So you really think that public education is great good and wonderful? My nephew is 17 years old and knows nothing about the history of this country. He says his teachers are boring, the school is over run with children that don’t want to learn and are taking up space, and his learning environment is terrible. While you made it is life as did your children, most children that don’t have parents that support them eventually flunk out of school and end up on welfare, the streets or in menial jobs.

I’m from Indiana also,it’s people like you that give this state a bad name. I’ll give you this,Clinton did deregulate Wallstreet,but Bush/Cheney just made it worse. Although,the budget was balanced during Clinton’s term,Bush blew it all. If it’s so great to be a republican how come Indiana is taking in more money than we pay in taxes(welfare state). By the logic I’ve seen,at times on this site,then My B%&^h Mitch is responsible for the economic meltdown here in our state. Why do our senior care facilities rank at the bottom of the list? How come Wishard is allowed to steal Federal money from the care facilities they run and use it for whatever they chose? Why do we continue to go round and round on property taxes? What about the deal with BP he has in Whiting? Oh yeah,what do you mean “safe”,American soldiers are dieing,that doesn’t sound safe. What with one Illegal war that distracted him from the actual mission,Bin Laden-remember,and now we are funneling money into these countries supposedly nation building. You should read more,and I don’t mean the Indianapolis Star.

J Michael, I also am from Indiana. I see you’ve bought into the lies of the lamestream media. You seem to have forgotten 9/11 as have a lot of Democrats. What would you have done differently? President Bush said they would follow the trail of the terrorists wherever it led and it did lead in one direction into Iraq as well as Afghanistan. The Iraq war is more easily fought than Afghanistan as Obama is finding out.

In addition, it was the Democrats failing to do the oversight of the lending companies that led to our present predicament. Dodd, Rangel and Frank were supposed to be the overseers. President Bush warned Congress about the situation, but Frank told them everything was OK. Those incompetents are still up there.

J. Michael… You have asked a lot of questions in your rant. What have you done to get answers? Have you written our Governor, or any of the Representatives? Called any one or attended any town hall meetings?

BTW… I don’t read the Indianapolis Star. I don’t get the reference.

And yes, we do have men and women in the military laying their lives on the line. I have a strong military background. I appreciate each and every one of them. Tell me, would you rather have our military fight on foreign soil, or here? Keeping the fight on their turf seems a better option to me.

In addition to the truths that A.C. points out, we might recall, michaelj, that in spite of the wars, the real spending didn’t begin untill we elected the 110th. Congress!! Run by? You guessed it reid and pelosi!! When we throw-in frank and dodd, we have the foursome from hell!!!

J Michael…you do seem singularly focused.
If you are passionate about America’s “future” you better get your head out of the past. Learn from it…but don’t live it.
You need to live in the “now”. And NOW we have an imposter in the White House on a mission to finish us off completely.
Wake up!

J Michael,
Just a couple of points. Clintoon didn’t leave Bush a balanced budget. Proven fact. It was Clintoons cuts of the defense budget that sent our young men into harms way ill equipped! Also proven fact! Just one more son, hold on. Clintoons cuts to that self same budget are the main reason that our disabled coming from that war were treated so poorly as well!! He had no use for our troops as was well documented when he demonstrated against this country on foreign soil in England during the VietNam war. I know, I WAS there!!

I’m from Indiana too, you moron! Can we get off of the old topics and try to stick to what is going on now? If you are from Indiana and you sound like that, all I can say is that you should move somewheres else. Preferably far, far away! FOR GOD AND COUNTRY!

THE BUDGET WAS NOT BALANCE DURING THE CLINTON YEARS. IF you believe the Clinton spin I’ve got waterfront for you in UTah. Clinton left bush with $17.9 BILLION the day Bush took office. The next year was also a Clinton signed budget which upped the debt to $133 BILLION. Clinton counted the SS Trust fund income to “balance his budget” but he conveniently didn’t count the out going money from the Trust fund. Bush had the budget coming down until his last two years when – guess what! the Dems gained control and started spending again! You can verify this in a number of place including the US Treasuries website.

As for the Wars – I’m sure the Kurds and other persecuted people in Iraq would think the war was worth it. I would call gassing people as using weapons of mass destruction – if not what would you call them? Afghanistan is different – we should have just gone after bin Laden instead of another war there.

All government’s that “start” wars do so to make money, increase the power and scope of the government itself and induce controllable fear into the sheeple.
It’s one of the oldest policies (tricks) in the world and it doesn’t wear a red or blue tie.

It’s BOTH PARTIES! Both being self indulgents and what will advance their career, their fame, their fortune….Career politicians have to go or demonstrate they can clean up the muck we’re in by actually doing something productive, visible and beneficial to American Citizens…I’m so sick of Dems this, Repubs that, it really doesn’t matter who did what so let’s stop name blaming and start being decent human beings and bring America back up from the ashes she is quickly disenigrating too…we need a major revival and it doesn’t start with BIGGER GOVERNMENT AND BOGUS SPENDING…when a family doesn’t have money, they evaluate and see where they can cut and where they can utilize better what they do have…we need to elect “candidates” not “titles” that can cut through all the BS and propaganda and get results!!! True Americans that care about the well being of this country and it’s people!!

Democrats have always been known as the party of tax and spend. His last two years and office Bush had to deal with a Democrat Congress. Stop the blame game. We need to take care of business here and now. Obama’s policies have been nothing short of disastrous for this country.

I am so fed up with people blaming the Republicans for something that has been going on since the inception of the nation by both parties! The Democrats can’t do anything without raising taxes on the working people, yet if someone, especially a Republican president gives some help to those same working people through a tax cut, the Democrats come screaming out of the woodwork! Maybe if they would change the pitch of their shrillness, they might learn something!

That is incredibly small minded J. Michael. I take it your too young and poorly educated to understand that the damage that has been done took more than one administration, or to realize that it has never been as bad or pushed so hard by any previous administration as by this one.
The Kenyan is completely and utterly hostile to America and why wouldn’t he be?
He’s an African Muslim and his loyalties are elsewhere…

You really need to do a fact check. We the People do not pay into unemployment. We the small and large business pay into that fund. When they increase the tax burden on us we pass the cost onto you the consumer. When we pass on too much cost we go out of business because we can’t compete with other, less expensive imports. As for the last administration – please fact check that also. Go to the US Treasury website and see what the actual federal deficit was when Clinton left office, then see what it was before the Democrats took control of congress and the house two years before Bush’s exit. Bush received a federal deficit from Clinton (Clinton counted income from SS Trust Fund but didn’t count the outgo) of $17.9 BILLION, the following year was also a Clinton signed budget and left Bush with a $133 BILLION deficit. Even with both wars Bush was lowering the deficit until the Democrats gained control his last two years. Please get your facts straight before posting.

J.Michael…I want this CURRENT GOVERNMENT TO DO THEIR JOBS! MORON!

I never worked for a poor man have You? Or do you even work? Like it or not, we’re not all equal in the money chain…some will always have money and some won’t (there needs to be fair treatment of employees and they need to pay taxes) We all need fair flat tax laws…Capitalism DOES create jobs, grows the economy in the private sector, creates competition, etc…which BTW, Private Sector jobs with employees that earn a paycheck is how we pay for GOVERNMENT and employees that work for the Government! Without the producers of society, you can not sustain an inflated Government! Stop the blame game…we need to focus on the “HERE AND NOW”!

Air…You still don’t understand capitalism. When a collapse ocurrs after a boom,the economy has a very difficult time recovering on it’s own,and can take decades to do it…typically,as in the great depression,it takes huge gov’t spending to do it. The war spending and forced manufacturing was the mechanism that got us totally out of the depression. Roosevelt’s policies helped,but couldn’t do it alone,as the programs weren’t large enough…the war spending was large enough and the war took millions of men off the streets and into military jobs. Now, was that capitalism or was it gov’t spending during a depression that fixed things?

they can “create” jobs by lowering taxes on small businesses, getting the illegals out that are taking our jobs, by taxing companies that take american jobs to foreign soil to hell so they don’t make any more money than they would if they kept the jobs here among other things. there are jobs out there, but the unemployed would rather draw unemployment than take them. they don’t have to take a job that pays less then they were making when they got laid off. how’s this for thinking outside the box – make them take any job available and give them half their unemployment. based on the latest figure i found at a quick glance, “The state unemployment rate in November 2008 was 5.6 percent. In that month, the Texas Workforce Commission paid $136,655,893 in regular unemployment insurance benefits, Hatchitt said.” if we had made them take jobs at mcdonalds, church’s chicken, etc., we would’ve saved $68,327,946.50 in that one month. do the same thing to welfare mothers – make them work and pay them the difference. don’t give welfare mothers more money if they have more children while on welfare. catholic so don’t believe in birth control? don’t have sex. there are sooooooooo many ways you can think outside the box to save money and create jobs, but it’d take somebody with gonads to do it, and obama doesn’t have any. and it’s not just the dems, we’re coming for those reps who have screwed the pooch too.

AGREED BARB! Seems like we need everyday citizens running things…these politicians that have been in office 10 plus years are so out of touch!

And bought off.

The government can create jobs (other than government jobs) by cutting taxes. It is a proven historical fact. Look at the Reagan years.

Government creates jobs by cutting taxes.

And that is the ONLY way government can create jobs…well, jobs that produce anything anyway…

to J. Michael
Of course tax breaks go to those who pay taxes, how could you lower the rates on the 47% or so of the population that pays NO TAX?

I am about to lose my job because BO has pushed the taxes so high the company is no longer profitable, hundreds more on unemployment. Without the massive tax increases for the new programs for the non working groups, or better a tax cut, the jobs would be saved and even more could be working. Basic economics!!

Sorry to hear about your job Ricketts. You are a victim of socialist policies and this is demonstrative of the FACT that socialism just does not work…never has, never will.

The left are phoney, ignorant, hypocrites. For something one day and against it the next. General Patraeus (Betray us) and now “What a brilliant choice”…..We oould tax all of us 100% (including the rich,) and not generate enough revenue to cover the ever increasing deficit and national debt. People need to go back to work and tax revenue would go up and dare I say it? Lower taxes and create the jobs that pay those taxed. The G20 finally gets it! Cut their deficits in half bt 2012. All of them except Obama of course. Getting kinda lonely out there is Mr prez?

What did the general do to you?
Maybe you should sign up!
Or, maybe you can’t because of flat feet?

I think that the General gave up his job in protest. He gave us some insight into the politics of war. He was generally right and so were his staff members. As for Rolling Stone – they should have had the integrity to publish on “on the record” comments but maybe the General meant them to be published so people would wake up and see the light.

J Michael–your ignorance is classic liberal based mentality. The rich pay more than their share of taxes and so do the middle class. The illegals and lower class pay no taxes! Where does charitable funding come from?……Those that are better off and the middle class. Do the middle and upper class rob liquor stores, carjack, and overcrowd our prisons?—No they are too busy working and paying their own way. Every dime that the government take from the workers/taxpayers is one less dime that will support businesses both small local ones and large. The government has no money except the money paid by the working taxpayers! Every government agency entrusted with ongoing funds is consistently over budget and broke. More government has never been and never will be the answer! J. Michael you either don’t work for a living or if you do you haven’t thought this through. My guess is that YOU do not pay your fair share of taxes so quit pointing fingers!

So the Marriage Penalty is going away and if your married you will be paying more taxes. The investment tax credits are going away so if you are investing in your future for retirement that will also go away. Is that what you call giving tax breaks to the rich?

Why is everyone so sure that the rich are deserving of higher taxes when they already pay approximately 85% of all taxes paid in this country? Is that not enough for all of you? Are you willing to stand by and watch them pay 100% until they can no longer invest in businesses, create jobs and generally live to a standard that most have worked very hard to obtain? Is it OK that small businesses are included in the tax the rich schemes of this administration?