Boehner swells in House rank

Tax cuts have been the overvhelming cauze of thiz financial criziz and our debt.

Bezidez vhich, the economic ztimuluz, the part not about tax cuts actually returnz part of itz zpending in taxez.

My other signature is a Gundam.

Please get a new keyboard. It's harder to search for the people you name because I'm not sure on the spelling and you sound like a German.

Fight smart, not fair.

I assumed that was intentional.

You missed an "s".

Anyway, back on topic (sorta), Boehner is my area's representative and I know people who have met him in person and they've all told me that he is a humongous prick.

edited 5th Nov '10 9:30:06 AM by sparkpoint

This post is called, "We hate you, please die."

<Bashes head into desk>

So he's got a Meaningful Name?

Fight smart, not fair.

Is it wrong that it took me until Tomu's post #23 to recognize the pun in the title of the thread? It may be a pronunciation thing.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

It took me that long. So you're only as slow as me. You may go weep now if you like.

Fight smart, not fair.

Well, it is pronounced Bay-ner, not boner, but no one cares.

edited 5th Nov '10 12:29:50 PM by sparkpoint

This post is called, "We hate you, please die."

That's exactly why I didn't get the pun.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Wow yeah, I didn't get the pun at all. I wasn't pronouncing it properly at all.

Also I have to say, Major Tom is like the highlight of my day. It's like some raging Republican ad charging in screaming about the horror that is the democrats. Austerity-ridden Greece? They're one of the most capitalist countries on the planet. I guess you didn't notice the fact that the capitalists were in power for 10 years and faked economic growth and the budget deficit via American financial institutions. But no, it's yurop, there be dragons and commies thar!

^ Greece was capitalist? Their primary spending programs were anything but. Welfare, handouts, and union contracts, none of that is exactly capitalist by any definition. And worse when they realized they couldn't fund it anymore and had to cut back people resorted to violence just like France is doing today.

Capitalist societies don't riot when the government cuts back. They riot either when the government pushes too far, or the private sector really blows it in the trust department.

So then USA is socialist? You've a welfare program, you gave out 2 trillion in handouts and have massive unions.

Tom, I never would have imagined the day you'd cite a political statement that I actually agree with. Congratulations, welcome to the 20th century (never mind the 21st).

edited 5th Nov '10 1:01:34 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

^^ I'm not so sure we aren't socialist anymore with that track record. Why do you think there was so much opposition to so many programs of the last 2 Congressional years? Trillions in debt, massive government inroads and overreach, all the trappings of a socialist government yet suspiciously not called that by their proposers.

^ Being a capitalist does not mean wrapping your mouth around corporations' cocks. They come and go like the tides owing to many reasons. Blowing the public's trust is one of them.

edited 5th Nov '10 1:04:12 PM by MajorTom

What a bizarre definition of socialism.

Then what is it if not government intrusion and/or seizure of the economy away from the free market and the forces of personal achievement? Communism only without the dictators?

What are you even talking about Tom? Do you have any concept of Greek economic policies? You might as well call United Kingdom a socialist state.

You're going to keep getting sadder if you keep saying "you might as well call []"

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

Right, Tom, so anything other than unfettered capitalism is socialism. Or more to the point, you seem to be defining socialism as wholly undesirable to even the slightest degree, rather than accepting that there is a necessary balance between capitalism and socialism for a society to fully prosper.

National debt is not a bad thing. Debt in and of itself is not a bad thing. It actually increases short-term purchasing power which generates economic growth. You wouldn't shy away from corporations or individuals assuming debt, so why is it automatically bad when governments do it?

The problem with debt is not its existence, but to what degree it burdens the system.

Similarly, welfare programs are designed to be a net good because they increase the stability and purchasing power of the lower class. The worst imbalances of a capitalist system occur when the gap between rich and poor becomes too great, and you have an entire class of people living in de facto slavery. Government steps in to provide those functions that businesses cannot effectively handle because it's not in their economic interest.

You seem to be crazy nuts about the healthcare reform, but at least we kept private industry involved. The alternative, fully nationalized healthcare, wasn't even seriously considered, and the opposite alternative leaves fifty million Americans without medical care. You prefer this situation?

edited 5th Nov '10 1:13:05 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

And right now it is burdening us so heavily we could crack financially in the next 10 years or less. Interest payments alone on existing debt pre-2008 were already in the billions. A few trillion more unpaid debt sure as hell won't make that shrink.

Do you have actual proof of this? Pundits of all stripes have been predicting the debt death of the United States for decades. It clearly hasn't happened yet, and we are clearly still a powerful economy.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

^ The Congressional Budget Office reported this past spring (Obamacare not factoring into the equation) that the US National Debt would exceed 80% of the present day Gross Domestic Product by 2020 if left unchecked.

Greece's finances fell apart at 110% of their GDP. It really shouldn't be this hard to understand why so many are against such reckless spending.

The debt death thing won't occur like that. The vast majority of your new debt is financed by the Chinese buying up American assets. At the same time, this purchase is fuelling the currency imbalance which Americans dislike but have to live with if they wish to continue to take on this debt.

China isn't going to do anything crazy with debt recollection, no one would but of course USA can't keep going on with tacking on more and more debt. But you have to realise most of your debt is earmarked for 10-20 years, during this time, one presumes that if you spend this Chinese money on infrastructure, anything from telecommunications to railways to whatever improves the economy, it should outstrip the interest rate. Thus you should profit more than the Chinese (the purpose of a business loan).

What I mean is that, you are borrowing someone else's money rather than borrowing against the American people (which is effectively just stealing their cash via inflation tax). This makes a huge difference in what you should be doing and can be doing with that debt.

So long as American leadership remains intelligent, puts in policies to reduce structural debt you are fine. The one trillion in bailouts by Bush jr and the one trillion more by Obama are transient. They won't happen again. Your problem is 100 billion in war expenses each year, the 2.5k you spend on each american for healthcare that isn't even public (which should make you question why you spend more than Canada per capita on healthcare), and hopefully clean up political campaigns.

edited 5th Nov '10 1:23:38 PM by breadloaf

Socialism is a command economy with distribution given (in theory) equally to all, as opposed to a market or mixed economy. The US, alongside practically every country on earth, has a mixed economy.

Ninja'd.

edited 5th Nov '10 1:29:09 PM by EnglishIvy