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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (82495)	4/13/2010 9:17:50 AM
From: TideGlider	Respond to of 224749

Total Hogwash! Of course MSNBC puts it out.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (82495)	4/13/2010 9:22:15 AM
From: TideGlider	Respond to of 224749

February trade deficit increases to $39.7 billion Trade deficit widens to $39.7 billion in February as import gains offset small rise in exports Buzz up! 0 Print In this March 2, 2010 photo, a shopper looks at televisions at Best Buy in Roseville, Mich. The U.S. trade deficit widened more than expected in February as exports rose to the highest level in 16 months but this gain was offset by a bigger jump in imports, reflecting increased demand for consumer goods from televisions to clothing. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer, On Tuesday April 13, 2010, 9:00 am WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. trade deficit widened more than expected in February as a small gain in exports to the highest level in 16 months was offset by a bigger jump in imports, reflecting increased demand for consumer goods from televisions to clothing. The wider deficit was a sign of a rebounding U.S. economy. Economists expect the trade deficit to rise this year but hope that expanding exports will continue to lift the fortunes of American manufacturing companies. The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that the deficit for February increased 7.4 percent to $39.7 billion. That was larger than the $38.5 billion deficit economists had expected. Exports edged up 0.2 percent while imports jumped 1.7 percent. The politically sensitive deficit with China fell to $16.5 billion in February, the lowest level in 11 months, but was still the biggest trade imbalance the United States has with any country. Pressure has been building in Congress for the Obama administration to take a tougher line with China and impose trade sanctions on Chinese products unless Beijing allows its currency to rise in value against the dollar which would boost the competitiveness of American products. Congressional critics believe China's unfair currency manipulation is costing American jobs at a time when the country has lost 8.2 million jobs because of a deep recession. The February deficit was the highest since December and followed a revised $36.95 billion imbalance in January. In the first two months of this year, the deficit is running at an annual rate of $459.9 billion, up 21.5 percent from the $378.6 billion imbalance recorded in 2009. That had been the smallest trade gap in eight years, reflecting the severe U.S. recession that depressed demand for imports. While imports are expected to rise this year, analysts believe exports will grow as well, reflecting a rebound in the global economy and a weaker dollar, which helps American producers by making their products cheaper in overseas markets. President Barack Obama last month set a goal of doubling exports within five years as a way to create 2 million U.S. jobs. Economists view that target as ambitious but they do think a rebounding global economy and a further decline in the dollar, especially against the Chinese yuan, would help spark demand for U.S. goods. For February, the small 0.2 percent rise in exports of goods and services pushed the total to $143.2 billion, the highest level since Octobrer 2008. Gains were seen in exports of autos and auto parts, industrial engines, semiconductors and civilian aircraft engines. Imports rose a larger 1.7 percent to $182.9 billion as imports of consumer goods rose to the highest level since October 2008. Increases were recorded in shipments of computers, televisions and other electronic appliances, toys and games and clothing. Imports of all petroleum products rose 1.6 percent to $27.6 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis even though the number of barrels of crude oil imported fell in February to the lowest level in 11 years. China reported last week that it registered a trade deficit with the world of $7.24 billion in March, its first trade deficit in six years. While China contended that the gap showed the country was making progress in shifting to more balanced growth, a key U.S. demand, private economists said they expected the Chinese deficits to be short-lived. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made a surprise stop in Beijing last week on his way back from India, raising speculation that the Chinese government may be moving closer to allowing further appreciation of the yuan. U.S. manufacturers contend the yuan is undervalued against the dollar by as much as 40 percent. They are pressuring the administration to impose trade sanctions if China doesn't allow the yuan to appreciate against the dollar, which it had done for three years until China halted the rise in mid-2008 during the global economic crisis. In February, the U.S. deficit with Japan rose to $4.3 billion, a gain of 28.3 percent, while the deficit with the European Union surged by 89.9 percent to $5.3 billion.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (82495)	4/13/2010 10:05:53 AM
From: JakeStraw	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224749

Congress needs to start to be fiscally responsible! They need to look at all categories of spending and start cutting. And if they're either unwilling or unable to do this, they they all need to go!

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (82495)	4/13/2010 10:36:21 AM
From: JakeStraw	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224749

Tax Hikes Forever realclearpolitics.com By Rich Lowry April 13, 2010 Nearly everyone understands that his taxes just went up. Obama won't admit it, although he must suffer from a guilty conscience. He uncorked a defensive 17-minute-long answer in response to a question at a town-hall meeting about new taxes in the health-care bill, complaining about a lot of misinformation" without citing any. In his cascade of words, Obama didn't get around to mentioning the $500 billion in new taxes during the first 10 years of the health bill. And they're merely a prelude. It doesn't take an economist to understand what public debt at Greece-like levels of 90 percent of GDP by 2020 inevitably portends. Nor to realize the effects of the yawning disconnect between federal spending at 24 percent of GDP and revenue at 19 percent of GDP. Nor to understand the most basic of all budgetary concepts -- that the bill, after the fizzy party, after all the huzzahs over "making history," always comes due, and with interest. This is why the country has a roiling tax revolt prior to the imposition of any significant tax increases. The tea-party movement is an act of pre-emption, based on the simple calculation that higher spending eventually means higher taxes. For all the tsk-tsking about its supposed irresponsibility, the movement is attuned to the future in a way that the president -- who hopes to evade or hide the consequences of his budgetary choices for as long as possible -- is not. Obama has always been happy to boast that he'll let the Bush tax cuts on high-end earners expire at the end of this year. This blow for justice will initially generate all of about $40 billion annually, or only about 5 percent of the cost of Obama's stimulus bill. Over 10 years, it will raise almost $700 billion, or only enough to cover about half of the budget deficit this year alone. Obama will need more, and he's not going to get it all from "the rich." The left's image of the US tax code as a predatory tool of the wealthy is a Michael Moore fantasy. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development evaluated the household taxes -- income taxes, plus Social Security levies -- of developed countries in 2008. It found that the United States "has the most progressive tax system and collects the largest share of taxes from the richest 10 percent of the population." The Associated Press reported last week that 47 percent of US households don't pay federal income taxes at all. Either their incomes are too low, or their liability is wiped out by sundry credits, deductions and exemptions. "The result," the AP writes, "is a tax system that exempts almost half the country from paying for programs that benefit everyone, including national defense, public safety, infrastructure and education. It is a system in which the top 10 percent of earners -- households making an average of $366,400 in 2006 -- paid about 73 percent of the income taxes collected by the federal government." To borrow Obama's phrase from the 2008 campaign, the federal budget already "spreads the wealth around," thank you very much. A Tax Foundation study finds that "the bottom 60 percent of American families will as a group receive more in government spending than they pay in taxes." No wonder Obama now calls himself "agnostic" on his 2008 blood oath not to raise taxes on households making less than $250,000 (already violated at the margins) and his advisers float a European-style value-added tax, a broad-based tax on consumption. He'll have to go where the rest of the money is. "I like to pay taxes," Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said. "With them I buy civilization." With ours, we will buy a misbegotten stimulus program, bailouts, runaway entitlements, a costly new health-care program and a federal government where incontinence is a perpetual pre-existing condition. No matter what your tax bill this year, don't worry -- it'll go higher.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (82495)	4/13/2010 11:00:14 AM
From: FJB	4 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224749

If the trend continues for the rest of the year, it would mean the annual deficit would be $1.3 trillion -- about $300 billion less than the administration's projection two months ago for 2010. ====================================================================================== Are you f'ing kidding me? You think a one year deficit of $1.3 trillion is good? You and your ilk make me sick. We are bankrupt and you think this is some great thing. I don't like being bankrupt ahole.