The Observation Deck

The Argentine economic experience is on the leading edge of liberal thinking. If you see it there you will eventually see it here:

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Obama has promised trillions in new spending and trillions in new taxes. Eventually the resultant economic stagnation creates the need for ready cash. Is you 401(k) really yours? Is it fair that you have a pension and other do not?

Bush has been robbing social security.

But that's okay, right?

Bill--- If the trillions in new spending are financed by the trillions in new taxes (I'll use the trillions, plural just for the sake of discussion because it is, of course, just another shrill lie from you) then it will at least be a balance of income and expenditures. That simple equation seems to have been left out of the Republican ethos.

It amazes me and will be the topic of many an historian, how a simple minded president can't inherit a perfectly good country, budget surplus and all and in the span of less than 8 years leave to his successor the tattered remains of a sputtering economy and crippled national defense.

But then, when I listen to the campaign rhetoric, where one side has clearly been off the Richter scale of reality, I guess I am not so surprised.

Now Bill, I implore you to continue with your observations. It certainly makes many of us certain that our own choices have been correct.

Stan

Bill Call wrote:The Argentine economic experience is on the leading edge of liberal thinking. If you see it there you will eventually see it here:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ambrose_ev ... _whos_next

Obama has promised trillions in new spending and trillions in new taxes. Eventually the resultant economic stagnation creates the need for ready cash. Is you 401(k) really yours? Is it fair that you have a pension and other do not?

Considering the current administration's monetary policy has caused a shift of wealth from middle class retirement plans to the wealthy already by the free fall of the dollar and the stock/derivative market, what is your point?

Campaign promises are a facade. With the current economy the next administration (whoever it turns out to be) will have a hard time buying toilet paper (let alone spend trillions on social programs) after most of the budget is spent paying interest on the national debt and fighting unneeded wars.

Sharon, every president "robbed" Social Security by using its surplus to offset budget deficits. Not just Bush. Heck, rightly or wrongly, Bush wanted to start the process of dismantling it. It really isn't fair to blame Bush for Social Security's ills.

And Steve, I started a 401k plan for my company way back in the '80s when it first became possible to do so. And I deferred as much of my salary into it as I possibly could for over 20 years, and managed it well. My 401k plan is my largest single financial asset by far. If you are implying in any way, shape or form that for any reason whatsoever it is OK to confiscate it, well those truly are fighting words....

They should have all kept their hands out of that cookie jar. That was the citizens profits and it should have gone back in the system for raising payments.

They rob us blind.

In America it is the CEO's job to raid the pension. He may even be rewarded for doing so. Then the PBGC bails it out. The CEO leaves with an achievement or contractually obligated bonus. Then gets a job with a think tank advocating globalism.

Bill,

Too late, the free fall of the economy has raided most people's pension plan.


If Bush had had his way and had privatized Social Security, people would be in even more trouble than they are now. Most people I know have lost a considerable amount in their 401K's or other pension plans recently.

Tim Liston wrote:Sharon, every president "robbed" Social Security by using its surplus to offset budget deficits. Not just Bush. Heck, rightly or wrongly, Bush wanted to start the process of dismantling it. It really isn't fair to blame Bush for Social Security's ills.

And Steve, I started a 401k plan for my company way back in the '80s when it first became possible to do so. And I deferred as much of my salary into it as I possibly could for over 20 years, and managed it well. My 401k plan is my largest single financial asset by far. If you are implying in any way, shape or form that for any reason whatsoever it is OK to confiscate it, well those truly are fighting words....

I think you missed the point. Many people have lost much of the value in their retirement plans in the last 8 years. Most people have limited choices as to where their 401K monies can be placed anyhow. Therefore to clarify my point: I don't believe the government should take your retirement but it's ludicrous to believe that Obama's promises will somehow translate into any greater financial disaster to retirement plans than the policies of the last eight years.