A little bit the problem I have with that graph is that the line turns nearly vertical under the sitting administration. Granted, the spending ramped up insidiously under W as he enriched his neocon buddies hellbent on destroying our country (especially the financial terrorism his administration oversaw at the end of 2008), however I haven't seen any measures enacted to curb this spending. It also seems to be getting much worse. The current administration might well as be a continuation of the previous. Also, we really need to get off the partisan politics, eh? Stick to the issues. Debt is debt. It doesn't make it alright that administration B continues the damage that began under administration A. They both continue to dig us a bigger hole and set us up for catastrophe.

A little bit the problem I have with the deficit neutral or reduction of deficit statement is that it is very misleading. They desire to make themselves look like champions, yet it is merely a smoke and mirrors trick. They do the hey look here while our plan is revenue neutral or reduces the deficit, but don't look here as we lop off $400 - $500 billion of health care benefits to recipients of Social Security. Shameful. I'm also failing to see the cost benefit of a plan (Senate) that spends $871 billion to cover 30 million people. That's approximately $29,000 per person! Even if you make an assumption that health care increases at 10% per year between 2010 and 2019, we are at cost of less than $20,000 per person (using the per capita figure of 6,719 provided by Dow). That's just sheer wastefulness with something near 50% going into the abyss, likely the government abyss.

Regarding the Baucus thing. While I agree with Driz that it is absolutely shameful to make fun of anybody with a speech impediment, there was more to it than that. As far as I could tell, the only major fumbling in this speech that I noticed, after having watched the video clip twice, was at the very beginning. What was most telling in my opinion that he was potentially [*] was his body language, his disposition, his incessant rambling, his talking over everyone without fail. Contrast that to the Bloomberg interview posted where he is pretty mild mannered and reserved. I'd believe had this been a police officer to whom he was talking during a roadside stop, he would have ended up in jail.

Last edited by Administration; 12/31/09 02:03 AM.

Kind Regards,
Jay

Almost all of us long for peace and freedom; but very few of us have much enthusiasm for the thoughts, feelings, and actions that make for peace and freedom. - Aldous Huxley

Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. - Thomas Jefferson