Add Comment

FORMATTING HELP

All Comments Hide marked as read Mark all as read

  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 6 years, 2 months ago
    I thought he hit every mark well.
    CNN poles report, much to their dismay: 75% of respondents favored Trumpets SOTU speech and 43% were democrats.

    Something interesting said by Thomas Sowell (just posted):
    “Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty.”
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by 6 years, 2 months ago
      I could only stand about 10 minutes of "we did", "we did".
      Get (the state) the hell out of the way.
      Private enterprise created those jobs.
      I do recognize how different the address would have been if Hitlery had been doing it, but Obamacare still reigns and the GOP needs to stop spraining their arms patting themselves on the back and start punching for individual liberty and free markets.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 6 years, 2 months ago
        Well, wasn't trumpets reduced taxes and regulations, (government getting out of the way) responsible for allowing private enterprise to do it's thing?
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by 6 years, 2 months ago
          Trump's continuing taxes are impeding a real recovery by small businesses who are purposely weighed down by regulations and taxes. The big cuts were for corporations who are artificial constructs of government and not protected from income taxation by the constitution. ;^)
          I will not be satisfied until we are free from government oppression and theft.
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Posted by GaryL 6 years, 2 months ago
            I disagree Free4All. All I got for the last 8 years was tiny increases in my pension and SS and massive increases in my healthcare premiums for a big net loss. My wife just got her paycheck and there is $60 more take home this week from last. I know that is just "Crumbs" but it is crumbs we can taste and chew on. I like the "We Did" way better than Obama's " I DID" because we is US.
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
            • Posted by 6 years, 2 months ago
              Many older people that I know were crushed in 2008-2009 because wall street destroyed their life savings, and they will never be whole again.
              They are hard working, honest people who made investments in not particularly risky companies.
              They can't recover, ever because they won't be hired by any major company due to rampant age discrimination and the markets are rigged.
              Is Trump better than Hitlery or Obama so far? Yes. BFD.
              Accepting this rubbish instead of real changes will find you and I in the same place as my older friends in a very few years.
              The only way to recover our freedom and to punish the looters is to push back against this government.
              Getting to keep $60 a week instead of all your earnings is in no way acceptable.
              Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
              • Posted by DrZarkov99 6 years, 2 months ago
                My IRA hardly took a hit (12%), and rapidly recovered, thanks to selecting good investments during that period. When people jump on the "hot" stocks, they seem to forget that with great reward comes equally great risk, and those looked for fast profit got bit.

                What kind of funding structure to pay for necessary elements of government (defense, judiciary, foreign policy) do you propose? Anarchy sucks just as much as Socialism, so there has to be an intermediate realm, with maximum private enterprise competing to provide services the government isn't constitutionally required to do.
                Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                • Posted by 6 years, 2 months ago
                  I do not propose anarchy, and never have. However, funding federal spending at strict explicit constitutional levels is much easier than funding the government idiocy that has been typical since 1913.
                  I'm glad to hear you aren't among the financial casualties ... yet.
                  Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                  • Posted by DrZarkov99 6 years, 2 months ago
                    Not an accusation, just curiosity. I do wish to have the government confined to the constitutional responsibilities, but even those require funding. The Fair Tax is one way that's been proposed, to use a federal sales tax to replace the income tax. Before income tax, the federal government was funded with tariffs and duties, mostly on imported goods, but global markets sort of put a crimp in that avenue. What's your solution?
                    Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                    • Posted by LibertyBelle 6 years, 2 months ago
                      I suppose I am not the one you asked; still, I have a solution, though it won't happen any time soon.
                      First, chop the government (Federal, state, and local) down to its proper functions: to protect man from force (including fraud) and violence, and punish same. Proper agencies: legislature, executive, law courts, police, military forces; registration of property (for instance, Bureau of Patents and Copyrights), that it be not stolen; registration of contracts (including marriage contracts), that they be not violated. Abolish just about every other part of government. To fund:
                      court costs: such as name change, marriage ceremonies requested by the spouses, court costs by losers in suits; also, Ayn Rand's idea of
                      a percentage of value in contracts paid for at
                      notarization (not compulsory, but necessary in order to make them enforceable in court); also, a
                      Law Enforcement Fee, something like the present sales tax, but voluntary; on payment, the store owner could display a government-issued sticker in the window; if he refused to pay, he would not get the sticker; and, if held up and robbed in the store, the police would not come if he called 911. (Nearly everyone goes to the store, so nearly everyone would have a stake in the government). This could take care of local
                      financing; as to Federal, there could be a rule that every state would have to send a percentage of whatever was in the State coffers
                      (perhaps 25%), periodically, and so, when a man paid his local LEF, he would know he was also contributing to national defense.
                      This sort of financing would require abolition of a lot of things first, and is unlikely to occur for many years; still, abolition of public education (except for technical stuff in the military, and police training and academies), could be done on a state-by-state basis; the home-school movement might help.
                      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                    • Posted by 6 years, 2 months ago
                      So much changes with no income taxes to cripple domestic production, the revenues required will be much smaller. But I do think that a tax on consumption of non-essential goods can provide a large part of revenue to support constitutional government services.
                      Reducing the incentives for spending by con-gress by eliminating all re-elections will have a significant effect on spending, too. "Professional" full-time politicians are not needed to oversee limited government.
                      Neither is an $800 Billion "national defense."
                      Neither is interest cost on debt on government excess spending when excess spending is not allowed except in real emergencies.
                      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                      • Posted by DrZarkov99 6 years, 2 months ago
                        As the Chinese philosopher said the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. His supporters expect that Trump's vision is to reduce the size of government slowly. His EPA administrator has made radical changes to that institution, and has said his goal is to make it irrelevant. Trump's choice for NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine, wants to maximize the role of commercial space companies and reduce the role of government to research and exploration, leaving orbital operations in the hands of commercial companies. Those are a start.

                        We need to take a sober look at the size of our defense budget. We have become a military empire like Rome or the UK at its height of power, without the economic benefits of colonial revenue. Our troops are scattered across 700 places on the globe, acting as the world's policeman in contests that have little to do with our national interests.

                        Aside from an internal coup or outright revolution, I don't picture the changes you depict will come quickly or easily. If the moves Trump has already made are recognized as beneficial, then the next steps will come easier, so long as his successors continue down the path of real government reduction in roles and size.
                        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                        • Posted by 6 years, 2 months ago
                          "If the moves Trump has already made are recognized as beneficial,"
                          To whom?
                          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                          • Posted by DrZarkov99 6 years, 2 months ago
                            Hopefully to most of the American people. Reduction of regulations, tax relief, actual staff reductions in the EPA and State Department, getting control of immigration and borders. All of those are an example of better government operations, easing the burdens of government oversight, and showing that reducing the size of government doesn't bring disaster. Not the big changes most of us here in the Gulch desire, but definitely an improvement going in the right direction.
                            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Posted by ycandrea 6 years, 2 months ago
            So, I guess you want him to by-pass Congress and do Executive Orders to accomplish everything? The President can only do so much.
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
            • Posted by 6 years, 2 months ago
              Note that my original comment was complaining about the GOP, meaning the con-gressional stooges standing in the way of progress.
              Perhaps Trump would make more progress if he could do so using executive orders, but imo they are unconstitutional and all previous EO's not issued during an existing wartime emergency should be revoked.
              I agree that the president can only do so much without the con-gress. I also think it's up to us to give the con-gress incentive to reduce the government to its explicit constitutional functions only. We aren't doing anything except playing by the rules (i.e., voting) being set by the political parties and their corrupt complicit guides in the private sector. It's clear that voting will not solve this problem.
              Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
              • Posted by term2 6 years, 2 months ago
                I think Trump wont be re-elected in 2020, and will probably lose the support of one or more houses of congress later this year. He should do the so-called NUCLEAR OPTION while he can get some things through, and then veto the stuff the dems put out there after this election.
                Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by term2 6 years, 2 months ago
        I would change Trump's slogan Make America Great Again to --- Get government out of the way so WE can Make Amereica Great Again.

        I know its a small thing, but I pay $200 a year to the city of Las Vegas for a business license for which I get NOTHING. I pay $1300 a year to the state of Nevada for a business license for which I gete NOTHING. 1 out of 5 people in Nevada is on MEDICAID, for which I pay in one way or another. 1 out of 7 people in Nevada is on Food Stamp programs, for which I pay in one way or another. For me, government is a pain in the ass.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by teri-amborn 6 years, 2 months ago
          Perhaps:

          "Get government out of the way AGAIN" ?
          Or: "Reagan: Part deu..." ?

          Just thinking...

          We love Nevada and Utah for the scenic beauty and the abundance of individualism.
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Posted by 6 years, 2 months ago
            Reagan talked better than he acted. While I still think of him as the best president in my lifetime, he grew government and the debt on a massive scale. He didn't get government out of the way, and he made many people feel government was going in the right direction. Maybe Trump is part deu, but that will be a disappointment.
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
            • Posted by teri-amborn 6 years, 2 months ago
              Reagan did push for much deregulation but you're spot on about growing government (particularly the military).

              However there weren't endless wars of attrition during his term. Also the 80's was a time whern the "baby boomers" were in their prime.

              Dependency upon government is increasing. The generation or two after me have adopted an increasingly nihilistic world view and a moral compass with no values, just whims ...which plays right into the progressive movement.

              I hope that Trump can do better than Reagan however the odds are against him.
              Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by peterchunt 6 years, 2 months ago
        We is a lot better than I as Obama like to say!
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by 6 years, 2 months ago
          It just lets the GOP con-gress take credit that they don't deserve. But I concede that could be a Trump ploy to gain allies within the GOP that have opposed Trump as an outsider. If Trump can instill some backbone (to support the constitution, individual liberty, and free markets) in the otherwise worse than useless GOP members of con-gress, I will join the standing ovation;^)
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  

FORMATTING HELP

  • Comment hidden. Undo