In Response to Re: looming fiscal cliff : I'm not an economist nor do I understand all that's happened, but I do know that everything fell apart once Bush/Cheney took office in 2001. Under the Clinton years, we never experienced record unemployment, had no wars, and most of us still had a vision for the future. So many things remain unexplained, but Clinton left us with a surplus.  Once Bush took office, he squandered the surplus by returning it to the American people by saying that it was their money. We got a check for $300 which we really didn't need. Then came 9-11, but that didn't sink the economy despite the terrible loss of lives and upheaval in the economy. We could have recovered, but Bush continued on to give us 2 more unfunded tax cuts that were really a plus for the wealthy. He then engaged us in 2 unfunded wars that have lasted for over a decade claiming almost 7,000 Americans and trillions of $$$ in deficits. At the same time, millions of jobs were lost as corporations went overseas for cheap labor which caused massive unemployment. With less people employed not paying taxes as well as the tax cuts, Bush decided that it was time to create a real estate bubble where most Americans could buy homes. The interest rates were low while the prices of homes soared with real estate taxes increasing. Many Americans should never had been able to buy homes, but there were a lot of manipulations of mortgages that allowed them to do so, The bankers made fantastic profits, but the real estate bubble quickly crashed when people couldn't afford their homes due to low income or to loss of good jobs. People who were in stable jobs faced unemployment as their jobs were sent overseas, so their homes were lost because they couldn't afford their mortgages. We know the result of all this when the market collapsed in 2008 leaving Americans losing their investment savings. This then resulted in a massive bailout for the financial institutions that had gambled our money away.  Now, the Republicans are blaming others for the tax cuts and wars that were never accounted for until Obama took office. It's never mentioned about how much we've borrowed from other countries to fund all of this. How much is still being spent for our military to be in Iraq and Afghanistan? What's it costing taxpayers for military contractors who are making huge profts by being there?  Instead, the Republicans are focusing on SS, Medicare and Medicaid when we don't really know how much money is being diverted in tax relief for the wealthy. Where are the jobs, how much are we spending on these wars and why are the Republicans focusing on conservative issues? 
Posted by intersan

falling off the cliff might be just what we need to wake up--the problem is that poor people would suffer most. congress approval is at 7% now - can you believe that?! We have elected these people to represent us but they represent corporations i guess, not us. Meanwhile i plan on planting some fruit trees around here.
Posted by Astra2012