What did the poor and middle class do to create the deficit?

[county worker]

In 2000 we had a surplus, then we had two wars and a huge tax cut for the wealthy. So how do we deal with the deficit that was created because of those decisions? Cut social security, cut medicare, cut Medicaid, cut salaries of public sector workers along with their pensions and get rid of the mortgage interest deduction.

Hey! How about ending the fucking wars and raising taxes on the wealthy?

[WhiteTara]

1. we exist

and that is an affront to their sensibilities. Of course, they need us which is a greater affront.
:shrug:

[rpannier]

2. The poor and middle class refuse to become slaves and/or indentured servants

If everyone just agreed to this then everything would be fine

[ejpoeta]

3. now that's just silly. that might hurt the rich people and we can't have that.

[Bigmack]

4. Wars and tax cut are the two biggies...

I send this out all the time... even the dullest of them can understand this..

[pacalo]

5. They went to fight in an unnecessary quagmire, courtesy of a boy king.

The Democrats should be shouting from the rooftops, "It's the cost of 2 wars, get it?"

[MadMaddie]

6. The poor and middle class bought into the fairy tale

that living on credit was safe. The poor and the middle class should have never trusted Wall Street because Wall Street only watches it's own back. Retirement funds, Savings, home loans all a fixed game against the consumers. U.S citizens bought into the Reagan bullshit trickle down theory......Run the government like a business......kill the Unions......

That's why it's important to get out and Vote and prevent Republicans from gaining power again. The next time we are looking over the edge at "The next Great Depression" there may not be anyone to pull us back.....10% Unemployment will look really good.

[bobbolink]

23. Its bad enough to be blamed for being poor by the Republicans.

When "Democrats" blame us, it is unbearable.

Knock it off and get educated, will ya?

[MadMaddie]

37. Did I not say Poor and Middle Class?

What I am saying is not controversial....how many people do you know that used their homes like ATMS? This was pushed by every major Home Mortgage company and banks were allowed to push this, this was the norm was it not?

We all bought into it voluntarily or involuntarily Americans bought into it.

Why not accept that fact. We fell into a pattern, all of us. I am including myself in this. The middle class was fooled into thinking that Wall Street was an equal playing field for the middle class. Instead the game was rigged and the uber rich got rich while the middle class was crushed.

The middle class and the poor have been pummelled with the meme that Unions are bad and many have fallen for it.

We all made financial mistakes at one time or another over the last 8 years.

So is the mantra now to knock off telling the truth?

[bobbolink]

39. Speak for yourself. If YOU bought into it, say so. MOst of us poor folk Don't Even HAVE Credit,

so stop blaming us.

I will NOT accept your blame, no way, no how.

Deal with it.

[jobycom]

7. Same thing Native Americans and Africans did to create American slavery.

They were there, and not able to fight off their enslavers.

[boston bean]

8. your neighbor or yourself bought more house than you could afford and lived outside your means

by having to use the credit card for grocery shopping.

[WinkyDink]

19. Oh? And this did NOT happen in the Clinton Administration, HMMMM????

[bettyellen]

26. because greedy banksters offered them mortages they shouldn;t have

[EnviroBat]

34. And lets not forget...

We propped up foreign economies by flocking to places like WalMart in droves. This in turn encouraged American corporations to move their shit to foreign places for cheap labor, so we could buy more of the shit.

[Pharaoh]

9. Ya think???

[Demeter]

10. Ronald Reagan--They Let Loose the Great Con

[gmoney]

11. we bought houses and took out student loans

Don't forget, the financial meltdown is the result of lots of us scam artists pulling the wool over the innocent bankers' eyes when we bought and financed a house, fully intent on making payments for 8 or 10 years, then just walking away from it with a breezy foreclosure!

Our evil scheme ruined the sanctity of the hard working bankers' credit default swaps and mortgage backed securities! The poor bankers never knew what hit them!

And don't get me started on those freeloading students, all scheming to emerge from college with tens of thousands in student loan debt, fully intending to move back in with their parents and scrounge for menial jobs, if they're unfortunate enough to even find one! Slackers!

:sarcasm:

[Swede]

12. Well,half of them must've voted for Bush.

Too bad for the rest of the peons.

[leftstreet]

17. Half of eligible voters don't vote n/t

[Capitalocracy]

29. Well, there's your answer

I'd say

[pnwmom]

13. Many of them are partially responsible.

The ones who voted to put Bush into office for 8 years.

[Greyhound]

14. They subsidized their own execution? n/t

[baldguy]

15. They put Republicans in power over the last 30 yrs

[Obamanaut]

16. In Jan 2007 the Democrats took control of the House, where spending

bills originate.

Inasmuch as the wars and spending on the wars continue unabated, can we say that both sides are complicit in the continuation?

This might be a good time to replace the House members, and 1/3 of the Senators.

[WinkyDink]

18. Your post sets out the raison d'etre! Republican pols are all Willie Suttons, and WE'RE the banks.

[WillyT]

20. They Trusted The Upper Class

:shrug:

[Catherina]

21. We didn't notice the water temperature was gradually increasing

Our system exploits other people. That's the only way capitalism can make a profit.

As long as it was other people being exploited, we didn't care to know, preferring that fancy new remote for the fancy new TV.

Now that we're being squeezed, in the quest for increased profits, now we notice.

If we had been out in the streets on principle, in solidarity with the working poor around the world who were being exploited for our temporary comfort, we wouldn't be where we are today.

That's what we did. We fell asleep at the wheel.

[jp11]

25. +1

[pacalo]

30. Beautifully said!

[dkf]

22. Social security, Medicare, and pensions are all problems of an aging population.

The deficit in itself is a problem in that it doesn't allow us to have any extra funds to compensate for the lack of funding within the programs. If we had paid off our debt and had a surplus then we could have kept benefits as is. But basically we've spent the retirement funds and our credit cards are up to our eyeballs so no extras to be able to easily supplement these programs.

In order to make things work out painlessly, we had to be smarter and thriftier early on. We weren't and now we will struggle.

[Yupster]

38. That surplus couldn't survive the tech bust anyway so

it wasn't going to be available to pay off anything.

Simple fact is that we have lived beyond our means for too many years and will eventually have to pay for it.

[mentalsolstice]

24. We live to serve!? nt

[ShamelessHussy]

27. we were the cop out, and we are the ones tapped to pay for it

and there ain't a damn thing we can do about it in the current system.

[Capitalocracy]

28. Voted Republican.

Oh wait, no we didn't! Damn!

[applegrove]

31. You are right. The Bush years were about a transfer of wealth from the middle class to the rich.

[Doctor_J]

32. Voted for Repukes

[fascisthunter]

33. the obvious culprits are the ones making all the money

tax cuts for the wealthy during a time of war and occupation that by the way, they themselves wanted? Fuck them and their putrid wealth.

[davekriss]

35. It is as simple as that

Anything else amounts to class theft

[txaslftist]

36. We voted and lent legitimacy to the politicians.

We should have been hanging.