WALLACE: No no, I’m just talking about cuts. We’ll get to the deductions, but the cut in tax rates.
RYAN: The cut in tax rates is lowering all Americans’ tax rates by 20 percent.
WALLACE: Right, how much does that cost?
RYAN: It’s revenue neutral. […]
WALLACE: But I have to point out, you haven’t given me the math.
RYAN: No, but you…well, I don’t have the time. It would take me too long to go through all of the math. But let me say it this way: you can lower tax rates by 20 percent across the board by closing loopholes and still have preferences for the middle class. For things like charitable deductions, for home purchases, for health care. So what we’re saying is, people are going to get lower tax rates.
“This RNC has been so over-militarized, even attendees were complaining about the level of security,” said sociology professor Sarah Sobieraj. “They were ready with everything — unscalable fences, bomb-sniffing dogs, even long-range acoustic devices, which are nasty.”
The unmistakable message to the protesters: Don’t mess with Tampa.
“It is clear that these extreme measures were not intended to prevent a terrorist attack, they were for protesters,” Sobieraj added. “There has been a shift toward a criminalization of dissent that is a real problem.”
Looks like they spent about $50,000,000 between the city and the Feds. Up to and including those freaky-ass acoustic deterrents. I guess it really is the 21st century. Hrmmm..
The newly released Bain records show that Romney took advantage of investments with the firm that achieved a low tax rate, for example, by engaging in what are known as management- fee conversions or fee waivers. Bain Capital Fund VII LP disclosed in a 2009 report that the general partner in the fund had in the past waived management fees and converted those fees into an interest in the fund called a “priority profit share.” That had the effect of turning fees that would be taxed at ordinary income rates, as high as 35 percent, into capital gains, taxed at a rate of 15 percent.
So by using this loophole he is essentially cutting his tax rate from 35% to 15%. A 20% reduction. Considering he made $20M last year, 15% is $3m. 35% is $7M. So he is getting a roughly $4m/yr tax loophole.
Multiple this by 10 years, and you find the $40M he used to run for President in 2008. You’ll also find that the U.S. ran a budget deficit this whole time, so a good portion of Mitt’s tax loophole money was replaced with borrowed from China money.
The thing about this is…it only takes 300,000 people paying that extra $4M/yr to make up our $1,200,000,000,000/yr deficit.
300,000,000 million people in the country, divided by 300,000…is the top 0.1%. I.e. the top 10% of the top 1%.
So while closing this loophole doesn’t completely close our budget gap in and of itself, it closes a good portion of it…and does so in a responsible manner.
Right now we are borrowing from the wealthy to pay our bills rather than taxing them. The same folks are then turning around and using that money to “job create….” in the sense that Mitt Romney is using that money to run for President…again (he took the $17m he spent in 2008 as a loss on a personal loan to himself on his 2009 tax returns…one would assume…since he is hiding them and it makes sense to do so).
Far from being the petty thoughts of small minds, wondering how much folks like Mitt pay in taxes, and how they have avoided them in a very relevant discussion in 2012…at least if anyone knows how math works.
MOSCOW, June 9 (Xinhua) — Russia was completing its air defense contracts with Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday. The contracts were signed and paid for long ago, and the systems could be used “only if” Syria faced foreign attacks, Lavrov told reporters.
Russia would not ship anything to Syria outside of these contracts, the minister said, adding it was not providing the Syrian government with any weapons against “peaceful demonstrators.”
The minister slammed what he said were outside forces who were fueling the violence in Syria by “openly providing” support to the armed groups and the opposition in Syria. He warned the country was on the brink of a “full-scale civil war”. Russia had decided at the very beginning of the Syria turmoil not to provide it with arms that could be used to “suppress domestic unrest,” Lavrov said.
For those that haven’t been watching, it is Russia and China who are holding back the U.N. from greenlighting a mission much like the one in Libya. There is also a much greater chance of arming an opposition group that is far more hardline against U.S. interests and still fully aligned with Iran’s interests as well.
Hopefully the formal end of this contract will help push Russia to allow some intervention.
China is a tougher nut to crack, as they are cracking down on a Tibetan resurgence fueled by multiple self-immolations…I.e. how true warriors of peace fight). The recent incontrovertible evidence of Syrian atrocities is also slowly moving the world to action. Election season worldwide doesn’t help.
It seems as if a certain political sentiment has fully metastasized into the form it will take for the next 7 months. It goes something like this…as Krugman notes on point..
And it’s not just gas prices, of course. In fact, the conspiracy theories are proliferating so fast it’s hard to keep up. Thus, large numbers of Republicans — and we’re talking about important political figures, not random supporters — firmly believe that global warming is a gigantic hoax perpetrated by a global conspiracy involving thousands of scientists, not one of whom has broken the code of omertà. Meanwhile, others are attributing the recent improvement in economic news to a dastardly plot to withhold stimulus funds, releasing them just before the 2012 election. And let’s not even get into health reform.
Why is this happening? At least part of the answer must lie in the way right-wing media create an alternate reality. For example, did you hear about how the cost of Obamacare just doubled? It didn’t, but millions of Fox-viewers and Rush-listeners believe that it did. Naturally, people who constantly hear about the evil that liberals do are ready and willing to believe that everything bad is the result of a dastardly liberal plot. And these are the people who vote in Republican primaries.
But what about the broader electorate?
Now before you think any of this (or the many, many other examples) are hyperbolic statements about what is passing for “policy discussion” among the dedicated Republican primary voters…here’s an update on what they think is going on…
Seriously…that’s an official Santorum ad. Wild stuff….BTW…DID YOU NOTICE HOW CRAZY THIS IS?
About :40 seconds in…with the Iranian Boogeyman on the screen…they cut in a shot of the President of the United Stated.
On Monday, the Republican dominated Tennessee Senate passed an anti-evolution bill by a vote of 24-8. The bill, known as HB 368, is sponsored by Republican Senator Bo Watson and “provides guidelines for teachers answering students’ questions about evolution, global warming and other scientific subjects,” according to Knox News, ”The measure also guarantees that teachers will not be subject to discipline for engaging students in discussion of questions they raise, though Watson said the idea is to provide guidelines so that teachers will bring the discussion back to the subjects authorized for teaching in the curriculum approved by the state Board of Education.” The bill basically encourages teachers to present scientific weaknesses of “controversial” topics.
It’s come to the point of people just flat out not believing what is happening….which while not completely abnormal in political season…has gotten so bad that basic math has become partisan politics.
Thus making rational cost benefit analysis of said policies (while factually true) completely irrelevant.
Beginning in January 2011, the payroll tax withheld from employee paychecks was temporarily reduced to 4.2 percentage points from 6.2 percentage points. The cut was scheduled to expire at the end of 2011, but Congress has continued it through the end of 2012.
My calculationslast year, based on the proposed cut of 3.1 percentage points, suggested that the payroll tax cut “could raise employment by at least a million, albeit the duration of job creation is related to how long the tax cut lasts.”
On a seasonally adjusted basis, payroll employment was 130.2 million at the end of 2010, just before the payroll tax cuts took effect. As of last month, payroll employment was up 2 percent, or 2.5 million, to 132.7 million.
And leading to some absolutely tragic decision making abilities…
It seems that this old lady believed many of the deliberate lies which were being put forward by the Fox News anchor, lies directed at President Obama and at his health care policy. She appears to have thought that if she had accepted medical care, following her fall, her medical information and her money would have been sent to Islamic extremists. This is of course completely false, but a reasonable deduction from the lies told by Fox News.
Which happens while the system keeps chuggin’ along…
National income gained overall in 2010, but all of the gains were among the top 10 percent. Even within those 15.6 million households, the gains were extraordinarily concentrated among the super-rich, the top one percent of the top one percent.
And paying the low inegrity-bright smile types to say whatever it takes to keep it coming…
In February, Common Cause wrote to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, asking for an explanation about an apparently unreported $1,350 gift from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in 2009. Cantor’s office immediately responded, claiming our inquiry was without foundation, but last week his office quietly amended his financial disclosures to include the gift from ALEC.
At that time, I wrote about Cantor’s failure to disclose:
‘ALEC, the so-called “free market, small government” lobby group underwritten by some of the nation’s largest corporations, reported in its tax filings for 2008 and 2009, making “cash grants” to the recipients of several annual awards. Common Cause has identified 22 legislators who received ALEC awards in those two years, including Rep. Cantor, who ALEC records indicate received $1,350 in 2009 as part of their Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award.’
Cantor responded within hours, saying no cash changed hands, but that he received a bust of Thomas Jefferson from ALEC, pictured above. But, under House Ethics Rules this type of award can only be received by a Member of Congress if it is disclosed, which Cantor did not do. This appears to be a clear ethics violation, and we have asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate. Prompted by Common Cause, Cantor has now very quietly amended his 2009 Financial Disclosure Report to include the ALEC gift. He also amended his 2010 report to include another bust given to him by the Associated Builders and Contractors trade group. We had no idea about this second award, but now we do.
Even as another does the math, and realizes that we simply cannot go on like this…
However, Dodd–Frank does not eradi- cate TBTF. Indeed, it is our view at the Dallas Fed that it may actually perpetuate an already dangerous trend of increasing banking industry concentration. More than half of banking industry assets are on the books of just five institutions. The top 10 banks now account for 61 percent of commercial banking assets, substantially more than the 26 percent of only 20 years ago; their combined assets equate to half of our nation’s GDP. Further, as Rosenblum argues in his essay, there are signs that Dodd– Frank’s complexity and opaqueness may evenbe working against the economic recovery. In addition to remaining a lingering threat to financial stability, these megabanks signifi- cantly hamper the Federal Reserve’s ability to properly conduct monetary policy.
They were a primary culprit in magnifying the financial crisis, and their presence continues to play an impor- tant role in prolonging our economic malaise.There are good reasons why this recovery has remained frustratingly slow compared with periods following previous recessions, and I believe it has very little to do with the Federal Reserve. Since the onset of the Great Recession, we have undertaken a number of initiatives— some orthodox, some not—to revive and kick-start the economy. As I like to say, we’ve filled the tank with plenty of cheap, high-octane gasoline. But as any mechanic can tell you, it takes more than just gas to propel a car.
…
It is imperative that we end TBTF. In my view, downsizing the behemoths over time into institutions that can be prudently managed and regulated across borders is the appropriate policy response. Only thencantheprocessof “creativedestruction”— which America has perfected and practiced with such effectiveness that it led our country to unprecedented economic achievement— work its wonders in the financial sector, just as it does elsewhere in our economy. Only then will we have a financial system fit and proper for serving as the lubricant for an economy as dynamic as that of the United States.
As a consistent watcher of the political process and the chaos that surrounds it in the world’s most powerful country, I’m often faced with a particular type of disaffected participant in the process. There are a good number of folks who will consistently consider themselves above the process, noting that both sides and bad…and largely the same.
The thing about this latest tragedy is that it is, in fact, just the latest tragedy. It’s not the first, probably won’t be the last, but was in a very sad sense…just the next.
There’s an easy way to feel the outrage from this moment, if in reading the details you don’t get the gist of why it’s such a big deal. The most popular current movie in the theatres, The Hunger Games, includes a scene that has striking similarities. In that movie, the overall cultural specifics are quite different in the large sense, but in the most basic sense the feelings are the same…a young child dies, killed by someone motivated by fear, parts of the crowd cheer…and the sick, twisted injustice of it all sparks a riot.
In the real world there hasn’t been a riot, not this latest time. Sure, there have been in the past, as the rage explodes. That didn’t work as well to change things as the more peaceful means, voting and demonstrating, dreaming and sharing, understanding and demanding to be understood. Integrating and adapting while holding firm to the notion of self that makes Americans American. We’ve made such great progress is so many areas, yet here we stand once again…wondering…why did this happen…what can we do so thing never happens again.
And so our leaders speak…
And those that wish to replace them…
Gingrich shot back at the comments, saying they needlessly involved race in a politically divisive manner.
“What the president said, in a sense, is disgraceful,” Gingrich toldconservative talker Sean Hannity. “It’s not a question of who that young man looked like. Any young American of any ethnic background should be safe, period. We should all be horrified no matter what the ethnic background.”
Gingrich added that the president should have emphasized in his remarks that the shooting in Florida united all Americans.
“Is the president suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot, that would be OK because it didn’t look like him? That’s just nonsense dividing this country up,” Gingrich said.
The admitted shooter, George Zimmerman, 28, has claimed self-defense and invoked Florida’s’ “Stand Your Ground” law. The law gives people wide latitude to use deadly force instead of retreating during a fight, and explains why Zimmerman has not been arrested.
Said Santorum: “Stand your ground is not doing what this man did.”
But when asked if the Justice Department should investigate, Santorum said that should be left to local and state authorities.
After a rally in Shreveport, Louisiana on Friday, Romney called the murder a “terrible tragedy” that was “unnecessary, uncalled for, and inexplicable at this point.”
He added that it was “entirely appropriate” for the district attorney to be looking into the matter, and to have called a grand jury investigation in the pursuit of justice.
“Our hearts go out to his family, his loved ones, his friends,” Romney said. “This shouldn’t have happened.” He declined to comment on whether or not he felt the Justice Department should get involved.
Earlier in the day, the Romney campaign released a statement on the matter: “What happened to Trayvon Martin is a tragedy,” Romney said in the statement. “There needs to be a thorough investigation that reassures the public that justice is carried out with impartiality and integrity.” Romney ignored a question on the Martin story three days ago.
Romney will eventually settle on a position, after he figures out what everyone wants it to be. Then he’ll always have had that view.
And of course, the douchebags needed to weigh in to…for surely an article of clothing was to blame (which actually *concealed* the boy’s race, making it an obvious non-factor).
BRIAN KILMEADE KILMEADE (co-host): Let’s talk about the Trayvon Martin case and what’s going on in Florida right now.
GERALDO RIVERA: I believe that George Zimmerman, the overzealous neighborhood watch captain should be investigated to the fullest extent of the law and if he is criminally liable, he should be prosecuted. But I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies. I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was.
JULIET HUDDY (guest-host): What do you mean?
RIVERA: When you, when you see a kid walking — Juliet — when you see a kid walking down the street, particularly a dark skinned kid like my son Cruz, who I constantly yelled at when he was going out wearing a damn hoodie or those pants around his ankles. Take that hood off, people look at you and they — what do they think? What’s the instant identification, what’s the instant association?
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck has sparked public outrage after his website, TheBlaze.com, ran a story about the Trayvon Martin case, suggesting that the slain teen was a dangerous criminal.
In the controversial editorial posted on TheBlaze.com, Mytheos Holt criticizes Rev. Al Sharpton for rallying with thousands of supporters who are seeking justice for the Martin family, insisting that the 17-year-old may have had a criminal record.
“This is pure B.S I want to see the kids police record even if something is expunged,” Holt wrote in an article on The Blaze website.
Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman appeared to take a notably more skeptical view towards current climate change science Tuesday, saying that the “scientific community owes us more” on the issue and that not enough solid research exists to “formulate policies” based on global warming.
“I’m not a scientist, I’m not a physicist, but I would defer to science in that discussion, and I would say that the scientific community owes us more in terms of a better description or explanation about what might lie beneath all of this,” Huntsman told an audience of bloggers at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington.
“But there’s not enough information right now to be able to formulate policies in terms of addressing it overall, primarily because it’s a global issue,” he went on. “We can enact policies here. But I wouldn’t want to unilaterally disarm as a country, I wouldn’t want to hinder job creators during a time when our economy is flat.”
Huntsman made waves earlier this summer when he took aim at his GOP rivals for expressing skepticism about evolution and climate change science, sending out a much-retweeted message in August that read, “To be clear, I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”
Asked by a reporter Tuesday whether he has reversed that position, Huntsman said that he still “defers” to scientists who study the issue but said that there remain conflicts among the research community.
“Because … there are questions about the validity of the science, evidence by one university over in Scotland recently, I think the onus is on the scientific community to provide more in the way of information, to help clarify the situation, that’s all.”
Reprising a line that Pawlenty had often used on the campaign trail, Bachmann noted that she is from Minnesota: “It’s not a conservative state; it’s more of a liberal state—”
“But a conservative district,” Crowley interrupted.
“It’s a swing district and it’s a district that elected Gov. Jesse Ventura, and so I’ve been able to attract a lot of people to vote for me who are Democrats and independents,” Bachmann said.
“That’s what we have to do. This won’t be just a conservative election, this is really going to be an economics election.
People will want to know who can turn the country around; that will be the big question.”
Here’s the thing, ‘Stop Obama’ might work, and people might see that as a coherent policy position, at Tea Party Rallies…but everyone else thinks you are quite crazy.
Take a loooong look in the mirror Republicans, this is the face of your party.
UPDATE: Here’s the results of the Iowa Straw Poll….
Bachmann took first place Saturday in the straw poll, with 28 percent of the nearly 17,000 votes cast. That was enough to beat close challenger Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who finished with 27 percent of the vote.
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty finished a distant third at 13 percent, more than 2,500 votes behind Bachmann, leading him to drop out of the race. Bachmann wished Pawlenty well, saying he had been a “very good competitor.”
I’m pretty sure Rick Perry can outcrazy that. Let’s get it on!!!
HARLESTON, S.C. — Gov. Rick Perry of Texas announced Saturday that he was running for president, declaring it was “time to get America working again” as he sought to offer the Republican Party a candidate who appeals to both fiscal and social conservatives.
I’m totally cool with this, AS LONG AS HE RESIGNS AS MY GOVERNOR FIRST! I really don’t want to be governed by a guy that lost to Michelle Bachmann in any type of poll, straw or otherwise.
BTW, I would like to see a compare and contrast on the hair-styling prowess of Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Jon Huntsman. *That* is a tough one to call.
According to the U.S. Census of 2000, 80 percent of the 285 million people living in the United States are urban dwellers. Those living in slums are well below 5 percent. If we translate the Iraqi statistic into the U.S. context, 121 million people in the United States would be living in slums.
If the United States had an unemployment rate of 25-50 percent and 121 million people living in slums, riots would ensue, the military would take over, and democracy would evaporate. So why are people in the United States not concerned and saddened by the conditions in Iraq? Because most people in the United States do not know what happened in Iraq and what is happening there now. Our government, including the current administration, looks the other way and perpetuates the myth that life has improved in post-invasion Iraq. Our major news media reinforces this message.
–
The end[?] result of the last time we got back at “them” for 9/11.
This is sick, sad, and disgusting. Everything that this country stands and has stood for, is now under attack for short term political gain. This is the Republican *leadership*, working every day to change what it means to be an American (which you can only be if they approve of your heritage). This is officially disgusting.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is the latest high-profile Republican to say Congress should reconsider the guarantee of birthright citizenship provided by the 14th Amendment, in light of the current debate over immigration reform.
“I think we ought to take a look at it — hold hearings, listen to the experts on it,” McConnell said to the Hill on Monday. “I haven’t made a final decision about it, but that’s something that we clearly need to look at. Regardless of how you feel about the various aspects of immigration reform, I don’t think anybody thinks that’s something they’re comfortable with.”
McConnell’s remarks echo those of Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he would like to see congressional hearings on the issue.
“The 14th Amendment [has been] interpreted to provide that if you are born in the United States, you are a citizen no matter what,” Kyl said. “So the question is, if both parents are here illegally, should there be a reward for their illegal behavior?”
So what does the future of Republican America look like? I’m not sure, but I do see a lot of jackboots kicking down doors and kids screaming in pain. Do these fools have any idea what their hairbrained schemes actually entail? Do they really think we want to turn our backs on the very notions that this country was founded on? On the very ideals that made it great?
It seems more and more obvious they do. Jeez, I can’t wait for the boomers to die off. I just hope the country can survive until then.
UPDATE: Looks like one of my idiot Senators (and Republican leader) is going along with this nonsense.
WASHINGTON – Texas Sen. John Cornyn is the latest senior Republican to call for a review of “birthright citizenship,” amid complaints that illegal immigrants have abused that post-Civil War constitutional provision.
“We need to have hearings. We need to consult constitutional scholars and study what the implications are,” Cornyn said Wednesday, noting that about 540,000 people were caught illegally entering the United States last year through Mexico.
Interesting stat to use there, John. Wouldn’t it be more accurate, in this instance, to quote how many Americans of Hispanic descent were born here last year? That’s the number you want to bring down.
The level of absurdity on this one just went to 110 (out of 10).
Here’s the backstory (a bit of it anyway). And here’s the ad from a political group that invaded and destroyed a country because it had the same religion as “them”. You really can see “their” thought process on Iraq in this video. The hatred just seeeps…
I guarantee you the Tea Party nutjobs (with their own “class” displayed here) probably got a stiffy and a nice herp, derp, guffaw out of “the audacity of jihad.”
The amount of hate and death spread by a group of whom 90% allegedly follow a guy who said to love your neighbor and turn your other cheek when attacked (and wasn’t so high on the rich) is astounding. It’s almost like they are a bunch of hypocrites (yet another religio-politico contradiction). Scratch that, it’s not almost, it’s exactly like that. I guess it’s easier to shoot people when sitting on a high horse.
I mean, can you find a better real-world example of hypocrisy?
At one point, a portion of the crowd menacingly surrounded two Egyptian men who were speaking Arabic and were thought to be Muslims.
“Go home,” several shouted from the crowd.
“Get out,” others shouted.
In fact, the two men – Joseph Nassralla and Karam El Masry — were not Muslims at all. They turned out to be Egyptian Coptic Christians who work for a California-based Christian satellite TV station called “The Way.” Both said they had come to protest the mosque.
“I’m a Christian,” Nassralla shouted to the crowd, his eyes bulging and beads of sweat rolling down his face.
But it was no use. The protesters had become so angry at what they thought were Muslims that New York City police officers had to rush in and pull Nassralla and El Masry to safety.
“I flew nine hours in an airplane to come here,” a frustrated Nassralla said afterward.
So far the Obama administration’s reaction to this massacre has been pathetic. Cut off funding, totally, then talk to them again (after they stop building settlements).
Robot Pirate Ninja 
