More Dismal Economic News-Unemployment Claims at 374,000 Last Week

[Gravitymaster 0]

This is such a dismal economy. Why can't somebody do something? How much longer do we have to endure this? Unemployment hasn't dipped below 8% in over 3 years.It's all so very depressing.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48840584

[billvon 3,118]

Waiting for the government to bail you out?

[Gravitymaster 0]

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Waiting for the government to bail you out?

Hardly.

This economy is so depressing. More and more homeless standing on the street corner begging for food and money. I have never seen so many homeless. It breaks my heart to see all the cardboard sign asking for donations so they can feed themselves and their families.

[funjumper101 15]

Keep voting republican and the numbers will continue to incease, quickly.

Vote the obstructionist bastards out!!!

Hark, here come the numbskulls who will write things like "the dems had congress and the presidency for two years and did nothing". The numbskulls have ZERO comprehension of basic civics and Senate rules. The current crop of rescumlicans grossly abused the filibuster rules to make it necessary to have 60 votes for a bill to pass the senate. 51 votes is supposed to pass a bill. Not 60. The VP's main job is to cast a vote in the event of a 50-50 tie.

Due to the gross abuse of the Senate rules, the rescums blew up normal functioning of the Senate. That makes the entire Congress look bad. To the civics illiterate, the lack of progress is all the administration's fault. The rescumlican's treason has nothing to do with the lack of progress.

The war on education waged by the rescums has been very successful.

[Gravitymaster 0]

So what is Obama going to do to fix it if he's re-elected?
Keep talking about Hope and Change long enough that it fixes itself?

[kallend 2,148]

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So what is Obama going to do to fix it if he's re-elected?
Keep talking about Hope and Change long enough that it fixes itself?

I guess you failed Civics101. The President can't change Senate rules.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[kelpdiver 2]

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This economy is so depressing. More and more homeless standing on the street corner begging for food and money. I have never seen so many homeless. It breaks my heart to see all the cardboard sign asking for donations so they can feed themselves and their families.

I've seen the same number of homeless since 1990, and no, it's not pretty. The Bay Area feeds the problem with kindness.

[Gravitymaster 0]

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So what is Obama going to do to fix it if he's re-elected?
Keep talking about Hope and Change long enough that it fixes itself?

I guess you failed Civics101. The President can't change Senate rules.

So it' not Obamas fault. Nice. Would that be the Dem controlled Senate? Has your monthly check from the DNC arrived yet?

[billvon 3,118]

>This economy is so depressing. More and more homeless standing on the street
> corner begging for food and money. I have never seen so many homeless. It breaks
> my heart to see all the cardboard sign asking for donations so they can feed
> themselves and their families.

On the plus side, all this misery is making Republicans very, very happy.

[Gravitymaster 0]

Wrong, Obama and the Dems must like it. After all, they have done nothing but produce more misery.

Only a complete idiot would vote for 4 more years of this.

[Arvoitus 1]

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Only a complete idiot would vote for 4 more years of this.

Only a complete idiot would think that voting the other shade of gray would actually change anything. Why can't the Americans realize the simple fact that both of those parties are bought and paid for by the big corporations. They don't care about the average person on the street. They only care what happens to their corporate masters and their bank accounts. As long as you keep up this idiotic two party lunacy all you'll get is more debt and more suffering.

Your rights end where my feelings begin.

[rushmc 23]

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So what is Obama going to do to fix it if he's re-elected?
Keep talking about Hope and Change long enough that it fixes itself?

I guess you failed Civics101. The President can't change Senate rules.

And you cant change the FACT that Obama had two years of a filibuster proof senate and he had a large majority in the house

Guess the Dems failed Civics101 first?

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[SkyDekker 1,465]

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This economy is so depressing. More and more homeless standing on the street corner begging for food and money. I have never seen so many homeless. It breaks my heart to see all the cardboard sign asking for donations so they can feed themselves and their families.

Just get rid of welfare and all those lazy bastards will go to work. This is the US of A where anybody can make it if you just work hard. If you don't succeed, it is your own fault and you clearly didn't work hard enough...

[Gravitymaster 0]

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This economy is so depressing. More and more homeless standing on the street corner begging for food and money. I have never seen so many homeless. It breaks my heart to see all the cardboard sign asking for donations so they can feed themselves and their families.

That's part of the problem. People have become so dependent on govt. for everything that they cannot do anything for themselves. That's why we need to stop the government handouts. Glad you agree.

Just get rid of welfare and all those lazy bastards will go to work. This is the US of A where anybody can make it if you just work hard. If you don't succeed, it is your own fault and you clearly didn't work hard enough...

[SkyDekker 1,465]

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That's part of the problem. People have become so dependent on govt. for everything that they cannot do anything for themselves. That's why we need to stop the government handouts. Glad you agree.

I thougth the economy was the problem? Now you are saying government hand outs are the problem?

[DrewEckhardt 0]

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This is such a dismal economy. Why can't somebody do something?

Because there's nothing to do about jobs and wages except waiting.

There are places in the developing world with costs of living and wages that are a fraction of ours. Many jobs will go there.

This isn't going to stop until their wages increase (it's happening - a spot check on Indian software engineering salaries showed 1M Rupee salaries which is $18,000 a year or 1/5 what many Americans get working for the same companies. Not too long ago there was a 10:1 difference) and ours decrease (that's happening too - five years ago when Chinese auto workers were making $170/month and Delphi was paying up to $27/hour in the US wages for new guys were cut to $14.50 - $18/hour) to match where much of the later may come from nominal wages not tracking inflation (my pay check has the same numbers printed on it like back in 2008, which means I'm earning 6% less in real dollars).

A lot of consumer spending before the recession was money that people didn't have and jobs were created that we didn't have money to pay for. When housing prices reverted to their historic mean (which has been the same since 1955 - real prices can't go up unless wages do) banks noted the credit lines were out of wack with the collateral and cut limits so that spending stopped. That level of spending isn't coming back until our economy grows with total wages covering what they did before plus what people were buying with credit.

In theory the government could put more money in our pockets by colluding less with corporatist interests.

They could put a cap on health care costs with not-for-profit health insurance and care (places like France spend 1/2 what we do) instead of preserving the status quo of for-profit companies exempt from anti-trust legislation and funneling more tax dollars their way.

They could stop buying and guaranteeing mortgages which allows banks to lend money to people who can't really afford the houses they're buying which in turn causes prices to rise.

In practice that won't happen. It costs $10M to run the average successful Senate campaign or about $1.7M per year. The job pays 1/10th that at $174K per year. The arithmetic works because other entities pay for those campaigns because they get something out of it (like the National Association of Realtors which is often the top ranked PAC and one of the reasons the GSEs play such a large role in the mortgage market).

Both Republicans and Democrats work that way and that's not going to change unless states where citizens can legislate through ballot initiatives adopt a proportional representation scheme which would allow some one not about the same to win.

On a more personal level there are things we can do to change where the money is going - like start companies using disruptive technologies. Total spending might not change, but you, the people you hire, and your investors can have a bigger piece of that pie.

You can learn skills that are in demand. My son has gone back to school to take care of his pre-requisites for medical school which should mesh well with the doctor shortage.

[kelpdiver 2]

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And you cant change the FACT that Obama had two years of a filibuster proof senate and he had a large majority in the house

Guess the Dems failed Civics101 first?

sigh...that was as factual (ie, mean, totally false) as Ryan's speech.

You might want to recheck the history of the 111th Congress and how long the Democrats had their 58 Senators plus 2 independents (one of which was dirty dog Joe Lieberman). Al Franken didn't take his seat until July 7th, 2009, and then Kennedy died on August 25th. His replacement, Kirk, came in on Sept 25th and then lost to Scott Brown on February 4th in the special election.

So for roughly 6 months over two rather unstable periods of time, they had a tenuous fillibuster proof senate. He did use that time to get his health care plan passed.

[rushmc 23]

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And you cant change the FACT that Obama had two years of a filibuster proof senate and he had a large majority in the house

Guess the Dems failed Civics101 first?

sigh...that was as factual (ie, mean, totally false) as Ryan's speech.

You might want to recheck the history of the 111th Congress and how long the Democrats had their 58 Senators plus 2 independents (one of which was dirty dog Joe Lieberman). Al Franken didn't take his seat until July 7th, 2009, and then Kennedy died on August 25th. His replacement, Kirk, came in on Sept 25th and then lost to Scott Brown on February 4th in the special election.

So for roughly 6 months over two rather unstable periods of time, they had a tenuous fillibuster proof senate. He did use that time to get his health care plan passed.

They were with with the Dems

If they could not keep their house together, (which they could not because of how far left they were pushing at the time) they have to live with it

Does not change the fact he had a big enough majority to do something

He couldnt

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[kelpdiver 2]

let's review the FACT one last time, Rush. The Democrats had a fillibuster proof Senate for 7 weeks and then for 4+ months during the 111th. Not 2 years as you incorrectly claimed (and not for the first time, i believe).

[kallend 2,148]

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let's review the FACT one last time, Rush. The Democrats had a fillibuster proof Senate for 7 weeks and then for 4+ months during the 111th. Not 2 years as you incorrectly claimed (and not for the first time, i believe).

Rush is not one to let his claims be dictated by fact checkers.

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The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.