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betsy82's comments:
on Election 2010: The Morning After
Ugh - yes. If there is something I've noticed from OPB again and again - it's the mic thing. I swear I hear every single pop of saliva and puff of breath coming out of your mouths.
Other stations have talk formats and I can IMMEDIATELY tell I'm on OPB by the mouth sounds. Go ask them how they get around the problem.
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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on Election 2010: The Morning After
Amen. I thought there would be really, intelligent discussions when I came to Portland from my appauling red state. However, I'm learning that people are just as blindly following the Democrats here as my red-state patrons follwed their Republican ones there.
Just look at the he-said-she-said comments and VERY tired old party line complaints about rich/poor, evil corporations/tax-and-spend, conservative/liberal, socialism/selling your mother for a profit. Please - it's time for something different - something new.
BOTH parties suck IMHO. Neither of them is any more fiscially responsible than the other. And we keep taking their abuse. As to the comment about Rome falling - I think you'll find that when people get appeased all the time with promises they get complacent and don't demand more from their government to work for the people.
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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on Candidate Conversation: John Kitzhaber
@DoctorHenry
VitalPAc certainly need to learn to spell and maybe take a critical thinking course or two - but I'm offended by your insinuation that because he can't figure out how to use caps-lock and create a grammatically correct sentence that he's a male and has a mental disorder.
You might be right - but it's very offensive. Are all men stupid then? Are men inherently wrong in their opinions? Do people have mental disorders because they haven't learned basic grammar?
In short, I simply find your comment offensive.
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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on Candidate Conversation: John Kitzhaber
@BrandonGoldner
You have much more trust in the government to spend the money in the way they promise then I do. They've promised to fund PERS and all the other programs they've created, but never do. They even collect taxes for it and spend it on other things. Smoking taxes are only marginally used for smoking prevention/etc. Most of the money never goes to that problem. The sewer taxes in Portland get redirected to pay for bike lanes. They continue to promise us that each new program is funded, yet like PERS they go on and on non-funded. What's going to happen in 20 years when the retirees start asking for their promised services and there is no money to fund them?
And less you think money solves problems, I send my kid to a private school and pay about $40k/yr - and they get a MUCH better education (students test higher and get more AP classes) than the one they get at the public schools which have even MORE money per student per year. Funding for schools has gone up and up until its now over 50% of the states budget. Yet dropout rates keep going up every year, our performance goes down; and I'm wondering what is happening?
That's my big gripe; and why I don't agree that just letting the government keep more of the money is the solution. That's why I'm asking him how he's going to fix the problems of promising services and then never funding them. Where's the money going? Why isn't it buying me the same service that my dollars elsewhere can buy?
That's why as much as I hate it, I'll not vote for any more tax increases or concessions for the govt of Oregon (or fed) - until they can show me they spend the money they ALREADY get for the services they've ALREADY promised.
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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on Candidate Conversation: John Kitzhaber
I feel for you - my sisters in the same boat and living at home at the moment looking for something outside her field - maybe even Target. While the jobs market is definitely half the equation (we're in the worst jobs spot since the great depression) I think that has to do with the fact about half the degrees offered in most universities are nearly worthless from a career/financial standpoint; but they'll let you run up as big a bill as you like getting a degree in underwater basket weaving.
I mean really - I know someone that ran up a near $100,000 bill getting a degree in social work when everyone knows the avg pay for social work is $20-30 a year - if you can find a job at all. Now more than 50% of their take-home is just for the loan! How can anyone conciously take on that much debt, or let others take on that much debt, when they know the outcome?
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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on Candidate Conversation: John Kitzhaber
@chicostix
Why keep voting for the lesser of two evils - I'm voting for Cathulu.
But you forget, Kitz has been gov for longer than just the last term. Stop eating the party lines you're fed and really do reasearch on the measures and voting records.
As an independent, I could care less about party or party stereotypes. For someone to win my vote, I want to see what they did, and what the results were. At the moment, I'm very unhappy with the financial situation we've gotten Oregon into, and it was something that's been brewing for the last 5-10 years of overspending.
I'd like to see someone really talk about sustainability - how about a really sustainable government for a change. On that note, I find both the Dems and Rep both sadly lacking. They both want to spend for their pet wars/programs without actually having the funds to back it up.
I don't get to overspend for my whole life then decide my kids will pick up the tab - why does the govt get to do that?
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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on Candidate Conversation: John Kitzhaber
The information is somewhat hard to find - but is often on state/federal tax websites. This guy put together 2009 tax report:
http://www.blueoregon.com/2009/04/oregon-tax-dollars-where-do-they-come-from-and-where-do-they-go/
As for how much weath generated by citizens is required - for almost all people, 5-12% of their AGI is used. You can find that information on the very last page of the tax instruction booklet downloadable from the Oregon tax website.
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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on Candidate Conversation: John Kitzhaber
I'd also like to know how you plan on fixing PERS.
It seems to me we've signed ourselves up for a program that's slated for financial disaster by both overpromising services and yet not funding it like medicare/medicade slated for insolvency in 2020.
How do you plan on fixing this - or are you taking the stance like many other politicians that you'll promise the moon and starts today knowing you won't be around to have to pick up the pieces later when the bills come due and there's been no funding for it and we end up in the same position Greece finds itself in?
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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on Candidate Conversation: John Kitzhaber
To Kitzhaber:
As govenor of our state, you had the job of setting tone and direction. During your time, and during some of the best economic years for Oregon, the state overspent until the state treasurer/budget office now reports that we can no longer take on any more debt.
Now that we are in difficult financial times, we have run up the state 'credit card' and the goverment is in double straights at least part of which was created by their own overspending. How do you explain that lack of foresight and fiscal responsibility - and why should we trust you to do better in the future? Or will it simply be more 'business as usual' which overspends to win votes and just kicks our cronic overspending burdens onto the next generation?
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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