About unemployment due to layoff of Federal Bureaucrats.....

[zephyp]

Have to say cuts to transportation is a bad idea. Its already underfunded and our infrastructure really does suck, which drags the economy down overall.

IMHO transportation infrastructure is one of the few things that is a Constitutional expenditure. This should be paid for by all the fuel taxes we pay. I get ticked every time I drive almost anywhere here in NOVA. The roads suck big time yet people still walk to their mailbox every week to collect a welfare check.

An interesting article on Yahoo about how to solve the deficit. Looks like 100% of the people polled were either morons, idiots, or progressives...maybe all 3 rolled into one...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_usa_taxes_poll

[Kreutz]

Have to say cuts to transportation is a bad idea. Its already underfunded and our infrastructure really does suck, which drags the economy down overall.

IMHO transportation infrastructure is one of the few things that is a Constitutional expenditure. This should be paid for by all the fuel taxes we pay. I get ticked every time I drive almost anywhere here in NOVA. The roads suck big time yet people still walk to their mailbox every week to collect a welfare check.

An interesting article on Yahoo about how to solve the deficit. Looks like 100% of the people polled were either morons, idiots, or progressives...maybe all 3 rolled into one...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_usa_taxes_poll

Politicians constantly raid transportation funds on a state and federal level, that's the problem. If our fuel taxes actually went to the projects without their fingers dipping into it for other stuff our roads would be in much better shape.

I've traveled alot of the country, and generally found the roads inferior to the demand they have to bear most places I've been. I have no connection to the road system but think transportation needs more accountability and more money, ideally taken from a useless expenditure like foreign aid.

[dorminWS]

I understand that times are tough right now and unemployment is a problem. You can continue to receive unemployment benefits as long as you can reliably show that you have made a concerted effort at finding work on a monthly basis.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

In Virginia, it is a condition of getting UE benefits that you actively seek employment. That's why we see people show up here every day in a dirty, ragged T-poop that says something like "UNION FOREVER" or "DON'T GIVE A SH**" and ask, "Ya'll ain't hiring, are ya?" They don,t WANT a job - at least not until their benefits (which OBAMA and his ilk keep extending) run out. On the flip side, it is also true that even if you are offered ajob you don't have to take it; and if it is not comparable to the job you lost, you still collect benefits. This allows some folks to avoid employment by being cute with comparisons and incents others to NOT take a job for less pay. Sure opens up a can of worms when you pay folks not to work.

[gunderwood]

Have to say cuts to transportation is a bad idea. Its already underfunded and our infrastructure really does suck, which drags the economy down overall.

IMHO transportation infrastructure is one of the few things that is a Constitutional expenditure. This should be paid for by all the fuel taxes we pay. I get ticked every time I drive almost anywhere here in NOVA. The roads suck big time yet people still walk to their mailbox every week to collect a welfare check.

An interesting article on Yahoo about how to solve the deficit. Looks like 100% of the people polled were either morons, idiots, or progressives...maybe all 3 rolled into one...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_usa_taxes_poll

Politicians constantly raid transportation funds on a state and federal level, that's the problem. If our fuel taxes actually went to the projects without their fingers dipping into it for other stuff our roads would be in much better shape.

We have a winner!

[gunderwood]

Have to say cuts to transportation is a bad idea. Its already underfunded and our infrastructure really does suck, which drags the economy down overall.

Another reason to be cautious of any politician wanting a X% cut across the board. Of course the real game is bartering political favors to be part of the exempted groups.

They're all good ideas (and I'm a liberal), but they will NEVER happen. Even if they were all enacted TODAY its still the equivalent of spitting on a burning skyscraper to put it out. Not going to do a damn thing.

This country is broke, and the debt ceiling will just rise and rise until ? happens. Hell, with a fiat currency like ours, maybe it really could go into infinite, who knows?

Agreed. The complete elimination of earmarks, foreign aid, and all the other ideas being tossed around still won't balance the budget. More fundamental changes are needed and very few people are interested in that discussion.

[KaosDad]

One of the saner WaPo colunists recently pointed out that the time to invest in infrastructure is NOW. The contruction business is hurting, the manufacturing business is hurting and the folsk that produce raw materials are hurting. COntractors are doing work for quarters on the dollar over what they would charge the government before the bottom fell out. Also, the Universal Services fund has to be revamped and opened up to get broadband to the rural communities - NOT POTS lines.

The US's infrastructure is centuries old in some places & cases - the sewer lines & water mains under DC are over 100 years old & people are still surprised when they bust open. We lag behind most industrialized nations in broadand infrastructure except in a few, very new very well funded pockets.

Let's take the $65 Billion we send overseas and plow it back into the soil here at home.

Oh, and turn the UN bulding into the largest VA rehab hospitals in the country. Complete with subsidised apartments for their families during treatment!

[Taggure]

Let's take the $65 Billion we send overseas and plow it back into the soil here at home.

Oh, and turn the UN bulding into the largest VA rehab hospitals in the country. Complete with subsidised apartments for their families during treatment!

Amen to that!

[Kreutz]

Agreed. The complete elimination of earmarks, foreign aid, and all the other ideas being tossed around still won't balance the budget. More fundamental changes are needed and very few people are interested in that discussion.

Few people are interested (I would say afraid) with discussing it because it really means a return to an essentially Gilded Age society; when government was small, services non-existent, and tariffs a major government revenue source.

So right there you've alienated free-marketeers, globalists, liberals, military-industrialists, and old people; coincidentally these groups collectively run the show here in America and will not let the current system change.

Really the only way to balance the budget is to default (essentially a huge strategic default) and start over, hopefully with lessons learned and mistakes not repeated. This will also never happen.

[gunderwood]

Agreed. The complete elimination of earmarks, foreign aid, and all the other ideas being tossed around still won't balance the budget. More fundamental changes are needed and very few people are interested in that discussion.

Few people are interested (I would say afraid) with discussing it because it really means a return to an essentially Gilded Age society; when government was small, services non-existent, and tariffs a major government revenue source.

So right there you've alienated free-marketeers, globalists, liberals, military-industrialists, and old people; coincidentally these groups collectively run the show here in America and will not let the current system change.

Really the only way to balance the budget is to default (essentially a huge strategic default) and start over, hopefully with lessons learned and mistakes not repeated. This will also never happen.

I agree except the underlined portions. The "free-marketers" you are referencing are not really such, they just wrap themselves in the name of free-markets and capitalism. Much like how lots of politicians wrap themselves in the flag to promote whatever anti-liberty bill they want to push, so to do these economist.

The actual free-marketers/capitalists, who were around long before the frauds, have always been for limited government to the point of being libertarian. If you are interested in learning about Capitalism before it was perverted and subdued for corrupt political ends, check this site out: http://mises.org/. They are always railing against unlimited government and so did their predecessors nearly a century ago.

A default is more and more likely, but I hope the American people will revolt against this debt based system before that is a necessity...I'm probably just being an optimist though.

[zephyp]

Oh, and turn the UN bulding into the largest VA rehab hospitals in the country. Complete with subsidised apartments for their families during treatment!

Yep, forgot this in my X-point plan...

- Defund and withdraw from the UN entirely and immediately