Bernanke Warns of Dire Risk from Fiscal Cliff Inaction

Ryt_Rick wrote:

Soulshiner wrote:

LOL wrote: Its going to be busy in congress in Nov-Dec. The party politicians on both sides are putting their re-election ahead of the country. Pretty sad really.

The best case scenario seems to be a status quo kick the can and higher debt ceiling. Not much to be optimistic about huh?

What's sad is one party has made it their stated objective over the past 3 1/2 years to win the election at all costs.

Tell me something SS, when the Dems lose an election, do you think they just sit back for 3 years and wait to take power back or do you think they start formulating a plan to get power back the next day? If you believe the opposing party is dead wrong in it's policies and ideology, would you not be letting your constituents down by sitting back and waiting for the next election? I seem to recall after Bush was elected both times, that the liberal talking heads and politicians immediately went after Bush at every opportunity.

I know you are referring to what Mitch McConnell said that the goal is to make sure Obama is a one term president. Can you honestly telll me that was not the goal of the Dems after Bush "stole the election from Gore"? Maybe nobody actually spoke those words on camera, but you know damn well that was the goal.

You sure do make a lot of assumptions...

Soulshiner wrote:

Ryt_Rick wrote:

Soulshiner wrote:

LOL wrote: Its going to be busy in congress in Nov-Dec. The party politicians on both sides are putting their re-election ahead of the country. Pretty sad really.

The best case scenario seems to be a status quo kick the can and higher debt ceiling. Not much to be optimistic about huh?

What's sad is one party has made it their stated objective over the past 3 1/2 years to win the election at all costs.

Tell me something SS, when the Dems lose an election, do you think they just sit back for 3 years and wait to take power back or do you think they start formulating a plan to get power back the next day? If you believe the opposing party is dead wrong in it's policies and ideology, would you not be letting your constituents down by sitting back and waiting for the next election? I seem to recall after Bush was elected both times, that the liberal talking heads and politicians immediately went after Bush at every opportunity.

I know you are referring to what Mitch McConnell said that the goal is to make sure Obama is a one term president. Can you honestly telll me that was not the goal of the Dems after Bush "stole the election from Gore"? Maybe nobody actually spoke those words on camera, but you know damn well that was the goal.

You sure do make a lot of assumptions...

I'm not saying they WILL lose, I'm saying in past years when they did lose, do you think they just sit back and wait, oir do they immediately start to come up with a plan to take power back? I'm making no assumptions, just asking you a basic questiion.

So if we fall off the fiscal cliff over ideaologies, I have to wonder how many people will slip into poverty then?

U.S. Poverty On Track To Rise To Highest Since 1960s

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/2 ... 92744.html

The ranks of America's poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net.

The official poverty rate will rise from 15.1 percent in 2010, climbing as high as 15.7 percent. Several predicted a more modest gain, but even a 0.1 percentage point increase would put poverty at the highest level since 1965.

Poverty is spreading at record levels across many groups, from underemployed workers and suburban families to the poorest poor. More discouraged workers are giving up on the job market, leaving them vulnerable as unemployment aid begins to run out. Suburbs are seeing increases in poverty, including in such political battlegrounds as Colorado, Florida and Nevada, where voters are coping with a new norm of living hand to mouth.

The problem is that the tidal wave of low-wage jobs is dragging us down and the wage problem is not going to go away anytime soon," Edelman said.

Poverty is closely tied to joblessness. While the unemployment rate improved from 9.6 percent in 2010 to 8.9 percent in 2011, the employment-population ratio remained largely unchanged, meaning many discouraged workers simply stopped looking for work. Food stamp rolls, another indicator of poverty, also grew.

Poverty will remain above the pre-recession level of 12.5 percent for many more years. Several predicted that peak poverty levels – 15 percent to 16 percent – will last at least until 2014, due to expiring unemployment benefits, a jobless rate persistently above 6 percent and weak wage growth.

Although I realize that neither our President nor our Congress can unilaterally fix this problem outright due to the global aspect of the economic problems, solid leadership and cooperation in Washinton D.C. could go a long way towards mitigating the pain Americans are feeling.

We need leadership to take us out of this morass.

Record high foodstamp use can also be a sign of underemployment.

Meanwhile I saw in the post today that engineers and IS people are looking at much less than 5% unemployment in the Denver Metro area. I know my company needs engineers who know solidworks. So if people have the right talents, employers are looking for you. Counterbalance, on NPR I heard from one guy that a part time dishwasher job had over 300 applicants.