Originally posted by Dionysus:
But you are entirely missing the point that we shouldn't be there in the first place.



Says the f**k who? Debt, when used WISELY, can facilitate things that otherwise wouldn't come about. Shouldn't, wouldn't, couldn't; debt and deficit spending is a TOOL, albeit one that is a double-edged sword unless CARE is taken when using it. It allows a government to obtain funding for projects that are often necessary and needed to reinvigorate private industry, consumer confidence and buoy social projects that HAVE to be funded (and I'm not talking about the typical political "pork barrel" legislation here, either).

Originally posted by Dionysus:
I guess I just don't understand this whole mentality that we need to have rein and our way of living arcoss the globe.

Someone has to be on top. Better us than just about anyone else. Would you rather have China dictating policy to the world, who at this instant would be sending it's police force to your or my doorstep to "slap" the mouths that talk back to it's policies?

...and I think we've all seen the ROARING success that the UN has been in governing the world...

Originally posted by Dionysus:
And I guess I don't understand why our president feels he needs to run a credit card budget.



Please don't compare this administration's deficit spending to anything approaching a credit-card experience, or ANY administrations deficit spending, for that fact. It just smacks of ignorance.

Look back to history. When carefully controlled and judiciouly used, deficit spending (in a Keynesian fashion) can facilitate NEEDED capitol to help fund projects and reinvigorate a stagnant economy. I'm oversimplifying here, but it's a core fact.

Look to history, as in the Great Depression. There were a number of European countries that SPENT their way out of the Great Depression through controlled deficit spending (though the biggest one's that benefitted most from this, Germany and England, were putting most of this capital towards gearing up for war). Others did manage to do so without ramping up for the upcoming conflict with Nazi Germany.

Originally posted by Dionysus:
But I love the comments of how everything that is a problem today is because of the end of Clinton's term...



PAY ATTENTION! I just said in one of my previous replies that Clinton's policies WERE NOT the cause of the economic problems that the US has recently faced. It was MUCH larger than just about anything his staff could have cooked up. Now in terms of current events, I will scream about his administration basically gouging the CIA's eyes and ears by cutting HumInt and their general budget to Hell, hence having nowhere NEAR the amount of intelligence coverage the US needed in those days (rather obvious since 9/11, right?)

Originally posted by Dionysus:
further proving Molly Ivins point of people not letting up on sliming Clinton. It make me laugh to see people completely play into what they are accused of in the first place.

Oh, NO! I just hate being accused of calling a brown, semi-solid and smelly object a turd, when it's PRECISELY that!

OH, the injustice and stain on my ego! The DAMAGE to my intellect!

[sigh]

Clinton didn't have a bucket of mud thrown on him.

He jumped HEADFIRST into the bucket, people took notice, THEN proceeded to further help him down his CHOSEN path.

JaTo e-Tough Guy Missouri City, TX 99 Contour SVT #143/2760 00 Corvette Coupe