Richard Haas says the rest of the world is dismayed with the unserious nature of our political

Debate.

He was surprised that the focus of many questions was not about Iran or Afghanistan but on China and their possible ascendance. Looks like people are wondering whether the center of gravity is tilting towards the Chinese.

Lastly they are beginning to question whether our political system as it currently stands is capable of creating the economic recovery needed to keep the US in a position of power and influence. They look at our political discussion and wonder where are the adults and the problem solvers who can make the compromises that ideologues cannot.

.... would show a seriousness to our politics. The fact that they, along with multinationals who live in fear of their retaliation, have the American worker by the short hairs needs to be discussed.

Instead, we get "Ground Zero Mosque," Don't Ask Don't Care, and quibbling over whether we should go 3 trillion or 3.7 trillion more into debt.

And we need to figure out how to beat them in a head to head competition. Are we equipped to take on the industriousness of the Chinese? Say what you will...those Chinese work damn hard. We sit back and can't even do our own labor to grow our own food. We have to get back to the idea of honoring hard work.

...a lot of people. Bush in charge of our military and nuclear arsenal was bad enough; seeing the sort of loons trying to take the reins of it would make any sane person sweat.

We do not need to compromise anything, and in fact our ability to recover decreases with every compromise we make.

But it points to the policies that both side advocate without regard to consequences. I.e. Based on principle alone without regard to practicality or outcome.

They are probably NOT in politics.

Who (in their right mind) would even run for office these days, when some people's every foible gets broadcast and examined with a microscope, and the real assholes get a free pass & kid-glove treatment?

and the press seems to be only interested in nonsense... and has the attention span of a bedbug:)

instead we have mostly political hacks and ideologues and conduits for lobbyists.

right now we need more demand push -- jobs, jobs, jobs -- to make the economy work for everybody. but congress is largely paralyzed when it comes to the real issues. *if* we get a more reasonable economy out of this mess, real recovery will long be hampered by the gargantuan national and trade debts. these problems require some serious engineering, but the best we get to pretend to address the problem is to try to kill the consumer goose that laid the last 65 years of golden economic eggs by trying to scale back social security.

somehow trying to take away grandma's retirement money is patriotic now, but anyone who dares to think that spending $500 instead of $600 for a military hammer is a traitor.

as a nation, we talk in meaningless sound bites and care only about the horse race, not about policy. meanwhile, the government is less and less capable of righting itself and the economy is more and more of a mess.


but the ultra-rich are making money, so who cares?

If we concentrate our resources on providing for our least among us and the Chinese concentrate on educating the best among them, which philosophy will win out?

Maybe we don't care if China becomes the world's superpower while we are stagnant?

if you're saying that you think we should support retirees through some means, that's one thing.
if you're saying we should let them suffer or help them through other programs, that's another.

i don't think a civilization advances by abandoning those who can't (for ANY reason) provide for themselves.

and viewing china as serious competition is just silly. they're growing at the moment, but eventually their growth will bring internal problems. they're a LONG way away from being serious competition with america in terms of being "the world's superpower".

Maybe we should be. This generation is the last that will have pensions after all. Yet this is heresy for political reasons.

Also should a family in poverty be providing social security funds for a wealthy retired millionaire? How much of these benefits is excessive when you look at people's needs?

what heresy to me is messing with the social contract. beyond that, a true social safety net must be maintained.
i have no problem with taking back some or even all of the benefits based on taxable income. in fact, reagan instituted something like that by starting to tax the benefits. given that the benefits max out (because contributions max out), the effect is more pronounced at the higher income levels. this is fine, and if we want to make it more so, fine, again, provided that it really preserves a true social safety net.

to the extent social security is a nice extra for people who don't really need it, that is something i think it's ok to scale back, again, provided it relates only to future contributions.

In the education and infrastructure needed to produce a lively and healthy economy. If workers can't provide for themselves, they can't provide for retirees.

we need to invest properly in education and infrastructure, along with a host of other legitimate governmental services, quite aside from whatever is done relating to social security.

the idea that we don't have enough money for legitimate government needs and functions is ridiculous despite the large debt. we just need to scale back in the right places.

speaking of heresy, try talking about saving money in the defense budget! there's FAR more money to be saved there without seriously harming people. the amount of money wasted on social security for those who really don't need a dime of it is small compared to the absurd amounts wasted on optional wars and boondoggle defense projects.

Seriously stupid.

We recently traveled to Taiwan, where legislators entered into a fist fight, and the debate on both sides reminded me of Fox news. France just passed a ban on religious clothing. I'm too tired to dig further than those two items at the top of my memory, but, as bad as it is, the pastures aren't all that green anywhere else.

from people in Mexico City...

People are shall we say... concerned.

The US needs a few VERY SERIOUS political reforms to break the logjam. Neither of the two political parties would even start to approve of them.