Sen. Rand Paul calls Hillary Clinton a ‘war hawk’ (rly?)

Associated Press ^ | Aug 24, 2014 12:34 PM EDT

[entropy12]

All I can tell you is get familiar with world history.

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it’s punishment.

[DoughtyOne]

Do you realize our national debt would be $10 trillion if it weren’t for the welfare payouts in the last 14 years?

If we hadn’t waged the wars, it would be about $14 trillion.

And yet you focus on the wars and don’t say word one about the welfare.

Yes..., history indeed.

[entropy12]

I am with you on the welfare spending.
How stupid is it to run Trillion dollar deficits for 6 years while INCREASING welfare in form of food stamps, rent subsidies, free healthcare via medicaid, free Obama phones, and 100 more giveaway programs which only encourage people to not bother finding jobs. Why bother with a job when you get 99 weeks unemployment and $760/month food stamps for a family of 4?

I spent a week in Singapore last March. They have zero food stamps, zero unemployment checks, and no welfare for able bodied adults under 65. Result is their unemployment rate is MINUS 40%. In other words they have 40% more jobs than there are citizens. They have 2 million foreign workers on a 2 year work visa!

How did the “gentle giant” in Ferguson get by without a job? How did he manage to get fat?

So again, our country needs belt tightening and grow the economy, create real jobs, get handle on national debt, etc.

We can not afford to play role of chicken hawks and world police at this juncture.

[DoughtyOne]

I am with you on the welfare spending.  I'm glad.

How stupid is it to run Trillion dollar deficits for 6 years while INCREASING welfare in form of food stamps, rent subsidies, free healthcare via medicaid, free Obama phones, and 100 more giveaway programs which only encourage people to not bother finding jobs. Why bother with a job when you get 99 weeks unemployment and $760/month food stamps for a family of 4?  I agree.  It's amazingly counter-productive.

I spent a week in Singapore last March. They have zero food stamps, zero unemployment checks, and no welfare for able bodied adults under 65. Result is their unemployment rate is MINUS 40%. In other words they have 40% more jobs than there are citizens. They have 2 million foreign workers on a 2 year work visa!  I'm not sure it would look quite that rosy here, but it would be a very good step to take.

If we did the following, there's no question the economy would explode.  We could start paying down our debt.  If we lowered taxes and incentivised the economy the U. S. would see a turn-around second to none in our history.  We would have tens of millions more workers in under a decade, perhaps even four years.  The tax base would grow a staggering amount, allowing us to afford things we haven't ben able to for the last 15 years or so.

How did the “gentle giant” in Ferguson get by without a job? How did he manage to get fat?  We both know the answer.  It's actually tragic for him too in all honestly.  The man was allowed to decay mentally.  He had no hope.  Much of it was his own fault and that of his family, but Obama has ravaged this man's community.  Whites didn't.

So again, our country needs belt tightening and grow the economy, create real jobs, get handle on national debt, etc.  I agree, but we do disagree in part.  I see an exploding economy coupled with the dismantling of 85% of our welfare state to be contrubute to a very healthy cash flow situation in short order.  Cut the bureaucratic negative impact on business, and pay down our national debt.

We can not afford to play role of chicken hawks and world police at this juncture.  Actually, if you think about it we can.  We have 25% of our workforce out of work, and that isn't even taking the people on welfare into account.  Employ them, and watch tax receipts mushroom.  Watch outlay shrink.  Bring back jobs and get folk back to making what they were in 2000, and more.

25% back to work, paying taxes instead of drawing government checks for doing nothing
25% who are making half what they were in 2000, get back to better paying jobs, paying more taxes
85% of people on welfare, employed and supporting themselves, paying taxes and not sucking the system dry

This would make our nation well in a hurry.  We would be rolling in cash.

If you add in sending illegal immigrants back to their home nation, it gets even better.

The drain on local communities is gone.  The destructive impact on our infrastrutcture is gone.  Our nation would merely explode economically in this sort of environment.

I appreciate the follow-up.

[entropy12]

All your proposals regarding welfare system I have no problem with.

Next we come to the reality on the ground.

Only way all those reforms can take place is if Tea Party types win majority in House and veto proof majority in senate in 2014. Both are not realistic expectation.

If Ted Cruz or Rand Paul or some other fiscal conservative wins WH in 2016 AND the GOP wins majority in congress, SOME of these reforms have a chance.

Looking at cold hard reality, Obummer stays in power through January 2017. And GOP will NOT win veto proof majority in Senate in 2014. So forget about any welfare reform until 2017 at the earliest. Democrats will never go along. They can not go against their own voter.

So what is possible in 2014 through January 2017?
Minimize foreign military expenditures. That is the only place where democrats & Obummer will go along.

I have learned to live with what is possible, and not waste time on what is impossible.

[DoughtyOne]

Are you aware that China is already seen as the dominant naval power in the Indian Ocean? Do you know that that means?

It means that the first time China gets upset with us, they can make things very difficult for us in that theater?

Do you want to see that expand to the Western Pacific, around to Africa?

You’re suggestions of what you want our military to do, is tantamount to national suicide. We can’t retreat from the global stage. Russia and China would carve up the territory, and we would have no allies and no free passage internationally on the high seas.

I know you mean well, but your ideas are terribly misguided.

[entropy12]

China’s economy is growing 4 to 5 times faster than ours.
So expect their military to flex more muscles every year.
China has enormous trade surplus with us. We are buying cheap Chinese stuff which will continue to make them stronger and us weaker. Until we get our economic house in order, China will own more and more of us.

A strong military requires a strong economy.

We have 50 million on food stamps, 100 million working age adults without jobs, Obamacare, and highest corporate tax rates in the industrial world. Expect more belligerence from China as time goes by.

[DoughtyOne]

Which is exactly why I touched on our economy in my response to you.

This situation was manipulated into reality.

Evil must be resisted. We cannot let the communist government of China turn any area they want into another Tienanmen Square.