Comments by "" (@A86) on "C-SPAN" channel.

  1. I agree and I sincerely hope President Obama follows through on his promises. I really hope this isn't just hot air like a lot of what he said last year was. When he says he wants to go through with reform he needs to do it. And no more of that bank bailout shit.
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  2. Here's the budget for 2008: (dot) nationalpriorities (dot) org/ sites/ default/files/ disc08 (dot) gif 59% Defense.
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  3. 2) You can see for yourself the trend of income in the US: economistsview (dot) typepad (dot) com/ (dot) a/ 6a00d83451b33869e201156fec9518970c - 450wi (dot) newint (dot) org/ issue281/ death (dot) htm The highest growth in real income in the US was between 1938-1983. Since 1984 wages have only increased slightly for the top of the middle class. For everyone below that strata it has stagnated or outright decreased for the bottom 2/5.
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  4. @CalifSunshine2008 - Not really. Obama's deficit is only slightly larger than Bush's. As for his spending he's spending at around the same rate as Bush. Bush spent $2.8 Trillion in 2008. In 2009 Obama spent in the neighborhood of $2.4 Trillion. Two flavors of shit. Take your pick.
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  5. Look at economic expansion before and after the ND: wpcontent (dot) answers (dot) com/ wikipedia/ commons/ thumb/ a/ a1/ US _ Employment_ Graph _ - _ 1920_ to _1940 (dot) svg/ 400px - US_Employment_Graph_-_ 1920 _ to _ 1940 (dot) svg (dot) png
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  6. 1) Using "Keynesian" as a slur is a logical fallacy. It's argument from incredulity. There are some things in Keyesnianism that are correct and some things in Neoliberalism that are correct. 2) Trying to deny that tax increases increase revenue is arguing against common sense and actual economic facts: (dot) cbpp (dot) org/ images/ cms/ 10 - 20 - 03tax - fact- f1 (dot) jpg I'm sorry friend but the facts are against you on this topic, though I agreed with some of what you said earlier.
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  7. 1) I'm using mathematical arguments regardless of ideology. I say things liberals wouldn't like either, like Reagan got inflation under control for a time. 2) Government intervention was highest during this time yet economic expansion and income rates rose rapidly. According to your ideology this shouldn't have happened, but it did anyway. 4) What are you talking about? Those presidents signed A LOT of deregulation: en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org/wiki/ Deregulation # United _States
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  8. While I generally agree about fiat currency some printing is necessary. I don't think the US could operate if we only had the same number of greenbacks today as we had in 1770. "A government military creates massive casualties & enemies all over the world" So can a private one like Blackwater/Xe. A military is a military whether public or private. Just like cops are cops whether state or private. The benefit with a government military is you can at least control it.
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  9. Now you're just being silly. Get out of my face.
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  10. I disagree here. The market is not magical and it's not a panacea. Markets can handle some things better than public enterprises but public enterprises are better at handling some things than the private sector. Government entities can work on things with long-term incentives with no immediate payoff or sometimes little incentive at all. Markets are mostly only interested in things with short-term profitability. Markets are also usually bad at handling negative externalities.
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  11. Adam Smith also believed government action was sometimes necessary to prevent the growth of large corporations. The government can be a tool of the people if made more democratic. Of course it will be on the side of Big Business if you have a government composed of wealthy people on the dole of corporations like we have now. Again it's sort of like saying all medication is bad just because half of the medicine out in the market today is bad.
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  12. From what I heard it was $12 Trillion foreign debt. Bush took Clinton's foreign debt of $5 Trillion to $10.4 Trillion.
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  13. "not very high considering whites are still nearly seventy percent of the U.S. population" It is considering a white person is less than one-fifth as likely to run into a black person than vice versa.
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  14. "The bill punished businesses that do not buy gov't insurance with an 8% tax" I heard that rumor but it turned out to be a myth. It actually provided small businesses with tax cuts so they could provide employees with the public option. Ones that didn't weren't penalized. There is no such thing as "government-run healthcare". Single-payer systems are simply government insurance for private healthcare. Those are the most successful system in the world and every industrialized nation has it.
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  15. I'm an economist. I'm very well educated in US economic history. 1) Hoover did act in some ways but it was indirectly and insufficient: (dot) sparknotes (dot) com/ 101/ us _ history_two/ the _ great _ depression _ and_ the_ new _ deal/ hoovers _response (dot) html FDR's actions worked because his investments in increasing production and starting new businesses and putting people back to work increased production and consumption.
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  16. The recession of 82 was largely an effect of policies enacted in 1981: (dot) huppi (dot) com / kangaroo / L - recession1982 (dot) htm While there is a lag between policy and effect most of the consequences of Carter's policies already came into effect by 1980.
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  17. "In September of 1979 this person (the middle quintile of income earners] was earning (in constant, inflation-adjusted dollars) $498 a week, or $24,700 a year. By 1995 he or she had suffered a wage cut of about a hundred dollars a month, or 4.6 per cent."
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  18. "Competition to serve consumers benefits consumers more" Of course. Regulation is sometimes needed to prevent the growth of monopolies and oligopolies. As for the ban of DDT the chemical itself is very dangerous to humans and animals and it still kills people and wildlife in areas where it is still used. One negative externality that even competing businesses don't worry about avoiding is pollution. Companies usually don't clean up unless the public twists their arm.
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  19. Taxes are simply payments for use of public services and public property. You have to pay for use of those just like you would pay for usage of any private service. They're basically a public fee. That's why the Founding Fathers advocated taxes. Benjamin Franklin talked about the sacrifices that you have to make to be part of society.
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  20. 1) Ah, I misread this statement "There is no information, outside of government sponsored ones" I didn't read ahead. My apologies. 2) I said it isn't trusted by those not on the right. Just like those on the right usually don't trust Krugman. 3) I know Carter spent more money on social programs. Income also rose at higher rates back then and living standards were higher overall. 4) Bush's increases have mostly been in defense spending and corporate welfare. Not social programs.
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  21. I didn't redirect anything or make excuses. What I said is the truth and I directly tackled your argument. The fact that your argument was just flat-out WRONG doesn't mean that I misrepresented it. I love how ideologues claim to be misunderstood when they can't defend their arguments. BTW the US in 37th place overall in health care quality and accessibility. Almost every industrialized nation with nationalized healthcare (which is most of them) is ahead of us.
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  22. 1) I'm not a liberal. 2) The US economy expanded most rapidly during 1938-1982 when government intervention was highest. 3) Government intervention is needed for a market economy to work. It's common sense. 4) WTF are you on? The income gap has expanded from 1977-Present as government intervention has decreased.
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  23. So you believe official sources are "fudging the numbers"? What you're basically saying is "I'm not convinced by the facts." I guess you can't argue with someone like that. "I live near minorities" Where you live doesn't represent all non-white people. Just like when I lived in Frostburg, Maryland while going to college up there in Appalachian Maryland near West Virginia that doesn't mean the white people there represent all or even most white Americans.
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  24. Not really. Not at all. krugman (dot) blogs (dot) nytimes (dot) com/2009/02/20/ glorifying - the - gilded -age/ I don't know where you get this stuff from. You need to put the right-libertarian literature down and start reading some of the real stuff that was going on instead of the romantization of the era. Monopolies are not compatible with a free market.
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  25. The private sector has no money either other than what it makes in profits from value-added production and consumer sales. Government spending creates money when it is spent investing in things that produce more returned value. That's exactly what the New Deal did. As for the inflation rate: (dot) debtdeflation (dot) com/blogs/ wp - content/ uploads/ 2008/10/ IMG0008 _ 2834015 (dot) PNG
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  26. Don't worry, I'm not trying to defend Carter or just slam Reagan. I'm not a fan of any president after Eisenhower really. Well, JFK and LBJ sort of though I think they also set into effect the wheels of a lot of the policies which are helping destroy the country today. So did Nixon. Reagan, Clinton, the Bushes and Obama are simply the culmination of this decline.
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  27. I didn't mind the typo. I've probably made typos of my own somewhere. Lol. "Hence not needing heavy taxation" That sounds more like corporatism than capitalism. Most economists and most of the original capitalist philosophers and economists like Adam Smith believed that large corporations can only come to exist when the government protects monopolies and oligopolies. Oligopolies and monopolies are also counterproductive because they limit choice, quality and competition. I agree.
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  28. Government can help if used effectively. Leaving it all to the private sector is just as extreme as leaving it all to the government. Government can help if you reduce spending in some areas and spend money on things that have high returns on investment or things that create jobs. We've been spending on things which don't create jobs. It also helps if you make the government more democratic, more controllable and more transparent. Which neither party is interested in doing.
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  29. That's why trying to apply the logic behind an ideal free market to our current system is erroneous. In our corporatist system just because a company sells a better product doesn't mean they will win out. Oligopolies and monopolies can simply squeeze out the competition by lowering prices to a point where startup businesses can't compete. They can also bribe the government to give the established businesses special kickbacks. Even in a free market natural monopolies can form.
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  30. Untrue again: GDP per capita growth: agonist (dot) org/ files/ active/0/ real % 20GDP % 20per % 20capita % 20US (dot) gif private hours and productivity: (dot) econbrowser (dot) com/ archives/2005/08/ productivity _ graph2 (dot) gif
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  31. And any man worth his salt should also love this woman!
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  32. By condemned I don't mean calling down the wrath of Heaven. But to be honest a lot of Americans probably say "God damn America" every April 15th. Lol.
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  33. I love how racist clowns are accusing Wanda Sykes of being "ghetto". She's from Anne Arundel County, Maryland where I've spent the latter half of my childhood and I'm still spending my young adult years. This place is largely a collection of sleepy, quiet suburbs, shopping centers and small towns with metropolitan traffic. The most "ghetto" thing about this area is some of the drivers. Mrs. Sykes actually graduated from the same high school I did (though 2 decades before me, lol).
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  34. The Democrats ARE opposed to public healthcare. It's not getting passed because of Dems blocking it. Krugman is a defender of sweatshops and a defender of lowering tariffs and trade barriers. Apparently he's not that much of a "huge left winger". Stop being pedantic.
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  35. @billabong24041 - Bingo.
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  36. The study showed that CRA loans constituted only 23% of all loans and 9.2% of high-cost loans.
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  37. @billabong24041 - I actually think tax cuts for SMALL BUSINESSES is far more productive than tax cuts for large businesses and the wealthy. Most small businesses make only enough marginal profits that the savings from tax cuts would go more into investment, expansion of production or more benefits for workers instead of pocketed in offshore accounts. I agree with tax cuts on some issues and tax increases on others. It just depends on the situation.
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  38. "Why do you defend Obama?" I'm not. The only thing I'm defending is facts and records. Even if I hated someone I wouldn't lie about them just to make a point. As much as I couldn't stand Bush I won't exaggerate and claim he spent $30 Trillion just to rile people up about him. To be honest I only find Obama slightly more tolerable than Bush. He's been Bush Redux so far to me and a huge disappointment.
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  39. The last time we tried that under Herbert Hoover we got the Great Depression. This whole "the market is a perfect entity that works itself out" is one of the biggest lies ever told. Every president after Hoover learned their lesson. Even Ronald Reagan didn't just let the 1982 recession "work itself out".
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  40. Another problem is the Republicans want to further cut taxes for entities who already don't pay most of their taxes (now if we everyday citizens did that we'd be in jail) and which shift costs onto everyone else while ramping up spending by spending trillions on more expensive wars. That's incredibly dumb from an economics standpoint.
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  41. The USPS, despite its current financial woes, is still one of the best postal systems in the world. Try Italy's postal system and you'll see what I meant. All the top healthcare systems of the world are single-payer or some variation of it. That includes Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, etc. BTW the US was not the world's first democratic nation. Just the longest continuous one.
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  42. @kloneo - Agree totally. Capitalism needs regulation so business can flow smoothly and so all parties can have a fair shot. Adam Smith and David Ricardo would totally agree. Adam Smith actually greatly disliked enterprises with more than 50-100 employees. He believed a business cannot become very large without government protection of oligopolistic practices.
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  43. None of them are progressive or truly conservative either. They're all corporate. Real progressives and real conservatives are opposed to pro-corporate policies. At least historically.
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  44. The thing about the spending though is most of our spending, aside from corporate welfare, is going to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The former of which is even less justified than the latter. I would take tea party people more seriously if they had been this loud about spending all along and were critical of both parties. Many don't seem to mind the trillions spent on the wars and I didn't hear from many when Bush was spending like crazy and bailout out the banks.
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  45. 1) Whatever he said it doesn't add up economically. The numbers speak for themselves. 2) Look at the trend lines. The increase started before the war and continued to take off after the war ended.
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  46. The top 1% NOMINALLY pays that much but in actuality pays less because they avoid much of it with loopholes. In net terms they pay less each year. Don't forget the top 1% also earns 60% of the nation's income. "50% of Americans pay no income taxes" Who told you that? The tax rate for poor Americans is 10%. Which is quite a lot when you make $7,000/year. Class warfare is indeed going on. These people have been screwing us for the past 40 years and both parties help them. Time to wake up.
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  47. I never said I liked the Fed. The Fed is indeed a loan shark.
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  48. They're not really takeover of the banks and auto industry. The government has been buying up their toxic assets at the taxpayer's expense. It's business as usual for them and now corporate America and the government have a cozy relationship where the government pays for corporate America's mistakes with taxpayer money. The problem of many right-libertarians is they believe the government and the private sector are enemies with one good and one bad. No, no, no. They're partners in crime.
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  49. "Yet their foreign policy creates generations of enemies & trains foreign soldiers only to fight them in subsequent wars?" I didn't say the government ALWAYS handles long-term incentives well or behaves properly. Our foreign policy over the past 50 years has been pretty crappy. This is actually largely a result of the buildup of what President Eisenhower warned us about: The Military-Industrial Complex.
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  50. Ah Jesus Christ, this guy sounds like Mr. Rogers. Really Republicans? Really? This is the best guy your party has? This fool was lying out of his teeth when he claimed he wouldn't take Obama's money. He opposed little more than 2% of the money Obama was offering Louisiana. Even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) was chastising this guy.
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