Righties like to attack avowed liberals like me for wanting to “redistribute wealth,” but they apparently have no problem when the wealth is redistributed to the wealthy. And as Geov Parrish points out in The Seattle Weekly, that’s exactly the effect of President Bush’s new budget proposal. [“Transfer of Wealth“]
President Bush’s 2006 budget proposal, unveiled in detail last week, is the other shoe dropping. It’s not quite fair to say that this is a budget designed to reduce the deficit. There’s still plenty of expansive spending; the Pentagon’s budget increases, and pork for favored Republican projects still abounds.
But what it does do is use the deficit, created in four short years by this administration, as an excuse for targeting all the programs Republicans don’t like. The Department of Education
goldy..check your email
The neocons are seeking to dismantle the “new deal” : medicare, medicaid, social security, etc.
They consider these programs part of the “welfare state” as described by Gingrich and the gang.
And what about this surprises you? That the party in power moves things toward their goals? That politicians lie?
C’mon…both are as true as ever….
Part II of Bushonomics, boys & girls.
THAT & the mismanagement of the Iraqi liberation/occupation is why I voted Kerry-Edwards. And why I can’t be brought to join the GOP… just yet. I’m just a Dinocrat who believes this should be true: # of votes = # of voters.
FYI: Many, many and I did I say many Republicans hate the guy’s economic policies…
Red america seems to think if we all open a starbucks, or go to work for walmart, we’ll all live happily ever after.
Problem with this ideology is obvious to most dems and liberals. Shrinking wages and disposable income, produce less revenue, more reasons to hike taxes and cut services. Reds have a game plan, they want to play, they just dont want to pay. Bush administration fits this category well.
Is the Government your parent? Get yourself an education, get a job, and pay your own way.
If all your life experiences and education gets you is a job at Wal-Mart, why is that the entire country’s problem? Why is that person’s choice, not to better his or her own life, my problem? Why should I have to pay? This is what you extreme left liberals do not understand about freedom. If the Govn’t is parenting each individuals life and money, that is not Freedom.
Are you sure you all know the details of why certain cuts are being made and how that will effect the bank accounts of those affected? You are all so emotionally reactionary. Sensitively Backward-looking yet self proclaimed “progressives”.
It is going to hurt for a while finding out the 60’s anti establishment messages were wrong. Please, get on board the healing tour.
Chardonnay – if you truly believe that, then you’d best be in favor of eliminating all the subsidies for farming, steel and paper industries. Not to mention tax breaks for big “successful” companies like Wal-Mart. If they can’t make it on their own, then why is that my problem? Why should my taxes subsidise a business?
If you’re in favor of eliminate any government “assistance” for individuals (education, healthcare, job training, etc.) then it’s only fair to eliminate government assistance for businesses as well.
And by the way, the economy’s done a lot worse under Bush than the 8 Clinton years. And it’s getting (to use a Bush-like phrase) “worser” for the average person.
It also did poorly under Bush’s dad.
So the lesson here is that modern Republicans are bad for your pocketbook unless you’re blindingly rich already. Modern Democrats are good for your pocketbook unless you’re a whiny tycoon who can’t stand to go from making $10 million/year to $9.5 million/year.
HA…trickle down at it’s worst.
There is no way that government favoring either the rich or the poor exclusively helps anyone.
If the *poor* (yesterday’s middle class) don’t have disposable income, who buys the widgets the rich make?
If the *poor* are sick all the time, who makes the widgets the rich make?
I looked into a Small Business Admin loan a long time ago. American Motors was classified as the same small business I was and was competing for the same dollars.
I decided then and there that I was a micro business and did it my own way. It’s folks like me that will save this nation IF we can get the rest of you fools to quite biting each other’s heads off long enough to see what good business models look like.
We take care of our employees. We don’t jack our prices simply because we can. We provide bending over backward customer service. Consequently, our employees are happy, our customers are loyal and we get to work the way we want when we want.
Rich in dollars? Hardly. But rich in what as we age we find really matters. We have what we need and we can look ourselves in the mirror every morning.
As an aside, chardonnay…educate yourself, improve yourself…great mantra. Do you know that WSU cost 16,000 a year to walk in the door today? Tuition, books, room and board. There are masses out there that can’t afford that. Got a clue how they can get the education the fat cat WASPs are saying they need to get a *real* job?
jcricket:
Look I’m not rich but one day I’m going to be rich unlike those whiny, 60’s radicals or moveon.org brats who want to freeload off my taxes.
When I’m rich I want to pay zero taxes. Zip. Zilch. Nada. No freeloaders are gonna live off my wealth. It’s mine. No goverment is going to redistribute it. The only people I’m going to pay are the lobbyists for my tax breaks and Tim Eyman on the local scene.
What I do with my money is my business. If I want to pave my lot next to a stream and let stuff run off into it, That’s my property rights. It’s mine. I can do whatever I want. If I buy an apartment building and double the rents – that’s ok too. Whoever can’t pay is someone else’s problem. As long as I’m putting huge wads of cash in my pocket so I can flash it everywhere to show what a big man I am – I’m happy.
And so what if I collected a few subsidy checks along the way or got a few tax breaks?
See ya later suckers!
Another thought…starve the beast…great idea if the beast is the unelected bureaucrats.
How many staff members are each elected representative provided?
How many office workers perform virtually identical jobs throughout government?
How many duplications are there in programs today?
Find a way to cut that mess out and you save millions.
Find a way to cut pork out of all budgets and you save billions. Maybe each of the sides here could take it upon themselves to look at their own respective party’s pork and propose cuts…police ourselves before we go hollering about the other side. Then maybe we can join in conversation to figure out how to manage what’s left.
Just a thought… ;0
LOL…John are you old enough to remember the old Donald Duck cartoon shows where Uncle Scrooge was always found in his cellar sitting amongst his gold?
Perfect visual… ;0
Sometimes, Goldy, liberals like yourself lump everyone who doesn’t agree with them as right wingers. So, I wish to explain myself.
I will continue to swat at efforts to redistribute the wealth by taking money from the middle class and giving it to the lower class. But, on the other hand, why can’t we get rid of corporate welfare? So, yes, I don’t agree with your redistribution plans, but I don’t agree with giving the rich corporations tax breaks like the Dems gave to Boeing.
I also understand the huge corporatiions and their perceived “greed” and need to satisfy their shareholders (you and me). I don’t like it but if they don’t make their “almighty dollar”, they will either not reinvest or take their money elsewhere. So, the conundrum. You will always have the rich.
And jimminy cricket, please don’t bring natural economic cycles into the equation. There are lots of reasons the two Bush’s got nailed and the Clinton admin got raves, and most of the reasons had nothing to do with the administration of either. Another story.
G Davis – Scrooge was my role model until I figured out I had to put a few high-priced lawyers and Tim Eyman on my payroll to stick it to the government. Scrooge is too penny-pinching!
When I die I’m going to leave all my gold – to my gold. It’s gonna sit in a vault and collect interest and grow and grow and grow – Forever. Nobody’s going to get it. It’s mine. Forever. No death tax is gonna get that gold. No sir.
So, Goldy, what has the DOE done for us lately, what reason do you have for keeping that fat bloated do nothing agency?
swatter @ 13
Do you really think ANYONE on a liberal board believes that tired Republican hogwash that the Bushes shouldn’t be blamed for recessions on their watch and Clinton shouldn’t get credit for the prosperity during his watch? According to this, who is president means less to the economy than tide tables and moon phases. Hogwash.
chuck @ 15
Please help yourself to another glass of arsenic-tainted drinking water. Drink up, be merry. The sooner we’re rid of idiots like you the healthier the rest of us will be.
KOMO 4’s web site reports today that Governor Gregoire is traveling to Washington D.C. to fight the Bush administration’s plan to raise BPA rates. Would a “Governor” Rossi do that? Hell no. He might travel to D.C. but it would be to like Bush’s shoes and play lap dog. KOMO says Washington will lose 26,000 jobs in this goes through. That’s more than the number of people locally employed by Microsoft. This is what it’s all about, folks — in their twisted, perverted, thinking our state’s jobs are more expendable than preserving tax cuts for the super-rich. What were people thinking when they re-elected the least qualified person ever to occupy the Oval Office? How high a price do the ordinary folks of our state and nation have to pay before this virulent fever called neoconservatism has run its course and the voters of this country regain their common sense?
Swatter yours is a voice that I’d like to address if I may.
I don’t disagree with you that redistribution to either extreme is healthy for the nation.
But can you give some reasoning to the stubborn holding to tax cuts for those so very rich they don’t actually know how much money they have, especially in a time of *war*?
Is there precedence for that that I’ve missed?
Is there reasoning I’m not seeing?
Is there some justification for deficits the size of today and insistence on not taxing that extreme income level at levels of pre 2001?
I honestly don’t get that part. Help me out if you would.
“Guvment Hack Don Gets Da Raise”…Pay Up, Taxpayers!!!
OLYMPIA — Pay raises and benefits for state workers are apparently off the chopping block when it comes to dealing with a budget shortfall projected at more than $2 billion.
Gov. Christine Gregoire, House Speaker Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown went before the Washington State Labor Council one by one yesterday and pledged their support for a collective-bargaining agreement projected to cost more than $180 million in the next two years.
Don – you left-libs just don’t get it.
The highest American values are living high on the hog and kickin’ ass. If somebody interferes with our way of life – we put a foot up their backside. The American way of life is not negotiable.
All those snot-nosed kids who grew up playing video games – they’re doing it for real now – in Iraq. Fighting for my freedom to do whatever I want when I want. Everyone else can breathe my fumes.
GWB was re-elected because he kicks ass and helps line my pocket. He’s the right kind of public servant for me. Right now I can pull out a big wad of cash and flash it around. That make me happy! All I have to do to keep the party going is peel off a few bills to the RNC. It’s so easy – for me anyways.
Money – the man who has the most IS the most. Always has been, always will be.
And taxes? As my idol Leonna Helmsley said, “Only little people pay taxes!”
you are worried about the federal deficit but not the deficit here in our state?
shit-for-brains-who-can’t-read @ 20
Pensioners like me don’t get any raises, even though our pensions are our own money that was withheld from our paychecks.
John @ 21
Thank you for your refreshingly candid honesty, something every other wingnut in America utterly lacks. Of course I get it. Detroit figured out 100 years ago that the average American consumer will happily pay $3000 for a $2000 rebate on a new car. The American commercial establishment turned rebates, discounts, and less-than-wholesale pricing into profit centers long ago. Unfortunately, approximately half of our fellow Americans are not only stupid consumers, but also stupid voters.
gdavis @ 9
community college, live off campus, part time job, night courses, university online, um lets see, how many people actually succeeded in life with no college degree? Bill Gates! It’s called drive, determination, will, vision. Some people have that! Just cuz you don’t…..
jimminy cricket @ 8
so, in your expert opinion, the economy was only good durring the clinton years, because of the clinton effort? that is not what all the leading economist say.
Don,
No problem. I’ve got a LOT MORE honesty where that came from.
America is a great country. I can get a tax cut and watch a war on terror on Fox News complete with flying red, white and blue colors. Lots of eye-candy. Someone else does the fighting and dying. They’re doing it for me. I can drive to my local Walmart and fill my basket with loads of stuff manufactured in China for low, low prices. I can drive it all home in my 8 mpg Ford Excursion.
Politics is a no-brainer – whoever Karl Rove is behind – he’s my man. The brand is low, low taxes – the more you make, the less you pay. Nothing else matters.
As for business – nothing better than rent – whatever – housing, commercial property, equipment, money. Charge all the market will bear. All you have to do is have title and let others do the paying. It’s so simple – as any infomercial can attest.
“that’s not what all the leading economists say”? That’s a total cop-out.
I never said it was only good because of the clinten effort, but I certainly think Clinton’s smart tax policies and deficit reduction efforts had a lot to do with not getting in the way of any economic success. Unlike GWB’s policies of running up massive defecits, hiding the true costs of his added government programs, decreasing the tax revenue stream primarily in ways that benefit wealthy people (and attempting to make this permanent) and cutting programs for those least able to make do without them.
Show me how that’s an economically viable platform? Show me the majority of non-partisan economists (i.e. not Bush’s cabinet appointees or Fox News reporters) are on-board with Bush’s ideas. They’re not. Bush isn’t solely responsible for the state of the economy, but he’s definitely making it worse.
(And Don, just in case you couldn’t tell, I think John’s being sarcastic). Perhaps the lack of the ;) made it harder to tell.
jcricket @ 28
What do you take me for? Of course I realize John is a satirist. It’s a lot easier to find a fish with wings than a truthful winger.
Sorry, it’s so hard with people like Cynical, chardonnay and “she whose name need not be said” to distinguish the sarcastic from the wingnuts.
Truth is stranger than fiction you know.
DON @ all–
You keep claiming your PERS1 Pension was 100% funded by withholding from YOUR paycheck. That is a flat out LIE. You know damn well that PERS1 is also funded by the State. PLUS, THE STATE RETIREMENT FUND GOT MUCH BIGGER RETURNS THAN THE POOR SOCIAL SECURITY FOLKS YOU WANT TO “SUPPOSEDLY” PROTECT. So State Workers can control there retirement investments….but poor private sector workers cannot. Elitism at its worst.
Don gets 60% of his highest 24 consecutive months average monthly salary for the rest of his miserable, pathetic life.
Don already confessed he couldn’t make it in the real world.
Don confessed that his government work was “all about salary & pension” after he realized how futile and irrelevant his make-believe job was.
The greatest Left Wing-Nut legacy is the State Retirement System where Lefty’s figure out ways to pump up there salary’s the last 2 years. I have personally seen one Lefty who became a County Administrator (totally unqualified) for 25 months to pump his base up from $60,000/yr. he received as a “planner” to $85,000/yr. resulting in a 60% X 25,000= $15,000+/yr. pension increase for the rest of his hogfaced life…and he’s 53 years old!!!!
All these Pension computations are public records.
Don knows damn well the 2 year base “game”. I’d love to see his retirement computation…LEFTY Lawyers are especially adept at orchestrating this RIP-OFF!!
31. Hey Don……Read, and learn. Mr. Cynical has proven you to be a “guvment” liar. [Not good, Don!]
jcricket @ 30
No, it’s easy to tell the difference. John obviously doesn’t believe the shit he posts. Mr. Cynical and Jerkoff Creepy Hater obviously believe the shit they post.
Misinformed Cynical @ 31
“You keep claiming your PERS1 Pension was 100% funded by withholding from YOUR paycheck. That is a flat out LIE. You know damn well that PERS1 is also funded by the State.”
Only if you live long enough. First, you get back your own contributions. Then, you get back the interest* on your own contributions. (Consisting of the puny state-determined interested rate, not the investment gains the state made with your money.) If you outlive your contributions and the interest on your contributions, then PERS draws on your employer’s contribution or the state’s investment gains for your pension payments, I’m not sure which comes first. At no point does the state ever kick in any tax money for anyone’s PERS1 pension, other than the tax money used to pay your salary and the employer contribution when you were working. That’s what I said, not one dime of general fund money is used to fund PERS1. If you don’t believe me, call DRS and ask them.
It’s amazing that someone who passes himself off as a CPA can be so fucking ignorant.
Mr Cynical @ 31,
I really think Don had to go to work for the govmnt out of necessity. no one with that temper could argue with a Judge, lose his temper and actually be allowed back in the court room. LOL, I would loved to have seen that.
lbloom.net-gov salaries aired like dirty laundry
don’t forget fed employees have TSP accounts instead of SS. It’s ok for patty murray but not for me or you mr cynical. I wonder why they lie about SS reform.
Don, Cynical’s not ignorant, he’s deliberately lying and hoping no one calls him on it. He never knows what he’s talking about, and when the chorus of direct refutations for his latest lie grows loud enough, he just moves on to the next lie (you being the target of his most recent, of course).
Or perhaps Cynical hopes that some readers will get so befuddled by the sheer number of his lies that those readers will eventually assume at least one of them has to be true.
That’s been his MO since day one here.
chardonnay–
They lie about SS because they can’t help themselves…they lie about everything you know.
Don says he was a STATE Government Lawyer (not Federal).
I’m sure he accumulated the maximum sick leave and vacation pay too so he got a nice lump-sum check at his “retirement” party.
How the heck do you retire when you never really worked and did anything of value. Tough Paradox, huh Don???
Those government salaries are impressive!!! Guess what the REAL cost is when you factor in all the benefits????????? And it really gets huge when you factor in that guys like Don do NOTHING OF VALUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
jcricket@36–
I was hoping you would step in with your “wide-brush” attempt at whitewash you Leftist brother-in-arms Don’s actions with nothing of substance.
Don knows he has milked the taxpayers of Washington. Hell, he admitted that all he cared about was his salary and pension when he saw how futile it was. However, unlike most folks who have an ounce of self-dignity and self-respect State Guv’ment Attorney Don stayed with his useless job….and blames us taxpayers for his misery. Pathetic!!
Don–
Were you the State Guv’ment Attorney on the Wenatchee sex-scandal debacle????
I thought so. I’ll bet you worked on that “case”, didn’t you?
Char @ 6
education and life experiences are provided with cash. you no, that stuff you have left over when you can make a decent wage working? Its comical when reds speak of handouts, when 90% of them took advantage of gov’t money to fund their educations and business’s.
Its ok for red to get more than their share, but no one else deserves a break. whats the difference between spending taxes on jobs through infrastructure improvements, and handing out business subsidies?
difference is, reds are ok with handouts to reds, just so long as no dems get any.
Don, as you said this is a liberal blog. I personally don’t believe presidents nor their administrations have much control over the economy. I don’t care which president you are talking about.
If you think me one-sided, I can give you a lot of good things I liked about Clinton. So there!!
And as to the comment by G Davis, let me offer the following.
I have met rich people and since I am in the service industry, have worked for them. If there is not enough profit, they will either hibernate or pull up stakes- read Boeing, Weyerhaeuser, etc.. If you make the environment they work in and the constraints they have very difficult, you will bite the hand that feeds you. They do create jobs and provide cheap products.
So, who gets nailed all the time? Why, it is us in the middle class. Not a full answer for you but a start. More to come.
Don–
You are pathetic. You actually expect us to believe that a pension which is a lifetime annuity for your entire miserable life is unfair because you take out your contributions first??
Give us a break loser. The ultimate bureaucratic shell-game by Don The PRince of Lies.
Don wants us to believe that if he contributed 10 cents toward a $1 pork sandwich and the Guv’ment contributed the other 90 cents that he paid for the pork sandwich because he paid for 1 out of 10 bites!!!! You are hysterical Don.
You also totally avoid the discussion of the LEFTY’s who have ripped off taxpayers by getting promotions, appointments and raises to jack up their 24-month Pension Base.
Bad try Donnie-boy===NO SALE
You are truly a big wet smelly shovel-full from the dungheap of life.
Pathetic loser.
It’s like Patty Murray who’s been feeding off the public trough for so long, telling me I can’t have SS reform but she can have a TSP.
what a farse, all spin just to get along with teddy chapaqui-dick kennedy.
Don, I’m going to take you to lunch one day and present you with a gold trophy for taking all the nonsense you do and keeping a civil tongue. You’re showing more character by not indulging the fools than most could muster…kudos.
Swatter, I’m not talking about corporate cuts or even the business environment just yet. I’m interested in the other side’s take on the personal tax cuts folks got on high income in *war* time. I’m interested in finding out how we can approach an ailing state budget that’s being hit with more and more federal money cuts as this admin tries to keep the deficit in a this worldly realm.
You get the federal budget so far out of whack, it adversly affects all the states and in turn us.
We can get into the business environment later as it’s an area near and dear to my pocketbook and ease of operation. One thing at a time though, huh?
And chardonnay, community colleges cost 70 per credit hour. They used to be 75 bucks for a full load. child care while in school, $3-$5 per hour. Live off campus? Is that free? Night classes? $70 per credit, babysitters double their hourly wage. virtually all students hold part time jobs, so yes to that. My daughter works 3 different ones to pay for her *stuff* and she’s in high school. Most of her friends work as well.
Succeeding without a degree? No problem. How much are vocational courses needed to *improve* one’s lot in life? They come free in your neighborhood? And those pesky kids still need babysitters.
For another take, how about the 45-50 year old who has recently been riffed? (That’s reduction in force for you non military folks…aka downsizing) Your company hiring those folks or looking for younger ones to fit your company *profile*? And if these older workers spend a couple years *improving* themselves, they approach that ever so magical 55 year when they can find virtually no work outside of *hospitality*. Your company hiring them?
Lots of different folks with lots of different circumstances that don’t fit into cookie cutter molds of yours.
Oh and that Bill Gates guy who *got by* without a college degree? Starting in your dad’s mulitmillion dollar Mercer Island home garage might give you a clue about him….good grief.
So sorry, folks, about my hubby. I forgot to run to the drug store to renew Mr. Cynical’s meds. Oops! He gets so wild-eyed and paranoid without ’em! You can always tell when he is skipping taking his meds because he starts SHOUTING IN BLOGS.
Anyway, I went out and picked more meds up this evening, but who know when I’ll be able to get him to take them again. I’m afraid you’ll just have to put up with his paranoid prattle for awhile. At least I can warn the neighbors to keep their kids away from him.
Kisses and hugs!
char @ 37
“I’m sure he accumulated the maximum sick leave and vacation pay too so he got a nice lump-sum check at his ‘retirement’ party.”
Of course I did — I was the fastest of 100 billion sperms, remember? I wonder about you, though.
swatter @ 41
So are you willing to join me in getting the tax monkey off small business’s back by supporting a state income tax that shifts tax burden to currently undertaxed affluent households? Let’s see if you’ll put your money where your mouth is.
F. T. Cynical @ 42
To date every cent of pension I’ve collected is my money withheld from my paychecks. Whether I will ever get any state money is speculative.
G Davis @ 44
“Don, I’m going to take you to lunch one day”
I’m always interested in food, and I’m sure I can work it into my schedule, even on short notice.
Chardonnay @ 43 and your buddy GWBushwack has not lived off of the public trough long enough? Bankrupting numerous comapnies with his ‘business know how’, getting the helping hand from bid daddy G whenever he was in trouble, evading his military service with ‘hidden help’, etc. Your side of the fence are the ultimate leaches.
cynicalidiot @ 39 you should know better than anyone…weren’t you the drag queen on the stand at that famous trial?
Mrs C @ 45 that’s good hun…he does not need another lawsuit against him with underaged ones
The nicest thing about America is that you can bitch, moan and groan how bad out government system is without worrying over being beheaded at sunrise or hung from the highest tree at high noon. Americans tend to take such a great freedom for granted. Belly-aching over trifles is a malise created from within not from without. That is why Tums sells so well in our land of the free. In our home of the brave tis better to have more lightning in the hand than in the mouth.
jpgee@50
It just goes to show, you can be a total F’up in life, and still become residentin the white house. Isn’t America wonderful?
There is no law that allows recalling the President of the United States. The law in place only addresess impeachment. Being a portion of the U.S. mass is mumbling, debating and blogging over alleged flaws, felons and foibles of this past general election, which includes the presidential seating, we should get aroused over the fact that maybe even G.W. Bushwacker isn’t legally seated. Never heard Rossi lament over Bush’s win or other candidates loss. Some may have lost under the heaping margin Rossi claims he lost to due to the aspect of dillution. Rossi, if he could, should look further than the spectrum of his own nose goes. Where is the revote blog for G.W? It’s not feasible to suspect that all those search engineers were paid off by the rightwingers to hid the Revote Bushwhacker Blog at the end of their listings. Wonders of wonder.