QUOTATION: People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing. - Walter H. Judd
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2004-09-13 - 9:20 a.m. TO WHOM DO WE OWE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DEBT?And did you know that the We is WE THE PEOPLE?All this time I�ve thought Ed and I just owed the balance of the mortgage on our home and a few insignificant bills. Now I find out that we owe another $50,000, $12,000 of which is federal debt to foreign interests. And I guess another $38,000 of the National Debt � not sure to whom we owe that � bonds that will eventually come due, I suppose...and the Social Security account? I�d never thought about the federal debt in exactly that way before, had you? I just read Michael Hodges� Grandfather Economic Report to expand upon what Mark wrote in his e-mails. Of course, then I wondered �Just who is this Michael Hodges?� Dr. Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winner for excellence in economics, wrote in various letters to Michael Hodges: "I certainly commend you for the Grandfather Economic Report, and for the imaginative way in which you have displayed data highly relevant to very important issues. I am impressed. The analyses are excellent. Your objectives are ones I fully endorse.� Who was the idiot that said about debt, "We owe it to ourselves, so it�s no big deal if debt goes up." We still haven�t paid off the debt from the Vietnam War. It was only during the Clinton Administration that we ran this country with a budget surplus � that doesn�t mean we�d paid off the debt we�ve been running up over the years. It merely means we�d been living within our means during those years and had a bit left over. This cartoon summarizes rather well what is happening right now � just substitute Iraq for Vietnam on the fur stole of the voluptuous young lady. Urban needs still look very much the same � barefoot, ragged and unkempt. Republicans were always supposed to be fiscal conservatives - what went wrong? Maybe John Kerry needs to bring out the flip-charts ala Ross Perot to demonstrate and make clear our fiscal position and the need for some reforms.
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