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EDITOR:
Are my family and I better off today? Yes. The stock market has rebounded and my personal and institutional retirement funds are recovered and sound. I have refinanced my home at the record low-interest rates, saving thousands of dollars in interest each year, off-setting loss in real estate value. Zillow.com reports my home is once again appreciating in value. I and my daughter’s families are benefiting from the recent middle class tax cut. My two son-in-laws, and grandson-in-law are back to work after several years of unemployment. My daughters have each started successful businesses. I am driving in on our community’s local roads and highways which have been repaved and upgraded with Recovery and Investment Act federal funds. I am thankful for this great investment in our community. Obamacare has significantly decreased our prescription costs with the significant closing of the “donut hole.” My family and yours are safer thanks to the elimination of Osama Bin Laden and other terrorist leaders. Things are going in the right direction for my family, and, hopefully, yours as well.
GEORGE SABATO
Placerville
The Mountain Democrat does not necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy
James E.September 04, 2012 - 11:01 pm
I bet the majority of Tea/Republicans are better off, but those are words they cannot speak.
Martin SchumannSeptember 07, 2012 - 8:14 am
I am certainly glad that you and your family are better off, but I can tell you one thing 23 million other citizens are not. It has cost us 5 trillion dollars so far so that you could capriciously feel like you are better off. Your grand children are not better off; they have to pay it all back. If you think that your house value is coming back, think again; the value you once knew won’t be back for years to come. You want four more years of the same; great. I want our nation to become great again and this president wants us to be equal with the rest of the world, growth is fine with him as long as it don’t interfere with his Agenda 21st century growth. This man scares the daylights out of me, he is want god out of our lives, and he wants to throw Israel under the bus he has closed off millions of acres to public access; he wants control over virtually every aspect of our lives. I didn’t have to go see 2016 to know what was in it, it only confirmed what I thought, this man’s plans are to wipe out America as we know it (did you notice that they at the DNC that they couldn’t even get a 2/3 vote on putting GOD back on their platform) If we Americans don’t cry outrage, President Obama will take us down the road to servitude, we will be government puppets and believe me this is going to happen; read the writing on the wall, we are doomed if he gets four more years. Our own county government is now fighting with each other over agenda 21 implementation, which the left say don’t even exist, if it don’t exist why are we fighting for our rights with our own county????????????????????
lemme guess . . .September 07, 2012 - 8:20 am
George Sabato is a Democrat!!!
prime timeSeptember 07, 2012 - 8:23 am
Sign up for Democratic Party Talking Points
Helen SalidaySeptember 07, 2012 - 11:51 am
Comparing the mentality, humanity, and intelligence of the above writers, I would rather be a Sabato than a Schumann any day.
Dink LaneSeptember 07, 2012 - 11:55 am
Spot on, George!.... 4 Years ago I watched my 401K drop like a rock.... Some guy on CNBC was yelling "Sell, Sell"..... I was scared....now I feel A LOT SAFER......
Martin SchumannSeptember 07, 2012 - 12:16 pm
I am sure that 23 million others would rather be a Sabato also, but that isn’t going to happen; Helen is lucky that her and Dicks portfolio looks good. Good luck in the future you’re going to need it. I am certainly glad that I belong to GOP, they are right and you are wrong even though you think that your mentality, humanity and intelligence are superior.
Ken SteersSeptember 07, 2012 - 12:20 pm
The 23 million Americans currently unemployed have more urgent matters to worry about than their 401k's. Also the median income dropping 8% these past 4 years and fuel prices doubling have eliminated the average house holds disposable income. For people to say they are whiners is very insensitive. I must say for those who are retired on a government pension and for people like me who have been labeled successful the times are not that bad. Maybe the "Jimmy Carter" approach of tightening our belts and accepting a lowering standing of living for those suffering is OK in some people's society. I see that those who have been affected most by this poor economy are being written off by the Left labeled irrelevant. I'll take a Ronald Reagan or a Louis Fortuno (R) Governor Puerto Rico view on our standard of living any time.
CherylSeptember 07, 2012 - 3:19 pm
When I first read this letter my first thought was shcok that the heavily biased Tea party/republican Mountain Democrat printed it. Next thought was that the right wingers would jump on it. They conveniently forget the destructive 8 years of Bush/Cheney. They drove us into this debt, destroyed our 401K's, home equity, etc. Republicans used to be respectable and both parties would most times work together for the good of this country, but no more.
Dink LaneSeptember 07, 2012 - 4:31 pm
Who woke up the non-Bating non-tea-party pro-thinking people? Ken Steers is going to wear-out his insulting-bating pen trying to respond to you all.
John SavageSeptember 07, 2012 - 4:54 pm
I'm better off, the country is better off. Four years ago our country was on the brink of financial collapse after eight years of mis-management under President Bush. We were losing some 700,000 jobs, the stock market had fallen to 6,500 and the deficit had ballooned to $1.2 trillion from the surplus that George W. Bush inherited. Today, the jobs are slowly coming back, the stock market is over 13,000 and the deficit under President Obama has grown at a much slower pace the under Pres. Bush.
JohnSeptember 07, 2012 - 5:05 pm
Cheryl: Before you make those kinds of accusations, you need to go back and do some research instead of just blindly listening to NBC, MSNBC and the the other liberal/Obama cheerleaders (or perhaps you, as many liberals, got your "facts" from the crack news reports of Comedy Central via John Stewart or Stephen Cobert. Did Bush spend too much? Sure. Did he drive us into this debt and destroy our 401K's, home equity, etc. Absolutely not. That was done by the liberals who insisted the banks make mortgage loans available to people who couldn't afford them. You can thank your heroes Frank, Dodd, Clinton and yes even your messiah, Barack Obama, who sued several banks on behalf of ACORN to force banks to loan money to those very people.
Jack MartinSeptember 07, 2012 - 5:38 pm
16 Trillion in debt, more than 8% unemployment for 43 months, gas prices doubled, commodities up 55%, real estate still languishing at 2004-ish values with no certainty they will continue to rise. The hidden variable in this equation is also, what do your near and mid-term prospects look like? Say a couple months to a year from now? None of this is going to markedly improve because NOTHING has been done to help it improve. Obama said he'd cut the deficit in half during his first term - I would give him a pass on that failure if he would have at least taken his foot off the accelerator. And Reagan turned the economy around from 1981-84 while also rebuilding the military in the face of the Soviets, so we saw that it can be done. But Obama had other priorities. As a nation, we are not only NOT better off, we are worse off and our future prospects are even more bleak if this current President is re-elected.
Thomas GibneySeptember 07, 2012 - 9:18 pm
Gee it's gonna be fun when the economy tanks again this year...may be under Obama , it may be uder Romney...but you can;t slash interest rates anymore...so get used to the coming crapstorm...Thanks to Obama and Bush and CLinton but Obama ? yes he does has his hand ont he handle of the crapper...We will discuss this in a few months it should be intersting. ...
Martin SchumannSeptember 07, 2012 - 10:44 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tCAffMSWSzY#t=28 Absolutely gives me a good feeling about our future
Just the facts, Bushs termSeptember 08, 2012 - 6:31 am
Just the facts; The loss of eight million jobs during the Bush eight years, two wars started, unfunded, all on borrowed money, these tax cuts all on borrowed money…..From the economy’s peak to its low point, the nation lost 8.75 million jobs. Here’s the problem: The peak for jobs came in January 2008, while the low point for jobs came in February 2010. This means it started seven years into Bush’s eight-year tenure, and the low point occurred about a year into Barack Obama’s tenure.
prime timeSeptember 08, 2012 - 6:50 am
Are You Better Off? 40 Statistics That Will Absolutely Shock You
CatherineSeptember 08, 2012 - 10:54 am
Mr. Sabato, I think we're doing as well as can be expected, treading water in some areas, but whoever is President Elect in November is in for a tough ride. The debt needs to be restructured, maybe forgiven here and there as we do with other countries? (Hmm, when pigs fly?), maybe even some defaulting. But one thing is for sure, if you believe in trickle-down economics, you've had a nice run of 12 years to experience just that.
Ken SteersSeptember 09, 2012 - 7:09 pm
Unlike Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy you don't have to simply belive in a certain economic policy for it to be real. How long would one give the Great Society Big Govenment experiement before we change course. Is 50 years enough? How about European socialism? 60 years and how are they doing? Marxism? Where has that worked exactly? The concept of trickle down economics would mean to let the wealthiest amongst us keep more of their money with the expectation that they would then spend it. Our upper wage earners pay the highest ammount in taxes with over half our population paying no taxes. Even with Reagan's reduction in the tax rate there was an elimination of most loop holes resulting in the tax payors paying more. 4 years later was the largest tax increases in America's history. The Bush tax cut's, now the Obama tax cuts, reduced the tax rate across the board and removed all taxes to an even higher percentage of American's, removing even more loop holes to small businesses meaning they pay more of their income to the government. Still either to divide or thru ignorance people decry our system isn't fair and we need to punnish those viewed as successful to make them feel better. Then there are those that want to destroy America because they don't like the hand they wee dealt. The best thing about America is if you don't like your life you have every right to change it.
Martin SchumannSeptember 09, 2012 - 8:44 pm
Go to a consumption tax, gets rid of all the loop holes; that way all will pay their fair share, even drug dealers. No tax on food, clothing or housing. This would be a fair tax even to the poor! our national debt would be paid off faster than any other way.
prime timeNovember 23, 2012 - 9:15 am
Revealed: Military emails show that NO U.S. sailors witnessed Osama bin Laden's secret burial at sea