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The responsiblility to create jobs is - ready - CONGRESS! They are the ones who hold the Purse! And who runs CONGRESS right now - ready - REPUBLICANS! No job bills introduced since they gained the house - NOT ONE- but over 20 ABORTION bills!
Another one who does not know how his own government works!!
I'll say it right out - Reagan was a nut! A kind and simple talking one, but still a nut! If he's a saint I'm god!
What he and his ilk started 30 years ago, the world is still to reap the whirlwind! Just look at what represents the republican party today - greed, avarice, meaness, heartless, push the grandmas over the cliff, rascist nutjobs!
THERE IS NOTHING GOOD about who and what represents the Republican party today - that ended with Eisenhower!
Based on what logic? Yours?
You mean Palin? Yes!
Another Kool-aid drinker! What in blue-blazes are you talking about???
"he has huge majorities in the House and "
What kool-aid are you drinking! Hugh Majorities! Yes REUPBLICANS in the house - by a VERY LARGE margin!! Last I looked! In the Senate, 53 Democrats! That is way less than the 60 needed to pass anything!
Either you grew up in Europe somewhere or you are being disingenuious! And don't forget the fillaburstering that goes on in the Senate by the Republicans who vote enmass to block everything.
How many jobs bills have been introduced by Congress this year - 0! How many Abortion reelated bills - last count was over 20 maybe more!
Get a life and stop distorting facts! You simply do not even know the rudiments of how your government works!!!
Coast Guard, Huh? I guess when you drown they'll call the Special Navy Seals Team! Just hope you're family isn't with you.
Let me guess - you're a repug!
Is she dumber than a door knob?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS4C7bvHv2w
It also resulted in no real investment and a depression that was extended for no reason other than FDR policy. The rest of the world recovered much sooner.
I believe you will find that starting with 1991, this recession ends the longest expansion in US history. That is 20 years. I'll have to check on the other 5.
It would appear, that Thom is asking for another World War.
The situation is that the private sector is adding jobs at the expected pace (all be it slower than we would like) but the public sector is shedding jobs at such a pace that the overall employment numbers look bad. How would the GOP solve the problem of large public sector layoffs? How does downsizing government improve the economic outlook other that creating the Chamber of Commerce's favorite thing, a highly educated, highly motivated (i.e. hungry) work force?
The NU Deal
For those who wonder about the entity NU Bank and if its founders can spell or not, NU stands for National Underwriters- and they know who they are.
We should not only have a New Deal because the old deck had 5 Aces, but reparations should come from out of a National Underwriter's A rating, whose gleanings built it, each time the nation was cheated, which by now is up to about once every three minutes, counting backwards each dirty deal back to The Civil War.
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We are stopping ourselves. We have bought into the fallacy that Government cannot create jobs and that only the private sector. I blogged an article today that was prescient here and did an iReport out of frustration here. It would be great if I got some liberal commenters on that platform as supply side paid trolls follow my every posts to attempt at neutralization.
I did a lot of research on this issue and wrote the book "As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom" that details how we got here in basic layman terms.
What's Stopping Us?
In the history of Palm Beach, Florida Whitehall society, including the Flagler System, it's called "going behind the hedge." The great mansions built by the industrialists and railroad tycoons during the Florida land boom went behind the hedge in 1929. Miles of great and tall Ficus benjamina, dense Coccoloba uvifera (sea grape,) and Casuarina equisetifolia (Australian pine) hedges were instantly planted on the perimeters of the estates so that no one could see in. The greater part of Palm Beach Island has become one contiguous ficus hedge requiring daily clipping and shaping, to keep out Orphant Annie.
Big money has once again Gone Behind the Hedge, and I've said it once or twice, hedges are made of bushes which can hide a lot if they are allowed to grow too tall.
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What's stopping us? Business.
Business is holding back because they want us to suffer so much that we'll put their good ole boy rethuglicans back in power again.
Business can bring us out if it wants. Americans spent money at Christmas--business should have rewarded that with jobs but they are acting like petulent children until their political party is back on top. So they won't have to pay living wages or provide pensions or healthcare or pay their fair share of taxes or follow environmental and finance rules.
It's called blackmail.
If we really want to stimulate the economy and re-build infrastructure and build new green infrastructure we need to take back the Federal Reserve. Once we de-privatize our money creation, we can simply create money to purchase our investments in infrastructure - instead of letting bankers create our money and lend it out with interest. If you don't believe me then read The Science of Money by Steven Zarlenga of the American Monetary Institute.
But that's not all. We can also remove taxes on honest work and this will vastly improve our job situation. Instead of taxes on income, sales, buildings, small businesses (large corporations get out of taxes) we need to charge use fees on our common heritage natural resources including location values created by public investment. For more information on this read Walt Rybeck's new book "Re-Solving the Economic Puzzle."
Just heard Thom say requiring a permit to feed humans is obscene. What? I'm a health inspector in cal. If you sell/offer food to the public you must follow the state food code, including obtaining a permit. In our county and as far as I know all others, we do not charge non-profits a fee, but, they still must read and complete the permit application so 1) we are aware of them in case of a food-borne illness outbreak and 2) we can ensure they understand how not to kill people with food-borne illness. Private events like weddings parties are not required to obtain permits or even follow the state food code. Please, Thom don't demonize requiring a health permit to offer food to the public. It saves injury, illness, and even possible deaths.
An economic point no one is talking about is simply this:: raising tax rates on the rich is a way to keep money IN the economy. The rich are totally tax averse so they will keep their money safely away from the tax man which is exactly where we need it for job creation.
(Sound bite: Not Revenue From,... so much as STIMULUS BY the Rich).
Lowering tax rates as a policy does not work for a stimulus effect; just the opposite, money in Switzerland does not creat jobs. (Recession recoveries in the last 25 years have been faster, the higher the top tax rates, check it out.) The revenue aspect of higher top tax rates is only a secondary benefit and this should not be the only aspect discussed. We need policies that make everyone richer, not just the already rich. Since the rich now have all the money imagine how substantial this could be. The tax cut, spending cut, montra is exactly wrong.
Our president can use the "bully pulpit" to tell the people that they aren't crazy: that things are as outrageous as it seems. . . and that he needs to know from us, by how we behave, what we really want from our government. He could also expand the voices and exposure of careful progressive thinkers like Robert Reich and Paul Krugman and Thom Hartmann. They need to be invited to the White House to share their ideas, and exchange ideas with the appointed leaders he has chosen to give his ear to. And that needs to happen transparently, in the open, where the press can observe and report.
The greed heads are venal and the ultra rich are, very often, so pampered that they don't know much about how money really works and depend on their financial advisers. Those folks have no invested interest in the national good, and they tell their rich employers/clients that they need more and more money. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates' the elder are exponents of reasonable responsibility demonstrated by the wealthy because they understand how the money works / economics and finance/ and they are reasonable patriots.
But, just because you're rich doesn't mean you're smart. Calvin and Ayn Rand were wrong. And the lunatic bad guys on C street (they're in Congress???) are lousy philosophers and at least as guilty of distorting Christianity as the right wing Muslim extremists are guilty of distorting Islam.
We need a new bumper sticker, that reads, "You're So Rich, Why Aren't You Smart?"
And a letter-writing campaign to the President to insist that he take some responsibility for making the record clear about what's real and what's claptrap. We need to know that he really wants to hear what we think. Then maybe Congressional representatives could recall who they work for and that they don't need to prostitute themselves to the stinkin' rich.
Reagan has a legacy so distorted by the Conservative idolization of him that we may never have a clear picture of the real man behind the television. Did he rid the world of commie scum? Check out my portrait of The Gipper in commemoration of his 100th birthday at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/02/happy-100th-gipper.html
One of the biggest obstacles to a New Deal type program is the stupidity of the voters, especially so called independents, who are propagandized by the right wing controlled media and vote for right wing conservatives thus giving us a Congress bent on decimating the poor and the middle class. FDR, although he had many enemies, had a Congress that could implement New Deal economic policies and put people to work. This resulted in consumer spending and higher tax rates for corporations and the wealthy thus giving the government revenue to implement programs.
Thom asked what's stopping us. A complete failure of leadership, in my opinion. Obama talks a rousing campaign mode when he wants votes, but is so afraid of losing any vote that he capitulates before any controversial issue arises. He's also assembled a pathetic group of economic advisers and steadfastly ignored the good advice from Paul Krugman and Robert Reich. Failure begins at the top, and Obama is a complete failure when it comes to jobs.
At the end of the day, our happiness is entirely dependent on 'the manner one person treats another,--and on whether or not we feel we've done a good job'.
Life is an art! "It is something to be able to paint a picture, or carve a statue so as to preserve some beauty. But to be able to paint and carve the atmosphere in which we live so as to affect the quality of the day, which we all morally can do. This is the greatest of the arts."--Thoreau
Our American ancestors were artists. Environmental and behavioral truths that always existed entered human reality as though from another dimension.
Today, we stand idly by---waiting for directions to come down from above. Why? Because where we corrected pieces of human reality that were inaccurate,--we failed to recognize the source of that ability?
Excellent articles to read!!!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Truth-About-the-Americ-by-Robert-Reich-110602-103.html
The Truth!!!
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=132589
Americans are cannon fodder.
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=132608
A twelve-step program!!!