Comments on: America will recover

By: Kirk MacKenzie

Kirk MacKenzie — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:43:42 +0000

Mr O’Furniture — I know a bit about Keynesian economics. Simply put, he argued for deficit spending during economic contractions and running a surplus during expansions. Don’t blame Keynes for the lack of political discipline required to execute on the 2nd half of that philosophy. Here is an interesting link showing surplus/deficit spending and political party…very depressing: http://www.davemanuel.com/history-of-deficits-and-surpluses-in-the-united-states.php. It has been more than 60 years since single-party control ran a surplus.

By: Terry

Terry — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 06:33:10 +0000

Ah, Paddy, that’s not fair. You jumped right into nuclear economics. They are still struggling with cold fusion economics.

By: Paddy O'furniture

Paddy O'furniture — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 03:30:33 +0000

@ Jay Daniels, do you even know who John Maynard Keynes was? How about a couple of blokes by the names of Von Mises and Hayek? If no, then you really know little about economics except what MSNBC gives you. (Don’t know if you watch them or not, but insulting media outlets of opposing veiw points seems to be big here). Do a little research about Austrian economics versus Keynesianism and let us know if you learn anything.

By: Jack Martin

Jack Martin — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 23:56:11 +0000

“groupthink” is a banned word at HuffPo? Kind of ironic…

By: cookie65

cookie65 — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 22:00:09 +0000

Jack, sites like SFgate and my favorite huffpo have monitored words that prevent the obamabots from being exposed to any reality. It is truly hysterical to imagine people in the age of the internet to remain so pathetically ignorant. Even worse than their inexcusable ignorance is how proud they are of it. One of the banned words is ‘groupthink’. Comments are deleted if they are not in line with what libs believe to be true even if they are fact. They truly are low information people.

By: Jack Martin

Jack Martin — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:13:20 +0000

Jay’s response to Terry exemplifies why you can never get a Progressive to engage in a factual debate. Terry presented numerous factual and historical points which Jay evidently didn’t care for. Instead of refuting them with facts and points of his own… just issued an insult. That is not the exception when engaging with a Progressive/Liberal, but more often the Rule. If you want a speed session in this behavior, try going to the SFGate website (Online version of San Francisco Chronicle) and engage the self-proclaimed Progressives in a discussion they do not like. That’s a peek into a world of hatred you never knew existed.

By: cookie65

cookie65 — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:39:55 +0000

The road America is on. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/29/sacrebleu-damage-control-after-frances-job-czar-cl/

By: Jay Daniels

Jay Daniels — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 04:41:27 +0000

I guess I was being unfair to the salamanders.

By: Terry

Terry — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 04:34:18 +0000

Jay, actually I wish James would stop try to preach the failed theories of John Maynard Keynes. FDR tried this and failed as did Japan in the 1990’s. Instead look to Harding and the 1919/20 recession for guidance. Harding cut Federal spending significantly and followed with tax cuts. This led to the roaring ‘20s when the economy boomed. Unfortunately, the safe guards were not in place to prevent the speculation in the stock market much the same as our recent housing boom and bust. Entitlements, SS, debt service, welfare, etc., consume our entire Federal income plus $10B. The entire operating budget of the Federal government including DOD, USDA, Interior, Homeland Security, Justice, Energy, Transportation, Commerce, Education, Health, State, etc. comes from borrowed or printed funds. This cannot continue indefinitely. I do agree with James that we need jobs, but not government jobs. We can generate jobs by reducing taxes, repatriating corporate funds now overseas, reducing the ever increasing regulatory environment, stopping EPA’s war on energy production, killing ObamaCare, and stopping this stupid global warming initiative. We are on the cusp of an energy boom in this country. We need to ride that boom to reduce energy costs which will increase domestic manufacturing. We need to free up capital in this country so we all can work. Government confiscation of capital for redistribution does not create wealth. We need to demand that every dollar Washington spends creates something of tangible value, increases our security, or improves our competiveness. Yes, James and Jay, austerity is a big part of it. We can start by going to zero based budgeting rather than baseline budgeting. When politicians talk about cuts, they basically are talking about a decrease in the increase not actual cuts. We need actual cuts. We need the laser that Obama promised but never delivered. There are hundreds of empty government buildings, there are Federal lands that could be leased for energy production, there is oodles of waste in the Federal bureaucracy…. A blind man could find the low hanging fruit, which if plucked would not negatively impact the economy but would actually contribute to it since we would not be borrowing so much. We may not be able to starve the beast but we need to at least put it on a diet.

By: Jay Daniels

Jay Daniels — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 02:55:35 +0000

James- I, for one, appreciate your patience in trying to communicate basic economics. But, from the level of the arguments advanced in the above comments, I would say that you would have better luck teaching nuclear physics to a salamander.

By: James E.

James E. — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 02:54:19 +0000

Mr. Martin, didn’t Mr. Alger say if we don’t deal with our deficit/national debt exclusively with austerity we are finished? I take that to mean dying. Are the deficit scolds (Ryan, Boehner) beginning to lose traction in DC? Hope that more and more are realizing that deficits are second to jobs.

By: Phil Veerkamp

Phil Veerkamp — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 02:29:11 +0000

LINK - Mystery over 'explosion' at Iran's Fordow nuclear site

By: Phil Veerkamp

Phil Veerkamp — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 02:22:24 +0000

James- off topic - apologies - LINK - BREAKING - January 21st explosion - Iran nuclear site Batchelor live reporting

By: Jack Martin

Jack Martin — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 23:17:03 +0000

Geeezzz, James, even your medical analogies miss the mark completely. America is not a dying patient that some people want to bleed to death. America is a morbidly obese patient that needs to lose weight. The excess weight is a threat to her entire body. Any normal, rational human being would encourage that patient to lose weight, not keep feeding it.

By: cookie65

cookie65 — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:14:38 +0000

James, even the lapdog cheerleaders at the WaPo are showing some concern over what they have helped to create. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-cashiers-window/2013/01/27/687752d6-66a7-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7_story.html

By: cookie65

cookie65 — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:02:27 +0000

I was in New Orleans on the 15th and 16th they have the Mercedez Benz dome all decorated. It is a very unique antique brass color. Awesome gumbo in the French Quarter.

By: cookie65

cookie65 — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 17:05:24 +0000

How much more of this would you support James? http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-continues-violate-his-own-stimulus-law-not-releasing-quarterly-reports_697896.html

By: cookie65

cookie65 — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:29:45 +0000

The bamster spent $800+ billion stimulating nothing even romotely connected to the economy and unemployment went up 2% and remains there. At the time we were told it wouldn’t exceed 6% if we “didn’t” payoff the public sector unions and campaign contributors with money borrowed from unborn generations. How big should the debt be James before we have to be honest with the freeloaders that there aren’t any crumbs left? How much should future generations pay for the dependence in this country? How negative does your checking account get before you stop writting checks? The national debt of $16,000,000,000,000 is not determined using GAAP (generally accepted accounting practices) because that method includes financial obligations. If it were the national debt is nearly $100,000,000,000,000. The cow-town of Sacramento is $2billion in debt. The state is over $60billion in debt. The state of Illinois has $98billion in public sector pension debt. What is the number James where we can no longer spend our way out of bankruptcy? Taking money from the private sector and transfering it to the public sector stimulates nothing and only increases the financial obligation on the private sector. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is a failed experiment.

By: James E.

James E. — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 05:58:58 +0000

Phil, I once suffered -45 degrees in Kansas. When it got back up to -10 I thought summer had arrived.
Good old California where 35-40 degrees is cold.

By: Phil Veerkamp

Phil Veerkamp — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 05:21:39 +0000

. . . and tomorrow my great-granddaughter, Kirsten, 10yrs, sings the National Anthem in Saginaw, MI at the Shrine Circus. Th’ Missus and I spread a cloud of CO2 from Ca. to Mi. trying to warm things up – No luck – 10 degrees now – must rush back to Ca to enjoy FEB 3rd with friends and family. Life is good. I sure hope that our CO2 contribution to the environment helps a little. Damn it’s cold outside!!!

By: James E.

James E. — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 03:43:30 +0000

Phil, your objections noted. So you believe brutal austerity is the answer? If so, we will have to agree to disagree. Only 9 more days til
February 3rd!!!!

By: Phil Veerkamp

Phil Veerkamp — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 02:28:52 +0000

Colonel your argument brings to mind the compassionate recovery experts who insist that an alcoholic needs to “taper off”. “Cold turkey” might kill the patient. I’ve known alcoholics who were “tapering off” for years and years before they killed themselves and others during the “tapering off process”. Addicts and alcoholics are deadly while “tapering off”. So might also be the addiction to credit.