The nation might (or might not) have dodged a generation-scale bullet, tonight. Mitt Romney, for all his intentions, may very well live to thank "his lucky stars" for having dodged his own bullet, tonight.
bttt
Excellent post..thank you
Since the economic s*** may hit the fan in the next year or two, I have wondered why anyone would want to be president now. Perhaps it is better for this to happen under a Democrat regime, because the libs would have blamed capitalism (not something we’ve really had in a long time) if Mitt had won. Nobody wants to give up his particular government goodies, so the outlook for this country is indeed grim. I really doubt Romney could have made a difference.
We need to cut entitlement spending and we need to reduce the debt. And we need to slash discretionary spending.
Hussein knows that these things are what America needs. That’s why he’ll never even attempt them. He hates this country.
is this another one of those “feel good” threads?.....because the feel good threads are making me MORE depressed...
Two words:
Stalin. Ukraine.
Obama can balance the budget by killing off the elderly and the welfare recipients.
I hear ya. What do you see as the endgame? Hyperinflation a la Weimar?
You're probably right. Maybe it would've sunk a little bit slower with a Republican president at the helm, though.
I have perhaps another 5 years to breathe the American air, and I did not want to die while at the same time watching my country die with me. I thought I had left something to build on to my children and grandchildren, but tonight I threw in the towel....
Obama will indeed own this and Romney will escape the same fate that GWB suffered. The Republican party however will be savaged by the dims as they divert responsibility and successfully label the GOP as the root cause of all of it since we still hold the House. (at least for two more years) I think it's time to have that moment of clarity now. That moment you only get a couple of times in any lifetime, and just grin....
We are stuck in a ZIRP trap. Because the deficit is so high, even with the Zero Interest Rate Program, the interest payments now suck up over 20% of our federal revenues. For Joe Taxpayer, it means we get a pitiful return on our savings, at a time when inflationary pressures are forcing up the costs of essential goods like food and fuel. Since raising the rates would cause our interest payments to skyrocket (thereby consuming even more of our Federal Revenues), we'll be stuck in the ZIRP trap for many years to come. Meanwhile, the dollars you saved or the money you earned loses value on a daily basis.
We've reached "The Tipping Point." Once debt exceeds 77% of GDP, any increase above the point causes a corresponding contraction in the private sector. We are now at 103% of GDP, and growing.
Europe has already recapitalized their banks, and has started their second Vienna Compact in an effort to save banks in emerging markets. Despite this, the economies are still contracting and the EU is crying to the IMF and ECB for more funds.
When Greece leaves the EU, it will send a shock wave across the derivative market to the projected tune of $22 Trillion (yes, Trillion) dollars.
England has already openly acknowledge they are in another recession.
I've been warning people for quite some time now that we are in a long-wave contraction. Too many conservative pundits and writers blamed the "Obama Economy" for the mess we are in; they were wrong. This is a global depression, and the next wave is going to hurt more than the first.
But most Obama voters don't want to give up their goodies, so they will be like Berlin, partying on while the world burns.
Exactly.
Have to admit, been listening more to prep talk(radio stations like RBN)lately than the political talking heads.
Politics has NO solutions to these problems...especially since they are responsible for most of them.
I realize we call them entitlements, but people aren’t really entitled to them. I mean, they can’t sue to get them should we overturn the laws, can they? I never understood why we pretend like some laws are considered to be locked in. They can’t tie the hands of future legislators, in my opinion.
There is the matter of national prestige and repudiation if obligations. Whatever we have already borrowed we are obliged to pay back. We gave repudiated debt before, and on a massive scale, contrary to what most people seem to beloved. It was called going off the gold standard. But I’m not advocating that. Pay outstanding debt.
What I do advocate is repudiation of “unfunded liabilities.” These are liabilities why? Because the law says we have to oat them. What if we change the law before they’re due? Does that violate some principle of which I am not aware? Because as far as I’m concerned past laws cannot bind the future. We can simply change the law before it comes due. And this is not a matter of “we owe it to ourselves.” We don’t owe it yet, really. They do not constitute a contract, nor even a promise.
One Congress cannot have an irrevocable claim on the pockets of future generations merely because a law they passed happens to perpetuate itself. It can for what it borrows, because that is a real debt. But not what people decades after passage of Medicare, etc., thought maybe they’d get, you know, if the money was there.
To clarify I’m saying we won’t reform entitlements not because we’re locked in with no way out. We could take a hammer to the self-perpetuation machine. We won’t because no one will want to be seen as repudiating long expected goodies, at least not for people past a certain age. And even then we’re only willing to talk about weening youngsters off the entitlement juggernaut. Bush II kinda sorta tried, but fizzled. No one will go through wiyh it, I predict.
Entitlements will persist not because they are omnipotent, rather because we’re weak.
Alas you have bought into the DIm language that some program passed by one Congress can not be undone by another Congress. What you along with the DIms and MSMediots call mandatory spending or entitlements are in fact promises.
Some promises are kept and some are not. One Congress can not bind another Congress to keep its promises. So far with the more popular of these promises Congresses have gone along with past Congresses.
If the economy does not start growing and generating more revenue, that will not necessarily continue forever. When two workers are supporting one retiree, the retiree necessarily will get only some fraction of what the workers produce, no matter what the retiree was promised.
Very good post.
Mind if I copy that and keep on hand for my friends.
People do not realize that we have spent and taxed ourselves into oblivion. Literally. The country cannot stay on this course. People will end up dying in the streets. Either from homelessness and neglect...or from civil war.
When the unemployment of our under 25 year old male population continues to climb, added to reductions in benefits and an weakening America abroad...it is a bad, bad mix.
The best thing now is to not anticpate any entitlements, save all of your money. Screw paying down debt..you can pay it off in a year with money worth a lot less. Buy hard assets, Gold, Silver, Guns, stuff that will work a long time and that can be mobile. Because if you do not own your home....you will be moving.