State Of The Union Address

[Flyover Country Joe]

David,
Just a minor correction. It was Monica's dirty laundry that was held for evidence.
I agree about keeping it friendly, I can argue politics fruitlessly somewhere else.
I won't do it here.

[Mike 86 in San Dimas]

how about those Lakers!

[FJmonkey]

how about those Lakers!

Why, are they involved with Monica's dirty laundry??? Why was this not brought up earlier?

[SlowOldGuy]

What did Kobe buy her?

Joe,
Details, details.  Wasn't he responsible for some dirty laundry?

DavidR.

[axiom-r]

....

[simi_ed]

You missed the 1.4 TRILLION $ man ...

[LA Mike]

how about those Lakers!

Lakers.... hahaha

My CLIPPERS are the new LA team!!!!

[Flyover Country Joe]

 (popcorn)how about those Lakers!

[Mike 86 in San Dimas]

how about those Lakers!

Lakers.... hahaha

My CLIPPERS are the new LA team!!!!

Guess you missed last Tuesdays game

[Dan Filetti]

The fact is that nearly every US President has run up the debt.  The last time the debt actually shrank was during the Johnson administration -I think.  Shame really it's just not sustainable. Some folks will try to muddy the issue talking about 'debt as a % of GDP' growing and shrinking, but debt is debt, the number is the number.

Where I take particular issue however, is that when Obama took office, debt was ~9.3 Trillion. Today that debt is ~15.2 Trillion.  

This is just under 6 Trillion in debt in a little over 3 years.  This is simply reckless, and patently irresponsible.  He HAD to see this happening, he could have tried to do something about it.  Instead, he decides to run for re-election with with a Trillion dollars worth of "universal health care" (which only covers 30 of the 50 million that did not have it -so it's not 'universal').  It might be arguable that bailing out banks and automakers was required, I would not say that it was, but health care was discretionary plain and simple.

My sources:

2008:
http://www.usdebtclock.org/2008.html

Today:
http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html  

-Stare at this for a while, it will make you feel sick to your stomach.

Edit: Oh, and lest you think this is simply Obama bashing, I will say that Bush Jr. did a poor job at managing debt as well, although not as bad as Obama.

Dan  

[simi_ed]

Well said, Dan.  I 100% agree about Both 0bama & Bush.  1 overspent a lot, and 1 has gone a unsustainable binge. 

Who gets left holding the bag?     All of us.

[Pat Conlon]

Last year at the WCR Klavdy dropped a comment which I've been mulling over...for some time now.

We (all Americans) agree that we have to get a handle on our national debt. That's a given, correct?

Wars are expensive, everyone agrees. Klavdy mentioned that we, as a nation, are fighting too many wars.

Iraq and Afghanistan, for sure, but how about all those other wars?

The war on poverty. The war on hunger. The war on drugs. The war on immigration. The war on terror. The war on organized crime and white collar crime. The trade war with China.

Soooo...How many wars are sustainable with our current tax base?   Thanks Klav, I never thought about it in those terms.

[Tom Renda]

Not taking sides, not saying the incumbent is good or bad in general but that was a cracker of a speech the U.S President gave.
Really well delivered and polished.
Wish our politicians (on both sides) could speak as sensibly.

---------

Hard not to take sides.  But let me offer this.

Like this guy or not, he MUST be doing a good job.

The extreme left absolutely hates him, for not doing more.

The extreme right absolutely hates him, for doing too much.

So, he MUST be doing something right to anger all the extremists, no?

[axiom-r]

What is starting to really bother me is the total disrespect being shown for the highest office in our country. President Obama got elected and agree or disagree with his policy he deserves to be respected.  Look at Arizona Gov Jan Brewer wagging her finger in the Presidents face.... if she had done that to a sitting republican president she would be held indefinitely without being charged.  I am appalled at the republican blockage in congress. You don't shut down government because you are not getting your way - it seems they will do anything (even fuck up the country) to ensure that President Obama leaves office without accomplishing anything.  So venomous are the actions that to me it reeks of some deeper resentment towards him - like he was black or something.

Obama received a bag full of turds from W. and much of the increase in deficit is the clean up including both stimulus packages/bailouts which were already inked by the Bush Admin - he had no choice really but to go forward.  Are you really laying all the blame on him?  That seems rather one sided doesn't it? 

Clinton DID pay down the US deficit to ZERO and left office with a $200 billion dollar surplus in the Treasury- easily confirmed.

Pat you are right about the "Wars Galore"..... if we could stop the fear mongering for 10 seconds perhaps we could relax a bit and save some money.  These same fear tactics are costing us our basic constitutional rights. 

If the republicans want a republican president next term they better get in behind Ron Paul in order to swing the independent vote.  I am independent and I can tell you with utter certainty that I would never vote for Santorum, Romney or Gingrich.  I might vote for Ron Paul for a few reasons; one, the guy tells the truth and he does not accept lobbyist money nor a pension from the Government. Two, I would like to see the 100-year reign of the Federal Reserve ended which he promises to do. Three, his foreign policy is to get out of a bunch of countries (wars) where the US spends hundreds of billions on wars and foreign aid...  bring that money home and the deficit would disappear before you know it.  Finally I am not overly impressed with President Obama (although he is light years better than Bush).  Obama is a let down but the horror of current republican politics is going cement his 2nd term I think.

It it a fascinating time to say the least. 

tim

[JMR]

You don't shut down government because you are not getting your way

Both parties are guilty of this.....lets not get carried away. Also...bumper stickers with Bush portrayed as Hitler?? I still cannot fathom that absolute hatred and disrespect. I guess I have to get used to it.