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| Posted by: Boldwin
- [35615181] Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 12:12
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| | | 1 | Boldwin
ID: 35615181
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 12:44
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Whitetail Border Crossing.
Why not stimulate the economy and leave a lasting legacy of infrastructure to the next generation?
Let's make sure we think of everything. Forty foot radio tower. Check. 24/7 Down-focus security lighting. Check. Razor wire fencing. Check. Vehicle Maintanance facilty. Check. Emergency generator. Check. Above-ground gas and diesel fuel storage tanks. Check. Two holding cells. Check. Three dog runs. Check. Kennel. Check. Fitness center. Check.
Serves 3 cars a day. Check.
Border has been closed on the Canada side during the project. Check.
County unemployment figure is 4%. Check.
Maybe we can share facility with Canada and get them to reopen it - Janet Nepolitano.
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| | | 2 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 13:09
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Who actually approves, Stimulus funding on a project by project basis?
I will quickly agree B, that the article you link above indicates a REAL need, for immediate reddress of these fundings.
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| | | 3 | DWetzel
ID: 53326279
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 13:09
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drudgesiren.jpg
HUMANS ARE CORRUPT
drudgesiren.jpg
And yes, it sucks.
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| | | 4 | Seattle Zen
ID: 10732616
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 18:03
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I'm with Boldwin, the Border Patrol is a slush fund along the Canadian border, a total waste of hundreds of millions of dollars. I'm witnessing it up here on the Olympic Peninsula, dozens of agents driving gas guzzling Tahoes for eight hour shifts while making less than one arrest a day. Add in the Blaine border crossing, one of the busiest in America, and were talking one hundred agents making 600 arrests a year. Ridiculous!
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| | | 5 | Boldwin
ID: 35615181
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 19:11
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Then again you don't even want a border there.
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| | | 6 | Boldwin
ID: 35615181
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 19:31
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$5 billion to weatherize homes. But one Texas county spent $4 million to weatherize just 47 homes. That's $78,000 per house. Each retrofit is supposed to save homeowners $500 a year in energy costs.
Companies that raise tropical fish, shellfish, catfish, alligators and even turtles qualify for $50 million in tax money to buy fish food. [hey, fish gotta eat - B]
Napa Valley Wine Train. The county received $54 million to build a railroad bridge, relocate a half-mile of track and build a flood wall to protect a wine train passenger station. The no-bid contract went to a minority-owned business operated by an Eskimo tribe outside Anchorage.
The company then hired a real construction company for a fraction of what they were paid by the government to actually do the work. The tribe's CEO has no construction experience. His last business, a Web site for sailors, went bankrupt after spending $13 million in investor money.
[Damn the depression and pour me another, garçon - B]
Kentucky gave $24 million to a contractor on trial on for bribery.
An aerospace company received $15 million to monitor water quality in a Ventura County creek it was already fined for polluting.
- Fox
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| | | 7 | Boldwin
ID: 35615181
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 19:40
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$650 million for digital-TV coupons.
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| | | 8 | Boldwin
ID: 35615181
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 19:42
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$850 million for Amtrak.
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| | | 9 | Boldwin
ID: 35615181
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 19:44
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$1.2 million for research how elderly people react to playing video games.
Where's my money?
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| | | 10 | Boldwin
ID: 35615181
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 19:45
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$180,935 to discover a better method for freezing rat sperm. That old method is so yesterday.
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| | | 11 | Boldwin
ID: 35615181
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 19:48
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$112,437 for three high school students and three college students to study alcohol in laboratories (read: pound shots out of test tubes)
When will they ever get around to researching alcohol consumption already?
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| | | 12 | Boldwin
ID: 35615181
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 19:54
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Despite the $150,000 of stimulus money spent to resurface a [historic - B] bridge that doesn’t go anywhere, the state of New Hampshire does not have sufficient funding to repair the many functioning bridges that are falling apart. A recent report by TRIP indicates that almost one-third of all New Hampshire bridges are either “structurally deficient” or “functionally obsolete.” - Big Government
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| | | 13 | Boldwin
ID: 35615181
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 20:01
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$9.38 million to renovate a century-old train depot in Lancaster County, Pa., that has not been used for three decades.
- $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.
- $173,834 to weatherize eight pickup trucks in Madison County, Ill.
Washington Examiner
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| | | 14 | Boldwin
ID: 35615181
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 20:19
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$298,543 for a study on how to predict weather on other planets.
Because a dust storm on Mons Olympus can ruin your whole day.
And having mastered predicting the weather over the next 100 years on earth, new challenges were needed.
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| | | 15 | Boldwin
ID: 35615181
Thu, Jul 28, 2011, 20:31
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Top Democratic fundraisers and lobbyists with links to the White House are behind a proposed wind farm in Texas that stands to get $450 million in stimulus money, even though a Chinese company would operate the farm and its turbines would be built in China.
The farm's backers also have close ties with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who, at the height of his hard-fought re-election bid this fall, helped blunt congressional criticism over stimulus dollars possibly going to create jobs in China by endorsing a proposal by the Chinese company to build a factory in his home state. Although his campaign received thousands of dollars in donations from the wind farm's backers and Reid stood on stage with them at a campaign event they hosted, his office declined to answer any questions about the wind farm's organizers or their plans for Nevada. Top 100 donors
Three weeks before Election Day, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., center, arrives for the dedication of a wind farm in Henderson, Nev., on Oct. 12, 2010. With him are, second from left, Kai Huang, deputy mayor of Shenyang, China; Jinxiang Lu, second from right, chairman and CEO of A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a Chinese company, and Tom Conway, right, international vice president of the United Steelworkers union. Reid's support, and the plan to create jobs in Nevada, helped blunt congressional criticism that stimulus money was going to the Chinese company, which also plans a large wind farm in West Texas. The company is hoping to receive money through the U.S. Energy Department.
Moonbattery
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| | | 16 | The Clap
ID: 41613226
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 12:01
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There is a great amount of stupid things we spend money on but its all chicken feed compared to Social Security, Medicare and defense which even now, days from default, they don't have the guts to reform it to save us. It is sad to think that we do have the power to save this country but we do not have the guts to do it. It is almost like they want it to die.
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| | | 17 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 12:09
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re 16.... +1
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| | | 18 | The Clap
ID: 41613226
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 12:32
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And you know what they are going to do? Cut education, cut the Department of Energy, cut programs for poor kids to go to school, and cut the EPA. Sacrifice the future to save the present. Then they will keep the taxes on private jets, oil companies, and multinationals the same saying that these guys are job creators. They are job creators. In China and India.
Just wait until the Tea Party hill people take over. We went from the fundies under Bush running things to the people from Deliverance. It is sad that regular people which make up the Tea Party actually stick up for the power brokers that are responsible for their factory closings and declining standard of living.
Those people are so busy hollering at government employees for having good benefits and good pay that they are asking the wrong question. Instead of asking why the government worker has it so good, why aren't they asking themselves why they have it so bad in comparison?
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| | | 19 | Perm Dude/Allentown
ID: 416152913
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 14:15
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Exactly. The far right likes to point out the many little things that Congress voted on that are wastefull. But the real numbers are never talked about--like tha massive problems in health care spending, including billions of dollars in prescription drug care that the Bush administration pushed through.
It is easy to talk about how spending money on a morning coffee is wasteful rather than the second mortgage on the vacation home.
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| | | 20 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 14:25
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Mortgage Deduction from Personal Fed Inc Tax, is IMHO, one of THE most wasteful things done. MOST filers, cant itemize, maeaning they derive no deduction for it. The people it does help? Those buying their 2nd and/or 3rd vacation homes. It probably does help those who file Single and are buying a home, but when it comes to "family units"? Only helps the wealthy and the uber-wealthy.
To the extent that a deduction cuts revenue, it could be called an expenditure. That deduction, needs to be done away with, and accompanied by NO change in the tax rates themselves.
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| | | 21 | The Clap
ID: 41613226
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 15:14
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The mortgage deduction is one of the things that gets me a refund versus owing and I owed last year anyway. You're gonna have to define wealthy for me but I know I'm not uber-wealthy or a millionaire. Getting rid of that deduction is a sure fire way to convince more people to walk from their homes.
I can understand getting rid of it for non primary residences or capping it at homes worth 500k or higher which I heard was part of one of the debt reduction plans. For regular people getting rid of that is going to increase taxes on the middle class.
If we can have tax breaks for private jets and set things up such that GE pays zero tax then I think regular people shouldn't have their mortgage interest touched either. I'm not putting the top 2% above the other 98%.
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| | | 22 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 15:26
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Then you Clap, are in the minority. You itemize your deductions. The majority....do not, but rather take the standard deduction. By defending the mortgage deduction, you are in fact, defeending the minority of tax payers. (Not to the extent of 2% vs 98%, but less than 50% vs more than 50%)
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| | | 23 | The Clap
ID: 41613226
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 15:35
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A lot of people who itemize deductions are people with mortgages, kids, and normal people. We aren't the enemy here. My house is underwater, but do I ask for a TARP program to bail me out? Nope. I pay my mortgage because its my home and its where my family lives.
Now the same group of business people that rip on people for walking away from their mortgage and declare bankruptcy are the same business people that run businesses and they would be ok with declaring bk if it saved their company.
People with private jets are the kind that have jobs because the other 300 million of us gave them near 1 trillion dollars to bail them out. I flat out refuse to let them have low tax rates for luxury goods, pay zero tax on billions in profits, get trillions in bailouts or federal guarentees while I lose one of a few deductions that I get.
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| | | 24 | bibA
ID: 48627713
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 15:37
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The Clap's got it....the right idea that is.
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| | | 25 | weykool
ID: 343561414
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 17:09
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The people it does help? Those buying their 2nd and/or 3rd vacation homes. It probably does help those who file Single and are buying a home, but when it comes to "family units"? Only helps the wealthy and the uber-wealthy.
Being a uber-socialist doesnt excuse you from posting blatently false information based purly on your emotions.
#1. You can only deduct interest on your primary residence and 1 vacation home.
#2. The deduction is limited to $1 million in total acquisition debt and $100K refinced debt.
Allow me to do the math for you:
$10 million home with $5 million loan @ 5% amd $1 million equity loan @ 8%.
Deduction:
$900,000 @ 5% = $45,000
$100,000 @ 8% = $8,000
Total deduction = $53,000
Tax savings based on top marginal rate of 35% = $18,500.
Of course your predictible socialist response will be why should they get anything that can afford to pay more.
Translation: Even though these 5% of taxpayers pay 95% of the total income taxes we need to bleed them dry at any cost.
To the extent that a deduction cuts revenue, it could be called an expenditure. That deduction, needs to be done away with, and accompanied by NO change in the tax rates themselves.
I dont need any more proof than this statement to confirm your socialist mantra.
Any and all money Americans earn belong to the government.
It is up to the government to decide how much we are allowed to keep.
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| | | 26 | Seattle Zen
ID: 10732616
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 17:26
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posting blatently false information...
5% of taxpayers pay 95% of the total income taxes
Yep.
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| | | 27 | DWetzel
ID: 53326279
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 17:26
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So, just to be clear, a 35% top marginal tax rate is YAY AMERICA, LAND OF THE FREE, CAPITALIST PARADISE and a 39% top marginal tax rate (YAY REAGAN FOR GETTING US LOWER THAN THIS* AND PERSONALLY BEATING THE RUSSIANS WITH HIS BARE HANDS) is ZOMG SOCIALIST MANTRA!!!!!!
With attitudes like that it's no wonder we can't have a rational discussion in this country.
*(Not intended to be a factual statement)
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| | | 28 | Great One
ID: 574139
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 17:44
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Sarge - got a question for you, can you shoot me an email?
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| | | 29 | Perm Dude/Allentown
ID: 406462916
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 17:47
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Tax savings based on top marginal rate of 35% = $18,500.
Multiply this by more than a few people, and suddenly taxpayers are having to finance the homes of bunches of people who can otherwise pay for it.
No reason to look any further than this as to why the GOP got us into this fiscal mess. Their ability to rationalize why the wealthy shouldn't pay more in taxes is worthy of Circe de Solei.
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| | | 30 | The Clap
ID: 41613226
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 18:02
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The Republicans selling their souls to the fundies last decade and now to the Tea Party this decade is really what is causing the problem. Bush managed revenues like a conservative and spent like a Democrat.
I just saw Boehner on TV speak from the House floor and he invoked the name Ronald Reagan and talked about a sign he had on his desk.
There is no doubt that if Reagan were around today he would not even win the primary let alone be a hallowed name that he is today. Now I really like Reagan. But these hypocrites on the right today would call him a socialist too. He gave amnesty to millions of illegals, raised some taxes, and pulled out of Lebanon. He'd be just another RINO to the crazies in charge today.
If cutting taxes to the wealthy creates jobs in America, then why aren't we booming given that how low taxes are relative to historical norms? Its just an excuse. It is all about the destruction of the middle class here and enriching billions of Chinese and Indians so they can be consumers too.
Companies have a point about Obamacare, but until an environment is created where the labor savings overseas is negated by cost savings here we will never get out of this depression. Globalization will kill this country.
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| | | 31 | DWetzel
ID: 53326279
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 18:05
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"Bush managed revenues like a conservative and spent like a Democrat."
In other words, exactly like a typical Republican from the latter half of the 20th century.
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| | | 32 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 18:44
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re 28...email sent
re mortgage deductions....I could and would concede, the deduction on a SINGLE residence, price not to exceed the mean +10%, in that market area.
Tough as nails to administer? Yep. Fair to the middle class? Yep.
Does away with subsidizing the purchase of a vacation home by a select and relative few? Yep.
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| | | 33 | weykool
ID: 343561414
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 18:46
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No reason to look any further than this as to why the GOP got us into this fiscal mess. Their ability to rationalize why the wealthy shouldn't pay more in taxes is worthy of Circe de Solei.
How much is enough for you?
If we raise the top rates up to 39% why not 49%.....why stop there?
No matter what rate you come up with there are enough left-wingnuts who will argue they can afford to pay a little bit more.
5% of taxpayers pay 95% of the total income taxes
You are correct, its the top 50% who pay 95% and the top 5% who pay more than 50%.
My guess is most of the socialists on these boards dont believe it anyways, so no harm done.
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| | | 34 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 18:49
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Since you use the term "socialist" as though it were a bad thing, I take you are antisocial?
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| | | 35 | DWetzel
ID: 33337117
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 19:05
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"No matter what rate you come up with there are enough left-wingnuts who will argue they can afford to pay a little bit more."
And no matter how much you point out that the wealthy have gotten exponentially wealthier over the last 10 years at the expense of everyone else, right-wingnuts will always complain that 35% is too much, they should only have to pay 25%, or 15%, or 1% (why stop there? Make it 0%! But please build a massive wall to keep the brownies out, and keep buying stuff from defense contractors, and rich people need Medicare too so keep that.)
You're sounding a lot like one of those.
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| | | 36 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 19:07
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BTW, shall we finish the comparative? Since 50% pay 95% of income taxes, how much of the discretionary cash, is in the hands of that same top 50%?
Then, if the top 5% pay more than 50% of the inc taxes; how much of the discretionary cash is in THOSE same hands?
Now, I honestly do not know the answers to those questions, nor do I even know how to begin FINDING the answers. I'd think, it would involve working from a baseline income (poverty level for exd??) and determining what percantage of people are at what levels above that line...ie how man=y are 10% above, 15%, 20% etc etc...and then computing a "total" discretiuonary income dollar figure, then establishing how many control what per centage of those dollars.)
Largely pointless, unless it indicates an extremne availability of a large br of those discretionary dollars in a very small nr oif hands. In which case, it would not be "socialist" to ask those small nrs to pay the vast majority o taxes...it would be entirely fair.
For ex, if I control 90% of the income, then I SHOULD pay, not less than 90% of the taxes.
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| | | 37 | DWetzel
ID: 33337117
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 19:12
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We're all socialists*. We're just haggling about the price now. If you think the current tax rates are OK, you're clearly a socialist.
*unless you want to advocate for 0% taxes on anything and no government whatsoever, I suppose. Then you're just nuts.
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| | | 38 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 19:38
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reposting this link, as per a request:
Unemployment and Presidential Administrations
The average yearly unemployment, allowing for a one-year time lag, was
5.0% for Democratic administrations (5.2% without a lag) and
6.3% for Republican administrations (6.0% without a lag) for the last fifty-six years.
The average yearly change in unemployment for the last fifty-six years, allowing for a one-year time lag, has been
-2.2% for Democratic administrations (-3.1% without a lag) and
+8.7% for Republican administrations (9.2% without a lag).
There might be some interest in comparing the recent Clinton administration (1993-2000) with the current BushGW administration (2001-2003) and the previous Reagan/BushGHW (1981-92) administration.
Allowing for a one-year lag, the
Reagan/BushGHW administration had a yearly average of 7.1% unemployment (7.1% without a lag), the
Clinton administration had a yearly average of 5.0% unemployment (5.2% without a lag) and the current
BushGW administration had a yearly average of 5.9% unemployment (5.6% without a lag) up to now.
The average yearly change in unemployment, allowing for a one-year lag, was
+0.1% for the Reagan/BushGHW administration (+1.2% without a lag),
-4.1% for the Clinton administration (-7.5% without a lag) and
+12.2% for the BushGW administration (+14.7% without a lag).
Unemployment and Political Parties
This shows the U. S. unemployment data for the years 1929-2000 compared to the presidential terms (Dem=1, Rep=0) and Democratic control index of the federal government (see below for definition). Note the large rises in the Eisenhower, Nixon and Reagan/Bush administrations and the falls in the Kennedy-Johnson, Carter and Clinton administrations, especially the former and the latter.
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| | | 39 | weykool
ID: 343561414
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 20:46
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#36 Sarge
Could be best summed up by:
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need"
#38 Why a 1 year lag?
Do you really think the hole Obama is digging for us will be fully realized next year?
I dont think so.......but 10 years from now we will all be paying the price for his policies.
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| | | 40 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Fri, Jul 29, 2011, 20:56
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Obama is not and has not been DIGGING the hole. That was done by GWB. Obama, has been his level best to fill the damn thing in.
Why a 1 yr lag? Because virtually no Pres/party change; can institute any MAJOR and IMMEDIATELY impactful actions, within days of taking office/over. So the 1 yr lag, reflects the simple truth, that the outgoing administrations olicies have a "lagging" affect/impact.
Never known anyone to question the point behind the "lag" being factored in before.
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| | | 41 | Perm Dude
ID: 5510572522
Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 13:44
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#33: Because no one is calling for rates to be raised to 49%. It is a specious argument to pretend otherwise.
What has been asked is that the wealthiest pay the same rates as during the Clinton Administration.
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| | | 42 | DWetzel
ID: 33337117
Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 14:16
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PD, don't sully these right wing socialism rants with petty garbage like facts.
Did you do crap like that when Reagan saved us from the Germans at the Alamo? I don't think so! So why do you hate America now?
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| | | 43 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 14:37
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ahhhh shades of Animal House...CLASSIC!!
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| | | 44 | The Clap
ID: 41613226
Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 15:16
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A dollar says Jay Leno could find people on the street that actually believe Reagan saved us from the Germans at the Alamo. Go to a Tea Party rally. If you had a dollar for each instance you could put your kids through college.
The rates on the top 2% need to be rolled back. We simply can't afford it anymore. And if it does deter job creation then the customer service reps in India and the seamstresses in Beijing will just have to go on unemployment. That's where the jobs are being created anyway.
If the job creators won't be patriotic and create jobs here, why should we treat them well with low tax rates?
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| | | 45 | Mattinglyinthehall
ID: 37838313
Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 15:50
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The job creators aren't the wealthy. The job creators are the consumers.
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| | | 46 | The Clap
ID: 41613226
Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 16:17
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I understand that we are a consumer driven economy. My backhanded slap calling business owners job creators alludes to the fact that yes we Americans do consume things but its the Chinese that are making them. We'll never right the ship unless that changes.
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| | | 47 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 16:58
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A dollar says Jay Leno could find people on the street that actually believe Reagan saved us from the Germans at the Alamo.
I'll not touch that bet. After watching one night when he could find NO ONE (at least who they showed) who recognized the opening line for the Gettysberg Address, but found 3 people who knew "SpongeBob" based on a description of where the character lived...I will no longer underestimate the ignorance of the American Public.
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| | | 48 | Boldwin
ID: 35615181
Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 22:20
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1) The 'new' job creators, aka the consumers buy plenty of chinese goods thus shifting plenty of jobs, eh?
2) Take a second look at who voted for NAFTA and GATT and WTO. It was a bipartisan screwing.
3) Why should we tax Ross Perot to death?
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| | | 50 | Mith
ID: 23217270
Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 00:18
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The 'new' job creators, aka the consumers buy plenty of chinese goods thus shifting plenty of jobs, eh?
Try buying American made goods in an area where Walmart has run almost every small retail business out of existence. Blame NAFTA and WTO for the manufacturing exodus if you want (as you insist that American manufacturing could have somehow continued to compete with cheap overseas labor and that cost of living here wouldn't have soared otherwise) but It sounds odd to hear you blame individuals and families for trying to stretch their money as much as possible.
And when were the consumers not the job creators? please tell me about this time when the American job market was flush with employment opportunities at businesses which had no concern for whether anyone would pay for their goods and services.
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| | | 51 | Boldwin
ID: 35615181
Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 09:16
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There's not that much difference between the CEO of Boeing saying that he just cannot wait until the day when Boeing is no longer considered an american company, and an american who aggressively outsources his purchasing. Same result. Same lack of concern.
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| | | 52 | Building 7
Leader
ID: 171572711
Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 09:33
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Medicare and Medicaid fraudsters are beating U.S. taxpayers out of an estimated $90 billion a year - $60 billion of it from Medicare - using a billing scam that is surprisingly easy to execute. Steve Kroft investigates Medicare
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| | | 53 | Mith
ID: 46121210
Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 11:49
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Same result. Same lack of concern.
You're out of your mind. A CEO's choice to move overseas forces the consumer's hand regarding decisions on how to provide for his family. They are not the same result. One prompts the other.
And your Boeing CEO could leave the company for a gig as a mime in the park tomorrow and still have plenty enough set aside to cover a new BMW for himself every 5 years for the rest of his life.
How could you possibly be so brainwashed as to blow off the different kinds of decisions those people make as the same lack of concern?
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| | | 54 | The Clap
ID: 41613226
Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 15:08
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This subject is the one thing Trump made sense about. He commented one time about how he'd rather see his kid with 3 plastic dinosaurs made here than have 6 plastic dinosaurs made in China.
BTW, this is not some chicken or the egg riddle. The product has to be made in China first before a consumer can purchase a product made there.
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| | | 55 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 15:42
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Except Clap, Trumps line of Signature shirts....are made in China.
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| | | 56 | Perm Dude
ID: 5510572522
Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 15:59
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The purchase of goods made overseas isn't a losing situation (at least, it is rarely a losing situation). Retailers make money, shippers make money, and the workers of both are making money.
Continuing to subsidize goods with tax money that can be better made elsewhere is almost always a losing situation, however.
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| | | 57 | The Clap
ID: 41613226
Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 17:39
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The problem Perm Dude is that when good manufacturing jobs with benefits are outsourced (especially in heartland type communities where options are limited) what kinds of jobs fill the void? WalMart greeters and McJobs most likely.
We've got to protect good paying blue collar jobs like they are worth their weight in gold. Jobs are a national resource no different than oil, air and water.
There's got to be a way for the moderately educated (some college or high school degree) to earn some kind of a living. Those are the people most in danger of going on the government programs. Its no secret that this country was at its best when middle America could earn a decent living that involved a home, vacations, and kids.
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| | | 58 | Perm Dude
ID: 5510572522
Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 18:44
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Protect at what cost? I understand the need to not subsidize overseas jobs, but standing in the way of capitalism in general is what you'd do if you had a death wish traveling with you.
Are we worse off because clothing is now made mostly overseas? If we're not including the poor family with 4 kids to clothe in that discussion than we're missing some of the answer.
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| | | 59 | The Clap
ID: 41613226
Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 21:21
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It is not the clothing by itself that is killing us. It is the electronics, injection molds, auto parts, tools, and nearly every SKU at WalMart. The sheer volume of it and it is no longer the simple stuff. Nothing is safe anymore and it is killing this country.
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| | | 60 | Perm Dude
ID: 5510572522
Sun, Jul 31, 2011, 21:34
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Maybe. My own thoughts on Wal Mart is in the Wal Mart thread.
Too often, the knee jerk reaction of the left to trade and capital policy is protectionist--an answer which hurts those workers, long term, far more than it helps.
The answer to helping the blue collar worker is to foster, encourage and (at times) to pay for flexibility. Education, re-training, and lifelong learning (partially on the taxpayer dime) is a far better long term strategy than in protecting industries which employ blue collar workers from adjusting in ways which involve a loss of traditional jobs.
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| | | 61 | Building 7
Leader
ID: 171572711
Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 15:33
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Gov't pays for empty flights to rural airports
On some days, the pilots with Great Lakes Airlines fire up a twin-engine Beechcraft 1900 at the Ely, Nev., airport and depart for Las Vegas without a single passenger on board. And the federal government pays them to do it.
Federal statistics reviewed by The Associated Press show that in 2010, just 227 passengers flew out of Ely while the airline got $1.8 million in subsidies. The travelers paid $70 to $90 for a one-way ticket. The cost to taxpayers for each ticket: $4,107.
"They fly the empty plane so they can still get the money," Smith said.
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The less money the federal government gets, the less they can waste away. They've shown no ability to be a good custodian of funds and until they do, I'm going to oppose their request for more.
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| | | 62 | Perm Dude
ID: 5510572522
Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 15:49
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I agree with cutting many subsidies (don't know about this particular one, but there are a lot of ripe fruit there).
The biggest obstacle, however is Grover Nordquist, who holds the insane belief that cutting subsidies is a "tax increase" because it allows the government more revenue it otherwise wouldn't have.
There is no bigger voice on the Right than Nordquist, and his sway over GOP policy is practically pathological.
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| | | 63 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 15:49
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$1,800,000 vs $1,000,000,000,000
One would need to TOTALLY eliminate 500,000+ such expenditurers, to create a 1 trillion dollar cut. Good luck finding $1000 bills, 2 pennys at a time.
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| | | 64 | WiddleAvi
ID: 137361215
Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 16:36
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I hate that excuse that cutting 1.8 Million is a drop in the bucket (We hear that so often). Who cares ? Any waste should be cut doesn't matter if its only 100k
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| | | 65 | Perm Dude
ID: 5510572522
Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 16:48
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I completely agree. Pretty soon we're talking real money, but we have to start somewhere, if for no other reason than to increase tax wasting vigilance.
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| | | 66 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 17:06
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I agree that waste needs to be trimmed to the extent possible. But I dont think we need to spend much time/effort concerning ourselves with pittances, when there are vast amounts whioh could be cut/reallocated FIRST.
Dont go looking for the penny first, when your books are off by $100.01 at the end of the year. Look for the $100, and worry abvout the penny later.
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| | | 67 | WiddleAvi
ID: 137361215
Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 18:53
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And thats why nothing will ever get cut because everyone is going to say whats the point of cutting this, it's only a drop in the bucket. Guess what, when looking at the deficit everything is a drop in the bucket.
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| | | 68 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 20:03
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Here is the rest of that airline story
You know the one, where B7 selectively quoted only THE most extreme example, and did so out of context.
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| | | 69 | Perm Dude
ID: 5510572522
Fri, Aug 12, 2011, 21:24
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#67: Actually, the reason things don't get cut a lot is because individual reps all fight hard to bring that money to their district. They just aren't interested in cutting money for their own districts very much, if at all. Tea Party members are just as bad, despite their lip service to cutting spending.
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| | | 70 | Building 7
Leader
ID: 171572711
Sat, Aug 13, 2011, 11:38
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Here is the rest of that airline story
You know the one, where B7 selectively quoted only THE most extreme example, and did so out of context.
That is the exact same story as I posted in #61. Exactly. Word for word. The same authors. There is no rest of the story because it is exactly the same story. Nothing was quoted out of context. Selected quotes were copied and pasted because we're not supposed to reprint the entire story. You're a liar and your credibility around here is shot.....I'm referring to sarge33rd in case there is any doubt. If you do it again, I’m putting you on ignore and you and Baldwin can have a nice discussion.
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| | | 71 | sarge33rd
ID: 1964421
Sat, Aug 13, 2011, 12:05
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roflmao putting me on ignore? Is there such a thing? Oh and FTR, I dont lie. Used to, always got caught, quit...many years ago.
And I'll plead mea culpa on the repost. Comp here is slower than Palin and I hadnt bothered to look back at your post.
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| | | 72 | Building 7
Leader
ID: 171572711
Thu, Aug 02, 2012, 13:55
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Tax Scam: IRS Pays Out Billions in Fraudulent Refunds
The IRS is paying out billions of dollars in fraudulent tax refunds to identity thieves; a problem that the tax service’s inspector general told CNBC is a “growing problem” involving numbers that are increasing “exponentially.”
In a new report to be issued Thursday, the inspector general for the IRS says that tax thieves are stealing the identities of taxpayers and then filing bogus returns on their behalf and collecting fraudulent refunds as a result.
The inspector general estimates that the IRS could issue as much as $21 billion in fraudulent tax refunds over the next five years.
The scam is so rampant that thieves are apparently sending in false returns in bulk without even bothering to change the mailing address on the returns. The inspector general said it found one residential address in Lansing, Michigan that was the source of an astonishing 2,137 tax returns, and to which the IRS directed more than $3.3 million in potentially fraudulent refunds
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If only someone coud dream up a solution to prevent sending 2137 refunds to the same address.
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| | | 73 | slug
ID: 265522515
Thu, Aug 02, 2012, 14:18
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So someone steals my identity and files a tax return under my name. IRS issues a refund. What happens when I file the legitimate return? Are they processing & issuing a refund to two returns for my social security number?
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| | | 74 | sarge33rd
ID: 12554167
Thu, Aug 02, 2012, 14:21
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ID Theft is the crime here, not the IRS mailing out refunds under legit SSANs. That said, yes, 2k refunds to one address? Simple line of code, maybe 2, checks for that.
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| | | 75 | Building 7
Leader
ID: 171572711
Thu, Aug 02, 2012, 14:50
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They should be coding that today. Yesterday.
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| | | 76 | sarge33rd
ID: 12554167
Thu, Aug 02, 2012, 14:51
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I agree entirely.
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| | | 77 | Mith
ID: 23217270
Thu, Aug 02, 2012, 15:03
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The last paragraph of the linked article suggests they might.
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| | | 78 | Frick
ID: 14082314
Thu, Aug 02, 2012, 15:29
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Don't the tax refund advance "scams" probably do something similar, (i.e. make you get a paper check sent to their address). If so, having hundreds, if not thousands, of checks sent to the same address is possibly not unusual.
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| | | 79 | sarge33rd
ID: 12554167
Thu, Aug 02, 2012, 15:33
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I dont know Frick, that the check can be rerouted. Never done that, so I really dont know how those work.
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| | | 80 | Boldwin
ID: 18643169
Thu, Aug 02, 2012, 16:01
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If only someone coud dream up a solution to prevent sending 2137 refunds to the same address.
From the country that runs our elections.
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