The World Is Being Run By Crazy People

Was there supposed to be a link attached to this?

I was in Ontario last week and a co-worker asked me if I was in favor of the death penalty. I responded that I was as long as we started by building 308 gallows outside on the front yard of the Parliament buildings and hung any MP who voted for a deficit budget.

Giving up entitlements is not a sacrifice. It is a recognition that those who are paying for them do not wish to sacrifice any longer.

They manage to make a crisis sound hilarious. I suppose it is, unless you're a non-millionaire.

Good report. It isnt going away, and yes it will mean elimination of tax loopholes, which could be considered a tax increase. But it is also a distorting intervention by govt anyway.

The key though is spending cuts. Thats the whole foucus. Get the spending cuts in place and people will not complain about loophole elimination.

And yes krugman is hysterical

Increasing taxes on the rich will accomplish one thing: they will -leave- and they will take their money with them.

The rich did not get caught in the Chinese revolution or the Russian revolution, they got out. Who got caught was the middle class. That's what this old man proposes here. He's a dangerous idiot.

Tax cuts and spending cuts are the only way forward. Maybe they could start the cuts by eliminating the SWAT teams for things like the Dept. of Education, Dept. of Agriculture, Dept. of Fisheries, ...

Simpson is dead wrong to push for higher taxes.

The us has a spending and entitlements problem - not a tax revenue problem.

Higher taxes only slow economic growth - a better solution. Is to cut capital gains tax rates (or better yet, peg their rate to economic indicators like GDP growth and unemployment rates) which actually would increase tax revenues (CG taxes are deferred taxes - lower rates would see more crystallization of those gains) in the short and medium term as well as the growth rate. Thus a growing economy while the US works out it's deficit and debt problem reduces the pain to the "little guy".

It has been demonstrated without doubt that tax increases are self defeating as far as tax revenue is concerned.

It always comes down to "what's in it for me". Why work and risk investment for no return....DUH.

Always enjoyed listening to the straight shooter from Wyoming.

It's a tragedy for the American people that the Obama administration did not adopt the Simpson-Bowles report, something that the O commissioned himself.

Per capita debt in the U.S. is now three times that of Canada's.

A large part of that was foisted upon the American public with stimulus spending based on the now-discredited Keynsean model, championed by economists who live in the past ... such as Paul Krugman.

Ah interesting. Script blocking kills whatever it was supposed to show. If you don't see anything, allow ooyala.com, anyway...crazy? Well, why yes indeedy do.

Mr. Simpson, like Dr. Ron Paul, is a debt hawk, IMO.
Dr. Paul has many ideas for the little guy: like ending crippling regulations on private business, defining and enforcing the rights of Private Property owners, opening up local free markets and making the economy operate on a sound currency, getting out of foreign wars/peace keeping adventures, downsize all Fed gument (states make their own laws and fund almost all domestic affairs), defund the UN, enforce the right to bear firearms (citizens protect themselves - including on airplanes), end TSA, end the Fed....

The American people have a chance to elect a real Patriot who intends on following the Constitution. Help is on the way! I pray Americans (unlike Albertans) will wake up before it is too late.

Shared sacrifice. Oh yeah. You can bet it wont include Politicians or their favorites.

Jema54: "getting out of foreign wars/peace keeping adventures"

Like you, I too grew up in the shadow of the Cypress Hills. However my mom's dad was Ukrainian. Therefore I appreciate what you say about Stalin and the great crime of 1932-33 in Ukraine.

Therefore, I have a problem with the isolationist streak of Rep. Dr. Paul. Will the good doctor leave the grandchildren of the survivors of 1932-33 to the tender mercies of Tsar Putin?

jwkozak91 @ 6:06 - a country without money cannot field an army. Where will people flee to if USA falls to Communist China?

Wars cost money and soldiers should not be expendable. The people in the Ukraine have not asked for help from America and America has not helped them.

America deserted the people of Russia and Eastern Europe (think about Poland and Czechoslovakia) during WWI and WWII. We sent all the Russian ex-pats and Soviet POW's back to the Soviet Union after WWII (FDR agreed with thug Stalin on every issue and sold out Eastern Europe); Stalin shot some of them as they got off the train box cars and sent the rest to gulags.

What is America fighting for in the Middle East?

"What is America fighting for in the Middle East?"

Favorable headlines in American newspapers.

Man, and all along here I was, thinkin' that Tiger Tim Hudak was the only fellow who could "tell it like it is". ;)

jema,

the u.s. is fighting for democracy, freedom and national interest (stability in oil supply figures big but not it's not top of the list until supply is scarce) and not necessarily in that order.

getting rid of saddam hussein (that despicable excuse for a fill-in-the-blank) has resulted in, among other things, the construction of 18 functional airfields in iraq; should things ever heat up in the middle east. look for it on a tv near you.

i can't even start on holomador - william duranty can take some credit for that tho'; and, if i get going on stalin - i'll probably never shut up.

facism, communism, totalitarianism - that's rainbow stuff made of skulls. they're fighting for an idea. and as you question, the outcome is not certain - still, i'm betting my money on freedom. that's why totalitarians are doomed even if they get a leg up.

who the hell is goofy enough to bet on slavery?

He's a crackpot ... plain and simple. Not a genius and not a visionary.

Simpson is dead wrong about instituting new taxes - the U.S. has a major spending problem. It is likely to gain bipartisan support, the idea to increase taxes and decrease spending would fly on both sides of the aisle. Actually, it brings even more division - if that is even possible. I am afraid the U.S. will only make real changes when it is forced to do so - and only then.
A dire prediction, but the U.S. this time faces real decline. The demographics are a problem which Reagan did not have to face. The large group of zero liability voters is getting larger and soon will exceed 50% of the voter population.
The window of opportunity to effect real change is just about closed. Reduce spending faster than the debt is growing, eliminate ear marks, halt state budget bail outs by the federal government, reverse the decision on eminent domain etc...