Dear Lexi,

In answer to your earlier reference to Obama I think his drop in popularity is more due to his unwillingness to stand up for Democrat principles. He has let the Republicans walk right over him repeatedly. How on earth the Bush tax cuts are still in effect when they originally had a cut off date is beyond me, particularly in this economic climate. When you get Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in America complaining that he is paying tax at a far less rate than his secretaries then you know how skewered the system has become.

Perry is calling their Social Security system broken yet it has over 2.6 trillion dollars in positive balance and is able to pay, without any intervention, full entitlements out to 2036 and 80% till 2080 from memory.

What is broken is the health and tax systems. The politicians have got their snouts so deep in the private health insurer's pockets American's will continue paying twice what we do for worse health outcomes.

This is a good graphic of how much the tax cuts have driven the American deficit.

http://m.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/07/the-chart-that-should-accompany-all-discussions-of-the-debt-ceiling/242484/

And for those who like their information delivered visually this is another great graphic, it is the US deficit shown in stacked $100 dollar bills.

http://usdebt.kleptocracy.us/

There was a healthy surplus under Clinton, insane tax cuts for the rich, two very costly wars and a GFC clearly stoked by deregulated financial markets under Bush have put the country where it is now. It needed a strong Democrat to take on the Republicans and Obama just hasn't been up to it, much to the detriment of the country.

Huntsman was the only Republican candidate who would even countenance talking about increasing taxes to get them out of the current mess but he is quickly fading as a prospect.

It is rabid Libertarianism hijacked, debased and gutted by corporate and personal greed that may well be the undoing of a very successful nation.  

Dear csteele,

Thanks for your response and for the links.
The situation in the US is totally depressing.
What a shame that President Obama is not a stronger
leader. However, I still have faith in the US
and hope that at the next Presidential election -
they will elect a strong leader who will be able
to get them out of the dire-straits that they're in.
But I won't hold my breath - because as we know in the
US - it's the Banks and Big Business that dictate
the economy. And when things go wrong it's the poor
and the elderly that are sacrificed. The most vunerable
in society.

Unfortunately, Australia tends to follow American
traits (admitedly very slowly). However,
it could be disastrous
if the Opposition was to get in because many of their
policies seem to echo what's happening in the US.
And, for a small country like Australia that would be
catastrophic.

Dear Arjay,

Thought this little snippet from ABC news might be of interest. 

"The Reserve Bank has been stripped of its power to independently set the salaries of its governor, board members and top executives."

"The move comes in the wake of the RBA remuneration committee's decision to approve a $234,000 pay increase for governor Glenn Stevens, taking his total pay package to $1.05 million - almost triple what Prime Minister Julia Gillard earns."

"The increase angered Treasurer Wayne Swan after revelations that Mr Stevens would be paid significantly more than the chairman of the US Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke ($199,700) and the president of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet ($504,900).""

Setting ones own salary if an owner of a private company is acceptable but thems our dollars baby!

Dear Lexi,

The pain being felt by most of the workers in the US isn't reflected at the top end. The average pay of the CEOs of the top 500 US companies was over $10,000,000 dollars representing a 27.8% increase over the previous year.

25 of the top 100 companies paid their CEOs more than the companies paid in Federal income taxes. One might think it is because they must be making losses in the current economic climate, not true, these same companies made an average PROFIT of $1.9 billion dollars, it was the tax loop holes and offshore tax havens that did the trick.

How do they keep these loopholes open? 20 of these 25 companies actually paid more in lobbying politicians than they did in Federal income taxes.

Amazing.

Dear csteele,

Amazing isn't a word I'd use. You're being far
too polite. But you're right.

I recently came across a copy of BRW, March 24 - May 4 2011
which had an article on Australia's wealthiest 200 managers.
It was a special edition on the "Executive Rich."
The levels of executive pay should make any one of us
question their appropriateness.

I remember seeing on the ABC's "Q and A," TV program not so
long ago Wespac's Gail Kelly being asked to explain the gap
between her pay and that of the average teacher, Kelly
conceded, "I can't for a moment justify that gap. Or with
nurses or policemen, similarly I simply can't..."

csteele,Very interesting about the RBA.They are controlled by large corporate interests for their interests and really have no motivation to advance our economy for the common good.

Prof Michael Hudson has approached them asking why they do not create all our new money for inflation + growth.No reply since they are a power unto themselves.We could reduce our taxes by $ 100 billion pa if the RBA did this.There would be no need to borrow from International Central Banks who just create it as mouse money anyway in their computers.

Dear Lexi,

Just a follow up of the Wolf Blitzer question put to Ron Paul I had mentioned earlier;

"What do you tell a guy who is sick, goes into a coma and doesn't have health insurance? Who pays for his coverage? Are you saying society should just let him die?".

The crowd's reaction was quite disturbing and on reflection Ron Paul's answer was as well. It turns out however that there was a good reason for Blitzer's question. Ron Paul's campaign manager in 2008 died broke and uninsured from complications from  pneumonia before Paul withdrew. He credits Kent with being the driving force behind him running for President.

Kent's medical bills were over $400,000 dollars and the hospital is going after his grieving mother for the money which apparently she doesn't have. Kent couldn't get affordable medical insurance because of an existing medical condition.

Republicans like Paul do not want the likes of Kent to get government help.

The story was released by Gawker, 

http://m.gawker.com/5840024/ron-pauls-campaign-manager-died-of-pneumonia-penniless-and-uninsured

And TYT covered it here,

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=z8PCHis_PnM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Have I mentioned how lucky we are to live in this country?