We may not like Vegas but.......

[rebh8r]

I love their mayor getting after Barack Obama for his comments about our tourism industry.

[thehowling]

Yeah, shame on the President for singling a city out like that. Especially one that relies so much on visitors. Be fiscally responsible, sure. "Don't fly on United airlines, they're too expensive." Mmmm, not so much.

[rebh8r]

I am 100% with you on that. It is a shame that neither of our Senators (especially Harry Reid, due to his standing) have publically asked for an aoplogy.

[student4ever]

I am 100% with you on that. It is a shame that neither of our Senators (especially Harry Reid, due to his standing) have publically asked for an aoplogy.

Reid, Ensign, and everybody else in Nevada's congressional contingent did call him on it this last time.

[renowiggum]

Reid, Ensign, and everybody else in Nevada's congressional contingent did call him on it this last time.

I believe I read that one person in the Congressional Delegation (a Representative, I think) actually called the LV Sun to make sure they had received his/her public statement of outrage after the second LV jab.

[wolf_chatter]

in Vegas once! He clearly either hates Vegas or gambling in general. He has mentioned it twice. As far as Reid and them getting on him I don't know if they have done so in public but I am sure they must have said something in private. I know I would have read him the riot act.

[Stuck in Seattle]

What's crazy is that he needs Vegas to vote heavily Dem to carry the state...he probably pissed away some electoral votes in the next presidential election, and at this point it appears he'll need every one of those he can get.

[student4ever]

I'm not going to take the time to search, but it was all over the news that Reid called him on it and Obama sent Reid a letter of apology. Obama's letter back wasn't as strongly worded as I feel it should have been and tried to justify the remarks in the context of not spending education dollars on the casino. My opinion is that if he was going to blast gaming, he should have blasted online poker rooms and casinos, which are illegal and provide no tax revenue to the United States or any of its constituents.

[renowiggum]

What's crazy is that he needs Vegas to vote heavily Dem to carry the state...he probably pissed away some electoral votes in the next presidential election, and at this point it appears he'll need every one of those he can get.

Whoever his opponent is would be a fool not to play those clips in every political spot available in Vegas.

[ord_buckeye]

I usually avoid any political threads around here, but I say good for Obama, and I'd say the same thing for any Republican president in our current situation who was telling Americans to start living within their means. The American consumer needs to STOP SPENDING LIKE DRUNKEN F'IN SAILORS. It's a big part of what got us into this mess. For the last couple of years before the crash, we as a nation actually had a negative savings rate--fueled by the Chinese loaning their profits back to us at below market rates, which I might add brings up another whole strategic reason for us to start living within our means.

Vegas' boom was built on the self-destructive habits of the American consumer. I'll say the same thing for Napa Valley which is undergoing its own well deserved crash. I have little doubt that over the last dozen years, what's been good for Vegas (and Napa) has NOT been good for America. If Obama is willing to speak out these hard truths even at the cost of possibly losing some electoral votes, good for him. In the old days, that used to be called leadership; perhaps what John McCain was hinting at in those "Country First" posters he had printed up.

[Slapdad]

I think Obama would be wise to think twice before singling out a particular city/company or whatever, just to avoid the headaches. But, that being said, LV has made it's bed. Here's a decent article by Cory Farley.....sometimes, you're going to have to take the bad with the good.

http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20102140327

[Stuck in Seattle]

I usually avoid any political threads around here, but I say good for Obama, and I'd say the same thing for any Republican president in our current situation who was telling Americans to start living within their means. The American consumer needs to STOP SPENDING LIKE DRUNKEN F'IN SAILORS. It's a big part of what got us into this mess. For the last couple of years before the crash, we as a nation actually had a negative savings rate--fueled by the Chinese loaning their profits back to us at below market rates, which I might add brings up another whole strategic reason for us to start living within our means.

Vegas' boom was built on the self-destructive habits of the American consumer. I'll say the same thing for Napa Valley which is undergoing its own well deserved crash. I have little doubt that over the last dozen years, what's been good for Vegas (and Napa) has NOT been good for America. If Obama is willing to speak out these hard truths even at the cost of possibly losing some electoral votes, good for him. In the old days, that used to be called leadership; perhaps what John McCain was hinting at in those "Country First" posters he had printed up.
I take most of that savings rate stuff with several grains of salt. They don't usually include homes or retirement accounts as savings. And while a lot of people lost their equity in the last bubble bust, didn't most consider that lost savings? I know I look at my equity as savings, and certainly my retirement accounts qualify.

[ord_buckeye]

I take most of that savings rate stuff with several grains of salt. They don't usually include homes or retirement accounts as savings. And while a lot of people lost their equity in the last bubble bust, didn't most consider that lost savings? I know I look at my equity as savings, and certainly my retirement accounts qualify.

I believe that retirement accounts are considered as part of the savings rate. Home equity is not, which since much of it was illusory post-2002, that would have made our savings rate even worse in reality had it been factored into the numbers for those years.

I think the savings rate, on a macro level, is important. If for no other reason currently than when we fail to save properly the nation stepping in to loan us money is our primary strategic and economic competitor. Gee, and anyone care to wonder why they feel so confident telling us to go fuck ourselves every time the notion of revaluing their artificially deflated currency is brought up?

Imagine if the American consumer had gone on a decade long spending spree in the 1960s that had been funded by low interest loans from the Soviets. I think few, in either party, would have considered that a healthy situation for the United States to find itself either economically or geo-strategically.

[Stuck in Seattle]

I believe that retirement accounts are considered as part of the savings rate. Home equity is not, which since much of it was illusory post-2002, that would have made our savings rate even worse in reality had it been factored into the numbers for those years.

I think the savings rate, on a macro level, is important. If for no other reason currently than when we fail to save properly the nation stepping in to loan us money is our primary strategic and economic competitor. Gee, and anyone care to wonder why they feel so confident telling us to go fuck ourselves every time the notion of revaluing their artificially deflated currency is brought up?

Imagine if the American consumer had gone on a decade long spending spree in the 1960s that had been funded by low interest loans from the Soviets. I think few, in either party, would have considered that a healthy situation for the United States to find itself either economically or geo-strategically.
I don't believe that's correct. From what I've read our national savings rate is calculated as:

Income - Federal taxes - Expenditures = Savings

Retirement accounts are not counted as income so are completely left out...until you spend the money from them, then that counts as an expenditure and helps create a negative savings rate. Also capital gains are not counted though expenditures from capital gains also count as expenditures. For the US, a country with lots of retirement accounts and home ownership this distorts the equation.

I also wonder if the comparatively low federal taxes but high state/local taxes distort the US rate since the latter are not deducted from Income and count as an expenditure.

Yes the home crunch resulted in lots of lost wealth, but that's an exception over the last several decades.

[rebh8r]

"The President needs to lay off Las Vegas and stop making it the poster child for where people shouldn't be spending their money." That was Harry Reid's response. It would be nice to see him take a more stern approach because this is the 2nd time this has happened.

[Jeg315]

Oscar Goodman is a pretty funny guy. He's very popular in Vegas and I'd be surprised if he didn't seek a higher office in the near future.

On March 3, 2005, Goodman spoke to a group of fourth-graders at Jo Mackey Elementary School. When asked what he would take with him if marooned on a desert island, the mayor replied, "A showgirl and a bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gin." When asked about his hobbies, the mayor named drinking Bombay Sapphire Gin as a favorite. Later, when asked to comment about his statements, Goodman was unapologetic: "I'm the George Washington of mayors. I can't tell a lie. If they didn't want the answer, the kid shouldn't have asked the question."

[battle.borne]

I usually avoid any political threads around here, but I say good for Obama, and I'd say the same thing for any Republican president in our current situation who was telling Americans to start living within their means. The American consumer needs to STOP SPENDING LIKE DRUNKEN F'IN SAILORS. It's a big part of what got us into this mess. For the last couple of years before the crash, we as a nation actually had a negative savings rate--fueled by the Chinese loaning their profits back to us at below market rates, which I might add brings up another whole strategic reason for us to start living within our means.

Vegas' boom was built on the self-destructive habits of the American consumer. I'll say the same thing for Napa Valley which is undergoing its own well deserved crash. I have little doubt that over the last dozen years, what's been good for Vegas (and Napa) has NOT been good for America. If Obama is willing to speak out these hard truths even at the cost of possibly losing some electoral votes, good for him. In the old days, that used to be called leadership; perhaps what John McCain was hinting at in those "Country First" posters he had printed up.

His comments cost Vegas and the state millions of dollars in lost revenue. That is the bottomline. Your little soapbox commentary is cute but gaming runs this state and for a sitting president, who carried the state by 5%, to chastise our primary industry is bullsh*t!