What Voters Need to Know About America's Debt

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We the people do have the power to stop the crooks in government what a great Idea, JJ Schelfo

JJS of IN 6:34PM August 09, 2011

Its seems we the people have forgotten to show and tell this new generation and old folks in Wa D.C that When gov. malfunctions we have the American right to take over solution making and straighten out our country. We can start with the Fedearl Rico law which involves the practice of corruption,like when lobbiest give gifts and kick backs for law or bills in there favor. We could send them emails letting them know that the Rico law does not exlude them. WE are the people of the United States and we can and will take back this country, President Obama is trying his best to do the right thing and it takes as Team to fix the problems not a group of gov. officals who feel they are entiltled or can't be touched because they have been in goverment politic to long. Memo to the Politicians in Goverment of the United States,We the people of the united states have decided to cut back on your saleries,taking away your credit cards and will start firing some of you if you don't stop spending our money recklessly and don't fix the money gouging companies in this country.
That's just a reminder folks of what we can and should join together in doing by US Mail-Phone-or EMail-Texting,but we have to start it NOW!..

Joe of WA 3:22PM July 08, 2011

And why do health insurers still received antitrust exemptions?
Why does congress allow this? No wonder health insurance costs keep rising........the health insurers have protected monopoly like territories in which they don't have to compete..........thanks to their antitrust exemptions.
I say REMOVE their antitrust exemptions and make them compete for business like a normal business. Then prices will come down!

Health of CA 11:31PM June 24, 2011

This is not new and is not any one Presidents fault. If we do away with SS then our parents can't live on their income and they move in with us, I'd rather give ti SS and have my own living space, If we do away with Medicare who could afford the health care for our parents. It seems that those who can't do more for those who need then the other way around. ONE word describes our dilemma "SELF" if it does not help ME than why do it? ONE word missing from our vocabulary "RESPECT". when we decided it was better to use 1st names rather than MR & MRS we gave up. You get what you reap...I fought the banking world "the be more personal" Mary & John will like it and almost lost my job. I wish someone would respect me now that I am MRS. and lived my years and paid my dues. I am a baby boomer don't begrudge me what I earned in THE Society I matured in. GREED is another word that no one likes to hear but a lot love to live. NO is something we never say to ourselves only others. SELF RESPECT- NO GREED would be the solution. Please find those words in your vocabulary. God Bless America and our Freedom

Mrs Fetsch of MO 6:01PM June 16, 2011

Let's take a hard look at what is allowable in the US. Indians come over open up gas stations - pay no tax for 8 years, Sign the business over to a family member that comes over and another free 8 years...
Social Security - Illegals get it for their children and so do many non working drug addicts in the US - hmmmmmm?
Medicare - Just let the doctors, hospitals keep jacking up those prices instead of doing a mandatory freeze. - Can they? Yes they can freeze the costs!
Medicaid - Again the government has their customary and usual charges, so the health care industry cranks their fees and the loss is taken off the taxes. Yet the everyday person has their insurance cost go up because the health care industry has to charge them what they charge the government.
Now that isn't including all the waste, fraud, and abuse within the Medicare and Medicaid systems.
The economy is suffering because there's no jobs out there? Well all these companies that take any work out of the country should have to pay extra to bring their products back into our country to sell them. i.e. Buick is assembled in Canada - Make any sense to you?
Cut out all the loopholes for big business, like the cost of doing business outside the US, including their payroll to Non-US citizens.
Stop the ignorant grants to see how fast ketchup runs, and the other dumb grants.
Congress took a pay raise 2 years ago - Make them reverse it. Make them cut down on staffing.
If you think about it, there would be no debt or deficit if someone was up in office that didn't have their head up someone else's behind. Party lines? What about the average American lines? Why do we keep letting these losers into office to screw up our country more and take our rights away?
LOL, The IRS is a group of people that try to take more away from the average joe to pay their paychecks. What a waste! They actually should be advising the Congress and President about how to close loopholes for the Overly Wealthy!
Really, I mean why vote? It don't matter anymore. They could care less about the way we feel anyway. They think they know better - But the proof is in the pudding and they have none.

jjurgy of WI 4:26PM June 16, 2011

HERE HERE! to NRS of FL. Yes bring all soldiers home, close all the bases, put THOSE people out of work instead of OUR people. The FEDS are often the largest employer in whatever Country we have bases. Only allow US Citizens who were born in THIS country to qualify for food stamps, unemployment, medicare, medicaid, free emergency room treatments and on and on and on!!! I have been working since 1970, paid my dues, and really wanted to look forward to something called "retirement" and "medicare" in a few years. Huh!!!

Patsy Ooh of FL 4:06PM June 16, 2011

With all the Medicare fraud, Illeagals using medicade, Government waste and in-efficency, Foreign Aid (which some is purly B.S.) I am sure we can fix the problem. We just need to put the right person in Charge- Americans are fools if they believe mainstream media- it's all B.S. You never hear mainstream talk about cutting anything outside our Boarders, we borrow money and the give it to Greece or the IMF and we just keep raising the Debt-- Come on America
Wake-up

Stan Thompson of WA 3:39PM June 16, 2011

Please explain to me why if I go to my local CVS for a certain prescription it will cost me $315 for one month; BUT if I go to a certain website that has the FDA approval seal (maybe true maybe not) and buy the same prescription it will cost me $37.10 for one month. AND it comes to me in the same box WITH the same words AND the same manufacturer. I have 5 main prescriptions: in America Pharmacies a one month supply of each would cost $1327. At the website I will get 90 DAYS of each prescription for $876.
Gee, I feel so damaged! And yes I am on Medicare but there is no Medicare prescription plan; and did you know that there are 5 deductibles within Medicare that you don't know about until you use it. The first deductible is the annual deductible at a certain level; the other 4 deductibles each set at $1100 happen when you go to the hospital. I.E. enter the hospital, they want paid $1100 before you hit the bed. Leave the hospital for longer than 60 days, come back with the same problem and they want $1100 before you hit the bed. Seems there is a hospital deductible every 60 days.
And please don't call it an "entitlement"; nothing is "entitled" when I have paid for it since I was 12. It costs $97 per month conveniently taken from your SSA check before you get it. WITH medicare I spend, on the average for the last 6 years, $27450 per year. One year I spent $39787 but that was the year I bought a Medicare D plan that had more deductibles on all things than Medicare.

NRS of FL 2:47PM June 16, 2011

You wrote: Here's what does need to happen: Policymakers need to develop a bipartisan debt-reduction plan with inviolable targets for reducing the debt over the next decade.
Obviously you did not read your own article from the beginning. How many "special commission" "special CBO reports" "doom and gloom" does it take to make this ugly monster REAL to everybody. Congress already knows how real it is going to be BUT the largest special interest group in the Country is, wait for it, the employees OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! Do you think for one second that any member of Congress then or now will voluntarily reduce or give up the most lucrative job and retirement on this planet? Would Clinton give up his government perks free office and staff, secret service, lifetime retirement check and medical WHILE he just happens to make $52 million a year? There is just no way this or any past or for that matter any future Congress, President, Bureaucrats will even consider to actually live as their constituents do? Not in my lifetime. And as these United States slowly sinks into the west we say good-bye to freedom and independence and say Howdy to the United Federation of North American Countries--where good steady Canada will lead, Mexico will supply to drugs, the violence, the money, and the world will speak Spanish for 15 years until the ever growing Muslim population either makes us "believers" or takes our heads. Either way folks, bend over an kiss yourself, your children, your hopes, your dreams, a big sweet good-bye.
And THAT is what it means for us when we talk about the DEBT; what those clever politicians and President are doing is talking about reducing the DEFICIT!--which could happen over night except for that word again--politics.
Whatever you do, NEVER confuse DEBT with DEFICIT for they are NOT the same--yes both are poison and will kill us but the DEBT will swallow the DEFICIT for lunch and want more! Of course the Fed Reserve will be ready to feed it again or else we may be taken over by aliens if we don't spend more.
Yes bring all soldiers home, close all the bases, put THOSE people out of work instead of OUR people. The FEDS are often the largest employer in whatever Country we have bases.

NRS of FL 2:35PM June 16, 2011

Yes, healthcare is more expensive now, but why? Maybe we should stop subsidising pharmaceutical development via intellectual property protections-- healthcare is too important to leave it to big Pharma and insurance companies, let more competition into drug manufacture. Those who whine about Pharma not being able to do drug R&D, that's a crock, if enough people want them there'll be enough money in it for development. We MUST drive down the cost of drugs. Software costs millions to develop as well, but most software is not that expensive-- why? Because software patents are nowhere near as monopolizing. The cost of manufacturer and the number of customers are the salient points for drug prices, not the fact that a company has a monopoly on the chemical. Drug marketing pressure on doctors and recent trends in health insurance companies who now want to give you health advice are serious conflicts of interest in the system that needs to be stopped as well.
We need to get extremely agressive about reducing healthcare costs, not by cutting medicare benefits, but by directly attacking the conflicts of interests and abuses by the industries involved.

Zinc of CA 9:50PM May 24, 2011