IMO one of the most critical problems facing America has not even been mentioned.

[Winterblues]

I am talking about our National Debt and our Deficit Spending.. This IMO was one of the biggest reasons for the loss in confidence around the world in the US economy and has steadily driven the dollar down. Unless we get a grip on our spending and start paying down our Debt not much is going to change...National Health Care IMO would be a huge step in beginning this but the biggest thing is cutting Defense Spending by at least half. We would still be spending more than any other country on earth, but where I disagree strongly with Republican philosophy is I believe it is better to be loved than feared and that is the opposite of Republican belief..

[Warpy]

1. Yes, and the GOP is rushing to increase it

in order to keep a bubble inflated and the rich, rich.

This country will be faced with a difficult choice and I hope it makes the correct one, to address the runaway Pentagon budget, to redefine our military's mission as one of defense instead of empire, and to free up the wealth we've poured down that five sided black hole for too many decades.

Hawks have always claimed that the war is what ended the Depression and that high military spending is what has prevented another one. We see now that this is simply not the case, that this country's wealth has always been in its manufacturing and infrastructure and that coddling the military contractors have caused both to become neglected.

We will need to start paying down our appalling debt. We won't be able to do so until and unless our manufacturing infrastructure is restored and the military cut down to size.

We the people are tapped out. We're not the ones who can afford to pay these debts. Someone else will have to do it this time.

[zipplewrath]

2. I'm not sure you're strictly correct.

The dollar was down because the fed had a very low interest rate going for a long time. It was low for the same reasons that investors didn't value US investments, they perceived little chance of growth. We are seeing the dollar rise, not because of perceived growth, but because it is currently a "safe" place to put money.

Our debt and deficit was high because Bush cut taxes. That can never be sustained without serious spending cuts, which they never really achieve, (who remembers the "Golden Asterisk"?) and economic growth. Even in the Clinton years, mostly they just held steady on spending and allowed the economic growth to decrease the deficit. And notably I believe much of the economic growth can be traced to issues surrounding Y2K related fears. It started a move within this country to replace much of the software and hardware over a fairly narrow period across the economic "board". The result was an unusual investment in infrastructure which improved efficiencies and expanded new areas of business. That, too, could not be sustained and we were seeing reductions in economic forces prior to 9/11 (falling business travel, the dot com bust, etc).

It is why Obama is in the "fortunate" position of not needing to immediately balance the budget. Short term economic stimulus is what we need, even at the cost of deficit spending. It must be targeted and focused on coming out the other side with a self sustaining economic environment that will produce revenues that will pay off the debts and balance budgets. This is why his calls for improved internet investment, improvements in the grid, the development of new energy generation technologies, and really fundamental investments in education infrastructure are the "right" path. These are the same kinds of moves that have generated economic growth in the past. I suspect another important component will be to get control of health care costs so as to free companies from those burdens on their balance sheets. We came out of the Great Depression I ultimately through governmental investment in our industry, education, and infrastructure at levels not seen before. It was in the later phase that employer based health care got started. At the end, it was the investment in the GI bill that spurred home ownership, and collegiate education which sustained our growing economy for decades. We continued to sustain it with the construction of our interstate system.

We basically need to do these things again. We've been doing them for 200+ years. We built canals, dams, roads, railroads, ports, and really westward expansion was an economic expansion as much as anything else. And these were funded and driven by basic investments in infrastructure by the US federal government. I would hope by now we were done with the argument about whether government can be useful in these endeavors and now understand the only argument is how they should be involved.