And the trillions to the deficit is reckless spending. Get real. People who think like you are the REAL problem with the American economy.

Übergeek 바둑이: The Democrats made fun of the Tea Party even though they represented middle America. They are a fast growing group and as has been seen, they are making some dents. The fact that democrats ignored and tried to marginalize the group has been to their own peril. Republicans who marginalized them found out the hard way that the people will hold them accountable.

Now the dems are getting frustrated. They have to record to run on so they run against Bush once again. lol

I just hope the Repubs clean up the mess and don't create new messes in the process.

Artful Dodger: From what you've said the Tea party is marginalizing themselves without the help of others.

"made fun of... dems are getting frustrated."

Shall we bear that in mind when you make fun of Obama and the Democrats?

Artful Dodger: No it isn't. a few percent is not going to hurt the rich cats lifestyle. If someone is earning a million plus dollars.. what's a few $K to them... nothing. If the likes of Bill Gates and other billionaires can donate half their savings .. then the rich can afford it.

We in the UK are having 2.5% added to VAT to pay off the debt occured through the banks screw up's, which... we will do gladly.. we might moan a little, but we know it is needed.

It would also help if the rich stopped using offshore banks (ie tax havens) to defraud the USA.... quite frankly I'd be more into getting that sorted in some means.

(V): The rich should pay more. The poor paying the same as the rich is wrong. What is 2 and half to us is nothing to them. I do not understand the logic

Mousetrap: Neither do I considering what the rich use to pay in terms of Income Tax. They have it easy now comparatively.

Lets look at some stats...

In the UK benefit fraud costs £5.2 billion.. unclaimed benefit nets £16 billion.

Income tax and Company tax fraud costs £17 billion.

Tax fraud accounts for 3% of tax liabilities.. benefit fraud accounts for just 0.8% of benefit expenditure, yet this is way outweighed by what people could claim if they knew they were eligible or.. could be bothered.

(V): I think it parallels the healthcare debate.You have many of the top earners with an "I'm alright Jack" attitude.Ironically, the USA has rebuilt and provided aid to other countries in the past with the hope that they would in future have the financial ability to become a customer that would buy American products, sadly many Americans are not willing to invest in themselves.

The Col: Taxing the rich more will not solve problems. How about smaller government, less entitlements, and more responsible spending? That WILL make a positive difference.

The Col: When I studied business at college, they use to talk about how capital purchase items were only expected to last so long. The need to replace/upgrade in a good business plan was included in budget calculations. When an item becomes too old, generally it becomes inefficient and costs more in direct or indirect costs to use/run.

Sure like Art says.. small admin is good.. but only to a certain point, then again efficiency becomes impaired and costs go up. In one instance I was doing the payments for a firm to it's contractors.. the software was old and required 3 times the effort to a comparable system I used at another company. Needless to say.. it was a nightmare for the company and contractors wanting payment as the process of raising a payment was about 15 minutes for one invoice compared to a couple of minutes.

Artful Dodger: Ok.. cut the USA military budget, cut the tax cuts, change the law on tort, set limits on how much the health industry can raise prices to match costs/inflation realistically.

But I keep hearing from you that's SoCiaLiSt and LiBeRaL and wrong.

..despite it saving money.

(V): Meanwhile, you have billions of dollars still being directed at "rebuilding" Iraq.Did you know Iraq showed a 50 billion surplus this year? I guess as the Bush admin stated early on, the cost of the Iraq war will be paid back from their oil profits...........and I have some swampland in Florida for sale

If anyone would like me to burn them a copy, just ask

The Col: Just 50 billion... wow. That's a long payback period.

I'm thinking of micro generation. Seems if everyone does some sort we won't need so much oil.

.. but I think that's supposed to be a secret!!

The Col:

Mousetrap:

The Col:

Tuesday: What does everyone find so funny? I burned a few already just incase I had someone take me up on the offer

Tuesday: Well, the requests aren't exactly pouring in,no sense firing off any more copies

Tuesday: I get lost in the crowd pretty easy

The Col:

> Did you know Iraq showed a 50 billion surplus this year?

The question is: who is getting rich from it? Is it benefitting the average Iraqi citizen, or some elitist segment of the population, or foreign oil companies and defense contractors? Governments always say "The economy is going great" when the rich are getting richer. I never saw a government say that the economy is doing great when wealth is redistributed from the rich to the poor.

Übergeek 바둑이: My intended point was, if Iraq is in a surplus situation, the USA should not be spending their money anymore, let them foot the bill, they're not intending to give the US any advantage in oil contracts anyway sc'em

California reported receiving 111 million dollars of stimulus money. And with that they were able to create 55 jobs. That works out to 2 million per job. And the dems wonder why the people are fed up with Obama's stimulus polities?

And yet Obama still wants to increase the taxes of the rich. And he's willing to let the middle class suffer tax increases unless he gets his way. He's a turtle on a fence post.

Artful Dodger: You are aware that anyone who pays even a casual glance to the facts sees through your spin, right?

The Col: you are aware that the people here that read my stuff don't have the brains to comprehend the real problem. That's because most of you only know the democratic talking points. And that's why instead of talking about real issues, you prefer to discuss masturbation.

Two Los Angeles departments created all of 55 jobs with that chunk of taxpayer money says the LA Times:

Two Los Angeles departments have received $111 million in federal stimulus funds yet have created only 55 jobs so far, according to a pair of reports issued Thursday by City Controller Wendy Greuel.

The reports conclude that the agencies, Public Works and Transportation, moved too slowly in spending the federal money, in part because of the time it takes to secure approval of government contracts. The two agencies plan to create or retain a combined 264 jobs once all the money is spent, according to the reports.

With unemployment above 12%, city officials should move more urgently to cut red tape and spend the money, Greuel said. "The process needs to be changed to make sure we get these projects out as quickly as possible," she said.

enough, I feel an itchy delete finger coming on

Vikings: They have a cream for that ya know.

Artful Dodger: You said..

"California reported receiving 111 million dollars of stimulus money. And with that they were able to create 55 jobs."

The report says...

"Two Los Angeles departments have received $111 million in federal stimulus funds yet have created only 55 jobs so far"

I see two importants word missed off. ... first one "so"

Bernice: Ever notice that the liberals that post her ignore the facts they are presented with? Such as high taxes on businesses drive businesses OUT of business (or out of the state OR overseas). These are facts. One look at California and even Washington State bears this out. California is in dire straights. They have lost tons of businesses due to high tax rates. California has high entitlement payouts and they have bankrupt the state. People have left the State due to unfair taxes. And the Obama model is exactly this! Wise up libs! It's not working because this approach to economics NEVER works.

know-what-I-mean?

Artful Dodger: Have you ever thought there might be other factors involved besides taxes... I mean.. anyone who's got half a brain and enters into business KNOWS that THEY WILL HAVE to pay tax before they start. If they don't they deserve to fail.

California is in dire straights .. some more detail would be fair rather than spin!!

Tuesday: Standard hacking by poor reporters. Shameful!!

(V): if you look down to AD's post, the one below (and it hasnt been corrected)....he says

***Two Los Angeles departments have received $111 million in federal stimulus funds yet have created only 55 jobs so far, according to a pair of reports issued Thursday by City Controller Wendy Greuel.
***

this must be a case of not reading things properly....

and it is good to see you are learning your do,ra,me's. (sp)

There’ll be a party come this November

Where we’re gonna set things straight

All good people gonna gather ‘round

Gonna show what made this country great

We’ll run off the schemers and back-room dealers

So the Red, White and Blue will prevail

When we’re holding the hammer

When we’re holding the hammer

When we’re holding the hammer

Every one of them looks like a nail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfH46DTAkxo&feature=player_embedded

holdingahammer.com

"The Hammer Falls November 2, 2010."

Artful Dodger: . Actually, to be precise, the money produced 54.46 jobs SO FAR

The Col: And that is precisely the problem with liberal thinkers such as yourself. One would think that with such huge amounts of money, there would be more to start. That's barely a medium size business. And what will liberals like you say when that number stays under a hundred? That's still a million dollars of tax money for only one job.

Historically, lower taxes, smaller government, responsible spending, and a tighter reign on entitlement payments meant more jobs. Obamacare has killed more jobs than the stimulus will create. And Obama is so arrogant that he's talking about spending more? The nation is against him and he ignores it all. He's incompetent and so are your liberal heros that are about to find themselves on the unemployment line.

An unemployed worker can make more on unemployment than they can at an entry level job. So why work? This is absolutely the case. It's why extending unemployment benefits was a bad idea. Unemployed workers have admitted that they won't take a job if they can make more money on unemployment. That's BS. Get two jobs then. And that's exactly what they'd do if they didn't have unemployment to cuddle them through.

It won't matter. There is a landslide coming and Obama will be a lame duck way before his time.

Artful Dodger: I think in a nutshell you have provided a microcosm of why there is so little bipartisan work accomplished in Washington.There is nothing to be gained by working my lil stubby fingers to the bone trying to find a common ground,so why bother

Bill Maher: Obama Would Be A Better President 'If He Was Fully Black'
from NewsBusters.org - Exposing Liberal Media Bias by Noel Sheppard

Bill Maher on Friday said that Barack Obama's problem is that he's only half black.

He'd be a better president "if he was fully black."

In the season premiere of "Real Time," while chatting with former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich, the host said, "Isn't Obama's big problem is that he does everything half-assed? Maybe it's because he's only half black."

Maher continued, "If he was fully black, I'm telling you, he would be a better president."

As if that wasn't enough, "There's a white man in him holding him back because everything is half-assed"

What's really hysterical about this is earlier in the program, Maher accused members of the Tea Party of being racist.

I guess it isn't racist to say there's a white man inside the president holding him back.

On the other hand, just imagine the uproar if Maher said Obama's problem is that he was half white and that "there's a [black] man in him holding him back because everything is half-assed."

It seems a metaphysical certitude the panelists and his audience wouldn't have laughed at that, nor would HBO's management.

In fact, Maher might be looking for a job tomorrow for saying something like that.

Interesting double standard we have today, isn't it?

The Col: come on! Bipartisan to democrats is vote our way. This is EXACTLY what Pelosi told the Republicans.

Bernice: I did.. you didn't.

Politics (Artful Dodger, 2010-09-18 02:07:12)

This post does not include the "so far"

DPW has received $70.65 million and created or retained 45.46 jobs, though they are expected to create 238 jobs overall (the fraction of a job created or retained correlates to the number of actual hours works). LADOT has been awarded $40.8 million and created or retained 9 jobs, though they are expected to create 26 jobs overall. Overall, the Departments have received $111 million in federal stimulus funds out of the $594 million the City has been awarded so far and created or retained 54.46 jobs.

“I’m disappointed that we’ve only created or retained 55 jobs after receiving $111 million in ARRA funds. With our local unemployment rate over 12% we need to do a better job cutting the red tape and putting Angelenos back to work,” said City Controller Greuel. “While it doesn’t appear that any of the ARRA funds were misspent, the City needs to do a better job expediting the process and creating jobs. We’re going to continue to audit how these funds are spent, to ensure that they are expended quickly and correctly. I’m pleased that since our auditors completed their field work, the Departments have begun to implement the changes we identified to help get this money out the door faster.”

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/09/16/great-news-111-million-in-stimulus-money-to-l-a-produces-54-jobs/

So that's 264 jobs created out of $111 million.. which works out at $420K per job.

(V): that would make you want to go to work, wouldn't it?

Not a bad wage....

The chief of the Commonwealth Bank here in Aus, is now being paid 16 Million Dollars per year....no one is worth that.

Bernice: No.. I'm not nit picking.. I'm trying to fair and reasonably accurate.

As to $420k .. no, the ones getting the jobs will not get that much. You having done bookkeeping should have a basic idea of the in's and out's of how a business works.. If you've done business accounts that is.