Watch as Rep. Alan Grayson explains who stands to benefit from an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the top two percent of incomes in the United States:
So when you hear that Republicans are blocking an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class, just keep in mind that they’re obstructing those tax cuts so that Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, and Sarah Palin can get their hefty handouts.
So could you please explain to me how, with a super majority in BOTH houses, how it is just the Republicans blocking these tax “cuts”?
Democrats don’t have a supermajority in both houses; 56 seats in the Senate (58 if you count Sens. Lieberman and Sanders) is not a supermajority.
Good Lord WHO CARES! They are rich, they make a lot of money, they also pay taxes more then everyone of you who writes for this blog combined do…..who fucking cares? Why is this such a big issue for you? You get all the money you need from them to pay for your entitlement programs that keeps the poor down and dependent just the way you have trained them to be. Get over it move on, they are RICH WHOOPEE DEE DO!!!!!
I’m getting a kick how defensive the conservatives are getting, aka in a whole “WHO CARES?!” yet if it was a rich liberal…
I’ll be blunt. I think the biggest entitlement program is tax cuts in a recession. 🙂
During two wars at that. As I said, I do not like why the war is being fought for, but I do support our troops.
If there is any entitlement program, it’s the tax cuts everyone keeps wanting to have when they shouldn’t have it.
They don’t go deep enough. I should be able to keep the majority of my pay check I will decide how to invest in my retirement, I will decide which charities gets my money, I will decide which federal programs get my money I will decide which schools I choose to support……I know a true fantasy land but that is WHAT I should be able to do with the money I earn, not the federal government,
Nota that is how i feel when I go to Target and fill up my cart and they try and charge me for the items ive bought. if they would just let me keep everything for free, than I would be able to do more with it.
Well if you feel you have no guilt about being a thief good for you. But I guess as a progressive I should not be surprised you would want a free handout.
you mean the way the billionaires and millionaires are about paying taxes?
You really are fond of stereotypes, aren’t you?
Contrary to your narrow world view, not all progressives/liberals want a “free handout.”
What they said above. While my mother was a person who was waiting for a handout? She was an exception, not the rule.
It’s kind of like how someone who says Supermarkets are generally not in impoverished areas and you point out one example where one is. That is exception, not the general rule on the principle that companies know they can’t make a profit in a place that barely has any money.
I got to agree with you there, that is a real fantasy land. Given at times I’m not any better, so I can admit my hypocricy. (I’m not always a filthy liberal, but when I am? I’m imagining the world is Disney. )
But the fact is as far as I’m concerned? We need taxes. We need brutal taxes for the wars were in, we can lower it when our services are done over seas. You shouldn’t be able to pick and choose certain things, for example? Transportation, infrastructure, military, and education. Those should all be mandatory. One of the biggest mistake Bush did by not making the taxes higher when we hopped into those wars.
Keep in mind, for years in a household where my mother used me as her paycheck to make these programs to help others ‘entitlement’ programs? It made me think it was better to be a conservative too. That is until what I saw what conservatives stood for. Her unemployment check bothered me because unlike the unemployment checks of the old, you don’t have you get signatures to show you’ve been to job interviews or were trying to go out looking for jobs. I think that would be a good way to enforce those policies. Since we’re in an age of technology and computers, I believe it should be a given that we’d be able to send that in.
Moderation is the key to almost everything ever in my opinion, therefore swinging far left without hesitation could leave people to take advantage of the system and swinging far right can leave other individuals who actually can’t get to the top without a helping hand of sorts from never coming in because they’re deemed ‘undesirables’ or not trying hard enough.
I don’t blindly support every liberal ideal, or even left. For example? This might sound off of my rocker but I think alcohol should be pushed down to age 18 but if you’re caught drinking and driving? You don’t deserve a slap on a wrist with a 200 dollar citation. That’s chump change. People deserve a 800 fine. Get a harsh citation to make them think twice. I think we should Audit Federal Reserve. Guns should be legalized, but we should punish the people severely if they use them improperly. And we shouldn’t freak the hell out at a minority just having one.
Overall, being an American Citizen you shouldn’t be able to pick and choose everything that can benefits America as a whole. Certain things, I’m open minded to, but to pick and choose every little thing? No.
well the drinking age of 21 was a ronald reagan policy. Mr. less government was very very much for lots and lots of government.
Audit the fed is semi bipartisan, its actually anyone who isnt a wall st slave. Bernie Sanders and Ron pAul are lockstep on this issue.
Transportation, infrastructure, military……thats it the rest I decide when and how I spend.
First thing is that goes against the founders, secondly, all of those are vastly underfunded, and third you don’t need the schools? the courts? the EPA? FDA? Fire department? Colleges?
Need schools but what t pay for the ones I want to support, private not public, need the courts, don’t need the EPA or FDA, fire depts are a good thing but volunteer fire depts work very well,
interesting, so should we be able to tag where our tax dollars go?
So you would have no qualms eating food or taking medicine that had absolutely no regulation on it?
I went to an excellent public school, in fact? We’re consistently ranked pretty high in scores, academics, and even have a pretty awesome website… despite being a ‘terrible’ public school. And we actually won our first state title this year in football. 🙂
Honestly, I always felt bad for the people who went to those private schools. When their parents often ran out of money? They had to go to our school and they were ages behind us. I had a few friends who went to a private school, one was able to get into Public School by 6th grade but otherwise was fine but the one who went there until high school? Never really caught up with the rest of the class.
I’m sure there are awesome private schools, but the one that was always around us in my part of the woods? Always made me feel terrible for those kids.
I wish people would get rid of that stereotype that public schools are something awful compared to private schools. Often times, a reason why public schools fail is because of the student to teacher ratio, too many students for one teacher to handle. Or the school actually isn’t big enough to hold the kids themselves, which makes gym class for instance or other extra curricular activities painful.
Unlike some people, I didn’t exactly have someone to pay for me to go to a private school so I’m very thankful for the public school system.
But just think if people has school choice where parent could send their kids to private. It would elevate over crowding in public schools and the parents would be getting something the desire with their tax dollars an education away from the WEAC indoctrination camps.Why is WEAC afraid of school choice because they know people would be leaving by the thousands and the union would lose it’s power.
To continue my conversation, NotALib. That sounds extremely idealistic.
I have to read about the school choice program myself in some detail, because honestly I do think that people should have the right to go whatever school they choose to. If anyone has any information of how well that is going with low income families in Milwaukee please send me a link.
You see, as awesome an idea that would be at the state level? I’m honestly more worried that it will become something similar to what the public-private sector of Forward Wisconsin was by Tommy Thompson in the 1980s. At first a wonderful thing that brought some jobs to our state, that is until the private sector lost interest in helping the state and didn’t bother to fund this rather interesting initiative. What ultimately happened to it was it just got smaller, smaller, until it was only run by the public sector until it was shut down in 2005.
Basically, what I am a little worried for is the possibility that the private schools in time grow tired of this run, will grow tired of having low income children being brought there to the schools and soon drop the project on itself similar to what happened with Forward Wisconsin.
PP, don’t confuse federal programs with state programs. EPA and FDA are federal, colleges and fire departments are state.
No, we really don’t need the EPA or FDA. The EPA should be the responsibilty of the states(if they choose) and the FDA can be done privately much like UL for electronics. You act as if the federal government doesn’t do it, the states or private market will not. In fact, it’s the 10th amendment of the US Constitution.
And I’m curious to read why Notalib’s comment is “against the founders.”
Its still government rather it comes from local and state and your still paying for it.
As to the Founders, when people say that the Constitution just says the government is in charge of Defense that is just blatantly wrong. The Founders were very much for “the commons” and shared sacrifice and shared responsibility.
“Its still government rather it comes from local and state and your still paying for it.”
No, it’s not. And I say that because of one thing – the US Constitution. More specifically, like I said, the 10th Amendment. The Constitution is a document that LIMITS what the federal government can do, and leaves the rest to the state and people. For example, I am paying for not one, but two Departments of Agriculture. That should be a state function, I think WI knows its agriculture better than DC does. Government should be as close to the local level as possible.
Lastly, the founders were champions of individual liberty and responsbility. The best example of it is in the Bill of Rights. The founders knew that people pursuing their separate interests was the best thing for society.
“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.” Thomas Jefferson
Give it up squid, you’re fighting a losing battle. That trite little piece of parchment you’re referring to doesn’t mean any thing to some people. Honestly – find me any meaningful way the 10th actually limits the federal government today in the manner it was intended? Our federal government no longer operates in the manner defined by the very charter that gave it power. Resistance is futile. Don’t bother banging your head against a wall.
Locke says “Resistance is futile.” I quote Churchill: “Never, never, never, never give up.”
I’ll admit to being a bit bi-polar in this regard. Sometimes I get a bit down & cynical. Sometimes I stick to my ideals. Though in this case, it might seem more like the former, it’s actually more a matter of the banging the head against the wall thing. Don’t bother with a brick wall when there’s drywall or lighter material that might actually budge.
The military is not vastly underfunded.
It isn’t vastly underfunded. But the fact is we should have raised the taxes so we could stay afloat and not be in this ridiculous situation now.
Not that of course that the money wasn’t already gone by the time 9/11 happened but a reason we’re in the hole is because of military spending of money we don’t have so we should actually in that case be taxing the shit out of the people in America instead of giving them breaks.
No, the fact is, our elected officials should not have pushed through not one but two huge tax cuts while our country was involved in two wars. Those tax cuts were incredibly fiscally irresponsible, and that’s why it’s so galling to hear those same Republicans who voted for the two Bush tax cuts now squawking about “fiscal responsibility.”
Keep in mind. I am against the war too and want them home. I just think we’re in a very complex situation right now due to the bad hand Obama has got from his predacessor.
I actually failed to word what I was saying properly and you’ve actually said my words more concise and convey them better.
The tax cuts were irresponsible, period. Now I remember why I’m in Marketing, Design, and Accounting. I’m a little better with numbers and pictures. 😀
its a worn out republican talking point but no matter how many times you use it, it still is not true. There is not a democratic “super majority” in the Senate. Never has been, at least not in the last 4 years.
Oh, so the MAJORITY that they have now is not enough to get ANYTHING done? IN THE HOUSE???
The House isn’t the problem; the House has gotten plenty of things done, only to see those efforts thwarted by Republican obstruction in the Senate, given that Democrats don’t have the 60 votes necessary to break threatened Republican filibusters on nearly every major policy issue Democrats have tried to get passed.
Seriously, do a little basic research beyond reading the latest Fox News/RNC talking points.
They have a majority in the house(notice I said the senate) and with that majority they have actually accomplished alot(http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-6235854-503544.html) Just because it is not covered on fox news doesnt mean it isnt true.