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The Best America can Hope for

The best thing we as the American Public, Taxpayers, and Consumers can do for ourselves as we look to 2023 figure things out is to get ourselves prepared for what we know is on the horizon. We're definitely on the knife's edge of Decline both Foreign and Domestic, the point is to mitigate whatever the damage that'll come with that.

• We cannot expect Government to solve the very underlying problems that it created to begin with. We certainly cannot expect Government to make anyone whole when the same US Government cannot even balance its own checkbook or secure its own Borders. There's hard work that's going to have to be done to get the United States and its Citizenry out of the Economic and Financial cesspool that's come about. The manufactured Coronavirus Pandemic, the 2020 Roll of the Dice (aka Election), The FTX Scandal, and subsequent Recession has reminded Taxpayers of this fact. There aren't going to be anymore Bailouts from the Government, We The People have to roll up our sleeves and bail ourselves out by doing things the Old Fashioned way and hard work.

• We need truely healthy Free Market Economic and Monetary Policy so American Taxpayers and Consumers can be able to take full advantage of the benefits and keep the Fruits of their own Labor, also able to grow and keep their Wealth.

• We need Foreign Affairs based on what the Founders understood to begin with; Trade, Commerce, and Honest Friendship with other Countries but entangling Alliances with none. A Foreign Policy that Talks, Negotiates with, Trades with, has Cultural exchanges with. We never use Economic Warfare or any Warfare against any Country without a Constitutional Declaration of War from The US Congress first! We treat other Countries the way we ourselves want to be treated. You can't bark about Human Rights when you don't practice it yourself.

Seasons Greetings to all...
• Most importantly, we must have a Limited Constitutional Government that does away with the so called Nanny State. The less Government we have, the more Freedom the People have. The Government that governs least governs best...
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You seem to be repeating many right wing buzzwords.

The last time the government ran a surplus was during the Clinton presidency. However, a country isn't a household. As long as we have positive inflation, money we borrow now will be paid back in cheaper future dollars.

The COVID pandemic wasn't "manufactured." It's a real virus. If you're implying that it was released deliberately, I'd like to see evidence of that. In retrospect, our response to it could have been better.

Biden won the 2020 election by 7 million votes. The only reason it was a "roll of the dice" is because of our obsolete Electoral College that made it turn on just a few close states. If we had a national popular vote, the winner would be obvious by a wide margin.

The only large-scale effect of the FTX collapse will be if it leads to closer regulation of the crypto industry. There's currently a disconnect between people who want crypto to serve as a medium of exchange in a parallel economy, and people who just see it as an investment vehicle. Until this is resolved, crypto won't be good for either one.

I'm not sure what you mean by a free market. Libertarianism has never been successfully implemented on a national scale. We have a fissured economy where consumers don't have access to all of the information they would need to make fully informed decisions, and the economy is too complex to even allow that if the information was available.

We don't have formal declarations of war because those would ironically obligate us in ways we don't want. While I demonstrated against the Iraq War, it was authorized by Congress even if war wasn't formally declared.

"Nanny state" is a buzzword. The most free and prosperous countries take care of their citizens. Social Security and Medicare aren't just popular; they're promises that people relied on and are entitled to. The U.S. has less social welfare than many other developed countries; for example, we don't have universal health coverage, free public college, and are one of only 3 countries in the world that don't have paid maternity leave. Having these things would give us more freedom, not less. Only children think that freedom means being able to do anything you want with no consequences.
Broache73 · 46-50, F
@LeopoldBloom
I've never been anything more than someone who questions the reasoning of the Lies and High Crimes of the US Government. Buzzwords are meaningless to me, what I give a damn about are the actions and consequences of the US Government and the Political Indentured Servants on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and how to mitigate any damage to myself.

We created the Monsters that we eventually become afraid of...
@Broache73 OK, fair enough. It could be a coincidence.

I'm critical of the government too, but I tend to be pragmatic and look at the alternatives. You say we should balance the budget. But Congress will never agree to cut the military, or Social Security, or Medicare. We need to pay for judges, prisons, service on the national debt, veteran's hospitals, and other programs that it's not realistic to do without.

So what's left? It's not like there's a budget line item for "waste, fraud, and abuse." Cut NASA? Great, cut a program popular with the public to save 1.5% of the budget. Cut all foreign aid? There's another 1%. Cut the Peace Corps? It costs less than what the Army spends on its marching band.

The only other way to reduce debt is to increase taxes, but that won't happen with the Republicans in power.
Broache73 · 46-50, F
@LeopoldBloom
EVERYTHING will be cut because we're bankrupt Financially and Economically, no one dares to admit it...

The US Dollar is worth only a few cents compared to 1913 when the Federal Reserve took charge of it because of the increase of the Money Supply (which what Inflation actually is). If the US Dollar cannot maintain its value, what difference does it make where you put the Money?! If the Dollar is printed to become nothing more than Funfetti Money (per the Federal Reserve), no one is going to have Healthcare, Education, Retirement, or anything else for that matter. This is exactly what those Political Indentured Servants on Capitol Hill don't have the guts to be honest about!

They have no interest in fessing up to their Constituents the utter catastrophe that befalls the American Taxpayers and Consumers especially Seniors and the Infirmed. There's going to be Hell to Pay once the American Taxpayers realizes that our World's Reserve Currency is nothing more than Phony Monopoly Money that isn't backed by anything except the so called "Full Faith and Credit of the US Government and Warmongering".

A US Government cannot fail those it does not like nor serve...
@Broache73 Fiat currency has no intrinsic value; the only reason it's worth anything is because people will accept goods and services in exchange for it. So as long as that continues, we're fine. I'm not sure what events would cause a total collapse of the dollar, but if that happens, we'd have a worldwide depression. If the Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling by this summer, that could happen unless Biden follows the Constitution and authorizes the Treasury to continue issuing new debt.

It doesn't matter what the man in the street knows. Everyone with any responsibility in this area is aware that fiat currency is a fabrication, albeit a very convenient one.
Broache73 · 46-50, F
@LeopoldBloom
If the Political Indentured Servants on Capitol Hill understood Balanced Budgets and Sound Honest Money backing our Currency to begin with, we'd have no need for a Debt Ceiling and we'd have no Inflation to start with...
@Broache73 Well, yes, if they cut spending and ran a surplus (like when Clinton was in office), then the national debt would be going down, not up. You can thank President Howdy Doody for screwing that up with his two wars. But we've already spent the money, so not borrowing more to pay for what we already have would destroy the dollar and collapse the world economy. McCarthy understands that; he's just playing chicken because his corporate overlords want him to.

I'm not sure what you mean by "sound honest money." If you mean the gold standard, tying our currency to a commodity would lead to instability. Gold isn't magic, it's only worth what people are willing to pay for it. And if we didn't have inflation, we wouldn't be able to borrow money today and pay it back later with cheaper dollars. Prolonged deflation would be a disaster.