As always, elections are about variables so myriad as to make polling effective only in trend for some elections, and entirely unreliable in others. It appears to me this 2008 election however, is about a crisis in confidence toward authority and the presidential winner will be the person having shown the most credible judgement.
Most American tax payers could not give a definition of the term "opportunity cost". Just as most Americans could not tell you what al-Queda was, prior to 9/11, 2001. Not knowing however, did not stop al-Queda from attacking America, and not knowing what opportunity cost is, will not stop those oppressive and suffocating costs from forcing future tax increases on income earners in America and pushing the nation toward bankruptcy.
America has a future. American's have a future. In many ways, it will not look like our past. What is happening right now is a revolution, a political, economic, and cultural revolution. There is no choice about it. When Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, certain concepts and ideas were put to the test, and in 2007 and 2008, those concepts and ideas brought our economy crashing down, driving 10's of millions of voters to leave the two major political parties, and opening the door to dramatic cultural change going forward.
Yesterday, the word was an agreement framework was at hand. What transpired after that is anyone's guess, and I will offer some in a moment.
But, the facts are these: A group of House Republicans have opposed this Republican proposal from the outset when Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson announced it days ago. One hour after McCain's arrival in D.C. yesterday, bi-partisan statements were made to the media that a basic agreement was at hand. Today,that sentiment was reiterated in a bipartisan statement this morning. Then, Sen. McCain met with balking Republicans in the House and became their spokesperson in the White House meeting which ended just 30 minutes ago. Now there is no agreement, Sen. Shelby and another spokesperson at the White House announced.
There is nothing as depressing as to be right about calamity foreseen and have such warnings go unheeded. To see what is coming, take advantage, and walk away, allows one to feel intelligent, profit from the knowledge, and avoid looking back at the suffering of others who didn't see what is happening. This, of course, would be the corporate executives and Republicans in power who fought against regulation and oversight since 1994, and won.
Few off Wall Street are paying attention, but, there are fundamental structural changes taking place in our economy, that are going to require new economic models, metrics, and updated economics education if anyone is going to manage the economy well for Americans. The consumer backbone of our economy is yielding to exports and business consumption, even as the consumer's role in products and services shrinks.
Junior Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) brought to light this morning yet another revelation connected to the tragic Iraq War and tax payer dollar waste.
Democrats and Republicans are spinning their heads off the 2008 Budget proposal. The numbers in the budget proposals are the numbers regardless of how they are spun, and therefore, the budget numbers are fact based, regardless of the spin. Here is a look at context, facts, and lies of the 2008 budget, sparked by an article by FactCheck.org.
We were told the 2006 Defense spending part of the budget would be $453 billion, advertised in the bill, H.R. 2863. What did our President and Congress actually spend? Try 200 billion more than the figure above. How about the upcoming Defense appropriations bill for 2007 (beginning July 2007 fiscal year)? Adding the reported numbers up, it comes to between 566.9 and 586.9 billion. This doesn't include unanticipated emergency supplementals.
Are we engaged in a vicious cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy here? Is it possible, that the more we spend in preparation to engage the rest of the world militarily, the more conflicts we must engage in, and the more we must increase our military spending to do so, ad infinitum?
David Walker, U.S. Comptroller, gave a speech recently which was re-aired on C-Span this evening. It was the most important speech made in the last 5 years and will remain the most important speech for America's future for decades. America is on a path to depression and bankruptcy, and the politicians to date, refuse to act to prevent it. The essence of his message was simple. America must make radical changes today to its future financial situation if it is to have an economic future with quality and dignity for its citizens.
