While there is plenty of blame to be shared by both parties, I must say that I voted for Obama as I felt a governmental change as well as the promise of change, was compelling when matched against the Republican ticket of a dinosaur and an incompetent Governor of some place called Alaska:)
However, I have not seen any change and frankly have not seen the leadership and boldness that I had hoped for. The same people and policies still govern the banks and financial community. Oh, I forgot, they did reduce fee's for overdrawn checks to which the banks now are making up for by charging for debit cards et al that will ultimately drive people back to credit cards. So, I will hope for a new government once again, that can tackle the macro and micro issues that face us, perhaps for generations to come as the world order changes. Can they do it? They are all politicians and thus have personal gain ahead of national gain. A SHAME as our brightest and best are busy making money and have no interest in thankless politics.

When I called his office to aske if he had signed the Norquist pledge they said "NO" I say anyone who signs a pledge to anything or anyone outside of the country should be thouoght of as a traitor to his or her country. Who is he representing us or Norquist?

he'll depart from the republican line only when that vote means nothing since all but he and two other republicans split.
is that the act of a statesman.....or politician?

Dold has been playing the same game as Kirk did. Play the conservative to the Glenview side of the district and stay buddy-buddy with Boehner and Grover Norquist while back in DC and then act like the moderate while he's in Highland Park and the communities closer to the lake. This is the Kirk playbook up and down the street.

1. An atmosphere of certainty does not create jobs. Businesses hire when there is increased demand for their products or services. The government can't just "create" an atmosphere of certainty.
2. The loss of much of our manufacturing capacity to other countries due to our high wages and standard of living has cost us dearly. When products are manufactured, each of the components has a long trail of jobs from raw materials to production to assembly to sale. A service economy, on the other hand, has a much shorter trail of jobs resulting in many fewer jobs for the same dollar volume.

Edward...couldn't agree more. Demand is the name of the jobs game! I mentioned this at the meeting; if small business taxes were ZERO they'd only hire when they can't fulfil their customer demand with current staffing. The other small business issue is availability to credit and again I expressed to Dold banks are sitting on cash, credit lines have been slashed therefore business expansion is at a minimum.

Edward makes a good point - service industries cannot sustain our job needs. Students in our schools are taught service skills: business, graphic arts, computers, etc. but few are able to produce a product or perform an actual manual service themselves. Our school ended a long standing tradition of a wood shop (for 8 yr olds ) because of the liability involved with hitting a nail with a hammer! Take a trip away from the North Shore and you'll see the cost of losing manufacturing jobs and how it affects small towns across the U.S. And yes, before someone jumps all over that last comment, I know people on the NS have lost jobs too but I sometimes feel very insulated here. Two weeks ago I was visiting an area in New England that depended on manufacturing & educational (colleges) sources for jobs. The factories were closing (moved overseas), people couldn't afford homes or home maintenance, dinner out, school fees, etc. This had been a nice, well-kept, proud town when I lived nearby (20 yrs ago). Now it just looks sad.

Norquist came to the district to endorse Dold. I have a picture of the two of them on my old blog. People wrongly believe that lowering taxes is a solution to the economic problems of the country. It sounds good, but tax decreases don't put money back into the economy; they only put money into the offshore bank accounts of the wealthy. Until the tea parties get that, they are going to push us into economic failure. I agree with prior comments when they say we have a demand side economy. Businesses hire when they get the business to support the hires and not because they get a tax break. The most interesting part of this report is that Dold seems to be unable to get his own crowd out to his own event. Having kept the event secret from the general public, until outed by the local Democrats just the day prior, Dold was unable to flood the place with his own people. Kirk never seemed to have a problem with that. Dold is using Kirk's "stay under the radar" strategy, but perhaps he's stayed so far under the radar that he's fallen off. Perhaps people are just mad at all politicians now. Would be nice if Dold woke up one day and decided to really do his job representing the district rather than just representing his reelection.

Good citizens, now we are all on the same side. We need to keep the pressure on the people we have elected, from both sides of the aisle. Write your representatives and our Senators. 2012 is just around the corner.

Taxes: If a family of 4 makes $40,000 per year. They in essence pay no tax, no fica tax, and some money left over towards state income tax. $2,000 child credit and
$2500 earned income credit. Redistribution is here in spades.

Greed, gee, there is enough blame here for everyone starting with yourself.
Look in the mirror and ask yourself if you have purchased products made in China versus Made in America? Let's not forget the greed of public servant/teachers unions. Pensions that can not be actuarily justified a ticking time bomb. Salaries, paid by us, have not gone down as a result of reduced revenues. But our taxes are skyrocketing. They want to protect their turf.

IMO we have several years more to weather the real estate problem. Its collapse, a result of democratic policies easing loan availablity for those who could not display an ability to repay under long established rules helped create the bubble, 10 or so years in the making, that has since burst.

Getting out of this recession. Used to be there was an industry that would help lead the way. Manufacturing, housing. We all now know the housing story. Manufacturing, where is it? Well, it has moved off shore. Some for reasons of profits, some for reasons governmental interference due to regulations. The savior industry was the service sector. It has been beat up a lot and takes time to rebuild.

Let's talk of government subsidies, from mortgage interest deductions, child care deductions to student loans. With government subsidies, sure it helps with people able to better afford these things until one sees the result. The result is higher costs to each of use. Mortgage deduction increase the amount of home one can afford. The more you can afford the higher the price of a prospective home will be.
Child care, prior to deductions, was more affordable. Now that you get a tax credit you can afford to pay more. College, student loans and grants. If these did not exist one of two things would happen. Tuition would go down, which may mean professors may not get their half million dollar salaries, or they disappear to be replaced with more affordable institutions. Kind of like the story of the 3 bears.
Too hot, too cold, just right. Gov't creates too hot and we all have to pay for it.
Well meaning programs that end up costing us more.

Tarp funds. Many of the original funds were paid back. Where did this payback money go? Did it go back to the treasury? Did it get stolen by the Obama admiistration to spend elsewhere? Yeah, I think it did get stolen.

Stimulus, on the labor side, much of this went to subsidize union workers. Public workers and some private workers working on public projects. Was anything done to subsidize the real creators of jobs? The private sector?

I have an idea. Not sure it would work. Some may call it protectionism.
There are some calling for lower tax rates for corporations. Since gov't should
be creating incentives how about this for an incentive. A flexible tax rate based on content. Content be cost of materials and labor to produce the goods. Excluding SG&A (Selling, General & Administrative) expenses. Maybe we do something like 100% U.S. Content gets 20% tax rate. 100% foreign content gets a 40% tax rate.
Amounts inbetween will be reduced accordingly, ie: 50% would get a 30% rate.
This may be an incentive to create more manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Although this sounds good. I am not able to say it is or is not a workable policy.

Rep. Dold DID sign the Norquest pledge. He must renounce it so that he can help govern. Sensible government can't function under such restraints. One pledge to the citizens of his district is enough. Will he renounce it, or just continue to talk around the limitations of it preventing a vote to cut costs and raise revenue responsibily.

Congratulations to Rep. Robert Dold for his leadership! When he and his siblings were students at New Trier High School they demonstrated the same true leadership.

Bill Sanders

Reagan had one tax cut in 1981 and then presided over 11 major tax increases during his presidency:
Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act 57.3 Billions
Highway Revenue Act of 1982 4.9 Billions
Social Security Amendments of 1983 24.6 Billions
Railroad Retirement Revenue Act of 1983 1.2 Billions
Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 25.4 Billions
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 2.9 Billions
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 2.4 Billions
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 0.6 Billions
Continuing Resolution for 1987 2.8 Billions
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 8.6 Billions
Continuing Resolution for 1988 2.0 Billions
Total cumulative tax increase 132.7 Billions

Not to mention the huge deficit he compiled. Why was Reagan's deficit ok? Just because he was Reagan or just because he was Republican or just because it's convenient now to talk about current taxes in a frame that seems friendly to many?

I have listen to Richard Schulte on a number of issue. I feel we need him in the 10th seat rather than Dold. Dold must be careful or he will not be supported by the GOP next time as he was when he ran on 2008.

...and you cannot talk about taxes without talking about regressive taxes like the sales tax and real property taxes. When you talk only about income tax cuts in general, you are talking about tax cuts for the wealthy. When those tax cuts cause increases in regressive taxes, as the Bush tax cuts did, you are raising taxes on less wealthy and often poor people. If you like paying increased real property taxes each year, vote Republican.

Dold is NO leader, he votes the way his Texas Masters tell him to. Occasionally he is ALLOWED to vote for an environmental issue. Just like Kirk (our Sheridan Rd Senator). He has more respect for the wishes of Grover Nordquist and than the USA,

YES, Rich! Clearly, we have too much government in this country!
let's cut all government programs....that's what you want right?
starting with your mom’s medicare: when she falls and shatters her hip, pay for it yourself!
and when she can’t afford her rent anymore cause social security went poof!, she and her wheel chair can just move into your spare room, right?
let's cut FEMA, so when a hurricane or other disaster destroys your trailer, you can find help on your own!...
roads in front of your house waist-deep in snow? plow it yourself, you lazy good for nothing! bridge you cross to get to work collapses? who needs bridges anyway?
your house catches fire, grab a bucket!
let's cut the FDIC who insures the banks with your money in it, and if the bank goes under who will you call then?
FBI costs too much. get rid of it—we can all shoot and ask questions later.
your son is accused of a crime? who cares? why should we spend even one tax dollar to support a cumbersome, costly judicial system when the only ones using the courts are common criminals? (my bad, your son isn’t just a common criminal, but oh well!)

Oh, I get it, Rich!
Let’s keep spending money on the stuff you want, but not the stuff I want!

Ellen Beth Gill
12:38pm on Tuesday, October 4, 2011

...and you cannot talk about taxes without talking about regressive taxes like the sales tax and real property taxes. When you talk only about income tax cuts in general, you are talking about tax cuts for the wealthy. When those tax cuts cause increases in regressive taxes, as the Bush tax cuts did, you are raising taxes on less wealthy and often poor people. If you like paying increased real property taxes each year, vote Republican.

Boy are you naive or what? What party increased our sales taxes here in Illinois? Which party increased our state income tax here in Illinois?, Which party is responsible for our increased property taxes here in Cook County?

The 10 10% of wage earners pay 90% of the federal income taxes. This same 10% is also responsible for 37% of the nations economic activity. Activity that creates jobs. You tax the wealthy more you will be responsible for laying off tens of thousands of workers. That will be your result of "tax the rich" who are already paying 90%. What about the notion "spend less". I just got my new property tax bill.
I have not had a chance to look at everything but the school portion is up 20% over from last year. My overall increase is like around 15%. This is not the result of any Republican majorities, locally or statewide. It is your Democrats who are in control. You voted for this! So don't complain. I hope they take more of your money, you deserve it.

Since Doldrums is proudly Republican and is not attempting to Govern without one hand attached to the Norquest pledge, I suppose it's time to bring up some recent republican history....
The Bush Tax Cuts represent the enhancement of a trend that is adding to the income of the very wealthy and increasing their distance from the middle class. The BTC's have not added meaningful employment. The BTC's don't allow us to fund two wars sucking over 2 billion a week from our treasure. The Republicans gloss over this, and want Government out of the wealthy pockets via cuts and loopholes. For some reason the limited Government they desire does not include social issues. Those are okay for Government to intrude in our bedrooms, doctor offices and in other freedoms that are continually being eroded by the fear mongering right.
Strong and reasonable Government is what helped build this country. They can't have it both ways. Ideology can't effectively Govern.

Buffet owes IRS 5 billion dollars. He is fighting with them to pay less than what they say he owes. I believe this is his fund, not personal money.

Ok time for a fact check. In 2000 Bush says America is being "overcharged" due to a projected 230 billion surplus. He + his Republican Congress pass a 1.3 trillion dollar tax cut. The average American gets $227 and the Wealthy get $46,000. Then comes the Iraq war with spending increases at record rates however Bush in 2003 pushes for a 2nd round of cuts in the hundreds of billions again mainly for the rich. After cutting the Estate Tax and a child-credit giveaway he then asks for Capital Gains taxes to be cut. Even Republicans resist this time and the 50/50 tie in the Senate was broken when Dick Cheney casts the deciding vote.
By 2008 we were looking at a projected 14 trillion in deficits because of the wars and tax cuts and suddenly there were Tea Party republicans screaming about how fast we burned through the treasury only after Obama was elected. Now these same Republicans want to pin it all on Obama's 2.5 yrs in office and their budget proposal is to give the wealthiest another 10% in tax cuts while cutting spending for children, the elderly and the poor.
I just don't understand how those of you want to give the key back to those that burned-down house are now claiming they can rebuild it and it's all Obama's fault now. I am hard pressed to believe those who caused this mess are going to go in and make life better for the average American instead of peddling more prosperity for them and their rich peers.

there is enough on obama to make me puke. i dont need his obama care. just look what is on the books this year for the supreme court. it is all of his regulations. they are gonna clean his clock

Regarding toxic assets. Yes the Gov't pushed loans to the non credit worthy people.
But I think the CDR's from AIG is what really promoted the bubble. Credit default insurance was a false sense of security for the banks that these loans would be insured from default. Works fine untill a massive default hits.

Unintended consequences: Gee latest one is the banks wanting fees for debit cards.
Compliments of Sen Durbin who sponsored an amendment to cut the fees banks get for processing from the retailers. Now the banks are looking to make up what congress stole from them.

Flower child, if you confiscate all the money the millionaires make it will not make that big of a dent in the deficit. This class warfare is for political purposes only.
Without these rich there will be no jobs.
As for making millions. The rich can always increase what you pay for goods
to make up for what the gov't steals from them. You are the one who is likely to suffer.

The economy is so tweaked right now we are all "screwed".
When baking a cake you add too much of an ingredient or take away an ingredient it will not taste the same or bake properly. Our economy is like this.

Another sweetheart deal in the works. Quinn versus Sears Holdings
I sure would like the details of these sweetheart deals. Probably better than what they would have had to pay had there been no tax increases.
No deals for small companies so they move out of state. Illinois un-employment has gone up every month since the tax increase was passed. All other states have seen job growth during the same period. This is an example of what can happen with tax the rich.

And a new issue. Some kind of new regulations coming out of Washington for Cement. Was listening to an interview where the person, referring to the new rule, says it will be impossible to continue and will force import of foreign cement.
I thought I heard Obama say he is the jobs president. Jobs for whom?
Which reminds me. The Republicans wanted an amendment to the stimulus requiring funds be used to purchase U.S. made products. The Democrats would not allow it. Hence, billions of dollars of the stimulus provided jobs, jobs in China that is.

And the sad thing is people are not paying attention. Too many have no clue what is going on. Will vote for whichever party they have been voting for for years regardless of who is running and have no clue of their credentials or real views.
They would rather watch sitcoms and reality shows ignoring all else.
The U.S. is supposed to be a democracy. Guess what, it is broken because
of pervasive ignorance. Don't complain you voted for it or did not vote at all.

But not as much as George W Bush increased the national debt. That President increased it by more than 5 trillion yet I didn't hear a peep from the tea party. Also, a little unfair to compare debt incurred by presidents too far in the past unless you're going to compensate for inflation.

By the way, 103,000 jobs created last month and upward revisions to the prior months by 99,000. I wonder if Mr Schulte will apologize for calling our President "President Zero".....

I will never understand why the Republicans think that lower taxes for business creates jobs. Today, as a small business owner, if I receive a tax cut - I will pocket the money. Why would I add employees or inventory when the demand is not there? Lower taxes does not increase employment. Demand does!
We are fighting two wars and with less revenue due to Bush Tax Cuts. Never in recent time has this country gone to war and not funded it. Well, we are funding these wars on the backs of the middle class and the Republicans that cry for less revenue just don't get it. Sensible tax code, fair taxes and reasonable reduction in spending by cuts and efficiency along with public funding of rebuilding infrastructure MAY help this country dig out. Ideology and pledges to Grover Norquest won't move us forward.

I agree about the tax issue in Illinois. Past problems are not solved by running business from the state. Moving jobs from one state to the other does not create jobs.
My point is about the Republican stance that lower federal taxes for business owners will create jobs. Demand creates jobs. I will not add employees until demand (sales)

Mr. Schulte,
Since 10/4/11 (4 days ago), you commented 45 times to this article. 45 times!
Somewhere along the way, you let loose some personal information—you cited your plans to move to Florida (good bye!), your lack of health insurance (sorry to hear that), and your net income ($5,000 last year).
If I were in your shoes, I don’t know, I might be pounding the pavement, looking for steady employment with a better salary and health insurance. Are you just sitting around waiting for your trickle down? Just saying…

You still here Richard? What happened to moving to Florida? Come on Man. Get the hell out of town if that's what you want so badly (Oh, and you're a writer? Good one. Fiction, no doubt. You couldn't tell truth if it punched you in the nose.).

Schulte, You're are a walking testament to why the American public should turn off Fox News and Talk Radio. Karl Rove & the rest of the GOP have been making use of propaganda methods perfected by Josef Goebbels & later used by Lenin & Stalin. Not familiar with Goebbels whose work was vital to Hitler & the Nazi Party of 1930’s Germany? Here are some quotes:
(1) "That propaganda is good which leads to success, and that is bad which fails to achieve the desired result, however intelligent it is, for it is not propaganda's task to be intelligent, its task is to lead to success. Thus no one can say your propaganda is too rough, too mean; these are not criteria by which it may be characterized… "
(2) "[my goal is] to unleash volcanic passions, outbreaks of rage, to set masses of people on the march, to organize hatred and despair with ice-cold calculation"
(3) "The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly & can never again escape from it."
(4) “If you tell a lie & keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, & thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

Flower Child- Don't waste your time on Richard. I believe he was brain damaged at some point in his life, as he has no inkling of reality versus fantasy. Let him spew. It makes him feel better.

Oh Richard.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/09/bush-on-jobs-the-worst-track-record-on-record/

http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/10/08/its-official-more-private-sector-jobs-created-in-2010-than-during-entire-bush-years/
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-02-05/wall_street/30088805_1

The economy is far from great, but how about passing some of that blame around?

(Now, spin Richard spin!)

Good Boy! Right on cue! BTW Reagan hasn't been in office for quite some time, yet you seem to want to point to him a lot. Sorry Rich- your delusions will have to continue unabated. i just wanted to see if you'd respond like the good puppy you are. Good job!

Well, flower child's Nazi comment is still on this thread. Sully's child-like tauts are still there too. I guess you would say that Sully is just a bully.

The link to the Office of Management and Budget Federal spending data has been taken down, as well as all of the other factual posts.

Lots of Bush bashing, but nobody has stepped up to the plate to defend President Obama's record.

It looks like the leftists/socialists/progressives/Democrats simply can't handle facts, so they simply remove the facts.

Here's another fact-those "Occupy" protesters are being paid to be there. Yes, that's right, if you want a job protesting go to Craig's List. You don't have to pay the Tea Party folks to come out, but the leftists can't even hold a demonstration without paying people. That's hillarious.

Can't wait until January 20, 2013 for an adult to be back in charge in the White House. We should get some adult leadership back in the Senate too-perhaps even a filibuster-proof Senate. Unfortunately, Governor Quinn will still be around to dig Illinois in even a deeper hole that he and his merry band of Democrats have dug

The recession ends on election day 2012. Thirteen long months more of the recession. Oh well, at least the end of the recession is in sight.