Obama is like a Hollywood Movie Super Star ... before that Bush Junior was like a TV Soap Opera Star. The world love to watch america's movie & soap opera.
That's what they say they believe. Presidential candidates have talked about reducing the US deficit in every election since I can remember, so US politicians also say they believe we need less government. Then they get elected and it's Christmas every day for the voters. OTOH, take the Greeks. They get backed into a corner and are trying to pass horrible, riot-inducing spending cuts and tax increases. But even according to their own most-rosey projections, they'll still be spending more than they take in. Years from now in their best possible scenario, they are still borrowing more. Saying they want to rein in debt is one thing. So far, they do not seem to be reducing it, although they do make a lot of noise about not growing it so fast.
Probably not true... that [Obama] "believes more spending will save the world". More likely is that he fears any effort at austerity will cost the Dems in November... nothing matters more than that. Obama is a BIG LIAR! Can't trust anything he says except for one thing... his promise to "transform America... into a Communist-like state".
fair point that some nations will still spend more than they earn despite cutting here and there. But its better than keeping with the status quo and even worse, spending more rather than less. Greece has already implemented a fair number of measures to cut costs especially on a national budget level, that is the precise reason why people go on the street, not because someone talks about it but because action is finally taken. I dont believe its gonna be enough but I still think its a lot better than doing the opposite and trying to convince the world that this is the model to go.
In answer to an eMail today requesting I get AARP to petition Congress to not reduce our SSA benefits I wrote: The SSA trust funds (OASI and DI) contain $2.4 trillion and are not expected to go to zero until 2042 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Trust_Fund) . They were "rescued" in 1983 by Alan Greenspan who went on to create the current debt crisis that guarantees that the returns on the bonds in the funds can never make up for the coming high level of inflation required to pay for your and my generation's prolificacy. One hears a lot about the Social Security surpluses being rolled into (and wasted) as part of the U S Government General Funds budget. Not so. These surplus SSA funds were invested in the safest paper ever known to the investment world, US Treasury bonds. There was no alternative. Would you rather have had the money invested in General Motors? We are all in this together. We didn't squawk when the government offered Pelt grants, low interest guaranteed housing loans, toll free highways and trillions of dollars of other benefits to make us feel like we were living the good life. It has been said that the USA standard of living peaked in 1976, but we didn't notice. We didn't notice because we sent our mothers and wives out to work so that dual incomes and debt could pay for vacation homes, larger family cars, declining primary bread winner incomes, and the extortionist medical expenses we think prolong our lives. Too much of this prolificacy was paid for by borrowing, both private and public. The piper must be paid, and SSA must pay it's part. I agree that the trust funds should be sacrosanct, but the debt obligation would be no problem if "we" had not let Washington get away with buying our complacency with our taxes. How many times did you vote for someone who gave us something we wanted, even tho we knew we didn't really deserve it? Or worse, how many times did we NOT vote when tar and pitchforks would have been the better answer? Tar and pitchforks are not the answer now. We need a new Constitutional Convention to tell our Government they have gone badly astray. We are facing a Sharia law challenge that is greater a threat than any small reduction in benefits. The Secretary of State vacillates between states rights and a One World Government. We need to nip that in the bud with new Constitutional Amendments. Lets get real. If you cannot see the real threats, the minor one won't get solved either. **************************** Sorry for the OT. I totally agree that the controlling interests are intelligent, but too diverse to be a partner to an organized conspiracy. However, near constant inflation (the 1914 dollar is now worth about $0.05, definitely benefits certain wealthy and powerful groups (those that borrow and politicians who finance their pork by borrowing. Deflation, their greatest fear, benefits those that try to save.