Join us at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally for an evening of politics under the influence. Officially, we start at 8:00 pm at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Some folks show up early to enjoy the cuisine.
Tonight will be something of a pre-election party. We’ll raise a toast to Alaska’s outgoing Senator—whatever you think of his politics, the man has convictions! Likewise, we’ll raise a toast to Dino Rossi in hopes that he gets himself some convictions.
If you find yourself in the Tri-Cities area this evening, McCranium shoud have the scoop on the local Drinking Liberally. Otherwise, check out the Drinking Liberally web site for dates and times of a chapter near you.
Roger Rabbit is in the shop having the claws on his powerful hind feet filed razor sharp for improved traction.
Joe The Plumber, who wanted everyone to believe he’s an independent, was stumping for McPalin in Ohio today. He drew a crowd of 70 on a sidewalk — plus 1 heckler who asked Joe when he was going to pay his back taxes.
Newsmax TV Ad Links Obama To 9/11 Terrorist
FactCheck calls a new anti-Obama ad “bunk.” A group calling itself the “National Republican Trust PAC,” which FactCheck says is linked to the rightwing blog “Newsmax,” is spending $900,000 to run a web and TV ad that “mixes a pile of false claims and the image of 9/11 mastermind Mohammed Atta” to smear Obama.
According to FactCheck, “The spot falsely claims Obama has a ‘plan’ to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. In fact, Obama has said quite specifically, ‘I am not proposing that that’s what we do.’ The ad implies such licenses would enable terrorist attacks. In fact, Atta wouldn’t have needed one to carry out his attacks. It claims that Obama’s health care plan will apply to illegal immigrants. But Obama has stated quite clearly that his plan ‘does not’ cover illegal immigrants. The ad falsely claims that Obama’s plan ‘gives illegals Social Security benefits,’ which is also flatly untrue.”
(Source: Newsweek)
Roger Rabbit Commentary: We knew this was coming, didn’t we? That if McSame was on the ropes in the last desperate days of the campaign, some surprisingly well-heeled Swiftboat group would appear out of nowhere and fling the slimiest smears you could imagine at Obama. Well, this is it, folks. This is the last blast of the Crazy Right to take Obama down. It won’t work this time. Whoever bankrolled this front group is going to be out his $900K — no return on investment, no payoff, nothing but a sea of blue states staring at him from the TV screen on Election Night. Chew your fingernails, asshole. You should’ve put your money in the stock market — at least you would have got back 5 cents on the dollar.
Message to Stupes:
Here’s a video that might, just might clear some of the crap out of your head:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW-6DpC-mj8
Vote Obama/Biden and re-elect Christine Gregoire on Nov 4.
The rising tide of reality wipes out all repthugicans.
Oops!!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....38606.html
I sure wish that fool Surreal Mark was around to see this…
No wonder we’ve heard wall-to-wall Ayers and next to NOTHING about Khalidi.
NEWS FLASH!!
O-blah-blah wants his supporters to take off work on November 4th!
Only problem is MOST OF O-BLAH-BLAH’s SUPPORTERS DON’T HAVE A F*CKING JOB!
LA Times is holding back 2003 Tape of O-Blah-blah praising Ayers.
It will eventually come out and cripple O-Blah-Blah for the rest of his political career.
Hey Cynical @ 8
Your candidate supports Palestinian terror. See 6.
That guilt-by-association crap can work against you too.
You got Ayers on the brain. It wasn’t Ayers that supposedly is on that tape.
8:
Cyniclown, the tape has NOTHING to do with Ayers.
Reach Cyniclown.
The tape is being held to protect a source. The tape has nothing noteworthy on it. The Times fully reported the content of the tape. Can you read? Can you comprehend what you read? Oh, never mind…I forgot who I was talking to. The Lyin’ King of HA, and possibly, the entire blogosphere.
MLF–
You are lying…again.
The tape is all about Obama praising Ayers…in 2003.
The “source” thing is a big excuse.
It will eventually come out.
Cyniclown,
Cite the source who says Obama “praised” Ayers.
Perhaps he was saying something about his teaching ability in Chicago?
Now, asshole, since you are lying I am prepared to wait for hell to freeze over for you to cite your source (must be credible, not Rush or Hannity).
Why aren’t you posting over in Florida tonight railing about the increased hours to vote?
Obama has received the praises of Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam.
O-blah-blah has received more undesirable praises from whackjobs like Farrakhan AND known terrorists than most Americans are comfortable with.
Obama is on the tape blowing Ayers in a stall
at the Minneapolis Airport bathroom. Irony at
it’s finest! Muslims don’t typically blow
other terrorists, they blow themselves. That
must be what he means by change.
MLF–
I’m glad they are helping folks in Florida vote by extending the hours.
The LA Times Article is on the surface about the 2003 Dinner by Local Arab Americans bidding farewell to Rashid Khalidi, an internationally known scholar, critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights where O-blah-blah toasts him and gets all gushy over this terror-spreading lunatic.
What the issue is is regarding what else is on that tape. There must be waaaaaaaaaaay more than the LA Times reports..or they would release the tape.
13:
cyniclown, I asked a specific question in 12. You answer with bullshit from Farrakhan or supposedly from Farrakhan. Don’t you think that if this was true the reputable media, we will include FAUX NOISE, would have had this everywhere? Come on clownboy, wise up.
I know that the election of Democrats to run the place has your panties all twisted into knots, but really, try to stay focused.
mark–
I thought these KLOWNS had declared the Presidential Race over weeks ago.
They seem a bit ruffled.
Even if O-blah-blah wins, all he will hear about for the next 4 years is his Terrorist ties and Socialist/Marxist views.
16:
cyniclown,
Have you stopped beating your wife and molesting your dog?
I know there is more to this issue than you want folks to know.
@17 I can’t wait to see what happens when all
of us who produce the taxes, QUIT. I think
my back hurts.
You tards are toast and don’t even know it. HA
@7 I’m an Obama voter and I don’t have a job! Why should I work, when the government taxes Workers 3 times as much as Owners? Investors Business Daily is bitching because Obama might raise millionaires’ taxes so much they might have to pay 2/3rds as much as a guy making $50K instead of only 1/2 as much! That’s still a deal I’d take. Obama’s tax plan isn’t good enough to motivate me to work. Why should I work just to pay more taxes than I owe by owning?
My Friends,
There is nothing wrong with asking a man, who claims moral superiority, to explain his past actions, experiences and associations.
My friends, it is time for cyniclown to come to the posters at HA and explain in detail the beatings he gives to his wife and the fucking of his dog to relieve his “stress”.
My friends, join with me to fight, fight for our right to know the extent of his association with other wife beaters and bestiality aficionados. We must fight to find the identity of the God he claims to follow.
My friends, who is cyniclown? What are his real motives? Who else has he abused and molested?
My friends, it is time to fully vet cyniclown. I know how to fight and I have the scars to prove it. I have a plan to get the information from cyniclown And as long as I am posting on this blog I will fight for those answers.
My friends, I have a plan to get Bin Laden too, but one thing at a time, OK?
Obama Closes In On Arizona
An Arizona poll with a 3% margin of error shows Obama moving to within 2% of McCain compared to a 7% deficit last month, suggesting Obama has a shot at winning McCain’s home state.
(Source: Associated Press)
20
Mark, do you pay attention? Or do you just sit around and masturbate all day?
Lying to us is one thing, but lying to yourself is a sign of mental illness.
@19 I agree with you, Mark. I think everyone should quit their jobs and own stuff. You pay lower taxes that way. No one should do any work.
Only 6 days to go before we raise Cynical’s taxes.
(snicker)
I think he should pay reparations, too.
(tee hee)
Cynical’s going loony tunes.
He sees Ayers under every bed.
When I read posts from Cynical and Mark, which is about all that is left of the Republican Party, I start feeling all warm and fuzzy. We see that all that is left of that party is name-calling, buzz words, and pointless speculation. Honest discussion of issues is a foreign concept to Republicans. The reason that party is imploding is that all the thinkers have left. When a political party demeans those with Ivy League degrees, makes a virtue of graduating in the bottom 5% of your college class, and condemns intellectuals, that party has no future. Go ahead and make Joe the Plumber into a party elder, please do it.
As usual Rabbit talks a lot of nonsense. On the bright side he is the only one that actually references some type of actual argument.
By the way, ‘John McCain is a fag’ or some other tired abuse isn’t argument. It’s the last refuge of the stupid when they have nothing to say.
One more time, although it’s pointless with the lazy layabouts that form the democrat base…
Owners pay less taxes because they already paid them. Actually taxing someone on what they own is double taxation. They bought the company or stock or home or whatever on taxable income. Then they get taxed on the thing they bought…with taxed income. This lazy pernicious liberals call fair, and keep a straight face throughout. Kudos on the acting ability.
Yes your megolomaniacal candidate probably will win this election. Yes his dislike of this country will become the modus operandi of the White House. Congratulations idiots, you just voted Chavez for US president! All politicians are corrupt, but most have some moral compass, no matter how well they ignore it. Obama doesn’t. Think Ted Stevens was bad. Wait a couple of years. If the liberal press in this country actually does their job Obama will show that amateur what real corruption is.
God help America when the lunatics run the assylum!
Funny News Video
Mrs. Rabbit says KING 5 TV News will have a video tonight of a guy trying to steal an Obama yard sign that’s tied to a tether. When he drives away — BOINK! — the sign flies back into the yard! And the whole thing was caught on the homeowner’s hidden video camera.
@29 You mean I only buy stocks to own them, and not to earm dividends and capital gains? I didn’t realize that. Thanks for explaining that to me!
By the way, your argument makes as much sense as saying someone who has to buy a car for his job shouldn’t owe taxes because he’s already invested after-tax income in buying the job.
P.S., We couldn’t possibly top Republicans for corruption, even if we tried!
Ah, so “lost at sea” is back stringing together words that have little or no meaning. Let’s see if we can decipher this screed:
Owners pay less taxes because they already paid them. Actually taxing someone on what they own is double taxation. They bought the company or stock or home or whatever on taxable income. Then they get taxed on the thing they bought…with taxed income.
So, having failed to come up with a convincing argument based on job creation or a vague and feckless analogy involving rising tides and leaky boats, or any other argument based on actual economic effects, we are treated to a novel concept: the Federal Government ought to tax rich people less, because doing so offsets local property taxes. One gets the distinct impression that our friend’s goal has more to do with trying cram variations of the word “tax” into as short a paragraph as possible than it has with discussing the economic effects of various tax structures.
Note that none of this has anything to do with what Roger Rabbit was talking about–namely people making money by buying and selling pieces of paper. The equivocation between ownership of real estate and ownership of other forms of assets is as blatantly obvious as Pinochio’s nose.
Lost, here’s a clue: McCain will, in all likelihood, lose this election, because the Republican rhetorical dogs wont bark any more. You’re going to have to come up with new arguments, and I’d suggest you base those arguments on assumptions that have at least some resemblance to reality. If not, you’re going to be spending a looooong time grousing about Democrats and making outlandish predictions.
Wingnuts! Who said this:
Sounds like socialism to me.
Fundamentally the difference between a liberal and a conservative is the direction of flow. The liberal takes from the government and the conservative gives to it. This is true whether the object taken is a service or money.
The tricky bit comes in when liberals try to game the system. How do you get rational people to give up their right to hard earned rewards for honest work? You can steal it outright, but eventually that leaves a sour taste in the mouth, presumably even of liberals. You can try to ask for more in wages or better business deals, but wealthy people didn’t get that way by being stupid. I know, let’s try to convince them that ‘we’re all in this together’, or ‘society made it possible for you to succeed so you owe more.’ Of course smart people generally don’t buy this, so the only ones who do are the folks who didn’t earn it by intelligence. You know, Hollywood elites and that type. You can also convince the unwashes masses of this patent lie, very easily. Of course they have nothing to steal, so the game there is to use force of numbers to give theft the gloss of legality.
All of this is built on a house of cards of course. You’re not really outsmarting the intelligent and capable. They hide their money elsewhere and use the likes of Pelosi to help them do it in intricate tax code. It makes the incompetent and lazy feel good though, to think they got the better of those rich bastards.
You guys would be funny if you weren’t so damn pathetic.
@33 I’ll bet Gregoire would be as popular as Palin if Washington sat atop an ocean of oil as Alaska does and Gregoire handed out royalty checks instead of tax statements to Washington residents. And I wonder how Palin would run a budget that requires collecting taxes? She has no experience in that.
@34 “Fundamentally the difference between a liberal and a conservative is the direction of flow. The liberal takes from the government and the conservative gives to it. This is true whether the object taken is a service or money.”
If you’re going to make an argument like this, you should at least get your factual premises straight before making a public fool of yourself.
Exhibit A: ‘Red’ states receive more federal benefits than they pay in taxes.
Exhibit B: ‘Blue’ states pay more taxes than they receive in federal benefits.
Here’s a couple of other facts that may help you on your way …
Corporate welfare costs taxpayers 5 times as much as individual welfare.
Republican farmers and ranchers west of the Mississippi River benefit from federal reclamation project that cost (mostly) urban taxpayers an average of $2 million per farm or ranch.
Republican-voting farmers and growers in eastern Washington’s ‘red’ counties couldn’t exist economically without the massive federal investment in the Columbia River dams and irrigation development, or subsidized electricity to run their irrigation pumps — all paid for by (mostly) urban ratepayers.
King County drivers send over $125 million a year to Washington’s rural counties to pay for their roads.
Now … you were saying something about taking and giving?
The rest of the comment @34 is so incoherent and sophomoric it’s not worth responding to. I mean, there’s nothing there except careening diatribe.
For example, if someone really wants to have an intelligent discussion of economic disincentives, then shouldn’t we be discussing the fact that taxing wages much more heavily than inheritances, capital gains, dividends, or other asset-based income creates powerful disincentives against being employed and encourages people with sufficient assets to live on their asset-generated income and not work?
Look at how our tax system operates. If a business owner borrows money for his business, he can deduct the interest from his gross income. In other words, he pays no tax on income that goes for paying interest. But if a worker borrows money for consumer spending, he can’t deduct the interest from his taxable income. He has to buy consumer goods and services with taxed income.
Now let’s look at how these tax policies affect the economy. Consumer spending is 70% of the economy, and most of these consumers are workers whose incomes are taxed at maximum rates and whose interest expenses are nondeductible. These tax policies reduce the amount of money consumers have available to spend and that results in a contraction of the economy.
When you combine tax policies that punish people for working and reduce their ability to consumer with business policies of forcing down wages and cutting benefits, what you get is a collapse of consumer spending and a recession. When workers don’t have money they can’t buy, and when businesses don’t have sales their investments and assets earn nothing.
Shouldn’t the disincentives against work in our tax code, shrinking consumer buying power, corporate wage policies, and allocation of tax burdens be a part of any economic discussion?
Don Joe, words have meaning only for those that understand them. Your liberal arts AA didn’t actually teach that, but try to keep up. Grab a dictionary and maybe the words won’t be meaningless.
Yes McCain will lose, very likely. When the electorate is largely uneducated and votes on feelings anyone promising free stuff will win. That is basic human nature practiced by that slimy politician Obama. Here’s a slogan you liberals would like- Land, Bread, Peace. Right out of the Obama/Marx playbook. And most Americans will have forgottent he source..
I made no mention of property taxes. We’re talking about Federal tax policy.
Those ‘pieces of paper’ are taxed already, too. Our eminently fair taxation system believes in taxing the same dollar as often as possible. I know they didn’t teach corporate structure in basket weaving or water polo or whatever you took in junior college, but it’s a basic of the corporate tax structure. The dollar earned by the corporation is taxed. That dollar distributed in the form of profit sharing or dividends is again taxed as personal income. Yes it is taxed at a lower rate, but it shouldn’t be taxed at all!
And hell yes the government ought to tax rich people less. They consume less government resources. They do create jobs although liberals can’t understand the basic connection between innovation and consumption on the one hand and job creation on the other. They support local and national economies with their purchases. Those purchases create jobs from the sales clerk to the janitor at the factory making the product. So what do we do? We ‘fairly’ tax them more than the lazy morons whining about how little they make instead of doing something about it. In any case private sector dollars do more to stimulate economies than any amount of goverment effort. More in the private sector means a growing economy. A growing economy means more tax revenue. Or is that too obtuse for you?
I could give a damn less about the economic implications of tax policy. All that is required is that the burden of constitutionally mandated government responsibilities is fairly divided among those paying taxes. The object is to pay for our government, not to stimulate economies. That is what the private sector is for, not the public.
As for corruption that cuts accross party lines. I won’t defend corrupt Republicans but at least I don’t use the media to hide corruption in my partisan preferences. What price Barney Frank with his unqualified boyfriend working for Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac? How about Nancy Pelosi demanding a bigger Air Force jet to fly her retinue back and forth from nutty San Francisco? You won’t hear any of that on your official democratic mouthpiece networks at NBC, CBS and ABC.
Rabbit, in 36 you topped even your usual arrogance.
I don’t know my premises? I wasn’t quoting specific economic figures but you were. Care to back up exhibit A or B or, well, any of the ridiculous claims you made with some provable number? Maybe a source, that is some left loony “thinktank.”
By the way King County ports export mainly produce from Eastern Washington. Without those a great deal of the activity at Seattle and Tacoma ports would fade away. Without those ships would leave empty. This happens elsewhere in the country thanks to Unions destroying American business, but not here, yet.
Making sure the roads are okay so Seattle liberals can sip wine in Yakima or marvel at the quaint locals. Sure. Believe me they hate King County loony liberals for all the ridiculous rules applicable only to the Seattle Metropolitan area as much as you hate the independent thinkers over there.
You might seek some counseling for your rage against the successful. You seem to hate anyone who actually plans their life and manages to make their financial life work. Was it a childhood incident, or something that happened at school. Maybe a squirrel took your carrot, rabbit?
As for 37, companies and the wealthy who own them pay the lion’s share of taxes in this country. They pay it on earnings, not on the incidental expenses along the way. The state and federal governments get their money in the end. Don’t worry about it.
The comparison to comsumer spending is shallow and silly. They consume from the businesses you so despise. Is it in the consumer interest to drive prices up by increasing the cost of doing business?
As for disincentives, I know no hard working person who loses the lifestyle of prudence and hard work. The skills and habits that generated the assets keep most people I know interested in acquiring more.
The disincentive is purely on the lazy and incompetent that liberals so love. The habit of indolence is gotten over a lifetime and is very dificult to beat. This is particularly true when it has no consequences. The lazy in this country eat for free, go the hospitals for free, live in subsidized housing and pay no taxes. If I were so degraded by a couple of generations of welfare that the stigma was gone I’d do that too. Talk about disincentive to work!
As far as your link to those policies and our ‘recession’ they don’t exist. If we do suffer a recession it will be due to the irresponsible press that wants it so badly. The only way your man could become president is in a state of national panic. Et voila.
This idiot at 38 has probably never heard of the Iraq war or the financial bailout and that somehow the money we’ve borrowed to wage this expensive, bloody and useless Republican endeavor or to encourage bloated financial institutions to snap each other up at firesale prices has to be paid back or else our creditors will cut us off or get the money back by other means. Somehow, someone’s got to pay the bill.
Now if the government has debts to pay back because of foolish policies it only makes sense to go where the money is does it not? Don’t go to the middle class because the middle class hasn’t had a raise in 30 years while those more fortunate have had nothing but raises the last 30 years. In fact the middle class badly needs tax relief because while George the lesser has gone on his excellent adventure in Iraq and rewarded his supporters with tax cuts, the middle class has seen tax increases at the local level because of declining federal support.
Oh and guess what? Barack Obama has promised exactly that relief for the middle class while allowing the Dumbya tax cuts to expire for those making more than 250k per year. All perfectly reasonable because those fortunate enough to have that kind of income paid those rates more or less during the Clinton years and they did just fine then. In fact job growth was explosive and the government’s books were balanced at the end of it.
I know who’ll better serve my interests on Nov 4.
Economy’s failing and what do all the democraps want – Raise massiive taxes and drive the economy further into the tank
Way to go Obama! You are the Change we DO NOT NEED!
14 — Awwww. Is it slowly dawning on poor gs that his silly predictions almost never come true?
Don’t worry gs. If you’re lucky enough to make more than 250k you’ll be paying pretty much the same in taxes that were charged during the Clinton years. We sure added a lot of jobs back then and balanced the government’s books to boot. Rich people still got richer.
@39
Interesting. You think we don’t understand corporate structure… funny.. Honestly the idea that all liberals are complete idiots is as ridiculous as all republicans are criminals.
Mr. Cynical will call me a liar and unemployed again, I guess because I’m not as tied to my wealth as he seems to be to his, but I’m pretty well versed in corporate structure. Warren Buffett might even be called a liberal with his views on taxes and I wouldn’t call him a slouch when it comes to corporate structure.
You know, don’t imagine everyone on the west side of the cascades hates everyone on the east side simply because you hold that opinion. And there are plenty of free thinkers over here who don’t follow you’re honestly pretty narrow view of the world. If you were really a free thinker, show it by being a little more open to those of us who probably don’t fit your worn out stereotype.
The very idea that rich people consume less government services is just silly. I think I keep at least 5 FAA employees in jobs, not to mention 3 TSA people and a handful more to stamp my littered passport with the amount I fly… I’m pretty sure there are more than one IRS people employed because of people like me. With them and the SEC, NOAA (weather affects my travel), FTC, FTA, Federal Highway Admin, FDA, etc, I’m sure there are a good number of people out there who are employed because of me. I’m not using medicaid, drawing social security and I don’t use foodstamps. In the end though, in fact it’s probably more dollar wise and just different.
The other thing that I found interesting in your post was the idea that prudence and industry are somehow naturally linked. I watched a whole lot of people get rich in the late 90’s, “retire” and then proceed to blow it all on Patek Phillipe watches, Ferraris, big houses and private planes. They stepped off the tread mill for 4 or 5 years. Hard work was over baby! I saw a whole lot more buy into “guaranteed return” tech bubble schemes. Then they lost it all.. You know what they say, “Bulls make money, Bears make money, Pigs get slaughtered.” Most are working again because they have to, not because they want to.. Indolence isn’t the exclusive property of the poor…..
And dude… I won’t comment on the idea that the “recession” is dreamed up by the media other than to say if it hasn’t hit you yet, good for you.. I hope you maintain your order flow my friend..
America’s servitude to Marxist socialism Obama’s Religious Ruse:
The Cult of the Marxist Messiah, Part 3 of 3 By Alex LaBrecque, Sunday, October 26, 2008
The more you look at Obama, the more you see what he is really about:
A Marxist Black Liberation Theology
Lost @ 38
Don Joe, words have meaning only for those that understand them.
A statement which is as true for an erudite philosopher as it is for the guy on the street corner frantically waving his arms and speaking loudly to no apparent person and you can’t figure out whether he’s crazy or just talking on a cell phone.
I made no mention of property taxes. We’re talking about Federal tax policy.
At which point, you’ve transformed your previous screed into truly meaningless gibberish:
Actually taxing someone on what they own is double taxation.
The only extant tax on what people own is a local or state property tax. Perhaps you’ve never actually had to file a tax return, but the Federal government doesn’t tax the asset value of pieces of paper.
So, you’re trying to slip the old “double taxation” doublespeak past us by, essentially, lying about the issues. Not a good way to start.
More importantly, you have an incoherent notion of “fairness”. Dividends are not the product of the stock-holder’s work. You deride people for being “lazy,” yet you want to reduce the tax burden of people who don’t work.
So, why should I accept your incoherent, and apparently self-serving, notion of “fairness” rather than mine: which is that people should be rewarded for actually doing work, not punished?
And hell yes the government ought to tax rich people less.
The above sentence was followed up with a justification that can be summed up by the sentence, “Rich people buy things.” As if lower and middle income people don’t buy things. Apparently it’s better to have 5% of the population having an increased ability to buy things than it is to have 95% of the population with an increased ability to buy things. To take this argument to its extreme, it would be better for one person in the entire economy to receive the income of the whole economy, because that one person would buy things.
In any case private sector dollars do more to stimulate economies than any amount of goverment effort.
Tell that to Boeing–a company that wouldn’t exist at all if it had not been for government effort when the airline industry was in its infancy.
More in the private sector means a growing economy.
Again, false. Or, to be more precise, the quality and sustainability of the growth depends on where incomes flow in the private sector. Your first-year Econ student’s summation of the economy has a great deal of difficulty explaining how our economy grew so well during the Clinton years than it grew during the Bush years–particularly the last four Bush years. You can’t blame it all on 9/11.
Concentrating incomes in the hands of fewer and fewer people actually has a retarding effect on economic growth. That effect has been in operation in our economy since the first Reagan budget was passed. It’s been offset by one of the largest increases in personal debt in our country’s history and by a monetary policy, under the tutelage of Alan Greenspan, that led to two economic bubbles–the last of which is one of the gravest economic crises we’ve ever faced.
We’ve done the growth-for-growth’s sake bit for more than a quarter century. It’s what got us to where we are now. Perhaps it’s time we figured out that how the economy grows is at least as important as simply getting the economy to grow?
Play around with a few IS-LM curves. Then, draw in the full employment line, and notice that there is no connection, whatsoever, between IS-LM equilibrium and full employment. Your philosophy is based entirely on an article of faith that has no basis in reality, which is why Congress has recently had to authorize $700b to bail out Wall Street.
Can we, please, start basing our economic policies on reality, so we don’t have to do these kinds of bail-outs again?
@2
The folks took up a collection for Joe the Plumber and gave him the $1,100 (+/-) he owed in back taxes.
You would have known that if you watched Fox News instead of the Cheerleaders for the Milk Chocolate Messiah on the other so-called news channels.
P.S.
I hope you all were careful about the drinking and driving issue last night.
@38 “The dollar earned by the corporation is taxed. That dollar distributed in the form of profit sharing or dividends is again taxed as personal income. Yes it is taxed at a lower rate, but it shouldn’t be taxed at all!”
Once again, your argument rests on false factual premises, because the majority of corporations pay no corporate income taxes, but my main point here is that if dividends shouldn’t be taxed because the corporation has already paid taxes then the same argument applies to wages.
Reading all your comments, what your ideology boils down to is that other people should pay all the taxes so you don’t have to.
@39 “Care to back up exhibit A or B”
I could readily do this, as it’s been widely publicized, but my answer is … why don’t you?
Are you too lazy to search the internet for information you can find in less than 5 minutes?
Why should I do it for you? I’m not your fucking research assistant. Another reason why I won’t is because I’ve posted that information in the past, with sources and links, and many readers of this blog are familiar with it.
Of course, I don’t expect you to look it up. If you’re too lazy to fact-check your own statements, the readers of this blog can hardly expect you to fact-check mine.
@46 “The folks took up a collection for Joe the Plumber and gave him the $1,100 (+/-) he owed in back taxes. You would have known that if you watched Fox News instead of the Cheerleaders for the Milk Chocolate Messiah on the other so-called news channels.”
Hmmm, interesting. So … would you call that welfare, a political donation, or socialism? Watch Fox News? No. I write propaganda; I’m not interested in watching it.
@45:
Nice job of deconstructing the “erudite” lost in a sea of blue. That idiot couldn’t argue his way out of a paper bag. I love how she comes in here with her AA degree and can’t even figure out that the Federal government doesn’t tax what we own. Even a third grader knows that – brilliant argument Lost. You truly are LOST.
@49
“So … would you call that welfare, a political donation, or socialism?”
I’d call it honest generosity, not forced wealth re-distribution. It may surprise you, rabbit, but plenty of people who are not moonbeam, Neo-socialists actually donate money to people they deem worthy of receiving it. In this case, Joe the Plumber has some friends who helped him out, but those people were not being coerced by government.
“Watch Fox News? No. I write propaganda; I’m not interested in watching it.”
Of course you aren’t interested in watching Fox News! You would rather watch the cheerleaders for Obama and re-live the Sixties.
I will be glad once the Milk Chocolate Messiah gets in and we can all start attacking his policies & performance in earnest. I’m sure lots of people on this blog will join in the fun!
I’m glad I’m voting for Ron Paul.
@44,
Nobody would classify anything Obama says or does as “libertarian.” You need to re-think that comment at the end of your post.