John, while it may feel like 3 1/2 years, hell it feels like a decade to me, Obama has only been in office for 2 years and 9 months.

lol... well I guess subliminally, I'm adding in the Hope and Change campaign summer and in a wishful thinking manner, wishing the election was sooner ..

Regardless, I see no reason whatsoever why over the next year almost every sector of our economy and lives is going to start trending upwards after they have made it clear they plan to double down on the same failed policies that have put us 4 trillion MORE dollars in debt than we were to start with.

Road construction, bridges?  How is that going to help the baker, the suit factory, the artist, the plumber, and the policeman?

What are all the construction workers going to do after they finish the bridges? FFS.

YOU   CANT   SPEND   YOUR   WAY   INTO   PROSPERITY.

I think the concept revolves around people making and spending money. It was done in the 30's and is a low brow Reagan trickle down approach that actually impacts more people. Also the government doesn't do manufacturing, it can only deal with infrastructure. it's not a solution, only a temporary band aid sort of like what the New Deal was.

the artist? people don't buy art when they need bread or shelter.

and it didn't work, by anyone's estimation the last time... so were going to double down and do it.. again?

Does that make any sense to you?

I can garaaaaaaaaaaawntee you... putting 50k construction workers to work, isn't going to help me, MJ, OldMSgt, etc... one iota.

and I ask again, after they are done.. then what?

and Dave, if your over 52, or so.. nothing the GOP plans will affect your SSI.  Anything to the contrary is just Dem. scare tactics... they use it EVERY election time.

no regulation, buyer beware, let me screw you cause I can and get away with it. please, give me an example of what you actually mean by this.

or anyone...

This is true.  Also can't save your way into prosperity.  Key phrase: Fix the Trade Deficit.  Anything else is just the equivalent of a $0 income family paying each other allowances, which makes everybody happy until a bill comes due or a trip to the grocery store.

way to much talk radio, I heard this the other day also. The republicans want to privatize your social security based on the fluctuations of the market. if this were the case now those of us that depend on it would worse off. don't be fooled by thinking privatizing is the solution, you're gambling on money that your children may need to live on when they get old, just like we are.

It gives them something shiney and new to jump off of.

As for my line of work for the last 28 plus years: The Recreational Vehicle industry was crippled by gas prices but it's mortally wounded by the economy. At one time, the unemployment rate in Elkart, IN, the "capital" of RV manufacturing was over 20%.

And they don't go camping either, unless you count sleeping in their cars.

I believe you're in error, the New Deal worked then and is working today.

I never proposed no regulation, I said, get out of the way, and let business thrive (sensibly).

Regulation definitely has its place in a free market, OVER-regulating, doesn't.

no, the last time.. Obama.. did it.

As for the New deal... "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is, another 4 years of Obamanomics."

Changing the President isn't going to fix the House and Senate.  Worse yet we've flushed the House pretty good in either direction twice over the last decade and it really doesn't seem to have gotten any better.

Agreed Dave, but.. The Tea party, in my humble opinion, is going to make a huge impact going forward, in both the House.. and Senate.. again, IMO... they are the voice of fiscal responsibility that has been missing in Washington for far too long.

Things are about to change... if not.. its over for all of us... welcome to the Chinese-American Republic.

Ahhh, you don't want him, he was Governor of New Mexico, that's where I live.  He is a pretty good politician, if you know what I mean. 

and he thieves punchlines

I'm thinking Social Security here. it has helped millions upon millions of people over the last 60 years.

that's not the definition of "free market" that I saw.

A free-market economy is one within which all markets are unregulated by any parties other than market participants.

which seems pretty clear that it is a bad idea.

There is.. a place for sensible regulatory policies in a free market... obviously... I'm not suggesting otherwise.

What's the alternative... socialism? Didn't work out too well anywhere else in the world.. now did it?

How is Greece doing?, Spain? Portugal?

It's where we are headed under the current policies.. period.

Only with MUCH more debt. Why are you so blind to what's going on around you?

This president, these policies, this agenda, have  f a i l e d.

It's time to change direction. and mark my words.. we will change direction.. staring Nov. 12.

All I hear here is the same old REPUBLICON drivel. Let the job creators create! What a bunch of BULLSHIT.

The banksters and the hedge fund managers stole OUR MONEY AND THEY GOT AWAY WITH IT

Those are the jobs they created!

Standing in the que to collect a check that you can barely feed a family on.

Thank you Ronald Reagan and George W Bush!

8 years of letting the banksters and Wall Street steal our future and then

YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO BLAME THIS ON OBAMA!

Those Wall Street crooks should be rotting away in jail!

There hasn't been any any law passed by this administration that prevents business from investing in THIS COUNTRY.

What stops investment in this country and the heart and soul of this country is GREED.

The heart and soul of this country is the middle class but is is being destroyed.

The Koch Brothers, Citizens United, The Tea Party and The Republicons. Those are the the people who are the enemy. They lie. They sell themselves like whores. They are the enemy of the people because they care more about making profits then the well being of the people.

The Republicons care more about bringing down Barack Obama then taking care of the people of the United States.

You can say that you've lived here for 25 years and all that stuff but you aren't an American and you don't know what the real America is!

Long Live The Unions! Long Live Workers Rights! Power To The People!

I actually kind of like the Tea party's fiscal conservatism.  It's the rest of their package I have a problem with.

Again though, if any of these candidate regurgitates anything that even hints at the understanding of the long-term effects of a trade deficit, and any sort of semi-rational methodology of turning it around, that candidate will certainly catch my attention.  Mostly they all just seem to do the ol' "See how bad it is" routine.  Broken record.

Then .. Chasbo.. enjoy your grey house, in between two more grey houses, on your grey street, in a grey neighborhood.

With a big speaker at the end of the road, doing its very best to tell u whats best for you, and feeding you, and owning you.

The Great American Chinese Dream... ask 3.8 billion Chinese how they like it... they wont answer you for fear of being executed.

This is my side of the fence. The free side.

I am American, with 4 grown American Sons and an American wife.

I'd rather die poor .. having done my best, than live forever, living off the backs of others.

Hey, Dave, what would you do, to turn around the trade deficit?

Well i'm over 66 so guess I'm safe

You are safe... at least as far as SSI goes. No politician in their right mind is going take Med. from seniors.

The GOP wants to restructure SSI to stop it from going bankrupt, any changes will only affect those under 52.

and if changes aren't made, no one will have SSI pretty soon. We just don't have a choice.

Boy I'd be a pretty smart guy if I had that figured out, wouldn't I?   Seriously though, and it sounds simple enough, we need to focus more on specifically producing goods and services to ship overseas, and/or producing price-competitive items domestically that can replace imports.  Would also be helpful to stop shipping employment overseas.  Huge argument would be over government's role in that.  We've created huge sectors of our economy that basically are non-productive in terms of generating income to "our family's house".

A favorite little example of this is a story I just saw on the news this week.  A guy, a very "normal" down-to-Earth guy, in Georgia started a factory.  Georgia is wood-rich.  The Chinese are wood-poor and chopstick-poor.  This guy's little factory of I think about 100 people builds chopsticks and sends them to China.  I laughed out loud when I saw that, I think it's friggin' brilliant.

We need to do things like that.  Times a million.

lol.. great story Dave... maybe I should switch to making designer Chopsticks

Hmm.. what do I have, the Chinese want..

(Gosh, I could be SO rude here)

Oh yes... my country.

I'll bet you could make a wicked-ass chopstick   Hmm, maybe if nothing else you and the guy from Georgia could get together and we could get a little more cash coming in.