Why a 2.5 percent growth rate might be better than you think

As we noted this morning, the nation’s gross domestic product grew by 2.5 percent in the 3rd quarter, which isn’t great by any means. It’s better than the 1.3 percent in the 2nd quarter, or the 0.9 percent in the first quarter. But we have to do better. Overall, the projections I’ve seen predict 2.0 percent growth next quarter and on into 2012, although those numbers may now rise a bit.

Again, not great.

It started me wondering, though: How does 2.5 percent growth or 2 percent growth compare to the economic growth rate back when we had an MBA president in the White House, rather than this business-hating Marxist?

For example, what was the average annual real GDP growth in President Bush’s second term, from 2005-2008? Anybody care to guess?

Here, I’ll give you some choices:

A. 1.85 percent
B. 2.65 percent
C. 3.2 percent
D. 4.1 percent

The answer is A., 1.85 percent.

Now, maybe it’s unfair to focus on Bush’s last four years. Maybe we should look at his presidency as a whole: What was the average annual growth rate of real GDP from 2001 to 2008?

Was it:

A. 2.04 percent
B. 2.7 percent
C. 3.1 percent
D. 3.5 percent

The answer, once again, is A. In the eight years of the MBA presidency, real GDP grew by an average annual rate of 2.04 percent. I just thought that might be useful for those who want to keep things in perspective.

– Jay Bookman

504 comments Add your comment

Butch Cassidy

October 27th, 2011
3:38 pm

FIRST!

Oh, everything is Obamas fault! Do I get a double scoop of BS?

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
3:39 pm

Perspective? When did that enter into the “blame Obama” mantra?

Generation$crewed

October 27th, 2011
3:40 pm

So again you confirm to many of us with our heads above sand that indeed Obama is Bush-Lite.

Only problem though I was under the impression you felt GWB was not a good president, as I do.

So are you saying Bush did well like Obama or that Obama is doing bad like Bush?

Butch Cassidy

October 27th, 2011
3:41 pm

Keep – “Perspective? When did that enter into the “blame Obama” mantra?”

Perspective Schmective, It’a ALL Obamas fault. The elevator in my building was out this morning, and I knew it was Obamas fault. Afterall, my elevator worked all during the Bush administration, so it MUST be Obama! :)

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
3:41 pm

WEALTH ENVY!

Logical Dude

October 27th, 2011
3:41 pm

Can you break it down by year? That 2007-2008 crash (downturn? recession? slump?) may skew a few things for the time frame of which you speak.

Adam

October 27th, 2011
3:42 pm

BAM! Loving the takedowns

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
3:42 pm

Jay:

That’s pretty boring . Wouldn’t this be a better thread?

Headline: “Chaz blasts ‘disrespectful’ DANCING judges for bullying… “

Adam

October 27th, 2011
3:43 pm

Butch: You get a double dip, not a double scoop :D

Armed Liberal

October 27th, 2011
3:43 pm

2.5 only allows us to tread water employment-wise…

If we were already at full employment I’d be happy.

However, with unemployment where it is, that number is stinky.

Adam

October 27th, 2011
3:44 pm

GS: He’s saying Bush did worse. Read the numbers, dude.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
3:44 pm

Actually, Generation, I’m saying what I always say: It’s silly to attribute economic trends, good or bad, to whoever occupies the White House at any given time. At best, a president is like the oarsman on a whitewater raft: He can try to keep it off the rocks, but in the end he can only go where the river takes him.

That said, I also recognize how the game is played, and information like this does help keep things in their proper perspective.

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
3:45 pm

Generation$crewed,

…you felt GWB was not a good president, as I do.

Are you serious or just being sarcastic?

Logical Dude

October 27th, 2011
3:45 pm

It’s also why I dislike “There were no jobs created in the whole 2000-2010 time frame” type of argument.

It’s because of the 2007-2009 that skews the whole shebang.

Adam

October 27th, 2011
3:45 pm

Armed Liberal: If we were already at full employment I’d be happy.

Careful. You’re steps away from “Stimulus didn’t fix the problem 100% therefore FAILUUUUURE!”

Butch Cassidy

October 27th, 2011
3:46 pm

Adama – “Butch: You get a double dip, not a double scoop

Sweet! Nothing goes better with a main course of hyperbole and a side of rhetoric! :)

Logical Dude

October 27th, 2011
3:47 pm

Jay says: “I’m saying what I always say: It’s silly to attribute economic trends, good or bad, to whoever occupies the White House at any given time.”

Ah, there ya go. That’s what I was looking for.

Generation$crewed

October 27th, 2011
3:47 pm

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
3:45 pm

Shouldn’t be that hard to figure out

Libertarian

October 27th, 2011
3:49 pm

Ok everyone….get to your respective sides. Time to duke it out regarding who’s responsible for the wonderful 2.5 percent growth! Is it Obama?? Is it the Republican House? I just don’t know.

Perhaps neither side is responsible?

Stonethrower

October 27th, 2011
3:49 pm

Just took a peek at Kyle’s blog and it’s full of comments from Jay’s rejects.

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
3:49 pm

Headline: “Muslims say crosses at Catholic University Violate “Human Rights”

Well, there you go ……………………

Armed Liberal

October 27th, 2011
3:50 pm

Adam

October 27th, 2011
3:45 pm

If the stimulus were more like Sweeden we’d be in much better shape than we are today – caveats for deltas in economies aside.

Generation$crewed

October 27th, 2011
3:50 pm

Jay

October 27th, 2011
3:44 pm

“That said, I also recognize how the game is played, and information like this does help keep things in their proper perspective.”

So in other words you know it will trick the dumb folks or those who do not think for themselves….

Eventhough you fully understand it is irrelevant.

Nice play!

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
3:51 pm

Given that response, I guess not, GS.

What IS hard to figure out is the assertion itself…

DebbieDoRight

October 27th, 2011
3:52 pm

OK I’ve found the error in Jay’s diatribe:

Jay: Now, maybe it’s unfair to focus on Bush’s last four years. Maybe we should look at his presidency as a whole: What was the average annual growth rate of real GDP from 2001 to 2008?

What Jay did wrong was he didn’t cherry pick parts of Bush’s presidency that reflected a rise in GDP (such as those years when they were giving away “extra” money with the tax returns and begging people to shop till they dropped).

Jay used FACTS to make his argument. What kinda guy would do that? I mean seriously…..F-A-C-T-S…to make a point? Everyone knows that in order to make a point one must use magic jelly beans that we get from the man that we sold our cow to.

Methinks Jay has gone over to the “Dark Side” and is actually one of those uber-excitable uber-arrogant uber-ridiculous, FACTS people. When you see him walking down the street, make sure you pull your cross out of your pockets and denounce him with it.

It’s the only way to cure him from his use of FACTS.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
3:52 pm

It’s also why I dislike “There were no jobs created in the whole 2000-2010 time frame” type of argument.

It’s because of the 2007-2009 that skews the whole shebang.

I’d make several points in response, Logical.

First, saying that 2007-2009 skews the whole shebang is rather like the old joke about “Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how’d you like the play?” It’s not exactly an anomaly that you can just shrug off.

Second, those figures don’t include any numbers from 2009. I could have included the first quarter ‘09 numbers, in which GDP fell 8.9 percent, since Bush was still president in part of that time. I didn’t.

Third, let’s take a look at average annual GDP growth just in Bush’s first term: 2.225 percent.

Armed Liberal

October 27th, 2011
3:52 pm

awwwww man, I’m getting moderated and I didn’t call anyone names…

damn you Jay and your liberal bias…

josef

October 27th, 2011
3:53 pm

Yeah, what Jay said at 3:44.

Both of them could have gone for infrastructural projects and not just to pull us out of where we are in relation to jobs and training, but because they’re needed,,,the house is collapsing and no amount of fru-fru grillework is going to do any good…

Generation$crewed

October 27th, 2011
3:54 pm

Libertarian

October 27th, 2011
3:49 pm

May be because christmas is coming up, and most summer vacations recently ended, and thus people are not in as much of a savings mode.

But watch people will say it is one or the others fault, or accomplishment.

Eventhough no legislation has passed that would have cause this or for it to take a negative turn either.

Maybe the best thing all in Washington can do is to do nothing?

Armed Liberal

October 27th, 2011
3:55 pm

or maybe because I spelled Sweden wrong…

Paul

October 27th, 2011
3:56 pm

Whaddya’ expect from a Harvard grad -

:-)

Just shows what happens when theory meets reality?

Logical Dude

“Can you break it down by year? That 2007-2008 crash (downturn? recession? slump?) may skew a few things for the time frame of which you speak”

So we can exempt the first two years of Pres Obama’s time, correct?

Gordon

October 27th, 2011
3:56 pm

One decent quarter and you’re comparing it to entire terms (16 quarters) of another president who had 9/11 to deal with his first term? Come on.

But you’re right that presidents tend to get too much credit and too much blame. My arguments with Obama have more to do with leadership on the deficit than his handling of the economy.

Generation$crewed

October 27th, 2011
3:57 pm

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
3:51 pm

What do you want to talk about now?

Yes it was a serious comment. I didn’t think ole GWB was a good president. I was under the impression from Jay’s articles that he also felt that way. Do you disagree?

i fear you missed the entire point of my post, which Jay got i think judging from his reply.

Or do you think that Presidents have that much of an effect on the economy?

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
3:58 pm

or maybe because I spelled Sweden wrong…

Usually is an innocent combination of letters.

The Name Lee A-t-w-a-t-e-r won’t go through because of the 2nd-5th letters of the last name.

Logical Dude

October 27th, 2011
3:59 pm

HI Jay,
(for your point number two @ 3:52) )My example of 2000-2010 was different timeframe than your blog, but it’s a timeframe I’ve seen many times before. It wasn’t supposed to directly relate to your timeframe.

(for point 3) But yes, the 2000-2004 GDP growth is also a good indication of recent groupings of 4 year growth rates. the 2.5 quarterly is okay as long as it continues (okay meaning “okay, but not great”). This year’s annualized will be lower than that unless Q4 is just cooking with activity.

(for point 1) But you didn’t mention it at all in your blog post above? :D

DebbieDoRight

October 27th, 2011
4:00 pm

Lee A-t-w-a-t-e-r was a t-w-a-t? The things you learn on this blog….

Zedd

October 27th, 2011
4:01 pm

2.5% is better than the anemic rates that have plagued the country so far under Obama’s tenure, but a far cry from the 4% plus he relies on to make his all his plans work out and fully funded.

Logical Dude

October 27th, 2011
4:01 pm

Paul: So we can exempt the first two years of Pres Obama’s time, correct?

Nope, keep the time in there, but just don’t lay it all on Obama.
Just like the other years, where you shouldn’t lay it all on Bush.

josef

October 27th, 2011
4:01 pm

GORDON

Why not? It puts it in perspective. And which president since FDR had to deal with economic meltdown? As you say, come on…

And I agree with you and Jay “,,,that presidents tend to get too much credit and too much blame.”
But, then, they did try out for head cheerleader and were picked…

Generation$crewed

October 27th, 2011
4:02 pm

Paul,

I left you a lil message downstairs

I hope you get it, seems either my humor is fleeing me or people are a lil sensative today.

Adam

October 27th, 2011
4:02 pm

Libertarian: Perhaps neither side is responsible?

Correct. But also can we then admit that Obama is not actively destroying the economy? I can’t seem to get that admission from anyone.

St Simons - we're on Island time

October 27th, 2011
4:02 pm

Little Nero cokehead wrecked your Ferarri & threw your keys at you

saying “hey man you need to get that thing fixed”

Obama is driving a wrecked Ferrari better than Little Nero drove a new one

and he’s fixing it, while the cons are stealing his tools

while the tool thieves introduce 44 abortion bills & 0 jobs bills
and screech persunull respons-uh-billity

Paul

October 27th, 2011
4:03 pm

Logical Dude

I’ve found it simple to use the Rule of Thumb: “Happens on your watch, you get the credit, or the hit.”

Generation$crewed

October 27th, 2011
4:04 pm

“But, then, they did try out for head cheerleader and were picked”

and teh quaterback usually tried out for that position too, doesn’t mean its his fault when they lose. He gets the blame though from those who don’t know shyte…..eventhough he has no control over the defense or special teams.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
4:04 pm

One decent quarter and you’re comparing it to entire terms (16 quarters) of another president who had 9/11 to deal with his first term? Come on.

Gordon, in terms of economic impact, 9/11 was barely a pimple on a gnat’s rear end compared to the Great Recession.

Also, real GDP growth in 2010 was 3 percent, so it’s not just one decent quarter.

Libertarian

October 27th, 2011
4:06 pm

Adam

I think Obama is lacking in the leadership department but I do not think it is his goal to destroy the economy. I’m sure he has good intentions.

Zedd

October 27th, 2011
4:06 pm

“while the tool thieves introduce 44 abortion bills & 0 jobs bills and screech persunull respons-uh-billity”

You should have been around earlier today, you might have learned something new. Jobs bills passed by the House and refused to be taken up in the Senate. Free your mind, Don’t tow the line!

The Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act
H.R. 872 – Senate has taken no action to date

The Energy Tax Prevention Act
H.R. 910 – Senate has taken no action to date

Disapproval of FCC’s Net Neutrality Regulations
H.J.Res. 37 – Senate has taken no action to date

The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act
H.R. 2018 – Senate has taken no action to date

Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act
H.R. 2587 – Senate has taken no action to date

Transparency In Regulatory Analysis Of Impacts On The Nation
H.R. 2401 – Senate has taken no action to date

Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act
H.R. 2681 – Senate has taken no action to date

EPA Regulatory Relief Act
H.R. 2250 – Senate has taken no action to date

Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act
H.R. 2273 – Senate has taken no action to date

Veterans Opportunity to Work Act
H.R. 2433 – Senate has taken no action to date

Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act
H.R. 1230 – Senate has taken no action to date

Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act
H.R. 1229 – Senate has taken no action to date

Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act
H.R. 1231 – Senate has taken no action to date

The Jobs and Energy Permitting Act of 2011
H.R. 2021 – Senate has taken no action to date

North American-Made Energy Security Act
H.R. 1938 – Senate has taken no action to date

H.Con.Res. 34

getalife

October 27th, 2011
4:08 pm

There you go again.

Confusing us with facts

Facts don’t matter this cycle.

josef

October 27th, 2011
4:09 pm

generation

Oh, I agree…blaming the quarterback for the loss makes as much sense as blaming the head cheerleader…other than me not knowing sh*t about economics, that’s one of the reasons I tend to stay clear of these threads. I can only go by my own experience and I’m doing as well now as I was under Bush and Carter…

Adam

October 27th, 2011
4:09 pm

Libertarian: I think Obama is lacking in the leadership department but I do not think it is his goal to destroy the economy. I’m sure he has good intentions.

Clever. Or perhaps you missed my point.

Obama is NOT destroying the economy, whether it is his intention or it isn’t. I can’t seem to get anyone on the right to admit this is true. It appears they would rather hold on to the idea that his policies are having a negative effect on the economy. This is demonstrably false.

Don't Tread

October 27th, 2011
4:10 pm

“such as those years when they were giving away “extra” money with the tax returns and begging people to shop till they dropped”

Sounds an awful lot like a “stimulus”, doesn’t it? Oh wait….GWB was in office, so it was a extra money giveaway…my bad.

As far as “begging people to shop till they drop”, isn’t that an awful lot like “don’t cut the govt budget, the govt spending stimulates the economy” argument?

The double standards you people parrot are amazing. :roll:

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
4:12 pm

GS, I guess I did misread it.

The phrasing was a bit awkward, no big whup. Lord knows I’ve gone back and read some of my posts and could barely decipher what I wrote!

Adam

October 27th, 2011
4:12 pm

Zedd: And like I said before, any bill passed that is all about deregulation, tax cuts, or both is NOT a jobs bill. It’s just what Republicans THINK might one day if we pray hard enough create the environment for some other company somewhere else to maybe someday hopefully if we’re lucky create a job.

i.e., NOT job creation bills.

BONUS: No need to reverse a moratorium that hasn’t been in effect for over a year now.

mystified

October 27th, 2011
4:12 pm

Obama isn’t wrecking the economy, liberal policies are. Obama is just driving the steam roller.

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
4:12 pm

Jay, the POTUS is a lot more than an oarsman in a raft. He sets the tone, the goals; he champions the causes, etc. America rejected Obama’s causes last November, but he and the Left ignore that historical event like it didn’t happen. The Recovery policies failed, many not much more than political paybacks, but Obama knows nothing but to double down. No, the recovery would be quicker and better if Barry was AWOL. Instead, Obama marches on destroying the Democratic party and dividing America just so he might get reelected.

Paul

October 27th, 2011
4:13 pm

Generation

As I said earlier, I thought you were having fun – which, evidently you were.

Most of the time. Not some.

St Simons - we're on Island time

October 27th, 2011
4:13 pm

Zedd, my man, there is no free-er mind in Georgia. Come sit under da palm tree (I’m buyin) and let me tell you about the words “craven” & “cynical”

mystified

October 27th, 2011
4:15 pm

So Adam, you don’t like the republican ideas for job creation. Well news flash, they haven’t been tried. We are 3 years into the democrat policies for job creation. How are those working out for you?

getalife

October 27th, 2011
4:16 pm

Cut me another slice of peace and prosperity.

Give me a Dow at 18,000 and no wars.

You know, the Clinton economy, where they give away cars to come to work instead of giving away jobs to make the 1 % richer.

Zedd

October 27th, 2011
4:16 pm

Adam, your interpretation of a jobs bill probably most certainly differs from mine. I wasn’t aware that you read all the bills listed above entirely understood them all and what they contained. You interpretation of a jobs bill must be to spend more tax payer money right? ‘Cause we need to focus on those public sector jobs more than the private sector like Reid said huh?

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
4:16 pm

Jay

October 27th, 2011
4:17 pm

Well news flash, they haven’t been tried.

Really, Mystified? So what was going on from 2001-2009 under a Republican president and, for the most part, a Republican Congress?

Tax cuts, deregulation …. of course it was tried. And look where it put us.

mystified

October 27th, 2011
4:18 pm

Democrats criticizing republican plans for job creation is like the designer of the Titanic giving lessons on hull construction.

Adam

October 27th, 2011
4:18 pm

mystified: Obama isn’t wrecking the economy, liberal policies are. Obama is just driving the steam roller.

So a 2.5% growth is economy destruction? Hmm. Curious….

So Adam, you don’t like the republican ideas for job creation. Well news flash, they haven’t been tried.

Deregulation and cutting taxes on the top have been tried for more than ten years, arguably up to 31, since the Reagan admin. Do you really not realize that?

We are 3 years into the democrat policies for job creation. How are those working out for you?

Just fine, thanks.

Generation$crewed

October 27th, 2011
4:18 pm

josef

October 27th, 2011
4:09 pm

That will be the sentiment of many at the polls as well, if the unemployment numbers do not change drastically, and teh housing market improves as rapidly.

Regardless of GDP growth and or any other indicating economic factors

carlosgvv

October 27th, 2011
4:18 pm

DebbieDoRight – 3:52

All the dialogue from the Republican debates along with the pronoucements from other Republican politicians show that increasingly Fascist Tea Party Republicans and their stooge followers say “don’t confuse me with the facts. I’ve already made up my mind”.

mystified

October 27th, 2011
4:19 pm

Well Jay…That is a fair question. Unfortunately I rate the Bush presidency about as high as you do. I try to forget he was a republican.

Zedd

October 27th, 2011
4:19 pm

St Simons, thanks and I’ll buy the next round. I’m down with palm trees, sun and surf any day! ;)

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
4:19 pm

Jay, the POTUS is a lot more than an oarsman in a raft. He sets the tone, the goals; he champions the causes, etc.

So, when unemployment nearly doubled from 5% to almost 10% from Jan 2008 to Jan 2009, it’s Bush’s fault?

Is that what you’re trying to say?

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
4:22 pm

From this morning and worth reprising…

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not put this wrecked economy back together again.

Not in three scant years.

Dig in peeps, the middle class LOST ground in the “lost decade” of 2000 – 2010.

For those keeping count, that is four decades in a row of flat-lined income for most of us.

And you really expect this one to be a bed of roses?

And you really think that had the president had an R after his name, things would be all on their way to Groovyville now?

This current travesty has been five administrations and forty years in the making.

But don’t let that big truth get in the way of your petty blame games and limited scope…

Jay

October 27th, 2011
4:23 pm

He sets the tone, the goals; he champions the causes, etc.

In other words, he’s the oarsman on the raft.

Adam

October 27th, 2011
4:23 pm

Zedd: I wasn’t aware that you read all the bills listed above entirely understood them all and what they contained. You interpretation of a jobs bill must be to spend more tax payer money right? ‘Cause we need to focus on those public sector jobs more than the private sector like Reid said huh?

I read what the bills represent earlier when someone just as spoonfed as you are posted the exact same thing elsewhere. I found them to be lacking in anything except reducing regulation and taxes. The most interesting part is 1) you don’t realize that doesn’t work and 2) how quickly you turn it to what you assume I must think instead.

My philosophy is actually pretty simple: No New Tax Cuts, and No Indiscriminate Regulation Cuts. Basically, no more tax cuts EVER, for ANYONE. Close loopholes, and responsibly look at regulations without getting rid of the ones that are actually there for a good reason (which is the bulk of them).

As for your thinking on public vs private spending, I think spending needs to be done in both areas. Public spending because public jobs are being cut in droves, and private spending so we can give a boost to the already rising job numbers.

Peadawg

October 27th, 2011
4:26 pm

“business-hating Marxist” – Where’s everyone that was saying yesterday that it’s only the GOP that says this? :)

It’s funny to read both Jay and Kyle’s column on the same subject. Each one spins it their own way, trying to make their ideology look like the correct one.

Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)

October 27th, 2011
4:27 pm

Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m with Zedd. We need to get rid of all these regulations and cut taxes some more.

Like my buddy Joe Bill points out, there’s a certain piquant taste to water with a little oil in it. And it makes it go down smooth. We need some fracking big-time and we can’t wait till Deepwater Horizon gets running again.

Ain’t it FNM time yet? I got a Slim Whitman I’m just busting to play.

getalife

October 27th, 2011
4:27 pm

How many jobs did w lose and say he never saw it coming?

I would say w crashed that raft against a rock and it broke into tiny pieces and then handed them to our President.

Zedd

October 27th, 2011
4:33 pm

Thanks Adam, at least we’ve clarified where you stand now. Spoon fed? Not so much. While conservative minded, I don’t think Republicans are any better than the Democrats. At least “I” can admit both parties are at fault, etc. instead of hailing all things Democrat on daily basis like you do. Blind ideology will get nothing solved. Keep towing the line or free your mind!

Poor Boy from Alabama

October 27th, 2011
4:34 pm

JB,

Prepare yourself for a very long period of high unemployment if you like 2.5% GDP growth.

There’s an economics rule of thumb called Okun’s Law. It basically says that it takes 1% above trend line growth in GDP for a full year to bring down unemployment by half a percent. The faster our economy grows above trend line growth, the faster unemployment comes down.

Trend line growth for the US economy is somewhere around 2.5%. Unemployment barely moves when our economy grows at that rate.

As with all economics rules of thumb, Okun’s Law isn’t perfect, but it helps explain why most economists think unemployment will still be somewhere around 9% a year from now.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
4:35 pm

I agree, Poor Boy.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
4:35 pm

I’m glad we have 2.5% growth

But if we r going to bring politics into this, Obama has a lot more work to do (if that’s the metric)

Jay, what is obama’s growth rate thus far?

Jm

October 27th, 2011
4:38 pm

Okuns law is silly
Productivity is the driver
Employment will improve as productivity (i believe) has already started flattening

But yes, more growth is better and helps

ByteMe

October 27th, 2011
4:38 pm

Adam, take pity on poor Zedd. He posted four times on another AJC blog that ACORN was helping OWS. Or so says FOX. Ignoring, of course, that ACORN went out of business months ago.

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
4:40 pm

Productivity Demand is the driver

RB from Gwinnett

October 27th, 2011
4:40 pm

“Why a 2.5 percent growth rate might be better than you think”

Why?? Because there is a Democrat in the white house and you must do everything possible to make him look better than the pathetic failure he’s been…

Paul

October 27th, 2011
4:40 pm

Scout

Thought you’d appreciate this:

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/mar/04/you-can-leave-the-military-but-it-never-really/

You too, AmVet.

Something Scout and AmVet might agree on. Is this a great blog, or what?

Jm

October 27th, 2011
4:40 pm

Democrats are destroying the deficit super committee

Shame on them

getalife

October 27th, 2011
4:41 pm

Great.

Now the cons pretend to be economists.

These are the same people that think cain is a serious candidate.

ByteMe

October 27th, 2011
4:41 pm

The thing about 2.5% is that although it seems low, it’s a sustainable level of growth for an economy. 4%, although wonderful in theory, can’t be sustained without it becoming excessively inflationary (inflationary enough for the Fed to clamp down on it).

Logical Dude

October 27th, 2011
4:41 pm

Paul: I’ve found it simple to use the Rule of Thumb: “Happens on your watch, you get the credit, or the hit.”
(sorry for the delayed response)

No matter if it’s their fault or not? Not a good rule of thumb to me. (although it does take the easy way out)
:)

pogo

October 27th, 2011
4:41 pm

Jay is once against banging away at his propagandist keyboard. He is telling people that what they see with their own eyes and the financial pressures they are feeling everyday are not as bad as they think. His comparison to Bush is a sad attempt at diverting from the truth of the failure of Obama. Bush was nothing more than a economic socialist himself but during his time the misery index was at least contained a little. A more realistic comparison would be to compare Obama’s record to say, Jimmy Carter’s, as their presidencies are pretty much a mirror image of each other.

Digressing, Obama’s Student Loan deal is the slickest proposed Ponzi I have seen in a while. It appears to somehow absolve students from having to pay back all of the money they have borrowed (for pretty much worthless degrees) but what it really does is it saddles them later on (if they every find a job) with having to pay higher and higher taxes for the deficit it will create. And the Universities will just keep upping their tuition because they know that they will have access to even more guaranteed government money. Of course todays youth (and many here) are probably dumb enough to fall for it because all that matters to them is the “now”.

St Simons - we're on Island time

October 27th, 2011
4:41 pm

Its time to OTB – Occupy the Beach, and then Occupy the World’s Largest Cocktail Party. Surely we can all agree on that. Can I play music a day early? Gooooo Dawgs sic em woof..er..(mildly bark this year)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leohcvmf8kM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf6vCjtaV1k&ob=av2e

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdgxC4f0SK4

Zedd

October 27th, 2011
4:42 pm

Yeah Byte Me, like I said over there……if you’d actually read the column and opted for a civil discussion instead of resorting to insults, you’d have seen that they are former ACORN employees working under a different name out the same offices. ‘Cause that makes it all better right?

Jm

October 27th, 2011
4:42 pm

More downgrades will happen if the supercommiytee fails making us even more of a second rate nation

Shame on democrats

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
4:44 pm

Jay, perhaps I misunderstood your comments. I took the oarsman in a whitewater raft to mean while the oarsman can make a difference there are forces greater than he can control. I expect you will agree.

My point is, yes, there are forces greater than what Obama can control. However, his recovery policies have failed while driving us much deeper in debt. His total agenda was rejected last November.

You and fellow Democratic loyalists hold on to hope that has not and will not materialize while Obama divides the Nation in his attempts to gain reelection.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
4:44 pm

Obama’s growth rate?

If you don’t stick him with the first quarter of 2009, which was underway when he took office, his average quarterly growth rate is 1.95 percent.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
4:45 pm

jm, do you think the GOP should agree to tax hikes in the supercommittee?

Proud to be me!

October 27th, 2011
4:46 pm

Jay needs to go the way of Cynthia Tucker . . . out the AJC door!

getalife

October 27th, 2011
4:46 pm

con comments are like watching fox news.

I read a couple of lines then change the channel.

That Secret Service agent was right.

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
4:46 pm

Kammie, thanks for the opportunity to give you one of those smart a$$ replies you love. We are talking about Obama, not Bush, sport.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
4:46 pm

Byteme

Economy can grow at 4% and not be inflationary, though most consider it about the max

Paul

October 27th, 2011
4:46 pm

Logical Dude

Meant it more as a comment on political reality.

Unless the other side wants to ignore it to make political points, that is -

getalife

October 27th, 2011
4:48 pm

“Jay needs to go the way of Cynthia Tucker . . . out the AJC door!”

You are proud of that?

Well, a UGA gig is a pretty good and safe job.

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
4:48 pm

Paul:

Very true. Thank you sir.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
4:49 pm

Jay 4:45
Yes, but I don’t think they should have to agree to $1 Trillion worth of rate hikes with dubious spending cuts (the BS war accounting)

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
4:50 pm

Proud to be me – your 4:46 is uncalled for. I disagree with Jay’s politics but he is honest, sincere, and puts up with people like you most often without losing his temper. He does not see everything as race related, as did Ms Tucker. You owe Jay an apology or just leave and don’t come back.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
4:51 pm

well jm, by that definition ALL spending cuts are dubious, correct?

And the GOP line isn’t that they balk at $1 trillion in tax increases, their line is that they would balk at $1 in tax increases, correct?

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
4:52 pm

Paul, thanks for that link.

The descriptions of the flight line brought back lots and lots of memories.

For me, it was the one place that I really loved. Fast paced and dangerous.

Two that stand out – being stationed at MacDill in Tampa and absolutely roasting while working out on the tarmac on summer afternoons. And also very long, lonely nights out on the flight line trying not to freeze to death in the English winter at RAF Bentwaters.

And I’d agree with that Tech Sgt. No regrets.

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
4:53 pm

Paul, thanks for that link.

The descriptions of the flight line brought back lots and lots of memories.

For me, it was the one place that I really loved. Often fast paced and dangerous.

Two that stand out – being stationed at MacDill in Tampa and absolutely roasting while working out on the tarmac on summer afternoons. And also very long, lonely nights out on the flight line trying not to freeze to death in the English winter at RAF Bent-waters. (Silly AND evil censor-bot.)

And I’d agree with that Tech Sgt. No regrets.

getalife

October 27th, 2011
4:54 pm

Americans are not very confident in the super corrupt congress.

They are polling at 9%,

We can fire them but we keep electing them.

So who is to blame?

josef

October 27th, 2011
4:55 pm

Proud to be…

“Jay needs to go the way of Cynthia Tucker . . . out the AJC door!”

But, then where would you go to kvetch? Hyde Park…? What are you doing here to begin with? And no, I’m no big fan of Sister Cynthia and don’t always agree with the Bruin…but, d*mn, it’s nice to have a front porch to sit around on and chew the fat…you’re just an ingrate, imo :-)

Jm

October 27th, 2011
4:56 pm

Jay. Re spending reductions related to war.
No, because unless Obama is planning on waging 2 wars some more, they’re not real. Plus, they’ve already been counted in the previous supposed deficit reduction. Can’t keep counting things twice.

Yes, republicans say not $1 in tax increases. 2 thoughts on this. I’d bet they’d agree to some loophole closing and they have said so with respect to corporations. Second, the GOP has the mandate after the midterms. Therefore, dems should stop saying no to the party with the mandate and instead work together to find the appropriate spending cuts. Taxes can bs increased any time. Spending cuts NEVER EVER EVER happen.

Poor Boy from Alabama

October 27th, 2011
4:57 pm

Jm,

You wrote:@ 4:38

Okuns law is silly
Productivity is the driver
Employment will improve as productivity (i believe) has already started flattening

But yes, more growth is better and helps

Here are the labor productivity numbers for the past couple of years:

2006: 0.9%
2007: 1.5%
2008: 0.7%
2009: 2.4%
2010: 4.1%
2011: -1.4% (Q1). -0.5% (Q2)

Here are the unemployment numbers for December of each of those years:

2006: 4.4%
2007: 5.0%
2008: 7.3%
2009: 9.9%
2010: 9.4%
2011 (September): 9.1%

Flattening productivity in 2008 sure didn’t do much for the unemployment rate. Okun’s Law isn’t perfect, but growing our economy back to the point that we’re producing more stuff and hiring more workers is the key to bringing down the unemployment rate.

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
4:57 pm

Jay

October 27th, 2011
4:59 pm

jm, control of one house of Congress does not give GOP power to dictate to the White House and Senate. That’s just the answer I expected though: It’s the Democrats’ fault for not caving entirely.

Stonethrower

October 27th, 2011
5:00 pm

getalife

We are to blame. Everyone else has a corrupt congressional representative. Not ours thus incumbents reelected over 90% of the time.

pogo

October 27th, 2011
5:00 pm

http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/1011/houston_fundraiser_drama_6cccc297-f2cd-4cc6-a869-28e72d10b851.html

Ah yes. An ex-ENRON employee. That is certainly a person the First Lady should be dining with but the Obama’s are for sale to the highest donor. But what is great about this is it is the same thing that the Jerry Brown (you know, of the liberal fame) is trying to do in California which is to convert these guaranteed government pensions to 401K’s which will be totally dependent upon what happens on Wall Street. Now Obama is all for the Occupy Wall Street people yet his wife is attending a fundraiser for her husband with a person who is for getting rid of the cushy guaranteed government pensions and replacing them with 401K’s AND who worked for one of the most notoriously corrupt companies this country has ever known. Nah, the Obama’s aren’t for sale, are they?

Jay

October 27th, 2011
5:01 pm

On the other hand, jm, I do agree about counting war savings as spending cuts.

getalife

October 27th, 2011
5:04 pm

I know Stonethrower .

I think it other countries if their corrupt congress is polling at 9% they have a choice to dissolve it.

Not a bad idea.

Like if the default, they lose their jobs and benefits.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
5:05 pm

Or on the same hand….

Why is it caving to find savings both parties can agree on??

Then later they can find tax increases they both agree on.

Sheesh

Dems look at the world in such a win lose zero sum game

When there are win win solutions out there

Jm

October 27th, 2011
5:08 pm

Jay 5:01
U just created an incentive for us to be at war forever

If holding war spending constant isn’t incremental spending, goody neocons will be thrilled, we can be at war forever…..

pat

October 27th, 2011
5:09 pm

“Actually, Generation, I’m saying what I always say: It’s silly to attribute economic trends, good or bad, to whoever occupies the White House at any given time. At best, a president is like the oarsman on a whitewater raft: He can try to keep it off the rocks, but in the end he can only go where the river takes him.”

Oh brother…. Color me annoyed at this hypocrisy.

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
5:10 pm

Kamchak – there are a lot of things about W’s presidency that I don’t like. I do believe he gets unjustified criticism on the economy. You seldom read where people take into consideration the effects of 9/11 on the economy. On the otherhand, my opinion is, Obama’s policies have hurt more than helped while driving us deeper in debt, plus they are/have delayed the recovery. His rhetoric is unpresidential and divides the Nation.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
5:12 pm

jm, you misunderstand (and for good reason, given what I wrote). I agree with YOU about the war savings.

On the other hand, immediate spending cuts, with tax hikes to come later maybe, because maybe the GOP will feel like it next year, next decade, next century? You have got to be kidding. That kind of statement exposes just how ludicrous the GOP position has become.

pat

October 27th, 2011
5:13 pm

Anybody else notice that the stimulus failed miserably? Just making sure that is on the table. No, news from early 2010 will not change that fact.

pat

October 27th, 2011
5:15 pm

Maybe yall should join the flea party out there and whine about unfair paolicies with out having any idea what you actually want.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
5:16 pm

And actually, Pat, the stimulus worked. The economy was shrinking by 6.7 percent in the first quarter of 2009, when it was enacted. By the third quarter (+1.7 percent) and fourth quarter (+3.8 percent) of 2009, it was growing again, and grew by 3 percent in 2010.

willie lynch

October 27th, 2011
5:17 pm

Generation$crewed

October 27th, 2011
3:40 pm

If Obama was handed what Bush was handed we can conclude, based on his righting the ship Bush steered astray, that we would have a much better economy than we have as a result of Republican policies. And since Republicans haven’t supported Obama in any of his programs to correct the ills of the country we can also conclude that we are still functioning under a republican agenda.

Given President Obama’s ability to divert the disaster brought on by the previous administration (the bleeding of jobs, the housing collapse, the failed tax reductions to create jobs…) had he had a congress that wasn’t led by people whose main desire is to make him a one term President we would be in a lot better shape.

Great job Repugnicans! The people are waking up, see you in November.

Joe The Plumber too.

October 27th, 2011
5:19 pm

I wouldn’t mind seeing Herman Cain elected POTUS, I think he would be a fine choice for our First Black President.

ByteMe

October 27th, 2011
5:20 pm

Jay, pat’s going to now say it wasn’t the stimulus that did that. He’s going to magically see the alternate future and claim it would have been that way OR BETTER without the stimulus.

md

October 27th, 2011
5:20 pm

Dow closes up 339……..and watch it fall again when the EU realizes collecting those taxes won’t be as easy in real life as it is on paper……

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
5:20 pm

I do believe he gets unjustified criticism on the economy.

When you said, “the POTUS is a lot more than an oarsman in a raft. He sets the tone, the goals; he champions the causes, etc.” you were highlighting the negatives of the current POTUS like a failed recovery, but yet when it comes to me pointing out that unemployment doubled during the last 12 months of the previous POTUS it is now, “unjustified criticism.”

Is that what you’re trying to say?

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
5:24 pm

Poor pat. Ignorance is bliss.

But his hateful denigration of decent, middle class Americans as fleas, is to me, particularly repulsive…

willie lynch

October 27th, 2011
5:25 pm

Joe The Plumber too.

October 27th, 2011
5:19 pm

I would have liked to have seen Sears-Collins voted to the Supreme Court so we could have had our second Black justice. Marshall was great!

Marie

October 27th, 2011
5:25 pm

@JohnnyReb — you said speaking of Jay, “… he is honest, sincere, and puts up with people like you most often without losing his temper”. Child please, Jay tends to get a lil fiesty with us conservatives from time to time. The only time he’s in a good mood is when he logs his final blog on Friday and he’s headed out for the weekend for his music and spirits.

josef

October 27th, 2011
5:25 pm

Johnny…
Be careful…you’re being too moderate! Don’t you know you’re supposed to either be all fer or all agin Bush/Obama? You gonna make some pointy haids essplode, left and right! :-)

pat

October 27th, 2011
5:28 pm

Jay that was an artificial bubble caused by the stimulus. It did nothing for sustainable growth. Once the stimulus ran out, so did the growth. If it worked, that wouldn’t have happened. People are slowing starting to realize that the recession never ended. It just had a badly constructed band-aid covering the wound.
If the stimulus worked, the effects would not have ended in 2010. Sustained growth would have continued and the economy would be recovering. It didn’t and it isn’t.
If anything the stimulus prolonged the damn recession. When businesses get free money, they lose the incentive to earn it until the well dries up. So they don’t try until that have to.

josef

October 27th, 2011
5:29 pm

Marie

he gets feisty with some of us liberals, too…just mention the Late Misunderstanding and watch what happens!

Actually, Johnny is quite right on the Imam Torquemada Wa’-do Bruin…he’s pretty tolerant…even if he did pull down my post back at a certain insulting Duk-sha-nee… wouldn’t let me defend myself under attack… harrrumph! :-)

pat

October 27th, 2011
5:30 pm

Poor Amvet, he thinks this is what economic success looks like.

If this is success, I’d hate to see failure.

Your man failed you, man up and admit it. It’s f#$ obvious….

md

October 27th, 2011
5:30 pm

“And actually, Pat, the stimulus worked. The economy was shrinking by 6.7 percent in the first quarter of 2009, when it was enacted. By the third quarter (+1.7 percent) and fourth quarter (+3.8 percent) of 2009, it was growing again, and grew by 3 percent in 2010.”

Don’t agree with the correlation…….the big decline reflected the mass layoffs……when companies cut what they needed to balance the bottom line. There is nothing to distinguish between natural slowing of that process and the stimulus……but that also works against my argument as well.

As for the other numbers in regards to Bush……although growth was fairly low, it was fairly constant with unemployment holding steady for the 8 years between 4 and 6 %.

I’d hazard a guess that folks would prefer to see the unemployment number low and not really care about the gdp number.

ty webb

October 27th, 2011
5:32 pm

must these asinine in jest “it’s obama’s fault” comments keep being submitted…or can we just designate some sort of icon that represents such inane snark to save the commenters the time and trouble of having to type it out verbatim every new blog topic…they were just as witty when applied by blinded Bush apologists ad nauseum.

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
5:32 pm

Your man failed you, man up and admit it. It’s f#$ obvious….

As I recall (not hard cause he has mentioned it countless times), brother AmVet didn’t support Obama in the last presidential election..

Don’t you guys ever read and remember the comments?

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
5:32 pm

Kamchak – you have every right to criticize W and he deserves some of it. However, he was not a divider as is Obama. And yes, Obama inherietied a mess, but I just don’t agree what he has done to right the ship is responsible for the recovery we do have. He has pushed costly agenda items while we go bankrupt.

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
5:33 pm

ByteMe, you nailed that one. But he’s sure got his fact free slogans down pat. (get it?)

As for Herman, I doubt he would even carry the Morehouse vote…

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
5:34 pm

If only the unemployment rate would drop to 2.8%… Paul Ryan could be a hero instead of a zero.

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
5:34 pm

…with unemployment holding steady for the 8 years between 4 and 6 %.

No.

Not from Jan08 to Jan09.

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
5:35 pm

Marie – yes, Jay gets fiesty sometimes and has with me. However, I refer back to josef’s post. This blog provides a good place to compare opinons and Jay runs it well. It’s difficult to argue with its success – even though most posters has their politics all wrong (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

Joe The Plumber too.

October 27th, 2011
5:35 pm

Willie, can’t stand Thomas or Sears-Collins and I agree that Marshall was a good man. He was a very important figure for the NAACP when they were still relevant. Don’t know what any of that has to do with Cain though.

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
5:36 pm

Kam, please if you going to mention my name, at least tell me what I think, OK?

Too funny…

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
5:37 pm

Hello josef – yea, I guess its true. One mellows as he grows older. Whoever said the older you get the more you learn how much you don’t know, that was a bright fella. Just don’t expect me to vote Progressive!

pat

October 27th, 2011
5:38 pm

You can’t tell the sucess of a stimulus while the actual stimulus dollars are directly affecting the economy. It’s after the stimulus passes is when you tell. Is there sustainable growth from it? No. Did the economy recover? No it did not.

If you want to play dumb to prop up stupidity as success, go ahead, but don’t expect people to buy lies.

md

October 27th, 2011
5:38 pm

“Not from Jan08 to Jan09.”

2008 5.0 4.8 5.1 4.9 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.1 6.2 6.6 6.8 7.3
2009 7.8

I’ll give you those last four months, but the first 9 look like as I stated.

Mighty Righty

October 27th, 2011
5:39 pm

And the growth rate for the Obama presidency is? BTW is the third quarter growth rate adjusted for inflation? I thought so.

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
5:40 pm

However, he was not a divider as is Obama.

So, when the second man in his administration, Dick Cheney told Pat Leahy to “Go f**k yourself’”, on the Senate floor that’s not being divisive?

Is that what you’re trying to say?

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
5:41 pm

Steady between 4 and 6%. Well, what’s a few million jobs amongst friends anyway.

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
5:43 pm

md

October 27th, 2011
5:44 pm

“Well, what’s a few million jobs amongst friends anyway.”

Well……if one wants to get snarky, probably a few million less than 9%……..

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
5:45 pm

If only the Republicans had been able to hold off that Lehman bankruptcy until say January 2009 instead of September 2008. It would have been so much easier for them to pull off that blame Bush’s failures on Obama strategy. :lol:

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
5:46 pm

November 2, 2012

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
5:46 pm

Well……if one wants to get snarky, probably a few million less than 9%

OR! We could get really snarky and talk about Georgia’s unemployment rate. What is it now, 10.something! Come on now, md, you can do betta.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
5:47 pm

Jay 5:12 glad we agree on war

Re revenue increases. Republicans will agree to tax increases to balance budget if they feel ok about current and future spending

See Mitch Daniels, Greenspan, etc

Jm

October 27th, 2011
5:49 pm

Jay the problem is the tax code is permanently locked in.

Discretionary isn’t, and entitlements arenlocked in at an unsustainable trajectory

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
5:50 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=OW56Z-0xwIQ&vg=medium

Ah …………………………………………………..

josef

October 27th, 2011
5:50 pm

Johnny Reb…

G-d forbid I ever get mellow enough to vote “progressive!” Republicans in sheep’s clothing, they!

Gordon

October 27th, 2011
5:53 pm

Jay,

“Gordon, in terms of economic impact, 9/11 was barely a pimple on a gnat’s rear end compared to the Great Recession.”

And what’s coming will make the Great Recession look like a pimple on a gnat’s rear end if we don’t get our spending under control. Obama has been horrible in showing leadership in this area. As I said in my first post, this is where I find fault with him and many others. The anemic growth we saw last quarter will be swept aside when the dynamite we are playing with finally blows up in our face.

josef

October 27th, 2011
5:53 pm

Scout

Occupy Atlanta? Isn’t that redundant? :-)

getalife

October 27th, 2011
5:55 pm

Jay

October 27th, 2011
5:55 pm

Republicans will agree to tax increases to balance budget if they feel ok about current and future spending

No, jm, they will not. You know that, and I know that. There is absolutely no evidence to sustain that claim. It is akin to saying the moon is made of blue cheese, and I’m frankly surprised that you would even type words that ridiculous to appear in a public space.

Disgusted

October 27th, 2011
5:56 pm

Re revenue increases. Republicans will agree to tax increases to balance budget if they feel ok about current and future spending

Surrrre, they will. After they get all the entitlement whacking they want, it’ll be “Let’s hold off on any tax increases till we see how this works.” Jm suffers from the delusion that Democrats are as disingenous as he. He knows it’s a flat-out lie, but that’s his story and he’s sticking to it.

md

October 27th, 2011
5:56 pm

“OR! We could get really snarky and talk about Georgia’s unemployment rate. What is it now, 10.something! Come on now, md, you can do betta.”

One could, if one lived in Ga…..otherwise, those that don’t live there anymore might not care.

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
5:56 pm

Kamchak – Cheney’s remarks are small potatoes. They fade in comparison to Obama’s wealth envy rhetoric. Obama truly is a community organizer who believes progress can be obtained through destruction. He’s doing a good job at it. Look at the division in this blog. Look at the OWS groups whose statements are ridiculous. You can’t win by tearing down others, especially when the “others” in this case hold most of the marbles.

Gordon

October 27th, 2011
5:56 pm

“Tax cuts, deregulation …. of course it was tried. And look where it put us.”

Spoken as if it were fact. Tax cuts didn’t cause the global financial meltdown. Did the rating agencies have anything to do with this? Where was the SEC? Are people forced to buy things they can’t afford just because someone tells them they can? It was a combination of a lot of things.

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
5:57 pm

Kam, please if you going to mention my name, at least tell me what I think, OK?

Again, as I recall, you don’t hold the current POTUS in too high regards, and it’s pretty obvious by this comment…

pat

October 27th, 2011
5:30 pm

Poor Amvet, he thinks this is what economic success looks like.

If this is success, I’d hate to see failure.

Your man failed you, man up and admit it. It’s f#$ obvious….

…that people don’t read and/or believe what you say.

getalife

October 27th, 2011
5:59 pm

Gordon,

How many jobs did w lose in the w collapse?

And you have the nerve to write our President is a failure?

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
6:00 pm

Kamchak – to borrow from others remarks, I get really skeptical when a book written against a Republican is overly endorsed by academics.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
6:01 pm

In fact, jm, the weakness of your argument is best displayed by the weakness of the evidence you cite on its behalf.

Greenspan, a washed-up, badly discredited 85-year-old former Fed chairman? Daniels, an obscure governor from Indiana who didn’t run for president precisely because he understood how crazy and unyielding his party had become?

They constitute your evidence that congressional Republicans are ready to consider tax hikes? That’s how far from the Washington power structure you have to wander to find support for your notion?

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
6:02 pm

Cheney’s remarks are small potatoes. They fade in comparison to Obama’s wealth envy rhetoric.

So we go from Bush isn’t a divider to that’s just small potatoes.

You’ve got that goalpost mounted on Pedregon’s Funny Car.

Soothsayer

October 27th, 2011
6:02 pm

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
6:03 pm

Bush lied, soldiers died!

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
6:04 pm

Yes, gawd knows we can’t trust scientists and academics. Go with your uninformed gut!

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
6:05 pm

Kamchak – to borrow from others remarks, I get really skeptical when a book written against a Republican is overly endorsed by academics.

You would actually have a point if I had referenced such a book.

But since I didn’t, I think you don’t really have a leg to stand on.

Gordon

October 27th, 2011
6:06 pm

Jay,

You say it is ridiculous to think Republicans will agree to tax increases if cuts are made to satify them. Do you think it is ridiculous to think Democrats will make spending cuts in the future if tax increases are made now? I know what they say, but IF the economy is doing better and the deficit is somewhat smaller, are we to believe Democrats in 2013 will say “Well, we promised these entitlement cuts back in 2011 if the taxes were raised, so now its time. We know its going to be painful, but a promise is a promise.”

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
6:07 pm

josef:

“Yankees ………… Yankees in Atlanta ! Well, who let ‘em in ?”

md

October 27th, 2011
6:07 pm

“Occupy Atlanta? Isn’t that redundant?”

Not very sensitive to the anti-Sherman crowd…..is it?

getalife

October 27th, 2011
6:09 pm

I got your deal right here.

Recover the 15 million jobs w lost, then we cut.

No jobs no cuts.

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
6:09 pm

“OCCUT*RD” ALERT !

Headline (ABC) : “Tipping Point? ‘Occupy’ Protests Cost Cities Millions”

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
6:11 pm

There is pretty clear evidence that if Republicans take control of Congress and the White House, there will be a push for some type of flat tax. The exception might be if Romney becomes POTUS. Romney is really close to being a RINO, which hopefully will keep him from gaining the nomination. I am not concerned of a flat tax increasing income taxes on the 47 to 50% who pay none. Everyone should pay some federal income tax. Otherwise, they won’t appreciate our situation.

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
6:12 pm

Headline:

“DOW UP 300+ …. OBAMA UP 3%”

Even Auburn has a good game now and then ………………………

josef

October 27th, 2011
6:12 pm

Dagmar…

“Bush lied, soldiers died!”

And the flag draped boxes are still coming back…the point is?

Okay, Scout,,,just doing my EOI duties here, but didn’t you vote for the Party of Diocletian of the Potomac? :-)

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
6:12 pm

Scouttu*d Alert!: Seems cost did not matter when the Tea Party protested….what could be different about that?

md

October 27th, 2011
6:13 pm

“No jobs no cuts.”

Or is it……no cuts no jobs…….hmmm.

14 trillion is a big number if folks weren’t aware of that little factoid.

jm

October 27th, 2011
6:13 pm

Jay 6:01 Fine Jay. I was picking quick examples. Tom Coburn. Mike Crapo. Judd Gregg. For starters

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
6:14 pm

Headline: “U.S. railroad workers charged in $1 billion fraud”

ALL ABOARD !!!

jm

October 27th, 2011
6:14 pm

“No jobs no cuts.”

Road to ruin. Sorry. Superhighway high speed train to ruin.

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
6:15 pm

The claim that George Walker Bush was not a divider is so absurd that entire books, replete with irrefutable facts, have been written about the subject.

I’m sure that this one is in there somewhere.

George W. Bush’s very first official act as President was to block the funding of family planning organizations. Bush’s first executive order, issued on the 28th Anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision, prohibits the funding of family planning organizations overseas if those organizations use their own privately raised funds to lobby their own governments in favor of less restrictive abortion laws. Although Bush justified his order by saying that “taxpayer funds should not be used to pay for abortions,” taxpayer funds were not in fact being used for those purposes, since that’s been illegal since 1975. The executive order places a gag on family planning organizations worldwide, keeping them from simply discussing abortion issues if they want badly needed U.S. funds.

In the United States, almost 80% of Americans support a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion even when her life or health is not threatened. Yet Bush’s first official act keeps federally-funded family planning organizations from stating their support for such abortion rights.

jm

October 27th, 2011
6:15 pm

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
6:15 pm

Sorry Kamchak, that was AmVet who posted the link to the book on W being a divider. My sincere apologies on that.

jm

October 27th, 2011
6:16 pm

what a day on wall st. love capitalism and it will love you back.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
6:16 pm

Gordon, the thing about cuts in Social Security and Medicare — they’re not entitlements, by the way — is that once enacted, they are permanent and don’t have to be passed by each successive Congress.

For example, as part of their deal, Democrats have reportedly offered to change how the cost of living adjustment is figured for Social Security. That change, once put in place, stays there year after year and isn’t part of the annual budget fight. They are mandatory, non-discretionary programs, not part of the appropriations process.

Can it be changed? Sure. Anything can be. But there’s no conceivable political outcome in which Republicans won’t have enough power to block such a change.

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
6:18 pm

josef:

Maybe ………………. :o

Did you know Lester Maddox was a Democrat?

By the way ………. seriously ……….. did you ever read “The Real Lincoln” by Thomas DiLorenzo ?

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
6:20 pm

AmVet – can’t agrfee with your post on Bush blocking federal funding for abortions being a divider, especially when compared to Obama’s current rants.

Abortion funding is social policy similar to gay rights/marriage. I see that as a different political category as compared to Obama trying to divide the nation so he can be reelected.

josef

October 27th, 2011
6:20 pm

Okay…Bush…I don’t like him very much, but it was he who appointed the first openly gay ambassador to represent our country abroad…

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
6:21 pm

Jay

October 27th, 2011
6:21 pm

Judd Gregg is no longer in Congress and both Crapo and Coburn eventually caved to the party orthodoxy on taxes. It’s no accident that neither was named to the supercommittee.

josef

October 27th, 2011
6:24 pm

Scout

I read it and do recommend it…not because I agree wholeheartedly with much of what he is saying, but because he has the temerity to bring up things that have been taboo by “major” historians…but, ssshhh, we might not want to be talking this here…it’ll get some of the orthodox conservatives panties in a wad, and I’m not sure I’m up to that tonight….I’m on something more “objective” along those lines on the other screen… :-)

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
6:24 pm

What country was that?

The “Isle of Man” ?

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
6:26 pm

One could, if one lived in Ga…..otherwise, those that don’t live there anymore might not care.

I had to step out for a few. Anyway, I live in Georgia, md, how ’bout you. And as for that little 14 trillion dollar “factoid” you mentioned, tell us all how much Paul Ryans plan will impact that number.

josef

October 27th, 2011
6:26 pm

Scout…

You didn’t! :-) But it was Romania…

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
6:28 pm

“OCCUT*RD” ALERT:

Headline: “White House Press Secretary Carney Tells Occupy Protesters To “Act In A Lawful Manner”

getalife

October 27th, 2011
6:29 pm

2.5 % growth vs let it fail and default.

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
6:30 pm

josef:

Here’s why I thought of it. These guys are suicidal !

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

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
6:30 pm

josef:

Here’s why I thought of it. These guys are suicidal !

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

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
6:30 pm

Reb, did you see that 80% of Americans support abortion?

His very first move in office was to pander to his religious, far right wing base.

A divider. Not a uniter.

There are tons of other examples.

BTW, the author that book is not just some schmoe, no-name polemicist.

He is recognized as one of the premier scholars in the study of Congressional Campaigns and Election, publishing numerous books and articles on the subject. He is also a frequent commentator for news programs and radio commentary such as NPR.

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
6:32 pm

Jm

October 27th, 2011
6:32 pm

Jay
Oh yeah boehner too

Ross Perot

October 27th, 2011
6:32 pm

So if a majority of people don’t get a piece of legislation that they want, the person that denied it is a divider. So if kids parents deny them cake before dinner they’re divisive too by that logic…

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
6:33 pm

Clapton is God!

josef

October 27th, 2011
6:34 pm

Scout

Neat! And, pssst…go to 0:35 in it and look at the wall ad…couldn’t get by with that here… :-)

md

October 27th, 2011
6:35 pm

“I had to step out for a few. Anyway, I live in Georgia, md, how ’bout you. And as for that little 14 trillion dollar “factoid” you mentioned, tell us all how much Paul Ryans plan will impact that number.”

Nope….no longer in Ga…..got tired of living a good part of my life in the car. Left for greener (quieter) pastures outside the boundaries of the lifelong home State……..

As for Ryan’s plan……don’t recall ever endorsing it…….I’m not the lockstep kind of guy.

I’ll consider everything, but tend to slide to the middle knowing more often than not no one side is totally correct. I’m all over the place depending on the issue…….even empathize with what some are doing in the ows movement…….but don’t think they stand a chance if folks like Michael Moore step up as their spokesperson……his rants are just nuts.

Gordon

October 27th, 2011
6:35 pm

Jay,

First, thanks for responding.

Regarding what is and is not an entitlement, I think most people use that word to describe programs such as Medicare. http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/entitlement_program

Regardless, my point is that Republicans WON’T try to block such a change if Democrats bring it up in 2013. It is much easier politically to raise taxes than to cut spending, because cutting affects more people (or should I say voters?). Our government has proven it can raise taxes, raise spending, and cut taxes. When has it shown it can cut spending in a meaningful way? Adjustments to the COLA on Social Security is NOTHING. I keep hearing “balanced approach”, and we hear a lot of details on the raising taxes side of the argument, but no such details on real, fundamental, spending cuts on entitlements (or whatever you want to call Medicare and SS). When someone like Paul Ryan actually does he is ostracized by even many in his own party. Raising taxes alone is just another clang, clang, clang, of the proverbial can being kicked down the road.

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
6:36 pm

AmVet – I believe you mean that 80% are pro choice, whch is big difference vs 80% being for abortion. Even those who would never have an abortion don’t like the government telling them they can’t.

Abortion is the life-long disagreement. I see it difficult for use in identifying Bush or Obama as dividers. I see Obama trying to divide Americans along lines of haves and have nots as well above the abortion debate, very destructive, and unpresidential.

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
6:36 pm

One last note on this matter, Johnny Reb,

…Bush blocking federal funding for abortions…

It is pretty clear you did not read the info I provided.

Although Bush justified his order by saying that “taxpayer funds should not be used to pay for abortions,” taxpayer funds were not in fact being used for those purposes, since that’s been illegal since 1975. The executive order places a gag on family planning organizations worldwide…

Soothsayer

October 27th, 2011
6:38 pm

Reading these blogs every it occurs to me what would finally make the Fright Wing happy?

If we did away with all constitutional freedoms, if we eliminated all social programs, if we eliminated all oversight of the financial dealings, if we eliminated all environmental regulations, if we eliminated all taxes, if we eliminated all government, if we eliminated all laws.

What would it take?

An experiment coming close to that very thing took place at the beginning of the last decade. The result is the economy and society we have now.

A decade of theft, lies, deception, and erosion of the Constitution. A decade of illegal wars, a decade of diminished expectations for our Country, a decade of bankruptcy for our Country, and, most of all, a decade where hope has been removed from most people in this Country.

What will it take? A Fascist Totalitarian Fright-Wing dictatorship that “removes” unsavory (not rich) elements from society (never to be heard from again)? How about a police state that spies on your every action from the time you wake up in the morning to the time you got to bed at night?

What would it take? A society so devoted to war and hegemony that literally every tax dollar collected is spent on war?

What would finally make the Fright-Wing happy? Somebody please tell me.

josef

October 27th, 2011
6:40 pm

Johnny Reb

“… that 80% are pro choice, whch is big difference vs 80% being for abortion. Even those who would never have an abortion don’t like the government telling them they can’t.”

Something neither “side” seems to be able to get through they pointy l’il haids…

Jm

October 27th, 2011
6:40 pm

Jay I could keep this up all night with congressional R’s that have voted for tax increases

They may not like it but they will do it

Dogma is bad. Gotta go, DJ is blowin my speakers up

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
6:41 pm

AmVet – what did I miss. I went to the link you provided.

The debate on federally funding family planning clinics continues. We, the Right believe that a family planning clinic who also provides abortions cooks the books to show the federal money was not used for abortions but that either it really was or the clinic could not provide that service without the federal money – insufficient funding from elsewhere.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
6:42 pm

Perot
Parents are eeeeeeeevil :D

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
6:44 pm

josef – my wife is conservative only slightly less than I. She is pro choice. I don’t agree with her, but don’t debate it with her. I’m pro choice – decide before you have sex.

Gordon

October 27th, 2011
6:44 pm

Soothsayer,

Here’s what it would take to make this right-winger happy.

Pay for our government. If attempted, you would be shocked at how high taxes would need to be for EVERYONE if we tried to keep what we have.

That’s it. Then our present might be less pleasant, but our children would have a future.

F. Sinkwich

October 27th, 2011
6:44 pm

I am very happy that our economy is growing, albeit slowly. I pray that this growth accelerates. A lot of our citizens are struggling, and I want the very best for them.

But Jay, to attribute this modest growth to your Messiah’s policies is absurd. O’bozo has done every thing he can to stifle economic growth through Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, EPA regulations, anti-energy policies, and crazy government spending.

It’s obvious to even the most casual observer that the economy grew (a little) because the conservative house of representatives in Congress has put a brake on the European socialist, nanny state initiatives embraced by O’bozo and his lib ilk acolytes.

Real people who actually create weath in this country see some gimmer of light at the end of this miserable toll road tunnel called O’bozo.

Job creators are beginning to exhibit some optimism that this Marxist in the White House will be evicted in January of 2012.

md

October 27th, 2011
6:44 pm

“Reb, did you see that 80% of Americans support abortion?”

Like to see where they got those numbers, because a google search comes up with numbers nowhere near 80% without the qualifier of an endangered mom.

F. Sinkwich

October 27th, 2011
6:46 pm

Oh, this is now an abortion blog.

My bad.

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
6:46 pm

Abort Jesus!

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
6:46 pm

josef

October 27th, 2011
6:47 pm

Lib ilk alert!

josef

October 27th, 2011
6:49 pm

Johnny…

I tend to stay away from the question, myself…that’s a breeder problem! :-)

K’chak…

Great minds….?

md

October 27th, 2011
6:50 pm

“I’m pro choice – decide before you have sex.”

Hear, hear…….says the guy that preaches choices……….

Abortion is the excuse, not the choice…………

jt

October 27th, 2011
6:50 pm

Stocks may be ‘up’ but the economy is definitely down.zThat is not hard to do when the dollar is worthless. Annualized GDP this year is aiming at sub-2% in the second year after supposed end of a mega-recession. Nothing normal and usual about that. Should have been a huge bounce. Never going to happen. Employment isn’t stuck, we’re treading water after a giant leg down that’s now structural. Middle class consumers are getting decimated with declining real incomes and rising costs: core GDP prices reported today show the increasing trend over the last 3 quarters.

This is just a small respite in the giant “Downsizing of America” that’s taking place under everyone’s noses and the Bookman’s of the world whistle.
Whay tune is it?
Substitute America with Dixie….and you’ll get what the statists have vomited forth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW3L8qon7hg
.
Theys blood in the streets of New Haven.biaches.
Rome’s burning ..literally.

Soothsayer

October 27th, 2011
6:50 pm

Dagmar, for all her “attributes,” reminded of something whose string had been pulled.

josef

October 27th, 2011
6:50 pm

Dagmar

I’d go for abortion wholeheartedly if we could make it retroactive in cases such as yours…

And besides, it’s “abort a gay whale for Christ…”

md

October 27th, 2011
6:51 pm

But let’s not get on abortion……that’s a never ending circle…….but most topics around here are.

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
6:51 pm

We, the Right believe that a family planning clinic who also provides abortions cooks the books to show the federal money was not used for abortions…

Is this belief based upon any evidence, data or facts?

I see Obama trying to divide Americans along lines of haves and have nots…

I think BHO is the first president to be in a completely untenable situation on this matter.

Unlike his predecessors he simply can no longer avoid the topic of the two Americas – or as you put it the haves and have nots.

As for the divide, my gawd it already exists in the most stark terms possible.

He did not create it. He is not exasperating it.

He, and everybody other sentient being, knows that the American middle class is beyond fed up and is finally no longer gonna roll over and play dead on this one. (Other than the most intransigent and self-destructive right wingers.)

But don’t kid yourself. His eloquence aside, there is no way in hell he will become a champion for us.

He is owned by the very ” corporations and monied interests” (hat tip Thomas Jefferson) that the protesters are sick of…

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
6:54 pm

“Some Belated Parental Advice to Protesters

Posted By Marybeth Hicks On October 19, 2011

Call it an occupational hazard but I can’t look at the Occupy Wall Street protesters without thinking, “Who parented these people?”

As a culture columnist, I’ve commented on the social and political ramifications of the “movement” – now known as “OWS” – whose fairyland agenda can be summarized by one of their placards: “Everything for everybody.”

Thanks to their pipe-dream platform, it’s clear there are people with serious designs on “transformational” change in America who are using the protesters like bedsprings in a brothel.

Yet it’s not my role as a commentator that prompts my parenting question but rather the fact that I’m the mother of four teens and young adults. There are some crucial life lessons that the protesters’ moms clearly have not passed along.

Here, then, are five things the OWS protesters’ mothers should have taught their children but obviously didn’t, so I will:

• Life isn’t fair. The concept of justice – that everyone should be treated fairly – is a worthy and worthwhile moral imperative on which our nation was founded. But justice and economic equality are not the same. Or, as Mick Jagger [2] said, “You can’t always get what you want.”

No matter how you try to “level the playing field,” some people have better luck, skills, talents or connections that land them in better places. Some seem to have all the advantages in life but squander them, others play the modest hand they’re dealt and make up the difference in hard work and perseverance and some find jobs on Wall Street and eventually buy houses in the Hamptons. Is it fair? Stupid question.

• Nothing is “free.” Protesting with signs that seek “free” college degrees and “free” health care make you look like idiots because colleges and hospitals don’t operate on rainbows and sunshine. There is no magic money machine to tap for your meandering educational careers and “slow paths” to adulthood and the 53 percent of taxpaying Americans owe you neither a degree nor an annual physical.

While I’m pointing out this obvious fact, here are a few other things that are not free: overtime for police officers and municipal workers, trash hauling, repairs to fixtures and property, condoms, Band-Aids and the food that inexplicably appears on the tables in your makeshift protest kitchens. Real people with real dollars are underwriting your civic temper tantrum.

• Your word is your bond. When you demonstrate to eliminate student loan debt, you are advocating precisely the lack of integrity you decry in others. Loans are made based on solemn promises to repay them. No one forces you to borrow money; you are free to choose educational pursuits that don’t require loans or to seek technical or vocational training that allows you to support yourself and your ongoing educational goals. Also, for the record, being a college student is not a state of victimization. It’s a privilege that billions of young people around the globe would die for – literally.

• A protest is not a party. On Saturday in New York, while making a mad dash from my cab to the door of my hotel to avoid you, I saw what isn’t evident in the newsreel footage of your demonstrations: Most of you are doing this only for attention and fun. Serious people in a sober pursuit of social and political change don’t dance jigs down Sixth Avenue like attendees of a Renaissance festival. You look foolish, you smell gross, you are clearly high and you don’t seem to realize that all around you are people who deem you irrelevant.

• There are reasons you haven’t found jobs. The truth? Your tattooed necks, gauged ears, facial piercings and dirty dreadlocks are off-putting. Nonconformity for the sake of nonconformity isn’t a virtue. Occupy reality: Only 4 percent of college graduates are out of work. If you are among that 4 percent, find a mirror and face the problem. It’s not them. It’s you.”

josef

October 27th, 2011
6:55 pm

jt

O-si-yo, U-wa-li! Interesting analogy there…I’ll have to think about that one… :-)

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
6:56 pm

Condoms are for cowards!

F. Sinkwich

October 27th, 2011
6:56 pm

What’s fun about AmVet posts is they’re so nonsensical.

Like cotton candy, they have no substance.

Ross Perot

October 27th, 2011
6:56 pm

Are abortions really that expensive that the government should have to provide dollars for services for them? If they’re funding abortions they should fund dui’s too, both poor choices!

josef

October 27th, 2011
6:57 pm

Scout

Who parented them? We did. They’re ours, like it or not, but they’re ours…

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
6:57 pm

md:

I hear you. I believe in total reproductive rights also …………….. but after you have conceived you have already REPRODUCED !

The time for “choice” was before that before it involved another human being.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
6:57 pm

Josef
Curious as to your perspective on Chaz Bono

I gotta say I think it’s a little weird
Not that it shouldn’t be legal. I just find it…. Odd

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
6:58 pm

md,

you did bring up the 14 trillion dollar debt so I thought you must have had a reason for doing so such as discussing the house’s plan, Ryan’s plan.

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
6:58 pm

Aaaaaand, Fish Sandwich is back home from his work release program…

josef

October 27th, 2011
6:58 pm

Dagmar

You’re funny! Too bad looks aren’t everything…

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
6:59 pm

I see scout is not too receptive to the idea of defending his badmouthing of the war veterans in attendance at those occupy rallies.

F. Sinkwich

October 27th, 2011
6:59 pm

Yo, numbers, original content is appreciated.

Leave the c&p to Granny.

At least she gets paid by the DNC. She has no other marketable skills.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
7:00 pm

“decide before you have sex”…. Right because all pregnancies are the result of consenual unprotected sex by parties who are able to comprehend the reality of their acts. Never a situation where birth control fails, where there is non-consensual sex, or where the person may not understand the consequences because they are a minor. We never treat minors differently than adults in our society. And of course, we always give them full sex education so that they are fully informed…..not just abstinence as the impractical solution. :roll:

josef

October 27th, 2011
7:01 pm

Jm

Yeah, I’m with you on that…far be it for me to go telling somebody they can’t, but I’m satisfied with the plumbing I was born with…

JohnnyReb

October 27th, 2011
7:01 pm

One more comment, then I’m signing off. Yes, there is troubling class divide. However, the answer is not to take more from those that have done well. The answer is to grow in such a way that the middle class prospers. Democratic/Obama policies don’t do that. Stipping wealth and redistributing it won’t last.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
7:03 pm

Scout
Great column

josef

October 27th, 2011
7:04 pm

good fight
@ 7:00

Which goes back to what I said to Johnny Reb about not getting certain things through their pointy l’il haids…still, though, I best not say anything more…in an all or nothing argument shades of gray are not very popular…

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
7:05 pm

I very seldom use the word, but Roe v Wade will never be overturned.

You ultra-reactionaries should save your ammo for fighting the Scopes Monkey Trial instead…

You need more voters…

Jm

October 27th, 2011
7:06 pm

Am vet
Re scopes monkey trial. U ever see “inherit the wind”?

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
7:07 pm

josef, there is rarely “all or nothing” situation…… most of life is nuanced and shades of gray. We agree…. but that just don’t fit on the bumper sticker too easy does it ;)

josef

October 27th, 2011
7:07 pm

ZamVet

Don’t forget, though, there were plenty who said the same thing about Plessy v Ferguson…and no I’m not “comparing” the two…jus sayin, never say never….

josef

October 27th, 2011
7:08 pm

good fight
“Doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker…”

And that’s sad…. :-)

josef

October 27th, 2011
7:10 pm

ZamVet

You need more voters? Five of nine is all that’s needed…

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
7:10 pm

According to a survey from the consulting firm Spectrem Group, sixty-eight percent of millionaires — defined as people with investments of $1 million or more — support raising taxes on people who earn $1 million or more in income, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Darn it!!! You mean it’s not just a Warren Buffett thingie. Republicans just keep on striking out on every single issue. No wonder they fall back on attacking gay rights and abortions and supporting guns everwhere except around them and declaring Muslims to be terrorists and trying to eliminate freedom of speech and such. That’s their core. The social issues supported by the party faithful. It’s all they’ve got.

md

October 27th, 2011
7:11 pm

“you did bring up the 14 trillion dollar debt so I thought you must have had a reason for doing so such as discussing the house’s plan, Ryan’s plan.”

I brought it up as a fact of the situation……a fact it seems the misfits prefer to dance around…..all of them.

Seems to me the longer “we” ignore it, the worse it will get…….a bit like all of us buying cheap crap from China then whining about out salaries………….

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
7:13 pm

When you abandone your miitary training and discipline and appear with individuals or groups who advocate vilolence, disobey he law and city ordinances, provoke police confrontations and vilolate other’s rights ………… you sometime pay the consequences.

I saw it all the time on Okinawa (as a member of the shore patrol) and at Camp LeJeune (as a military policeman).

In he military is called the “10%” who never seem to get the word or get with the program.

He should have known better than to have been there.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
7:14 pm

Am vet 7:05

They’re expending all their energy staying focused on spending cuts and you guys criticize them endlessly for it

Trying to have it both ways are we?

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
7:18 pm

Hmmmm Scout was not so concerned about the law earlier today….or on many other days. And do tell, its against the law to exercise your constitutional right to free speech and assembly? Thankfully many other people and vets believe that it is offensive that the police overreacted and attacked with brutal force. I bet the military did not teach you to lie like that Scout.

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
7:19 pm

Several times, jm.

My favorite line from that watershed trial:

We have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the educational system of the United States. ~Clarence Darrow

Jm

October 27th, 2011
7:22 pm

Am vet
That movie is probably my favorite of all time
Spencer Tracey is awesome in it and so much great symbolism, all the way to the end

I pull a line or two from there on occasion, including one I apply to jay: the job of journalists is to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”

Jay

October 27th, 2011
7:23 pm

“Jay I could keep this up all night with congressional R’s that have voted for tax increases”

No, jm, you could not. You haven’t even started a list yet. For example, you just cited Boehner, I believe?

This Boehner:

“WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) — House Speaker John Boehner drew a line in the sand on taxes on Thursday, saying that a special debt committee tasked with cutting at least $1.2 trillion from federal deficits shouldn’t consider tax hikes.

“Tax increases, I think, are off the table,” Boehner said in a speech to the Economic Club of Washington, D.C….”

Your dilemma is pretty obvious.

You know that a responsible political party must be willing to accept tax hikes as part of a budget deal. And you badly want to keep believing that the GOP is a responsible political party. Thus, you’re forced to try to pretend to believe what you know not to be true, and to offer ridiculous arguments to defend that pretense.

In other words, the dissonance between what you need to be true and what you know to be true is forcing you to make a fool of yourself.

But hey, don’t let me get in your way. You just go right on claiming up is down and black is white.

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
7:27 pm

When you abandone your miitary training and discipline and appear with individuals or groups who advocate vilolence, disobey he law and city ordinances, provoke police confrontations and vilolate other’s rights ………… you sometime pay the consequences.

So, I assume you have evidence supporting that contention that the war veterans at the occupy rallies are indeed law breakers or that they have abandoned anything at all except perhaps you. Uh huh. You are not really a veteran, are you, scout.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
7:28 pm

Jay 7:23
I’m ok with a 2 step process
Cut spending now. Raise taxes later.

It’s a question of scale
I find it comical Dems are trying to put stimulus into this when it is supposed to be deficit REDUCTION

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
7:30 pm

The proposed Republican spending cuts are absurdly tiny.

The scenario is this – the Boehner household spends over $20,000 more than they take in every year.

And his proposed spending cuts?

$458 per year.

At least Panetta is trying to get passed a non-laughable (albeit still way too small IMO) decrease in the bloated, hyper-corrupted and wasteful Pentagon budget…

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
7:30 pm

Hmmmm Scout was not so concerned about the law earlier today….or on many other days.

He was all winkie winkie about how to get around any laws that he must not have agreed with himself, wasn’t he.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
7:33 pm

Taxpayer…and he certainly has informed us a number of times of “rubber hose” type interrogations techniques or other unlawful acts…nudge, nudge…. why there was even his “joke” about firing everyone in a company whose car had an Obama bumper sticker. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

But then protestors that he does not like… Mr. Law and Order…. even if those laws and orders may not be lawful or constitutional.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
7:35 pm

No, jm, it’s a question of persistent self-delusion. Forced into a choice between altering your viewpoint and altering reality, you have chosen to try to alter reality.

Good luck with that.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
7:38 pm

Nice that the Oakland Police “removed” a purported health hazard by injuring and attacking non-violent protestors….. “Your kitchen does not meet code, flashbang to the head”.

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
7:38 pm

Josef,

I’d prefer if your lil’ petulant petunia pickle bottom not address my brilliant posts.

Fast and Furious Spending

October 27th, 2011
7:40 pm

Focusing on Bush. Luckovich did the same thing in his cartoon I just saw.

Pathetic.

As everyone knows the GDP numbers for Obama, just as the employment figures, just as consumer spending, and just as the economic forecasts, these numbers will be revised downward. Inflation will continue to increase, cutting into the size and increase of GDP in real numbers, fuel prices will continue to rise, healthcare costs, food, and any number of costs related to living here, including ironically, college.

Why was Wall Street so happy today? Because the EU decided to print money to keep the Wall Streeters happy. That’s it! This is not an economic recovery. This is a campaign to try and salvage the unending bus-campaign of one Barack Obama by “reassuring” the American public that everything is not nearly as bad as their own lives, their own job prospects and their own friends and families tell them it is.

Oughtn’t we look at the states where economic activity is tangibly and actually growing? Texas and other energy producing states?

No, this is just for you, Barry, and your increasingly desperate campaign.

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
7:41 pm

I don’t recall Dagmar ever having such a nasty disposition on camera.

Mark in mid-town

October 27th, 2011
7:41 pm

Don’t be misled by Jay. A 2.5% GDP growth rate with a base unemployment rate of over 9% (really much higher when factoring in lower work force participation rate), this long into a supposed recovery — is far worse than 1.85% GDP growth when the unemployment rate is 4% (with much higher workforce participation rate) ) at the end of an historically high economic growth cycle. The only thing good that can be said about the 2.5% reading is that so many feared we were in another recession. A 2.5% rate shows we aren’t. Of course, the 2.5% is the initial reading. It will be revised a couple of times over the next 2 months. The fact that new initial unemployment claims are still above the 400,000 per week range shows that the economy is not even remotely close to performing well.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
7:42 pm

petunia? a rose by another name still smells sweet? Who has been sniffing?

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
7:43 pm

Gentlemen, my only reason for asking the ex-marine that question was for him to publicly state his opinion.

And though I find his answer particularly loathsome and exceptionally un-Christianlike, I support his right to state it.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
7:43 pm

Jay
Im not deluding myself when CERTAIN members of the republican party HAVE voted for tax increases

The problem is, a majority will vote for spending cuts.
And a majority will vote for tax increases (mostly Dems)

BUT NOT AT THE SAME TIME because the majorities are different

Ergo, they should break it up

Jay, when u start accusing me of delusion, you begin looking like you’re losing the argument….

No offense intended

josef

October 27th, 2011
7:43 pm

Dagmar

Aw, why…don’t want the competition in drive-by half-witticisms?

willie lynch

October 27th, 2011
7:43 pm

Joe The Plumber too.
October 27th, 2011
5:35 pm

Just a response to your post Joe.

The Chosen One

October 27th, 2011
7:46 pm

“from the bottom of my heart, I say, kiss my ass!”. :)

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
7:47 pm

AmVet, I have no problem with his right to state it. Free speech does not mean that I do not have the right to criticize it, condemn it, demonstrate its ignorance, its falsity or the lack of character of the speaker…..but I will join you in defending his right to make his statement. I’ll even defend his right to protest and assemble even though he would likely attempt to deny mine if he was not in agreement.

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
7:47 pm

And though I find his answer particularly loathsome and exceptionally un-Christianlike, I support his right to state it.

And I support my right to challenge his comments.

Buck Hayek

October 27th, 2011
7:47 pm

Not only was Bush’s 2% GDP anemic, how much of it was due to the increase in federal spending from $1.8 trillion to $3.5 trillion? (CBO figures)

Any way you cut it his tax cuts were a failure.

josef

October 27th, 2011
7:48 pm

getalife

A petunian by any other name? How many does that Friday t*rd at a Saturday market have, anyway? :-)

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
7:48 pm

As everyone knows the…

This crap again?

What is this preoccupation of people thinking they can speak for “everyone” today?

Are the arguments so lame that an appeal to the unanimous consent of people that they don’t have the authority to speak for is required?

Fast and Furious Spending

October 27th, 2011
7:48 pm

Jay @ 735,

Altering your viewpoint?

I must point out you know absolutely nothing about doing this, Jay. Your insistence on revenue increases is the case in point. There isn’t enough revenue to be generated to spend the way Washington and its out-of-control gaping maw of entitlement-spending. The whole idea that those who can not provide for themselves can successfully choose someone to do for them is being disproven every single day before our eyes.

The whole purpose of the tea party is the alteration of viewpoint based on this single and undeniable understanding of reality.

You “merry skunks”, like Luckavich prefer to cavort with past opinions, proven mediocre and unavailing, like Bush doing this or that, which Obama later had to fix–”this mess we’re in”.

I dare say that you don’t even waver from the President’s own point of view but swallow the whole shebang, hook, line and sinker. We can tell this because you don’t dare ever criticize HIM.

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
7:48 pm

“from the bottom of my heart, I say, kiss my ass!”.

Your heart have a sinking feeling in it. It sounds kinda bottomed out to me.

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
7:48 pm

Josef,

Do you mind if I call you JoJo? I apologize for being obtuse. My body done gone haywire. I’m ovulating and lactating……

Jm

October 27th, 2011
7:48 pm

Am vet
Spencer Tracey is an awesome actor……. Awwwwweeesome

Jay

October 27th, 2011
7:49 pm

Right jm.

Anybody else here believe that the Republicans are ready to raise taxes as part of a deficit-reduction deal?

Anybody?

Fast and Furious Spending

October 27th, 2011
7:49 pm

Buck @ 747,

9+% unemployment.

josef

October 27th, 2011
7:49 pm

ooops….that @ 7:48 was supposed to be to good fight..

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
7:51 pm

What would the GDP growth rate have looked like during the Bush dark ages if all the unfunded fed expenditures were stripped out.

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
7:51 pm

“Why a 2.5 percent growth rate might be better than it stinks.”

Well it’s better than what we’ve seen this year but it still stinks. The progs (socialist progressives) are trying to pass this puny report off as great news. The problem is after close to 3 years in office the Obama economic policies have not been successful. Americans want and expect much better.

Fast and Furious Spending

October 27th, 2011
7:53 pm

Jay @ 749,

Not as a whole, but some are.

Anybody here want to venture to say that the Democrats are willing to cut spending–on anything besides military? Anybody?

Hello?

Goes to show just whose “viewpoints” are open to change and those whose aren’t. Democrats are more rigid (and extreme and desperate) ideologically than Republicans and Jay Bookman knows it.

josef

October 27th, 2011
7:55 pm

dagmar

Matters little what you call me…and your bilogical peculiarities, intriguing though they may be and certainly something you should have checked out, sound like a personal problem to me…

Jm

October 27th, 2011
7:55 pm

For the record, I support rate increases only as a last last last resort

Deductions and loopholes should go before rate increases

Buck Hayek

October 27th, 2011
7:58 pm

The Bush rednecks cannot defend their man’s record. The result is they call liberals like Buffett, Jobs, and ALL the other top capitalists “socialists”.

It really is tiring – rednecks.

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
7:58 pm

All this abortion talk gots me hot and bothered. Gonna put on some Coltrane and try to seduce my neighbor’s hubby.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
7:58 pm

Jay 7:49
I don’t think we have a board of expert vote counters here….. But go ahead jay…. Pose a silly question to your jay-friendly audience :)

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
7:59 pm

Anybody else here believe that the Republicans are ready to raise taxes as part of a deficit-reduction deal?

Anybody?

On who? The top 1%? That’s a liberal mantra that has been debunked as a solution several times over.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
8:00 pm

F&F I’d say some are. But not all or majority. :)

Jay, see how that works? :)

Jay

October 27th, 2011
8:01 pm

Yes Fast, they are.

By all reports, Democratic negotiators have offered $400 billion to $500 billion in Medicare cuts, They’ve also proposed to change how COLAs are figured for Social Security, which is worth hundreds of billions over time as well.

All they need is a partner to say yes.

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
8:01 pm

Anybody else here believe that the Republicans are ready to raise taxes as part of a deficit-reduction deal?

Anybody?

Sorry. I was too busy laughing at the very thought that Republicans would so much as suggest that taxes be rai… rai… rais…ed to even type. They can’t even say the words, “raise taxes”.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
8:02 pm

Someboy “debunked” raising taxes on the top 1% as part of a solution to pay for certain needs or to reduce taxes? Really? Seriously someone posts this nonsense as if it is true?

Buck Hayek

October 27th, 2011
8:02 pm

The great FA Hayek (The Road to Serfdom) hated conservatives – as did Ayn Rand.

Recon – do you rednecks call them “socialists” too?

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
8:03 pm

“All they need is a partner to say yes”

Did Nancy Pelosi say yes? I heard that today she said no.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
8:03 pm

Good news. the Injured vet has just awoken!

Jm

October 27th, 2011
8:04 pm

Jay 8:01 jinx

Look there’s room for compromise

Do 2 bills. Or the tax increases are going to have to be small and on corporations only

Jay

October 27th, 2011
8:05 pm

and Fast, would you care to name any of those “some” by name — you know, those who have gone on record as saying they would support this?

Because you know, they would certainly have to VOTE in public.

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
8:07 pm

Nancy Reagan taught me to say no.

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
8:07 pm

Numb Acorns, just a general reference but you know who you are. Taxes could be raised on everyone in America earning in excess of 250K and it wouldn’t fund our government for six months. Get your heads out from where the sun never shines.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
8:07 pm

Stop the presses….I think we have found the next nut job to lead the Republican Presidential Polls:

Quran burning Pastor, Terry Jones, running for President

Fast and Furious Spending

October 27th, 2011
8:08 pm

Taxpayer,

GDP figures do count government expenditures as a positive in some formulas and not in others. It used to be that the old GNP counted government against.

From Wiki:
Example: the expenditure method:

GDP = private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports), or

Yet another formula for GDP by the income method is:[citation needed]

GDP = R + I + P + SA + W
where R : rents
I : interests
P : profits
SA : statistical adjustments (corporate income taxes, dividends, undistributed corporate profits)
W : wages
Note the mnemonic, “ripsaw”.

Also: GNP at factor cost = GDP at market price – depreciation + NFIA (net factor income from abroad) – net indirect taxes

That GDP is rising may very well be a totally engineered factor designed to prevent the Obama campaign from cracking up entirely. I, for one, ask around, and I do not see anywhere here in Atlanta, signs that the economy is growing. Far from it.

I’d be willing to bet my awful job that the government today is cherry-picking its numbers and giving them to a lap-dog media, which eats them up without question. And we all know that if a Republican were in the White House, the OWS protesters would be OWH protesters.

Because Democrats aren’t willing to change their viewpoint, but would rather change reality.

So far, only Kim Jong Il, Hugo Chavez, Achmei’magonnajihad and Fidel Castro are the only ones so “successfully” changing reality.

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
8:08 pm

The con definition of “debunking” is to proclaim it so without providing any supporting evidence. By the way, another’s opinion is not really supporting evidence of anything more than the fact that there must be at least two with the same opinion.

Deep South Outlaw

October 27th, 2011
8:09 pm

It seems like just yesterday that Jm was telling me that there would be NO Growth..oh wait, it was just yesterday…

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
8:10 pm

“Recon – do you rednecks call them “socialists” too?”

I’d give your silly little insult more of a response but you’re just not worth it. Have a nice evening.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
8:11 pm

Deep 8:09 I was waiting for that :)

Not enough growth to fix unemployment silly. I didn’t say 0% GDP growth

Jay

October 27th, 2011
8:13 pm

Recon, you blew the talking point, dude.

The line, taken from Paul Ryan’s speech to the Heritage Foundation, actually goes like this:

“Let’s say we took all the income from those the President calls “rich” – those making $250,000 or more. A 100 percent tax rate on their total annual income would only fund the government for six months. Six months!”

Go write it out 20 times by hand, and then come back and try it again.

getalife

October 27th, 2011
8:14 pm

That is good news Keep.

The radical gop don’t compromise on taxes jm.

Deep South Outlaw

October 27th, 2011
8:14 pm

It is not enough growth to fix unemployment YET. To do that, the economy needs to be stimulated…and no, I am not advocating for a straight “stimulus” plan per se. I think there are other ways to do it w/o spending or “redistributing” any wealth. As I said last night, stimulus OR restructuring.

td

October 27th, 2011
8:14 pm

I do not understand why you liberals here in Georgia are fighting so hard for Obama? Georgia will be voting 16-0 next year for the Republican Nominee. Your votes will not be counted or even recognized. Unless you want to go to the polls to vote for local matters then it is not even worth voting. Obama knows he will not carry this state and will only give token campaigning in the state (enough to get all of you to give your money to him).

kayaker 71

October 27th, 2011
8:15 pm

A rather enlightening story in the AJC today about a certain filthy Philadelphia abortion clinic….. seems that two assistants are charged with 3rd degree murder, as they cut the spinal cords of 7 term infants with scissors to kill the babies. Seems like 1st degree murder would be a better charge. These were 30wk infants. Damn. Damn. Damn.

Buck Hayek

October 27th, 2011
8:16 pm

Recon – insults are all conservatives have. Buffett a “socialist”? The founders of Google too? Bill Gates a “socialist”?

Many bright successful people just hate conservatives for good reason. Look at your pathetic candidates for one example.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
8:16 pm

Jay why don’t u list Dems that have voted for spending cuts

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
8:18 pm

Yaker….. you forgot the alleged…. they have not been convicted and they do have the right to trial.

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
8:18 pm

Jay, thank you for your comment on my post but if taking income from all of those earning in excess of 250K wouldn’t solve our economic problems, simply raising taxes on them certainly wouldn’t have any measurable effect.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
8:19 pm

I already have posted the fact that Dem negotiators on the supercommittee have proposed major cuts in Medicare and Social Security, jm. And before you try to deny it, you know it’s true — you yourself were complaining earlier that they dared to go public with it.

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
8:20 pm

FandF,

What would the GDP have looked like if we had not bailed out Wall Street and if we had not become the bank of last resort or hiked the FDIC insurance to $250,000 or backstopped those money market funds that would have broke the buck, etc. I’m not sure how any of the formulas could be juggled to cover that one up.

Fast and Furious Spending

October 27th, 2011
8:21 pm

Baloney Jay,

In other circumstances I would say that coming from a man whose chosen party to support has not passed a budget in three years utterly hilarious. It’s just painfully pathetic of you.

These “cuts” are over the next decade–and let’s not forget the already exploding cost of the new healthcare law.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/21/us-usa-healthcare-massachusetts-idUSTRE79K6SD20111021

The tax increases take place immediately. We’ve seen all this before, I’m afraid, and the Washington way of enacting tax increases with the teeth of law and then promising to deliver spending cuts down the road is a non-starter. It’s the old shell game. Trust me, and we can work “together”. Meanwhile, government pulls out its pockets and claims the victim when “savings” never materialize.

What Democrats want is a sucker for a partner to say yes.

The Republicans want to cut spending right now, and you can’t find a Democrat not wanting to kick the can down the road.

If the President and Democrats are so willing to “work” with Republicans on Democrat ideas that are good and wonderful, why won’t one Democrat go on record as voting for the President’s budget?

They BOTH suck

October 27th, 2011
8:22 pm

td @ 8:14

Obama didn’t carry GA last time either………… How did that work out for you?

Jay

October 27th, 2011
8:22 pm

Sure it will, Recon. That’s like saying we could abolish Social Security and we’d still have a $600 billion deficit, which is true. Does that mean we shouldn’t adjust the Social Security COLA? Of course not.

They’re both stupid arguments.

Deep South Outlaw

October 27th, 2011
8:22 pm

The real question isn’t why are “liberals” so dead set on re-electing Obama. The real question is why can’t the Republicans take advantage of such a (from a historical perspective) weak President.

I know there are better politicians with R’s by their names out there, but they are’t showing up for these mockeries of debates.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
8:23 pm

No, Fast, the tax increases would not take effect immediately. Stop making things up. They would take effect in 2013 and 2014.

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
8:23 pm

Speaking of the Heritage Foundation, what is it with Ryan and Cantor and other Republicans being photographed in front of those advertisements highlighting the Heritage Club. Is that in their Koch funding contracts or something.

kayaker 71

October 27th, 2011
8:24 pm

Keep,

They’ve already plead guilty.

Deep South Outlaw

October 27th, 2011
8:25 pm

Taxpayer

They tired patches, like race car driver suits, but they didnt show up very well on TV.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
8:26 pm

if taking income from all of those earning in excess of 250K wouldn’t solve our economic problems, simply raising taxes on them certainly wouldn’t have any measurable effect.

Hmmmm if A then B follows? Except that B has no facts for its conclusion. If we currently collect taxes to pay 9 months of the current budget (a number picked for discussion purposes only, not based on current budget) then collecting 15 months worth of taxes that cover 12 months worth of expenditures with 3 months left over means that there is no addition to the deficit than month and the deficit is reduced. Do this enough times and, wow, you pay off the deficit.

Logic does ellude the Del.

Deep South Outlaw

October 27th, 2011
8:26 pm

tired = tried, typos ruin a somewhat witty retort again. =(

Jay

October 27th, 2011
8:26 pm

Oh, and despite your claim, Fast, your link doesn’t say a damn thing about ObamaCare driving up health care costs, or even about RomneyCare driving up those costs.

Again, you just make stuff up and then post some vaguely related link, thinking that’s good enough?

td

October 27th, 2011
8:26 pm

Jay

October 27th, 2011
8:19 pm

Come on Jay. Everyone know that one congress is not held to what the previous congress has done on the budget. Those cuts will have to go through appropriations and will never be made as long as the Dems have the ability to filibuster in the Senate. On top of that the Dems will have an issue to beat over the heads of the Republicans for the next ten years. The Dems are just playing their games to get a tax increase and the cuts never come. This is the same old tactic used against Reagan and the 1st Bush. Cuts first and immediate and then talk about tax increases in the future.

Fast and Furious Spending

October 27th, 2011
8:27 pm

Jay,

Besides: there’s Boehner. There’s at least a crack in the ice for compromise.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2798886/posts

Doubt you’ll find any with Pelosi.

Disgusted

October 27th, 2011
8:27 pm

Anybody else here believe that the Republicans are ready to raise taxes as part of a deficit-reduction deal?

Nope. The Republican attitude is typified by Jm’s weasely argument—-cut spending the way I want it cut and then maybe we’ll think about tax increases. And even then he weasels—he doesn’t want rates raised, but rather he wants to cut “loopholes” in a way that will hurt the middle and lower classes most. For “loophole” read “mortgage interest deduction.” There is absolutely no integrity in those arguments, and I’m afraid there’s certainly none in Jm.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
8:27 pm

Well then yaker, it seems that the law is going to punish those who have violated it.

Jay

October 27th, 2011
8:29 pm

Right Fast.

A story reporting that “the House Republican leadership is not ruling out the possibility that it will support a balanced budget amendment that does not cap federal spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product or require a supermajority in Congress to increase taxes” is a sign of flexibility on tax increases, huh?

That’s a bar so low even a paramecium could clear it. It’s been fun, dudes, but the sixth game of the World Series is on.

Fast and Furious Spending

October 27th, 2011
8:31 pm

Jay,

I think it’s past your bedtime when you start swearing.

The article does say costs are rising, and the people in Mass. are getting upset.

That’s all I wanted to point out, really.

But, if you want, here’s more “damn” information:

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/9188-obamacare-causes-health-insurance-premiums-to-rise

Fast and Furious Spending

October 27th, 2011
8:32 pm

Para…. what?//

OK Jay, see you at comicon.

Actually, I won’t be there. Have fun with the costume.

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
8:34 pm

typos ruin a somewhat witty retort again.

A minor distraction. I caught your intent and liked it. They should carry signs proclaiming their corporate and private sponsorships with them everywhere. It helps keep their comments in proper perspective easier.

Fast and Furious Spending

October 27th, 2011
8:34 pm

OK Disgusted, @ 827,

Tell you what I’m going to do. Give me $100 now, and I’m going to give you “savings” of $10,000 over the next decade. How about trusting your Congressman to do the same thing?

Like that?

If not, that’s the proper perspective for the corruption in the modern Democrat party.

kayaker 71

October 27th, 2011
8:35 pm

Bozo’s student loan plan debacle….. more on how we ought to spend our tax dollars. And this clown wants more tax dollars to spend on his misdirected programs. Shortened the pay back to 20yrs instead of 25. Limits the payback to only 10% of income. So if a person is making 50K/yr, his payback is limited to 5K/yr. Over 20 years, that’s 100K. If he has student loans of over 100K, who is stuck with the balance? The American taxpayer…… Cash for Clunkers, Student Loan Programs, 37B jobs programs that last only a year, Solyndra, Fast and Furious…. the beat goes on.

td

October 27th, 2011
8:35 pm

Disgusted

October 27th, 2011
8:27 pm

Lets see we have had at least two different Republican President that negotiated in good faith with Democrats for cuts and tax increases and what happened both times? Taxes went up and the cuts never came. If I am not mistaken Reagan also gave amnesty on the good faith gesture that the democratic controlled congress would fund closing the boarder. How did that work out? If you do not count Military spending, when has a democratic congress cut on literal dime out of the budget? NEVER. Cuts must come before tax increases are considered.

Jm

October 27th, 2011
8:36 pm

Jay 8:19…… Votes….. Yeah they proposed that in conjunction with $1T in new taxes

I wonder if Dems would vote yes if R’s proposed $10T in cuts with $1T in revs. I think the answer is no

And don’t bring up the debate question, irrelevant

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
8:36 pm

Jay,

Something has to be changed in S.S. as there has to be with all entitlements. Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security in that order. The Democrats are unwilling for political motives to address those issues and instead want to even introduce additional entitlements. It’s an unsustainable path and Americans are coming to realize it.

Fast and Furious Spending

October 27th, 2011
8:36 pm

What’re the chances that Democrat-sponsored “savings” will materialize over the next decade?

0.0 %.

And you all know it.

Deep South Outlaw

October 27th, 2011
8:39 pm

Taxpayer

But in all fairness, then the Democrats would have to as well. And once that cat was out of the bag, cable news would blow up…and we’d be left with Jersey Shore, Season 134..Snooki gets a sex change …and 15 home shopping networks. =(

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
8:41 pm

“Hmmmm if A then B follows? Except that B has no facts for its conclusion. If we currently collect taxes to pay 9 months of the current budget (a number picked for discussion purposes only, not based on current budget) then collecting 15 months worth of taxes that cover 12 months worth of expenditures with 3 months left over means that there is no addition to the deficit than month and the deficit is reduced. Do this enough times and, wow, you pay off the deficit.”

“Logic does ellude the Del.”

Do you honestly believe you’ve made a cogent argument? If so you’re beyond help.

Deep South Outlaw

October 27th, 2011
8:43 pm

Recon

Who’s Del?

No worries, no more “hard questions” that make you “tap” and leave.

Disgusted

October 27th, 2011
8:43 pm

If you’re sincere, propose that the tax increases occur at the same time as the spending cuts. And stop acting as though your proposals are so superior that we should all trust that the Republicans will come through with the tax increases at some later date. Most of us know that isn’t true.

moonbat betty

October 27th, 2011
8:43 pm

Does Jay and jm know each other personally?

Seems to be a love/hate relationship :)

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
8:43 pm

and yet Del rather than prove your point, you only insult because you have nothing but insults. :lol:

F. Sinkwich

October 27th, 2011
8:44 pm

Can we please talk about abortion?

moonbat betty

October 27th, 2011
8:46 pm

or how about evolution or climate change? haha

td

October 27th, 2011
8:46 pm

Disgusted

October 27th, 2011
8:43 pm

There has been at least two times the Republicans trusted the Dems, and now the Dems should not return the favor and trust the Republicans? Sounds like a double standard.

getalife

October 27th, 2011
8:47 pm

f,

ilk you.

No.

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
8:48 pm

“and yet Del rather than prove your point, you only insult because you have nothing but insults. :lol:

Sorry, but no worthwhile purpose in mincing words. You are not worth my time. Carry on.

F. Sinkwich

October 27th, 2011
8:50 pm

Right on, betty.

This country is trying to recover from a Marxist in the White House and idiots want to debate BS.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
8:50 pm

:lol: Awww poor widdle Reconned…… when he knows he has failed, he turn tails and runs!

moonbat betty

October 27th, 2011
8:51 pm

Sinkwich,

Palin is always a hot dem topic as well.

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
8:54 pm

It appears that the bolsheviks are somewhat limited in number this evening except for the tools who’re desperately trying to hold down their fort and failing miserably.

F. Sinkwich

October 27th, 2011
8:59 pm

You’re right, Betty. Palin is..er, hot, er topic….

The lib ilk loves her as well!

getalife

October 27th, 2011
9:05 pm

f,

You and your ilk’s mindless babble about our President never fails to make me laugh.

What is Marxist about our President’s actions?

Occupy Jay's Blog

October 27th, 2011
9:06 pm

Recon 8:54 indeed……….

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
9:06 pm

Recon your knowledge of tools is quite impressive….

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
9:07 pm

How’s that ClimateGate thingie working out. Did the outraged Republicans ever get the goods on those scientists that they accused of wrong-doing. Anything. Anything at all.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
9:07 pm

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
9:07 pm

Deep Mouth (that sounds like something out of the 60’s) and the other pathetic bolsheviks have retired to their communes for the evening.

Occupy Jay's Blog

October 27th, 2011
9:07 pm

Free education. Free medical care. These are rights!

No more payroll taxes!

F. Sinkwich

October 27th, 2011
9:08 pm

“What is Marxist about our President’s actions?”

Ahhhh, nationalizing GM?

ODD OWL

October 27th, 2011
9:09 pm

When are the Republicans going to stop whining and start paying down that massive $11 trillion dollars debt they ran up ??? When are the Republicans going to create some jobs to replace the 15 million they outsourced overseas ??? Share the wealth, TAX THE RICH, pay down the debt…

Occupy Jay's Blog

October 27th, 2011
9:10 pm

Getalife 9:05
Don’t know about Marxist. But we are anarchist and Obama supports us.

Down with banks! Down with capitalism!

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
9:10 pm

All the boys in the barracks where impressed with recon’s oral knowledge….

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
9:11 pm

Is SayRah going to change her mind and run after all. If so, she needs to hurry up and get in on the debates. Oh Goody. I loves me my reality teevee show. Who’s she gonna replace on the island. MaryAnn or Ginger or maybe Lovey.

F. Sinkwich

October 27th, 2011
9:11 pm

Yo, OJB, don’t forget free housing, transportation, bongs, etc.

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
9:11 pm

My mistake, it’s Deep South Outlaw not Deep Mouth. Same thing though, should be outlawed.

getalife

October 27th, 2011
9:12 pm

Have you cons ever been right about anything?

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
9:14 pm

Reekon you couldn’t fight your way out of a paper bag!

moonbat betty

October 27th, 2011
9:17 pm

Taxpayer and getalife,

question:

Did you vote for Kerry/Edwards?

That’s much worse than McCain/Palin….

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
9:17 pm

I wants my free car now. F Sinkwich says we has government motors. I’ll take one of those Volts especially sine the cons badmouth them so much. That means they have to be good.

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
9:18 pm

Kerry/Edwards were not running against McCain/Palin.

moonbat betty

October 27th, 2011
9:18 pm

that would have been hilarious had Edwards beat out Obama and Hillary like so many on here wanted

:) ):

moonbat betty

October 27th, 2011
9:19 pm

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
9:20 pm

Kerry/Edwards against McCain/Palin would have been a match of equals.

F. Sinkwich

October 27th, 2011
9:21 pm

” When are the Republicans going to create some jobs”

When O’bozo leaves the White House, that’s when.

Thanks for asking.

getalife

October 27th, 2011
9:21 pm

moonbat.

question:

Are you Dagmar Bigtats?

getalife

October 27th, 2011
9:23 pm

f,

You lost millions of jobs and will do it again.

The gop are job killers.

Why do you vote for that?

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
9:26 pm

Cons make the best cross dressers….

moonbat betty

October 27th, 2011
9:26 pm

No get,

That would probably be you

or one of your ilk spewing minions.

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
9:26 pm

“Are you Dagmar Bigtats?”

I don’t think so, moonbat is too cool. I think it may very well may be “Deep Mouth”. Or excuse me, Deep South.

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
9:28 pm

Like Sinkwich alludes to with his post, the GOP is only interested in gaining more power, not in helping their constituency with trivial things like jobs. They initiated their scorched earth policy right after losing in 2008 and they will stick with it forever because even if they were to win full control over the government, they would scorch the earth. That is their ultimate goal.

getalife

October 27th, 2011
9:29 pm

“ilk spewing minions.”

Lots of insults tonight.

Pressure getting to ya?

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
9:30 pm

I think Reconned is having fantasties about a Deep Mouth…. It is probably his secret FoxHoled fantasy. :lol:

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
9:30 pm

I don’t know about the GOP scorching the earth but the Obummer administration is sure as hell scorching America.

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
9:31 pm

Kerry/Edwards was certainly an awful option.

But given the context that the biggest f&ck up ever was in the White House at that point, no way in hades is it in the same laughable league as McCain and Barbie…

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
9:31 pm

I am confused….. minions are spewing ilk?

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
9:31 pm

I spilled ilk all over my kwyvoatd. Elp ne.

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
9:32 pm

Recon is the veritable turd in the punchbowl!

moonbat betty

October 27th, 2011
9:34 pm

hahahah

look at all the libs with the ilk mustaches!!!

Aren’t they cute?!

moonbat betty

October 27th, 2011
9:34 pm

ilk, it does a body good.

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
9:34 pm

“I thnk Reconned is having fantasties about a Deep Mouth…. It is probably his secret FoxHoled fantasy. :lol:

I think we’ve narrowed it down as to who Dagmar Bigtats is. Probably even Deep Mouth.

F. Sinkwich

October 27th, 2011
9:34 pm

getalife, like all lib ilks, has an inferiority complex. That is, anyone whom he perceives has a better life than he does, which is pretty much anyone with a pulse, is an object of his envy.

As a consequence, get feels he needs the government to take stuff away from those whom he perceives to have more than he does and give it to him.

That makes him feel more like a real man.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
9:36 pm

:lol: :lol: Do try again Reconned….. you have failed! I don’t change names like you right wingnuts.

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
9:36 pm

Reek and Scout are the original don’t ask don’t yelp comrades in arms……

Corey

October 27th, 2011
9:37 pm

F. Sink…, AMVet has more substance in one syllable than you have in a single spaced typed page.

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
9:37 pm

“no way in hades is it in the same laughable league as McCain and Barbie…”

AmVet, except neither of them is heading toward prison.

TaxPayer

October 27th, 2011
9:38 pm

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
9:38 pm

Sinkwich,

Last time you felt like a real man you were nuzzling’ your momma’s teat…..

moonbat betty

October 27th, 2011
9:40 pm

Honestly, folks. I am happy for the increase in the economy today.

I don’t really care who was president today.

However, We have to start thinking long term as well as short term if we are to maintain and improve the lifestyles we as Americans have enjoyed the last 50 years.

This is an fing cluster fk.

God help us.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
9:41 pm

Taxpayer….an ilk stache, :lol:

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
9:41 pm

Good one, Del.

Ironic that both VP candidates have been humiliated by their own actions though.

One by his johnson the other by her mouth…

(There’s a vulgar joke in there somewhere!)

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
9:43 pm

“:lol: :lol: Do try again Reconned….. you have failed! I don’t change names like you right wingnuts.”

“Reek and Scout are the original don’t ask don’t yelp comrades in arms……”

These posts are only within a few minutes of each other. Yes it’s clear that the former is indeed Deep Mouth, and very likely a cross dresser.

moonbat betty

October 27th, 2011
9:43 pm

TP, I do have to hand it to you.

You make me laugh sometimes.

and Amvet.

One of you guys should program Obama’s teleprompter. Ya’ll would killem!

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
9:44 pm

Moon bat,

If God wanted to help you, she wouldn’t have stuck that mug on your frame.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
9:46 pm

:lol: Well by Delconned’s logic, AmVet and I posted at the same time. We must be the same person. :lol: Rationality in your posts is just not your forte is it?

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
9:46 pm

“(There’s a vulgar joke in there somewhere!)”

AmVet…LOL

AmVet

October 27th, 2011
9:46 pm

betty, at the risk of sounding like an Obama fan, there is always hope.

I may be stubborn and naive, but I’ll never give up on the idea that we the people can retake our power and remake this country into a more perfect union.

And all that other jazz about securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity…

BADA BING

October 27th, 2011
9:49 pm

While I don’t like their methods, I have nothing against the ‘Occupiers’. I think every American is tired of this mess. We should all ‘Occupy the Voting Booth’ and vote out every pol, Dem And Rep, and replace them with someone else. And tell them they better get busy or the same thing will happen to them. We are mad as hell and…………

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
9:50 pm

“Well by Delconned’s logic, AmVet and I posted at the same time. We must be the same person. :lol: Rationality in your posts is just not your forte is it?”

Caught you Dagmar Bigtats and Deep Mouth or Deep South.

ragnar danneskjold

October 27th, 2011
9:51 pm

The obvious flaws in our host’s implication are (1) that business can be damaged by Congressional actions, and business can be damaged by Executive actions, and (2) business, like an aircraft carrier, does not turn on a dime once it is stopped by hostile forces.

As our host is a cultist, he provides an unsupported suggestion that personalities control the business environment, rather than citing actual actions that might constitute causation.

A rational analysis would cite particular actions during the Bush administration that unquestionably damage the business environment, such as:
(1) raising the minimum wage (2006, effect showed up in employment six months later),
(2) the pile of environmental regulations adopted in the last month of the Clinton administration (showed up as a mild but persistent recession in 2001).

Similarly, the threat of an unspecified per employee “non-tax” fee to be levied by ObamaCare is a grave drag on the economy today, and will persist until (1) the act is declared unconstitutional, (2) the act is repealed, or (3) President Romney grants waivers to every employer in the country.

Note for future reference, the key to economic understanding is not to cite “people” but to cite “policies.” Unless you want people to mock you.

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
9:52 pm

Comrade Reekon,

To call you a moron would be a insult to moron’s….

moonbat betty

October 27th, 2011
9:53 pm

Amvet, agreed, but the rules of nature can unfortunately be very unforgiving.

Hopefully, the good ol USA can make history.

BADA BING

October 27th, 2011
9:54 pm

If nothing improves obama’s last year, and we vote the wrong people in as President and Congressmen, that will be 5 more years that nothing gets done. We don’t have 5 more years to waste. People are homeless, hungry, and ill. Someone has to do something, NOW!

moonbat betty

October 27th, 2011
9:54 pm

Dagmar,

Don’t you have some San Diego weather to predict or something?

getalife

October 27th, 2011
9:54 pm

They tossed the kitchen sink at the w collapse and now the gop say no more.

It is looking better since China engaged to bail out the banks in Europe but the growth is slow.

Going to need some patience but we will make it.

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
9:56 pm

The Google Politics & Elections blog today takes a look at search traffic trends for both the tea party movement and Occupy Wall Street. While analyzing search traffic for both phrases, the blog charted out trends for both movement. The chart shows that search traffic related to Occupy Wall Street is now 66 percent higher than traffic for the tea party ever was, while current search traffic for Occupy Wall Street is nearly ten times higher than the tea party. The red line is tea party traffic and blue line is Occupy Wall Street traffic:

Dagmar Bigtats

October 27th, 2011
9:59 pm

Moon bat,

I predict the next time you have sex there will be a lunar eclipse.

moonbat betty

October 27th, 2011
10:03 pm

Really Dag?

Why because my ass will blocking your view of the moon?

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
10:07 pm

Occupy Wall Street: Not Here To Destroy Capitalism, But To Remind Us Who Saved It

getalife

October 27th, 2011
10:09 pm

Socialism saved capitalism.

Ironic isn’t it cons?

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
10:14 pm

Capitalism is so successful an economic system partly because of an internal discipline that allows for loss and even bankruptcy. It’s the possibility of failure that creates the opportunity for triumph. Yet many of America’s major banks are too big to fail, so they can privatize profits while socializing risk….. If you want to tell the story of what was going on prior to September of 2008 in one sentence, here you go: Wall Street came to believe that they had finally figured out how to rid themselves of risk — that “possibility of failure” — entirely, and thus outsmart capitalism….

Ironic is right, get.

Recon (2nd.and 3rd.)

October 27th, 2011
10:14 pm

So now the bolsheviks on here are saying that they saved capitalism. Too rich comrades. Good evening. Taps

Keep Up the Good Fight!

October 27th, 2011
10:15 pm

It was the American taxpayers who went to war, on everyone’s behalf, with that dread cobra, and they sacrificed $4.7 trillion of their own money to bring everyone back from the brink. That’s $4.7 trillion that the American taxpayer willingly parted with, money that could have been put to any other priority. There’s still about a trillion and half that hasn’t even been returned — but that’s not where our focus should be. Our focus should be on the other scars left by that sacrifice. A massive unemployment crisis, people being kicked out of their homes, college graduates leaving their institutions of higher learning without a clear grasp on a future and saddled with debt (because that’s what they were told to do to get ahead in this world) — that’s where our focus should have been, but wasn’t, until those folks started gathering in the streets.

And Reconned only has childishness as a retort.

md

October 27th, 2011
10:18 pm

“I think every American is tired of this mess. We should all ‘Occupy the Voting Booth’ and vote out every pol, Dem And Rep, and replace them with someone else.”

Unfortunately, it’s always the other guys pol that is the problem…….thus nothing changes.

md

October 27th, 2011
10:23 pm

“Yet many of America’s major banks are too big to fail, so they can privatize profits while socializing risk…..”

Only when allowed to do so by the party holding the upper hand.

And that party, our benevolent gov’t, folded when they held the upper hand.

When it was time to lay down the conditions for loaning our money, there were no conditions.

Mick

October 27th, 2011
10:41 pm

Jay is pretty tricky tonight, what would your rather have, 2 percent growth and 7 percent unemployment or 2.5 % growth and 9.2 % unemployment? Those were the days before the crash of 08, it’s still going to take many years to fully recover, there is no magic wand…

md

Where did you move to?

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
10:44 pm

TaxPayer / Good Fight:

You two need to work on your reading “comprehension”:

“When you abandone your miitary training and discipline and appear with individuals or groups who advocate vilolence, disobey he law and city ordinances, provoke police confrontations and vilolate other’s rights ………… you sometime pay the consequences.”

Notice I said when he “appeared” with unsavory groups. He may have been fine himself but he aligned with lawbreakers. That was his mistake.

Mick

October 27th, 2011
10:47 pm

1811

“The meek shall inherit the earth”, that has some serious implications for the wealthy class whose only god is money….

Claudia T

October 27th, 2011
10:50 pm

I am no fan of GWB. In fact, I believe that he was our worst president ever, hands-down. But your facts about GDP growth do not jive with figures that I have seen.

From Wiki (GWB):

Overall real GDP grew at an average annual rate of 2.5%. Between 2001 and 2005, GDP growth was clocked at 2.8%. The number of jobs created grew by 6.5% on average. The growth in average salaries was 1.2%. Growth in consumer spending was 72% faster than growth in income. Investment in residential real-estate soared, growing 26% faster than average.[10][61]
Despite growth levels below previous levels, a March 2006 report by the United States Congress Joint Economic Committee showed that the U.S. economy outperformed its peer group of large developed economies from 2001 to 2005. (The other economies are Canada, the European Union, and Japan.) The U.S. led in real GDP growth, investment, industrial production, employment, labor productivity, and price stability.[63]

md

October 27th, 2011
10:50 pm

Sorry Mick, not saying. The last time I told the world about the great place I lived they all moved there. I remember when the population sign in Atl was still below 1 mill……..teach us to keep our mouths shut. It’s fine for those that like the big city life and sprawl, but that’s not me……I moved to where there is no traffic and plenty of space.

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
10:53 pm

Hey libs. …………. I thought our generals were just supposed to “toe the line” and not speak out against the civilian leadership ??

Headline: “General: Cuts risk Marines’ war-fighting missions”

“Warns Congress against reduction”

“A top Marine Corps general told Congress on Thursday that cutting the Corps to 150,000 Marines, as some analysts project, would mean it could not fulfill its mission during a major war, or respond adequately to crises and humanitarian disasters around the world.

“A hundred and fifty thousand would put us below the level that’s necessary to support a single contingency,” said Gen. Joseph Dunford, who as assistant commandant is the nation’s No. 2 Marine.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/27/general-cuts-risk-marines-war-fighting-missions/

Mick

October 27th, 2011
10:53 pm

md

I don’t want to know where exactly, just curious if you are in the land of florida?

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
10:53 pm

“The LOVE (emphasis added) of money, is the root of all evil”.

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
10:55 pm

“meek
   

adjective, -er, -est.
1.
humbly patient or docile, as under provocation from others.”

The above has nothing to do with the amount of one’s wealth but it sure does not fit the general definition of those anarchist “OCCUT*RDS” !

Mick

October 27th, 2011
10:56 pm

1811

In this country it is the love of power. what’s that old saying? Absolute power corrupts absolutely….somewhere over the rainbow..

Kamchak

October 27th, 2011
10:57 pm

Wow

Our host is gonna have a big mess to clean up here.

I suspect a passel of red and yellow cards are gonna be handed out as well.

getalife

October 27th, 2011
10:58 pm

Looks like the Rangers win their first Championship.

Mick

October 27th, 2011
10:59 pm

1811@10:55

You just made a very big mistake, quite possibly a venial sin. You don’t know the hearts and minds of all those people, rather you assume and make yourself god by your judgement. You are way out of your pay grade!!!

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
11:00 pm

decibles:

Are you out there ?

Mick

October 27th, 2011
11:24 pm

Is anybody out there? Quite a human characteristic, we all judge. This blog is jam packed with judges, major and minor. I just know its going to be another good day when the sun come up. Carry on word warriors, the story ain’t finished yet, if ever…

bman

October 27th, 2011
11:27 pm

GDP @ 2.5 …are we better off than we were 4 years ago with that number?

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
11:29 pm

“You don’t know the hearts and minds of all those people, rather you assume and make yourself god by your judgement.”

“By their deeds you shall know them”

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
11:33 pm

Observable differences between “Tea Party”

and “Occupy Wall Street” Movements

Observable Trait

Tea Party

Occupy Wall Street

Main Goals

To reduce federal government’s size and scope-Better adherence to the Constitution-Protection of states’ rights

Protest inequity of wealth distribution-Abuses of the common man by the financial sector-US colonialism

Average Age of Participants

Mid to late 50’s or older

Mid 20’s to late 30’s or even younger

Demeanor

Polite and reserved

Rude and Confrontational

Focus

Sharply focused on a few subjects at a time

Weakly focused-Nearly as many causes represented as people

Motivation of individual members

Deeply held core values that are being violated by government

Mob mentality-The cool thing to do-Follow the leader

Physical appearance of demonstrators

Well-groomed, aware of their appearance on public’s perception of the group as a whole

Poor personal hygiene-Some appear to be under influence of drugs

Movement’s source of discontent

Personal experience from years of observing and suffering through big government programs

Little or no personal experience–“Instant” left wing indoctrination by academia and private leftist groups

Potential for violence

Small potential-groups are “self-policing”-Violent types are removed

Large potential-Resistance is encouraged-Those so inclined are made leaders.

Financial and organizational support provided by

Constitutionalists-Libertarians-Conservative groups of all sorts

Progressives-Socialists-Communists-Conservationalists and many other leftist causes

Best arsenal tools

Patience-experience-knowledge-
able leaders-willing to make incremental gains

Youthful impatience and inexperience-

1811/0311

October 27th, 2011
11:37 pm

“The State Department on Wednesday defended spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on books authored by President Obama, while White House spokesman Jay Carney called the book-buying an “embassy-based decision.”

The comments followed a report Wednesday by The Washington Times that found the State Department had spent more than $70,000 on books by Mr. Obama.

Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog group, said the purchases were “inappropriate.”

“This sounds like propaganda,” she told the Times.”

Don't Forget

October 27th, 2011
11:55 pm

Wow!!! Rangers one strike away from winning it all then a triple ties it. Extra innings now!

getalife

October 28th, 2011
12:08 am

Hamilton two run homer should end it.

getalife

October 28th, 2011
12:15 am

Two on and one out.

Yikes.

getalife

October 28th, 2011
12:24 am

Tie game on the last strike again.

USinUK

October 28th, 2011
6:52 am

“Extra innings now!”

I used to call that “free baseball”

(you pay for 9 innings – anything after that is FREE!!!)

good morning! happy Friday! happy payday! happy beer-&-snacks-on-the-last-Friday-of-the-month day!! (or is that just my company?)

hope everyone has a luuuuuuuuuuuvly weekend planned.

Granny Godzilla

October 28th, 2011
6:59 am

Morning Bloggers!

For those of us in Atlanta…today is the last day of the fall fund raiser at WABE.

Please renew or become a member!

USinUK

October 28th, 2011
7:02 am

GG – does WABE they still have “Second Cup” with Lois Reitzis from 10-12? she was fabulous – and had a total Jessica Rabbit voice

Jay

October 28th, 2011
7:07 am

Wow. That was some baseball game last night.

Jay

October 28th, 2011
7:08 am

And yes, USinUK, we still have Lois Reitzzzzzzzzzis.

Normal

October 28th, 2011
7:17 am

USinUK

October 28th, 2011
6:52 am

No beer and snacks but I’m noshing on some krispy Kremes and a mug of coffee… :)

Normal

October 28th, 2011
7:19 am

Granny G.

Been a member for years…

Granny Godzilla

October 28th, 2011
7:20 am

Second Cup…yum.

Been a Garrison Keillor fan for 30 years…oh those red sneakers!

Tonights the Capital Steps Halloween special.

Granny Godzilla

October 28th, 2011
7:21 am

Normal

I sensed that about you.

Terribly sexy.

AmVet

October 28th, 2011
7:24 am

Alas, I was actually working and pretty much missed the end of Game 6. Apparently, one for the ages. And as a Midwestern boy, who listened to Cardinals games on AM radio growing up I have two words – Go Cards.

Love NPR, and have contributed to them over the years. Lois is great. But I miss Dr, Karl Hass’s program – Adventures in Good Music.

Ironic, isn’t it, that in a sea of noisy garbage and titillating trash, public radio and TV are the very last bastions of class and intellect?

And couldn’t we at least make those freeloaders across the spectrum pay us rent for using OUR airwaves?

USinUK

October 28th, 2011
7:24 am

Jay – :lol: – she hasn’t changed, then

USinUK

October 28th, 2011
7:26 am

Granny G – 7:20 – saw PHC show live one time when we were living in CT – and have seen him two other times just telling stories … lalalove me some Garrison

AmVet

October 28th, 2011
7:29 am

Granny Godzilla

October 28th, 2011
7:33 am

USinUK

Saw him here a few years back at Chastain….the crowd in front was drunk and rowdy and nearly ruined the show. It was a shame.

Eli Jones

October 28th, 2011
7:35 am

Here is a big time example of Obama’s corrupt collusion with big money. The Indymac bank was foreclosed on by Obama’s FDIC. The FDIC then sold the Indymac bank’s assets to “One West Bank” for pennies on the dollars. Obama’s government has also given One West Bank all kinds of write offs for the loans they obtained from Indymac bank so they cannot lose a dime. There’s so much more to this story of Obama’s corrupt ties to big money. I will name the main players of Obama’s big money corruption with OWB. “One West Bank” is owned by several Goldman Sachs people including former GS–VP Steve Munson and Obama’s evil boss, George Soros. Watch this video, it has the details on what I have posted…

http://www.youtube.com/user/fiercefreeleancer

Eli Jones

October 28th, 2011
7:39 am

Economic Policy Checklist
Does the President’s Stimulus aka Job’s Bill Include Support for These 23 Job-Creating Policies?

1- Unburden The Economy From Washington Regulations. Small business employers face new cumbersome rules and regulations that discourage them from adding new employees. The President and Congress should support an economic moratorium on new regulations, which currently cost more than $1 billion.

2- Codify the President’s Proposal to Require Cost Benefit Analysis in the Formulation of Regulations. Ensure that regulations put forth by the Administration consider the economic burden on American businesses, ensure stakeholder input and promote innovation. These metrics should be applied to costly new mandates and burdens associated with Dodd-Frank and the Health Care law.

3- New American Energy. Support expansion ofnew oil, coal, natural gas, biomass, hydro, solar, wind, and nuclear American power solutions with advanced technologies and strong research capabilities for more jobs. This is a time to support American energy developers expanding our independence from foreign oil, not singling them out with tax hikes.

4- Lift the Outer Continental Shelf Prohibitions. Increase access to U.S. oil and natural gas reserves on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). This will create jobs, drive investment, and reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign sources of oil. A February 2006 report released by the Department of the Interior estimated OCS reserves estimated 8.5 billion barrels of oil and 29 trillion cubic feet of natural gas are available. Increase Federal Loan Guarantee Authority for Nuclear Power.

5- Stop Card-Check. “Card-Check” would threaten basic rights and the viability of employers and the small business community. The approach embraced by this proposal would deny employees the ability to privately cast their vote for or against union representation and eliminate the personal and flexible negotiations between small business owners and employees on contracts and working arrangements. The result is a higher cost of doing business, and creating a one-size-fits-all approach to wages and benefits.

6- Increase Exports To Create More Jobs. In order to bring back jobs as our economy recovers, America’s workers, farmers and service providers need access to consumers and markets around the world. American exporters do not enjoy the same opportunity for entry into new markets as their global competitors. Export agreements would reduce barriers to entry, level the playing field for our entrepreneurs and increase job growth at home.

7- Ratify Three Pending Export-Opening Agreements. We should ratify the pending agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama before July recess. This proposal is estimated to create 250,000 jobs.

8- Provide Trade Promotion Authority for the President. This proposal will get the U.S. back in the business of engaging in market opening agreements.

9- Require a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. Limit the ability to raise taxes to pay for runaway spending.

10- Require a Statutory Spending Limit. A statutory process that provides a budget strait-jacket so that Congress is forced to make difficult decisions each year to live within its means, as every American family must, and turns toward a path of fiscal balance.

11- Cut Spending to Immediately and Substantially Reduce Deficits. Cut spending relative to current levels to make a down payment on future spending restraint. This effort should also involve reforms to control entitlement spending and strengthen these programs for future generations.

12- Reform Tax Code To Spur Economic Growth. End tax expenditures (preserving the mortgage interest and charity deductions) in return for dropping the top rates from 39% to 29% as recommended by the President’s bipartisan deficit commission.

13- Simplify and Reduce Business and Individual Tax Rates. Reduce the corporate tax rate to 25%, creating 5.3 million private-sector jobs over 10 years.

14- Make Research and Development Tax Credit Permanent. Support innovation in the United States by providing the assurance and certainty that the temporary nature of the credit currently does not provide.

15- Extend and Make Permanent the Small Business Investment Tax Incentive. Small businesses should be able to immediately write off equipment purchases as tax deductions.

16- Reduce Taxes on Capital Gains and Dividends. Eliminate the uncertainty hanging over investors by making lower taxes on capital gains and dividends permanent. Low rates should be pursued because capital taxation harms economic growth and productivity, and ultimately lowers wages for workers.

17- Support passage of S.299 REINS Act. The Act would require congressional approval by joint resolution of any federal rule that may result in an effect on the economy of at least $100 million.

18- Require Greater Access to Federal Lands for Exploration of Resources. The U.S. has a natural abundance of energy resources including coal, natural gas, solar, wind, oil, biomass, and water resources. Expansion of access to federal lands for the development of these resources would take advantage of these resources while diminishing our reliance on foreign fuel sources of fuel.

19- Adopt Common Sense Health Care Solutions. Meaningful health reform must begin with repealing and replacing the health care law, which will forestall the loss of 800,000 workers from the labor force. Pursue reforms that increase competition and reduce the skyrocketing cost of care.

20- Enact Meaningful Medical Malpractice Reform. Such common-sense reform would lessen the wasteful practice of defensive medicine, save the federal government billions of dollars and reduce health care costs passed on to employers.

21- Allow for Purchases of Insurance Across State Lines. This proposal would induce competition among health insurance companies, driving down costs and improving access.

22- Provide Additional Risk Pools for Small Business. This proposal would allow small businesses to benefit from the economies of scale enjoyed by larger corporations and insurance plans in the health insurance group-market.
23- Strengthen Health Savings Accounts and Patient-Centric Health Care. HSAs are savings accounts for medical expenses that offer flexibility for employees and reduce costs for employers. Improving HSAs will bring down costs for job creators and encourage personal responsibility. Reforms should also build on successful state-level initiatives to strengthen the transparency and value of health care services.

Eli Jones

October 28th, 2011
7:40 am

Because of Eric Holder’s and Barack Obama’s gun running, US border agent Brian Terry and US immigration customs enforcement agent Jaime Zapata were killed by those guns. Also over two hundred of Mexico’s citizens have been slaughtered by Holder’s and Obama’s guns. Obama used 10 Million dollars of our tax money to finance his Fast And Furious insanity.
……………………………………

SIGN THE PETITION TO PROSECUTE ERIC HOLDER FOR “FAST AND FURIOUS” (and pass it on)

http://act.theteaparty.net/5273/prosecute-eric-holder/

Granny Godzilla

October 28th, 2011
7:47 am

Eli Jones

Did you know that President Obama is actually the son of Jane Fonda and George Soros?

His grandad was Mao and his grandma was Mata Hari.

Have you discovered the survelience device he had instaled in your house yet? They are tough to find but all you need to do is when you find it – scotch tape a picture of Ward and June Cleaver over the lens
and you’ll be fine.

OH AND, don’t under any circumstances drink a Yohoo.

He’s drugged them.

Jack

October 28th, 2011
7:54 am

The fact that Prez Bush has an MBA bothers Bookman; otherwise, he wouldn’t have metnioned it.

Granny Godzilla

October 28th, 2011
7:55 am

Oh and Thanks to Mark Kirk’s website for providing Eli with something to post.

Adam

October 28th, 2011
7:56 am

Zedd: At least “I” can admit both parties are at fault, etc. instead of hailing all things Democrat on daily basis like you do. Blind ideology will get nothing solved. Keep towing the line or free your mind!

Just fyi, I’m fairly sure what I said here isn’t blind ideology. If you find a lot of Democrats saying the same thing, please let me know who they are so I can support them.

Adam

October 28th, 2011
7:58 am

So, Eli, your solution is basically less taxes and regulation, and “fix” some union stuff. Oh and spending cuts. Are you aware of just how many of those 23 points are actually the same point written a different way?

AmVet

October 28th, 2011
8:01 am

Eli, for many years now, we’ve effectively reduced corporate taxes over and over and over again. And take a look around at where that has gotten us! Take a good hard look, especially at what has happened to we the people over the past three or four decades.

It is beyond absurd. To the point where many, many, many of the biggest multi-nationals pay in absolutely nothing to Uncle Sam in federal taxes in any given year. (Nothing is actually the wrong word, as often they’ve gotten a huge check from the US Treasury as well.)

In the 1950s, corporate taxes accounted for about 30 percent of all federal revenue, but in 2009 corporate taxes accounted for just 6.6 percent.

And take a wild guess who gets to cough up the other 93.4%?

Due to the army of 10,000 lobbyists and their mountains of bribe money, they now pay the lowest part of their once fair share that they ever have.

And you want to double down on that stupid idea???

End corporate welfare and make the monied socialists pay into the system they use and abuse…

TaxPayer

October 28th, 2011
8:03 am

Increase Exports To Create More Jobs.

I heard that Home Depot is going to start exporting white collar jobs. Will that help, Eli.

AmVet

October 28th, 2011
8:04 am

Transocean, the owner of the rig involved in the completely preventable Deepwater Horizon debacle, has approximately 13,000 employees in Houston, Texas and about a dozen or so employees in Zug, Switzerland.

But by moving their “headquarters” to Zug for tax purposes, Transocean has “sheltered” about $2,000,000,000.00.

Not that this nation could use that $2billion or anything….

AmVet

October 28th, 2011
8:05 am

Even though Boeing receives billions in federal subsidies every year and even though it has a bunch of juicy government contracts it did not pay a single penny in federal corporate income taxes from 2008 to 2010.

dbm

October 28th, 2011
10:36 am

Jay, can you give us a table or chart going back to the founding of the country, relating economic growth rate not to who’s in the White House but to the extent of government involvement in business and the economy?

Jimmy62

October 28th, 2011
12:12 pm

So how much of this is actually the economy overall, and how much is short term gains from government spending programs, as well as new oil discoveries and such like that? All the new oil from Pennsylvania shale, plus anticipation of oil from the Keystone pipeline must be helping a lot. And we all know Obama would block all of that if he could, but he can’t. So I think we can safely say the markets and GDP would be a lot worse off if Obama could do what he wants to do. Thankfully his desire to avoid common sense can’t always come to fruition.

Adam

October 28th, 2011
2:15 pm

“So, how much of this can be attributed to something other than Obama? I will only ask this question when a positive result happens. When a result is negative, then clearly only Obama is to blame.