Obama, what has he done for you??

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Why do people stick to their vast oversimplification every time? It would be much simpler if they agreed with *my* vast oversimplification.

Wrong. My vast oversimplification is not only vaster than yours, it's simpler!

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

That's so easy to say, Grav. Now do me a favor, and explain specifics why you feel that way.

I'm not into vast oversimplifications.

I just feel like my country, here at home, and perceptions abroad, is not nearly the country we were before Obama took office.

I truly believe it was his intention from the getgo to make America less.

I also believe it will take at least a generation to undo what he's done.

That's just how I feel.

[Undertoad]

Righties often call the left unpatriotic, but if the country you love could be squashed so hard by a single President in a few short years, how is that not unpatriotic? Isn't that saying it wasn't much of a country to begin with?


I love sitting here in the middle where I can take potshots at everyone...

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

I truly believe it was his intention from the getgo to make America less.
.

But why? Why would he intend to do that? What possible reason could he have for wanting to diminish the nation he is president of? That makes no sense at all. Whatsoever. On any level.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

I love sitting here in the middle where I can take potshots at everyone...

Your play is better than mine. I just shake my head at the self-delusion. Oh wait, that's a potshot! Winner winner chicken dinner.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by DanaC

But why? Why would he intend to do that? What possible reason could he have for wanting to diminish the nation he is president of? That makes no sense at all. Whatsoever. On any level.

Because half the world was pissed off about Iraq and Afghanistan, he tried to back the country out of bully mode. That way we wouldn't have to watch our back as hard, and could actually broker peace in hot spots. But the right wing, kill-'em-all-and-let-God-sort-'em-out crowd resents that.

[Big Sarge]

I see a recurring thread on here about health care and Obama's not responsible for the economy My, my.

In regard to the Affordable Health Care, it has created a nightmare in my area. Many jobs have become part-time to skirt the health insurance benefits. I know a lot of people who have ended up having to pay more for health insurance. Plus, my son is a Medicaid Eligibility Specialist. He sees large numbers of people who had health care from work, but are now forced to purchase their own or go on Medicaid. Many lower middle class and working class families can't afford the insurance but make too much for Medicaid.

Obama is not responsible for the economy? He's only been president for 6 years during which the Democrats controlled the Senate and for awhile the House. We have the highest national debt ever. Remember when he called Bush un-american for having a 5.4 trillion debt during his 8 years? What is the debt now? I wish all of you would truthfully ask yourselves would you have cut a Republican president this much slack??

[glatt]

"We have the highest national debt ever."

You could have said that at any time in the last 30 years and that would have been true, and if we get a Republican president next term you will also be able to say that then too. The debt only grows.

Maybe you mean deficit, and not debt.

Two things impact the deficit. Revenues and spending. When the economy tanked (under Bush, if you are going to take the position that presidents are to blame) tax revenues went down and so the deficit increased. Obama initially pushed a stimulus package through, but then he stopped the spending increases. It's been 5-6 years that Obama has held spending down. It's the lack of huge tax revenues that is driving the deficit. And if you have been paying attention, the deficit is shrinking because the economy is slowly improving.

[Big Sarge]

Yes, I did say the American public has sent a message on it's approval for the Democratic Party. I guess the public does not reflect the liberalism so many in the Cellar demonstrate.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Big Sarge

In regard to the Affordable Health Care, it has created a nightmare in my area. Many jobs have become part-time to skirt the health insurance benefits. I know a lot of people who have ended up having to pay more for health insurance. Plus, my son is a Medicaid Eligibility Specialist. He sees large numbers of people who had health care from work, but are now forced to purchase their own or go on Medicaid. Many lower middle class and working class families can't afford the insurance but make too much for Medicaid.

Mississippi is right on the bottom, (50) because your Governor refused federal money to help those very people you're talking about.

Mississippi also ranked last or next to last in...
Economy > Median Family Income
Education > Assessments > % of Students Above Advanced > Grade 8 Math
Education > Percent of People Who Have Completed High School (Including Equivalency)
Health > Oral health > Visits to the dentist
Lifestyle > Best States to Live
Transportation > Public Transportation > Federal funding, 1995 (per capita)
Transportation > Seat Belt Use
Economy > Personal income (per capita)
Education > Assessments > % of Students Above Advanced > Grade 4 Math
Education > Assessments > % of Students Above Proficient > Grade 8 Writing
Education > Best Educated Index
Health > Health Index
Health > Physical exercise
Housing > Median Housing Value of Owner-Occupied Housing Units
People > Sex Ratio
I don't think you can blame the federal officials for all those problems, best get your own house in order.

[Big Sarge]

Oh Bruce thinks little ole' me can rush in and save the State of Mississippi after it was destroyed by repressive Democrat regimes? I thought y'all yankees came down here and saved everything in the 1960's.

I'm so glad Obama has turned our economy around. Who knows where we would be without him. Through his guiding hand we are ranked 12th and falling in the index of economic freedom. Bush is responsible for our economy? Hmm, I thought Obama was at the helm when our country was downgraded.

I was speaking about our national debt earlier. I'm concerned about the spiraling debt under this administration. As I said before, Obama denounced Bush as un-american for having a 5.2 trillion debt. I wonder what that makes the POTUS??

Interesting read: http://wolfstreet.com/2014/10/05/dwi...n-fiscal-2014/

When it comes to the Federal deficit, reliable numbers are as elusive as unicorns. Not that there aren’t plenty of numbers out there, but they don’t match reality. And reality is ultimately the change in the gross national debt which shows in its unvarnished manner just how much money the federal government actually had to borrow to fill the fiscal holes.

Regardless of what has been proffered by the White House, the Congressional Budget Office, and others, the total gross national debt outstanding of the US of A hit $17.824 trillion in fiscal 2014 ended September 30. A jump for the fiscal year of $1.086 trillion.

It could have been worse: note how it jumped on October 1, the first day of fiscal 2015, by another $51 billion. That’s certainly one elegant way of putting some lipstick on the debt in fiscal 2014 – by kicking part of it into the next fiscal year. But hey, we all do that. From the Treasury Department:

US-gross-national-debt-jumps-51billion-1st-day-fiscal-2015

The fact that the total debt taxpayers will have to deal with in the future soared by $1.1 trillion in fiscal 2014 is in part due to last year’s debt ceiling charade in Congress.

Starting in March 2013, when Treasury debt outstanding hit the debt ceiling, the Treasury Department couldn’t sell additional debt to bring in the money that the government continued to spend. So it borrowed that money via “extraordinary measures” from other accounts, to be repaid later. Then on October 16 last year, so in fiscal 2014, President Obama signed a deal into law that avoided default. The next day, the gross national debt jumped $328 billion to $17.075 trillion.

Most of the $328 billion should have fallen into fiscal 2013. If subtracted from the $1.086 trillion by which the debt ballooned in fiscal 2014, it reduces the increase in the debt to $758 billion.

The chart below summarizes the glorious fiscal condition of the US over the years. Note the exponential increase since 2001, after four fiscal years of so-called “surpluses.” In quotes because these “surpluses” between 1998 and 2001 that at one point exceeded 2% of GDP should have brought down the gross national debt by the amounts of the surpluses. But not these “surpluses!” The debt increased in every one of those four years, in total by $394 billion. That’s how much real money it took to cover these government accounting “surpluses.”

Since 2002, the US government borrowed $12 trillion, or two-thirds of the total debt outstanding! Since 2008, the government borrowed $8.8 trillion, or about half of the total debt outstanding, at an average rate of $1.26 trillion per year. Come to think of it, not all that much as changed in fiscal 2014.

US-Gross-National-Debt-1972-2014

The Fed has been the enabler. After years of QE, it currently owns $2.45 trillion or 14% of the gross national debt, in addition to a couple of trillion in other securities. The Fed’s asset purchase binge with newly printed money allowed the US government to go on a borrowing spree and blow this money. There have been some big beneficiaries: Wall Street, the corporate elite, Warren Buffett in particular through the bailout of this financial and insurance empire, the military and intelligence complex, and others. And there have been millions of small beneficiaries: people receiving federal subsidies of some sort. But for the economy, which is going to have to pay for this debt one way (taxes) or the other (inflation), it has been a slog.

How fast will the debt balloon from here? The Congressional Budget Office has its own ideas. Relentlessly over-optimistic, it never sees any recessions in the future, nor further bailouts and similar shenanigans that Congress may inflict on taxpayers. In its annual update in the spring, it figured that the budget deficit for fiscal 2014 would be $492 billion. In reality, the US borrowed 121% more than that to cover the fiscal deficit. Even if we subtract the $328 billion from the total to lower the debt increase to $758 billion, the US still borrowed 52% more than CBO’s deficit projection.

Even based on these iffy numbers by the CBO, the deficit is expected to decline only for fiscal 2015 and 2016, with the total debt rising at a slower rate than in recent years. That assumes that the next recession won’t wreak its havoc. That’s the good part in those projections. But then, the deficit will rise again, and the debt will pile on even faster.

But heck, that’s government accounting. Corporate accounting is similar. It’s a mix of revelation and obfuscation. In the end, real money is spent on real expenses, and if real receipts don’t suffice to pay for them, the government borrows real money. It all coagulates in the moment of truth: changes in the gross national debt. And if history is any guide, the national debt will increase far faster than the rosy projections by the CBO.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Big Sarge

Yes, I did say the American public has sent a message on it's approval for the Democratic Party. I guess the public does not reflect the liberalism so many in the Cellar demonstrate.

Of the 206 million eligible voters, 70 million are not registered. Then 63% of the registered voters stayed home, or pushed the "fuck you" button.
So the Republicans got a little over half about 54 million votes cast. That's the "American public" you speak of? Have some more Kool-Aid.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Big Sarge

Oh Bruce thinks little ole' me can rush in and save the State of Mississippi after it was destroyed by repressive Democrat regimes? I thought y'all yankees came down here and saved everything in the 1960's.

It ain't Yankees, and it ain't the party, it's Mississippians who have dragged the state into the gutter.

I'm so glad Obama has turned our economy around. Who knows where we would be without him. Through his guiding hand we are ranked 12th and falling in the index of economic freedom. Bush is responsible for our economy? Hmm, I thought Obama was at the helm when our country was downgraded.

Congress makes the laws, collects and spends the money, and gets us downgraded. Guess you missed US Government class.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

I'm not into vast oversimplifications.

I just feel like my country, here at home, and perceptions abroad, is not nearly the country we were before Obama took office.

I truly believe it was his intention from the getgo to make America less.

I also believe it will take at least a generation to undo what he's done.

That's just how I feel.

I think Obama improved our standing in the world. We're not perceived as that asshole bully anymore. If that was his intention, good for him. Fewer of our young people and less of our money are are being wasted in an unwinnable (at least through violence) cause.

Originally Posted by Big Sarge

I see a recurring thread on here about health care and Obama's not responsible for the economy My, my.

In regard to the Affordable Health Care, it has created a nightmare in my area. Many jobs have become part-time to skirt the health insurance benefits. I know a lot of people who have ended up having to pay more for health insurance. Plus, my son is a Medicaid Eligibility Specialist. He sees large numbers of people who had health care from work, but are now forced to purchase their own or go on Medicaid. Many lower middle class and working class families can't afford the insurance but make too much for Medicaid.

That's not the ACA, that's a greedy, selfish business owner putting more money in his pocket at the expense of his fellow Americans. And what Bruce said - If your state had participated, they'd had more covered at lower expense.

“[Governor Phil] Bryant made it clear Mississippi would not participate, leaving 138,000 low-income residents, the majority of whom are black, with no insurance options at all. And while the politics of Obamacare became increasingly toxic, the state’s already financially strapped rural hospitals faced a new crisis from the law’s failure to take hold: They had been banking on newly insured patients to replace the federal support for hospitals serving the uninsured, which was set to taper off as people gained coverage. Now, instead of more people getting more care in Mississippi, in many cases, they would get less."

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/1...ng-states-poor

Oh and it looks like repubicans are continuing their racist behavior

Originally Posted by Big Sarge

Obama is not responsible for the economy? He's only been president for 6 years during which the Democrats controlled the Senate and for awhile the House. We have the highest national debt ever. Remember when he called Bush un-american for having a 5.4 trillion debt during his 8 years? What is the debt now? I wish all of you would truthfully ask yourselves would you have cut a Republican president this much slack??

Republicans don't want to raise taxes. Veterans need better care. Better care cost money.

Sarge, do you choose to not give better care to veterans, or do you go into debt to provide better care for veterans?

[Spexxvet]

"In February Attorney General Eric Holder indicated in a press conference that the Obama Administration -- which favors physician-recommended access to medical cannabis -- would abate from what had been an aggressive law enforcement (and propaganda) campaign against medical access to cannabis."

Sheldon can marry the man of his dreams and be just as unhappily married as the rest of us.