Since the 2006 mid-terms elections

[Stephen Eisel]

What kind of a change did we vote for????



In 2006, gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon. The unemployment rate was 4.5%. Since the 2006 elections, Americans have collectively seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars. What the heck has congress been doing?

[Bill Call]

Democrat control of the House and Senate have been a real minus for the country, economically and militarily. I think that the Democrats will increase their majorties which will make the situation even worse.

[Valerie Molinski]

Democrat control of the House and Senate have been a real minus for the country, economically and militarily. I think that the Democrats will increase their majorties which will make the situation even worse.

Oh yes, it must be congress. None of this has anything to do with our lame president, his failed policies and his bungling of overseas wars on two fronts.


/GIANT EYEROLL

[Jim DeVito]

I thought all our problems have to do with the illegal immigrant who washes dishes at the local Mexican joint. Sure his employer is most likely paying taxes. Sure he is a consumer of goods and services. But what really irks me is his ability to have a side job selling shady home loans.

Why do we need another pointless augment that will get us nowhere good?

So we have some of the same problems since 2006. But the argument that it was all peachy keen prior just does not fly anymore.

But hey by all means if you all feel the need to banter back and forth about witch part of the last eight years sucked more, be my guest.

[Stephen Eisel]

Democrat control of the House and Senate have been a real minus for the country, economically and militarily. I think that the Democrats will increase their majorties which will make the situation even worse.

Oh yes, it must be congress. None of this has anything to do with our lame president, his failed policies and his bungling of overseas wars on two fronts.


/GIANT EYEROLL

You mean the policies that saved us from a depression after 9-11??


hugest eye roll ever

[ryan costa]

9/11 wasn't massively damaging or demoralizing. it was far less devastating than Pearl Harbor, and War Spending and the induced labor shortages of a massive draft stimulated us out of the Depression, not into a Depression.

Our best defense against the terrorists is that they insist on impressing us with elaborate planning and targets of more symbolic value than structural value.



1.2 trillion in vanished equity simply means the real estate was overvalued by at least 1.2 trillion dollars. The real estate agents and mortgage brokers and title agencies and inspectors have already gotten their commissions. And Washington seems most concerned with bailing out some of the biggest institutions that gambled on home buyers paying back their loans when the rates went up.


the only thing Congress can do about that is pass a "be careful, dumbass" law: don't loan money to people who probably won't be able to pay it back, then trade those loans up into "mortgage backed securities", because we won't bail you out(next time)

Whoever the next President is will be in office when a lot of problems that have been brewing for a while hit the scene. Whether they react in the right direction or the wrong direction won't make much of a difference. Even if they do the best thing possible it won't make a difference, and then that response will be castigated in the mainstream for decades.

[Stephen Eisel]

The plan??

[Stephen Eisel]

Excellent!!!! this is a good beginning... The same thing needs to be done with food commodities..

[Tim Liston]

You want cheaper gasoline? Here's a commonsense plan neither the Democrats or the Republicans will get behind. Let's stop using so much of it. Then we'll be awash in the stuff and the price will fall.

The paper today said we're driving three times as many miles as we did 30 years ago. This isn't some inflation adjusted statistic subject to manipulation. A mile was the same distance then as it is now. So is it any wonder gasoline prices continue to climb?

And as for food prices, if the millions of acres that are dedicated to growing corn for ethanol were dedicated to growing food for people to actually eat, we'd have plenty of food, like we did some years back. I read yesterday on Drudge that Sam's Club and Costco are starting to limit individual purchases of rice. A portent perhaps?

Of course, we're in a real Catch 22 here. The only way we'll ever reduce our consumption of gasoline is to raise prices. Jawboning and all that other stuff hasn't worked and never will. The last thing we need is cheaper gas. Lower prices will just ensure increased consumption which will cause prices to rise again, probably well in excess of the foregone Federal gas tax. Then we have higher prices anyways and no revenue stream to keep up our roads and bridges.

I was really disappointed to see that McCain proposed a summertime Federal gas tax holiday. I know he has more sense than that.

[Stephen Eisel]

How about letting us build a new refinery????

[Tim Liston]

My understanding is that while no new U.S. refineries have been built in many years, the expansion of current refineries has been brisk, basically at a rate equivalent to a new refinery every year. And of course we're “refiningâ€

[Bill Call]

1.2 trillion in vanished equity simply means the real estate was overvalued by at least 1.2 trillion dollars. The real estate agents and mortgage brokers and title agencies and inspectors have already gotten their commissions. And Washington seems most concerned with bailing out some of the biggest institutions that gambled on home buyers paying back their loans when the rates went up.

You are right. (which means I agree).

The Democratic control of the house and senate are bad for the country because the policies they support decrease economic growth, increase poverty, endanger the security of the country and replace the rule of law with the rule of the fascistacommunistabureaucratica.