[quote=FlyerInHi]BG, I read your trump comment on the other thread.
What do you mean by unsustainable ideology. On the republican side? How will
Trump change it?[/quote]No. On the dem side. As a nearly lifelong dem, it seems all the (taxpayer-funded) programs that were created in the past decade or so have done nothing but created a sense of “victimhood” among many Americans who made poor decisions in their lives. However, I don’t blame Obama entirely (I actually voted for him twice). I primarily blame the Dem-controlled Congress of his first 4 years in office.
Examples: HAMP, HARP, bank bailouts (enabling “short sales” which let the defaulting borrower keep the assets [ie vehicles] which they bought with the $$ from their defaulted-upon mortgage), “foreclosure moratorium” legislation, healthplan subsidies, “stimulus payments” (in the form of tax refunds) and later, all the various Federal student loan “repayment plans” (on the slow-motion train, while SL borrowers owing $75K to $250K created families, shopped ’til they dropped and generally lived above their means, claiming a “high debt level”). This includes the Federal REPAYE plan, signed into law by President Obama (with potential “loan forgiveness” in the end):
I just have a few questions about who is actually “deserving” of this largesse and how it is all adding to our country’s huge deficit.
Why should a family who couldn’t even remotely qualify for their mortgages/cash-out refis/HELOCs under “normal” criteria in 2006 still be able to reside in the same home today which they are financing with a 40-year “mod” set at an artificially-low, fixed interest rate of ~2% (with possible “loan forgiveness” now or in the future)! What gives THEM the right to park their Mercedes in the driveway (which they purchased with their ill-gotten “home equity” obtained on a mortgage against “their” home which they quickly defaulted upon)? And why is this so when that home is still, to this day, wa-a-ay out of their league, considering that their income today isn’t much more (or is actually less) than it was when they took out their ill-fated mortgage? Many in this group actually consider themselves “victims of the `foreclosure crisis'” because they were in danger of losing their homes!! Whose fault was that? There are still a LOT of these home”owners” around!
Then we have millions of “former students” who have been working in the profession they majored in in college for one to even three decades who have repeatedly consolidated their loans and even defaulted on them, yet own luxury vehicles and real estate and had kids all the while paying little or nothing on their student debt. Now they’re crying “victim” because their student loan creditors and Sallie Mae are hounding them and attempting garnishments on their salaries with thousands in interest and penalties added to their (now aged) debt. Um, what did they expect? Some of these student debtors (who obtained a degree in middle age) are now 50-65 years old! Why does THIS group believe they are somehow “exempt” from paying for their education while others paid as they went thru college or paid off their student loans as soon as possible after graduation? Why is it everyone else’s fault that many of these SL debtors can’t get good jobs because they majored in the “wrong field” or didn’t finish college? And if they couldn’t “afford” an expensive, private school, why did they choose to attend one??
And being a gubment “retiree,” I’ve seen the absolutely devastating effects of the “illegal alien” problem up-close and personal in CA for the past 3+ decades. Since this group is “assisted” by state govm’t thru primarily “unfunded mandates,” their presence has been driving our hospitals, cities, counties and state coffers into the ground. I’m well aware that a very large percentage of our state prison inmates happen to be “illegal aliens,” costing CA a fortune to feed and house. I am also of the (correct) belief that they are taking up many thousands of public school seats (in SD and Imperial Counties) as well as thousands of seats in CA CC’s (hundreds of seats in CA’s public universities). Their tuition is mostly ALL paid for by CA and Federal taxpayers whose OWN children could be denied attendance/admission at same schools and institutions due to “impaction.”
I’ve tried to assist a lot of people over the years (in an effort to help them recover from their stupidity) and have heard so many “victim” stories that I’ve become immune to it. It seems a significant portion of the able-bodied adult population today considers themselves a “victim” of some sort who needs a “bailout” because the MSM (and the internet) are constantly hawking various forms of gubment “bailouts” to Joe and Jane 6p. I think this pervasive “victim” culture was brought on by the existence of the “bailout programs” invented and administered by the Federal Govm’t under a Dem-controlled Congress and presidency.
Yeah, I feel Trump (with the help of “experts” in the field) can reform a lot of the US Homeland security policies and procedures and also successfully repeal/replace the ACA (although this may take a little longer). I feel he will also bring back a significant amount of living-wage jobs to US soil which will eventually lift all boats and rid us of this pervasive sense of “victimhood” among America’s able-bodied adults.
He’s the only candidate willing to tackle these thorny issues. I actually AM a Dem at heart but feel that the Dem-controlled Congress in combination with a Dem president has royally screwed up a lot of things for honest American citizens who played “by the rules” and created (unwittingly or not), a pervasive “victim culture” among many Americans.
I feel it is now time for a change … even for just 8 years. There is so much reform needed at all levels of govm’t but the presidency is a good place to start and Hill (w/her longtime “partner in crime,” Bill, in the background [pun intended]) isn’t going to address any of these pressing issues.
