History is Carved in Stone

Atlanta GA

Description

This is a repost that was user flagged. I'm sorry I hurt some one's feelings, but if they are so intolerant of other peoples views, maybe they should not be clicking on post here? I started keeping up with our political system in 1992 by accident. I was shacked up in a hotel in Jackson Ms. working the night shift at a communications office in Clinton Ms. for a couple of weeks. Thursday night I got up at 8 like usual, took a shower and went out to find food. I got back to my room at 9 and channel surfed the TV, and the Presidential debate with Bush Clinton and Perot was coming on, I thought, why not watch it. An hour and half later I was wondering what the F@#K I just watched? I just listened to 3 men running for President talk a lot, but they never really answered the questions well, if at all. When asked questions they spoke a lot, but never really said much I could understand. It was all political double speak. Well except for Perot, he did answer a few questions in a way that lead me to believe he was a wacko. The debate was over at 10:30, and I hopped in my company van and went to work. The next morning when I got back to my room, I was in bed by 9, but channel surfed 1 more time before I turned off the TV, and the Independent Presidential Debate was coming on Cspan. I ended up watching that until noon before I fell asleep. What got me about the Independent Presidential Debate was they actually answered questions with real meaning. Sure some of them were wacko like the Socialist Party, but the Libertarian candidate really impressed me. Clinton won that election and made Bush a 1 term President. Some people say it was because Bush did not keep his promise to not raise taxes. But Bush was some what fiscally conservative and only wanted to raise taxes to pay for Liberating Kuwait from Iraq. Kuwait paid us a token few billion dollars, but that was a lot cheaper than them having their own Army when Mercenaries are cheaper. The same for the Saudis, they did give us an extra billion dollars or so, but they did not send 1 soldier in to fight Iraq. Either way Bush lost to Clinton because Perot got just enough votes to hand the election to Clinton. The 1990's was a Boom Time Clinton got credit for, when the fact is our great economy fell in his lap. The only credit I give him was he did not $crew things up much. Clintons Luxury Tax did wipe out the Yacht building Industry here for several years, and it has not recovered yet. When Clinton took office numerous economic phases were coming all at once. In 1985 when AT&T was broken up, the communications industry took off, and by 1992 people could afford to buy a cell phone, by 1995 they could afford to use their phones when they were roaming. In 1977 Carter deregulated the airline industry, and by 1995 it was cheaper to fly cross country than take a Bus. There were other influences starting with interest rates and construction. When I was around or got into political conversations back then what I noticed was people mostly blamed the "other" party for all our problems. Democrats still to today claim Clinton handed Bush a budget with a Surplus, that never happened. Why do you kids think our economy can turn on a Dime? It's not like the day a new President takes office, suddenly our economy changes for the better, or worse. All that takes time. We elect a new President like clock work every 4 years, our economy goes through cycles that may last months or years. We had the worst Recession any of us has ever seen starting in 2007, and it ended in late 2009 for some people. For others it went several more years. For you young people think about what it was like to be a 23 y/o college graduate in 2009 when you could not buy a job! Or to be 50 and lose your job, and all you find is waiting tables at Red Lobster? In 2010 we had 50 year old people competing for the same retail fast food jobs as recent college graduates. Moving on since 2008 our economy has been propped up by excessive Federal Spending via QE 1, 2, & 3. By 2018 they stopped calling it Quantitative Easing and just kept the money printing press running 24/7. Reagan started Supply Side Economics in 1982, and by 1992 we realized that doesn't work. But our politicians have done it 3 more times since. President Trumps economy was basically Obama's Economy on Tax Cut Steroids. In one aspect I should not complain. I retired in my mid 50's and cash in stocks to support my life style, and I used to always pay around $1k a year in Federal Taxes due to the AMT. Not any more. In 1977 Carter told the IRS to set a standard $2,200 Individual Tax Deduction. After Reagans generous corporate tax cuts in the early 1980's, he finally increased our standard deduction to $3,200 in 1987. Or as my parents called it, crumbs off the table. Based on inflation increasing our standard IRS deduction to $12.2k in 2018 was crumbs off the table for the middle class. Thanks to the AMT being removed rich people like me who live off our investments pay much less if any federal tax now. Believe what you want, but your $29,000,000,000,000.00 National debt is real, and the 2% in interest you are paying for it is artificially low. It should be 4%. At 2% the interest on your $29 Trillion National Debt is still around $400 Billion a year, just like Credit Card interest. Democrats are Tax and increase spending, Republicans are cut taxes and increase spending. Maybe we do need a 3rd party that knows how to balance a check book? This post will self flag in 5, 4, 3......