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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (96936)	7/15/2011 12:24:09 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 149317

Since we are not drowning in debt, is it necessary to either cut Medicare/SS or raise taxes. Why not just raise the ceiling unconditionally. The considered tipping point for debt in any nation is around 62% of GDP. The US is at 67% or 69%. So we are not badly over what is acceptable. However, the deficit is growing very fast and if nothing is done, that percentage will move up dramatically. Plus there are other factors that influence the debt analysis. The US is not Greece because we have some very substantive assets. Having said that, we still are not in a good place economically and we need to reign in our deficit spending. Too much of our debt is held by nations like China and that makes me very nervous. Why this political drama? In the past the debt was raised without even the American people knowing about it. Why the noise now? Where is it coming from? Who has made this very political and why? That's why I say the debt is not the real problem. Its not just the debt and deficit spending that is creating the ill will. Its not even the issue of differing ideologies. There are two different cultures in the US......always have been. Its not all that unlike Serbia and Kosovo. These two cultures have been moving on parallel tracks for 300 years......some times crossing but mostly keeping a separate distance. We have the same language, the same holidays mostly, similar religion...but we are different. Its an issue no one discusses but its always there right behind the scenes. Some of the ill will stems from the Civil War and what happened after the war ended. The North came in and told the South that its lifestyle was unacceptable which again was not unlike Serbia telling Kosovo to stop praying to Allah. After the war, the North exacted all kinds of reparations from the South and forced the South to make significant changes.......not unlike what the allies did to Germany right after WW I. People are never happy when they are forced to change. That kind of relationship has been the relationship between the North and South right up into the 20th Century and the civil rights era. Since then that cultural divide has expanded beyond just the North and the South........and its become a more urban/rural divide that keeps gaining momentum. It roughly parallels politics.......Dems vs Rs, liberals vs conservatives.....but it transcends politics as well. Mixed in here is racial discord........an unhappiness by many whites that a person of color is leading the nation. With each passing month, its seems a new element is added to widen the divide. But here's the thing......similar divides exist in other cultures. In Germany, the W Germans look down upon the East Germans; the North Germans don't like the South Germans in Bavaria. So its not unique to the US. And yet, those divisions seem to be growing exponentially. I don't really understand that aspect of the phenomenon. However, I do know its more serious than the press and our leaders suggest. We fought two wars with a credit card and giving tax relief to the rich which obviously caused a big hole in our credit. Why did these people who are making such a big noise now were quiet then? Because THEY were doing the war making and the deficit spending then. Now the other side is doing it so they don't like it. And I am typical........I don't like that Obama is taking so long to get out of Afghanistan but I am less vocal than if it were an R doing it the same way. Why? I don't trust any R farther than I can throw them but I trust Obama to do the right thing. Is it a rational view? At this point, I don't have a clue.