scoutingagain

If there is a challenger they are more likely to come from the far left of the Democratic Party. In spite of the "socialist" nonsense thrown out there by the far right, within the Democratic Party, it's the more liberal leaning that is most dissatisfied with Obama. Personally I'd rather see more competent candidates considering running as independants and break up the monoply the two parties have on the government. If there is one out there I'd suspect they'd hold their powder until the primaries are over. SA

"Personally, I hope Obama goes with a $2/gallon gasoline tax in 2012. We Republicans need all the help we can get to win back the Presidency. " Others are hoping Michele Bachman wins the nomination and continues to enthusiastically support drilling in places like Everglades National park and off the coast of Florida. On the other hand if Huntsman wins the nomination I could be turned. I highly doubt it though because he's too sensible and the GOP has been anything but lately. SA

I have to agree also. The DOE needs to get out of the business of trying to prop up specific technologies through these subsidies, loans and loan garuantees be it solar panels, wind turbines, ethanol technologies, clean coal or tax breaks for oil companies. These technologies need to be able to compete in a free market and stand on their own. The DOE should limit it's involvment to supporting basic research that then can be privatized and developed by the private sector. Ending the tax breaks for oil companies would be a back door tax increase on oil and was at one point supporte

Well I'm assuming the entire Republican field will produce a birth certificate at some point. If not how do you know their really a citizen. Just because they say so? Have pictures of their childhood? Birth announcements? We know now none of that really counts. SA

"The person may even feel slighted, abused, and a creative lawyer could probably find something to seek damages for. " While the question is totally inappropriate in my mind it's very doubtful it could be used as the basis of any legal action. The protections of a public school or employment don't apply to a private organization where the decision to be a member is entirely voluntary. The BSA or even a Chartered Organization can limit membership based on just about any criteria they wish. They voluntarily decided to open leadership membership to women, and don't descriminate based on rac

I confess Mitt Romney proved himself to be an effective chief executive while governor of MA and I think would be an effective President if one can get by his shameless pandering on social issues. The Republican candidate I'm most intrigued with is Huntsman. He seems to be able to play well with others, and has held his ground on some contoversial issues. Would like to learn more about him. SA

Yes, there are solutions. There have been several that have been proposed, and most resemble the Simpson and Bowles approach. None are painless but the reasonable ones all spread the pain out and include both increases in revenue as well as modest cuts in spending to all the sacred cows including defense, Soc. Security and Medicare. The problem is gridlock in Washington and the lack of political will. In particular the intransience of one side that refuses to compromise. They want their sacred cows saved and expect everyone else to double down on theirs. Until this situation changes,

I agree with Pack. I've said this before, we're through the looking glass fiscally speaking. No one alive in the US today has seen an economic and fiscal situation we have today. I'm not even sure the Depression is comparable. We could, immediately balance the federal budget as SR40Beav wants, but that would require cutting federal expenditures by 35 - 40%. Taking around $1.5 Trillion direct dollars out of the economy, let alone the multi-plier effect. It would result in severe financial pain for all us quickly. Don't hold your breath, 'cause Congress can't come close to agreeing on cut

Not to answer for Beav but Democrats that think we can deal with the deficit without meaningful changes in Social Security and Medicare are just as delusional as Republicans that think it can be dealt with without raising revenues or making cuts in defense. The difference is, is that there were several bi-partisan plans put forward that cut the deficit by more than $4trillion dollars over ten years that would have been acceptable to many Democrats and Republicans in the Senate. However, since all those plans included increased revenues, either through direct tax increases, or even minor

"My taxes will be much lower without all that than they are now, " Not if you really want a balanced budget. SA

1. The mortgage interest deduction is so entrenched I doubt it would be eliminated completely. At best it might be limited in some way. 2. I doubt even further congress will pass legislation that say BAs of Dunwoody, GA will not be allowed to take his mortgage interest deduction but everyone else can. Such a law would have limited effect on deficit reduction. Any changes would likely apply to a much broader population, and yes I'm ready to give up that deduction if it improves the likelyhood of future economic stability for my kids. 3. My preference would be to go to a flat tax

Doesn't suprise me that a Real Estate Agent would come up with a bunch of rationalizations to keep government subsidizing the housing market for the benefit of industry insiders. Heck some of his points contradict each other. Believe what you want. It's a special interest tax benefit that the majority of taxpayers don't use or qualify for. Those that take it are subsidized by those that don't. For the record I take it but fully recognized it's a government benefit I take advantage of. I fully understand my home would lose value and I'd pay a bit more in federal taxed if it went

The mortgage interest deduction is a classic example of government interference in the free market. While the stated purpose is to encourage home ownership, the end result is higher housing prices that basically eliminate the intended benefit. The only folks that benefit from the deduction are banks, lawyers, real estate brokers, and middle to upper middle class home owners that take the deduction. The majority of tax payers don't take this deduction so home owners are essentially subsidized by renters and others that don't take the deduction. In most cases these are folks that can't affor

"To reduce benefits for people whose only income is SS would be grossly unfair. " Seems to me reducing benefits to those who are younger just so those who elected leaders that overspent for years can get more benefits or those who have paid into the system for years and have also managed to save money so they have something more than SS would be unfair. Fair would be across the board benefit cuts or SS tax increases or both. Means testing is something Nancy Pelosi would come up with. SA

"A pledge of no tax increase is a pledge to utterly decimate the military and the entitlement programs. Either that, or it's a pledge to bankrupt the nation and sentence our grandchildren to riots and poverty. It's really that simple. " Exactly. We've been overspending for over a generation. Our grandparents have never seen a shrinking federal budget. The idea we can get out of this by simply getting rid of waste, fraud and cuts to agencies that amount to less than 20% of the national budget is a myth and a lie. We've been using more government services than we've been willing to pay f

The basic arithmatic is pretty simple. You can't have an all world military, bigger than the rest of the world combined, the most expensive medical costs in the world, an aging population dependant on entitlements, i.e. Social Security, Medicare, pay interest on debt that been wracked up over a generation and have some of the lowest tax rates in the world. As Beav has noted, you either gut govt. services, including the military, Soc. Sec., Medicare or raise revenues, or some combination of both. It's not rocket science. SA

" yet we get on the plane, let them search our bodies and seize our tubes of tooth paste in the name of security? " And we've seen what the alternative is. The argument over the government's role and responsibility to protect it's citizens from those who would use transportation systems to cause harm is not the same as argument over the effective implementation of that responsibility or the abuse of that authority by individuals. SA

"If yeh want a government that controls commercial transactions and travel, yeh need to move to China. " I worked in Shang Hai some 20 years ago on business. Had to take a cab to the plant every morning. The only way I could survive the ride without wetting my pants from all the close calls the driver had with the lack of any kind of respect for traffic laws or regulation was to close my eyes the entire 20 minute ride. Made Boston drivers look positively sane. I'll take the rules of the road enforced in the good ole US of A. Even here in Mass. SA

"The ability to conduct a commercial carraige transaction with a private provider is just a convenience and a privilege. So what you're sayin' there is that the government can interfere with any private transaction it wants to, eh? " Not any private transaction, but when the mode of transportation can be turned into a weapon of mass destruction capable of killing thousands of innocent citizens I'd say representative government not only has a right but an obligation to protect the public at large. Transportation is a privilege when it can threaten others, whether it's a government require

As a wise man once said, just because your paranoid, doesn't meant they aren't really out to get you. Al Qaeda's dream is a blue eyed tow headed Chechen baby in the arms of a caucasian American mom converted to radical Isam. And don't think for a minute there aren't terrorists that are doing nothing but thinking about how to make their dreams come true. But I tend to agree with JoeBob. The next attack is more likely to involve a less secure target than aviation, and that's precisely because of the hassles involved at the airports. As a frequent business traveller I'm more than h

Sounds like they wanted to limit the number of switch hitters on each team. SA

Interesting discussion. If there is no line to cross with respect to torture to save innocent lives, what about the reverse...no matter how repugnant the thought might be. If there was a nuclear weapon, hidden in an American city ready to detonate, many are more than willing to inflict whatever pain is necesarry to obtain the needed information to prevent detonation. But, say if you had OBL, and all he asked for was $Billion Dollars, safe passage out of the country, promised to never engage in terrorism again, wear a monitoring bracelet and be set up on a tropical island of his choosing

"The consumption tax part of this equation is not the problem." It's the aversion to simply increasing this tax that creates the need to look at alternative revenue systems. Be it tolls, tracking devices, whatever. If faced with the idea of facing toll booths, or tracking transponders, I'd say most Americans would be happy to pay a bit more at the pump. But the idea we can do nothing is irresponsible. We will pay of infrastructure one way or the other. It can be planned and controlled or we can pay twice the cost for emergency repairs etc. when there are catastophic failures.

The Massachusetts "bottle bill" has been described as the bill that takes litter off the streets and puts it in your garage/basement, wherevever until you load up enough to take to a redemption center. Never the less bottle/can drives are a local fund raising option. SA

As Beavah point out the gas tax is a perfect example of the kind of consumption tax advocated by conservatives. It directly taxes users. The current system we have in place is the socialist approach. Subsidizing the highway trust fund with general revenues. This means everyone that pays income taxes, capital gains taxes, and all other federal taxes subsidizes users of our highways. The original article was one proposed approach to correcting this. As noted it was not intially proposed by the Obama administration, the concept has been around for a while. Another approach that has b