The United States is going to attack Assad in Syria?

[Pollo_Loco]

I spent 4 years as a U.S. Marine and was raised as one of the most patriotic Americans anyone has ever seen...But watching what the politicians have done with this country over the last 30 years, you can have it....I plan to expatriate when my wife retires in a couple of years..Selling everything and leaving...I just hope the U.S. can hold it together a couple of more years...They should..politicians are masters at deception...

That's what seemed the best idea to me 15 years ago. Gradually get out of the U.S. Don't know about selling everything,, I keep a house , car and "stuff" in the U.S. A trip to the U.S. for vacation and buying a few things is always fun.

Plus the locals believe I'm Canadian. No one speaks English so who could recognise the accent ? Who'd think being from Canada would have it's advantages but it does, especially when leaders in other countries put their "spin" on the "good intentions" of the U.S. ,,,, compete with video of actual U.S. attacks.

 

[Beaky Buzzard]

r u big into politics?

 

[Teery]

That's what seemed the best idea to me 15 years ago. Gradually get out of the U.S. Don't know about selling everything,, I keep a house , car and "stuff" in the U.S. A trip to the U.S. for vacation and buying a few things is always fun.

Plus the locals believe I'm Canadian. No one speaks English so who could recognise the accent ? Who'd think being from Canada would have it's advantages but it does, especially when leaders in other countries put their "spin" on the "good intentions" of the U.S. ,,,, compete with video of actual U.S. attacks.

I plan to sell everything so the ties are completely severed. Why pay property taxes so politicians can line their, or some special interests pocket? As soon as I get a resident visa, I will denounce citizenship and turn in the U.S. passport. I am looking into property in Chile.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

 

[ClucksAndPeeps]

r u big into politics?

My mom is, she got me into it.

 

[hemet dennis]

Quote:
Mandatory spending is more then Social Security, Medicare, and interest on the debt.
Mandatory spending includes SNAP, unemployment compensation, and earned income and child tax credits Veterans benefits Medicaid and Obamacare, and more. That's over 60% of the federal budget.

Money for jobs and infrastructure doesn't have to come from borrowing unless the government is the one to build it. There are about $30 billion worth of pipeline projects, that will be paid for by private business, awaiting approval.

Why would we want the government to build a high speed (200+ MPH) rail from coast to coast, for hundreds of billions of dollars, when you can get on a plane and travel at over 500+ MPH at a fraction of the cost ?

And if you print a trillion one dollar bills a second, you would have enough to pay off the debt in 17 seconds.

 

[Bullitt]

Why would we want the government to build a high speed (200+ MPH) rail from coast to coast, for hundreds of billions of dollars, when you can get on a plane and travel at over 500+ MPH at a fraction of the cost ?

As you mentioned, the government doesn't have to completely fund a project. The government could help them along, though, with private investors.

Have you traveled by airplane lately? You have to get the airport 1 1/2 hours before the flight leaves and then you have to collect your luggage at your arrival airport. So traveling about 500 miles would take about the same amount of time by airliner as it would high-speed rail.

Of course it would be faster to fly from coast to coast. But some people do not like to fly, and others enjoy the view from a train. There would be branches on the line to the south and north to major cities,. A high-speed rail system would be particularly useful if you say wanted to visit a neighboring state.

Projects like high-speed rail would provide more jobs and create something useful.

We also need to rebuild many roads and bridges, and the money for that comes from tax dollars.

I live in Texas. We don't need more oil or oil pipelines. We need more wind, solar and other types of power, along with electric vehicles. Oil is killing this planet, and oil companies are laughing all the way to the bank. Oil is also driving many of the wars we have seen in recent years.

Most economists say there is little chance that the U.S. financial system will collapse. And China just wants to sell products to the United States. We went through the Great Depression, and we will always have ups and downs, as we just experienced. But roving bands of armed people have never started killing to get food. Half of the men in the U.S. were out of work at the height of the Great Depression, and the chaos didn't happen. If you want to move to another country, fine, but don't blame it on what remotely could happen in the future.

I have been to other countries. Many of them do not have the infrastructure and services that are provided in the United States by federal, state, county, and city governments. The one thing we need to do to clean up politics is to get money out of elections. The worst decision by the Supreme Court in recent times was Citizens United. Money is not speech and corporations are not people. This must be overturned.

Back to the original topic. Attacking foreign countries is a huge waste of life and money.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

The government is the reason flying is slow an no one wants to fly anymore. They are doing the same to trains as they did to flying...

 

[hemet dennis]

Quote:
First I don't think you will find to many people here that think it's a good idea to attack Syria.

L.A. to New York City nonstop by high speed train would be 15 hours, by plane it's 6 hours. Not even close to the same. If you are traveling by train for the view then do you want it going 200MPH ? Private investors don't want to build a high speed train because it will lose money, they would only do it with government backing.

The countries roads and bridges do need work and could be done by raising the fuel tax, that is what the fuel tax is for, and not spending the fuel tax on other stuff.

You said we don't need more oil and pipelines. Do you realize that we are still importing a net of almost 7 million barrels a day ? That's over 700 million dollars a day, everyday. That's 21 billion dollars a month, every month. And 255.5 billion dollars a year, every year that leaves the country. We wont be able to reduce consumption down another 7 million barrel a day in less then 10 years. Most of those pipeline projects are for natural gas, so we can cut down on oil consumption.

When the alternative energy becomes cost effective it will have a chance of replacing oil.

On the Citizens United ruling, when did a group of people become not people ?

 

[Teery]

Mandatory spending is more then Social Security, Medicare, and interest on the debt.
Mandatory spending includes SNAP, unemployment compensation, and earned income and child tax credits Veterans benefits Medicaid and Obamacare, and more. That's over 60% of the federal budget.

Money for jobs and infrastructure doesn't have to come from borrowing unless the government is the one to build it. There are about $30 billion worth of pipeline projects, that will be paid for by private business, awaiting approval.

Why would we want the government to build a high speed (200+ MPH) rail from coast to coast, for hundreds of billions of dollars, when you can get on a plane and travel at over 500+ MPH at a fraction of the cost ?

And if you print a trillion one dollar bills a second, you would have enough to pay off the debt in 17 seconds.

Operating on continuing resolutions obscures the budget and legislation. This is the best info one can get for the last 3 years (2010 to 2012) The only true mandatory spending is interest on the debt and paying creditors which social security and medicare recipients or others are not. Citizens are unsecured creditors...

2010

Total revenue​

$2.381 trillion (requested)
$2.163 trillion (actual)[1]

Total expenditures​

$3.552 trillion (requested)
$3.456 trillion (actual)[1]

Deficit​

$1.171 trillion (requested)
$1.293 trillion (enacted)[1]

Debt​

$14.078 trillion (requested)

Website​

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy10/index.html US Government Printing Office

2011

Total revenue​

$2.567 trillion (requested)[1]
$2.303 trillion (actual)[2]

Total expenditures​

$3.834 trillion (requested)[1]
$3.603 trillion (actual)[2]

Deficit​

$1.645 trillion (requested)
10.9% of GDP
$1.30 trillion (actual)[2]
8.7% of GDP

Website​

http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app11.html Library of Congress

2012

Total revenue​

$2.627 trillion (requested)
$2.449 trillion (actual)[1]

Total expenditures​

$3.729 trillion (requested)
$3.538 trillion (actual)[1]

Deficit​

$1.101 trillion (requested)
7.0% of GDP
$1.089 trillion (actual)[1]
7.0% of GDP

Website​

US Government Printing Office

Total outlays by budget "function" 2012

Function Title Requested[46] Republican
proposal[43] Enacted[47]
050

National Defense​

$737.537 billion $712 billion $716.300 billion
150

International Affairs​

$63.001 billion $36 billion $56.252 billion
250

General Science, Space and Technology​

$32.284 billion $30 billion $30.991 billion
270

Energy​

$23.411 billion $16 billion $23.270 billion
300

Natural Resources and Environment​

$42.703 billion $37 billion $42.829 billion
350

Agriculture​

$18.929 billion $20 billion $19.173 billion
370

Commerce and Housing Credit​

$11.69 billion $17 billion $79.624 billion
400

Transportation​

$104.854 billion $80 billion $102.552 billion
450

Community and Regional Development​

$25.701 billion $24 billion $31.685 billion
500

Education, Training, Employment and Social Services​

$106.172 billion $100 billion $139.212 billion
550

Health​

$373.774 billion $347 billion $361.625 billion
570

Medicare​

$492.316 billion $482 billion $484.486 billion
600

Income Security​

$554.332 billion $501 billion $579.578 billion
650

Social Security​

$767.019 billion $766 billion $778.574 billion
700

Veterans Benefits and Services​

$124.659 billion $127 billion $129.605 billion
750

Administration of Justice​

$58.696 billion $ 54 billion $62.016 billion
800

General Government​

$31.149 billion $27 billion $31.763 billion
900

Net Interest​

$241.598 billion $256 billion $224.784 billion
920

Allowances​

$6.566 billion $-3 billion $0.125 billion
950

Undistributed Offsetting Receipts​

$-99.635 billion $-100 billion $-98.897 billion

Total​

$3728.686 billion $3529 billion $3795.547 billion

When the interest rates rise, it will explode the national debt. If the debt stayed were it is now, every 1% rise in the ten year treasury would add an estimated 170 billion annually to interest payments. The market uses the 10 year as a average between other notes and T-bills (i.e. short term / long term) All one has to do is watch the 10 year treasury to know when the crunch is coming. Politically, the government will only touch Social Security / medicare when they have no other option. Social security can be fixed tomorrow by raising the age you can collect to the average age when people die. But that exposes the program for what it is, a tax...It is a ponzi in the true meaning of the term. Ponzi schemes do well as long as you have more people paying in then taking out...Baby boomer retirements are going to expose the ponzi scheme..

Currently, the government has overspent 17 trillion dollars...Do you feel you have gotten 17 trillion dollars worth of service?

Printing a one dollar bill every second would take you 30, 000 plus years to print a trillion dollars...one trillion seconds ago was 27,900 BC.

The government is not going to approve the pipeline under the current administration unless some compromise is made. Compromise just means some special interest or political agenda just received allot of money...Politicians do not do what is in the best interest of the country..The 17 trillion in debt demonstrates my point...