Tumbling down into the rabbit hole of modern American politics

Jay,

And yet the righties will jump on here and defend it. Puzzling or startling?

• Link
• Report this comment

Actually, I think it’s something in the southern water table. Probably put there by BP or Monsanto or… Anyway, Don’t drink the water!

• Link
• Report this comment

RW,

And yet the wingnuts abuse the filibuster. And you deliver us your daily dose of drive-by whining.

• Link
• Report this comment

I can only wish I had LSD in my coffee this morning. to paraphrase my lord and savior George Carlin; “think about how dumb the average person is, and realize at least half the population is dumber”. I think the irony wrapped inside the riddle is; why do hardworking, tax-paying Americans continue to embrace a system that (another Carlin quote) “threw them overboard 30 years ago”? And for those keeping score, Obama is no different. The only difference between a Democrat and a Republican is over which side of the boat we are tossed (left or right)

• Link
• Report this comment

Gee, I’m shocked.

The achievers in our society keep doing what they do to be successful and they keep succeeding!

And conversely, the losers keep doing what they do to be losers, i.e, whine, blame others for their problems, envy success, vote for Obama, etc., and they keep losing!

I suggest there may be a lesson here.

• Link
• Report this comment

“(Please, let it be the LSD. At least that will wear off eventually.)”

if the graph starts talking to you, that’ll answer your question

• Link
• Report this comment

“The achievers in our society keep doing what they do to be successful and they keep succeeding!”

yeah. it’s amazing how that happens when the deck is stacked their way.

• Link
• Report this comment

Any particular reason you cut the chart off at 2007, Jay?

Hmmmmmm?

• Link
• Report this comment

Sinkwich, if the winners keep winning, where are the jobs and why is amerrica in a recession?

If this is what it looks like when the winners are winning…wow!

• Link
• Report this comment

F.Sink, This has nothing to do with “achievers” and “losers”. Were AIG, Bear Sterns, WaMu, and Merrill Lynch “successful”?

• Link
• Report this comment

“Thanks for helping me prove my point.”

next thing, you’re going to say that they all pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps and that the “losers” at the bottom of the chart should do the same.

• Link
• Report this comment

Doggone – “It might, just maybe, have something to do with the title of the chart being: “Inequality rising: inflation-adjusted household incomes, 1979-2007″

not to mention, does he really think that there was a sudden surge in household incomes between 2008 and 2010?

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay, I believe you have some of that “trickle down“ in your cereal.

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay, let’s see if we have this straight. Members of Congress are wealthy people. Members of Congress make the laws and set the policy of this country. Do you honestly believe that Congress would intentionally take it in the neck for the benefit of the rest of the U.S. citizens? In your case, it’s a rhetorical question. As a Democrat, you believe that the Government is looking out for your best interests. That’s why you swoon at the mere mention of Obama the Magnificent.

• Link
• Report this comment

Capitalism is not perfect, but it has produced the most successful society in history – the USA. The answer, Jay, to your question as to why the public is embracing a flawed Republican party is, the public is not as dumb as some who post here think. The Dems are growing government. Government produces nothing – it just takes from one and gives to another. The Obama agenda is big government – take from one to give to another. Therefore unemployment, etc. The socialist policy failed with the Colonists. Show me a Dem party who can produce successful changes without taking from one to give to another, and I will show you untouchable voting majorities. The Dems have no solutions that are not Social Justice. Tricke up poverty is all they know.

• Link
• Report this comment

F. Sinkwich,

Rather than looking at the timeframe of the chart you ought to look up the guy that created it. This Lane Kenworthy is out there, WAY out there, then again he’s a professor so I guess I’m being somewhat redundant.

• Link
• Report this comment

You can’t have a societ of “haves” and “have nots”. The “have not” will TAKE it away if the gap gets too big. Ask Nick what happened in 1917, too big a gap.

• Link
• Report this comment

Well, I don’t know much about the other junk Bookman writes about but us Republicans need a Tax Cut real bad and if we don’t get our Tax Cut we’re going to drive our pickups up there to Washington and lay down on the Congress floor and hold our breath and kick and scream till we get our Tax Cut.

Like I said many times before we’re so Productive they ought to pay us just to live in this country. We could have another Tax Cut if they just put all the lazy 80 year olds to work and made the Welfare Queens go out and get a job and buy some linament for all the people we’re paying Medicaid for now.

Besides, I guess Bookman never heard of Trickle Down. After 30 years we’re still waiting and it’s a-comin’. People will change their mind when they start getting Trickled On. It will start as a little Trickle and pretty soon it will look like Niagra Falls and we’ll be swimming in money. If we can keep the librul Democrats from turning us into a Commie country and just let the Trickle Down work a little more.

Anyhow, it’s time for my beanie-weenies and a big old RC with a moon pie. Have a good p.m. everybody.

• Link
• Report this comment

Johnny reb, do you have a clue as to how long rome lasted. The us has only 235 years in the books so you might want to rethink your broad historical platitudes.

• Link
• Report this comment

O.F: “Meanwhile, over 50% of the people pay zero income tax. ZERO. And that is fair? And you don’t say a word about. Why?”

Source of THAT propaganda please?

• Link
• Report this comment

finn – all he knows is that it ended badly …

• Link
• Report this comment

“The more rich the better (and I am not one) because that means a lot of money and jobs are floating around.”

scout – you’ve evidently missed the point of the graph – which is that there aren’t MORE rich – just that the top 1% have MORE wealth.

• Link
• Report this comment

Not to split too fine a hair here, but do 50% of the people in the US even have an income?

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay, Sorry….47%….my bad….. From the AP on April 7th, 2010.

“WASHINGTON (AP) — Tax Day is a dreaded deadline for millions, but for nearly half of U.S. households it’s simply somebody else’s problem.

About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability. That’s according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research organization.”

And still not a word about even 47% of the people paying no taxes. Great job Jay. Way to show some sort of objectivity on it.

• Link
• Report this comment

Scout: “The more rich the better (and I am not one) because that means a lot of money and jobs are floating around.”

Truth be told…during the last administration the rolls of rich and poor both increased. Those that climbed the ladder and fell off the ladder both came from the middle class…yet WAY more fell off the ladder. Please tell me how “the more rich the better” added to our economy by 2008.

Know what “fuels” a rocking economy? A STRONG middle class. Those who are not afraid to spend…who feel confident about the jobs they have (or getting a new one)… That “wealth” created was phony… all it did was create a whole class of society living in homes they could not afford.

Look back to 1960 or so and beyond…every time we had a GREAT economy..it was when the middle class was doing well. Creating more “rich” through “tax cuts” has never created lasting jobs… in fact…it’s only lost more jobs when banks had to tighten their belts.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Know what “fuels” a rocking economy? A STRONG middle class.”

not to mention a STABLE SOCIETY

• Link
• Report this comment

“Or did somebody slip LSD into my coffee this morning?”

Nah, just Kool Aid, you need to quit drinking it for it’s effect to wear off.

• Link
• Report this comment

Doggone, Sounds like you are talking about a flat tax pretty much, and I agree 100%. Eliminate the income tax and just have a consumption tax. It hits everybody that way. Just think about how much easier it would be. No more April 15th, no more hiding behind tax breaks, no more IRS having to perform useless audits…..it would be wonderful..

• Link
• Report this comment

What is fair about someone who makes $2M/year paying $700k in taxes while a person making $50K/yr pays $5k in taxes? Nothing at all. That’s why we need a flat tax. Considering the top 5% of earners pay >90% of national “income” taxes, what gripe do the lower 90% (which I’m in) have about how much someone else is paying? That is my biggest complaint about Dem ideology, they want welfare programs for all levels of income b/c they are “compassionate”, yet they DO NOT want to pay for these said programs themselves.

• Link
• Report this comment

Bosch – 12:08 – your mom should have been doing color commentary for the BBC – it would have at least lessened the pain of watching the dismal England team!

one of the best things about my mom’s wake was us “kids” sitting around telling stories with her friends – we laughed, ohmygod, we laughed. THAT’S what you want to think about – the good times

• Link
• Report this comment

“yet they DO NOT want to pay for these said programs themselves.”

Assume wrong much?

• Link
• Report this comment

“Doggone, Sounds like you are talking about a flat tax pretty much, and I agree 100%”

No, not a flat tax. A “flat” tax is inherently unfair as it weighs more heavily on those lower on the economic scale. I would institute a progressive sales tax. Within “spending bands” the more you pay at the time, the higher the tax rate.

• Link
• Report this comment

Johnny reb, so it doesn’t compute for you that success and longevity of a nation/state are sopmehow connected?

Doggone hits the nail on the head. The middle class is so squeezed we were relying on credit cards to help us get by but now we aren’t using the cards so we aren’t buying except for necessities – gasoline, etc. The capitalists haven’t found a new source of consumers and they won’t until some of the profits swing back to the middle class. I can wait it out…

Ok, time to board. Have fun and keep those rich thieves in line!

• Link
• Report this comment

“and massive tax breaks for the wealthy”…….SQUIRREL!!!!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

US in UK, ““Know what “fuels” a rocking economy? A STRONG middle class.”

Yes, it does….So why does Obama hate the middle class so much that he is allowing Bush tax cuts for them to expire? Why does he hate the middle class so much that he is going to kill it by making everybody pay more for things with his wasteful spending?

• Link
• Report this comment

Bookman: “Do I have that right? Or did somebody slip LSD into my coffee this morning? (Please, let it be the LSD. At least that will wear off eventually.)”

The answer to the first question is yes. I can’t speak to the second question.

In truth, conservatives (so-called) don’t believe in smaller government, free markets, or lower taxes. They believe in smaller government where government benefits the poor and bigger government where it benefits the rich (e.g., nuclear subsidies, agricultural subsidies, subsidies for big oil, military industrial complex, prison industrial complex). Conservatives seek lower taxes where taxes are imposed on big business and the wealthiest among us (e.g., eliminating inheritance, dividend, capital gains and corporate income taxes) and raising taxes on the poor and middle class (e.g., regressive forms of taxation such as the FairTax proposal or VAT proposal in Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap”). And conservatives oppose free markets when they oppose enforcing anti-trust laws, common sense regulations to enforce fair competition and transparency, and imposing the cost of externalities on the parties involved in a business transaction.

The agenda of so-called conservatives is clear. Eliminate taxes for big business and the wealthiest among us while decimating protections for consumers, workers, the environment, and yes, investors.

LSD or not, Bookman has it exactly right.

• Link
• Report this comment

Bosch

My mom had joint replacement surgery during the WC and went to a physical therapy center and we also watched some of the WC matches while she was there. I also heard similar comments.

• Link
• Report this comment

Hit the nail on the head today……and NO to the LSD…….. Just came out today…Harley Davidson, made great profits as they cut employees……. and they expect to cut a few thousand more.

Corporations are not hiring…..they are firing now…….. and the Bush tax cuts have zero to do with it.

Corporations are making more profits, and the labor folks are working harder and longer than ever before…..why ?

SO they don’t get fired !

• Link
• Report this comment

Those darned unemployed! When are they going to start paying their fair share of the income taxes. And poor people! What is wrong with the poor people in the US. Why don’t they pay taxes. Why do the rich have to pick up the tab for those worthless poor people. Why can’t charities take care of them. Give the rich a decent tax cut and watch our economy grow. The trickle down will be so powerful, folks will be washed away by it. But we cannot get there until the rich pay less and the poor give more. Everyone knows that.

• Link
• Report this comment

“What is fair about someone who makes $2M/year paying $700k in taxes while a person making $50K/yr pays $5k in taxes? Nothing at all”

It is inherently UNFAIR. Look at it this way: which is less fair: someone who makes $15,000 a year only having $10,500 after taxes (rounded to 30%) or someone who makes $700,000 “only” having $490,000? (rounded to 30%)

There’s a HUGE difference in the impact of a flat tax on those low on the economic scale, and those higher up the scale.

• Link
• Report this comment

Ability to pay is the system. Always been like that, greed was not so much when income taxes 1st started.

• Link
• Report this comment

Give me one Democrat solution that does not punish achievers?

Given that your side idiotically equates rational tax rates and corporate accountability with “punishing achievers,” sorry. I can’t.

• Link
• Report this comment

Go ahead and let the tax cuts expire. I don’t hear anyone suggest that the tax cuts created lots of jobs and lots of growth while G.W. Bush was President. He cut taxes on incomes, dividends and estates. When he left office unemployment was higher, the deficit was higher, and we had a financial system meltdown. What good did the tax cuts do?

• Link
• Report this comment

RW,

Well then, maybe I should stop talking to rabbits and go back and read what Sinkwich wrote, huh?

• Link
• Report this comment

JohnnyReb: “liberal elite”

Please friend! Get with the times! Just yesterday I was told how we’re now all “progressives” and NOT “liberals” or “elites” any longer. Well that… and according to my new “friend” here on jay’s blog “Fred”…we democrats are to be identified as: ” old depends wearing wind bags”…. I still think that has a catchy ring to it!

• Link
• Report this comment

“Meanwhile, the Republican Party defends massive tax breaks for the wealthy while blocking aid to the unemployed, fights bitterly against regulations designed to prevent a repeat of the Wall Street meltdown, blocks legislation that would at least require corporate and special interests to identify themselves when they invest in elections and does all that while proclaiming itself to be the party of the little people.”

Well, tax breaks should go to those who pay taxes in proportion to what they pay. When the “top 5%” are the ones who pay the lions share, then the benefits of tax relief would go to them. Otherwise, it is called theft that confiscates that which is earned to fund benefits and transfer payments to those who don’t.

As for unemployment benefits, perpetual extension is asinine when both the country and individuals would be better off with those receiving the benefits actually working instead of living off the confiscated earnings of others. In the same vein, the money that keeps getting “extended” to these benefits would be much better targeted to promoting economic / business growth among America’s employers (small & medium sized businesses – those “evil top 5%’ers”).

So long as the “financial reform” did nothing to address the entities that were at the crux of the financial meltdown (Freddie & Fannie) and perpetuated the continued cover offered to those entities by Congressional Democrats, it deserved opposition. REAL financial reform should have taken the form would have reinstituted historical underwriting guidelines and taken action to get the current glut of unproductive assets back to profitable use.

So long as Democrats decide to exempt some entities like the NRA & Union from the campaign finance “reform”, there is no reason to support it. A REAL reform would be to require publication of all contributions from all parties within seven days with no limits whatsoever. In that fashion, the American people would know who the political prostitutes are and whom their johns happen to be! However, so long as we tax corporate entities, it should be no surprise that those entities act to promote legislation and regulation in their best interests & those of their shareholders.

Bottom line, Jay – PrezBO and his merry band of Congressional collectivists deserve every measure of the opposition that they face. At the point that they quit confiscating what America’s producers and achievers earn & stop trying to equalize outcomes that result from non-equal effort, then they will have earned support. Until that time, their agenda must be defeated.

Truth, History, and Common Sense Refute Liberalism; Freedom works every time it is tried – It works when you do!

-SD

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay,

When did repubs.claim to be the party of the little people. Maybe the party of productive people, or the party of jobs rather than handouts……..but never party of the little people.

• Link
• Report this comment

OGK, just look down on those “starter jobs”, some of those folks do hard honest work and deserve a fair wage. Your attitude is showing.

• Link
• Report this comment

Bosch,

No point in your reading it because your only response would be whatever talking point the left is spreading and there’s much more entertainment value in talking to rabbits. Gotta run, but sorry to hear about your Mom. Stay strong and help the rest of the family through, you never know who might look to be coping the best but really need the most help.

Later Y’all

• Link
• Report this comment

When are wingnuts going to realize that it’s not about what’s fair and unfair?

• Link
• Report this comment

http://www.conservativenannystate.com

• Link
• Report this comment

Booger…know what? Depending upon income for the year… those collecting unemployment STILL have to pay taxes on what they collected.

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc418.html

Topic 418 – Unemployment Compensation

“Unemployment compensation is includible in gross income. You must report unemployment compensation on line 19 of Form 1040, line 13 of Form 1040A, or line 3 of Form 1040EZ. However, for 2009, the first $2,400 of unemployment compensation is excluded from income and should be excluded from the amount reported on your tax return.”

• Link
• Report this comment

Saul, I do my share of wind blowing here. There is a difference between wind blowing and attempting to belittle others. I may not have THE answer, but I can recognize the “dodge.” There are a high number here, mostly on the left, who have put themselves above others and instead of debating someone with a credible comeback, they chose to attempt to belittle the opposition. That smacks of the liberal elite whether that blogger actually has that status or not. And BTW, only Barnes is an old depends wearing wind bag, and that is one reason he will lose in Nov.

• Link
• Report this comment

Today, of course, it is denounced as a commie plot to aid the “takers.”

See also:
Cap and Trade
Private Insurance Mandates.

• Link
• Report this comment

Your post adds one too many pithy people to my day, jay. First the lady at the grocery store and now you?

First off, the military put the internet into practical application. You’ll never see me complain about the military. They’re the only thing that operates efficiently within our government. Just ask Sean Penn.

Ah yes!!!! Government’s New Deal….unsustainable debt. It’s HUGE!

Ineffective governments? Would that be like Hugo’s social utopia? The U.K.’s, NHS, which, by the way, is about to undergo a massive restructuring that will bring massive job losses. They just can’t seem to get it right.

Those kinda ineffective governments…errrrr programs?

• Link
• Report this comment

That oil didn’t really spill and end up all over the beaches and the marshes and in the Gulf. At least that’s booger’s apparent take on the spill. Well, we are talking about rabbit holes.

• Link
• Report this comment

The DoD operates efficiently! And on only one trillion dollars annually. Rabbit holes are popping up all over the place.

• Link
• Report this comment

Joe – to your comment at 12:19, I hate the player just as much as the game since the ‘player’ is the corporation who has a whole lot more money then I do to influence (i.e. BUY) the government into submission.

Conservatives seem to miss the point that AmVet always talks about. Both side do this, both are just as guilty. Hold all of them accountable, not just Democrats.

• Link
• Report this comment

Oh, and jay?

My response to you should not be confused with pithy as in “tersely cogent” but rather as pithed as in pi$$ed, you pithant.

Smiley face! All is well.

• Link
• Report this comment

Normal @ 12:47pm: “When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”

How about when those same mentioned above start catering to “Newt” again. Talk about Dunces…ever read one of his books? They’re about as intellectually challenging and stimulating as the “Weekly Reader” I used to get in Elementary School. Perhaps less stimulating… at least there was more “honesty” in those little magazines compared to what Newt offers in his books.

Not kidding…anyone ever read one of his books? I mean…are those not “crafted” and edited for someone with limited reading abilities?

• Link
• Report this comment

Johnny….then I guess we’ll agree that there are both sides who have “members” who dodge “facts” when presented with them… I know I do my best to back up what I post with links, charts, etc… yet when I do…I’m often called names. Hurtful? Nah…it’s a blog… I take it for what it is… yet I DO see WAY more links with CHARTS posted my us “old depends wearing windbags” compared to those of you on the other team. Must be the “Saul” thing in my name that makes some feel that I’m “old”… they don’t read “Saul Good” aloud… nor have they seen the movie… it is one…FUNNY too!

• Link
• Report this comment

Give em hell, Jay!

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay,

While I recognize that there is a vast gap in growth between the brackets, I wonder whether this is primarily caused by government or basic economics. There are a number of poor people in the world who are willing to work for low wages and in unsafe conditions in order to feed their family. If you don’t have some esoteric skills or connections supply and demand will probably limit your income growth until the Chinese and Indians catch up with us in per capita income.

In order to provide income growth where there is no demand at current prices what do you propose to do? Do you want to enact tariffs? Subsidize incomes? There aren’t any good answers as far as I can see if this is basic economics. Most solutions will degrade all of our citizens’ standard of living.

Or we could just recognize that this is something that is outside anyone’s control.

• Link
• Report this comment

I come to this blog day after day and get so frustrated and exasperated with the resident wingnuts spouting lie after lie after lie that they borrow from Glen Beck and Fox.

And RW – didn’t think it possible but I’m sorely disappointed in you.

I thought you were better than your first post.

How the eff can you tout the breakdown of the house, senate, etc. knowing full well that the GOP routinely bands together to defeat ANY possible good congress is trying to do for this country.

You conveniently ignore the fact that when the GOP held Congress, the democrats at least tried to get along with the GOP and didn’t set up roadblocks at every single opportunity.

Shame on you.

You’re no better than these other lie spouting knuckleheads.

• Link
• Report this comment

It’s LSD, don’t p**s in a cup.

• Link
• Report this comment

To add to Jay’s post at 12:49

The Defense Department is unable to properly account for $8.7 billion out of $9.1 billion in Iraqi oil revenue entrusted to it between 2004 and 2007, according to a newly released audit that underscores a pattern of poor record-keeping during the war.

Of that amount, the military failed to provide any records at all for $2.6 billion in purported reconstruction expenditure, says the report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which is responsible for monitoring U.S. spending in Iraq. The rest of the money was not properly deposited in special accounts as required under Treasury Department rules, making it difficult to trace how it was spent.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102×4480367

• Link
• Report this comment

One could say mortgage interest deductions are wellfare, but I don’t blame anyone for taking them.

• Link
• Report this comment

Add to that, Nathan ( i stole Evander Holyfield’s real deal) Deal ethical challenges and some in here think Barnes is going to lose ??

• Link
• Report this comment

Swami Dave: “Saul Alinsky”

WHO????

How do SO many get it SO wrong? It’s so effin’ funny how “some” bring up his name all the time… yups…we know just where YOU learned his name from… sheeesh!

Fellow libs, elites, progressives, and “depends wearing old bags” (according to Fred)… I mean do ANY of you give a $^#(#@(# about Saul Alinsky???

• Link
• Report this comment

I have an idea…. Let’s continue to throw money at issues. Don’t fix the problem, just throw more money….

Why do you liberals hated people that work hard, go to school (sometimes at night or on weekends) to provide a better life for their family and you want to take it away from them…

Income re-distribution… The liberal way. The liberal thought…. They owe you money, don’t work for it, they owe it to you….. Don’t be responsible… Don’t control your debt, Don’t live within your means, don’t improve your life,,, They owe it to you…..
Boy this is fun……..
PS..Liberals, one more thing….

ABC strongly opposes government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on public construction projects.

Anti-competitive project labor agreements (PLAs) are special interest schemes that end open, fair and competitive bidding on public works projects. PLAs drive up the cost of construction by reducing competition and effectively excluding merit shop contractors and their skilled employees from building projects paid for by their own tax dollars.

Typical PLAs are pre-hire contracts that require projects be awarded only to contractors and subcontractors that agree to:
• recognize unions as the representatives of their employees on that job
• use the union hiring hall to obtain workers
• obtain apprentices exclusively from union apprenticeship programs
• pay into underfunded and mismanaged union benefit plans
• obey costly, restrictive and inefficient union work rules

In the end, government-mandated PLAs prevent taxpayers from getting the best possible product at the best possible price.

On February 6, 2009, President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 13502, which repeals Executive Order 13202 and encourages federal agencies to require PLAs on federal and federally funded construction projects in excess of $25 million. Executive Order 13202 had prohibited federal agencies and recipients of federal financial assistance from requiring wasteful and discriminatory union-only PLAs on federal and federally funded construction projects. Construction contracts subject to union-only PLAs are usually awarded to unionized contractors and their all-union workforces.
On March 13, 2010, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council released the final rule to implement President Obama’s Executive Order 13502. The release of this final rule represents the culmination of a process that began in July 2009 with the FAR Council’s release of a proposed rule to implement the content of Executive Order 13502 into federal procurement regulations.
Even before the release of the final rule to implement Executive Order 13502, the Obama Administration signaled its desire for federal agencies to begin mandating PLAs. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on July 10 issued a policy memorandum encouraging federal agencies to consider utilizing PLAs on a project-by-project basis and require PLAs in “appropriate circumstances.” This memorandum came in advance of the FAR Council’s proposed rule implementing Executive Order 13502.

Between 2001 and 2008, Executive Order 13202 ensured that at least $147.1 billion worth of federal construction projects was bid without discriminatory and wasteful government-mandated PLAs. The actual value of construction projects protected by Executive Order 13202 is exponentially larger, as the above figure does not include local construction spending that received federal funding or assistance protected by the executive order. Free and open competition saved American taxpayers an estimated 10 percent to 20 percent on federal construction spending and provided women, minorities and other qualified craft professionals the opportunity to work in their communities.

The 1% is now the Unions……GO Baby GO

• Link
• Report this comment

Another thing, jay. When I find myself in such dire straights that all I can depend on is government, which will in turn, demand my vote, to sustain me, it will truly be a sad day. A sad day, indeed.

Now I’m out to languish by the pool. I’ll be looking at the bottom and thinking of you.

• Link
• Report this comment

Let the tax break for the rich people expire. It will help the country, and it won’t hurt them a bit. This, after all, is the country that afforded them the opportunity to get so rich in the first place.

• Link
• Report this comment

How the eff can you tout the breakdown of the house, senate, etc. knowing full well that the GOP routinely bands together to defeat ANY possible good congress is trying to do for this country.

huh? RW plays that riff all the time. Nothing new there. Which is why I posted that bit about Harry Reid ramming a Senate rules change–it’s not gonna happen, but it’s the only thing that’d change the stranglehold Republicans have on any meaningful legislation. It’s why we don’t have a public option, why something as weak as Cap and Trade is what we’re still trying to get through rather than a carbon tax; essentially it’s why Atrios routinely refers to “President Olympia Snowe”, since without at least one non-crazy Republican OKing a measure, it doesn’t get passed.

And RW knows that, he’s just trying to get you riled up.

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay,

Okay….I haven’t done research into your statement yet. Given your past ability to greatly skew the facts, I am sure that you did a bang up job with this one too. Anyways, I will go ahead with your numbers and still say 36% DO NOT PAY ANYTHING!!!! And that is acceptable? We are only talking about not paying ANYTHING. Some of the remaining 64% might only pay $100. Also, given that you have excluded all of those other tax returns of people that make around $5,000….we can apply the same logic and say that means that the top 50% pay an even greater percentage of the nation’s taxes. The 97% of the overall tax burden that the top half pays is probably more like 99% now. And that is fair???? Sounds an awful bit like socialism if you ask me.

As Thatcher once said “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

• Link
• Report this comment

a lot, the people who don’t pay federal income taxes don’t make enough money to share this burden! What would you have the government do, take a sizable chunk of their meager paychecks and then turn around and dole it out to them in welfare checks because they then don’t have enough to live on?

Aren’t the Republicans the ones always saying that “we know better how to spend our money than the government”? Yet, they persist in begrudging the little guy a tax break, while defending tax cuts for the rich? What is wrong with this picture?! Of course, that’s the whole point of Jay’s column.

• Link
• Report this comment

Spare us Bookman…. you are talking about only one half of the population. What do we do, tax the “rich” even more to give to those 50% who pay no federal income tax? We already work until about mid June to pay these outrageous taxes now. When Bozo gets finished socializing the country, will it be July or perhaps August? The incentive to work hard and excel. That’s evil? Boy, are YOU screwed up!!

• Link
• Report this comment

I want to know when is the 70% pre-Reagan bracket and 90% estate tax rates coming back?

Might need to go back to that. Maybe it would get rid of all these economic bubbles we keep having

’80s Savings and Loan real estate bubble
’90s IT bubble
’00s housing market, derivatives bubble.

• Link
• Report this comment

@@…”The Pentagon is comprised of a bunch of government bureaucrats.”

Obviously you’ve never been to the Pentagon. Unless you think the military personnel working their are government bureaucrats.

You need to get out more!

• Link
• Report this comment

Never did drugs, I just listened to ‘In a Gadda da Vida’ when I wanted to get high.

• Link
• Report this comment

I have an idea…. Let’s continue to throw money at issues. Don’t fix the problem, just throw more money….

andygrd, as in how CEO pay went up 240% in ten years while worker pay went up 4% during the same time? That kind of throwing money? Or maybe you were referring to upping the $300,000,000,000.00 every single year given away by Uncle Sam (YOU AND ME) in corporate welfare?

Is that what you are advocating?

Perhaps you advocate that we need MORE of that fiscal conservatism that screws working Americans so fat cats and their corporate fleecing machines can make even greater profits? More of that “Let the free market police itself” nonsense that brought the nation to the very brink of disaster?

Are you a CEO?

Did you get the memo? That trickle down/voodoo economics is a tragic joke?

• Link
• Report this comment

What an economic and financial fool!

• Link
• Report this comment

stands for decibels…..why don’t we start with you leaving. You obviously have no clue and follow the Democrat party like a mental midget.

• Link
• Report this comment

Saul, nice…you pick two words to point out while ignoring the rest of it. Typical liberal.

• Link
• Report this comment

BOSCH
My condolances.

• Link
• Report this comment

Let’s hear it for “sucking at the government teat”!

“Georgia again a finalist in Race to the Top competition”
http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-again-a-finalist-579439.html

• Link
• Report this comment

“@ 1:48″

Ummm…Josef, what clock are you using?

• Link
• Report this comment

Joe,

I agree with you completely that if lower income brackets are increased it will go directly to the economy.

The question is whether employers are willing to maintain hiring at those inflated levels.

• Link
• Report this comment

three words for you RW: shame on you!!

• Link
• Report this comment

“The question is whether employers are willing to maintain hiring at those inflated levels”

If they have enough customers to justify the hiring, then yes, they will.

• Link
• Report this comment

“When are all the bleeding heart libs gonna pony-up and send Uncle Sammy an addl $100 just because?

Cmon you Pro-Tax Progressives!!”

AMEN!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

the government cannot make us all rich but it can make us all poor.

• Link
• Report this comment

From one of my personal hero’s…

“Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

• Link
• Report this comment

Doogone
Daylight spending time?

Normal
Nanh…had a meeting at work today…Blessed are the pacemakers! Actually it didn’t go bad at all…met some of the new staff…may be getting to work more with the Kindergartners next year…I hope so, they’re wunnerful…

• Link
• Report this comment

Cmon libs, Pro-Tax Progressives…lend a hand, help a neighbor, lettuce see those checks flying into our caring, wonderful Federal govt. Now if ever the govt needs YOU!

• Link
• Report this comment

USinUK—I think you need to recall the Clinton Administration–the one in power for 8 years which gave us budget surpluses, high GDP, 23-26 million jobs, low inflation . . . Then we had 8 years of conservative rule–just the opposite occurred. Because of the disaster W. left us with, spending was required to avoid a Depression. The Demos, the facts show, are the party of job creation and GDP growth, and highest stock market performance. Let’s not forget, R.Reagan increased the number of federal employees; Clinton reduced that number.

Fairly high progressive taxation causes a booming economy and surpluses. In the long run, even the super wealthy benefit. REps continuously do nothing but lower taxes on the wealthy, causing the mess Clinton inherited, and the disaster Obama inherited.

Conservatives are blinded by ideology.

Let’s keep in mind that W’s Medicare Drug Bill will cost almost as much as Obama’s Healthcare Bill.

• Link
• Report this comment

josef @ 1:30pm

• Link
• Report this comment

I have a suggestion: when Dems and GOP alike wake up and realize that the working class is too big to fail we might be able to make some positive steps…

• Link
• Report this comment

Bed Wet,

Say I make 400K/yr as one of those evil hard, working capitalists. My Federal Tax bracket is at or above 39.8%, projected for 2011. Now let’s eliminate the Bush tax cuts. Now let’s add what the state takes. Now let’s pretend that I or someone in my estate dies who owns property to will to my heirs. Let’s also pretend that my capital gains taxes go from 18% to 28% or more. Looks a whole lot like June to me. And BTW, that 250K pledge is an out right lie and you know it.

• Link
• Report this comment

While the AJC liberals (Bookman & Tucker) write duplicate columns rallying support for democratic “initiatives”, the AJC’s Kyle Wingfield (conservative) goes with this:

How many millions Atlanta favoritism will cost us, answered

A federal jury on Monday awarded $17.5 million in damages to an Atlanta businessman who claimed the City of Atlanta and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport illegally steered a lucrative indoor advertising contract to a competitor with deep political connections.

The verdict, which came after nearly eight hours of deliberations, called for Billy Corey and his company, Corey Airport Services, to receive $8.5 million in compensatory damages, to be paid in thirds by the city, Clear Channel Outdoor Inc. and businesswoman Barbara Fouch.

So, city taxpayers are out almost $3 million in damages, plus whatever legal fees the city has accumulated — and will continue to pile up in an appeal. For what? So that Barbara Fouch can enter a fourth decade of making millions from a sweetheart contract?

• Link
• Report this comment

“President Olympia Snowe”

Bestill my hear – sorry if that made your stomach a little queasy there RW. And be nice to Midori!

• Link
• Report this comment

The last time we had republicans who were not far out anti tax zealots was in the 1950’s. They weren’t even trying to dismantle social security. So, look at where we are now; joe sixpack and other dumb schmucks worried about tax increases for the top two percent! Yes, this is a bad acid trip and it doesn’t seem like its going to end anytime soon. If you ever catch an episode of “leave it to beaver”, I grew up in that america. FDR got us out of the depression and the repubs maintained the middle class during ike. Today, the middle class has been eviscerated and trying to rebuild it is met with filibusters or whatever other political chicanery is available to the minority party. On top of that they want to cut social security, the last of the great safety nets in our society. What do people have to look forward to when they are old and burned out? Hands off the social security you crazy republicans, find another way to pay for your wars and tax cuts.

• Link
• Report this comment

Saul Good, You just keep drinking the Dem Kool Aid. Answer this. How was the economy before the dems took over Congress in 2006? You want a reason for zero job growth, just go look at that. It is funny that you libs always to toss blame around starting with Obama himself but fail to remember to accept part of the blame when you deserve to join in it. The Dem-led Congress got us into the mess and is doing nothing to get us out of it. They are worsening the situation every day they are in power.

• Link
• Report this comment

Say I make 400K/yr as one of those evil hard, working capitalists.

Wow, K71, you have to pick an income example that represents a whopping 0.5% of the US population to get there?

• Link
• Report this comment

My heavens,
you can’t be a poor boy from Alabama! You are using words that even I don’t know and I graduated from Harvard (pronounced Havvahd). I do believe he is an Ayn Rand disciple posing as a poor boy.

• Link
• Report this comment

yacker, English please.

Maybe this will help with your edumacation…

http://www.dinkytown.net/java/TaxMargin.html

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay, this looks like an ignorant article that I would expect from Tucker.

First of all it wasn’t just wall street that half ruined our country, add Banks, Fannie & Freddie May and stupid people who as usual bought more than they could afford and the Mortgage companies that lent them the money.

Secondly, The Rebublicans did not block aid, they tried to do the smart thing by using the stinulus money, less than 50% of that money was ever used and they didn’t want to add any more burden to the deficit.

Thirdly, The Rebublican party is a party for everyone, it’s dis-honest people like you who try to slant it another way. Please tell us what you call rich Democrats, as there are more of them in Congress and the Senate than there are Republicans.

Last but not least, no you didn’t drink LSD this morning, you just woke up and said to yourself, what can I lie about today.

• Link
• Report this comment

“The Rebublican party is a party for everyone”

Oh Jesus, where did I put that monitor cleaner?

• Link
• Report this comment

Bill

July 27th, 2010
1:44 pm

AGREED!!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

I want to help LiLo. I hear her fellow inmates are ready for her to leave.

• Link
• Report this comment

Rich Boy from Vermont at 1:56: I am in fact a Poor Boy from Alabama. I spent a few of my younger years in Cambridge, however.

• Link
• Report this comment

Off Topic here…
Anybody heard from Monds? Jay?

• Link
• Report this comment

The great conservative principles put in practice from 2001-2007. These are: cut taxes three times, fight unnecessary wars off budget of course, medicare drug scam, less or no regulation on financial, oil and energy industries. When everything comes apart at the seems all at once – blame democrats.

• Link
• Report this comment

Last point for me as I’ve got a business to run…Joe, your logic is faulty. Here’s why…yes the business owners and those who live off unearned income must have workers working in order to keep their companies afloat. But, for every employee who chooses to ignore their alarm clocks in the morning and stay home, there are 10 who would welcome that job and show up every day and work hard. So the lazy bones who sleep in and skip work inevitably get fired, and their job is filled by someone with some drive.

However, there aren’t 10 companies out there fighting for one mr. or ms. lazy bones with no drive. So the company is more valuable than the worker simply because of numbers. Just like when Pres Reagan fired all the air traffic controllers who went on strike in the 80s…they were all replaced with workers who valued those jobs and appreciated what was offered. Again, vote GOP and the unemployment mess goes away…vote Dem in Nov and for BO in 2012 this mess continues for 6 more years. Pick and choose wisely!

• Link
• Report this comment

We started cutting taxes and increasing spending in 1981.

And what party has been in charge the last 30 years?

Pres… House.. Senate
Rep…. 20….. 12….. 16
Dem…. 10….. 18….. 14

Looks like the Republicans have been in charge of the Presidency 20 of the 30 years. The Democrats in charge of the House 18 of the 30 years.
And the Republicans in charge of the Senate 16 of the 30 years.

By assigning a point for every year in charge, the Republicans win the “whose fault” game 48 – 42.

We are now in summer workouts but the new season starts after Labor Day. Then we will see who wins the real game in November.

The tragedy is that true fiscal conservatives will not be elected by either party. So a fiscal liberal government will be in place the next 2 years just as it has been for the past 30 years. (With the exception, of course, of the last 3 Clinton budgets. Which we can all agree has turned out to be an anomaly).

• Link
• Report this comment

Total government (federal, state and local including social security and Medicare tax) revenues for 201 are projected to be $4.45T, 30% of projected GDP. When you add in a low deficit estimate, $1.55T, government expenses will be 41% of GDP. http://www.usgovernmentrevenue.com/
Any rational person, regardless of party affiliation, should understand this is unsustainable without becoming first Japan, then Greece, and then Mexico. So, like Greece, we need an austerity program with severe spending cuts, especially in the large ticket items like DoD, SS, Medicare and Medicaid.

• Link
• Report this comment

Hey Fault, the Colts won the Super Bowl in 2007 — maybe THAT’S what caused the collapse that began later that year.

I KNEW IT!!! That midnight run to Indianapolis started it all. Stupid Colts!

• Link
• Report this comment

Yes Jay, you have been and continue to be on LSD! Why should that bother you, Obozo not only continued the trend he has given BILLIONS to rich people that have proven they do NOT know what to do with it. So give those bonuses bail out the rich! With all the Bush bashing you have done why is it ok for Obozo to give billions to the rich?

• Link
• Report this comment

John Birch

July 27th, 2010
2:17 pm

Severe spending cuts in DoD, Congressional Saleries (actually Congress shouldn’t get paid at all because special interests buy them all up anyway)…Yes cut them to the bone. SS, medicare, medicade, Obamacare, and education, No! they are needed and needed badly.

• Link
• Report this comment

AmVet @ 1:44; I see you recognize superiority when confronted with it.

• Link
• Report this comment

equality can only be found in poverty.

• Link
• Report this comment

I’m still trying to get the Republicans to fess up on what caused global cooling!

• Link
• Report this comment

Granny you and Jay need to stop it with the cool-aid. Please tell me where the “GOP is calling for the biggest single increase to the deficit” By the way the GOP is NOT in charge, just in case you forgot, and it Obozo who spent more that Bush did in 8 years in 18 months. How can you loser liberals blame ANYTHING on the GOP when the dimacrats have a SUPER MAJORITY? But since math does not seem to be in the liberal vocabulary I will spell it out, the dimacrats DO NOT need a single GOP vote to do anything, so why are you crying that the GOP is the problem…..

• Link
• Report this comment

Fix it…meet the filibuster…filibuster meet Fix it.

There, happy? BTW the Dems do not have a super majority either…

• Link
• Report this comment

AmVet

July 27th, 2010
2:30 pm

• Link
• Report this comment

“Government does not create jobs..”

Well, yes and no. That’s why I keep asking where are all the public works infrastructural development projects?

• Link
• Report this comment

And i will filibuster Micks filibuster with my own filibuster, and then i will filibuster my own filibuster with another one.

• Link
• Report this comment

FILIBUSTER !!!!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

Oil giant BP said it plans to offset the entire cost of its Gulf of Mexico oil spill against its tax bill, reducing future contributions to U.S. tax coffers by almost $10 billion.

BP took a pretax provision of $32.2 billion in its accounts for the period, for the cost of capping the well, cleaning up the spill, compensating victims and paying government fines.

However, the net impact on BP’s bottom line will only be $22 billion, with the company recording a $10 billion tax credit, most of which will be borne by the U.S. taxpayer, a spokesman said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6_1Pw1xm9U

• Link
• Report this comment

Yes the Republican Party is for EVERYONE, everyone who is obese, uneducated, white, balding or big-haired,loves Jesus and America and is stupid enough to think the real GOPers like Karl and Dick give a hoot about them.

• Link
• Report this comment

Bosch – If they think they are in it, they are delusional. The difference between business and BIG BUSINESS is like the difference between a grape and a watermelon!

• Link
• Report this comment

Tamye Bobbye
Sounds like Bobby Jindal, Nikki Haley, Joseph Cao, Tom Cole to me…not GOP myself and don’t much care for them…but…and what’s wrong with loving Jesus and America?

• Link
• Report this comment

It appears that some haven’t owned a grape or a watermelon. Until they own a business or a BIG BUSINESS. their opinions don’t amount to much.

• Link
• Report this comment

wet wiccan
@ 2:42

Yep. And that, too….

• Link
• Report this comment

normal
Sound like fierce advocates to me…

• Link
• Report this comment

That’s because you see talking points as fact and not actual facts. First, the republicans weren’t blocking unemployment benefits for fun, t hey were blocking it until a provision was put in to recoup the money so as to not increase the record breaking deficit, that’s all it was about. Of course the media will lie and say they just hate unemployed people. Idiots.

Second, small businesses make up 80% of the employers in this country. They’re business is recorded as income tax. If you tax them more, they can spend less on their business.

Why do liberals hate Americans so much they won’t even let them operate their businesses? Why are rich people greedy, unless they are democrat politicians, then they are ok? Why should I be required to pay more money to the government, when they have no fiscal responsibility on their own? The taxes I pay could not even cover Nasty Pelosi’s $18,000, per month office lease for one month, yet that’s the kind of crap we pay for.

Why is it bad for Americans to be greedy, but it’s not bad for the government to be greedy?

How’s this jobless recovery grabbin’ ya?

• Link
• Report this comment

Every liberal here needs to volunteer $100 per month to the government. If you think taxes are so great and so well used, do that and I will follow suit.

You don’t have to wait for taxes to go up, they’ll take your money if your offering.

• Link
• Report this comment

All I can say is it will be nice seeing yet another Rep Govenor, Reps taking back Congress, lame-ducking Obama then taking back the Presidency then taking back America!!

“GOD BLESS AMERICA
LAND THAT I LOVE
STAND BESIDE HER AND GUIDE HER
THRU THE NIGHT WITH A LIGHT FROM ABOVE
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE PRAIRIES
TO THE OCEAN WHITE WITH FOAM
GOD BLESS AMERCIA MY HOME SWEET HOME…

GOD BLESS AMERICA MY HOME SWEET HOME!!”

• Link
• Report this comment

Pat,

“Second, small businesses make up 80% of the employers in this country. They’re business is recorded as income tax. If you tax them more, they can spend less on their business.”

You do realize the Dems have passed several tax cuts for small businesses, and the GOP tried to block the bills.

And who hates America? You people are laughable.

” t hey were blocking it until a provision was put in to recoup the money so as to not increase the record breaking deficit, that’s all it was about.”

But it’s ok (according to the GOP) to continue the Bush tax cuts and not pay for them which will increase the deficit another $670 billion.

The left side of yur mouth doesn’t agree with the right side of yur mouth.

• Link
• Report this comment

“OFF TOPIC #1″

Headline: (CNN) – “President Obama is taking some flak from a fellow Democrat over his plans to appear on daytime gabfest The View later this week. Speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell suggested the ABC talk-show – which often directs its focus on tabloid stories and celebrity mishaps – may not be an appropriate forum for a sitting President of the United States.”

I disagree. I think it’s entirely appropriate for a President of his caliber.

Daddy, would you please get me Whoppie’s autograph ?

• Link
• Report this comment

“OFF TOPIC #2″

SEE ! Just what a Jr. Varsity President should be doing !

Headline: “Obama will make history as the first sitting president on a daytime talk show when he visits ‘The View,’ and to do it he’ll miss the Boy Scouts’ Jamboree marking the group’s 100th anniversary.”

• Link
• Report this comment

Hope and Change. Sign me up!!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703995104575389430430274968.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

• Link
• Report this comment

Someone must have forgotten to warn pat about taking the pills.

• Link
• Report this comment

mm,

Would you like to list all the tax breaks for small business. Now offset that with increase in minimum wage, forced health care for their employees, tax increase at the end of the year, potential cost of cap and trade. Now do the math.

• Link
• Report this comment

Normal – Those transfer payments are perhaps desirable, especially for the recipients, but you have a strange deifinition of need. Kind of like I absolutely need a 150 foot luxury yacht but I still can’t pay for it. I believe Americans somehow survived prior to 1935 and 1964 respectively without those programs. We may or may not have “needed” SS during the Depression, but we don’t absolutely need it now. Like universal health insurance/care, these are desirable luxuries that, unfortunately, we can no longer afford. If changes aren’t made, and pretty soon, we will deifict spend our way into thirld world status and then all you bleedding heart libes will be happy I guess, but the peeps still won’t have SS or Medicare or Medicare or health insurance.

• Link
• Report this comment

Fellow lefties…..good work today.

You got ‘em claiming we hate America and bursting into song.

It’s like an intertubes tea party…..

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay you such a socialist, go get a real job and do something that is productive, unlike your blog which is without question destructive. Your livelyhood is based solely on generating hatered between the repu-gnants and dem-wits, minorities and majorities, have and have nots, parasites and taxpayers, etc.

• Link
• Report this comment

All I can say is it will be nice seeing yet another Rep Govenor, Reps taking back Congress, lame-ducking Obama then taking back the Presidency then taking back America!!

I have the right song for ya!!

DREAM ON!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

Jay,

I think you’ll get to have it your way. Taxes ‘on the wealthy’ will be raised. Those ‘Bush tax cuts’ will be allowed to expire while the new healthcare taxes start up.

Please explain how this will improve the job market…and then we’ll see if you are right.

• Link
• Report this comment

Those ‘Bush tax cuts’ will be allowed to expire while the new healthcare taxes start up.

Oh, grow up, please! Anybody who knows anything about national politics knows that the extension of those tax cuts is a mere bargaining chip. The Republicans will get the tax cuts extended in exchange for bending on other issues. It’s the way things have always worked in DC.

• Link
• Report this comment

Ok, the democrat is coming out of me…I say put a cap on max wages. You can not earn more than 5 million a year without being taxed 95%. The employers who would pay someone more than that is usually board members who simply look after each other. Atheletes, new commentators, news anchors, ceo’s, politicians, and managers make more than than is required to have the American dream. There is greed. Both parties are full of it. Now is it not shameful that Heinz ketchup can not pay the taxes for a yackt to be stored in the buyers home state.

• Link
• Report this comment

AMVET, not sure if that stands for American Veteran, but if it does, Thank you for Serving. I retired from the military a number of years ago, and I am now in the private sector.

To address your comments…

andygrd, as in how CEO pay went up 240% in ten years while worker pay went up 4% during the same time? I would like your source on that statement. Workers pay only went up 4% in ten years, I don’t think so. My knowledge of the various industries does not support your comment.

Or maybe you were referring to upping the $300,000,000,000.00 every single year given away by Uncle Sam (YOU AND ME) in corporate welfare? And what is corporate welfare you speak of….

Perhaps you advocate that we need MORE of that fiscal conservatism that screws working Americans so fat cats and their corporate fleecing machines can make even greater profits? Yes we need more fiscal conservatism. And how is that screwing working Americans… in what way. What about the fleecing of America by repeal of the requirements for Project Labor Agreements, which hurt Small Businesses and favor of unions. You have to be a member of a union to work on a Federal Project. Hum…. President Bush stopped that practice and President Obama repealed it… Of course in favor of the unions. Higher cost to the American taxpayer……

Are you a CEO?
Did you get the memo? That trickle down/voodoo economics is a tragic joke?
No, I was a COO. I did get the memo, and it does work. Let me guess, you work, you come home, have a few beers, watch some senseless TV, and complain how life has treated you unfairly. And what have you done for yourself? Have to educated yourself to change jobs? I bet you work for a union and you are protected? You watch liberal TV, and you believe all that they tell you as gospel.. Because you fail to grasp the true implications.
Where is your proof for your comments above? I have seen you cite Youtube as a source… and you believe it? I suggest you pick up a non-partisan book and about the current state of economic affairs.

• Link
• Report this comment

Here is something only a loser liberal could defend…. so come on let me hear the defense of this idiot Barney Frank, by the way if you or I was growing pot in our basement we would still be in jail…. But not Barney

http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2010/07/barney-frank-flips-out-over-dollar.html

• Link
• Report this comment

Why not the FairTax? Why do we need over 80,000 pages of tax code?

• Link
• Report this comment

As if,

Even if we did raise the tax on the “rich” to 99%,

the money would go to pay down the deficit, or relieve the middle class. Riiiiight…..

I’m sure Rangel would be responsible.

• Link
• Report this comment

Our loser government, both parties, have been doing one thing for so long they don’t know what else to do. They keep getting together to decide how to spend your money. They need a new mission, get together and decide what to cut, where to save money. Oh wait is that “Pay-Go”, the law the dimacrats passed and broke their own law with the next bill, sorry libs it is only a fact…
Why do the dimcrats want the death tax? Didn’t they get taxed on the money they made while alive? So why do they want 55% after death? I do believe that all goods should have the lable to show all the embedded taxes on the goods you buy. I think people would have a heart attack

• Link
• Report this comment

Business as usual with the NObama administration:

(CBS) With a $13 trillion debt, why is the Department of Justice spending money on parties and rollercoaster rides rather than investigating crime, drug cartels, prosecuting terrorists?

Untold millions of your tax dollars are paying for recreation in the name of crime prevention: pool parties, rollercoaster rides, and police donut-eating contests. The idea is that fun activities keep kids out of trouble, build self-esteem and prevent crime.

I feel safer…..mmm, mmm, mmm…

• Link
• Report this comment

Goldie – Oh yeah, an ACCIDENT was their intention….get off your wealth envy.

• Link
• Report this comment

Why not the FairTax? Why do we need over 80,000 pages of tax code?

Dang straight! I wouldn’t mind paying a extra 80 cents for a loaf of bread or 50 cents more for a PBR. The guvmint wouldn’t get none of my paycheck then. Besides, eating a little roadkill never hurt no one.

• Link
• Report this comment

Goldie – Prove it. Or, go on drinking your Gulf Oil Kool-aide. Besides if Obama didn’t have his head up his asss he’d be MORE involved instead of golf and Paul McCartney love fest.

• Link
• Report this comment

I guess this was BP’s fault too.

Not again! A new oil leak has hit the Gulf Coast today after a small boat collided with a wellhead near ecologically diverse Barataria Bay, La.

• Link
• Report this comment

Excuse me: Also, where did the much of the lower 99% draw their income from? That’s right. From the top 1% and the wealth that they create.

• Link
• Report this comment

AM VET… typical bleeding heart liberal…All talk and you are unable to backup your comments… So typical and sad…..
First, you really must learn to type, spell and construct coherent sentences.
Second, you watch too much TV… especially the liberal stations.
Third, if you can’t cite creditable sources, you should really sit on the porch……

• Link
• Report this comment

Ye Gods….The STUPID in these comments is strong. My sincere condolences, Mr. Bookman. Nice post, by the way.

• Link
• Report this comment

Dear Bend Over, Goldie doesn’t have to prove anything to you. There is ample information on the internet alone regarding BPs long, long record of saving themselves money by cutting corners on safety. Compared to the other oil companies, BP seems to be in a class by themselves in terms of reckless and irresponsible behavior. But if you really want the facts, go find them, and don’t expect other bloggers to do the research for you.

• Link
• Report this comment

[...] But Americans are perpetual adolescents and want an ending. So we make things up. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Jay Bookman hints at that with his assessment of the current political landscape: [...]

• Link
• Report this comment