I do have a quarrel with people who, as I said originally, fight the good and possible in the name of the perfect and unattainable.

Ryan has done a magnificent job for us. If Conservative chip away at it, they simply enable the opposition.

It may be just a start; I am not competent to predict the future. I am convinced that we need to get behind it and support it anyway we can.-

First of all, I would like to believe you & J.J. are right. Nonetheless, from my POV we have devolved into a tribal society to a certain extent. I see little cohesion and a lot of collision aside from local pockets of sanity in the less populated, more homogenous midwest, I want to be optimistic, but I’m at a 50-50 state at best.

Thanks for the link, I will check it out.

I’m with J.J. It’s Argentina we should look at because I don’t truly think that we’d slip into a tribal savagery that is Zim.

My go-to prepper/”survivalist” site isL

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/

I STRONGLY recommend his book, poor English and all. It’s part of his charm.

His take is that we’re on the exact same road as the one they went down. He doesn’t subscribe to ‘TEOTWAWKI’, zombie hoards, etc. I’ve mentioned his site before and will do so to anyone who listens.

His real-world advice based on personal experience is fascinating. He’s also had some foreign (Japan, Kosovo – I think…., etc) guests on telling what life is like once everything changes. No running to the hills, but how to handle a life where crime is rampant, services non-existent, and money inflating by the day.

While his words don’t fill me with hope, I am lifted from possible despair that one gets when reading other blogs about surviving hard times. It makes this former Girl Scout who didn’t earn all that many badges, and who still has never changed a tire (in all my 44 years) feel like things are survivable for those with brains, foresight and a bit of luck.

Oldflyer says, “Just who are you to criticize Ryan’s product?”. We know that Ryan is an acknowledged budget expert—even the hostile press admits that. He has slaved over this for months, maybe years. He has studied the “Debt Commission” and every available source of budgetary wisdom. He has produced a major proposal; some would say a gargantuan proposal. So, let’s hear it. How did you arrive at your critique? Did you bring comparable expertise and effort to the problem?”

Oldflyer,

I’m just me, a human being born in America possessing my inalienable rights. I do not feel I have a quarrel with you, we simply see things differently. I see a much bigger problem than you see & you see a smaller problem than I see.

Andrew_M & kolnai point to what I see as the BIG problem. IMO — an inalienable right 🙂 — Ryan’s proposal kicks the can down the road for about 10 years as opposed to Bernanke who has been kicking it down the road with a series of 6 month punts. That is progress, but feeble progress IMO.

Again, if they can’t cut a bloated 3.6 trillion annual budget by 10% they are not showing me what I require to be confident that they are truly serious. I realize its all ‘politics’ but we will soon be beyond the point of politics as usual. The American people need to be told the truth per the items Andrew_M & kolnai discussed.

As I said, we need to chart a course, because we are underway. An analogy could be to moving through ice. We cannot stop, or we will be trapped. The various Navigators of this ship have let it drift too long. We are deep in the ice (euphemistically speaking). Ryan has given us a course to open water, and we better keep steam up and hold steady.