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Originally Posted by Tully Mars
When the auto makers showed up it was "How the hell did you get here?" Well we're going have to stick a microscope up your ass first, ok?"
I was much more on board with trying to help keep the car makers up and running then bailing out Wall St. At least the automakers create something and I feel like the rust belt really can't take any more hits. The whole area has been hurting for years.
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Absolutely not. Between the unions who thought they should get all the money the company made and company management that couldn't say no to the unions and could not market a quality car until the last few years, Chrysler, Ford and GM should have been allowed to go out of business. Instead, Obama nationalized GM and Chrysler.
I for one will not buy another car made by those three companies.
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Originally Posted by Tully Mars
The more we become a nation that doesn't produce anything the larger the problem will get in my opinion. Really what do we make that the rest of the world wants? Seems like we're down to military gear and porn.
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We need to find high end things to build. The US work force is just too expensive to build commodity stuff.
Boeing manages to sell aircraft around the world. This page lists some 800 orders for one aircraft.
List of Boeing 787 orders - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I'm in the computer business, software for large, complex systems. At this time we don't have a credible competitor outside the US. Maybe in five or ten years, but not now.
The PC manufacturing business on the other hand is a commodity business. Anybody can build one. Asia does this very well and we can't compete.
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Originally Posted by Tully Mars
I'd like to see us put an end to this silly war on drugs. It didn't work for booze and it's never going to work for drugs. The amount of money spent on this is crazy.
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No. There's enough damage done to society, and not just the users themselves that drugs should not be legalized. Drug dealers at the middleman and above level are one instance where I support the death penalty.
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Originally Posted by Tully Mars
You've been doing this for a while now... "I read... There was a story and I heard" It would really be nice if you backed these comment up with a link to a credible source.
I'm not saying you're wrong. I'd just like to see the data that supports your claim.
I worked in law enforcement for a long time (over 20 years) and I can tell you in that field the city guy makes less then the county guy and the state guy makes more then them and the Fed make the most (this is all "usually" I'm sure someone somewhere could find a anomaly to this statement.) But you really can't compare law enforcement to private work. But you can compare city to county, county to state and state to Fed.
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Here's the article I read claiming federal employees were paid 60% more than private sector employees.
How Americans Are Overtaxed to Overpay the Civil Service | The Heritage Foundation
Some of this might be hype but there's another article that makes a similar claim.
Federal pay ahead of private industry - USATODAY.com
Regardless of the exact percentage, salary and benefits need to be no more than equivalent to private sector.
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Originally Posted by Tully Mars
Again with the "I read." Read where?
Might be true, the unemployment rate is really up there. I've always been a fan of "workfare." Really? You can't find work?" "Ok, fine here's and job doing "x" You want support, you have to work for it."
I don't know just throwing people off unemployment and telling them to fend for themselves might have some pretty negative effects on the economy. Not to mention it might put many families out in the streets. I like not to see more tent cities and soup lines.
I would not be opposed to something like the The Civilian Conservation Corps tried again. "You don't have work? Can't find work? Here, here's a paint brush. There now you have a job and we get some maintenance work done on your public spaces and buildings." |
Here's an article describing how the number of food stamp recipients has increased.
Senate cuts $12 billion from food stamp budget as record numbers apply for benefits
Unfortunately this article also shows how the Democrats turned a $12 billion cut into a $26 billion giveaway
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Originally Posted by Tully Mars
And your plan for doing this? Any idea what this would cost? I think anyone who's looked at this issue seriously and honestly has come to the conclusion that "sending all the illegals home" is just not an honest option at this point. Recently people like Lindsey Graham have proposed realistic solutions to this problem. Every time someone develops a workable, real plan to deal with this problem they get shouted down. Chants of "send them home!' will not solve this problem |
Conduct workplace searches, make sure the companies have the required paperwork. Bus tickets for those who don't have the required visas. I'd also step up border enforcement big time for a year or two to show we mean business.
Send the illegals home and give the unemployed better odds at finding jobs, as noted here
Hiring Illegal Immigrants for Katrina Reconstruction : NPR
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Originally Posted by Tully Mars
Concur, but there would need to be some way of oversight for even that. Giving one person too much power is usually bad.
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If Congress thinks the vetoed item is important enough, they can write a new bill and override the president's veto. If it's just a giveaway to get a Congressman's vote, then the president saved us some money.