How has economy changed your holiday plans?
(PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The shopping malls, department stores and discount retailers are doing all they can to let you know the holidays are almost here. This year, they really need your business. Last month, retail sales suffered the worst monthly drop on record. And the outlook isn't so bright heading into the Christmas season.
The unemployment rate is at a 14-year high of 6.5 percent, foreclosure rates have spiked across the country. Even if you're fortunate enough to still have a roof over your head and a job to pay for it, your retirement savings have probably taken a pretty hefty beating... as stocks continue their slide southward.
So spending money on holiday travel, food and gifts may a little harder to swallow this year.
There is one bright spot: gas prices are down...a lot. So you can at least drive to your relatives'. There are no guarantees what you'll find on the table or under the tree when you get there though.
Here’s my question to you: In light of the deteriorating economy, how have your holiday plans changed?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Fewer Americans see country divided: Why?
(PHOTO CREDIT: GALLUP ORGANIZATION)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
One of the longest, nastiest, most divisive presidential races this country's ever seen is now in the books. A little more than half of us are pretty pleased with the results. The rest of us? Not exactly.
But that doesn't mean we're without hope.
According to a new Gallup Poll, fewer Americans see the country as divided now as it has been after other recent presidential elections. We're still a long way from all being on the same page, but it's better. After the 2008 election, 57% say the country is more divided on major issues than in recent years. But that's down considerably from polls taken after the previous two presidential elections. In 2000, 64% said we were more divided, and in 2004, 72% said so.
A lot of Americans think Barack Obama is just what the doctor ordered. 54% of those surveyed said the Obama administration will be able to heal the divisions in the country. 44% say it will not.
Here’s my question to you: What does it mean that fewer Americans see the country as divided?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Is General Motors worth saving?
Click the play button to see what Jack and our viewers had to say.
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
As GM goes, so goes the nation...That's the old motto anyway. Financially neither one is looking so good right now. And General Motors, along with Ford and Chrysler, is looking for some help from our already cash-strapped government to get back on track. Estimates are if the Big Three go belly up, unemployment could hit 10 percent.
But doubts about a bailout for the auto industry grew yesterday on Capitol Hill as Democratic leaders conceded they don't have the votes to get a measure through in next week's lame duck session.
Watch: Cafferty: GM worth saving?
If General Motors fails– and it would likely be the first of the Big Three to fall because Ford is in better shape and Chrysler is a much smaller company– the impact would be huge. It's not just the hundreds of thousands of jobs at GM that would be lost, it's literally thousands of smaller companies all over the country that sell their products to GM. It's highly likely many of them would fail as well.
As Time Magazine's Bill Saporito put it quote, "The decision that Washington has to make is whether we pay for G-M's survival or for its funeral."
Because whether G-M gets help from the government or not, as taxpayers, we are on the hook. We'll have to cover everything from lost tax revenues and higher unemployment costs to G-M's hefty pension obligations.
Here’s my question to you: Is General Motors worth saving?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Should Dems begin investigations of Bush Admin.?
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/11/13/art.bush.flag.gi.jpg caption="Congressional Democrats will move forward with investigations of the Bush administration in January."]
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The New York Times reports that congressional Democrats are going to move forward with investigations of the Bush administration even after the president leaves office in January. That could prove to be quite a task.
Where to begin... Abuse of the power of the Executive Branch... Torture of detainees... The role of former White House aides Harriet Miers and Karl Rove in the firing of federal prosecutors... Eavesdropping without a warrant. It's a very long list.
The rub is that President Bush may be able to block subpoenas long after he leaves the White House.
In 1953, Harry Truman blocked a congressional subpoena almost a year after he left office. Truman told Congress the Constitution still empowered him to do so. Then Congress backed off.
If the last eight years are any example you can bet the Bush administration would do everything it could not to cooperate.
Here’s my question to you: Is it a good idea for the Democrats to begin investigations of the Bush administration?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Meaning of Goldman, Morgan Stanley‘s planned bonuses?
Click the play button to see what Jack and our viewers had to say. (PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The economic picture got even worse today. Weekly jobless claims were the worst we've seen in 7 years. Mass layoffs continue to be announced across a variety of sectors. And the markets remain in a free fall as the Dow's off around 30 percent for the year and the NASDAQ and S&P 500 are both off around 40 percent.
The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing today with representatives from banks getting money from the big $700 billion financial bailout package. Committee members wanted to know where the money is going. Not an unreasonable question.
Bank executives said they are both lending and working with delinquent homeowners and that this money is not going to pad executive paychecks.
Watch: Cafferty: Planned bonuses?
A general counsel at Goldman Sachs told the committee that compensation, "will be down very significantly this year across the firm, particularly at senior levels... We get it."
But what does "down very significantly" mean on Wall Street? According to Bloomberg financial news, Goldman Sachs has set aside $6.8 billion for year-end bonuses, and Morgan Stanley, $6.4 billion.
That figure is down from the record setting $12.1 billion Goldman shelled out last year and the $10 billion Morgan Stanley doled out.
Granted they cut the bonus numbers in half, but that's still a mind-boggling amount. And both firms are taking taxpayers' money from the bailout package. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley each got ten billion dollars.
Here’s my question to you: What does it mean when Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are planning to pay $13.2 billion in year-end bonuses?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Obama’s Best Use of VP-elect Biden?
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/11/13/art.obama.biden.b.gi.jpg caption=" How should Obama make the best use of Biden?"]
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Today we're going to spend a couple of minutes talking about the vice presidential candidate who actually won the election, Joe Biden. Remember him?
After 9-11, one of the first things President Bush did was find a secure, undisclosed location in which to store his Vice President, Dick Cheney. Once hidden away, Cheney could begin pulling the strings for the new administration. Secret energy meetings with that fun bunch from Enron, drawing up plans to invade Iraq as well as the lies they would need to cover it, figuring out how to operate the most secretive administration in history without being accountable to anyone. He had his assignment clearly defined right from the start.
It's always been a bit of a problem figuring out what to do with the vice president. As long as the president's alive, his official job description is limited. Break the ties in the Senate, sit behind the congressional leaders during the State of the Union address, and try to look interested when out in public.
Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University says Biden could best be put to use soothing a Democratic Congress that's had a tense relationship with the Executive Branch in recent years. He believes Biden should be "a point man on Capitol Hill to help twist arms, make arguments and build voting coalitions."
Here’s my question to you: How should Barack Obama make the best use of Vice President-elect Joe Biden?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Can Edwards make a comeback?
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/11/12/art.john.edwards.indu.b.ap.jpg caption="Edwards gave a speech at Indiana University yesterday."]
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The three dollar bill with the $400 haircuts is back. Former Senator, Vice Presidential candidate, Presidential candidate and adulterer John Edwards gave a speech at Indiana University yesterday. He was paid 35-thousand dollars for the appearance. He talked about Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, politics...everything except his adulterous affair with campaign filmmaker Rielle Hunter.
Afterwards there was a question and answer session. But no press and the questions he agreed to answer were submitted in advance...that way he could avoid anything that made him uncomfortable. Edwards is very careful...except when he's sneaking in and out of hotel rooms in the middle of the night to meet his mistress while his wife is home suffering from breast cancer. The National Enquirer caught him red-handed.
Edwards is expected to follow up last night's speech with a public appearance today in San Francisco and an upcoming debate with Republican Strategist Karl Rove at the American Bankers Association.
Why Indiana University would even want Edwards on their campus is another question.
Here’s my question to you: Can John Edwards make a comeback?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Why do only 20% consider aid to corporations important?
Click the play button to see what Jack and our viewers had to say.(PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The U.S. automakers need a lifeline... but it's not clear at this point whether the Bush Administration is willing to throw them one.
So a lame duck session of Congress could be Detroit's best hope.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing for help for the battered auto industry. She says if the administration doesn't step in to help out the automakers, "it needs to be done one way or another."
Congress could convene as early as next week to sort this out– among other economic concerns–which could start a clash between the Democratic leaders of Congress and the President. It may not make the cash-strapped American public too happy either.
Watch: Cafferty: Aid to corporations?
A Gallup poll released yesterday found only 20% of adults say providing loans and other aid to automakers is "crucial" or "very important" to improving the economy. That's slightly less than the 21% who say it was "crucial" or "very important" to aid large financial institutions. Both figures are well below the 34% calling for a second stimulus plan where the money would go to individuals as opposed to corporations.
Here’s my question to you: What does it mean that only 20% of Americans consider aid to large corporations "crucial" or "very important?"
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Obama’s proposed civilian security force a good idea?
(PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
President-elect Obama has said he wants to establish a civilian security force to assist our already-taxed military. He described it as a national security corps that's as powerful and well-funded as the U.S. military, and it would take on the national security burden.
Obama made mention of this in a speech in Colorado in July. That speech has since circulated on the Internet. For some reason, the concept scares people. Republican Congressman Paul Broun from Georgia told the Associated Press, that such a move could lead to Marxism.
He said, "That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did... When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."
Broun also said he thinks Obama will move to ban gun ownership if he does build a national police force.
Here’s my question to you: Is President-elect Obama's idea for a civilian security force a good idea?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Why is there still so much interest in Gov. Palin?
Click the play button to see what Jack and our viewers had to say.
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
When's the last time a losing vice presidential candidate was still in the news a week after the election? Nobody seems interested in interviewing Joe Biden, or for that matter, John McCain. But we just don't seem to be able to get enough of Sarah Palin.
The news media are scrambling to get her thoughts on everything...the campaign, the charges from within the McCain camp that she is a "whack job" and a "rogue," the $150,000 wardrobe, the travel expenses for her family that were charged to taxpayers of the state of Alaska. It's obviously something besides her keen and subtle grasp of the complexities of being president of the United States.
Watch: Cafferty: Interest in Palin?
In fact, her apparent total lack of knowledge of the aforementioned proved to be a handicap to McCain's campaign in the closing stages. A majority of Americans felt Palin was hurting McCain's chances rather than helping them. And yet speculation persists that the Republican Party may decide to hitch its wagon to this hockey mom from Alaska when the 2012 presidential race rolls around.
Here’s my question to you: Why is there still so much interest in Governor Sarah Palin?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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