They Ain't Gonna Fix It
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I was listening to the radio this morning and the conversation was about the coming tax increases here in America. Evidently President Obama wants to raise the tax on dividends from 15% to 20%. The analyst said this would raise 240 billion dollars over the next decade. That is when it hit me: They ain't gonna fix it. Set aside the partisanship for a moment. Set aside your views on taxes (or lack thereof) for a moment. Set aside the whole conservative/liberal thing for a moment. The 240 billion over 10 years is a drop in the bucket. We've been running 1000 billion per year in deficits alone - so that huge, earth shattering tax hike would only cover the deficit for 3 months of out the 120 months total. We're at about 2.5% of the deficit - not even regular spending. We've the same problem on the other side of the aisle. If you completely cut all social spending - if you managed to realize the totality of some conservatives wildest dream - you'd still be running deficits that Obamas wildest tax increases wouldn't cover. In short, I think you could give Obama carte blanche to raise taxes and give the other side carte blanche to cut spending and I still think we'd crater this thing. People keep talking about cutting this or raising that and then they throw around these figures that represent only the smallest fraction of the overall problem. We really have reached the "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" phase.
Wasn't his biggest argument against Romney, "The math just doesn't add up"? [rant] He's taken us to the fiscal cliff now throw us off and let the revolution begin. [/rant]
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I hardly think they ever 'debate' in Congress. I'm sure they're all playing Angry Birds on their phones or some such, rather than actually listening to what the opposing party is saying.
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Wasn't his biggest argument against Romney, "The math just doesn't add up"? [rant] He's taken us to the fiscal cliff now throw us off and let the revolution begin. [/rant]
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I hardly think they ever 'debate' in Congress. I'm sure they're all playing Angry Birds on their phones or some such, rather than actually listening to what the opposing party is saying.
I think the point he was making is that "Technocrats" will debate things into the ground more than the current politicians do...
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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There is a theory somewhere (I don't feel like researching right now), that democracy works until the majority realizes that they can control the Treasury, and basically print money for themselves (Free shit!). It will collapse into a dictatorship, then a monarchy.
Is that what they were talking about in 'The Lion King' with the whole "Circle of Life" thing...? :doh:
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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I agree with you here. $240bn? We went through 10% of that the day after Thanksgiving. http://rt.com/usa/news/day-thanksgiving-debt-us-741/[^] From my understanding, isn't a disproportionate amount of the budget dedicate to defense spending? Wouldn't pulling out of countries that only Israel wants us in save quite a bit?
wizardzz wrote:
From my understanding, isn't a disproportionate amount of the budget dedicate to defense spending? Wouldn't pulling out of countries that only Israel wants us in save quite a bit?
That has always been my opinion as well. We feel like we have this moral duty to police the whole world for fear of "the dirty Communists" taking over. The Cold War ended 20 years ago. Someone needs to tell the DoD...
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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Nah - we could settle it with a massive networked Unreal Tournament session!
If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tinned pork then just delete it. It's Spam.
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And I got a felling that ain't to far off.
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I agree with you here. $240bn? We went through 10% of that the day after Thanksgiving. http://rt.com/usa/news/day-thanksgiving-debt-us-741/[^] From my understanding, isn't a disproportionate amount of the budget dedicate to defense spending? Wouldn't pulling out of countries that only Israel wants us in save quite a bit?
wizardzz wrote:
Wouldn't pulling out of countries that only Israel wants us in save quite a bit?
If Israel were guiding our foreign policy that would be a relief. At least someone would be at the helm. I'm a bit of an isolationist - I see no reason to have our military anywhere but within our own territories: The 50 states, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Canada.
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wizardzz wrote:
From my understanding, isn't a disproportionate amount of the budget dedicate to defense spending? Wouldn't pulling out of countries that only Israel wants us in save quite a bit?
That has always been my opinion as well. We feel like we have this moral duty to police the whole world for fear of "the dirty Communists" taking over. The Cold War ended 20 years ago. Someone needs to tell the DoD...
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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Is that what they were talking about in 'The Lion King' with the whole "Circle of Life" thing...? :doh:
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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wizardzz wrote:
Wouldn't pulling out of countries that only Israel wants us in save quite a bit?
If Israel were guiding our foreign policy that would be a relief. At least someone would be at the helm. I'm a bit of an isolationist - I see no reason to have our military anywhere but within our own territories: The 50 states, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Canada.
MehGerbil wrote:
Canada
:thumbsup: :laugh:
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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wizardzz wrote:
Wouldn't pulling out of countries that only Israel wants us in save quite a bit?
If Israel were guiding our foreign policy that would be a relief. At least someone would be at the helm. I'm a bit of an isolationist - I see no reason to have our military anywhere but within our own territories: The 50 states, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Canada.
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I have no problem spending money to defend our country on our soil and our allies soil (missile defense, early warning, subs that provide MAD), but defending Israel from every big bad neighbor is not a moral duty our soldiers and tax payers have.
I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and guess the reason we defend Israel is so that they don't, because quite frankly, I think they'd use the nuclear option since they don't have the man power for a ground war. Our current way of doing it is giving Arabs a break, I think. It's still stupid.
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I have no problem spending money to defend our country on our soil and our allies soil (missile defense, early warning, subs that provide MAD), but defending Israel from every big bad neighbor is not a moral duty our soldiers and tax payers have.
wizardzz wrote:
and our allies soil
That's the problem. We spend more money defending our allies than they spend defending themselves...
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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I think the point he was making is that "Technocrats" will debate things into the ground more than the current politicians do...
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
Yes, but at least us (aka those that read CodeProject) would be the ones in power. :D
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wizardzz wrote:
and our allies soil
That's the problem. We spend more money defending our allies than they spend defending themselves...
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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Yes, but at least us (aka those that read CodeProject) would be the ones in power. :D
Call me when the melle starts, I'll be sharpening my axe until
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I was listening to the radio this morning and the conversation was about the coming tax increases here in America. Evidently President Obama wants to raise the tax on dividends from 15% to 20%. The analyst said this would raise 240 billion dollars over the next decade. That is when it hit me: They ain't gonna fix it. Set aside the partisanship for a moment. Set aside your views on taxes (or lack thereof) for a moment. Set aside the whole conservative/liberal thing for a moment. The 240 billion over 10 years is a drop in the bucket. We've been running 1000 billion per year in deficits alone - so that huge, earth shattering tax hike would only cover the deficit for 3 months of out the 120 months total. We're at about 2.5% of the deficit - not even regular spending. We've the same problem on the other side of the aisle. If you completely cut all social spending - if you managed to realize the totality of some conservatives wildest dream - you'd still be running deficits that Obamas wildest tax increases wouldn't cover. In short, I think you could give Obama carte blanche to raise taxes and give the other side carte blanche to cut spending and I still think we'd crater this thing. People keep talking about cutting this or raising that and then they throw around these figures that represent only the smallest fraction of the overall problem. We really have reached the "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" phase.
The economy tanking is what made the hole so deep and only the economy growing again will get us out. This is why all the gnashing off teeth over the deceit is silly. We should do whatever it takes to grow the economy (e.g. capital spending) and we can grow out of it.
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Is this a page out of the EU's guidebook on how to run a country? :D
You beat me to the punch (line).
