Obama's Downgrade

How hard are you going to try to disconnect his use of "investment" and spending? They are one in the same.

People are trying to help themselves. It's actually a huge part of the problem: having over-extended themselves into debt, folks are now desperately paying down their loans, mortgages, and not spending.



If nobody is spending, there's no reason to hire. Corporate profits and the bottom-lines of the wealthy are at record highs. Folks are sitting in over $2 trillion in cash. But the standard (and true!) economic theory that states lowering regulation and cutting taxes results in more profit, which results in more hiring, isn't kicking in this time because there's no reason to hire people to produce things that nobody has the money to buy.

At the same time, raising taxes or increasing regulation won't help either, because that adds to more uncertainty which causes the same corporations and rich folks to sit on even more cash just in case the worst were to happen to their bottom lines. Nobody buys, and nobody hires. You're doubly screwed.

We're out of ideas as a nation. And the problem is, the political and media climate is such that rather than looking for new ideas or a compromise between the two, we're desperately doubling down on ideological purity that is, by itself, insufficient to fix the current problems. But it lets us feel better and shifts blame to the bad guys on the other team, so then we can sleep at night contentedly full of righteous indignation.

The guy doesn't acknowledge we have a debt problem! Every other speech he makes talks about how we need to spend spend spend, or invest invest invest. His acknowledge of the debt is only as lip service. It is nothing more than a campaign tool to him.

How hard are you going to try to disconnect his use of "investment" and spending? They are one in the same.

The numbers speak for themselves. Obama is growing the debt by more than twice the rate of Bush. 4 billion dollars a day in new debt isn't disputable. Government spending that has increased 25% more than it was in 2008 isn't disputable. The outrage comes from people such as myself seeing this trend and concluding that its unsustainable. Today there is one party calling to reign it in and one party ignoring the unsustainable reality.

If your argument is don't trust those evil republicans, you may be right but you aren't living in reality.

If your argument is we don't have a debt problem, you aren't living in reality.

/feels bad

I prefer "investment" to "throw money down the toilet" like we did during the previous administration.

Why is everyone on this holier than thou stay on topic or ill get my feelings hurt kick today?

I for one thought the side discussion of crimes against humanity was a good one and was sustainable running adjacent to the OP topic

Because an 800b 'stimulus', bank bailout, car manufacturer bailout, and healthcare bill doesn't classify as 'throwing money down the toilet'...

Daemun, you've got it all wrong. Leila and I are fine. Always were, always will be. :)

I was joking.

I knew you were fine, I was talking in general.
You were told to get on topic, you +1'd Flion telling me to stay on topic, I saw two other threads with posts today where one person told another.

Doesn't anyone remember where they are when they post this (equally pointless as the derailment) trash about the need to stay on topic.

Daemun, you've got it all wrong. Leila and I are fine. Always were, always will be. :)

I was joking.

Not to imply that the stimulus and healthcare bill were necessarily a good idea, but you do realize that 2 out of those 4 weren't Obama, right?

Not to imply that the stimulus and healthcare bill were necessarily a good idea, but you do realize that 2 out of those 4 weren't Obama, right?

Maybe because you were itching for an argument in a thread where it was highly inappropriate?

Anyhow, Jaerik beat me to it. :/


I was hoping for a simple solution like completely wiping debt clean in 2008, but that was more for selfish reasons...

/clears throat

Student loans...

/cringe

Because I hadn't completely euthanised that claim earlier in the thread. What I did (which was in bad taste) was put up a completely irrelevant pic when someone asked a legitimate question. Yes, I know that never happens here...

Not to imply that the stimulus and healthcare bill were necessarily a good idea, but you do realize that 2 out of those 4 weren't Obama, right?

Grow up.

I knew you were fine, I was talking in general.
You were told to get on topic, you +1'd Flion telling me to stay on topic, I saw two other threads with posts today where one person told another.

Doesn't anyone remember where they are when they post this (equally pointless as the derailment) trash about the need to stay on topic.

Student loan?

Whats that :P

Parents paid for my Uni expenses xD

Used the money I earned to buy a car at the end of University

>:]

Student loan?

Whats that :P

Parents paid for my Uni expenses xD

Used the money I earned to buy a car at the end of University

>:]

Student loans are my main problem too at the moment. ;; But there'll be more soon enough. When my husband graduates and gets hired we'll likely have to move. Moving expenses + finding new housing at the same time will hurt. Our car won't last forever, we'll eventually have to get a new one and that will hurt. And if/when we decide to have kids, that will hurt too, for a good 18 years or more. Ouch!