IF people respond to your stupid ass(yes, I just did) on a daily basis, then anything is possible.

You may go now. Thanks for playing.
:pimp

Not even close to as good as it was 2 years ago.

They're gonna take your last dollars from you, they are gonna wreck everything you got.
You're not part of the elite... You are in the crosshairs :2 cents:

not sure who ever was president would have done it.

I usually stay out of these things, but I do have a few comments.

A family making a combined $250k a year can easily afford a house in LA, or NYC. Let's try and keep in mind the $250k threshold is for yearly income, not for the price of a one time home purchase that will be spread out over 30 years. So, a combined yearly income of around $250k will be able to afford a house in the 600-800k range easily. Well within the upper middle class to upper class range in any major city, and a MANSION in the smaller markets.

Let's look at the increase in taxes on those said to be in the above range. There are a few things to consider here:

1) Those in that range have a tendency to have businesses or other entities which allow for many more tax breaks.
2) At the purposed increase of 3%. A family making 300k would pay an additional $9k a year in taxes, or $750 a month. For some $750 a month may sound like a lot. For someone in the $300k range it truly is not.

Additionally, there are so many tax breaks and loopholes that many of those who would have the increases brought upon them would see minimal increase in their actual tax liability.

The truth and FACTS are this:

1) Wars were started and not paid for and the books were cooked. That had to be corrected and those things had to be paid for.
2) The tax code has to be fixed. The loopholes and the credits are insane. Having a company like Exxon state that they pay more taxes than people think and then try and bullshit the American public by saying that the taxes their employees and customers pay should be counted as their taxes is appalling.

Yes, I make over 250k a year.
Yes, I will happily pay 3% more in taxes
Yes, I think in the long run the Healthcare bill will save money even if it isn't doing so right this very moment.
Yes, I am better off than I was two years ago.

Yes, it's obvious we are better off currently -- although I don't have high confidence it will be maintained.

Fact:

2 years ago we were on the verge of a total collapse of the world's credit markets, the world equities markets were crashing and the prospects for a deflationary spiral and depression were very high.

If you think the "facts" you list are worse than that, you either have not put much thought into it or you are just being partisan.

Thread closed!

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Well now we know, it really wasn't about whether we are better off now than 2 years ago.

Judas Priest!

Why did the price of oil / gas plummet from July 2008 to March 2009?

A) George Bush's policies

B) Deflation, the prospects for a global depression and panic in the markets

Inflation is double?? Opinion or facts??

CPI Inflation:

2009 negative 0.4%
2010 positive 1.6%

You can look at the first three months of 2011 as well here

Its not racial shit, its called sarcasm, old dumb ass. :2 cents:

LOOPHOLES should be Closed -- If I was prez that would be one of the first things I did.

Now, everyone can list different pieces of facts to skew a view.

Like The wars Did and DO cost a shit ton of money. We still have 50K troops in Iraq at a high cost. I say Bring ALL troops home, save money!

Now the Exxon thing, honestly I believe the Gov AND Companies LIE, Lie and lie.
But if the news article on CNN is even remotely correct, it shows that these big companies do pay a TON of taxes, that the money goes to the Gov.
Even if it is the second half of employee taxes, without those social security would be even more broke.
Is Exxon putting a spin on the amount of federal income tax paid, YES.
Here is my view
One side says they pay NOTHING, one said says they pay to much, looks like the cnn article says they pay somewhere in the middle.

"Exxon's average effective U.S. income tax rate over the last six years is about 29%, according to the firm's security filings and an interview with a top Exxon tax lawyer"

" the company includes the federal and state gasoline taxes that the company collects from drivers and passes on to government coffers"

"Exxon's income tax rate is below the 35% rate mandated by corporate tax law, but it's widely believed most U.S. companies don't pay that rate thanks to generous loopholes in the tax code."

http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/04/news...axes/index.htm

What makes me mad is I have a friend, she is married and 3 children. This friend and her hubby did not work one day last year, and they made in excess of $41K and that is just the things she can remember she got from the government.

Smile!

Considering we are still in some stage of the worst depression since the Great Depression, I don't know any sane person can be pleased with our leadership.

I agree the tax codes need to be fixed, My bitch about taxing the rich is stop the excessive spending first, we had a balanced budget 10 years ago. Doesn't matter the amount to me, it's just the way they go about it, lets spend more till we can't then tax more.

I don't agree about the healthcare law, but we'll see, something about government involvement scares me.

I agree about the books being cooked about the wars and I'm sure they are being cooked right now, how much does it cost to send drones to Pakistan? Osama is dead, why are we still sending them?

Tired of sending our troops to countries that don't want us there
Tired of 9% unemployment

I'm better off now than 2 years ago, but a lot of that was because of pure luck and a lot of hard work, not the leadership of this country.

prejudices,
... And Snoop Dog isn't black.

In the the same post, not very bright are you?

Guess you don't go grocery shopping do you

last year the price of corn doubled
last year price of dairy went up 63%
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...pedia51610.DTL

I am not sure what you are saying????
I don't think you know what your reading, but I could be wrong.

Average CPI for each year

Year - CPI
2000 - 172.2
2001 - 177.1
2002 - 179.9
2003 - 184
2004 - 188.9
2005 - 195.3
2006 - 201.6
2007 - 207.3
2008 - 215.3
2009 - 214.5
2010 - 218.1
2011 - Currently we are at 223.5 for March

We paid for the fuckups of wall street by borrowing money to fix it, I have a very low confidence that it won't happen again.
So now because of those guys, they keep wanting to raise the debt ceiling, when does that stop?
I guess we could always get another stimulus package right?

Nope still trying to figure it out, please enlighten us

I just got back from the store, OMG Milk took another Jump!

Commodities fluctuate and are volatile. They also decline drastically in price at times.

You said inflation, if you want to change that to Corn, then fine.

Noted for the retreat that it is. :2 cents:

You're wrong. Look to the far right of the table and it shows the year over year rate of inflation in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Not only has inflation in the last two years been lower than the average of about 3.2%/year since 1913, we experienced deflation in 2009 (-0.4%). 2010 was +1.6%.

2011 is likely to be higher still, but Vendzilla said it had doubled which is simply wrong by orders of magnitude.

As do I, but your question was not about confidence for the future or Wall Street or Debt Ceilings (which is a stupid idea unless the debt is compared to revenue) or Stimulus.

It appears that you're measuring whether "we're" better off or not based on your political ideologies (as you betrayed later).

You asked you question in terms of economics and used examples. I don't know what kind of thinking could lead a person to think that "we" were better off in 2009 than now unless you simply have no conception of the state the global economy and financial system was facing.

Consumer price indexes don't take in effect gas prices or food prices, IE food and energy, look back to the post you're quoting.
http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpiqa.htm

Try Again, I'm here for a couple more hours

:error Could it be any more plain?

AS I referred in a post earlier, it was about this nation, not the global economy that depends largely on our economy.

OP was four facts, not political ideologies, please reread. Those you can debate if you dare........

No wonder you like Obama, you don't say anything just like him

Go back and reread what I said about inflation and stop making shit up.
I said gas prices, are you too limited to connect the dots of grocery prices being tied to fuel prices?

LOL You can try and weasel out of this all you like.

First, you plainly said inflation had doubled. Wrong either way you look at it.

Feel free to look at these and you'll see line items that cover food and energy, and for the rates of total headline inflation.

CPI-U for 2009 http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpid09av.pdf
CPI-U for 2010 http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpid10av.pdf

LOL
I am wrong about what???? I posted numbers from the EXACT same chart you did.
It is call reading things differently, and KNOWING what you are reading.

YES in 2009 it was -.4 and if you look at my numbers 2009 was LESS than 2008

2008 - 215.3
2009 - 214.5

I am WRONG about nothing and neither are you. I deal with these numbers every year for raises in payroll. I was just giving a better way for people to see them.


Where i did not know what you were posting was trying to prove Ven wrong on DOUBLING.

NO, the CPI will not double, HA we would not exist if so.

You're all over the place.

I pointed out that you asked an economic question and I answered it by providing the fact that the USA and the rest of the world were far better off today than 2 years ago because what "we" were facing was far more dire than your 4 points.

Then, in a later post, your own words showed that what started out as an economic question was really an attempt to debate about Obama.

Do you normally conflate things so easily or are you purposely being obtuse?

I have concluded that you are utter moron incapable of reading the very post that you are getting your statement from and disregarding the statement of gas prices, which as any idiot with half a brain stem could tell you will effect shipping prices and therefore grocery prices.

BTW, I love how you provided links to prices from a year ago to counter my statement of how prices have gone up in the last year, you really should read more, probably won't help, but wouldn't hurt.

Sorry, then. You said you were not sure what I was saying and I thought it was clear that I was saying that CPI was (-0.4% 2009) and (1.6% 2010) from the data.

And what post was that? the one where I said anything about the economics of the rest of the world?
get hooked on phonics, might help

Nothing that I've ever posted would lead anyone with even an average IQ to conclude that.

That is, assuming that what you wrote is even a coherent sentence. :1orglaugh

Yes, you said inflation has doubled. Would you like me to quote your own words for you again? :1orglaugh

What I was showing was, at the current pace it is going to be Very high by the end of they year.

Been tested 3 times, way above average, that's how I concluded yours, do you even know the mathamatical equation for figuring out IQ?

14.3% of US citizens recieve food stamps
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/...e-food-stamps/

You can conclude whatever you want. You can call me names. You can create strawman arguments.

But for a guy that claims not to call people names for no reason, who purports to value facts and who argues as if he has some economic knowledge and is well read, I'm not impressed.