Yep stoners and old people like Ray who need a government bail out on their homes.
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I know what you’re going to say, that we got into a home we couldn’t afford. But it’s not true. We’ve been in this house for over twenty years, long before all these hinky, sub-prime mortgage deals. Our house is now worth less than the purchase price in 1991. And you’d like to believe that it’s our fault?

Faced with that choice, what would you do, Steve? Loan modification or foreclosure?
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And who’s going to pay for that? Me, my kids and their kids. Paying for mistakes you made. What did you do, use your house for a piggy bank or something equally stupid?

My house is worth less than when I bought it, but I didn’t use it as a credit card to do whatever stupid thing you did to get upside down. I don’t look for government handout to fix my problems, but I am a Republican and never thought that government is the answer to any of my problems, if anything government is the cause of most problems.
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I tend to think the majority of the mortgage mess was caused by greed. Greedy people who had no business getting loans and greedy banks.

Point is that those of us who played by the rules, paid our bills, did the right thing are going to pay for that greed in the form of higher interest rates, higher taxes and everything else.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FREE MONEY!
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The push to encourage home ownership started under Clinton, was pushed by Bush and overseen by both houses of Congress. It was wrong headed thinking that pushed the banking industry to make loans to people who should have never received those loans.

People making 40K a year or less had no business buying 500K homes.
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Yep, bad stuff happens with layoffs and other things, no doubt about it.

Sorry hear about your neighbors who lost jobs and houses, but being factual here, aerospace is very cyclical and unfortunately we have entered another down cycle. Remember what happened after Viet Nam and the close of the moon program, what happened after Carter was elected, what happened after Gulf War I and Bush the elder’s Peace Dividend? It’s happening again and Defense spending on new equipment is going down with job losses as a result. Republicans in Congress piss me off a bit on this topic because they claim ever weapon system is needed, no matter how much the active duty guys say no thanks, like the second engine contract for the Joint Strike Fighter.

The regulatory part of the housing mess was created in the early 00’s (2002 to 2005 or so) by Democrats who in Bush’s second term controlled both the Senate and House banking committees. Bush was so busy kissing Congress ass to keep his war going in Iraq that he didn’t fight for effective regulation by Congress on the banking industry, and I do fault him for that.
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It’s yet another reason why I’m not a fan of Obama, never much cared for stoners.
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Yes good people did get screwed, but frankly some of those “good people” had no business buying a house that they could not afford. Long term, those of us who played by the rules and did not partake of the game are going to pay.
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You mean if I’m a 70+ year old failed media type and I have no money and little income and need a bail out because I’ve refinanced my home numerous times, and there’s tax payer dollars, would I take it. I don’t know for sure what I would do to be honest. I’ve never had a chance at “free government money” on the table, so very hard to say, but probably yes because I would be a fool not to.

But I’ve never been there, yet.
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How many can honestly saw they’ve never tried the “laughing tobacco”? Who’s never had “the munchies”? All this sanctimonious crap is preposterous.
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Well you’d have a point if it was just tried. Barry led a stoner lifestyle in High School and beyond, far different than he just smoked a few joints.
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The Bush admin took a little too long to get it going. I would have paid to push the button to drop some of those bombs.

I’m such a war monger racist.
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So in a way it’s the liberal dream….government passing money to the workers. What’s not to like??
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Ppl here have talked about Bush’s alcohol/coke comsumption. So they have that in common. Not sure if Bush ever did a 20 yr stint at a racist church though.
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Do you have a source/proof of Bush’s racist experience? The media must have tons of it.
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Personally, I’d rather elect a President I can relate to, not some phony who bides by what his church ‘tells’ him what to do. JFK proved that it can, and should be done.
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Sadly, quality people with true abilities aren’t running for President (or Congress for that matter). We’re stuck with which weasel to choose from?

It’s been like that since Eisenhower.

I don’t think Obama has been a successful President. (I don’t care that he smoked pot.) There’s a lot of reasons for that. A lot of the blame goes to congress. But a good President has to take control of congress and get support. Clearly he was not able to. I will NOT vote for him.

But, I will NOT be voting for the magic underwear wearing Knucklehead Mitt either. I will either write-in Paul or (like I’ve done in the past) myself.

yes, I know, that is almost like voting for Obama. But, I will vote on principal.

One thing that will NOT affect my vote is a candidate having had used pot or coke. Nor do I care about his/her sex life. The only thing I do care about is; how he/she thinks about the issues, leadership ability and more important is are they locked into party dogma to the point that they can’t compromise.
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You nailed it. This is what I’ve been harping on for years. Sadly, we the people have become we the sheeple. We are so locked into one party or the other that we’ve lost touch with what is really important. We’re so locked in that dogma that we can’t see our way out. This is why I don’t vote down a party line. i vote for individuals. If more people did, the two party system would crumble and we’d have four or five viable parties.

The main issue we need to do is find a way to get rid of the money. Perhaps make it mandatory that there is some form of public funding of elections and that ALL candidates have to follow. No more raising private (special interest funds). Plus, the House needs to be returned to what is was supposed to be—almost like jury duty. No pay, just a per diem. You served one, maybe two terms and you went back home. Congress has greedily (over the years) enriched themselves at the public trough. Congress-weasels should be embarrassed on the wealth they’ve given themselves.

The 17th Amendment needs to be repealed (that’s when Senators became publicly elected). It needs to go back to how are founding fathers laid it out. Each state appoints their 2 Senators. They don’t have to raise special interest money—they represent the states. hence why in the Senate, ALL states are equal. The House represents the people and members have a district based on population.

The Supreme Court (as well as ALL federal courts) need to stop legislating (and advocating) from the bench. The Constitution is fairly simple to interpret as written. If justices need guidance as to what our founding father’s had in mind, the Federalist Papers were usually reviewed.

It’s really scary when Supreme Court rulings are down party lines. Too me, that’s almost criminal.

Vote for me as President.
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Be interesting to see how the new “top two” primary system works out. I suspect in many cases it will result in the choice being between two Democrats and the one who panders the best will win. If that is the case California’s slide toward becoming America’s Greece will only accelerate.

And of course we have the debate over term limits, or what I call the “stop me before I vote again” laws.
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Do you really want to dig all this up, with facts – or talk about what their current platforms are, and how they plan on getting us out of this ditch?
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