BE A GOOD CITIZEN…..HELP PAY DOWN THE NATIONAL DEBT

The national debt went above $22 trillion this week for the first time. Big bucks!

Bush 2 and Trump responsible for recent major increases. Bush a piker compared to Trump. Trump added $1 trillion with the snap of his fingers with the new tax law. Accomplished it by benefiting the rich.

The $22 trillion equates to $67,000 per citizen. Cough up my friends. Pay your share into the national treasury. It will help return to the U.S. treasury the monies Trump gave the rich in tax cuts.

Some different ways of viewing the debt.

The U. S. government owes more than any other institution in history. A distinction we could have done without!

In this year of 2019, it will take $383 billion to service the debt. More than the entire national debt of Canada.

It is estimated that by 2023 (a mere 5 years from now), the interest payment will be larger than the U.S. defense budget.

Unbelievable.

My podcast Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou went well last night. I had more fun than usual in doing it.

One item commented upon involved an individual being critical of Israel. Becoming increasingly difficult in the U.S.

Israel is not without its own sins. In recent years, many in the U.S. have expressed innocent comments re Israel. Israel’s purported sins occupation, colonization, and repression. Some have suggested Israel is positioned as Nazi Germany was in the 1930’s.

American political leaders are fearful of being charged as anti-Semitic. They do not comment. Instead, laws are now being passed to suppress adverse Israeli comments. Censor them.

A number of States have passed laws requiring the discharge of any public employee that speaks out against Israel. The Republicans have been trying to get such a law, or one even more encompassing, passed on the federal level.

What happened to Freedom of Speech?

It is every person’s right to express divergent views. Not to be unfairly labeled as anti-Semitic for so doing. Those who wish to speak out re an Israeli issue should be free to do so. Criticism should not be silenced.

Another item briefly alluded to last night involved the wall. What would we talk about if not the wall!

Something I cannot understand. First, it was Build the Wall. Now, Finish the Wall. Finish what? Relatively nothing has been built. Like 50 miles. The border area is 1,500-2,000 miles.

Last year, Trump needed $25 billion to build the wall. The number then fell to $5.7 billion. Then $3.7. He got $1.3 billion.

He now intends to borrow from Peter to pay Paul. Borrow from monies already allocated by Congress for defense, hurricane relief, etc., to Finish the Wall.

Realty wise, there is nothing to finish. It remains to be built. Another Trump lie being pushed so his base and others will believe he is living up to a campaign promise.

My day is reserved for a heart Cath scan. One thirty this afternoon. I have been prepping since midnight for the procedure. I am allergic to intravenous dye so must take a couple of medications to prevent any problems.

Today, a memorable one in Key West history. David Wolkowsky began construction of the Pier House Motel this day in 1967. The home today of the magnificent Pier House Resort. Home of my beloved Chart Room.

Coral reefs. A topic of concern to Key Westers. The City commission recently voted to ban sunscreens containing 2 particular chemicals. The 2 most important to protect a person’s skin. Claimed also to be 2 substances injurious to the reef.

I disagreed and continue to disagree with the Commission vote. Insufficient scientific investigation. Never the less, the Commission jumped the gun and imposed a prohibition not warranted.

An Associated Press article by Bernstein and Debre was recently published concerning dying coral reefs world wide. The cause reported climate change. Carbon dioxide plunging into ocean water thereby heating the water and adding to its acidity. The scientific cause. No mention of sunscreens.

There is one coral reef that is surviving, however. It is located in the northern most tip of the Red Sea. Blooming! Alive!. For some reason, the reefs in the area are resistant to rising water temperatures and acidification.

Studies are underway to determine why Red Sea coral reefs survive while those in the rest of the world are dying.

Pedophilia continues to be rampant.

A serial pedophile police officer was recently arrested on 80 counts of sexual abuse of children. Sheriff’s deputy Virgil Wolfe of the Clark County, Montana, Sheriff’s Department.

He is presently free on $100,000 bail awaiting trial.

Police and priests. Others. The problem grows larger. A relatively recent phenomenon or one which is being reported today rather than buried?

Tonight Syracuse/Louisville at 7. Syracuse unranked. Louisville #18. Surprisingly, Syracuse is favored by 1.5 points. Probably because Syracuse this season has a reputation of beating top ranked teams. Yet losing to lesser teams.

Syracuse beat #1 ranked Duke 2 weeks ago at Duke. Syracuse plays Duke again saturday at the Carrier Dome. Duke back in the #1 spot.

A Syracuse win tonight and saturday would be a WOW!

Enjoy your day!

 

28 comments on “BE A GOOD CITIZEN…..HELP PAY DOWN THE NATIONAL DEBT

  1. Oops. Somehow President Obama’s contribution to the national debt was omitted. His administration added 8.6 trillion to the debt, Far more than either GW Bush or Trump. In fact, a whopping 74% increase over Bush’s last budget.

    • President Obama inherited a country (America) in crisis, a huge crisis which included a significant and ongoing war in the mid east that had been “off the books,” say nothing of the financial crisis though to possibly collapse the entire economy and probably the banking industry, world wide. And don’t forget that it was George Bush who authorized a 700 BILLION bailout, in October of 2008, just before Obama took office that didn’t kick in before Obama’s regime. Or, have YOU “oops” conveniently forgotten all of this just to misrepresent your point. Despite all of this front loaded rescue, Obama was able to significantly reduce our national debt and restore our financial condition and reputation before he left office. Your representations of the true facts are both wrong and shameful.

      • Obama’s beginning national debt – $11.657 trillion FY2009
        Obama’s ending national debt – $20.245 trillion FY 2017
        I’m not seeing the part where Obama significantly reduced the national debt.

        • Debt increases during the Obama years were almost exclusively because of things that happened during the Bush years (tax cuts decreasing income, Bush deficit obligations including his preloading the deficit with his parting trillion dollar TARP mandate military spending (off the books, yet out of the treasury, vastly increased interest on the debt, poor economy, etc., etc., some of which didn’t even enact until the Obama years) of which Obama had no control. Obama on the other hand, enacted fiscal responsibility which decreased deficits (less spending) over his entire tenure. Look it up (hint: don’t use FOX sources). You will see that the increasing debt was clearly not of his doing but that from previous poor fiscal government (to the point of a HUGE financial crisis) during the BUSH years and not his policies or spending. Regardless as to how you want to spin it, budget deficits reduced dramatically after 2011 with Obama in office. Since then, the political right has tried to spin the mess they caused with their irresponsible governance, onto Obama , when the facts show that Obama actually halted the horror and began to turn things around, grew the economy and created a recovery many had predicted wouldn’t (or couldn’t) happen. Obama didn’t cause the debt, deficits did that, we spent way more than we could afford during those Bush years. Obama’s deficits over his years were vastly reduced (and increasingly smaller) and that’s a matter of record. Look it up.

          • The scary part isn’t so much that the Republicans are trying to spin this in a way that obfuscates the truth, but that they are doing the very same thing again and we are almost certainly going to pay the price all over again in four to eight years. Deficits are WAY out of control and legislation during the recent Republican regime, over these past few years, will kick in causing HUGE debt problems down the road for the next generation where the blame will again be tied to the wrong persons. Furthermore, it will again likely be accompanied with another cataclysmic economic crisis.

  2. In 1996, Barack Hussein Obama was 36 years old. Was he outside the age demographic Hillary was referring to (obviously not the racial demo) with her “super predators” comments?

    • Only a freak would keep up the Obama hate, a freak and a troll. And who is this Hillary you speak of and why are you so fascinated with her? Was it your demented childhood that left you this way?

  3. They hate Hillary because of her big butt, the pants suits and the way she laughs and rolls her eyes. Aren’t those all the reasons you need to hate someone.

  4. Lou wrote: Bush 2 and Trump responsible for recent major increases. Bush a piker compared to Trump. Trump added $1 trillion with the snap of his fingers with the new tax law. Accomplished it by benefiting the rich.

    How anyone could read what Lou wrote and not see that Obama is purposely left out of this list of major contributors of the debt crisis, has to be a liberal troll. Whether Obama inherited the problem or not, he had a hand in increasing the debt. To completely omit him from the list is pretty glaring.

    • Your obsession and your distortions about Obama are only exceeded with your obsession with Hillary. Obama saved this country where others put it in the toilet (then and now). Hillary was a statesman for this country where others have brought it shame. Nothing can change those facts, the rest we need to fix, yet again. We now have a president who experts say is acting exactly like a Russian agent and you want to talk about Obama’s debt contributions?

  5. The worse thing that Hillary did was try to do something about reforming the health care system back when Bill was President. The GOP shredded her for that one.

    • Obviously you are ignorant about the penalties for mishandling secure data. What she did was on such a scale that she should be in jail for that alone.

      • Then why wasn’t she ever charged with anything by a government hostile to her? Let me answer that for you. No crimes coul+d be found, only smear.

        • Why don’t you ask that question of the fired and disgraced people who should have brought charges?

          The law is quite clear. She violated it. Getting the corrupt FBI to do the right thing is a separate issue from what Clinton actually did, which was violate the law on handling of secure information.

          • No charges brought because those in charge of any further prosecution, all Republicans and mostly Trump appointees, could find no prosecutable offenses. Your decision, and that of your questionable right wing pundits is I’m afraid, just plain (hate driven) wrong. Regardless of what you think. This was all a Trumped up political stunt that is the laughing stock of everyone outside the right wing bubble.

  6. Families of the Benghazi victims never blamed HER. Only those of us who have had to sit through endless and useless congressional hearings on the subject that never amounted to anything but a senseless waste of time, and then we only blame those partisan congressional Republicans who created the obvious charade and wast of time and money. The families of those Benghazi victims did however repeatedly blame the Republican congress who got the defense budget for that Embasy reduced.

    • I guess the two wrongful death suits filed against Lord Hillary by two families of Benghazi victims don’t count at “blaming” her?

      You are an idiot.

      • No, I am not an idiot. And aren’t you the one who is always clutching your pearls and crying like a baby when anyone refers to you as anything you care to spin into an insult. What a Hypocrite!

        and BTW, there was only one suit against Clinton and that was primarily a defamation suit with wrongful death and negligence claims tacked on, as well. It was quickly dismissed and widely criticized as a political stunt.

  7. A quick scan through this thread shows how disfunctional our society has become. Reasonable discourse from two viewpoints cannot be maintained. It soon becomes an exchange of name calling and barnyard mud throwing. Civility is gone. How unnecessary. How sad.

  8. No Ron, your conclusions are incorrect. These threads are not reasonable discourse between two viewpoints. What we have is opposing discussion where one side attempts to force his opinions based on false or incomplete information and is pushed back from someone else with actual facts. When this ‘one side’ doesn’t like being exposed for lying or manipulating the conversation, he resorts to calling the other person names and claiming no one wants to listen to his opinion. That’s not an illustration of a disfunctional society, that is an illustration of a person attempting to manipulate a conversation and then copping out when he is shown to be wrong or is out of ways to explain his errors. This is a case where civility is being misused as an unabashed attempt to win a false premise. Most people who read this blog know who this person is and I for one find it refreshing others will challenge his constant attempts to manipulate his opinions with hate and false statements. What we seem to have here is an apparently disturbed person who has trolled this blog for years and whose purpose is mostly to start a fight rather than start a discussion. And ‘Ron,’ I think you know that!

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