State of the Union by Carl Moore

?fh=37832a2231e5dd7091b198a454b25cb4

Comments (29) Jump to Comments Form

  1. GJ_Jehosaphat

    GJ_JehosaphatGenius_badge said, 21 days ago

    The Great Society - Part 2
    Health Care Reform - Dreaming of Single Payer Health Care.

  2. scottfreitas

    scottfreitasGenius_badge said, 21 days ago

    What’s that ghostly, murmuring crowd noise I’m hearing? Thousands of college students, all chanting:

    “HEY HEY LBJ
    HOW MANY KIDS DID YOU KILL TODAY?”

    Wonder what Osama’s chant would sound like? As he sits around “thinking” about Afghanistan….

    “HEY HEY BARACK HUSSEIN
    HOW MANY KIDS DID YOU KILL TODAY?”

    Whoah! sounds awfully familiar…

  3. Buzzy-One

    Buzzy-One said, 21 days ago

    Awww, Mr Moore’s gone cute .

    PS Scotty, gloating again? Familiar, naw just another posting from empty.

  4. cabrobst

    cabrobst said, 21 days ago

    Any wonder why he’s so slow getting in there?
    Afghanistan eats empires and spits them out.

  5. Lewreader

    LewreaderGenius_badge said, 21 days ago

    Why this could be a GREAT SOCIETY. Lets destroy the American family and work ethic with federal handouts, alienate the American youth, and fight a war our best advisors tell us cannot be won. This historic opportunity of one party having two branches of the federal government should not be lost. What’s good for General Motors is good for the USA.

  6. 3hourtour

    3hourtour said, 21 days ago

    your propaganda maked no sense

  7. mjensen9999

    mjensen9999 said, 21 days ago

    blah blah blah

  8. ChuckTrent64

    ChuckTrent64Genius_badge said, 21 days ago

    If it hadn’t been for the Vietnam War, Johnson would have been one of the best presidents of the century. Even so, if it hadn’t been for LBJ, several prominent black Republicans (especailly one Supreme Court Justice) would probably still be shining shoes, or doing so much less than their potential of biting the hands that fed them. But they’ve got theirs.

  9. mroberts88

    mroberts88 said, 21 days ago

    Scott, what would you do in Afghanistan?

  10. Contrarian

    Contrarian said, 21 days ago

    How ironic.

    LBJ was a racist, a bigot and a segregationist. He opposed civil rights legislation and anti-lynching laws.

    It wasn’t until 1957, when he considered a run for the White House, that he supported a civil rights bill.

    Robert Parker, LBJ’s black chauffer, complained of daily bigoted verbal slurs.

    Presidential historian Robert Dallek documented that after Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court he told an aide:

    Son, when I appoint a (censored) to the court, I want everyone to know he’s a (censored).

    LBJ was a coarse, mean-spirited and foul-mouthed son of the south.

    Politically, he was motivated by a self-serving agenda that he could enact with a phony southern charm or an elbow to the mat arm-twisting.

    BTW, Johnson sold Medicare as a self-sustaining government program. (Without increases in taxes, or rationing, it is projected to go bankrupt in 10 years.)

  11. sablebrush5

    sablebrush5 said, 21 days ago

    LBJ was a huge tax-and-spend liberal. Obama is a huge tax-and-spend liberal. LBJ got caught up in a civil war on the other side of the planet. Obama is getting caught up (or is he?) in a civil war on the other side of the planet… Yup, it fits.

  12. GJ_Jehosaphat

    GJ_JehosaphatGenius_badge said, 20 days ago

    Humm - Remember Al Gore & the “Lock Box” during the 2000 election? This was released for publication March 13, 2001 - Wonder Where The Surplus $$$$$$$ Went?

    “REPUBLICANS BLOCK CONRAD’S SOCIAL
    SECURITY/MEDICARE “LOCKBOX” AMENDMENT

    * – Conrad Faults Republican Senators for Giving Bush Green Light to Raid the Social Security & Medicare Trust Fund Surpluses –*

    “The only way the Bush budget numbers including his massive tax cut add up is if the Administration uses either the Social Security or Medicare trust fund surpluses,” said Conrad.

    “By failing to support my lockbox amendment, the Senate Republican leadership today is giving President Bush a green light to raid these trust fund monies which are already promised to our nation’s seniors.””

    http://budget.senate.gov/democratic/press/2001/pr_lockbox031301.pdf

    Betcha Senior Citizens Wished Gore v: Bush had gone to the Actual Winner in 2000. Now we have HUGE Deficits compliments of the “Borrow & Spend” policies of the previous administration.

    Both Parties are BIG Spenders - I prefer the Democrats who want to to spend to make life better for US.

  13. muzkfctry

    muzkfctryGenius_badge said, 20 days ago

    Good one, Carl. I don’t know a progressive around who’s happened about this. On this one, we can cry together.

  14. Jor-El

    Jor-El said, 20 days ago

    In 1968 President Johnson transfered the Social Security Trust Fund to the General Accounting Office to be used to help finance the Vietnam War.

    Johnson promised the American people that Medicare would only cost $500 million a year. Today, it is a $74 trillion unfunded liability.

    Henry Morgenthau, FDR’s Treasury Secretary, projected that Social Security would be a $50 billion reserve fund by 1980.

    The reserve fund was actually $298 billion in deficit by 1964.

    Today, Social Security is a $14 trillion unfunded liability.

    In March, President Obama assured the American people that health care reform would cost only $634 billion.

    That figure has already increased to over $1 trillion.

    America is collapsing under the weight of New Deal and Great Society programs.

    Obama completes the trilogy, but seems as fuzzy with math as his liberal predecessors.

  15. GJ_Jehosaphat

    GJ_JehosaphatGenius_badge said, 20 days ago

    Jor-El Re: (If) “America is Collapsing under the weight of New Deal and Great Society programs” - Who will be crushed?

    I’m more familiar with Johnson’s Great Society Programs - but will cite from an article written by Joseph Califano Jr.: Published Oct. 1999.

    “What Was Really Great About The Great Society
    The truth behind the conservative myths

    “…Taken together, these programs have played a pivotal role in recasting America’s demographic profile. In 1964, life expectancy was 66.6 years for men and 73.1 years for women (69.7 years overall). In a single generation, by 1997, life expectancy jumped 10 percent: for men, to 73.6 years; for women, to 79.2 years (76.5 years overall).
    The jump was highest among the less advantaged, suggesting that better nutrition and access to health care have played an even larger role than medical miracles. Infant mortality stood at 26 deaths for each 1,000 live births when LBJ took office; today it stands at only 7.3 deaths per 1,000 live births, a reduction of almost 75 percent….”

    “…Whatever anyone thinks about Vietnam and however much politicians shrink from the liberal label, it is time to recognize‹as historians are beginning to do the reality of the remarkable and enduring achievements of the Great Society programs.
    Without such programs as Head Start, higher-education loans and scholarships, Medicare, Medicaid, clear air and water, and civil rights, life would be nastier, more brutish, and shorter for millions of Americans.”

    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/1999/9910.califano.html

  16. farren

    farrenGenius_badge said, 20 days ago

    It’s pretty amusing, reading all these lies. $74 TRILLION for Medicare, Jor-El? Get a grip. Or, maybe, go back to Krypton, where you live.

  17. Jor-El

    Jor-El said, 20 days ago

    Farren

    With all due respect:

    The 2009 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports show the combined unfunded liability of these two programs has reached nearly $107 trillion in today’s dollars. That is about seven times the size of the U.S. economy and 10 times the size of the outstanding national debt.

    Do you know what is an unfunded liability?

    It is the difference between the benefits that have been promised to current and future retirees and what will be collected in dedicated taxes and Medicare premiums.

    I shall ignore that you called me a liar.

    America is essentially bankrupt.

  18. ReFlex-76

    ReFlex-76Genius_badge said, 20 days ago

    Funny thing about an unfunded liability then: simple changes in “what has been promised” and/or “what will be collected” can quickly bring it down to zero!

    It seems Scott means “stop thinking, pull us out!”

    Yes, the Great Society was more successful than some would like to admit.

    Oooh, and ANandy deals with his/her unsupported talking points through projection!

  19. Contrarian

    Contrarian said, 20 days ago

    Do liberals not understand the concept of broke?

    While these social programs sound noble and altruistic, they have bankrupted the nation.

    We can only print so much money, sell so much debt and confiscate so much wealth before the dollar is consumed by hyperinflation.

    When the world stopped buying German bonds in the 1920’s, the Reichsbank had to inflate the currency.

    Germans who survived the financial collapse did so by purchasing hard assets such as gold.

    The same parallels exist today.

    Shall we simply give our paycheck over to the government, and be wards of the state?

    Or will we remain free, owners of our labor and property?

    The ugly truth is that liberalism enslaves.

  20. Jor-El

    Jor-El said, 20 days ago

    ReFlex-76

    True, we could zero out the unfunded liability in any number of ways including rationing or a reduction in benefits, though it would be political suicide to betray the senior voting bloc.

    A public health care option would face the same difficult challenges.

    ANandy

    I wonder if farren would accompany me back to Krypton?

    Maybe I could teach him/her some manners.

  21. Contrarian

    Contrarian said, 20 days ago

    Life expectancy in the United States has effectively doubled during the past 200 years due to sanitation and advancements in medicine that were produced by economic growth and private enterprise.

    The trend began long before the era of LBJ.

  22. GJ_Jehosaphat

    GJ_JehosaphatGenius_badge said, 20 days ago

    Ref: ” Liberalism enslaves.” Au contraire mon Contrarian - by definition liberalism has several meanings - including economics. Line 2b sounds like something Libertarians could agree with!
    From Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

    “Main Entry: lib·er·al·ism
    Pronunciation: \ˈli-b(ə-)rə-ˌli-zəm\
    Function: noun
    Date: 1819

    1 : the quality or state of being liberal

    2 a often capitalized : a movement in modern Protestantism emphasizing intellectual liberty and the spiritual and ethical content of Christianity.

    b : a theory in economics emphasizing individual freedom from restraint and usually based on free competition, the self-regulating market, and the gold standard.

    c : a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties; specifically : such a philosophy that considers government as a crucial instrument for amelioration of social inequities (as those involving race, gender, or class).

    d capitalized : the principles and policies of a Liberal party.”

    http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liberalism

  23. Contrarian

    Contrarian said, 20 days ago

    The American socialist, Norman Thomas, six-time candidate for president said:

    The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program until one day America will be a Socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened.

    Or as Thomas Sowell said:

    Liberalism is totalitarianism with a human face.

  24. GJ_Jehosaphat

    GJ_JehosaphatGenius_badge said, 20 days ago

    Re: Norman Thomas - I always like to learn something new & since I was never a Political Science/Philosophy Major - I googled: Who is Norman Thomas & went with the .uk site for less bias:

    “…In 1918 he founded and edited the World Tomorrow and two years later joined with Jane Addams, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Upton Sinclair to establish the American Civil Liberties Union…

    Thomas joined Burton K. Wheeler and Charles A. Lindbergh in forming he America First Committee (AFC) in September 1940 and soon became the most powerful isolationist group in the United States. The AFC had four main principles:
    (1) The United States must build an impregnable defense for America;
    (2) No foreign power, nor group of powers, can successfully attack a prepared America;
    (3) American democracy can be preserved only by keeping out of the European War;
    (4) “Aid short of war” weakens national defense at home and threatens to involve America in war abroad.

    Thomas was the Socialist Party presidential candidate in 1940, 1944 and 1948. A strong critic of Soviet communism,

    http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAthomas.htm

    Norman Thomas had more depth to his life than what was inferred by Contrarian’s Quote.
    I’ve got things to do - will look up Thomas Sowell later…

  25. Contrarian

    Contrarian said, 20 days ago

    Norman Thomas thought of himself as a communarian rather than a communist.

    His anti-communist slant was mostly a philosophical difference with the Marxists, Stalinists and Trotskys who struggled for control of the American socialist movement.

    More precisely, due to his devout Christian faith, Thomas was anti-Stalinist.

    The Marxists had no tolerance for a God-fearing socialist.

    Towards the end of his life Thomas said:

    I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party . The Democrat Party has adopted our platform.

    Understand that when we talk about liberalism we are really talking about socialism.

  26. mroberts88

    mroberts88 said, 19 days ago

    Under liberals, we lose some freedoms. Some, not all, but we shouldnt lose any.

  27. GJ_Jehosaphat

    GJ_JehosaphatGenius_badge said, 19 days ago

    This weekend’s “quotation exchange” reminds me of the Bugs Bunny Cartoon where the characters punch in on a time clock & assume their roles as “combatants”. Off the clock - they’re friends.

    “Sam Sheepdog & Ralph Wolf - Woolen Under Where (1963)”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOSuhxFo76o

    It’s been an interesting exchange of ideas with less bashing of each other - more civilized. That is what makes living in this country so great! The ability to communicate without the fear of retribution or persecution.

  28. Jor-El

    Jor-El said, 19 days ago

    GJ_

    Which of us is Sam, and the other Ralph?

    Or maybe we’re more like:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo4NCXOX0p8

  29. ReFlex-76

    ReFlex-76Genius_badge said, 18 days ago

    So, under we liberals, we (re)gain some freedoms, but not all, gotcha! (see gays who will soon be free to openly serve in the military)

    Ah, Thomas Sowell, long-discredited voice of the far right, along with a highly outdated McCarthy era socialist. Not exactly reliable sources.