PeeTex please help me understand?

I just read that early this morning the republicans passed legislation to extend the federal debt ceiling by 9 trillion dollars. The same debt ceiling they shut down government under O to prevent him from raising  it?  If so, why would it be ok to raise the debt ceiling now?  

That's so that they can put in a Snow Factory to make unlimited amounts of snow on the Wilmington trail and open it before Christmas next year.

Seriously though. Im trying to understand

Because right, left, red or blue all politicians are full of shit

Drain the swamp! (I don't understand or like it either)

Political advantage is more important than America.

Because the Republican party has been a bunch of fucking liars on that score since Ronnie  the  clown took office in 1980   They lied about fiscal responsibility and ran deficit  for yrs , Ronnie ran it up then wanted to pay the debt down with cheap dollars . These fuckers today are just worse .

Oh yeah i WAS a  Republican  for damn near 25 yrs till they put that shithead 3 rd rate actor in . Bonzo  goes to College was his  signature film ...how prophetic  !! Today we have a psycho clown , and his robber barons .

Since you brought up Reagan.

Harvey wrote

Political advantage is more important than America.

The unfortunate truth

ScottyJack wrote

Seriously though. Im trying to understand

I don't know, how close we're we to the ceiling? There could be good reasons, the ship of state takes a bit of time to turn and the spending for 2017 and a large percentage of 2018 are already baked in and the O man has had us on a spending spree.

I don't understand why you care though, the big O ran the debt up greater than all previous administrations combined. Not a problem if it's a democrat. Matt shouldn't give a shit, he wants to drop bags of money to everyone.

You did not ask my opinion though, I'll give it to you anyway. It looks pretty bad. Let's see if he spends it or if he turns things around and starts cutting costs and driving the economy to produce more tax revenue so we stop spending what we don't have.

PeeTex wrote

That's so that they can put in a Snow Factory to make unlimited amounts of snow on the Wilmington trail and open it before Christmas next year.

Harvey wrote

Political advantage is more important than America.

This!!!! This!!!! This!!!!

You can never make everyone happy, or do what's best for everyone, but you can certainly act in a manner that attempts to achieve the best results for the greatest number of people, and do what you can to mitigate the negative effects of those actions on the rest.

No one seems to care anymore about doing this ... it's JUST about winning, and if at all possible, humiliating your opponent in the process.

Until that attitude changes, we will be permanently in the shitter ... Republican ... Democrat ... Whatever ... It all sucks.

Hypocrisy ... America's greatest strength.

I have something I need PeeTex to help me understand, too:

PeeTex wrote

This keeps getting worse - today a story comes out that Goldman Saks aside from giving millions to the Clinton Family slush fund has also invested heavily in the Clinton's son in laws Hedge fund (that's right - their son in law is a hedge fund manager, but not a very good one as he looses money). Of coarse Hillary won't address this - Hunkering Hillary. When is the corrupt democratic machine going to wake up and shut her down.

And:



Yet PeeTex hasn't been critical of anything Trump has done since the election (and was rarely critical of anything Trump did before the election). Seems a little weird that he had such deeply held beliefs about what Clinton could or couldn't do, and absolutely no opinion on Trump.

PeeTex, what's going on there?

Face4Me wrote

Harvey wrote

Political advantage is more important than America.

but you can certainly act in a manner that attempts to achieve the best results for the greatest number of people, and do what you can to mitigate the negative effects of those actions on the rest.

Well, the problem is, do you believe that the greatest number of people are helped by shoveling more money to the rich and Big Business through tax breaks? Or should we tax those entities more and distribute the money they have accumulated directly to the people?

That's the democrat/republican divide. To put it less charitably: It's people who think the greatest number of people will be helped with trickle down economics versus people who think the greatest number will be helped by redistributing wealth (usually in ridiculously stupid, convoluted ways).

Until we can agree on the best way to help the greatest number of people, there will always be partisanship and political posturing.

Nicely said Face

I'm glad your back around bro

p.s. i agree with everything you said

mattchuck2 wrote

Until we can agree on the best way to help the greatest number of people, there will always be partisanship and political posturing.

That's just it right there ... WE'RE NOT GOING TO AGREE ... and that's o.k. ... The problem is, we don't seem to be able to disagree in a civil manner. We're not interested in compromise or working together to find a solution, we just want to win (at any and all costs).

PeeTex wrote

Matt shouldn't give a shit, he wants to drop bags of money to everyone.

Yep, we've been below the Fed's preferred inflation rate for the last 5 years and interest rates are hovering around record lows. If there was any concern in world markets about us defaulting on our debts, those interest rates would be pretty high.

I agree we could definitely spend more money right now. I'd prefer a tax cut for the middle class, a tax credit for the poor to cover their cost of Social Security and Medicare, and an infrastructure bill with direct government spending on roads and bridges. Trump and the GOP seem to prefer a tax cut for the rich and a tax cut for infrastructure companies, combined with taking away healthcare from millions of people.

Either way, the market is on board with deficit spending because it's been doing pretty well since Trump took office.

The problem is big business will just keep moving things offshore if the tax system is not competitive.   We will get a higher percentage of zero.  That does not work either, It has to be a balance.  So in the mean time rather than raise taxes that never hit the target they are going for I say leave them alone or cut them.  read my print  NO NEW TAXES.  Let those rich sons of bitches down in Washington make do with what they are getting.  Highest paid population in the word  down in that neck of the wood and all they do is push paper.  The honest are outnumbered down and get steam rolled.  Its a rigged system and we have to stop playing the game.  No new taxes, let starve them out.

Face4Me wrote

mattchuck2 wrote

Until we can agree on the best way to help the greatest number of people, there will always be partisanship and political posturing.

That's just it right there ... WE'RE NOT GOING TO AGREE ... and that's o.k. ... The problem is, we don't seem to be able to disagree in a civil manner. We're not interested in compromise or working together to find a solution, we just want to win (at any and all costs).

But then, didn't you just answer your own question? If we're never going to agree, why bemoan the state of politics? It's a constant battle of ideas that will never end.

You can call for more civility or more compromise, but the GOP discovered that if you just obstruct and oppose for 8 years, you get rewarded with the Presidency, the Senate, the House, and a vast majority of state houses and governorships across the country. In a 2 party system, they can get away with that. Breaking the way government is run and making people's lives miserable rewards you with electoral victory. So now the democrats have an incentive to obstruct and avoid compromise so that, in 4 years, the public will see that their lives continue to suck, and they'll vote the democrats in.

Obviously, the Democrats care about the institution of government, so they won't use that plan. They will do something along the lines of what you're talking about (compromise on things they agree with, hold the line on things they don't - planned parenthood defunding, Obamacare repeal, etc.).

Either way, it's hard to deal with a bad actor. It will be interesting to see what the Republicans do, now that they have to govern and take responsibility for their votes. There is already a mini-revolt against Obamacare repeal. It will be interesting to see how that shakes out.

If you had a business and you were faced with the choice of keeping your profits offshore and paying zero tax, or repatriating them and paying 10% tax, or whatever, why would you not continue to pay zero tax?

Also, the huge government bureaucracy is smaller than you think. The government is an insurance company (social security, Medicaid, Medicare, unemployment etc.) with an army. The rest of the money they spend is a lot smaller piece of the pie.