The World We’re Actually Living In!

[Gerald]

FOR the first time in a long, long time, a Democrat is running for president and has the clear advantage on national security policy. That is not “how things are supposed to be,” and Republicans sound apoplectic about it. But there is a reason President Obama is leading on national security, and it was apparent in his U.N. speech last week, which showed a president who understands that we really do live in a more complex world today — and that saying so is not a cop-out. It’s a road map. Mitt Romney, given his international business background, should understand this, but he acts instead as if he learned his foreign policy at the International House of Pancakes, where the menu and architecture rarely changes.

Rather than really thinking afresh about the world, Romney has chosen instead to go with the same old G.O.P. bacon and eggs — that the Democrats are toothless wimps who won’t stand up to our foes or for our values, that the Republicans are tough and that it is 1989 all over again. That is, America stands astride the globe with unrivaled power to bend the world our way, and the only thing missing is a president with “will.” The only thing missing is a president who is ready to simultaneously confront Russia, bash China, tell Iraqis we’re not leaving their country, snub the Muslim world by outsourcing our Arab-Israel policy to the prime minister of Israel, green light Israel to bomb Iran — and raise the defense budget while cutting taxes and eliminating the deficit. It’s all “attitude” — without a hint at how we could possibly do all these contradictory things at once, or the simplest acknowledgment that two wars and a giant tax cut under George W. Bush has limited our ability to do even half of them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/op...me&ref=general

Note: September 29, 2012

[JU_88]

"and raise the defense budget while cutting taxes and eliminating the deficit."

Yeah thats a good one, the answer is you can only accomplish the the first two by raising the debt ceiling.... again, and you cant do that forever.
Still this all sounds way too 'partisan hack' in the Dems favour, the truth is that the Dems really are not doing anything different to Republicans regarding the above quoted text. The Defecit has ballooned again under Obama - as it did under Bush II, and beyond.
IMO, its not a partisan issue anymore, niether side wants to face up to the reality of what I would suggest is Americas number 1 problem, its survival being so dependant on unsustainable borrowing.
Something that leaves it wide open to catastrophic failure, if its ablility to borrow on the cheap is compromised for any reason.... Not a good position to have during a debt crisis - they should have started cutting in 2008 when it was made obvious that the wheels were falling off the debt machine. They didnt do it, instead they want to try to print (QE) and borrow their way out, which is not likely going to succeed, its like painting over the cracks at best. The ever devaluing dollar is proof that it is not a good solution for the long term.
If it does go bad for America you can bet that the partisan hacks will be blaming each other for decades afterwards. (The above artical is a perfect example) God forbid they admit to any accountability from their own team.

I dont know if there really is a solution to an oversized debt burden, today Greece and Spain are demonstrating that tough austerity messures dont work either, they just dig you in to a deeper hole where you end up struggling to pay off your intreast, Austerity = less jobs = lousy GDP = inability to pay off a defecit, its a downward spiral.
While the likes of America, UK and Germany are still in a far stonger economic position than either of those two, the same truth rings true, debt = financial slavery if your are not careful.

You cant comfortably pay off debt with more debt (like Amercia) and you cant pay it off with total Austerity either (like Greece)
'Economic stagnation' is about the nicest thing we can expect to experience over the next couple of decades. Anyone who thinks we are going to have another '96-2007 type boom' anytime soon is in for a major dissapointment. We may not even see another one like that in our lifetime.

I hope for all our sakes (and our childrens sakes.) mankind can somehow muddle though this one without causing too much pain - and still learn its lesson in the process.

[em2nought]

...and they could have chosen Ron Paul. LMAO losers

[JU_88]

Originally Posted by em2nought

...and they could have chosen Ron Paul. LMAO losers

Americans are not losers, they are creatures of habit like the rest of us; and want to stick to what they know. In this case the Status quo has gotten them this far, so they dont have enough reason to belive it wont continue to do so. They will only ever change there mind if it all goes wrong very suddenly, but these things tend to unfold more like a slow motion train wreck.

Paul was just too 'out there' for mainstream America to swallow,
I very doubt he was quite the saviour as some of his supporters made him out to be - but he was still a breath of freash air compared to the other nasties in that god awful GOP line up.
(In my opinion.)

Hard to say how his policies would have turned out -especially without enough support in congress. It probably would have taken decades for him to actually do the stuff he wanted.
But in the areas of fiscal resposibility and foreign policy, he was (at least intentionally) a step in the right direction if you ask me.
What America is doing in these areas today is pretty undeniably unconsitutional and self-destructive in the long term. History proves that military empires dont last, and what usually brings them down is economics. What brings an economy down? Pretty much the very nature of the fiat currency cycle, but over borrowing, over spending and over circulating currency is pretty bad Juju.

But hey, the people voted and Ron Pauls ideology is not flavour of the decade, so thats that.
At least Paul has helped many realise that the current practices are eventually going to bite America in the ass. (as they are already nipping at its heels)
And its true that change comes from the bottom up, not top down. So I guess it will be up to the next generation to push aside the partisan rhetoric and actually fix something.

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by JU_88

Americans are not losers

I meant the GOP as losers.