Romney Whooped Him

[moguy1973]

As far as DSL goes I don't care if you believe it or not, but my installer made it clear he did not like Obama, but he said the govt. is why we were getting it out here. Companies were making just as much with us using dial up, air cards, or satellite, there aren't enough people out here to make it worth the trouble as they have to install a DSL "box?" every couple miles or so. We had bugged the phone company for years under dubya about getting it and they said maybe someday, but it just wasn't worth them doing it in the sparsely populated areas.

The gov't actually allocated money to the Telco companies for infrastructure to make high speed internet access available to 95% of the households in America. The Telco companies, though, thought it would be a better idea to pocket that money instead of upgrading existing infrastructure to handle the high speed demands. So here we are, still in the dark ages when it comes to high speed internet in this country. If you look at Japan and some European countries internet services, they are getting upwards of 20x the speed for about a 1/10th the cost that we pay for our services over here. True we have a bigger country and it costs a lot more for infrastructure upgrades for the whole country than some of the smaller countries have, but supposedly being the "greatest nation in the world" we have super slow internet and very poor internet access in general.

[Feathers and Fins]

Justin; I guess im diffrent in the fact that I beleive the Goverment needs to STOP spending money on things. Take CRP I firmly beleive that our goverment needs to stop funding this program. Let conservation groups in partnership with the states fund it. Take the money the FED spends on it and put it to Road Improvement and construction. CRP doesnt help the general population but a road improvement will create jobs and reduce congestion which saves us money and puts people to work. I aint talking about repaving and putting up $1000 signs saying your tax dollars at work. but actually widening of roads and creating new ones, or hey running electric lines underground which in a major storm would keep the power on and cut down on fires and electricution to people. I catch flack for that from fellow sportsmen because of course they want to protect the ducks, so do I but I am more concerned in seeing my friends working and saving money for my family. I just dont see how a 10 acre track of land in NoDak that is just growing is benifiting friends family and community in a better way than an new road will or having power after a storm etc.

CRP IMO is a luxery as is DSL and other sillyness, There are many programs the goverment is involved in that they shouldnt be. The need of the people and betterment of the people are the Federal Goverments job we elected them to do. They have got so big that and powerful they do not care about WE THE PEOPLE.

[Justin Spencer]

You are absolutely right F&F in many ways about CRP (although it helps prevent soil erosion, and will leave of with some good farmland in the future if everything else dries up). The whole farm bill is a messed up big govt subsidy where the largest farmers can't hardly fail because government won't let them. Federal fish hatcheries should go local as well, if it brings so much money to the areas then why can't the states and local economies fund them.

Infrastructure improvements could be a huge way out of this recession putting people to work while improving the country, but the two sides can't agree on how to do this so I guess they decided not to. I would say DSL would go as an infrastructure improvement since the internet is important in this information age, rural schools need high speed internet.

[Feathers and Fins]

Thats what makes me mad Justin, these are NOT rocket science issues. How hard is it to say ( Lets use this area for instance) Arkansas and Missouris Border area is growing fast, So we can forsee that Hwy's 412 cannot support the flow of traffic they could 20 years ago, we need to widen Hwy 412 from Fayetteville to Hwy 65 in Harrison and straighten it. And widen HWY 65 from Harrison to Conway. It will take 5 years and create 5000 jobs during that period, Then a smart Politician and Planner see that continueing HWY 412 to Memphis 4 lanes would create a new innerstate connecting Tulsa to Memphis and it would take 10 years creating an additional 6thousand jobs.

It is not hard to see that would increase Jobs, Decrease the price of shipping and save people money all the way around in the future. That is a simple simple one to see. Yet what stops it is where is the money for the politician? Funding I truly beleive is there if other programs ( non-beneifical ) to the entire populous are stopped like BIG BIRD!

[Wayne SW/MO]

When you borrow trillions and then make the bulk of it available to only 15% of the work force you have no business calling yourself president.

Executive order 13502

[ness]

Nooooo. Not CRP! Yeah, that one kinda stings, personally. But it's well on the way to being eliminated in corn-producing country, due to the subsidies, and other places due to high commodity prices.

Justin -- I'd love to have infrastructure improvements too. But I just feel like we've got to quit trying to spend/borrow our way to prosperity.

Fed announced 'QE3' a couple weeks ago. For those that don't follow those things -- it's the Federal Reserve stepping into the markets and buying massive quantities of long-term bonds though a program of 'Quantitative Easing' -- it's round 3 of that, so QE3. Supply and demand tells you the buying will make the price of bonds go up, and there's an inverse relationship between bond prices and interest rates, so rates will go down. The long-term bonds they're buying are mortgage-related, so they're driving down mortgage rates even more. This is literally 'printing money', not the old government borrowing kind of printing money -- but creating money. $40 billion a month, for 3 years.

Besides the ridiculous debt and deficits, we've got these phantom liabilities too. Of course there's social security, medicare and medicaid. But then there's the banking backstops, Fannie/Freddie/Ginnie guaranties, money market fund guaranties, you name it -- we've made trillions and trillions in promises since the markets went in the crapper -- both Bush and Obama. We could NEVER meet those obligations. Our president said we've been repaid on the bailouts, and have even made a profit. That's simply a falsehood. Not taking sides here -- BS is BS -- and that's a whopper. We've been repaid on some, with interest, but there's a ton still outstanding. Look at GM, Ally Bank ownership and the TARP funds still outstanding.

It's gonna sound like I'm taking sides again, but I'm really not. Romney talked about the guy who added up all the taxes he paid and it was about 50%. Well, I've done that calculation myself several years in a row and that's about where I land -- without even taking a stab at the sales tax I pay.

Last year my kids could get a couple pieces of pizza for lunch at school for about $3. Now it's $6, because the guvmint doesn't want my kids eating pizza for lunch. It never freakin' ends.

I've haven't been this pessimistic about the future since I was a kid and thought the chance of nuclear war was pretty high.

[rfd515]

This is literally 'printing money', not the old government borrowing kind of printing money -- but creating money. $40 billion a month, for 3 years.

Considering the CPI was less than 2% last month, they should start printing faster.

[Justin Spencer]

Justin -- I'd love to have infrastructure improvements too. But I just feel like we've got to quit trying to spend/borrow our way to prosperity.

This is something the govt. has to tackle anyway in the near future, our roads and bridges are falling apart. This can be our WWII creating jobs and saving the world from the tyranny of pot holes, and traffic jams.

I'm with you John, CRP would sting, national fish hatcheries would sting, masterpiece theatre would sting (or not), but it's time to tighten the belt and use the tax payers money more wisely. NASA cuts were a good start, upcoming military cutbacks should help. How bout take marijuana laws back to 1938 when it was legal and collect big taxes while opening a new agriculture industry for something that many people already use. There are plenty of options, but sides don't want to admit a victory by the other side so nobody will budge.

[jdmidwest]

Rural Internet Service started under Bush. It was stepped up with the Stimulus Plan.

[Justin Spencer]

Rural Internet Service started under Bush. It was stepped up with the Stimulus Plan.

Then thank you dubya, and thank you Obama for not throwing out a republican idea and expanding it.