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This is the best explanation I have seen so far... Please download and watch this video - 6.3 Megs Sorry, modem users, it will take you a little while but you still need to download it and watch it. To download it and save it to your hard drive just right-click on the link with your mouse and then choose "SAVE TARGET AS...". When it asks you where to save the file, save it to your Windows Desktop so that you can easily find it. Visit Recovery.Gov and bookmark it for future visits. Remember, it is your money and your future they are spending. Higher and Higher WASHINGTON -- Today, the Democratic-controlled House approved $410 billion legislation Wednesday that boosted domestic programs, bristled with earmarks and chipped away at policies left behind by the Bush administration. The vote was 245-178, largely along party lines. Republicans assailed the measure as too costly -- particularly on the heels of a $787 billion stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed last week. But Democrats jabbed back.  "It's important for this administration to send a message that there aren't two sets of rules - you know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes," Obama said in one of a series of interviews with TV anchors. What are you, a "prominent people" or an "ordinary people"? "Most people who serve in Washington have been trained either as lawyers or as political operatives – professions that tend to place a premium on winning arguments rather than solving problems." - Barack Obama, Attorney at Law How Much things cost in 1931:
How Much things cost in 1939:
How Much things cost in 1945
How Much things cost in 1949
"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work ... After eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... And an enormous debt to boot!" Henry Morgenthau - FDR's Secretary of Treasury "It was Roosevelt who first experimented with deficit spending to pull the economy out of depression and to stimulate jobs through the creation of public works programs and other elements of his New Deal. Though taxes were raised on the wealthy, the depressed state of the economy meant government revenues were far too low to finance the New Deal. As a result, Roosevelt in his first year created a budget deficit almost six times greater than that of Hoover's last year in office. Between 1931 and 1941, the public debt tripled in size, standing at $48,961 million upon the United States' entry into World War II. To help fund the debt and get hoarded money back into circulation, the Treasury introduced the United States Savings Bond. Nonmarketable with a guaranteed redemption value at any point in the life of the security and a denomination as low as $25, the savings bond was aimed at small investors fearful of continued bank collapses. With the advent of war, these bonds became War Savings Bonds and were the focus of the eight war drives of World War II, which also included Treasury bonds and certificates of indebtedness. The public debt reached a height of $269,422 million because of the war." Pelosi to Obama - Please Raise Taxes On The Wealthy! By Paul Kane - January 8, 2009 "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is urging the incoming Obama administration to stick to its campaign pledge and immediately increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans, a position that President-elect Barack Obama has wavered on since winning election." Unemployment Figures:
Source: http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Timeline.htm United States Unemployment 1980 through 2009
Source: http://www.bls.gov/data/ "The New Deal is plainly an attempt to achieve a working socialism and avert a social collapse in America; it is extraordinarily parallel to the successive 'policies' and 'Plans' of the Russian experiment. Americans shirk the word 'socialism', but what else can one call it?" - H.G. Wells "While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before," - Barack Obama Mr. President, how can you know? How does anyone know what will happen and where we will be as a nation and as a people when tomorrow rolls around? How does anyone know about next week, or a year from now, or ten years from now?" Is the President clairvoyant? Has he got a crystal ball in his pocket? As I was sitting and thinking today and reading some of the news headlines it struck me, "How does President Barack Obama know where we will be ten years from now as a nation?" The answer is, "He does not." He has no idea where we will be. He hopes we will be there, and he intends to follow his political convictions and political training to get us there. But truthfully, no one can say where they will actually be ten years from now. Many of us may not even be here at all. The only thing that we know for sure is what has already happened. We know the 1929-1940 Crash/Depression scenario. We know about World War II. We know about other things from the past, but we, and the President and all of his people, know nothing about the future, because they haven't seen it yet. So any time they tell us that such and such is going to happen and its going to be this way, we ought to tell them to stop politicing and simply tell us the truth. Everything beyonf yesterday and now is simply speculation and arrogance. Doubt me? Adolf Hitler and his crew set out to build a Third Reich that would last for one thousand years. They successfuly maintained power from 1933 until 1945. By 1946, most of them were either dead or in prison awaiting trial and judgment. So much for the exalted Thousand Year reign. Rome sat as the ultimate Western power from about 45 B.C. (Julius Caesar's time) until her collapse about 450 years later. Alexander the Great started out as a 17 year old boy and conquered most of his known inhabited world, and died at the age of 34 in complete possession of his kingdom, leaving everything behind to his generals. Moments after he died he no longer had any active say-so in what happened to any of his possessions. Dead is dead. History has continually demonstrates that men are mere mortals and that they cannot foretell or predict the future. So when our politicians stand up and tell us thus-and-so we ought to take them to task if they start to prognosticate. Rather instead, let them give us a truthful and accurate assessment of where we are and what we are facing and then let us roll up our sleeves and go to work together to get through it. I for one am tired of pie-in-the-sky and the ever changing political-babble that comes out of Washington, D.C. Opinion Clint Bridges "Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.' "But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. "Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. "But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes' {or} 'No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil Jesus said it right... Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are {just} a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. instead, {you ought} to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. And James understood it... 
Can we borrow and spend our way back to prosperity? A search for the right questions. Truth: In order to arrive at the right answer (conclusion), one needs to ask the right question. For a period of about three years it seemed that I was being chosen and called for jury duty two to three times per year. Everyone has a different reaction to being called. Most of us want to be good citizens and do our duty, but sometimes the call comes at inopportune times, eliciting a groan from us when the envelope arrives. In my case I went through the jury selection several times. Sometimes I was selected, but usually they filled out the jury before reaching me. On one occasion, I was rejected by one of the attorneys under their right of challenge for cause. Two particular sessions where I did serve come to mind. In one, the first one, I was selected to be the jury foreman. We listened to the testimony of the witnesses and the presentations by the attorneys, received the instructions from the judge and retired to our chamber. Back and forth we went, reviewing and discussing what we had heard and attempting over and over to arrive at a decision. We needed unanimous agreement on the issue. We voted and got six to sixes, five to sixes and so on. We were getting nowhere. I was trying to figure out why we were stuck. Then I began asking different questions leading to the vote. It took some tries, but we began to make progress, reflected in votes that became seven to five and then eight to four and then a big jump to eleven to one. One vote, we were one vote away from an agreement. The juror was a good juror, and was really attentive and thoughtful, without prejudice either way, he was simply asking good questions of what had been presented and wasn't finding the answer he needed. It suddenly became clear to me what he was seeking from the evidence, so I asked him, "Is this what you are asking?" "Yes," was his reply. "So if we can present evidence that answers that question, you can say yes?" "Yes," came the answer. Once I got the issue out into the clear it was easy to ask the next question. "Does anyone here have anything in their notes (we had been given note pads and pencils to use for our benefit during the presentation of the evidence) which would answer his question?" One of the other jurors said, "I think I do." There it was. Right in his notes, written down nearly verbatim, the words and statement of one of the parties giving testimony. It was exactly what we needed. Once the remaining holdout read what was in the other juror's notebook he asked, "Did he really say that?" The answer was "yes". The testimony had stuck in the man's mind and he had copied it nearly word prefect because it struck him as important. Now we became twelve to zero. We signalled the bailiff and returned to the courtroom. The incident really stuck in my mind. To arrive at the right conclusion, one needs to ask the right question. Wrong questions lead to the wrong path or conclusion. The truth of this revelation was born out a few months later when I was again serving on a jury. Another man was elected as foreman. We listened to the presentation and retired to the jury room. Back and forth we went, round and round and once again we were getting no where. At the start of the deliberations, I had raised my hand and volunteered that the important thing in the jury deliberation was getting the question right before you tried to arrive at a decision or conclusion about the case. It was a different type of case and a different group of people and I was not in charge. I deliberated along with everyone else and I went down the same road as them, and we continually came out with six-six splits and five-six splits. The session wore on and on. Finally we went home to return the next day. The next day started out the same. Six and six, five and six, and we made no headway. I was sitting there trying to think, tired of it all, as was everyone else. Suddenly a different thought came to me. I presented what I was thinking to the group. It only took a few moments of discussion and the entire thing fell right into place and everyone understood what we were supposed to be doing, where we were going and how to get there. One simple vote after that and we were twelve-zero with not one bit of doubt or apprehension. It was like a light broke through into our jury room. I tell you these two stories, because we are all wondering about the current state of our nation and our future. Pundits and analysts and opinionators offer multiple and conflicting views of where we are financially, what will happen to us in the future and what the best solution is for our circumstances. I also have been offering you my opinion, which you either applaud or scorn. So today, in this post, I am doing something a little different. I am trying to arrive at and state the correct questions so that you can sort out for yourself, what the truth of the matter really is. If I can get the right question out where everyone can see it, ask it, think about it and mull it over maybe we, as a nation, will find our way to the right path and survive. If we get the wrong question, reach the wrong conclusions and choose the wrong path, we may suffer grave consequences and perhaps irrecoverable loss. The question comes out of the Republican side of the debate over the economy. Please, if you are a Democrat, please do not shut me out. Please just read the question and then answer and live it to your own satisfaction. The question comes out of Rep. David Camp's statement about the current economic policy and the bail outs. He meant it as criticism, I am sure. I hope that a careful rephrasing will move it from censure to truthful seeking and will help all of us come to clarity in the issue. Here it is below: Do you honestly think, or has your life experience demonstrated, that you can successfully borrow and spend your way into prosperity by continually spending more than you have taken in, borrowed or can financially pay back? If you do, then please explain to the rest of us how it has worked and show us where it has succeeded and let us see the proof of what you say. If you do not have any examples or cannot demonstrate where it continually succeeded in your life experience, then why would you, or should I, think that it will succeed for federal, state or local governments? 
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