obama and mccain are both advocating tax cuts to most citizens as well as spending increases-both are being completely irresponsible in that respect. as for military cuts, had bush not gone rushing into iraq, we wouldn't have the military spending we're seeing right now. whether it could be cut further once we're out of iraq, i don't know-since we still have afghanistan to deal with. having troops and equipment in the field is obviously far more expensive than a military at peace.
foreign aid should be cut, all this port should be stopped. the feds need to go back to providing what they're supposed to be providing, instead of all this extra.
i pay for both federal medicare, and arkids-taxed twice for similar programs. in this state, we have exorbitant sales tax-groceries are taxed here, as well as property, personal property, and income taxes.
oh, but the state has a surplus...i wonder why. so of course now they want to increase spending. i'd rather they did away with the tax on groceries. since when are necessities of life taxed? since i live in arkansas.

how does medicare and social security help a worker? and i would remind you that those aren't handouts, the govt supposedly takes your money all the years you work, and gives it back when you retire. so, how does social security help me? the social security that's supposed to be broke by the time i retire? so, if i never see a dime back when i retire, that i've been paying into the system all these years--how will it help if it's not there later? i guess tho that i'm just supposed to be happy to be paying for others to get it now, and i'm just supposed to suck it up and get over it when it's done away with when it's my turn to get my money back. now, those two programs might help those who don't work...but i don't know of anyone working that it helps right now. all it's doing is going out, with no prospect of it coming back like they say, since they also say it'll be gone.
i think a lot of this argument comes down to who has a dependant vs an independant mindset. you're obviously someone who thinks people can't be self reliant, and that the oh so helpful govt is there to pick up the slack. i'm someone who thinks i can take care of myself-which i have always done, regardless of how little or how much i was making throughout the years. since i've never been on any kind of govt handout, i guess i just don't understand the whole subsidy thing. i subsidize my life, no one else does. i guess it's silly of me to expect everyone else to do the same.

i don't think right now that arkansas is business friendly. we've had several companies look at various sights in the state to possibly build a place-a truck factory, parts factory, etc. but we get passed over due to lack of skilled labor. our average salary in the state is just over 30k, with our state govt however making an average of 35k. go figure. at any rate, this state is still not that big of a population, and is still mainly agricultural, which i'm sure skews some numbers. as for the skilled worker, murphy oil is based in el dorado... a couple of years ago they came out with what's called the el dorado promise, which gurantees full paid college scholarships for all their graduates. murphy knows if they want a future, viable workforce, they have to do something now. it's good to see. i know i was frustrated when i worked at the school a few years back, and would hear teachers and parents pretty much blow off low scores by saying 'well, this is arkansas'. as tho they should just accept mediocrity, while hoping mississippi would continue to keep us out of last place in education rates. :rolleyes: but that is an example of a company who cares about their workers, as without workers, how do they operate?
but yeah, the cost of housing down here is low, since the wages are low. but the two go hand in hand. also, we can't have higher wages if we don't encourage education (lottery for college is on the ballot-for now, as long as the bible thumpers don't get it stricken from the ballot) which will allow us to draw new industry.
you can't really compare this area to california for instance, which is huge-and has an economy larger than most countries.
by the same token, the housing bubble and burst hasn't occurred here. real estate is steady, which is a good thing, and something many areas can't say.

LOL...Wow, you can tell it's getting closer to election time. Reminds me of an old man with a metal detector going back n' forth at the beach.

You really sound like a dumb hillbilly every instance that you bring up Social Security. This is indeed when you are most entertaining. The Dems you dislike are going to protect this program. So, you're misinformed if you think it will go away. Trying to explain shared risk to a super-sassy self-centered cowgirl is pretty much useless. Most these things you hate came about to solve a serious problem. You want to go back to having those serious problems in society. We have already been there. You don't have to guess what it would be like. It would be bad.

No, you sure can't. Be like comparing chicken s-h-i-t to chicken salad.

Why in the FUCl< are you people still arguing!!??






SHUT UP!!!!

The United States has the 8th highest corporation tax in the world , cant say that it is to hard to figure out why buisness' are going somewhere else.
Go ahead and Robin Hood what is pretty much the lifeline of every economy and see what happens.

Now you've done it HONU is here !!!

DOO- DA can't be far behind.....

!!!!




As long as she brings that fine behind---I'm square with that.

Apparently LeiGirl had something inserted into her mouth...and remains pleasantly quiet.

I do its called Becks beer , off to the races have an aloha day Morty!!!!!!:)

Kiss-Kiss ,Dahling.






Hug-Hug.


:{>:

you shouldn't be so hard on your homestate.

where did i say i hated social security? what i hate is the thought that what i'm paying for won't be there-that's the spiel i've heard for years. of course, like much of what pols say, you have to take it with a grain of salt-it's part of their scare tactics to convince folks that the sky is falling, but if you vote for ____,they'll save you. as for dems i dislike, find where i said i disliked a dem for being a dem. i'd love to see it. but i'm sure both blanche lincoln and mark pryor would thank me for my vote-regardless of what some total stranger from a message board had to say about me.

thing is, i don't want serious problems, which is why i don't understand both candidates wanting a tax decrease on individuals, as well as increased spending. that only grows the deficit. that growth in our debt makes our already bad situation increasingly untenable. i fully understand the need for things our society provides for those in need. but before we add to the pile we need to pay for what we've already obligated ourselves to.
i live within my means, you say you do as well. so why can't our govt do the same? probably because our society is made up mostly of people in debt up to their eyeballs-and our govt is made up of too many folks who think that's not a problem, so our govt runs in the same slipshod way.

jon stewart for president

Steve...what did I tell you?