From one of my favorite blogs- Disgruntled Truck Driver-
I welcome your thoughts on this and your rebuttals.

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"Difficult as it may be to believe in an era of resurgent liberalism and
compassionate conservatism, for many Americans, being free from the government is
more attractive than getting something free from the government."
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Well, what's the alternative? More Bush/Cheney? It's not like their policies have strengthened America, what with all the corporate welfare and outsourcing of jobs...and an incoherent foreign policy. And a dismal domestic policy.
I welcome radical change. I advocate another helmsman at the switch.
I endorse "thinking outside of the box". I think Obama represents.
Washington needs to be shaken to its' core. He's the only one capable of being the "real maverick".

I don't think so. Ron Paul would help bring about some much-needed change while Obama is just another typical politician.

The ideas in the OP make sense to me except that I wouldn't classify McCain as a "flaming liberal."

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Walter Mondale: "George Bush doesn't have the manhood to apologize." George Bush: "Well, on the manhood thing, I'll put mine up against his any time."

And Lumara, you are, indeed, entitled to your opinion. Whether or not Ron Paul would do anything positively will remain unknown, as he failed to generate any significant support for his candidacy, and is a moot point.

Silly me, I see "disgruntled truck driver" and "do the math" - then I expect and article about $4 plus per gallon diesel driving independent drivers our of business.

You are right in saying the math doesn't add up, but I would repeat what has already been said. Do we have a choice? McCain is a Bush impersonation suggest a bloated Defense Department - Pentagon budget for 2009. That is essentially pandering to conservatives for their vote with taxpayer money. Obama and Clinton are essentially pandering to the working class and the poor for their vote with taxpayer money.

What we need is bold leadership for a new fiscal direction in Washington DC. For example, candidates pledging to pay down the national debt. Inorder to do that, we are talking about substantial cuts. For example, withdrawal from Iraq. For example, passing legislation to eliminate pork projects. For example, confronting the bloated military spending and eliminating waste and the corrupt contract process. Then the contractors we use for Iraq and elsewhere need to be required to pay up on back taxes or lose contracts. The IRS can be mandated to go after billionaires and offshore banking. The medicare drug benefits legislation needs to be repealed as it will bankrupt medicare. We can sell of most of our 750 military based worldwide and stop foreign aid.

We also have no choice about whether or not to pay down the national debt. We must do this as otherwise the federal goverment is headed for bankruptcy.

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Bankruptcy would be an improvement, Mike.

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"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."



~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I've been thinking along the same lines.

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Walter Mondale: "George Bush doesn't have the manhood to apologize." George Bush: "Well, on the manhood thing, I'll put mine up against his any time."

And bankruptcy would allow this new currency in this country to be the Amero. I have predicted this already.

I don't see any math I just see a lot of opinions with little to back them up.

The Oil companies have had record profits for the last 6 years. 10 billion dollars would not stop them from making a profit it would just stop us from giving them 10 billion dollars. Which could then be used to supports schools and health care. Which helps the middle class and poor.

They are already here and working. With citizenship they would be forced to pay taxes and that would do a lot more to help this nation. We are facing problems becuase of the size of the Baby Boom generation and 16 million more tax payers would do a lot to help cover the cost of their retirement.

Funny we had a much better economy under Clinton and that was before the tax cuts.
All the tax cuts did was put us into heavy debt spending. Trickle down economics is a joke. The rich should pay a fair share instead of the poor and middle class paying the lions share.

Reality says otherwise. Republicans have been in charge for 8 years and we have seen no economic growth and a decrease in middle class and poor incomes.
Liberals will do more to help this nation then all the feed the greed republicans ever have.

If you want numbers, here they are. Bush came to office with a surplus left by Clinton and a $5 trillion national debt. The longterm unfunded fiscal committments calculated by GAO was at $20 trillion. Bush is now on pace to DOUBLE the national debt and almost triple the longterm unfunded fiscal committments. The Bush administration has given as lies every year by grossly underestimating the federal deficit. In 2006, it was claimed to be about $250 billion and a team of expert accountants using accrual accounting methods (the only methods used in the real world) came up with $4.6 trillion. The Bush administration has given us another claim that it is about $250 billion, and one can only assume the real deficit once again is in the same $4.6 trillion area. The oil industry made collectively $129 billion in profits last year while getting $10-20 billion in subsidies, tax breaks - not to mention drilling on public lands with no lease. Bush Republicans are directly responsible for putting the subsidies back into the energy bill after Democrats were planning to remove them from oil and provide incentives.

In short, you have the most reckless spending in history by the Bush Republicans, and the only alternative provided by the Democrats is to stop Republican spending and replace it with Democrat spending for social programs and benefits. No one in Washington DC has the concept of actually SAVING money and then paying down the debt other than Ron Paul.

Illegal immigrants impact on the economy is two sided. They are a burden on taxpayers for social, legal, educational and other services. On the other hand, without illegals in the fields harvesting crops, produce prices would most likely double.

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