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There is no such thing as a free lunch, and there is no such thing as a free war. The Iraq adventure has seriously weakened the U.S. economy, whose woes now go far beyond loose mortgage lending. You can't spend $3 trillion -- yes, $3 trillion -- on a failed war abroad and not feel the pain at home.
Nope, the stimulus money is suppose to be spent in the next two years, but the money has already left the treasury, which means it counts towards the 2009 fiscal year only.
I never said that the stimulus money wasn't going to go into the U.S. economy (wasted on stupid projects on the other hand....), what I was pointing out was that in the first month in office Obama had spent double what Bush supposedly spent per year on the war in Iraq.
And now I hear his economic advisers talking about how we will need a second stimulus package, are they actively trying to destroy our country?
Either that or they are very stupid. I'll let their supporters decide.
Wrong. The stimulus is spread out over two years. I doubt if any money was released within a month. A small amount has been spent so far. Anyway, using your argument, it's being spent in the US, so no big deal.
$70 billion has gone out. Only a small fraction of that has been spent and mostly was on Cobra and unemployment. How long does he want the American people to go without employment?
Does this mean I can use the phrase "Obama wants people to be homeless and starve to death." like is used with Reagan.
Ponzie scheme? Apparently, you either don't know what a ponzie scheme is, or you don't know what SS is.
As long as there is more money coming in than going out it'll work. That's the whole basis for a ponzi scheme.
Quote:
Superficially, these critics have a point, and there is a parallel between Social Security and a Ponzi scheme. But on a fundamental level, they are very wrong, and it’s worth explaining why. First, the parallel. Social Security taxes current workers to pay Social Security benefits for current retirees. In other words, the new entrants into the Social Security system, the young workers, pay off the previous entrants, the older workers. And despite the fact you have a Social Security “account”, there is no necessary link between what you paid into the system in taxes, and what you receive.
That’s very similar to the structure of a Ponzi scheme, where new investors pay off the original investors. As long as enough new ‘victims’ are brought into the scheme, it keeps growing and growing. But when the new investors runs out, the Ponzi collapses. Analogously, the slowdown in population growth puts pressure on Social Security finances.
Many people have made that statement. Madoff should have been more technologically advanced I guess then his scheme would have never failed. Or at least that's the reasoning behind why SS won't fail. I can't find anything more reputable willing to defend.
It is not an article, it is an opinion. Therefore I can ignore as I wish.
I served in the military, I had friends damn near die over in Iraq, and knew a few who didn't make it home. I know a hell of a lot about what happened over there.
What I am tired of is folks like you claiming that the war destroyed the American economy, it didn't. Yes a bunch of money was spent, some of it wasted, but most was spent in the United States, which means it wasn't wasted.
On the other hand, lets just look at 3 trillion dollars, even if I believed that was a real cost (which I don't) then that means Bush spent 375 Billion per year in office on the war. How much did Obama spend in his first month? 787 Billion? How quickly did we run out of money and had to start borrowing to pay for day to day operation of the government, April something or other?
But that's okay, don't worry, everytime you see something bad in the news, just grab your teddy bear and keep chanting your mantra, "It's all Bush's fault" over and over again until you feel better.
No one is saying that the soldiers did not do their duty. What I believe they are saying is money spent in Iraq could have been used much better here at home. I don't agree with the Obama bailout or the Bush bailout.
Having worked budget matters for Army HQs over the years, one thing that they always keep on eye on is what we called "the budget tail" that can really eat up the money. The "tail" is the backend costs for such things as veterans benefits, pensions for widows, and so on, which can run for decades after a war or after a person leaves uniformed service.
On the military hardware side, a huge "tail" can kill a project before it gets off the drawing boards. For example, the SR-71 blackbird was a phenomenal spy plane, but needed tremendous maintenance work after each flight; the newer satellites get better pix without the tail-end logistical costs.
One of the best examples of how long, and how expensive, the tail-end costs of military adventures is the Civil War. When many of those vets were in the older years, they married very young gals, often times for these gals to be their nurses for stay at home care, since there was no Medicare or Medicaid for long-term health care in those days. So, these old dudes married these girls of 18 and, long story short, the last Civil War widow died in 2004. Yep, the U.S. Govt paid that gal a survivor's pension/annuity for 70-80 years after the old vet died.
The tail-end expense of a war is huge, not to mention the immediate costs and all those fine young lives lost.
Damn Bush / Cheney / Rove and the oil barons for whose greed our forces were sent into Iraq.
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Last edited by Mike from back east; 07-08-2009 at 06:11 PM..
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