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Way to go Casandra, however, I challenge you to make sure the mattress and all components in it are American made.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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As much as I love to Bush bash, these budgets were passed by a Democratic Party majority Congress. Bush only implemented the budget that our Democratic Congress passed. We can't blame him for Nancy Pelosi lacking a backbone.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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Read Alan Greenspan's book that came out Fall 2007. He states in the book that we are ALREADY in a recession yet the Bush administration refuses to admit it -- and Greenspan is a Republican too.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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You are right, skeptic, and we also have the problem of having such an artificially inflated price of homes in Oregon. Our crash will be people paying off $300k-$500k mortgages on condos/homes that once the real estate market settles are worth only $200k-$300 after the adjustment. Furthermore, most of our property taxes in Oregon are based on these inflated prices. When the housing market readjusts to the lower home values, then property tax revenues will also be cut by the same ratio.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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Mary, you are so correct. American's see the federal government driving up the deficit and say to themselves that if it is ok for the government to run up a large debt, then it must be ok to run up a high personal debt. Neither situation is healthy for our national economy.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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One thing that keeps getting misquoted in today's conversation is the "unemployment rate." Guests are saying that we have a 5% unemployment rate nationwide. This is a misstatement as the 5% figure is the number of people RECEIVING unemployment insurance payments. This figure does not include those who's benefits have ran out, did not qualify for benefits, or did not file for benefits. Many economists place the actual employment rate at about 12% of Americans out of jobs.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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Yes, but mine was filled out and he called me out on the air! LOL! :-) Good start for a new program. I give it two thumbs up. We need more local programming such as this.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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Hey Host! Our real names are listed in our profiles. Click on our user names to see our real names. The displayed name in the forum is only our LOGIN name :-)

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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One of the things that angers me the most about the emigrants to Oregon from other states is that many move here wanting our way of life, complaining once here that it isn't like things were back in their home states, forcing Oregonians to change for them, then they up and move out of the state a handful of years later having polluted out state politically leaving native Oregonians to suffer from the emigrant's identify crises.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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ORSunshine, I feel for you. I had a family friend move back to Woodburn from college hoping to run the family farm that now has to pay such high property taxes from all the California owned and based businesses building along that corridor that the family is actually having to sell the farm to afford the taxes. It is very depressing.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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Great question, Jamison! I think part of the problem is the identity crisis Oregon politicians are suffering. We have Republicans running as Democrats JUST to get elected, Democrats behaving as Republicans because they want kick backs from big business to line their retirement from politics fund, and both parties have driven a wedge between Oregonians pitting us one against the other as enemies instead of just someone with an opposing view point so that we ignore political mismanagement.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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OR Landscape Contractor, I personally would rather have a native from Mexico move in next door to me in Portland trying to start a new life for him and his family who will appreciate our community and add cultural value to it than an over privileged out of touch Californian moving to Oregon to use and take advantage of us because their dollar goes farther.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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Bringtherain, excellent observation! I have a friend who works with a program transitioning the homeless into jobs and housing, and she had told me that the mass influx of emigrants to Oregon from other states combined with rental management agencies based in California controlling who gets an apartment to rent in Portland and who doesn't has set artificial requirements for renting apartments that keep the homeless who do get a job from being able to lease an apartment because the requirements for renting are so high so they get frustrated and give up -- staying on the street.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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ORSunshine, a bigger issue related to what you are talking about are Californians coming to Oregon, paying the asking price for real estate without barginning down as they would in California because they see our prices as such a "bargin" by California standards. By paying the asking price, it drives up home prices thereby pricing native Oregonians OUT of the local housing market forcing native Oregonians to leave the towns in which they grew up and move elsewhere in order to find affordable housing. This affects the elderly unable to pay increased property taxes and college graduates who can no longer afford to move back home to the town in which they were raised due to the prices going up from Californians moving in.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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You will find that many of these Texas cars are driven by migrant workers coming up from the southwestern USA to work on farms throughout Oregon and Washington.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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Back in the 1980's, our OFFICIAL tourist slogan in Oregon was, "Oregon: A nice place to visit, but please don't stay!" I really wish we would go back to those days. Native Oregonians such as myself remember the grand days in the 1980's and early 1990's when rental car companies would NOT rent cars with California plates inside Oregon because they would get keyed or vandalized in Oregon. As the guest said, Californians move to Oregon claiming to want OUR lifestyle, then complaining that Oregon isn't like that place they left. Many people moving to Oregon now are Republicans also affecting the political make-up of our state. I live in downtown Portland, and I am surrounded by more neighbors who have emigrated to Oregon from another state than native Oregonians, and I find this to be alarming.

posted 5 years, 3 months ago
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