Reader comments
Obama warns of dire consequences without stimulus

Poverty, which is what many families will be looking at as the economy continues to decline, is an ugly nightmare. It's easy to see why the Pres-Elect is so anxious to DO something. But throwing money down a rat-hole hasn't worked before, it won't work now. Especially with a deficit that is beyond manageable as it is.

A new approach is definitely necessary. It's time for Congress and the Pres to look long and hard at what the government is dumping money into, then start cutting. Yes, it will hurt. But we need to invest, as a people, in a new infrastructure that is not driven by mindless consumption, but rather cooperation and building up our future.

Our now is spent, let's look ahead and stop digging the pit we're in any deeper. We can't afford to keep throwing money we don't have down the drain.

To offer changes to Social Security i.e. senoirs can keep it the same, savings account for the younger generation coming up, among other proposals. Of course the liberals and their MSM mouthpiece completely distorted and demogouged the whole notion of defusing a ticking time bomb. As bad as SS is, it's medicare and it's unfunded liability of 40 TRILLION dollars that will be the nail in in Americas coffin.

We sure elected a good speech giver! He has almost attained the level of adeptness Teddy Ruxpin displayed in calming audiences and conveying hopeful messages.

"At this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe,"

That's right - Only goverment can spend money it doesn't have!!! Businesses dont spend money without having a cash income.

Debt = bondage. I am not willing to see our country broke.

Bush/Obama both are clueless. The country and most businesses are in massive debt with failing financial statements.

Both the old and the new president think that the way to get out of debt/bad financial situation is to literally just print money with no backing/origin.

Does this sound like a good idea to anyone? I mean if you are in debt and on the verge of financial ruin do/can you go to the bank and borrow a bunch more money when you have little prospect of being able to repay?

The government pumps out these bogus propaganda news stories that scare people into accepting their solutions.

They are probably correct that in the short term all this spending they plan to institute (via massive borrowing/printing) will TEMPORARILY get the economy going again. The reality they are ignoring is the MASSIVE overhead/debt that EVERY man/woman/child in America will have hanging around their necks because of it.

Everyone knows the yoke of debt will eventually cause another larger collapse later because the Government does not want to address the underlying financial causes.

People/business will not live within their financial means.

Doomed stategy we'll all suffer miserably for.

Get prepared!!!

Take money away from greedy politicians by forcing a new tax system like the fair tax, a flat tax, anything that takes the money out of their hands. I prefer the fair tax.

Nothing will ever change in this country until we the people, who make this country work, take the money out of the hands of the greediest, most dangerous people on the face of the planet. That is today's Republican and Democrat and all the countless special interest and cronies that they are truly beholden to.

Face it people, we work our butts off everyday so Politicians can gain more power, noteriety, plaudits from the MSM and entrench themselves even deeper in their pathetic careers in DC, all at the exspense of the little people they care profess to care so much about. If they keep caring about us so much we're all going to be jobless and broke.

I drove by a bank today that said your money is FEDERALLY insured up to $250,000. Does anyone else find this to be almost comical?
Our govt. is being run into the ground by a bunch of clueless polititians on both sides of the isle.

Here's an idea 11:20 is right on. I would vote for him/her for president, any day.

Since the polititians have all the power right now, here's another idea; don't leave too much money in the bank, but only enough to pay your bills. Save what you can in gold or silver, so that when the dollar is worth next to nothing you will have something to get along. prepare yourselves for worst case scenarios and you will be more able to take care of yourself and your loved ones.

I have an idea. How about we force all politicians that vote for a bailout of a company to invest all of their personal money into those businesses. That way, if they fail, so do the politicians. It will at least get the politician to actually think about the consequences of their actions.

But, in reading the comments here today, it makes me happy to see conservatives becoming a more vocal group.

About the time our original 13 states adopted
their new constitution, in 1787, Alexander Tyler,
a Scottish history professsor at the University of
Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the
Atheniuan Repulbic some 2,000 years prior.
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it
simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.

A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.

From that moment on,the majority always votes for
the candidates who promise the most benefits
from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal
policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the worlds greatest
civilizations from the beginning
of history, has been about 200 years. During
those 200 years, these nations always progressed

through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage "

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University
School of Law, St Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election Population of counties won by:

Gore: 127 million; Bush: 143 million;
Square miles of land won by: Gore: 580,000;
Bush: 2,427,000
States won by: Gore: 19; Bush: 29
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties
won by: Gore: 13.2; Bush: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map
of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the tax-paying citizens of this great country.
Gore's territory mostly encompassed those
citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off government welfare..."

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some
40 percent of the nation's population already
having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

If the Senate grants Amnesty and citizenship
to 20 million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then goodbye USA in less than 5 years.

Apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

Obama is trying a "New, New Deal" approach that has already failed. Unemployment in the new deal era of 1933-40 averaged 17 percent. Warren Harding inherited an economy almost as bad in 1920 as Roosevelt did in 1933, and had things humming along a year later. He did it by cutting government spending and reducing taxes. He cut unemployment in half in just a year. He increased the GNP from $69 billion in 1921 to $74 billion in 1922. By 1926, unemployment was at 1.8%. The numbers may be smaller--Harding's entire budget for 1922 was $3.2 billion, down from $6.3 billion in 1920--but the concept is the same. "We need vastly more freedom than we do regulation," Harding said in 1920. That statement is as true in the 21st Century as it was in the 20th.

If we don't get past the politics of Republicans and Democrats, this country is finished.

Take our money out of their hands. It's that simple.

Face facts, DC is corrupt. Fair tax, flat tax, anything but the same ol' same.

Party politics is skin deep, corrupt politicians is to the bone. -me

YOU CAN NOT SPEND YOUR WAY OUT OF DEBT!

Obama is embarking on EXACTLY the WRONG solution.

We need less federal spending, not more.

We need real tax cuts, not income redistribution where people who don't pay taxes are given money and that is called a "tax cut."

Every dollar printed and spent now will incur added interest charged until repaid, adding to our annual deficits.

Pity our children who will be taxed into real poverty by this scheme, and never be able to enjoy the standard of living we have now.

..have to go.

They are both as busy as they can be spending spending spending WITH YOUR MONEY!! The best thing that could happen is a wholesale house cleaing back there.

Too much debt already and they say "we need to spend more than ever" or try to scare you with "if we don't implement my draconian debt-increasing spending policies" you just won't be able to have the bogus money to get that home theater system your family so desperately needs!!!

The lobbyists and corruption is sooooooo deep that you truly can not trust any decision made because there are sooooo many layers of motives and deals behind every piece of legislation. The only layer that NEVER gets included is the best interest of the average citizen.

Its the people that are corrupt and they make lots of excuses of blaming the government for recklessness. GET A JOB.

Our laziness is an embarassment to the rest of the world.