You picked a fine time Barak

[Slothkill]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W57aBMYKvU

I don't care who you are this is funny

[tornandfrayed]

Funny? Yes. True? Not so much..

I really think people that "think the soviet union don't look so bad" would just pack up and move on....

As for the rest of it, well.... Comedy does not have to be based on anything real, nor does governing. Look at the GWB presidency...

[f.sciarrillo]

Funny? Yes. True? Not so much..

I really think people that "think the soviet union don't look so bad" would just pack up and move on....

As for the rest of it, well.... Comedy does not have to be based on anything real, nor does governing. Look at the GWB presidency...

Comedy does have the bases, look at Stewart and Letterman. People look at them and take what they say as real.

[lonewolf]

I really think people that "think the soviet union don't look so bad" would just pack up and move on....

That's what I say about those who fanatically push federal social programs...the vast majority of Americans do not want these programs and the prospective bankruptors of America should leave for the more agreeable people of Europe and Cuba.

Funny? Yes. True? Not so much...

I agree. Its not true about "paying for abortions for the whole world with our income tax".

Everybody knows that our income tax doesn't even come close to paying Obama's bills. That all comes from $trillions$ in borrowed money and borrowed time.

As for the rest of it, well.... Comedy does not have to be based on anything real, nor does governing. Look at the GWB presidency...

Are you saying that the comedy about GWB was not based on anything real? What's really funny is that Obama and this whacked out Congress hasn't bothered to repeal the W income tax cuts. I thought the Bush tax cuts were bad? Roflmao.

As for governing, you are correct. The Obama agenda has no basis in today's economic reality. The healthcare debacle and the threat of even more extreme legislation has created soooo much uncertainty for the business community that it may be years before they start putting people back to work. Oh, but that doesn't matter as long as we have "the dream"...

As I said before...there are very few things the government can do that actually help the economy, but there is a multitude of things it can do to wreck it.

Creating uncertainty is right at the top of the list.

[songsmith]

The Bush tax cuts expire on their own, the way Cheney/Rove designed it. That way if the next prez was Dem, he looks like he's repealing tax cuts... if he's GOP, he'd extend them and look like a hero. The hitch is that most people outside the fringes think that a majority of executives are obscenely overcompensated, and want the boss to pay his share. There's very little support off the Fox News Channel for tax cuts for the rich. Most folks think the AIG execs should have gotten jailtime, not a million-dollar bonus.

Of course there's the obvious point that the tax cuts didn't work, and never have. Proof? If the tax cuts worked, why did the economy tank in the first place, I mean besides the obvious, that millionaires used credit-default-swaps and other derivatives to put billions in their own pockets?

It's all more proof that the right is flatly wrong: When given tax cuts, the uber-rich DO NOT hire as many American employees as they can with their tax savings, and give them all a good life. NO!! They pocket their savings, and the jobs trickle down in the form of immigrants to clean their mansions and cut their fairways, and maybe a new waitress at the new exclusive country-club. If any real jobs get created, they get created offshore.--->JMS

[f.sciarrillo]

The Bush tax cuts expire on their own, the way Cheney/Rove designed it. That way if the next prez was Dem, he looks like he's repealing tax cuts... if he's GOP, he'd extend them and look like a hero. The hitch is that most people outside the fringes think that a majority of executives are obscenely overcompensated, and want the boss to pay his share. There's very little support off the Fox News Channel for tax cuts for the rich. Most folks think the AIG execs should have gotten jailtime, not a million-dollar bonus.

Of course there's the obvious point that the tax cuts didn't work, and never have. Proof? If the tax cuts worked, why did the economy tank in the first place, I mean besides the obvious, that millionaires used credit-default-swaps and other derivatives to put billions in their own pockets?

It's all more proof that the right is flatly wrong: When given tax cuts, the uber-rich DO NOT hire as many American employees as they can with their tax savings, and give them all a good life. NO!! They pocket their savings, and the jobs trickle down in the form of immigrants to clean their mansions and cut their fairways, and maybe a new waitress at the new exclusive country-club. If any real jobs get created, they get created offshore.--->JMS

Where do you get this stuff? It is nothing but total mind fringing attempts at something that is not reality based.

[songsmith]

So, tell me how the Bush tax cuts helped?--->JMS

[Banned]

So, tell me how the Bush tax cuts helped?--->JMS

What do you hate so much about Americans keeping more of their hard earned money?

[lonewolf]

The Bush tax cuts expire on their own, the way Cheney/Rove designed it. --->JMS

Yes, but Obama campaigned on immediately repealing them for those making over $250K. Why then (with a supermajority in Congress) did he not repeal them like he said he would?

Of course there's the obvious point that the tax cuts didn't work, and never have. Proof? If the tax cuts worked, why did the economy tank in the first place, I mean besides the obvious, that millionaires used credit-default-swaps and other derivatives to put billions in their own pockets?--->JMS

Tax rates had about as much to do with the present economic downturn as Obama did with the decision to invade Iraq.

As the primary bagholders, CDF and MBS problems were only the very late-stage symptoms of the disease that caused the latest economic downturn. What was the disease?

Mortgage defaults...period.

What caused the disease? I can guarantee you that it had little to do with income taxes. The cause was too much borrowing against unsustainable hyper-inflation of real estate values. Overextended credit. Insurmountable debt.

Mortgagees, including owners of Mortgage Backed Securities, suddenly had to deal with the defaults. Mortgage insurers, including Credit Default Swaps, suddenly had to ante up and pay benefits to the mortgagees.

A significant portion of this disease was driven by speculation...clueless real-estate rookies trying to "flip this house" and get rich quick...but it was mostly caused by government social programs trying to put too many people into homes they could not afford. Fanny Mae had turned into a street dealer who was pushing real estate. Millions of people simply OD'ed.

[mjb]

So, tell me how the Bush tax cuts helped?--->JMS

for the average guy getting up and going to paint houses/washing tucks/ cutting grass whatever...... it may have not helped you a whole lot ( i don't know)and maybe thats why your so salty john but for me and and being a business owner it was a great help. one off the top of my head was being able to go out and buy a new work truck and write the whole thing off in one year instead of the usual depreciation schedule. cuz i had a reall ygood year that year i was happy to have that tax break.i was able to fit another machine on that truck and give another person a job. there are quit a few others but i have good accountants to learn all that stuff and all their complexities. i find it hard to believe that you could understand all the tax laws and benifts enough to comment.
just sayin........ you could always go start your own house painting company and then i think you may see it in a different light.

[lonewolf]

So, tell me how the Bush tax cuts helped?--->JMS

Business investment is all about certainty and uncertainty. It was a 10 year plan that gave business investors a long-term certainty about the treatment of their investments. The result was several years of significant GDP growth and unemployment < 5%. People can argue all they want about whether the rates are good or bad...to the business investor, it all comes down to knowing the terms and how they can deal with them.

Today, business has no idea what is going on with government. The terms of the healthcare debacle will be based largely on the decisions of bureaucrats in offices that don't even exist yet. Nobody knows whether tax reform is on the agenda or if tax policy will simply go to pre-Bush levels and remain there. Now they are talking energy policy. After getting a glance at cap-and-trade, business has to wonder what's the next extreme policy?

In this kind of unprecedented uncertainty, most businesses will simply hunker down and wait. This is the perfect environment if you want to keep unemployment high and GDP/tax revenues low.

[songsmith]

So, tell me how the Bush tax cuts helped?--->JMS

What do you hate so much about Americans keeping more of their hard earned money?

Rich Americans keeping more of MY hard-earned money, with a tax cut that didn't affect most of us, other than to drop revenues and add to that federal debt that mysteriously became a problem the day of the 2009 inauguration.--->JMS

edited for spelling

[Banned]

So, tell me how the Bush tax cuts helped?--->JMS

What do you hate so much about Americans keeping more of their hard earned money?

Rich Americans keeping more of MY hard-earned money, with a tax cut that didn't affect most of us, other than to drop revenues and add to that federal debt that mysteriously became a problem the day of the 2009 inauguration.--->JMS

edited for spelling

Can you let some of us into your illusion, how were rich people keeping more of your money????? You get some of my money when you get the earned income tax credit you once claimed in a post.

[songsmith]

So, tell me how the Bush tax cuts helped?--->JMS

for the average guy getting up and going to paint houses/washing tucks/ cutting grass whatever...... it may have not helped you a whole lot ( i don't know)and maybe thats why your so salty john but for me and and being a business owner it was a great help. one off the top of my head was being able to go out and buy a new work truck and write the whole thing off in one year instead of the usual depreciation schedule. cuz i had a reall ygood year that year i was happy to have that tax break.i was able to fit another machine on that truck and give another person a job. there are quit a few others but i have good accountants to learn all that stuff and all their complexities. i find it hard to believe that you could understand all the tax laws and benifts enough to comment.
just sayin........ you could always go start your own house painting company and then i think you may see it in a different light.

Okay, Mike, I get the one-year tax break. So how many jobs did you create? This was the point I was trying to make... the Bush tax cuts were sold as a deterrent to outsourcing and net-bubble-popping, as a jobs creator. So, why didn't that stop the exodus of US jobs that started before Obama? It didn't work, the same result as all the other economic policies of the Bush Era. A Clinton surplus became the largest debt in US history at that time, eclipsing even the Reagan presidency. It's undeniable in any way, shape or form, that the day the current president took office, the economy was already in a freefall. The Bush admin did nothing to stop it, and in fact, exacerbated it by a lack of oversight and deregulation, as well as massive tax cuts for favored industries like petro and banking.
As for having my own business, pretty much all non-musical related labor on my part is simply the means to an end, not a career, and I consider bandmates partners, not employees. Risk and reward are spread evenly.--->JMS

[f.sciarrillo]

So, tell me how the Bush tax cuts helped?--->JMS

What do you hate so much about Americans keeping more of their hard earned money?

Rich Americans keeping more of MY hard-earned money, with a tax cut that didn't affect most of us, other than to drop revenues and add to that federal debt that mysteriously became a problem the day of the 2009 inauguration.--->JMS

edited for spelling

You have that all wrong; your hard earned money is going to the lazy people of this country who don't want to get off their ass and get a job. Blaming the rich for taking it all is just a cop out. We tax payers have nothing to do with how the successful are, well, successful. This is America, capitalism thrives and it is what we are based on. People in this country should work for what they have and not sponge off the tax payers do to it all for them. So in essence, if you are a failure, it is your own fault. Not some rich guy in an office who works 180+ a week to get to where he is at now.

[songsmith]

[Can you let some of us into your illusion, how were rich people keeping more of your money????? You get some of my money when you get the earned income tax credit you once claimed in a post.

Easily! (of course, your mind may have trouble wrapping around it, it's not the standard wingleberry pie you prefer)
Okay, here goes:
When tax breaks are given to a certain group, that money has to come from another source-- you and me. In your naive world, when one guy doesn't have to pay as much, the govt just doesn't spend that money, and everybody benefits. But in reality, the govt just gets that money from another place. Did you really think that they'd just stop paying defense contractors, or say, "Just don't use that unsafe bridge until we scrape up the cash?" That they'd give soldiers in Iraq IOU's? That local police and EMT's could just stay at home? Puh-leeze.
This is standard conservative stuff here. When the right is in power, they spend like they're in a Bangkok cathouse and cut upper-income taxes, then when they get ousted for it, they pretend the resulting deficits are the left's fault, and that taxes and deficits are the worst problem in American life. I think it's called Santa Claus Syndrome. The difference now is that the left is drawing attention to that. --->JMS

[songsmith]

[So in essence, if you are a failure, it is your own fault. Not some rich guy in an office who works 180+ a week to get to where he is at now.

Or some rich guy's son, who never worked a day in his life, but has the correct last name. Or the rich guy who spent 180 hours a week playing the system for 3 years, then collected his billion-dollar platinum parachute. Or some rich guy who got a million-dollar bonus for driving his company into bankruptcy on the taxpayers' dime. Or some rich guy who pump-and-dump manipulated the markets to maximize his own pocketbook, ala Enron. Or some rich guy who somehow has the time to sit on 20 corporate boards at once, despite owning homes on 3 continents. Or some rich guy who realized that people in Malaysia will work for a tenth of what Americans need to survive. Etc,etc,etc... You can reward those people, I won't.
I also don't get the reference to failure. My bills are paid, and I buy toys I an afford. Good marriage, small but cozy home, artistic satisfaction, hobbies... but I don't go for the yuppie ideal, so I guess that makes me a failure.
You guys keep complaining about Big Bad O. I'm living the life.
--->JMS

[mjb]

So, tell me how the Bush tax cuts helped?--->JMS

for the average guy getting up and going to paint houses/washing tucks/ cutting grass whatever...... it may have not helped you a whole lot ( i don't know)and maybe thats why your so salty john but for me and and being a business owner it was a great help. one off the top of my head was being able to go out and buy a new work truck and write the whole thing off in one year instead of the usual depreciation schedule. cuz i had a reall ygood year that year i was happy to have that tax break.i was able to fit another machine on that truck and give another person a job. there are quit a few others but i have good accountants to learn all that stuff and all their complexities. i find it hard to believe that you could understand all the tax laws and benifts enough to comment.
just sayin........ you could always go start your own house painting company and then i think you may see it in a different light.

Okay, Mike, I get the one-year tax break. So how many jobs did you create? This was the point I was trying to make... the Bush tax cuts were sold as a deterrent to outsourcing and net-bubble-popping, as a jobs creator. So, why didn't that stop the exodus of US jobs that started before Obama? It didn't work, the same result as all the other economic policies of the Bush Era. A Clinton surplus became the largest debt in US history at that time, eclipsing even the Reagan presidency. It's undeniable in any way, shape or form, that the day the current president took office, the economy was already in a freefall. The Bush admin did nothing to stop it, and in fact, exacerbated it by a lack of oversight and deregulation, as well as massive tax cuts for favored industries like petro and banking.
As for having my own business, pretty much all non-musical related labor on my part is simply the means to an end, not a career, and I consider bandmates partners, not employees. Risk and reward are spread evenly.--->JMS

ahh....... i'm goin fishin.

[songsmith]

Good idea. I went Saturday, but I was preoccupied with testing my new kayak, and didn't catch anything.--->JMS

[Banned]

[Can you let some of us into your illusion, how were rich people keeping more of your money????? You get some of my money when you get the earned income tax credit you once claimed in a post.

Easily! (of course, your mind may have trouble wrapping around it, it's not the standard wingleberry pie you prefer)
Okay, here goes:
When tax breaks are given to a certain group, that money has to come from another source-- you and me. In your naive world, when one guy doesn't have to pay as much, the govt just doesn't spend that money, and everybody benefits. But in reality, the govt just gets that money from another place. Did you really think that they'd just stop paying defense contractors, or say, "Just don't use that unsafe bridge until we scrape up the cash?" That they'd give soldiers in Iraq IOU's? That local police and EMT's could just stay at home? Puh-leeze.
This is standard conservative stuff here. When the right is in power, they spend like they're in a Bangkok cathouse and cut upper-income taxes, then when they get ousted for it, they pretend the resulting deficits are the left's fault, and that taxes and deficits are the worst problem in American life. I think it's called Santa Claus Syndrome. The difference now is that the left is drawing attention to that. --->JMS

You think that all money belongs to the government, and if we do what they want, they may let us keep some of it. How about the idea that our money is ours, the government should down size like the family budget, and we keep a whole lot more of our money, whether your are rich or poor?

The government just has to do with less. Quit blaming the right for everything, just tell the government to do with less.

[songsmith]

Quit blaming the government (that you had your chance to elect) for all the ills in the world, and quit turning the normal machinations of the American system into the apocalypse. Accept that not everything will meet your approval.--->JMS