The Super Blog

First, take a look at this page: http://reaganbushdebt.org/

The tax layout I support is one where there are no property or income taxes, and taxes are either excise or on sales. However, in my perfect world, spending would be such that it wouldn’t even register as government spending by today’s standards.

Lets have an analogy. The current level of federal (federal only, this does not include state debt!) debt is about $9.7 trillion. The federal tax revenues are about $2.7 trillion. The US government is outspending collections by about $2 billion per day, currently.

So, what’s the problem? Well the analogy is that the United States is like a person that makes $50,000 gross income per year having amassed $180,000 in debt while spending $40 more per day than they make. A wholly untenable position. In that condition, almost any person would go bankrupt in a relatively short amount of time.

It’s amazing that this level of debt has almost entirely been accumulated by the last three Republican presidents (important point, in my opinion).

It’s also amazing to me that both candidates are claiming they will reduce overall tax revenue. I do not see that as a tenable position. McCain will reduce taxes a little more than Obama overall, but McCain will probably spend more than Obama. McCain’s plan, therefore, will push us to real insolvency more quickly than Obama.

What will the consequences be once we reach insolvency? I don’t know. Russia is starting to act up, and China will probably be the country that takes our place as the primary super power. Iran and North Korea are very afraid of our indiscriminate war machine and are doing what they can to become threats in their own right. North Korea is probably further along than Iran.

At home, the consequences will probably be that the country will turn into an authoritarian poor country, which is where the Republicans are taking it anyway, as they have already successfully reduced the value of our currency in exchange by half and domestic prices are rising unabated. They will continue to erode the effective coverage of the constitution and eventually remove all individual rights from the populace, leaving a police/corporate state with a few ultra rich living well while the rest of the country languishes in poverty. Bush already said that the constitution is “just a goddamn piece of paper”, and McCain has now morphed his policies into exactly matching those of Bush. Given the tendency of Republicans to spend excessively while reducing tax intake and killing our reputation in the world, how can you vote for them?

So, I say “Vote Obama” to stave off federal insolvency a little longer.

*NOTE: Sallie Mae apparently has fixed the reporting issue, and should no longer be damaging Equifax credit scores. If you would like to check your Equifax FICO score, you can visit Coastal FCU for a discounted product selection.

If you have a Sallie Mae student loan, and you have chosen one of the graduated payment plans (plans that have a lower payment at the beginning and go up later in the life of the loan), then Sallie Mae is currently lying about you on your credit report. If you had good credit prior, your score could have already dropped as much as 150 points.

Basically, if you were on the lower payment plan, but paying as agreed, they have added a notation that makes it seem as if you are behind more than 60 days, and the entire balance is due in entirety, because they are reporting it like it is a charge-off. The wording added is something like this: Arrangements made with credit grantor to make partial payments. This thread on MyFico.com will help you see what is up. If you are having this problem, you should get in touch with Sallie Mae, local and national news organizations, Equifax, and your representatives in your state and national legislatures. Read that thread for specific contact information.

This is a serious affront by Sallie Mae. There are probably millions of Americans affected by this issue. Hopefully a class action suit is in the works, but unfortunately, that will not be enough to help you if you are in the process of buying a house or otherwise getting credit. If you are in the mortgage process, you should be upfront and let your mortgage officer know what is going on. Sallie Mae is being very nonchalant about the problem, and may not get it fixed in a timely manner. I’m not sure, but it appears that the problem is currently localized with Equifax. However, the score drops with Experian and Transunion may come any day now.

Good Luck.

It is sad that I appear to be nearly alone in my particular set of beliefs. My beliefs can sort of be split between differing kinds of freedom, and for some reason people generally only adhere to 0 or 1 of my categories of freedom. I feel like what I believe in is Libertarian, but I have a lot of problems with many that call themselves by that name.

First, there is social freedom, which I say means people can do what they want as long as they don’t hurt you. Most Republican, neo-con, or Christian types will vehemently deny much of that kind of freedom. The Dems tend to be ok on this issue, but in actuality, gun ownership should fall in this category, so that takes away half of this plus. Republicans haven’t repealed any real restrictions on gun ownership, though they did allow the cosmetics ban to expire. I don’t feel that is enough to earn them a half point. Dems .5, Repubs 0.

There is freedom from financial and tax tyranny. The Democrats don’t hide that they want to take your money and give it someone else. However, the Republicans are even bigger spenders, they just lie and say they are not. Republicans have managed to reduce taxes while reducing spending power more than the tax breaks helped. Dems 0, Repubs 0.

The third form of freedom is freedom of intellect. If you say “It’s only a theory” when talking about evolution, then you are an intellectual theocrat, and are against that freedom. This is basically the freedom to be correct in scientific assertions. Democrats are good on this one. Republicans actually try to lie and change what is taught in order to fit their retarded religious beliefs. That’s 0 points for Repubs and 1 point for Dems. Dems 1, Repubs 0.

Well, I am a pro-gun, low taxes, socially progressive atheist, and most of the danger of the current administration is given power through the ease of misleading the gullible and credulous Christians in the US. The faithful tend to be the pro-gun people, but they give rise to a large part of the problem by giving power to the very tyrants they say they needs their guns to fight against.

There is a presidential election this year. I need to vote. Unfortunately, there are not any good candidates. If you advocate for Ron Paul, you advocate for Theocracy, so let’s go ahead and end that train of thought now. The other possibles such as Gravel are gone, though I’m fairly sure he would be wrong on guns. The Dems are 1.5 of 3 on my freedom scale, and the Repubs are 0 of 3 on that scale, so I must vote for a Democrat. I think that I hope Obama is the winner. At least if he wins there may be some optimism flowing about. He is also significantly smarter than Bush. The best things I’ve heard so far from him are the law he got passed in Illinois that required video taping of police interrogations and a news article I saw with him supporting religious freedom.

But really, what I want to see, is a pro-gun, intellectual, social progressive that wants to lower taxes and spending. Where are they?

I have, for a while, been thinking about what I consider to be the American way, and that is why I am putting this out there.

First, let’s define the Republican ideal as socially and fiscally conservative.
Second, let’s use a simple definition of what it means when something is American: free, tolerant, and winning. That is what I feel to be the American attitude.

I think that most people, even people that are willing to vote for someone like George Bush, would tend to agree with those statements. However, if they are willing to agree with those statements, or even only parts of those statements, how can they justify voting for recent Republicans?

Free:
After the George Bush reign, we are much less free than we were prior to his appointment. We now have to deal with the Department of Homeland Security (even the name seems to denote fascism). We have to deal with unwarranted eavesdropping of our communications. We have to deal with possibly never being given a trial, or being held for years without even being charged with a crime.

Tolerant:
The United States has never completely been a country of tolerance, though there have always been strong proponents of civil rights. Originally, slave owning was common, but now it is not allowed. Even after the abolishment of slavery, woman and slaves could not vote. Now they can, though gerrymandering from all sides has somewhat damaged things. Apartheid followed slavery. That was ended, and now it is less common to find real discrimination based on gender and race. But what about sexual orientation? Gay or lesbian people are still discriminated against by law.

Winning:
Nationalists (people that would call themselves patriots who basically parrot party lines, and are not really patriots) pride themselves on saying that the US is the best at everything. They say we’ve never lost a war, that we’re the freest country in the world. That our system of government is the best. That we’re the most tolerant. That we have the best technology. Pretty much they claim that whatever we do is the best. Why do they think or believe those things? We are losing the war in Iraq, we are losing our freedoms, and we are spending so much money that younger generations and their children may be unable to repay it. Social conservatives seem to deny the validity of all science. (Denial of the facts and theories of evolution makes you a delusional science denier, not unlike a Holocaust denier.)

So, why be socially conservative? What good does it do for anyone, anywhere? Social conservatism is basically forcing your religion down the throat of someone else. That is absolutely not an American thing to do, though it is something Americans do. Social conservatives have been behind women’s suffrage denials, behind apartheid, behind gay marriage bans, and generally against equal protection under the law based on race, gender, or sexuality. So, let’s say that you are a social conservative. How have any of those denials of equality been beneficial to anyone? I guess that is my problem. I can not see how any of those bigoted stances help anyone, anywhere. (definition: A bigot is a prejudiced person who is intolerant of opinions, lifestyles, or identities differing from his or her own.) If you want to discriminate in that way in your personal life at home, that is up to you, but how is legally enforcing bigoted stances beneficial to you or anyone else?

Also, if you are a social conservative, why would you vote for someone that is a liar, or someone that has used cocaine and gone AWOL from his national guard post? How many Republicans have been in gay sex scandals? If you let people just live their lives while you lived yours, wouldn’t everyone be better off?

Getting away from ideology, let’s look at the conservative spending and taxing idea. If you are for that, why would you vote republican? Republicans have run significantly larger deficits than Democrats. While part of the reason may be that they lowered taxes, basically they borrowed money and ran up debt that will need to be repaid. I guess that the only fiscal conservatives that can still theoretically benefit from Republicanism are retired people that will live less than 20 more years. Lifespans longer than that will be dealt significant suffering by the out of control spending of the Republicans, and some of those financial indiscretions are already hitting us, with results like the housing bust and our current recession. Those things are partially caused by indiscriminate deregulation of industries that need regulation to survive. Indiscriminate deregulation is another fun Republican attribute.

Republicans seem to use the idea that gay marriage somehow violates the sanctity of marriage, or some nebulous traditional marriage. Everyone else’s marriage violates those traditions too, unless you mean traditions going back about 30 years. Marriage has not traditionally been about love or even choice. Marriage with people under the age of 16 was common. Arranged marriage was common, and still is in some parts of the world, mostly due to religious influence on government. Some historical societies encouraged adult males to have sexual relationships with prepubescent boys, and the Catholic church still does. I guess if the religious right had their way, my marriage would also be invalid. I am married to a woman of Asian descent, and I am a white male. I guess what they really mean by traditional marriage is that only white people should be allowed to marry.

I want a society filled with tolerance, and as long as the Republicans have anything to say about that, it will not come to pass. That is why I encourage everyone I know to vote against Republicans. Specifically for 2008, I think Barack Obama is the best hope we have for improving our society.

The house passed a version of the stimulus package sent back in a slightly revised form by the Senate. The bill will raise the American national debt by an additional $168 billion. (10^9). Here is CNN’s writeup.

The plan will provide tax rebates of up to $600 for individuals and up to $1,200 for couples filing jointly, with an additional payment for families of $300 a child, and a minimum payment of $300 for individuals who pay less than that in income taxes.

Payments will be reduced for individuals with adjusted gross incomes above $75,000 and couples with incomes above $150,000, with the wealthiest taxpayers receiving nothing. The Treasury Department said checks would be distributed beginning in early May, after the crush of the tax filing season.

The rebates and the business incentives, including a doubling to $250,000 from $125,000 in the amount of expenses businesses can immediately write off, are intended to jolt the slowing economy with new spending.

I do not think that this a good idea, but I am not going to decline the check if I get it. I think that raising the debt even more is not an appropriate answer to our economic woes. I know it is complicated. Trying to take advantage of complicated and convoluted processes is what got the banks in this mess as it is. If you aren’t aware, the United States economy is doing a little woefully after a large swath of badly sold mortgages began going late and being foreclosed on. Part of the reason for the mess is called a CDO. Here is a story about Merrill Lynch on CNN that does a fair job explaining what those are. Anyone hoping to defeat pretenses about the viability of fully free markets need only look at the current mess, the growing disparity between rich and poor, and how much money has been sent to other countries to the detriment of most Americans. The worst part of all of this is that there are enough resources for just about everyone to live comfortably, but a few ultra rich, the top .25%, hoard enough money that it could provide for most or all of the bottom 20% that can’t afford to lead a reasonable life.