I highly doubt anything I say is going to change your mind.
Oh, and maybe you’ve not heard, but the military has this thing called “The Reserves.” Given how articulate you are with your posts, I’m shocked I had to barney-style that bit of info.
Regarding the 23%, I’m comparing it to the 39% that is going to be higher next year and the years after, etc, when the 23% is going to shrink because its costs are relatively static. Yes, 23% is a big chunk of money, but it will be shrinking either way you slice the pie (chart).
In regards to services provided to you, during Katrina, the armed forces were mobilized to help there. Or is that not a valuable service to help fellow citizens in times of turmoil? We also protect your right to say whatever you want here, no matter how vitriolic or inaccurate it may or may not be.
Regarding the stimulus package, it didn’t stimulate squat. We have no way to prove that it saved 1 million jobs, especially in the private sector who was shedding jobs to stay afloat. The reason I know this is that the stimulus money was funneled to special interests in the state and local governments, and did nothing to “stimulate” the private sector. All that “stimulus” pulled down on our private sector because it was additional unfunded payouts (aka debt).
And spending isn’t just the stimulus bill. The spending is also the bailouts (I even hated the ones GW did, they were wrong) that shouldn’t have happened, the health care bill that isn’t going to save money or improve anyone’s health, or other unfunded programs like continued unemployment.
“Too big to fail” needs to be removed from our vocabulary. It’s a false sense of security, and this nation was built on the survival of the fittest notion. Businesses start and fail every day, and yet there’s no stimulus for them. Had the “too big to fail” people failed and gone into bankruptcy, another healthy bank would have purchased them and brought them back.
In addition, and this may be considered callous by a lot of you here, sometimes you have need to go through the horrific pain of cutting open an infected wound to save the patient. Letting these idiots at AIG and GM etc watch their businesses fall apart would have solved the problem in one fell swoop. Instead, now we have companies who are held together with bandaids and duct tape because government stepped in, and the original problem still exists, lurking in the background: Poor business decisions (potentially partly forced on them by the government), poor personal decisions (seriously, who gets a 5-year ARM with a payment that is equal to your monthly income?), and unfunded liabilities with no form of backup in case stuff falls apart.
The root problem hasn’t been solved. It’s only been glossed over. And like so many of you left-viewers like to say, these giants are still getting huge bonuses. Boy, we sure taught them!
I highly doubt anything I say is going to change your mind.
Oh, and maybe you’ve not heard, but the military has this thing called “The Reserves.” Given how articulate you are with your posts, I’m shocked I had to barney-style that bit of info.
Regarding the 23%, I’m comparing it to the 39% that is going to be higher next year and the years after, etc, when the 23% is going to shrink because its costs are relatively static. Yes, 23% is a big chunk of money, but it will be shrinking either way you slice the pie (chart).
In regards to services provided to you, during Katrina, the armed forces were mobilized to help there. Or is that not a valuable service to help fellow citizens in times of turmoil? We also protect your right to say whatever you want here, no matter how vitriolic or inaccurate it may or may not be.
Regarding the stimulus package, it didn’t stimulate squat. We have no way to prove that it saved 1 million jobs, especially in the private sector who was shedding jobs to stay afloat. The reason I know this is that the stimulus money was funneled to special interests in the state and local governments, and did nothing to “stimulate” the private sector. All that “stimulus” pulled down on our private sector because it was additional unfunded payouts (aka debt).
And spending isn’t just the stimulus bill. The spending is also the bailouts (I even hated the ones GW did, they were wrong) that shouldn’t have happened, the health care bill that isn’t going to save money or improve anyone’s health, or other unfunded programs like continued unemployment.
“Too big to fail” needs to be removed from our vocabulary. It’s a false sense of security, and this nation was built on the survival of the fittest notion. Businesses start and fail every day, and yet there’s no stimulus for them. Had the “too big to fail” people failed and gone into bankruptcy, another healthy bank would have purchased them and brought them back.
In addition, and this may be considered callous by a lot of you here, sometimes you have need to go through the horrific pain of cutting open an infected wound to save the patient. Letting these idiots at AIG and GM etc watch their businesses fall apart would have solved the problem in one fell swoop. Instead, now we have companies who are held together with bandaids and duct tape because government stepped in, and the original problem still exists, lurking in the background: Poor business decisions (potentially partly forced on them by the government), poor personal decisions (seriously, who gets a 5-year ARM with a payment that is equal to your monthly income?), and unfunded liabilities with no form of backup in case stuff falls apart.
The root problem hasn’t been solved. It’s only been glossed over. And like so many of you left-viewers like to say, these giants are still getting huge bonuses. Boy, we sure taught them!