The Big Lie exposed, in living color
The core belief that animates the modern conservative movement is that taxes are too damn high and getting higher all the time. They believe that rampaging government at every level — local, state and federal — takes more and more of their hard-earned money, leaving the private sector barely enough resources to sustain itself.
In fact, I’d love to ask delegates to the 2012 Republican Convention in Tampa this month one simple question: As a share of the economy, how much have total taxes increased over the last 50 years? Most would probably guess that it has doubled or tripled.
The real answer is that it has not changed at all. As a share of gross domestic product — and that’s the standard measure of tax burden accepted by most economists, both liberal and conservative — taxes at every level today amount to roughly 25 percent of the economy, just what they did back in the early ’60s.
In other words, the image of an ever-gluttonous government that serves as the basis of modern conservatism is false.
The chart above, compiled from decades of federal data by the Tax Policy Center, has a lot of smaller stories to tell as well:
– Local and state taxes account for the same share of the American economy today as they did back in the 1930s, which means it is unchanged for 80 years.
– As a share of GDP, taxes on corporations have fallen to less than half of what they were back in the 1950s.
– The only type of taxes to have grown as a share of the economy in the last 50 years have been federal payroll taxes, used to finance Social Security and Medicare and generally hitting the working and middle classes. For the last 30 years, revenue surpluses generated by Social Security have been diverted out of that program and used to run general government programs.
– To shrink then-rising deficits, President Clinton signed tax increases into law in 1993 at considerable political cost to himself and his party. The results are evident in the chart in the form of gradually rising revenue from the individual income tax. What the chart does not show is that despite GOP predictions of economic calamity after those tax increases, we went on to enjoy the longest period of economic expansion in our nation’s history.
Thanks to that rising revenue, we were also able to reclaim control of our nation’s fiscal destiny, slashing the annual deficit to zero. That proved temporary. Major tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 did not produce the economic boom that their backers had promised, but they did set off another cycle of rapidly increasing deficits.
A gradual return to the Clinton-era tax rates — not just for the wealthy, but for everybody — would allow us once again to reclaim control of our national finances. (And yes, at this point significant spending cuts will be required as well.) But in a political climate dominated by false notions about taxation, that option is simply not open to us.
– Jay Bookman
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299 comments Add your comment
Misty From Macon
August 20th, 2012
9:49 am
From what I heard, those tax cuts to the job creators ignited the most job creation the world has ever seen.
In India, China and Taiwam
Gordon
August 20th, 2012
9:49 am
Jay, regarding your 9:22 post:
Revenues must drive expenses, not the other way around. We must decide what to spend based on what our revenue is, not the other way around. If the American people want to pay lower taxes and express that sentiment by electing Republicans, it is up to BOTH parties to reduce the cost of government to accomodate that. Both have failed, but it is the Republicans who at least have a plan for reducing government.
If Democrats were smart, they would be eager to cut entitlements and then tell the American people that they must pay for the government they want. That would be the quickest road to the higher taxes that you want.
Thomas Heyward Jr
August 20th, 2012
9:51 am
Bookman is right though……………………….YOU don’t have to pay for all of the new Government play- things that did not exist in the fifties…(an Army of TSA gare-rapers, giant brand-new courthouses and school buildings, an Army of DHS workers, several war..I meant overseas contingiency ops, etc……………………….).
.
Your CHILDREN have to pay.
.
Keynesians also conviniently ignore generationl promises and/or debt.
Get me Rex Kramer
August 20th, 2012
9:51 am
“The only type of taxes to have grown as a share of the economy in the last 50 years have been federal payroll taxes, used to finance Social Security and Medicare and generally hitting the working and middle classes.”
I love it when libs say the poor and working class get hurt pay the payroll taxes. Many don’t pay a dime in income taxes, and heaven forbid they actually have to pay into their own retirement and healthcare plans for the future.
Gordon
August 20th, 2012
9:54 am
“Fifty years ago, it took basically 25 cents out of every dollar to fund government. Today, it takes basically 25 cents out of every dollar to fund government. That’s the whole message of that chart.”
Except that fifty years ago we were much closer to actually funding the government than we are today.
Doggone/GA
August 20th, 2012
9:54 am
“but it is the Republicans who at least have a plan for reducing government”
“small enough to drown it in a bathtub” is not a plan
Jay
August 20th, 2012
9:54 am
Not Blind, state taxes as a percentage of GDP have also been falling for years here in Georgia. And as the chart above documents, state and local taxes as a share of GDP are the same today as they were 40 years and as they were 80 years ago.
If you have actual data to refute that, please post it.
kayaker 71
August 20th, 2012
9:54 am
Frog, 9:47,
The statistic is amazing, based on data accumulated by WMAZ in Macon. The data states that if a child even reaches the 9th grade in Bibb county, they have only a 51% chance of graduating from high school. That’s only one in two. And those that don’t graduate, if they are lucky, find themselves in dead in jobs or collecting a check from the government every month. Too many absent fathers, mothers that don’t give a damn and too many bad choices.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
August 20th, 2012
9:54 am
My property tax bill 4 yrs ago was about 1600/yr. Last year it was 3900.
Very easy top appeal and get it reduced. My father-in-law works on a local county Board of Assessors.
zeke
August 20th, 2012
9:54 am
per some posters, if a business wants to prosper you reduce prices so overall revenues will go up. yes reduce expenses too. so i wonder why prices go up?
no doubt there is waste in government all levels, just like private sector. the feds in addition to all the big thinkers up there need an army of unbiased accountants/sme experts to go thru line by line the federal budget starting with congress and the white house. then the military budget and on and on. any saving id and corroborated should be cut with small portion going to a collective reward system.
tough to do cost benefit with some programs but if a program has only marginal benefits put it up for vote
Jay
August 20th, 2012
9:55 am
FOAS, you will not be allowed to post under that name or anything like it.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
August 20th, 2012
9:57 am
only a 51% chance of graduating from high school. That’s only one in two. And those that don’t graduate, if they are lucky, find themselves in dead in jobs or collecting a check from the government every month. Too many absent fathers,
That’s a lot of white chirrens with absent fathers.
Peter
August 20th, 2012
9:58 am
Been a fairly cool August, so far, so I guess global warming is over.
HA HA HA…… HA HA HA………
Yup that drought in the Midwest means no global warming ever again !
larry
August 20th, 2012
9:58 am
heaven forbid they actually have to pay into their own retirement and healthcare plans for the future.
That is running a surplus right now. I have read alot of people wanting entiltlement reform but not a single person has suggested defense spending reform.
The pentagon is the department we really need to reform first, not something that i am entitled to, that i have paid into my entire life.
mm
August 20th, 2012
9:59 am
“Lets scrape the current tax code and adopt a consumption tax so everyone pays their fair share.”
As usual, a low information comment from the righties. Consumption taxes do not tax savings, therefore favoring the wealthy and penalizing the poor. Why do you cons favor the rich at your own expense?
Soothsayer
August 20th, 2012
9:59 am
Hmmmmm . . . FOAS? I got the first three letters. Jay, help us out, what was the last letter?
Thomas Heyward Jr
August 20th, 2012
10:00 am
(And yes, at this point significant pending cuts will be required as well.)
.
Watch it………….that “pending” word is a Krugmanian slip.
.
Sneaky and Insidius……these progressives.
Don't Tread
August 20th, 2012
10:00 am
Yep…the correct answer in Bookmanland, regardless of the problem is either less freedom, more taxes, or both.
wahoo
August 20th, 2012
10:03 am
I’m not sure how Jay and apparently a few others can miss the obvious upward trend in total taxation as a % of GDP from the WW2 era, when the total tax burden first crossed 20%, to the late 1990’s when the total tax burden exceeded 28%. There were the tax cuts of the early 2000’s and then the global recession of the late 2000’s (which significantly reduced tax receipts) to push taxes as a % of GDP below their peak levels, but they still exceed 24% even today.
barking frog
August 20th, 2012
10:03 am
Kayaker71
The dropout rate in high
school can be changed by
raising the age at which you
can drop out legally but that
may not change the level of
education.
larry
August 20th, 2012
10:03 am
Been a fairly cool August, so far, so I guess global warming is over.
Lets see, last year, record number of tornadoes.
This year, record number of record high temputures.
Nope, global warming is still with us.
Mama Says
August 20th, 2012
10:04 am
Ok Jay,
I am wrong.
we all are doing wonderfully, the economy is good and I have more money to spend than I did 10 years ago. By the way its the conservatives fault if I dont.
jezz— if you are actually arguing that the governemnt is taking the same why do the dems want more ?
Bhorsoft
August 20th, 2012
10:04 am
One of the other small stories the chart seems to show me is that, although overall taxation is changing, the tax burden from state and local governments has increased at the expense of the federal government. Despite that, state finances are still in the crapper (see this past Sunday’s education article) and the it is hitting local governments hard. You may be getting Federal tax cuts, but when were your property taxes last cut?
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
August 20th, 2012
10:05 am
Less Freedom?
almonds, walnuts and pecans.
Jay
August 20th, 2012
10:05 am
And again, if conservatives have actual data to refute any of this, please post it. Anguished cries of “it just can’t be true” don’t cut it.
kayaker 71
August 20th, 2012
10:06 am
Finn, 9:57,
Nearly 73% of high school students in Bibb county schools are black. Only 22% are white. I would say that the number is “chirrens” is decidedly with black folks, ne-ces-pas?
MiltonMan
August 20th, 2012
10:06 am
I wonder how many citizens were leeching off the government 50 years ago.
Erwin's cat
August 20th, 2012
10:07 am
Doggone – Before you state that so positively, I’d suggest you check out the percentage of government spending that is “entitlements” You might be surprised at how low it is, especially when compare to the DOD.
——————————————
2011 DOD 19%
2011 Entitlements 43%
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Federal_Spending_-_FY_2011.png
Jay
August 20th, 2012
10:08 am
I agree, wahoo. If you want to go back to the pre-WWII era, you can indeed make the argument that government’s share of the economy has grown. But that’s hardly the argument that conservatives make.
Joe the Plutocrat
August 20th, 2012
10:08 am
excuse me; but by ‘in living color’ I thought you meant this;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/17/paul-ryan-gm-federal-funds_n_1799515.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Caim%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D194373
Ayn Rand is spinning in her grave.
Matti
August 20th, 2012
10:09 am
Lies, damn lies, and Republican lies! Why let the truth get in the way of good propaganda? War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
killerj
August 20th, 2012
10:11 am
Your a fool Jay,uncle sam is so big they can,t even pay for what they have spent in the last 20 years,explain to me why you see thousands of empty buildings where once it thrived?,tell me more about IRS expanding or the fraud that,s rampant with our elected officials?let me explain about your chart,s Jay,they lied to you too about the info that,s on your piece of paper,plain and simple ,uncle sam is out of their jurisdiction.
Joe the Plutocrat
August 20th, 2012
10:11 am
Milton, don’t you mean citizens in Wisconsin in 2008? how dare wunderkind Ryan; as a representative of the evil federal government; petition a private enterprise (GM) to keep a plant open? doesn’t Ryan know that free enterprise answers only to the market; and if the market says ‘close the plant’ you close the plant? geez; where is John Galt when you need him?
Bill Orvis White
August 20th, 2012
10:11 am
It’s not so much that the FACT that this once-free nation has the highest corporate tax rates in the free world; it’s that FACT that the Socialist-Democrat Party spend$ WE THE PEOPLE’s (common sense working folks) dollar$ and runs up the deficit beyond belief-thus creating uncertainty which thus prevents folk like me from hiring people. THIS IS WHY PEOPLE LIKE ME WILL NOT HIRE ANYONE UNTIL THIS DISGRACE OF A “MAN” is RIGHTFULLY REMOVED FROM THE OVAL OFFICE. The ONLY time we should be running deficits is when we are at war. The honorable Pres. George W. Bush was a war president who HAD to take on deficits after making painful decisions. I recommend ALL of you naive liberals on here to read and study “Decision Points,” BTW! Now, back to the fact that this once-free nation has the highest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world. With that fact clearly laid out here on this lefty blog, let me wake you seculars up to this fact: Corporations are moving job$ out of this once-free nation to Red China BECAUSE THE CORPORATE TAXE$ are THE HIGHEST IN THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD! I’m repeating myself BECAUSE YOU MCFLYS JUST DON’T GET IT! After President Romney is sworn in, those taxe$ WILL BE chopped thus creating millions of jobs on this soil!
GOOD GRIEF AND GOOD NIGHT!
Amen!
Bill
Tom Middleton
August 20th, 2012
10:12 am
Jay, America’s very first tax was a whiskey tax to pay the $100 million debt incurred by our winning the revolution against Britain. Thank God these conservative jackasses weren’t around then to try and take us backwards, for we might have no freedom at all, much less an economy worth saving!
Doggone/GA
August 20th, 2012
10:12 am
“2011 Entitlements 43%”
You counted Social Security in that total. Social Security is separately funded from a payroll tax, as is Medicare. They do not come out of the general tax fund. In fact, it is inaccurate of that pie chart to even lump Medicare and Medicaid together.
Want to try again?
I'm a liberal and believe everything I read and nothing the other side comes up with...cause we're smart and they are not
August 20th, 2012
10:12 am
Speaking of big lies. It appears Newsweek has quit. Mostly a very liberal rag, It’s throwing Obama under the bus tomorrow….and backing up and running over him. Headline says’ Obama,it’s time to hit the road…Why we need a new President”……….BOO YAA…..Finally…… Ron Kessler writes a piece this AM saying this might break the dam and give liberal Journalist a pass to speak their mind.
Butch Cassidy (I)
August 20th, 2012
10:12 am
Don’t Tread – “the correct answer in Bookmanland, regardless of the problem is either less freedom,”
I asked this question a while back and never got a response. But since you bring it up, maybe you would be so good as to name 3 freedoms that you no longer have that you had prior to January 2009?
new guy
August 20th, 2012
10:14 am
Jay, excellent post. Suggestion for future topic: whether there is something about modern conservatism that disposes it to a disabling, even dangerous credulity. There is an argument to be made, after all, that in 2008, both progressives and conservatives wanted to believe that President Obama would govern as a liberal. The former, faced with the reality — that he is at his core a pragmatic conservative, and has governed as one — has accepted that incontrovertible fact, not without complaint. Many conservatives, despite all evidence to the contrary, obviously still believe that he is a liberal. (And of course those that know better still push that canard, for political reasons.) Or to take another example: how have Republicans managed to convince themselves, really and truly believe, that Paul Ryan is a fiscal and social conservative, as distinct from an ambitious young man who has no difficulty being both for and against Medicare savings, both for and against the Obama stimulus, both an admirer of and disapproving of Ayn Rand, and so on ad infinitum, if that is what it takes for him to get ahead? Or, finally, to put it still another way: are these really “big lies” that conservatives are foisting on the rest of us, or is there something else going on here, less malicious but more disturbing?
MiltonMan
August 20th, 2012
10:14 am
“I have faith in the children. They’re gonna figure it out.
And the con house of cards will come tumbling down.
We’re very close to this time – right now.”
Good God – been hearing this more than a Lady Gaga song. I remember when my folks predicted that the “slime ball republicans” would be defeated once and for all when they voted for none other than the idiot George Wallace.
kayaker 71
August 20th, 2012
10:15 am
I’m a liberal, 10:12,
It’s about damn time. Now if we could only get Comrade Bookman to wake up……
Butch Cassidy (I)
August 20th, 2012
10:15 am
Bill Orvis – “this once-free nation”
Same question to you Bill, name 3 freedoms that you no longer have that you had prior to January 2009.
Joe the Plutocrat
August 20th, 2012
10:15 am
Tom Middleton; now that’s what I call a ‘consumption tax’! good point.
Welcome to the Occupation
August 20th, 2012
10:15 am
Jay: “I agree, wahoo. If you want to go back to the pre-WWII era, you can indeed make the argument that government’s share of the economy has grown. But that’s hardly the argument that conservatives make.”
It’s not the argument they make, but it is unquestionably the objective of their efforts. Their objective ultimately is to roll back the New Deal and take us back to the 1920s lock, stock, and barrel. So that is the prospect that has to be kept in mind, regardless of the misdirection they have to employ to gull the Orvis Whites of the world.
Grasshopper
August 20th, 2012
10:16 am
Can we see a similar chart comparing expenditures please?
ragnar danneskjold
August 20th, 2012
10:18 am
Dear Jay @ 9:46, you confuse “conservative opposition to the leftist demand for higher taxes” with “conservatives demand lower taxes.” Big difference.
Thomas Heyward Jr
August 20th, 2012
10:19 am
And anyhoo……………………………Bookman probably considers Paul Ryan or Mittens a “conservative”.
.
No who’s telling whom “the Big Lie”.
GW
August 20th, 2012
10:19 am
They know it’s a lie. The idea is to exploit people’s general dislike of taxes and “big” govmn’t for their political gain. The GOP is not about policy. It is about winning elections fooling enough of the people enough of the time.
Drudge
August 20th, 2012
10:20 am
This is like listening to socialists arguing that austerity is bad for debt relief – reducing spending and taxes pumps more available cash into the private sector – Clinton & Reagan understood this. Carter and Obama do not.
J
TaxPayer
August 20th, 2012
10:20 am
2010 Receipts:
Individual Income Tax-42%
Corporate Income Tax-8%
Payroll Tax-40%
Excise and Other-10%
2010 Fed Outlays:
DoD-20%
Social Security-20%
Medicare/Medicaid/Chip-21%
Safety Net Programs-14%
Interest on Debt-6%
Fed retiree/vet benefits-7%
All other-11%
USinUK - pro-gay-marriage thug and former Girl Scout
August 20th, 2012
10:20 am
“FOAS, you will not be allowed to post under that name or anything like it.”
ooooo …
Freedom Of Access (to) Saltines??
Erwin's cat
August 20th, 2012
10:20 am
Doggone – what are you calling entitlements?
SS, Medicare, and Medicaid are not entitlements?…I thought we were talking about govt spending?
Mark in mid-town
August 20th, 2012
10:22 am
A few points. The percentage of GDP paid in taxes is a lot less important than the percentage of GDP consumed by government. It’s what government spends plus the cost of adhering to government regulations that is the real tax rate. As well, what is the money being spent on? If a larger and larger share of the money government spends is nothing more than income transfers, then that means that those who actually pay the taxes are getting less and less for the taxes they pay.
Jefferson
August 20th, 2012
10:24 am
Who is the candy asses that will work and pay into programs and then let wealthy lawmakers change the rules mid flight because they want a tax cut and are willing to let the US Gov’t not forfill their obligations to their citizens ?
Step up, I want to know who the candy asses are .
Jackie
August 20th, 2012
10:24 am
It is always hard to disprove a negative because the believers in those mis-characterizations always have a convenient out; start another conversation.
Doggone/GA
August 20th, 2012
10:25 am
“I thought we were talking about govt spending?”
I differentiate between the spending that comes from the general tax fund and the spending that comes from separately funded expenditures. DOD comes form the general tax fund, Social Security and Medicare do not.
Aquagirl
August 20th, 2012
10:25 am
Jay, America’s very first tax was a whiskey tax to pay the $100 million debt incurred by our winning the revolution against Britain. Thank God these conservative jackasses weren’t around then
Oh, they had Tea Potty whiners back then. George Washington knew how to deal with them. All the free musket rounds they wanted, courtesy of the taxpayers.
lovelyliz
August 20th, 2012
10:28 am
People who don’t beleive in science, facts and math are rarely bothered by economic reality especially when they are paid not to
gadem
August 20th, 2012
10:28 am
I wonder if those that keep citing the Newsweek piece actually read the Newsweek piece? It was written by a conservative journalists…but that doesn’t matter. Newsweek as a whole is disavowing liberal policies.
Tom Middleton
August 20th, 2012
10:29 am
Anyway, Jay that whiskey tax led to the Whiskey Rebellion in which a lot of folks headed to the hills for moonshining. Unfortunately for our later America, they moved so far back that they had to inbreed for somebody to marry, which, of course, led to NASCAR, racism, and the foundation and almost entire membership of this modern Republican Party!
hiram
August 20th, 2012
10:29 am
The discussion is flawed, because you are talking about apples and oranges. Taxes, as well as the return on your tax investments, vary, relative to your location.
And, other non negotiable expenses, like utility bills(think Ga. Power), which are tied to the same political processes as taxation, should be included in any dicussion on the cost of government.
Intangible cost, like quality of life issues, determined by government policies, should also be part of the discussion. Choosing to not enforce immigration laws, for example, can result in severe costs(tangible and intangible), for some communities(Dalton, for example), while having no affect on others. Lowering your quality of life to increase someone else’s is just another tax levied by the government.
Another factor is the tax dodgers, who, state and local governments allow to shift their tax burdens to every one else(think Delta Airlines).
In other words, the current discussion about taxes doesn’t factor in all of the variables – it is oversimplified.
Goody Three Shoes
August 20th, 2012
10:32 am
“I’m a liberal…………”
Niall Ferguson who wrote that Newsweek article you referred to is a liberal?
“Ferguson received a Demyship (half-scholarship) at Magdalen College, Oxford.[11] While there he became best friends with Andrew Sullivan, based on a shared affinity for right-wing politics”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niall_Ferguson
Are you ever going to do any homework before you take what you read on Drudge or some other site as the truth?
No one is counting on it.
If you are more intelligent than you express on this blog, please start demonstrating it.
getalife
August 20th, 2012
10:32 am
Getting down to crunch time and the cons don’t care if they pay higher taxes if the gop wins.
They don’t care if the gop steals SS and Medicare.
They don’t care if the gop collapses the economy again.
Party first.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
August 20th, 2012
10:32 am
Jay, America’s very first tax was a whiskey tax to pay the $100 million debt incurred by our winning the revolution against Britain. Thank God these conservative jackasses weren’t around then
No, they were around – they were the ones behind the Whiskey rebellion. The president had to send troops to quell it.
kayaker 71
August 20th, 2012
10:32 am
Aquagirl, 10:25,
That same George Washington was the ultimate 1%er of his time with an accumulated wealth, of get this, 525M dollars. Of course, he would never gotten along with the liberals of today, including you.
ragnar danneskjold
August 20th, 2012
10:36 am
I’ll second the economic theory behind Hiram’s 10:29 post. Hidden taxes arise from non-enforcement of economic laws, and also from hyper-enforcement of meaningless laws. To deny the “tax” effects of regulations is dishonest. Maybe Jay an I can agree to return to the regulatory world in place on Jan 19, 1993?
Williebkind
August 20th, 2012
10:37 am
AquaGirl:
George Washington had a large whiskey business after the war. You can google it if you want.
Steve Atl
August 20th, 2012
10:38 am
4 years later and Jay is still blaming George Bush…the grass is green, the sky is blue….
Goody Three Shoes
August 20th, 2012
10:38 am
gadem
People like “I’m a liberal” have willingly allowed themselves to be brainwashed that anything they are not told is the “real news” is the “liberal media”.
Therefore you get him reading another article bout the Newsweek article and running to say how a “liberal” writer denounced Obama.
Williebkind
August 20th, 2012
10:39 am
Well, I saw on TV that liberals are mostly communists these days. Enough said, vote Romey/Ryan and save America.
Thomas Heyward Jr
August 20th, 2012
10:40 am
Those Whiskey Rebellion dudes WON…(sorry about your gubmint school state-sponsored education that taught you otherwise.).
.
They never paid the taxes.
And those mooching Federalies NEVER went back.
.
Google it.
getalife
August 20th, 2012
10:40 am
One thing is for sure, if the gop win the cons will suddenly turn patriotic.
Aquagirl
August 20th, 2012
10:41 am
That same George Washington was the ultimate 1%er of his time with an accumulated wealth, of get this, 525M dollars.
So? When he wasn’t making money, he was actually serving his country, and not by flying around Alabama for the National Guard. George and I would get along just fine. You and the rest of the fake conservatives who don’t understand it’s not all about you….not so much.
the cat
August 20th, 2012
10:41 am
If you are more intelligent than you express on this blog, please start demonstrating it.
POST OF THE DAY!!!
stands for decibels (SfBA)
August 20th, 2012
10:41 am
Freedom Of Access (to) Saltines??
I think it’s “F— Off And… SOAR!”
(like you’ve never soared before)
I'm a liberal and believe everything I read and nothing the other side comes up with...cause we're smart and they are not
August 20th, 2012
10:43 am
Goody….don’t believe I mentioned the writer. I mentioned the Magazine. Big difference…..And Newsweek is mostly, almost always a has a liberal slant….Keep spinning.
RB from Gwinnett
August 20th, 2012
10:44 am
Jay, “Example of how you are wrong, you mean. Fifty years ago, it took basically 25 cents out of every dollar to fund government. Today, it takes basically 25 cents out of every dollar to fund government. That’s the whole message of that chart.”
Keep lying Jay…. The serious problem with this line of crap you keep feeding people is that 50 years ago, everybody actually paid their own 25 cents. Now, your neighbor is paying his 25 cents and yours, and you’re whining like a spoiled brat that he’s not providing you enough stuff so should pay more, all the while knowing if your tax bill doubles, you’re still paying NOTHING.
What about that is so difficult for you to get through your socialist head, Jay?
I'm a liberal and believe everything I read and nothing the other side comes up with...cause we're smart and they are not
August 20th, 2012
10:44 am
Maybe it’s Goody who can’t read.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 20th, 2012
10:44 am
Moralilty?
“Remember Ruby Ridge.”
Yes ………. remember that Weaver’s conduct, arrogance and irresponsibility cost the lives of his son and wife.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
August 20th, 2012
10:45 am
JAY:
Is there a chart that shows what we don’t like paying taxes for ?
Williebkind
August 20th, 2012
10:46 am
I never new a communists who did not like government control–at least the oligarchy would like it.
Williebkind
August 20th, 2012
10:47 am
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
I get you dont like living free!
I'm a liberal and believe everything I read and nothing the other side comes up with...cause we're smart and they are not
August 20th, 2012
10:48 am
In other big news today, A GOP candidate was caught eating white bread.
Donovan
August 20th, 2012
10:49 am
The “Big Lie” is the same answer for all of Bookman’s counter response to conservative arguments.
His acceptance to the reality of Social Security being looted for other government programs is a subtle confession of Democrat malfeasance for the purposes of vote buying and citizen control.
Finn McCool (The System isn't Broken; It's Fixed)
August 20th, 2012
10:50 am
Yeah, RB is paying the taxes for all of us! Go RB!!
…err, get back to work so we can get our food stamps!
Tom Middleton
August 20th, 2012
10:50 am
“Those Whiskey rebellion dudes WON…gubmint schools…blah, blah, blah.”
Now tell us again how y’alls learnt ur letters?
Goody Three Shoes
August 20th, 2012
10:51 am
“I’m a liberal……..”
Spin all you like. You did mention more liberal writers, did you not?
You are not demonstrating intelligence, yet again.
Magazines do not write articles. Writers write articles that run in magazines. The writer in question is not a liberal and you ignorantly assumed he was one.
Williebkind
August 20th, 2012
10:52 am
Liberals are communists and want more government control. Hey that takes money but where do you get that money if half the population is on the dole? Communists and liberals are the same and we all know communism wont work in a real world. If you dont get rid of the liberals/communists then America will die.
TaxPayer
August 20th, 2012
10:52 am
The poor cons on here. Paying property taxes and state income taxes and fed income taxes and payroll taxes and sales taxes and LOST and SPLOST and
TSPLOSTand they never ever get anything in return for all their taxes that they paid because everyone else gets everything and leaves them with nothing. If only they could afford a fainting couch that they could call their own.Goody Three Shoes
August 20th, 2012
10:55 am
“his might break the dam and give liberal Journalist a pass to speak their mind.”
Dude you are acting dumb? You are doing a great job if that is not you outside of this blog. Let’s just be honest here.
Why would a “damn be broke” for liberal Journalists when the article in question was not written by a liberal?
You are attempting to spin away from your stupidity, but your track record is what it is.
Williebkind
August 20th, 2012
10:55 am
TaxPayer
August 20th, 2012
10:52 am
LOL, liberals sure are funny!
larry
August 20th, 2012
10:56 am
If only they could afford a fainting couch that they could call their own.
See, if they buy that fainting couch, they would have to pay sales taxes on said couch.
Oh , the horror!!
stands for decibels (SfBA)
August 20th, 2012
10:57 am
Weaver’s conduct, arrogance and irresponsibility cost the lives of his son and wife.
My take-away as well.
Doggone/GA
August 20th, 2012
10:57 am
“LOL, liberals sure are funny!”
Beats being pathetic, ANY day of the week.
Child, please
August 20th, 2012
10:57 am
Nice throwaway sentence at the end that the real cause of our ballooning public debt is the out of control spending of the federal. Figure out (FIRST!) what the federal government should be involved in (OK, I’m a Libertarian with two children and would prefer that government not be involved in much of what it does today) and then tax accordingly. Then the tax levels will be correct. Even a liberal (well, most of them) must admit that you can’t simply raise taxes 50% tomorrow to fund our bloated government (that is what it would take from all sources).
As a ‘conservative’, I’d say that we remove government from large amounts of the economy where they’ve “crept” for the last fifty years, first. Taxes aren’t too high or too low, we just have WAY TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT. Haven’t seen diddly poo from the Prez, Senate, or House to deal with that the last four years, so vote them all out.
larry
August 20th, 2012
10:57 am
Enter your comments here
F. Sinkwich
August 20th, 2012
10:58 am
How about publishing a chart of government spending as a percent of GDP for purposes of comparison?
Thanks.
Jackie
August 20th, 2012
10:59 am
I wonder if the Dems were the only party that borrowed money from the Social Security trust fund?
Secondly, Social Security trust fund is the largest single debt the US government has.
http://www.businessinsider.com/who-owns-us-debt-2011-7?op=1
Welcome to the Occupation
August 20th, 2012
11:00 am
Did somebody say Niall Ferguson?
Hahaa ahahahahahahaa ha. Make it stopppppppppp!
gadem
August 20th, 2012
11:02 am
In NEOCON fantasy land, if a woman is raped, her body shuts down so that she does not get pregnant.