Hey, don't knock the Dems. They agreed to cut $38 billion from the budget. To you and I, that's like going to the barber for a trim, and having one and ONLY one hair actually trimmed.

To Dems though, cutting $38 billion is like going to the barber for a haircut and getting their entire arm cut off. Reid and Obama are arguing over which one gets their face on Rushmore for cutting the budget now. We should all be dancing in the streets over this ridiculous budget they are so proud of.

I smile to think that poor Willy might be shaking in his boots, worried over whether the gravy train will be ending. *alas* fat chance of that.

I didn't know that a GS-9's salary counted as a "gravy train". You know what is a gravy train? Bank of America making 4 billion in profits, while receiving 120 billion from US taxpayers.

http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2009/01/16/bank-of-america-posts-4-billion-profit-gets-120-billion-from/

You know what's a gravy train? Exxon-Mobil made more dollars in profit than any other company in the history of man,

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/30/news/companies/exxon_earnings/index.htm?cnn=yes

while recieving 45 billion dollars in subsidies from US tax payers.

You know what's a gravy train? General Electric made 14 billion in profits, but paid NOTHING in taxes.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/general-electric-paid-federal-taxes-2010/story?id=13224558

This is so fucking ridiculous that some years back, McDonald's collected nearly a half a million dollars of your tax dollars to promote chicken nuggets in Turkey. I mean, Jesus Fucking Christ. Not even a great fiction writer could have come up with that one.

http://www.jimhightower.com/node/2727

Meanwhile, we're involved in 3-4 wars, none of which we can win, we have military bases all over the world, the Pentagon has planes it's never flown in battle, yet the F-22 Raptor is still being made, and the Defense Dept. LOST a trillion dollars over the last 15 years.

And how do we "balance" the budget? Cut money for STD and ovarian cancer screens, while giving the people who broke the economy another tax cut.

-- Modified on 4/9/2011 2:08:14 AM

Let's see what they say about Republican budget cuts (Please pay no attention to the 2 trillion dollar deficit for 2011):

Paul Krugman: “Ridiculous . . . megalomaniacal . . . a strange combination of cruelty and insanely wishful thinking.”

Sen. Tom Harkin: “An assault on the safety net that millions of Americans with disabilities rely on to live with dignity in the community.”

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: “A path to poverty for America’s seniors and children and a road to riches for big oil.”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz: “This Republican path to poverty passes like a tornado through seniors’ nursing homes.”

Rep. Jan Schakowsky: “Republicans are literally trying to kill Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.”

Harold Mayerson: “The first real Republican program for the 21st century: Repeal the 20th century.”

Steve Benen: “ . . . literally laughable . . . ideological crusade . . . punishment on the middle class . . . eagerness to lavish benefits on those who don’t need them.”


-- Modified on 4/8/2011 7:11:30 PM

some points you make are spot on, others way off....

I have explaned time and time again raising taxes on compnaies DOES NOTHING!!  All they do is pass those costs along to the end consumer. The "little guy" liberals like to talk about ends up paying either way.

At the same time, I would not want to give any taxpayer dollars to companies. It is supposed to be a free market. If a company goes out of business but it is a commodity someone really needs, another will form which can run at a profit (given we do not regulate it to death).

The military budget will have to be cut if we are serious about balancing the bedget, BUT, since it is one of the FEW things the Federal Government is supposed to be doing, it would be one of the LAST places we should cut.

So, you want to talk Military cuts, great, we can start as soon as all this silly shit we are doing like NPR, PLANNED PARENTHOOD and all that crap are gone. I don't want to tell a soldier I can not work on developing safer body armor for him because I have to fund some liberal talk host!! Make sense ???

Especially the part about the military being something the government is supposed to be doing.

williwanker4u is simply continuing with the liberal assumption that anyone who wants smaller government wants favors for big business, which is a contradiction.

Yeah, huge budget cuts will be absolutely catastrophic, since we have depended on government spending at this level for soooo long!

"What a joke" by Don Boudreaux:

There is no free market when government uses tax payer money to subsidize business including oil companies such Exxon Mobil, BP Amoco and Agricultural Companies such as ADM. All Western governments do the same thing which is the sticking point in WTO (understand some don't want to hear WTO). Western economies including us want be able export variety of agriculture products to many developing countries and they are saying you are going to kill of our farmers if you don't stop subsidizing so they are not agreeing.

Many African countries and South Asian countries are able to produce Cotton cheaper than the US and will be able to sell cotton on the basis of supply and demand but the US suppresses cotton market with subsidies. The biggest promoters of Free Market is also the biggest manipulators of Free Market supply and demand.

Take look at the link. This is reason I disagree with wing nuts on their fiscal responsibility. They are taking money from the average tax payer and giving it to companies and the rich who really don't need it. Then, they make average middle class tax payer believe they are getting a tax break, and are keeping more of their earnings by throwing occasional piece of bone their way when, reality they are getting poorer and poorer. Otherwise, why would the middle class income decline by every passing year and their earnings are going downwards.

But, we don't want to realistically discuss any of it in our national discourse instead, we too busy calling each other liberals, right wing nuts, while regurgitating issues settled 100's of years ago while pour education system is down in the toilets and our competitiveness declining daily.

Take look at the link. You want balance the budget, start over by eliminating all subsidies across the board. Does either party have the guts to do it? Answer is an emphatic NO.

While most of the facts you refer to are true, it is mistaken to interpret it as evidence against free markets. Does anyone at the Cato Institute support these subsidies? How about the Austrian economists? Milton Friedman? Thomas Sowell? The Ayn Rand Institute? George Reisman? George Selgin? Walter Williams? Hans-Hermann Hoppe?

Who are these free market advocates who want government subsidies to go to big corporations?

Just because someone is a "right wing nut" doesn't mean he is a free market advocate.

Dude, you don't get it. The reason there is no REAL free market is because the goverment is entertwined with business. You rage against the corporations but you neglect to see that the government is basically blackmailing them with regulations and making it a corporate necessity to have lobbyists, so that you don't end up getting screwed by your competition who is paying the blackmail to get preferential treatment. The government hides behind regualtion saying that they are there to help protect the little guy from "the greedy corps". But have things gotten better or worse in the last 40 years?? Its gotten unbelievably worse, and it hasn't mattered who is in power. The only differnce is that the Dems, play like they are serious about changing things. Please? What has happened under the most "socialist" president ever?? Nothing. Oil Co's, still make huge profits, Insurance CO's continue to gouge. Health Care is WORSE, Energy is higher than ever. Food is higher than ever and just as bad for you. Where's the change???? Who's getting mauled? THe little guy, the middle class. Government is the problem and has to be nuetered. Nothig will change until government is scaled back to the David it should be, instead of the Goliath it has become.
I gaurantee you if we got the government out of the way of business, you would see things change for the better. The smaller, hungrier corps would be able to compete and take advantage of the bloated beuracracies tha have become so prevalent in big corps.  But as long as corps have government lackeys, both Dem and Repub, backing them, we have to take what they give us and they can work outside the law. We need to put REAL teeth behind the law and prosecute harshly when corps act against the general welfare of the people. THe bottom line is that the US is one of the only countries that still has a semblance of the rule of law.....and it is still an attractive place for corporations to invest, but the government corruption is ultimately going to ruin that as well. Don't eat the bullshit that the Dems...or the Repubs are serving....they ARE NOT ACTING IN YOU BEST INTERESTS!! They are in Wahington to get rich from influence over corps and thats it. Thats why none of the big corps don't pay their fair share. Kick the pols off the corporate tit and we will get our country back.

That is why I keep saying that those who want more regulation as the solution to the problem are just playing into the hands of the big corporations with the lobbyists.

Its amazing that as more and more people choke to death on government, the more they want to tighten the noose. The poor and middle class are willing dupes for the "do-gooder" Dems, who just abuse them like a battered spouse. The Dems are constantly threatening that "nobody's gonna take care of you if you leave me!!"  Its sick.
If anybody can show me ANYTHING that the government can do well and efficiiently, I MIGHT change my opinion. But there is no way that they can. Even the military is inefficient....look at what we pay for it and what we get out of it. I mean, when was the last time we whipped someones ass, took what we needed to pay for the war and came home? Never!! Hell in WWII we even rebuilt Japan and Germany. What good does it do to have troops all over the globe if the countries they are protecting don't pay for them? Its insanity...we the taxpayer are footing the bill for the worlds peace of mind. The world should be working for us, not the other fucking way around. Why we have nation of adults that take this, that can't figure out they are being milked of their money and freedom like a prized cow is beyond me.

"I have explaned time and time again raising taxes on compnaies DOES NOTHING!!  All they do is pass those costs along to the end consumer. The "little guy" liberals like to talk about ends up paying either way."

Really? That's strange because the little guy seems to want those taxes raised. A little odd, huh? You know what's stranger? Whenever we talk about raising taxes on corporations, guess who pisses and moans and bitches and rants about it? It's the corporate class. If they're just going to pass the buck to the consumer, why would they give a shit about it? It's not like they have a moral problem with passing the buck along to the :::cough, cough, TARP, cough, cough::: consumer.

"The military budget will have to be cut if we are serious about balancing the bedget, BUT, since it is one of the FEW things the Federal Government is supposed to be doing, it would be one of the LAST places we should cut.

So, you want to talk Military cuts, great, we can start as soon as all this silly shit we are doing like NPR, PLANNED PARENTHOOD and all that crap are gone. I don't want to tell a soldier I can not work on developing safer body armor for him because I have to fund some liberal talk host!! Make sense ???"

So the Government isn't supposed to be spending money on the General Welfare, but we are supposed to be spending money on defense?

First, let me say, I have no problem with spending money on defense. I have a problem with spending more money on defense in this country than every other nation on earth combined. So let's have some perspective here.

Secondly, what is the effect of spending those dollars? If you spend money on Planned Parenthood, to do STD testing, then maybe there won't be an HIV outbreak in your neck of the woods, Snow. Thing that might result in a net gain for you and your community? Now let's see how defense dollars are spent. Drop a bomb. It goes boom. Lots of dead people. Lots more angry people. Where's the gain? How does that create a net benefit for you?

A defense dollar is far more wasted than a dollar being spent on planned parenthood.

Actually, snow, I agree with some of what you say, but...your main point isn't completely true.  Yes, companies can pass along part of their tax burden on to customers in the form of higher prices.  But since most companies have competition, they don't have unlimited pricing power.  If they did, it's grounds for government regulation.  So if they raise prices too far they'll lose market share to competitiors.

I have to admit that my assumption is based on all the companies having to pay the same taxes. If there is a differnce in what they pay, then we would see some proce differences.