So, we're fucked, right?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
But you and I believe that there is a poverty other than that of the purse. The poverty of the soul. And to ignore either one, I believe, is to ignore Biblical teachings.

I agree, but let's not forget that some of Jesus' best teachings were given while He fed the hungry and healed the sick...
 
Oh I agree. The belief that human beings are created in His image logically leads to an obligation to the well-being of our fellow man. "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'



except health care, though.
 
Obama's approval rating is now at 39% (per Gallup).

This is how people lose elections. :shrug:
 
From the NYT:

Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Plouffe, and his chief of staff, William M. Daley, want him to maintain a pragmatic strategy of appealing to independent voters by advocating ideas that can pass Congress, even if they may not have much economic impact. These include free trade agreements and improved patent protections for inventors.

Pathetic and criminal, frankly. It's over - plutocracy has won, everyone else has lost.
 
Obama's approval rating is now at 39% (per Gallup).

This is how people lose elections. :shrug:

...only in election cycles when there's a viable, credible alternative...

Republican-Debate-August-11-2011.jpg
 
Yes, let's maintain an illusion of efficiency by wasting time on ineffectual policies rather than spending time and political capital on stuff that could actually do good and effect long-term change.

I was being sarcastic-it sounds like complete meaningless drivel to me

I should have put a :rolleyes: or something to that effect
 
:bump:

'Retirement Heist': How Firms Trimmed Pensions : NPR

This may have been discussed somewhere else, but it fits under the "We're Fucked" banner. It's an interesting, short listen.

Schultz says there was a massive transfer of wealth over the past two decades, from a multitude of retirees to a small number of executives. But while she calls her book Retirement Heist, she concedes that nothing that happened was illegal.

"When you have a properly funded plan, it doesn't matter how many retirees you have or how long they live," Schultz says. "It's not the fact that you have a lot of retirees; it's the fact that you have abused the pension plan."
 
Washington Post, Nov. 16
Growing Republican support for raising taxes to help reduce the deficit has prompted a GOP identity crisis, sparking a clash within the party over whether to abandon its bedrock anti-tax doctrine. Tensions have mounted in recent days as two of the GOP’s most fervent anti-tax stalwarts on Capitol Hill—Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (PA) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (TX)—have lobbied party colleagues behind the scenes to forgo their old allegiances and even break campaign promises by embracing hundreds of billions of dollars in tax hikes. The two conservative lawmakers have pushed the increases as part of their work on the bipartisan congressional “supercommittee” tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reductions by a Thanksgiving deadline. Their plan, which also addresses entitlement spending, would generate at least $300 billion in new tax revenue over the next decade by overhauling the tax code to lower rates but also eliminate deductions and loopholes.
Their work has been met with a furious backlash as fellow conservatives inside and outside Congress expressed amazement that two of their biggest allies appear now to be foes. “We’ve not had a conversation like this within the party in two decades,” said Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (NC), who on Wednesday gathered signatures from about 70 House Republican colleagues for a letter to the supercommittee leadership, calling any tax increase “irresponsible and dangerous to the health of the United States.” Describing Hensarling as a “mentor,” McHenry added: “It’s a very tough situation.”

The conservative group Americans for Prosperity, which has fought taxes, began a campaign targeting 40 House Republicans who have expressed an openness to new taxes. The group invited constituents in Virginia and Florida to call in to telephone town hall meetings Wednesday night and purchased radio ads in five states charging that the members “don’t get it” when it comes to tax policy. Critics say that giving any ground on taxes would violate party doctrine that has not been challenged since President George H.W. Bush broke his “read my lips” pledge as part of a 1990 budget deal.
Although it’s not clear how many Republicans are willing to raise taxes, the numbers have been growing in the House and Senate. Activists say they fear that the presence of rock-ribbed conservatives in that camp and support in the business community for a deal of some sort could be spurring widespread defections. More Republicans moved Wednesday to push their party toward accepting new taxes—putting the issue in historic terms. “This is about more than money,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN), a member of the Senate’s GOP leadership team. “It’s about whether the president and the Congress can competently govern, about whether we can face up to the biggest problem facing our country and, working together, can we solve that problem?” He added that both parties “need to put more on the table and get a result.”
Party leaders wary of Congress’s dismal approval ratings are loath to appear incapable of deficit reduction. Moreover, Republicans are worried about the deep automatic spending cuts to defense programs that would be triggered if the committee fails to reach a deal. Still, officials and leading activists conceded Wednesday that even in this unusual context, the willingness of conservatives to compromise on taxes could forever change the debate within the party. After all, it was Toomey, who, before his 2010 campaign for Senate, headed the Club for Growth, a pro-business group and pillar of the conservative economic movement. He has been one of Washington’s leading advocates of tax cuts. “You’ve got Toomey, the most conservative member of the supercommittee, saying that under certain circumstances he’d be willing to raise taxes. That’s a big deal,” said Phil Kerpen, vice president of Americans for Prosperity. “The most important part of the Republican brand is that they won’t raise taxes,” Kerpen added. “Some say this is a unique situation. Well, people won’t get the nuances. They’ll just see both parties are willing to raise taxes.”

...Any loosening of the GOP’s firm stance on taxes would sharply alter the political dynamics of the party. This change would mark a turnaround, just a year after the rise of the staunchly anti-tax tea party movement propelled Republicans into the House majority. Party activists note that Bush’s 1990 tax deal depressed conservative voter turnout in the next election, contributing to his defeat. They warn that a similar transgression could again deflate the party base, leading to President Obama’s reelection next year and costing Republicans the House.

A GOP aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal party deliberations, said the openness to tax increases would not “wipe away” the “very strong fundamental view about taxes.” And yet, the aide added, “It does change the conversation within the context of deficit reduction, and it will have implications.”

Adding to the dilemma facing many Republicans is their party’s long embrace of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which was created 25 years ago by anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and remains a rite of passage for Republican candidates at all levels. The GOP supercommittee plan appears to violate the pledge’s requirement that members oppose “any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.” Norquist said GOP leaders have assured him that they will not support a tax increase. But some in the party say they no longer feel bound by the Norquist pledge. “I want my constituents to know that I am not in favor of raising taxes. That’s why I signed that pledge,” said Rep. Charles F. Bass (NH). “And I if I have to break that pledge for some reason, it would be because I think there’s a far greater good associated with it, and I’m willing to bear the consequences of that.” Rep. Steven C. LaTourette (OH) signed the pledge in 1994, long before he said he could envision today’s economic turmoil. “Circumstances change,” he said.
Yep, still fucked.
 
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US Debt Hits $15 Trillion; Will Super Committee Save Us? - Forbes

The U.S. national debt hit a record $15 trillion on Wednesday, the Treasury Department said, but at this point, any penny higher than the $14.3 trillion that forced Congress to a made-for-Jersey Shore debt ceiling debate in the summer is going to be a record breaker.

Judging by the roughly six months it took the U.S. to add just $700 billion to the debt, it is likely that the U.S. will hit the debt ceiling again by the summer of 2012, just in time for a new round of political follies as presidential campaign season goes into overdrive.
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Where are these jobs coming from those job-creatin' folks, WHERE ARE THEY? :sad:



the one thing we cannot do is go back to the job-crushing, oppressive, tyrannical, freedom-hating tax rates of the brutal, nightmarish Clinton era.

some say Bush liberated Iraq. i say, he liberated our wealthy.
 
perhaps standing up to this man (and the unfathomable, irrational hold he has on the GOP) might save us:

the American people know it. why don't the Republicans?

Federal Spending Is Growing Faster Than Federal Revenue

I see revenue that was raising about the same rate as spending until 2007. I then see spending EXPLODING since 2007 and revenues dropping due to the recession.

Restore spending to 2007 levels and I'd more than support raising tax revenues to begin paying down the debt. I don't support raising anyone's taxes to fund the frivolous spending of the past 5 years.
 
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