President-elect Obama proposed $1 trillion in new spending on the campaign trail with no clear plan for paying for it. As a nation, we're on the hook for $52 trillion -- that represents an invisible mortgage of nearly $450,000 held by every household in America.

original link
Commentary: Conservatives didn't lose election, GOP did - CNN.com


In all seriousness,
What would you suggest to PEO or BO?

X

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Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

So, where were you with these brilliant economic concerns in 2004? Did you speak out against Medicare Part D? I find it amusing a group of one issue voters who turned their heads during the last 8 years are now suddenly concerned about the Federal budget and the Constitution.

And, this piece is from a Gov. working towards a GOP conservative movement leadership position from one of the poorest states with one of the worst education systems. Oh the irony. It seems contradictory that the Gov of a state that is upside down on a paid in/get back ratio feels free to criticize the deficit. S.C. is in the top 25 for receiving Federal funds but sucks up the bottom for income. And, you're from Arkansas. Funny indeed.

ETA - http://www.barackobama.com/issues/fiscal/ This will be the start.

Not the OP, but, I can tell you I was not paying a whole lot of attention to politics in 2004. I do now, tho. I would like to hope that many more people are getting involved now, too.

thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

SC has been in a budget shortfall for some time States with the Worst Budget Shortfalls : South Carolina - BusinessWeek

And this is a person who has the answers for balancing a budget? Funny Funny Funny

I only provided the link to save people from asking "Where'd you hear that fiqure from" (not one I pulled out of the air).

Who said "I" was turing my head? and I'm not posting to argue "points" I'm asking for opinions from anyone who would throw out a suggestion.
Round Table.... you know the "We the People" kinda thing...

If Obama is allowed to solicit ideas, why can't we as adults toss out a few here?

I thought it was finally calm enough around here to "talk" out loud about a real issue facing all of us, the upcoming changes in our economy.
The Depression that's going to be global.

You gave me Obama's link. I was asking for YOUR opinion. Speak YOUR mind with solutions not put downs.
It seems to have become a very hostile environment here indeed when a poster can not begin a legitimate discussion about an issue facing ALL Americans no matter what color your state. Ridiculing the state in which I reside makes me no less an American than you. Funny, no.

X
Still living in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is cutting unnecessary spending, which I know, is open to interpretation. Kind of like when you are making cuts in your household budget...... This probably isn't very realistic, tho, since there are so many hands in the pot, and you're bound to ruffle some feathers.

I don't see how we can implement new programs, hence adding to the debt, tho. This should be interesting, for sure.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Right. Sure is an interesting way to start a legitimate discussion outside of a hostile environment.

Seriously, this mess is going to take over a decade to fix. It won't be easy and a lot of people are going to be very angry with the decisions that are going to be made. You may not be aware, but most Federal agencies have been in hard freeze for a few years already. The agency I just left is a mess due to incompetence and inadequate staffing, which is why I left. Many agencies are almost at a breaking point due to political appointments who are clueless but a friend of the administration. I have recently had some discussions with a number of relatively high level Federal employees and the celebration in DC hasn't stopped. There is great hope people who actually know what they are doing will be appointed to appropriate positions. So, ridding the gov't of incompetence by political appointees (Great job, Brownie!) should be a good start.

These graphics might help you.






Mind you, the majority of all those freeloaders and lazy good-for-nothings are the elderly, children and mothers of children.

Originally posted by nightowlrn:

"Mind you, the majority of all those freeloaders and lazy good-for-nothings are the elderly, children and mothers of children"

Where did this come from? Good-for-nothing elderly! Am I missing a joke or something?

There is an odd belief by many people that much of our financial problems are due to those who seek public assistance -- AKA Lazy good-for-nothings. The reality is that 30% who receive welfare benefits are under 18 and 15% are elderly. The majority of the rest, who do that aren't in those groups, do work, but don't make enough to get above the poverty level.

Oh yes, let's not forget about those who by either accident of birth or nature who are for one reason or another unable to be self sufficient.

Add to the above, a very small percentage of the Federal budget actually goes to welfare recipients. Last I read it was around 1%.

We could save more cutting 5% of the military budget than by eliminating all Federal public assistance benefits.

And you notice the deflect to Bush..get used to it, that's the talking point for the next 4 years.

Thank you for posting the graphics!
This is the kind of thing I wanted to "see", discuss, and navigate through. This is REAL. This is where we are as a country.
I understand your point about needing competent people in the positions. Along with that suggestion, I know others will also share some real insight as to what our letters to our representatives need to be saying.

Thanks again for the graphics NightOwl,
X

Why? Well, don't you know? If you didn't vote for Obama, you have no say in the U.S. now! You'll only be ridiculed and no matter how horrible Obama does, the democrats will throw it back to President Bush.

I'm tolerant of some ridicule. not my favorite but I can take a little.

My point with the Obama statement was if he's asking on his end, I know we have some reasonably intelligient people around here with ALOT to offer from their unique perspective. We come from all over the US and while we see the needs closest to us in our own communities, we are also witnessing America as a whole attempt to make a change. I wanted to listen to what was on people's minds as to which areas could be trimmed and how.

I mean it might come down to do we need a billion dollar Space trip to Mars or do we need more public transportation options for larger cities. (example trolley system in downtown Little Rock)
every little bit adds up. We've got to give up something to pay for what we already bought + interest.

X

Sorry - the sudden facination (not just from you) with economics, our rights under the constitution, and what form of government our current one is beginning to resemble is frustrating for someone who has been so concerned about these very things for the last 7 years.

And, I find it odd no one else has been responsive to your question.

As far as Mars v. a trolley in Little Rock = maybe we have someone from NASA here

Our Little Rock trolley is a waste but someone is paying for it or to be completely honest a taxpayer from somewhere else paid for it too.
I look around my own neighborhood first for an example of "geez, do we ~really~ need that! for comparison of priorities.

I know on a smaller scale professional money management people say.. Look for the "latte" factor. The littlest bits add up the most. i.e. Phase 1 of the $16 million River Rail project was given a major jolt of energy with a nearly $3 million Federal Transit Administration grant in December 2001, enabling the Central Arkansas Transit Authority (CATA) to begin construction. The streetcar system is intended to facilitate movement in and around both CBDs, and to boost tourism and economic development.

*OUCH*!!
Now, I can honestly say, I'm not proud of this trolley, it does not serve the "greater" good in my opinion, but to the whole of the sum if the same were happening this current year (2008 Department of Transportation was allotted almost 60 billion dollars) why did we need a $3 million dollar trolley?

I can trim some off the Dept. of Transportation's Budget with that in mind.

But I've zoomed in on one particular item. I know most mycouponer's came here because we know the worth of a dollar. OUR dollar. The dollar we're trying to stretch and make go further.
If these dollars mean more to us now, we need to be more vocal about it.

If our country is like a mortgage and we're paying interest only, we're a heartbeat away from the eviction notice. What are you (in general use of "you") suggesting to your representatives?
I don't feel I have the right to complain unless I also have an alternative solution or recommendation to be considered.

ps. I also agree about the possibility of 5% overage on Military spending because of the stories we see briefly in the news about massive fraud from suppliers charging like $25.00 a bolt because they "could" and no one would ever know. WHAT??? My Great Grandfather on DH's side gave up their only plow for the scrap "metal" for the war effort for the WWII.

X

Building infrastructure to boost tournism seems like a good investment. You community got jobs to build the trolley system and then jobs to support the tourists.

More jobs = more income. More income = more opportunity. It brings in more support to pay for better schools .... More income = more ability to pay more to the Federal gov't in taxes, who in turn then provides funds to other communities.

I just threw the 5% military to put the relatively small percentage of Federal funds that go to public assistance into perspective.

Not sure if this fits here or not, but, I'll add it anyway. This is an interesting take on Poverty and Welfare.


Does Welfare Diminish Poverty?| The Foundation for Economic Education: The Freeman, Ideas on Liberty

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

The problem I have isn't with the social welfare programs per se, it's with the administrative costs. Look at the pie chart. How many US Dept of fill-in-the-blanks are there? I've been in education long enough to know that a lot of the big money goes for administration. I think that would be a reasonable place to start. I know when people give to charity they like to see how much of the moola is going for the actual work and how much is taken in administrative costs. I'd be curious to see what the federal numbers are for those. Does anybody know? I'll see what I can find.

ETA: I'm having a hard time finding what I'm looking for, but I did run across this. It's depressing:

http://www.truthinaccounting.org/

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"No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"
- George Orwell Animal Farm

Where do these graphics come from? Please cite your source.

We, (St. Louis area), just got a new baseball stadium and tore down one that was about 40 years old, but perfectly serviceable. We are resurfacing streets that don't seem to really need it, but there is no money to improve roads and intersections that do need it. We've had communities put in round abouts and a year later remove them. We just had a road improved that is only two lanes and one of the improvements was those long tree and shrub planters down the middle. Nice on a four lane road, terribly dangerous and impractical on a two lane road and a waste of money that could have gone to something more important.

We just spent a fortune tearing down an old prison in the state capitol that was built in the late 1800's. It was a scary looking monster that should have been on the national historic register, and could have been turned into something really interesting, but we paid a huge amount to destroy it so that Jeff City could have yet another shopping mall.
There seems to be no common sense anymore. There is no one to say NO! and mean it.

A few years ago the gambling lobby decided to push for a bill to get gambling in this state. The politicians promised all the revenues would go to schools, so the majority jumped in and voted yes. Then the politicians put the money into the schools but took out what they would have had to put in on their own. So no gain for the schools. This last election the gambling people wanted to remove loss limits and they promised the same thing, more money for schools. In spite of the ire over the last batch of lies, the people of this state voted in favor of the casinos once again. What can you do with a populace that never seems to learn a lesson?

Your trolley is just a drop in the bucket but all those drops do add up. I would not go rushing to Little Rock because you have a trolley. I can't think of any reason to go rushing to Little Rock, although I'm sure there are some things to do there. I don't understand the trolley without the attractions to make the trolley needed. They put their trolley before their horse. And I certainly won't be rushing to Jeff City to visit their new shopping mall either. But I will be here, hoping that no vehicle breaks down, again, in the stretch of two lane road with the planter in the middle while I'm trying to get somewhere.

We need to have leaders who can say no. I understand, but I might be wrong, one of our Senators, Claire McCaskill, has said no to earmarks for Missouri. I hope that's contagious. It would go a long way towards curing a lot of what ails us. That's the message to send to our representatives, at the local, state and federal level. Just say NO! It didn't work for drugs, but maybe it could work with politicians.

I think the leaders thought it was some big woo hoo to go along with the Clinton Library and the Peabody Hotel downtown. Still don't see the value. Touristy or not.
I appreciate Nightowlrn's explanation of how the money goes in a circle trying to help more than just one area of the economy, I would love to think it did have that kind of effect but in the long run, I'm not the only tax payer "paying" for it.

We're all going to be paying the "interest" it on it for years and then our children will.

I have to say I do HOPE it's contagious about the saying NO.

Does everybody in the U.S. get the same "PARADE" magazine insert in their weekly Sunday paper? Did anybody happen to read theirs this past Sunday?
The Intellegience Report on page 6 was headlined WHO AMERICA OWES

It listed the countries that own most the U.S. Debt.
(countries we have a line of credit with - Countries we are paying premium interest to as well.)

Japan 585.9 Billion and climbing
China 541 Billion and rising
United Kingdom 307.4 Billion and climbing
OPEC Nations 179.8 Billion and rising
Carribean Banking Centers 147.7 Billion

In the first paragraph they gave quick reference for comparision
In 2001 China only held 61.5 billion and now it's 541 billion, and we owed Russia only 10 billion and now that's up to 74 billion and so on...

It's just unbelievable. What makes us think they won't come one day asking us to pay up in tangible assets instead of our currency that will then be worthless.

Yikes,
X

Yeah, I was surprised that passed, the schools in my county didn't even endorse it.

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Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.

I totally agree with this. The thing that happens, tho, is that when they "just say no" people get upset. Think of the banking/housing situation. Now, they want to bail out the car companies. Hurricane Katrina is another example. Yes, we needed to help those areas that were devestated, but, why do we still have people living in the FEMA trailers, some 3 years after the hurricane?? And, the people who didn't have insurance.....why should the gov't bail them out??? Because if they don't they are demonized.

I think it's a fine line to walk, but, I agree....we need to just say NO a little more often.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Sometimes people are going to get upset but we elect people to hopefully do what's right regardless of an occasional upset constituency. I think when actual people are involved the rules are different. The housing situation, for me is murky. I would like to know exactly who is being hurt. If it's a person who is about to lose their vacation home, so be it. If it's an auto worker who has been laid off, then some help is in order. The Katrina people couldn't even afford a way to get out of the way in Katrina, how on earth does anyone expect them to be able to afford insurance. They are in the trailers because that is all there is for them. It's better than living on the street.

My complaint is more with the items like I mentioned above. Street planters, stadiums, trolleys, etc. Things that provide pay back for campaign donations, things that do nothing for the greater good and things that end up lining the pocket of politicians or corporations. If we were in great economic times, I love the idea of dressing up our roadways, beautifying our cities, but not now. Not unless there is a good reason, not unless the doing so creates jobs, not unless we are sure the money is not lining some political or corporate pocket