Our Governer has gone off his rocker...

[Cygnus X1]

I know, very limited audience for this post, South Carolina.

I used to look forward to Governer Mark Sanford's State of the State annual speeches, if not for his ability to speak. But this year, it's as if he lost a speechwriter, and some high schooler has framed it around tear-filled emotional powerpoints that do not connect at all with what Sanford has been doing during his tenure as Governer. I thought that he was a calculating business type, a tax cutting conservative that looked at saving money in government by eliminating wasteful spending.
With this speech, he looks farther left than, hell, I don't know...Ted Kennedy?
Kusinich? I don't get it...it's just too weird to explain.

[fett]

Kid. He is just going with the flow. The days of cutting taxes are history. There is a mega backlash with the Bush tax cuts. The middle class is fed up with all the breaks that aren't going their way. The writing is on the wall. Bid time. Get used to higher taxes and a recession. Or something like that.

[anuske9]

Bid time.

:ROTF: Looks like your subconscience is talking again.

Cyg: How bout a link or something to keep this thread based in reality.

[fett]

That and bad typing skills.:ROTF:

[Cygnus X1]

:ROTF: Looks like your subconscience is talking again.

Cyg: How bout a link or something to keep this thread based in reality.

I was watching it live, on the old fashoined Telly.
I still don't have the ability to cut and paste from there.

My wife saw the same speech, from a different room. She insists he was on the same track as always, just a different presentation. Funny, I thought it was the female of the gender that was more sensitive to the fringes (such as the video cut ins)...but then I was only half-watching it. Nothing new here, then, I guess.

What has gotten me the most about this state government is the microcosm of the good-ole-boy mentality that runs Washington. Sanford has been a maverick (Republican, conservative), governer, and the Republican led legislature has for the most part failed in pushing his agenda to end wasteful spending. Instead, it's all about bringing the goodies home to get re-elected.

Hang the lobbyists!

[fett]

We are all going to die. There is a sea change coming. It's going to be great to see Washington washed away. For, at least, six months.:ROTF:

[Cygnus X1]

fett,
You call me a kid?
We have been here before, too many times.
The only real positive change I have ever seen was the Congress of 1992.
But, they also pushed term limits, and many term limited themselves right out of
power.
Reagan said everything that I came to believe, but Washington couldn't be
undone.

"Government isn't the answer to the problem, Government IS the problem".

[fett]

Anything less that 57 is a "Kid". I mean no disrespect. The last thing I need is a non-recessed Floyd popped up my ass.

[cookiemonster2]

What do you consider wasteful spending? What % of your state budget do you think is wasteful spending and what do you base that estimate on?

I'm not trying to be sarcastic but I'm intrigued why so many people think government wastes so much money.

[fett]

Cheap guitars?:ROTF: Yeah, the money that is going into Iraq is making the wrong people rich. Those biilions upon billions of dollars that are pouring down the spigot will stop. Right or wrong. The next 8 years are going to get the money back where it belongs. To the people. My grandfather was a card caring Communist. It's in the genes.:ROTF:

[DrDoug]

I hang out at Calculated Risk, an excellent financial blog. If you want answers to the mess we are in, I would suggest hanging out there for a bit and reading up on opinions. CR (Calculated Risk) and Tanta (his co-blogger) have excellent data regarding housing, banking, investment and much more. They just put the data out there, and everyone mulls it over. Very interesting, and it gives you a good look at where we may be going.

Lotsa bears there, but these are the times we are entering (yet again).

State spending issues? How about spending more than we give them, and if that is not enough they just find other ways to charge us more. Education eats up about 60% of the budget, and our schools are a mess. The educators say it is a lack of money, but I think that is BS. You can't solve all of your problems with money, and with the way things are going, there is going to be a lot less money coming in to the government coffers.

Check out Calculated Risk, it is worth the read. There is a RacerX there, and I think they are from OC, but I don't know if it is our Ron.

[scotty]

Maybe Tom Cruise wrote his new speech.

[Cygnus X1]

Maybe Tom Cruise wrote his new speech.

:ROTF:

[yard dawg]

The problem with conservative tax cuts and smaller govt is they always go for the ones who need the money the most 1st... Im all for cutting the budgets of govt but the neo cons must address the amount of money they spend on corporations too. If people knew exactly where the money went you'd find that most of it ends up in some campaign donars pocket or some company that hires expensive lobbyist.

The states govts are the same just on a smaller scale. This issue will not be fixed because people have no integrity and can be bought so easily. Im with Fett on the coming crash. Im ready to duck and run.

[Cygnus X1]

Agreed, to a point, yard dawg.
I'd rather err on the side of giving the government less soveriegnty,
rather than trying to hold them accountable for more. It's like a
football game, once those in power gain yardage into the territory
of personal rights, property, responsibilities, and so forth, then
it becomes nearly impossible to get one's liberty back.
Sanford and the legislature commissioned a private study of duplicate waste in
governemnt operations, the firm found much to improve upon (we're not talking about removing the benfits of anyone here, just bearucratic waste), enough to put the State Budget back into stellar ratings. When all was said and done, it became too much of a political nightmare to actually have to get rid of people working for the State government who do nothing but shuffle papers back and forth, so the whole idea was dropped.