Thread: American Politics
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11-03-23 03:19 #13517
Posts: 1807Originally Posted by EihTooms [View Original Post]
So what kind of return is the government receiving on that $14.4 billion it's giving the IRS? Well, the CBO provided this year-by-year estimate of outlays (from $14.4 billion aid to Israel) and foregone revenues (from the reduction in the additional $80 billion allocated to the IRS):
https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/202...p_Act_2024.pdf
I entered the numbers into an Excel spreadsheet, and the government's internal rate of return (IRR) on the 14.4 billion is 22%. The government gets back $1. 86 (being 26.8/14.4) for every dollar it "invests" in the IRS. The 22% IRR a good return for a business. But not a great return. One of my old employers required an estimated 20% IRR on any projects we undertook.
But the investor here is the United States Government, and its business is taking money out of the pockets of its citizens and businesses. If I bought a gun and got a monopoly on extorting money I'd make a hell of a lot higher return on my investment than 22% a year. I'd make millions off that $800 handgun!
This is another illustration how inefficient our federal government is, and why more of the power of the purse and power to spend should be vested in state and local governments.
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11-02-23 18:25 #13516
Posts: 2579The WSJ no less proof even a broken clock is correct 2 x a day
"Damn, It looks like Mike Johnson's promoting a bill to fund $14.3 billion for Israel by cutting the IRS's budget by $14.3 billion. It would be part of the $80 billion originally allocated to the agency in the Inflation Reduction Act last year.
I'm actually starting to like this guy!
I was somewhat disgusted with Chip Roy, but see he's insisting any money for Israel include offsetting spending cuts. I'm starting to like him too!
Now admittedly this is a lesser of two evils thing. I don't really believe we should be sending money Israel's way, considering it's a wealthy country. But if the money's coming out of the IRS's hide, well, that makes it somewhat more palatable. "
https://www.wsj.com/economy/trade/wh...riffs-3cad4097
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11-02-23 11:22 #13515
Posts: 5447Surprise, Surprises, Surprise!
Guess what, everybody. Separating Israel support from the rest the way Repub ChristoFascist Mike wants it done does NOT save money. It will ADD $26 Billon to the Trump / Repub's mounting deficits!
Surprised? You shouldn't be. Repub economic policy and stewardship always adds to their economic disaster deficits with no meaningful positive gain in jobs, GDP, economic recovery and expansion, national security, etc to show for it. *.
Quite the opposite of what Biden and the Dems have done for America.
*Otherwise promoted in MSM as, "handling the economy better than the Democrats. " LOL.
House GOPs Israel-IRS bill could add more than $26 billion to deficit: CBO
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4...d-deficit-cbo/#text=It%20 is%20%2426%20 billion. ,Office%20 (CBO)%20 said%20 Wednesday.
$26 Billion added to Trump's Repub Policy and Stewardship Disaster deficits just to convince Xi snd Putin that even as little as a Pink Tinkle in the House is enough to cripple America's recovery from the latest Great Repub Economic Disaster and its standing as the recognized Leader of the Free World? Sad.
100% Repub-supported Mike would actually be less harmful and more beneficial to America's economy and national security if he just handed the gavel back to Nancy or over to Hakeem and spent the next 13 months in his Fake Electors tree house praying for guidance on how to outlaw Sex For Pleasure, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Sex Outside of Marriage, Access to Contraception, etc.
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11-02-23 06:02 #13514
Posts: 5447Was that the big Sink of my facts I waited for?
Originally Posted by Tiny12 [View Original Post]
Meanwhile, even that 3% more popular vote for Repubs in the midterms that you are clinging to, a good chunk of which went to George Santos for impersonating a normal human being that could at least temporarily fool a few New York State residence, still does not come close to that 22 point advantage on the economy that you loved so much and still counts as one of the poorest gains in Congress for the out of WH Party in that particular midterm of all time.
LOL. I love when you admonish me for "being better than that" after you make up a straw man argument I never made and then can't refute one actual significant point I make. Yeah, apparently I am "better" than what you fabricate to argue against. And, of course, your misstating it is all the more reason I apparently must repeat it as often as I do. LOL.
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11-02-23 04:12 #13513
Posts: 1807Originally Posted by Spidy [View Original Post]
I'm glad you're not running our monetary policy. We'd end up like Turkey.
And yes I give Biden credit for not criticizing the Fed or replacing Powell. And yes, Trump pushed the Fed to lower rates and he should not have.
Your lavish praise for Biden is unwarranted. He gave away a lot of money which should have produced a sugar high. Instead we ended up deeper in debt and inflation kicked off earlier in the USA than other places. And after adjusting for inflation, the working man is now making LESS than when Biden took office.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/COMPRNFB
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11-02-23 03:58 #13512
Posts: 1807Originally Posted by EihTooms [View Original Post]Originally Posted by EihTooms [View Original Post]
First you complain that the strongly pro-Democratic Party mainstream media doesn't back the party 100% of the time.
Then you complain about "Repub redrawn districts" in the 2022 election, when Republicans won the House popular vote by 3%. And ended up with a few more representatives in Congress. You're upset about that, which would appear to imply that you believe Democrats should be able to redraw districts but not Republicans.
And you end with a criticism of Mike Johnson trying to claw back $14 billion from an $80 billion increase in funding for the IRS. You want more funding for the police state.
And is the IRS just the tip of the iceberg? What other missions should the police state pursue? Pushing around the media so it supports the Democratic Party 100% of the time, instead of 90% of the time at present? Redrawing those districts so the Democrats can win 100% of the time? Maybe more money for liberal arts education, to indoctrinate our youth? Allowing the teacher's unions, which are strongly pro-Democrat, to insert Party Propaganda into curricula?
What's more pernicious, trying to appoint alternate sets of electors and asking a crowd of your supporters to walk down to the Capitol and show their displeasure? Or the gradual erosion of democratic rights and institutions with the police state and rank-and-file-Democratic-Party-member educators?
Tell me I'm wrong Tooms. I know you're better than this.
And as to linking money for Taiwan, Israel, Ukraine, China and the border into one big package, it's just games as usual in Washington D.C. Undoubtedly if separate voting on the those issues occurred, we'd end up spending less money. And the legislation would more closely reflect the will of the people as expressed through their duly elected representatives. Which most likely is not to give away tens of billions to foreign governments with no accountability.
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11-01-23 05:58 #13511
Posts: 5447Why ChristoFascist Mike's separation of Israel-Hamas funding pleases Putin so much
I wonder if the new, 100% Repub-supported Squeeker of the Pink Tinkle House Majority ever stops praying for a way to outlaw Sex For Pleasure, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, etc and access to contraceptives long enough to use Google or listen to what leadership on both sides of the aisle understands about the growing loving relationship between Putin and Hamas in Putin's global mission to replace democracies with authoritarian dictatorships where votes by the people don't count.
If he did, it would be difficult for him to miss why treating American support for Putin's and Hamas' enemies, our democratic allies, as a separate issue would be as dangerous and stupid as, for example, thinking there is no harm done to American lives and the economy to defy all expert dire warnings not to do something so dangerous and stupid as to spend two years removing all the Pandemic Prevention and Response teams from those Chinese labs. And, after all, Trump saved us a.
$100 Million or so by defunding and removing them, didn't he?
That Putin-Hamas relationship is growing to be almost as loving as the Putin-Trump relationship in terms of their aspirations to achieve that same Putin wished-for anti-democratic result in America.
Then again, there is no reason to think he doesn't know all about that, even better than most, and that is precisely why he wants to muck up America's valued support for our democratic allies in regions of the world where our support must be made clear, real and unequivocal.
What Russia Hopes to Gain From the Israel-Hamas Conflict.
Oct. 30, 2023
https://time.com/6329850/hamas-gaza-...-putin-israel/
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10-31-23 23:21 #13510
Posts: 5447Yeah. I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen. LOL
Originally Posted by Tiny12 [View Original Post]
Repubs lost seats in the Senate.
That does not reflect a 22 point advantage for Repubs in "handling the economy better than Dems". Combined with the Dems winning virtually every special election in the past year, it doesn't reflect a Repub advantage on thar issue at all.
Unless. Unless. Oh, the horror. Could it be that individual voters' personal economic situation is simply not suffering and, dare I even suggest such a thing, actually doing much better than Repubs and their perrenial electoral benefactors in Mainstream Media insist they ought to feel about the economy in general and to be reflected in their poll responses regardless of their personal situation?
Therefore, their opinion about Repub vs Dem "handling of the economy" is purely theoretical and academic rather than applying to their real world experience so there was no reason to vote for Repubs to do a damn bit of good for this economy?
No. Couldn't be. LOL.
BTW, were abortion rights on the ballot to trump spectacular economic horrors and swing votes away from "better at handling the economy" Repubs in 1932,1992, 2008 and 2020? I don't recall that it was.
Hmm, apparently the economy has been just fine and dandy and has not needed one iota of that "better handling" of it by Repubs in fully 7 of the last 8 General / Presidential Elections! How nice.
And Bill Maher probably votes for Dems most of the time. Doesn't matter. He helped GW Bush get appointed so-called potus in 2000 and is now doing everything he can to help Trump win in 2024.
As is MSM:
National broadcast and cable networks are barely covering Trumps recent gaffes and incoherent statements
https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-n...ent-gaffes-and
Contrast that with its citing perhaps Biden's greatest re-election liability, his age, more than twice as much as Trump's:
Top newspapers mention Bidens age more than twice as often as Trumps.
Since the president announced his 2024 campaign, five major U.S. papers have mentioned Bidens age in 332 articles and Trumps in just 158
https://www.mediamatters.org/los-ang...e-often-trumps#text=The%20 papers%20 each%20 mentioned%20 Biden's,just%2046%20 of%20 its%20 articles.
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10-31-23 22:21 #13509
Posts: 5447Increasing the deficit to aid millionaire tax cheats while blowing Russian dick? Wow.
Originally Posted by Tiny12 [View Original Post]
That his insistence on the IRS budget offset will raise the deficit by as much as $100 Billion in the next 10 years, according to the CBO?
That his non starter proposal to separate aid for Israel from Ukraine and possibly from the border and Taiwan is so opposed by leadership on both sides of the aisle and therefore will likely see the whole thing go nowhere and just sit in limbo until Russia has its way, as those Russian TV commentators predicted he would do for them? Unless they were they actually sending him the order to do that for them through their commentary rather than "predicting" anything, of course.
Both?
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10-31-23 20:36 #13508
Posts: 1111Biden's GREAT stewardship and resilient economy
Originally Posted by Tiny12 [View Original Post]
Too Biden's credit, the economy under his stewardship is a true testament, to just how resilient it has been, despite the efforts of a reckless FED, IMHO.
To my point, had he done the same thing, under a Trump administration, Trump would have crucified the FED and accused him of trying to tank the economy and no doubt would have had him replaced. Notice how even out of office, Trump says he'd tell the FEB what to do, if he wins in 2024.
Contrast that with Biden, to his credit, says virtually nothing about the FED and simply goes about the business and stewardship of the economy and the country with even handed keel.
Now that interest rates have significantly been tamed (although it has sightly ticked up, over last 2 months), IMHO there's still no need to raise rates. But we shall see!
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10-31-23 19:04 #13507
Posts: 1807Speaker of the House
Damn, It looks like Mike Johnson's promoting a bill to fund $14.3 billion for Israel by cutting the IRS's budget by $14.3 billion. It would be part of the $80 billion originally allocated to the agency in the Inflation Reduction Act last year.
I'm actually starting to like this guy!
I was somewhat disgusted with Chip Roy, but see he's insisting any money for Israel include offsetting spending cuts. I'm starting to like him too!
Now admittedly this is a lesser of two evils thing. I don't really believe we should be sending money Israel's way, considering it's a wealthy country. But if the money's coming out of the IRS's hide, well, that makes it somewhat more palatable.
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10-31-23 18:52 #13506
Posts: 1807Originally Posted by EihTooms [View Original Post]
Your beliefs about the main stream media are backwards from reality. Look at AllSides.com. NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, they're all left leaning. Or do a search on a campaign contribution database like Open Secrets. You'll see that journalists overwhelmingly support Democrats. I hope that you and likeminded Democrats won't some day support muzzling the press so that it always reflects the views of Democratic leadership, instead of just mostly reflecting their views.
Similarly your highly partisan beliefs about the economy don't make sense, but we've hashed that many times over.
Finally, about Carter, Reagan, Miller and Volcker, I can sink your arguments now. However, I'm having lunch with a student of the Fed this weekend, and afterwards should be able to blow them out of the water. So I'll wait on that. We do agree that Carter did a good thing, replacing his appointee Miller with Volcker.
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10-31-23 13:09 #13505
Posts: 1111Trump has already sucked Putins.
Originally Posted by GDreams [View Original Post]
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10-31-23 12:54 #13504
Posts: 1111GAY John Holmes, WHITEZILLA...more gay porn is it now?
Originally Posted by MarquisdeSade1 [View Original Post]
https://www.pornhub.com/gay/video/se...rch=whitezilla
'Huge dick gay whitezilla'.
https://www.xvideos.com/?k=Huge+dick+gay+whitezilla.
Yeah, Okay (I think), I see the connection you're making with GAY WHITEZILLA and John Holmes YOUR GAY HEROES.
P.S.: Pssssst....sure if that helps you sleep better at nights!...but keep it to yourself!
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10-31-23 09:32 #13503
Posts: 5447BTW, what happened to that 22 point advantage in Nov. 2022?
Originally Posted by Tiny12 [View Original Post]
Yes, Carter realized Miller's approach to Fed Funds rates was wrong for the economy even if they might have been great for his re-election chances, so he dumped him after only 17 months on the job. Probably the shortest Fed Chairman tenure of all time. It is impossible to imagine a Ronnie Reagan or a Donald Trump making that decision for America heading into an election year. Impossible.
But it must be underscored that Carter is the one who "appointed" Volcker, yes, probably the best Fed Chairman ever. Volcker didn't merely "succeed" Miller as in some chain of command. Someone had to interview, vet and nominate his appointment for the job. Carter did that. Not Reagan. Carter.
Yes, thanks to Carter's appointee Volcker, the rate of inflation and the unemployment rate were already steadily declining almost a year before Reagan took office and, therefore, Volker's highly effective methods that were fully vetted and approved by Carter likely helped to prevent Reagan's Great Repub Recession and whopping 10 consecutive months of 10%+ Unemployment Rates as a result of Reagan's Repub policies and stewardship from lasting longer and crashing the economy even worse than they did. Kudos go to Carter and Volcker.
I have always acknowledged that. Never denied it.
Obama did not nominate and appoint Powell to be Fed Chairman. Trump did. I didn't see Trump's name popping up anywhere in your Historical Overview, so I thought somebody ought to mention it. Biden continued him as Fed Chairman for the obvious reason that one would not want to terrify brave free market Capitalists and drive them further under their beds in the midst of another Great Repub Economic Downturn by throwing them someone terrifyingly "unknown" as Fed Chairman.
Now, about that 22 point advantage in the polls for Repubs "handling the economy better than Dems". LOL. Yeah, that economic salespitch, otherwise known as total BS, that Repubs constantly throw up is so very compelling and attractive. As all cons are.
Imagine! Why, they're going to cut my taxes, cut spending, make government smaller, get the gub'ment off our backs and then great jobs with higher wages will just flow like crystal clear river water!
Damn. When there are plenty of jobs to be had, consumer spending is just roaring along so much the Fed is still not willing to say its efforts to cool down jobs creation and the economy are over, the unemployment rate is at or near a decades long low and I can sit back and fantasize about the ideal economic policies that have never, ever, not even for a nanosecond actually worked out that way in the real world, by god, that total Repub BS, utterly disproven academic theory con job even sounds pretty good to me. LOL.
However, despite Mainstream Media's herculean efforts to spin every Repub economic disaster as a "win" for their beloved Repubs and every historic positive Dem accomplishment also as a "win" for their beloved Repubs, which does indeed keep the horse race very close, here is what happens in the real world when Repub economic policies and stewardship results are typically crashing the economy around our ears and wiping out jobs by the millions during election periods, as they were in, say, 1932,1992, 2008 and 2020:
No sane person and certainly not the American electorate said, "Hey, I know which candidate and Party can pull us out of this mess! Repub Herbert Hoover! Or Repub GHW Bush! Or Repub John McCain! Or Repub Donald Trump"!
Nope. They sure didn't.
In fact, if the electorate is so convinced today that Repubs "handle the economy better than Dems", what happened to the Red Tsunami in November 2022, just 11 months ago and every special election since when the rate of inflation was higher or no better than it is today, same with gas prices, fewer jobs had been created and there was virtually no difference in the historic low Unemployment Rate vs today?