Free Republic

Exactly.

Oh, enlightened journalistas, please share your wisdom with us commonfolk: If our military is "stretched thin" then please tell me where else they should be? What important military operations are we postponing while we kill and capture the terrorists that wander into Iraq?

Doyle is going to veto this. Now is the time for Wisconsinites to call their representatives and pressure them to override that veto.

I needed a photo ID or Social Security card to get a fishing license in Wisconsin, for crying out loud!

Sorry about that. It was the U.S. District Court, not a state court. My apologies for that inexplicable error.

Pardon me, I meant the WASHINGTON court system.

Oh, yes, the California court system worked like a charm.

"I can see clearly now! It's Bush trying to screw us over!" /sarcasm.

Social Security reform has been an idea long before Bush ever ran for president. I heard a Wisconsin congressman, Paul Ryan, speak about how he began to realize that Social Security had to be reformed. He started with a bill that would protect the Social Security surplus to be spent by Congress. It never passed, of course.

Any way, under his plan, none of the survivor's benefits would change at all. Disability benefits would be unchanged. Nope, I guess that won't get mentioned. It's all about Bush wanting to steal your Social Security check and give it to the fatcats.

More name-calling, Huck, that will win you some fans. Keep saying that we are puppets for the GOP and posting more comments without attributing them to the real author (unless you really are an editorial writer for the Washington Post).

I don't remember Cheney saying "deficits don't matter." I simply used my brain to notice that there is very little correlation between the size of the federal deficit and the overall strength of the economy and the health of the nation.

Look at the last time we had a budget surplus--we had a recession immediately following! Oh, no! The surplus caused the stock market crash and the recession! /sarcasm

Now we have "record deficits" and the economy is in great shape. Go figure.

You can be a deficit hawk if you want. It really doesn't bother me. There are about 99 other problems this country faces that are more important.

Huck, you forgot to attribute that article. No problem, I'll fix your mistake. The article Huck found
"There is no question that if you run substantial and excessive deficits over time, you are draining savings from the private sector, and other things equal, you do clearly undercut the growth rate of the economy."

Actually, you might be boosting savings in the private sector, particularly if you own US Savings Bonds. If the federal deficit were a problem, I haven't seen any evidence of it. The stock market is good, our trade deficit is falling, and almost everything else in our economy is doing fine.

Huck, I had a serious question and you responded by calling me a "joiner." What is that?

I'm serious, how does a federal deficit matter to a country that can print its own money? Tell me exactly what it causes. The economy is doing great, inflation is flat, unemployment is 5.0%, home ownership is at an all-time high, and even the bond market rates are low enough that it could justify a bigger budget deficit. So please tell me what is wrong with a federal deficit and stop the name-calling, Huck.

I want to hear from any of you how the federal deficit matters at all to a government that can print its own money.

If you tell me it will cause inflation, we haven't seen any in the past 5 years. We aren't anywhere near the level of deficit that would cause a problem.

Great news! That means we're getting the job done.

Notice how the author, Robert H Reid, had to throw in this jab, "The Defense Department wants to pull some of its 135,000 troops out of Iraq in 2006, partly because the mission is stretching the Army and Marine Corps perilously thin as casualties mount. U.S. commanders believe the presence of a large U.S. force is generating tacit support for anti-American violence."

Perilously thin? That implies that there is another military invasion we should be starting except for the fact that our troops are busy in Iraq. I'd like to hear his idea of where we should have these troops stationed, if not Iraq? I personally would like to see them in Syria, but I doubt that was the author's intention.

Secondly, the most recent terrorist activity in Iraq have not been anti-American, they have been anti-Iraqi, targetting Iraqi citizens, police officers, politicians. Violence for the sake of violence, not in protest to US military presence.

"The payroll tax surplus is expected to be about $85 billion in cash next year. The government will spend the money on other operations and deposit special nonmarketable bonds, plus interest, in the Social Security trust fund."

In other words, they spend the surplus and promise to pay it back later. That money is as good as gone.

This latest idea has some merit. Take away the surplus so it can't be spent.

Cut him some slack, guys! He apologized.

He apologized that we took his comments out of context. He apologized that we misunderstood him. He apologized that we are so emotionally unstable that we take offense to the truth. He apologized that we who expressed outrage were only tools of radio talk show hosts and the vast right wing...

Ah, screw it! Did we really expect anything less from this guy? Now let's use the same public pressure to get these guys to confirm Bolton.

Well said, Diana. The average public employee is nothing but a gorilla on the back of the taxpayer. Don't get me started on those lazy public employees at the Milwaukee County Courthouse and Milwaukee County Transit Authority. I worked at the county bus garage and I know first hand that the ratio between hours worked and hours spent in the employee lounge for most of those "workers" was about 2:1.

And yet with all these perks and benefits, you'd think they would be grateful, but instead they are bitter and rarely feel like helping anyone.

"We cannot invade Sudan. It requires United Nations action...

Now there's a oxymoron if I ever heard one! UN Action?!
SAT question 1:
United Nations is to Action as Bill Clinton is to:
a) cigars
b) long-winded tomes of irrelevent occupancy
c) honoring marriage vows
d) that depends on what the definition of "is" is.

So do any of you geniuses have a plan of your own, or are you just good at complaining?

If we do nothing now, when I retire I will receive 70% of the money I put in. That will resemble true Marxist redistribution, where misery and poverty are equally shared.

Look folks, this has been done in other countries. This has been done for the AARP. This has been done for federal employees. All I'm asking for is the OPTION of choosing how I invest a portion my own freakin' retirement money. And, once again, I remind you that once we have personal accounts, that money can't be spent by the spenders in Washington. It is the best plan out there (well, before Bush threw in the means testing, which he never would have done if the public would thrown him a little support on this issue).

The cowardly Democrats are laughing their tails off saying, "We don't even have to come up with a plan, we'll just sit back and let Bush lose public support BECAUSE HE ACTUALLY WANTS TO FIX A PROBLEM."

There, I got that off my chest.

Well, tell you what, now that I think about it, the plan to give "low income" more "benefits" than others is a terrible idea.

I just have been getting pissed off at people who take swipes at the President's (or anyone else's) reform plan without ever offering one of their own. Lousy naysayers.

Anyway, about border security, you'll be please to know that there has been some progress:
"The Senate voted yesterday to provide funds for 2,000 new Border Patrol agents in next year's budget as called for in the intelligence overhaul bill, going against President Bush's request for 210 agents."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1366313/posts

As always, call your Senators and harass, errrrrr, appeal to their better nature.

How could anything be worse than the way Social Security presently works?

The "benefits" from the traditional Social Security system will pale in comparison to the money that the additional retirement account will bring in.

And you all seem to forget that under current Social Security, I'm due to receive 70% of your "guaranteed" benefits by the time I retire. I'd rather compromise. I'll give up some of my SSA benefits to some "low-income" person in exchange to have my own retirement account where I earn compounding interest for the next 40 years.

Call your Senators and demand they fix this problem!
I called Senators Kohl and Feingold this morning and all they said was that they don't have a plan right now and they don't know when they will have a plan!

"Until this President starts protecting our Borders, I'll take him about as seriously as Paris Hilton takes her day job..."

So Presidents are only supposed to work on 1 problem at a time? Cut the guy some slack.

Social Security reform is E-Z: We get to keep more of our money and invest in what we want, and Congress can't go out and spend it. That money becomes a personal asset, not a tax.

As for Border Patrol, the only thing that will work is a massive grass roots movement that puts pressure on every level of government--local, state, and federal, plus the businesses that employ illegal immigrants. In my state of Wisconsin we allow illegal immigrants to get drivers licenses and there is nothing to prevent them from voting. Call your elected representatives!