Challenging times coming
I have too big of a home. I have too many cars. I save too much money. You may be in the same situation, also. Why? Because our federal taxes are low enough that we have money to apply to nice homes, cars and savings. Why are our federal taxes too low? Because they have not kept up with federal spending. If taxes matched federal spending, we would see much larger chunks of our paycheck going straight to the IRS. Back in the early 1980s when the federal deficit first caught my attention, I thought, the $5,000 owed by each American on the deficit was manageable with fiscal discipline going forward. At this time, with debt approaching $40,000 per person, I have little hope we can dig ourselves out of this debt hole.
While expressing a concern with the federal deficit over the years, I have always tried to be upbeat on the government coming to its senses and attacking the problem. Not anymore, the problem now has a life of its own. The problem will be merciless in raising taxes and reducing spending - something politicians have not and will not do to become fiscally responsible. It is most likely too late to stave off rampant inflation and possible debt default as a nation.
Right now, the federal government officials are worried about deflation, not inflation, because of the recession. As the government prints more money, inflation will start to rear its ugly head. As the world flees from the dollar and our creditors stop investing in our debt, this will make our plight even worse.
Unlike my situation stated above, some of you are renting, driving an old car and don't have enough left over after bills to save much, if any, money. The massive debt machine will not be kind to you either. I really don't want to pay more federal taxes, but circumstances out of anyone's control will dictate we all pay more in the coming years.
In spite of this, we live in the greatest country on earth. We have not been good caretakers of our economy, though. We have some very challenging times ahead. Hang on.
R. Douglas Reeder
Vincent, Ohio
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mythravere
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04-11-09 8:40 AM
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Lily a simple question. The Fed printed up and released 1.2 trillion dollars and injected that into the economy. Will that later on translate to hyperinflation? Where did that money go anyway?
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LilyOValley
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04-10-09 10:35 PM
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I assume the vague claim that Obama is playing 'Russian Roulette' is about the economy. Sure, it is risky. There were reasons why the Bush administration was obviously willing to do the same thing. There are also reasons why Ben Bernanke, a Bush appointee and generally considered a 'conservative' economist, has agreed with all the steps taken in BOTH administrations. Those reasons are simple: the alternatives are worse. However, the rightwingers only attack Obama because they are still taking their talking points from John McCain's losing campaign of 6 months ago. The criticisms are largely bullcrap. Yes, there is risk. Rightwingers literally offer no sane alternative however, because they have none.
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Ithink
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04-10-09 11:20 AM
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Lily: "As such, as I have said before, the various clowns who try very hard to say 'it is all just opinion', are like folks taking a 20-chamber revolved with 19 loaded chambers and pointing it to their head, and saying "it is all opinion" whether I will really die or not, when I pull the trigger." But Lily, Obama already has us playing Russian Roulette, can't you think of a new game?
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LilyOValley
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04-09-09 12:15 PM
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I am glad mythravere likes my example so much. But it also seems to me that mythravere doesn't have much to say about content... Actually, it is a good analogy when you think about it. But then maybe that's also why mythravere has a problem with it. It involves thinking...
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mythravere
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04-07-09 7:24 AM
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I find your use of a "20 chamber revolver" example to be highly amusing. You need to find a better example that doesn't make you out to be a fool. Why not just say there is a 1 in 20 chance of being wrong or whatever. And you are so obsessed with misspelling. Here's a hint no one cares.
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LilyOValley
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04-06-09 4:50 PM
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Correction: '20-chamber revolver' for '20-chamber revolved'
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LilyOValley
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04-06-09 4:49 PM
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Oh this stupid argument again. It is the various folks, here represented by 'gorilla', who try to paint a picture whereby science is just 'a matter of opinion' like everything else. Total bull. We have been over why it is total bull before. I could repeat it, but it is tiring. Global warming caused by humans is not CERTAIN in an absolute sense, but it is probabilistically certain at a level of confidence that estimates the probability of being WRONG at less than 1 in 20. As such, as I have said before, the various clowns who try very hard to say 'it is all just opinion', are like folks taking a 20-chamber revolved with 19 loaded chambers and pointing it to their head, and saying "it is all opinion" whether I will really die or not, when I pull the trigger. Yeah, right...
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gorilla
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04-06-09 10:10 AM
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Lilly, You give humans to much credit when it comes to global warming. The earth temperature cycles every few thousand years. The current warming started at the end of the last ice age approximatley 15,000 years ago. Who knows when the next cooling cycle will begin? I'm for doing everything possible to improve the quality of our air, water and environment. But we can not control natural occurance such as volcanic eruptions which puts billions of tons of CO2 and other polutants thousand of feet up in the atmospher and it circles the earth for years. Please note there have been two major eruptions this last month. There are currently over twenty continuos eruptions around the world at this time. What are the Gorest green people proposaling to stop these out of control volcanos. Gore is running one of the largest scams ever under the mask of green energy that would make Bernie Madof proud. Burn clean coal!
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joyfultoo
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04-06-09 8:54 AM
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Ya gotta stop using such potty mouth words, Parrothead, lol.
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Parrothead
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04-06-09 6:59 AM
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The **** in my previous post was the word “shut”
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Parrothead
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04-06-09 6:58 AM
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MrAlex there is something else I want and that is for you to*****up and go away until you have grown up enough to carry on an intulactual conversation in which you at least give the sitting President of the United States the respect the Office affords him and refer to him by his proper title.
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joyfultoo
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04-05-09 8:18 PM
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Actually Lizz, many companies and rich people who are in financial trouble, DO spend more money in an effort to expand and bring in revenue. Donald Trump comes easily to mind. How many times has that man applied for bankruptcy and yet wheeling and dealing all the time. I've thought about this a lot and I admit I'm worried too about all the debt we've racked up (in the past 8 and 1/2 years). Spending money seems counter intuitive to the problem of having too little money, but I think the contraction of the government would devastate our country into oblivion. MrAlex, just curious, are you ashamed of yourself for voting for Bush twice?
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LilyOValley
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04-05-09 4:19 PM
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If Bush was such a 'socialist', why weren't all the rightwingers screaming very very loudly when he took his war in Iraq "off the books"? That is the ultimate duplicity. Start a new word on the basis of lies, then pretend it doesn't cost anything. But Rush Limbaugh wasn't complaining then. He never uttered the words 'fiscal irresponsibility' when Bushie LOWERED federal revenues with 'temporary' tax cuts at the same time he INCREASED federal spending. Moreover, I didn't hear Limbaugh or any conservatives complaining at all when Dick Cheney said "Deficits don't matter."! Really.... Aren't our conservative friends being more than a little hypocritical? Of course they are! They don't care about truth. This is just the same attack politics we saw during the campaign. Some folks just never quit... Sore losers... How pathetic... You lost; get over it.
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LilyOValley
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04-05-09 4:14 PM
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The fact that words are added to code proves nothing about whether degreulation or regulation is occurring. Words have been added to the federal laws regarding telecommunications law over the past 10 years, likely DOUBLING or more the total verbiage. Yet likely much of that new verbiage concerns the structure put in place to substitute a more competitive structure concerning who can offer long distance phone and internet services.
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LilyOValley
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04-05-09 4:07 PM
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The references here to 'socialism' literally have NOTHING to do with the reality of the current Federal programs. But various buttheads here continue to parrot a losing campaign slogan about 'socialism'. The claim wasn't true then. It is not true now. If Obama's programs really were 'socialism' they would represent a change in government policy, whereby the government took clear steps to assume permanent management control of some 'means of production' (which of course, is what 'socialism' really means). But of course, current policies do not do this. There is no intention or action to take control of the means of production within the American economy on a permanent basis. Quite the opposite, pumping loans into the system is intended to get it to work. For purely political reasons (with likely some racism thrown in) we have rightwing 'parrots' who just say 'socialism' again and again, with no serious attempt to justify it.
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LilyOValley
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04-05-09 3:50 PM
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Not doing cap and trade will cost you an infinite amount of money because you won't have a planet to live on. Count the zeros...
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gorilla
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04-05-09 11:36 AM
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MrAlex, LilyOValley & Lizzard, I appreciate your comments to the Sentinal. I hope you and all the readers contact our repesentatives in Washington early and often about the size and cost of "OUR" government. For cost of one proposed program, read the editorial "Cap and Trade" in todays paper where it is estimated the cost to the taxpayers is now $2 trillion. Count the zeros folowing the 2. ($2,000,000,000,000)
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Perine
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04-05-09 11:35 AM
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This Reeder's point is well taken. What's hard to digest though is his bragging!!
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Lizzard
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04-05-09 10:25 AM
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Besides, Bush wasn't exactly a fiscal conservative. Republicans disagreed with him on many occasions. But, to paraphrase an old gem, Two soc alists con't make a capitalist. We're throwing Americans' money down the toilet, as if there were an endless supply. If your household budget was in shambles, would you go out and buy a new house, two new cars, and a boat to help your financial situation?!?
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Lizzard
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04-05-09 10:21 AM
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Go check the banking code--over 1,000 pages added during the past 8 years. That sounds like the opposite of deregulatin to me. (Also, Presidents don't write legislation or banking code.) Misregulation may be the correct word. This mess has democrap fingerprints all over it, all the way back to the Carter administration. Most recently, congressional dems have refused to take a hard look at and rein in sub-prime lending banks like Fannie and FReddie, likely because many of them benefited from large campaign contributions from these companies and their executives. How many times did Bush, McCain, and others implore congress to tae action? 17 or 18 has been reported? The dem congress doesn't want accountability.
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LilyOValley
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04-05-09 9:40 AM
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MrAlex is someone who is not satisfied with a serious recession; he want depression. The current economic 'Great Recession' is completely caused by morons like MrAlex, who - no doubt - supported the insane degegulatory policies of George W. Bush and the Republican party. Those policies set the framework for an enourmous debt bubble. Remember when, in the wake of 9/11, our President told us to 'go shopping'? We did. That's part of the problem. Another part of the problem is the complete distortions of history being sold by clowns like MrAlex.
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