If you are for big govt.. cradle to grave involvement.. big brother watching everything & managing our money, then you should be content with a socialist identity.. it's not a slur, it is a description. Granted, it's not a description that capitalists like, so they may hurl it as a slur, just as the socialists hurl 'capitalist pig!' at them. But if you have a well thought out world view, & it is in the socialist camp, embrace it & be proud. But if you just have a bunch of liberal friends who like to bash conservatives, & have not thought through all the ramifications of your philosophy, you need to return to the thinker's chair.
..kind of like the old joke: What do you call a liberal after they are mugged? A conservative!
I'm all for local govts to do whatever their citizenry wants & can afford. If they want to buy every homeless person a condo, great! But the federal govt should not be involved in those local issues. Yes, they can pass civil rights amendments, same sex marriage amendments, & any other 'right' they deem to be universal, but they should not be making spending policies & building social programs of their own, to compete with the state & local govts.
ok, there's more.. a liberal is a conservative who's been indicted.. or received a govt grant!
“If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”
-Winston Churchill
ok, there's more.. a liberal is a conservative who's been indicted.. or received a govt grant!
“If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”
-Winston Churchill
Education? We've spent more money per child than any other country, & education spending has exploded with the govt. boom. But of course, it has not improved our citizenry.. in fact, if anything, it is worse. The socialistic educational programs have failed. The poor are still poor & have increased.. with generations being trapped in the ghettos. The education of the poor has no meaning to them in the concentration camp atmosphere that pervades in the ghettos. Crime, drugs, & corruption are the main constants there. Social engineering has not worked. The war to 'stamp out poverty' is lost. Give people freedom to fail or succeed & there will be many more who will succeed. Lock them down in racially defined socialist camps & they will only perpetuate poverty & the ghetto.
The only 'rich' who have benefited from the current govt explosion are the favored few in the financial sectors.. the 'too big to fail' guys, big unions, govt employees who have increased their wealth by jumping on the obama gravy train, & some academians who have gotten juicy grants. Manufacturing corporations have moved. Oil companies drill elsewhere. But even our war machine isn't cranking out enough bombs to make up for the losses.. probably that will be outsourced to china as well..
I think it is time to stop the govt growth madness, & reduce the federal responsibility. Let's elect fiscally responsible people who will cut up the credit cards. I don't care who they sleep with, or what god they worship. If they can count & do basic math, they can do the job.
How much tax revenue comes from 'the rich' in the capital gains section? How much comes from the middle class.. that is, people making less than the magical 250k/yr? Will msnbc tell us that statistic? They want to bump up the capital gains tax, but it will hurt the middle class a lot more than the rich. It's just like obama's plan to end the mortgage interest deduction.. millions of middle class people with big mortgages will be hurt by that. The super rich? They'll just shelter or move their income to a more tax friendly country. The middle class will take the hit, as usual. They are the main ones to suffer at the hands of the liberals. The left pretends they 'take from the rich & give to the poor', but in reality they take from the middle class, & keep it so they become rich. The poor are still poor. The rich are still rich. There are just more of both as the middle class dwindles.
If someone is lucky or clever enough to make $1m, & they pay $180k in taxes, that is quite enough. They have paid their fare share. The problem is still all the wasteful & unnecessary spending from the politicians. Let the federal govt restrict itself to defense, interstate & international trade & we will find they have plenty of money, & they don't need to take more from the rich, or bamboozle the poor any more.
During the great depression, we had poor people. Many lost their farms & had to leave the 'dust bowl' to look for work. My grandmother took 3 small children & left Texas to find work in California.. grapes of wrath kind of stuff.. Her husband left her & she remarried. But he was poor, too. My dad was the oldest & dropped out of high school to help support the family. They were unlucky.. they just happened to be in the dust bowl, & the economy was hit hard there. But all the family worked hard & they all pulled out. None of my grandmother's children died poor. They were all solidly middle class. My aunt married a career army guy (sgt. maj., pacific theater in ww2), saved her money, & invested it wisely. My uncle joined the airforce (army air back then), flew on bombing missions in europe, became a dentist after the war, & died fairly well to do. My dad joined the navy during the war, became an electrical engineer, invested money in real estate, & did even better. They were all rewarded for hard work & smart investing. They were unapologetic capitalists. They paid plenty in taxes & risked their lives for their country. None of them were very political.. too busy adapting to their environment & working to improve their lot. They each raised 3 kids, supported their mother in her old age, sent their kids to college, & died in their 70's. The point of this is: If they had been in a socialistic, welfare state, would they have been able to do that, or had the motivation? My grandmother could have just gotten on food stamps, adc, public housing, etc, & stayed in Tx. The kids would have grown up in that environment & probably done the same, if the current welfare system pattern is followed. One or more of the boys might have died in gang violence, if we follow the welfare state pattern.
So tell me. Which family history would you prefer? A couple of generations, trapped in a gulag welfare system, or abject poverty with freedom to escape from it?
I am proud of my country & how years of official discrimination have been removed from state's laws. Civil rights for all races was long overdue, & was the right thing to do. Slavery was wrong & has no place in modern, civilized society. It is wrong to restrict freedoms based on race, & this country ended it. It has been a bumpy road, but by & large racism is dwindling & equality is becoming the norm. But i am disgusted with my country at how the socialists have enslaved the poor, & continued racism with their welfare policies. Instead of giving the poor freedom to escape from poverty, like Americans have done for generations, they herd them into ghettos & trap them in a new & improved poverty. They encourage them to have lots of kids & become dependent on an unfeeling, uncaring, corrupt bureaucracy. Our tax dollars have not helped the poor, but have done them a great disservice.. they have in effect made racism into a social program.. all under the guise of 'helping the poor'.
Why not give freedom to the poor? Why not give them the same opportunities that earlier generations of Americans had? 50+ years of the 'war to stamp out poverty' is long enough.. we lost the war. Poverty is still with us & has grown. Let local govts & charities provide a safety net.. the fed govt is too bloated, corrupt, & inefficient to do this kind of job. We should fire them & get locals to do it. It is time to phase out our stupid welfare system, disassemble the gulag ghettos, & give all our citizens the opportunity for 'life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness.'
From what i can see, the welfare state is the only thing the left needs to raise taxes for. I don't think it is for a bigger, stronger military, but maybe i'm wrong. So if we end the racist, corrupt welfare state, there would be plenty of money for the other things govt should be doing. No need to continually raise the debt ceiling.. no need for new taxes. The rich can give money to much more efficiently run charitable institutions, & the poor can pull themselves out of poverty. Freedom. Fairness. Common sense. And unlike the dreamings of the socialist left, this has a history of working. People actually do work & improve their lot, given freedom to do so. America is proof of that. Our ancestors left the euro class system, where generations are trapped in a system of class distinction. Europeans have mostly socialized it, now, but it functions in the same way. The euro poor do not have the same opportunity as the american poor.. at least historically. Looking to Europe to show us the way to equality & freedom is like looking to a bunch of rednecks to show us the way to improved race relations.. or looking to socialists to show us the way to fiscal responsibility.
Spend, spend, spend. That is not the solution for America. It hasn't worked. It never will. It will only bankrupt us. It is time to cut the credit cards, & insist on responsible fiscal policies.
The problems facing our govt is not from 'the rich'. It is from the politicians who promise a free lunch. It is the politicians who have spent us into near bankruptcy. Socialism does not work. It has been tried in many varieties, & has failed in every one. It is failing now in greece, ireland, portugal, italy, & socialist leaning states like california. I don't know if everyone's heard, but the ussr & their socialist experiment failed, & the ussr broke up into smaller states. China, too, is not really socialist anymore.. but is a capitalistic styled totalitarian regime.
Didn't we have a surplus under Clinton? Were taxes that exorbitant? No, but the spending was less. How about a simple return to Clinton era spending? There was still plenty of govt programs.. inefficiency, fraud, & corruption for those who like that sort of thing in govt, but we had a balanced budget.
No, i think it is clear. We have plenty of money coming in for the fed govt. to operate. There is just too much going out, & they need to cut it out.
Sell Govt. assets? That will be a temporary fix, until the spending junkies need another fix. Why not just stop the spending? We can keep our national parks.. maybe even lower the entrance fee.. make it free for citizens! We could have a lot more 'perks' as US citizens if our fed. govt was fiscally responsible. Instead, we are being looted as a nation. Much of our tax revenue is sent out of the country in interest to china.. a lot more is wasted in fraud & corruption in medicare, social security, & now, health care. The pentagon wastes millions every year.. always have. There is one 'known' in this equation: The govt. does not manage money well. With this in mind, we should limit how much money they manage, since they will waste it & be inefficient. This is not rocket science. It is simple math.
Sift through the bullsh*t you hear in the media. Look at the data, scrutinize the politicians.. don't just view the world in an 'us vs. them' mindset. This is not a silly game or a coolness pose. How we view our govt & what we expect from them has a major impact in what we get. It's time for the nation to grow up & stop looking to the govt to take care of us. They cannot & will not. They will just waste our money. ..always have, always will.
During the beginning of the housing crash, it was all bush. For the last several years, all i have heard from the dems & especially obama is, 'it's bush's fault.. he made the mess.' I post this as a rebuttal to that charge. Some on the left are now conceding... 'well, it's everyone's fault'. That's as good of a concession we'll get from them, i'm sure. I'm for understanding what happened & why, & learning from the mistakes & correcting them. I guess this is just a game to some.. talking points & fixing blame. But i see it as crucial to our country's survival. We should not take for granted what we have here. Freedom is not free, & sometimes an illusion for it passes as the real thing. Economics has brought down more countries than war.
We have the debt. It has obviously been increasing at an even greater rate than before.. instead of becoming fiscally responsible & cutting back, the govt has acted like someone who knows their credit cards will be taken away, & is trying to max them out before they're cancelled.
I do not understand the left's agenda. What good can possibly come from spending us into oblivion? Why do they insist on this endless growth of govt? What good can our culture, country, & individuals get from this? Is it just to ruin capitalism? To show how evil capitalism is, so the socialists can come in & rescue us with their socialist solutions? Didn't they try that in 1917 with the ussr? How did that work out?
Yes we had a stupid war. Is multiplying stupidity the solution? How does bombing libya help our deficit? But even if we cut all military spending, it would not put us solvent. I think we do need to cut military spending, but that will not balance us. All the sacred cows in the govt need cut. Pick some letters. DOE. DOT. EPA. We cannot & should not be putting future generations at risk & under a massive burden that mostly fuels fraud & corruption. If we actually got something useful, it would be one thing. But we don't & what we get is too expensive, anyway. THIS generation should tighten up their belts, take the credit cards away from the politicians, & put us back on strong financial footing. Make the dollar worth a dollar. Put stability in our economy, & the world will follow.
We should take our stands based on the issues, & not the party. If enough people are clear on the issues, & demand compliance from their representatives, the reps will either go along & represent their constituents, or they will be voted out by someone who will. We need to understand what is happening, & have an exit solution.
It seems pretty clear obama has no intention of cutting spending. He has made no proposals with spending cuts, & only want to talk about raising taxes on the rich. What do i care? I'm not rich & certainly won't have to pay taxes. For me, it is the principle. We don't need to raise taxes on anyone to pay for these stupid govt. programs. We need to eliminate the programs. There is no reason a country as great & powerful as the US should have any debt. Other countries should pay us for protection, if anything, we shouldn't be burdening the taxpayers to do some world police action. But our message to the politicians should be clear & resonate between their ears: Stop the spending. If you don't, we'll elect someone who will. Want just one term in office? Ignore us & keep voting for stupid spending bills.
We should demand to be represented, not led or driven. We are the people. We have the values & goals of the country, & only need representatives to implement them. We need an end to the rock star, idol worship of politicians.. they are not the messiah, & we do not need one.. or need THE ONE. I have been amazed at those self-proclaimed cynics & skeptics who have fallen for obama hook, line & sinker. They have lost all critical thinking ability while under the spell of their messiah. It is a cult like loyalty & blind allegiance. I don't get it. I'm a cynic.. i had a lot of criticisms for bush.. still do. But criticize obama to his loyal following & you will feel their wrath. 'How dare you speak against the lord's anointed!' C'mon, people! He's just another tax & spend liberal like Carter, Pelosi, & Reid. He's a good public speaker (while reading from the teleprompter), but it's all flash.. He's a poser! He dresses up in motorcycle gear, has all the best equipment, all the mods on his bike, the right stickers in the right places, but he doesn't ride! All he wants is more spending & more taxes. Is this what we really want?
I do not think most people think through things. They jump on bandwagons. If our only choices are more bandwagons, we certainly are in for more decline.
The notion that obama 'inherited this mess' is blatantly false. He was a voting member of the democratic congress that *caused* the mess. He likes to talk about the 'failed policies' of bush, but his policies were promoted with religious fervor by the congress, with him voting for them, then continued with him as president.
The housing collapse was almost completely caused by democratic programs started under Clinton (actually Carter), then promoted by the democrats who were supposed to watch over them.. Barney Frank & his cronies. Bush did not sound any alarms, nor did any repubs i can remember, but they were hardly the main source of blame. It is the democrats, with their social engineering programs that are bankrupting us & leading us over the abyss.
IMO, it is time for the fed govt to live within it's means, like business, individuals, local govts, etc. This crazy spending spree has to stop. All other businesses have had to cut back in this economy. Individuals have lost homes, jobs, & self respect while govt agencies are expanding & handing out fat raises! Let the govt. cut back, too. Trim all the unnecessary programs, cut back the military to a reasonable level.. we can't afford to police the world.. cut back entitlements.. Let the economy hit everyone, not just the manufacturing & housing sectors. Why should govt employess get a pass? Why should they get a guaranteed job for life? We cannot afford to support them, or keep pouring money into wasteful & unnecessary programs.
We often don't put enough stock in what people believe, & how it affects their outlook on life. And the political spin doctors are very manipulative, using ideology or religion to keep their base under control. The left wing propaganda machine is much more successful in keeping their base in line. Very seldom do they stray from the prescribed positions. Talk to a liberal. Where do they digress from the liberal line & have a more conservative view? The left has a monopoly in the universities, most of the voice in the media, & has most entertainer's & hollywood types in their ideological bag. The left keeps up a steady stream of ideological propaganda to opiate their masses. Many in the left are so saturated by the elitist views that think they have become the middle, reasonable standard, & anything to the right of them is extremist. But that is only the case in the saturated left. In the real world you will find conservative thinkers who will challenge the left wing views. What the left has to do is minimize the right.. make them all look stupid or racist, or have some other way to totally dismiss them, then their base will think they (the left) are the reasonable 'standard' by which all views are measured. By & large they have been successful.
No comments:
Post a Comment