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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (301552)	8/28/2006 12:19:56 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1583613

Debt Draws Attention By Terry Savage TheStreet.com Contributor 8/27/2006 9:47 AM EDT Is the U.S. bankrupt? In a study published earlier this month, economist Lawrence Kotlikoff pointed out that the U.S. is responsible for $80 trillion in future entitlement promises -- a figure about six times larger than the U.S. economy. To make good on those promises, future workers would have to pay tax rates ranging from 55% to 80% of their incomes! The same week that Kotlikoff's study ran in the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis bulletin, the comptroller general of the U.S. said, "Current fiscal policy is not sustainable, and hard choices must be made ... we're mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren and creating a shameful legacy." Finally, some knowledgeable and authoritative people are starting to bring this national crisis to the attention of the public. Fiscal Wake-Up Tour The comptroller general, David Walker, is on a national "Fiscal Responsibility Wake-Up Tour" -- a nonpartisan effort to educate the public to the crisis that looms, not only in the next few years, but as baby boomers retire. Walker, who is in the midst of a 15-year term, is being supported by both political liberals and conservatives in his efforts to shine a light on the budget problems that are approaching. Here are some of the facts that he pointed out in a presentation last week: About 60% of our federal spending is now mandatory, primarily because of Medicare and Social Security obligations and interest on the national debt. While the 2005 budget deficit was widely reported at $318 billion, if it is calculated on an operating basis like one that most companies use, the year's deficit was easily double that amount. We finance our deficits by borrowing -- and 50% of our public debt is currently owned by foreigners. Interest on the national debt is expected to be about $200 billion this year -- around the same amount that we spend on Medicare. We currently have a $46 trillion liability for Medicare and Social Security obligations -- and the new drug bill will easily add another $8 trillion in promises. Over the next 25 years, Medicare spending will grow at nearly five times the rate of GDP growth. Every newborn arrives with an immediate debt of $156,000 -- which constitutes fiscal child abuse! Go to NEXT PAGE thestreet.com

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (301552)	8/28/2006 2:32:52 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1583613

Ignoring the hard facts, favoring the myth By DAVID HORSEY P-I EDITORIAL CARTOONIST I was a staunch Santa Claus believer well into second grade. I could answer any assertion that Santa did not exist with complex rebuttals that silenced young doubters and made them reassess their grasp of reality. Finally, though, when my friend Ronnie showed me all the toys "from Santa" he'd discovered in his parents' closet two weeks before Christmas, I began to give in. I felt no resentment, however. Santa Claus was a happy, magical illusion that I was glad to have had and one that I recreated for my own kids. Not all frauds are quite so benign, yet grownups throughout the world cling to them, usually because they reinforce deeply held political, ethnic or religious biases. Holocaust deniers are the most notorious example of this phenomenon. Despite mountains of physical evidence, despite the meticulous records kept by Nazi Germany, despite the eyewitness testimony of American soldiers who liberated the death camps and despite the personal witness of those European Jews who survived the genocide that took 6 million of their compatriots, a shocking number of people -- especially in the Islamic world and including the president of Iran -- claim the Holocaust is a hoax. For them, it is easier to believe a Big Lie than a mitigating truth about people they have chosen to hate. There are plenty of reality-starved people in this country, as well. U.S. investigators spent 16 months and more than $900 million in a search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and concluded, as United Nations inspectors had, that Saddam Hussein had dismantled all such weapons back in 1991. Nevertheless, according to a recent poll, 50 percent of Americans continue to believe in the existence of the WMD that were the justification for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Apparently, half of our fellow citizens prefer to shun inconvenient facts in favor of the fantasies promulgated by radio talk show bloviators, Internet bloggers and a few right-wing senators. Another third of Americans are buying into the speculation that the Bush administration was somehow complicit in the 9/11 attacks. Like all conspiracy theories, this one is elaborate and, to some people, convincing. But to believe it, one must not only believe that Bush and company came into office ready to perpetrate the greatest treason in the history of our country, but had the organizational skills to bring it off. (I would offer the cities of Baghdad and New Orleans as a strong argument that these guys are incapable of successfully organizing any complex enterprise.) Whether in the Middle East or in this country, is it possible to find any common ground between contending factions if there is not a basic agreement about what is real and what is preposterous fiction? Here's my Burning Question: Why are human beings so eager to ignore hard realities and buy into reassuring myths. seattlepi.nwsource.com

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (301552)	8/29/2006 11:27:35 AM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1583613

Too true. The LWEs idea of how to win an argument is to post "you are an idiot" or the real trump "President Bush is an idiot". They don't deal well with facts, they need to hold tight to their feelings to make of for their lack of influence. Funny. That's what the guys on your threads are calling me. Apparently, the articles I am posting don't meet their sensibilities. That's probably because they are full of facts. ;-) BTW I wouldn't talk to Harris about facts. He wouldn't know a fact if it hit him in the face. But ask him about the terrorist plot in Michigan that had him all upset. I think he personally went up to Michigan to supervise the capture of the alleged terrorists. I am sure he will want to share with you his excitement.