Sometime last year Darcy Burner and I had a conversation about what role the netroots might play in the upcoming election, and I told her what I told all candidates: don’t expect us to raise much money. In fact, I was so convinced that the local netroots were not yet developed enough to function as an effective fundraising tool that I only created HA’s Act Blue page as an afterthought, sometime near the end of March. I thought maybe we might manage to raise a couple thousand dollars.
Man was I wrong.
In a little more than seven months, 361 HA readers have now contributed a total of $30,090.39 to Darcy Burner and Peter Goldmark… over $4,600 coming during the last 24 hours. Wow.
Your incredible generosity has already accomplished two very important goals. Your contributions helped demonstrate the grassroots support that brought big donors and the DCCC into these campaigns. Without you, these races never would have become competitive.
And… your contributions have also helped demonstrate the growing power and efficacy of the netroots. If we were a PAC, our $30,000 would have made us one of the largest grassroots PACs in the state. This is the kind of money that forces politicians to take notice.
HA’s fundraising is even more amazing when you put it in perspective. Over the past seven months HA’s daily readership has averaged about 2,500 unique visits a day. (It’s now up to about 3,300.) That means on average, about one in every seven HA readers has contributed via our Act Blue page. Even more impressive, we’ve raised about $12 for every reader — that’s about four to five times the dollar-per-reader ratio of high profile sites like Daily Kos. Astounding.
So I want to thank all of you for your generosity and trust. When I first started pitching for Darcy and Peter, you had no assurances that either would make their race competitive. I promised you that you wouldn’t be throwing your money away, and you trusted me with your hard-earned cash. So again, thank you.
That’s it. I won’t be asking you for any more money this election cycle. But if you still want to contribute to Darcy and Peter they could definitely use your time. Personally, I plan to contribute a few hours via MoveOn’s innovative Call For Change program. Just sign up online and MoveOn will give you a script and some phone numbers to call.
Both races are going to be awfully close. Whoever turns out the most voters wins. Let’s do whatever we can over the next 10 days to make sure that the winners are Darcy and Peter.
first
Folks give me good reasons why you should vote Republican come election day.
The economy is kicking butt. It is robust, vibrant, strong and growing. In the 36 months since the Bush tax cuts ended the recession that began under President Clinton, the economy has experienced astonishing growth. Over the first half of this year, our economy grew at a strong 4.1 percent annual rate, faster than any other major industrialized nation. This strong economic activity has generated historic revenue growth that has shrunk the deficit. A continued commitment to spending restraint has also contributed to deficit reduction.
Maybe This?
Unemployment is almost nil for a major economy, and is verging on full employment. Recently, jobless claims fell to the lowest level in 10 weeks. Employment increased in 48 states over the past 12 months ending in August. Our economy has now added jobs for 37 straight months.
Maybe it could be this?
The Dow is hitting record highs. In the past few days, the Dow climbed above 12,000 for the first time in the history of the stock market, thus increasing the value of countless pension and 401(k) that funds many Americans rely on for their retirement years.
Nooooooooooooo it has to be this!
Wages have risen dramatically. According to the Washington Post, demand for labor helped drive workers’ average hourly wages, not including those of most managers, up to $16.84 last month — a 4 percent increase from September 2005, the fastest wage growth in more than five years. Nominal wage growth has been 4.1 percent so far this year. This is better or comparable to its 1990s peaks. Over the first half of 2006, employee compensation per hour grew at a 6.3 percent annual rate adjusted for inflation. Real after-tax income has risen a whopping 15 percent since January 2001. Real after-tax income per person has risen by 9 percent since January 2001.
Goldy you can help maybe?
Gas prices have plunged. According to the Associated Press, the price of gasoline has fallen to its lowest level in more than 10 months. The federal Energy Information Administration said Monday that U.S. motorists paid $2.21 a gallon on average for regular grade last week, a decrease of 1.8 cents from the previous week. Pump prices are now 40 cents lower than a year ago and have plummeted by more than 80 cents a gallon since the start of August. The previous 2006 low for gasoline was set in the first week of January, when pump prices averaged $2.238. In the week ending Dec. 5, 2005, prices averaged $2.19. Today, gasoline can be found for less than $2 a gallon in many parts of the country.
No fair nobody inputing any sujestion.
Since 9/11, no terrorist attacks have occurred on U.S. soil. Since 9/11 the U.S. has not been attacked by terrorists thanks to such programs as the administration’s monitoring of communications between al-Qaida operatives overseas and their agents in the U.S. and the monitoring of the international movement of terrorist funds — both measure bitterly opposed by Democrats.
What you all are still asleep at the key boards?
Productivity is surging and has grown by a strong 2.5 percent over the past four quarters, well ahead of the average productivity growth in the last 30 years. Strong productivity growth helps lead to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product, higher real wages, and stronger corporate profits.
Come on folks you can think off just one?
The Prescription Drug Program is working. Despite dire predictions that most seniors would refrain from signing up to the new Medicare prescription benefits program, fully 75 percent of all those on Medicare have enrolled, and the overwhelming majority say they are happy with the program.
What? still thinking?
Bush has kept his promise of naming conservative judges. He has named two conservative justices to the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. In addition, he has named conservative justices who are devoted to the Constitution as it is written and not as activist liberal judges think it means. The strong likelihood that one or more justices will retire from the Supreme Court makes it mandatory for the Republicans to hold the Senate and have a chance to name new conservative justices.
Roger you toung still tied?
The deficit has been cut in half three years ahead of the president’s 2009 goal, with the 2006 fiscal year budget deficit down to $248 billion. The tax cuts have stimulated the economy and are working.
Since 9/11, no terrorist attacks have occurred on U.S. soil.
Except for these, which the right wingers have identified for us.
Woops miss spelled tongue, still working on the English language.
TJ your link failed to your Terrorist web site. Got another one?
Except for these, which the right wingers have identified for us.
Commentby Another TJ— 10/28/06@ 3:42 pm
Don’t worry, cut and paste-eater. It’ll be back.
klake, artist’s conception
(thanks to Atrios)
klake the flake: you’ll swallow any right-wing bullshit. You’re so delusional.
Goldy: no problem. We’ll keep supporting HA.org as long as you do what you do best: making wingnuts rip their hair out by telling the truth.
Thank God the Begging is over with…..
We’ve deconstructed every one of klake’s pre-packaged assertions time and again and his only response is to lie low for a while and say the same crap all over again.
Why don’t the 40 million people in this country who can’t afford health care look in wonderment and appreciation at the “robust” economy and vote Republican? I don’t know, klake, you try to explain it.
Wages have been flat or regressing and prices rising throughout the Bush administration and those damn voters fail to appreciate how ROBUST the economy is for billionaires!!! What’s wrong with them ,klake?
Your only hope is gay-bashing and “TURRISM” at this point.
Goldy
You really need to do something about this Spam. If it is money you need, ASK. Hell you been begging for Darcy and Peter, why not beg for a spam filter….
I hope the heck your daughter doesn’t ever read the spam that gets posted here.
I hope the heck your daughter doesn’t ever read the spam that gets posted here.
Commentby Kiroking— 10/28/06@ 5:09 pm
I will second that.
Even more impressive, we’ve raised about $12 for every reader
Wow, so even JCH and My Cynical have pitched in. Well done gents!
the spammers write more truths than kkklake.
Folks are this what the Socialist Democrats have in plan for us after the election?
Consider what leading Socialist Democrats are promising if they gain control of Congress.
• Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., who would lead the House tax-writing committee if Democrats win in November, said he “cannot think of one” tax cut he would renew. That agenda would result in $2.4 trillion tax increase over the next 10 years.
• Democrats take majorities in the House and Senate, the average family of four can expect to pay an average of $2,000 more in taxes.
• The leader of House Democrats and the woman who would be speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said after 9/11 that she “doesn’t really consider ourselves at war … we’re in a struggle against terrorism.”
• By opposing the Patriot Act, terrorist surveillance missile defense and even interrogating the most dangerous terrorists captured on the battlefield, Democrats are in direct opposition to the vital tools we use to fight terrorism.
• Many Democrats, including the prospective House Ways and Means chairman, favor cutting off funding for the war in Iraq.
• Democratic leaders have made it clear that they see investigations and impeachment as viable options should they take control of Congress. They are therefore promising to tie the hands of the president and his administration in the middle of a war.
• Democrats want to reverse the president’s economic policies that have led to a historically strong economy.
WELL THATS 30K DOWN THE SHITER.
2
“the recession that began under President Clinton”
Bullshit! The recession began in March 2001. Whooooo was president in March 2001?
“According to the initial report by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the Early 2000s recession lasted from March 2001 to November 2001, as real Gross Domestic Product dropped during this period by 0.6% total from the fourth quarter of 2000.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_recession
klake, artist’s conception
(thanks to Atrios)
Commentby Another TJ— 10/28/06@ 3:58 pm
cute
2 (continued)
“the Bush tax cuts ended the recession”
Bullshit!
“President Bush responded to the recession with tax-cut legislation in 2001 and 2003 … economists have shown mathematically that the time taken from peak to trough (of the economic cycle) was approximately the same as in the early 1990s, casting a shadow on the efficacy of these tax cuts.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_recession
6
“Gas prices have plunged.”
Who are you kidding? Today’s gas prices are double what prices were when Bush took office! You call that “plunged?” http://zfacts.com/p/35.html
Klake, we could substitute the word “HUNS” for “Terrorists” and time-machine your little missives back to 1917. Nothing would be lost in the translation.
Same shit, different shithead.
Goldy did you and your friends help her removed all these signs? Hell did you donate any money for her legal defense? WOW you would not expect this from such Lilly white Socialist Democrat.
http://www.kingcountyjournal.c...../610280334
Candidate swipes campaign signs: Republican Party says Deb Eddy violated law when she had workers pull out stakes
House candidate Deb Eddy was unrepentant Friday in the wake of Republican Party charges that she’d violated the law by taking their campaign signs, which accuse her of backing higher taxes.
“She just completely lost it and took the law into her own hands,” said King County Republican Party Chair Mike Young. “And she’s a lawyer, that’s a funny part of the whole thing.”
What’s funny, Eddy said, is how long she had to wait to hear back from Republicans after she e-mailed them Monday, asking if they owned the signs. At roughly the same time her field workers were pulling out the stakes, she was sending King County Republicans an e-mail.
Eddy, seeking a House seat in the 48th District against Bret Olson, a lesser-known and inexperienced opponent, said she was only trying to avoid a confrontation between her supporters and the sign’s owners.
She said the signs — which read simply: Deb Eddy’s Property Tax .com — are misleading.
On Friday, Bellevue police picked up 263 of them at Eddy’s home in Kirkland and returned them to GOP headquarters in Bellevue. The county GOP, which owns the signs, filed a complaint Thursday with the Bellevue Police Department, alleging Eddy stole them.
7
“Since 9/11 the U.S. has not been attacked by terrorists”
Bullshit!! klake is caught lying again!!
“The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States … occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001 (a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks).”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks
Five years later, the anthrax terrorist is still at large. (So is Osama bin Laden.) So much for the Bush administration’s incompetent “war on terror”!
In addition:
On July 4, 2002, an Egyptian terrorist murdered 2 Israelis at Los Angeles International Airport;
On March 3, 2006, an Iranian terrorist drove an SUV into a crowd in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L....._incidents
And, of course, every day American soldiers in Iraq are being slaughtered by “insurgents” aka “terrorists”.
Goldy can you help with that new math, I didn’t go to the Seattle schools.
http://www.debeddyspropertytax.com/
Deb Eddy can’t raise taxes anymore because she’s already raised them to the maximum the law allows.
But that won’t stop Deb Eddy!
She’s determined to keep taxing families and seniors out of their homes by creating a new tax.
What say you Goldy?
Deb Eddy will increase the Real Estate Excise Tax (a sales tax collected on the sale of every home). Currently, the state collects 1.28% and local government collects .5% from every sale of property. The proposed local real estate tax increase would add another .65% to the sale of property.*
That’s the tax you pay when you sell your home. Increasing real estate taxes means when you sell your home, you pay more – thousands of dollars more of your hard earned equity in your home!
The proposed 130% increase in local real estate taxes would be a tax increase of $1657 on the median-priced home. Washington State already has one of the highest taxes on home sales in the nation. This tax will reduce the availability of affordable housing — and would hit first-time homebuyers, middle income families and senior citizens particularly hard.
This proposed tax increase will take huge equity away from families on home sales, and will reduce home ownership in our state. For most Washington families, their home is the most valuable investment they will own. This investment must be protected!
“Your incredible generosity has already accomplished two very important goals. Your contributions helped demonstrate the grassroots support that brought big donors and the DCCC into these campaigns. Without you, these races never would have become competitive.”
Can’t speak to the rest of Goldy’s post, but as a constituent in the “hotly-contested-8th-Congressional-District” I don’t think the campaigns are spending their money wisely. In mailings alone, each day brings so many pieces that it’s no longer an effective appeal for our vote; most of it goes right from the mailbox and into the recycle bin unread. The neighborhood letter carrier is taking longer to deliver the mail, and the Post Office is having to scramble more carriers and vehicles just to keep up delivery. Even in a 50-50 district like the 8th, these mailings are so marginal they are doing more to offend than appeal. I’ve been receiving – from all the campaigns – an average of 8-10 a day so far. It’s a waste of money and resources.
Campaigning has its merits and if you would like to help I think volunteering to staff an informational booth or to pass out buttons and stickers would be a more effective use of time and resources this late in the election.
Goldy your friends should come to this poor lady help, who’s going to pay her bills if she lose her job? You know LIBERIALS does not limit their scope to gays and other folks of sexual preferences do they? That does not stop your friends at the Fremont Fair every year and the kids get a side show sitting on the curbs.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ncers.html
Dancers afraid 4-foot rule will put them out of a job
Eight-hour days, five days a week, and the flexibility to stay home if one of her children is sick.
It’s better than selling insurance over the phone, or working as an assistant in a nursing home. In those jobs, she worked 12-hour shifts, sometimes six days a week.
But dancing in Seattle’s strip clubs, Jessica is an independent contractor. She chooses her hours. She can take a day off whenever she wants.
“I have the freedom to do that without getting in trouble,” said Jessica, a 25-year-old single mother.
Next month, Seattle voters will decide whether to repeal strict new rules that could kill a dancer’s business. An ordinance approved by the City Council last year targeted the lap dance — the staple of any dancer’s income — by requiring performers to stay 4 feet away from customers, banning direct tipping and forcing clubs to turn up the lights.
Bush supporters will auto-defend, I guess.
The last administration oversaw 23,000,000 new jobs. This one doesn’t announce that stuff to speak of. Puny job creation.
The recession isn’t/wasn’t an excuse–never was, as it was one of the shortest in recorded history and was over before any tax cuts did any good.
Dow @ 12,000? Please go back and compare the last administration’s stock performance. This one is like the opposite of Joe Dimaggio’s streak: 0-fer-55, then go about 5 for 8 and claim you are hitting .625.
Deficit? Inherit record surplus, urinate it down the drain, add 49% to the national debt. Then claim success when you cut your own failure in half.
Get lost.
Roger one of your Friends? Why hide his name they don’t do that for anyone else, unless he has close connections with the powers to be? Must have been a Socialist Democrat because they don’t allow Republicans into Qwest Field, or travel into Seattle for their safety.
Prosecutor arrested after allegedly having sex in Qwest Field bathroom
By Sara Jean Green
Seattle Times staff reporter
A Thurston County senior deputy prosecutor who was ejected from Qwest Field Sunday after employees said he was having sex in a bathroom told his boss he was just using the facilities.
King County Sheriff’s Sgt. John Urquhart said two female employees told off-duty sheriff’s deputies and Seattle police officers who were working security at the stadium during the Seahawks game that a man and woman were having sex in a bathroom stall.
“We didn’t see them having sex but they were clearly in the same stall,” Urquhart said of the couple, who told deputies they work together in the Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
The man, a 39-year-old attorney, “had been drinking and was argumentative” with deputies, he said. Arrested for obstructing and trespassing, the man was interviewed and released, Urquhart said, explaining that it is “against the law for him to be in a women’s restroom.”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....oom25.html
On July 4, 2002, an Egyptian terrorist murdered 2 Israelis at Los Angeles International Airport;
That chap did not belong to any terrorist Group.
On March 3, 2006, an Iranian terrorist drove an SUV into a crowd in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
No terrorist group claim responsible for that act and the chap was not sent to GITMO for rehab.
Cantwell surfing Democratic wave this time
By DAVID AMMONS
AP POLITICAL WRITER
BELLEVUE, Wash. — Six years ago, Maria Cantwell had to wait until almost Thanksgiving, after weeks of nail-biting absentee tallies and a recount, to learn that she had edged Sen. Slade Gorton from office by less than one vote per precinct.
This time around, with election day just around the corner, she’s breathing easy.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....itics.html
Maria is going to win big time. WOO HOO
Folks, Hot of the reels the latest video from Michael Moore on how to get the most out your vacation in Cuba.
Ass Salami Yecchum! Gitmo guests really dig the “brotherly love” they find here. Stays for up to 5 years are available FREE to all Hezbullah and Hamas members!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhaLtc6NgK8
11
I’m glad you asked me about Bush’s deficit, klake!
1) It’s well known that the Bush administration has consistently overestimated deficits in order to “look good” when the actual deficit numbers come in — these guys are all about propaganda, and they game everything!
2) Economists agree the deficit is falling only because of higher tax collections from exploding corporate profits and CEO salaries — which means the deficit will increase again unless we CONTINUE giving an inordinate share of our national output to corporate profiteers and greedy CEO!
3) Bush is hiding part of the deficit with “off-books” spending on Iraq and other items — the real deficit is higher than the “official” figures!
4) Bush and Congress, like previous administrations, also are hiding part of the real deficit with “unified accounting” that uses Social Security’s positive cash flow to offset part of the operating budget deficit — which is MUCH larger than the nominal “official” deficit.
5) Part of the reason the “official” deficit is falling is because of growth in Social Security tax revenues resulting from sheer population growth.
Now let’s do a reality check on the rosy scenario that klake-the-liar paints.
“The Bush Budget Deficit Death Spiral
“by Robert Freeman
“Lenders talk about a ‘debtor’s death spiral.’ It occurs when borrowers get so far in over their heads they begin borrowing money just to cover the interest payments on past borrowings. …
“The U.S. is starting to look like it is entering just such a death spiral … large and growing deficits … (and) their carrying costs … are becoming irreversible, a structural part of the U.S. economy. …
” … as Herbert Stein, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Richard Nixon was fond of saying, ‘Things that can’t go on forever, don’t.’
“The first signs of impending trouble are the exploding budget deficits themselves. … Reagan cut the marginal tax rate on the wealthiest of Americans from 70% to 38%. He promised it would spur an orgy of investment and rocket the economy to new levels of production and prosperity. Instead, his ‘supply side economics’ did the exact opposite. It produced the deepest recession since the Great Depression. Output fell 2.2% in 1982 while budget deficits soared. …
“Bill Clinton reversed Reagan’s course, raising taxes on the wealthy, and lowering them for the working and middle classes. This produced the longest sustained economic expansion in American history. …
“George W. Bush immediately reversed Clinton’s policy in order to revive Reagan’s, once again showering an embarrassment of riches on the already most embarrassingly rich …. He ladled out some $630 billion in tax cuts to the top 1% of income earners. … But the cost to the public has been a return to the exploding deficits of the Reagan years. … The 2004 deficit reached $415 billion, a record. Still, its real size is masked by the fact that Bush has shifted $150 billion from the Social Security trust fund …
“This shell game with federal trust funds taints all official forecasts about Bush’s deficits going forward. For example, the Congressional Budget Office estimates Bush’s cumulative ten year deficit at $2.3 trillion …. But as with the yearly number, this one ignores the trust fund sleight of hand, an omission of some $2.4 trillion. When this is added back in, Bush’s ten year deficit leaps to $4.7 trillion …
“But even that number is understated because the CBO forecasts are based on current law. Bush’s tax cuts have not yet been made permanent. If … the cuts are made permanent, that would add another $3.2 trillion to the shortfall. … Add it all together … and the 10 year deficit explodes to a mind-boggling $7.9 trillion ….
“The interest costs alone will consume the government and, soon, the entire economy. In fiscal 2004, interest costs came to $321 billion against a deficit of $415 billion. So three quarters of all … current … borrowing is spent paying interest on past borrowing. …
“And the situation will only get worse when interest rates rise, as they must. The U.S. has enjoyed an unprecedented period of low rates … (t)he only direction they can go is up. And they will rise quickly once foreigners … become saturated with dollars and begin to eschew additional lending.
“This is effectively what happened in the early 1970s when the Arab oil sheikdoms realized that Nixon had decoupled the dollar from gold redemption but was still paying for oil in dollars—essentially paper. The sheiks tripled the price of oil in 1973 and again in 1978. The OPEC ‘oil shocks’ wrought havoc on the American economy, putting a death to the halcyon days of post-World War II economic growth. Today’s oil at $50 a barrel is the modern day enactment of the same implicit disdain for dollars.
“The Japanese did the same thing in 1987. For years they had funded Reagan’s massive supply side budget deficits but had been made fools as the dollar was losing 15% a year in value, more than wiping out the 5% return they were receiving on their treasuries. They … stopped buying in October 1987, precipitating the greatest one-day U.S. stock market collapse since the Great Depression.
“The dollar overhang problem caused by Bush’s record budget deficits is compounded by record U.S. trade deficits. Every month, the U.S. economy buys some $50 billion more from the world than it sells, … flooding the world with private dollars. These are on top of the public dollars from the budget deficits. The total trade deficit for 2004 will amount to some $680 billion … a twenty fold increase in just over 10 years ….
“These ‘twin deficits’ … combine to well over $1 trillion a year of borrowing. Their effect is to bury the world’s economy in … dollars that increasingly buy less and less … no one knows when the world will say, ‘enough.’ The … danger is that once one major player declares it doesn’t want any more dollars there will be a rush for the exits … the dollar’s price, will plummet. … “In other words, there are structural incentives biasing the descent toward chaos rather than order. …
“The only way the U.S. government can prevent a stampede is to raise interest rates …. But this, of course, increases the carrying costs of the national debt. As if a $7 trillion national debt funded at 4% isn’t bad enough, envision a $15 trillion debt at 10%. Instead of $300 billion a year in interest costs, think of $1.5 trillion. Instead of interest amounting to 3% of GDP, imagine … 10%.
“The higher rates will put a knife in the heart of an already tenuous recovery … suck all of the oxygen out of the economy. Economists call this the ‘crowding out effect’ when lending to the government gets priority over private lending … the market rations shortages by raising … interest rates — forcing private borrowers to pay ever more for scarce capital. … Investment, the foundation of future growth, will be savaged … roads, hospitals, factories, schools and research will be sacrificed to escalating interest rates ….
“This occurred during the deficit-burdened 1980’s when investment grew at an annual rate of only 2.5% versus 6.9% in the surplus-graced 1990’s. And not surprisingly, productivity suffered as well. It grew at a meager 1.4% per year during the 1980’s but almost 50% faster, 2.0%, during the 1990’s.
“This is the perverse, inescapable cycle —- the death spiral —-that comes … with too much debt. Its relentlessly rising carrying costs steadily erode the possibility of getting out from underneath it. Higher debt loads lead to higher interest rates, which lead to lower investment which leads to slower growth and … diminished prosperity. And it develops a runaway, recycling dynamic all its own.
“Finally, it is not only the high absolute levels of debt, nor their rapid expansion, nor even the imminence of much higher interest rates that consign the U.S. to … a deficit death spiral. It is that this toxic combination of circumstances has become structural, irreversible, locked into the very nature of government economic policy. It is like a driver hurtling down a cul de sac and gluing his foot to the accelerator.
“The very purpose of the Reagan supply side tax cuts was to funnel more of the nation’s wealth to those already wealthy. This is what David Stockman, Reagan’s Budget Director, meant when he called them a ‘Trojan Horse.’ … In 1980, the top 20% of income earners captured 43.7% of all national income. … Today it is over 49%. Meanwhile, the lowest four fifths of all income earners have seen their share of national income decline. The lowest quintile’s share has shrunk from 4.2% to 3.5%. The second lowest quintile has fallen from 10.2% to 8.8%. The middle quintile has seen its share fall from 16.8% to 14.8%. And the second highest quintile has suffered a decline from 25.0 to 23.3% … everyone else is getting poorer.
“The problem this holds for national economic management is that the rich consume a much lower percentage of their income than do those who are not rich. … The rich are also the most likely to spend … on foreign luxury goods, take foreign vacations, make investments in foreign countries …. It is personal consumption … that generates 67% of GDP. If more of the nation’s income goes to those who do not consume … while those who do consume … have less and less income … there is simply not enough purchasing power to sustain GDP.
“GDP will ratchet steadily downward in mirror image to the rate at which national income is transferred upward. The only recourse is for the government to step in to pump up demand. This is the role the deficits play in sustaining GDP. This is why deficits exploded under Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II, all of whom cut taxes on the rich, but declined under Clinton who raised them. Rising public deficits are … indispensable to sustaining GDP because so much of the nation’s wealth has been transferred from those who … spend it to those who … do not.
“Supply side economics … rests on the repeatedly disproved faith that investment and prosperity are caused by giving ever more of the nation’s wealth to the already wealthy. As long as this lunacy continues … the government will keep expanding federal deficits. Eventually … this will cause a collapse of the dollar that can only be reversed by raising interest rates. But that will explode the carrying costs … vitiating private sector investment. And that will kill all future prospects of meaningful growth.
“This is the essence of the Bush budget deficit death spiral. To be sure, the debts are an unequalled bonanza for those few who lend the money, for they get to do so at ever-higher rates of interest. But it is a death sentence for all the rest of the economy.”
This article is excerpted under the Fair Use doctrine; for complete article and/or copyright info, see http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1022-26.htm
Let’s recap:
1) The Bush deficits are actually 3.4 times as large as the “official” figures klake-the-liar is relying on.
2) Much of the Bush public debt still lies in the future, because the impact of his tax cuts is only beginning to be felt.
3) Our buddies the Chinese commies are buying up a lot of that debt and pretty soon will have us over a fucking barrel! Why fight a nuclear war with the U.S. when you can sink your enemy economically. They’re already siphoning millions of jobs out of our economy that used to be filled by now-unemployed or now-underemployed AMERICANS.
4) Lower-class U.S. households are already hopelessly in debt and the shrinking U.S. middle class, whose standard of living is actually falling, is being forced to borrow just to pay monthly bills.
5) How does the average American benefit from billionaires getting richer? What good does it do ME for Rupert Murdoch’s net worth to increase?
6) Did you notice what the article said about “productivity” and what happens to it when rising interest rates stifle investment?
7) Whiiiiiiich direction are interest rates going right nooooow? Huh?
klake is full of shit.
But you don’t have to take my word that klake is full of shit! In about two weeks, America’s voters will tell us whether they feel better off than they did under the Democrats.
I can hardly wait.
“Projected New House*: 226 Democrats 207 Republicans 2 Ties” http://www.electoral-vote.com/
13
“still working on the English language” Commentby klake— 10/28/06@ 3:43 pm
Care to share which planet you’re from?
Roger no Socialist Democrats never lied to anyone, right????????
From April 2006, Cynthia McKinney gets caught lying to Wolf Blitzer on CNN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....38;search=
Whiiiiiiich direction are interest rates going right nooooow? Huh?
klake is full of shit.
Commentby Roger Rabbit— 10/28/06@ 7:58 pm
According to the TV down, when was the last time you applied for a home loan?
20
“We’ve deconstructed every one of klake’s pre-packaged assertions time and again and his only response is to lie low for a while and say the same crap all over again” Commentby headless lucy— 10/28/06@ 4:44 pm
Redneck plays this game too. He not only lies about federal revenues …
2000 – $1,372,376,000,000 (baseline year)
2001 – $1,297,063,000,000
2002 – $1,152,413,000,000
2003 – $1,069,364,000,000
2004 – $1,146,664,000,000
2005 – $1,279,114,000,000 (estimate)
(data from official sources)
… he also FALSELY claims I “denied” there’s a “connection” between tax cuts and federal revenues. What I actually said (dozens of times) is:
A tax rate of zero produces no revenue. A 100% tax rate also produces no revenue, because it destroys incentive for economic activity. Maximum revenue occurs at a tax rate between 0% and 100%. If the existing tax rate is above that point, a tax cut will increase revenue. If it’s below that point, as is nearly always the case in a democracy where taxpayers elect their leaders, a tax cut will reduce revenue.
So it is with the Bush tax cuts, which as you can see from the figures above (which do not include Social Security revenues, as the Social Security tax was not cut), have REDUCED revenues. No big fucking surprise there. Of course they’re growing now — partly because our population and economy are larger — but five years later still have not caught up with pre-tax cut revenues!!!
Another thing Redneck conveniently omitted is that the rising revenues in 2004 and 2005 are due to higher tax collections on soaring corporate profits and CEO salaries — neither of which is sustainable over the long haul — AND Republicans want to ELIMINATE corporate taxes and give high-earners more tax cuts!!!
Explain to me again how THAT increases revenues, Redneck?
You are a fucking idiot!!! so is klake the nazi, who can’t even spell a simple English word like “tongue.”
I think we’ve been invaded by aliens.
51
“According to the TV down, when was the last time you applied for a home loan?” Commentby klake— 10/28/06@ 8:09 pm
No klake, the benchmark interest rates are all higher, the Federal Reserve has been raising the key rate for some time now — something like 17 increases to date. Which you would know if you read a fucking newspaper once in a while.
What does a rabbit living in a hole in a public park need a home loan for?
You are a fucking idiot!!! What planet are you from, anyway? Care to share?
26
Sounds great!!! I can hardly wait! The only thing that’s missing is special punitive tax increases on Republicans — for being assholes.
26 (continued)
Everyone who voted Republican beginning with 2000 owes the rest of us compensatory and exemplary damages.
42
Why do you think a retired judge would hang out with a 39-year-old prosecutor who bangs paralegals in the john? You need to speak with the prosecutor about that. I don’t know this guy.
50
Cynthia Kinney is an idiot! Good riddance!! The Democratic Party doesn’t need her — she’s an embarassment. But she wasn’t hitting on page boys; the GOP can’t say as much for THEIR idiots. I still prefer our idiots to your idiots, all things considered.
klake still hasn’t refuted my post @47 and I have a feeling he isn’t going to.
New Socialist Democrats supporters and they really want their money. Mohammad thanks you for your moral support.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv3TudB5J10
Rabbit I think we should garnish all the republicans that voted for bush wages until the iraq war debt is paid off
I got surveyed from the U.W. tonight about the up coming elections hehehehehehehee
I think converted her to Marxism
Socialist your dream come true.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyuICq04_Vc
Why don’t the 40 million people in this country who can’t afford health care look in wonderment and appreciation at the “robust” economy and vote Republican? I don’t know, klake, you try to explain it. Wages have been flat or regressing and prices rising throughout the Bush administration and those damn voters fail to appreciate how ROBUST the economy is for billionaires!!! What’s wrong with them ,klake? Your only hope is gay-bashing and “TURRISM” at this point. Commentby headless lucy— 10/28/06@ 4:44 pm
Glad you brought that up lucy – 39.8 Million of those he inherited from Bill Clinton. Where is the love moonbats? Why didn’t you fix this. ANother problem inherited by GWB!
Funny how that works. Facts hurt the librul mind!
Wow that was great Klake see you can contibute someing usefull if you try.
http://www.marxists.org/
http://sp-usa.org/
http://www.cpusa.org/
I book marked that video it was truly wonderful thank you for sharing it with me.
Cost to cost is having a good interview on k.v.i. tonight
Art bell is the only thing I listen to on kvi any more sense recovered from republicanisum after 94
The republican got so bad even art bell became a libertarian and gave up talking about politics and he was the hardest
core Republican talk show in the urly 90s
Klake: Those signs she took down were anonymous. It didn’t say they were property of Republicans. It was a lying, anonymous slam. So fuck you klake and the horse you’ve been fucking.
re 64: Hilary tried to but the “contract on America” traitor Republicans shot it down.
Can’t you remember anything straight?
how old are you lucy?
Im 42
I’m making calls for Darcy Burner on Monday. You know, Reichert’s just beginning to look OLD — haggard —– Keith Richards with a bouffant hairdo and a Seeeer- suckah—soot!!
Klake: Those signs she took down were anonymous. It didn’t say they were property of Republicans. It was a lying, anonymous slam. So fuck you klake and the horse you’ve been fucking.
Comment by headless lucy— 10/28/06@ 8:54 pm
Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Lucy bestiality is illegal in this State, even the rabbit had to take his wife cell phone away from her.
re 72: So quit fucking the horse, klake. Moron!
I have a feeling Darcy Burner is going to win.
I mean dancing dave didn’t win buy that much last time
You lemmings let goldstien give you your daily dose of koolaid but the ASS doesn’t even know what DAY it is.
the straight poop on WA politics & the press sunday, october 29
hello! McFly!!
Now you know why the right wing traitors hate you Goldy. You accomplished something good. Thus, they hate you.
By the way voted this afternoon via absentee, straight Dem ticket!!!
Да социалистический преподаватель
did you sign your ballot that wha little sheep?
Да социалистический преподаватель, я повинуюсь
“Yes, socialist teacher, I obey.”
Да, социалистический преподаватель, я повинуюсь. Я – ваши овцы
Yes, socialist teacher, I obey. I am your sheep
Rock on Anonymous, you are the cutest little CYRILLIAN CYBORG ——everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!
Are you an Alcoholic? Is that why you remain anonymous?
By the way, I’m a Bush hater and I hate Christians. I want to raise taxes on everyone. I’m helping sneak in the gay agenda through the back door (hehe)!!!!! I want to kill babies while they are being born, give free cheese and purple Cadillacs to crack ho’s in the ghetto. Run down the honest and trustwothy corporate burghers……….ad infinitum…..
That’s why everyone’s voting Democrat. Because of our great program!!!
Hop on board the Democrat LOVE TRAIN, anonymous!!! There’s free cheese aplenty and clean hypodermic syringes for all that fine Afghan heroin. All aboard!!! We’re headed for that big Hilary Village on the hill. Just brush the bloody aborted fetuses off the seat and sit down with our crack pipes and heroin and Socialistic PROGRAMS AND LETS FIGURE NEW WAYS TO PREVENT PEOPLE FROM REALIZING THE TRUE VALUE OF THEIR PRIVATE PROPERTY.
COME ON ,ANONYMOUS! IT’LL BE MORE FUN THAN FINDIN’ JESUS’ FACE ON A TORTILLA!
60
Why stop there? I think war crimes trials are in order.
95
Hey — if Ann Coulter can lock up liberals for supporting PEACE, why can’t we lock up conservatives for supporting WAR?
64
America’s uninsured are up to 46 million now, so GWB “fixed” it by adding over 6 million more!
BTW, nearly all of the 46 million are workers. Retirees get Medicare, and welfare moms get Medicaid. CEOs and execs get their company health plans, and I’m sure the Mark Rednecks of the world get theirs, too. Only the PRODUCERS … i.e., the people who WORK and MAKE things … don’t have health care.
Way to go, Repukes!!
Here’s what GWB did for the 47 million Americans who don’t have health insurance:
He and the GOP Congress changed the bankruptcy laws to …
1) Make it harder for consumers to go bankrupt because of medical debt
2) Make it easier for giant corporations to use bankruptcy laws to break their union contracts and dump their pension obligations on taxpayers
Waaaay to go, Pubbies!!!
All of the middle class voters who lost their homes, savings, and cars to medical debt will thank you on Election Day — I can hardly wait until Middle America shows the GOP their appreciation!!!
74
Keep fucking the horse, klake! You could use a kick in the head.
In case you forgot — another Rossi dead voter. http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....se15m.html
79
Knew it!!! “Anonymous” is a fucking Russian spy.
85 – 88
Those posts are for you, klake.
Congratulations, Goldy. Your fundraising effort is a truly great accomplishment.
Thank you for your activism, and helping to put this country back on the right track.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/.....ly-values/
More republican family values….
Ohhhhhhhhh Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucy:
No comments on the 39.8 Million w/o health care in the “biggest boom economy” (per you moonbats) ever seen? Why didn’t Billy Boy and Hillary fix this?
Moonbat to the core!
Suckie must have forgotten the plan that was presented to Congress in 1993, got attacked with “Harry and Louise” ads, and died in the runup to the 1994 election.
39.8 Million w/o health care in the “biggest boom economy”
Uhhh – WOS, Congress made it clear they were against doing anything about it in ’93. Then ’94 happened – the contract ON America. Was health care in that?
At least we got a boom and millions of jobs created.
Look in the mirror WOS. Who’s that stooopid, deluded, wingnut fool looking back?
klake 2
Too bad the economy is cooling…into recession?
Also, from January 27, 2006:
You see, it wasn’t “over the first half of this year” that the economy grew at 4.1 percent annual rate, that was in the third quarter only and was considered anomalous. Not that you would pick out a single favorable didit then distort it for partisan gain. Oh, no, not you.
And get off the “recession that started under Clinton” lie. The recession started in May 2001 and ended in November 2001. Not that you have ever had any credibility, but lying does not become you.
92 MWS
That claim would be “the longest economic expansion in American history.”
And blame the Republicans for shooting down health care reform.
HE’S KIDDING … RIGHT?
From the Associated Press:
“WASHINGTON (Oct. 29) – House Majority Leader John Boehner says he might have taken matters into his own hands if he or any GOP leader had known about ex-Rep. Mark Foley’s sexually explicit instant messages to former pages.
“‘Foley’s conduct was reprehensible, abhorrent. And if any one of us would have known about this, we would have dragged him out of there by his tie,’ said Boehner, the current No. 2 leader in the House.
“Boehner, R-Ohio, maintains he told Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., last spring about Foley’s too-friendly e-mails to pages ….”
So, um, why didn’t he drag Foley out by his tie then? His self-serving hyperbole sounds like bullshit to me … or spin … or damage control …
All of the middle class voters who lost their homes, savings, and cars to medical debt will thank you on Election Day – I can hardly wait until Middle America shows the GOP their appreciation!!!
Comment by Roger Rabbit— 10/28/06@ 10:26 pm
Roger there is no middle class in Seattle they have been ran out of town by your wealthy elitist Socialist Democrats. Those that vote live in the red zone and their children have great schools to get educated as future leaders of this nation. Your friends in Seattle hate the poor and use them as useful idiots and cheap labor. They transport the poor to the Eastside to tent cities instead of using old military facilities like Sand Point or Fort Lawton. Next they (POOR) will be push to the Eastside and transplanted by the extremist Al Qaida that you all so fondly love and support. Roger it is really sad to have bunch of extremist Liberals have taken over the Democrat Party. But there is still hope for the Party will adjust to its real voting base. If not the party will be run by rich Liberal Elitist Socialist Democrats and the poor will be their favorite pawns to maintain that power. The middle class will move to the suburbia and divorce themselves from your nightmares. Sweet dreams Thumper.
It’s good to know that our noble president has managed in just six years to get us down to a quarter of a trillion dollars in additional annual debt for all Americans.
61 MWS
All Bush did was add millions more uninsured and drop the number not at all (numbers NIHS):
98
JAPOLFKTN
(just another pack of lies from klake the nazi)
39 klake
I thought you so-called “tough on crime” boys laid claim to all the prosecutors. I guess that’s only until you can use one for a partisan slam, right?
Then again, he probably IS a Democrat, because everyone knows Republicans ain’t gettin’ any.
Daddy Love: I noticed you didn’t bolden the 29.2 million. Why was that? I guess the number really dropped for a little while.
Why vote for a Democrat?
There ARE a few reasons:
jack Abramoff’s payoffs
Dennis Hastert’s cover-up
Bob Ney’s bribery conviction
Mark Foley’s teen age page predation
Duke Cunningham selling out the Defense Department and Intelligence Committee for money
Tom Reynolds cover-up
John Boehner cover-up
Rodney Alexander cover-up
Prescription drug bill bribery for votes
Prescription drug bill giveaways to pharmaceuticals
FEMA Director out to dinner, Condi shoe shopping, and Bush playing guitar in California while people drowned from Katrina in NOLA
Invasion and occupation of a country that didn’t attack us
Failed Iraq strategy costing close to 25,000 American casualties
Osama bin Laden still at large
Lying to America about Private Lynch
North Korea reprocessed plutonium nuclear weapons
USA without allies in the fight against terrorism
Pretending that a 700-mile fence will solve border problems
TSA airline security totally FUBAR
Attempts to dismantle Socal Security
No oversight of the Executive on “national security” (torture and warrantless wiretaps)
Out-of-control annual budget deficits (2003, 2004, 2005 highest in history)
That’s what I came up with off the top of my head anyway…
Clueless admitted it for all. 93-94 Congress moonbats were in charge. Now we know the moonbats didn’t want any parts of it but it’s all GWB that 29.2 Million (a lower munber) had no insurance!
103 MWS
It’s not “boldening.”
Anyway, I don’t know if that’s a lower figure than 2001 or not.
From Number and percentage of persons without health insurance coverage at the time of interview, by age group: United States, 1997–2006 (in milions):
1997 41.0
1998 39.3
1999 38.7
2000 41.3
2001 40.2
2002 41.5
2003 43.6
2004 42.5
2005 41.2
2006 42.4
It was quite high in 2003, but the numbers do not seem to be growing at the same rate as population.
So Daddy Love
41.3 to 42.4 is a 1.1 Million increase.
38.7 to 41.3 is a 2.6 Million increase.
Wow the numbers sure don’t lie!
Good news, klake!! The link I posted above is working again. Knock yourself out.
No, seriously.