November can’t get here soon enough.

Just so you know Roark.  Under the Bush Administration, the deficit increased by $1 Trillion.  So I’m curious to know why you think its all about partisan politics and not just politics in general.

Social Security, Medicare and Defense. Those are the three massive and expensive American gorillas in the room. Everything else the federal government spends money on, from highways to national parks to border security is paid for by borrowed money.

Social Security - means test it. No reason to pay Social Security to millionaires. Raise the contribution cap also. Middle-income Americans shouldn’t have to pay social security taxes on 100% of their income while the highest earners only have to pay it on some of their income. These two things would put Social Security back in the black. Possibly raise the full-vesting retirement age another couple of years.

Medicare—The reason why Medicare is bankrupting America is because Health Care costs in general are bankrupting America. Americans pay nearly twice as much per capita for health care as our competing nations. Competition from a public option would drastically reduce the cost of medical care by creating competition for the overhead-heavy health insurance industry. This is according to the CBO. Bringing down the cost of health care is the only way to save Medicare—and save the nation’s budget. The public option is the most realistic method for accomplishing this as proven by other countries and also as scored by the CBO.

Defense— America spends as much on defense as the REST OF THE WORLD COMBINED. We simply cannot afford this—and nor do we need this to maintain our security. The military industrial complex will kill this country. Instead, the military mentality of America has made it a sacred cow. Any thought of not increasing the military budget one year over the next will yield cries of treason.

Taxes— Under Ronald Reagan America went from the largest creditor nation in the world to the largest debtor nation in the world. How did this happen so quickly? Massive tax cuts without associated expense cuts. George Bush Jr did the same thing. He inherited a budget surplus and quickly turned it into a budget deficit. Taxes in America are currently at some of the lowest levels as a percentage of GDP in modern history.

None of us want to pay taxes. But if we cut taxes, the spending cuts must also follow or else you get a deficit. It is simple math.

Republicans are completely unable to grasp this simple law of nature. You can not cut taxes by $500 billion dollars and raise defense spending by $100 billion dollars and expect a balanced budget.

But Republicans want to make the Bush tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans permanent—but are unwilling to come up with any specific budget item they would cut to offset the effect on the budget. It is simply “voo doo” economics.

^                                        ^
  |                                        |
  |                                        |
  |                                        |
  |————-  What Emerson said.  ————|

Native, I fault Bush, too.-he was a RINO from the beginning ever increasing the size and scope of government all in the name of “compassionate conservatism”. Problem is, Obama in less than 2 years has outspent/out-taxed every President since Washington. You seem to be too caught up in GOP vs Democrat when the real issue is right vs. wrong.

emerson, you have identified the problem; gov’t largesse.-and that is where the solution must be had; cut government to its proper and Constitutionally assigned boundaries. emerson, you seem to have a vendetta against individuals who have achieved the good life. Instead of showing spite, why not find the congratulate them and find the American Dream yourself?

Roark -  I don’t just play businessman on the internet—in the real world I am a partner in a business that is growing and hiring people at great career wages and by business is the result of innovation and advancement (my company develops software).

However Roark—you consistently and flagrantly are dead wrong on the facts and reality. It makes it difficult for anyone to take you seriously because you have a cartoonish ideology with which you face the world. I would laugh more about it if your ideology wasn’t so completely evil at its root.

But, just to call you out on just another complete fabrication you have created: Roark says that Obama has “out-taxed” every President since Washington. This is simply a lie. In fact, taxes are at the lowest level as a percentage of GDP in modern American history. In fact, as part of the stimulus bill, taxes were cut over $300 billion on middle-income Americans. This was in fact the largest tax cut in American history.

emerson, instead of hurling insults at me why don’t you show me this evidence you have that, “taxes are at the lowest level as a percentage of GDP in modern American history”. -that is not only false, but one would need to be economically ignorant to believe it to be true.

You have to actually PAY taxes in order to get a tax cut. Sad thing is, you are a defending an administration that is going to hurt small business in a big way. In Obama’s recent anti-capitalist market bill that he just signed every time any small business purchases anything that costs more than $600, they will have to report that purchase to the federal government. The death tax will go from 0 to 55% the Bush tax cuts will expire - Obamacare will/is costing trillions of dollars

What’s more, Obama’s “tax cut” doesn’t move capital into the private sector, as a true tax cut would. What Obama’s farce legislation does is something called deferred taxation. He wants to spend now and tax later. Obama’s deficits will increase the interest payments by the federal government, take money in capital markets away from private investment, and ultimately result in higher future tax rates.

emerson here is a fact; http://www.ntu.org/governmentbytes/budget/us-debt-accumulation.html

http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=5052

It’s rather unsettling that you would support these men in government who would ruin your small business. Are you aware what Obamacare is going to do to small business? Case closed.

Allow me.

http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/taxes-hit-lowest-level-since-1950

“USA Today summed up the BEA data debunking yet another right-wing myth:

Federal, state and local taxes—including income, property, sales and other taxes—consumed 9.2% of all personal income in 2009, the lowest rate since 1950, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. That rate is far below the historic average of 12% for the last half-century. The overall tax burden hit bottom in December at 8.8% of income before rising slightly in the first three months of 2010.”

Plenty of linky goodness at the C&L link.

Roark’s problem here is that he is trying to equate ‘debt as a percent of GDP’ with ‘taxes as a percent of GDP’.

Apples and oranges, Roark.

KN, what do you think federal debt is? Do I need to give you an econ101 lesson?

No, you need to re-read your demand of emerson in the first graf again.  Then look at what your first link was about.  Then read my answer to your demand of emerson.  Then go re-read your Econ 101 book.  Hint: don’t use the Ayn Rand edition this time.

Taxes and debt are such different things, they were even given their own separate words and definitions.

White House Predicts Record $1.47 Trillion Deficit

White House Predicts Record $1.47 Trillion Deficit

This is a LIE.

It’s 3.9 TRILLION…....and only this year.

It jumps to 5.1 TRILLION next year, and just keeps climbing from there.

JCW:  Could you provide a link to the source of the info in your claim, please.

I’m sitting this one out. Y’all have fun, you’re doing great!

But I do agree that if you’re going to raise taxes you must cut spending or they’re wasting time and our money.

Ok DeesBull—time to step up and say something substantive. Extending Bush’s tax cuts will add about $2.5 trillion to the deficit.

Considering that Social Security, Medicare and Defense make up more than 75 of the total US budget—what are you going to cut?

Right-wingers need to be accountable. You can’t just sell the candy (aka tax cuts) without also coming up with some health food (aka effective and realistic spending cuts).

So what exactly would Republicans cut to make up for extending the Bush tax cuts?

Emerson is so hypicritical.  It doesn’tmatter where extended unemployment comes from, but concervatives need to be accountable with tax cuts.  Emerson where are the extended unemployment checks going to come from? Oh yah, it doesn’t matter for you or all the other left wing communists.  Where is the budgeting to cover that?  See as long as it is socialized, it doesn’t need balance, but tax cuts need to have balance.  LIBERLISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER. EMERSON PROVES IT.

Cuts? All they would have had to do was NOT blow money on the bailout, tarp, free health care, ‘free’ this and ‘free’ that. They ‘gave’ away more than the military budget. You can’t act fiscally irresponsibly like that and not expect consequences. Could you do at home what Washington does and last long? No, because you don’t have a printing press in your basement! I can’t believe they thought the answer was to print more money. Economics 101 teaches that.
Anyway, America is waking up and I can only hope they don’t get lulled back to sleep before November.

Dees - Just so I clearly understand your argument. What is the difference between bailout & tarp?  How much money did that whole thing cost us anyway?  How much is “free” health care and all these other “free” programs costing us as far as the deficit goes?

I just want to crunch the numbers and see how well your plan would set us straight.  After all, you’ve made it clear that have all the answers and raising taxes is not one of them.

We all know that “printing money” is a metephor.  Can you explain to all of us morons that don’t understand Economics 101 how the Fed injects more money into the economy?  And the negative effects that we are currently experiencing as a result.

Native, keep on acting as if this administration is working out great.  Keep it up.

Call it whatever, they were giving our money away. The ‘free’ things aren’t free, obviously. Do you honestly think they don’t cost the taxpayer? Just look at the economy. There’s your answer. Oh, no wait. For a second I forgot it was Bush’s fault.
And they actually did fire up the printing presses. It wasn’t a metaphor.
Paraphrasing again? I never said I had all the answers but it doesn’t take an economic genius to realize that overtaxing people and spending wildly will destroy an economy. Oh, and did I forget Socialism? That really puts us in the black, doesn’t it?

This administration is too busy putting out fires and dealing with problems 30 years in the making to have any chance at being productive.

I’m not saying they are infallable or even effective but I can’t stand the masses of people lining up to point the finger at the scapegoat rather than admit that they were wrong.

You can’t get better until you admit you have a problem.

Yah Native, socialism doesn’t work.  That is the problem, I admit it.  You should too.  Eye for and Eye

Dees - Where to start…..

“Bailout” is the dirty nickname for TARP (they are the same thing).  And they weren’t giving it out, they were lending it out.  Tarp has been paid back to the Gov. at 18% interest by all but 2 banks.  Where we will lose (besides possibly those 2 banks) is on AIG, GM & Crysler.  Right now the estimated cost is $89 million.  Don’t forget, this was a republican program.

Ha ha, no they don’t print more dollar bills, it IS a metaphor.  The Fed injects money by keeping interest rates low at the discount window or by buying up mortgage backed securities to lower mortgage rates or by borrowing money (through domestic and international bonds) to fund projects (like the stimulous).  My 401k has US bonds & T-bills in it, that is an example of domesticly-held government debt.  And they are paying me a lower percent than they are borrowing at from other countries.  Thats a win/win for everybody.

I’m not a fan of spending but you know the great thing about stimulous money?  100% of it is spent domestically.  You know what sucks about tax breaks for large companies?  They all outsource labor and hide assets oversees.  I would switch my opinion in a heartbeat if it wasn’t for that little issue (not that I would ever actually hope for a stimulous program unless it was absolutely needed).

Socialism is just a buzz word that is intended to dredge up the fears of people that associate it with evil dictators.  Some degree of socialism exists in every civilized society. 

You know what happened in the 10 years before the great depression?  they slowly lowered taxes on the richest citizens from 77% to 24%.  So why is that so eerily similar to what happend to us today?  Because favoring the rich with tax cuts squashes out the middle class, thats why.  All of a sudden, 80% of the population doesn’t have any money to spend and money stops moving.

“eye for an eye” is a socialistic concept.  You would make marx proud.  An eye removed for an $85,000 medical bill of which $60,000 goes towards insurance companies & $20,000 goes to administrative work; now THATS Capitalism!!!

jk, I heart capitalism.

Some very interesting numbers for all to peruse.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/the-u.s.-middle-class-is-being-wiped-out-here’s-the-stats-to-prove-it-520657.html?tickers=

Some of the line items:

•  83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
•  61 percent of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
•  66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.

•  As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
•  The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

“The reality is that no matter how smart, how strong, how educated or how hard working American workers are, they just cannot compete with people who are desperate to put in 10 to 12 hour days at less than a dollar an hour on the other side of the world. After all, what corporation in their right mind is going to pay an American worker 10 times more (plus benefits) to do the same job? The world is fundamentally changing. Wealth and power are rapidly becoming concentrated at the top and the big global corporations are making massive amounts of money. Meanwhile, the American middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence as U.S. workers are slowly being merged into the new “global” labor pool.”

Eye for an Eye a socialistic concept?  Boy Native, you pulled that one out of your behind.  Go back and try again. Are you going to try to be someone else again today.  Business owner, CEO, General Manager.  Who are you going to be today?  Have you decided?

an eye for an eye is equal, therefore its a socialist ideal.  The whole point of capitalism is to create added value in a product or service and therefore succeed perportionatly by how much added value you are capable of providing; therefore NOT equal.

Today, I’m a gay, gun-toting, God-loving, abortion doctor economist who just renewed my membership to the Tea Party.  So do you love me or hate me?

Whatever you call it, tarp/bailout, they spent it and/or gave it away. And while they may not truly print it, they conjured it out of thin air and it’s going to cost us in the long run.
And KN’s stats are a little scary. If I remember right, weren’t the French in similar but much worse scenario a very long time ago and that brought about an ugly revolution. I pray we don’t come to that.
Plus the global labor thing is very worrisome. You don’t really think we can ‘merge’ into a labor pool that makes near nothing? This country will collapse and a revolution might not look too bad then. And eventually the world labor will advance and their situation will improve and it may take some time but they will be where we are now. What then? Outsource to where? Greed is going to destroy us all.
And I don’t believe Socialism is just a buzz word. It’s a very real possibility I’m afraid. And a little Socialism is called compassion for your fellow man. Too much and it’s tyranny.

Eye for an eye means look in the mirror first before you go project on to others.  I am sorry I asked on who you were going to be today.  Now I know.

hammer:  I guess you’re not as well-versed in biblical references as you say.

http://www.pursuingthetruth.org/studies/files/eyeforeye.htm

“Matthew 5:38 (NKJV) 38"You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’

The “eye for an eye” and “tooth for a tooth” are part of the widespread ancient Near Eastern law of retaliation.”

Also, you’re the last person around here to be remonstrating other people for projecting, too.

Now KN is a bible expert.  You must have just woke up,.  Welcome to your day.

Nah.  Got the really important stuff out of the way and thought I’d take a little break to tinker with something trivial.  Lucky me, here you are.

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently released its Mid-Session Review…..according to the report, federal spending was 24.7% of GDP in 2009, and is expected to be 24.6% this year, rising to 25.1% in 2011. (All years are fiscal years.) (lp.org) yikes.

The left’s newly passed Financial Regulation bill exempts the Securities and Exchange Commission from complying with the Freedom of Information Act.

Why one would continue to lend support and credence to a party and a President so filthily involved in subverting our Constitutional freedoms? Does liberty mean anything to the left?

MB - show me an economic indicator that precludes hyperinflation.  Actually, don’t bother because there isn’t one.  It can’t happen without demand or a reduction in supply.  We don’t have either… yet.

Roark - Glenn Beck lover eh?  I know of a few televangelists that would love to have you in their audience. Take a look:

http://mediamatters.org/research/201007290008

With apologies to ‘Professor’ Beck….

I’m sorry Mr. Beck but I believe your beef is actually with the Freedom of Information Act itself.

Ya gotta read em to understand em Glenn…and enrolled students.

The SEC has most certainly gained knew powers of non-compliant peer review under the Dodd-Frank amend. Read the amendment.

I must read.

http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/blog/index.php/2010/05/does-the-sec-care-about-fraud

Yeah, Roark.  I’ll check out that Ayn Rand Objectivist drivel right ricky-tick.