Hope the weather is bearable in your state. Here it is mid seventies and cloudy with a little bit of rain thrown in.
I usually stay away from politics because everyone has their opinion and nothing I do and write is going to change anyone's opinion and nothing someone else does or writes is going to change mine.
However, there doesn't seem to be much to talk about except the debt ceiling. So here goes.
Why should you care about the debt ceiling?
http://moremoney.blogs.money.cnn.com/2011/07/16/debt-ceiling-your-finances/?icid=main%7Chp-laptop%7Cdl4%7Csec1_lnk3%7C219194
We all have our own personal debt ceilings. Here are some tips on how to keep your own debt ceiling under control:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2011-07-16-5-Tips-for-Debt_n.htm
What does history tell us about recessions and spending? One man's opinion:
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/07/misreading_history_gop_with_gr.html
Fire Away.
QUOTE FROM HISTORY:
"Never limit yourself because of others' limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination." We have had her before on The Who Am I. This astronaut was born in 1956 She loved science growing up but she also loved the arts. She began dancing at the age of nine and all kinds of dance — African dancing, ballet, jazz, modern — even Japanese dancing. She went to Stanford, entering at age 16. During her senior year in college, she was trying to decide whether to go to New York to medical school or become a professional dancer. Her mother told her, "You can always dance if you're a doctor, but you can't doctor if you're a dancer." She obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree in 1981 from Cornell Medical College After the flight of Sally Ride in she felt the astronaut program had opened up and applied. Her inspiration for joining NASA was African-American actress Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek. She was turned down on her first application to NASA, but in 1987. She was also accepted on her second application. She became the first African American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992. Who said today's quote?
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3 comments:
Like Pat, I'm jealous of your weather.
The debt ceiling thing has me in a bit of a muddle. If it really is the only way to restart the economy here, as so many contend, then I guess it makes sense as a temporary "fix," BUT only if we get legislation or amendments or whatever's necessary in place to require a balanced budget, require decisions based on money available or accessible (as opposed to what buys votes), require money taken from Social Security for totally unrelated issues be repaid. This last is a real hot spot with me. A second hot spot is Medicare, given that anyone over 65 is required to pay monthly premiums, which are taken out of the SS checks. That's $115+/mo for every individual over the age of 65 receiving SS. If that was handled responsibly, Medicare wouldn't have a problem, I don't think. Since I don't know the politics of any of the article authors, I've no idea what their agenda is, how much is fact, how much is media provocation, how much is scare tactics.
As to personal debt... individuals can't raise their own debt ceiling, they can't tax their employers for an increase in pay, they're often darned lucky to have a paycheck, yet are required to live within their means. I'm sure many look at the gov't and figure if they can do stupid things with money and not pay the price (altho the taxpayers do), the individual can do the same. Many individuals are way beyond their means, because plastic buys what they want and it's just number on paper and they don't realize that money is supposed to be returned to the creditor, preferably in a timely manner. Using plastic isn't real. If you had to buy what you could, from only the money in your billfold or checking account, it might make a difference. Yes, we use plastic, but only because it's convenient, leaves a paper trail, and only if we know we can pay off the statements at the end of the month. Also, because it maintains a good credit record. What few people realize is that your credit score not only affects whether or not you get a loan (or a job, as one article pointed out), it also determines the interest rate on mortgages, car loans, credit card accounts BUT, in addition, can affect your car insurance premiums, health insurance premiums and other financial issues in your life.
To some extent, the US has built a house of cards on credit. One day, unless something changes, I fear it will collapse.
Hi Pat
Some people here don't like it when it rains. I say you know Dallas has a good job market maybe you can move there where they have been in triple digits for seventeen days in a row. Right now
I'd rather be here than anywhere.
People are taking a dim review of Congress and the GOP is taking most of the heat. They are getting the blame for pushing the country to the brink and especially for their hard line approach to not raising tax. Some people see Eric Canter as the devil. And I don't think it is a dim view, I think it is a realistic one. Social Security checks won't be sent out. Government employees won't get their checks. I'm pretty sure Congress will get there checks.
I actually do all of the suggestions in the personal debt article.
Bill
Hi DR
Boy did you hit a nerve with me about using social security funds for other than social security. That drives me nuts. Every president since Reagan has borrowed from the social security fund and moved it into the general fund so they didn't have to raise taxes. If they had left the money that was intended for social security in social security it would have a major surplus on hand. Medicare and SS are two of the best run government programs but they get stolen from so it leaves the impression that they are badly managed and that they are going broke.
The other thing that just pushes me to the brink, is cutting taxes at a time of war. It had never in the history of the US been done until the Afgan & Irag wars. An extremely stupid thing to do. WWII brought us out of a recession because we increased spending which we were able to pay for it by not cutting taxes. The two wars now didn't bring us out of a recession because it increased spending by trillions which we weren't able to pay for because we cut taxes.
I'm a fine example of what stupidity could do to me if I used the debt I have avaiable to use. Because my credit rating is 800 and I have credit card debt of 100,000 K available to me I could really go under if I went on a spree. But one reason my rating is so high is I only use about 5% of the debt available to me.
The house of cards is starting to fall right now and we are witnessing it.
Bill
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