Golf Sim Clubhouse Forum

"Eventually the American taxpayer will get so fed up with these bunch of morons in Washington — Republican and Democrat — they are going to demand we take real action with real numbers; cut thru the crap and start dealing with this debt and we can do it," Davidowitz says. "Why did we say in U.S. 'the bondholders can't be hurt?' What the hell was that about? It was all mad."

Like most observers, Davidowitz expects Congress will come up with a short-term deal to at least temporarily raise the debt ceiling and allow the madness to continue.

"I think we'll get something for six months, a deal these morons can get their arms around…and keep screwing around, kicking the can down the road and do nothing," he says.

In other words: It's the same old story. Same old song and dance, my friends.

I agree with what Davidowitz says in this short snip from a larger blog. I don't aways agree with Davidowitz but we need true leaders in Washington not these bought and paid for politicians we've elected for years and years.

Deficit spending, of course, began as a response to the conditions of the Great Depression and WWII. What I've never been able to get my head around is why it was continued during the tremendous post-war prosperity of the 50s and 60s. Those debts could have easily been paid off and the US put back on a sound footing.

During the Reagan years, I always felt that the government was running on a credit card and that it was getting maxed out. Stupid me, little did I know how high the balance would be allowed to go before it would be taken seriously. IIRC I read the other day that if everyone of us 330,000,000 Americans assumed our portion of the debt, it would amount to just over $58,000 for every man, woman and child in America.

Over the past 20 years we've managed to move or outsource most of our jobs. Compared to 1960, only 5% of our finished goods were made in the USA proper in 2009. The "new jobs" that were touted in the Bush and now in the Obama era have, for the most part, been low paying service jobs. Service jobs rely on a strong economy, so it's a downward spiralling circle, IMO.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, we began to hear of the New World Order conspiracies, and that one of the primary goals of this group was the impoverishing of the United States middle class. Maybe it started sooner but that's when I became aware of it. I always thought it was a bunch of milarkey, but if it's true, I'd say they've come very close to succeeding.

Not a whole lot has been reported about consumer debt recently that I'm aware of, and I'll admit I haven't dug into the subject, but I have to wonder how soon it's going to be before this bomb explodes.

I found a pretty nice site that helps put the U.S. budget and associated deficit in perspective. You can also look back in time to see what the budget was in past years.

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/bud ... US#usgs302

Bottom line, it is going to be really tough to make over 1.6 trillion in cuts to our spending to balance the budget. The charts show that 82% of our total 3.8 Trillion budget is in four categories:
-Pensions.... 793 billion
-Healthcare.. 882 billion
-Defense..... 965 billion
-Welfare..... 496 billion

The other categories are chump change by comparison.

The only way to balance the budget is to get more people working and paying taxes, make corporations pay their fair share of taxes (some pay none) and to slay a lot of sacred cows like Medicare and Defense. It is going to be one hell of an ongoing mess to attack this beast.

Dar

Well I'd start with the pensions, namely those being paid to congresspersons and senators that served less than, say 10 years. It's pure BS that a guy/gal serves 2 years in Congress and is entitled to a full pension for the rest of his/her life. Also, they'd pay for their health care just like every other American.

Second I would eliminate oddball holidays from the federal roster. Frankly I don't know of anyone other than federal and state employees and their associates (like our water company, libraries, banks, etc.) that observe MLK, Presidents, or Columbus Day. Those would be just a drop in the budget, but you have to start somewhere and these would hurt the least.

High marks go to Indy and Dar for their thoughts on this subject. I agree with what both of you said but I still think there's alot of waste in the budget that can be eliminated. They maybe small amounts ( 6 mil here. 4 mil their and so on & on & on) but its a start and would add up and help make a smaller dent in other programs that are needed.

I can tell you from my recent 11-day hospital stay that there is a horrendous amount of waste in the medicare system. I must have been visited by at least 20 different doctors during that stay and most of those visits were totally useless... "Hi, how you doing? then leave." None of them share information and keep asking the same questions. I am sure there was a charge for each and every one of them, although those charges are buried in some obscure category like Diagnostic Services.

In reviewing the hospital bill, there appears to be outright fraud or price gouging in nearly every category... e.g., $3,100 for pharmacy over that period... I had a few pills each day and many of the narcotic ones, I refused to take. The room (nothing special) was nearly $900/day. A physical therapist saw me for literally 15 minutes near the end of my stay... $1,000... and so on. Total total, the hospital bill alone for my 11 day stay was over $33,000! And I haven't even seen the doctors charges yet... jeeze.

No wonder Medicare is going broke.

Dar, I feel you on this last post...When Kane was born (c-section) they brought my wife out of the Operating room into a small hallway...She sat there for about 45 minutes with me by her side....They called this small nook in the corner the RECOVERY ROOM! They charged 950 dollars just for that 45 min stay in a hallway!!!!

Price gouging at its finest....

Speaking of Price gouging! Local community college... Spend couple hundred to get into a class... Not bad at all you think! Then you go to buy a book! and ONE SINGLE TINY LITTLE BOOK, they charge you almost TWO HUNDRED dollars for it....

SHEESH!

Well call me prophetic...Had no clue, wife signed up for classes today at the aforementioned community college...Check this out

Fall semester tuition: $1,100.00 (Not bad can live with that)

LOOK AT THIS

Books:

Medical Coding Book: $147.81
Records Management: $253.00
Medical Terminology: $109.95
Professional Development: only $95.00
Principals of Financial Accounting: $247.75

Total for five books: $853.51

Books almost as much as the classes... What is wrong with this picture... 250 bucks for a book? WHAT, am I missing something here.....

Terry, that's one major reason why I stopped taking classes!! I refused to pay the outrageous costs for books! I remember paying $160 for a used calculus book back in '01 or '02. Yes, USED!! Certainly there were other factors that contributed to me quitting on my college career (that's for another discussion), but the price of textbooks is absolutely ridiculous!

Terry I doubt if the cost of my entire 2 years of JC back in the mid-80s cost as much as what your wife paid for this one quarter (semester?) of school. Higher education is really almost not a viable option for middle/lower class people anymore.