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Obama Redirects From A Broke US Government By Playing The Class Warfare Card, Focuses On "Millionaires And Billionaires"
In what appears to be an increasingly tenuous attempt to redirect focus from terminal federal government failure through the imposition of yet another round of class antagonism, Barack Obama, as part of his earlier address to the nation, stressed that more revenue "must be part of any deficit-reduction deal" and criticized Republicans for protecting tax breaks for "millionaires and billionaires" in the process even invoking users of corporate jets (despite that fact that he himself boasted using the $56,000/hour taxpayer funded Air Force one to travel the 110 mile distance between Washington DC and Williamsburg, VA). As the WSJ puts it: Obama "staked out his position in budget negotiations, which have reached a critical phase and increasingly appear to hinge on which side wins the public-relations battle." Well-aware of the dead end trap that Bernanke finds himself in namely that monetary policy alone is now (or ever) powerless to fix the economy (although it sure would do miracle for the Russell 2000... and hyperinflation), and that a fiscal stimulus is currently unpassable, Obama dragged out the strawman, suggesting "that some initiatives designed to stimulate the economy in the short term should be included in a final deal, singling out a yearlong extension of the payroll-tax break for employees, which expires in January." The bottom line is that as the $4 trillion budget cutting goal is completely unattainable (something the Republicans have claimed is a priority in allowing a debt ceiling hike, yet which is nothing but a PR bluff), Obama has instead once again resorted to what he does best: foment class antagonisms within America, by singling out the rich versus the poor. Ironically, as a WSJ commentator puts it so eloquently, "Obama clearly wants all Americans brought down to a shared level of misery --- except, of course, our federal overlords who will continue to demand their own personal jets, international family travel at taxpayer expense, lifetime health benefits while being excused from the ravages of ObamaCare, and of course their recurring exemptions from all other laws that they impose on us lowly serf taxpayers. Obama wants class warfare? Well he got it: Americans vs their elitist, corrupt, irresponsible, thieving government." One can hope that the final outcome of said warfare here will be more effective than any and everywhere else, where said "governments" continue to dangle the carrot of (insolvent) entitlement program elimination should the population dare to change the status quo.
The WSJ summarizes Obama's speech:
"You can't reduce the deficit to the levels that it needs to be reduced without having some revenues in the mix," Mr. Obama said at a news conference on Wednesday that spanned a wide range of topics from the economy to gay marriage and Afghanistan and Libya.
"Deficit reduction, debt reduction should be part of an overall package of job growth over the long term," Mr. Obama said. "I think that it makes sense, as we're looking at an overall package, to see: Are there some things that we can do to sustain the recovery, so long as the overall package achieves our goals?"
"Democrats have to accept some painful spending cuts that hurt some of our constituencies and we may not like, and we've shown a willingness to do that," he said. "So the question is, if everybody else is willing to take on their sacred cows and do tough things in order to achieve the goal of real deficit reduction, then I think it would be hard for the Republicans to stand there and say that the tax breaks for corporate jets is sufficiently important that we're not willing to come to the table and get a deal done."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) reiterated Wednesday that a deficit-reduction package must contain big spending cuts and no tax increases or additional spending to stimulate the economy.
And while Obama was pumping up the rhetoric on the non-golf tour, and attempting to regain a shred of credibility with a general public that has long since lost all interest in both the hope and the change, Tim Geithner was waxing philosophically yet again and threathening with eternal damnation all those who dare oppose America's replacement of one tapped out credit card with another.
Below is Geithner's full response to a Jim DeMint letter from May 26 in which the republican made the all too clear observation that a US default is purely in the eyes of the tax evader.
Dear Senator DeMint:
I am writing in response to your letter of May 23, 2011, regarding the statutory debt limit. President Obama is strongly committed to restoring fiscal responsibility, and he has put forward a specific framework and set in motion a process to work with both parties to accomplish this critically important objective. Although agreement has not yet been reached, we have made progress toward that objective, and I welcome the statements by leaders of both parties making clear that the debt limit must be increased in order to protect America’s creditworthiness.
The debate over the debt limit can seem esoteric, but a failure to resolve it in the near term would have painful implications for people in every walk of American life. It would have a serious impact on members of the Armed Forces who depend on paychecks to feed and house their families. Social Security recipients who subsist on their monthly benefits, veterans who rely on the government for their retirement and health care needs, and small business owners or employees who provide goods and services to the country.
In your letter, you suggest that the debt limit should not be raised, and instead the federal debt be “capped” at the current limit. You further propose that after the government’s borrowing authority id exhausted in August, the United States should for some indefinite period pay only the interest on its debt, while stopping or delaying payment of a broad swath of other commitments the country has made under the law.
I have expressed my concerns about this idea before, but I will restate them to be clear: this “prioritization” proposal advocates a radical and deeply irresponsible departure from the commitments by Presidents of both parties, throughout American history, to honor all of the commitments our Nation has made.
The debt limit applies to past decisions of Congress. Increasing the debt limit is necessary to allow the United State to honor obligations previously authorized and appropriated by Congress. You explained this well in 2010 when you said:
You don’t have much choice if you charge something on your credit card. You have to pay it, and that’s effectively what this debt limit is … we’ve already spent the money. The question is now, do we shut down the government, or do we fund what we’ve already done.
Increasing the limit does not increase the obligations we have as a Nation; it simply permits the Treasury to fund those obligations Congress has already established. As James A. Baker III, Secretary of the Treasury under President Reagan, informed Congress in 1987:
I should stress that defaulting on already outstanding, validly incurred obligations has far graver effects than halting operations of the Government when spending authority is allowed to lapse, such as when there is a delay in action on appropriations. A failure to pay what is already due will cause certain and serious harm to our credit, financial markets and our citizens; it is not remotely similar to a lapse in authority to incur new obligations. (Emphasis in original.)
The statutory debt limit is not and never has been, as you argue, a “budget enforcement mechanism” that can be used to implement spending reductions by selectively defaulting on obligations previously approved by Congress. Our Constitution provides that “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” When Congress determines that certain commitments in the law should be altered or terminated, those decisions must be effectuated through enactment of legislation, not by attempting to coerce the Treasury to renege on existing legal commitments.
Even if the idea of “prioritization” were not so unwise, it would not be a mere exercise in “belt tightening,” as you suggest. The United States in now required to borrow approximately 40 cents for every dollar of expenditures. Your proposal would require cutting roughly 40 percent of all government payments. These deep cuts would be felt by all Americans, and they would risk throwing the economy back into recession.
You are also mistaken when you state that the Treasury has “prioritized” payments in the past. This is false. Never has the Treasury failed to meet any obligation as a result of a debt limit impasse, nor has Treasury ever “prioritized” payments. Congress has never failed to raise the debt limit when necessary. It is true that there have been failures at time to enact appropriations legislation, and this has caused temporary government shutdowns. Specifically, the 1995-1996 furloughs and suspensions of programs you refer to were caused by appropriations lapses, not a failure to raise the debt limit. But as Secretary Baker explained, there is no comparison in either cause or effect between a shutdown and a failure to increase the debt limit.
At its core, your letter is based on an untested and unacceptably risky assumption: that if the United State were to continue to pay interest on its debt — yet failed to pay legally required obligations to its citizens, servicemen and women, and businesses — there would be no adverse market reaction and no damage to the full faith and credit of the United States. Again, this idea is starkly at odds with the judgment of every previous Administration, regardless of party, that has faced debt limit impasses.
“Prioritization” also fails to account for how payments on principal would be made if investors were to lose confidence in U.S. creditworthiness. In August of this year, for example, more than $500 billion in U.S. Treasury debt will mature. Under normal circumstances, investors who hold Treasuries purchase new Treasury securities when the debt matures, permitting the United States to pay the principal on this maturing debt. Yet in the scenario you advocate, in which the United State would be defaulting on a broad range of its other obligations, there is no guarantee that investors would continue to re-invest in new Treasury securities. In fact, some market participants have already indicated that they would be disinclined to do so. As one of the major ratings agencies concluded in a recent report, failure to pay non-debt obligations “would signal sever financial distress and potentially imminent debt default,” prompting the U.S. sovereign rating to be place on “Rating Watch Negative.”
If investors chose not to purchase a sufficient volume of new Treasury securities, the United States would be required to pay the principal on maturing debt, and not merely the interest, out of available cash. Yet the Treasury would be unable to make these principal payments without the continued confidence of market participants willing to buy new Treasury securities. Your proposal assumes markets would be unconcerned by our failure to pay other obligations. But if this assumption proved incorrect, then the United States would be forced to default on its debt.
I understand that you have a different view of what would happen if the United States were unable, for the first time in its history, to meet its legal obligations. Nevertheless, I hope we can all agree that we should not and must not gamble with the full faith and credit of the United States. The consequences of miscalculation are too grave. The full faith and credit of the United States is too precious an asset to risk. If you are wrong in your prediction, to quote then-Secretary Baker, “Future generations of Americans would have to pay dearly for this grave breach of a 200-year old trust.”
Ultimately, the notion of “prioritizing” payments is futile because the debt limit must be increased regardless of which spending path is adopted. There is no credible budget plan under which a debt limit increase can be avoided. In addition, a failure to enact a timely increase in the limit would have the perverse effect of increasing the government’s borrowing costs and worsening our fiscal challenges.
For all of these reasons, the idea of “prioritization” has been rejected by every President and Secretary of the Treasury who have considered it. It is unwise, unworkable, unacceptably risky, and unfair to the American people. There is no alternative to enactment of a timely increase in the debt limit. As President Reagan wrote in 1983:
The country now possesses the strongest credit in the world. The full consequence of a default — or even the serious prospect of default — by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and on the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass the legislation before the Congress adjourns.
I appreciate your attention to this important issue and I look forward to working with you and other Members of Congress in the weeks ahead.
Sincerely, Timothy F. Geithner
(incidentally, the bolded text above is an admission by the Treasury Secretary that the US financial system is a ponzi).
Zero Hedge will shortly present a technical update from the perspective of US debt, on just what is so magical about the August 3 date that everyone keeps referencing.
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I am merely pointing out that taxes going up is not the only option as my rebuttal to the post above me.
There is no society. Only those getting checks claiming their check is more important than the money you have earned.
Barrack Obama hates children. He wants old people to die quicker so Mr Soros can keep more of his millions.
Hey Barrack want percentage of taxes did your boy Soro's pay the last ten years?
Nancy Pelosi is a mutli-millionaire how much were her taxes?
There is only one way to save the nation.
Outlaw air conditioning in D.C.
LOL
There would be no more calls to make D.C. a "state", that's for sure.
They'd just do their business in the basement bomb shelter in the hotel they built secret like in Maryland - only the best for our monarchy (er...politicians).
It is ridiculous to think that 250,000 per year is real money and distinguishes the boundaries of the jetsetting class.
Given average federal salaries and benefits that is merely two federal government workers married to each other
Dupe deleted. Must be too poor for premium membership.
Isn't the quarter mil a distinction that lines up with the US incomes breakdown such that the top 1% incomes are above (Way above the 250k mark) almost as if there is a missing link (in income$) from $250k to the top incomes?
I think one percent starts at around 400,000.
Maybe JW in FL knows the stat.
I have no problem with increasing taxes a bit on the top one percent once obama is gone.
Your better than me, I have near-psychotic problems with the federal income tax at all levels given its true function: paying FED interest.
This is pure BS as usual. If he had the intention to do anything about poor/rich inequality he would have start way before.... this is only to make the show go on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK0UOdAU6gs
Did Obama sign that bill to extend the Bush tax cut for the filthy rich? Actions speaks louder than words.
"There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
-Warren Buffett
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html
Exactly, that says it all, and Bush said something similar. If this isnt warfare, you have to be stupid, ignorant, in denial or Republican.
It is right and proper that the different classes compete.
It is not right when government steps in and uses its police powers to choose a winner.
That is exactly why "we the people" created representative government in the first place.
To stop the King from murdering our family and stealing our due and proper.
"Some people call you the elites; I call you my base."
- GW Bush
STOP f*** PENTAGON ZOMBIES NOW!!! STOP OCCUPATIONS in AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ, LIBYA..
Heroin traffic to the Europe rise 300% since Americans invite
Afganistan. that's what they do for taxpairs money..
Selling drugs!
Stop those Criminals NOW! And you'll have 50% cut in spending immediately. PERIOD. Nothing else need it. F*ck WAR!!!!!
Tyler, what's so bad about the ultra rich paying their share? Oh I forgot, labor is making such massive gains...We all know that corporations run this mf'er, can you say "planet starbucks?"
maybe one day the sheep will take up arms to defend their rights? maybe even try to enforce the Constitution? maybe? I fucking doubt these spinless cowards could lift a book let alone a gun in defense of the Law.. but I still plug along.. hoping and praying that I am wrong.
Well put. It is class warfare and, as Gregg Palast wrote, the middle class has lost without a shot being fired. FUCKING CLASS WARFARE, ALL YOU IGNORANT STUPID SONS OF BITCHES IN DENIAL, SHILLS OR REPUBLICANS. Today, just as before 1928 there was a great sucking sound of money going to the top. And its the central banking cartel of the west which is promoting endless war, record profits and the destruction of the middle class and poor by means of fractional reserve system which sustains it.
"There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
-Warren Buffett
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html
Unless Greece stops them (bankers) then we are not going to see and end.. just more extending..
The Irish are all talk.
The Spanish did NOTHING! after weeks of sit ins and holding hands and non-violently asking the Bankers to stop raping them.. the more the Spanish cried the more the Bankers seemed to enjoy raping them.
so! unless Greece steps up and makes some head way.. America! the home of the lazy and ignorant.. (and divided.. where was the middle income people when the poor where being raped? no where and the poor remember that shit.) will end up doing NOTHING as well!
and even if! Greece steps up.. America has been successfully fragmented so I doubt that the Koch Brothers Tea Party is going to help America right itself or make the top 1% pay anything let alone a fair share or what you and I pay.
Props Tyler, you have brought the pigmen out from their slumber!
Class Warfare is one thing they will absolutely come out to discuss.
BECAUSE THEY ARE THE ONES CASTING THE STONES!
Take note fence sitters, its like f'n ground zero on ZH today
Hehehe.
I love class warfare posts.
Israel, collapse and teotwawki, and gold/silver posts also invigorate the crowd.
Come on out bansters, writingonthewall, and southern pov. It's playtime! We need a few more socialists to help out the other side here.
As a proud serf, I strongly object!
Stop Weapons of Mass Extortion!
So this is where ZH has slumped to, a mouthpiece for the Koch's and the right of banksters and their peons in the Republican Congress to take what they want as they give the middle finger to the rest of the country.
You pathetic snivelling two-faced cowards were all for class warfare when it meant the Tea Party storming the gates because an uppity black man had the temerity to think he could be president, but now, when the spotlight gets turned on the true hypocrisy of the repubs, you're all "Waa waa waa, that's not fair!!!"
Libertarians are concerned with ideas not skin color.
Cutting back the federal government causes some of us libertarians to work with the more christian fundamentalist sect of tea partiers but i doubt there are many of us here who care where you stick your dick or the density of melanocytes in your skin.
Actually, there is some, but not much, truth to his post. Many who call themselves libertarians, are actually just individualists and egoists. If in the current political scene, there were "true republicans" or more precisely "true rightwingers", who are not concerned with crap like skin color, then they would actually match those "libertarians" quite well. The only reasons why those people reject both parties, is because there is no true "republican / rightwing" party (and BTW also no true democratic and leftwing party).
Politically, there are no true egoist parties, no altruist parties, no individualist parties, no collectivist parties.... all there is, are parties who combine the worst of all those things, in different paintjobs.
It's not hard to call oneself beyond the political spectrum, when those currently representing the spectrum, are all fake. Those who here and elsewhere call themselves beyond the LR-axis, signify nothing.... all their selfdeclaration means, is that they do not believe in the current fake.... it doesn't say anything about where they're actually standing. And quite a lot around here, are actually standing on the right.... its just that there is no party representing them.
As a moderate libertarian I want maximum freedom and personal responsibility and a meritocracy, but i dont want all the chips to end up in one player's hand because that itself could end freedom.
That is the eternal conflict. Liberty not carefully guarded may become tyranny.
Well said!
No. R actively and forthrightly promote every form of war and death and destruction for the cause of Rabbinical Talmudism (done in the name of Christ in the guise of Protestantism, i.e. Churchianity).
D hide and mask their promotion of war and death and destruction for the cause of Rabbinical Talmudism (done in the name of secular humanism).
Racism is an idea about skin colour and libertarians are obsessed about it.
Racism is an idea about skin colour and libertarians are obsessed about it.
You apparently have no idea what someone who loves individual liberty and personal responsibility believes.
I think you misunderstand.
Obama is not an actor here other than theater of which he may or may not be aware he is a part of.
You are right, the powers that be are giving the middle finger to the middle class; Demican, Republicrat - all the same thing - Kelptocrats - Oligarchs - with politicians as willing or duped naive figureheads playing the game to get theirs or thinking they are making a difference as they run circles on the gerbil wheel of the MSM and distract the multitudes.
If only we had a politician(s) willing to lower the hammer on the malfeasant, to restore the rule of law, the Constitution, common sense...if only.
There will not be change that matters until there is bloodshed; the foxes are in the henhouse, the snakes are laying with Eve.
and let it be done.. Amen!
chirobliss-
You're nothing but a mouthpiece for the oligarch kleptocrats and a snivelling two-faced coward.
There are two houses of the US Congress, one party has a majority in one house, and the other party has a majority in the other house. And both parties are guilty as hell of driving America off a financial cliff.
I'm not a Republican, Libertarian, Tea Partier, or friend of the Koch brothers. I do know more than half a dozen Heads of State who actually are black. Obama is an uppity mutt and fascist-socialist who had the temerity to think he had what it takes to successfully lead a nation. Some clown on TV said that he wasn't qualified to run a watermelon stand, that was being generous, because ADULTS run roadside stands- Obama isn't qualified to run a lemonade stand.
Get rid of income tax completely , its completely unnecessary (along with the majority of public workers)
Zero rate for Mr Buffet.
Zero rate for Mr Burger Flipper.
Two more thoughts:
One - The real reason they don't want to default is because that may encourage the rest of us to do the same - just lay it down and walk away.
Two - The ultimate goal in all of this has been fixed markets and abolishment of consequences. That is the goal of the ponzi - full participation and zero consequences. Obviously with housing. Also now higher ed. They artificially inflate the ranks of those who would be consumers and drive prices up. Then when the bottom comes out the banks are TBTF. The same now with the party(s). If team Edward had to raise taxes to promote their agenda instead of just borrowing money; and if team Jacob had to cut programs to promote their agenda instead of just borrowing money, then maybe there would have been some real prices to pay vis-a-vis the electorate. Maybe then they would have had to reap what they sowed. Instead the bankers promised to forever buy debt, and it was an offer that could not be refused.
It does beg the question - if things are so great with 40% of all spending borrowed, why don't we go 100% borrowed and be done with it? Why should anybody pay taxes?
well, for starters, you'd put all those CPA's out of work, let alone lobbyists, congressional aides, and who knows what..... we need "jobs", remember? weren't the politburo always talkin' "jobs, jobs, jobs"?
Inflation is taxing of every holder of the currency.
While yes, the only reason "they" for now still use taxes, is to keep up the facade, what actually should happen, is that there is no inflation, and ONLY taxes, so that the full insanity of it all becomes visible to every idiot, and washington falls in no time. Obviously, they don't want that, so that is why it isn't done.
TD please publish an editorial from this author.
Obama is just a street hustling marxist behind a teleprompter. Privately, I doubt he would even consider that an insult. Nothing can improve until he is gone in 2012.
Obama has only lasted this long because the liberal MSM protects him like a crippled baby in a wheelchair, giving him the full affirmative action treatment 24/7. The liberal journalists operate more like real racists, suffering from a perception of black racial inferiority, they just assume he needs their extra "help" at every turn. They don't overcompensate like this for a White president, even a fellow traveler.
They're starting to sound like the North Korea press. The Norks reported one time that Kim Jong-Il made 11 holes in one --- in a single round of golf!
pwus wun!
So, what are we going to do about it?
The more I read about and ponder how this economic chaos is sliding into collapse, I get a bit tingly thinking about my neighborhood full of conservative Christians gathered at our street barricade staring at the rainbow parade marching by demanding food and fare shares of what's left. I hate to be such an ass, but part of me wonders about the day when liberals flap around gasping for "fair".
But, then I'm a passafist. oops sp?
TD, you rule.
Karl Marx never worked a day in his fucking life, he mooched money from Engel's parents.
And when Marx said all wealth is the product of workers labor, he was famously and fundamentally wrong, but it still sells like hotcakes to those who want to justify the confiscation of others property.
It's a fact too that Karl also played the market to get some extra coin for his bum life. Hypocrite just like Barry.
+1
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and
the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their
country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and
woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this
consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the
triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only
that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon
its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM
should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has
declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL
CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then
is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is
impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God. - Thomas Paine, The
Crisis, 1776
I am all for it! lets burn some of this dead wood off and clean up this Country..
Fuck that clown. He's a child.
"You can't reduce the deficit to the levels that it needs to be reduced without having some revenues in the mix,"
Uh, yes we can Mr. President. Yes we can.
The by JW n FL idiot keeps pasting the same shitlist over and over. I read it the first time asshole. If everyone did the same stupid pasting of the same post, this forum would cease to work.
Tyler - please ban this by JW n FL retard.
What he doesn't understand is that spamming that crap over and over makes people who would have agreed with him reconsider their positions.
Kinda' like the TSA molesting 5 year old blonde girls for the purpose of our safety?
Maybe if we molest enough 5 year old females it will become normal.
This also matriculates down to Obamacare. It's all very Orwellian.
If the population succombs to allowing their government to molest their children, and control their healthcare....than the government can do ANYTHING.
Goebbels said "If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. " And if you treat people a certain way it becomes the normal.
A secular dhimmi tax. Go figure.
Are you sure he said it?
I never heard him say it or anything like it.
I dont try to make you fucking idiots change your mind through discussion.. that is a waste of time.. all I can do is show people the Facts and let them decide what is real and phoney.
of the 10,000 plus people who will read this page.. less than 1% will post.. who do you think those readers pay more attention to.. You? with you one line of bitching? or the easy to click on sourced and sited facts.. who do you think has a greater sway with that audience?
I would keep going but I have already helped you to understand above that its not your fault.
Boehner Cuts Spending for the Poor! Gives Tax Breaks to the Rich! http://goo.gl/UMDm4 $28M Lobby Whore http://goo.gl/J8WwZ
Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic Bill to End tax Breaks for Moving U.S. Jobs Offshore! http://goo.gl/6qhnK
Republican committee voted for a 18-month delay of regulations to reduce risk in OTC Derivatives. http://goo.gl/4IYGP
Republican Senate Campaign Contribution Monies from Government Military Contractors with Free Speech Argument http://goo.gl/35V9l
Republicans! Stealing $2.5 surplus from Social Security - Robbing The Middle Class http://goo.gl/m8QMq
Republican Tax Cuts! General Electric $14.2B Profits, Pays $0 in US Taxes http://goo.gl/cgg4O $39M Lobby http://goo.gl/rZLDY
Death of America Movie “Fall of the Republic” HQ full length version
http://goo.gl/EwUsC
By accepting the Treasury post, Paulson is poised to take advantage of a tax loophole that allows government officials to defer capital gains taxes on assets they have to sell to avoid a conflict of interest, as long as the proceeds are reinvested in government securities or a broad array of mutual funds approved by the government within 60 days.
Technically, the tax kicks in once these replacement assets are sold, using the purchase price of the original assets as the cost basis, says Tom Ochsenschlager of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. But why sell when you can avoid the tax altogether?
"The idea is never to sell," says Robert Willens, the top tax and accounting analyst at Lehman Brothers. "If you're able to hold onto the replacement assets until your demise, you never have to pay it."
http://www.forbes.com/2006/06/01/paulson-tax-loophole-cx_jh_0602paultax.html
I could go on and on..
Top 10 corporations which paid no taxesHere is Sen. Sanders’ list of the 10 worst corporate income tax avoiders:
1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes,
it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings. (Source: Exxon Mobil’s 2009 shareholder report filed with the SEC here.)2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion. (Source: Forbes.com here, ProPublica here and Treasury here.)
3) General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States over the past five years and, thanks to clever use of loopholes, paid no taxes.(Source: Citizens for Tax Justice here and The New York Times here. Note: despite rumors to the contrary, the Times has stood by its story.)
4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009. (Source: See 2009 Chevron annual report here. Note 15 on page FS-46 of this report shows a U.S. federal income tax liability of $128 million, but that it was able to defer $147 million for a U.S. federal income tax liability of negative $19 million.)
5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year. (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here and Citizens for Tax Justice here.)
6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year, received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction. (Source: the company’s 2009 annual report, pg. 112, here.)
7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department. (Source: Bloomberg News here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)
8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury. (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)
9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2006 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction. (Sources: Profits can be found here. The deduction can be found on the company’s 2010 SEC 10-K report to shareholders on 2009 finances, pg. 127, here.)
10) Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits over the past five years, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent. (Source: The New York Times here.)
http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2011/04/30/top-10-corporations-who-paid-no-taxes/
and...
‘Dutch Sandwich’ saves Google billions in taxes Internet giant uses complex structure to keep its overseas tax rate at 2.4%http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39784907/ns/business-us_business/t/dutch-sandwich-saves-google-billions-taxes/
and..
Microsoft’s purchase of Skype for $8.5 billion provides a perfect illustration of why adopting a true worldwide corporate income tax system is critical to our economic future.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the cash for Microsoft’s purchase of Skype (a Luxembourg-based company) will come out of its $42 billion in liquid assets held in foreign subsidiaries.
Because it is purchasing a foreign company with its overseas assets, Microsoft can avoid paying any U.S. tax that would be due if it had repatriated foreign earnings in order to purchase a US company for the same amount. Based on the company's effective foreign income tax rate disclosed in their most recent SEC filings, a repatriation of $8.5 billion dollars would cost Microsoft somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.1 billion in U.S. tax.
As a Forbes commentator opines, the Microsoft-Skype deal demonstrates the harmful incentive created in our current system that encourages companies to invest in overseas companies rather than domestic ones. The fear is that this deal may just be “a harbinger of things to come.”
http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/federal_tax_issues/tax_avoidance_tax_evasion_and/offshore_abuses/
Republicans to roll out new tax-cut proposal: WSJ
25 May 2011, by Michael Kitchen - Los Angeles (MarketWatch)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/republicans-to-roll-out-new-tax-cut-proposal-wsj-2011-05-25
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are set to unveil a new economic proposal Thursday that will cut taxes for multinational corporations and lower other tax rates.
What you fail to understand is that even people who would agree with you on the topic, like me, are going to ignore your spamming the topic because you appear to be a mentally ill troll.
on Wed, 06/29/2011 - 21:28
#1414215
The by JW n FL idiot keeps pasting the same shitlist over and over. I read it the first time asshole. If everyone did the same stupid pasting of the same post, this forum would cease to work.
Tyler - please ban this by JW n FL retard.
************************************************************
Boehner Cuts Spending for the Poor! Gives Tax Breaks to the Rich! http://goo.gl/UMDm4 $28M Lobby Whore http://goo.gl/J8WwZ
Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic Bill to End tax Breaks for Moving U.S. Jobs Offshore! http://goo.gl/6qhnK
Republican committee voted for a 18-month delay of regulations to reduce risk in OTC Derivatives. http://goo.gl/4IYGP
Republican Senate Campaign Contribution Monies from Government Military Contractors with Free Speech Argument http://goo.gl/35V9l
Republicans! Stealing $2.5 surplus from Social Security - Robbing The Middle Class http://goo.gl/m8QMq
Republican Tax Cuts! General Electric $14.2B Profits, Pays $0 in US Taxes http://goo.gl/cgg4O $39M Lobby http://goo.gl/rZLDY
Tyler-
As you can see, this guy is fucking retarded.
Tyler~
As you can see, this guy contributes nothing! but 1 line of drivel!
waaaaaaaaaa waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
taddle tale! LOL!! what are you 5 fucking years old? what kind of coward cunt are you?
Another Internet tough guy
A fucking retarded Internet tough guy.
What Timmay wrote.
"Increasing the limit does not increase the obligations we have as a Nation; it simply permits the Treasury to fund those obligations Congress has already established."
What Timmay meant.
"Increasing the limit does not increase the obligations of my rich friends, shit no, only the taxpayers; it simply provides cover for the Treasury to fund anything we want without congress needing to participate in the process."
Break out the pitchforks!!!
Ok, these idiots pouring out of their rodent holes who think ZH is supporting either Dems or Rebups need to wake up and realize that both have had an equal share in reighning destruction down upon the pleebs by siding with corporations and banks over the future of our country.
Let's make it a little more politically clear. The typical ZH'er will believe that:
-Repubs and Dems are for the most part absolute morons bought and paid for by elites
-Selling our children's future out to support the TBTF F'ers who were complicit in destroying our nation was not the wisest move and continuing to do so is utter bullshit.
-Frank / Dodd along with a whole bunch of other MFers should be in prison for forcing banks (who thought they could get away with it and make big bucks as they repo'ed houses) to lend to degenerates, ignoring the perils of the subprime crisis, and zero willingness to admit to their mistakes.
-We should bring not only the troops home from the 3 wars but also reign in our imperialistic pursuits evidenced by the hundreds of military bases we have stretched out accross the world.
-We should cut government spending accross the board ...... every area
-We should destroy the Federal Reserve with a few bunker busters
-We should vote more Libertarian or pursue the idealism of anarchy
Feel free to add to list. America is burning because of greed and spending. America isn't burning because a certain tax bracket isn't paying enough taxes or because we don't have enough government programs.
Athens today scared the hell out of elitists the world over. Add in the other riots and demonstrations going on and they are beginning to see clouds forming on the horizon. It's what happens inevitably when wealth and power get too concentrated. Big money starts getting cocky and tries to muscle the other 99% around. It can happen anywhere. And the sense of inevitability seems to be growing fast, looming behind every new development.
The bailouts haven't ended. The banks need endless bailouts not just to pay for the trillions they already lost. They need to create a need, a demand from economies that are languishing and even contracting. Else they couldn't afford Gucci loafers for much longer.
I would say that yes, it is class warfare. And we'll be having it right here in the ole USA
The fun thing about zero hedge is there are a multiplicity of opinions and viewpoints.
Daily Kos and New Republic are so boring in their bland conformity.
We have, in general, a much better class of socialists and rightwingers than any site out there.
Night all. Let me know who wins in the morning.
Well, if Obama wins, we all lose.
you republicant plants dont get it.. we hate you.. but dont feel bad! becuase we hate them too..
but the enemy of your enemy is not your friend here..
we want all of you ignorant fucks dead so that the Country can be a better place.
So, Jews and Republicans on your list of targets for murder. Is there anyone in the country you would spare in your attempt to make this country better?
no.
"If investors chose not to purchase a sufficient volume of new Treasury securities, the United States would be required to pay the principal on maturing debt, and not merely the interest, out of available cash. Yet the Treasury would be unable to make these principal payments without the continued confidence of market participants willing to buy new Treasury securities."
-Timothy Geithner
The definition of a Ponzi Scheme...right from the horses' mouth
I like my simple solution. Give each and every legislator ten crisp one hundred dollar bills, cash, no tax, for every billion dollars each one cuts from the budget.
We'd have a surplus before the next election.
The death of the yuppie is a significant turning point: once all delusions of grandeur (formerly known as "aspirational consumers") are gone, what's left are shades of being part of the working poor: hogtied to fixed costs held over from the boom days, while real incomes are dropping, home values are dropping and DC is talking about cutting into retirement benefits. Meanwhile the cost of living, working and doing business is not only rising but picking up steam. The tsunami is still offshore in places like Europe but it's fast approaching.
Once the yuppie and the yuppie dream dies what will be clear is that reality bites. And the anger won't go away with the roll out of new iPads.
Lotsa luck
Is Barry talking about the Billionaires he gave TARP to?
...or the Billionaires Bankers Barry gave record high Bonuses to for the last two years?
...or the Billionaire Wall Street Brokers he Bailed out of the Bad Subprime Bond investments?
...or the Billionaires he and Pelosi extended tax cuts for in December?
Could Barry please distinguish.
This distinction between "the rich" and "the poor" is totally irrelevant except to thieves, who sensibly prefer to concentrate on the rich.
To a moral society, the important distinction is between the productive and the unproductive. Plenty of people get rich in unproductive ways (politicians, politically connected members of the finance industry and big business, union leaders, lawyers, etc). They ought to be stripped of their wealth and doing so would discourage their anti-social behavior.
On the other hand, those who get rich by inventing or producing goods and services that other individuals freely want to buy should not have the proceeds stolen from them to benefit those who engage in unproductive behavior. That would encourage more productive effort.
Unfortunately we now live in a society dominated by the unproductive, with the most successful thieves making enormous fortunes and declaring their own behavior righteous.
At one extreme, say a divine monarchy where the king owns all, one could say everyone is a "taker" and "unproductive" and the king is a "giver" and "producer".
In a less extreme scenario, where 0.1% control or own 99%, then wealth gets inherited by successive generations of wealthy, whether productive or not, retarded or not, drug addict or not.
In a more general scenario, where everyone is a tenant to a wealthy landowner, the tenants actually do the producing of crops but get very little of the benefit.
In a specific example from America's past, workers would get paid by a steel mill after working 12/7 and then be charged every last dime they received in "expenses" like needed equipment that they could only buy from the company, food and clothes from the obligatory company store and rent for the company apartments.
Who is "productive" and who is not can't be judged through the myopic lens of who is rich. In fact it's often the opposite
Taking what you didn't work for from someone is NEVER production, it is theft.
Excellent example of totally missing the point. Try reading what I said, not what you imagined I said.
Sure, sure.
Etc... Another post that examplifies the US mindset "I deserve every single cent I earn"
i always thought that in a moral society, the rich had a responsibility to the poor.
That is blasphemy around here in libertarian-land. Expect to be labeled as junk, insulted or ignored, but by no means taken seriously.
they give @ the office?
The poor have a responsibility too.
Get off their lazy asses and their addiction to welfare and fake disability payments.
Off with their heads!
There is an ounce of true to these words. The top 3% of the oligarchs control 80% of the wealth in this country. These are the people that really got bailed out. There stocks and bonds would have been worth half or less with all the leverage if the American taxpayer did not bail them along with the banksters out. Only Wall Street was bailed out. The bailout did nothing for the average American that has no money left to lose. Granted all both parties are a bunch of corrupt crooks, but I find it unbelievable that the Republicans have the balls to even suggest a tax break for this class of people.
by the time "We the Sheepeople" wake up.. there will be such a fire.. that burns so hot! that all this trash will be incinerated almost instantly.
By accepting the Treasury post, Paulson is poised to take advantage of a tax loophole that allows government officials to defer capital gains taxes on assets they have to sell to avoid a conflict of interest, as long as the proceeds are reinvested in government securities or a broad array of mutual funds approved by the government within 60 days.
Technically, the tax kicks in once these replacement assets are sold, using the purchase price of the original assets as the cost basis, says Tom Ochsenschlager of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. But why sell when you can avoid the tax altogether?
"The idea is never to sell," says Robert Willens, the top tax and accounting analyst at Lehman Brothers. "If you're able to hold onto the replacement assets until your demise, you never have to pay it."
http://www.forbes.com/2006/06/01/paulson-tax-loophole-cx_jh_0602paultax.html
I could go on and on..
Top 10 corporations which paid no taxesHere is Sen. Sanders’ list of the 10 worst corporate income tax avoiders:
1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings. (Source: Exxon Mobil’s 2009 shareholder report filed with the SEC here.)
2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion. (Source: Forbes.com here, ProPublica here and Treasury here.)
3) General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States over the past five years and, thanks to clever use of loopholes, paid no taxes.(Source: Citizens for Tax Justice here and The New York Times here. Note: despite rumors to the contrary, the Times has stood by its story.)
4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009. (Source: See 2009 Chevron annual report here. Note 15 on page FS-46 of this report shows a U.S. federal income tax liability of $128 million, but that it was able to defer $147 million for a U.S. federal income tax liability of negative $19 million.)
5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year. (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here and Citizens for Tax Justice here.)
6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year, received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction. (Source: the company’s 2009 annual report, pg. 112, here.)
7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department. (Source: Bloomberg News here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)
8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury. (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)
9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2006 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction. (Sources: Profits can be found here. The deduction can be found on the company’s 2010 SEC 10-K report to shareholders on 2009 finances, pg. 127, here.)
10) Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits over the past five years, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent. (Source: The New York Times here.)
http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2011/04/30/top-10-corporations-who-paid-no-taxes/
and...
‘Dutch Sandwich’ saves Google billions in taxes Internet giant uses complex structure to keep its overseas tax rate at 2.4%http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39784907/ns/business-us_business/t/dutch-sandwich-saves-google-billions-taxes/
and..
Microsoft’s purchase of Skype for $8.5 billion provides a perfect illustration of why adopting a true worldwide corporate income tax system is critical to our economic future.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the cash for Microsoft’s purchase of Skype (a Luxembourg-based company) will come out of its $42 billion in liquid assets held in foreign subsidiaries.
Because it is purchasing a foreign company with its overseas assets, Microsoft can avoid paying any U.S. tax that would be due if it had repatriated foreign earnings in order to purchase a US company for the same amount. Based on the company's effective foreign income tax rate disclosed in their most recent SEC filings, a repatriation of $8.5 billion dollars would cost Microsoft somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.1 billion in U.S. tax.
As a Forbes commentator opines, the Microsoft-Skype deal demonstrates the harmful incentive created in our current system that encourages companies to invest in overseas companies rather than domestic ones. The fear is that this deal may just be “a harbinger of things to come.”
http://www.ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/federal_tax_issues/tax_avoidance_tax_evasion_and/offshore_abuses/
Republicans to roll out new tax-cut proposal: WSJ
25 May 2011, by Michael Kitchen - Los Angeles (MarketWatch)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/republicans-to-roll-out-new-tax-cut-proposal-wsj-2011-05-25
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are set to unveil a new economic proposal Thursday that will cut taxes for multinational corporations and lower other tax rates.
1) House and Senate Renew PATRIOT Act With No Modifications
2) National Security Letters Increasingly Used on Americans
3) Proposed Senate Bill Would Add Civil Liberties Protections
4) Senators Raise Concerns on DOJ's Interpretation of PATRIOT
I just read a post that inspired me to donate (again) to ZH. I've been advocating for a couple years now to my friends/family that they should pull their money out of wall st and #1 save it themselves; #2 buy PMs; #3 invest in themselves (hobbies, personal companies, side projects); #4 invest in their local community; #5 grow a garden; #6 invest in what interests you.
The poster's comment made me realize that I should give some more money to ZH as I hit f5 on this site daily. It wasn't a large sum but it was something. What shocked me (and hence the reason for this follow up post) was that my transaction ID was #2116. That seemed too low for me... I donated another $1 to check. Sure enough, the ID was #2117. That lead me to believe one of two things... one, they started over the transaction IDs (or have a different format); two, even worse, only 2115 people (I've donated 3 times) have ever given money to ZH even though this site gets a ton of traffic. Now I know that they get money from the ads they are running all over the screen but that can't be a fortune. What I'm getting at is this... if you find yourself using a site often (and I know a LOT of you do), you should either increase their ad revenue by clicking the ads or you should DONATE. It's a simple as that. Don't take ZH (or any other site you visit regularly) for granted. Put your money where your mouth is. This site has a great thing going for it and the more WE donate the less they are dependant on outside funding.
People, no one is making any serious money at zero hedge and it probably just breaks even.
Some of you may be poor, but even ten bucks is better than nothing.
Give what you can.
Late Night With The Obamas
http://rightnetwork.com/videos/late-night-with-the-obamas-3
Too few ended up with too much.
Anyone on this site think this isn't true? Tell the 19% unemployed and under employed what you feeeeeel. Yeah, feel. I'm reading a whole lot of emotional stuff - not too much problem solving.
Everyone, you live in the largest socialized economy the world has ever known. Yep, every single one of us is a socialist, whether you like it or not. And, just to be fair, you can't have capitalsim without socialism and you can't have socialism without capitalism.
According to the IRS, 75% (+/-) of corporate profits go to Executive Salaries, Wages and, Other Comensations. That's up from 61% in 1990 and 21% in 1953. Look folks, the brand of Socialism we are enduring right now is pro-rich/plutocrat. Does anyone honestly think there will not be more economic benefit from keeping wealth in circulation versus giving it away to those who haord it?
(Forgive me for this unusual interpretation.) I have a strong feeling that this will come to head in 2013 (water snake). The reason being it is the Chinese year of the snake. An bernanke is born in 1953 also year of the water snake (full circle completion.) America may limp along to a tremendous and historic failure in 2012. The last snake year was 2001, history through patterns (1917,1929,1941,etc.) is shown that the snake year is the most chaotic and sneaky. The takeover served to the public back then will appear again 2013. Sad for me because I can see the worst qualities being paraded as the most thoughtful and altruistic. This snake knows just because you can does'nt mean you should. Humanity can't be categorized or sold in a bottle. It's the wild card of the universe and should be able to live to the farthest potential with out this face hugger stuck on all of us. If it's too strange pay me no mind. If it interests you......... research.
Also I hate them godamn math questions, I'm busy folding space over here......man o man
I'm happy to see that we'll soon be repeating and re-learning the same stupid lessons that were learned with blood in the past. The capacity for human learning is way more limited than you'd like to believe.
At night, as I lay in bed before I fall asleep, sometimes I fantasize that after the
revolution, I am the executioner of the greedy scum who have corrupted our government
and robbed us of the fruit of our labor and placed the yoke of debt around the
necks of our children and unborn grandchildren for generations to come. And as
I place the noose around their necks or aim the shotgun at their head or pour
the gasoline over them ( depending on which fantasy I have chosen that night )
I look them in the eye and smile at them and say: " Burn in hell you worthless
piece of crap " and after a while, a warm feeling of satisfaction comes over me
and I drift off to a peaceful sleep.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. [pause] Time to die. Just playing.
Also Tyler's.....You're champs. Thanks
It's common knowledge and plainly obvious that TG was appointed ST because he is a moron. Check out his credentials. A failure at everything. The perfect dupe for the puppetmasters.
Thats one fucking DELUSIONAL DUDE....
fUCK oFF AND DIE ,LITTLE tIMMY gEITHNER
In descending order of quality of government rule, Plato lists our beloved, holy, sacred "democracy" one sequence above fascism.
NOW i SEE WHY THE ELITES ARE WINNING.
You's Americans are ripping each other apart with comments about "conservatives"and Liberals".....
Too funny,all is going according to plan.
Think maybe ya's could work together for once...???
Na, I didn't think so.
yeah, it's pretty painful to watch.
too stupid to stop chasing one's own tail.
Financial repression is Winners and Losers and they simply do not care in any form of Government. http://www.imf.org/external/np/seminars/eng/2011/res2/pdf/crbs.pdf
Annual liquidation of debt via negative real interest rates amounted on average from 3 to 4 percent of GDP a year.
The community organizer can flash mob like nobody's business.
No joke. If you stuck a dick in Obamas mouth, he would think he created stimulus.
This guy is a freaking asshole, at least Bush was just plain stupid, I like them better that way. This pompas ass with his two step double talk bugs the shit out of me.
we need some old fashioned class warfare....the plutocrats and banksters have destroyed this nation and the top 1% and 10% of income and asset holders have impoverished the nation with their bureaucratic rape and pillage stunts....
michael hudson spells out nicely the poison the rentier class spreads within the political economy.....
unfortuntely, obama is not general to lead the war....he is a bought and paid for indonesian whore working for the rockefeller - rothschild axis of evil....
yup, cancelled an order for an equipment upgrade for my Gulfstream today.
American made stuff, too.
Obama's a real live genius.
First he gives me accelerated depreciation on capital equipment, and then he tells me I shouldn't have bought it.
I wish that guy would make up his mind.
That will cause some strife in the Obama family with Michelle having an anual budget of 1.5 million a year, triple that of Laura Bush.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/07/your_tax_dollars_at_work_suppo.html
That will cause some strife in the Obama family with Michelle having an anual budget of 1.5 million a year, triple that of Laura Bush.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/07/your_tax_dollars_at_work_suppo.html
History truly repeats its self. The revolution of our founding fathers started out in Inns and Taverns. The words of the founders persist to this day. There was equality but the concept of Freedom persisted. When the concentration of wealth becomes so great the the middle class and the working poor the ones the "PRODUCE" or have innovation are pushed to the point of breaking then you have what we have now. We diminish the human spirit with the idea that we are all of equal talent and ability. The natural cycle and the gross consumption of resources is out of balance. A reckoning is coming be it by nature or mankind. The thin veil of civility will truly be tested. Comon sense must truly come back in style. But I fear only blood may be the price.
We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.
Ayn Rand
let them eat
dollar bills ..
be off shore or short
take care
After reading a number of these comments I realize most of you have fallen into a trap that will kill you.
Accusations such as Fascist, Socialist, Republican, Democrat and more thrown at each other when the enemy is one and the same, divides and conquers, while you fight amongst themselves.
You cannot defeat an enemy when you have no trust between you and you are divided.
The government breaks the very laws it will throw its citizens in jail for. Right now it is running a huge counterfeiting and war generating scheme and no one can hold it accountable. The President can order murders and who shall stop him or her? No one, for the sheep will be too busy arguing the semantics of the murder and wondering if it is a good murder or a bad murder.
Many of you are intelligent people.
We forget the children and how they are being raised.
We were all kids once and look what we are turning into. We are all part of the embarrassment which allows this way of life to continue and lie to ourselves thinking we know it all.
No wise person ever said, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Furthermore, when the current system is unsustainable and the powers behind that system are fully aware of this, and another group, which is inherently less productive, is aligned against the current system proposed a replacement which is equally if not more unsustainable, then the power behind that system will actually engage the inherently less productive adversary first, weakening itself in the process, this is not so much an effort to divide the enemy as to pick off the low hanging fruit among the adversaries and to to postpone the inevitable as long as possible.
Ought to work well with the repatriation tax holiday idea.
lol
Here's a guy telling America that millionaires and billionaires need to pay more in taxes, then goes to the same people with his hand out for contributions to his campaign. Hopefully Americans can see through the class warfare card he's playing again and again. He's really shameless.
Obama, My Work Here is Done: http://beforeitsnews.com/story/201/219/Obama_my_work_here_is_done.html
Thought that said it all...
I'm not sure that class warfare is unwarranted in a situation where meritocracy has clearly broken down. The top 0.1% are surely not *that* much more talented than everyone else to justify having such an enormous portion of the country's resources. And no, the pie cannot be grown bigger and then everyone can have a yacht and a place in the Hamptons. I work very hard and make a decent living - top 10% of the income spectrum - but have little hope of gaining a reasonable share of the nation's resources commensurate with my contribution to wealth creation. The only way to achieve this is a taxation on wealth and reduction in taxation on earned income.
I love that fact that these guys can't fix it.
They can NOT! Print more Energy Supply! unless you want to start burning those trillions of dollars they printed as fuel!