Georgia, Oregon become economic test case
Ten years from now, it’ll be fascinating to look back and see who turned out to be right.
Across the country, falling tax revenues are forcing deep cuts in state budgets. Under Gov. Sonny Perdue’s proposed budget here in Georgia, for example, “per student state spending on k-12 education and the university system will fall to their lowest levels in a decade” after inflation, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute reports.
Some states have tried to soften such blows with strategic tax increases that will raise a total of $24 billion in new revenue, according to the National Governors Association. But at a press conference Thursday, Georgia legislative leaders announced plans to slash rather than raise state revenue by cutting business fees and taxes and the state capital gains tax.
Asked about the impact on an already ravaged state treasury, state Rep. Tom Graves turned the question around: “We don’t see this as a cost to the state, we see this as a savings to the taxpayer.”
In Oregon, on the other hand, leaders are taking the exact opposite approach. They’ve already cut spending significantly, but this week, Oregon voters easily approved ballot measures that will increase taxes on business and on households with incomes higher than $250,000. The new revenue will close the remaining budget gap of $727 million and fend off further cuts in education and other public services.
That sets up an interesting test case. While Oregon raises taxes to preserve its public infrastructure and services, Georgia believes that it can stimulate a boom by offering investors a cheaper business environment. “We’re going to be the economic beacon and leader for the rest of the country” in recovering from this recession, Graves confidently predicted.
Today, median household incomes in Georgia ($50,861) and Oregon ($50,169) are quite similar. They start from a similar base on taxes as well, since Oregon voters have a tradition of fiscal conservatism equal to that of Georgia. In 2005, Oregon ranked 41st in per capita state taxes ($1,791) while Georgia ranked 42nd ($1,726), according to the Census Bureau. So it will be interesting to see where they stand in a decade.
Given Georgia’s already low tax structure and the condition of the national economy, I personally have a hard time believing that state taxes have been a significant hurdle to investment here. Dropping from 42nd to 44th or 45th in the tax rankings doesn’t seem like it will accomplish much except force more furloughs of teachers, but I guess we’ll wait and see.
This won’t be the first time that Georgia and Oregon have set themselves up as test cases. Beginning 15 to 20 years ago, the two states also took starkly divergent approaches to growth in their major urban areas.
Under Oregon law, the three-county Portland metro area was given the power to tax itself as a region for transportation. It has used that authority to commit to mass transit, investing in light rail, trolley lines and more recently commuter rail. That’s a stark contrast to the Georgia strategy, which has relied almost exclusively on highways and denied metro Atlanta the right to act as a region.
Wendell Cox, a highway advocate and a favorite transportation consultant for Georgia conservatives, argued in the Atlanta Constitution back in 1999 that the Georgia model would prevail. In fact, he predicted, “traffic congestion in Portland is likely to be worse than it is in Los Angeles by 2015.”
Well, it’s not 2015 yet. But when Cox wrote those words, Portland was 18th worst in the country in rush-hour delays per traveler; by 2007, it improved to 34th. Meanwhile, Los Angeles stayed at number one and Atlanta stayed at number three.
In the latest rankings, Portland has also improved significantly in the time-travel index, considered a standard measure of congestion. Again, Los Angeles and Atlanta didn’t budge.
Those trends have consequences on the quality of life a region can offer, a factor that in the modern world often has more impact on growth than low taxes. Quality of life has an especially strong appeal to the young college-educated people that high-paying employers need to prosper and innovate.
From 1995-2000, according to the Census Bureau, Atlanta was the fourth most attractive destination for that desired demographic. Portland was fifth.
Late last year, the Wall Street Journal took an updated look at what it called “the next hot youth magnets.” Portland was fourth; Atlanta didn’t make the list, and was mentioned only as another formerly ascendant Sun Belt city now in eclipse.
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466 comments Add your comment
USinUK
January 29th, 2010
11:44 am
Hef – 11:37 – I totally understand and agree with you that I’d want to use my bare hands to rip the throat out of anyone who harmed someone I love. (to this day, I don’t know how parents of murdered children can sit in the same courtroom with those who did the deed). I’d want to – but that wouldn’t make it right – and, most imporantly – history has shown that it’s very likely that it wouldn’t get the information I needed.
USinUK
January 29th, 2010
11:46 am
md – “Nothing from that study was ever implemented, and that was ONE gov’t entity. Where is this scalpel we keep hearing about???”
I totally agree with you on this – until we change the budgeting system that rewards departments USING their allocated budget to one that rewards departments for saving money, we will ALWAYS have this situation.
RW-(the original)
January 29th, 2010
11:46 am
USinUK,
If your purpose is to rip out the throat of someone with your bare hands, what information were you supposedly after?
/Note to self…stay at least two arm lengths away from USinUK
Drain The Swamp (NIF)
January 29th, 2010
11:46 am
The flaw in expecting giant bureaucracies to cut budgets is that they would be firing themselves.
Bosch
January 29th, 2010
11:47 am
RW,
I think your safe as long as ya’ don’t go round hurting USinUK’s loved ones. Speaking of throat ripping, is tonight the full moon?
USinUK
January 29th, 2010
11:49 am
RW – “/Note to self…stay at least two arm lengths away from USinUK”
especially when I’m hungry … heck, I’d even scare OBL, himself
Whacks Eloquent
January 29th, 2010
11:52 am
Bosch,
Does the full moon still work if nobody can see it? The tides don’t care about clouds, but in the movies, whenever the clouds obscure the moon, the person changes back to normal! LOL
RW-(the original)
January 29th, 2010
11:52 am
Bosch,
The full moon is actually tomorrow and you’ll love this. It’s the Full Wolf Moon.
Hef
January 29th, 2010
11:52 am
Bosch-Hello by the way! According to Marc Thiessen and others,the info we garnered from Al Zarqwi(I hope I speeled his name right) helped thwart other attacks and did save American lives. I respect yours and USinUK’s view but just don’t agree with it. And as you know that what was hard for me to say! smile
Hef
January 29th, 2010
11:53 am
“spelled” that is
Whacks Eloquent
January 29th, 2010
11:54 am
Torture always works for Jack Bauer…
Bosch
January 29th, 2010
11:54 am
Whacks,
RW is the full moon expert (he’s a werewolf ya’ know). But interesting question, it’s like the “does a tree make noise” hypothesis.
RW,
I DO love it! Have fun and try not to rip out anyone’s throat – I hear they are doing a movie about you starring Benicio Del Toro.
Hef,
I love the word “thwart” – kudos for you today – and hello to you too!
Off to check on me mum who had surgery yesterday……..
I do love it!
RW-(the original)
January 29th, 2010
11:55 am
USinUK,
OBL has taken to scolding the US for global warming. You’d think he’d appreciate a little heat in that cave, but it makes you wonder if he’s a Koz Kid. Sure would save him time with that tape recorder to just type out a diary.
USinUK
January 29th, 2010
11:55 am
RW – 11:52 – you are a FONT of information!! I love all the names of the full moons – thanks for that!
Jenifer
January 29th, 2010
11:55 am
O’Keefe Statement On Breitbart
Site: We Could Have Used ‘Different Approach’
Hey, pimpin’ ain’t easy…
Doesn’t he look like Tim McVeigh?
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/okeefe_posts_statement_on_phone_tampering_allegati.php?ref=fpa
RW-(the original)
January 29th, 2010
11:56 am
Hef,
Misspelling spelled is classic. I don’t think it’s possible to misspell those al-whatever names though
USinUK
January 29th, 2010
11:57 am
RW –
“OBL has taken to scolding the US for global warming”
actually, considering what it’s done to countries in Africa, you think he’d be thanking us for helping him with recruiting (cuz, as you know, there’s no more fertile ground for terrorism than destitute countries)
Hef – “I respect yours and USinUK’s view but just don’t agree with it. And as you know that what was hard for me to say! smile”
and I understand your view, as well – I just can’t subscribe to it. I keep thiking to myself that this isn’t what my uncles fought the nazis for, you know?
Hef
January 29th, 2010
11:57 am
USinUK@11:44,Thats not what Jack Bauer say’s and He’s got plenty of info the ol fashion way-smile
Doggone/GA
January 29th, 2010
11:58 am
“If alien green Martians landed in Washington, D.C. and started eating people alive would they have Constitutional rights?”
Yes
md
January 29th, 2010
11:58 am
“this isn’t what my uncles fought the nazis for”
I doubt they were fighting for the creation of a dependent nation either.
md
January 29th, 2010
12:00 pm
“If alien green Martians landed in Washington, D.C. and started eating people alive would they have Constitutional rights?”
Please do not lawyer them up until after they have eaten their way through congress.
Hef
January 29th, 2010
12:00 pm
USinUK-I think when Russia exacted revenge on Germany it showed the world what consequences can be for ones actions,agree or disagree.
NJ
January 29th, 2010
12:02 pm
The difference between Republican economics and Democrats is that there is a false assertion with regards to “tax cuts” Republicans cannot assure that the wealthy will use their gains in ways that WILL create jobs and stimulate the economy. Democrat ideas about taxation make certain that the only way the rich can avoid being taxed at high rate IS to create jobs, start new businesses, etc.
This is why when Republicans give across the board tax cuts, there is almost no sign that the money is being used to start businesses, hire people etc. When top marginal tax rates are high, the rich rarely pay those taxes anyway. They shelter the money in ways that create jobs and businesses. When the top tax rates are low, they simply remove the money and start looking to invest in hot sectors of various markets, which drives the price of getting into those investments artificially higher, and eventually you get a market bubble.
Of course, Republicans look to blame people who took out subprime loans for the recent crash, but that is putting the cart before the horse. If the money to give those mortgages did not exist, not many subprime loans would have been given. It was the ever increasing need to create more and more mortgage backed securities that led to the need to give out more and more and more mortgages. When the prime market was saturated, the bankers started looking for new methods or using old ones in new way. As many subprime loans were given out under Clinton each year as under Bush, and these were profitable and default rates on them were low. The banks even made money on Clinton era subprimes. Just not the huge amounts that they managed to wrangle once Bush was in office.
Whacks Eloquent
January 29th, 2010
12:06 pm
Jay,
Care to comment on full moons or aliens invading washington being extended rights?
Oh, and more importantly, do you like fish tacos?
RW-(the original)
January 29th, 2010
12:07 pm
Somebody in the photo department needs to get a picture off the pickup truck that mounted a mustang. Talk about your hybrids.
RW-(the original)
January 29th, 2010
12:10 pm
errr…of the pickup truck, but I bet the Mustang would like the truck moved off too.
USinUK
January 29th, 2010
12:13 pm
Hef – in a related-but-not way, we were having an interesting discussion today about immigration – I was (and am) still surprised that, after WWII, Germany was forced to open their boarders to immigrants and refugees but Japan wasn’t. They have VERY closed boarders … do you (or does anyone here) know why that is???
Hef
January 29th, 2010
12:18 pm
USinUK-Oh yeah,to this day winter is Russia’s favorite season! They cringe at the mention of Global Warming.
Whacks Eloquent
January 29th, 2010
12:18 pm
Reading today about more teacher furloughs…why doesn’t someone suggest that instead that 12-month staff (principals, board office, etc) get the same 2-month summer furlough teachers do. Wouldn’t that be more logical?
Did y’all know that DFCS sits under some 60+ layers of bureaucracy? And that it sits under DHR, as do restaurant safety groups? This is what I hate about government waste. These agencies are full of mid-level people who don’t do anything near as valuable as those at the bottom of the totem pole and yet make 3-4 times as much. Most corporations have learned the hard way that this does not work, because it eats away too much at revenue. When I was a teacher, I loathed the board office, they had 20-30 people there whose job it was to dictate how we were to use the curriculum, despite the fact that I could read the state guidelines quite clearly for myself!
Scout
January 29th, 2010
12:24 pm
md:
LOL !!!
Whacks Eloquent
January 29th, 2010
12:26 pm
Looks like the Indians may be the first to outsource Customer Service jobs to a moon base now!
getalife
January 29th, 2010
12:27 pm
They can’t say he did not try to get them on board.
Good day for Obama.
stands for decibels
January 29th, 2010
12:41 pm
Just 37 minutes to convict him of 1st degree murder.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-tiller-trial30-2010jan30,0,6251329.story
Enjoy your 25-to-life stay, Scott.
NJ
January 29th, 2010
12:45 pm
I love it when Republicans start calling for tax cuts as a means of creating jobs, who then start railing that liberals don’t know anything about economics or business.
Fact is that no jobs are ever created by giving the rich tax cuts. Those tax cuts never create a single jobs because job creation is totally unrelated to how big a tax cut you give to those who own a business or are wealthy investors. Business needs customers, not tax cuts, and giving tax cuts to the rich does not create a lot of customers. A rather common sense economist points this out:
Businesses hire the employees they need to hire to meet demand. If demand is low no amount of tax cuts can induce a business to hire people. Why hire and pay people to have them just sit around?
The way to get more customers into the businesses – i.e. to create demand – is to get more money circulating in the pockets of regular people. Cutting taxes for the already well-to-do doesn’t accomplish this. The way to do this is with government policies that increase wages and reduce working hours, like how raising the minimum wage and mandating 40-hour weeks and weekends off helped create America’s middle class. Helping regular people is good for business.
e fact is that the economy has always done better when the tax rates on the wealthy and corporations were highest. Just look it up. The reason for this is that our economic system when left to itself always becomes a low-age, everything-to-the-top system, because the wealthiest always game the system to get the most for themselves. The way to fix that is to apply regulations to prevent this, and high taxes at the top so the government can implement policies that raise the wages of the rest of the public. This is how we got out of the depression after the huge concentration of wealth that built up until 1929.
Businesses pay taxes on the profits (revenue minus expenses) — so the businesses that need help don’t need tax cuts, they need customers. It doesn’t make sense to try to help businesses that are not doing well by giving even more money to their profitable competitors. We should be using that money to instead help the businesses that need the help. Helping the already well-to-do is bad for business.
http://www.calitics.com/diary/10743/businesses-need-customers-not-tax-cuts
If tax cuts create jobs, the Bush Adminstration SHOULD have outperformed the Clinton Administration when it came to job creation. Instead the last administration became known for the “Jobless Recovery” and the lowest level of job creation since the end of WWII.
Overall the total Bush tax cuts will have cost the American taxpayer 2.48 trillion dollars over its ten year lifespan. They also add an additional 389 billion dollars in interest payments because the Bush tax cuts were deficit financed.
Then of course, 52.5 percent of those tax cuts went to the top five percent of wage earners.
When you break down the economic demographics, 84 percent of all Americans have incomes of less than 75,000 dollars a year. How did they fare under the Bush tax cuts? The largest portion of that 84 percent earn 40-50 thousand dollars a year. They got $380 out of the Bush Tax cuts (only for two years, because this part of the cuts were phased out in 2005). Those earning between 50-75 thousand a year got 553 dollars for the same two years. In both these economic groups we are looking a a tax cut that comes to less than one percent of their income. Basically 84 percent of Americans got a one percent tax cut or less. Overall the result was a 1.8 trillion dollar permanent tax cut for the wealthiest two percent of Americans, while the bottom 84 percent, the American working class got less than a one percent tax cut for two years.
Again, the reason that the Bush administration created few jobs, and was noted for its “Jobless recovery” was simple. No one hires people unless that job can pay for itself and it cannot pay for itself unless there are consumers consuming and when the lions share of the tax cuts go to the wealthy this does not happen.
With the Bush tax cuts, half of all recipients had their taxes cut by 100 dollars a year.
On the other hand millionaires got the highest percentage in tax cuts, about ten percent. The average tax cut for millionaires was 105,636.
Whacks Eloquent
January 29th, 2010
12:46 pm
Good decision on Roeder. If somebody believes abortion is bad, they shouldn’t do it. If they think it is sin, let God deal with that. He says judgment and vengeance is His…
RW-(the original)
January 29th, 2010
12:46 pm
Just 37 minutes to convict him of 1st degree murder.
36 of that was probably spent on coffee and doughnuts.
Whacks Eloquent
January 29th, 2010
12:49 pm
Dang it, NJ, can you quit posting entire sections from other blogs here? That is just way too long, include a link and a teaser, and if we bite, we’ll comment.
Mick
January 29th, 2010
12:50 pm
NJ
Nice work – makes sense to me. It would also be beneficial to become mercantilists and rethink NAFTA.
TaxPayer
January 29th, 2010
12:52 pm
Anyone else listening to the Obama – GOP exchange.
Mick
January 29th, 2010
12:54 pm
** can you quit posting entire sections from other blogs here?**
How do you know this? Just askin..
getalife
January 29th, 2010
12:54 pm
TaxPayer ,
Great stuff.
Cut the debt
January 29th, 2010
12:55 pm
The “lower taxes to create growth” argument has been around for centuries. The “raise taxes to cut deficits” argument has only been around since Obama took office. The low tax parade has brought us to this point of unnacceptably high unemployment.
Isn’t it time we try raising taxes for once instead of creating more deficits? If we pay off our debt, then congress won’t pass any legislation, cause the money won’t be there. Good.
No legislation. Heaven! It will take a long time to pay off the deficit so we can let congress adjourn for a decade.
Ah, it’s gonna be great, folks. No congress. No bills. No invoking cloture and filibusters. Nothing but paying off debt. No latent GOP homophobes denying their sexuality. Just the good feeling all americans will get when we pay off the probably-gay creditors in China and Japan.
Cut taxes and fail (gay). Raise taxes and succeed (straight).
Palin Straight Talk 2012: I’ll raise taxes so high they’ll crash right through the glass ceiling and then barefoot and pregnant will only get a woman cut and bloody feet.
Jenifer
January 29th, 2010
12:55 pm
Boehner Feigns Ignorance That His GOP Retreat Is Attended By Goldman Sachs, Other Corporate Lobbyists
The Tan Man doesnt’ have to feign ignorance – he IS ignorant.
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/29/boehner-lies-lobbyists/
Whacks Eloquent
January 29th, 2010
12:57 pm
Mick,
Google his third paragraph. Not claiming numbers are inaccurate or anything, but it is verbatim from a California blog. Again, I think NJ would be more effective with a baiting teaser, then get people to read the blog excerpt. Like jewcowboy likes to do with YouTube!
Jenifer
January 29th, 2010
12:58 pm
NJ,
Glad to see you on board today. Keep those facts coming. We love them.
Whacks Eloquent
January 29th, 2010
1:00 pm
“Anyone else listening to the Obama – GOP exchange.”
Can’t…what is transpiring?
Mick
January 29th, 2010
1:04 pm
** Keep those facts coming. We love them**
OK
TaxPayer
January 29th, 2010
1:05 pm
Good honest exchange going on right now about healthcare.
Outhouse GoKart
January 29th, 2010
1:09 pm
“Keep those facts coming. We love them.”
Will do! And you’re welcome!
Whacks Eloquent
January 29th, 2010
1:11 pm
TaxPayer,
You know this almost reminds me of sibling rivalries. The parents can talk to each child individually and they are quite agreeable, but get the siblings back together and it is right back to bickering. Despite President Obama’s best efforts, these two parties have little respect for each other, and I am not sure what it will take to get meaningful dialogue within the Capitol. Though the closer to deadlock it is, sometimes that seems to be the best scenario. If they can all agree that health care needs reform (they should) then it would be nice to see both sides attempt to move forward together.
getalife
January 29th, 2010
1:15 pm
Fox cuts it to inject opinion.
Still running on CNN and MSNBC.
Go figure.
Mick
January 29th, 2010
1:15 pm
Slow news day – tgif. Nice beach weather down this way.
Jenifer
January 29th, 2010
1:16 pm
President Obama and Tom Price exchange:
Price is such an idiot. I enjoyed every moment of the dressing down Obama gave him.
Outhouse GoKart
January 29th, 2010
1:17 pm
LOL…Obama couldnt give lil Sasha a dressing down let alone an adult…LOL.
getalife
January 29th, 2010
1:21 pm
Yeah, he said he was having fun and this is great.
He is an adult trying to talk to children.
Fox still not showing it while CNN and MSNBC are.
Paul
January 29th, 2010
1:23 pm
Taxpayer
[[Good honest exchange going on right now about healthcare.]]
Looks like Republicans just trumped Democrats on health care transparency. Republicans heeded the President’s call and Democrats rejected it. Amazing -
Jenifer
January 29th, 2010
1:25 pm
“He is an adult trying to talk to children.”
Oh yes. Crying babies and whining toddlers.
TaxPayer
January 29th, 2010
1:26 pm
Hensarling tried to lay the Bush Administration’s debt and deficit off on Obama. Obama slammed him for it.
Bubba
January 29th, 2010
1:27 pm
I love this! Look who’s on the Global Warming bandwagon. Maybe he and Gore can do a speaking tour together. Hilarious.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584249,00.html?test=latestnews
Jenifer
January 29th, 2010
1:27 pm
“He is an adult trying to talk to children.”
Oh yes. Lying third-graders.
Mick
January 29th, 2010
1:27 pm
Pretty nice job by the pres….no teleprompter included.
RW-(the original)
January 29th, 2010
1:28 pm
No wonder Fox cut away if all Obama is going to do is make this absurd claim that he got a 1.3 trillion dollar deficit dumped in his lap. Even if you let him get away with this number he voted for every bit of the spending.
TaxPayer
January 29th, 2010
1:28 pm
Obama is hitting back on the big costs going forward — Medicare and Medicaid.
TaxPayer
January 29th, 2010
1:30 pm
He’s talking about the Medicare Advantage issue, Paul. There’s your sign.
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
January 29th, 2010
1:30 pm
Well, I’m just flabbergasted they convicted this guy of killing the abortion doctor. I mean, just because he says he done it don’t mean he done it.
Like the people on here like to say, just sayin’.
Jenifer
January 29th, 2010
1:31 pm
I expect one of the republicant morons to produce a gun at any time now.
TaxPayer
January 29th, 2010
1:31 pm
UhOH. Scott Brown is also related to Obama. Birthers Unite!
Mick
January 29th, 2010
1:31 pm
**he got a 1.3 trillion dollar deficit dumped in his lap.**
It’s a fact, afghanistan and iraq war costs were kept off the books as supplementals.
mm
January 29th, 2010
1:31 pm
Let’s just cut taxes and starve the government until it shrinks. Yep, that will solve everything, right wingnuts?
That has worked so well in the state and federal governments. Budget deficits everywhere.
Brilliant plan, Republicans. Between that and your tax breaks for sending jobs oveseas, you’ve destroyed our economy. How do you react? You blame the Dems. America will sentence you in November.
Jay
January 29th, 2010
1:32 pm
I only caught the end of Obama’s discourse with the House Republicans. But what I saw was remarkable. I don’t imagine anything like that has been done before; certainly George W. couldn’t have pulled it off…
RW-(the original)
January 29th, 2010
1:32 pm
Mick,
That puts those costs on the debt, not the deficit.
Jenifer
January 29th, 2010
1:34 pm
Obama really threw it right back at the imbeciles.
RW-(the original)
January 29th, 2010
1:34 pm
Remarkable? To paraphrase, There’s Frank and his focus groups. I like Frank, we’ve had conversations about um um um conversations between Frank and me.
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
January 29th, 2010
1:34 pm
I expect one of the republicant morons to produce a gun at any time now.
Another one of them gun control morans. She’d take my anti-tank weapon and the two machine guns I use for hunting and self-defense away from me in a second.
getalife
January 29th, 2010
1:35 pm
That was a trust building exercise.
Well done Obama.
Jenifer
January 29th, 2010
1:35 pm
“UhOH. Scott Brown is also related to Obama. Birthers Unite!”
I saw that. I believe Scott Brown was born in Kenya.
Jenifer
January 29th, 2010
1:36 pm
Great job, Mr. President!
Mick
January 29th, 2010
1:36 pm
I think we need to start catapaulting the propaganda and start calling obama the new comeback kid.
Jenifer
January 29th, 2010
1:38 pm
“certainly George W. couldn’t have pulled it off…”
Pass that damn screen cleaner again!
Kentucky Jacket
January 29th, 2010
1:38 pm
The two things I see missing from this arguement are:
1) When we talk about lowering taxes or tax cuts, this does not mean we are going to decrease revenue. The point is to increase the tax base (more money being pumped into the system from the private sector), thus there is more money to be taxed. A 50% tax on a $500,000 tax base will produce less revenue than a 30% tax on a $1,000,000 tax base. The success or failure of the cut is whether or not is is successful in increasing the tax base to a point that the lower rate still results in higher revenues.
2) Money does not tie to education. It is the way the money is spent. Look at DC. For years, the top of spending on dollars/child, and consistently one of the worst systems in the country.
Jenifer
January 29th, 2010
1:39 pm
“I think we need to start catapaulting the propaganda and start calling obama the new comeback kid.”
Hear! Hear!
Mick
January 29th, 2010
1:40 pm
**That puts those costs on the debt, not the deficit.**
Still slight of hand anyway you look at it.
Jay
January 29th, 2010
1:42 pm
Here’s a partial transcript:
http://greedheadswine.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/obama-talks-to-house-republicans-transcript-excerpt/
Outhouse GoKart
January 29th, 2010
1:42 pm
Kentucky Jacket
January 29th, 2010
1:38 pm
Nice job, however, the Pro-Tax Progressives grasp of simple arithmetic and logic is slippery at best. Most prefer to be on the Obama Pep Squad.
Bubba
January 29th, 2010
1:42 pm
“certainly George W. couldn’t have pulled it off…”
Wow. What insight.
Curious Observer
January 29th, 2010
1:46 pm
Money does not tie to education. It is the way the money is spent. Look at DC. For years, the top of spending on dollars/child, and consistently one of the worst systems in the country.
Dang right! Us people here in GA have the goodest schools in the country and we don’t hardly spend nothing on them. We even lay teachers off when the budget gets tight.
Bubba
January 29th, 2010
1:46 pm
Wow. That partial transcript was really hilarious.
Mick
January 29th, 2010
1:49 pm
** top of spending on dollars/child, and consistently one of the worst systems in the country**
Thats a bogus talking point. Even if you privitized that system the only way you would get the results you wanted would be to give those students a stable home environment. The worst testing data comes from neighborhoods that are mired in poverty – you think there might be some kind of connection besides blaming the schools?
stands for decibels
January 29th, 2010
1:49 pm
Here’s a partial transcript:
ok, I fell for it. Any others?
Paul
January 29th, 2010
1:50 pm
Taxpayer
Wow, I never realized the entire Medicare Advantage program wanted to cut was fraudulent, wasteful and full of abuse.
But that’s not what Democrats hung their hat on, is it? Maybe now they’ll get serious but their vote on the commission isn’t a hopeful sign.
Like I said earlier: Transparency: Republicans and Obama: 1 Democrats and Obama: 0
Jenifer
January 29th, 2010
1:51 pm
“Dang right! Us people here in GA have the goodest schools in the country and we don’t hardly spend nothing on them. We even lay teachers off when the budget gets tight.”
Them young’uns don’t need no edumacation anyways. They get too smart and big for their britches. Keep ‘em dumb. Dumb ‘em down just as dumb as you can!
Bosch
January 29th, 2010
1:51 pm
sfd,
Yeap. Me too – Jay made a joke!
Paul
January 29th, 2010
1:51 pm
sfd
Of course!
Bubba
January 29th, 2010
1:53 pm
Wow, Jenifer, that was really funny.That’s quite a wit you have.
TaxPayer
January 29th, 2010
1:53 pm
From my perspective, almost everyone there at the Obama-GOP exchange came out ahead with two notable exceptions, Price and Hensarling.
Jenifer
January 29th, 2010
1:53 pm
I loved the partial transcript!
Outhouse GoKart
January 29th, 2010
1:55 pm
“The worst testing data comes from neighborhoods that are mired in poverty”
Thru no fault of their own, Im sure. At any rate…that issue is never gonna change so lets just keep tossing money down the toilet….ya!
TaxPayer
January 29th, 2010
1:55 pm
Wow, I never realized the entire Medicare Advantage program wanted to cut was fraudulent, wasteful and full of abuse
You learn something new every day now, dontcha. Well, at least that should be one of one’s daily goals.
Jay
January 29th, 2010
1:55 pm
And RW, you may not LIKE Obama repeating that 1.3 trillion number.
But it is fact nonetheless.
In its Jan. 8, 2009 report — almost two weeks before Obama even took office, the Congressional Budget Office stated the following:
“Under the rules governing CBO’s budget projections—
that is, an assumption that federal laws and policies
regarding spending and taxation remain unchanged—the
agency’s baseline reflects these key points:
B CBO projects that the deficit this year will total
$1.2 trillion, or 8.3 percent of GDP.”
Bubba
January 29th, 2010
1:55 pm
‘I loved the partial transcript!’
I bet you like Jerry Lewis movies too.