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View Full Version : Lindsey Graham what a joke!



Paperback Writer
09-21-2013, 02:21 PM
http://smargus.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/lindsey-graham-facts-INFOposter.jpg


With a few more Republicans like him you don't really need an Democrats.

The Xl
09-21-2013, 02:30 PM
He might be the worst politician in the nation. And that's one hell of a feat.

Mainecoons
09-21-2013, 02:37 PM
Perpetual career politicians. A pox on all of them but particularly on Republicrats like Graham. And McCain.

Mainecoons
09-21-2013, 02:38 PM
He might be the worst politician in the nation. And that's one hell of a feat.

That one goes to Harry Reid. Definitely a runner-up though, along with McCain.

Paperback Writer
09-21-2013, 02:39 PM
I am starting to, just starting to mind you, grow an appreciation for Rand Paul. I'm not fully sold that his ideas can work, but he's a refreshing change on the political landscape.

The Xl
09-21-2013, 02:40 PM
That one goes to Harry Reid. Definitely a runner-up though, along with McCain.

Those are the top three in some order, for sure.

Mainecoons
09-21-2013, 02:43 PM
BTW, XL and Paperback, welcome!

Mainecoons
09-21-2013, 02:44 PM
I get these great emails from a long time buddy of mine who is definitely a free thinker:


Craig and I were talking last night about taxes, defaults etc. I contend that the US will default eventually.

Yesterday, Obama said "We are not a banana republic, we are not a deadbeat country". I beg to differ. The US is a banana republic. The US is creating (counterfeiting) $1T a year to pay its bills. Doesn't this sound like a "banana republic"?

Let's say that you work with Joe. Joe makes $260 a week. Of that $140 is already committed to payment, leaving Joe $120 a week to live on. However, it costs Joe $220 a week to live so every week Joe has to borrow $100. Would you consider Joe a deadbeat?

The US collects $2.6T in taxes. Of that $1.4T is SS and Medicare taxes which just immediately is paid back out to retirees. That leaves $1.2T but the US is spending $2.2T. It manages that by borrowing $1T a year.

Craig says, correctly, all you have to do is cut expenses and pay some on the debt. To just balance the budget, you have to cut expenses by 50% or $1T a year.

The sequester was $85B a year and people screamed like they had been hit with a hot poker. A $1T cut is 12 times that size.

Even if you manage the $1T in cuts, you are just treading water. If you pay off the debt at $100B a year, you are looking at 170 years.

Let's go look at Joe. Joe is living large because he has $220 a week to live on. If he quits borrowing, his standard of living will drop because he only has $120 a week to live on.

The US would have the same problem. The GDP is about $16T and of that $1T is borrowed (or printed) each year. Take that away and you will lose about 6% of the disposable income. That will lower the standard of living by some amount.

It will be greater than 6% because it will all come out of disposable income.

It is not impossible to balance the budget mathematically, just impossible politically.

In order to balance the budget, you either have to double payroll taxes or cut spending by 50% or a combination. No matter what you do, you are going to piss off almost everyone. Anyone who would actually do this wouldn't get a vote ever again. Even their dog will desert them.

I keep hearing people in Washington talking about "growing out of it". Technically, that will work if you can grow the economy about 25% and kept the spending flat. However, the US has not grown in the past 5 years and probably will not grow anywhere near the spending increases in the future.

So, you have a choice of great pain to the US or you default and put the pain somewhere else. I'm all for the default senerio........

A lower standard of living does not necessarily mean high pain levels anymore than a higher standard of living guarantees happiness.

Craig and I were talking about retirees of the big cities that are broke. Their checks are going to shrink. If they are getting $6000 a month in retirement and the check is cut by 50%, they can probably live OK on the difference but it will take time. You can't sell a big house in a heartbeat and move into a smaller house. You can't get rid of a car payment in a heartbeat either. It takes a couple of years to readjust.

Governments have worked theselves into a box. Just keeping up their assets is going to be very expensive.

When I lived in ABQ, I was impressed by the roads. What happens when the money is cut back? How can they just maintain that system?

If you look at Detroit, you will see what happens. The infrastructure begins to fail. Detroit cannot pay to keep streetlights lit.

The secret to recover is jobs. Or more accurately, income.

Income happens when labor in converted to payroll or when capital is used to produce income. Nothing else works.

Jobs are disappearing because of automation. The only places in the world where jobs are plentiful is where the labor rate is so low that automation does not pay. There are fewer and fewer places like that every year. Automation prices are dropping daily.

The world is changing and it is changing too quickly for the citizens to adjust. That means that civil unrest is coming.

I grew up in the 50s and 60s. I don't remember it as being a terrible time. However, if you took the average kid and transported them back to that era, they would compare it to being waterboarded. No internet, no smart phones, no Xbox. It would be torture.

The US is going to be hit hard with all these changes. The US is the most developed country in the world. It has the most spoiled citizens in the world. Change downward is going to be hard to be accepted. Americans expect a higher standard of living every year, not a drop.

Over the next 4 weeks, the budget battle and the debt limit battle will take place. I really expect nothing interesting to happen. The US is going to continue down the road to eventual default because no one has the balls to slow it down.

Paperback Writer
09-21-2013, 02:45 PM
I like the cat. They have "wild" cat faces.

The Xl
09-21-2013, 02:45 PM
BTW, XL and Paperback, welcome!

Thanks!

Mainecoons
09-21-2013, 02:46 PM
Nothing wild about that cat. He's flopped on the chair next to me. His wildest moment is in the morning when he thinks he should get fed at 5:01AM. Otherwise, lazy, worthless, arrogant and completely self satisfied.

Paperback Writer
09-21-2013, 02:47 PM
Nothing wild about that cat. He's flopped on the chair next to me. His wildest moment is in the morning when he thinks he should get fed at 5:01AM. Otherwise, lazy, worthless, arrogant and completely self satisfied.

I dated a girl who had a Norwegian Forest Cat, very similar. Extremely soft fur. Back to Lindsay Graham...wot say you of his primary challenge?

Peter1469
09-21-2013, 04:23 PM
Lindsey Graham is a reserve army ( maybe air force) judge advocate- actually a military judge. I have not idea if he has ever deployed or served on active duty.

AmazonTania
09-21-2013, 05:45 PM
I heard Lindsey Graham touches himself at night...

Peter1469
09-21-2013, 06:02 PM
I heard Lindsey Graham touches himself at night...

Is that a bad thing? :wink:

AmazonTania
09-21-2013, 07:03 PM
I dunno...

BB-35
09-21-2013, 07:22 PM
Hell,I'm 53 and have been known to do that from time to time

It IS mine,after all.

Mainecoons
09-21-2013, 07:26 PM
I dated a girl who had a Norwegian Forest Cat, very similar. Extremely soft fur. Back to Lindsay Graham...wot say you of his primary challenge?

I hope he loses it. I'd like to see all of these fossils sent out to pasture.

Norwegian Forest Cat is the breed from which Maine Coons were derived. You should have kept that girl, she had GREAT tastes in cats.

Both breeds are really smart and affectionate.

Paperback Writer
09-21-2013, 07:58 PM
I hope he loses it. I'd like to see all of these fossils sent out to pasture.

Norwegian Forest Cat is the breed from which Maine Coons were derived. You should have kept that girl, she had GREAT tastes in cats.

Both breeds are really smart and affectionate.

She was lovely. Long dark hair, big eyes and thought the lead singer for the AM's looked like a tosser.