getting around the debt ceiling fight.

[That One Guy]

Originally Posted by ZONA

I think you have to go back to the last time we had a surplus and go from there. What has happened since then.

* Healthcare costs are through the roof - causing medicare costs to go through the roof.
* Bush tax cuts for nearly 12 years.
* Wallstreet deregulation, causing Wallstreet greed, causing financial recession.
* War, War War
* Companies sending manufacturing jobs overseas.

Simple - we have to get these healthcare costs down. Medicare is a good program, but $50K for a visit to the ER to have an MRI is inexcusable. Stop fighting wars we can't afford. Stop deregulating Wallstreet so they can F us over only to slap them on the hand and give them a big kiss afterwards. Stop giving insane tax cuts to wealthy business and don't allow them a tax break when they ship jobs over seas. I think we all clearly saw that not taxing the wealthy companies doesn't = job creation. What happened during our recession? They were still getting their tax breaks but they didn't create any jobs, instead they cut jobs. The rich always make sure they themselves are paid first, paid handsomely and then what's left over trickles down. American benefits and wages for normal working folks are some of the worst in any civilized country. The wealth gap in this country is growing and growing and growing.

There's two problems as I see it: There's no limit to the amount of medical attention one person can use. People LOVE going to the doctor and believing they have diseases, injuries, etc. We've got a malingering, hypochondriac filled society. Then add that some diseases are in the millions to treat and there's not a good answer to this. Ever since people started patenting drugs regularly, this has been an issue.

The other issue is that in today's society, there's just not much use for poor people. We need a few people to work our McDonalds and such but in terms of respectable jobs involving labor, most of them are outsourced and/or replaced by a robot. For this, again, there's no good solution. You can't just point at the rich folk that are shipping jobs overseas and scream foul. I also don't believe giving tax incentives are the answer because then you're taking two steps forward but still one step back. There's a HUGE consumer base in the United States and that, at this point, might be our biggest asset. The government needs to take advantage of that.

[That One Guy]

Originally Posted by DenverBrit

I did read it, but honestly, didn't understand what you were trying to say, so I repeated my point.

Fair enough. I mostly just return to the WRP on very sleepless nights when it's the last place on the internet left unexplored. The rambling babbles I can produce at that point are very likely unintelligible.