President Barack Obama's acceptance speech Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention in North Carolina accomplished the formality of the party's nomination. But did his words and speech move you to tears, move you to scream, galvanize you to rally neighbors to get to the polls? Take our Patch poll and share your views in comments. And look to Patch for local election coverage.
If you prefer, take our on former U.S. President Bill Clinton's speech.
http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/27915/Chart-rise-health-care-costs And that was all under Bush. and what about evil Obamacare? http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57483867/health-law-requires-insurers-to-spend-premiums-on-patients-or-pay-rebates/ Right, the requirement that your premiums be spent on healthcare not profits and magebuck payments to the CEO means that millions got a rebate.
http://zfacts.com/gas-price-history-graph Hmmm, guess not. Also, if we had an actual progressive tax system the 50% get a free ride would be accurate. But since people well under the median income pay taxes, the 50% number is a bit of a LIE. http://ctj.org/ctjreports/2012/04/who_pays_taxes_in_america.php Now you look at this chart and compare it to what was paid in 1958 under DDE when the tax system was truly progressive and you can see that the system now is actually regressive. It takes money from those that would spend it in stimulating the economy by purchasing durable goods and gives it to the wealthiest Americans who then use it to buy and sell stock... legalized gambling... that may create a few jobs on wall street, but do nothing for main street. It's a real simple theory. There is a point where income goes from necessary to disposable. You do NOT tax necessary income for anyone. Then as there is more disposable income, you increase the rate of taxation on that disposable income. You then use those taxes to pay for things like highways, schools, police and fire protection, bridges, infrastructure upkeep and repair. In addition you take a large chunk of those and spend it on the military (more than the next six industrial nations combined), Finally you take a small portion of that income and spend it on R&D. In the 1950-1970's that R&D program was space exploration. Today it should be energy.
Ryan/Romney have lied to the American Public far more than Obama/Biden. Documented lies. Not "my opinion that they lied", but lies that are documented. The tax forms will most likely expose even more lies, so I would like to see them to see just how many. But it doesn't mater to me because of the two major party candidates, one team fails to tell the truth 95% of the time and the other fails maybe 20% of the time. I'll take the one that is more honest. Giving the Mormon Church millions of dollars so that they can fund campaigns that ensure that all Americans are not treated equally does NOT qualify as charity in my book.
You seem to confuse the two since the current tax code says that investing in wall street gambling is "investing". Even Ron Paul doesn't believe that crap. Let's talk about investing. I co-authored a patent 10 years ago. For the last 10 years I have been self-funding the development of the product for the marketplace. That was investing. Today we are almost ready for release of the version 4.0 product to the market (it has been in test for five years). I have a set of business plans we show strategic investors. In the first we show a slow growth model and a need for $5Mil investment for the first two years. In the second we show a fast growth model over three years and a need for a $15Mil investment. I prefer the slow growth model, or something in between the two models. In the slow model, once invested we will move from three employees working for stock to having 12 employees by the end of year two. In the fast model we get to 12 in year one. But when someone "invests" in what I am building their investment will directly create jobs and grow the economy. When someone buys or sells a share of stock on the market it doesn't do that at all. That is the difference between "investment" and gambling. Until the tax code realizes that difference all the talk if investment is absolute BS.
I listed a dozen lies the Democrats stated and Fact Check debunked...You just say liar liar without any examples. The government has NO business investing in ANY private business, picking & choosing winners & losers. Solyndra was too risky so Bush did not allow tax dollars to go there. Obama doubled down; now tax payers are out billions of dollars. Other "green" companies he invested our income on also went belly up. Obama picked auto makers to bail out because they have many dues paying union members. 97 % of union dues go to Dems. Now us tax payers are out billions of dollars for this debacle. Government got into the housing industry and look at the bubble they created that burst in 2008 with all those liar sub-prime loans the banks were required to give out. People that had no business buying houses were buying because the Government made it too easy. That created artificial demand, prices zoomed up and of course their was the collapse as the dead beats defaulted on their loans they should have never had in the first place. The CRA under Clinton started the wave of unsustainable home ownership...always good intentions but unintended consequences. Government got into funding and education so it has gone up 700% in the last 20 yrs, way more than any other segment of our economy. All traceable to Government's involvement. You are not willing to see facts sothis is may last post & I won't read any more of your lies.
"The government has NO business investing in ANY private business, picking & choosing winners & losers. Solyndra was too risky so Bush did not allow tax dollars to go there. " "January 2009: In an effort to show it has done something to support renewable energy, the Bush Administration tries to take Solyndra before a DOE credit review committee before President Obama is inaugurated. The committee, consisting of career civil servants with financial expertise, remands the loan back to DOE “without prejudice” because it wasn’t ready for conditional commitment." So, you are 100% incorrect in that Bush PUSHED to get Solyndra the $'s BEFORE Obama took office. He was stopped by the non-political DOE Credit Review Committee. I know you can read the words above, but the facts just don't agree with your fantasy that it was Obama's fault, and that Bush didn't push for it and continuing to insist on something that has been proven false just makes it impossible to take you seriously.
Hundreds of thousands of people are part of the supply chain for auto manufacturing. His actions saved those jobs. Those workers were then able to spend money because they had jobs. That money was spent on things that allowed consumerism to boost the economy, which in turn not only saved other jobs, but even created jobs. For years Airbus was losing money, but the countries involved kept on funding the money losing venture because it created high paying jobs and the consumerism of those employees rippled down and created more jobs in the countries involved. When the government hires people to build bridges and repair infrastructure they are creating higher paying jobs. These jobs allow people to have more money. They then spend that money on consumer purchases. That creates more jobs. This model of economics is based on consumerism, and it is what our world runs on. Joe rich guy can invest in making poodplesnarks, but unless there is a demand for poodlesnarks he has nothing. Consumer demand drives the economy, not investment. Investors will invest where they will get a return on it, and that return is based on consumers buying whatever they are selling.
You don't present "facts" you present fantasy. You can't look at the Solyndra timeline and see what is clearly there, and insist that somehow day is night and morning is evening. I don't laud Obama because I think he didn't do enough. I will defend Obama because I understand that we were on a down trajectory and those policies he put in place may not have lifted the economy as much as I wished, but they definitely stopped the slide. The stimulus should have been twice as large and shouldn't have contained any tax breaks. He should have put in place a program that gave zero interest loans to anyone who installed US manufactured solar systems rather than provide $'s to the manufacturers directly. He should have funded a program to develop vehicles that used alternative energy sources, and then demanded that the entire government fleet use them. He should have broken up the big banks. He should have returned to DDE's tax code (adjusting the $ number for inflation). He should have opened up Medicare for anyone to purchase. Obama didn't do many things that would have made the economy recover faster, but he is 100% responsible for stopping the bleeding and turning it around from the disaster that the Bush Administration created. Do we continue on this path, or do we jump back to the Bush policies being championed by Ryan/Romney? Obama is far from perfect, but a heck of a lot better than going back to what I know doesn't work.
The issue for most conservatives I know is how he then chose to deal with it. He can whine and moan all he likes, but all that does is speak to how inexperienced he was (and remains) as a leader able to either more accurately assess such challenges or enlist more competent economists to advise him who *could* and *should* have been able to demonstrate for him the true breadth and depth of the challenge and how best to approach it. His explanations for his abysmal economic record is one long litany of scapegoating and excuse-making: "We inherited it all from Bush", "It was far worse than we thought", "The jobs weren't as 'shovel-ready' as we had hoped", etc, etc, etc. I would have had far more respect for him if he had just stood before us at the National Convention and said: "Look folks, the economy has been floundering and I have not been able to get a handle on it yet. I thought I could do so in four years but I was mistaken. I need you to trust that we are headed in the right direction as well as your mandate to stay the course so that we can continue to work through this." A true leader has the humility to admit when he or she has erred. Pres. Obama never has done so and I don't think he ever will. Time for him to go.
For me the choice is clear. I am registered as neither a Republican nor a Democrat. I am a conservative, and I vote according to both my intellect and my my conscience, entirely unbound by party affiliations or pressures.
and do you want your tax dollars spent to unwanted kids in orphanages? Look at how outrageous the population has gotten as well. I am not saying killing babies is the way out, but remember it's not your life....so you really shouldn't intervene.
You tax something (work) you get less of it. You supplement something ( welfare, food stamps) you get MORE of it.
Best, Marie
Plenty of people are put on waiting lists in America. My uncle had to wait for a year in the U.S. before he could get a new kidney. He was on dialysis while waiting and close to death. Marie
Since I am not Israeli, but American, my first interest in in the USA, not Israel (unlike Romney I know that the USA is not a foreign country). Why would I, or any other American Jew, vote for a guy who is incompetent because "ho promises to be a friend to Israel" while screwing up the country I actually live in? That makes no sense. Airbus lost money for many years. Lot's of it. But it also created thousands of secondary manufacturing jobs in the countries that funded it that more than made up for many of the actual loses. For every "socialized medicine" horror story you can produce I can produce 100 stories of the failure of the American Health Insurance system. Do you really want to go there? The Mormon's believe in spending millions given to them in tax free dollars on political campaigns to kill the equal rights of Americans. You may call that "tough love" I call it unchristian at best to deny people equal rights under the law because of their sexual identity or preferences. "You tax something (work) you get less of it. " - False, and the data shows that in states with higher tax rates the people don't "flee the state". Stop playing the fear card, it's absolute BS. "You supplement something ( welfare, food stamps) you get MORE of it." Ask Romney's parents, they were on it.
Don't you just love these clowns who start out "met, I've been avoiding your immature rants and refused to read your junk...." and then continue on until they hit the 1500 word limit or whatever it is here? Don't you wish the Patch, as long as they refuse to actually moderate, would take the limit off? Let these scum accuse us of relations with animals and all kinds of filth. I'd love to see what they actually come up with. Well, here comes Bo Bo so I shall not be back. He's death to these threads and any sort of civil discourse. I'll be up in Long Beach on Friday. You around? I'll email. Here comes that Shipwrek... I am out of here.
"and there's nothing that can convince you that every country that tries that ends up in a financial disaster, drastically hurting their citizens." Like those rotten Euro-trash people in Sweden. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/09/easy-as-pie-inequality-in-downloadable-charts.html Watch the video. Most people believe the Sweden chart is the US. It's not even close. There is NO "pulling oneself up by their bootstraps." That's bullcrap that USED TO BE the American story. Since 1980 and the tax revolution of Saint Ronnie upward mobility has not only stopped, but has actually reversed itself. Trickle down has failed. It has created the largest gap in income inequality since just before the Depression.Have you ever heard of the Bonus Army? Well that's what we have no. Kids join the military because there are no jobs and atleast that will give them a paycheck, and when they are done the GOP policies in place say "Thanks, now go screw yourself." Don't believe me just look at last weeks vote. The GOP killed the military jobs bill and it was FULLY PAID FOR. Go back to Faux News watching if you can't support your claims (lies) with actual facts.
But you still have to stay on these forums and post truth to their lies, because unless you do others will come along and think they are actually spouting the truth. It's no longer "a difference of opinion". There are studies that show that trickle down failed. There is actual hard data that shows that giving to the rich doesn't work, and that taking progressive shares of their disposable income and investing it in the Public Good does work. DDE was far from being Harry S. Truman, but he knew better than to mess with the progressive tax code that created the economic opportunities in this country for the working class. He knew better than to suggest that Medicare and Social Security were bad when he had seem the elderly left to die and starve before FDR made the new deal to save them. These radical plutocracy handmaidens, like Ryan, are all for doing their masters bidding. And even though every single shred of historical evidence shows they are 100% wrong. They are more than willing to screw the 99% for the good of the 1% who hand select and protect them. and yes, I should be here Friday... I do volunteer coach football after 5PM though.
As long as the "for profit" motive drives the bottom line the actuaries will continue to control who gets what services, no mater what you think you are paying for. They are the death panels that determine when it is no longer fiscally responsible for a company's bottom line to cover your heath. And what of the 100 million (60+ million now insured because of ObamaCare) that have/had no insurance? According to Mitt, they have the ER. The most expensive form of health care delivery, and all paid by your tax dollars. Socialized medicine at it's MOST EXPENSIVE. You want to lower the cost of care and increase the quality? Allow anyone to purchase into Medicare. Medicare currently costs LESS than the for profits, and they cover the most expensive people to care for (the elderly). Add in healthy (younger) people to that class/group and watch costs/rates fall.
What happened to the Republicans to make them sell their souls?