Goldman Sachs candidate A and Goldman Sachs candidate B are really duking it out!

I wonder who is going to win? I can't wait to see which one of them sells our children's futures from under us for another four years.

The average American very rarely pays attention to politics to begin with. And watching CNN/Fox news does not count.

But doubts remain about Romney. While just 32 percent say they are either “extremely” or “quite” confident that Obama has the right policies and goals for the country, only 19 percent say the same about Romney.

I believe that this part of the poll states more about the uncertainty of our country's future and how frustrated many people continue to be than any other part of the poll. I believe there would be a significant change to how the country would be viewing things if the GOP/TP hadn't been doing everything in their power to prevent the re-election of President Obama at the expense of the American public. Because they have been such obstructionists, the average person has built a higher degree of mistrust toward politicians than at any other time in our history. And they want us to elect someone from their party as our leader? LOL!

nomoresameo, thats a good thing more and more people are having distrust for the government because government must always be kept in check by the people (not the other way around). Might does not always make right and remember we live in a country that is a republic NOT a democracy. A democracy is like two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

I wonder who is going to win? I can't wait to see which one of them sells our children's futures from under us for another four years.

America: Where government is by the rich and for the rich.

I would like to see the debate format changed. We don't allow enough time for the candidates to spell out their position. The way it stands now, it is all about platitudes and generalizations. Anyone can get up there and say that we need to protect the country, fix health care, protect the needy, and balance the budget. It is the how that we need to see.

Satanick.....The tea party wants to change the "government of the rich for the rich". Why do we spend so much time arguing amongst ourselves instead of trying to find common ground. We have the power to change things, but we have to be educated.

the rich black guy for the rich or the super rich white guy for the rich.tough choice.im looking for any candidate for the middle class.am i missing him or her.

Feisty,

Please remember the President is not such a great debater as he lost every one to Hillary, but he is a master politician who does what it takes to win.

Ok, just took my "drug cocktail" so I am a bit grumpy now. (My drink of the evening is blue gatoraid mixed with ginger ale, yuck) Folks, look at the numbers - people LIKE the president and don't like or trust Romney. Sounds like a recipe for a Obama win to me. People actually liking the candidate does count - most Americans aren't the political junkies you see here.

I want some Mexican food and a margarita - not drugs!

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted May 16-20 of 1,000 adults (250 reached by cell phone), and it has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points; among registered voters, the margin of error is plus-minus 3.4 percentage points.

This poll has too many unanswered variables to be credible! 250 reached by cell....so?.....among registered voters....what?.....registered voters vs non-registered voters?

It boggles the mnd that this will be close. Americans just aren't very bright. If they can't see that the right just doesn't understand reality and still comes up with inanities like "tax breaks for the rich creates jobs" and the purely obstructionist policy of the past 3.5 years.

If they would just THINK they would see that the only reasonable solution is lo let the president actually do something.

PutAmericaFirst

I would like to see the debate format changed. We don't allow enough time for the candidates to spell out their position.

PAF - you must be kidding, "we don't allow enough time..." Shxt, they have been talking for a least a year by the time of the election.

How much more time do you need to make up your mind?

Jerry. I believe it is the responsibility for every elected person to represent the best interests of their constituents. It is the obligation for a Congressperson to vote for what will help the people who elected that Congressperson.

When elected politicians set their sights on making a president a one term president at all costs, we have a problem of monumental proportions and we see it everyday because of the current reps in Congress.

It is one thing to have party divide, it is quite another to divide a country for party gain.

Yes we could rebuild them faster. What do you think that deregulation is all about. We could never do the CCC things that FDR did today to help get out of the great depression because it would take 20 years to get all the studies and permiting done. We need reform. (and don't be idoits and think that republicans want no regulations).

I can't wait to see Willard in the debates with the Prez, wonder how many times he will flip flop, any bets anyone???

Laura-3089574 who? Obama, He will look like a fish stranded at high tide. FLIP FLOP

Sorry Jerry - so far all I see around here is a whole bunch of irrational, unfounded hatred which is being expressed at a 6th grade level at best!

None of your posts have been informative and all of them have been cheap shots. That is how 6th graders argue. They point fingers and name call.

Of course any sane (re: non-liberal) person knows that Bush had little to do with the collapse, other than standing by letting the Dems loose in the china cabinet. It was the Dem Congress (majority in both House and Senate) for the last two years of his administration that did it. It is 100% the fault of the Democrats, Reid, Pelosi, Frank, etc, strongarming banks into making bad loans in the name of "equality". Same with auto dealers. Too many bad loans because they said that not lending money to unqualified, low income, people was akin to racism, since most unqualified, low income people are minorities. Any coincidence that Frank's live in lover was in charge of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae at the time of the downfall? That is why it hasn't changed, it is still a Dem majority, although not completely. The are so busy still blaming Bush that they can't get anything done. Ever notice when the Dems blocked Bush it was "progressive" but the few times the Rep's can block Obama it's "hindering the recovery"? Dems are pure hypocrites.

Bill.....A 30 second clip here and a sound byte there doesn't give us a strong insight into the candidate. Add to that the massive amount of misrepresentations, words out of context and outright lies and it is very difficult to know the true stance of a policitian. Make them spell out their plan and explain why theirs is better.

Feisty, so liberal so progressive.

Ben? Is Alaska still in the dark? Ben, are you a Darkie?

Phine - Hang in there. I went through chemo and radiation 7-1/2 years ago for lymphoma and it was pretty awful. Everything tasted like a combination of mildew and tin due to the fact that I had to take 100mg of prednisone every day for 5 days every three weeks. Just when I was starting to feel better, I had to go back for another two day infusion of chemo. I am currently cancer free and it is all becoming a dim memory and increasingly hard to believe I went through it. I did discover that I have a pretty nicely shaped head. Rest, take care of yourself and laugh. My best friend in California sent me the book Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. Really funny book and I read the rest of his books during that time.

Feisty is a true liberal. Ignore the facts even when they are in your face and just call the other guy bad names. Kind of like a five year old on the play ground.

Unfortunately for Feisty and Obama is that America has been awoken from a placid slumber by the stupidity of a liberal president trying to spend his way out of a debt crisis and his days are numbered.

So Mitt can count on the born again Christians, the gun toting red necks and the very, very wealthy; who want Bush's tax cuts to continue.

President Obama can count on Americans, who knows what it is like to work for a living. People who are educated and those who want a better country.

Count me proud to vote for President Obama. As for the race, I have a feeling, Mitt is in for some "restructuring" and it is not going to be pretty.

OBAMA/BIDEN 2012

@TheOverlord

...and try to ban contraceptives

Wait, you actually believe Romney wants to ban contraceptives? Really? And you honestly expect people to take you seriously? Is there any nonsense you can't be conned into believing? Do you want a cracker Polly?

Hi Feisty,

You mean "I wouldn't have guessed" not "I wouldn't of guessed."

Oh by the way, as one can see, I'm back. Chemotherapy over! Radiation over! And my hair is growing back.

"Tell Team Red to leave the bench-warmers at home & bring your "A" game next time..."

True Feisty, Team Red had what was supposed to be a "A" team in '08.....Guess Not!...and from the looks of it, there is no "A" team for them!

Their game is always the same Repeat the lie, repeat the lie..then Deny, Lie some more......

@Judy The Ornery

President Obama can count on Americans, who knows what it is like to work for a living

ROTFLMAO! And don't forget those Americans who know what it is like to not have to work for a living. He'll get 100% of their vote!

A good barometer on how the President is doing, is the level of hysteria from the right...

No, a good barometer is the fact that the sitting POTUS is barely hanging on to the slightest lead and it's only May!!!

The race really starts after the GOP primary and this time around Obrainless will be properly vetted.

168 more days then Bye Bye Obrainless!!!!!

In the newest poll, Obama leads Romney among African Americans (88 percent to 2 percent),

No way! I'm shocked.

Sharpton, hurry, this must be racist.

Please save your self-righteous bull@!$%# for someone who cares... K?

You are making me laugh again, Feisty, so classy and mature!

Of course the poll shows a "tight race." They're the same damned person, just different clothing.

TO: bigbenalaska who wrote:

"No one wants Obama any more ....

He's done enough damage ...."

Not as damage as Republicans have done, and millions of us DO want President Obama, who is a whole lot better than Romney pulling back the entire Bush Administration who caused all the damage in the first place.

Obama/Biden 2012

I have been following the race fairly closely and I have yet to hear Obama or Romney spell out what they want to do. Bull@!$%# like "create jobs", "stimulate the economy", "cut government spending" don't count. Anyone can say that because that is what the public wants to hear. Where is the details? How are they going to do these things?

Feisty, do you do anything other than to spend your time in front of your computer waiting for a new story to come out so you can be the first to comment on it? I can't help but to wonder about that, since it happens that you're the first to comment on so many politically-oriented stories. Normal people have a full life and comment on these stories as time allows, certainly not as the most important thing in their lives!

Sounds like someone is jealous, or mad because they can't be first. You gonna complain to the management just as your fellow rwnj Rob in MA did.

Moreover, what happened to civility? Your unfortunate posts are filled with vile, unhealthy insults, calling Mr. Romney "Woody Willard" and referring to members of the Tea Party as "tea baggers". Can you express yourself in a normal, sane and civil manner?

Are you for real? I guess you don't notice the other side's comments do you? Let's see, there's Odumbo, Obummer, Obammy. That's just for starters. Notice that we don't cry like babies when you do that. And as for Fiesty, there are quite a few of us that enjoy her comments. You don't because she beats you guys like a rented mule nearly everytime. Just remember, it was you guys that came out with the "teabagger" tag, until you found out what it meant.

UPDATE: I see this thread is collapsed. So much for fair and balanced posting.

Judy: exactly...Obama still has a 15 point lead with women, an 8 point lead (13 in other polls last week) with Independents and virtually insurmountable lead with Hispanics. The poll may say the overall numbers are "close", but look at the solidly blue states, the solidy red states and then what's left. How in heck does Romney carry enough of the swing states to win a majority of electoral votes from that far back?? He can come out for the dream act, tell women he was only kidding about interfering with access to contraceptives and abortion, and even issue promises to working Americans he will no longer applaud Paul Ryan's devastating cuts to Social Security and Medicare while holding defense spending harmless and slashing tax cuts for the rich...and he'd STILL lose. There is no way Romney is going to overcome these numbers.

"63 percent aren’t confident that life for their children will be better than it’s been for them."

Perhaps because the current generation is spending their future?

The National Debt has increased by $5.7 Trillion just since the end of fiscal 2008 - an increase of 57% because of Obama's wild spending to 'stimulate' the economy - That's $5.7 Trillion of deficit spending.

And how much has it 'stimulated' the economy? Gross Domestic Product has increased by only 4%, and we have 1.3 million fewer people working now than when Obama took office (per the government Bureau of Labor Statistics).

The National Debt is out of control, and there is no way that any 'growth in the economy' could possibly compensate for that increased debt burden ON OUR CHILDREN.

Every young American is being saddled with a heavy debt burden that will keep them poor for their entire lives.

And what's Obama's 'solution'? More deficit spending - thanks for the 'Change'.

Are you for real? I guess you don't notice the other side's comments do you? Let's see, there's Odumbo, Obummer, Obammy.

So that makes it OK? As soon as either side starts using insults instead of reason, they lose. Who cares if they are doing it? You just look stupid when you insult others. It shows you are not intellectually capable of attacking their arguments so you have to resort to personal attacks. That is actually a logical fallacy by the way, ad hominem.

I'm still voting for Ron Paul. If I have to write him in then I will. I've been a registered Republican since I was 18. I'm NOT voting for Romney or Obama.

The President will win reelection going away. Historically, these polls mean little at this time, other than, when all things are considered, the President is in better than usual shape. Hope the country is putting as much focus on the GOP Congress. Need to remove as many of those blood sucking ticks as we possibly can.

The only tight race in this election is the news media making it look like a tight race so they can sell more soap.

Bill, Right on the mark!

Dum Fux poll has Obama up by 7pts, and the new Rasmussen poll has Obama up by 3pts. Go figure!

I think that one thing that hasn't been given much weight yet is the "x" factor, and that is what the economy is doing in October and November. And right now, there are so many things that can go south or north, it's like trying to make a forecast for wind direction and velocity 6 months out. I am quite sure that people are nervous about the economy, even Obama supporters. And I am too. The repugs are openly hoping for disaster. Unfortunately for our president, there are several things that can tank our progress that are really beyond his control, like the EU's economy. It doesn't look like theirs will get much better very soon. It may get worse, it may not. It may take us into a double-dip, it may not. And while it wouldn't really be his fault, he may still be punished for it. And while I'm sure that electing Koch Jr. would be a catastrophic mistake, we have made big ones before,I.E. Raygun (twice) Nixon-even after Watergate was uncovered. So it's kinda silly to get too worked up right now. President Obama is very, very smart and has a good team. It's very wise for him to be shining light on Romney's Bane time right now. To the degree that voters become aware of how predatory Bane is, Romney will look like the opportunistic, lying vulture he is. It is possible even that the economy could dip slightly again and if voters are well informed enough of the GOP conspiracy and Romney's vicious blood-letting of American workers and how he stuck the tax-payer with some of the bills for his "successes", President Obama may still win. But I do believe that one of our previous posters is correct that this is lose-lose for Romney. If he wins, our economy will envy 1932 in 4 years. And let's point out that after 4 years in office, FDR was still looking for answers too. It's pretty odd to think but good news in Europe is good news for Mr. Obama. It may also figure into the equation that it now appears his patience in Iran is about to pay off as well. That could reap big benefits and have a big impact on oil prices. All considered, things are still so foggy that I don't think anyone can say with certainty what will happen. I am curious to see what else surfaces in Bane transactions. They are quite murky and secretive. I think that the more that surfaces with Bane, the less it will favor Romney. I can't help rolling my eyes when jackass goose-steppers throw around numbers like "80%" success rate" for Bane. Where did that number come from? I wonder how many people are furiously researching them right now. If I were President Obama, it would be hundreds. They are dirty, I'm sure. And Mitt's as dirty as his dog house. I hope President Obama can prove it. No one likes Romney. That has to help him.

If the economy improves, things will be really ugly for the Rompster.

One last thing I want to comment on: Poor Barack looks like he's ages 10 years since he took office. I've watched with interest how quickly our presidents age once they're president. I really hate to see it with him. He's so likeable and looked so young and energetic 4 yrs ago. The photo above is a good example. I'm sure the pressure is incredible but even more so with him due to race, racism, and the Teabgging hyenas.

Good evening to all: Feisty/beisty, wow girlfriend who would have thought that this piece of news would get you all bent out of shape. Let me take that further, I really feel sorry for you, since you do not have a life. I have stated many times that this will be a close race unless Our cool President looses his cool.

Bigben, you are so on point. Queen Beisty and her court of jokers, all get together and they all vote for each other. They are the home team, and I'm so surprised that Reps and Independents are showing so strong in this site. This is only a sample of what we can do to get them all out of the White house.

Girlfriend please get a life, I strongly suggested, before you get sick. Please listen to Jody form Iowa, she seems to be a good person and can help you.

Go have your obasm somewhere else.

VOTE ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT stop Obama's economic insanity.

Fiesty - I like your posts. However, regardless of how ridiculous the Republcan candidate and party may seem, unless the dems and "independents" come out in force in November and show up when it counts Obama may still may lose. To the repub T partiers, their hatred for the half black man in office is so intense that the qualities of Romney are irrelevant. It is a safe bet that they will be at the polls. We have a Governor in Florida who no one thought had a snowballs chance in hell to win, but he did. The apathy of the masses combined with stupidity of libs who sulked in their homes because Obama did not deliver everything in his first 2 years, guaranteed a T party victory in Florida and in congress. I hope that people wake up.

Biggest enemy for US of A is its DEBT. it is $16T, we need to teach our kids how to save money. They are the one going to payback the bill!

Never heard a word from sitting president about how to take on this enemy.

Latest TPM aggregate polling shows; President Barack H. Obama-284 electoral votes, Willard "Mitt" Romney-170 electoral votes.

Your winner and still champeen...for the middle class...women...the poor and underprivileged...those struggling to get decent health care...BARACK HUSSEIN OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBAMAAAAAAAA.

Hey generic, white, Teapublican guy, better luck never.

Mr. Obama is NOT your friend and neither is Romney. There are other candidates that have better plans that the news media won't tell you about. Those candidates can be seen on the 2012 Presidential Candidate website.

There ARE other good candidates, some even have plans for America that will get people working, get people off welfare, lower taxes, and increase our missile defense, fix healthcare and education and ALL WITHOUT raising taxes or the debt ceiling.

Regular folks with common sense came up with these solutions.

Go figure.

Check them out. There are other Democrats, Republicans and Independent Candidates on that site with good plans for our country. We can choose to vote for one of them and if their name isn't on the ballot in November, we can write it in or type it in.

We DON'T have to settle for one of the front runners...especially when neither one has the best plan for us!

x

In the newest poll, Obama leads Romney among African Americans (88 percent to 2 percent)

Well DUH!!! But they aren't racist...

BREAKING NEWS.........ROMNEY NOW AHEAD OF OBAMA IN FLORIDA 47-41%!

But respondents give him negative marks on the budget deficit (47 percent say he’s made things worse), health care (43 percent), partisanship in politics (39 percent) the economy (37 percent) and the housing market (32 percent).

Gee, aren't these the most important issues? One and DONE! C YA!!!!

Amazing that a little bitching can drop the price of gas by 40 cents a gallon!

A cool op ed to share....

My neighbor left his supermarket job and now gets a regular government check. In other words, he quit the work force and now feeds from the public trough.

He is healthy, and knows I do not approve of his sloth.

I wonder if my disdain for this scoundrel is fair or shared. When did it become okay for Americans not to work? Recently, Charles Murray, author of "Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960 – 2010," wrote in the Wall Street Journal:

“It must once again be taken for granted that a male in the prime of life who isn't even looking for work is behaving badly. There can be exceptions for those who are genuinely unable to work or are house husbands. But reasonably healthy working-age males who aren't working or even looking for work, who live off their girlfriends, families or the state, must once again be openly regarded by their fellow citizens as lazy, irresponsible and unmanly. Whatever their social class, they are, for want of a better word, bums.”

The slowly declining national unemployment rate typically cited (now at 8.2 percent) understates the true number of unemployed Americans because it only includes those actively looking for work in the past four weeks and not those who have left the work force.

The “official” unemployment rate that measures adults who have left the workforce (Bureau of Labor Statistics U-6) is 14.8 percent. Even this probably underestimates things, because it does not include those who never entered the workforce or those who failed to seek unemployment benefits after leaving the workforce.

Whatever the true number of unemployed able-bodied Americans, it is much larger than it should be. These people are straining our economy and our collective ability to support them.

Part of the problem is that well-meaning laws encourage workers to look for a government check rather than a job. Although the 1996 reform of welfare capped the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families benefit to five years, the program still incentivizes many teenagers to become unwed young mothers and fathers to disappear.

The Social Security Disability Insurance program, which paid out $130 billion in benefits to 10.6 million Americans in 2011, uses 1950s medical standards for manufacturing jobs to determine a worker’s disability. Sadly, when a region loses jobs, disability applications rise –suggesting that many Americans are using disability benefit when they are employable.

As Murray, also a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, writes in his recent book, Coming Apart: “(O)nce, working at a menial job to provide for his family made a man proud and gave him status in the community... (N)ow it doesn't.” This perfectly captures our cultural shift.

One problem is that our legal benefits, intended to help the truly needy, also encourage the able bodied to play the system.

Our parents’ generation believed in hard work as an ethical mandate. Too many in our generation have shifted to a concept that because something is “legal” it is ethical.

In fact, this view has infected our leadership at the highest level. Many of our leaders celebrate and seemingly encourage the able-bodied to get maximum benefits. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi recently lauded the increase in the number of people on food stamps under President Obama as a “badge of honor.”

Remarkably, Pelosi outdid this ethically barren statement with her March 22 comments celebrating “ObamaCare” as allowing anyone to quit their job and pursue their passion. Calling this a “liberation,” she said, “You want to be a photographer or a writer or a musician, whatever – an artist, you want to be self-employed, if you want to start a business, you want to change jobs, you no longer are prohibited from doing that because you can’t have access to health care…”

And despite speeches in 2008 from candidate Obama implying that Americans should take responsibility for their fate, his presidency has been bereft of a moral call for self-reliance, sacrifice or hard work.

In fact, he is now campaigning by threatening that if the Republicans win, Americans will have to become self-reliant.

In late 2011, President Obama paraded some examples of Americans fending for themselves and declared: “That's not the America I believe in. It's not the America you believe in.”

It’s just not Democrats – the Republicans have been complicit, too: they have yet to take a principled stand.

In fact, Republicans have agreed repeatedly to “temporary” extensions of unemployment benefits. More, they blithely oppose any tax increases, even loophole cuts, decrying any concept of sacrifice and instead only suggest modest budget cuts down the road. They too promise Americans they can have it all – and ignore that it is our children that are paying for today’s excesses.

President Kennedy set an exemplary bar when he told every American to “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” While our brave soldiers still live this creed, sadly our recent presidents have not.

President George W. Bush missed a huge opportunity to seek national sacrifice after September 11, and President Obama blew it after he created and then ignored the Bipartisan Deficit Commission, which suggested a plan of shared sacrifice. Is it any wonder that more and more Americans choose to live off the government rather than seek gainful employment?

Right now, someone on unemployment benefits simply needs to show they are actively looking for work – and this can go on for up to two years.

Yet, even President Obama’s top economic adviser has published research showing that extending unemployment benefits increases the jobless rate, proving that the longer the unemployment benefits, the longer people will stay unemployed.

My view is that any unemployment benefits lasting for more than a few weeks should be tied to volunteer work at a non-profit organization. Not only would this benefit the community but it would also keep the person active and engaged, both of which are critical during tough times.

What is often left out in these discussions is that a government check exhausts self-worth while an earned check gives a feeling of value, worth and contribution to an enterprise.

The truth is that Americans that do work are hard workers. According to OECD numbers, the average employed American in 2010 worked 1,778 hours per year. This is more than Japan, France and Germany.

Americans love our nation and care about our future.

I believe almost all Americans will do more with motivation, moral leadership and a sense of unity. Americans need to hear it from the top and will get off the dole or start sacrificing if they feel everyone else is also sacrificing.

Sadly, now, our leadership and our laws simply encourage taking. Except for our brave soldiers, we are far from the Kennedy ideal of giving to our country. It’s time we rethought our approach and considered the burden we are putting on our children.

I would welcome any of today's political leaders voicing the Kennedy-type call for patriotic sacrifice. Today's "have it all" leaders, instead, expand entitlements, cut taxes and promise equality of outcome.

Gary Shapiro is president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)®, the U.S. trade association representing more than 2,000 consumer electronics companies, and author of the New York Times bestselling book, “The Comeback: How Innovation Will Restore the American Dream.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/05/01/when-did-it-become-ok-for-americans-not-to-work/?intcmp=obnetwork#ixzz1vhIcaDYf

Geeze unRationalAmerican. What a total waste of my time and yours when you go on at length, with no solution but to give a link to fox??? WTH?????

Lots of childish collapsers on the vine today. First graders?

Hello eggberta, surely you are not that stupid? I posted an Opinion Editorial from Gary Shapiro who is CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association.

It's better to have people think you an idiot that to post something and remove all doubt.

Or are you one of those "bums" Mr. Shapiro was alluding to?

At this point in the race, a 20% lead by either candidate is meaningless, far too much time and too many things that could influence the election. That said, a month ago Obama had a solid lead over Romney, Feisty, and her commie buddies were all in a joyous twitter over what was in their minds, sure to be a route for Obama. As it looks now, the economy will remain stagnant at best, perhaps more likely to backslide into November. The only dirt they could dig up on Romney was a stupid prank from 50 years ago, which they attempted to make relevant today, ignoring Obama's own bullying and drug use. In June, Scott Walker will win the recall election, the SCOTUS will declare Obamacare unconstitutional, and validate AZ. immigration law. This is going to be a bad year for Fiesty and friends, so go easy on them fellow conservatives.

I haven't heard anything about gasoline prices lately.

(Have the Republicans just realized that the Pres has zero to do with gas pricing - at least now that they are going down?)

The Republicans have such a hard time trying to find something to blame on Obama that will just STICK, for cryin' out loud!

Well, the right wing "collapse-rs" are doing their darnedest to silence Liberal voices.

Well, if you check the statistics, it's the collapsed posts that get the slightly larger reads.

Anyone but the super wealthy who seriously thinks either Obama or Romney really cares about them and/or will make life better for them is nuts.

They're both horrible and are servants of Wall Street, corporate america and the rich.

Leave aside the PR slogans and posturing and the two parties when in office do about the same thing: Slaughter poor/middle class people in less developed countries (Invasions, bombs, drones, etc.), and transfer money from the middle class and poor to the rich (via tax cuts, tax "incentives", bail outs, "credit facilities", Quantitative Easing, etc., etc.)

If you really want to do something that MAY make a difference, participate in your local Occupy action (or kindred movements), or support them in some way.

The mean greedy, bastards who own and control the two parties and the U.S. won't give you @!$%# to live on or any freedoms left to enjoy if you don't make fuss.

I don't know. I think more and more people are realizing that after 6 years of majority control, that democrats don't have the answer. They also understand the fundamental problem of perpetually having trillion dollar deficits.

Good point PutAmericanFirst, I believe neither party has an answer accept one that involves more fascism/corporatism.

In the last 10 years the American people have slowly been losing our rights yet not a peep from the mainstream media. Makes ya wonder.

Obama has done several generations worth of damage ....

I think you are ignoring the 2010 elections, no? If I remember correctly, Republicans took majority control in there House in those elections. And, if you count the Senate Republican's use of the filibuster, democrats pretty much lost the majority they needed to break a filibuster in January 2010, with the election of Scott Brown.

And, what specifically do you think is the current negative impact of the deficit?

http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/obamas-giveaway-oil-rich-islands-to-russia/

OBAMA'S GIVEAWAY: OIL-RICH ISLANDS TO RUSSIA
Exclusive: Joe Miller sounds alarm over deal to put land in hands of Putin's Kremlin

The Obama administration, despite the nation’s economic woes, effectively killed the job-producing Keystone Pipeline last month. The Arab Spring is turning the oil production of Libya and other Arab nations over to the Muslim Brotherhood. Iraq is distancing itself from the U.S. And everyone recognizes that Iran, whose crude supplies are critical to the European economy, will do anything it can to frustrate America’s strategic interests. In the face of all of this, Obama insists on cutting back U.S. oil potential with outrageous restrictions.

Part of Obama’s apparent war against U.S. energy independence includes a foreign-aid program that directly threatens my state’s sovereign territory. Obama’s State Department is giving away seven strategic, resource-laden Alaskan islands to the Russians. Yes, to the Putin regime in the Kremlin.

The seven endangered islands in the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea include one the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. The Russians are also to get the tens of thousands of square miles of oil-rich seabeds surrounding the islands. The Department of Interior estimates billions of barrels of oil are at stake.

The State Department has undertaken the giveaway in the guise of a maritime boundary agreement between Alaska and Siberia. Astoundingly, our federal government itself drew the line to put these seven Alaskan islands on the Russian side. But as an executive agreement, it could be reversed with the stroke of a pen by President Obama or Secretary Clinton.

The agreement was negotiated in total secrecy. The state of Alaska was not allowed to participate in the negotiations, nor was the public given any opportunity for comment. This is despite the fact the Alaska Legislature has passed resolutions of opposition – but the State Department doesn’t seem to care.

The imperiled Arctic Ocean islands include Wrangel, Bennett, Jeannette and Henrietta. Wrangel became American in 1881 with the landing of the U.S. Revenue Marine ship Thomas Corwin. The landing party included the famed naturalist John Muir. It is 3,000 square miles in size.

Northwest of Wrangel are the DeLong Islands, named for George Washington DeLong, the captain of USS Jeannette. Also in 1881, he discovered and claimed these three islands for the United States. He named them for the voyage co-sponsor, New York City newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennett. The ship’s crew received a hero’s welcome back in Washington, and Congress awarded them gold medals.

In the Bering Sea at the far west end of the Aleutian chain are Copper Island, Sea Lion Rock and Sea Otter Rock. They were ceded to the U.S. in Seward’s 1867 treaty with Russia.

Now is the time for the Obama administration to stand up for U.S. and Alaskan rights and invaluable resources. The State Department’s maritime agreement is a loser – it gives us nothing in return for giving up Alaska’s sovereign territory and invaluable resources. We won the Cold War and should start acting like it.

The Obama administration must stop the giveaway immediately.

Author’s addendum, Feb. 17, 2012: This is not a new issue. In fact the Bush and Clinton administrations are directly at fault for the same inaction. A maritime agreement negotiated by the U.S. State Department set the Russian boundary on the other side of the disputed islands, but no treaty has ratified this action. Consequently, it is within the president’s power to stop this giveaway. The Alaska delegation’s failure to put pressure on the administration is inexplicable. State Department Watch, an organization that assisted with this article, has confronted each administration and is currently confronting the Obama administration — and has been met by silence. I’m hoping this piece will help reinvigorate efforts to stop this handover.

Stone...If that is the case, then the repubilcans have never had power and this entire thing is all the democrats fault. You are being way too lenient. Part of being the party in power is working with the opposition. Remember that the democrats were the first to use the filibuster to block anything and everything. In fact, the republicans were so fed up, that they almost rewrote the rules of the senate.

@Adler-273784

Just wait, they've only started. This is going to be a dirty campaign but in the end Obama and the Democrats will prevail. I doubt it will be close by then.

What makes you doubt that? It shouldn't be close now. On the one hand you've got an incumbent President and on the other you've got a challenger just coming out of a nasty primary. Obama has been attacking Romney for months while Romney has had to focus on Santorum and Gingrich. Most incumbent Presidents have a fair lead this early on. The fact that Obama is neck in neck and actually behind in some polls (likely voters as opposed to registered voters) should hardly be reassuring for his supporters.

Put

Remember that? They democrats used the filibuster much mucg less than the republicans are doing now and the republicans found that to be horrible. Oh the hypocrisy! Or is it that they just aren't too bright!

stone6:

The impact of the deficit is this. Deficit spending has to be paid for by borrowing. Debt costs money. Instead of tax payer money going to shore up broken programs like Social Security and Medicare, caring for the poor, paying unemployment benefits, housing the homeless and funding infrastructure, the money goes to pay interest on the debt instead.

Right now interest rates are so pitifully low, the cost of debt is less. Still money going to the Treasury instead of the private sector hurts the economy....which in turn hurts the people. When interest rates rise --- and they will someday ---- the interest on our huge debt will increase.... and even less money will flow to the economy----and more people will suffer.

So, if you think "current" deficits don't matter, you're wrong. It hurts people now and it will hurt people later, too.

Candice -- Tell the Republicans to quit giving away revenue through tax cuts. Start paying for the bills they accrued over the years. You have to have money to pay a bill.

PutAmericaFirst -I don't think that's true...please quote a source. But, it would not surprise me that any time the majority Party in the Senate believes they are being blocked by the minority, they would consider scrapping the filibuster.

Personally, I don't think a Senate "rule" should take precedence over Constitutional intent. I would argue that the filibuster was outside the "original intent" of the founding fathers, who clearly laid out the required voting majorities for different forms of legislation and/or their advise and consent powers.

Derek - speaking of which, I seriously doubt the Executive Branch can change the borders of the United States without a 2/3rd's majority vote in the Senate, as part of their advise and consent "treaty approval" powers.

Knowing that, it is possible (if true) the Obama Administration expects their "support" for the border changes will not suffice to actually do anything and are doing a favor for "Putin" and the Russian government, for Russian public opinion, so that they may point to how "tough" they're being with the Americans. Quid pro quo...in return maybe the Russians will "rethink" their opposition to anti-missile sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, to stop all of those incoming Iranian missiles on Eastern Europe...or revise their North Pole claims...or whatever.

On the other hand, if you would like to return to the days of unquestioned U.S. global supremacy, then vote for larger Defense budgets and larger deficits.

Look up nuclear option and bush appointees. I think that the democrats blocked close to over 100 off Bush appointees.

TO: Derek-908696 who wrote:

"...In the last 10 years the American people have slowly been losing our rights yet not a peep from the mainstream media. Makes ya wonder."

What "rights" have you "lost"?!?

Derek

A little accuracy would be nice. First, the islands are off Russia's coast, not ours and they have been in negotiation for several decades, not just now, and Obama has no say in what happens since all treaties go through the senate. I do not believe he can solve this by executive order.

By the way (Wikipedia)

Wrangel Island belongs administratively to the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Russian Federation. This rocky island has a weather station and, formerly, two Chukchi fishing settlements on the southern side of the island (Ushakovskoye^[1] and Zvyozdny on the shore of Somnitelnaya Bay^[3]).

And this from some right wing site

A maritime boundary agreement was necessary because the coastlines of Alaska and
Siberia came within 400 miles of each other, such that the 200-mile seaward zones would
overlap. The maritime boundary line, which defines these seaward zones, was drawn with all
eight islands on the Soviet/Russian side

And of course if you actually check the facts

Q: Is President Obama giving away several Alaskan islands to Russia?

A: No. The U.S. has never claimed ownership of the islands identified in viral emails and websites. They lie far closer to the coast of Siberia than to Alaska.

But the opportunity to bash the president, even when it is a bald faced lie cannot be wasted by the sinister right (wow is that a strange one)

"63 percent aren’t confident that life for their children will be better than it’s been for them."

Perhaps because the current generation is spending their future?

The National Debt has increased by $5.7 Trillion just since the end of fiscal 2008 - an increase of 57% because of Obama's wild spending to 'stimulate' the economy - That's $5.7 Trillion of deficit spending.

And how much has it 'stimulated' the economy? Gross Domestic Product has increased by only 4%, and we have 1.3 million fewer people working now than when Obama took office (per the government Bureau of Labor Statistics).

The National Debt is out of control, and there is no way that any 'growth in the economy' could possibly compensate for that increased debt burden ON OUR CHILDREN.

Every young American is being saddled with a heavy debt burden that will keep them poor for their entire lives.

And what's Obama's 'solution'? More deficit spending - thanks for the 'Change'.

There is still about 7 months until election time. Within that 7 month period, the polls could change if a economic/world/national event occured. I still think most Americans need to worry about our national debt. When our debt reaches a certain low point, the whole government crashes.

Candice - The largest categories of the deficit are: 1) Social Security, 2) Medicare/Medicaid, 3) Defense and fourth, interest on the debt...the smallest category of the four.

What you say is, of course, absolutely true over the long haul...funny Republicans didn't grasp that when Bush was President. The fiscally responsible action to have been taken, following 9/11, was to ask for a repeal of the initial Bush tax cuts, ion order to pay for the inevitable coming wars. But, when Bush Senior raised taxes to pay for Gulf War I, the Party turned their back on him and split their vote, costing him a second term (I voted for him twice).

Instead, Bush Junior fearing the Republican Party (and Norqujist) backlash "gambled" that the tax cut stimulus would outweigh the costs of two quick engagements, in Afghanistan and Iraq. To ensure this, they announced a huge "Ownership Society" program, developing, building and selling 5.5 million new homes for low income, minorities...further stimulating that program with another tax cut in 2003 (opposed by most economists).

We all know how that turned out.

Correct me if I am wrong, but there is very limited issuance of Treasuries with "floating interest rates." The vast majority are issued at fixed rates of return, dependent on the market time at time of purchase. So, as interest rates rise, so will returns, and the number issued may also vary.

At the moment, low interest rates have two advantages: 1) they make U.S. export products cheaper and 2) they "monetize" the debt, making the dollars being paid in interest worth less than the dollars used to purchase the bond.

I would agree that we cannot do that indefinitely and that, at some point, people slow the purchase of bonds, driving up the interest paid to secure sales...an d "inflating" the economy.

Monetary policy is a "balancing act" highly dependent on the fluctuations in the economy. I am confident that Bernanke learned a few lessons in September 2008. No one is purposing indefinite or perpetual ANYTHING.

Of the two factors, a need to restore private sector demand and an unsustainable debt load, I would say the former is more significant to restoring economic growth than the latter...for the moment. As demand and growth return, revenue will increase and, together with spending cuts and the restructuring of the so-called "entitlements," the deficit will decrease, eventually disappear, and the national debt be brought back to a manageable level.

Sooo...it isn't that the deficit is unimportant; it's that restoring consumer spending (demand) is more important at this moment.

Roy it wouldn't matter what Obama did, you would find something wrong. Some of you people are nothing less than silly.

PutAmericaFirst, "If that is the case, then the repubilcans have never had power...." and "...I think that the democrats blocked close to over 100 off Bush appointees..."

...Nothing better than seeing a Rightee playing the powerless victim.....

Ferro -

It's a little hard to 'filibuster' something if it never makes it even to the floor of the Senate for debate. Perhaps you should put the 'blame' where it belongs - with Reid! He is, after all, in charge of setting the calendar for the Senate.

you know that the union slugs would never blame one of their own..., and Sen Reid is the big cheese in the Senate; he wears the union label.

Wow, Feisty must really be getting scared to talk like that; her fantasy world could come to an end this fall... and she might have to move in with Alec Baldwin somewhere in France.

It is already a dirty campaign because Obama has no record to run on, or he would. All Obama has done is blame everyone else for his failures, conjure up a war on women, class warfare, and set the nation on a path toward race wars the likes of which have not been seen in this country since the 60's. Instead of uniting the country and leading us through the economic crisis, Obama has doubled down on the financial disaster and divided the nation. Obama is by far the worst president ever to sit in the White House, and no amount of spin can ever resurrect his legacy from the harshness the historians will bestow upon him.

tactical45 "Roy it wouldn't matter what Obama did, you would find something wrong. Some of you people are nothing less than silly."

Oh yes, I'm 'silly' for pointing out that Obama has saddled our children with another $5.7 Trillion in debt, and it has done virtually nothing for our economy or jobs.

I suspect that you're part of the 50% of Americans that pay no federal income taxes, so to you it must be 'silly', since you wouldn't have to pay any of it back, or any of the interest on that skyrocketing debt.

Tammy-311614 -- Why would anyone bring crap to the floor to vote on? Once again, the Do Nothing Teapublicans in the House, who only work two weeks for every week off, have done nothing but recycle crap like Paul Ryan' budget, which is not plausible and not partisan per the tradition of Congress in the past. If you want a bill to be brought to the floor, you MUST build consensus to pass it first, and that means input from across the aisle.

All the GOP/TP have been doing is obstructing, even their own legislation, or contrary to majority wishes of their constituents. If they want to protest they can march on the street. If they want to govern, then need to show up for work and do the work they are being paid to do. Once again, trying to blame this on lack of leadership from the POTUS is a crock of crap. How about looking at the chaos in your own POS Party with Boehner trying to "keep the frogs in the wheelbarrow" (and not get stabbed in the back by Cantor and DeMint)?

The rest of the crap passed by the GOP/TP has been the War on Women, commemorative coins, naming buildings, etc. Please feel free to publish what the Teapublicans have been doing since 2008, and especially since 2010 when they gained an historic majority in the House and "break even" in the Senate.

Wake up2840 -- Let's talk about protection of labor rights and good paying jobs, which is what unions do. Why is it that people like you fall for the Teapublican "Divide and Conquer?" Instead of asking "why do they get this or that?" ask why YOU aren't getting this or that. Why not you too?!

Don't be such fools.

Tammy - read up on what a filibuster is. That's what keeps it from reaching the floor for a vote. Reid can't change that; he must act within Senate rules, unless he has the votes to change them.

IOW, Reid can schedule debate on a bill, but cloture (a motion to close debate) requires 60 votes. If you don't have 60 votes to cut off debate, debate continues until you drop it from the calendar or until you get the votes.

That's what filibustering is...basically the necessity for a super majority of 60 to bring ANYTHING (other than certain funding bills, which may be passed by reconciliation) to a vote.

I'd argue that the filibuster is unconstitutional and if the founding fathers wanted a super majority to close debate, they would have put it into the Constitution, which they did for impeachment, treaties and issues more important than routine legislation. [Two-thirds would be, of course, 67 votes; while a simple majority would be 51].

Fools are the obot minions that continue to defend his failure- he could eat a baby on television and they would find a way to make it a wonderful thing! Pathetic. People aren't going to be so stupid again, he is one and done.

TruePatriot-445959 " Why would anyone bring crap to the floor to vote on?"

It's called the 'Legislative Process' - Duh.

For those that forgot their civics class, the House passes a bill, and then it goes to the Senate for debate and they make amendments to their liking, and then it goes to a Joint Conference Committee where differences are worked out, and then the modified bill gets passed again in the House and Senate and goes to the President, where he can sign or veto it.

Of the 30 odd bills passed by the Republican House that could improve the economy/jobs picture, Harry Reid has left them in his desk drawer and said "I'm not even going to allow them to be debated or amended" - So he is indeed the 'roadblock' to getting anything done.

Why doesn't he even allow them to be debated or amended? Probably because he can blame the Republicans for not getting anything done, and the liberal media never calls him out on his blocking tactics. In fact, Reid has gotten so good at it that he has even gotten away with not passing a Federal Budget as required by the Constitution for the last 3 years (including 2 years when the Democrats controlled everything - House, Senate, Presidency).

So the problem is not with the 'Do Nothing Teapublicans in the House', but your own friend Harry Reid in the Senate - but he's obviously got YOU fooled.

You now its bad when an NBC poll shows it being so close. In reality it's probably at least 60/40 in favor of Romney.

Remember November 2010 when the liberal media tried so desperately to give the impression that Democrats had not earned their removal from American government.

Fox News has recently shut down its comment sections, because (I am guessing) it had a deluge of racist posts in almost every comment section to almost every one of its news articles. CNN only posts PolyAnna statements that happen in some, "Leave it to Beaver" 1950's vacuum. Anything else, will get you censored, or even permanently banned from CNN. MSNBC appears to still be here to take up the slack, but for how long?

"On the other hand, if you would like to return to the days of unquestioned U.S. global supremacy, then vote for larger Defense budgets and larger deficits."

Stone6- YES! YES!! ME!!! I WILL vote for "unquestioned U.S. global supremacy"!! You bet I will.

I am PROUD to be an AMERICAN...oh, I "was", just like that guys wife said she never was "before".

Yeah, I DO have a BIG problem with deficits that DO NOT benefit US (meaning both us as American citizens and US as U.S.A. the country).

Rick-3416939 " Obama is by far the worst president ever to sit in the White House, and no amount of spin can ever resurrect his legacy from the harshness the historians will bestow upon him."

It could be neck and neck with Jimmy Carter, but if Obama gets reelected, then Obama wins that dubious distinction by a mile. Obama's own 'rosy' projections call for a National Debt of $26 Trillion within 10 years (remember Bush projected 'Surpluses' by 2014 - which shows how unrealistic President's projections are).

My guess is that, If Obama gets reelected, we'll have a debt crisis like Greece before his second term is over.

PutAmericaFirst -- WTF? You believe? You have it arse-backward. The Republicans are the ones who block nominations, for example during Clinton. And then when Dubya was elected, they filled these openings with rightwingers.

What I can't believe is that the Dems have been so gullible as to let this crap continue. End the filibuster now! Stop trying to negotiate with terrorists. After adding hundreds of Republican amendments to "Obamacare" no Republicans voted for it. They are playing you Dems -- Stop believing in compromise -- They don't believe in it, that's for sure.

As for you RWNJs in FR, turn off FOX Noise/Hate Radio. It is causing brain damage.

KM-1447354 -- Really, you're a proud American? So when another unnecessary war is started, will you pay more taxes? Or will you support more deficit spending? And will your sons enlist?

The US must stop providing military protection for other countries that can pay for their own defense. Guess what? Now that Europe is hurting, they are trying to renege on their share of the war in Afghanistan.

You people are clueless. You choose outrageous defense spending over education, infrastructure, research, etc. You choose it over paying down the debt. You choose it when it isn't even necessary. Go on, wear the flag pin on your lapel. I'm not impressed with symbolism and bravado.

An impressive list of accomplishments:

First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.

First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.

First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesday evening White
House parties for his friends paid for by the taxpayer.

First President to preside over a cut to the credit-rating of the United States.

First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.

First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense.

First President to repeat the Holy Quran tells us the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to
worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.

First President to violate the War Powers Act.

First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

First President to defy a Federal Judge's court order to cease implementing the Health Care Reform
Law.

First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party.

First President to spend a trillion dollars on 'shovel-ready' jobs when there was no such thing as
'shovel-ready' jobs.

First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union
supporters.

First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat

First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal
immigrants across the U.S., including those with criminal convictions.

First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.

First President to terminate America's ability to put a man in space.

First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.

First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.

First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke-out on the reasons for their
rate increases.

First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state it is allowed to locate a
factory.

First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH,
IN).

First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.

First President to fire an inspector general of Ameri-Corps for catching one of his friends in a
corruption case.

First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.

First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office, 90 to date.

First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.

First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.

First President to go on multiple global 'apology tours'.

First President to take a 17 day vacation.

AND
THE LATEST:First sitting President to endorse same sex marriage.

HOPE YOU REMEMBER THIS LIST WHEN YOU VOTE!

pjam09 "You now its bad when an NBC poll shows it being so close. In reality it's probably at least 60/40 in favor of Romney."

Interesting comment. There are certain 'tricks' that some biased pollsters use to 'skew' the results to their liking;

1 - They use outdated weighting (percentages of Democrats, Republicans and Independents) to 'adjust' their results - For example, the percentages for 2008 were 39% Democrats, 32% Republicans, and 29% Independents, but current polls indicate 36% Republican, 34% Democrat, and 30% Independents. If they use the old split, that could easily account for a 7% estimated error bias for Democrats.

2 - They use 'Registered Voters' for their poll, but Republicans tend to vote in much higher percentages than Democrats - so that is another polling error bias in favor of Democrats which varies with the amount of interest in an election. I suspect that the excitement of electing the 'First Black President' will be absent in November.

It's too bad there is no room for the adults at the table, anymore.

Crystal: Exactly! But you forgot one thing. Obama is a Marxist/Socialist/Communist.

Crystal-569996 -- You couldn't post something more original than that, the GOPee Wee Herman 'I know you are, but what am I" response? We're still waiting to hear about all Romney's qualifications to be POTUS, and all the accomplishments of the Teapublican House in Congress. *crickets*

Against Union Thievery -- Good point, she forgot all the contradictory lies, with communism being different from socialism, oh and let's not forget Nazis too. Or how the president was influenced by Jeremiah Wright, yet somehow he's a Muslim too. Ha, it never ceases to amaze.

giant douche................turd sandwich.................tough call.

KM - hahaha...then we should have nuked the Russkies and the Chi-Coms in '46 before they got the bomb.

I have no problem with being "the model" for the rest...but, realistically, the advantage we had following WW II could not have been practically sustained. At the end of the war, we were producing approximately one-half of EVERYTHING produced on the planet.

Nevertheless, I know of no great nation or empire, in human history, that either attained or sustained their greatness by ":going small."

The deficits are going to have to be resolved by BOTH increases in revenue AND spending cuts. Both Parties need to stop haggling over the shape of the negotiating table and get down to business.

And, oh yeah, revenue increases do not have to be entirely based on tax rate increases; economic growth would also help, but, in today's high-tech, global economy, which has endangered the American middle class, through the devaluation of labor, that's a complex issue.

IMO, it will take every tool in the box, plus luck.

Crystal-569996

Here's one you missed;

First President to hide his SAT scores that would show that he needed 'Affirmative Action' to get into law school.

I've seen reasonable estimates that his IQ is about 113 - probably the lowest of any President ever (100 is average).

PS - H W Bush's IQ (based on SAT scores) was 125, better than John F. Kennedy (119) and Bill Clinton

(116).

bigbenalaska

Obama has done several generations worth of damage ....

You mean, Obama is starting to repair several generations of damage. Amazes me how people seem to forget that 10 TRILLON of the debt was created BEFORE President Obama was sworn in

stone6 "The deficits are going to have to be resolved by BOTH increases in revenue AND spending cuts. Both Parties need to stop haggling over the shape of the negotiating table and get down to business."

Exactly right. Both the Republicans and Democrats need to be realistic about this. Half spending cuts and half tax increases would be about right.

Unfortunately, the spending cuts never seem to materialize after the tax increases are enacted.

Nooooo....blacks aren't racists, are they? 88% to 2%...?? Just like that batty teacher in NC...sheeeeesh!

ItsAboutTime-3704531 " Amazes me how people seem to forget that 10 TRILLON of the debt was created BEFORE President Obama was sworn in"

True, but it took 230 years to get to $10 Trillion, - Obama has gotten it to $15.7 Trillion in only about 3.5 years. That's a 57% increase since the end of fiscal 2008.

And the economy has only grown by about 4% since then, while the number of people working is now about 1.3 Million LOWER than when Obama took office.

True Patriot...

And you aren't a libbie troll??? LOL!

Roy Wilson...funny isn't it? They just won't admit this POTUS is out of his league...

A community organizer doesn't make a good POTUS!

True Patriot...

really...GOPee Wee Herman...teapublicans??

You sound like you are about 12 years old....have you even gone through puberty yet?

Roy- Obama is not the super genius, brilliant mastermind, uber intellect that the obamazombies have made up in their delusional fantasy! Makes me laugh to read their posts about how intelligent they are and what knuckle-draggers the conservatives are when in fact, it takes a weak brain to fall for the rhetoric and televangelist speeches and then be too egotistical to admit a mistake. shaking head...

@ItsAboutTime-3704531

You mean, Obama is starting to repair several generations of damage. Amazes me how people seem to forget that 10 TRILLON of the debt was created BEFORE President Obama was sworn in

What amazes me is how some people consider tacking on an additional 5 TRILLON (nearly a 50% increase in less than one full term) is considered "repairing damage". I guess some people will believe whatever they want regardless of how ridiculous it obviously is.

Seriously what a ridiculous argument, he's added half as much to the debt as literally every other President in history combined. I'm not seeing how anyone can spin that as being a positive.

Backcountry...

The fact is, they really don't believe spending 5 trillion did anything...but they can't argue anything else. They are nothing but Obamadrones who see Him as the great savior, almost godlike. In reality, he is a lawyer who never tried one case, barely voted on anything as a JUNIOR senator...and really, what is a community organizer anyway? They still can't come up with a good explanation for that one...

46%, 47%, 49% of what number? A % does not tell me anything.Polls don't tell me a anything. You ask 5-6-7 groupes of questions of the same group of people. and most of them will tell the same person across the board. The mid west has a large population of "Rs'. The poll os so flawed it's rediculas.

And Roy Wilson you are so full of crap, SAT scores don't mean a darn thing in real life. And as for your bloated figure on the debt, and all the other eronious numbers the you claim to know. I suggest that you learn what a debt is and it is reduced than come back and talk to me.

6dogs...

Are you delusional? How about you tell us how Obama has reduced the debt?

You Obamabots will believe anything the admin says, won't you?

Obama is probably the worst POTUS we have ever had...and peanut-head runs a close second...

stone6, are you new to this Newsvine? I've not seen your handle before.

But, of much greater significance, you continue to write sane, thoughtful comments in the midst of so much (not all, but, a lot) shouted vitriol.

Your comment that, "Sooo...it isn't that the deficit is unimportant; it's that restoring consumer spending (demand) is more important at this moment." is one of the most understated realities of these times.

Thanks for your reasonable commentary. Can I write-in your name next November?

A community organizer is one who goes around sniffing other people's money to spend and now we've given him the keys to the treasury. That's how he and Michelle found the Valerie Jarrett ATM.

Never cut taxes BEFORE you cut spending. Starv ing the Beast only ends up causing a lot of pain and suffering for the majority.

Bush was OK with his initial tax cut, because at the time, BOTH Parties were projecting government surpluses for the next decade...of roughly $5.3 trillion. The tax cut would have taken up roughly 25% of that surplus and left funds for the transition costs to a partially privatized social security program, the prescription drug benefit, a little paying down of the debt, etc.

But a dot.com recession that was worse than expected and 9/11 changed the surplus outlook and brought the prospect of having to fund two wars (Afghanistan and Iraq).

No sane President takes the country to war following a large tax cut. If the war was absolutely necessary (as certainly Afghanistan was), then he should have asked Congress for a repeal of the earlier tax cut. UNLESS...

Unless, the wars could be fought fast and cheaply...ala Rumsfeld's statement about join g to war with what you have. When a WH economic advisor suggested to a reporter that the wars might cost around $125 billion, while DoD had been throwing around a $65-75 billion number, the advisor was fired. And, of course, the short, inexpensive wars turned out to be long and expensive.

That's about when Cheney started noting that "deficits don't matter."

The "solution" was to fall back on a Reaganomics gamble, with a domestic economic stimulus to develop, build and sell 5.5 million new homes for low income minorities (June 2002), while giving the "project" a shot in the arm with a second tax cut (2003).

Between 2003 and 2006 it worked. Unemployment went down, revenue went up, but not sufficiently to stop borrowing. And, while unemployment got as low as 4.5%, that didn't translate into exceptional GDP growth. During Bush's 8 years, the average GDP growth was 2.5%. Estimates have been made that without the housing boom, that would have sunk to around 1.5%, or constantly on the verge of slipping back into recession. Remember, that the First Bush recession (and no, I don 't blame that one on Bush) was between March 2001 and, I believe, November 2001.

A lot has been written on aging western economies and low GDP growth...so I don't blame Bush for that either...but find the housing bubble the wrong approach to fixing the low growth problem, since it could not be sustained.

Initial subprime lending (before it was sold up the financial institution chain) peaked in 2006. After that, as institutions such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, became deeper involved, everyone slowly slipped into a game of hot potato as the end became increasingly visible. One of the first signs was Ameriquest laying off some 4,000 employees and closing all of their retail outlets across the country, relying solely on Internet mortgage lending. That was in May 2006. Greenspan had retired in January 2006. Bush contacted Paulson, CEO of Goldman Sachs, to replace Treasury Secretary Snow, in May of 2006 (although Paulson supposedly delayed a decision until August).

Point is that in early to mid 2006, the Bush Administration began changing the deck chairs on the Titanic. By the Spring of 2007, virtually all off the front line mortgage lenders that had profited enormously from subprime lending by selling the mortgages up the chain, were going out of business, either closing or going into bankruptcy. In December 2007, the economy went into recession and it began to become apparent, contrary to the "sound fundamentals" Bernanke and the Administration kept referring to, that falling real estate prices were not going to be a simple bump in the road.

In March 2008, Bear Stearns failed, to be "saved" through a Treasury backed buy-out of Bear by JPMorganChase. In July, Paulson went to Congress and asked for the authority to put the GSEs into conservatorship, IF NECESSARY. When asked, if he expected that to occur...he made his famous "no, but I'd like to have a bazooka in my pocket, that will force them to listen." Less than three months later, it became necessary to use the bazooka. Following the conservatorship of Freddie and Fannie, Lehman Brothers began to fail. A last minute deal for another Bear Stearns type third party buy-out by Barclays failed and they went into bankruptcy.

TARP followed...necessary, according to virtually all economists AND the Bush Administration, plus Obama and Democrats, to avoid an economic meltdown WORSE than the Great Depression (we were already in a recession).

Officially...the recession ended in June 2009, following the bailouts and the rescue of the banks, GM, and Chrysler (and its doubtful Ford could have survived on its own due to the supply network that would have collapsed with GM andy Chrysler failures.

Now, we're in a slow and painful recovery. That's the economy. Want to try for foreign policy and the war on terror?

Eh... cockroaches & vampies only come out in the darkness!

Pity for them - they cannot hide the TRUTH no matter what dirty tricks they use! lol

This is a fine example how Obamacare pass, now Obama cant hide the truth, Obamacare is a dirty trick, we will lose our doctor, the cost of insurance will continue rising, death panel is already set, it will cost twice than CBO predict. Obama is waisting 20 millions of dollars in propaganda to support a law that cockroaches and vampies along with lobbyist from Unions and health industry craft Obamacare, this law is so bad that the only way to vote Y is without reading the Bill. This is nothing more than a fine example of what Democracy means for Obama and radical leftest when they have the control of our institutions.

I am voting either Gary Johnson or Ron Paul. I'd like to tell my child when hes older that his father was smart enough to not vote for the last 3 Dem's or Repub's. Only way I'd vote republican is if Ron Paul wins the nomination (which he is still running for).

“So much has happened, and so little has changed,”

Well now, doesn't that sum up American politics? If there's an Independent candidate, I'll vote for him, too.

One of the benefits of voting Third Party is you do not have to pretend half the political jokes you hear aren't funny. Plus, you don't end up with that slimey feeling you get when you vote the lesser of 2 evils.

Oh yes, also children and puppies will love you.

You also don't look like an idiot arguing over which party is the best

The last time Americans voted in a Third Party President things worked out pretty good. Remember, when Lincoln was voted in, republicans were a Third Party.

Real smart ...go ahead and waste a vote.

Ron Paul is hardly much different than Romney, both will destroy our economy to give more to the rich.

Both have signed the person-hood pledge which makes women into second class citizens. I guess only men deserve freedom and individual rights.

This smaller government crap is a sham to lure people to fall for the lies because you wish they were true. Smaller government will only benefit the rich and their ability to rape and plunder our country at will and none of the responsibility to clean up after themselves. No matter how much damage they do to the people.

Look into the 1890's and the robber barons and how they used absolute control to benefit themselves and how destructive it was to our country and our people. With your smaller government that is what you want to bring back.

You want to bring back all the suffering that brought these laws into being in the first place and how the government grew for the people.

What got out of hand is when the republicans did this to our economy on purpose.

This is our country and our people and how can we let them starve. The people did not create the market crash or the job losses. We need our government to take care of the people in times like this.

I know our government is bloated especially the defense department but things need to be cut with a surgical knife not a sledge hammer. Ron Paul does not even want the government to step in and help when there is a disaster. Is that really how you think we should treat our fellow Americans?

VOTE FOR WOMEN'S FREEDOM...VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT 2012

Keeping in mind that Party Boy Bush got almost half the popular vote last time he ran, I still find it difficult to believe or understand how anyone in their right mind can really be an enthusiastic supporter of Romneycare, unless you are Mormon.

Real smart ...go ahead and waste a vote.

Okey dokey. I have the freedom to do that.

Real smart ...go ahead and waste a vote.

No! I refuse to vote major party. Dems and Repubs have done enough damage for the last 32 years. A pox on both houses!

And I will also work as hard as I can from now until election day to convince others to vote Green Party, Libertarian Party, or whatever Third Party best represents their beliefs.

I am voting either Gary Johnson or Ron Paul. I'd like to tell my child when hes older that his father was smart enough to not vote for the last 3 Dem's or Repub's

But you're dumb enough to vote Ron paul?

"Real smart ...go ahead and waste a vote."

It's that kind of thinking that makes us vote in rubbish candidates. Things will never change if you don't believe there's a third alternative.

Look At Ron Pauls Track Record Compared To The Two Puppets You Have Been Given A Choice To Elect In The Media.

I Hope You Enjoy Your Freedom While You Still Have It.

lol Those polls never turn out to be true. Obama 2012!

OMG Obama Must Go! He has been a failure as a leader, neutered without Pelousy.

I once went to a website and read all the tenets of the Libertarians. They seemed suspiciously familiar to me. I knew I had seen this somewhere else, before. I put up another window to Anton Levay's, Church of Satan. The tenets were 80 percent similar. Don't believe me. Do it for yourself and see. It's really creepy. Both seem to be reflective of the dream of unashamed dominance of the (supposedly) powerful over the (supposedly) weak.

I've kept up with pauls run. The media says he's doing well but he's actually on a thin piece of string.

obama out.!! all he has done is talk.!! and nothing coming out. oh ya... golf, basketball, sing, but the middle class people.... no jobs, no homes, no money. but the senators, and congress living good. just talking how they are going to make things better. so all you people out there with no jobs, or homes to live in good luck to you. but the president a joke.!!!

dont know about you but i am doing alot better than i was 4 years ago. making more money, have a mortgage, 2 car payments and 4 dogs. the president didnt make everyone lose everything. this country has gone to @!$%# because of the do nothing congress who oppose everything he tries to do just because they want him out. they dont care about us. they should all be voted out.

All these third party and Ron Paul people are excuse makers who can't make a decision. Ron Paul is not even in touch with himself and Romney can't see past his aristocatic nose. What are credentials of 3rd parTy candidates? Nothng like the President. They claim his healthcare is unconstitutional. Don't they even take a milli-second to remember that the man is a Harvard Professor of Constitutional Law. If the Obama's were white, they would be hailed as the second-coming of Camelot since the Kennedys. Michelle is the most educated and capable First Lady in American history. The other great First Lady was Eleanor Roosevelt. People keep looking back a Clinton and calling him President with more respect than our sitting President. Does Lewinski, et al sound familar? Give the man his due. President Obama is the best we've had in a long time. Show your appreciation with your vote for him. MLK,jr said "The time to do the right thing is always NOW"

It is very easy, tempting, but lazy, to allow oneself to get caught up in the nasty stuff floating around the Internet and campaign ads. Ignore the calumny! The bedrock issue is economic. It is all about job creation, and how to accomplish it. One is based on established, documented, and successful American economic history. That is the solution that says invest money in job creation, by either the private or public sector. But because the private sector investment in American jobs has not been nearly enough to bring prosperity to Main Street, that investment, also known as stimulus, has to come from the public sector, i.e. government. It is this tried and true solution that has been, and remains, Obama's goal. The second, opposed solution of the Republicans is to rely on our private sector employers to invest in enough American jobs to end the Recession. It is a hard fact, however, that eight years of trying that solution has not created nearly enough jobs to lift us into prosperity. So that is the bedrock issue in this election. We must now ask ourselves, has Romney put forth any new answer for the failure of the second, that is, the right wing solution? Obviously he has not. The already deregulated, minimally taxed supply side, private sector corporations have not produced jobs as proposed by the Republicans. Has the solution of Obama and the Democrats, which is government stimulus for job creation, produced jobs. Yes, even with a relatively small stimulus it created three million jobs. Our past experience during FDR's era has given us the template for recovery today. It has worked for us under Obama, as the supply side theory did not work for us during the entire eight years of George Bush. That failed theory is the solution proposed by Mitt Romney. Clearly, Republican emotional attachments aside, no rational voter could cast a ballot for Romney. He offers only a failed proposal, eight years old.

Umm, there are many who believe that FDR's actions prolonged the depression for eight years. The thing that got us out of the depression was WWII, not FDR. As to Obama's policies, well, Jerry Brown has put almost all of them into action in CA. See how well that's going? Then, look at Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal. Heavily socialized and tanking fast. Are you suggesting WWIII as the means to recovery?

All these Ron Paul haters do not understand his message. they assume he will destroy the economy and they assume he is against peoples rights, they assume he is racist. He wants to reduce the debt we have, cut spending, remove our troops from unconstitutional wars (remove our troops in the 130 bases we have around the world), reduce the tax burden on the citizens, slowly transition out of S.S. and all the other social programs that will be bankrupt in the future, he is against the war on drugs where black individuals are imprisoned more often than whites. He wanted to change the civil rights act so it would not undermine private property rights. Thats the tip of the iceburg. The health care bill is unconstitutional b/c it is a ferderal mandate and cuts into the state's Police Powers. 10th amendment sort of thing. I used to be an Obama supporter during the 2008 election. Too many promises never to be made, too much false hope, and too much pandering to the public.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

keep watching those numbers and keep on spending.

The last time Americans voted in a Third Party President things worked out pretty good. Remember, when Lincoln was voted in, republicans were a Third Party.

The last serious 3rd party challenge was, of course, Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in the election exactly 100 years ago, and the results of that election were definitely NOT "pretty good". Roosevelt split the Republican vote with Taft, allowing Woodrow Wilson to slip in under the wire and steal the Presidency. Wilson, like so many Democrats that would follow him, masterfully played the issues against each other (in his case, isolationism / economy), and steered us carefully right into WWI. War, as any good Democrat knows, is the best solution for a stalled, stagnant economy. Just ask Wilson, Roosevelt (Franklin D), Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and so on ...

Umm, there are many who believe that FDR's actions prolonged the depression for eight years. The thing that got us out of the depression was WWII, not FDR.

Here is my take on that situation. FDR pushed government spending upwards on the idea that the government could help create more demand correct? Well it wasn't until the spending shot straight up due to WWII that the economy got back on track. So regardless, government spending got us out of the Great Depression I think.

Satanick: You could be a political speech writer or a campaign manager...good spin:)

You can argue whether or not FDR got us out of the depression. During 1933 - 1935, his first three years, the GDP grew between 8% and 10% each of those years. After those three years some of FDR's actions such as his trade embargoes/tariffs may have made the situation worse. When Reagan, Bush 1 and Bush 2 came out recessions the GDP grew by more than 5%.

It is only Obama's recovery that has been so tepid. Last year's growth 3% or less, this year 2.2% so far, with a third quarter estimate of 1.9%. Compared with previous recoveries under other Dems or Reps, Obama's has been anemic. He wasted the stimulus, with an estimated 2.1 million jobs at over $800 billion. That equates to $400,000 per job. For that type of money we should be able to create at least 8 million jobs. Obama did not target the right groups with his stimulus.

Here is my take on that situation. FDR pushed government spending upwards on the idea that the government could help create more demand correct? Well it wasn't until the spending shot straight up due to WWII that the economy got back on track. So regardless, government spending got us out of the Great Depression I think.

I agree completely. In actuality, the Depression dragged on for roughly 12 years before our involvement in the war brought us out. Remember though, that for that 12 years Roosevelt initiated a large number of entitlement programs, many of which still beleager us today. The welfare system in use today was created during this period. The government had no deficit spending before this period. It was Roosevelt who began the long cycle of inflation / deficit spending that we are now responsible for. Despite all his economic programs and endeavors, the depression was continuing unabated until ... he came to the same solution that Wilson had. EVERYBODY has a job in wartime. Industry and manufacturing are at their highest possible levels in wartime. Investment in our government is always at record levels during wartime (ie savings bonds, etc...).

You must also understand that isolationism in America was at its strongest level in history during the Great Depression. NO ONE cared when Hitler invaded Poland. The spread of Japanese Imperialism in Asia and the Pacific was a dull and boring issue to most Americans. Even when our cousins in England and Western Europe were besieged by Nazi Germany, we did nothing. Roosevelt knew that some drastic event would be necessary to light a fire under the American people, just as he knew that war was the only way to repair our failed economy.

And so he allowed the bombing of Pearl Harbor to take place to light that fire. This is not a debatable point. We had intercepted multiple Japanese military dispatches starting MONTHS before Dec. 7th that stated quite clearly that a major US Military installation would be attacked. There were only a couple of bases that the Japanese could even attempt to reach, and Pearl Harbor was the largest and most important one we had in the Pacific theater. Standard US peacetime naval deployment at Pearl was that only 1 carrier and a small contingent of battleships would be on patrol at any one time, and the rest of the fleet would remain at berth in Pearl and 1 or 2 other smaller Pacific bases. Strangely, on Dec. 7th there was at berth ONE carrier and a minimal number of smaller vessels. The entire rest of the fleet was at sea. This was the only time that such a reversal had occured. Congress declared war the next day, and lo and behold, our economy soon became highly successful, stronger than it had ever been.

So, you're exactly right, WWII did end the Great Depression. And FDR deliberately manipulated events so that we would have no choice EXCEPT to go to war. Oh, he's not alone. It has been a pretty standard practice for some of our leaders to lie to manipulate the American people. It's interesting how many of these lies were told by a Democratic POTUS. Lyndon Johnson completely fabricated an attack by the North Vietnamese in the Tonkin Gulf to get Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which allowed him to intervene whenever and wherever he wanted in SE Asia. And so the war machine of economic health continued to roll along.

Bruce from Jacksonville

It gives me great pleasure to read a post by someone who uses the facts to make their argument. Facts do not lie, they merely report the truth. As evidenced by a large # of posts here, it's very easy to be a sheep, ignorant and blind to the truth. It's tough to stick to your guns and be the shepherd, but someone has to make the attempt. I welcome any and all nonsheep, with a great deal of respect.

chforbessr provides facts that are much better. Thanks chforbessr!

bigbenalaska,

"No one wants Obama any more"

Speak for yourself.

Americans, who are not in the 1%, and who want Romney as president are out of touch with this country's most vital issues...the economy, political enfranchisement, health care, educational global competitiveness, etc.

Romney is bringing Cheney aboard his campaign. This political move should tell voters that Mitt will reinstate the Bush years. Romney will bring back the failed GOP tactics and the illusion of..."give the rich our economy and the U.S. Treasury. These ethical, gilded folks are responsible. They will ensure that we have a healthy economy and that the citizenry will prosper."

He's done enough damage ....

BigBen, the [economic, political and social] damage started in 1980.

The most egregious damage occurred in the 8 years preceding President Obama.

Obama's having a tough time staying even in the polls with Romney so early in the race .... "LOL"

If Obama is having difficulty "staying even in the polls" it is due to the political ignorance of many voters.

"LOL"

The debates will bring a clean sweep for Obama.

It remains to be seen how long you will be laughing.

It is only Obama's recovery that has been so tepid. Last year's growth 3% or less, this year 2.2% so far, with a third quarter estimate of 1.9%. Compared with previous recoveries under other Dems or Reps, Obama's has been anemic. He wasted the stimulus, with an estimated 2.1 million jobs at over $800 billion. That equates to $400,000 per job. For that type of money we should be able to create at least 8 million jobs. Obama did not target the right groups with his stimulus.

GDP growth: You may think it is tepid, but all you have to do is compare it to the previous administration's record. GDP growth over the first 7 years that George W. Bush was president averaged just 2.3% per year. Note that I excluded the last year when the economy tanked and GDP shrank. As you yourself point out, Obama has numbers very close to that with an economy in recession! Sorry, I don't see that as a failure.

Stimulus: we will be debating the stimulus for a long time to come. Are you saying the stimulus did nothing? That notion doesn't find much support even among Republican economists. Doug Holtz-Eakin is president of the right-leaning American Action Forum and served as Sen. John McCain's top economic adviser during the 2008 presidential campaign. He says: "The argument that the stimulus had zero impact and we shouldn't have done it is intellectually dishonest or wrong. If you throw a trillion dollars at the economy, it has an impact. I would have preferred to do it differently, but they needed to do something."

The stimulus was too small. The administration underestimated the size of the recession, so it follows that any policy to combat it would be too small. On top of that, it had to get that policy through Congress. So it went with $800B — what Romer thought the economy could get away with — rather than $1.2T — what she thought it needed. Then the Senate watered the policy down to about $700B. Estimates now are that it should have been about $2.5T.

Now, in your discussion here are the facts you have ignored:

...the numbers for Bush's last three months. Between October and November, 597,000 jobs were lost; between November and December, 681,000 were lost; and between December and January, 741,000 were lost.

April 2012 marks the 26th straight month of gains in private-sector employment, for a total of 4.2 million private-sector jobs.

DJIA Dec 1, 2008 = 8149

DJIA May 19, 2012 = 12369

Dec 29, 2008 U.S. corporate earnings probably fell for a sixth-straight quarter, the longest streak in at least 20 years, as consumer spending on automobiles, homes and retailers collapsed.

May 11, 2012 Fortune magazine released its ranking of the 500 biggest US corporations Monday, which showed that they received a record-breaking $824 billion in combined profits in 2011, up 16 percent from 2010.

EE - Politics don't define long term economic market growth. Recessions have always been cyclical in nature.

As for your trying to connect the dots for corporate profits and obama, how droll. Corporate profits came about by deleveridging, increasing productivity and balancing out their workforce based on demand. Obama has increased debt, has done little to address government productivity and has only tried to maintain government payrolls at the expense of the private sector.

You remember the private sector don't you? They are the only ones that create the revenues that support government payrolls and programs.

As for the stimulas, all you are offerring are excuses. Obamas 2011 stimulas was more of the same as 2009, he was targeting the wrong population segment with a sawed off shotgun. He thenshowed us how quickly he couldn't maintain focus on anything. His motto for 2012 might as well be... "hurry up and just throw money at it, some will stick!"

BTW, stimulas only works if it creates sustainability.

You couldn't be more wrong, if you remember the private sector was shedding jobs by the drobes until Obama infused the stimulis into the economy, most companies didn't rehire a lot of employees they held on to there profits (stimulis) and claimed uncertainty in the economy why they wont rehire.

p.Mack, and the private sector still isn't hiring. There's no business to prompt new hires.

These past four years have been a waste. The ones who were looking for a handout didn't get what they wanted, and those of us who were looking for help with the economy are still looking for it.

I'll keep my money, my guns and my religion. YOU can keep the change.

Romney 2012

Romney is going to have a tough time dodging his previous lies and flip flops when the race is in full swing, though...

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/mar/07/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-iran-released-hostages-1981-becau/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/sep/22/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-repeats-claim-obama-went-around-world-/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/mar/22/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-barack-obama-ending-medicare-we-k/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/mar/05/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-president-ignored-debt-problems-s/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jan/18/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-us-navy-smallest-1917-air-force-s/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jan/08/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-once-again-says-us-inches-away-no-long/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/nov/22/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-obama-said-if-we-keep-talking-abo/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/oct/18/mitt-romney/romney-says-barack-obama-has-no-private-sector-exp/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/sep/07/mitt-romney/romney-says-his-health-care-bill-affected-far-smal/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/may/13/mitt-romney/romney-calls-obamas-health-care-law-government-tak/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/jan/06/mitt-romney/amnesty-amnesty-amnesty-amnesty/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jan/08/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-repeats-claim-repealing-health-law-sav/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/dec/12/mitt-romney/romney-says-only-obama-has-cut-medicare/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/jan/18/mitt-romney/campaign-is-ankle-deep-in-lobbyists/

As for your trying to connect the dots for corporate profits and obama, how droll. Corporate profits came about by deleveridging, increasing productivity and balancing out their workforce based on demand.

Well, aside from your pathetic spelling, perhaps you have an explanation for why it fell so precipitously during the Bush years? I'll repeat it if you didn't catch it the first time:

Dec 29, 2008 U.S. corporate earnings probably fell for a sixth-straight quarter, the longest streak in at least 20 years, as consumer spending on automobiles, homes and retailers collapsed.

Sorry, politics does affect how economic market growth works. Particularly when Republicans made laws and regulations that were more favorable to finacial institutions (a bunch of companies who did nothing but exchange paper and create huge profits) and made the situation less favorable for manufacturers (you know, those that actually create something). Voting for Republicans this Fall will just create that all over again!

I still find it difficult to believe or understand how anyone in their right mind can really be an enthusiastic supporter of Romneycare, unless you are Mormon.

Amazing that Obama fashioned his healthcare plan around Romneycare isn't it?

Well, they don't like how Obama wants to change things. So Romney is an improvement. Obama is all talk anyways. He doesn't follow through with much. Great a playing politics, terrible as a leader.

Improvement like having a 1/4 inch nail in your tire rather than a 1/2 inch one. We really are shooting for the stars!

PutAmericaFirst -

Why don't you tell those do-nothing repukes in Congress to put America First. You talking about President Obama playing politics. Their game plan from the beginning was to get Obama out to he$$ with America. Do we have selective memory here!

I believe that they have more of a desire to put the country first than the president (he hasn't propsed anything to make us better in 4 years), but you are right. All parties need to put aside their differences and do what is best for the country.

@Rburn-4060125

Why don't you tell those do-nothing repukes in Congress to put America First. You talking about President Obama playing politics. Their game plan from the beginning was to get Obama out to he$$ with America. Do we have selective memory here!

Sounds like you do since you don't seem to remember democrats taking the same stance after Bush "stole" the election from Gore. Guess you only see it as a negative when it's the other side doing it.

Let me see if I am getting this right. Are you are telling me that the democrats refused to raised the debt ceiling when bush was president? Do you mean that kind of opposition? The kind that was bad for our government and our economy?

Rburn,

Did it ever occur to you that Republicans feel that Obama is leading America down the wrong path and that is why they are against him and want to make him a one term president? i voted for Republicans to stop the progressives from spending us to oblivion...for me, they are doing their job. Saying "NO" is sometimes the right answer...

Racist seem to have the most problems with the POTUS. There is just no way to fix that kind of thinking! Stupid is just stupid!

OMG- when you've got nothing else, play the race card.

If Romney is such a financial genius, why are his policies identical to George W. Bush?

JK, You voted for republicans to reduce spending. You are definitely not the brightest bulb in packet are you. The largest spenders are the republicans, bar none. Reagan had record deficits which led to expanding the debt higher then it had been since WW l l, Clinton run up the debt but slowed it with his economic plan, and actually left Bush a budget surplus. Bush doubled the debt with record deficits. You guys on the right don't get it. Clinton had us on a path toward reducing the debt, Bush ended that. Bush was handed an economy that was going great guns, what did he leave Obama? The worst economy since 1929. Again you fascist have no morals as you say Obama is a failure. His achievements are many, especially the travesty of the 10 election. In some ways I hope Romney gets elected, the economy will crash and many will suffer while Wall St. drinks champagne. The more I think about it the angrier I get, many of you people who are middle class and talking like Rush Limbaugh will be effected by the depression caused by hiring the former CEO of Bain Capitol. You souk.

VOTE ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT stop Obama's economic insanity.

I wonder. Why don't America's "news" outlets ever bother to mention that polls are a poor way to judge a race? You see- polls reflect popular opinion, as in one-person-one-vote. But! Not all votes are created equal, thanks to THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE.

Obama and Romney may be close in the polls, they may even be closely matched in the popular vote tally in November, but the states where Obama is leading are BIG electoral states, and the states where Romney is leading are mostly small electoral states.

If you look at the electoral race, Obama has been WAY in the lead the whole time, and will remain so.

But... then I guess the "news" outlets would have to actually go find some real news to report on. O god forbid.

You voted for republicans to reduce spending. You are definitely not the brightest bulb in packet are you.

National debt added since our first President.....10 Trillions of dollars.

Debt added for Obama in 3 years .........5 Trillions of dollars.

John , you are telling me that Obama will reduce the debt, keep drinking your glass of kool-aid. With his record he won't be reelected.

I used to like reading all of these comments, Now it is sickening how alseep most of the posters are on the vine. The thrill is gone. Romney is for the rich and Obama says he is for the middle class. But at the same time our congress on both sides are taking away our freedoms in the name of terrorism and Obama is signing those same bills. It seems that our freedoms are being stripped away from us little by little. While we sit and argue about how much one candidate is better than the other. They don't give a crap about the middle class otherwise we would better off today than 10 yrs ago. The sad part is that there is very little hope that our situation will get any better.

Obama is all talk anyways. He doesn't follow through with much.

...stop Obama's economic insanity.

...the numbers for Bush's last three months. Between October and November, 597,000 jobs were lost; between November and December, 681,000 were lost; and between December and January, 741,000 were lost.

April 2012 marks the 26th straight month of gains in private-sector employment, for a total of 4.2 million private-sector jobs.

DJIA Dec 1, 2008 = 8149

DJIA May 19, 2012 = 12369

Dec 29, 2008 U.S. corporate earnings probably fell for a sixth-straight quarter, the longest streak in at least 20 years, as consumer spending on automobiles, homes and retailers collapsed.

May 11, 2012 Fortune magazine released its ranking of the 500 biggest US corporations Monday, which showed that they received a record-breaking $824 billion in combined profits in 2011, up 16 percent from 2010.

I think he has shown results. If this is economic insanity I far prefer it to the Republican brand that we lived through for 8 years previous to Obama!

EE - Politics don't define long term economic market growth. Recessions have always been cyclical in nature.

As for your trying to connect the dots for corporate profits and obama, how droll. Corporate profits came about by deleveridging, increasing productivity and balancing out their workforce based on demand. Obama has increased debt, has done little to address government productivity and has only tried to maintain government payrolls at the expense of the private sector.

You remember the private sector don't you? They are the only ones that create the revenues that support government payrolls and programs.

Oskar, to be fair, the 10 Trillion before only goes back to President Van Buren, in 1837.

Oskar,

It's ok...somehow reading John's post you get the feeling that he is a few fries short of a happy meal.

I can't understand the contempt for our president. I believe him to be intelligent and caring. His decisions are well thought out directed for the good of the country. Why can't everyone see this?

Obama is walking on loose ground. I get it. Excellent . . .

I___lVl___l - okay, seriously, are you doing drugs or what?

Don't you mean Obama will win by a landslide like he did in 2008, John McCain got beat badly and the Republicans just can't stand that a African American is President. So what did they do, they got a lot of Republicans to win the Governor positions in many states, then they changes the rules, follow ALEC, voter ID, redistricting, strip collective bargaining, make deep cuts to all public workers, destroy public schools, oh and don't forget give the largest tax breaks to the wealthiest, while destroying the middle class, and last but not least, creating "ZERO" jobs.

They also are some of the biggest liars, cheats, and in some cases criminals, but hey when you think your above the law who cares, those Koch boys, Carl Rove and my favorite Norquist will protect them with all their billions.

Boy can't wait for Willard to win by a landslide! Ha Ha Ha

Laura,

Pretty delusional...last I checked Obama voted for the tax cuts... And you can stop anytime with the racist crap...it's getting old. I could care less what color Obama is...I'm sure if Hiliary had won you progressives would have been whining that everyone is against women. Geez...grow up. The problem with you is that you use race as an excuse for Obama...when you really should be asking how good a job has he done, and if you looked past your racist viewpoint you would see things objectively.

Laura -

You've got a very short memory, don't you?

I would hardly call 53% of the vote a 'landslide'.

We all know it will be a landslide loss for Obama, just as we all knew it would be for the Democrats in November 2010. Isn't it fun to watch the liberal media put out these stories and "polls" to keep the sheep from realizing just how wrong they are though?

Can't wait to see the surprised faces and hear the excuses from the sheep when they see the election results this fall.

Mark, I think you mean loses. I don't know if looses is even a word.

In order for people to be inform for the futrue of our country, you have to put ads on american idol 2012

We're not really all that divided...that's the first big myth that just gets sillier and sillier in the re-telling. CONGRESS is divided....partisans dominate national politics and the airwaves. Not the same thing at all. Look at the groups Obama is way ahead with. Unless you figure out a way to suddenly make a whole lot of angry, old white men before November, President Obama is headed for re-election....and there will then be a lot of hand-wringing and soul searching in the Republican Party about how to be in any way relevant in the decades ahead.

delusional. Obama is the president of the democrats, and he only squeals for compromise when he is losing, otherwise, his arrogant attitude of "I won, get over it" has divided this country like never before. He is no leader, he is a player and the obamazombies eat it up.

Romney's vulture Capitalism has been done, before, ad naseum. It has put us deep in the hole we are in now. Nobody needs that. Who does he have left in his limited list to speak for? Perhaps, he still speaks to the rare rich Mormon bishops, but nobody else.

VOTE ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT stop Obama's economic insanity.

its our rights as americans to vote, informed or uninformed. just because alot of people are not up on politics doesnt mean they shouldnt vote.

i will not vote for romney just because i dont agree with his stance on gay marriage and abortion. his religious beliefs have no place in politics. if he tries to run this country base on his religious beliefs we are all doomed.

Romney has never made his religious beliefs part of how he governs or leads. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

Obama lost already. Obama = Bush and enough people are aware of that for this election to be a landslide.

That is absurd and you know it. Why do you perpetuate so much hate? The GOP is nothing like you describe, but that doesn't matter to you. Of course you will probably remain ignorant and wallow in you hatred of anyone who thinks different than you and blindly vote democrat.

Hey, did you happen to see where the recovery went?

For a while there, it looked as if jobs were returning, the housing market was close to bottoming out and consumers were growing more confident about their own economic outlook. But then came a disappointing jobs report, a three percent stock market correction and renewed fears that the recovery would fade.

Your throwing racism into this? The only voting bloc exhibiting racism is the African-American vote, supporting Obama 88 to 2 - Leftists like to cultivate the spector of racism, but it is their constituencies that vote along lines of race.

Obama's policies are bad policies - I am hopeful that the GOP continues to say "no" to bad policy.

sfilutze - you're absolutely correct! The GOP plays on fear and hatred. They offer nothing and they really hate that the country is recovering - albeit slowly.

There is absolutely no sanity in the GOP - as you can see by the righties on this site!

Obama/Biden 2012 - by a LANDSLIDE!!!

Put

The GOP is exactly as described. They hate gays, non-Christians, unless you are perhaps Jewish, but only if you are a right wing jew, blacks and women. Also poor people and intellectuals. Just saying the opposite doesn;t make it so. Look at their actions, not their words. They would rather destroy the USA than let a mixed race president have a second term.

Excuse me?? Gas prices coming down?? Last I checked in California, I just paid $4.47/gal...

Backcountry...

Absolutely correct...all this talk a few weeks ago about Romney supposedly being a bully and here we see everyday, people like Seeking bullying people with words...

The GOP is nothing like you describe, but that doesn't matter to you. Of course you will probably remain ignorant and wallow in you hatred of anyone who thinks different than you and blindly vote democrat.

So bush was a good guy and sent our troops over to the hellhole because "We were trying to make them more civil with a democracy". We were trespassing and trying to take their oil. Some idiot decided to take action against the us and do something extremely stupid (which I will say he went Waaaaay over the line with what he did.) In all actuality we should have seen something like this happen and leave them the hell alone. Obama might not be better but he did somethings right (not much). And do you really think Romney will be any different? Here's a lesson everyone must know. Politicians LIE. No matter what comes out of their mouths they're all lies.

to: T. Schumacher

How old are you? Have you read Obomacare? I started wooking at 16 and due to hime ended at 57. I have payed for your college, your education till gatuation from high grad. Now Obomacacare says that I i am dispendablel. If you are old, on ss, in a nurcing home, mentalle ill , you are not given any help to live you are put on a five day death treatment.

sfilutze,

Some facts on the recovery. Wages on these new jobs are down when adjusted for inflation by $4300. This is some help to the middle class, how? The number of jobs are still down 4.9 million from the average during 2007. Housing prices are still near the bottom and banks are sitting on hundreds of thousand,s if not over a million foreclosed properties. If these flooded onto the market all at once the prices would fall further.

Then there is the national debt at > $15.7 trillion, this exceeds the GDP. We will be where Greece is now no later than 2016.

Why would you want that? Why does it matter that he is a mormon? Are you just being bigotted, or do you have a reason?

Because those of us who are non-believers (a number that I'm happy to say is growing) have a right to be represented by someone who doesn't believe in magic underwear.

You do have that right, but I think that our country is facing bigger problems than to worry about the undergarments of the president.

Mike,

You do have the right to put a candidate who agrees with you and can win an election, but as of now both candidates believe in religion

Mike VL - Romney being Mormon doesn't bother me - it's everything else about him I can't stand. No plans; no programs; no stance; no integrity; no nothing!

It's his beliefs that are dangerous, not his underwear. Well, actually I don't know - maybe his underwear is dangerous too.

Good point Jerry L - both candidates are religious, so I will have to just get over that one for now. I just happen to believe our President should be very smart, and I consider religious folk (I was one) just average, like the rest of us. I've never met a truly intelligent person who believed in sin, heaven, hell, all of that foolishness.

Mike,

Our smartest President was probably Jimmy Carter and he did believe in religion. I do not think he was a very good President, so for me you cannot equate intelligence with being an effective leader.

jerry

But we did have Bush II. You can equate lack of intelligence with a lousy leader.

Poor bush II was just a puppet just like Romney is the puppet Norquist ask for.

American,

Or more accurately...Barry is a puppet of the unions...no difference...

Hmmmmm! isn't Uncle Harry Ried a Mormon?

ROMNEY 2012

Mike are you a bigot or just an athiest that hates all religion. Just what kind of religion is black liberation theology. That is the "church" Obama went to for 20+ years. In Obama's church Rev Wright preached hate for whites, hate against the US government, hate for America, and weird conspiracy theories. Obama also attended a Muslim madrass for a few years. A madress mainly teaches the Koran. There are other Mormans in state and federal legislature. I thought we were over with the narrow minded liberal haters that use race and religion to attack people. Have you heard of Larry Bland? Larry claims to have had oral sex with Obama and calls him out about his sexual experimenting in the past. Obama also wrote extensively about his heavy pot smoking and snorting cocaine. If you want to compare character between Obama and Romney you lose.

VOTE ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT stop Obama's economic insanity and vote for a real man with real ethics and morals and character.

Hi Uncle Sam...not sure what your rant is all about. I don't hate religion (but I can spell "Mormon"). Most atheists don't hate religion; we just think it's...not needed. Like leaving cookies and milk out for Santa, religion is something to be outgrown.

Your right both canidates are religious,however one dosent tell me how to behave in my bedroom,because of what their bible says,or at least their interputation .

Ferrosynthesis-3490482

Bush II was not stupid. His IQ was around 125, this would put him between the 90th and 95th percentile in intelligence (or maybe slightly higher). Do not forget half the population has an IQ under 100. The top 2% start at 130 and the bottom 2% are under 70.

@bruce from jacksonville, Just because a person has a high IQ doesn't mean they a good Lawyer, Doctor, President, or Businessman. My IQ is 144, I could pass law school if I wanted to but have no desire to go that direction. I could have a job wearing a suit if I was inclined to. I find that I love doing jobs that are challenging in other ways. I survive in jobs that have high attrition rates but after the problems are solved and it becomes a cake walk it is time for me to move on to other challenges. Having an IQ of any measure doesn't mean that person would make a good President. It's all in your genes your programing.

his failure to get repubs and dems to work together

Man you fell for it. The right's strategy was to obstruct everything just so the gullible would blame the president. Yeah, obstruct everything, don't let anything happen and then blame the other guy for your stubborn refusal to cooperate. Yup, you fell for it!

Did you ever hear the old saying "going from the frying pan into the fire"? Well, if Romney ever gets elected, that's exactly what we'll get. You think it's bad now, you haven't seen anything yet!

Cantor is the worst. I am not a mystical person, but, I could easily swear up and down that the man is the Anti-Christ, in all his Satanic glory.

So Roosterboy, you must really hate Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Al Franken, Rangel, Waters, Kerry, Al Gore, Wasserman Shultz, John Edwards, and my fave Anthony Weiner. A finer bunch of flesh masquerading as humans the liberal Democrats could come up with. But last and least Obama, the origin of the stink in the outhouse.

VOTE ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT stop Obama's economic insanity.

@uncle sam, YOU need to realize that Bush ran this country into trillions in debt and the fault is you, you put him in office. Accept your responsibility, the trouble with you "Rs" is your just like a bunch of Alcholics "living in denial" of the truth. $88 billion was put into the system by Obama in 2 locations to get the country moving and all they did was sit on the money ( "R" scumbags). Now it going to take 11 yrs or so to get this country back into working order. If the Republican Senaters were there to be doing the right thing and voting for plans that the people were benifitting from (actually doing the job that they are suppose to be doing), instead of trying to discredit the President. "We the People" would be moving along a lot better right now. Far as I'm concerned, what a lot of these Senators are doing to the people of my country is close to treason. I'm just sorry that the crime is not subject to Death by Firing Squad. Now go on and piss me off some more.

Teleprompter, Hell we all know that the king of the teleprompter is Obama. Did you see the video where he is talking to an empty room yet his head still swivels back and forth from one screen to the other. Hilarious.

You are bashing on Romney's teleprompter? I can't wait until the "wizard of uh's" telepromter is taken away and he has to come up with harder answers than, "It's President Bush's fault."

I just wish Gingrich was still in it so I could have seen that debate. President Obama would have ended up sitting in the corner droolinf on himself.

Romney/whoever 2012!!!!

This race should be no where near this close.

Bottom line:

Obama= unqualified

Romney= qualified

alan290 - Romney isn't qualified to be sanitation engineer - way above his intelligence level.

Obama/Biden in a landslide!

Anyone who wishes Gingrich could debate President Obama must believe anything. Gingrich couldn't out debate Ron Paul. That's because theres a big difference between a "debater" and a "bullshi$$er.

SeekingSanity,

Let me guess, you are either black, or a communist/socialist, or you are just simply mentally challenged. Which one?

Rburn, I believe he can come up with better than, "It's President Bush's fault." That's all he is going to have this time around, and hopefully no one buys it again.

Romney\whoever 2012

You can count on it if Romney wins he brings the policies that will create a recession with him.

Romney's budget takes from the poor, gives to the rich and adds over ten trillion dollars to the deficit. And smart people are going to vote for this why?

So its Romney/Recession/Whoever

Alen I think he might have been making a joke. People elect the dumbasses for president. Sanity am I right or off just a tad?

Romney my butt, he can't find the trees for the forest.

Wow! Four times and they still couldn't get it right, eh?

Why are you surprised that a Democrat majority in the Senate blocked a Republican Senate minority proposal?Are you suggesting we change the system and lump House and Senate votes together?

Our President doesn't even have the support of his own party. This is getting too serious.

Senate Democrats (namely Reid, who sets the calendar/agenda), knew Republicans would either utilize the filibuster to prevent the Obama budget from being voted on, or - more likely - even it passed the Senate, it would then have to be returned to the House (or to a Conference Committee with joint House/Senate members) and would fail for lack of Republican House support.

Why waste the time? Might as well move on to things both Parties can agree upon...like establishing a National Petunia Day or whatever.

Until Republicans burn their Norquist Pledge cards and fully comprehend the seriousness of the economic situation...why bother? Besides...once again...if Congress does NOTHING, Norquist and Company lose...and the Bush tax cuts expire at the END of 2012.

It is early in the race for President and an incumbent has a big advantage. However, Obama should be ahead by 10+ points now, especially since the Republicans had a somewhat bruising primary. The incumbent has a huge advantage in fund raising and can use the resources of the WH as a bully pulpit. Only two elected incumbents have been defeated in my time (Carter and Bush 1).

I will wait and see if the race stays tight up to one or two weeks prior to election day. If memory serves, the race between Carter and Reagan was constantly close right up to the end and what happened. Reagan won by a landslide, and Carter was conceding even before us on the west coast voted or got off work. (Hence, the change in putting out election results before all polls close.) I have a feeling this race will come down to the last week or so and then, if Obama does not have a commanding lead he will loose.

Stone6 - FYI, a budget vote in the Senate can not be filibustered. It is a straight up or down vote.

Hard,

You wouldn't by chance have any FACTS TO BACK UP YOUR BS, WOULD YOU????

Typical GOP factless BOASTER.

Hi Checkered Demon

I have verified his number multiple times.

Obama Budget failed to garner a single vote in either house nor Senate.

However, I would say at least he did give one Senator Reid thinks the Demo, Congress, nor US needs one.

Voting 99 to 0 against the WH budget shows that the Senate does not have faith in WH budget office. That or the WH threw together a bunch of junk numbers that no one could vote for.

Either way it does not speak highly of the WH budget office.

Despite a volatile and eventful past few weeks in the early presidential contest, President Barack Obama continues to hold a small – and slightly narrowing – lead over Mitt Romney, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

I cant name on person that thinks obummer is doing a decent job. Go Ron Paul!

stone6

The Bush Tax Cuts expired December, 2010

"Romney's strong patriotic belief in America"

Obviously you don't have to worry about that trait in Obama, con-men have little belief in anything except their own legacy.

You won't be able to hide Obama's disastrous debt and deficit ....

Obama has to go ....

You know big ben the republicans voted on and created the deficit with tax cuts and wars. Then the minute President Obama got elected they started howling about how democrat spending created the debt.

It was bush that inherited a surplus looking at paying off our entire debt by 2010 and in 8 years turned our country into a nightmare and you want to blame President Obama for what the republicans did because he could not fix the damage they had done fast enough for you?

Are you really so full of hate you can't see the truth?

Anyone stupid enough to vote Republican in November deserves to be fired or laid off in December. You will have balanced the budget and can kiss any unemployment help goodbye. Merry Xmas!

If the wealthy just paid their fair share, eliminate ALL loopholes, and lose the wicked and downright unethical Bush tax cuts this countries debt would decrease fast. And staying out of wars might help us all too. At least the ones we are not supposed to be in. Raising taxes are Not the solution to create revenue oe even help erasing the national debt. While we are continuing to see more and more millionaires. The deficit surges. Its time these corporate thugs(1%er) to pay the piper. Bty...Obama in a landslide victory....it wont be close. Romney couldnt fight his way out of a wet paper bag..much like the "i got caught" fool John Mcan't. Not happening repugs lol

jon, You are forgetting that the top 10% of American's in income pay 70% of the taxes and earn approximately 47% of the income. That is an extremely progressive tax rate.

If we taxed the top 10% at 50% of income, no tax loopholes, no exemptions, no deductions or no tax free munis, they would still be tens of billions of dollars short of paying the full federal budget. In the meantime the money they spend between what they currently pay and what they would pay at 50% is taken out of the economy. The government is still spending $3.6 trillion, they just would take more revenue and leave less for others to spend.

The solution is not to tax our way out of the deficit, it is to use the Ryan plan or something simular to slow federal growth until the level of revenues matches the level of spending. This does not hurt the poor as the programs gradually decrease over 10 years as a percentage of spending. The economy should improve, leaving fewer poor and more revenue and less need for the safety net.

I'm not sure where you are getting your info from. This Ohioan isnt voting obummer.

@freedomfrys, December? Your being most gracious with the time.

Americans First-3238795

You know big ben the republicans voted on and created the deficit with tax cuts and wars. Then the minute President Obama got elected they started howling about how democrat spending created the debt.

It was bush that inherited a surplus looking at paying off our entire debt by 2010 and in 8 years turned our country into a nightmare and you want to blame President Obama for what the republicans did because he could not fix the damage they had done fast enough for you?

Are you really so full of hate you can't see the truth?

On 09/30/2001 which was the end of the fiscal year for Clinton's last budget the national debt was 5,807,463,412,200.06

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm

The dot-com boom which generated Clinton's "surplus" went bust in 2000.

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/24/the-dot-com-bubble-how-to-lose-5-trillion/

There you go Homer, I just shot down everything you posted along with links to pages to back up my claims. I DARE you to do the same.

your right lets look at Bush and Cheney's tax breaks

Hardcoffee: If Congress is required by law, how come, they aren't being charged with breaking the law? I find it hard to believe it's been more than 1100 days since Democrats have not done anything. People on this post can't hear you because they don't want to hear this kind of news. They just don't get it.

Here are some facts and reasons why we need a buget. And yes Believe'n it is required by law.

• The last time the Senate passed a budget was on April 29, 2009.
• Since that date, the federal government has spent $9.4 trillion, adding $4.1 trillion in debt.
• As of January 20, the outstanding public debt stands at $15,240,174,635,409.
• Interest payments on the debt are now more than $200 billion per year.
• President Obama proposed a FY2012 budget last year, and the Senate voted it down 97–0. (And that budget was no prize—according to the Congressional Budget Office, that proposal never had an annual deficit of less than $748 billion, would double the national debt in 10 years and would see annual interest payments approach $1 trillion per year.)
• The Senate rejected House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R–WI) budget by 57–40 in May 2011, with no Democrats voting for it.
• In FY2011, Washington spent $3.6 trillion. Compare that to the last time the budget was balanced in 2001, when Washington spent $1.8 trillion ($2.1 trillion when you adjust for inflation).
• Entitlement spending will more than double by 2050. That includes spending on Medicare, Medicaid and the Obamacare subsidy program, and Social Security. Total spending on federal health care programs will triple.
• By 2050, the national debt is set to hit 344 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
• Taxes paid per household have risen dramatically, hitting $18,400 in 2010 (compared with $11,295 in 1965). If the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire and more middle-class Americans are required to pay the alternative minimum tax (AMT), taxes will reach unprecedented levels.
• Federal spending per household is skyrocketing. Since 1965, spending per household has grown by nearly 162 percent, from $11,431 in 1965 to $29,401 in 2010. From 2010 to 2021, it is projected to rise to $35,773, a 22 percent increase.

If you look at MR's debt counter, it was over over $15.7 trillion as of May 17. It will be well over $16 trillion by election day.

Kinda looks like you hit the nail on the head. The real economic problem with government doesn't post to the executive branch but the legislative.

Congress has been in contempt of the American people and their own bills they've written into law. The Paygo amendment was passed in 2010 yet is not adhered to.

Several ideas need to be implemented IMO: Congress shall pass no law that exempts them (or others) from same law, term limits in congress and the Supreme Court (just like the executive branch), congress will limit spending to less than the amount from last year's tax revenues. One more: congress shall remain in session and accept no pay until a budget is passed.

This will never happend due to the self-serving twits on capital hill. This includes both parties.

Stop trying to make people think you're not rich elvis ....

not me i live off the government they say

Well they give out plenty ....

And you may be getting quite a bit ....

As an Alaskan you got your annual check from the government right, ben?

Obama's massive debt is pretty solid ....

like what his car elevator at his house?

elvis , you probably have a few of those fancy car elevators ....

yes in my daughters pay house

People must be willing to vote on principles before party or the politics of DC will never change. I will no longer put party above principle.

Ron Paul 2012

He doesn't have a prayers chance, don't waste your vote.

Ron Paul's race is over. I respect Paul and agree with most of his ideas. But the plain practical truth is that a vote for Paul is a vote for Obama. If you support Paul how could you vote for Obama?

VOTE ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT stop Obama's economic insanity.

The debt is both party's fault and happened mostly under Republican presidencies.

The Bain issues can backfire on BHO. I can see us attacking the massive layoffs at auto dealers during the restructure, when BHO forced forced GM and Chrysler to close thousands of dealerships and layoff tens of thousands at those dealerships. This was done when GM's CEO says closing the dealerships (yanking their franchises) would not save GM one *&%* penny.

I think based on BHO's record, he will have more and more problems as 11/6 approaches.

@uncle sam, you're still a twit.

The numbers of November 2010 prove that Obama has zero chance, few Americans have as short-term memory as you sheep have.

Republicans have already written off Romney...FACT, don't ask them, they never tell the truth.

A difference of four points and Obama will win by a "landslide"? Last time I checked anything below 5 points was considered neck and neck. The numbers don't seem to be backing you up either. I think you are as nuts as the ones saying Romney is a "lock to win".

No one wants Obama any more ....

He's done enough damage ....

Yeah, right...we want Mitt...AAAAHAHAHAHHAAAAA!!!!

VOTE ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT stop Obama's economic insanity.

This looks like something you pulled from a website about former president gwb. you can't pass crap from one person to another if the other person came AFTER the first person made the crap.

Its sad but its true. More of the same...

Despite Afghan war ending in 2014, the US will still continue to fund the Afghan Army to the tune of $4.1 Billion. The bright side is that our troops will be coming home but the dark side is that they won't have jobs.

You must enjoy being an idiot!

You said that Obama 4 letter word .... "LOL"

work

Concern Citizen-856329

Good evening to all: Feisty/beisty, wow girlfriend who would have thought that this piece of news would get you all bent out of shape. Let me take that further, I really feel sorry for you, since you do not have a life. I have stated many times that this will be a close race unless Our cool President looses his cool.

Bigben,and Yosolo, you are so on point. Queen Beisty and her court of jokers, all get together and they all vote for each other. They are the home team, and I'm so surprised that Reps and Independents are showing so strong in this site. This is only a sample of what we can do to get them all out of the White house.

Girlfriend please get a life, I strongly suggested, before you get sick. Please listen to Jody form Iowa, she seems to be a good person and can help you.

Well your a liberal that's for sure. It just shows the ignorance of you Liberals. You are voting on if he is cool or not. What a waste. He has no record to run on. He is the bigest threat to America that this country has ever seen. It's Romney time.. Time to take out the trash. We need a proven business man not and American Hating, Women hating Racist like Obama.

Lucky, you mean "you're a liberal," not "your a liberal."

Well, it's not the Illuminati, I can tell you that much. Our last meeting was a disaster! We'll never get it together to deploy NWO...

If Romney wins, then the American people lose big time.

Because voting for a republican for anything is you saying that the rich are more important than America.

Voting for a republican for anything means you think women should be second class citizens.

Wall street was dissappointed that they only robbed us of 3 billion, so Romney has promised to get rid of that pesky Dodd-Frank law that stands in their way of another big haul.

Where does your head have to be to look at Romney and think he would be a good president? If you liked where bush's tax cuts left our country you are going to love Romney's plan that adds 10 Trillion to the deficit.

Americans First<

That has to be the biggest bunch of BS liberal talking points that I have ever seen....no original thought at all. You forgot to add..Seniors will be forced to eat dog food.....the environment will suddenly become polluted...and children will loose their health care all together. Its the same liberal drivel every election year.

Most of of us Americans have already lost more then we will ever know under this administration. We see the intent of mandating the purchase of health care....the mandate of forcing religious institutions to provide services that go against their beliefs...we see the attempt of this administration to whittle away at our constitution and American Values like never before. We see a President that is unable to bring consensus so he must bring divisiveness...class warfare..racial warfare...and religios warefare. All to promote a liberal agenda...a progressive agenda...formed out of the experienced of a President in the past who was openly drawn to Marxism in college. ......openly drawn to a Preacher that taught the hatred of American Values and of racial indifference....and a President that talks of equality and fairness through a redistributive agenda.

Never has an administration been so focused on the desire to bring people within his administration like Van Jones(no longer there) who is an admitted communist....to people within his administration which openly and candidly speak of the Former communist leader of China "MAO as if he was someone to be held in such high regard. A President that openly seems to hold the Catholic faith with contempt and disdain while being extremely careful not to offend the Religion of Islam.

The liberal media has done little...if nothing to ever vetted this President or to ever question his policies and statements. Any other Presidential candidate would never have survived if they had spent their lives in a congregation ..with a pastor....... that expounded on such hate. yet somehow a blind eye was turned by the media. We have a news paper that expounds on the bullying of Romney in HS but never talks about the bullying of Obama sighted in his book in his own words....This President has gotten a free pass by the media..but it he wont get a free pass from the voters.

I don't know in which alternate universe you live in, but I didn't see President Obama get a free pass at anytime by the media.

Your just complaining that every channel was not 24/7 we hate President Obama about everything like faux.

All you republicans are always claiming how smart you are, how about thinking with your brains instead of your hate for a change.

All the "polls" leading up to November 2010 were also skewed Democrat.... the liberal media tries desperately hard to keep the Democrat sheep from waking up to reality.