I tend to agree with this. It seems like 1/3 of the population has their own news outlets and they argue with the other 1/3 (who also have their own news outlets). They have become so partisan, even their definitions for terms are different from the opposing side; it is hard to reach consensus when people can't even agree on the basics. Politicians don't try to change this, they don't try to educate anymore (if they ever really did), and they just seem to try to rile up their bases using that side's rhetoric and code phrases. Meanwhile, the middle 1/3 of the voting public is caught in the middle wondering WTF all the hub-bub is about, and they usually end up voting for the guy that seems the least obnoxious.

True enough, though without the debt it might be a little easier. I am not sure what the cost of our debt is currently, but it isn't insignificant.

I wasn't seriously proposing that each taxpayer pay off their share of the debt either. at least not all at once, and not all in one lump sum. I am not sure that many folks just have $142K laying around burning a hole in their pockets. It was an off-the-cuff and flippant comment that I left in the post, even after editing it a couple times, because I am a masochist about showing off my ill-conceived comments when I make them... or something... I'll just go with that. ;)

Before we do anything, however, we really do need to get our fiscal house in order. Everyone has their pet programs, and there are few that will be totally happy with any cuts, but most people have to agree that there is a lot of fat in Washington available to be cut. The trouble is that most politicians won't seriously bring up the subject, or try for any sort of compromise, because they are too afraid of losing the next election.

You have to ask yourself which one of the candidates might help fix that problem. I very much like the idea that Romney had for lowering the tax rates on small businesses. It gives them the power to be more competitive against the Walmarts of the world, with their much more lenient corporate tax code and their teams of accountants and lawyers.

Either we give the population the tools to fix the economy themselves, or we continue to rely on government largesse to bail us out. I have seen the way government handles money. I have seen their corruption and waste first hand. I have also seen the resilience and fortitude of the U.S. populace rebuilding their livelihood after tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and other personal calamities. We are the most charitable country in the world. I know who I put my trust in when times are tough; politicians don't even enter the equation.

I...actually have to disagree with you on the point where Walmart's stranglehold won't last long. The new town administration made attempts to get other stores in. The responce they got, was that supermarkets wanted a lot more space then we're able to give them. We're hamstrung quite a bit in our ability to develop the area we have (State regulitory agency). Walmart's strangehold is currently on it's 5th year and there's no signs of it stopping anytime soon, any store would take at least a year to be built (The location of our old mall's food store got taken up by a Furniture store, yay for 3 in a half mile radius!).

And while I make an effort to avoid Walmart like the plague, there aren't enough stores in town where you can just easily avoid it, and you have to pay a premium to do so. We have a really small farmer's market for fresh veggies, but no meat, not a big grain selection (in fact it really doesn't qualify as a selection), and the usual convenience stores and delis for milk.

The point about Comcast, was the standard lack of choice you see in a lot of places. They treat me about as bad as any other place, but it's one of those, everyone understands what you mean when you talk about it. My Walmart situation is a bit out there and hard to really understand. I do understand the utilities specifics on how and why there are so few things, but again, it's universal, it's easy to see and understand.

To me it's a fact that there are a lot of companies that are very hard to avoid, they're just too big, and they're in a position that they can easily just laugh off the idea of a self-regulating market.

I tend to take issues like this very seriously, because anyone can budget, this is a lot bigger than my family's budget, but neither to me have the balls to actually put that in the forefront. I'd offer my suggestions, but people tend to get VERY angry VERY quickly when I so much as mutter the phrase 'Defense Budget Cuts', but that's a very hot topic thing, and it tends to be a place of attack on partisan grounds.

Agreed, the elephant in the room is probably defense spending, but neither party will address this, it's political suicide, which sucks. I'd rather build a bridge than a bomber, at best a bomber sits there, at worst... you know.

There's other programs too, I'm just irritated that no one wants to cut anything but social services when people are hurting. If we provide a reasonable safety net I'm happy to cut services, but we seem unwilling to do so (too much fear of the whole "welfare queen" thing I guess). Not everyone in need can luck out from a charity when something bad happens.

Probably the health care reform cluster-fuck, which had one small benefit of getting some uninsured folks covered, is an example of what we have to look forward to going forward.

Pretty much, I think the problem is we've made the issues way too hot button, it's way too hard to actually make headway on serious topics. Like I mentioned, consumer protection, it's way way too hot button to really talk about, and just me mentioning it seemed to get a bit of a rile.

The problem I see is, when I think of the populace, I think of genuinely good people. I see good people when it comes to small businesses. But at a certain point, the business takes a mind of it's own, when investors come along, when big profits come in.

It becomes a case of, the corrupt cop (Government) vs. the Bully Son of the Richest Guy in Town (Big Business). Who do you trust, and who can you control? I don't trust either one, I lean towards the government over Big Business because we have a leash on him...somewhere, we can never find the damn thing.

And, I'm hesitant to offer the idea that we as a country are just too big, and some common sense things aren't done. I think our government size isn't as much of a problem as it's effectiveness. We constantly strip things down, strip regulatory organizations of their power, and then parade them around like they don't do anything and can't.

Big Business has become lots of eyes on short term profits instead of long term positions. There's so many that sometimes it's hard to keep track. There's nothing there to appeal too, no heart, they're not people (Sorry, that's something that REALLY rubs me the wrong way). And at the head are people who want to get rich by any means, outsourcing jobs to where the labor is cheaper, that's not a protest to taxes, it's a means to push profits up quickly so that they can run off with lots of money and bonuses, leave the next guy to deal with the fallout when something bad happens.

I mean, I may see things a bit oddly, but that's just what I'm seeing by looking out there.