House GOP still demanding its budgetary pound of flesh
“The pound of flesh, which I demand of him,
Is dearly bought; ’tis mine and I will have it.”
– Shylock
“The Merchant of Venice”
Is the goal to do what’s best for the country?
Or do Republicans in Washington simply want their promised pound of flesh from the government, regardless of the consequences?
Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics and a former economics adviser to John McCain, reports that passage of the budget cuts demanded by House Republicans “would reduce 2011 real GDP growth by 0.5% and 2012 growth by 0.2%. This would mean some 400,000 fewer jobs created by the end of 2011 and 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of 2012…. Significant government spending restraint is vital, but given the economy’s halting recovery, it would be counterproductive for that restraint to begin until the U.S. is creating enough jobs to lower the unemployment rate.”
Last week, a private study by Goldman Sachs produced for its investor clients estimated that passage of the GOP budget cuts would reduce US economic growth by 1.5 to 2 percentage points in the second and third quarters of the year. As Zandi points out, spending does have to be cut over the long term, just as over the long term, taxes have to go up. Addressing our long-term fiscal situation will require that we take both steps.
But neither step is a good idea at the moment for the same reason: It would withdraw money and demand out of an economy already starving for demand.
“This is particularly true given the added threat presented by rising oil prices,” Zandi writes. “Unrest in the Middle East has pushed up the price of crude oil by about $10 per barrel; West Texas Intermediate is selling for almost $100 per barrel, and a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline has risen to about $3.25 nationwide. If sustained, these prices will shave about 0.2% from real GDP growth in 2011, a disappointing but manageable outcome. If oil prices approach $125 barrel, and gasoline reaches $4 per gallon, growth will slow sharply and unemployment will begin rising again. Should fuel prices return to their all-time high near $150 per barrel for oil and $4.50 per gallon for gasoline, the economy would sink back into recession.”
Nonetheless, House Speaker John Boehner and his colleagues continue to rail against what they call President Obama’s “job-crushing spending binge;” they continue to demand the spending cuts that they believe they have coming to them as a result of the midterm elections. The spectre of a forced government shutdown looms. According to Zandi, a short, symbolic shutdown wouldn’t have much impact, but the longer it goes, the more damage it will do:
“A shutdown that lasted into April would be a problem, however. Not only would this disrupt a wide range of government operations and significantly cut the output of government workers, but the hit to confidence could be serious. Consumer, business and investor sentiment is much improved from the depths of the recession, but it remains extraordinarily fragile. A government shutdown lasting more than a week or two could easily undermine confidence as questions grow about policymakers’ ability to govern. This would be fodder for a new recession.”
I don’t believe that House Republicans are willfully, knowingly steering us toward that outcome. But I do believe that through years of rhetoric and rigid ideological discipline, they have convinced themselves that no other course is possible.
– Jay Bookman
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
414 comments Add your comment
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
7:11 pm
md
Question # 3
Demand a job for him in the Department of Education?
jm
February 28th, 2011
7:11 pm
jonix 6:56
Doggone/GA
February 28th, 2011
7:11 pm
“hold up the next passerby at gunpoint and demand that s/he give the homeless assistance ?”
Heck, this one is the OBVIOUS choice. How often do you make a decision with double the chance of success? If the robbery is successful, you get the wealth of the robbee. If you’re not successful and you get arrested, your homelessness is solved – at least for the duration of your sentence.
md
February 28th, 2011
7:12 pm
Jo….touche…….
USMC dawg
February 28th, 2011
7:13 pm
jm, Thank you for all of the information and statistics that you always offer.
(even though you voted for Comrade Obama:-)
But Jay and the Leftwing Liberals don’t care about facts and statistics.
Jay’s warped world view of Naivete and “Fair share” and enlightened European socialism will not allow him to accept your facts and data.
“I am in debt; therefore I spend more???” -Doesn’t even sound right.
Jay
February 28th, 2011
7:14 pm
Well Pogo, if the Vogtle units are such a great investment that we “both know” will be paid back, why were the gov’t loans necessary in the first place? Why didn’t private enterprise jump in to fund it? We both know why, right?
As to the GM loans, they probably WILL be repaid. The company reported a very nice profit last year.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
7:14 pm
Doggone
Unless, of course, you’re O. Henry’s Soapy
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
7:17 pm
“As to the GM loans, they probably WILL be repaid. The company reported a very nice profit last year”
Yep. Looks like at least one of the bailed out got the message…must admit, I was impressed…
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
7:19 pm
USMC
Jay is not a left wing liberal. He’s a liberal centrist, tilting to the right in a lot of areas… imho.
Doggone/GA
February 28th, 2011
7:19 pm
“Unless, of course, you’re O. Henry’s Soapy ”
Well, yeah…but he DID get arrested in the end!
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
7:19 pm
Will AIG’s bailout ever be repaid.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
7:20 pm
Doggone
True!
BADA BING
February 28th, 2011
7:21 pm
This week’s Mid -East Special…..Free one Muslim Mid-Eastern country, get another freed Mid-Eastern country at no additional charge. Offer void where prohibited.
USMC dawg
February 28th, 2011
7:25 pm
“Jay is not a left wing liberal. He’s a liberal centrist, tilting to the right in a lot of areas… imho.”-Josef
Thanks for correcting me Josef:-)
@@
February 28th, 2011
7:26 pm
josef:
Yep. Looks like at least one of the bailed out got the message…must admit, I was impressed…
So was China.
(ISH)
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
7:28 pm
@@
Yeah, that, too! ISH
F. Sinkwich
February 28th, 2011
7:28 pm
“As to the GM loans, they probably WILL be repaid. The company reported a very nice profit last year”
How about the $61 BILLION equity we as US taxpayers have in this company??????
Obama is a socialist out to protect his UAW buddies, who own GM thanks to him.
It should have gone bankrupt.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
7:30 pm
“It should have gone bankrupt”
It might should have, but it didn’t…
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
7:31 pm
“I have since seen those numbers reported, but they were NOT in the CBO report and as I laid out in comments, I have no idea how they might be generated or what their source could be.”
C’mon, Jay. I’m sure they taught math at some point during your educational career. Take the number of dollars spent, divided by the low and high numbers of jobs saved or created, and you get the figures being reported . I know the TaxCheat can’t do that (there are none so blind, as those who cannot see), but surely the years spent in the musty halls of the AJC haven’t dulled your senses THAT much.
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
7:33 pm
jm’s little snippets fail to include information on the increases in the defense budget over the years. Why is that. To read his posts, one might even get the false impression that the defense budget is just some miniscule and trivial portion of the federal budget. Come on, jm, surely even you know better. Then again… Perhaps this will help you out a little.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
7:34 pm
“How about the $61 BILLION equity we as US taxpayers have in this company??????”
Okay, Jay, you’re on…you speak, read and write Economicsese…please explain how this works in the correct terms…
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
7:34 pm
I see Dave R has returned to continue his diversion. He cannot defend the numbers that he posted so he continues with what he knows. So sad.
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
7:34 pm
“Jay is not a left wing liberal. He’s a liberal centrist, tilting to the right in a lot of areas… imho.”
josef, the only time Jay tilts to the right is when he takes an off-ramp on I-285.
F. Sinkwich
February 28th, 2011
7:34 pm
“Jay is not a left wing liberal. He’s a liberal centrist, tilting to the right in a lot of areas…”
Wrong. Name one.
Jay
February 28th, 2011
7:34 pm
Dave R., go back to that thread and you’ll see my problem explained in full.
F. Sinkwich
February 28th, 2011
7:36 pm
“Economicsese”
What ?????
Moderate Line
February 28th, 2011
7:37 pm
Jay
February 28th, 2011
7:14 pm
As to the GM loans, they probably WILL be repaid. The company reported a very nice profit last year.
++++++++++++
And why are they making a profit.
Specifically, GM’s relatively robust free cash position – one of its major selling points in its pending IPO – is being artificially propped up by the fact that it is not yet legally required to make multi-billion-dollar payments into its “heavily underfunded” U.S. pension funds. How underfunded are they? Well, the U.S. plans alone are $17 billion underfunded as of the end of 2009, Fitch says. When you include global operations, the total is $27 billion.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/10/the_gm_bailouts_ambiguous_succ.html
My Name Changes
February 28th, 2011
7:38 pm
There was an election back in November. The American voters bit back. The left can mock and squeal but cuts are coming.
These wussling “trims” I see are a farce.
15% ACROSS THE BOARD FOR ANY AND ALL FEDERAL BUDGETS INCLUDING DEFENSE !!
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
7:40 pm
Sinkwich
His viewpoints on the Late Misunderstanding for one…
More seriously, though, his stances on health care, doing the Obama two-step during DADT, and just about anything else I disagree with him on!
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
7:41 pm
Economicsese? The language of Economics… I don’t speak, read or write it…
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
7:42 pm
Lehman should have gone bankrupt. Oops. Wait a minute. They did go bankrupt and that’s when the economy really took a tailspin for the worst. I think the aftermath of that bankruptcy prompted the Republicans to bail out Wall Street. They didn’t have the guts to follow through with their free market philosophy of letting the chips fall where they may. I suppose we should be grateful for that gutless action on their part.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
7:42 pm
DAVE
Jean-Paul Marat
February 28th, 2011
7:49 pm
Thanks, Mary Elizabeth. Yes, I was definitely aware of the Krugman piece. He’s must reading on the ideological double game being played by the Republican party.
Dusty
February 28th, 2011
7:49 pm
JOSEF,
Have you been drinking on a school night?
“Jay is a liberal centrist! ” Ah yes, the invisible man. Said to be there, but never seen nor heard from. Delightful delusion. But…here’s no such thing as a liberal centrist. .
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
7:52 pm
DUSTY
Not recognizing that a center actually exists, it would be hard for you to grasp that!
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
7:54 pm
Jay, I did earlier, and in my opinion, your problem lies with trying to find any possible ray of sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day.
FTE’s are a shell game. It allows the government to claim fraudulent numbers of “jobs” increased when no such increase occurred. Overtime paid is considered a job, when no other worker was employed. Part time to full time is considered a job, when no other worker was employed.
Even using the phoney FTE numbers, you might get to about $80k per FTE (but not per job), and worst case would be over $500k per job if you use the low estimate of real, live saved or created actual jobs. I suspect the reality falls somewhere in between. But just as in the Cash for Clunkers program (especially since many of the jobs saved were one year teacher, fire or police jobs), the inefficiency of the government in “creating or saving” jobs is still staggering.
Jean-Paul Marat
February 28th, 2011
7:55 pm
Dusty, Josef,
Several decades ago Jay would likely have been comfortably within the mainstream of the Republican party. Today of course his views make him a pinko commie sympathizer.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
February 28th, 2011
7:55 pm
Not recognizing that a center actually exists, it would be hard for you to grasp that!
Yes Virginia, there is a center. Although it’s not where some want it to be. You can’t keep shifting further to the fringe and expect the center to move. That’s not how it works.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
7:57 pm
Jean-Paul
I agree with that and, if I remember correctly, he DID vote for Ford…
Doggone/GA
February 28th, 2011
7:58 pm
“Several decades ago Jay would likely have been comfortably within the mainstream of the Republican party”
If I remember correctly, Jay has already said he WAS
Del
February 28th, 2011
7:59 pm
Many economists say that government uncontrolled spending both federal and state is destroying this country. Hard to argue with that but the democrats seem to be unconvinced. I guess they like to listen to Faux economist, formere Enron financial guy, Paul Krugman.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 28th, 2011
8:00 pm
There is little doubt that leftists confuse government spending with efficiency and with productive spending. The former has nothing to do with either of the latter. I am heartened that the conservatives have asserted themselves among the republicans, and that they are motivated to harness/diminish the government.
Until we see elimination of the worthless agencies – SEC, FTC, FHLMC, FNMA, FDA – there is little hope for substantial improvement in the economy. But I’ll be happy with baby-steps forward – we have seen nothing favorable for the economy from Washington since the leftists took charge of Congress Jan 2007. I think even democrats are beginning to understand that “if Washington declares war on the business world, the business world will give up.” It did.
Del
February 28th, 2011
8:03 pm
Ragnar@8:00, Amen!
getalife
February 28th, 2011
8:04 pm
gop epic fail.
Worse than the last time they tried to govern.
Yet, the cons will vote for them no matter what they do.
Dusty
February 28th, 2011
8:04 pm
JOSEF,
I am neither blind, deaf or illlerate. There is no liberal centrist. There are fence sitters. But they are not centrists. Just vacillators trying to be a bit friendly on all sides while covering their real ID. .
USMC dawg
February 28th, 2011
8:05 pm
In case anyone missed it…
China’s holdings of US debt larger than reported:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110228/pl_afp/useconomyfinancebondschina
@@
February 28th, 2011
8:07 pm
From my personal perspective, jay’s patronizing makes him a liberal.
Del
February 28th, 2011
8:08 pm
Dusty, the democrats are now products of the far-left. The party has been completely taken over, centrists are now unacceptable.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
8:08 pm
DUSTY
And, IMHO, you are not blind nor illiterate…deaf as a post sometimes, though. You, again IMHO, qualify as a right centrist, that is when you think as opposed to recite the latest memo or talking point…more or less Jay’s twin sister across the aisle…
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
8:09 pm
@@
Now, just hold on there Sweetheart… ISH
Mick
February 28th, 2011
8:10 pm
Dave r, ragnar, del – fans of the plutocracy, are you in the club? Congratulations if you are because then you are the elites and can applaud while this country is in the process of a major contraction by the repubs that may very well finish the job that reagan started, bush the penultimate loser finessed and driven home by the boehner and some bat shiite crazy tea thuggers. We are are own worst enemy….
@@
February 28th, 2011
8:11 pm
josef:
Hold on where or to what?
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
8:11 pm
FOLKS
The Communist Party, USA is FAR left…oy!
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
8:12 pm
@@
Cute! ISH
@@
February 28th, 2011
8:12 pm
Mick reads like AmVet.
Dusty
February 28th, 2011
8:13 pm
There you go. Bookman WAS a Republican. Then he was offered a job at AJC. Now he’s a “born again” liberal among other things. How sweet it is! Well, he’s versatile!
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
8:14 pm
Mick
If Bush is the penultimate loser, wouldn’t that make Obama the ultimate?
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
8:15 pm
“Several decades ago Jay would likely have been comfortably within the mainstream of the Republican party”
Then the cracks in the facade started appearing and they grew and grew and grew into the Republican Party that we have all come to know and love today. The Koch Party. The party of Newt and Delay and Boehner and McConnell and McCain and Palin and Murdoch and… my stomach is really churning and I haven’t even gotten started good yet. I feel like shipping out free peanut butter samples and bags of Imperial Sugar and bottled water from Huntsville, Alabama and potting soil from Kingston, Tennessee and bottled air from Dish, Texas and…
Del
February 28th, 2011
8:15 pm
mick, You’ve omitted the Fleebagers in Wisconsin and Indiana along with Richard Trumka your hero. Yes you are worst enemies.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
8:16 pm
DUSTY
There is such an animal as a liberal Republican…just the same as there is such an animal as a conservative Democrat. Democrats and Republicans ARE both centrists, for the love of G-d!
Mick
February 28th, 2011
8:16 pm
@@
I take that as a compliment….but I have my own ideas….take that napoleonic governor of wisconsin, he thinks he is reagan jr. What a joke, another governor who will trip all over himself to service the infamous koch bros. The hell with his constituents..what a friggin loser..
Mick
February 28th, 2011
8:17 pm
del
I’ll takem over little scotty..
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
8:17 pm
Del
Fleebaggers! I don’t care who you are, thass funny!
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
8:20 pm
“Seeya Dick.”
I think not Dickless.
“I take that as a compliment….”
Rock on, brother Mick. And if my luck holds out, she’ll start humping you for awhile! (grin)
Del
February 28th, 2011
8:20 pm
mick, even though, they’ve been running this country into the ground for a long, long time?
@@
February 28th, 2011
8:22 pm
WASHINGTON—The Obama administration approved the first deepwater drilling permit since last year’s Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, amid rising political and legal pressure to reopen the Gulf of Mexico to oil exploration as crude prices spike.
The administration’s decision to grant a permit to Houston-based Noble Energy Inc. to restart a well located in 6,500 feet of water about 70 miles southeast of Venice, La., is a critical milestone in the oil-and-gas industry’s attempts to revive operations in the Gulf following the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history last April.
The administration said it expects to issue more deepwater-drilling permits in “the coming weeks and months” if companies demonstrate they can drill safely.
=======================================
He also told a group of bi-partisan governors they could move forward with their own health care plans as if they haven’t already.
=======================================
Calling for shared sacrifice, Obama said public workers understand they must absorb their share of budget cuts. But he delivered a sharp message to governors seeking to strip away union protections, saying: “I don’t think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified, or their rights are infringed upon.”
Didn’t do the economy any good when Obama denigrated or villified big business, but he did it anyway.
Is Obama on the ropes or what?
Hillbilly Deluxe
February 28th, 2011
8:23 pm
josef @ 8:16
My opinion would be that there USED to be liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats. Neither of those two are welcome in their respective parties, anymore. Of course, also keep in mind that I think the words “liberal” and “conservative” have lost all meaning at this point.
Lil' Barry Bailout
February 28th, 2011
8:24 pm
josef nix
Good to see you back. I was worried…
——————
Traveling…Brazil and then Big Sky, Montana. Somebody’s gotta do it…
Disgusted
February 28th, 2011
8:26 pm
Why are we still stuck on ME oil??
Do some research for a change, md. The last I checked, ME oil accounted for only 20% of US oil imports. We get oil from Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela, but only a relatively small percentage from the ME. Too many people are still stuck in the 1970s when they think of our oil situation.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
8:26 pm
Hillbilly
“…the words “liberal” and “conservative” have lost all meaning at this point”
I would agree, except I refuse to rewrite the English language…as for the Democrats and Republicans, I say a pox on both their houses…
@@
February 28th, 2011
8:27 pm
Mick:
More like a complement than a compliment.
He’s the wiener and you’re the bun or vice versa.
Together the two of you make a hotdog.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
8:28 pm
L’il Barry
You lucky stiff!
Mick
February 28th, 2011
8:28 pm
josef
Please re-read in the context of republicans and thats why I linked to the boehner…loosey goosey with the rules per se….whatever
Mick
February 28th, 2011
8:30 pm
@@
Why now? All this time and now you want yank my chain? I decline…
Lil' Barry Bailout
February 28th, 2011
8:30 pm
Well, the Brazil trip was for work, so…
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
8:30 pm
mick
Just having fun this p.m. EOI!
jm
February 28th, 2011
8:35 pm
Debt Level: Entitlement Spending Increased 11x (1965 to 2010),
While Real GDP Grew 3x
BADA BING
February 28th, 2011
8:36 pm
Lil Barry…..tell me you went to Rio!
Del
February 28th, 2011
8:36 pm
“Is Obama on the ropes or what?
Lots of variables and potential crises. If the economy doesn’t improve or get’s worse, he’s in trouble. If one of these radical jihadists gets lucky, unfortunately, a real possibility, he’s toast and if he’s foreign policy gets much worse, he’s likely a one term president. Barring any of those conditions he’ll probably get re-elected, unfortunately.
BADA BING
February 28th, 2011
8:36 pm
Rio is dangerous as hell, but it is so beautiful.
jm
February 28th, 2011
8:38 pm
2024: No extra revenue to pay for anything other than Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. No military, no Department of Ed, no border security, no nothin
2030 Debt: 146% of GDP
@@
February 28th, 2011
8:38 pm
Mick:
Why now?
plutocracy
bush the penultimate loser
some bat shiite crazy tea thuggers
AND
We are are own worst enemy….
^^^ All sounding “strangely” familiar.
Jean-Paul Marat
February 28th, 2011
8:39 pm
Dusty: “There you go. Bookman WAS a Republican. Then he was offered a job at AJC. Now he’s a “born again” liberal among other things”
I think you’ve missed the point. The views he has right now would place him squarely within the Republican mainstream of say Richard Nixon’s era. But today the Republican party has been completely taken over by a radical counter-revolutionary movement, so the spectrum has swung wildly to the right. The Republican party is truly the party without ‘centrists’, who’ve all been driven from the fold during the purges of recent years.
jm
February 28th, 2011
8:40 pm
Effective Interest Rates: Hypothetical Exercise – If USA 2009 Cost of Debt
Was Paid at 30-Year Average Interest Rate Level of 6% vs. Current 2%,
Annual Interest Cost Would Rise 3x to $566 Billion from $196 Billion
Del
February 28th, 2011
8:40 pm
josef, Hey, hope all is well, I’m sure it is.
Dusty
February 28th, 2011
8:41 pm
JOSEF,
Democrats and Republicans are not centrists. Both are Americans which is above politics. We have two main political parties with different agendas. We don’t agree. We work it out when we vote. At least we are supposed to.
After Bush was elected quite legally, I saw the true nature of cooperation from Democrats. It was ugly and still exists today right here. I now see some Republicans reacting in like manner but more toward policies than the president.
So I do not care to be a centrist. I am a Republican who likes the aim of the party. At least we aim straight. I sometimes disagree with the goals. But that does not make me a centrist. It makes me a discerning Republican who is choosing those I think make the best decisions for our country.
We have to make choices even when we know that nothng is perfect. Not doing that can reduce one to the same state as a jellyfish.
Hillbilly Deluxe
February 28th, 2011
8:41 pm
I think I’ll run for President in 2012 under the name Ronald Abraham Delano Kennedy.
getalife
February 28th, 2011
8:42 pm
“Issa probes staff; spokesman at center of controversy” Politico.
Man this time it is a comdey show.
I don’t get how you vote for a party that can’t govern .
What in the world are you thinking cons?
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
8:42 pm
Del
It is! I’m in a fine fettle…hope you’re the same…
jm
February 28th, 2011
8:44 pm
No money to pay for anything other than entitlements. In FOURTEEN years……
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
8:45 pm
Hillbilly
DUSTY
That’s what I meant that sometimes you’re deaf as a post… you just went plumb centrist!
Lil' Barry Bailout
February 28th, 2011
8:46 pm
Of course I went to Rio. I was in the Barra da Tijuca area, more of a residential area than tourist area. Not much time for sightseeing or the beach though.
jm
February 28th, 2011
8:47 pm
Banks only received 5% of the bailout funds (TARP and ARRA together) on a net basis. In contrast, Consumers (through stimulus) got 30%, Fannie Freddie got 28%, AIG got 17%, and our lovely automakers got 11%.
Thurston Howell
February 28th, 2011
8:48 pm
Lovey dear,
Could you bring me another bag of 100s. The fire is about to go out again and my tootsies are getting cold.
Del
February 28th, 2011
8:49 pm
Bada Bing, I’ve always wanted to visit Rio but haven’t so far. We’re traveling to Southeast Asia later this year with a four year old, which worries me…are children safe traveling to Rio? or is it just a place you wouldn’t want to take your family?
jm
February 28th, 2011
8:51 pm
Anatomy of a housing disaster. Thanks Clinton.
1/93 – HUD began promoting broader home ownership
9/99 – Fannie Mae expanded mortgage availability to low-income borrowers under pressure from White House
Del
February 28th, 2011
8:51 pm
H.D.@8:41, LOL
Mick
February 28th, 2011
8:51 pm
@@
Unfortunately, that’s my take on it….I am confounded by the right wing sukking up to the wealthy by going to bat for them at every turn to protect them from tax inceases while we cut the police, fireman, and teachers – THE MIDDLE CLASS….The wealthy can afford tax increases, the wealthy can afford $5, $10 a gallon gas, can you? Yet the right wingers want them to keep as much of their money as possible while they are the only group left in this country that can pitch in more to at least stabilize it and get us moving again..
jm
February 28th, 2011
8:53 pm
US Federal Government (our government) net worth: Negative $44 Trillion
Mick
February 28th, 2011
8:55 pm
**US Federal Government (our government) net worth: Negative $44 Trillion**
According to who?