Why is our country bankrupt

[jc pacquin]

George W. Bush made a deadly mistake. He tried to emulate Ronnie Reagan! Ronnie picked fights with little guys like Grenada. We beat them in a day or two. Cheney said that within two weeks the Iraqui's would be throwing flowers at our troops. (last week 4 more American troops were killed in Iraq. 8 more in Afganistan. This of course is almost ten years later!) Try to imagine the total amount of FUEL the American military alone has consumed since 2003! Try to conceive how much money has been spent AND THROWN AWAY (Stolen) on these two wars, (No bid contracts given to "WELL conected" companys like HALIBURTON!) poorly or incompleted projects in both Iraq and Afghanistan. It goes on and on, PLUS Billions simply unaccounted for. Notice that I havn't mentioned Enron yet. Thousands of Enron workers lost their entire savings! They were not allowed to sell or withdraw their stock while Enron went bankrupt. (One of Bush's largest contributors!) Its no wonder we are where we are! YOU voted for the idiot TWICE! JP

[jc pacquin]

Also VERY important to remember that G. W. Bush was a VERY poor businessman, went bankrupt twice in the oil business. (The Saudi's bailed him out.) Then became a front man for the investors who owned the Texas Rangers. (They gave him stock for being the front man) The Rangers real estate was eventually sold to....THE TAXPAYERS! and Bush got big money as his payoff for fronting the deal. This is all easily available in print but never mentioned on Fox News. JP

[Holcombe]

Couldn't agree more about about who and how we got into the mess we are in, but seeing it comming did little to make me feel any better.
By now we have the perspective to see Democrats are also making substantial contributions to the comming train wreck.
Through the Bush years I prepared by paying down debt and buying nothing I couldn't afford and pay cash for.
Now, with an inflation and default comming, we should all be borrowing like mad because it can be payed back in worthless inflated dollars.
This sport is too rich for my blood.
Better to stick with a Champ or Chief, take care of the wife and kids, and fly low and slow.

[Rod]

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[MikeB]

I don't care who gets credit for killing Bin Laden. I'm glad the scum bag is gone and dumped over the side. God bless our military.

MikeB

[Holcombe]

It may be the end of chapter one.
However.
There will be no peace in the middle east until all the people there have the dignity of self government, including the Palistinians, whose treatment going back fifty years is at the root of most of our problems in the reagon.
What goes around comes around.
Justice can only come after an open trial, under law. Not out the back door of a C-130.

[jc pacquin]

AhhhhhhMEN! Thanks Mr. Holcombe! There WILL BE NO peace in the middle east until Israel stops using our aircraft and tanks and 3-4 billion a year to terrorize the Palestinians. Truman was VERY skeptical about the Jews taking the Palestinians land back in '47. But I guess he figured after what they had been thru they deserved a shot at a homeland. They then proceeded to treat the Palestinans EXACTLY as the Nazis had treated them. Took their land, raped them, killed them, forced them into refugee camps and as of today , made their life a living hell. There will not be any peace until Israel stops what they are doing and gives the land back that they took in '67. If not, they will be responsible for whatever finally happens. And.... lets not forget the Americans they killed (35) as they tried to sink the U.S.S. Liberty! (Great book to read!) Currently, Israel has one of the most powerful lobbys in the U.S. and they distort the truth to get what they want. JP

[jc pacquin]

The graph depicts very well what happened. What may not be clear is that during WW2 taxes were as high as 90 percent- Ninety PERCENT! to pay for the war. Instead, during the "hunt for osama" Bush LOWERED taxes and put the entire war on a credit card. He also signed a medicare drug bill that cost billions and put it on a credit card. He funded neither one! AND cut taxes, mainly for the wealthy! It didn't work.JP

[Holcombe]

Thank goodness this is all in Off Topic, and let us all remember how much we have in common, even beyond our love of flying.
It is normal in a recession to borrow to keep cash and the economy flowing to prevent a downward spiral which would hurt everyone.
The best connected experts maintain that the current debt levels compaired to the overall size of the economy are not unsustainable as long as we do in fact reform our spending and tax policy. Both parties have now joined the Tea Party in that new dogma. Lets all keep our fingers crossed.
Our energy policy has wisely been to drain the middle east first because that is the cheapest oil and is not in our back yards. There will be plenty of time to go after or own oil after prices rise and others have run out.
Oil company subsidies for domestic production are a hudge drain on our wealth and should be stopped. Also of course subsidies for ethanol. duh
The so called "Bush Tax Cuts" which have participated the current crisis could easily be dropped bringing us back to the more balanced tax code which under Clinton gave a strong economy without the asset bubbles that have so unhinged us in recent years. "Trickle Down", or so called "supply side economics" was always a big lie, serving only to enrich the elite who pushed it through. Prosperity has to include the little guy customers or there is no market to bvase rising employment on.
Even though we are all getting older, the world is not comming to an end, and the sun will shine again.

[seaheli]

Even though we are all getting older, the world is not comming to an end, and the sun will shine again.[/quote]

Well said!

Charles

[joea]

Even though we are all getting older, the world is not comming to an end, and the sun will shine again.

Well said!

Charles[/quote]

Charles,

Totally agree as long as we can get the idiots in DC to STOP SPENDING money.

Sorry but when you or I are broke we stop but they are now trying to raise taxes to give them more money to spend. Hope it does not happen!

Joe A

[MikeB]

I don't know what auto fuel prices are in the rest of the country but in western Wisconsin we just jumped up around $4.10 a gallon. I'd hate to think about the price of 100LL at the 'big airport up the road'. Luckely I can burn auto fuel in the Champ although I think twice about driving the 20 miles RT to the airport and spending another $20 or so flying around the area. All this when Obama is flying his 747 around to political fund raisers and telling us to inflate our tires . Plus, his energy chief (Steve Chu) mentioned in April that it would be good if somehow we could get the fuel price up to the world market of around $10 a gallon to force the public to use alternative energy (his words) Maybe like the hot air out of Washington (my words).

MikeB

[MikeB]

To add to the above (don't know why I can't edit sometimes) we have our state legislature discussing and debating such important items as "making the cream puff our state dessert'. We already have a state dance (polka). Next we'll have a state fish dinner (lutefisk....ugh!! and I'm 100% Norwegien ). Wonder why things don't get done??

MikeB

[jc pacquin]

"I hope they don't raise taxes". This is foxnewsspeak. Its important to remember that when Clinton left office he left a two trillion dollar surplus! Bush2 went thru that quickly. Then......he credit carded two wars and the medicare drug bill! (over two trillion more, at least!) As for the current President "flying around in his 747" its important to remember that Bush2 spent a total of one whole year at his crawford texas ranch out of the 8 he served. He was not taken there in an Aeronca Champ! He also stated that he'd "get ben laden dead or alive." He failed to do this. The current President said, when he ran for office that HE would get him......and he did. Now IF you have lots of money, that is LOTS of money you should want more tax breaks. If however you are of more moderate means you should want the tax rate taken back to the Clinton formula. They economy did very well then! You certainly wouldn't want it taken back to Eisenhowers day when it was MUCH MUCH higher. If you buy Reagan's theory of "Trickle down economics" then you need to study some more.... It didn't work! Reagan's own financial whiz David Stockman recently admitted that it didn't work! JP

[flyboy1964]

Our current president also said when he got elected he would have all the troops out of there in 6 months, Hows that working? Our current president is more engrossed with spending than anything else. If you think he is for the good of the common working man you are sadly mistaken.