Obama's own words on redistribution of wealth in the US.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivL4c_3pck

Your statement is true....but how is that put at the feet of the current administration? The only part of the whole thing tied to government is fannie mae/freddie mac which precipitated the whole mess. The credit default betting was not regulated or created by our government. Since it's a process common to all world financial institutions how does that make the US responsible?

Why is government to blame when people or companies bet on performance and end up loosing money? Is the government to blame when someone bets their life savings that the sky will turn green? Should we adopt laws to make sure that idiots don't bet the sky turns green? Maybe we should just collect all their earnings and provide for them as we see fit........

Personally, I believe in individual responsibility. If I make a bad choice in getting a sub-prime mortgage I can't afford..how is that YOUR problem......

That statement blew me away!

Are you kidding?  Do you really believe the FEDS can do anything truly productive without it blowing up in their face?

They have always been too short-sighted.  We all see how well Social Security turned out, the ultra-wasteful Medicare programs, Immigration policies, or how about the billions that get lost all over the place without accountability during natural disasters.

One example of your "FDR type" program would be the National Medical Coverage program that Obama wants.

Sure a simple mind would say, "Yeah, it sure would be nice to see EVERY american have medical coverage", who in their right mind could disagree with that. NO ONE.

BUT, the point is... do you really want the FEDS to be in charge of it.  Hell NO!

Overall, I am idealogically conservative, but I don't trust any one of those (insert curses here)!  ALL of them will tell you ANYTHING you want to hear to get your vote in the power struggle.  They are all puppets!  Example, how many times has your congressman held a "town hall" meeting to get in touch with his constituents.  They don't listen to "us" the people.  It's a GRAND ILLUSION.  Slight-of-hand, so to speak.  While the people are DISTRACTED, debating, consumed with "choices" and arguing our different points of view. The agendas of the campaign donors and special interests are being put into effect.

I could go on and on, but I don't like to dwell on negative thoughts.  I'm going sky-diving, see ya!

I would then ask you how many financial markets existed in 1906...further do you think the Japanese give a rat's patooty about US laws or the Chinese, etc. 60 Minutes tells a lot of the story but (since they are in no way biased) don't give you the full story. Do you think MAYBE congress was trying to put the US on level playing ground with world markets in 2000? I imagine they just intended to screw the populace out of any additional dollars we might have under our mattresses.

No.  I think they gave in to Wall Street who pushed for it and legalized gambling for them.  Such gambling would be attractive to Wall Street and hedge fund managers as a means to try and drive profits and performance.  Keep in mind please that one hedge fund manager quite literally made $3.7B in just his hedge fund performance fees during one year from these type of derivatives.  Is that kind of compensation for one person really from economic growth and competitive markets or unbridled greed and gambling?

The way I remember it....Clinton said it was needed to keep our capital from going oversees where this was common in other markets and Greenspan backed him up. Regulation IS needed but the lack of regulation is NOT due to the current administration.....The people running the big 3 involved didn't even know they were in trouble until the shit hit the fan....how was GWB supposed to know?

Hind sight is always 20-20

....this is probably where we'll disagree the most....

Do you remember the Pet Rock? Is it right that someone picked up a rock, put it in a box with some hay and then became a multi-millionare selling that kind of thing......I think anyone smart enough to take advantage of a unique idea deserves exactly what he gets....either way.

edit: sorry ID if I caused this to veer off topic back to being a Conservative......

So, a BLACK man, disenfranchised as a youth, was somewhat more liberal 7 years ago than he is today, now that he's had experience at the national level.  Say it isn't so?!  I'm shocked SHOCKED.

Puh-lease.

My favorite hypocrisy of the current GOP spin cycle is this whole "redistribution of wealth" malarky.  I guess it's okay to take $6 trillion in taxpayer funds and redistribute that to cronies of Cheney and Bush, but Heaven-forbid the taxpayers see ANY advantage of their own tax dollars in their own lives!

How about THIS for a "redistribution of wealth"?  Bring up on felony fraud charges and seize the assets of all of these financial company scumbags who gamed the system and have nearly bankrupted the world economy?  While corporate law would allow them to declare bankruptcy and keep their ill-gotten gains, criminal law (since they are clearly guilty of all manner of fiscal malfeasance involving hiding these losses from the shareholders, regulators, etc.) would be a great way to punish the guilty and obtain some restitution for the American taxpayer.

It worked for Enron and Kenny-Boy, how about for these corporate gold-collar criminals?  Or do the right-wing ideologues not believe in crime and punishment now? 

Regardless, Bushco just privatized the military (re: blackwater) and socialized the banks.  The only thing we haven't nationalized is our country's own OIL...ahem.

Actually, that minority legal opinion has since been thoroughly discretid.

Regardless, the right of habeus corpus is one of the founding principles of Western Law for 400 years.  And like the Geneva Conventions regarding torturing prisoners of War, they were established and agreed upon by all civilized nations specifically to keep TYRANTS from throwing away inalienable human rights in the name of FEAR, convenience, and expediency.

And I believe our society is based on the rule of law, which applies to all people, even terrorists.  If we can catch, try, and incarcerate serial killers and mass murderers, we can do the same with Osama bin Laden.

A free society is always at risk of being kicked in the shins by the occasional nutter.  It's why Christ preached turning the other cheek after all.  It's one of the prices we pay for being a true society.  It doesn't mean we shouldn't close security loopholes, etc. but what's been done to our nation in the name of "protecting" us has made this country LESS free and therefore more fascist.

And I refuse to let FEAR of the inevitable random nutter rule my life or restrict my freedoms, thank you very much.

It's just you. 

Are you incapable of seeing that the government run healthcare represented by Medicare/Medicaid is an entirely different system from the Insurance/HMO industry?

My point is simply that we already have a government run health care system that works, and could work A LOT better if it was just expanded to cover all Americans.  That would END the HMOs and the health insurance industry as it exists today, though ANYONE who wanted to could still pay for PRIVATE INSURANCE as an add-on.  That's how it is done in Britain, etc.  The rich and those who are better off have a private system in addition to the baseline healthcare provided to all citizens, regardless of income.

I hope that is clearer.

Hmm, when you say tax payers, are you talking about the same wealthy people who pay most of the countries taxes or the ones (like me) who don't pay crap and get money back on top of that? BTW, if we gonna punish people for cheating the system then maybe we should arrest the homeowners who took loans they new they couldn't afford as well and decided to default on and are part of this whole mess, talk about irresponsibility. I mean, after all, the banks screwed up for making the loans, but I seriously doubt they had guns to the peoples heads when they were signing the loans. Typical to point fingers at one side while ignoraing the whole picture. No wonder this country is so screwed.

Actually while the wealthiest top percent pay more per person, the vast majority of actual total tax revenue comes from the millions of middle class taxpayers.  So while they pay less per person, they make up for it in volume.

Either way, the majority of the graft went to Bushco cronies who moved their companies overseas in preparation for these events early this decade.  They don't pay anything in taxes to the good old US of A.

Do you blame the patient when the doctor misdiagnoses your illness or do you blame the doctor who went to school and was supposedly an expert in the field, paid BY YOU to advise you on this issue?

And yes, in actuality, 1/3 of the foreclosures are wealthy home "flippers"...amateur real estate speculators who deserve whatever comes to them, but the worst cases where entire subdivisions are being destroyed were due to fraudalent applications prepared with fraudulent information prepared without the homeowner's consent.  A number of the largest home builders are facing federal charges for falsifying information in order to get homeowner's approved. 

So yes, lock em up.

But what about the RENTERS?  There is a huge problem right now with people who have been paying their rent but the owners of the properties have not been paying their mortgages, so all of a sudden, without warning, you're on the street.

You want to blame the honest renters for that too?!