Should taxpayers laugh or cry about this?

xmacro

https://twitter.com/kesgardner/status/306468625370468352/photo/1

For those that can't see the pic, right-click on it and select "Open in new tab/window"

pelirrojo

Where's my time machine... I'm going straight to 1929. I hear they had good soup.

fla-gypsy

The fact is spending this year will exceed that of last year even with the cut of the catastrophic 3%, after of course the new tax revenues they couldn't survive without.

webmost

Wait until Obamacare kicks in.

Vulchor

Here are more "facts" for everyone to look over openly-----of course Im sure the ones I post are wrong and the right wing blogger Ken Gardner's are correct------but feel free to at least humor me and read this article as well.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/may/23/facebook-posts/viral-facebook-post-says-barack-obama-has-lowest-s/

webmost

Okay, Vulch, so which one is lying out his a$$ that 85 bil (which turns out to be more like 42 bil [which turns out to be more than we spent last year {which is still a 20th of what we need to cut to balance the budget}]) is gonna be a big honking disaster? Is that Mitt or is that Barry?

jgibv

pelirrojo:

Where's my time machine... I'm going straight to 1929. I hear they had good soup.

LOL



So what's the takeaway here, xmacro.
The amount's too small to warrant the adjective "catastrophic"?
The gov't should be enacting bigger cuts?
That lawmakers on both sides of the aisle should come up with, and agree on a long-term fiscal plan?

Not trying to be a d!ck, but seriously asking what your thoughts are on this ?

phobicsquirrel

eh, I think it's crap that congress will not suffer a financial blow as other federal employees from this. Just like everything else, they cause massive layoffs or pay freezes or pay cuts and they keep their money just not other federal workers. It's complete BS as they are the one's causing this. There is no penalty for them. One would say, well election time, well that was true a few decades ago but anymore their backers will pay millions of dollars to on ads to keep simple minded people voting for them.

There should be about 1 trillion cut from DOD. Take away these BS agencies that the bush admin started for one. Close a few hundred bases around the world. I mean WTF? Either way austerity doesn't work as we have seen countless times. Hell UK has been doing it and look what is happening. Just like a business, you can't grow by cutting everything, you need to spend! Very simple, just have to spend on things that will add value.

webmost

phobicsquirrel:

... just have to spend on things that will add value.

Just is a four letter word.

I believe in a just tax. Just like a swear jar, a just jar. People should just have to throw just five bucks in the just jar every time they use that four letter word. Especially when you use it in a context which just about everyone knows is just impossible. Like "... just have to spend on things that will add value." What?

If this were business, some hatchet man like Mitt would come in and say: "First thing, we cut everything that doesn't put product out the door." From six hundred dollar hammers for the military to pallets of cash for the Bank of Kabul to Head Start to War on Drugs to Congressional junkets to occupying every port from Pago Pago to Guantanamo, to bailing too big to fail, to ensuring bonuses for too rich to jail, to hearings that everyone knows aren't going to end up doing anything anyway, crushing clunkers, funding windmills, subsidizing ethanol, bridges to nowhere .... CRIPES!

Well, you or I could list away, but it just ain't gonna happen.

People keep talking about government as though it could do things right. Generally, they babble on like that right after complaining that it never does.

jgibv

phobicsquirrel:

eh, I think it's crap that congress will not suffer a financial blow as other federal employees from this. Just like everything else, they cause massive layoffs or pay freezes or pay cuts and they keep their money just not other federal workers. It's complete BS as they are the one's causing this. There is no penalty for them.

Now that's a noble idea !!!! Congress and the other professional politicians will only get paid if they actually work (we'll have to explain that concept to them first though)

Merit pay for our lawmakers !!!!! I think that's something all voters would approve of .... only downside is the lawmakers would never allow that issue to be placed on the ballot.
But we could rate them, by .... I don't know .... let's say how many votes they participate in, number of bills created, laws passed --- and they'd be paid a bonus for balancing the budget !!! And they'd get a super bonus for developing long-term, sound fiscal policy.


Nah, that'd never work.....

clearlysuspect

All smoke and mirrors. They're all playing for the same team. Not my team, not your team, their team. Very few politicians are in Washington to help the people. And if they convince you they are, well then there is the true art of being a "good" politican.

phobicsquirrel

clearlysuspect:

All smoke and mirrors. They're all playing for the same team. Not my team, not your team, their team. Very few politicians are in Washington to help the people. And if they convince you they are, well then there is the true art of being a "good" politican.

yup

fla-gypsy

Agreed

Vulchor

agreed as well

xmacro

jgibv:

pelirrojo:

Where's my time machine... I'm going straight to 1929. I hear they had good soup.

LOL



So what's the takeaway here, xmacro.
The amount's too small to warrant the adjective "catastrophic"?
The gov't should be enacting bigger cuts?
That lawmakers on both sides of the aisle should come up with, and agree on a long-term fiscal plan?

Not trying to be a d!ck, but seriously asking what your thoughts are on this ?

Pretty much what you said - the amount is nothing, it's peanuts. It's the crumbs on your shirt after you get done eating peanuts.

The sequester will only result in $0.02 on the dollar of spending cuts - two cents, and Obama is acting like the sky is falling. For perspective, say you spend $2,000 per month, and you were told to cut 2%, which is about $40 per month. Would YOU start screaming that you're going to lose your house? That your kids would go hungry? That you couldn't clothe yourself anymore? That's the kind of hysteria we're hearing from the Democrats about the sequester, and it's all bunk.

But the real joke of the matter is that this cut, this 2% cut, is a cut to the rate of growth - spending is still going up, but it's going up 2% less than it was otherwise scheduled to go up without the sequester.

There's another political game being played here that most in the media aren't talking about - everyone in Washington knows the sequester is nothing, but the Dems are trying to box the Repubs in for May 1, when the continuing resolution on funding cuts off and the Obama needs to go begging for another few trillion to spend. By drawing a hard line now, he's trying to position himself to take a hard line come May, and not have to give up much to get another spending authorization

The Democrats don't think we have a spending problem, Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Harry Reid (D-NV), and Obama, have all said "we don't have a spending problem, we have a revenue problem" - meaning tax hikes. Howard Dean, to his credit, came out and said what everyone in Washington already knows - either spending gets cut, or taxes need to go up on everybody, especially on the middle class, because there just isn't enough money to pay for everything, and taxing the rich won't be nearly enough.

EDIT: Linky links:

The Blaze: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/02/18/howard-dean-middle-class-tax-increases-needed-to-save-social-programs/

Real Clear Politics: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/12/06/howard_dean_the_truth_is_everybody_needs_to_pay_more_taxes_not_just_the_rich.html

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO9jnq8pg28

phobicsquirrel:

Very simple, just have to spend on things that will add value.

I was with you until this. Gov't spending doesn't create wealth, it just devours the wealth someone else made

jgibv

Got it --- thanks for sharing your thoughts, xmacro.

And not to get too far off topic, but do you ever read "The Onion"??
They've had a couple pretty funny articles this week on the sequester ... check them out if you want a good chuckle:
Obama, Congress Must Reach Deal On Budget By March 1, And Then April 1, And Then April 20, And Then April 28, And Then May 1

The Thrill Of Constantly Collapsing Gets Me Off

xmacro

jgibv:

Got it --- thanks for sharing your thoughts, xmacro.

And not to get too far off topic, but do you ever read "The Onion"??
They've had a couple pretty funny articles this week on the sequester ... check them out if you want a good chuckle:
Obama, Congress Must Reach Deal On Budget By March 1, And Then April 1, And Then April 20, And Then April 28, And Then May 1

The Thrill Of Constantly Collapsing Gets Me Off

LOL, good stuff. I don't read the Onion as much as I like; I keep forgetting to read the new issue when it comes out, like I keep forgetting to catch up on my magazines

webmost

xmacro:

jgibv:

Got it --- thanks for sharing your thoughts, xmacro.

And not to get too far off topic, but do you ever read "The Onion"??
They've had a couple pretty funny articles this week on the sequester ... check them out if you want a good chuckle:
Obama, Congress Must Reach Deal On Budget By March 1, And Then April 1, And Then April 20, And Then April 28, And Then May 1

The Thrill Of Constantly Collapsing Gets Me Off

LOL, good stuff. I don't read the Onion as much as I like; I keep forgetting to read the new issue when it comes out, like I keep forgetting to catch up on my magazines

This bit at the end: "You know what else turns me on? I’ve always had this fantasy of being dominated by China."

Be careful. Today, due to sequester, no first responders will be available to rescue you from your sink hole.

Vulchor

xmacro:

jgibv:

Got it --- thanks for sharing your thoughts, xmacro.

And not to get too far off topic, but do you ever read "The Onion"??
They've had a couple pretty funny articles this week on the sequester ... check them out if you want a good chuckle:
Obama, Congress Must Reach Deal On Budget By March 1, And Then April 1, And Then April 20, And Then April 28, And Then May 1

The Thrill Of Constantly Collapsing Gets Me Off

LOL, good stuff. I don't read the Onion as much as I like; I keep forgetting to read the new issue when it comes out, like I keep forgetting to catch up on my magazines

Im the same on this. Between C.A., Time, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and my daughters Cosmo (the best of the bunch, lol)....no time left for much else.

phobicsquirrel

Vulchor:

xmacro:

jgibv:

Got it --- thanks for sharing your thoughts, xmacro.

And not to get too far off topic, but do you ever read "The Onion"??
They've had a couple pretty funny articles this week on the sequester ... check them out if you want a good chuckle:
Obama, Congress Must Reach Deal On Budget By March 1, And Then April 1, And Then April 20, And Then April 28, And Then May 1

The Thrill Of Constantly Collapsing Gets Me Off

LOL, good stuff. I don't read the Onion as much as I like; I keep forgetting to read the new issue when it comes out, like I keep forgetting to catch up on my magazines

Im the same on this. Between C.A., Time, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and my daughters Cosmo (the best of the bunch, lol)....no time left for much else.

you need to add some Club to that list ;-)