Christian Democrats in the United States
Domestic Issues - National Debt We are gradually enslaving our descendents toward inevitable tax hikes for debt service, unless we strike a meteor gold rush some day soon. Painful as they may be, we must adopt policies that require us to pay as we go, and have minimum set-asides for payment of interest and principal. History shows that getting our act together results in a stronger economy. We must reign in our out-of-control high-tech military budget without sacrificing basic troop necessities like body armor and armored vehicles. We should also set maximum borrowing caps against the slope of long-term GDP trend under any circumstance, even war, or we will sell ourselves out to foreign creditors at a vulnerable time. Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
8:23 AM
We are so paranoid over Islamic terrorists and a few Iranian missiles that we're spending ourselves into bankruptcy.
When our finances collapse they won't need nukes or any weapons at all to declare victory over America.
And our finances will collapse, because the "stimulus" is not creating the manufacturing and home industry jobs needed to compete with people overseas.
Instead we expect to get rich quick, deluded as we are by a half century of cold war spending and economic/military dominance of oil supplies. People from the top to the bottom of America's economy expect to be handed success on a silver platter, as if President Obama and Congress can simply wave their hands and revitalize the economy.
Of course, those at the bottom who work non-stop to feed their kids find themselves with little to show for it - half our income goes down the drain to pay rent, or we're stuck in impossible mortgages and foreclosure.
Meanwhile, President Obama and Congress - Democrat and Republican - are stuck on the idea that "you've got to spend money to make money."
(The difference between the Republicans and Democrats is, the Republicans just want to line their pockets directly through their personal corporate and defense industry holdings, without even attempting a semblance of government... more money for them, they think, and they act like they're trying to "protect" you - and people buy their b.s. hook line and sinker.)
The only way that borrowing money can create jobs is to spend on public works projects that employ huge numbers of people and enable new emerging economies that we cannot yet conceive: projects on the scale of the Northwest Aqueduct, to bring water from the Columbia River to Nevada and California.
If we continue to let ourselves be duped by China, Russia and the Islamic countries into fighting their wars, we will go broke, and soon. China can simply decide to stop buying federal T-bills at any time. We can't lie our way out of it.
If we're going to spend this much money on our budget this year, healthcare is good, education is good - but not if that money just goes down the drain like it did with the Wall St. stimulus.
This should be obvious to anyone who has ever had trouble paying a credit card bill. Unfortunately, the rich jerks in Congress have never had that trouble personally. Therefore, we have to fire them - Democrats and Republicans alike. Neither party gets it. Neither party understands what Americans are going through trying to make ends meet. They are so busy "partying" on your dollar that they're totally disconnected from your struggle.
Islamic countries want that disconnection. They want to divide us, to divide the rich from the poor. They want to use that as a way to promote Islam, converting the disenfranchised minorities and the angry poor. Congress is letting them do that by not acting to create jobs.
1.1 trillion dollars we don't have
Russia and China - and Iran, a tiny podunk country in the middle of nowhere - are using our cold war economic strategy against us.We are so paranoid over Islamic terrorists and a few Iranian missiles that we're spending ourselves into bankruptcy.
When our finances collapse they won't need nukes or any weapons at all to declare victory over America.
And our finances will collapse, because the "stimulus" is not creating the manufacturing and home industry jobs needed to compete with people overseas.
Instead we expect to get rich quick, deluded as we are by a half century of cold war spending and economic/military dominance of oil supplies. People from the top to the bottom of America's economy expect to be handed success on a silver platter, as if President Obama and Congress can simply wave their hands and revitalize the economy.
Of course, those at the bottom who work non-stop to feed their kids find themselves with little to show for it - half our income goes down the drain to pay rent, or we're stuck in impossible mortgages and foreclosure.
Meanwhile, President Obama and Congress - Democrat and Republican - are stuck on the idea that "you've got to spend money to make money."
(The difference between the Republicans and Democrats is, the Republicans just want to line their pockets directly through their personal corporate and defense industry holdings, without even attempting a semblance of government... more money for them, they think, and they act like they're trying to "protect" you - and people buy their b.s. hook line and sinker.)
The only way that borrowing money can create jobs is to spend on public works projects that employ huge numbers of people and enable new emerging economies that we cannot yet conceive: projects on the scale of the Northwest Aqueduct, to bring water from the Columbia River to Nevada and California.
If we continue to let ourselves be duped by China, Russia and the Islamic countries into fighting their wars, we will go broke, and soon. China can simply decide to stop buying federal T-bills at any time. We can't lie our way out of it.
If we're going to spend this much money on our budget this year, healthcare is good, education is good - but not if that money just goes down the drain like it did with the Wall St. stimulus.
This should be obvious to anyone who has ever had trouble paying a credit card bill. Unfortunately, the rich jerks in Congress have never had that trouble personally. Therefore, we have to fire them - Democrats and Republicans alike. Neither party gets it. Neither party understands what Americans are going through trying to make ends meet. They are so busy "partying" on your dollar that they're totally disconnected from your struggle.
Islamic countries want that disconnection. They want to divide us, to divide the rich from the poor. They want to use that as a way to promote Islam, converting the disenfranchised minorities and the angry poor. Congress is letting them do that by not acting to create jobs.
> detail, links and comments >>
Thursday, February 14, 2008
11:01 PM
That's all fine, even if the U.S.S.R. did not just self-destruct under its own weight while American politicians took credit for it.
Today, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia has a trade and budget surplus, that the Russian economy is entering an economic bubble, while the American economy, according to Greenspan today, is on the edge of a major downturn.
Balancing a checkbook is not hard to understand. Regardless of how big the numbers are, you cannot spend more than you make.
The current administration has spent more money on defense, and tanked our economy further into the red than any in the history of the U.S. Furthermore, the economic defense strategy that worked against the massive Soviet state simply has no relevance to small groups of terrorists. Yet the robots in government and think-tank meeting rooms are trapped in this mentality because it puts money in their elite pockets.
Americans have been made so afraid of terrorists that we have spent ourselves dry. We have fallen victim to the strategy that we used against the Soviets in the 80's. Take a wild guess what expanding eastern economic powers benefit from our impending economic collapse due to overspending on the war on terror -- Russia and China.
And while we are going broke, the industry cronies and anti-patriots in the White House are laughing all the way to the bank as they raid the DoD of our hard-earned money. They have been bought off with beads and trinkets that will all lose their luster if the whole economy collapses.
And they are trying to BUY YOU OFF with a lousy THREE HUNDRED DOLLAR TAX REBATE? Like $300 is going to pay your rent for the next year? Give me a break - a truth break.
Get real, America! This year, vote for someone who is going to balance the checkbook and put us on track to pay off the colossal debt that the corporate thieves have left for generations to come.
russia beating us at our own game
The U.S. strategy often claimed to be the key to defeating the Soviet Union was Reagan's acceleration of defense spending, to cause an arms buildup that the communist system could not support economically.That's all fine, even if the U.S.S.R. did not just self-destruct under its own weight while American politicians took credit for it.
Today, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia has a trade and budget surplus, that the Russian economy is entering an economic bubble, while the American economy, according to Greenspan today, is on the edge of a major downturn.
Balancing a checkbook is not hard to understand. Regardless of how big the numbers are, you cannot spend more than you make.
The current administration has spent more money on defense, and tanked our economy further into the red than any in the history of the U.S. Furthermore, the economic defense strategy that worked against the massive Soviet state simply has no relevance to small groups of terrorists. Yet the robots in government and think-tank meeting rooms are trapped in this mentality because it puts money in their elite pockets.
Americans have been made so afraid of terrorists that we have spent ourselves dry. We have fallen victim to the strategy that we used against the Soviets in the 80's. Take a wild guess what expanding eastern economic powers benefit from our impending economic collapse due to overspending on the war on terror -- Russia and China.
And while we are going broke, the industry cronies and anti-patriots in the White House are laughing all the way to the bank as they raid the DoD of our hard-earned money. They have been bought off with beads and trinkets that will all lose their luster if the whole economy collapses.
And they are trying to BUY YOU OFF with a lousy THREE HUNDRED DOLLAR TAX REBATE? Like $300 is going to pay your rent for the next year? Give me a break - a truth break.
Get real, America! This year, vote for someone who is going to balance the checkbook and put us on track to pay off the colossal debt that the corporate thieves have left for generations to come.
> detail, links and comments >>
Saturday, May 12, 2007
8:51 AM
Most people think that when they see a credit card charge they did not make, that they call up the bank, and the bank takes the loss for the money paid to the merchant.
This is not true — the bank extracts the money from the merchant, plus a fee.
This chargeback fee might be something like $15 per fraudulent charge, at least, that's what it was when I worked selling Internet services.
Where does this fee go? The bank keeps it.
So, banks have a perverse incentive to perpetuate credit card fraud. Credit card fraud makes money for banks. (The house always wins.)
The fee should be imposed to encourage merchants to tighten their operation, but the fee should not go to the banks, it should be claimed by the government, because it's the government who should impose penalties. Those penalties could be used to fund anti-fraud programs or pay debts.
We'd see how long the insecure system of credit account reference numbers lasts before banks develop secure solutions like digital cash. I bet they wouldn't last long.
perverse incentives of credit card fraud
As a sort of economic category let's try this here.Most people think that when they see a credit card charge they did not make, that they call up the bank, and the bank takes the loss for the money paid to the merchant.
This is not true — the bank extracts the money from the merchant, plus a fee.
This chargeback fee might be something like $15 per fraudulent charge, at least, that's what it was when I worked selling Internet services.
Where does this fee go? The bank keeps it.
So, banks have a perverse incentive to perpetuate credit card fraud. Credit card fraud makes money for banks. (The house always wins.)
The fee should be imposed to encourage merchants to tighten their operation, but the fee should not go to the banks, it should be claimed by the government, because it's the government who should impose penalties. Those penalties could be used to fund anti-fraud programs or pay debts.
We'd see how long the insecure system of credit account reference numbers lasts before banks develop secure solutions like digital cash. I bet they wouldn't last long.
> detail, links and comments >>
Monday, May 7, 2007
1:27 PM
This guy Paul seems harsh to me. I personally think the labels of "conservative" and "liberal" have become so twisted that neither one means very much. But he's right about this -- George Bush is spending the U.S. into the ground.
To make it even worse, the current expenditures are doing little to cultivate long-term, meaningful jobs. They are flim-flam and wasted effort, and a lot of money pocketed by "executives" and traders of the abstract.
Bush overspending, according to the Bible belt neocon
Article: Name the date -- fastest rise in federal spending since FDR - Paul Weyrich 2006.This guy Paul seems harsh to me. I personally think the labels of "conservative" and "liberal" have become so twisted that neither one means very much. But he's right about this -- George Bush is spending the U.S. into the ground.
To make it even worse, the current expenditures are doing little to cultivate long-term, meaningful jobs. They are flim-flam and wasted effort, and a lot of money pocketed by "executives" and traders of the abstract.
> detail, links and comments >>
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
5:45 PM
National Debt
We are gradually enslaving our descendents toward inevitable tax hikes for debt service, unless we strike a meteor gold rush some day soon. Painful as they may be, we must adopt policies that require us to pay as we go, and have minimum set-asides for payment of interest and principal. History shows that getting our act together results in a stronger economy. We must reign in our out-of-control high-tech military budget without sacrificing basic troop necessities like body armor and armored vehicles. We should also set maximum borrowing caps against the slope of long-term GDP trend under any circumstance, even war, or we will sell ourselves out to foreign creditors at a vulnerable time.> detail, links and comments >>
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