RE: The Fiscal Cliff and punishing those who screw things up!

[major_bob]

$620 billion in higher taxes, $15 billion in cuts, and billions in new spending. Congratulations to the President and Senate on their "balanced" plan.

[fredsheldon]

Bob, I fully expect the price of gas to drop to $2.50 in 2013 and the Stock Market to hit 14,000 as well. I still have a job and my health at 68. My kids and grandkids are all healthy and happy. My roads don't have potholes and the bridges are still standing. I still have my guns. I don't understand why some people are always so negative when there is so much to be positive about. I always look at the glass as being half full not half empty. I hope your outlook for 2013 is better than it was for 2012. Happy New Year and thanks for keeping us safe.

[davebodner]

$620 billion in higher taxes, $15 billion in cuts, and billions in new spending. Congratulations to the President and Senate on their "balanced" plan.

Why are there few spending cuts? Because neither side wants to be associated with proposing specific cuts. Obama feels he took the pain of campaigning on increasing taxes (and if you don't think that's usually a losing proposition, ask Walter Mondale). Republicans haven't reciprocated with proposing specific spending cuts (which is also a political loser).

With neither side willing to propose specific spending cuts, they won't be made. We can blame both sides, but I'm more apt to blame the side that spends all its time complaining about spending but not willing to take some pain to propose a solution.

[jayp413]

Jayp413, you need to ask yourself how taxpayers repay the $16.3 trillion in debt this country has amassed, $6 trillion of it since Obama took office four years ago, and then perhaps you'll begin to understand how a Republican thinks. Then think about another $4 trillion likely to be added during the upcoming Obama administration. Your children and grandchildren will be the ones repaying that $20 trillion and the amount of interest on that debt will be staggering.

Then, you need to think about how the country continues to pay for Social Security and Medicare under current law. Do you know that for the past three years, the Social Security Administration has paid out more than it has taken in. That shortfall comes from the non-Social Security taxes collected by the Treasury Department (e.g., those people paying federal income taxes) and through borrowing. Jayp413, do you know that the Treasury is currently borrowing 40 percent of all the money Obama spends? Do you know that we owe China more money than any other country in the world.

Jayp413, do you know that the Federal Reserve's program of Quantitative Easing means the Fed simply print money to buy bonds, the result of which will lead to inflation and a dramatic increase in the cost of servicing the nation's $16 trillion debt.

Democrats in Washington simply don't care about the future of this country, nor do they care about the taxpayers who will be stuck holding the bag.

I could not disagree more. Republicans have done nothing but cater too the rich. Giving big tax cuts to those who do not need them. Promoting outsourcing and squeezing the middle class anychance they can. If you want to talk about bad presidents, let's talk Bush. If you for one second think Obama is worse then Bush then you are kidding yourself. Two wars we did not need to be in, 1,000's of lives lost because of it and destroying our economy in the process. How can anyone make any progress with inhereted two wars, huge national debt and a congress and senate not willing to budge at the expense of the american people?

[pennview]

Jayp413, I'd agree, but that would require willing suspension of disbelief!

[pennview]

Dave, do you really believe that Obama took "pain" when he proposed raising income taxes on 1 to 2 percent of the population when about 47 percent don't pay any federal income tax at all?

Hiking taxes on the so-called rich does noting to control spending, nor does it do much to reduce the deficit. Here's the math -- $65 billion a year from those tax increases vs. a deficit in fiscal year 2012 of $1.1 trillion. Had those tax increases been in effect last year the deficit would have been reduced by less than 6 percent.

Not to worry, each taxpayers share of the national debt today is $145,615.

[backhertz]

I never expected to read anything political on this forum. I hear moaning & groaning from both parties; yet no one is willing to do the thing that is like a pink elephant in a room.

We didn't get here over night, yet suddenly people are realizing there is an issue and so much money has been wasted that we are really in the hole. This is nothing new. Whatever happened to fiduciary responsibility?

When I was in the service and federal government, we were required to spend every dollar of our budget ever year or else risk receiving less money the following year. So we had to make "wish lists" of nice to have things and get new furniture when there was nothing wrong with the existing furniture. I made a comment one time and was told I didn't understand. Yet we are finding ourselves on a financial cliff. How on Earth can that be? We are the United States of America. We are the richest nation on Earth with the largest GDP. But why are we floundering like we are? It makes no sense.

What irks me most is the elected officials first priority is once in office, to stay in office. There are some major issues which need to be addressed and resolved such as immigration, a huge deficit, unemployment, a deteriorating infrastructure, an aging population of baby boomers, and the development of sociopaths which include adults and teenagers shooting up public places and the killing of innocent victims. Either put out or get out of office. These politicians are set for life after serving one term. I say review all the perks they voted for themselves and make them accountable.

I see the pundits come on TV and argue the problem is with guns and that if guns were gone, this problem would be solved. Does anyone really think so? Look in China where guns are essentially outlawed, the day before Sandy Hook, a 36-year old wacko went into a Chinese school and cut off ears and fingers of 22 children. There is a huge problem with mental illness in this country and the world and it seems the ones who need help the most are unable to receive it. If they don't have guns, they might use swords or maybe automobiles or baseball bats. Almost anything can be a weapon.

Look at the large capacity magazines. People are assuming the Bushmaster is an automatic weapon because the reporters on TV say it is. It is a semi-auto, but big deal. A proficient user can switch out 10-round clips very fast. A 5 round magazine might result in 5 people being shot. I want to see no one ever be shot personally. I heard one store sold out of 2,000 of these magazines in only 4 days. The company who manufactures them say they have sold out of 3 years of stock. Holy cow! Where are they all going? Or worse- where will they end up? Sandy Hook has resulted in a buying frenzy of weapons, magazines, and bullets. What a shame. Why? Because people are afraid they won't be able to. Look at Cuban cigars. Just before the embargo, the Kennedys bought a couple thousand- inside information? The rest of us do without or smuggle them in from other countries.

My parents home was a few miles from Newtown- a very affluent & pretty area. Sandy Hook is right next door and could be anyone's home town. My sister's boyfriend had a child in the Sandy Hook school in a room next to one that was shot up. This really hits me hard. Up in that area of CT are many 'survivalists who are well armed and ready for a war. It's scary. There are militias throughout the US with responsible people who own dozens of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammo which they have purchased or reloaded.

My mother worked at Fairfield Hills, the largest mental hospital in CT many years ago. For 20 years she through Newtown and Sand Hook. It was closed in 1995 and the population was moved to other locations or released. It was all because of money & trying to save money from 'unnecessary programs' to others as it is costly to operate a mental institution. But these people were medicated and observed as required in the hospital. But after they left, who knows what happened to them? But it seems these people are not the ones who are shooting up theaters, schools, and at congress people.

But there is a new generation of sociopaths who are getting their ideas from movies, video games and TV where graphic violence is shown. There is a huge problem and it runs deep in our society. Back in the 50's, if someone was shot, they simply fell down without any blood being shown or a limb being blown off. When I was a kid, I watched Combat & the Rat Patrol, and Hogan's Heros. Not all these shows will spark any violence. But I see fewer kids go outside to play with only their imaginations. Why? Well, we didn't have hundreds of channels of TV back then. If you had 3 channels, you were lucky and most of the time these was nothing "good" to watch. So we went outside armed with our imaginations and played.

I can not say with absolute certainty what the "problem" is. I see so many issues. But no one in their right mind will shoot another human being- it's sickening- even when fighting for one's life in a war zone. I've never shot a living creature, but I am a qualified expert with a M-16 and some handguns.

When I grew up in the 60's & 70's, I had no fear of weapons. We were taught to respect a weapon and when I was 14, the township sponsored a shooting safety course. We could carry our .22s to the shooting range as long as the bolt was removed and the bullets were in one of our pockets and no one gave it a second thought. To see a young person walking down the street now with a .22 might result in a SWAT response. We've become a society of wusses and pansies. Not all of us, but what has happened to this great society of ours? High schools used to have shooting clubs- but no more.

We used to be able to walk to school or get on the school bus without a parent watching out for an abduction. We would ride in cars without seat belts prior to 1966 when the law was passed for seat belts. We rode in the back of pick up trucks. School buses never had seat belts. Safety seats weren't invented to my knowledge for infants. There are so many things that parents are expected to do now, but yet it seems there are more shootings of kids by kids or lately by mentally deranged individuals. It seems the focus should be on the latter. We've come a long way, but we have to do better. Simply doing away with gun sales will accomplish nothing as there are millions of weapons in people's homes and other places. Some like that kid in CT simply killed his mother with a .22. Why? I think she trusted him with a .22 like most parents. But then what he did in obtaining his mother's weapons is a travesty. But we'll never know the true story.

When I was a young kid, the space program was just starting and many kids and myself attempted to build rockets. If someone saw our garage, they might think now we were building pipe bombs if looking at the propellants and ignition devices. But it was okay long ago. We blew up nothing.

I did some research on mass killing. In the US, the first event happened in 1949 with a man who used a Lugar and shot up some people in a barber shop. Then the next incident of innocent being killed like this didn't happen until 1984. I wonder why? Was it because there were usually one parent always at home? I don't know what the reason(s) is/are.

I'm tired of receiving petitions by email. They come with over 10,000 names- none of which can be validated. I don't understand why any photo ID or driver's license can't be used as proof of identity to vote. I read an interesting story in the New Yorker Magazine a long time ago. It discussed the election of Lyndon B Johnson to Congress. They found after the election was over that many people who voted were actually dead & their names were simply copied off of tombstones in a cemetery. Is it a true story? I wonder. It seems being elected is like winning the lottery with the help of many others who will do whatever they can to help as often times the elected official will provide his/her best supporters a cushy appointment to a job they may or may not be qualified for. Look at Brown who was appointed by Bush & then told he was doing a great job "Great job Brownie,"following Hurricane Katrina and then Brown was fired.

There are far too many things I just don't understand. I served a career in the service and am proud of my country. I believe there is hope for the future, but it seems like a whole lot of things need to change starting with families, religions, politics, government, and more so everyone is on the same page of music and not just worried about themselves, but worried about all of us. I write my representatives al the time or call in. That way my voice is heard and counted. I encourage everyone do so and not just depend on someone else to do it for you. We've done that for years & look at where we are at. We have to be involved or else we will simply be victims.

Happy New Year everyone. I want everyone to know I still have hope.

[beeg]

And for the TWO BILLION spent only to elect a president, we still have a LACK of COOPERATION in congress.

[pennview]

I'm just curious. If Bush, a republican, catered only to the wealthy and cut there income taxes, how come income taxes went up today for ALL Americans? And, why are those Democrats in the Senate now willing to restore the Bush tax cuts for couples making up to $450,000.00? That level of income doesn't make those couples all that poor! I'm thinking that some logic is not all that logical.

[keakap]

...w that federal employee salaries will only increase between 1/2 and 1 % in March. This is after a 2 year freeze on any cost of living increases. With increases in taxes and health insurance a federal employee will still be making less than they were in 2010.

I see no rational, moral or sane reason why federal employees, under an anti-American (Democrat) regime, in a time of national economic catastrophe, should be getting ANY raises or increases in auxiliary salary items which are paid for by people who are in large part working 2 or 3 jobs to TOTAL minimum wage just to survive and honor their familial obligations WITHOUT handouts from their neighbors- i.e. federal taxpayers.

Fed raises- this is the kind of sick thinking that has bred generations of dolts who believe they are OWED everything and dont care because they don't even know where "Federal money" comes from!