chillins, minorities and old people. But ask them for solutions and it is the same. Tax the eeevil rich folks.
Medicare is broke. Everybody better start saving from 30 to plan for their old age. Medicare will run out by 2017 and SSI by 2037. It is simple math.
Yeah, Pelosi demagogued. She does that too much. But so does the right.
ReplyDeleteMedicare may be expensive, but it is quite a bit more efficient than HMOs (2% overhead) [Source http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/20/opinion/main584722.shtml]. And it is popular - people are willing to pay taxes if that is what it goes to.
Also, you don't get to blame Pelosi for bankrupting us and then say Medicare is bankrupting us.
Finally, I'm not sure we are bankrupt - 12 years ago we had surplus. Indeed, if we rolled back the Bush tax cuts we'd be a long way back to fiscal health. I know, we barely got out of that era of super high taxes alive, but it can be done.
Medicare may be expensive, but it is quite a bit more efficient than HMOs (2% overhead) [Source http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/20/opinion/main584722.
ReplyDeleteI am not talking about Medicare. I am talking about government in general. Maybe if the federal and state workers union had not been paid six-figure salaries and benefits for surfing porn,(http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/sec-pornography-employees-spent-hours-surfing-porn-sites/story?id=10452544) then maybe we could still afford Medicare. Too bad now, many people voted for policies that have bankrupted this nation. Time to pay the price for our (both Democrat+Republican) fiscal recklessness.
Also, you don't get to blame Pelosi for bankrupting us and then say Medicare is bankrupting us.
I said we cannot afford Medicare, with the vast shift in demographics. Medicare was created with a certain demographic distribution in mind. Now that has changed a lot. Yes, Pelosi and her Congess with full backing of Obama, massively ran-up the deficit. Of course, GWB certainly did his part with the Iraq war and Medicare part D.
Finally, I'm not sure we are bankrupt - 12 years ago we had surplus.
That was during the tech bubble. After the bubble burst in 2000, deficits appeared.
if we rolled back the Bush tax cuts we'd be a long way back to fiscal health.
Umm,how about cutting spending,like a lot. How about cracking down on the federal departments and contractors who pay people six-figures for cut'n'paste work.
How about both, and we keep popular entitlements.
ReplyDeleteA word on deficits - the US is not like an individual with a credit card, we can have a rotating bond balance without going bankrupt. I know being a deficit hawk is all the rage these days, but other than inflationary pressure, the problem is not so bad. Indeed, our debt as percentage of GDP has been 20% for quite a while.
The rhetoric is apocalyptic, but I have no doubt we will survive this.
How about both, and we keep popular entitlements.
ReplyDeleteA good compromise and I agree. I hope both D's and R's can reach across and agree on this. We need to cut corporate tax rate from 35% to 20% and start to implement tariffs on imported goods. That way, corporations can be encouraged to move manufacturing jobs back to the US, and the tariff revenue will make up for the lost tax revenue. We also need to repeal all laws that favor specfic companies or groups of companies and tighthen regulation on Wall Street.
@Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a good solution. But I would take it even one step further and suggest closing the tax loopholes for corporations. As it is, most of them pay no taxes at all and don't really need the surplus money to survive.
Wow, a disturbing amount of conciliation here!
ReplyDeleteI'd be okay with lowering tax rates on corporations, but I don't see it as being stimulative or indeed helpful in any way. There are myriad other ways to deal with offshoring, and I don't see much actual statistical info that hiring and taxes are in any way related. And I have looked.
@Ozy,
ReplyDeleteI kind of balked lowering tax rates on corporations at first, but when he paired it with implementing tariffs that made me think that might cover the lower taxes (I could be wrong). But that was just my immediate reaction, anyway.
And I do agree with you about the hiring and taxes not being related. Republicans are still trying to sell the failed trickle-down economics, though.
@euphgeek
ReplyDeleteAnd I do agree with you about the hiring and taxes not being related.
Actually it is. I posted evidence of it on another thread about Texas. Texas has one of the lowest unemployment rates, mainly due to lower taxes. All the high-tax states like California and Michigan have sky-high jobless rates. Also, all the foreign carmakers have created good jobs in the low-tax South, while Detroit is a dump.
Republicans are still trying to sell the failed trickle-down economics, though.
Trickle-down economics is definitely not as a big an epic FAIL, as the top-down, stimulus heavy, Keynesian nonsense that the Democrats have pushed. The utter failure of the porkulus bill to lower the jobless rate is evidence of the failure of the Democrat economic paradigm.
Frankly, I am a realist and realize that the world does not confirm to any one single dogma and that we need to judiciously merge various paradigms to keep America afloat.
@Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteTexas has one of the lowest unemployment rates, mainly due to lower taxes. All the high-tax states like California and Michigan have sky-high jobless rates.
I'm not so sure that low taxes are the only reason for Texas doing so well. It sounds a little simplistic to me. Aren't there states that have high taxes that are doing well and states that have low taxes whose economies are in the dump?
Trickle-down economics is definitely not as a big an epic FAIL, as the top-down, stimulus heavy, Keynesian nonsense that the Democrats have pushed. The utter failure of the porkulus bill to lower the jobless rate is evidence of the failure of the Democrat economic paradigm.
Porkulus? Come on, you're better than that. The stimulus did actually create jobs and lower unemployment. Not as fast as some people want, true. In my opinion that's only because it was implemented in too weak-kneed of a way.
When unemployment is high, simply giving money to corporations isn't going to make them want to hire more people. The bottom line for the corporations is how much of their product they can sell. If they're not selling their products, they're not going to hire more people. And since the middle class isn't going to buy more of their products, the government has to step in (e.g., with the stimulus) and buy the products. Then the corporations will hire more people to make more of their product. At that point, the government can step back and let capitalism work.
Frankly, I am a realist and realize that the world does not confirm to any one single dogma and that we need to judiciously merge various paradigms to keep America afloat.
On that, we can definitely agree.