The Candor Gap

Candidates often avoid the big issues, because they involve unpopular choices and conflicts.

By Robert J. Samuelson | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Jul 9, 2008 | Updated: 11:05  a.m. ET Jul 9, 2008

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  • Posted By: MCEE855 @ 07/11/2008 6:58:57 PM

    OBAMA THEY SAY HOLDS A 8 POINT LEAD IN POLLS TO MCCAINS 41 WITH 10 PERTCENT UNDERCEIDED. WELL LET ME SPEAK A WORD TO THE WISE AND LET THEM WHO HAVE EARS HEAR AND EYES READ IF HILLARY IS NOT OBAMAS CHOICE FOR VP WE WILL HAVE A REPUBLICAN IN OFFICE I DID NOT VOTE FOR EITHER PERSON DURING PRIMARIES BUT FACTS ARE FACTS NOTHING LIKE A WOMAN SCORN THATS FOR STARTERS PLUS THIS COUNTRY MANY SO MANY WHEN INTERVIEW WILL SAY YES I'D VOTE FOR A BLACK MAN BUT WHEN THEY GET BEHIND THAT CURTAIN MOST OVER 50 WILL NOT VOTE FOR A BLACK MAN ONE MOST FIGURE WONT LAST 4 YRS WITH A NUT TRYING TO KILL HIM I PRAY FOR HIS SAFTY EVERY NIGHT.I STILL DONT KNOW WHAT OBAMA IS WHEN HE'S TALKING TO THE WHITES ITS ALWAYS ABOUT HIS WHITE MOM AND WHITE GRANDMA WHO RAISED HIM BUT WGHEN HES SPERAKING T O AFRICAN AMERICAS ITS ALL ABOUT HIS SRUGGLE AS BEING A BLACK MAN IN A WHITE AMERICA. AND THE ICYTHE CAKE TO THIS MAN IS HOW CAN HE SIT U8NDER A CRAZY BIGOT FOR 20 YRS CALL HIM HIS SPIRTUAL ADVISER BAPTIZE HIS CHILDREN AND SAY HE NEVER HE HIM SPEAK A WORLD OF HATE AGAINST THE GOV. WHITES OUR COUNTRY SITTING UNDER THIS PASTOR FOR 20 YRS HOGWASH I CALL HIM ON THAT i SIT UNDER A PASTOR FOR 12 YRS NOW AND REMBER ALMOST EVERY WORD GIVEN FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR HIM FOR US EVEN WITH HILLARY THIS ELECTION AS HIS VP I MAY NOT VOTE OBAMA HAS NOT EVER BE TESTED AND SOULD BECOME MORE SEASONED JUST LOOK AT THE GOOF HE MADE PUTTING HIS CHILDREN ON TV THE YOKE SURE WAS ON HIM

  • Posted By: anothercomment @ 07/09/2008 2:00:26 PM

    Increasing the retirement age?? How about having let me keep the money the government stole from me the past 40 years to invest on my own. Then, I wouldn't need the governemnt for anything. I've worked full time since I was 18, worked and put myself through school, worked two jobs at times. I did live within my means however. I didn't have the latest and greatest but was comfortable. Get the lazy bumbs off welfare. I am not interested in hearing your poor me tail of wooo. I have anxiety attacks, I'm too over weight, I'm an alcoholic or druggy I'm this I'm that, Get off your dead rear and get a job. You manage to file for welfare so get a job. I wasn't put here to support your lazy, complaining rear.

    As for the Mexicans - let me tell you about them. They come here illegally and breed like roaches. Just ask any social worker in any hospital in this country. They will tell you that every brat dropped is automatically declared a U.S. citizen no matter if the cow that dropped it is here illegally and the brat is automatically put on every give away program we have in place. Stop the anchor baby business and see how the illegal cows stop dropping the brats and how much more money we have to spend on the right things - i.e. roads, police protection. our infrastructure.

    Schooling - you can't get better schooling when the parents of these little darlings are uneducated, illiterate and don't think education is important.

    Americans need to wake up and stop sending the bumbs to Washington that do nothing to solve or make the real problems of this country better. Soon it isd going to be too late. We have gotten too soft and are too worried about everybody's feelings etc. Get back to the important things in life and pork barrel is not one of them, except to stop it. Immigration illegals need to be eligible for NOTHING. Revise the immigration act - no anchor brat can be a citizen if what produces it is here illegally. - PERIOD.

    We need to start taking care of America BEFORE we start worrying about everyone else.

    • Posted By: tc125231 @ 07/11/2008 12:46:34 AM

      Obviously you have been busy doing something. learning how to spell apparently wasn't it, though.

    • Posted By: TheVigil @ 07/09/2008 2:47:14 PM

      Illegals don't contribute to tax revenue because they can't pay taxes without being deported. Most would gladly pay taxes, those who make more than poverty-line income, in exchange for not being harassed or being afraid INS will take them away from their babies.

      "They come here illegaly and breed like roaches" - personally, I'll take several million poor but generally mostly honest Mexicans over a hate-filled pile of *** like you, any day of the week, five times over. They're also mostly the only ones doing the truly hard, backbreaking work in this country, for pennies. Many communities that have instituted large-scale raids on illegals have actually watched their local industries weaken severely due to the lack of cheap labor.

      The only silver lining here is that I'm pretty sure you have no power or political say when it comes to actually affecting the situation. If you felt any sense of personal power in your life, you wouldn't be coming here posting racist nonsense on Newsweek message boards that, in a sane world, would lose you your job and friends. I don't really have any power either - but if I ran the world, I'd deport you to a Mexican slum in a second and see what the people there thought of your hate...

      • Posted By: j.n @ 07/09/2008 4:14:45 PM

        Illegas do not contribute to the tax base.
        Tell that to the IRS about the $10 billion the have been able to keep over the last five years because the SS number did not match the name,and the IRS will not let the owner of the number know that someone is using his or her number because they get to keep the money,the IRS makes out.

        • Posted By: bikeracer @ 07/09/2008 7:08:42 PM

          The money that the IRS gets is not going to help the average person. In other words, no trickle down here. Government agencies are careful to keep the money for themselves, not give it to the Dept of Transportation to fix potholes. I'm sure the extra money is used for some secret fund like smuggling arms somewhere or something.

      • Posted By: bikeracer @ 07/09/2008 6:35:04 PM

        Hi Vigil, you have some good points, but your second paragraph is very exagerated. First of all, Mexicans are mostly not making pennies around here. Even when I go to a Home Depot to do some of my research on what wages they will work for, I can't believe how much they get, especially after listening to comments from people like you that keep saying they are working for pennies. These guys laughed at me when I offerd them $10/hour. They wanted $12/hour minimum and acted like they expected much more.

  • Posted By: tc125231 @ 07/11/2008 12:43:03 AM

    Samuelson is worried about the candor of others....and Bill Clinton thinks most men are too obsessed with sex, I am sure.

  • Posted By: Nins @ 07/10/2008 7:29:15 PM

    Know why McCain wants to distance himself from former Senator Phil Gramm? It is not just because of Gramm's recent obnoxious remarks calling Americans "a nation of whiners" and that unemployed Americans are in "a mental recession." In fact, those remarks were so obnoxious that I wonder if they were engineered just to provide McCain an excuse for publicly distancing himself from Gramm. This issue is a lot deeper than it looks on the surface.

    When Gramm was a Senator he was chair of the Committee on Banking, and in that capacity he was able to push through the legislation now known as the "Enron Loophole." This loophole allowed US investment banks to bypass the Federal regulations governing futures trading, and is the reason why the investment banks were able to falsely inflate the prices of oil, wheat, corn and other commodities through massive futures trading, causing your costs of gas, heating oil and food to go through the roof.

    Gramm was a member of McCain's campaign team, but now Gramms' name is turning to mud. In addition to the Enron loophole, Gramm pushed through the Gramm-Leach-Biley Act in 1999, which got rid of the laws that seperate banking, insurance and brokerage activities in America. Essentially, this Act did away with all of the good laws written after the Great Depression to protect us from another Wall Street/Banking Industry collapse. That's right, Gramm stripped the system of it's safe guards nine years ago, and guess what? The value of the dollar has nose-dived, Wall Street is highly unstable, and we are in the midst of a recession.

    Now you could say that this is not Gramm's fault, that he didn't know what the outcome of his actions would be. However, it turns out that the same investment banks that benefited from the Enron loophole and from the Gramm Act gave more than a million dollars to Gramm's campaign. Uh oh. A Congressional hearing is going to be convened to investigate this. And McCain wants to have noting to do with Gramm, wants us to forget that Gramm has been a key player on McCain's campaign team. Gramm was McCain's campaign CO-CHAIR and LEADING ECONOMIC ADVISER.

    With Gramm in the driver's seat as his leading economic adviser, now you know why economists and analysts are saying that McCain's economic policy plans are untenable.

  • Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/10/2008 5:27:40 PM

    Certainly Bush was a lemon. Too late to vote against him. Maybe we can pee on his library wall.

  • Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/10/2008 5:26:27 PM

    We have lemon laws which allow us to recoup our losses from purchase of a lemon of an automobile, but we do not have a lemon politician law. What are we to do for a remedy?

  • Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/10/2008 5:24:55 PM

    So, the candidates are glorified used car sales people who do not tell us that the transmission is about to go out on the car that they are claiming to be such a bargain. We always elect one of them so that means that our transmission is about to go out.

  • Posted By: dredpir8rbts @ 07/10/2008 2:49:00 PM

    If people followed the law, there would be no United States of America. We would still be a satellite country of Great Britain or noone would have immigrated and the Hispanic population would own the country by default. Think about that.

  • Posted By: cozmotie @ 07/09/2008 7:40:57 PM

    So asking that our existing immigration laws be followed is wrong?.I am sure as these groups gain political power.They will have our best interest in mind.And why do people like newsweeks@ wants to make it about about white people ?.He or she feels the need to make it racial .When it doesnt need to be.My Cambodian sister-inlaws (who are legal) feel the same way.Does he think that the janitorial job that one of my black friends had.Pays so much less now because of what?.More competition from people that are willing to work for less?.Just move to one of these country's.So you will just put your own future at risk.And let the rest of us stick with our Constitution and it laws.

    • Posted By: 4carol @ 07/10/2008 2:14:52 PM

      You are absolutely correct, that is supposedly why we are a country of laws.
      What I cannot understand, is why ILLEGAL immigrants THINK THEY SHOULD HAVE THE RIGHT OF CITIZENSHIP GIVEN TO THEM!!
      THEY HAVE NO RIGHTS...........THEY ARE ILLEGAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      If our country gives in to amnesty, it will never recover again!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Posted By: steve02001 @ 07/09/2008 4:34:30 PM

    I disagree with Samuelson's statement that "We could refashion immigration policy to favor skilled over unskilled immigrants, because they contribute more to the economy and assimilate faster." Who does he think is going to do all the "unskilled work" when all the millions of baby boomers retire in the next decade? their kids? HA! no way. They are too spoiled to do that kind of work. And they will too busy taking over the baby boomers jobs. Face it, the U.S. is going to need these "unskilled workers." We need comprehensive immigration that takes this into account and that creates a training program to assimilate them into our society.

    • Posted By: 4carol @ 07/10/2008 2:07:42 PM

      The only problems with your analysis is that most legal immigrants want to assimilate into our society------
      MOST ILLEGALS DO NOT!!!

  • Posted By: bfikes @ 07/09/2008 2:59:07 PM

    By far the most important and urgent problem is global warming and climate change. Compare it to any other issue, and you can see why. For example, if you think we have immigration problems now, just wait until global warming induced mass migrations ramp up. And we are getting very close to the point of no return. We must change things before that happens, or we will suffer global catastrophe on a scale humans have never faced.

    But journalists pretty much ignore this issue when it comes to elections. Why is that?

    • Posted By: rbarton_aia@sbcglobal.net @ 07/09/2008 4:16:21 PM

      Global warming/climate change, radical economic disparity, rampant joblessness, hyperinflation, etc. etc. etc. would not be the problems they currently promise to become if it weren't for overpopulation. Too many people are having too many children, and have been doing so for many years. Personally, I blame it partially on religious dogmas (sex with birth control is a sin, abortion is murder, etc.) and cultural imperatives (it's part of our culture to have big families, because we always have had big families, and therefore will continue to do so even though the reasons for doing so are no longer in force).

      I notice that neither journalists nor politicians like to discuss this issue, either.

      • Posted By: 4carol @ 07/10/2008 2:03:51 PM

        You are right on rbarton; this is exactly how we got to where we are today; almost every important issue today is because of OVERPOPULATION!!
        Also, the only problem with the immigration issue is TWOFOLD which neither candidate seems to want to address because they will be offended by LaRaz or someone else.
        TWOFOLD:
        1. THERE WOULD BE NO ISSUE IF LEGAL IMMIGRATION WAS LEFT AS IS....JUST CLOSE THE BORDER AND FOLLOW THE LAW!!!!
        2. THE ISSUE IS ILLEGALS ......... DEPORT THOSE WITH A CRIMINAL RECORD OR WHO SHOULD BE DEPORTED!!! LET THE REST STAND IN LINE LIKE ALL OTHER IMMIGRANTS!!!!! NO MORE ANCHOR BABIES GIVEN FREE CITIZENSHIP!! NO MORE FREE RIDES FOR EXTENDED FAMILY!!!! NO MORE FREE HEALTHCARE FOR ANY UNLESS DEEMED AN EMERGENCY OF LIFE OR DEATH!!! NO MORE JOBS UNLESS THEY ARE REGISTERED AS ILLEGALS!!NO MORE FREE RIDES FOR ANY OF THOSE EMPLOYERS WHO HIRE NON-REGISTERED ILLEGALS!!!
        THEN PERHAPS THE RICH MEXICAN GOVERNMENT WILL FIND WORK FOR IT'S OWN PEOPLE WHO RETURN!!
        AND, IT DOES NOT MATTER WHETHER THEY ARE WHITE, BLACK, LATINO, EUROPEAN OR PURPLE, IF THEY ARE ILLEGAL ALL RULES APPLY WITH NO EXCEPTION AND THEY MAY APPLY FOR CITIZENSHIP LEGALLY LIKE ANYONE ELSE AND STAND IN LINE!!!!!

  • Posted By: kirt @ 07/10/2008 1:36:09 PM

    The media has NOT focus on the issues from either canidate. The total focus has been on the soap opera things that don't matter to most Americans. Time for us to deal with our issues immagration Give me your tired, your weak but not your NON- Whites is what Paulte is saying. Boy we have along way to go seems we can't even talk about immagration without racism.

  • Posted By: truthreigns @ 07/09/2008 1:36:13 PM

    Can we really expect a government who allows the mass destruction of our own citizens in the womb, to care about its population, or economy, at a point far in the future. Talk about an undiscussed topic. Abortion has already caused a $4.4 trillion loss for social security, $1 trillion loss for Medicare, $11.7 trillion loss of federal taxes, and $73.5 trillion in lost wages. Fiscal planning at its best.

    • Posted By: 4carol @ 07/10/2008 1:34:10 PM

      To any of you who vote against abortion; DUHHHHH; would you rather go back to the back alley way? Why do you think China forced their people for a time to only have one (1) child; why do you think there is more starvation, less water supply, more crime, more environmental polution, etc, etc,etc,;..................
      OVER POPULATION!! Too many people effect everything!!! DUHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

    • Posted By: anothercomment @ 07/09/2008 2:03:46 PM

      Legal abortion saves lives - If you've never been in a situation then you don't have a clue. Abortion has been around forever. We've made it safe. You can outlaw it but it will continue so what is your point here that is so vital to our economy?

      • Posted By: truthreigns @ 07/09/2008 2:58:57 PM

        50 million killed, sure sounds like it saves lives, let alone the mothers who died at the hands of top quality abortionists. With the $73.5 trillion in lost wages, our gross domestic product suffered massively, and continues to do so. Every industry has taken a huge loss. No matter how many tax rebates or reductions are given, you can't make this up. Economics 101.

        • Posted By: TheVigil @ 07/09/2008 4:21:57 PM

          Assuming all those 50 million had survived, do you know how high the price of oil would be today, and how much worse our environmental problems would be? Do you know how high food prices would be? Not to mention many of the situations in which abortion is employed tend to produce childhoods that, through no fault of the child's own, often lead to poverty and welfare situations anyway.

          Dear God, the level of cherry-picking here is incredible. NO competent economist thinks that population growth in the absence of an environment that promotes prosperity actually creates wealth; in fact it's just the opposite. Africa has a population of more than 900 million compared to rougly 300 million in the U.S.; how do you account for the fact that the U.S. GDP is six times that of the entire continent despite having one-third of the population via your population-as-the-only-determinant argument?

          Stop pretending that you understand a thing about economics if you only look at one factor. Things interrelate. This is one of the most misleading economic arguments I've ever heard to justify a pro-life viewpoint, and it would get you failed, failed, failed out of every ACTUAL "Economics 101" class in every school in the country, forever.

  • Posted By: paulte @ 07/09/2008 1:32:53 PM

    Well, why do we keep letting the Hispanics into this country (legal or illegal)? It's way past time to end Hispanic immigration into this country. We can allow Hispanic workers to come in on work visas but that should be all that is allowed anymore. Let Obama and McCain discuss that issue. The only politician with the guts to address the immigration and the racial issue is Pat Buchanan! Go, Pat, go! Oh, I forgot Hillary did address the racial issue but then backed off from it. She never addressed the immigration issue though.

    • Posted By: TheVigil @ 07/09/2008 2:51:04 PM

      You know, I'm personally quite fine with Latino immigration, but I do occasionally wish we could deport all the white racists with superiority complexes to the bottom of the ocean. Grow up. Buchanan's hate is one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen, so is yours, and neither one of you knows a damn thing about economics, or you wouldn't be arguing the way you are...

      • Posted By: paulte @ 07/09/2008 3:06:24 PM

        Why don't you move to Mexico then if you like Latinos so much? The country would be better off without people like you. One Latino may enter from Mexico in exchange for you! Good bye!

        • Posted By: TheVigil @ 07/09/2008 4:32:58 PM

          Because all of my friends and family are here and I'm currently working on trying to get a business deal that, for the simple fact that the offerers are trying to avoid international legal entanglements, isn't available to anyone living in *any* foreign country? Not that I personally have a problem with the idea of living in Mexico or any other Latin American country. As a matter of fact, I'd like to live in a Spanish-speaking country for a good long period once before I die to improve my Spanish and my appreciation of foreign cultures.

          "Good bye!" and "One Latino may enter from Mexico in exchange for you" make me laugh, though. Not only am I not going anywhere, at least in the near term, but you're talking like you actually get to decide the migration patterns of me or any other person in the world. Guess what? The only person that you can move *anywhere* or whose actions you can control in any way is you!

          Personally, I'm quite happy here and don't see the need to scream about all the "evil immigrants" day after day. So maybe it's you that should move if you're so upset?

          • Posted By: paulte @ 07/10/2008 11:27:42 AM

            The point is that immigration should not be allowed to change the demographics of a nation. That is what is happening now with the massive Hispanic influx. I don't think it is fair to non-Hispanic white people that we are fast becoming a minority in the land of our birth. This is why it is important to end all Hispanic immigration to this country before it is too late. We can continue to allow people from Eastern Europe & Russia to come here and we can provide safe haven to any white person in Southern Africa who wishes to come here. Other than that, the days of immigration must be over for America!

  • Posted By: Flash McGruder @ 07/09/2008 10:41:41 PM

    Unfortunately, even though these are big issues that are being avoided, talking news heads on the TV programs will likely continue to avoid talking about these issues during upcoming debates, "town meetings," and interviews. This would take testicular fortitude that they have not had since Watergate.

    IMHO, the biggest issue that is being avoided is the huge unfunded liability (i.e. future National Debt). This has been estimated by Dr. Lawrence Kotlikoff of Boston U. (or U. Boston?) as being $60 TRILLION by around 2030 (as I recall). How much of our children's taxes be paid to just pay the interest on this debt? How will we be able to support National Defense, National Infrastructure, or National essential services? How will they be able to afford a good education, retirement, or medical care? Everything is in jeopardy!

    Interestingly, much of this future National Debt is being caused by the Republicans, who flap and squawk about low taxes but are actually dumping tax burden onto the backs of the unborn. Check the figures from the Congressional Budget Office and tally up the deficits caused under the Reagan, Bush I, and Bush 2 administrations. The propaganda that the Republicans are fiscally responsible is a big lie.

  • Posted By: Flash McGruder @ 07/09/2008 10:40:25 PM

    Unfortunately, even though these are big issues that are being avoided, talking news heads on the TV programs will likely continue to avoid talking about these issues during upcoming debates, "town meetings," and interviews. This would take testicular fortitude that they have not had since Watergate.

    IMHO, the biggest issue that is being avoided is the huge unfunded liability (i.e. future National Debt). This has been estimated by Dr. Lawrence Kotlikoff of Boston U. (or U. Boston?) as being $60 TRILLION by around 2030 (as I recall). How much of our children's taxes be paid to just pay the interest on this debt? How will we be able to support National Defense, National Infrastructure, or National essential services? How will they be able to afford a good education, retirement, or medical care? Everything is in jeopardy!

    Interestingly, much of this future National Debt is being caused by the Republicans, who flap and squawk about low taxes but are actually dumping tax burden onto the backs of the unborn. Check the figures from the Congressional Budget Office and tally up the deficits caused under the Reagan, Bush I, and Bush 2 administrations. The propaganda that the Republicans are fiscally responsible is a big lie.

  • Posted By: anothercomment @ 07/09/2008 1:44:26 PM

    So you want to boost the retirement age. How about having let me take the money the government stole from me the last 40 years and made me put it into my own investments. I would be needing nothing from the government. I've worked full time since I was 18, worked and put myself through college, worked two jobs at times. Maybe if the government didn't give money and benefits away like candy to people who need a swift kick to their rumps and told to go get a job, it wouldn't be so financially worried. I am not interested in hearing your tale of woo is me - I have anxiety attacks, I'm fat, I'm an alcoholic etc - get a job - you have no problem going to file for welfare - get a job.

    The problem with the Mexicans is they come here and breed like roaches and why not?? Every brat they drop is automatically a U.S. citizen and put on the welfare rolls with all the freebies. Ask any social worker in any hospital in America and they will tell you what is going on. Stop allowing these anchor babies to be citizens when the woman that drops it is here illegally herself.

    About schooling - the attitude and value of education starts at home. When the parents have no values or interest in education and doing a good job, what do you think their brats are going to have. Nothing ...

    The Americans in this country need to start non-electing the men and women to Washington that won't do the right thing. We have gotten so worried about every piddly thing that we are allowing this great country to go down the tubes.

    • Posted By: j.n @ 07/09/2008 10:21:22 PM

      You would be in deep trouble if you had invested in Enron,bear stearns ,ford, Gm,etc.
      I will take the payroll deductions over investing any day.

    • Posted By: kphil41212 @ 07/09/2008 3:21:09 PM

      Pure ignorance. Oh, and that money the government "stole" from you allowed you to live in one of the most stable countries in the world. Most of it also went for defense spending and other coporate welfare, so if you want to blame someone, blame the CEO's of the corporations who received this money, not poor welfare people.

      • Posted By: Weapon "X" @ 07/09/2008 3:58:57 PM

        Fortunately, you and your backwards redneck neo-nazi philosophy bear no weight in the coming election.
        Now go back to that little trailer park of yours and tell the others what you have learned.

        • Posted By: anothercomment @ 07/09/2008 5:27:08 PM

          Your trailor park??? I don't frequent the dumps you obviously crawled out from.Enter Your Comment

          • Posted By: Weapon "X" @ 07/09/2008 5:52:04 PM

            Enter Your Comment You don't frequent the "dumps" I go to because thay are too classy for your type. They won't let you in. By the way, learn English. Do you really think many White People are going to be out there picking onions and performing uneducated labor ? Or is that why you're upset - someone more educated than you ( meaning they actually graduated Kindergarten) took your job pulling weeds ? Or maybe you're just upset because your sister broke up with you . We rely heavily on cheap labor labor here at a company I work for to perform thankless work like cleaning, mopping, scrubbing, working with chemicals, etc. so we won't have to make our products overseas.

      • Posted By: anothercomment @ 07/09/2008 5:26:26 PM

        Get a clue - and a life while you re st it.Enter Your Comment

  • Posted By: newsweeks @ 07/09/2008 8:17:37 PM

    Cozmotie, I am a White person ashamed of other White persons generalizing about people of other races, places of origin, religion or spoken language, this is the 21st century and this is a country where discrimination should not be tolerated by anybody, we are all the same, if I bring those tags up is just to show that is very easy to generalize about others but it is not nice when people "tag" the ones like you, so I think is fair not to post discriminating comments.

  • Posted By: dandersen @ 07/09/2008 7:33:28 PM

    Sorry ppcgm, you and your generation have paid Social Security for the past 40 years but the government has been giving that money to other members of your generation - there is nothing left. Your generation is not entitled to more than its paid in - your generation has no right indebt future generations so your not going to get it all back

  • Posted By: hesterwayne@yahoo.com @ 07/09/2008 7:15:57 PM

    I agree with you on virtually all counts.
    We as Americans must realize there is no free lunch!
    It isn't even about liberal vs. conservative. It's about truth.
    We hold our elected officials to such unrealistic standards, that we hamstring them.
    They can't do what is really best for us, because they would be crucified for it.
    We must begin discussing issues realistically and trying to understand the truth behind them.
    It is the only way.

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