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Greg

Member since: May 9th, 2006

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Five Ways to Fix Social Security Before It Runs Dry (WalletPop)

Feb 6th 2011 3:22PM It was a compromise aimed at adding dollars to the consumer's pocket (2 % less payroll tax paid equals =2% more to spend into the economy). Of course it does exacerbate the SS shortfall, which will spped us along to the time when the SS Trust Fund is used up, but so what? Within five or six years the payroll tax will no longer cover benefits paid and the SS Administration will have to redeem some of the Treasury bonds in the Fund. To do that the Treasury will need to borrow money--dollar for dollar the intragovernmental debt will decrease, the debt held by the public will increase.

If the government paid out 2% of earnings directly to each employed person the end result would have been the same--the payout would have to be borrowed, thus adding to the debt held by the public. The only difference would be increasing the debt held by the public this year, instead of five or six years from now. In either case, the total National Debt--the sum of public (call it Peter) and intragovernmental (call it Paul) debt remains the same. It's just a case of taking from Peter today rather than tomorrow to pay Paul.

Infamous 'Fifth Down' Game Will Forever Link Colorado, Missouri (Fanhouse NCAA Football Blog)

Oct 9th 2010 9:13AM Fortunes, perhaps; lives are destroyed through a personal inability to handle the "Slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." The way you word it, these college boys playing a game are unable to make a go at the rest of their lives because of a lost game. Only perfection succeedes?

Media Have No Business Voting for Sports Honors (Fanhouse - Jay Mariotti)

May 18th 2010 5:29PM What a tempest in a teapot! Does it really matter whether your favorite entertainment hero comes wrapped in gold foil or used toilet paper, or who votes him or her into the current hall of mirrors so we can see every side of the mortal's god-awful faults at once? Have to admit, though, the flap probably has distracted the sports-minded from other similarly trivial issues; like two endless wars, $14 trillion and growing debt, 48 of 50 states going bankrupt, 15 million too few jobs, a growing environmental catastrophy for Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, and my ingrown toenail that hurts like a b****...

Obama Recess Appointments: 15 Names, Including Controversial Labor Lawyer (Politics Daily)

Mar 28th 2010 11:27AM Alanswave, can you be serious? You must be kidding! Really. The financial crash occurred before the November election of 2008--it was in full steam by the second quarter of that year--so much so that the Bush Administration had already spent $1.1 trillion to bolster the banks before Obama took his oath of office. How did you get so confused? Perhaps staying up late watching FOX News and refusing to pay attention to any real sources of information. Go back to your sports broadcasts, dear, and don't muddle your pretty little brain with the truth; you'll hurt yourself.

Obama Recess Appointments: 15 Names, Including Controversial Labor Lawyer (Politics Daily)

Mar 28th 2010 11:14AM GW Bush had made 15 recess appointments at this stage in his presidency. He went on to set the record for interim appointments at 171--beating Clinton by 32 appointments--including seven to the NLRB, by the time he left office. Can Obama keep up with that blistering pace? Well, considering Obama's desire to keep government operating and the pledge by GOP members to obstruct every move by the White House for the rest of the year, it seems entirely possible. As the contest heats up, fans on the losing GOP side are, as is to be expected in sports fans the world over, beginning to boo, scream foul and throw things--things like drink cups, excrement and hissy fits. The game hangs in the balance: grown men cry; women faint; little children are bewildered. What a game! What a game this is!!

Which Senator Has a Secret 'Hold' on Gay Nominee Chai Feldblum? (Politics Daily)

Mar 4th 2010 11:30AM Then it'd be difficult to tell a Democrat from a Republican, wouldn't it.

Which Senator Has a Secret 'Hold' on Gay Nominee Chai Feldblum? (Politics Daily)

Mar 4th 2010 11:28AM What, I ask, could be more American, more democratic (please note the use of the non-capitalized form of the word!) than elected officials conducting public public business from the greatest forum of the greatest democratic institution the world has ever witnessed, than a senator operating from within a cloak of invisibility? As a boy I shared a neighborhood with a boy who liked to call names and throw dirt clods and stones from concealment. He wasn't elcted to the post, so we had to be content with "telling teacher" and, eventually, carrying him bodily to a manure pile and throwing him in, with the admonishment that, next time he'd go in head-first. But he was only a third-grader. I guess this senator is no older, intellectually, nor any more brave or deserving of respect: a really wonderful reflection on his or her constituents.

U.S. Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan Make History With Length of Service (Politics Daily)

Jan 14th 2010 1:54AM Both previous comments note the small fraction of Americans who serve in the Armed Forces and indicate that more should do so. Active service is a wonderous and brave comittment. But what about the service that those who pay federal income tax dp? Of course, it's a very safe course, and the tax paying public can stay home, warm, safe and dry and petition the Congress to reduce their tax "burden". Shame on them! Would universal service be more desirable? Perhaps, but where would the revenue come from to pay what would amount to, perhaps, 8 million under arms at all times? And with those 8 million out of the work force, who is to do the job of paying taxes? Not to mention that a grateful America would become much less grateful if required to give a couple years service, and Congress would feel their wrath at the polls.

Militia groups creating their own currency -- again (Daily Finance)

Dec 14th 2009 12:47AM Ruth, thanks for the earlier correction about the amount we currently spend abroad for oil. I'd said we buy about 4.3 billion barrels for which we currently pay about $300 billion (that would be $70 a barrel times 4.3 billion barrels). You said it would be $700 billion. From the eia website, taking their weekly price and import totals, the highest yearly total occurs the week of October 24, 2008, when we'd spent roughly $497 billion on foreign oil. As of December 4 of this year, we spent about $255 billion in the previous 52 weeks. I'd be interested in your source for the $700 billion figure.

As to the information you give on the income tax, you say "Over a century ago, the dems created the income tax to pay off war debt." "The income tax began at 2.5% of a working mans pay. It was abused by the government until it hit 77% and was abolished.""It became permanent in 1918 with the passing of the 16th amendment but still remains unconstitutional."

My copy of the Constitution says the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was proposed to the state legislatures on July 12, 1909, and ratification was completed on February 3, 1913. From 1901 through 1911 both houses of Congress were controlled by Republican majorities of from 20 to 114 in the House and from 7 to 27 in the Senate. The Senate majority in 1909 when legislation was passed, on July 2, 1909, was Republican 59, Democrat 32, with one seat vacant (that's a 64% majority). William Howard Taft, a Republican, held the presidency.

The Revenue Act of 1862, if that is what you referenced, was also enacted by a Republican House and Senate, with President Abraham Lincoln in the White House. It taxes a persons income, on the amount between $300 and $10,000 (equivalent to about $6400 to $213,000 in today's money) at 3%. Above $10,000 (hardly a working man's income then) the rate was 5%. It was abolished by Congress, in favor of taxes on alcohol and tobacco, in 1872, again with Republican majorities in both houses and a Republican president. The 77% tax rate you quote was never a part of the earlier tax programs, but first appeared in 1918 in response to war debt. In that year the 77% tax began on incomes over $1 million (equivalent to $16 million today) and, in fact there was a $1,000 exemption each for husband and wife, and $200 per child so that a family of four earning $2,400 ($40,000 today) paid nothing, and one making $7,500 ($125,000 today) paid only $25 ($425 today). Not quite the shocking burden on the working man that your 77% tax rate quotation represents it to be.

Militia groups creating their own currency -- again (Daily Finance)

Dec 13th 2009 2:18PM Back to when, man, does your plan take us? Back to 1775 when the guy in charge was King George? Or back to 1789 when George Washington was in charge, militiamen died defending the country while paying for their own arms and uniforms and being paid in IOU's by the new government that didn't have either income tax revenue, borrowing power or cash on hand to pay, feed or house the troops; when small pox, typhus, diphtheria, gangrene ruled a man's lifeline; when it took four months to find out who won the last presidential election; when the local county could hang or burn a person for being a "witch", or belonging to the wrong religion?

I'll agree that the crooks in American government are detestable human parasites; that the great majority of men and women who serve as elected members of Congress serve in a manner that that first assures their re-election, secondly, their bankbook and lastly, if at all, the good of the American people who elect them. But that is also the fault of those who ignorantly fall for the party lines and re-elect them to Congress every two or six years. But, let's not throw out the baby with the bath water. You do have control over it, but you have to work at it rather than give up your control. VOTE!