I'm not sure the implosion will be in '09... I figure on 2011 or so.
I could be wrong, though. Seen the latest deficit numbers?
Economist.com: US Deficit to Triple
"Bad as the deficit was under Mr Bush, it will more than triple this year, from $459 billion in 2008 to $1.845 trillion
[...]
Meanwhile, the long-term fiscal outlook grows ever grimmer. Americans are getting older. The government’s unfunded obligations to give them pensions and health care are equivalent to a debt of $483,000 for every household."
A guest on a news show few days back said: "Obama's spending makes Bush look like a flinty New England conservative". It was worth a chuckle, I like a good turn of phrase.
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As for the spending, we're fucked. We don't have unlimited money, he just thinks we do. And thats the recipe for disaster.
Every time I see the news regarding Obama's spending, they try to blow that 'no new taxes' smokescreen. And then the outraged opposition guy reminds us that there are plenty of taxes like cap-and-trade being foisted upon commerce, which will then be passed along to the consumer, which are an inordinate burden to the lower class because their bills eat a larger percentage of their income.
Also worth mentioning, the increase in taxes for those earning +$200k. He throws that figure around as if nobody makes that kind of money, it is a fabulously wealthy sum, far above the standard wage earner. But 200k is not what it once was. And this 200k figure he's fixated on comes from a Reagan Era tax reform, adjusted for inflation that 200k limit translates to over $700,000 in modern dollars.
I'm not for taxing any group more than another, if we have to tax people at all. Flat tax is the way to go, if you want to be fair. If a guy earns a dollar, and you tax a few percent of it, he gets the same treatment if he earns 10,000 or a million. I keep hearing all this shit about equality. So stop dividing people. Rich people have loopholes they can pay to exploit, and poor people get waived. The cats in the middle end up getting fucked, and thats the real crime in these socialist rackets.
People want an equality they won't fuckin' pay for. I think we should go back to a 5/8ths vote, and it applies to you if you're taking exemptions outside the norm. People would jump off that welfare wagon in a week, if their status was denigrated to that of a citizen who needs special treatment. Which is exactly what the upper tier of income is exploiting, tax programs that allow them to escape costs the normal citizen cannot avoid - which is no different than a welfare program.