Thanks for the link to the PressTV interview

Thanks for the link to the PressTV interview. It's good to hear one sane voice at least. Things are not looking good at all, pon any front that I can see. There are solutions available :

A Five Point Plan to Cut the Deficit and Repair Economic Damage

' First, spending on high-return public investments should be increased. Even if this widens the deficit in the short run, it will reduce the national debt in the long run. What business wouldn't jump at investment opportunities yielding returns in excess of 10 percent if it could borrow capital—as the U.S. government can—for less than 3 percent interest?

' Second, military expenditures must be cut—not just funding for the fruitless wars, but also for the weapons that don't work against enemies that don't exist. We've continued as if the Cold War never came to an end, spending as much on defense as the rest of the world combined.

' [Third] Following this is the need to eliminate corporate welfare. Even as America has stripped away its safety net for people, it has strengthened the safety net for firms, evidenced so clearly in the Great Recession with the bailouts of AIG, Goldman Sachs, and other banks. Corporate welfare accounts for nearly one-half of total income in some parts of U.S. agro-business, with billions of dollars in cotton subsidies, for example, going to a few rich farmers—while lowering prices and increasing poverty among competitors in the developing world.

' An especially egregious form of corporate special treatment is that afforded to the drug companies. Even though the government is the largest buyer of their products, it is not allowed to negotiate prices, thereby fueling an estimatedincrease in corporate revenues—and costs to the government—approaching $1 trillion dollars over a decade.

' Another example is the smorgasbord of special benefits provided to the energy sector, especially oil and gas, thereby simultaneously robbing the treasury, distorting resource allocation, and destroying the environment. Then there are the seemingly endless giveaways of national resources—from the free spectrum provided to broadcasters to the low royalties levied on mining companies to the subsidies to lumber companies.

' [Fourth] Creating a fairer and more efficient tax system, by eliminating the special treatment of capital gains and dividends, is also needed. Why should those who work for a living be subject to higher tax rates than those who reap their livelihood from speculation (often at the expense of others)?

' [Fifth] Finally, with more than 20 percent of all income going to the top 1 percent, a slight increase, say 5 percent, in taxes actually paid would bring in more than $1 trillion over the course of a decade. '

But the plutocrats are unwilling to take any kind of hit at all, and have instructed their minions, our 'representatives' to stick it to us instead, as has Israel with regard to the Middle East. Unfortunately Obama Stooge is a 100% made-man and is delivering.

Nobody seems to want to hear about the Ni4d, or campaign finance reform, or a uniform election amendment or about any sort of structural solution which is, as you have pointed out, the only way out of this mess.

Good to hear from you though, Mike. Thanks for continuing to speak in reasoned tones when you have the chance to do so.