Under the Reagan administration there was a program, the Socrates Project, that was tasked with rebuilding America’s ability to compete economically. The Bush administration abolished the program when it took office. If the Socrates Project would have been allowed to continue its mission, the US would not be in its present economic meltdown condition and there would be no need for the I.O.U.S.A. movie.

As time goes on, and nothing of significant value is done about this problem, it becomes increasingly unlikely that we will be able to turn things around. I hope the I.O.U.S.A. movie is able to have an impact and it not just ignored and laughed off like the other initiatives which have been launched over the years to bring this issue to the forefront.

If you cut your income in half your expenditures are going to take a larger percentage of your budget.

There are a lot of reasons for the deficit. I will name a few. The value of the dollar falling, tax cuts in a time of war, many wages being frozen and jobs being robotized or sent overseas.

Novelli, from Aarp, helped push through the new Medicare with laws that Medicare can’t even get bids to get a better price.

They all want to profitize and privatise Social Security and Medicare.

Walker is being paid by Peterson who has dedicated a billion dollars to getting rid of Social Security. Peterson is a founder of the Blackstone Group, an investment firm.

The fiscal mess this country is in is the result of years of deliberately going into debt in order to get rid of Medicare and Social Security.

If people who are paying into FICA for Social Security and Medicare go along with this trick, they will be the only group working until they are 70 and getting pitiful benefits, while supporting the lush and early retirements of the government and state employes.

I will do no good to pay more into Social Security, because the government takes it and turns it into debt. There is plenty there to pay benefits now. The ’shortfall’ down the road is based on a bad economy. If the economy is bad, then you don’t want to be in the market with your retirement money.

Medicare could be fixed overnight by those who want to fix it. One thing they do is always give the poor, on Medicaid, brand name drugs. Why not generics? We aren’t poor and we take generics to keep from going in the ridiculous doughnut hole.

Medicare was created for affordable medical care for the elderly. It has been turned into a profit center. It takes a fourth of most Social Security checks for a couple to pay the premiums on the 3 different insurances in Medicare.

Saw the movie last night. I read the “empire of debt” 2 years ago. I know and agree with all the facts that I.O.USA brings…. HOWEVER I am afraid that the movie will miss its main goal, getting to the people and make the people think and take action. It will miss its goal because the movie was done by journalists/economist/investors/ all very good people however movies has to be done by movie makers.

One can not comprehend such huge #s, the movie through stats #s charts and despite of the fact that all those #s are correct, the theater was and will stay empty…. Even in a “dry” subject like debt one need to create emotional attachment and to be able to identify with people. It is hard to get it from numbers. The movie lack it completely..

“Why we fight” is a great example of a documentary movie that was able to create the needed identification mainly by having the NY Police officer story. I am afraid that the good intention of excellent people who are involved in the production of I.O.USA will goes in the wind and disappear. Despite of it i call to all people who care about this country and their children and grand children to go and watch it.GZ

I think people have to make a stand and have all of these men held accountable for what they have done especially making money off the backs of the poor of this country and still do. Where is there justice in this country? There doesn’t seem to be anymore. We put those people in Washington, to work for us now lets show them we can take them out.

Just saw the movie………..its time WAKE Up America,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,this should be shown in our educational institutions………..to the young ,,,,,,,,,,,and younger generations who will be paying off this mess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m going to a showing at my sons school tonight. Only 2 schools in the whole state have been given permission to show it. If the message in the movie needs be spread, why not show it for free on line? It doesn’t sound like it’s going to make any money anyway. Did the people who made this movie want to make money or get their message out?

I’m no economist, but I do understand that you don’t spend more than you take in. Medicare would not be necessary if we had nationalized health care. We don’t need the amount of military we have today. We don’t need Senators and Representatives spending millions of dollars and untold hours of time to get re-elected. We are in the information age and most all of us have computers and the internet. Why do we need a bunch of lawmakers who break their own laws, retire with their current salaries who don’t give a crumb about fixing social security OR the national debt. They have theirs. AND as you can see, the majority of them are and have been worthless. You have a well-entrenched bureaucracy that spends more each year and thinks of ways to spend even more and they are aided by politicians passing laws and bills that give the bureaucracy more reasons to spend even greater amounts. This problem will not be solved by our politicos or our civil servants. There is no motivation for them to do so. It is WE the PEOPLE who will and must do something. First step is to vote for the incumbent, no matter how inempt he/she is. Give him or her the office for life so WE don’t create any more federal pensions that don’t depend on social security. That is the first message we send. Next will be to wrestle the power from them and give it to the PEOPLE. This way we will have taken at least one of the four deficits (leadership) from this bad equation created by below average people in above average postitions of power.