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
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414 comments Add your comment
Normal
February 28th, 2011
3:39 pm
But it’s still all about getting more jobs, right?
jm
February 28th, 2011
3:41 pm
“Is the goal to do what’s best for the country? ”
Yes. Deficits, infinitely into the horizon, will lead to infinite pain. And as some additional research I’ve read over the last few days indicates, there’s not a tax rate problem, there is, at the core a HUGE spending problem. And not just too much spending, poorly allocated spending as well.
Normal
February 28th, 2011
3:41 pm
The GOP is becoming a self fulfilling prophecy of crash and burn
Jay
February 28th, 2011
3:41 pm
Care to share that research, jm?
jm
February 28th, 2011
3:42 pm
Well, I wonder why the GS and Moody’s reports are so damn different, if the dismal science is so exact. Answer: it is not (exact), or even remotely exact.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
3:42 pm
“Oh, my daughters! Oh, my ducats!”
jm
February 28th, 2011
3:42 pm
Happy to, give me a couple minutes to get you a link.
jm
February 28th, 2011
3:44 pm
Be prepared to dedicate a SERIOUS amount of time.
http://www.kpcb.com/usainc/
jm
February 28th, 2011
3:44 pm
266 pages worth
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
3:45 pm
“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.”
What a load of dog squeeze!
I guess Mr. Zandi, and of course, Jay, missed the whole Nov 2010 election cycle.
The voters WANT Washington to cut spending. They don’t particularly CARE if there is a shutdown. The GOP ran on this platform (including the possibility of a shutdown if Dems didn’t go along) and they were elected in record numbers. No smoke or mirrors here.
Deal with it!
jm
February 28th, 2011
3:48 pm
And for more thoughts on how incredibly risky this accumulation of debt is…. see this interesting interview with one of the smarter people on the planet.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_10/b4218047676960.htm
( a charlie rose interview) not 266 pages long
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
3:48 pm
Hath not a the Republicajns eyes?… If you prick him, does he not bleed? …And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute,,,”
Just to make sure we keep Shylock in context here…
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
3:48 pm
I say make the petty, egotistical Boner sit at the back of Air Force One. Or maybe in the cargo section. (is it pressurized?)
I mean it worked out so well for Crybaby Newt & the Petulant Cons last time! (Clinton’s approval rating rose to the highest it had been since his election. And it likely helped with his re-election.)
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
3:50 pm
“A deficit by any other name would smell.”
Just channeling my inner Bard.
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
3:52 pm
“I mean it worked out so well for Crybaby Newt & the Petulant Cons last time!”
Different times, different campaigns, different situations, different President, AmVet.
I don’t think you can equate one with the other.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
3:54 pm
DAVE
“Tom’s a fool”
Normal
February 28th, 2011
3:55 pm
Josef,
So Shylock was a Republican?
My Favorite from my favorite Sharespeare play is ‘cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war’…
sulley
February 28th, 2011
3:56 pm
What is with the constant railing against the GOP! Where were the Democrats? Why do they get a “pass”? Who held control of the executive and legislative branches until January? Who currently controls the executive branch and the Senate? Do you not realize the national deficit increased more in the last two years than 8 years under Bush? Who was in control the last two years?
Previously, Wall St. was the blame for everything that happened before and since 2008. Now, you hold up Moody’s Analytics and Goldman Sachs as the experts. Just because Mark Zandi is linked to Sen. McCain that gives him some credence to conservatives. How many other economists are saying the opposite of Mr. Zandi. Why did you leave their POV out? Just not convenient for your bias, huh?
I am confused. Please pick a line and stick with it. This is not worth my time.
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
3:57 pm
From Wiki: “Zandi’s analysis of the impact of an economic stimulus package on the United States economy was cited by Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein in their report on President Barack Obama’s proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.[4] Zandi uses old-style Keynesian models in the spirit of Nobel Prize winner Lawrence Klein. The utility of such models to gauge the impact of fiscal stimulus has been questioned by Harvard economist Robert J. Barro.”
Ahhhhh, no wonder he wants to keep government open . . .
Another liberal tool. Has Krugman called for no shutdown as well?
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
3:58 pm
And if it’s the Bard we’re channeling here, don’t want to leave out the Moor!
?But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.”
DEM
February 28th, 2011
3:58 pm
Zandi and Goldman are just assuming that the Keynesian “multiplier” bears a relation to what happens in the real world. Essentially the same model was the source of the stimulus employment projections, which turned out to be incredibly wrong. At this point, you have to ask what it’s going to take for people to realize that maybe Keynes was wrong.
And even if these projections had any credibility, the debt remains a massive problem that, left unchecked, will make the great recession look like a day at the park. But I suppose we should continue running T-bill auctions to “stimulate” short-term employment until those auctions simply fail, is that it?
Keep up the good fight!
February 28th, 2011
3:59 pm
AmVet…you mean after all the complaints about Nancy not using commercial planes, Boehner is flying AF3 (or some govt plane)…….
anonymous_coward
February 28th, 2011
3:59 pm
Remind me again how much we’ve paid since 2001 on wars, security apparatus, eavesdropping, and the TSA hasn’t contributed all that much to the deficit considering what we’ve gained?
StJ
February 28th, 2011
4:00 pm
Tax hikes withdraw money out of the economy, too. But who cares about the taxPAYER, anyway? (Not Democrats.) Spend and tax…hope and change…hell in a handbasket.
…and by the way, that hit to consumer confidence is already coming, thanks to the gas prices. (Speaking of withdrawing money out of the economy…)
0311/0317 - 1811/1801
February 28th, 2011
4:00 pm
Jay:
“House GOP still demanding its budgetary pound of flesh”
Do you forget what happened last November 2nd ?
“House GOP still demanding its budgetary pound of flesh”
Your headline should read:
“Fiscally conservative Americans who gave the House to Republicans demand their votes count !”
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
4:00 pm
Normal
The Bruin seems to think he was! Closet anti-Semite…
Midori
February 28th, 2011
4:02 pm
Josef,
you’re killing me here
Jimmy62
February 28th, 2011
4:02 pm
Moody’s. Aren’t they one of the ratings agencies that was giving sub-prime mortgage securities AA ratings, leading to massive economic failure?
Frankly, if Moody’s say the sky is blue, I’m gonna put all my money on the sky being red.
Your column should read, “GOP determined to cut spending and save the future of the country, despite Democrat obstructionists.”
Economist: GOP plan would cost 700K jobs – UPI.com | InfoBucket.info
February 28th, 2011
4:03 pm
[...] another arrow in …GOP spending plan would cost 700000 jobs, new report saysWashington PostHouse GOP still demanding its budgetary pound of fleshAtlanta Journal Constitution (blog)Report: House budget plan would kill 700k [...]
Logical Dude
February 28th, 2011
4:04 pm
If our economy is THAT dependent on the price of oil. . .
Sayyyy, when was the last time oil got that high? Oh wait, it was RIGHT BEFORE THE RECESSION.
If the Cost of EVERYTHING goes up because of the price of oil, then there is less money to buy stuff, and that means fewer people needed to make stuff, which means more people out of work.
Gee, is it the Cost of OIL that is causing ALL OF THIS?
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
4:05 pm
“Fiscally conservative Americans…Republicans…”
Now thass funny.
Jimmy62
February 28th, 2011
4:05 pm
The German government, whose economy is booming (relatively) despite carrying the rest of Europe, recently mentioned that their economists have studied the facts and pinned the Keynesian multiplier at 0.8 at best. So for every dollar the government spends, 20 cents is destroyed.
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
4:05 pm
Is the Bruin a closet . . . anything?
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
4:06 pm
“Fiscally conservative Americans…Republicans…”
Now that’s funny.
You guys *never* met a spendaholic with an R after his name you wouldn’t vote for…
jm
February 28th, 2011
4:07 pm
The crisis is not in the future. It is now. 10 more years under the status quo and our nation will be broken. Possibly sooner.
Bookman a bigot?
February 28th, 2011
4:08 pm
Calling people Shylocks is generally understood to be anti-semitic. Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that Jay uses such insults. After all, the left only likes diversity of color, not thought.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
4:08 pm
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.”
Jus’ sayin’
JohnnyReb
February 28th, 2011
4:08 pm
Obama tinkles away billions in stimulus funds with huge sums going to public sector unions where nothing changed to avoid the inevitable. State/city/county workers are laid off later instead of sooner. Are Dems concerned of the gigantic waste? No, the money laundered its way to the DNC as designed. Now, Repubs want to make sensible cuts to fat or no-return programs and Dems are squealing chicken littles. We need it, but not now. We need it, but not there. Tell me, where and when? The “economists” foresee gloom and doom. Do Dems have a monopoly on economists or just the ones with outcomes they like?
carlosgvv
February 28th, 2011
4:08 pm
“Is the goal to do what’s best for the country”?
No, that never has been the goal with Republicans. Their goal is to do the bidding of their corporate masters, the ones who fund their elections and re-elections. Dig deep enough into these “budget cuts” and you will find it will be business who will benefit, not the people. 700,000 fewer jobs does NOT mean any loss of corporate profits. On the contrary, it means 700,000 less people on the payrolls and more work for the employees they have.
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
4:08 pm
Jimmy, you’re right, those white collar criminal at Moody’s and Standard & Poors should be in an 8 X 12 for their part in the attempted corporate destruction of capitalism.
But our liberal president decided to “look forward’ rather than hold criminals accoutnable to the rule of law…
Jimmy62
February 28th, 2011
4:10 pm
Logical dude: Oil is at least a big contributor to the bad economy. We had three years to ramp up our own drilling and explorations after the last big spike, but since we had Obama running things, not a damn (useful) thing has happened to improve our position, or protect us from Middle East oil dependency.
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
4:10 pm
“Bookman a bigot?”
No, just misguided on so many levels.
0311/0317 - 1811/1801
February 28th, 2011
4:12 pm
Well, there you go. Looks like Barry is in trouble ………………
Headline: “Obama to face Shariah court?”
“Cleric says president ‘must embrace Islam’ or be tried when Muslims take over U.S.”
“President Obama must embrace Islam as a way of life or face the consequences of a trial under the Shariah Islamic court system, declared British extremist cleric Anjem Choudary.
Choudary, founder and former chief of two Islamic groups disbanded by the British authorities under anti-terror legislation, is planning a Washington protest later this week in which he says he will call on American Muslims to revolt against the country and implement Shariah law.”
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
4:12 pm
“No, that never has been the goal with Republicans.”
Yeah, because generating deficits farther than the eye can see (a largely Democrat-controlled Congressional issue) is always what’s best for the country.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
4:13 pm
a bigot?
Well, the Nazis did stage it following Kristallnacht….
jt
February 28th, 2011
4:13 pm
The price of oil and food is not going up.
The worth of the American dollar is going down.
Keynesian/Krugman/Bookman/Progresso/Tapeworm economics causes this.
Moderate Line
February 28th, 2011
4:13 pm
jm
February 28th, 2011
3:41 pm
“Is the goal to do what’s best for the country? ”
Yes. Deficits, infinitely into the horizon, will lead to infinite pain. And as some additional research I’ve read over the last few days indicates, there’s not a tax rate problem, there is, at the core a HUGE spending problem. And not just too much spending, poorly allocated spending as well.
++++++
Jay
February 28th, 2011
3:41 pm
Care to share that research, jm?
++++++++++++++++++
According to OMB 2011 we will have the lowest receipts for the government since 1950 which is estimated to be at 14.4% of GDP. Keep in mind that in 1950 we did not have Social Security and Medicare. Just by factoring out Social Security receipts which is 5.4 the tax rate for non SSI is the lowest since 1942.
In 2016 revenues are expected to rise to 19.3 of GDP which is higher than all but one year under Bush.
Outlays in 2016 are expected to be at 22.5 which is higher than any year since 1946 except for two years.
Considering that Defense, Social Security and Medicare comprise 53% of spending and we are only collecting 58% of our current outlays we would have to cut 83% of all other spending in order to balance the budget.
If unemployment goes down revenues will go up thus cutting the deficit. Long term are spending and revenues are above their historical averages
Doggone/GA
February 28th, 2011
4:15 pm
“Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that Jay uses such insults”
It does surprise me that you don’t know that he didn’t
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
4:16 pm
Scout
Hath not a Muslim eyes? Hath not a Muslim hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, heal’d by the same means,
warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer
as a Christian is?
0311/0317 - 1811/1801
February 28th, 2011
4:16 pm
josef:
Check out this fascinating 1779 military order ! As far as I could research it’s legit.
The part about the “relief teepees” is quite interesting ………. I wonder if they had DADT back then?
The original handwritten copy dated July 6, 1779 is in the National Archives, Washington, D.C.
http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/history/military/legionpost35/OldestSpecialOrder6July1779.htm
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
4:18 pm
The name Shylock, is more synonymous with being a loan shark than with being an anti-Semite…
And to Moderate’s point, each and every year since 1969, the United States Congress has spent more money than its income.
N-GA
February 28th, 2011
4:18 pm
Highest FIT rate 1958 (Eisenhower) – 91%
Highest FIT rate 2011 (Obama) – 35%
Logical Dude
February 28th, 2011
4:19 pm
Jimmy62,
You are correct that there has been very little progress on the homefront for creating more domestic oil. However, there was this little oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that kinda put the US on a “oh wait” moment.
It’s not all the President’s fault, since he has striven for higher mileage vehicles (which will have a greater impact sooner than any drilling). If the US would just use less oil, that would have a greater impact than any drilling. However, drilling is still necessary, as it will give us a slight edge that wouldn’t already be there (in having more oil reserves).
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
4:19 pm
Doggone
Well, yes, he did. Shylock is the quintessetial anti-Semitic character in English letters…I don’t think he meant it that way, though. I just don’t think he thought about it. Sin of omission, not commission! Three Hail Marys ought to be sufficient…
jm
February 28th, 2011
4:19 pm
How’s everyone feel about 70% tax rates?
Using another simple mechanical illustration, covering the 2010 budget deficit (excluding onetime
charges) by taxes alone would mean doubling individual income tax rates across the board,
to roughly 26-30% of gross income, we estimate.
0311/0317 - 1811/1801
February 28th, 2011
4:21 pm
josef @ 4:16
Of course as everyone in the world.
And I am sure Congressman Peter King feels the same way as the hearings soon start.
What’s your point?
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
4:22 pm
“Now, Repubs want to make
sensibleminuscule, symbolic, totally ineffective cuts…”Jay
February 28th, 2011
4:22 pm
Really jt?
The price of food is going up in the Middle East — one of the causes of the turmoil there — China, Russia and Europe. They’re not paying in dollars.
The price of oil is likewise going up. Energy is up 12 percent in Europe, for example. They’re not buying it in dollars, they’re buying it in euros. In fact, the dollar/euro exchange is about what it was in the summer of 2007.
And Moderate, without looking, I’d guess that the OMB numbers you cite that taxes will reach 19.3 of GDP by 2016 assume that the Bush tax cuts will finally be allowed to end.
godless heathen
February 28th, 2011
4:23 pm
I often read Dems here wailing about all the spending by Bush 43 and now Republicans want to reduce spending by an almost insignificant amount and it’s portrayed as a disaster.
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
4:23 pm
If Republicans think that shutting down the government is the proper approach for them to right their past wrongs, then go for it. They won’t do it though. They’re cowards. They’re scared that it will cost them in the next election. They’re more concerned with getting elected than with anything else.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
4:23 pm
Scout
@ 4:16
Ooooh! That’s too funny!!
AmVet
@ 4:18
Oh, please! You know better than that!
jm
February 28th, 2011
4:23 pm
“And Moderate, without looking, I’d guess that the OMB numbers you cite that taxes will reach 19.3 of GDP by 2016 assume that the Bush tax cuts will finally be allowed to end.”
That’s probably correct.
N-GA
February 28th, 2011
4:24 pm
When interest rates return to normal, NOTHING Congress does will do much to reduce the federal budget. Interest on the national debt will go through the roof! Good old supply and demand will dictate rates.
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
4:24 pm
“And to Moderate’s point, each and every year since 1969, the United States Congress has spent more money than its income.”
And last November, people across all spectra in the country voted to stop that process.
Doggone/GA
February 28th, 2011
4:25 pm
“Well, yes, he did. Shylock is the quintessetial anti-Semitic character in English letters”
And I don’t agree. He quoted a play, and he attributed the quotation to the character in the play who said it. It has nothing to do with the nationality of that character. All it does it describe a kind of mentality and the results that mentality expects to get.
Road Scholar
February 28th, 2011
4:25 pm
I feel another business tax break on the way! or at least another anti abortion bill…….
Boehmer, where are the jobs? You gotta have some on the way since you want to trash 700,000 with your proposed cuts!
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
4:25 pm
Scout
The point? Just channeling the Bard as per the Bruin’s lead…
carlosgvv
February 28th, 2011
4:25 pm
Dave R.
I believe congress is now controlled by the Republicans.
jm
February 28th, 2011
4:26 pm
Keeping in mind, that includes ALL expiring Bush tax cuts, including not just those on the rich.
Hillbilly Deluxe
February 28th, 2011
4:27 pm
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.”
Or as my great-Uncle used to say, “Son, don’t ever let anybody give you anything; the price is always too high”.
As for the members of both parties in Congress, I see them as fobbing, hedge-born, ratsbane. (Since we’re into Shakespeare today).
http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/shake_rule.html
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
4:28 pm
Doggone
Agree or disagree…like I said, it was the first play produced in Nazi Germany following Kristallnacht…the “nationality” of the character? Have you now converted to Zionism?
Personally, I’m rather fond of “The Merchant of Venice,” but I also know a little of the history of the time and place it was produced…have you read Marlowe’s “The Jew of Malta?”
Peadawg
February 28th, 2011
4:28 pm
Liberals complaining about spending cuts…..
Same Sh* Different Day
Doggone/GA
February 28th, 2011
4:29 pm
“I often read Dems here wailing about all the spending by Bush 43″
Not the spending…the borrowing to spend
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
4:29 pm
Hillbilly
That link is about the best thing ever posted on this blog!
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
4:29 pm
“And last November, people across all spectra in the country voted to stop that process.”
You’re not serious are you?
30 consecutive years of spendaholic Republicans, and NOW presto, chango! We have a new and improved variety of fiscal conservative?
98% of them do not have the moral courage to do the one thing that would fundamentally change the equation – touch the DoD budget.
Hell they won’t even acknowledge corporate welfare yet…
if so then every republian will be fired in 2012 for malfeasance.
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
4:30 pm
“I believe congress is now controlled by the Republicans.”
As usual, you would be wrong about that, carlos. The HOUSE is controlled by Republicans. The SENATE and the White House are still controlled by Democrats. And historically, one or both houses of Congress have been controlled by Democrats more than the GOP in the past 30 years. And Congress controls the spending.
Logical Dude
February 28th, 2011
4:30 pm
jm,
And letting the tax cuts expire on everyone is the right thing to do. Perhaps not in the middle of a recession, but as we come out of it, yes, it’s the right thing to do.
jt
February 28th, 2011
4:30 pm
Jay
February 28th, 2011
4:22 pm
“Really jt?
The price of food is going up in the Middle East — one of the causes of the turmoil there — China, Russia and Europe. They’re not paying in dollars.
The price of oil is likewise going up. Energy is up 12 percent in Europe, for example. They’re not buying it in dollars, they’re buying it in euros. In fact, the dollar/euro exchange is about what it was in the summer of 2007.”
Oil and food is traded/benchmarked in dollars.
The same culprits in America are knee-deep in the euro-zone(Government saches, IMF,etc…).
If you do not believe that the American dollar has AND IS STILL losing its worth because of BS Keynesian/Krugman/Tapeworm economics, then I would suspect that you studied economics at Harvard before becoming an AJC opinion writer.
jm
February 28th, 2011
4:30 pm
America is one giant bubble, getting closer to popping…..
Keep up the good fight!
February 28th, 2011
4:31 pm
Bank of America (B of A) is the first corporation to be targeted by US Uncut, the transatlantic offspring of the United Kingdom-based anti-austerity group UK Uncut, which held its first demonstration to protest corporate tax evasion in late 2010.
As a voice at the megaphone of the Portland protest said, “The United States does not have a deficit problem. The United States has a revenue problem.” According to a 2008 report by the Government Accountability Office, 25 percent of the biggest corporations pay no federal income tax. B of A, the recipient of $45 billion in bailout funds, shuttles its would-be tax dollars into 115 offshore tax havens. Meanwhile, budget deficits are cited as justification for pay freezes for public workers and cuts to heating assistance programs, Social Security, and other social safety nets.
“The $3 in my wallet is more than ExxonMobil, GE and Bank of America paid in taxes last year, combined,” said Carl Gibson, founder of the first American Uncut group, US Uncut Mississippi, in a release prior to the February 26 protests.
“There’s a direct connection between corporate tax dodging and what’s happening to real people’s lives,” said Gibson. “Because of overseas tax havens and other tax loopholes, US corporations are making profits in America but barely paying taxes here. If we close those loopholes, we wouldn’t have to be cutting back on firefighters, library hours and student loans.”
_________________________
Perhaps we have a real group of Patriots…..NO Representation without Taxation!
0311/0317 - 1811/1801
February 28th, 2011
4:31 pm
josef:
10-4 !
But while I have your attention, check something else out ………. it says most of what I have been trying to say for months ………….. and it’s by a Muslim doctor !
SHORT VERSION:
“Anxiety on all sides of upcoming House hearing on radicalization of U.S. Muslims”
By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 26, 2011; 5:31 PM
“In some ways, Zuhdi Jasser doesn’t match the profile of the typical Muslim American. He’s an active Republican who has supported U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, advocates for Israel and says his faith harbors “an insidious supremacism.”
That final point is the core tenet of Jasser, a father of three, Navy veteran and a former doctor to Congress.
Through his nonprofit group, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, he debates other Muslims and appears on mostly conservative media to press Muslim leaders to aggressively oppose a “culture of separatism.” He wants clerics to disavaow scripture that belittles non-Muslims and women and to renounce a role for Islam in government.
Into the void comes Jasser, who sits on the board of a nonprofit group that made two controversial films about the dangers of radical Islam. The Clarion Fund says on its Web site that the growth of the American Muslim population “is raising eyebrows from sea to shining sea. . . . And if you think that a growing Muslim population cannot threaten America, just look at Europe.”
LONG VERSION:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/26/AR2011022600330.html?hpid=topnews
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
4:34 pm
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
4:29 pm
“And last November, people across all spectra in the country voted to stop that process.”
You’re not serious are you?”
Actually, yeah, I am. Regardless of your animosity towards Republicans, AmVet, voters pretty much wholesale sent Dems packing in record numbers, and it was largely due to their gross overspending (and a good bit of tone-deafness on the part of Pelosi and Co.).
But I forgot. Polls and election results are only valid when you agree with the outcome, right?
Jean-Paul Marat
February 28th, 2011
4:37 pm
Jay “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.”
But Jay. If the Republicans admitted for one second that money left in the economy through spending would at least implicitly admit that there might just be some ounce of truth, somehow, some way, to the Keynesian claim that spending can bolster an economy during times of lagging demand. And if they did that, that would risk the entire rationale for the entire revanchist conservative counter-revolution that is just now after 30 years at the brink of its greatest victory. Since conservativism at this moment stands at the brink of total domination of American political institutions (this is what Wisconsin is all about ultimately) the stakes have never been higher than they are at this moment. Any hesitation now, however slight, would risk the entire campaign to roll back the New Deal that has been underway for decades. That explains the strange and utterly out-of-step seeming intransigence of the Republican party – which is now more inseparable from the conservative movement than ever before – at this moment.
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
4:39 pm
All I can say Dave, is that if you honestly believe they are going to do anything more than whistle past the graveyard, I’m pretty surprised.
The insanely misnamed fiscal conservatives never found a hemorrhaging patient they wouldn’t slip a couple of band aids on.
And trust me, these new “conservatives” that got elected? They are bandaid boys.
Keep, but don’t you understand corporations don’t pay taxes.
That is only for you and me…
The Original Get Real
February 28th, 2011
4:39 pm
That is exactly why they were voted into office Oh Liberal and Progressive One…..your precious democrats are losing public opinion as well they should. If the government shut down a larger percentage of the country would blame the democrats….this is not 1995
Joe
February 28th, 2011
4:40 pm
Jay said, “I don’t believe that House Republicans are willfully, knowingly steering us toward that outcome.”
I wish I could give them the benefit of the doubt too. I can’t. Does anybody honestly think that they’d be pushing such a plan if a Republican was in the White House?
In the previous Congress, the GOP did everything they could to prevent jobs from being created and the economy from going…via the Senate filibuster. Preventing additional aid to states, blocking/slowing/preventing additional aid to the unemployed, tax cuts for the wealthy, blocking the 2010/2011 budget from passing,… It worked, leading to Republican gains in both houses of congress in the 2010 elections.
Knowing that the corporate press is complicit (how many major news outlets are shining a light on the reports from Goldman Sachs, Moody’s, and others?), the GOP knows that they can get away with slowing the economy with impunity while blaming the Dem in the White House. To regain power, given that they’re motivated by power, Republicans have every incentive to hurt the economy. That’s exactly what they intend to do.
Disgusted
February 28th, 2011
4:41 pm
Keep in mind that in 1950 we did not have Social Security and Medicare. Just by factoring out Social Security receipts which is 5.4 the tax rate for non SSI is the lowest since 1942.
Gee! So it was the Tooth Fairy who was paying benefits to my grandfather! Or maybe SS took a hiatus in the 1950s.
Kids—get them off this blog.
godless heathen
February 28th, 2011
4:41 pm
“Not the spending…the borrowing to spend”
But borrowing to spend by BHO is just fine.
0311/0317 - 1811/1801
February 28th, 2011
4:41 pm
“BIG STINK BY THE BAY !”
“San Francisco’s big push for low-flow toilets has turned into a multimillion-dollar plumbing stink.”
“Skimping on toilet water has resulted in more sludge backing up inside the sewer pipes, said Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the city Public Utilities Commission. That has created a rotten-egg stench near AT&T Park and elsewhere, especially during the dry summer months.
The city has already spent $100 million over the past five years to upgrade its sewer system and sewage plants, in part to combat the odor problem.”
I can’t stop laughing at those knuckleheads out there !
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/27/BAVP1HUSUD.DTL#ixzz1FIAjlhFn
Keep up the good fight!
February 28th, 2011
4:46 pm
Scout Zero…Laugh away…..because the Georgia knucklheads certainly have done well working out Georgia’s water issues.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
4:48 pm
Scout
That’s just the point. Muslims are no more monolithic than are Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus or what have you. As a practicing Baptist, you might want to take a closer look at Sufism…the two branches of their respective faiths have a great deal in common…
carlosgvv
February 28th, 2011
4:51 pm
Dave R.
Add up all the Republicans in the House and Senate and then all the Democrats in the House and Senate and see which number is highest. Then, go and listen to Rush Limbaugh. There’s a good boy.
Doggone/GA
February 28th, 2011
4:52 pm
“But borrowing to spend by BHO is just fine”
No, it isn’t…but when you have the Senate GOP members threatening to filibuster any bill that has what we need to stop that…tax HIKES…he doesn’t have much choice at the moment. The day will come when tax hikes will be unavoidable, but it isn’t here yet.
jm
February 28th, 2011
4:52 pm
We need an “era of responsibility”
Jean-Paul Marat
February 28th, 2011
4:52 pm
To continue …
Republicans understand what Democrats almost never understand (or at least haven’t since around the time of Roe v Wade), which is the fact that battles won become part of the new normal and are extremely hard to change (hence their ferocious attacks on ObamaCare). The Republicans, being the cynical and Machiavellian ideologues that they are, know that the public has a general tendency towards inertia and ultimately, whatever they claim, tend to trust the ultimate wisdom of its leaders and remain locked in a stupor of resignation and acceptance of the inevitability of the status quo, partly because of the sheer complexity of political issues but also because of the enormous difficulty of mobilizing any kind of resistance to the corporatization of American life and the complete brute power of big money in it. That’s why they know that if they can just win battles like the one raging now in Wisconsin without drawing too much attention the public will generally forget and will then accept the new configuration of things as the new normal, with the result that resistance will seem ever more futile and those willing to fight will be ever more marginalized. This is one of the reasons that the implications of Citizens United, when we step back and look at American politics as an ideological battleground, are quite simply incalculable. That ruling completely changes the calculus on every issue in barely fathomable ways.
Dusty
February 28th, 2011
4:53 pm
I think Shakespeare is shaking in his musty boots,
When “journalists” use his verse for liberal cahoots.
jm
February 28th, 2011
4:54 pm
The entitlement programs are not self-funded…they are unfunded
liabilities. They are the single biggest component of spending going
forward.
Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Testimony before House Budget Committee, June 9, 2010
jt
February 28th, 2011
4:55 pm
Who needs the Federal congress anyways?
We should cut out the middle man by shutting congress down, and send our taxes directly to GE,Monsanto,Boeing, Government Saches, Government Motors,and the SEIU.
And maybe Big Pharma.
harvey
February 28th, 2011
4:56 pm
It is a shame that they can’t just fire the 3 out of 4 government workers who aren’t doing their jobs to get the budget back in line.
Disgusted
February 28th, 2011
4:59 pm
. . .the GOP knows that they can get away with slowing the economy with impunity while blaming the Dem in the White House. To regain power, given that they’re motivated by power, Republicans have every incentive to hurt the economy. That’s exactly what they intend to do.
Yep. The GOP drove the car into the ditch and then blamed Obama for the wreck when he got in to try to get it out. And it worked! The same people who wrecked the economy got put back into power during the 2010 election because the typical American voter has zero memory and is merely a walking appetite seeking the source of the next meal.
So don’t expect the GOPers in the House to have any concern whatsoever about the effect of their proposed cuts on the still-recovering economy. They have every reason to see the recovery fail, and one reason in particular: the 2012 elections.
That actor on the Oscars show last night had it right. Thousands of people engaged in unethical and probably illegal acts to bring the housing industry and Wall Street to their precipitous fall, along with wiping out half the American workers’ 401ks. And yet, not one of those shady people has seen the inside of a jail cell. We need an honest GOP spokesperson who will step up and say, “Let us screw you royally again!”
Doggone/GA
February 28th, 2011
5:01 pm
“It is a shame that they can’t just fire the 3 out of 4 government workers who aren’t doing their jobs to get the budget back in line”
Fine them? Why not just FIRE them. I’m SURE we could EASILY get along without 75% of our armed forces, for example. EASILY!
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
5:01 pm
“All I can say Dave, is that if you honestly believe they are going to do anything more than whistle past the graveyard, I’m pretty surprised.”
AmVet, I’m willing to give them some slack, but since it’s less than 2 month’s into their term, it’s too early to tell – either good or bad.
Pogo
February 28th, 2011
5:02 pm
You have to love it. Jay (and Cindy T) continue to site the study by Goldman Sachs. Not only did Goldman Sachs give Obama a million dollars in his 2008 presidential campaign but his Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, has a long standing “relationship” with Goldman Sachs since his days as the President of the NY Federal Reserve Bank. Look up the the name Stephen Friedman and his relationship to Timmy. Lots of investigations into that. If anyone believes that liberal/progressives aren’t just as greedy and loathsome (and even more so since they still claim to be for the “common or working man”), than those hated “friends of big business” the republicans, then look no further than names like Soros and Gore. Make no mistake, Obama and Geithner are great friends to big banks and big business but they reserve their friendship to only those big businesses which support them and political ideology. They approach their economic policy from the progressive side and they are just handing the public money out to a different bunch of rich crooks. What really amazes me is that so-called “journalists” such as Jay continue to act as shields for all of this greed and corruption in the name of their progressive ideology. And meanwhile the American taxpayers are pounded.
jm
February 28th, 2011
5:04 pm
there are savings to be had at the DOD. But….
While Defense Spending Rose to 5% of GDP in F2010 &
Is Up from All-Time Historical Low of 3% in F1999
But It Is Still Well Below Post-World War II (1948-2000) Average of 7%
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
5:05 pm
Why aren’t Republicans demanding that the house “leadership” pass legislation requiring all tax filers pay their equal share of the 14 trillion dollar debt. Do it for your children.
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
5:05 pm
“Add up all the Republicans in the House and Senate and then all the Democrats in the House and Senate and see which number is highest. Then, go and listen to Rush Limbaugh. There’s a good boy.”
Carlos, that has easily got to be the dumbest thing ever posted since, well – anything that Taxpayer posted.
Since you failed Civics 101, I’ll provide a little lesson for you.
Thye don’t vote as a group. A little thing called the U.S. Constitution keeps them from doing so.
Therefore, the House can pass anything it wants, but the Senate can block it. If the Senate chooses to NOT block a House bill, the Preident can veto said bill. It is called separation of powers, Carlos.
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
5:06 pm
Is jm going to post all 266 pages, one snippet at a time. Inquiring minds.
booger
February 28th, 2011
5:07 pm
There will never be a right time to cut spending. Everyone thinks if we wait long enough, we will find an easier way to solve our deficit problem. This time will never come. It’s now or never.
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
5:08 pm
I think the DumbRest thing posted actually came over the weekend. Some baseless claim about the stimulus and the jobs it paid for.
jm
February 28th, 2011
5:09 pm
We think that for Social Security and Medicare Part A programs, their Trust Funds’ balances have legal value as USA Inc. is legally obliged to repay the principal and interest on the Treasury securities held in respective Trust Funds.
However, we think that these Trust Fund balances have NO economic value as these cumulative surpluses have been SPENT by USA Inc. to reduce the borrowing need in the past. When Social Security & Medicare begin net withdrawal from their Trust Funds (likely in 2017E), USA Inc.’s debt levels + interest payments growth could accelerate, owing to the double whammy of: 1) loss of revenue source (previous surpluses) and 2) additional Treasury redemption costs related to Trust Funds’ withdrawal requests.
jm
February 28th, 2011
5:10 pm
Trust funds can be useful mechanisms for monitoring the balance between
earmarked receipts and a program’s spending, but they are basically an
accounting device, and their balances, even if “invested” in Treasury securities,
provide no resources to the government for meeting future funding commitments.
When those payments come due, the government must finance them in the
same way that it finances other commitments — through taxes or borrowing from
the public. Thus, assessing the state of the federal government’s future finances
requires measuring such commitments independently of their trust fund status or
the balance recorded in the funds.
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
5:11 pm
Because gawdknows there is no waste, corruption, redundancy or abuse in the Pentagon’s budget!
I’m just thrilled that the Iraq Crusades didn’t cost nearly a $1,000,000,000,000 (so far) but only the $50,000,000,000 that the Bush administration predicted…
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
5:12 pm
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
5:08 pm
“I think the DumbRest thing posted actually came over the weekend. Some baseless claim about the stimulus and the jobs it paid for.”
Only if you don’t know how Federal highway funds are allocated, which I’m sure your three alleged degrees somehow didn’t cover when it came to your education.
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
5:16 pm
Unfunded pensions, of both the corporate and public variety, have a lot in common with IOUs, i.e., trust funds, too. However, just because the cash was taken from the trust funds and spent by Republicans to fund wars and tax cuts and drug company benefits, etc., that does not excuse the government from its obligations to the people that paid into those trust funds.
Poor Boy from Alabama
February 28th, 2011
5:17 pm
Jay,
You might want to do a sniff test on the economic projections you posted. Some of them are very fishy.
Let’s start with Zandi.
From what I’ve read, the size of cuts being talked about by the GOP are in the range of $25-50 billion for 2011. The size of the US economy is around $14 trillion per year. A cut of $50 billion in spending amounts to about 0.36% of GDP.
According to your post, Zandi says the impact on the economy would be a 0.5% reduction in GDP.
But that doesn’t square with Zandi’s oil impact projection. The US consumes about 20 million barrels of oil per day. A $10/barrel increase would amount to $6 billion per month (20 million barrels/day x 30 days/month x $10/barrel) or $72 billion per year ($6 billion/month x 12 months/year). That’s equivalent to 0.5% of GDP, but Zandi says it would only reduce GDP by 0.2%.
Does it make sense to you that cutting government spending by 0.36% of GDP would have a more negative impact on the economy than taking 0.5% of GDP directly out of our pockets?
The Goldman Sachs numbers have been completely misrepresented. If you actually read what Goldman said, the point they were trying to make was that making cuts to this fiscal year’s budget would be felt in Q2 of this year, but would would fade quickly thereafter. It would not be the equivalent to a 1-2% reduction of a full year’s worth of GDP:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/02/goldman-sachs-house-spending-cuts-will-hurt-economic-growth.html
“Federal spending cuts deserve the most attention. They are the most likely of these issues to occur, and could have the largest magnitude. The assumption we incorporated into our recently revised budget estimates—discretionary spending cuts of $25bn and $50bn below the CBO baseline for FY2011 and FY2012 respectively—would shave nearly one percentage point off of the annualized rate of real GDP growth in Q2, but would fade quickly with a negligible effect on growth by year-end.”
To make a long story short, the kinds of budget cuts being talked about would have only a modest impact on GDP.
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
5:19 pm
Poor Dave R. He cannot explain the numbers that he posted over the weekend so he resorts to his expected fallback position. Diversion so becomes you.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
5:22 pm
DUSTY
When “journalists” use his verse for liberal cahoots.
“Antonio: Mark you this, Bassanio, the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
February 28th, 2011
5:22 pm
It is a shame that they can’t just fire the 3 out of 4 government workers who aren’t doing their jobs to get the budget back in line.
Oh geezzz!!!! Not this BS again. Sure, why not. It seems as though there are some who’s sole intent is to cause the USA to go the way of the dodo, so why not. Hell, fire 4 out of 4. If you’re going to do something completely fu*ked up, why not go all out??
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
5:23 pm
“Poor Dave R. He cannot explain the numbers that he posted over the weekend so he resorts to his expected fallback position.”
There is no further explanation, TaxCheat.
Funds were allocated 5 years ago. The project was begun. Two years ago, even though the project was previously fully-funded, signs appeared on I-84 touting ARRA funding.
Now, I know that someone as grounded as you are in ignoring reality on a constant basis might have some difficulty spotting a lie, but that one was clear enough for even the terminally dense to recognize.
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
5:24 pm
Batten down the hatches, kids!
Cuz it’s gonna come down like a cow peeing on a flat rock in a couple of minutes!
jm
February 28th, 2011
5:25 pm
I think a 10% headcount reduction at the Federal level is perfectly reasonable and sustainable, along with a 5 year salary freeze given inflation is 0%.
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
5:26 pm
Already is in Buford, AmVet!
Jean-Paul Marat
February 28th, 2011
5:26 pm
The other thing the Republican party, in its infinite cynicism, knows how to play like a fiddle is the tendency of the American people to accept a common sense explanation of extremely complex and counter-intuitive phenomena like capital markets and economics. All that a party has to do is mechanically parrot lines like “American families have to tighten their belts so they want to see their government do the same” and pretty soon – if unopposed by something equally easy to grasp in opposition – people will accept it as part of their mental ‘furniture’, as part of the givens that they accept like up is up and down is down. Never mind that modern banking and political economy is devilishly complex and in many cases radically counter-intuitive, thus making simplistic comparisons like those between the federal budget and the typical household budget highly misleading. What Democrats always fail to understand – but Republicans never fail to understand – is that the average modern citizen, faced with a world that is infinitely complex, wants a way to boil down a world that is intimidating to a few simple moral principles. This impulse in American has been dubbed Jacksonian and it’s in the midst of a resurgence now with the Tea Party. Democrats fail to appreciate this impulse at their peril – and of late they’ve been succumbing to this peril again and again.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
5:27 pm
AmVet
Yep. It’s here…back in a few once it blows through…sposed to be quick…
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
5:28 pm
Continue to divert, Dave R. Admit it. You cannot explain the numbers that you posted regarding the cost per job created/saved so you try to divert with your posts. I’m sure that tactic works while you practice it in the mirror. Not here though.
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
5:30 pm
“You cannot explain the numbers that you posted regarding the cost per job created/saved so you try to divert with your posts.”
Actually, TaxCheat, even our host agreed with the numbers after he did his research. Maybe you should catch up with the rest of us.
Jefferson
February 28th, 2011
5:31 pm
Kill the Bush AND Reagan tax cuts, cut defense spending, remove the FICA cap, single pay health care. (Rich people can still go private after they pay their fair contribution to the US society.) There’s something to smoke on…
Moderate Line
February 28th, 2011
5:33 pm
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
4:18 pm
The name Shylock, is more synonymous with being a loan shark than with being an anti-Semite…
And to Moderate’s point, each and every year since 1969, the United States Congress has spent more money than its income.
+++++++++
From 1946 until 1981 the governments total debt decreased from 121.7
% of GDP to 32.5% of GDP. From their it increased to a peak of 67.1 in 1996. From 1996 it decreased to 56.4 in 2001. From 2001 Gross Federal Debt rose to 69.4 under Bush a net increase of 23.0% of GDP. Under Obama it has risen to 93.2 an increase of 23.8% in two years.
Your statement is misleading. Gross Federal Debt can decrease as long as the deficit is low and the economy is growing.
Gross Federal Debt has decrease 14 years since 1969.
The more Federal Deby goes up the more future generations pay in interest instead of other services.
Dusty
February 28th, 2011
5:34 pm
I can’t believe Bookman would say something as illogical as his conclusion.,
i.e Republicans have convinced themselves through years of rhetoric and rigid ideological discipline that there is no other course except to shut down.
No, Bookman, it only takes a flash to realize that a debt in the super trillions cannot be paid off by spending more money. That CUTS to the bone are a necessity, not a choice. If shutdown occurs it still would not be worse than bankrupcy or some other form of total break down.
When “gangrene” occurs in government spending, the only cure is amputation or cuts. If you don’t know that, just ask your doctor. (I work in healthcare. Makes one think in logical terms.)
Jefferson
February 28th, 2011
5:35 pm
Debt wasn’t a big deal till the current president embrased it…
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
5:36 pm
Our host agreed that you, Dave R, posted numbers that you heard somewhere. You should really learn a new routine. Your current one is older than Achmed the Terrorist.
Jefferson
February 28th, 2011
5:37 pm
Dusty, there’s plenty of revenue to collect from those who have it, what’s wrong scare you may not get a crumb from them ? Just sayin’, its there just like it was back in the 50s,60s and 70s.
0311/0317 - 1811/1801
February 28th, 2011
5:38 pm
San Francisco wouldn’t even give the Marines permission to use the Golden Gate Bridge for a recruiting advertisement so if the whole Bay turns into a cesspool ………. tough luck.
0311/0317 - 1811/1801
February 28th, 2011
5:38 pm
josef:
That’s not the point either.
Did you read the article about Dr. Jasser?
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
February 28th, 2011
5:38 pm
I think a 10% headcount reduction at the Federal level is perfectly reasonable and sustainable, along with a 5 year salary freeze given inflation is 0%.
Laughable. You could achieve that thru attrition alone. The current number of federal workers is roughly the same number we had during Reagan’s administration. That means there are far less workers per capita than there were in the 1980’s. I guess you small government people won’t be satisfied until there are only 10,000 government workers countrywide. Then you all will bitch and complain because sh*t goes too damned slow because there are not enough people to do the job.
Jean-Paul Marat
February 28th, 2011
5:39 pm
Dusty: “No, Bookman, it only takes a flash to realize that a debt in the super trillions cannot be paid off by spending more money. That CUTS to the bone are a necessity, not a choice. If shutdown occurs it still would not be worse than bankrupcy or some other form of total break down.”
If that’s the case, then why are tax hikes off the table?
The only explanation: Republicans don’t give a damn about what they claim to care about. Deficit hawkery is a front for a counter-revolution to roll back the New Deal.
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
5:40 pm
“Our host agreed that you, Dave R, posted numbers that you heard somewhere.”
Continue to ignore reality, taxCheat. It’s what you do best!
Our host actually FOUND the numbers in the CBO report. Maybe one of those alleged three degrees should have been in reading comprehension. But then, what can we expect from someone who can’t even read a temperature chart . . .?
Dave R.
February 28th, 2011
5:40 pm
“If that’s the case, then why are tax hikes off the table?”
They aren’t, Jean-Paul. Just not right now.
Joe the Plutocrat
February 28th, 2011
5:42 pm
not that I side with jm, but you can’t say “2008 financial meltdown” without Goldman Sachs (architects) and Moody’s (enablers). that said, the GOP is playing partisan “Liar’s Poker” and at the end of the day, the government cannot “create” nor “crush” jobs.
Pogo
February 28th, 2011
5:42 pm
Amvet, do you really believe that Obama and Geithner are any different than those corporate lackies the “cons”, that you love to hate so much? Why don’t you share the love? I’ll tell you why, you won’t ever do this because you, in your soul of souls, are just another run-of-the-mill liberal/progressive hack who probably depends upon the government for a living. Why don’t you free yourself and announce to the world that you love anything progressive and liberal and that you detest anyone that disagrees with your political beliefs? Don’t pretend to be some kind of anti-establishment Ghandi when in reality you are nothing more than just another “Brick in the Wall” for the progressive cause.
The progressive cause today is nothing more than a call to socialism (and of course it always has been since its inception with Wilson). Research it but todays progressives are nothing more than socialists or communists. And, make all the excuses you want but when it comes down to it, progressives want more than anything for socialism based upon its most restrictive definition and the more radical element of these progressives in America today want to be commmunists. Just look at the Wisconsin protests. That is about nothing short of communism.
I have much more respect for those that admit what they are up front than those that tip-toe around it like yourself. I am a “con” (as you call us) and I freely admit it. But what exactly are you? A lackey for the left just like Jay? You are one who claims to hate both sides of the political equation and to hold some kind of high ground on political morality. Look in the mirror and figure what you are and then tell us. I think we all know anyway.
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
5:42 pm
Dusty,
Pay your share of that 14 trillion dollar debt. That’ll be $30,000 please. Do it for your children. Then, you can look them in the eyes and say truthfully that you did your part to avoid dumping that debt in their laps.
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
5:44 pm
Our host did not find the numbers that you presented in the cbo report, Dave R. You continue to divert though. It is what you know.
Moderate Line
February 28th, 2011
5:45 pm
Moderate Line
February 28th, 2011
5:33 pm
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
4:18 pm
The name Shylock, is more synonymous with being a loan shark than with being an anti-Semite…
And to Moderate’s point, each and every year since 1969, the United States Congress has spent more money than its income.
++++
Gross Federal Debt has gone up more under Republicans than Democrats. Of the 13 1/4 years Gross Federal Debt has decrease since 1969 were under Democrats only 2 were Republicans other than Nixon even though Rep have been in charge 20 years to 14 since Carters election. Nixon had 5 1/4 years of lowering the deficit.
In essence conservative Republicans are not very good at balancing the budget.
Moderate Line
February 28th, 2011
5:48 pm
Jefferson
February 28th, 2011
5:35 pm
Debt wasn’t a big deal till the current president embrased it…
+++++++++++++++
Of the 93.2% of our current GDP of the debt 69.4% of GDP was accumulated before he became president.
Dusty
February 28th, 2011
5:48 pm
JOSEF,
Yeah, the devil can cite scripture for his use. Right! That is why I was quoting neither Shakespeare nor the scriptures.
Get thee behind me, ye devilish one of mischief, mayhem and other modalities of magical mysteries. . (Scripture…nawww/)
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
February 28th, 2011
5:48 pm
“If that’s the case, then why are tax hikes off the table?”
They aren’t, Jean-Paul. Just not right now.
I’d disagree with that. When you have lawmakers who have signed pledges to NOT raise taxes, they will never be on the table as long as those legislators are in office.
Jean-Paul Marat
February 28th, 2011
5:48 pm
Dusty: “They aren’t, Jean-Paul. Just not right now.”
I don’t believe it for a second. The intention of Republicans is clearly to enshrine the current tax rates for the top earners as permanent, which will do just as much damage over time to the bottom line as any so-called ‘runaway’ spending by big government democrats. As I said above, the reason they’re doing this is that they want it to become part of the mental ‘furniture’ of Americans – the top tax bracket is X%. Period. Then, the resulting budget shortfall can be conveniently blamed on the bogyman of ’spending’. Deficit hawkery is a front for a systematic campaign of social engineering.
jack bull
February 28th, 2011
5:49 pm
“I predict future happiness for American’s if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them”…Thomas Jefferson
since we’re quoting folks….
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
5:53 pm
Amvet, do you really believe that Obama and Geithner are any different than those corporate lackies the “cons”, that you love to hate so much?
If you pulled that sorry head of yours out of that sorry ___ of yours, you’d know what I have written on the matter. (No wonder you needed back surgery.)
But I do love how you answer your own questions…
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
5:54 pm
Well, setting the top tax bracket at some magical lower level does not really do any harm so long as the appropriate steps are taken to remove some deductions to offset the difference. I especially like the prospect of eliminating the “hide your money illegally in off shore accounts” deduction that some folks are so fond of.
Dusty
February 28th, 2011
5:57 pm
Taxpayer, you first, dear heart.
You see I know that you would never pay your $30,000. Neither would your three wives, your ten children, your three mother in laws, or the fourteen grandchildren.
Therefore, in all fairness, I will wait until your family has done their part. In the meantime, CUT THE BUDGET Stop spending. That’s it! Do it the RIGHT way.
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
5:59 pm
I don’t recall Republicans ever campaigning on any promise to create or save jobs. In fact, the only thing they really promised was to cut taxes for the wealthhy.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
February 28th, 2011
6:00 pm
since we’re quoting folks….
I’d bring attention to Ernest Hemingway when it comes to topics like this:
“Develop a built-in bullsh*t detector.”
The Original Get Real
February 28th, 2011
6:00 pm
Geez, the liberal BS is getting very deep, I have put on my hip boots…
Disgusted
February 28th, 2011
6:01 pm
If you pulled that sorry head of yours out of that sorry ___ of yours, you’d know what I have written on the matter. (No wonder you needed back surgery.)
LOL! Or as USinUK is fond of writing, Teh stoopid. It burns!
Joe the Plutocrat
February 28th, 2011
6:01 pm
OK, enough with the partisan bickering. the way a plutocracy works is; the ownership class (primarily industrialists) encourage the formation of a central bank (Federal Reserve Act 1913). this act, effectively took the “regulation of commerce” out of the hands of Congress (per the Constitition) and placed it firmly in the hands of the private sector. BANKS (leding) ‘create jobs’. BANKS (witholding lending ‘CRUSH’ jobs. you know, Dick Cheney (channeling Reagan) was only 1/2 right; ‘deficits don’t matter’ because as we have seen in the post 2008 world, the Federal Reserve Bank just “prints more money”. and this fiscal card trick doesn’t “creat jobs” – it creates wealth for those who produce goods and services (aforementioned industrialists). why do you clowns think gasoline will be $5/gallon by Memorial Day? because of Egypt or Libya? NO, because a portion of the $600 billion pumped into (you cannot have inflation without a pump) was suggests petro-addicted Americans will pay $5/gallon. the only reason the government runs deficits is; it doesn’t produce goods or services. that is to say, it doesn’t take goods and services to market. ALL IT CAN DO IS PRODUCE DEBT. now, in a “balanced” economy, the government would base spending on “revenue” (taxes), but we do it backwards; well, in truth, we base “spending” on our ability to borrow (rob from Peter to pay Paul). anyone read the Maddoff interview. to a certain degree, our government is one big Ponzi scheme, because by defintion, there can be no “return on investment”. this why politicos fill your heads with nebulous ’causes’ like patriotis, children/education, wars on terrorism, poverty or drugs. they have to convince US that we’re getting something. only problem? who “provides” the “goods and services” required to wage wars against terrorists, hunger, drugs, or illiteracy? it’s not Uncle Sam, it’s the private sector – and as well know, the Shylock of all Shylocks, the Federal Reserve Bank will get it’s “trillion lbs. of flesh”.
Dusty
February 28th, 2011
6:04 pm
Jean Paul,
S’il vous plais, that was Dave R. you quoted. I’m not into social engineering. Lowering the debt is plain old good sense. Call it any name you wish, a debt by any other name is still a debt.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
February 28th, 2011
6:04 pm
Tax @ 5:59
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxaEBz2lOZs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXz5ZDrzX-w&feature=related
Care to repeat that statement????
One Nation Under educated
February 28th, 2011
6:04 pm
josef, very impressed.
“Out, out damn, spot….” – and the Oscar for best
imitation of Lady Macbeth goes to – Every neo-con on here.
jm
February 28th, 2011
6:05 pm
I’ve been thinking this for years now.
Mandatory savings accounts could help workers prepare for retirement while backing up a shaky Social Security safety net
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/feb2011/pi20110216_311588.htm
Lil' Barry Bailout
February 28th, 2011
6:08 pm
For liberals, there is NEVER a good time to cut government spending. Government is their god, and their god must be pleased with them, and that means more confiscation of more private property and more, more, more spending.
Dusty
February 28th, 2011
6:10 pm
TAXPAYER aka Robin Hood,
Soooo, you say, Republicans only want to cut taxes for the rich! Not true! Republicans want to cut taxes for EVERYBODY! Halleluia!! Let’s do it!
And let’s eat dinner. C U later….
Jay
February 28th, 2011
6:12 pm
Dave R., I’m not trying to pick at you on this in any way shape or form.
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.
TaxPayer
February 28th, 2011
6:13 pm
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
February 28th, 2011
6:04 pm
Okay, you got me. The Republicans did lie about creating jobs.
Pogo
February 28th, 2011
6:15 pm
And Jay, your diatribe today against Georgia Power and the Southern Company and the construction of Vogtle 3-4 failed to mention the thousands of workers that are and will be paid very well at the new reactor sites to build and operate that facility. And they are union and non-union and the operators will mostly be union. What about their jobs Jay? Don’t care about those jobs? And don’t you care about the financial contribution that that facility will make to middle Georgia and for the State of Georgia? No, I don’t think you do. Maybe you should speak with some of the locals in Waynesboro, Ga and see what their take on this is. Your liberal sensibility only seems to extend as far as your liberal hatred towards big companies. You refuse to acknowledge the good that Georgia Power and the Southern Company have done in this state with their facilities and the number of families and communities that have benefitted from their presence. Would you like to outsource that to a company whose headquarters are in another state (or country) that have no stake at all in what happens to the “locals” here in Georgia? And, are you questioning the need for “renewable” energy? You , like most liberals, want all of the best answers but you don’t want to pay for them. There is a cost for everything that we need to survive and for everything there are two sides. Good thing you live in your little protected world at the AJC where everything you say is prophetic and is the absolute truth (at least to those that are fools enough to accept it) and no-one, including your editors, holds you accountable unless you put out something that is contradictory to their political beliefs which is die-hard liberal.
Jay
February 28th, 2011
6:17 pm
Gee Pogo, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were lauding the availability of shovel-ready jobs as a stimulus package. Sure sounds like it.
Disgusted
February 28th, 2011
6:18 pm
Well, call the papers. Me and Sister Dusty agree. We need to cut spending to the bone. Get rid of this stuff that helps Those People, the old coots, the shiftless, people that get sick on our dime, and the bums. I figure $100 billion this year is a good start. We just need to do it about 30 more times to get a Balanced Budget. A stuck pig will holler so you can expect to hear some of these leeches screaming when we take their guvmint check away.
It’s a jungle out there and us Conservatives expect to club our way to survival. I’m sick of supporting these people that get cancer or a stroke and expect me to pay for it. The same goes for these shriveled old crones that wind up in a nursing home and the people that don’t get jobs that offer health insurance. They’re not being Productive, and we need Productive people. We ain’t their Daddy or Mommy.
Have a good night everybody. There’s liable to be a tornado up here in Forsyth County and we all know trailers and tornados don’t get along too good. But it’ll take some powerful winds to lift the trailer off of its foundation with the missus in it.
F. Sinkwich
February 28th, 2011
6:18 pm
WaPo:
“Zandi, an architect of the 2009 stimulus package…”
‘Nuff said. He’s a liberal useful idiot. He’s the moron who maintained that the stimulus package would keep unemployment below 8%.
Of course Jay loves him because he supports Jay’s worldview.
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
6:20 pm
Anyone who voted for the clowns who increased spending (by instituting two massively expensive, needless wars, Medicare Part D, and yet more corporate giveaways) while simultaneously shrinking income (by cutting back on incoming tax dollars) has just about zero credibility in these deficit discussions…
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
February 28th, 2011
6:20 pm
Okay, you got me. The Republicans did lie about creating jobs.
LOL!!!!! It’s not a lie yet. He’s got 5 years to put his legislation forth that will rain manna from heaven. Those were commercials that I did not and will not forget. I can’t believe people actually fell for that bullsh*t. Maybe I should run for office and say things like that while I’m standing in front of an American flag.
jm
February 28th, 2011
6:21 pm
Read the report yet Jay?
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
February 28th, 2011
6:21 pm
LOL @ Jay!!!!!
Pogo
February 28th, 2011
6:22 pm
Whatever makes you feel better Amvet. Whatever the case, I don’t hate like you hate and I don’t hate you. I answer my own questions knowing that you won’t.
F. Sinkwich
February 28th, 2011
6:23 pm
Liberals think every dime spent by the government is critically important to the well being of the country. Any cut in spending is “draconian,” unless of course it has anything to do with defense.
Disgusted
February 28th, 2011
6:24 pm
Maybe I should run for office and say things like that while I’m standing in front of an American flag.
O no you won’t, SoCo. You’re one of those worthless government employees. We want to fire you, not give you another taxpayer-funded job.
jm
February 28th, 2011
6:29 pm
Military spending is not the core of the problem….
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
February 28th, 2011
6:30 pm
Check Y’all later…
Time to watch the storm pass thru.
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
6:30 pm
Poges, if you truly think I “hate”, that is just dead wrong.
I have big mouth, so do you, That’s all. There’s no malice. When the political bitchfest ends, I’d have a drink with anybody here, and probably have a great time with them. (Provided we didn’t discuss politics or religion!)
And if you didn’t personally attack people here, you might just get some of those questions answered! (grin)
OK, off to the Dunwoody Sweatatorium of Pain.
Later, taters…
Mary Elizabeth
February 28th, 2011
6:34 pm
“So how can the public be persuaded to accept large spending cuts?
The conservative answer, which evolved in the late 1970s, would be dubbed ’starving the beast’ during the Reagan years. The idea — propounded by many members of the conservative intelligentsia, from Alan Greenspan to Irving Kristol — was basically that sympathetic politicians should engage in a game of bait and switch. Rather than proposing unpopular spending cuts, Republicans would push through popular tax cuts, with the deliberate intention of worsening the government’s fiscal position. Spending cuts could then be sold as a necessity rather than a choice, the only way to eliminate an unsustainable budget deficit.”
The quote above is excised from Paul Krugman’s NY Times column of 2/22/10 called, “The Bankruptcy Boys.”
—————————————————————————————————————————
Jean-Paul Marat @ 5:48 p.m.
” Deficit hawkery is a front for a systematic campaign of social engineering.”
———————————————————————————————————-
Jean-Paul Marat, I did not know if you were aware of the Paul Krugman article of a year ago or not, but if not, I wanted to let you know about it.
Your voice is refreshing to read, in that you do not accept political platitudes and you look for complexities of what may be happening. Please keep speaking out. Food for thought.
md
February 28th, 2011
6:36 pm
“Anyone who voted for the clowns who increased spending (by instituting two massively expensive, needless wars, Medicare Part D, and yet more corporate giveaways) while simultaneously shrinking income (by cutting back on incoming tax dollars) has just about zero credibility in these deficit discussions…”
Yep…..that statement just wiped out most of the voting block seeing as how most of the misfits have a hand in spending……..
Now what? We let that handful that votes for the fringe parties rule the country??
jm
February 28th, 2011
6:37 pm
In 1965, the official estimate of Medicare’s costs was $500 million per year,
roughly $3 billion in 2005 dollars.*
• The actual cost of Medicare has turned out to be 10x that estimate.
• Medicare’s actual net loss (tax receipts + trust fund interest – expenditures)
has exceeded $3 billion (adjusted for inflation) every year since 1976 and
was $146 billion in 2008 alone. In other words, had the original estimate been
accurate, the cumulative 43-year cost since Medicare was created would
have been $129 billion, adjusted for inflation.
• In fact, the actual cumulative spending has been $1.4 trillion** (adjusted for
inflation)…in effect, 10x over budget.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
6:37 pm
Storm’s passed…big boom, lotsa rain, some strong gusts, few limbs down…not much in this part of town…
jm
February 28th, 2011
6:39 pm
One win (among several others) for the Bush administration. I’m not for new entitlements, but at least his entitlements came in under budget.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
6:41 pm
L’il Barry
Good to see you back. I was worried…
jm
February 28th, 2011
6:41 pm
Medicare Part D (the 2006 outpatient drug benefit for seniors) was projected to
cost $111 billion annually.
In 2009, Medicare Part D’s actual cost = $61 billion, 45% below projection.
md
February 28th, 2011
6:43 pm
Question #1………..is there really any significant change for the better after creating the Dept of Education?? Were the folks educated prior to it’s creation really that stupid??
Question #2………same with the other DOE……why has it taken 30+ years to NOT create any significant energy policy?? Why are we still stuck on ME oil??
Starting points for a very bloated gov’t??
I’ll cast my vote in the affirmative……
Pogo
February 28th, 2011
6:43 pm
No Jay, I think you were protesting them! I acknowledge the Federal loans to SNC for the construction which you and I both know are guaranteed to be paid back. The established energy utilities were a safe bet for Obama. But, how many billions of your “shovel ready” loans ended up being thrown away? And all political agendas aside, how much did the un-employment rate got down because of them? The answer? None. It actually escalated. And what about General Motors? Have they paid their loans back (with interests) yet? No, and they never will.
In any case, where does that leave us? It leaves us with nothing answered and nothing gained (as is the case with this whole discussion and political discourse in this country, as you and I very well know). I mean, my God man, you make a living on the “endless and unanswerable” problems we confront and your craft demands that you play upon the most controversial and passionate topics that people care about. I can respect anyone if they come out and say what they are. You, like Amvet, tend to vascillate between being some kind of weird amalgam of being socially consiencious and socialism, but you know what you are and you should admit it. That way your readers would know the worth of what they are reading and how much creedence they should extend towards it. But, judging from you regulars here, it probably wouldn’t make a difference anyway as they are pretty much goose stepping zombies in the political sense.
You should still talk to my brothers in Waynesboro though and then get back to me Georgia Power.
@@
February 28th, 2011
6:44 pm
Goldman Sachs, jay!!??!! GOLDMAN SACHS????
With purpose to be dress’d in an opinion
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit,
As who should say ‘I am Sir Oracle,
And when I ope my lips let no dog bark!’
O my Antonio, I do know of these
That therefore only are reputed wise…
like a fox.
It’s now or never!!!!
@@
February 28th, 2011
6:46 pm
Later, taters…
See ‘ya, Dick.
jm
February 28th, 2011
6:46 pm
When Social Security was created in early 20th century to provide
retirement income to elderly Americans, 1 in 127 Americans1 (<1% of
population) received Social Security payments. Now 1 in 6 Americans
(17%) receive Social Security payments…well above the initial ‘plan.’
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
6:47 pm
md
“Question #1………..is there really any significant change for the better after creating the Dept of Education?? Were the folks educated prior to it’s creation really that stupid??”
Nope.
F. Sinkwich
February 28th, 2011
6:47 pm
“The Obama administration’s policies are causing Americans to pay far more for gasoline and other fuels than necessary. America is awash in fossil-fuel energy sources with almost 30 percent of the world’s coal and 80 percent of the world’s oil shale – which contains an estimated three times the recoverable oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.”
Obama loves high fossil fuel energy costs — he wants them to go higher. You libs like that too. I don’t, and neither does America.
jm
February 28th, 2011
6:47 pm
Social Security: Each Retiree Was Supported by 42 Workers in 1945 & Just 3 Workers in 2009
If you are a worker in USA, Inc. (as 81 million tax-paying Americans are), in effect, you have 5 times more ‘dependents*’ than your parents had and 15 times more than your grandparents.
jm
February 28th, 2011
6:49 pm
Americans Are Living 26% Longer, But Social Security ‘Retirement Age’ Has
Increased Only 3% Since Social Security Was Created in 1935
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
6:56 pm
jm
Aw, just cut ‘em a slice of blubber and put ‘em on an ice floe…
F. Sinkwich
February 28th, 2011
6:59 pm
“An FBI file contends that a young Edward M. Kennedy arranged to rent a brothel for a night while visiting Chile in 1961, a year before he was elected to the Senate.”
Dude knew how to party…
Best Tea Party sign: “Bury Obamacare with Ted Kennedy.”
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
7:05 pm
SCOUT
In case you haven’t seen this yet….
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110228/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_last_wwi_veteran
In 1941, while on business in the Philippines, Buckles was captured by the Japanese. He spent more than three years in prison camps.”
md
February 28th, 2011
7:06 pm
Question #3……..if one came upon a homeless individual in the park, would one a) reach into ones pocket and give them what one could b) hold up the next passerby at gunpoint and demand that s/he give the homeless assistance ?
USMC dawg
February 28th, 2011
7:08 pm
I saw this bumper sticker at Monroe and Ponce in Midtown this past weekend:
SOCIALISM= The equal distribution of poverty!
Vinny
February 28th, 2011
7:10 pm
Oh Jay, You’re nothing but an illegitimate liberal blowhard. What would you or Obama know about what it takes to create jobs?
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?
jm
February 28th, 2011
8:55 pm
-$44 Trillion =
$142,999 per Person in USA
$370,961 per Household
0.9x Global Stock Market Capitalization
3.8x S&P500 Total Market Capitalization
0.8x Total USA Household Wealth
3.0x USA Annual GDP
20x Federal Government Annual Revenue
So if we stopped spending a single nickel on government, it would still take us 20 YEARS to pay back all the debt….
AmVet
February 28th, 2011
8:56 pm
Anatomy?
That wasn’t even the epidermis.
jm
February 28th, 2011
8:56 pm
Mick 8:55 http://images.businessweek.com/mz/11/10/1110_mz_49meekerusainc.pdf
page 211
Mick
February 28th, 2011
8:58 pm
jm
There is a flaw, what about assets? Gov’t property, buildings, vehicles, hardware, weapons, jets, tanks, subs, carriers etc…
Jack
February 28th, 2011
8:58 pm
Bookman needs to start a business and hire some workers: that would lower the jobless rate and would be best for the country.
Misty Fyed
February 28th, 2011
8:59 pm
It’s not about a pound of flesh. It’s not about jobs. It about the $1,500,000,000,000 we are spending over and above what we make. People like you who continue to pardon this irresponsible behavior are bankrupting this country.
josef nix
February 28th, 2011
9:00 pm
g’night…
Dusty
February 28th, 2011
9:00 pm
Jean Paul,
I don’t know about any purges in the Republcian Party. I think there was shock over the total ugliness displayed at President Bush from the beginning of his administration to the end. It went from pure fabrication to total hate. Even in wartime, many liberals could not support the military on the basis that it was Bush’fault. They forgot 9/11. Right here at AJC Luckovich drew members of the military being roasted on a spit. He drew Uncle Sam in prison. Bush was disfigured in cartoons, day after day. Democrats used every venue to smear Bush & the Iraq war. Don’t bother to tell me how centrist were the Democrats.
. If you are referring to the Tea Party, they are conservatives but not the main party. They are outspoken and mainly patriotic. They protest without violence.
So take your changes and enjoy them. You can do that in America. I have found the place in politics that suits me best. You can do the same but I may not agree with you.
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:01 pm
Mick 8:58 – they’re not idiots. They count those. Look at page 209 in detail.
A Conversation with Charles and David
February 28th, 2011
9:03 pm
He who controls the world’s paper controls the world’s supply of money.
But what about the ink.
Oh. All right then. He who controls the paper and ink…
But what about the printing presses…
Oh Brother! We’re going to need more money.
Of course.
getalife
February 28th, 2011
9:05 pm
Dusty,
Stop whining and pay attention to your failed party trying to govern.
Epic failures again.
It is a joke.
Hilarious.
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:06 pm
Unfunded Liabilities:
Medicaid $35.3 Trillion
Medicare $22.8 Trillion
Social Security $7.9 Trillion
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:06 pm
**They protest without violence.**
So who is dusty? Remember, bush lost the popular vote and was declared the winner by fox news. After all we know about fox news now, who would believe them this go round? Why did the supreme court intervene and overturn the florida supreme court to stop the counting? These are things that riled the opposition but did anyone have rallies showing up with guns? No, we were very critical and look what happened to this country, by sept 08 we were in ruins, not a good legacy and we are still trying to dig out…
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:07 pm
A famous economist once said anything that can’t go on forever will eventually stop, and this [government liabilities from entitlement programs] will stop, but it might stop in a very unpleasant way in terms of sharp cuts, a financial crisis, high interest rates that stop growth, continued borrowing from abroad. So, clearly we need to get control of this over the medium term, and specifically we’re going to have to look at entitlements because that’s a very big part of the
obligations of the federal government going forward.
— Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve in Testimony before House Budget Committee, June 9, 2010
Lil' Barry Bailout
February 28th, 2011
9:08 pm
What is the Idiot Messiah doing about exploding, obscene entitlement spending?
Expanding it.
Heckuva job, Idiot!
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:08 pm
The Court has made clear in subsequent decisions that the payment of Social Security taxes conveys
no contractual rights to Social Security benefits.
Congress’s authority to modify provisions of the Social Security program was affirmed in the 1960 Supreme Court decision in Flemming v. Nestor, wherein the Court held that an individual does not have an accrued “property right” in Social Security benefits.
A Conversation with Charles and David
February 28th, 2011
9:09 pm
jm,
You left out the 14 trillion dollar debt from your list of unfunded liabilities. You see, it’s even worse than your 266 page business model predicted. You’re doomed! Not to worry. 2012 is just around the corner. You do know why the Bush tax cuts were only extended until 2012, DON’T YOU!
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:09 pm
LBB – first rule when in a hole…. stop digging…. second rule, find a way, every way available, to get out
Lil' Barry Bailout
February 28th, 2011
9:10 pm
Mick
Why did the supreme court intervene and overturn the florida supreme court to stop the counting?
—————
A little thing we Americans call the “equal protection clause”.
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:11 pm
Conversation – the 2012 tax increases won’t fix a thing. They’re taken into account for in the projections. If you want to fix the deficit, tax RATES half to be doubled. If you pay 25%, you need to pay 50%. If you pay 35%, you need to pay 70%. To balance the budget.
Got it?
Talking HeadLines
February 28th, 2011
9:11 pm
I see Lil Barry is back to worshipping an idiot that he call his messiah or is it his messiah that he calls an idiot. Whatever.
Lil' Barry Bailout
February 28th, 2011
9:11 pm
I’m getting out before the bill comes due. It isn’t my bill. Let the parasites and maggots fight over what’s left behind.
Dusty
February 28th, 2011
9:11 pm
getalife,
U R the joke.
Totally lost in lib land
The laugh is on U
U just don’t know it.
Pitiful!
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:13 pm
jm
All I can say is where was all this doomsday analysis during the first eight years of this millenium?
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:14 pm
Mick 9:13 – hidden and unrevealed.
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:15 pm
lbb
You guys are only for states rights when it suits your cause….
Lil' Barry Bailout
February 28th, 2011
9:15 pm
Yes, the first eight years of the millenium, with their outrageous $300 billion deficits!
Talking HeadLines
February 28th, 2011
9:16 pm
jm. 2012. December. Mayans. Got it. Don’t believe those quacks that try to tell you that its just the beginning of the next level on the great odometer of time.
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:16 pm
jm
Why now? Obama & dems? I’m shocked…..
Lil' Barry Bailout
February 28th, 2011
9:16 pm
The first eight years of the millenium when we had 5% unemployment?
@@
February 28th, 2011
9:17 pm
Mick:
Can I afford it? No!
But were I a resident of CA, MD, OR, NY, etc., I wouldn’t want my husband’s employer to take their marbles and leave said states for one that didn’t punish them for being successful.
I might have to live where it’s cold. I don’t like cold.
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:17 pm
An estimated 7% of $2.1 trillion healthcare costs (including those linked to diabetes, cancer, heart /
respiratory / joint diseases) were related to obesity in 2008. By comparison, that’s more than all corporate income tax revenue that year.
Fat people. Get on a treadmill.
Lil' Barry Bailout
February 28th, 2011
9:17 pm
The first eight years of the millenium, when Gitmo was open for business?
Talking HeadLines
February 28th, 2011
9:18 pm
If you want to fix the deficit, tax RATES half to be doubled.
Now there’s a Laffer if I ever read one.
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:18 pm
Gee little one, leave out anything like wars, prescription drug bill, tax cuts for billionaires? Play fair now or didn’t mama teach you that?
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:19 pm
zee crux of zee problem
Out-of-Pocket Spending Accounted for Just 12% of Healthcare Spending in 2009, down from 48% in 1960
Talking HeadLines
February 28th, 2011
9:19 pm
By comparison, that’s more than all corporate income tax revenue that year.
Corporations, get off you diet and go back to paying in taxes what you did back in 1945.
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:20 pm
lbb
Don’t forget how the story ends, this sukker could go down in 08, remember?
Lil' Barry Bailout
February 28th, 2011
9:20 pm
You know your Idiot Messiah INCREASED spending on the prescription drug bill, right?
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:20 pm
Medicaid: 47 million (24MM children / 12MM low-income adults / 7MM disabled / 4MM elderly) Americans (15% of population) each received $6,872 in taxpayer funds, on average, for healthcare in 2008 through Medicaid. That $6,872 equals ~19% of annual per-capita income for Americans.
@@
February 28th, 2011
9:20 pm
Getalife:
Other than agitating, what’cha been up to? Gearing up for Mardi Gras?
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:21 pm
We’re in a health care bubble as bad as the real estate bubble. Created by the Federal Government. Again.
Lil' Barry Bailout
February 28th, 2011
9:21 pm
Wars? Like the ones we’re involved in in 2011 in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Tax cuts for billionaires? Like the ones your Idiot Messiah fought to extend last year?
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:22 pm
Private health care purchasers (workers getting insurance) are subsidizing retirees and Medicaid recipients.
Over the last few decades, private payors (employer-sponsored health insurance plans) have consistently paid more than government payors (Medicare / Medicaid) and have, in effect, subsidized government reimbursement.
Talking HeadLines
February 28th, 2011
9:23 pm
Darn those poor people on Medicaid, jm. What shall you do — grind them all up and turn them into cheap dog food or just let them die and rot on the streets.
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:23 pm
jm
I’ll tell you what, save my social security and take away the medicare. If I can stay healthy – great. If I get sick just let me die, don’t want to burden your generation…
Lil' Barry Bailout
February 28th, 2011
9:24 pm
Hmm… a healthcare bubble. Interesting thought. How does such a bubble shake out, jm? I suppose if Americans force the government to reduce spending on healthcare for parasites, we could see hospitals go broke and shut down, and other health care prices drop. The whole supply/demand thing…
Dusty
February 28th, 2011
9:24 pm
Goodnight, JOSEF. Don’t forget your rose colored glasses when you come here tomorrow. But I will still be a Republican.
———————
MICK,
If you think Fox News made Bush president, then there is no need for further discussion. That is too rediculous to even consider.
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:24 pm
Medicare and Medicaid have destroyed the health care system. When people get products for free, they have unlimited demand, but the Federal Government is not willing to pay market price, so the costs get pushed out to private insurance customers (workers), who subsidize those living off the federal government.
The system is in a death spiral, courtesy of the Federal Government’s policies.
Talking HeadLines
February 28th, 2011
9:25 pm
Lil Barry. Quit trying to pass off YOUR so-called idiot messiah to others.
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:26 pm
lbb
I saw a bum on the street the other day and he asked if I could help him out. I had five bucks in my pocket and gave it to him….he looked at me and said thank you and god bless..
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:26 pm
LBB – when we spend 16% of GDP on Healthcare, versus 8% or less in most other industrialized countries, you know our system is in bubble mode.
How it plays out, I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to own medical device stocks, or drug stocks. And I wouldn’t want to work in the healthcare industry….. as a nurse, doc, or anything else.
Talking HeadLines
February 28th, 2011
9:27 pm
The system is in a death spiral
Is that the GOP’s name for their proposed healthcare plan — Death Spiral. It does have a nice cost-effective, tax cutting ring to it.
Lil' Barry Bailout
February 28th, 2011
9:28 pm
Mick, the bum was patronizing you. You got played.
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:28 pm
LBB – my guess is Medicaid rolls will be cut way back. And Medicare will get dialed back at some point. Which means anyone serving those markets will end up shrinking.
If that doesn’t happen, that means reform hasn’t happened, and that means the whole ship is going down. Which means job hunt in Asia, Canada, etc.
Disgusted
February 28th, 2011
9:29 pm
Medicare and Medicaid have destroyed the health care system. When people get products for free, they have unlimited demand, but the Federal Government is not willing to pay market price, so the costs get pushed out to private insurance customers (workers), who subsidize those living off the federal government.
The system is in a death spiral, courtesy of the Federal Government’s policies.
Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons?
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:30 pm
Private medical enrollees (workers), not only provide all the profit to the health care industry, the subsidize a 9% Medicare loss and a 12% Medicaid loss. Net industry profit is 4%.
Evil health care grafters….
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:30 pm
lbb
Well maybe I did but it was my choice and I rarely miss my chance to be a good samaritan because he needed it more than I.
B. Morris
February 28th, 2011
9:31 pm
Claiming they are “have nots” dems take full advantage of the Citizens United ruling.
Democrats Line Up Outside Money for 2012
Hypocrites.
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:31 pm
Patients are at a healthcare information disadvantage in two respects1:
• Lack of transparency:
It’s harder for consumers to compare prices of healthcare services from
different healthcare providers than in other consumer markets given the
complexity of healthcare market.
With employer- / government-subsidized insurance, many patients are
‘locked in’ with their insurance plans that do not incentivize “shopping
around.”
• Knowledge gap:
Unlike other markets where consumers tend to use their own information and
preferences, consumers depend more on the advice and guidance of
physicians or other healthcare suppliers.
Unlike other “merchandise,” healthcare is literally of life-and-death
importance to consumers, making risk aversion – and price
insensitivity – higher. This price insensitivity is exacerbated because the
consumer, in effect, gets it at a discounted price anyway.
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:32 pm
jm
What are you made out nuts and bolts instead of heart and soul? There’s more to life than numbers, deficits and trillions…
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:33 pm
b. morris
I believe you have to fight fire with fire…
getalife
February 28th, 2011
9:33 pm
Thanks Dusty.
All is well here in la la land.
@@,
Tossing out beads to the ladies.
How are you doing?
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:33 pm
The practice is prevalent among US physicians and is contributing
factor to healthcare spending. According to a survey of 824
physicians in 20051:
• 93% said they had engaged in the practice of Defensive Medicine
• 59% said they often ordered more diagnostic tests than medically
necessary
• 52% said they referred patients to other specialists in unnecessary
circumstances
• 33% said they often prescribed more medications than medically
necessary
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:35 pm
We’re a big poor country. Spending like we’re a big rich country.
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:36 pm
“There’s more to life than numbers, deficits and trillions…”
There won’t be “life” as we know it if the federal government goes bankrupt / prints away all the debt (achieves the same thing).. See Zimbabwe.
So you’re wrong. This is all about numbers. And if the numbers aren’t fixed, there won’t be anything (social safety nets) for anyone. Period.
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:37 pm
Mick. Facts suck don’t they?
Government (federal + state + local, including military)
spending per household has steadily risen to 82% of
median post-tax household income, up from 51% in 1967.
@@
February 28th, 2011
9:37 pm
Getalife:
I’m good.
Don’t overindulge. I don’t wanna have to track you down again.
(IW&SH)
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:38 pm
jm
Could this be a problem? Taxes paid in 10-11
Boeing $0
Citibank $0
Exxon mobil $0
Bank of America $0
Wells Fargo $0
G.E. $0
You and I? Go ahead defend it-
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:38 pm
We’re eating our seed corn. We’ve stopped increasing education expenditures (in aggregate) in favor of taking care of all the old people even when nothing will work (12% of medicare expenditures occur in the last 2 months of life and a third in the last year of life)
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:39 pm
USA Today and the Cato Institute examined simple averages of federal (excluding military)
wages & benefits vs. private sector using Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data and
concluded that federal wages & benefits are ~100% higher than private industry – wages
are 58% higher while benefits are 3x higher.1 (March 2010, updated in August 2010)
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the U.S. Office of
Personnel Management (OPM) responded that gross average comparisons are ‘unfair and
untrue.’ And when one holds education and age constant, federal employees earn slightly
less than those in the private sector on average, although the difference is not statistically
significant.2 (March 2010)
The Heritage Foundation, in response to OPM and OMB’s comments, released a statistical
analysis based on BEA data, and claimed that adjusting for variables such as age,
education, marital status, race, gender, size of the metropolitan area, and several others,
federal wages & benefits are 31% higher than private industry for occupations in both
government and private sector.3 (July 2010)
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:40 pm
Mick 9:38 – your facts are wrong. Go bring me a source, but I already know you’re full of BS.
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:41 pm
70% of Federal Government Employees Still Enjoy
“Guaranteed” Pensions, While Such Defined-Benefit Pension Plans Are
Increasingly Rare in Private Sector (now at 32% vs. 84% in 1980)
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:42 pm
Federal government headcount (ex. military) grew by
56,000 (or 2%) in 2008 and another 107,000 (or 3%) in
2009, while private sector unemployment rose to 10%
from 5% in 2007 and private sector headcount fell 1% in
2008 and 6% in 2009.
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:42 pm
jm
You can’t handle the truth..its out there but your synaptic connections are synapting at the thought of the truth..
Oh well, there’s always subsistence farming. I mean that’s what’s left after making sure our millionaires and billionaires stay protected…
@@
February 28th, 2011
9:43 pm
Mick:
Most of us give money to panhandlers.
Although I don’t smoke, I buy cigarettes and lighters to pass out. They LOVE those!
I’m most impressed by the panhandlers that offer a product or service for their pay.
There was this one guy who made little doodads out of wire. He, at least, put forth some effort. That little doodad sits on my kitchen sill. It reminds me that not everyone wants something for nothing.
jm
February 28th, 2011
9:43 pm
Mick. The facts suck don’t they….
To bring its income statement mechanically to break-even for 2009 (excluding onetime
charges), USA Inc. would have needed to raise individual income tax rates by
~2x across-the-board to an average of ~26-30% (from ~13%) of gross income.1 This
certainly seems draconian. And a tax increase of this nature would surely have a
significant negative impact on USA’s GDP growth as consumers would have far less
disposable income to buy goods and services.
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:45 pm
@@
Great, very cool..a little humanity is very humane..keep on
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:47 pm
jm
Actually, your facts are arbitrary and always point to gloom and doom…so be it..life’s a beotch and then you die and all that…
Disgusted
February 28th, 2011
9:54 pm
Federal government headcount (ex. military) grew by
56,000 (or 2%) in 2008 and another 107,000 (or 3%) in
2009
Keep falling for the shell game, jm. The bottom line is that contracting employees who do the same work as (but get paid more than) federal civil service employees DON’T COUNT as part of the federal work force. Clinton, and later the Bush administration, claimed to “cut the federal work force,” but all they did was replace civil service employees with contracting employees. Now, the Obama administration is replacing many of the contracting employees with lower-cost contracting employees–that’s why you see the percentage of “federal government headcount” going up in 2009, and you’ll see it going up further in 2010.
All these years, the American taxpayer has been played for a sucker, as workforce suppliers like Boeing, Perot Systems, Lockheed, GE, etc. got fat by supplying contracting employees to the federal government.
And many of the federal big shots loved the system too. Who wouldn’t? If you could keep adding employees without having them count against your budget or even as employees, wouldn’t you do it?
And do you think the number of contracting employees is insignificant? Think again. They make up 40% of the work force of agencies like CDC.
So keep falling for the smoke and mirrors, jm. The truth is that the number of federal workers hasn’t changed at all. But since civil service workers actually count as members of the federal workforce, it looks like there’s a big increase in that workforce. And you fell for it—hook, line, and sinker.
0311/0317 - 1811/1801
February 28th, 2011
9:56 pm
Burp ! Excuse me.
Mick
February 28th, 2011
9:57 pm
Scout – where is the sanity????
Talking HeadLines
February 28th, 2011
9:59 pm
jm has found his 266-page holy grail. It says what he wants to hear — kill off the poor and impoverished. They’re such a burden. Never mind the DoD’s out of control growth. And don’t forget to give the billionaires another tax cut for good measure. Those Republicans do love their trickle down.
Talking HeadLines
February 28th, 2011
10:00 pm
@@ is doing her part to kill off the panhandlers. Philip Morris loves you.
Joe the Plutocrat
February 28th, 2011
10:09 pm
@@, stop – you’re killing me. cigarettes and lighters? if a person provides a good or service, he she is not a panhandler; he/she is an entrepreneur – and I’m not talking about some guy who gives you directions to Philips Arena from Centennial Park, I’m talking about salesmen. we could debate the business license/no business license and the over-reaching authority of the state, but there’s a big difference between the hustling kids who sold me a “recycled” bottle of water at the I-20/Lee Street exit for $1 (the seal had been broken, I suspect he simply re-filled empty Aquafina bootles), and some smelly, homeless, degenerate junkie who simply asks for my spare change. here’s what I do. when I see some loser approach me with his hand out, I ask him for $20. it really messes with him. see, any professional beggar has a script or a story; “I just got out of jail” (then you ate last night) or “my car ran out of gas” (so, I guess there is “homeless” and “homeless, but not carless”). if you get the drop on the dude and say; “… I just got divorced and it cost me like $75,000.00… do you have any spare $20’s or $50’s…” it f**ks with his head.
BADA BING
February 28th, 2011
10:10 pm
Del, sorry off for a bit. They are cleaning up Rio slowly in preparation for the Olympics, but it can be dangerous. Gangs are robbing people in taxis, even whole buses are being robbed. If you stayed at the better hotels on the best beaches, it is fairly safe. When I stayed for 2 weeks in 2006, I could hear automatic gunfire every night from my hotel in the Copacabana, Ipanima area. The police were fighting the drug gangs that control the slums. I fear that Rio is going to have trouble during the Olympics.
Joe the Plutocrat
February 28th, 2011
10:25 pm
Disgusted, you want to talk about disgusted, check out the report on “private contractors” in Iraq and AfPak. I think we’ve doled out close to $200 BILLION to pay mercenaries from Blackwater, DynCorp and the like $200,000/year+ to do what a NCO does for $25,000. youl folks really don’t get it; it all starts with the banks. ‘deficits don’t matter’ to the banks because interest is how they make their money. “deficits” are how we fund wars (terrorism, drugs, poverty, global warming, etc.). pick whatever cause (or boogeyman) you like. if you follow the money, you’ll end up with some “Shylock” on Wall Street doing quite well. as I said earlier, do the matth. consider “a pound of flesh” from an average human (165lbs.) vis a vis $14.5 trillion.
Midori
February 28th, 2011
10:26 pm
The system is in a death spiral
Is that the GOP’s name for their proposed healthcare plan — Death Spiral. It does have a nice cost-effective, tax cutting ring to it.
getalife
February 28th, 2011
10:32 pm
“Sen. Tom Coburn issued a cryptic warning about a Government Accountability Office report that will be released Tuesday morning, saying it will make “all of us look like jackas ses.” The Hill.
It just keeps getting better.
Midori
February 28th, 2011
10:34 pm
lol – getalife
yes, it does, doesn’t it?
which makes several here lash out all the more.
this is like a drive in movie
Jean-Paul Marat
February 28th, 2011
10:37 pm
Dusty: “I don’t know about any purges in the Republcian Party. I think there was shock over the total ugliness displayed at President Bush from the beginning of his administration to the end. It went from pure fabrication to total hate. Even in wartime, many liberals could not support the military on the basis that it was Bush’fault. They forgot 9/11. Right here at AJC Luckovich drew members of the military being roasted on a spit. He drew Uncle Sam in prison. Bush was disfigured in cartoons, day after day. Democrats used every venue to smear Bush & the Iraq war. Don’t bother to tell me how centrist were the Democrats.”
C’mon now, Dusty. You know what I’m talking about by purges. Bob Bennett of Utah, Charlie Christ in Fla, Arlen Specter in Pa, Scozzafava in NY. They were all either voted out by insurgent Tea Partiers or were compelled to change party for their allegedly too ‘centrist’ views. By the way, how do we get the whole term RINO if there’s no move to purge the GOP of centrists? Tell me, what’s the Democrat equivalent for RINO? Answer: there is none.
What is the Tea Party if not one big purge movement in the Republican party. The Tea Partiers are the Bolsheviks of the Republican Party.
getalife
February 28th, 2011
10:38 pm
Hi Midori.
Yeah, I don’t watch them on C-Span this time because I know they will fail horribly.
Worse than last time.
0311/0317 - 1811/1801
February 28th, 2011
10:45 pm
Mick Buddy :
Long gone …………. I think it’s got the whole country.
The Original Get Real
February 28th, 2011
10:52 pm
Does any liberal out there have an extra pair of rose colored glasses. I would love to see the unicorns and magic bunnies too…
jm
February 28th, 2011
11:00 pm
American Society of Civil Engineers’ Report Card Grades for America’s
Infrastructure, 1988 vs. 2009
1988 2009
Aviation B- D
Bridges — C
Dams — D
Drinking Water B- DEnergy
– D+
Hazardous Waste D D
Inland Waterways B DLevees
– DRail
– CRoads
C+ DSchool
Buildings D D
Solid Waste C- C+
Transit C- D
Wastewater C DOverall
USA Infrastructure G.P.A. C D
Cost to Improve — $2.2T
jm
February 28th, 2011
11:01 pm
Education = High Long-Term ROI* Investment
Each $1 of Government Spending Could Generate Up to $3 of Incremental Tax Return
But no money for education if Entitlements keep going up up up
jm
February 28th, 2011
11:02 pm
USA 25th in Math, 17th in Science
jm
February 28th, 2011
11:04 pm
Math Rankings
2000 2009
1 Japan S. Korea
2 S. Korea Finland
3 New Zealand Switzerland
4 Finland Japan
5 Australia Canada
6 Canada Netherlands
7 Switzerland New Zealand
8 UK Belgium
9 Belgium Australia
10 France Germany
11 Austria Estonia
12 Denmark Iceland
13 Iceland Denmark
14 Sweden Slovenia
15 Ireland Norway
16 Norway France
17 Czech Republic Slovakia
18 USA Austria
19 Germany Poland
20 Hungary Sweden
21 Spain Czech Republic
22 Poland UK
23 Italy Hungary
24 Portugal Luxembourg
25 Greece USA
26 Luxembourg Ireland
27 Mexico Portugal
(2009 only)
28 Spain
29 Italy
30 Greece
31 Israel
32 Turkey
33 Chile
34 Mexico
jm
February 28th, 2011
11:06 pm
McKinsey conducted a study in 2010 that compares the USA with other
countries on 20 attributes related to economic fundamentals, business
climate, human capital and infrastructure. McKinsey compared current
status vs. status in 2000.
We augmented the McKinsey study with 9 additional attributes across those
aforementioned areas as well as government spending metrics.
Through this study, we found that America, relative to other countries, improved
on none of the 29 attributes, remained the same on 9 attributes (including
GDP per capita, public debt as % of GDP, public spending on healthcare, public
spending on education, growth in local innovation clusters, population &
demographic profile, retention of foreign-born talents, total healthcare spending
and cost-adjusted labor productivity) and deteriorated on 20 (including trade
surplus, national spending on R&D, industrial production, corporate tax rate,
business environment, FDI, tax incentives for R&D, number of patent
applications, availability of high-quality labor, higher education penetration,
telecom & transportation infrastructure, etc.).
jm
February 28th, 2011
11:06 pm
USA’s Share of Global GDP Has Declined from 33% in 1985 to 24% in 2010,
While China / Brazil / Korea’s Shares Have Risen
Paulo977
February 28th, 2011
11:07 pm
Lil’Barry….I asume you mean PRESIDENT
Bailout OBAMA… ” What is the Idiot Messiah doing about exploding, obscene entitlement spending?” Please supply a link to where it is alleged he has involved himself in OBSCENE spending!
jm
February 28th, 2011
11:09 pm
1) To eliminate F2010 deficits by increasing individual / corporate / payroll tax rates across-the-board would require +12 percentage points of tax rate increase (raising $1.4 trillion) – and would likely damage economic growth? or
2) To eliminate primary budget deficit** by F2019E by increasing top two tiers of income tax rates would require moving marginal rates to 72% / 77% from 33% / 35% – also likely to damage growth and encourage tax avoidance? or
3) Broadening tax base could require reducing ‘tax expenditures’ and subsidies, e.g., limiting deductions and subsidies for housing & healthcare
jm
February 28th, 2011
11:09 pm
Subsidies create incentives to consume more health insurance and housing –
both account for 20% of GDP, vs. 11% in 19651 – and take resources from other
sectors like education, technology, infrastructure.
Paulo977
February 28th, 2011
11:12 pm
Should interest us ..
http://www.walletpop.com/2011/02/25/five-signs-that-the-economy-has-improved/
jm
February 28th, 2011
11:14 pm
The GM story
1908 – Founded in Flint, Michigan to manufacture automobiles
1954 – Shipped 50 millionth automobile
1988 – Free cash flow peaked at $6.3B
1999 – Reached a peak market capitalization of $61B
2006 – Revenue peaked at $207B
2009 – Filed for bankruptcy
Why did GM file for bankruptcy?
Products became increasingly uncompetitive. In addition, pension plans to
support 650,000 retirees and their dependents (compared with 80,000 active
employees in N. America as of 2010) rose to 4.8% of GM’s annual expenses
jm
February 28th, 2011
11:15 pm
How many years left for the USA?…….
jm
February 28th, 2011
11:16 pm
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
the clock doesn’t stop ticking.
tick.
tock.
Midori
February 28th, 2011
11:54 pm
ok, now the propagandists have resorted to talking to themselves.
Pitiful
Night all…………
TnGelding
March 1st, 2011
2:29 am
I think they’re bluffing. When Zandi talks, I listen. I hope this message spreads rapidly. The GOP is trying to undermine the recovery. Let’s send Congress and their bloated, elite staffs home!
TnGelding
March 1st, 2011
2:34 am
The USA is alive and ‘ticking’ .Our GDP is nearly 3 times that of second place China and we’re still the number one manufacturer in the world. Buying American will hasten the recovery. Those that invested in an education are doing quite well, thank you, as is corporate America.
TaxPayer
March 1st, 2011
6:59 am
Canada’s Radio Act requires that “a licenser may not broadcast….any false or misleading news.” The provision has kept Fox News and right wing talk radio out of Canada.
You don’t say! Who would have ever guessed that one. Too bad we don’t have the same rules.
Moodys Analytics
March 1st, 2011
9:16 am
Government mandates and spending often has a varying impact on taxpayers, as well as unintended consequences such as influencing unemployment and the housing market. Additional consumer credit analysis and Moody’s Analytics’ Mark Zandi commentary is available at:
http://www.moodysanalytics.com/Products-and-Solutions/Economic-Consumer-Credit-Analytics/Economic-Research/Global-Macro-Dismal-Scientist.aspx
K Kiefer
March 1st, 2011
1:36 pm
Here’s the info you asked for, Jay.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703749504576172942399165436.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read
First we’re told that trillions in stimulus are needed for jobs, and when that doesn’t work, we’re told stopping the spending will cost jobs?!
Charles Cicco
March 3rd, 2011
2:38 pm
So many people overlook the Bush tax cuts and that starting and botching two wars and spending on the military like drunken sailors is what contributed to the deficit. NOT OBAMA’S FAULT! He is only stuck with the consequences and is severely constrained because of the actions of that gang of psychopaths who damaged this country during the Bush years. Why should he be complicit in welching on the “entitlement” obligations. Such actions would destroy the Democratic party. I hope the Democrats are not stampeded into doing anything stupid because the Republican weasels would immediately blame them and celebrate.