The bank bailouts paid for themselves, and the US government actually made money on it except for fannie/freddie (which essentially caused the mess in the first place by putting an implicit federal guarantee on risky debt).

No, it's not enough. The deficit is $1T, so cutting defense dramatically simply doesn't go far enough. Assuming you completely eliminate the US military, where are you coming up with the other $300B?

completely manufactured? Are you out of your mind? The debt crisis is very real - no serious economist would argue that US debt is not a problem. Bond markets price risk of default, and once debt becomes risky, interest on the debt rises, and you have less cash to spend.

No, there is not. We need to cut 30% of the budget. The money can't come from defense alone. A healthy portion, but even if you cut defense by 25% (which will never happen), that doesn't come close to closing the gap.

Letting the Bush tax cuts expire on the rich barely covers that doubled NASA budget. Far more needs to be cut.

There's a huge job ahead to bring the budget into reason, I'm all for cutting unnecessary spending but refuse to acknowledge any so-called savings that can be chalked up to "efficiency improvements" as they are too nebulous and too easy to fake. Specific and tangible cuts, on a huge scale, need to be made.

These are all great things, but the money has to come from somewhere. Very difficult to do at at time where we are running $1T deficits on $3.6T of spending - what programs do you cut to pay for more NASA spending? I actually agree with you, and would reallocate the money from medicare and other entitlements to invest…

Likely some of the acquisition funds were in escrow while they sorted it all. But probably not 90% of the purchase price!

No, I have HTC 8X on Verizon. Works fantastic - fluid, speedy, and rock solid. I have more problems on my retina ipad.

I just spoke with an Israeli friend of mine on the phone today. What you are ignorant about, Mr. Biddle, is that war and terrorism is a part of their everyday lives. Young people go out and party like everywhere else in the world, but they just do it while rockets are flying ever closer to Tel Aviv. And honestly, what…

I think it's more likely that we evolve a stratified society. Since there is really no evolutionary pressure as there are plenty of resources for just about all humans to mate and reproduce, what will likely happen is that the social classes could end up being biologically ingrained. Those whose personalities are well…

We've been buying minivans for 9 years now, had three Town & Countries. I'd have to see if it's a real substitute for the minivan. I like the space behind the third row and stow & go seating, so I would wonder if there's some space back there and how easy the seat configuration changes.

The completely incompetent group of scientists made the entire movie implausible. Who would spend "trillions" on a multi-year mission but then saddle the entire thing first by not telling the scientists what the hell they are doing or where they are going, but then by selecting a pothead misanthrope geologist, a…

Interesting take, I would argue that the mini would cannibalize the larger iPad sales and result in lost revenue for Apple. It's a "good enough" device that's lighter, smaller, and essentially you don't sacrifice browser real estate since it's the same resolution (yes i know retina is higher but it displays the same…

Education is so lacking it drives me nuts. We spend 100's of billions on propping up baby boomers with prescription drug program, social security, and medicare, but next to nothing on future generations. And by "propping up" I mean giving them far more benefits than what they put in.

Agree. Somebody find the "domesticated" gene quick.

Thank you.

Is there really an option to allow somebody to vote straight party line? Brain-dead voting at its worst.

Dude, cross post this on ATS in the Illuminati section.