Monday, October 17, 2011

"WARNING: POLITICAL POST"




A Colossal Train Wreck!!!!



One of the more famous trainwrecks involved an engineer by the name of Casey Jones...  he was from Jackson, TN, and died in a train wreck near Vaughn, MS in 1900...


But I am going to write about another train wreck... 
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It seems that the primary part of the president's health care reform law that was forced through Congress on a late Christmas-Eve vote has been removed from the law by the Obama administration... you can read about it HERE.  This part of the law was the part that was supposed to make the plan cash-heavy, would pre-fund the plan for the first ten years, and then would pay for the second ten years.




The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has said from Day-One that the cost of this health care train-wreck was being understated.  It will be interesting to see how the Super Committee, a committee appointed by the president after the August 2nd vote on the debt ceiling responds to this news.  If you remember, their purpose is to come up with the budget reductions to finance and pay for the new debt ceiling.
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In an another insane moment in this country's declining history, Michael Moore, movie director , this past Friday called for the police of our country to come and join the Occupy Movement, just like the Egyptian Army did in Cairo... quote:

MICHAEL MOORE: My last word here out in the hallway just outside of [Lawrence O’Donnell’s] studio is that the police need to join us. In the same way the Egyptian army joined the people in Freedom Square there in Cairo. This is my appeal to the New York Police Department, the police departments all over the country. You are working class people. You’re not paid enough. You have the most dangerous job in the country, and these rich bastards on Wall Street they have ruined your 401(k)s, your pension funds, your future, your children’s future. Money that should be going to having better law enforcement has gone to needless wars in other lands.
So, my appeal to the police is you are us and we are you, and join us. It’s fun. We’ll even let you beat on a bongo drum. That’s my last word. Thank you.

Is Moore aware that the Egyptian Army fired upon and killed over 30 Egyptians in the  last couple of weeks?  Is it because the Egyptians killed were not Muslim (but instead Coptic  Christians) that this slides under Moore's radar?  Do those people at Occupy Wallstreet know that Michael Moore is worth over $50 Million?  Isn't he part of why they are 'protesting?'


... and then what about this?
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United States Attorney General Eric Holder and his 'Operation Fast and Furious' that's just gone amok!  You can read about this HERE.  The Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that is supposed to control and regulate the purchasing and sales of firearms, just one of their reasons to exist... was running guns into Mexico.  I recall when the news of this was first breaking, the mass media was reporting that the primary source of firearms in Mexico were local, legal, firearm distributors who were all in compliance with the existing Federal and State firearms laws.  What hypocrisy!!


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And, lastly, Warren Buffett, etal who claim, that as millionaires, they they are paying less than 17% income tax on their earnings...  Below, you will find a tax table that is from the Tax Policy Center... you can see the full link HERE:  







According to this table, the top 1% of all taxpayers should be paying 30.4% of their earnings in Federal Income Taxes.  My question to Buffett would be, what tax manipulations are you pulling off to only be paying 17%? 


Now, it is possible that most of Buffett's (and other millionaires' income) consists primarily of dividends, which would be taxed at a lower rate of 15%.  BUT, one needs to remember that corporate dividends are taxed BEFORE being paid by the corporation to the share holders at around 35%.  This means that each $1,000 of dividends is reduced by $350 before being paid to the stock holder, where it is then taxed a second time at 15%... 15% of $650 is $97.50, which results in a net to the investor of  $552.50.  This makes the effective tax rate on dividends almost 45%...  that sounds like a Hell of a lot to me...




It seems that we replaced this...

With this...


The lunatics are indeed running the asylum...


~shoes~

13 comments:

  1. See this is why I never read the "news". It is too infuriating.

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  2. People still listen to what Michael Moore has to say? I wonder if we'll have health care by the time he finally has that massive heart attack that everyone's seen coming for years?

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  3. It seems to me that part Michael Moore's comments sums up the mentality of a huge majority of people in charge, "It's fun. We'll even let you beat on a bongo drum." WTF?

    I'm putting a fresh coat of paint on my hand-basket, 'cause I'm going to be needing it very soon.

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  4. You know... I just ask for a level playing field... when the dust settles, it's NOT 'Us' vs 'Them'... it's ALL US!!!

    I'm with you, Nitebyrd... I'm painting mine now...

    ~shoes~

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  5. All this stuff fires me up! I am currently working on a post about this as well.... its on all our minds I guess. Good read!

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  6. I agree with Bathwater. I don't do the news anymore. I suppose that just makes me weak and apathetic. I'm not (necessarily) but I am tired. Tired of the whole damn economy, the administration, broken promises, lies, corruption, AND TAXES! Rant on my brotha! I love it.

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  7. i wouldn't go so far as to say that it's not us v. them. i'm a tax lawyer. trust me; there are so many loopholes that the rich use to dodge tax. SO many.

    you talk about corporations being double-taxed. yes, that's true for some corporations. but not for the biggest - they have credits and deductions to go on. BP, the ones who did their level best to kill my gulf coast homeland, got a tax REFUND this year. so in addition to their billions in net profit (calculated after tax), the government PAID them.

    meanwhile, the tax burden as a percentage of income creeps up, up, up on average people.

    taxes are our responsibility if we want to continue to live in a society with infrastructure in it. but the way things are is wholly and completely unbalanced. the winners are the rich; the losers are the average working person. people like my school-teacher daddy and my fire-lieutenant uncle have to pay more so that the CEO of BP can get a massive tax break for polluting our waters and repeatedly lying about it.

    if that's not us v. them, i don't know what is.

    i abhor it. and i make my living off this stuff.

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  8. Oh shit ! Now Obama CAN'T EVEN SPEAK !!!

    WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO ?!?!?!?

    http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/president-obama-teleprompters-stolen-123608804.html

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  9. Which is why only a lunatic would want to be president.

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  10. "Join us. It's fun." WTF??? Sure, when being a total asshole earns you $50 million I guess it probably is fun. But the consequences of his lies isn't fun for the rest of us.

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  11. I can't process it all. I need a drink.

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  12. @ Steve... I know. Sometimes I just shake my head and wonder... I guess my biggest complaint would be the 'main stream news'... Why aren't they reporting on the negatives aspects of this administration like they did with the Bush Administration? *shrugs*

    * Annie... his promises sounded good, but he couldn't follow through. He blew his entire political capital on a health care bill that more and more isn't passing the "smell test"... it probably will be rejected by the Supreme Court.

    @ Magnolia... I agree.. it IS the loop holes.. it IS the tax code... BUT... this code was created by both parties... both have dogs in this hunt. Even Charlie Rangel, who has been responsible for helping create tax laws, hasn't/won't pay his due taxes...

    Did BP's refund come from an over payment of taxes, or did you mean to say that they received subsidies? I know it's disgusting... General Electric, I've read, didn't pay taxes either.

    I didn't know your Dad was a teacher? I know about how much teachers make... trust me on that one. I am most definitely not a 1%-er, but I don't find much about the Occupy movements that I support.

    I did know you were a tax lawyer. When I was a stock broker, the firm I worked for had a staff of them... whenever Congress would pass tax laws, their job was to find the loop holes...

    I am feeling very hopeless about everything...

    @ Heff... LMBO... I saw that story... All politicians use tools to help them look better... Bush should have used one! When Obama strays from his scripted speeches, he tends to go into areas where he shouldn't go...

    @ Monkey Man... isn't that the truth!!!

    @ Memphis, that guy is SO mean and hateful!!!

    @ Kimberly... ME TOO!!!!! Margaritas? Vodka??

    Today is a crappy day... blah...

    ~shoes~

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  13. I don't live in the states but we get a great deal of US news coverage esp. political which I tend to ignore since News- It's all pretty much depressing. But as someone already commented- rant on Red! I know when I rant in written form I always feel a little better.

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