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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: puborectalis who wrote (686730)	12/1/2012 12:37:17 AM
From: Sdgla	2 Recommendations Respond to of 1584617

This is the best I've read in response to your complete and utter bs ... Couldn't give him enough recs : From: profile_14 18 Recommendations of 174453 The Democrats want to talk about two things and two things only, raising taxes and spending more money. They want to raise taxes on the most productive in our society who already pay the vast majority of the taxes, and they want to raise the debt ceiling and spend more on "stimulus". The Democrats will not talk about cuts to programs, reform of the entitlements, or overall tax reform. The song never changes for them. The deficit was $1.087 trillion last FY ending October 2012, and you think raising taxes on 2% is going to lower it without reducing expenses materially? We collect about 60% of what we spend!!!!! In other words, you'd have to raise all taxes by 66% across-the-board, without losing anyone or any economic activity, to cover the deficit. You see, we don't have a revenue problem, but spending problem. We not only need to cut spending in absolute terms, we need to raise revenue (VAT or otherwise) and reduce future increases from the reduced levels. We're not talking a reduction in the rate of growth. So now that Republicans have conceptually agreed to raise taxes, er..., revenue, as part of an agreement to avoid the looming fiscal cliff, liberals appear to have decided that there really isn’t a need or rush to cut spending after all.“Suddenly the clear and present danger to the American economy isn’t that we’ll fail to reduce the deficit enough; it is, instead, that we’ll reduce the deficit too much,” warns Paul Krugman. All this worry about debt and deficits is “an entirely contrived crisis,” writes Robert Kuttner in the Huffington Post. After all, as the New York Times explains, “deficits are actually a good thing when the economy is deeply depressed, so deficit reduction should wait until the economy is stronger.” “So,” sums up Robert Reich, “can we please stop obsessing about future budget deficits? They’re distracting our attention from what we should be obsessing about — jobs and growth.” I say, let's go over the cliff. There is nothing substantial, whether in the press, written, or otherwise, scored by the CBO, from any democrat, let alone a single budget in 4 years. Let's go over the cliff. The democrats will blame the republicans, and the legacy of the President will be 9% unemployment. Not only does he want to spend more, he offers no cuts. We'll do those later.... Yeah, right. What a joke. Seriously, let's go over the cliff. Enough of this nonsense. Screw raising the debt ceiling too while we're at it. Democrats voted for him, and they own the legacy now. We'll see who is going to be hurting more at the end of the day. The legacy will be 9% unemployment for the President and the republicans will get tarred in the press. Fantastic! But enough is enough of this BS. It is time to eat your peas boys and girls and the medicine is bitter. Everyone pays as much. This was meant to sunset, so let it. At least we have a put in place a mechanism to force the cuts. Oh, and while on my soap box, let me extend a debt of gratitude to the left leaning democrats who took over Congress on January 3rd, 2007. The last republican budget passed was in 2006 for 2007, and the 2007 budget was not passed but put through in a continuing resolution motion by Nana Nancy as the "messiah" was on his way into office. Barney F. (with the purple dinosaur) and Chris D. (who never got a favorable mortgage) were chairing the Finance and Banking Committees for 16 months before the proverbial excrement hit the fan, all the while pushing homes for everyone at the expense of Freddie and Fannie. GWB tried to stop this nonsense 17 times in 8 years. This is a scary proposition but no, it is all his fault. He and the republicans did approve 2 wars and medicare increases without offsets, and that is his fault, but that is nowhere near to the expenses that we are incurring today or will tomorrow. Either way this ends up people are going to have less money next year and I think we have a recession. If so, then oil stocks may be capped or range bound. Natural gas should have a bid under it, but it should not go off to the races either. That is my best guess.

To: puborectalis who wrote (686730)

12/1/2012 9:55:10 AM

From: longnshort

1 Recommendation Respond to of 1584617

TRAMPLING INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY: The Hobby Lobby Letter Everyone Is Talking About

Editor’s Note: David Green is the founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., which is challenging the Obamacare contraceptive mandate. This letter is an excellent illustration of how unconstitutional, authoritarian, and centralized federal policies crush individual liberties. It is but one illustration of the amoral collectivism which is the hallmark of a nascent tyranny.

When my family and I started our company 40 years ago, we were working out of a garage on a $600 bank loan, assembling miniature picture frames. Our first retail store wasn’t much bigger than most people’s living rooms, but we had faith that we would succeed if we lived and worked according to God’s word. From there,Hobby Lobby has become one of the nation’s largest arts and crafts retailers, with more than 500 locations in 41 states. Our children grew up into fine business leaders, and today we run Hobby Lobby together, as a family.

We’re Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles. I’ve always said that the first two goals of our business are (1) to run our business in harmony with God’s laws, and (2) to focus on people more than money. And that’s what we’ve tried to do. We close early so our employees can see their families at night. We keep our stores closed on Sundays, one of the week’s biggest shopping days, so that our workers and their families can enjoy a day of rest. We believe that it is by God’s grace that Hobby Lobby has endured, and he has blessed us and our employees. We’ve not only added jobs in a weak economy, we’ve raised wages for the past four years in a row. Our full-time employees start at 80% above minimum wage.

But now, our government threatens to change all of that. A new government health care mandate says that our family business MUST provide what I believe are abortion-causing drugs as part of our health insurance. Being Christians, we don’t pay for drugs that might cause abortions, which means that we don’t cover emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill. We believe doing so might end a life after the moment of conception, something that is contrary to our most important beliefs. It goes against the Biblical principles on which we have run this company since day one. If we refuse to comply, we could face $1.3 million PER DAY in government fines.

Our government threatens to fine job creators in a bad economy. Our government threatens to fine a company that’s raised wages four years running. Our government threatens to fine a family for running its business according to its beliefs. It’s not right. I know people will say we ought to follow the rules; that it’s the same for everybody. But that’s not true. The government has exempted thousands of companies from this mandate, for reasons of convenience or cost. But it won’t exempt them for reasons of religious belief.

So, Hobby Lobby – and my family – are forced to make a choice. With great reluctance, we filed a lawsuit today, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, asking a federal court to stop this mandate before it hurts our business. We don’t like to go running into court, but we no longer have a choice. We believe people are more important than the bottom line and that honoring God is more important than turning a profit.

My family has lived the American dream. We want to continue growing our company and providing great jobs for thousands of employees, but the government is going to make that much more difficult. The government is forcing us to choose between following our faith and following the law. I say that’s a choice no American – and no American business – should have to make.

The government cannot force you to follow laws that go against your fundamental religious belief. They have exempted thousands of companies but will not except Christian organizations including the Catholic church.

Since you will not see this covered in any of the liberal media, pass this on to all your contacts.

Sincerely,

David Green, CEO and Founder of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.