I may have decided who to vote for.... (1 Viewer)

[UncleTrvlingJim]

I think maybe you should look at the budget and just how much 'the war' is costing compared to the really expensive stuff.

Entitlement programs are what are raping us and you are asking for more. You want to cut big numbers, end entitlements.

Like social security? You want to tell your grandparents and parents that all that money they put into social security will yield them nothing?

Budget breakdown:
Social security - 20%
Defense - 19%
Medicare - 13%

Unemployment and welfare does make up 12% of the budget.

 

[Superfan]

Like social security? You want to tell your grandparents and parents that all that money they put into social security will yield them nothing?

Budget breakdown:
Social security - 20%
Defense - 19%
Medicare - 13%

Unemployment and welfare does make up 12% of the budget.

No i won't but the Federal Government will. Who said tap into that money in the first place. Not you or I. It will be the downfall of the USA which is entitlement programs.

People who make 100k pay 30k in taxes. If you invest you pay capital gains and then have to pay income taxes on that money. Oh wait only the mega rich do this what am i thinking. You see it is the bologna washington says so they can stay in office.

We need less lawyers that write cute loop holes and more economist and scientist in Washington.


Good Lord Social Security is more than the defense fund.

 

[varanook]

I am for getting my taxes cut as well. And personally among the candidates I think I like McCain the most.

But did he say how he was going to cut taxes and still pay for the war in Iraq he evidently supports? Doesnt the war cost us like billions and billions of dollars(12 billion a month for those who care)? Isnt our deficit rising?

I think everytime anyone proposes a tax cut they need to show us exactly where the corresponding cut in spending will be. Similarly I think any candidate that goes on and on about some great service the government is going to give us needs to show us how they will fund it.

Saying I will cut your taxes is easy. The hard part is doing it without sinking the country into more debt. I assume it means he will reduce spending so he needs to reduce spending at least as much as the tax cut proposed.

While I like McCain the most, his support for this crazy expensive war(money and lives) makes it difficult for me to vote for him. Even if there is some arguable benefit to the war is that benefit outweighed by what we could do in America for our own homeless, poor and sick with 12 billion a month?

They had a guy that viewed things that way but he was tossed to the side as a kook

 

[taygolf]

what we could do in America for our own homeless, poor and sick with 12 billion a month?

I think you are at least on the right track. We need a new focus in America. We are to focused on the freaking war and spending way to much money outside of this country for no good reason. We have soldiers all over the world doing what? I know we need some at bases adn stuff but there is no need to have as many out there that we have now. Bring them in the America and lets start solving the problems here. Lets really attack the drug problem in this country. Lets help the poor. Lets give tax cuts to the middle class so they can breathe a little. Lets fix social security.

The war can not fund all of these things but it is one thing that can be cut now! Then we can cut entitlements and other things to really get this country going. There is just a messed up mind set in all government departments from large to small. They are all in the money spending business and not the money making business.Until there is a mind set and a change that this is money that has to be spent very carefully then nothing will change. We could do so much and do it so much better than we are right now it is rediculous. I want the whole place to be redone. Everything will start over from scratch. THat is what we need

T

 

[blackadder]

I am for getting my taxes cut as well. And personally among the candidates I think I like McCain the most.

But did he say how he was going to cut taxes and still pay for the war in Iraq he evidently supports? Doesnt the war cost us like billions and billions of dollars(12 billion a month for those who care)? Isnt our deficit rising?

I think everytime anyone proposes a tax cut they need to show us exactly where the corresponding cut in spending will be. Similarly I think any candidate that goes on and on about some great service the government is going to give us needs to show us how they will fund it.

Saying I will cut your taxes is easy. The hard part is doing it without sinking the country into more debt. I assume it means he will reduce spending so he needs to reduce spending at least as much as the tax cut proposed.

While I like McCain the most, his support for this crazy expensive war(money and lives) makes it difficult for me to vote for him. Even if there is some arguable benefit to the war is that benefit outweighed by what we could do in America for our own homeless, poor and sick with 12 billion a month?

Or what could be done for the LA coastal erosion problem with about 3 months of Iraq expenditures?

As for McCain in Iraq, the answer is easy: he will do exactly what the sitting administration (and Congress) are doing. He's going to borrow the money.

All the direct costs of the Iraq war have been incurred off budget through emergency and supplemental appropriations that have been financed with debt. These expenditures do not show up immediately and fully in the deficit figures. I doubt this is accidental after five years.

If the war was brought fully on budget people would start to get a better gauge of the burdens being incurred and passed on to future generations. That is not desirable.

Of course the politicians realize that we are all so apathetic that they can continue to fund the war off budget through debt indefintely.

So, McCain can cut taxes and fight the war in Iraq the good old fashioned American way, with debt. But he better be careful about "confronting" the Chinese too harshly lest they start to trim his line of credit.

The irony is that the plunge in the dollar is directly related to our profligate fiscal habits and, in turn, to the soaring cost of oil. So, we are in Iraq for (among other things) energy security but the actual burden of financing being in Iraq is tanking the dollar and driving up the cost of oil, which is putting the squeeze on us all.

Nice work fellas!

 

[varanook]

It's so kooky to want to live within your means and not be world police.
It's so kooky to pay less taxes.
It's so kooky to want to trim entitlement programs.
It's so kooky to not take money from lobbyists.


Kooky, kooky, kooky.

Please vote for someone else to show the D's and R's that America wants change

 

[TulsaSaint]

I was going to say that I couldn't remember an election in which the choices were all so bad. But then I thought of Bush-Kerry. And Bush-Gore. And Clinton-Dole. And Clinton-Bush. and Bush-Dukakis, which is as far back as I remember. Then I realized that we never really have a choice and that Democrats and Republicans are both equally objectionable alternatives for me. The Democrats want to take all our money to fund a quixotic mission to force everyone into being absolutely equal. And the Republicans want to take away what civil rights I do have and deny me the ones I don't, like marriage, protection from discrimination, and the right to sponsor a partner for immigration.

Sorry for the random rant. Not trying to threadjack.

 

[TulsaSaint]

I think you are at least on the right track. We need a new focus in America. We are to focused on the freaking war and spending way to much money outside of this country for no good reason. We have soldiers all over the world doing what? I know we need some at bases adn stuff but there is no need to have as many out there that we have now. Bring them in the America and lets start solving the problems here. Lets really attack the drug problem in this country. Lets help the poor. Lets give tax cuts to the middle class so they can breathe a little. Lets fix social security.

And one thing I'd add to that is that if we used our military more for domestic defense and less for crusades around the world, we'd stay a lot further out of other people's business, and we probably wouldn't have quite so many people wanting to destroy us.

Now, as far as using that extra money to fund the drug war, I'd say that you're on the wrong track there. Imagine if we stopped funding military adventures abroad and the misguided drug war - we'd have a lot more money for more important things.

 

[livefromDC]

I was going to say that I couldn't remember an election in which the choices were all so bad. But then I thought of Bush-Kerry. And Bush-Gore. And Clinton-Dole. And Clinton-Bush. and Bush-Dukakis, which is as far back as I remember.

Your memory is about as good as mine.I dunno if I agree with you though, to me it seems the government got a lot more accomplished when Clinton was in office. For all the naysayers to the democratic party (yes they have their flaws), our government was more efficient about spending and budgets when Clinton was in office. Since Reagan, we have only incurred huge debts with Republicans in the White House. With the current trend, and McCain pronouncing matter of factly that he doesnt know a lot about economics. That frightens me to no end! Of course, he's going to allign himself with the current administration. But the combination of him supporting this war and giving us the more of the Repuplican/Bush spending keeps him from getting my vote.

The $7,000 that his proposal would give you will be worth the 3,500 you get now at the rate we're going.

It doesn't add up to me why, more Americans aren't trying to run as far as possible away from this administration and the republican party. I know the democratic party is the only viable alternative we have right now, but surely its better than what the republican party is giving us.

God help me, I just realized that between Clinton and McCain I would have to vote for Clinton. I had always believed my decision to be between Obama and McCain depending on who won the democratic nom. but I can't vote for McCain.

 

[blackadder]

The Democrats want to take all our money to fund a quixotic mission to force everyone into being absolutely equal.

The bipartisan American foreign policy is essentially the same.

Gobalization implies a certain degree of standardization of the world economy and culture.

Those countries that resist it are bludgeoned into line one way or another. This is called "spreading freedom." Freedom requires opening your domestic economy to global trade and investment on the terms of the Washington Consensus whether you desire that or not.

I was listening to McCain's full definition of "victory" in Iraq yesterday. One of the discreet goals he listed among his victory criteria was an Iraq that "accepts an international presence."

In other words, they have no choice but to accept globalization.

Huh? What does that have to do with invading Iraq? This is what we are fighting for?

I would advocate that Iraq be open to trade and investment. But I would also advocate that they be allowed to fail long enough until they accept and internalize this on their own rather than by force.

 

[blackadder]

It doesn't add up to me why, more Americans aren't trying to run as far as possible away from this administration and the republican party. I know the democratic party is the only viable alternative we have right now, but surely its better than what the republican party is giving us.

A lot of it has to do with barriers to entry into the electoral system for thrid party candidates.

The Republicrats (TM BullDawg) have stacked the deck and made it more and more difficult for challengers to get on ballots, to get air time, to get into debates.

This is not accidental.

 

[Claw]

I like that statement. It's good to see a politician concede to the fact that he is surrounded by stubborn, incompetent individuals who only care about preserving the status quo,<b>and who used lies and false hopes for the sole purpose of getting individuals who knew no better to vote them into power</b>

Thorin, as always, I couldn't have said it better myself, but I added a lil' something.