Phil Hands for January 13, 2014

Or you could use some of the $24 Billion the Republicans saved by shutting down the government.Oops! Those weren’t savings

Build only 2 of the new air craft carriers for the navy and save 14B dollars.

In the 90’s when horizontal drilling was “experimental” the oil companies were taxed a 1% instead of the 7% for vertical wells. Now that horizontal drilling is the norm, Republicans still want to keep that 1% rate. Yet the government does not have enough income to fund services.Also, some years ago, the Republican Governor and legislators wanted to add a dome to the capital, which was to be paid for with private funding. It was completed using public funds as the private funding fell short. 10 years later, the capital is needing major renovation. These problem were known when the dome was added at a cost of over 21 million dollars.

When you are paying “unemployment insurance” with tax dollars it is not “insurance” but just welfare by another name. Put the long term unemployed on welfare and stop extending their unemployment payments.I do understand the reason the Democrats want to do the later (extend unemployment) because of the negative connotations that putting this group on welfare holds. But, it was the Democrats that gave welfare a bad name to begin with.

You should have arranged your finances like Willard the ChickenHawk. Then you wouldn’t even have to pay any payroll taxes, only about 13% total.

You are such a…. (I would be banned if I really posted just what I think you might be!), there are just as many Democrats working as there are Republicans! In fact, as the Republicans are usually from the more rural areas of the country, and the Democrats from the more urban areas of the country (with its higher population density of working class people), it is quite possible that there are far more working Democrats than there are working Republicans (especially among the middle class workers, that are usually in such areas as manufacturing)!

In fact, these American middle class workers (both Democrats and Republicans) are the most productive workers in the world. Why do you always seem to be disrespecting them? Is it just to support your own ideology (I was tempted to say idiotology instead), or some deep seated hatred of middle class workers?

For almost 40 years I was one such worker in the aerospace industry. In fact, I was one of the 400,000 or so such workers that built the hardware that enabled Americans to land on the moon and safely return. I was also responsible for helping to build the missile engines and other hardware that helped to make Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) a viable policy that dept the USA and the USSR from blowing mankind off of the Earth (something, that when I read some posters here, I am no longer sure that I do not regret just a little bit). And I did all of this while raising a good family, getting an advanced education, and serving in the California National Guard. But I do not consider myself remarkable in any way over millions of my fellow American workers (regardless of their individual political slants)!!

So why don’t you do us all a favor and make some small attempt to modify your rather extreme views to actually compliment your fellow Americans some time? Or is that somehow against your particular religion?

“MAD”, Massively Assured Debt.

Robert; my brother spent decades in your industry as well, always cursing “government”, while working on nothing but government contracts! (He, nor his sons, had any interest in joining the Guard, or active military. Oddly, both myself and my son DID join the military, 3 and 13 years respectively, both disabled veterans. Danged liberals!)

We disagreed considerably on the “value” of the things he designed when some of them were aimed at ME!, or my son. (About that “accuracy”.)

Which to the ‘toon etc., conservatives always overlook the fact that paying into unemployment, FICA etc, IS a part off what your actual “salary” covers, when all “taxes and benefits” are calculated in. It’s tiresome when radical “righties” keep flogging the dead dog of “who works in America”. Especially when considering how many of those “righties”, like my late brother, whine like crazy if THEY don’t get those benefits, like when Social Security “Disability” told him he was fine to go back to work, and cut him off after two years.

As a Democrat I’m not a fan of Govt. subsidies like welfare & unemployment benefits. I took a buyout 4 yrs ago & was eligible for unemployment but decided to pass. Didn’t care for all the red tape involved at any rate. I don’t begrudge those that need short term benefits but can’t be too picky when a job opportunity presents itself. I’ll likely need to reenter the workforce soon as my wife is dying from cancer. I won’t have unemployment benefits to fall back on this time.

Nine of the top ten welfare states all voted for Romney. And if you’ve worked for 50 years, and are worried about your nest egg, why in the world would you support the GOP’s plan to turn over your earned Social Security benefits to the Wall Street corporations who crashed the savings and loans, the banks, the auto companies, and the entire world economy for profit?

We can impose a 5% tax a year on the wealthiest 1%. It would pay off the entire $18 trillion federal debt in 18 years!

“Warren Buffet pays same amount as Romney with your blessing”-Not with my blessing. And Warren Buffet has stated many, many times that it’s unfair that he pays at a lower rate than his receptionist.-I also don’t believe that Warren stashes money in offshore accounts like Willard the ChickenHawk.

The Dems and the GOP wouldn’t dare raise the taxes of their corporate sponsors even a fraction of 1% to help out the long-term unemployed. Despite years of valuable working experience, and taking retraining in computer languages, trying to get a job at 61 is extremely difficult, especially when your first interview is with some 22-year old girl, with an Associates degree in Human Resource Management. You can tell when they’re hustling you out the door. I’ve spoken to people in their FORTIES who have encountered the same treatment. The problem is that the working class do not write big enough checks to campaign coffers.

The FED been giving $40 billion to the banks monthly to ease credit, which hasn’t happened. Seems it may be in offshore tax havens. Putting it into unemployment insurance, should ensure it helps our economy.

Hey, maybe they’ll have jobs… But not if they can’t eat and develop into productive (read taxable (and that’s a good thing)) members of society.