Name:   Talullahhound - Subject:   Stock market signaling a recession? Date:   9/3/2015 11:40:10 AM

Maybe what really needs to be done is to reign in spending and stop giving billions to other countries, getting involved in wars that we can't afford, and funding programs that have no demonstrative advantages.  You know, I keep reading that this or that is "only" 1% of our GDP so it doesn't really matter, but all of those things add up.  That is one of the things that Carly Firorino is advocating that I like - zero based budgeting.  And one of the things that Trump has advocated is us getting a "quid pro quo" for the things we do.  We've got to stop acting like we are the great benefactors of the world.  We need to stop acting like every time we go into a conflict that we have an obligation to rebuild their country or in the case of Afghanistan, build it to what it never was.  Why continue to build new and more advanced (and much more costly) weapons systems, when they are not serving us in the conflicts we are engaging in. 

Was watching the news this morning and much was being made of the refugees from Syria in Poland and Hungary.  The Europeans are taking numbers of them in, but I doubt it is comparable to those who are seeking refuge. How long before the U.S. somehow starts seeing us as part of the solution? 

I saw an interesting author on TV the other morning.  She has written a book called "Rising Strong".  But the point she was making in her discussion was that how we as a nation are constantly giving into fear.  Politicians capitalize on those by feeding them.  They make a case for fear to support their ambitions, and people by into it without question.  And then they put forth some simplistic plan to resolve that fear, when the situation is far more complex and if it was simple to resolve, it would have already been done. 

In terms of new taxes, I don't think the 1% or 5% should be either pandered to, or targeted.  They need to come up with a tax structure where everyone pays their fair share.  And I don't think we have it.