Thread in which the world laughs at America

[Barnabas]

I remember when Bill Clinton had superavit and said something like, in 10 years America will be free, meaning, will have no debt. People were thinking of how the market with a debtless USA would work.

How did everything go downhill? wars + Bush Tax Cuts + Obama medicine + Saving banks ??

They just said on the news that Gold as of today is more expensive than platinum

[giblets]

You could do a lot worse than Perry. I'd take him over Obama in a heartbeat, and I'd take him over Bush.

Maybe he could have a day of prayer to fix the economy.

[Asher]

Personalities almost always don't matter in presidential elections. Obama is done for unless there's an economic miracle in the next year or the GOP is actually stupid enough to run someone like Bachmann.

Obama would be done if there were any competent competition. He's a shoe-in unless you can find someone with half a brain to front the GOP. Which, given the talent base of the GOP, is one hard thing to do.

[Asher]

You could do a lot worse than Perry. I'd take him over Obama in a heartbeat, and I'd take him over Bush.

????

Seriously?

Just what the doctor ordered. A bible-thumping moron. If anyone can turn around your country, it's the Christian Conservative Establishment.

[Asher]

And like Bush, this champion of the repression of gay rights was a male cheerleader in college.

And he's learned good. Degree in animal science.

And even that was a struggle.

According to Perry's university transcript, he earned 20 B's, 27 C's, and 9 D's. A's and F's were rare; additionally, Perry was placed on academic probation for his poor performance in school

[Hauldren Collider]

He's not an idiot, Asher, regardless of what his grades may have been.

By the way, 50% of cheerleaders in college are male, IIRC. And being a cheerleader doesn't seem gay at all, you're surrounded by hot chicks...

[Asher]

And I'll be damned if this isn't a brilliant man to cut the fat and pay down the debt:

Perry, a proclaimed proponent of fiscal conservatism, has often campaigned on tax reform and job growth. Perry resisted creating a Texas state income tax and increasing sales tax rates, choosing instead to increase user fees and debt, adding $2 billion for road bonds,[28] [29] borrowing from the Federal Unemployment Trust Fund[30] and adding surcharges to various traffic offenses, protected the state's "Rainy Day fund", balanced the state budget as required by state law, and was reelected on a platform to reduce property taxes that rose with the inflation of property values in the late 1990s and the 21st century. In early 2006, Perry signed legislation that delivered a $15.7 billion reduction in property taxes.

[Asher]

He's not an idiot, Asher, regardless of what his grades may have been.

Yes, he is. If you can't ****ing get As and Bs in "Animal Science", that's pretty damn pathetic.

By the way, 50% of cheerleaders in college are male, IIRC.

100% of which take it up the ass.

[giblets]

And like Bush, this champion of the repression of gay rights was a male cheerleader in college.

And he's learned good. Degree in animal science.

And even that was a struggle.

According to Perry's university transcript, he earned 20 B's, 27 C's, and 9 D's. A's and F's were rare; additionally, Perry was placed on academic probation for his poor performance in school

Why does he have so many grades? 56 classes while at university?

[Asher]

Why does he have so many grades? 56 classes while at university?

He probably had to repeat a lot of them.

At my school at least, unless you had a C+ or higher you can't use that course as a prerequisite.

[Asher]

So Perry slashed the hell out of taxes in Texas.

What was the result?

http://www.businessinsider.com/texas-state-budget-crisis-2011-1

There's One Huge State Budget Crisis That Everyone Is Refusing To Talk About

You know the story and you know the names: states like Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and California are supposed to be in huge financial trouble thanks to bloated governments, business-unfriendly regulations, and strong public sector unions.

After a crisis-free 2010, investors are expected to punish these hotbeds of bad governance in a muni bond market rout, at least if pundits like Meredith Whitney are correct.

But there's one state, which is fairly high up on the list of troubled states that nobody is talking about, and there's a reason for it.

The state is Texas.

This month the state's part-time legislature goes back into session, and the state is starting at potentially a $25 billion deficit on a two-year budget of around $95 billion. That's enormous. And there's not much fat to cut. The whole budget is basically education and healthcare spending. Cutting everything else wouldn't do the trick. And though raising this kind of money would be easy on an economy of $1.2 trillion, the new GOP mega-majority in Congress is firmly against raising any revenue.

So the bi-ennial legislature, which convenes this month, faces some hard cuts. Some in the Texas GDP have advocated dropping Medicaid altogether to save money.

So why haven't we heard more about Texas, one of the most important economy's in America? Well, it's because it doesn't fit the script. It's a pro-business, lean-spending, no-union state. You can't fit it into a nice storyline, so it's ignored.

But if you want to make comparisons between US states and ailing European countries, think of Texas as being like America's Ireland. Ireland was once praised as a model for economic growth: conservatives loved it for its pro-business, anti-tax, low-spending strategy, and hailed it as the way forward for all of Europe. Then it blew up.

This is the sleeper state budget crisis of 2011, and it will be praised for doing great, right up until the moment before it blows up.

[Hauldren Collider]

Dropping medicaid

[Asher]

Dropping medicaid

I hope one day you look back and regret these kinds of heartless opinions.

Republicans cut the **** out of taxes and refuse to cut the spending in meaningful ways to more than offset that. Perry is exactly the same.

Why the **** would you think he'd be a good candidate?

[Tupac Shakur]

Obama would be done if there were any competent competition. He's a shoe-in unless you can find someone with half a brain to front the GOP. Which, given the talent base of the GOP, is one hard thing to do.

You don't need competent competition to beat Obama; he has nothing positive to run on. An inexperienced nobody (like Obama in 2008) would actually have an advantage over a competent and experienced pol, as Obama is going to have to rely on negative attacks on his opponent's record and nobodies don't have records to attack (again, like Obama in 2008).

[Hauldren Collider]

If Texas drops medicaid, it cuts the federal deficit by a fair amount, and it's in another state

Texans taking one for the team