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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 (129398)4/8/2012 7:24:21 PM
From: TideGlider3 Recommendations  Respond to of 224649
 
Federal jobs grew. That is deceptive...like all your garbage.



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (129398)4/8/2012 7:25:05 PM
From: TideGlider2 Recommendations  Respond to of 224649
 
April 6, 2012, 1:57 p.m. ET Gramm and McMillin: The Real Causes of Income Inequality Any analysis of taxes paid in high tax-and-spend countries shows that the U.S. has the most progressive income tax system in the world.

online.wsj.com

>>>To vilify success and the rewards it garners is an assault not just on capitalism but on liberty itself. As Will and Ariel Durant observed in "The Lessons of History" (1968), "freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies . . . to check the growth of inequality, liberty must be sacrificed."

Nowhere is the political debate over income inequality more detached from reality than the call for the top 1% of American income earners to pay their "fair share." The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data on the ratio of the share of income taxes paid by the richest taxpayers relative to their share of income show that the U.S. has the world's most progressive tax burden.

The top 10% of earners in the U.S. pay 35% more of the income tax burden than in Sweden and 22% more than in France. These figures—from the 2008 OECD publication "Growing Unequal?"—include all household taxes imposed on income at the federal, state and local level, including social insurance taxes.

In an eternal irony unique to large welfare states, it is the expansion of government in the name of the poor and middle class that always costs poor and middle-class families the most. When the U.S. collects 16.1% of GDP in income taxes, the top 10% of taxpayers pay 7.3% and the other 90% pick up 8.9%.

In France, however, they collect 24.3% of GDP in income taxes with the top 10% paying 6.8% and the rest paying a whopping 17.5% of GDP. Sweden collects its 28.5% of GDP through income taxes by tapping the top 10% for 7.6%, but the other 90% get hit for a back-breaking 20.9% of GDP.

If the U.S. spent and taxed like France and Sweden, it would hardly affect the top 10%, who would pay about what they pay now, but the bottom 90% would see their taxes double.

Since OECD members have significantly higher consumption taxes on average than the U.S., the total tax burden of bigger government is even more heavily borne by lower-income citizens in developed nations than these numbers suggest.

The real and alarming message in these OECD numbers is that there appear to be limits in the real world to how much tax blood can be extracted from rich turnips. With much higher marginal income-tax rates, countries that are clearly willing to soak the rich have proven to be incapable of doing so.

Proposals to raise taxes on high-income Americans in the name of "fairness" not only threaten economic growth. The experience of nations with large governments shows that this argument is simply a red herring for a massive tax increase on middle-income Americans.

In the end, taxing is about feeding government, not redistributing wealth. What nation ever set off on the road to big government promising to tax middle-income workers, and what nation ever got big government without doing it?<<<<<

Mr. Gramm is a former Republican senator from Texas and senior partner of U.S. Policy Metrics, where Mr. McMillin, a former deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, is also a partner.

H/T KLP



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (129398)4/8/2012 7:42:57 PM
From: Farmboy5 Recommendations  Respond to of 224649
 
Yeah, and without your progressive communist crap being posted, this would be one hell of a great board!



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (129398)4/8/2012 8:01:45 PM
From: Hope Praytochange3 Recommendations  Respond to of 224649
 


FUTURES FUTURES FAIR VALUE (22.14)
13060.14 12847.0 -131.00 13000.14 12847.0 -153.14
these RED numbers send kennytroll to rathole



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (129398)4/8/2012 8:17:28 PM
From: TideGlider2 Recommendations  Respond to of 224649
 
That is deceptive in the exact some manner in which Obama claimed of more oil production is. The increase in production wasn't on federal lands.

deception, deception, deception....



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (129398)4/9/2012 7:22:46 AM
From: TideGlider3 Recommendations  Respond to of 224649
 
I personally believe a national story like the Zimmerman/Martin one with such an emotional and fire like atmosphere was exploded by those greater than a local producer. I have posted previously that employment/separation deals are likely being made to save bosses, but ultimately they will just cause a greater shakeup in the hierarchy. You just cannot smooth over poisoned icing to make a better cupcake.

The law suits and investigators will leave no stone unturned. This may be the largest group of lawsuits they face. More than the editing, NBC/MSNBC allowed and/or encouraged their talking heads to interview and mercilessly attack witnesses who supported Zimmerman's account.



To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (129398)4/9/2012 8:38:52 AM
From: TideGlider2 Recommendations  Respond to of 224649
 
Don't Show This Chart To The President H/T Little Joe



Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/09/2012 07:55 -0400

BLS Bureau of Labor Statistics Debt Ceiling Unemployment


    One can write lengthy essays, op-eds, and client letters explaining both why the labor force participation rate is plunging due to innocuous reasons such as everyone over 40 retiring yesterday full of jouissance and excitement to begin the sunset phase of their lives using copious life savings earning 0.0001% in interest, or, inversely, why this is one great big propaganda ploy by the BLS to make Obama look good a few short months ahead of the pre-election debt ceiling breach, pardon, his re-election date. We prefer cutting to the chase. Here is today's chart of the day from BofA, which begs one simple question: when will the two time series recouple, because recouple they will, and how will America react to the realization it was lied to for 2% worth of unemployment "improvement"? The chart says it all.



    zerohedge.com



    To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (129398)4/9/2012 10:51:12 AM
    From: JakeStraw3 Recommendations  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 224649
     
    >>Without those job losses, unemployment would be at 8%

    Kenny Troll face the facts & stop with your spin... Any improvement in the unemployment rate hasn’t come from jobs growth, but from those workers who are no longer counted. More people fell out of the labor force and were not counted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics—more discouraged workers. The “labor participation rate” measures all people in the working age population (from ages 16-64) who are actually employed. In January, the rate hit a 30-year low of 63.7%; that is, only 63.7% of the people who can work and want to work are actually working. In March, it fell again. Let’s express this in other terms. The number of people that are no longer considered part of the labor force by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reached a record in March of over 88.3 million people!

    If more people are falling out of the labor force, it is because jobs are becoming harder to find.

    The U-6 unemployment rate is over 14%.



    To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (129398)4/9/2012 11:09:32 AM
    From: TideGlider2 Recommendations  Respond to of 224649
     
    Supreme Court Update
    Supreme Court’s Ratings Jump Following Health Care Hearings

    in Politics
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    Monday, April 09, 2012

    Just before the highly publicized hearing on the constitutionality of President Obama’s health care law, ratings for the U.S. Supreme Court had fallen to the lowest level ever measured by Rasmussen Reports. Now, following the hearings, approval of the court is way up.

    Forty-one percent (41%) of Likely U.S. Voters now rate the Supreme Court’s performance as good or excellent, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. That’s up 13 points from 28% in mid-March and is the court’s highest ratings in two-and-a-half years.

    Nineteen percent (19%) still rate the court’s work record as poor, unchanged from last month. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

    It is impossible to know if the improved perceptions of the court came from the hearings themselves, President Obama’s comments cautioning the court about overturning a law passed by Congress, or from other factors. Approval of the court had fallen in three consecutive quarterly surveys prior to the health care hearings.

    The partisan turnaround in views of the court is noticeable. Three weeks ago, 29% of Republicans gave the Supreme Court positive marks for its job performance; now that number has climbed to 54%. Similarly, among voters not affiliated with either of the major political parties, good or excellent ratings for the court have increased from 26% in mid-March to 42% now. Democrats’ views of the court are largely unchanged.

    Among all voters, 28% now think the Supreme Court is too liberal, 29% say it’s too conservative, and 31% believe the ideological balance is about right. The number who view the court as too liberal is down five points from a month ago.

    Most voters want the health care law repealed and 54% expect the Supreme Court to overturn it.

    To read other articles like this from Rasmussen Reports, sign-up for the Rasmussen Reader subscription – just $3.95/month or $34.95/year.

    (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook

    This national survey of 1,000 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on April 6-7, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

    The last time the court’s good or excellent ratings were in the 40s was in October 2009 when 43% ranked it that way. That was the start of the court’s first session with Justice Sonya Sotomayor, Obama’s first nominee to the high court. At that time, 58% of Democrats shared a positive view of the court’s performance, but just 33% of both Republicans and unaffiliated voters agreed.

    Data released earlier showed that only 15% of voters think the high court puts too many limitations on what the federal government can do. Twice as many (30%) believe the Supreme Court does not limit the government enough. Forty percent (40%) say the balance is about right, while 15% more are undecided.

    Forty-nine percent (49%) of Republicans still think the high court is too liberal, but that’s down from 56% three weeks ago. Unaffiliated voters are now more inclined to see the court as too conservative. But Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliateds all view the court as more balanced than they did in the previous survey.

    There’s been a little change in Political Class attitudes toward the court as well. Ten percent (10%) of these voters view its performance as poor now, compared to three percent (3%) in March. But they also give it slightly higher positives, too, with 43% who now rate its work as good or excellent. Among Mainstream voters, 41% think the court is doing a good or excellent job versus 23% who felt that way three weeks ago.

    Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

    Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it’s free) or follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.