The Coming Debt Limit Crisis

[Stephen Fox]

[Gene Scarborough]

Brother Stephen---

You comments are all about you, sad to say. The NY Times commentary you wrote is so diffused as to be difficult to understand. Hope they see it different.

I called my House Representative, Mr. Jones, who represents my district. He seems to be more level-headed than the Tea Party crazies who won't compromise. My word to him was, "Work out a compromise and quit the 'bullies on the playground silliness.'"

I advocated some serious cuts above which don't affect the quality of life for small businesses. Jobs and work for small business is the real issue in my view.

I think the President put national welfare over political expediency. We are totally stupid to blame him alone for any problems he deals with---that haven't been dealt with for 20 years!!! You just can't keep spending money we don't have from taxpayers. If people have income and work, then tax money flows. If the rich only benefit, then we feel like we have been robbed by the "robber barons."

I would love to see some of the arrogant Republican-voting farmers around here get their subsidies removed as we "balance the budget" on their backs for a change!!!!

[Stephen Fox]

if you want to read all 800 comments.

Mine was pretty much in the flow of things.

Though I do recommend the Highlights, the select comments

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/us/po ... iscal.html

[Gene Scarborough]

[Sandy]

I would suggest cutting defense spending by half. That would prevent us from paying premium prices for screws and toilet seats and other hardware items with prices inflated to as much as 300 times their retail value because tax dollars are paying for them.

The tea partiers also want immigration control. Fine. Bush cut the border patrol and border enforcement budget by 60% in order to give Dick Cheney and his ilk a big tax cut. It also allowed those of Cheney's ilk to give millions of jobs away to illegals which attracted them across the border, 9 million of them during the Bush administration. Perhaps those corporations and businesses should pay real fines that cut into their profits for violating the law, and perhaps they should also help pay for the infrastructure required to enforce the immigration laws.

In fact, I'm really in favor of a federal sales tax, rather than an income tax that is structured the way it is. The tax would be an equal percentage on all goods and services, which means that foreign produced products would also generate income for the government, and corporations and big business would actually have to pay a fair share of the cost of providing the infrastructure, protection, and services they need to make a profit. No subsidies, no tax cuts or breaks, everyone pays based on what they consume. Any candidate for president who promotes that kind of idea, or something similar, will get my vote.

[Gene Scarborough]

Sounds like the VAT = Value Added Tax of England when I was there years ago.

As I enjoyed merry olde England, I paid a simple tax on any goods bought there----GREAT IDEA!!!

[KeithE]

[Neil Heath]

[KeithE]

[Jim]

Obamessiah is practically addicted to the use of the term “fair share,” though never explaining what “fair share” is. For $45,800, a couple in Chicago this evening can celebrate the dear leader’s birthday (only $35,800 sans picture). He obviously believes that amount to be a fair share for the privilege of hobnobbing with him and the other elitists.

Actually, the prez has already announced what he thinks a “fair share” tax is for top earners but the Congress didn’t agree…no statistics either side…just opinion. The problem with the “fair share” folks is that they view the matter in the most simplistic ways possible. Consider: the railroads pay humongous taxes when purchasing diesel fuel, much if not most of fuel taxes going to build and maintain highways. Not only are trains never operated on highways, but governments do not pay the railroads a dime for the maintenance of their tracks. The most simplistic solution would be that the railroads never be taxed for fuel. Or, perhaps a reciprocal arrangement could be managed, i.e., the government would help maintain the railroads. Don’t hold your breath, and don’t try to make it so simple. Government never works that way. Of course, the railroads sue to try to change things and maybe they might at some time.

[Gene Scarborough]

You can refer to all the economic theories you want, but the case is simple: We are spending money we are not collecting in taxes.

This happened last with the Viet Nam War and War on Poverty running simultaneously under LBJ. It went on non-stop in Viet Nam for all his 8 years. The added Title XX program was passed toward the latter part of his first term as I recall. Shortly after LBJ left office we had 23% inflation tear us up. Add to that gas prices continuing to climb and you have the same mess we are suffering from today.

Too much paper value on anything from stocks to real estate has run its course and now reality strikes. You can only lie and cheat for so long until reality catches up!!! NOTHING in a capitalist economy is worth one red cent more than someone will pay you for it.

"Too Big To Fail" is a docudrama running currently on cable. It depicts the critical moments in 2008 when the Stock Market tanked / banks went to the verge of closing / AIG got a government bailout because it held insurance on all those banks' foolish repackaging of debt into DERIVATIVES. All this happened because Regulators did not REGULATE and what was clearly outlawed after the Depression was allowed to happen again. The Federal Reserve called some 10 major financial players to a weekend meeting----and they opted for self-preservation of the banks here and in England. The Koreans and Chinese stood back despite our being so open and kind in trade agreements with them.

Why do we keep throwing money at the world----and get nothing back when we need help????

When will we get the message: Something for Nothing is bad economics!!!!

The bigger banks get through consolidation, the more danger they have of failure becoming massive quickly. The FDIC is a shell just to cover insecurity. There is NO WAY it can keep banks from failing if all the calls really came.

Bad management and Greed has driven this whole thing. It is imoral and unethical---that is where religion should be having a massive say on things. Jesus put it simply: "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil."

If the LAW and REGULATORS are ineffective, then the Robber Barons have been ressurected. They are smiling and going to Dubai. Meanwhile diesel prices are so high I can't afford to go 30 miles round trip into town and people certainly are not spending much money to take care of their trees.

You can't be productive when no one wants to sweat and work these days. Something has got to give---and it's not the rich or corporations doing such!!! They ALL want to look good on paper!

[Sandy]

The banks and other profiteers in the finance industry are among the largest offenders when it comes to exporting American jobs. While they charge exhorbatant interest, rates and fees amounting to upwards of 40% of balances due, they have systematically eliminated more than 4 million of their lower end service sector jobs in this country, exporting them mainly to Indonesia and India under trade legislation passed by the Bush administration. Most of these jobs were in the $25,000 to $50,000 a year range, and most offered few real benefits. So when you pick up a phone to talk to a service representative when you have a problem with your credit card, the voice you hear will be coming from someone in either India or Indonesia, and if you can understand what they are saying, you're lucky. They are able to employ about three people for what they paid for one here, which doesn't sound like a bad deal, and is really reasonable if you're thinking they might pass those savings along to the consumer, since they most certainly will pass along any cost increases to the consumer. But as long as the Bubbadubyabushidiot allowed it, they actually increased their interest rates on credit cards, more than 250% during his administration.

It's sort of like what the energy companies due on news related to the price of a barrel of oil. When an announcement is made that the price is going up, they immediately raise the price at the pump, even though the gasoline that will be refined under the higher price won't reach the pump for a couple of weeks. But when it drops, as it has done this week by almost $20 a barrel, the price stays up for days after the announcement is made.

Cheney was a crook, the Bubbadubyabushidiot was his stool pigeon and it will take years to undo the damage their policies did to our economy.

[Gene Scarborough]

Well said, Sandy---

Here's another good one: Why, in this era of electronic banking, do my deposits take an extra day to clear in and any debits rush to the account so they can charge a NSF fee to me???? One time last year I got half the money crossing over my Royal Bank of Canada / Centura in fees charged to me.

If I translated those "fees" into an "interst rate" it qualifed as USERY!!!

I contacted all the members of the NC State Banking Commission and got nothing but excuses from all but 1 member. Most promised to deal with it when they met in 3 months----again NOTING HAPPENED!

I guess, since I don't wine and dine them in the Bahamas at some "banking meeting," I just don't count for much---and they are enjoying the great profits from their slick actions using a computer to rob me!!! I switched to the State Employees Credit Union where things are conducted much more fairly. Banks won't change---so change banks!

[Jim]

[Gene Scarborough]

8 years Bush
2.5 years Obama

Could you manage to repay the excesses of Iraq in 2.5---"Mr. Magic" Jim????

So why not tell us what you want President Obama to do????

I'm waiting for a small business solution I have not seen in 4 years, especially.

[Neil Heath]

Speaking of banks, mine (Wells Fargo) tells me in Nov. they will start charging a $3 fee each month that their debit card is used. That's per month, not per use. They said a competitor charges $5 a month. Can you imagine most of their customers paying an extra $3 a month? What a nice chunk of change!

My banker admitted it was being done in response to legislation that limited the amount of finance charges they could collect in other areas.

[Sandy]

The unemployment rate was at 9.2% the day Bubbadubyabushidiot left office, which was in January of 2009. Unemployment never averaged less than 5% during the Bush administration, though it did look pretty good when he dropped the unemployment compensation list to just six months. And the glaring fact of the matter is that there were actually fewer jobs in America on the day he left office than there were on the day he was first sworn in, along with the fact that the average wage had dropped by more than $2,000 per year. And those are figures provided by his own government appointed employees. The Bush administration's economic identification characteristic was the re-distribution of wealth that came about as higher paying jobs were replaced by minimum wage jobs.

Collective memory is very short lived. The idea that cutting the taxes of the so-called "rich job providers" will create jobs and cause economic prosperity was proved to be very wrong, both by Bush administration policy that resulted in job losses in size and scope not seen since the Great Depression, and by the fact that the "rich job providers" paid a much higher tax during the Clinton administration, which saw job creation in numbers and scope not seen since the two year period prior to World War II.

The Obama administration came along and got saddled with the task of trying to resolve economic issues and problems that took several years to create, along with a stock market that had crashed to less than 6800 points and had lost almost half of its value in three years. And after what would have been called a fantastic recovery based on the stock market's value, rising to nearly 13,000 points in just 2 1/2 years at any other time, he winds up having to fight Republicans who would rather see people suffer financial hardship and destruction than help improve the economy because doing so might help Obama get re-elected. That's short sighted and selfish.

[Jim]

[ET]

[Gene Scarborough]

All this is most short-sighted and over-simplified. We have been playing this game individually and collectively for years and now it is time to get real! No individual nor government can print up money---legally it's counterfieting!!!

President Obama is getting criticism from both the Democrats and Republicans---a good sign! I view his positions and last minute negotiations as far more statesmanlike than the Tea Party Republicans dead stuck with their mantra of not raising the debt ceiling. They could care less about the status of their constituents!

All this smells of bought-off politicians and a vision only for re-election. They won't reform the rules of transparency on campaign contributions. This bespeaks a desire to cover their real backers. We all know they are bought by big business and the rich and place laws to benefit their buyers!

So----put it on the ballot for TERM LIMITS. No one gets more than 3 in the future. The President gets 2 and must bow out thereafter. I can go as far a letting them run again after a term off. Seniority sucks. Throw it out the door and let the people trying to represent their constituents go into places of influence quickly. NOTHING has happened / nothing will happen as long as elected politicians make as much as they do with the benefits they enjoy. They need to participate in Social Security and Medicare just as us constituents.

When they join the real world outside the beltway, they will become more responsive to the real world we live in.

[Sandy]

[Jim]

[Sandy]

The figure I cited came from the Bush administrations' own report, as recorded in dozens of newspapers and television networks across the country. At any rate, regardless of the percentage of unemployed, it was Bush economic policy that caused the recession and the resulting unemployment, right up to the 10% figure that it hit at its peak. Bush policy, particularly the tax cuts for the wealthy, were still in place when that occurred. It took a massive stimulus package to arrest the number and keep it from climbing to 15%, which it would have done had those policies continued under a Republican successor. The general expectation has been that Obama would reverse the recession and make things better in a few months. And if you consider all of the things that have transpired under Obama's policies, recovery to this point has been nothing short of remarkable. The economy has moved from recession into positive economic growth, and though that's been termed "sluggish" or "slow," it exceeds the average growth that occurred during the eight years of Bubbadubyabushidiot, though that wouldn't be hard to do, given those numbers. The stock market, which fell below the 7000 point threshold, has gained more than 90% of what it lost, and even with this week's setback has still achieved a greater rebound than at any other time in its history. Employment has rebounded, and more jobs have been added to the economy since Obama became President than during the whole eight years of Bubbadubyabushidiot, though again, since those were negative numbers, that wouldn't be hard to achieve, either.

But if it makes you happy, Jim, you just keep living in your Fox News/Radio Deejay LaLa Land. Just don't get out and drive down I-71 between Cincinnati and Louisville. The failure of corporate business to pay their "fair share" of taxes have made that stretch of road dangerous enough to jerk the wheels right out from under your car. They should call that the Bubbadubyabushidiot Highway.

[Sandy]

So, the right wingers got everything in their legislation that they wanted--no tax increases, gigantic spending cuts, promise of a vote on a balanced budget amendment--and the credit rating still got downgraded. Bubbadubyabushidiot enacted a right wing economic agenda complete with tax cuts and subsidies for big business and we still had a recession, and now the right wingers solution to the current economic woes of the country is evaluated as a failure as well. Do you suppose that will actually change anyone's mind?

[Gene Scarborough]

Statistics and economic theories are one thing----what I live with as a small business owner is reality!!!

Because of the world I live in, I talk with many fellow small business owners. I suspect the majority of commentators here are supported by churches and the giving of people. Stangely, some church projects can be postponed, but the preacher's salary still gets paid on a regular basis. You are lucky in that respect.

In my world, if I don't work I don't get paid. The reality for the small businessman is that for the last 4 years we have ALL been on incomes reduced 30-70% by this failed economy. We had no major expansion plans because the economy has not been booming for more than 4 years. We were on a "maintenence mode" already.

To put it simply: We are in deep do-do!!!!! Not ONE SINGLE GOVERNMENT PROGRAM has been designed to help us. Our tax dollars have all gone to the big boys in banking / corporations / investment firms. None of it has benefited anything other than making internal monetary figures look better. They are still laying off and outsourcing to foreign countries. In addition the "executive bonuses" get higher and higher even in "failed big businesses."

The Great Depression found its first relief in the most numerous small businesses in the country at the time---family farms. When my Grandaddy got his Soil Bank money in April he rushed downtown to pay every merchant he owed. He walked out with money still in his pocket so they paid their suppliers and ordered more goods. Next the suppliers called back in their idled workers to produce more goods. In other words that $1 sent to my farming grandfather did $4-5 worth of recovery as it went to the ones benefiting from his desire to be independent and out of debt!!!!

If ever our politicians look at the proven record of the Depression and quit the waste on big businesses, we just might stand a chance of recovery. When we stop this bleeding of revenue in a senseless Middle East War, it will help. If we can find a way to bring fuel prices down, that is another major step toward recovery. Outside of these basics we are being stupid and flailing at the wind / pissing against the wind to be more graphic.

Is anyone "up there / out there" paying any attention to past history of economic recovery????????