FAIL
 

After Bush was elected, Karl Rove embarked on an ambitious plan to create a "permanent Republican Majority" in Washington. Tuesday showed how well that worked out for them.

It started before Bush...the House Republicans during Clinton's second term worked hard to rewire the operational aspects of Congress to help maintain the majority and control money from special interests.

-spence

cozying up to the religious right had something to do with it as well.

I believe lower taxes, smaller government, and greater personal responsibility will lead to greater prosperity for all.
We just need to stay away from borrowing vast sums to finance tax cuts, and we need to retain some regulation so runaway greed does not sink the markets, and at some point the prosperity needs to become evident.

I am hopeful that Michelle Obama chooses family responsibility to champion. That would be a great cause and she and her husband would most likely not meet the same resistance as Bill Cosby did when he expressed his views.

I could not agree more with your first line Joe...I would argue that each time that taxes have been cut in any serious way they were followed by huge economic growth in this country and the Treasury enjoyes a windfall each time...problem is that as soon a "Washington" sees in increase in money coming in their direction they begin "creating" new and bigger ways to use it, never seems to find it's way to the "lock box".....what I believe is needed is term limits for every last one of our legislators, there should be no way that these guys spend their lives in Washington(or locally) building huge war chest and playing monopoly with the peolple money....even the good ones get entrenched and fall in love with the atmosphere down there and decide they'll do anything to stay....the runaway greed and power is in Washington as well...

BTW...keep an eye on the Congressional hearings going on now regarding 401k's and other private retirement savings.... the new congress is looking for money to finance their agenda, a huge pool of money that they will try to tap is private retirement accounts by offering to roll them into Soc Sec. guaranteeing their value at a time prior to the slide in the market...the "Great Society" was finance by emptying Social Security if it funds...now we pay current recipients with our current contributions...this will be the Great Society Part II ..."Universal Guaranteed Retirements Accounts" are what they're being titled...the government will manage your "private" retirement savings for you...yikes!!!

Carolina Journal Exclusives
Dems Target Private Retirement Accounts
Democratic leaders in the U.S. House discuss confiscating 401(k)s, IRAs

By Karen McMahan
November 04, 2008
RALEIGH — Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration.

Triggered by the financial crisis the past two months, the hearings reportedly were meant to stem losses incurred by many workers and retirees whose 401(k) and IRA balances have been shrinking rapidly.

The testimony of Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, in hearings Oct. 7 drew the most attention and criticism. Testifying for the House Committee on Education and Labor, Ghilarducci proposed that the government eliminate tax breaks for 401(k) and similar retirement accounts, such as IRAs, and confiscate workers’ retirement plan accounts and convert them to universal Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs) managed by the Social Security Administration.


(THIS IS FROM A LEFT LEANING THINK TANK "SHARED PROSPERITY")
Guaranteed retirement accounts
Toward retirement income security
by Teresa Ghilarducci
For most of the last century, American retirement income policy supported a combination of programs—Social Security and federal tax subsidies for traditional defined-benefit pensions and for voluntary personal retirement accounts—that enabled many people to stop working and to maintain their living standards in retirement, while reducing old-age poverty rates.
But the American retirement income security system is breaking down. If current trends continue, poverty rates among the elderly will increase and middle-class retirees will find that their retirement income will not pay for the lifestyle they achieved while working. This will be the first time since World War II that the standard of living of elderly Americans declines while that of prime- age workers increases.
This reversal is due to tax and regulatory policies that fail to promote retirement savings and penalize defined-benefit plans. Regulations favor, and tax subsidies increasingly go to, the wrong kinds of retirement programs. As a result, 401(k) plans and other defined-contribution plans1 that were designed to supplement, not replace, traditional pensions are growing at the expense of defined-benefit plans that provide secure supplemental income to Social Security.

Congressman JIM MORAN(D-VA): Now, in the last 7 years, we have had the highest corporate profit ever in American history, hightest corporate profit. We've had the highest productivity. The American worker has produced more per person then at any time. But it hasn't been shared. And that's the problem, because we have been guided by a Republican administration who believes in the simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it, and they have an antipathy towards means of redistributing wealth. And they may be able to sustain that for a while, but it doesn't work in the long run.

KISS YOUR WEALTH GOODBYE!!!!

I meant to highlight Moran's money quote:


"the simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it, and they have an antipathy towards means of redistributing wealth"

The Rep. got big problems in that demographics are against them. They need to broaden their base which would really take a paridigm shift. I have always been in favor of sharing power but not this time.

And you voted for Obama?

By Karen McMahan
November 04, 2008
RALEIGH — Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration.

That is STEALING. 401ks are YOUR money. If that was coming, I'd do everything I could to take a full hardship withdrawal and eat the 10% penalty. I cannot believe that is something they are considering. Seizing of private assets by the government, nah, thats not socialism,,,,,,its commuinism!

adapted from an article By Henry P. Wickham, Jr.

"Rally us under this young man who came out of the slums of Chicago, who leads us like Moses out of the land of bondage into the land of milk and honey where every man is a king but no man wears a crown, Amen."


Like Obama's ascent, Huey Long's meteoric rise was fueled to a large degree by subterfuge, the effective use of a corrupt local machine, class warfare, and the demonization of business and the successful. Huey Long had a deep animosity toward those who produce wealth and this leveling instinct pervaded his policies. Like Obama, he publically condemned Marxism while effectively applying Marxist principles.

Huey Long as a United States Senator had broken with Franklin Roosevelt because he felt that Roosevelt's confiscatory policies were not radical enough. To broaden the reach of the policies that he and his machine implemented in Louisiana, in February of 1934 he created the "Share Our Wealth Society;" its slogan being "Every Man a King." This "Society," which epitomized Long's view of the federal government as the great leveler, advocated the confiscation of an individual's wealth greater than $5,000,000. He advocated confiscation of an individual's income greater than $1,000,000.

From this revenue Long promised the following goodies: $5,000.00 cash to every family or "enough for a home, an automobile, a radio, and the ordinary conveniences; guaranteed minimal annual income; guaranteed pensions for the aged; guaranteed grants for everyone's education; and bonuses to veterans.

The unspoken and resoundingly foolish premise of the Huey Long's "Share Our Wealth" scheme was the belief that people will continue to work, invest, take risks, and produce tax revenues regardless of the tax rates and the confiscatory policies of the government. For Long, productivity just happened, and its very existence and its fruits were the servant of the right-thinking political class. Thus Long asserted that he would share our wealth, as if the state has a preemptory claim on everyone's earnings.

While living lavishly from the labor of others, both Huey Long and Barack Obama comfortably railed against the vice of greed. Yet both elevate as their overriding principle of government the vices of envy and sloth. In light of this mere reemphasis among vices, it is extraordinary that both Long and Obama and their supporters can exude such an air of moral superiority and self satisfaction. At least greed is capable of producing something useful.

:agree:

I think there were plenty of people that voted for Obama with that view because they have seen government grow exponentially under Bush giving them no reason to vote repub....I think that if there's anything that both side can agree on it's that having politicians occupy seats in Washington for decades cannot be good for anyone, what do you think it costs to pay Ted Kennedy's staff, these guys don't give a crap about taxes or their congressional pay, they live off of donations and perks, they spend their time figuring out how to game the system and raise money and grow their pet projects, let them get elected based on what they claim to represent and then give them a time limit to get it done...one term would be fine with me...then get the hell out...you don't have to be a genius to be a representative, Patrick Kennedy is living proof of that...just won his 8th election, blew off his debate with his opponent...probably in rehab...sorry about all the Kennedy bashing:jester:

I agree wholeheartedly...my money nobody elses

But one little article from some monthly newsletter in Raliegh NC and you have the Sky Falling....C'Mon.

I agree, just a scary concept

I wish it could go the other way around, I'd like to invest my own SS money

This sounds communist to me:

Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.

Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter.

Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes

Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq

Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency

Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq

Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives

Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy

Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to "Black Sites" Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture

Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government

Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment

Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens

Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply

Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.

Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001