Recent content by Epsilon Delta

From taxes of course! :) Reforming the system as well, though by reforming I mean making it work better, not cutting it out and say you're "reforming it."

Ahh, I see the point you are making and mostly agree. It is very clearly a corporate plan and I certainly would have said it was the ideal plan. And yes, a big chunk (I wouldn't say the majority, but a considerable chunk) of the 50-60% of people who oppose the plan are certainly in the same...

I don't quite see it that way - Republicans and their media groups went all out attacking the plan - any plan, even before details were known about it - because it was being proposed by this president. They built opposition to the plan, and very effectively I might add, while the Democrats...

Except that's not what happened at all. What you are talking about is that payments to insurance companies were cut by 716 billion dollars over the next 10 years. I thought that's what you republicans were all about, cutting wasteful government spending? Or maybe you just liked the Ryan/Romney...

As utterly obvious a ploy as it is, I think that's a very positive think and hope he changes many other Republicans' minds on the subject.

I would not think that the Democrats would defend the electoral college - and in fact I believe it will make it far easier for Democrats to win, for reasons showcased in this election. Result would be that Democrats would focus the effort on targeting voters very large cities and turning them...

Republicans like to talk about America becoming Greece. They should certainly be concerned. For the past 5 years Greece and other European countries have been pursuing the Republican's agenda for "growth", by savagely cutting social programs and gutting the government sector. The result has been...

He's already backed off from that statement. I'll never understand why the Republicans didn't simply embrace the plan - it is, after all policy-by-policy the same plans pushed by the conservative Heritage Foundation for years, and adapted, not to mention implemented, by Mitt Romney in...

The credit ratings are irrelevant. Interest rates aren't going to rise. There is nowhere else to invest. Europe is in shambles, Japan's been a zombie for two decades, and the emerging markets are not safe enough for a flight en-masse. International investment is still centered on the US and will...

Well, it could be worse. He could be handing himself an economy shedding 600,000 jobs, or one that had lost 3.6 million jobs over the previous 12 months, as was the case in January 2009. Certainly I would rather run a country which had just gained 170,000 jobs and had added over two million jobs...

[I agree... these are getting very long and I'll have to get to your second post another time :( ] Well, the assumption might not be that the economy will function perfectly normal - only that, at an overall level, it's obvious that if businesses aren't hiring, and consumers aren't spending...

Well, yeah that is perfectly true - stimulus packages are only meant to help temporarily; until the private sector is capable of picking up the slack. The idea is that when the 'money runs out' the economy should already be functioning more or less normally, so that government spending can be...

I wasn't saying we have to start counting at the low point, only that you get a figure close to the "4.3 million" if you start from there. Like I said, most economists would tell you you would have to start counting about 6 months into the presidency, which would yield about 3 million on job...

Most of the increase is due to 2 things; 1) GDP contracted, making spending higher as a % of GDP - this would be true even if spending stayed the same. This contraction was particularly deep this time around, making an increase not a surprise under any circumstance. 2) The US government...

Public sector always grows exponentially during Republican administrations, because the Republicans allow their presidents to spend money and hire workers, because this improves the economy and they need that to get re-elected - and they know it. During Democratic presidents Republicans don't...