Pat Oliphant for July 27, 2011

The idea that Obama doesn’t know how to milk a cow just does not sell.

I would demand better of our news agencies. Their bias is making it easier to get the true picture from a foreign newspaper.

Wow, aren’t we clueless on purpose today.

I have an idea that can help balance the budget.Being an elected official is a privilege in itself. It should not come with a paycheck. If they don’t have enough funds left from when they were panhandling for election funds, then they can just starve.

Why tax breaks for any children…? Children are a choice.

Illness? Isn’t.

I’ve never needed a “lone” and I expect that few others have. I guess if I need “a lone” I’ll look up the Lone Ranger.

Need to add to McConnell’s statement.“…and for ourselves…” Almost Half of them directly benefit by the tax cut laws they are passing.

The Affordable Health Care Act is paid for by design, and is close to deficit-neutral. The Bush tax cuts, the most expensive wars in history, Bush’s corporate-farm agriculture support bill, and the Medicare “pharmaceutical company support act” from the Republicans were placed 100% on deficit spending. That’s a matter of record.

@jack75287- NRDC is not the source. The source is the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,a “Non-partisan research and policy institute working on federal and state fiscal policies and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income Americans.” Ultimately the source is the underlying reality, those are the numbers and you can find them in many places, including the Bush and Obama budgets.

As to health care, I’m no big fan of the Affordable Care Act, it does way too little. Want to cut down the next biggest part of the deficit after the Bush tax cuts? (The stagnant economy.) Single-payer health care for all and raise Social Security payout to 50% of average wage from the 39% it is now. That would provide the security that would let our consumer-based economy start flourishing again. We’ll still need massive public investment in a green, sustainable economy, to undo the damge the “magic of the market” has wrought with speculation and bubbles.

Remember that banks do NOT have the money that they loan out. They have the privilege of creating money out of thin air, based on the asset of your commitment to work to pay it off. Hedge funds that are closely associated with a bank, can borrow money, then leverage it up to 100 to 1 because of market deregulation, and make a 50-1000% return on the tiny bit of actual capital in their coffers. These privileged few become ENORMOUSLY RICH, and have been successful at convincing enough ordinary people that to tax them even at the rates ordinary people pay would somehow destroy the economy further. They currently pay taxes on their gains at 15% as a capital gain, and that is one of the issues that the T-Partiers and Republicans are insisting must remain as is. NO INCREASES IN TAXES-even when the current tax structure is grossly unfair.

very strange….can anyone explain why my comment ended up with lines through part of the text?

I like this idea. Though, since politicians make the laws the amount given would certainly use up all our tax dollars. Perhaps instead of money, since so much is used for advertising, media should be required to give X amount of time to each candidate. I think it would be great to see an Obama campaign ad in the commercials during Faux News.

You don’t have to hate the rich to notice that they’ve been selling us on the “job creators” con for 30+ years, and if it worked, there’d be very lucrative jobs for all. Look at the bottom line: the “job creators” have been wallowing in the ever-increasing share of the national wealth, until the rest are being impoverished, shutting off demand for goods & services & housing, which is causing the depression.

McConnell – ’I’m gonna need a bigger shovel’.

Boehner and McConnell are just collecting “talking points” for their next round of speeches and “solutions”.

Health care, not Obama’s plan, should be Sacred cow and tax the rich. They don’t need the extra money anyways.

I didn’t say it was a perfect idea.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/emergency-team-of-8thgrade-civics-teachers-dispatc,21023/maybe they help the tea nuts, passing a Constitutional amendment with house bill w/out ONE hearing. right wing anarchists=tea party.

^^fennec- downloaded it on the Kindle- index and preface look like it’s an interesting analysis. (Dang irritating to be taunted into actually reading MORE and getting a broader perspective on critical issues!)

Looks like you’ve solved all our problems in one paragraph!

“Increase taxes on the “rich” and tax revenues will decrease. "….NOT!!! Remove the FICA cap(for the rich) on income over $200,000. Also, take FICA out of ‘Pay for Performance’ Bonuses (CEOs get $5-10 Million each year).

Thank you.

Large Corporations and the VERY wealthy are already sitting on Scrooge McDuck sized piles of cash. They aren’t using it to hire or invest in capital improvements because there isn’t any consumer demand to make them think there will be a return on their investment. Preserving the Bush Tax cuts, or giving them more tax cuts will not result in any jobs in the U.S. They are more likely to invest in other countries where they believe there is a better short term opportunity for growth. These people don’t care about the long term well being of this country, they only care about getting a 10% return on their investments this year.

Increasing taxes and using the money to rebuild our roads, bridges and railways would put a lot of people back to work. Those people would spend money that would put more people back to work. It’s called the “multiplier effect” and unlike “trickle down economics”, it’s rooted in reality.

I’d say this cartoon went whistling way over your head.

Perhaps, instead of memorizing ridiculous right wing talking points, you should spend your time learning how to spell! Then maybe you could qualify to take a course in elementary economics.

Oliphant hit the nail on the head with this one.

The bush tax cuts make up a yearly 333 billion dollar unfunded cost. plus the 3 off book wars another 4 or 5 hundred billion. Our defense makes up 63% of the yearly 1.415 trillion budget, thats 895 billion. cut it by 2/3’s and we’re still number one, still the biggest, and we give up being in alot of countries we dont need to be. Then it would only be 20% of the yearly budget. Thats a savings of 1.728 trillion a year a nice chunk of which wasnt even funded. Raise some revenues and OMFG, things look a lot better. it wont happen, because money talks so lobbyists can walk and all these elected idiots play for that same team.