Random Politics & Religion #35: It's Turtle Time!

aren't we all a little bit Genghis Khan? Golden Horde? chinese japanese dirty knees look at these

Lets see:

Growing a 20 trillion dollar economy by 3% or more (600+ billion)
Growing the deficit by 17% (150 billion)

So you see how this works Chanti?

How come when Obama doubled the deficit we didn’t get the same growth?

This old song again? Get ready for the commercials pushing grandma off the cliff.

Exactly! Let's cut them! Or at least make something out of it. I think I read a state, Michigan maybe? was trying to change Welfare aid, that if you are not disabled and don't have a dependent, then you need to log in community service. Seemed kool to me.

Yah I think it's pretty embarrassing and I wouldn't have released it if I was her.

She lives in a world where she only saw it as a good idea. Like there isn’t anyone around her that was able to sell it as a bad idea.

She thinks the media has enough power that it can still set the narrative. She is 100% wrong. Poor judgement.

It'st he old "tax cuts for the rich" when it's actually tax cuts for the middle class. It's a tax increase for the rich, or did everyone miss the Democrats exploding at not being able to deduct the interest payments on their million dollar homes in those urban centers that represent almost all their power.

I've tried several times to explain how wealth works but the progressives here simply don't want to know. They think that if someone "is worth 10 million USD" that it means they have 10 million USD sitting in a scrooge McDuck money bin outside and if only they could get their hands on it everyone's problems would be solved. In actuality that "worth 10 million" just means they have 10 million in capital assets, most likely ownership in business's that pay liberal workers salaries. In the same token, hearing "Rich McFilthy" made "10 million USD last year" they think they have $10,000,000 more in a bank account, which is just wrong. It means the valuation of that person's capital investments went up by that amount, likely due to business growth and a higher evaluation of the stock price. Only a fraction of that amount is coming out as cash in hand and only as a dispersment or bonus which full taxes are paid on.


Our Tax rates on the "filthy rich" are stupendously high, while our Tax rates on business income is equally stupidly high. The only tax rate that's remotely reasonable is the capital gains tax, it's still high but a whole lot more acceptable then the previous two. This means it's in the best interests of the "wealthy" to keep their assets locked into capital investments and only liquidate them, thus paying taxes, when they need to. If their investments grow 10 million in a year, they liquidate just 10% of that and it gets taxed at the capital gains rate. If instead they take a cut of the profit directly, they would need to pay the much higher rate of regular income. The ones who are hurt by "high income taxes" are conservative business owners and the middle class professionals. Super wealthy Democrats just house their wealth in tax-free shelters disguised as non-profits.

The social security cuts aren't going to push me off the cliff. Its only for the folk who aren't on social security yet.

The medicare cuts will affect me, but fortunately I am quite healthy.

You guys, on the other hand, are going to get cheated out of stuff you are paying for and will continue to pay for until the day you retire.

But on the bright side, the "death tax", which only effected the value of estates in excess of $10M, has been eliminated! Bet that will really make a difference to you.

You republicans keep referring to the mid century as a golden era*. The top marginal tax rate was 91%. Which didn't prevent people like Trump's dad, nor my grandfather, from getting filthy rich.

*It was, I grew up during it.

I picture this in my head:

I'm not a republican nor do I think the mid century was a golden era.

There was success despite high taxes because multiple industries were growing with several innovations. We witnessed this in the 90's as well with the growth and realization of the internet.

Don't you read anything.... wealthy people don't use marginal tax rates. It could be 100% and still wouldn't effect them because their wealth largely comes from passive income. Marginal tax rates, aka income tax, only really effects those in the middle or upper middle class as their wealth is predominately from "regular income" and stored in their home via equity.

Oh no Drumpf is finished for sure. Thanks for saving America.

I think anyone that wants free healthcare should just move to another country that has it.

At 18 I worked in construction and paid for my own healthcare. People should take more self responsibility.

Any genx or millennial who is counting on SS is a *** idiot. Shutting it down now is the only way to stop you boomers from stealing our generations wealth. That way we can all plan for or own futures (and do much better at it than the government)

The country wrecking, selfish boomers can and should suffer those consequences, your own fault and pennance for buying into and propigating such a broken pyramid scheme.

The mid century era was a golden age for most excluding taxation policy. To that point, you can still have a thriving economy with a massive top marginal tax rate, the rest of the world just needs to be decimated by war in order for that to happen.

Shall we fire off a few thousand nukes to help push that along? Or can we learn how to compete in the marketplace instead?

I for one ain't counting on it.

Ye....yeah????? CAN WE??? I have a few choice targets already in mind... >_>

Medicare is abused extensively by the medical industry.

What the majority of socialist countries don't realize is that the American medical industry has insulted itself extremely well from legal changes by innovating a number of middleman layers. If you were to ask a doctor how much a common procedure costs, they wouldn't be able to answer you. You ask the billing people and they would ask which insurance you have, not because the costs are different but because each company negotiates a different cost for each procedure and policy. Insurance companies set the rates and the providers either accept them or charge the difference to the patient. The same happens with dispensaries for proscription medication. These practices result in massive amounts of overcharging to keep the book rates inflated.

My wife had an endoscopy, the anesthetist who provided that service charged like this.

Book Charge: $5000
Insurance Discount: $2400 (amount that's ignored)
Insurance Paid: $1200
Amount Due: $1400

The amount due is what the insurance company said we would be charged, and we expected to receive this bill and it never came. When I contacted the provider they informed me that this happens frequently and that the extra amount is just written off and the insurance company is fine with it.

Thus you have a $1200 USD procedure being billed as a $5000 USD one for book purposes. And this has happened with almost everything we've seen so far.

Btw I happen to be very much for government regulated health care because of the unequal bargaining position between provider and customer.

And weed!

Medicare is a massive instrument for disconnecting the consumer from the cost.

Endless College loans are another example of this government phenomenon.

Both of these examples are anti-capitalism in their nature.

When consumers have no connection to the costs, the markets have no connections to the cost. If someone pays your way into the buffet, 2 things are going to happen:

1) you’re going to take more food than you can realistically eat

2) the restaurant is going to raise the price and make as much as they can because someone else is paying.

If YOU paid for the buffet yourself, the restaurant owner would have a vested interest in selling you something you could afford, because if he can’t, he’s not going to get paid. Therefor he needs to compete and provide you value.

When everyone competes to provide value, innovation is the quickest way to assist that. That’s capitalism! Imagine if the medical sector functioned like the consumer electronics sector. We’d already have cured cancer and all be living until were 150 by now.

In America you could!

apparently the makers of South Park are pushing to have The Simpsons canceled because they think Apu is racist... The irony is killing me on this.

And on a personal note: I feel that whitewashing away all non-white characters/people from their heritage or culture just because their genetic lineage accurately fits that culture or heritage, is in itself a form of cultural genocide and is racism at its finest.

More cable stations talking heads jumping on the “republicans could keep the house” bandwagon today. Trumps gonna hand out body slams to all the reporters!

Also yes! Was mostly kidding. I don't buy land to make my own weed farm.

But yes bud, stay out of the jail.

You do realize they’re trolling right?