Question of The Day...Rose Bowl Parade

So, catching up on the news, and see where the Occupy Movement is going to have a presence of some sort at the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California. The Police Department in Pasadena has been negotiating with people in the movement, trying too get them to agree to march at the VERY END of the parade after all the floats, bands and various other groups have passed along the route, and the media wraps up its coverage.

So, the question..."Should the Occupy Movement accept this offer, or instead hold a full fledged demonstration, try to disrupt the parade?"

I have mixed emotions on this one...as a firm believer in our First Amendment Rights, and because there is very little chance the movement will gain much coverage marching at the end of the parade, I tend to support the idea of a full on protest with tens of thousands of protesters showing up in force. From a sentimental stand point, having watched the parade on TV for decades, kind of hate to think of the day being spoiled for every one in the viewing audience. But, sometimes, social issues of this magnitude have to trump the entertain value of the event.

Obama Touts New Jobs...Really? How About Touting New Taxes?

Obama is on Air Force One whisking his way back to the White House from his Asian trip, touting new jobs coming...not so fast. If you read the fine print, he says new jobs are likely to happen if the trade deals are approved. There is a world of difference between the president saying, "These new trade deals WILL CREATE JOBS" and the president saying, "These new trade deals are likely to create jobs."

We all remember TARP, and the promise that said bailout would create jobs...we all remember after the fact the story changed. We were told that TARP saved jobs, kept the Great Recession from worsening. Both of these examples are classic DC Doublespeak, pundits and politicians finding ways to make empty promises, and when they fail, trying to convince us that those promises were fulfilled.

We have a do nothing Congress, both Republicans and Democrats acting in obstructionist ways, we have a deadlocked Super Committee unable to find consensus on over a trillion dollars in cuts and savings in our Federal Budget as the November 23rd deadline to have a deal approaches, and somehow the President's remarks today about likely jobs seems a falsehood as the words roll off his lips. How can we as a nation believe anything today that our politicians have to say?

How about some straight talk for a change? Our collective governmental debt (local, state and federal) is over 100 Trillion Dollars. Our public and private infrastructure is in a shambles, and we have people falling out of the middle class into poverty at alarming rates. Simply stated, our nation is going in the wrong direction, and it is time for some serious changes.

1.5 Trillion dollars in cuts or revenue increases over a ten year period...the amount the super committee is charged with finding is not enough to fix things. The committee knows this, the Congress knows this, and our President knows this. At every level of government, we have gotten ourselves caught in an interest trap as more and more money is needed to pay interest on loans from the likes of China. In our private lives, such a scenario puts us at risk of personal bankruptcy, puts us in a situation of needing to make significant changes in our lives to get out of debt and back on track. With collective governmental debt of $100 TRILLION Dollars, isn't it time every elected politician at every level of government start facing certain truths, and being brutally honest with his/her constituents?

Here is a SCARY Fact...we have 300, 000,000 Million people living in the United States of America, and owe a collective governmental debt of $100 Trillion dollars which means each man woman and child would have to come up with (ballpark) $333,333.00 dollars to reduce our debt back to zero. A average family of four (Mom, Dad and two kids) would have a collective family tax debt of $1, 333,332.00 ($1.3 Million and change). Simple math would tell you a family paying off that debt at a rate of $50,000 a year would be out of debt in 26 years (that is assuming there is no INTEREST on that debt).

Some straight talk...America is not becoming a debtor nation, America IS A DEBTOR nation, and it is time we address this dangerous truth. Lets end the drum beat that says "No New Taxes", and let us stop pushing the ball down the road for the next generation to deal with. Let us start electing politicians at every level of government who are ready to make the hard choices necessary to save our nation, instead of sending millionaires and billionaires to represent us in the halls of Congress. Let us elect officials who are not afraid to speak hard truths.

In 2010, our GDP was $14.53 trillion. Even if we could put every penny of that GDP into paying down our total local, state and federal debts, we are looking at seven years, and we all know that cannot happen. We have saddled ourselves, our children, and probably their children with a debt that will take decades to pay off...facing that reality, how can Republicans continue to beat the drums of "NO NEW TAXES"? America will be the great county it was when we pay down our debt....to pay down our debt, we have to cut spending, and increase revenue (taxes). It is that simple, and that is a truth that no one seems willing to voice.