Sweden and Denmark are somewhat less socialist than they used to be. They had to back off to avoid economic ruin. Also Sweden and Denmark can afford their socialist programs better than we can since they don't have our huge defence budget. It falls to us not them to be the world's policeman.
So, why don't we just slash our defense budget?
And speaking of Sweden and Denmark, when is the last time you heard of a major scientific discovery or technological advancement coming from those countries or any other country in Europe? The fact is socialism discourages innovation and advancement. Since Europe embraced socialism, the centers of science and technology moved to Asia and the U.S.
I suppose that means you have completely missed the existence of
CERN, and the large hadron collider that just proved the existence of the Higgs Boson?
Perhaps you also missed that America is completely reliant upon Russia to get our astronauts into space.
Sure, America remains at the forefront of a lot of tech and science innovation, but I highly doubt that has anything to do with the fact that our ratio of capitalism to socialism leans slightly more in favor of capitalism than that of European countries. Any actual evidence for that conservative propaganda?
As for public education and roads. these were just fine so long as they were the responsibility of local governments. Since the federal government became involved, these things have been a mess.Medicare and food stamps are rife with corruption and fraud and headed for bankruptcy.
The federal government has been involved in
public education since 1785. As for roads, how do you know this? Also, is it okay for local governments to be socialistic but not our federal government? Why? What's the difference?
Medicare and welfare do need to be reformed, but that's a whole nother can of worms. The point is that they exist, and we as Americans do feel them to be necessary & useful institutions.
Yes, the economy does tend to do better during Democrat administrations. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that major wars tend to be going on during Democrat administrations and war, as we all know, is good for the economy.
More frequent than republican presidencies? It seems to be split rather evenly to me. Both Bushes had wars/military involvements, as did Reagan.
Except for the current Democrat administration which has dismal economic numbers which just go on and on and on...........
Dismal numbers? You mean, the numbers that keep going up from the rock bottom of 2008, early 2009? What do you expect, a magician? If you start with no cookies, and decide to change bakers, is it reasonable to expect the new baker to create 500,000 cookies instantaneously even though the oven's still broke and you're low on sugar? What if the baker manages to make 3,000 cookies? Sure it's not as many cookies as you want, but it's a heck of a lot more than 0, and certainly took some ingenuity seeing as
the entire world's economy is still in meltdown mode.
oh but of course that's the fault of those "wascally Wepublicans" in the Congress who block and obstruct all of Mr. Obama's wonderful plans!!
Do you deny that that is precisely what the Republicans have been doing? The numbers support that this Republican congress has been more obstructionist than any previous, and they have admitted that their goal is to make Obama a 1 term president. Sorry, I wish I were making this stuff up.
Why, if only we just raised taxes enough on rich folks, the deficit would disappear, unemployment would go down, prosperity would return and happy days are here again!!! At least that's what Obama thinks. What Obama fails to realize is that there aren't that many rich folks around. If the tax rate on everyone earning more than $250,000 a year was raised to 90%, the deficit would go down about one-third. That's assuming there would be no negative impact which there surely would be.
Nope, wrong again. Obama wants to combine tax raises (on the rich) with budget cuts and tax decreases (for the middle class). A bit more nuanced, balanced approach. Also, a bit more reasonable than the frothing-at-the-mouth knee jerk response that states that taxes can't be raised ever, but then whines that we have a deficit.
Our taxes are at the lowest rate in decades. So, according to your philosophy, shouldn't business be booming? In contrast, the economy was booming under Clinton, and yet taxes were higher. Perhaps, just maybe, raising taxes don't have as much of an impact as the Republicans would have us believe?
Sadly, Mr. Obama clings to the mistaken notion that the State creates jobs, wealth and prosperity. In fact the State can create none of these things; only the private sector can.
I would think all those workers who built the Hoover Dam would disagree. I also think every military contractor would also beg to differ.
Punishing and penalizing success leads not to prosperity but to ruin. But hey, don't take my word for it!! The idea of confiscating the wealth of rich folks became popular during the Civil War but Abraham Lincoln would have none of it. He said this in 1864:
"That some should be rich, shows that others may become rich, and hence
is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is house-
less pull down the house of another, but let him labor diligently and build
one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from
violence when built."
Sorry, quotes don't do much for me: Show me numbers. Did the higher tax rates of America past destroy our industriousness? Hardly.
But I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm just wasting my time talking with someone who sees big governemnt as the answer to all our problems and fails to raelize that a government powerful enough to give us everything we want, is powerful enough to take away everything we have.
Slippery slope fear mongering, with a dash of strawman to taste.