[Deathstar 80]

I've been watching CNN, Fox News, and Bloomberg for the past few months. Something that I've noticed is that it's very difficult to find the truth, especially about our national debt. I've thankfully done my own research about this and know what to believe. But for someone who hasn't done their own research, it would be very difficult to find the truth.

For example, some people on the news said that defaulting on our debt would be catastrophic for our economy. However, there were others who said that it wouldn't effect our country at all. I honestly don't know the answer to this, but I'm sure you get my point.

There are more examples that I can think of, but they could possibly be linked to political reasons of why there are two sides that disagree with each other (which is not the purpose of this thread and, therefore, I prefer to avoid). The point that I'm making is that while there should be one, completely truthful answer that should be given to us, the media is unable to give us that answer. Therefore, it's very confusing to some people to understand why we're greatly debating over government spending, why we're talking about defaulting on our debt, why our national credit rating has been downgraded, etc. To me, it makes sense because I've done my own research. To a person who has never been informed about this - like the average American - it would be much more difficult to understand.

In short, the media seems to be unable to give us the truth. And I know that there are sometimes political reasons of why each of the media channels give the answers that they do, but the point I'm making is that they don't always give us the truth that we expect from them. I thought of making this thread to explain to everyone that if you're absolutely confused with what's happening to our country, you're not alone. Don't fully rely on the media to explain anything to you. Please research yourself on what's happening to our country and on any important media stories.

[LWC]

I have noticed that. Also, if you talk to conservatives/Republicans then certain channels, sites and newspapers are wrong but if you talk to liberals/Democrats it is the exact same only the other channels, etc.....

I have Democrat friends that can find statistics that look very legitimate but a Republican friend can show statistics that are exactly opposite that look legitimate.

I honestly believe that the party lines are drawn EVEN farther now than they ever were. In the days of Henry Clay, the political lines were not as divisive, so compromise was a good thing, now that parties are so far apart on almost every issue, compromise is a very bad thing, because today compromise means everyone loses instead of everyone wins.

[Hoot Gibson]

I am not a big fan of compromise and never had been. Henry Clay is often cited as an example of the virtues of compromise but what did he really accomplish as a legislator? At best, he helped delay the outbreak of the Civil War but neither side was ever really satisfied with the bargain they struck, so were the compromises that Clay helped broker really worthwhile?

I think that we are starting to see the impact of years of compromise for the sake of compromise. Politicians of both parties have supported federal spending for pork barrel projects and costly legislation in exchange for support for their own pet projects. The result has been an exploding national debt with no end in sight.

There has been far, far more compromising in Washington than what most people seem to believe. The question is would we have been better off with several decades of gridlock when it came to entitlements and discretionary, non-defense spending? IMO, we would have been much better off today without so much compromising within and between the two major parties.

[real_change]

I am not a big fan of compromise and never had been. Henry Clay is often cited as an example of the virtues of compromise but what did he really accomplish as a legislator? At best, he helped delay the outbreak of the Civil War but neither side was ever really satisfied with the bargain they struck, so were the compromises that Clay helped broker really worthwhile?

I think that we are starting to see the impact of years of compromise for the sake of compromise. Politicians of both parties have supported federal spending for pork barrel projects and costly legislation in exchange for support for their own pet projects. The result has been an exploding national debt with no end in sight.

There has been far, far more compromising in Washington than what most people seem to believe. The question is would we have been better off with several decades of gridlock when it came to entitlements and discretionary, non-defense spending? IMO, we would have been much better off today without so much compromising within and between the two major parties.

As Reagan said about compromise, (paraphrasing), "They will be some who can not accept what we believe, and I say, let them go their way. We can not now or ever water down our values and ideals for the sake of agreement. If we believe in something, its because we believe its right."

All too often, compromise is simply a fancy way of saying that you passed a bill that contains the worst and smallest parts of each side, for the sake of saying you actually passed something. republicans want personal accounts for social security, democrats want to raise the taxes on the rich --- the compromise would be neither of the two key points, but instead some earmarks, increases in educational and defense spending and a commission that studies hwo to fix social security. the bills title? "Securing a better future today, for tomorrow's seniors".

[TheRealThing]

I don't find the media confusing at all. The dems see themselves as a bunch of saviors, therefore, their focus is on giving the percieved LESS FORTUNATE among us as many of life's neccessities as possible. That makes them feel superior and benevolent. Further, most are secular humanists, and see all of mankind as on some march toward perfection and purity of spirit and character, even if most seem to be fascinated with their own sexuality. If they aren't trying to gather Americans up under their wing of imaginary protection to sort of pet on them a little bit, they are ingaged in verbal warfare either in a general sense, or if not, an individual personal attack against republicans, conservatives or the christian/evangelical community. Everything they say and everything the main stream media report supports what I have said here. They say it and the media reports it because they share a common phylosophy.

The republicans, on the other hand, are as a group, in various stages of awakening, ranging from the outright RHINOs (these folks would probably be more comfortable if they were in caucus with the dems) to those who embrace in a more pure sense the tenets of the founding fathers. I'm not saying the dems reject the language of the constitution, but, they do believe that language is open to intrepretation, so that it's original meaning may be 'tweeked' somewhat to more adequately serve Americans when held up in a comparision to new concepts such as the notions of social justice.

A scripture comes to mind when one is considering a "fundamental transformation of the United States of America" or all this redefining the 200 year old legal jurisprudence of our land, Gal 5:9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. end quote In other words, even if you put the tiniest little bit of leaven in the bread dough it's gonna rise some, and the bread is irreversably changed from that point onward. Even as recently as 20 years ago we as a nation were well, and sanity ruled. America of the Reagan era worked just fine, thank you very much, but, the liberal mind just can't accept that. The liberals of the media and govenment, which has become infested with the fanciful social theories of the academia, that keep wanting all this change will rue the day they started all the experimeting with our great nation, as we mutate into something that is looking more and more marxist. Of course, if one is part of the main stream media the good news is you're already trained to do the bidding of the state. :biggrin: