1
And so it begins.

2 The governor elect McDonnell is saving Virginia from Kaine's continued push for more taxes. He is looking like a serious contender for something....

3 BTW, unemployment numbers were just adjusted up from the numbers announced last week, just like clockwork.

4 "Where's my free stuff" + "oh really?  someone has to pay for this, let's get that rich guy" = state budget policies

5

3

Yeah I noticed that it went from job gains to 450000 more jobs lost.

6
Massachusetts lawmakers are contemplating increasing the gas tax. They just raised all sorts of taxes in MA and apparently that wasn't enough. MA spent their stimulus on...

hotel rooms for the homeless.

I shit you not.

7 What do you mean, they moved!? Who said they could move?

8 Morlocks and Eloi, baby

9 Well obviously, they are getting some marching orders from the Fed. Keep on sodomizing that chicken people in power.

10 The golden goose is looking a little peaked.  I think it may have been getting the chicken treatment lately.

11 "At some point, a large number of the wealthy decided 'screw this, I think I'll live somewhere else'."

Mr & Mrs. Large Number of the Wealthy, c'mon down! We love capital flight. Especially the inbound kind.

12
Did i just hear right?

Did Rush just say Hoax & Chains?

Brilliant! Rush did it again!

13 The governor elect McDonnell is saving Virginia from Kaine's continued push for more taxes. He is looking like a serious contender for something....

Posted by: dagny at December 10, 2009 12:26 PM (na1Vj)

--That is some good news amid the gloom.  Go ahead and drive tohe rich to Virginia!

14

Michigan is on the brink and freaking brillant 2nd highest paid legislature in the US comes up with "lets raise taxes".

Who the hell they think is going to be able to pay them I am not sure.

They refuse to balance the budget, they refuse to cut entitlement programs like the promise scholorship ($4000 to every high school graduate for college) but have no problems cutting things like ...

Freaking salt for the roads in winter. Yes, they are majorily cutting salt for the roads. In Michigan. The state that gets snow and ice storms.

They are also cutting down on plowing, only major major roads and highways will get plowed this year.

So next year our insurance premiums will go up because of all the accidents that will happen this winter.

Freaking morans, and not the good kind, in our state government.

15 there is a reason they don't call them the Balimore Colts anymore.

16 Taxes are magic.  They can do anything.

17

So long as the Republican state legislativecritters don't vote for it, fine. Let the Demunists *own* these.

18 This is California. The "temporary" taxes and other fees will NEVER go down. Though his appetite is insatiable, the beast must be fed.

19 So the jobs report from just last week is already inoperative and everyone can now know this? Damn you kids on the internet!

20 And the knucklehead solution is....?

Cut services, let the states go broke, and deepen the recession.

And then watch the knuckleheads explode when the trash doesn't get picked up.

Knuckleheads.

21 Obama to throw States under the bus for wrecking the economy in 3, 2, 1, ... Oh, wait, he's too busy lowering the seas and junk.

22 Those of us in Texas appreciate you other states driving businesses our way. Keep it up and we're going to need a fence on our northern border to keep you refugees out.

23

Related - Teaching Math and Science

Global warming is breathtaking!

(Well, certain aspects of it are.) http://tinyurl.com/ygs6ho6

 

24

"They are also cutting down on plowing, only major major roads and highways will get plowed this year..."

Posted by: Bowlnduo at December 10, 2009 12:30 PM (nk1j5)

Oh, I'm sure the taxpayers will get plowed as well...

25 "Notice Geraghty's example on the Maryland "Millionaire" tax. "

On behalf, ah say, on behalf of the Old Dominion, the Commonwealth, that is, of Virginia, ah wanna welcome all economic refugees from Maryland to ouah fine state.  Please feel free to look ovah ouah fine selection of real estate and ouah very employable populace.  Thank yuh, thank yuh verruh much!

26 Damn you kids on the internet!

Only one's who seem to know or care. I posted some rants on facebook last night and my family is cracking wise. God they're stupid and completely ignorant of what kind of ass-raping is coming their way.

27 Makes sense. How else will states afford to provide us with services we all need. We need those services because taxes are high, so we can't find a job or afford things on our own.

28 33 will increase unemployment-insurance taxes

Oh please oh please oh please can we fight about whether unemployment is insurance or if there's an unemployment tax. 

29

Whoops - last comment found via HotAir

credit where due

30

It's 106 miles to Galt's Gulch, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.

31

Too bad not enough people pay taxes to realize what is going on. The damn near 50% who don't pay taxes, yet have as their employment walking to the mailbox on the first of the month or wait in line to collect cash from "Obama's Stash". Those leeches don't give a shit if my taxes (and ability to pay for their welafare)  increase.

Fucking mooches. Maybe Ace was right a few nights ago in his Copenhagen Trillions post. Maybe letting everything collapse and teaching the welfare whores that stupid hurts

32
As far as Texas goes, Rick Perry never met a tax hike he didn't like.

33

Lord Knobslobber @ 20

You change your nic but lack the inagination to change your lame assed style of idiotic blather on the next thread. What an imbecile.

/Why don't we EVER get a troll with brains enough to pour piss from a boot?

34 Heh, Our gov produced the budget yesterday and caught herself saying 'taxes' in her speech. Two letters in, she replaced it with 'revenues'.

35
@30

Hit it!

36 Cutting services simply means we need to quit paying to provide other people with crap they should get on their own.

37 States that have painted a similar target on businesses might do themselves a little favor by running some numbers before pulling the trigger.


That is a lesson some of us just refuse to learn.

38 #32 Really?

39

"On behalf, ah say, on behalf of the Old Dominion, the Commonwealth, that is, of Virginia, ah wanna welcome all economic refugees from Maryland "

F that. They are voting the same way in Northern Va after they move from Maryland. Stay in Maryland and deal with the consequences you bastards. We now got a cig ban in bars now. F refugees from Maryland I hate em.

40

You other states are pussies when it comes to raising unemployment taxes!  Out here in the People's Republic of Hawaii, they're raising the unemployment tax over 1000%!!!  What can go wrong with unexpected, over a ten-fold increase per employee, right?  Goodbye revenue producing small businesses, hello bigger deficits!  At least we'll have pretty beaches for the newly unemployed to live on. 

 

41

F that. They are voting the same way in Northern Va after they move from Maryland. Stay in Maryland and deal with the consequences you bastards. We now got a cig ban in bars now. F refugees from Maryland I hate em.

 

Lots of people in Colorado feel the same about refugees from California, and for the same reasons.

42

Let it burn... The left will soon realize that hot water does indeed burn baby. Only problem is the baby they are about to burn are the gun clinging religion loving populace of this country. Baby knows how to shoot, and the left certainly paints a big enough target... Hope they can run faster than 1200 ft per second!*

*the above is a reoccuring dream i have whenever the libs "act stupidly" which as of late is everytime i blink

43 Mr. Pink at December 10, 2009 12:40 PM (SqAkN)

Florida too. Damn northerners move down here and vote for the same retards here that they did up there. And wonder why everything gets screwed up. They are a cancer. Stay home. You vote for it, you love with it.

44

Related - Teaching Math and Science

Global warming is breathtaking!

(Well, certain aspects of it are.) http://tinyurl.com/ygs6ho6

 

Posted by: Hussein the Plumber at December 10, 2009 12:35 PM (RkRxq)

I'm getting fairly far afield here but this rant from  Boortz listener who just attended his grandchild's Christmas, oops, I mean Holiday, school program is too good to miss.

"I just returned from the "Holiday" musical performance by the 5th grade at the brand new state of the art Dunwoody (Atlanta Suburb) Elementary school where my granddaughter attends. Until now I wasn't totally convinced about your rants on "government" schools, but tonight convinced me you are right on. We listened to an hour of "music" which consisted of banging on bongos and sticks, chanting, and incomprehensible "singing" of traditional "Trinidad" and other third world noise. The parents in the room applauded for the children, as they should, since it wasn't their fault the musical director (a poster child for politically correct crap) put together a program of incredibly incoherent jungle music which even the kids (white, Asian, black, Hispanic) appeared embarrassed to be performing. Not a Christmas or traditional Holiday song anywhere in the mix. I told my daughter if that had been her and her siblings attending this school, I would have jerked them out of that environment the next morning. It wasn't her fault so I probably shouldn't have said it, but I was so infuriated it just came out. From the looks I saw on some parents' faces, I think they felt no different.

There; I got it off my chest. Boy am I pissed."

45 34 Heh, Our gov produced the budget yesterday and caught herself saying 'taxes' in her speech. Two letters in, she replaced it with 'revenues'.

Posted by: Shannon at December 10, 2009 12:38 PM (niZOC)

Our Democrat Governor (Kansas) is actually slashing the budget. Most of the editorials from the fishwraps are complaining and whining about why they are screwing the little guy. Good on him, course he used to be a Republican until he found Sebellius' pungent odor too strong and intoxicating and wanted to join her cabal.

46

14

About a month ago, Granholm signed some sort of memo to the citizens of Michigan about making sure your mailbox was secure. Apparently, last winter, some snowplows ran over mailboxes and the state had to reimburse. I'm fairly certain this happens every winter, but now, Jenny's solution this year is hey, secure your mailbax in the event it's knocked over by a snowplow, it's your fault and second, we're cutting back on plowing.

 

 

47 No new property taxes in Kansas, but the value of my house went up 12% due to assesment creep.  How can my house go up 12% when the housing market is so depressed.  Maybe its because of those two families from California that moved here last year, bought houses and are now working members of the community.

48 When I lived in Tejas, I saw a good bunper sticker: Welcome to Texas, now go home!

49 Lots of people in Colorado feel the same about refugees from California, and for the same reasons.


Ahh, Californication.  Those people could screw up a wet dream, I tell you.  Flee from a craphole and then demand the same policies that produced what they fled from.  Idiots.

50 38 #32

Really?

Posted by: Dave at December 10, 2009 12:39 PM (Xm1aB)

Pretty much.  And don't get us started on toll roads.

51 If I lived in MI, I'd flee NOW. 

52 Those Maryland millionaires escaping from Potomac and Bethesda, please leave your liberal voting patterns behind.

53 "They are voting the same way in Northern Va after they move from Maryland."

Wait, what? 
Weah lettin' 'em vote? 
Somethin' ah say somethin' ain't right about that! 
Lemme look into this mattuh! 
Ah maght hafta rethink this...

54 #50 I'm not sure Kay Bailey will be any better.

55 And the knucklehead solution is....?

Cut services, let the states go broke, and deepen the recession.

Cut unnecessary services. Anything that used to be done by volunteers is an unnecessary service. Any government employee who stays at home during a weather emergency -- when they call for "essential employees only" -- is fired.

Make government live by the same accounting rules businesses live by.

Stop paying able-bodied people to not work.

Stop turning a blind eye to illegal aliens; send them home and let law-abiding citizens who need jobs do the work.

Tar and feather any politician who offers tax payer money to "community" organizations.

Hang any politician who whines about "essential services" and then starts their budget cuts with the police and fire departments (while carefully avoiding the budgets of the local methadone center).

Shoot any politician whose first instinct is to enslave law-abiding, tax-paying citizens by stealing what they've earned.

Burn at the stake any politician who whines about "unfairness" and demands the power to punish people for being successful.

The "knuckleheads" are the people who don't understand how close we are to all the above happening, who just want to tighten the chains and whip harder.

56 Those are not unemployment "taxes."

Unemployment is an insurance product. What a company pays for unemployment insurance is an insurance premium - not a tax. Your bank forces you to purchase homeowners insurance ... and similarly your employer is required to buy for you unemployment insurance in case your employer fires you for no reason whatsoever.

This protects you.

How could you possibly be against your employer buying insurance for you in the event they have to lay you off? If employers lay off more employees, they pay higher premiums ... just like you'd pay higher premiums if you made larger claims against your homeowners policy than your neighbor.

It's free insurance bought for you by your employer. You should want this.

57 maddog @48:

Seen on the rear bumper of a car in Brevard County FL:

"When I get old I'm going to move to New York and drive REAL SLOW!"

58 Rob Crawford at December 10, 2009 12:46 PM (ZJ/un)

You know what that is, don't you?

59 I was watching the St. Louis Blues pregame show last night in Detroit wherein one of the on-air personalities went into a bar close to Joe Louis Arena to interview some locals about "hard times"--the economy and the Red Wings. Man, that talking head was lucky to get the hell out of that tavern alive. The locals were in no mood to banter, and in fact, I thought one dude was gonna waylay the announcer on live T.V. Bad vibes in Detroit.

60 "Stop turning a blind eye to illegal aliens; send them home and let law-abiding citizens who need jobs do the work."

This is the key to unemployment in the United States. There are 8 million people here illegally stealing jobs.

But Barack Obama won't deport them. So we should not demonize those who are unemployed. They can't help it. Their president won't enforce the fucking laws of the United States and this leads directly to high rates of unemployment.

61 but the value of my house went up 12% due to assesment creep.

Tell'em to write you a check and buy it or put it back the way it was. 

This is something that would be popular as a party platform issue -- enactment of "put up or shutup" property valuation laws.  If some locality claims your property is worth "X" and refuses to budge on appeal, then as the owner you would have the right to compel them to buy it for say 80% of "X".

62 5

3

Yeah I noticed that it went from job gains to 450000 more jobs lost.

MORE JOBS SHED, SILVER LINING: RATE: LESS THAN BEFORE

63 It is so bad in CA that the DEM. Treasurer chewed out the Legislature and told them they should listen to their Republican minority counterparts. Go to YouTube and do a search on "Lockyer spanks the Legislature"

64 Damn this comment field is buggy as hell this morning.

65 54 #50

I'm not sure Kay Bailey will be any better.

Posted by: Dave at December 10, 2009 12:46 PM (Xm1aB)

She won't be.  That's why I'm not voting for either of them.  It'd be lovely if neither of them won the Republican primary (there ARE some conservatives running, you know), but that's probably got the same chance as my accidentally boinking a supermodel.  I'm most likely voting 3rd party for the governor's slot.  I'm sure as hell not voting Democrat.

66 "Shoot any politician whose first instinct is to enslave law-abiding, tax-paying citizens by stealing what they've earned."

Shoot them?

Huh?

67
You know what that is, don't you?

Don't care anymore. A few years ago, I realized everything is "racist" to the fascists. It's their primary verbal club to beat people into silence. I don't care anymore -- I know I'm close to as far from a real racist as you can get, and, well, the opinions of worthless people are worthless.

I know their next step will be to try to literally club people into silence -- they've been keeping some of the rank and file in practice for years -- but don't care about that anymore, either.

68 Yesterday, I received a phone call from some government entity asking me to be on the government's super-special list of "small business contacts".

I thought, why?  I want to work with the private sector, not the government. Anyway- I listened as she rolled off the list of pie-in-the sky promises of riches.
They promise that you will be "paid immediatly - the same day! -after you complete the work"  ...for the government.. 
I thought: So -- you will pay me with the same taxes that you collect from me?
How ridiculous. 

In a nut-shell: The government's promotion of small business is to get you to contract with the government and get paid with your own money. 

69 Dave: "I'm not sure Kay Bailey will be any better."

Isn't her middle name "Earmark"?

70 It all starts with the practice of witholding. Get rid of that and the whole house of cards comes down. Start with a relaxation of witholding as a stimulus measure, then dare the politicians to reduce everyones take home pay by ratcheting it back up. Within a year - tax revolt - guaranteed. When the middle class has to write those checks for nearly half of their earnings, they will start hanging liberals.

71 Pa. is in a lil bit of trouble as well.   200mil +  budget gap, not to mention they are voting soon on raising our property taxes  25%  ....   whatever happened to the property tax relief rendell was running on the last TWO elections...wtf man.  Please.   Lynn Swann.....run again, this clown needs to go.

72 free insurance BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

73 Just scrolled through the document that Geraghty had linked to see for myself.  My conclusion?

It would suck to live in NY.

74 immediately

75 You know what? I shouldn't have to wake up every day in America afraid of what the government is going to try to do next. That's bullshit, and the founders would freaking spit on us for putting up with it. That's why all the talk of revolution and guns and such doesn't sound so nutty to me anymore. I'm sick of this shit.

76
Shoot them?

Huh?

Or draw and quarter them, either one.

77 Posted by: Dave at December 10, 2009 12:56 PM (Xm1aB)

I'm still hoping for secession, but I'm with ya.

78

"It's free insurance bought for you by your employer."

NOTHING IS FREE.

79 Posted by: idaho, Montana, Utah, etc. at December 10, 2009 12:44 PM No joke. McCall, Idaho was a favorite place I spent summers on the lake and winters on the ski hill growing up. Its been just ruined by that plague and I refuse to go anymore.

80 States that have painted a similar target on businesses might do themselves a little favor by running some numbers before pulling the trigger.

We ran out of money for paint months ago so now we're just asking businesses to commit suicide.

81 How states work:

Layers and layers of "administrators" keep their govt. jobs while they stand back and watch the workers getting shit-canned. Then they cut the necessities like clearing the snow from roads so actual producers cant get to work. Wait for the outcry, re-hire former workers at cheaper pay, sit back and enjoy the tax increases.

ALL incumbents out in 2010. No lessons will be learned until politician no longer becomes a career. Only term limits will make any difference if we're to save this grand experiment.

Enough of this ridiculous shit.

82 "Massachusetts lawmakers are contemplating increasing the gas tax. They just raised all sorts of taxes in MA and apparently that wasn't enough. MA spent their stimulus on..."

Health insurance.

Masschusetts enacted Mitt RomneyCare (same as Obamacare ... the Mass IRS collects the fines if you don't buy insurance).

It has resulted in massive state funding emergencies and now Massachusetts enjoys the highest health insurance premiums in the nation.

83 It all starts with the practice of witholding. Get rid of that and the whole house of cards comes down.


That is the engine of buying votes, and thus the current populace of DC will never, ever do that.  Should be item 1 when we throw out every last one of them though.

84 NOTHING IS FREE.

I didn't say it was free. I said your employer buys it for you.

85 Health care reform idea:
Businesses should be allowed to offer you a salary including health care - and a salary without health care.
Then, you should be able to shop around the nation for the best plan for you and your family, within the confines of a privately run structure.  NO GOVERNMENT.

Folks who are self-employed or unemployed would have an opportunity to buy into the same private plans that are ultra competitive, becasue the government is not involved (or there to screw up the free market).

86
Layers and layers of "administrators" keep their govt. jobs while they stand back and watch the workers getting shit-canned. Then they cut the necessities like clearing the snow from roads so actual producers cant get to work.

In nearby Cincinnati, the first items they looked at for budget cuts were police and fire. The dipshit plans for a riverfront development no one will go to (because of the crime) and a trolley car system no one will ride (because of the crime) were untouched.

87

"It's free insurance bought for you by your employer."

THAT!  That right THERE is the problem.  I already have unemployment insurance.  It's called my savings account.  The government can go to hell.

88 It's free insurance bought for you by your employer. You should want this.

Oh someguy, how I longed for your return. Once again, I am looking at my paycheck and there, WITHHELD FROM MY MONEY, MONEY THAT IS PAID TO ME, is an amount for the unemployment tax. Why, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania even handily calls it a tax. In care you're too lazy to click, let me pull out the relevant bit.

Funding: Employer contributions (in the form of quarterly tax payments) are the primary funding source for UC benefit payments. An employee withholding tax is a secondary funding source. The costs of UC program administration are defrayed by federal employer taxes collected under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA). (emphasis added)

So is it insurance?  Of a type.  Which is funded by taxes.  It's not free insurance bought for me by my employer.  Last I knew, something for which I paid money is not free.  Also, it's not voluntary.  If I or my employer don't pay, we can ultimately end up in jail.  

Good heavens, this is not rocket surgery. 

89

It's free insurance bought for you by your employer. You should want this.

Um, is this just like the free health insurance your employer gives you?  Nothing from your employer is "free."  Benefits (including mandated ones like unemployment insurance) are just compensation where your employer is spending part of your salary for you.  Frankly, I'd rather have gthe cash and make my own decisions.

90 "I didn't say it was free." OK, now you're lying.

91
In my state (PA) it was required that the business owners list their names and ss#'s on the return. Why? Because they are not permitted to receive unemployment benefits if the business closes.

Wouldn't want any of those nasty fat-cat employers in Pennsylvania, would you? Why, that's a state dedicated to the working man! You know, men of toil and sweat, like John Murtha!

92 I'm with Dave #74. Time to start hanging some pols, because they are like child molesters, no rehabilitation is possible.

93 Another thing. In addition to getting rid of withholding, we need to mandate that Congress only meet for 3-4 months every other year, and that legislators have their expenses (no salaries) only paid. The less they are in session, the less harm they do. Oh, and we should make it law that for every new law they pass, they must repeal one.

94 #65 #54 #50

Yep, no choice I can vote for unless a true conservative steps up.

Perry - no vote for goodhair after his HPV vaccine mandate for 6th graders (age group included my daughter).

KayBay - TARP gal.  Buh Bye.

Had fun with Kinky protest vote last time, but once is enough for that goofball commie.

95 I didn't say it was free. I said your employer buys it for you.

And you are flatly, provably wrong. 

96

I didn't say it was free. I said your employer buys it for you.

No, they don't.  They take money they were going to put in your paycheck and throw it down the shitter instead.  And corporate taxes are not paid by corporations.  They are paid by the customers of those corporations.  Just FYI.

97

"I didn't say it was free. I said your employer buys it for you."

So the money the employer spends on unemployement insurance is less money they can use to hire people or expand, and in rough times like these that money can be the crucial difference in you keeping your job.

98 29 states increased taxes and fees, and 33 will increase unemployment-insurance taxes (I noticed this the other day in our local rag, the average unemployment-insurance tax rate in Texas will almost double, to 1.83%, from 0.99% in 2010). And Texas has (so far) managed to hold up comparatively better than other areas of the country on employment.

This is what always happens during hard times.  The cycle goes like this; good times and budget surplus = increase spending to assure reelection.  Bad times & budget deficit = increase taxes.  When the economy does recover do they ever reduce taxes back to where they were before?  hahahahahahaha stupid question

As for the increase in unemployment insurance fees/taxes you can blame Obama for that.  All that increased unemployment benefits time is not paid for from a magic bean factory.

99 It's free insurance bought for you by your employer. You should want this.

Oh well, if it's free then, what the hell.  Sign me up!

You want to pay me what?!?

Dude, that's like barely minimum wage.  I can't live on that.

Screw that, I'm going across the street.  They'll pay me what I'm worth!

Uhm, 'bout that job we were talking about?  I've reconsidered.  Turns out they're not hiring at all across the street.  In fact they just cut some jobs.  Something about too expensive to employ so many people.

Moron. (No, not the good kind)

100 Another thing. In addition to getting rid of withholding, we need to mandate that Congress only meet for 3-4 months every other year, and that legislators have their expenses (no salaries) only paid.

Meh. I favor the solution proposed by L. Sprague de Camp in his "Reluctant King" stories.

Oh, and we should make it law that for every new law they pass, they must repeal one.

No -- all laws must have an expiration date. Existing laws expire modulus 20 years past their signing (so a 42 year-old law would have 18 years left).

101 Someguy, it's a tax.  Even the IRS says so. http://tinyurl.com/y95z86j

102 94 Another thing. In addition to getting rid of withholding, we need to mandate that Congress only meet for 3-4 months every other year, and that legislators have their expenses (no salaries) only paid. The less they are in session, the less harm they do. Oh, and we should make it law that for every new law they pass, they must repeal one.

Posted by: Dave at December 10, 2009 01:04 PM (Xm1aB)

I know he meant it as a joke, but Jackie Mason actually had a pretty good idea when he said that the way to fix a lot of the problems in the country was to get rid of Congress's salaries and put them all on commission.  If the country makes money (runs a surplus) they get paid, if it doesn't, they don't.

103 This protects you.

Only up to a point, then it becomes a destabilizing factor.

If unemployment insurance costs exceed the value produced by retaining an employee, that employee is going to lose their job and be worse off than if they still had the job.

if (profit_per_employee >= insurance_costs)
RetainEmployee();
else
FireEmployee();

104 Help me, Free Insurance, you're my only hope

105 So the money the employer spends on unemployement insurance is less money they can use to hire people or expand, and in rough times like these that money can be the crucial difference in you keeping your job.

No .. unemployment insurance is a business' cost-of-doing-business.

We pay lots of taxes so that businesses can open their doors (we build roads for them, for example). Why should they get those things free?

They shouldn't. So, part of the "paying back" of getting all those free resources that we as individuals purchase for businesses is that they provide us with an insurance policy when they lay us off for no reason.

But if you don't want it, then I encourage you to go to your boss and demand the $4 premium per month instead. You can buy 3/4ths of a Subway sandwich with it instead.

Fucking morons.

106   55 Posted by: Rob Crawford at December 10, 2009 12:46 PM (ZJ/un)   Amen.  Preach on, brother.    Government pukes never cut anything other than that which is most useful and necessary to the productive classes.  They abdicate those duties which are appropriate for the state to carry out, in favor of payoffs to the welfare constituency and lining their own pockets.   

107 "It's free insurance bought for you by your employer."

Maybe the government can just require my employer to buy me a big house and a car.

108
We pay lots of taxes so that businesses can open their doors (we build roads for them, for example). Why should they get those things free?

*sigh*

Idiot.

109 "Fucking morons." Now I'm offended.

110 if (unemployment_check_>=doesnotarrive)
HousePayment(0);
else
ForeClose();
=WholeNeighborhoodFuckedOver

You want your neighbor to have unemployment insurance to protect your house equity.

111 No .. unemployment insurance is a business' cost-of-doing-business.

if (cost_of_doing_business > X) {FireEveryoneAndFold(); InvestInSomethingElse();}

112 I didn't say it was free. I said your employer buys it for you.


WHY must leftie trolls be so insufferably stupid?

113 15 there is a reason they don't call them the Balimore Colts anymore.

Posted by: I Irsayed from my last girlfriend at December 10, 2009 12:31 PM (k7SeR)

 

Oh yes they do! I'm sick and tired of broadcasters in the middle of MNF mistakenly refering to the Indianapolis team as the "Baltimore Colts". Seriously, it ended up costing Baltimore 3X what it would have cost them to keep the Colts if they'd just built the same damn stadium for the Colts that they eventually built for the Ravens. Meanwhile if any Mayor in Indianapolis has any cajonies, he'd institute a $10,000 "tax" on any broadcaster that insults the community by mistakenly referring to the Baltimore Colts. Designate a rotating series of charities as recipients and increase the tax by $5K per offense. I'll bet Sommerall and Madden both do it intentionally a time or two just for the publicity after that when the media forces them to pay up for their mistake!!!

114

It's free insurance bought for you by your employer. You should want this.

Posted by: someguy at December 10, 2009 12:46 PM (VRJIW)

Nothing is free, dummy.

115 Now I'm offended.

Posted by: Dirty Sanchez at December 10, 2009 01:13 PM (YCVBL)

I don't get it.  What's the problem?

116 someguy

Your not really that stupid are you?

117
Bullshit. I was paying $10,000 a quarter into the UC fund. I could have hired two more employees with what I was paying.

There you go, citing numbers and facts and shit.

118

We pay lots of taxes so that businesses can open their doors (we build roads for them, for example). Why should they get those things free?

Statements like these are the Demunist mentality at its most Commiecratic. The idea of the price of a product or service and the cost passed on to the consumers is lost on these people. Or worse still, the business folds up and all the wage income the state taxes is lost.

119 We pay lots of taxes so that businesses can open their doors (we build roads for them, for example). Why should they get those things free?

We build roads just for them? Noone else uses them? Huh, news to me.

Plus, pretty much everything you said makes no sense.

120 You want your neighbor to have unemployment insurance to protect your house equity.

Weak.  Real weak.  I want my neighbor EMPLOYED to protect my equity.  If I have a neighborhood full of unemployed people, I'm probably living in a slum.

121 THAT!  That right THERE is the problem.  I already have unemployment insurance.  It's called my savings account.

If by "savings account" you mean porn collection I could put up on ebay in an emergency, then yes, I have one, too.

122 You know what really steams me? I lived through Carter. I wasn't old enough to vote, but old enough to remember how low the country got under his "leadership." It's been about 3 decades, but I sense we're back in the same boat, and we've got 3 more years of president dipshit in front of us. The GOP royally screwed up the opportunity to fundamentally solidify conservative governance first when George H. Bush got elected yapping about a "kinder, gentler America" (translated--increase taxes and regulation), and second when the GOP, with a commanding majority in Congress, simply decided the perks of office were more important than implementing conservative principles. I want to shoot the GOP dead. Graveyard dead.

123 In my little town of 18,000 souls, real estate taxes went up 10.3% last year. This year, they are proposing an 18.5% increase!! "We've already cut to the bone!" they exclaim. Meanwhile, the police and fire chief have brand new 2010 Expeditions, the council is spending $100K on a parking study and they've built 3 brand new schools for a declining student enrollment.

Brilliant!

124

Fools?

Now that I've heard of.  I work with them every night.

125

Yo wat up fools. Yo check this out. I was at my crib the other day with my home boys and we decided to make a run up to the 711 to get some 40's of Saint Ides when my boy D sizzle told me that my bitches only made 400 dolllars this week. Im like yo word that shit is wack. So long story short I found out the 10 dollars a week I had to pay in taxes in order to keep someguy's mother employed was far more than the 2 dollars a trick she could turn. Dat biznitch is now one unemployed hookah. I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one feel me?

126

Obama to Nobel Committee -

Hey!  Thanks for the cash and the bling... Gotta run, there's wars to be fought.

http://tinyurl.com/yzs5842

via Instapundit

127 "I don't get it. What's the problem?" I've been reading the serious threads, man. It's the intentionality that matters. Personally, I don't really mind being a fuckin' moron. I've always got plenty of company.

128 I want my neighbor EMPLOYED to protect my equity.  If I have a neighborhood full of unemployed people, I'm probably living in a slum right down the street from someguy.

129 Your not really that stupid are you?


Do you really want an answer to that question?

130 Why can't libtards ever understand that business's never pay taxes.

131 Why do you hate the children?

132 Weak.  Real weak.  I want my neighbor EMPLOYED to protect my equity.  If I have a neighborhood full of unemployed people, I'm probably living in a slum.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at December 10, 2009 01:16 PM (yckbe)

Or living in Michigan

When I see neighbors out during the day I don't think "gee they must have a vacation day" anymore, I think "gee they must be unemployed"

133 Why can't libtards ever understand that business's never pay taxes.


It's that Marxist understanding of economics they encumber themselves with.  Guys like me would have to find honest work if it wasn't for people like him.

134 134 Why do you hate the children?


.... and the polar bears??

135

I lived through Carter. I wasn't old enough to vote, but old enough to remember how low the country got under his "leadership." It's been about 3 decades, but I sense we're back in the same boat, and we've got 3 more years of president dipshit in front of us.

Failure of the LameSM and the "academic" historians to acknowledge what *really* happened over the last 30 odd years has led the young of today to replicate what their forebears did 30 odd years ago.

The GOP royally screwed up the opportunity to fundamentally solidify conservative governance first when George H. Bush got elected yapping about a "kinder, gentler America" (translated--increase taxes and regulation), and second when the GOP, with a commanding majority in Congress, simply decided the perks of office were more important than implementing conservative principles.

There is precedent for this--the Rockefeller-Nixon-Ford "We are all Keynesians now" types of so called "Republicans" or what Goldwater called "me-tooism". We have been here before. Never mind Watergate, that was just a sideshow.

I want to shoot the GOP dead. Graveyard dead.

Just getting back to Taft/Goldwater/Reagan would be easier.

136

Why is it that politicians can't fucking count?

137 Someguy is a perfect liberal; he always thinks somebody is getting something he isn't getting for free. Christ.

138 Seriously, it ended up costing Baltimore 3X what it would have cost them to keep the Colts if they'd just built the same damn stadium for the Colts that they eventually built for the Ravens.


The Baltimore Browns, you mean?

139

Well, here in the charming LOL our esteemed leader, Quinn, came out with the idea to end all ideas for saving revenue:

Get rid of the Illinois state veteran's grant -- because we need the money for need based grants and there is no way the needs based grants are going to go because that's so unfair and not social justice-y! -- the colleges and universities will have to absorb the cost of veterans...if they choose to do so.  And we peons don't get our taxes raised...more (yay rah).  But we'd better not holler about the veterans not getting their grants, 'cause if we want that, then our taxes are just going to have to go up.

I'm still trying to find employment in another state (and employment for my husband too).  The problem is with relocating -- jobs, we found those yesterday, and in more than one state -- but selling our house here in the quaint and lovely LOL is not so easy.  Wonder why? (rolls eyes)

 

Welcome to the future under the Chicago Machine nonLOL residents.

140 I must be getting old my slang is outdated as hell.

141 I had this insanely liberal associate, who when challenged by the fact that people vote with thier feet, came up with the idea that we hold a gun to their head and take all their money before they leave.

142

We pay lots of taxes so that businesses can open their doors (we build roads for them, for example). Why should they get those things free?

Someguy has apparently never heard of impact fees.  Or corporate income tax.

143 Someguy is a perfect liberal; he always thinks somebody is getting something he isn't getting for free. Christ.

I have ten dollars.

You have fifty dollars.

I petition the government to confiscate your forty extra.

I still have ten dollars...... but my superior sense of justice is ameliorated.

144 Gee sounds like New York. Only better.

145

132 Your not really that stupid are you?

Do you really want an answer to that question?

--
I think it would be interesting to get an honest answer to that question, because after a certain point you pretty much have to wonder how someone like that manages to post comments without accidentally burning himself to death with a fire extinguisher.

Some of my relatives are the same way, and I'm 98% sure they're just arguing in bad faith.  It'd be more disconcerting to think there's such a yawning chasm of ignorance that insists upon itself.

146 Starve the beast.

147 Apologies if this was said here already. The Maryland example is why we're in this mess. Big Democrat money votes in Big Democrat policies. When the polices are put forth, the Big Democrat money realizes what a mess it is and moves away - to another state where they start the whole process over again. Look at the Northeast for your best example. All Democrat states, all a total mess. And as each one gets worse, the population moves to the next.

148 I fully support northern states pushing millionaires and businesses south. You go, yankees.

149 justanotherbostonian, did you catch my post yesterday about Medicaid spending in MA?  It was 28% of your state's budget for around 4% of the population in 2007.

Imagine how f'd up the "new" senate obamacare will be.

150 I must be getting old my slang is outdated as hell.

Posted by: Mr. Pink at December 10, 2009 01:28 PM (SqAkN)

I thought it was the bees knees, kiddo.

151 It's free insurance bought for you by your employer. You should want this.

Nobody is that stupid. Sometimes I think Ace comes in here and puts these posts up to stir the pot and get the comment count up.

152 The Baltimore Browns, you mean?

Can I trade those Browns for the other Browns?  Pleeeeeaaaaassssseeee?

Also Purple Avenger, you know there's no math or mathlike stuff on this blog. 

153 Tell ya what, Balto. Trade ya. Even up.

154 Meh. I favor the solution proposed by L. Sprague de Camp in his "Reluctant King" stories.

I think H. Beam Piper's solution in "A Planet for Texans" should be given consideration.

155 My state (Michigan) may have gotten a little out of me but not much. I challenged my property taxes and they went down somewhat. I have been funemployed now for almost a year. Since I'm retired military, they cannot tax my retirement check. I cannot collect unemployment compensation even though my former emploer paid into it for me for almost 9 years. I don't drive much so not much in gas taxes. I don't shop much, except food and there is no tax on that. Even if there was, I buy most of my food at the commisary. All other lceaning products, TP, etc., I buy on base so they don't tax that. I roll my own smokes and my brother brings my tobacco up from Florida. I could go on but you get the idea. You can't squeeze blood from a turnip.

156 Property tax in our county went up by about 10 percent in the last year.  Mom's PT had been right at $511 for a number of years, but this year's bill was $566.

157

I'm digging the "lay us off for no reason" part of that spiel.

 

I hate to break it do you, Guy, but they have a reason: it's  known as staying in the black or trying to; the company's expenditures start to overreach their profit margin, and the company has to make cuts -- the easiest way to do this is to start cutting part time and then low ranking full time employees and/or not hiring replacements. Take away a company's profits, they make cuts, usually in the form of lay offs (although shopping for new insurance providers, cutting hours, bonuses, those sorts of things are often tried out first).

So, how do you keep people from being layed off?  You try to keep the growth sector of the economy open or at least stabilized so the companies can operate within a decent profit margin...taxing them to hell and back and tacking on extra regulatory fees/penalties does not help companies operate within a decent profit margin...aka. doesn't help keep people gainfully employed.

*I realize I am just a lowly liberal arts major and English Lit. person -- somebody with more business savvy please correct me...I think I have the general gist correct here, no?  In which case it just goes to show that the problem isn't with liberal arts majors persay, just idiotic, indoctrinated lefty ones.

158 I had this insanely liberal associate, who when challenged by the fact that people vote with thier feet, came up with the idea that we hold a gun to their head and take all their money before they leave.

At least he's on the path to honesty. Complete honesty would have him admit he'd pull the trigger as soon as the money was handed over, of course.

159

O/T

A few maroonies were discussing the bogus trojan virus scanner on the racial/homo thread last night....its been popping up on me as well.

    

160
This is funny because more than half of you dummies argued last year that the gas tax was a good thing.

161 No -- all laws must have an expiration date. Existing laws expire modulus 20 years past their signing ... Posted by: Rob Crawford

Net result: no change. Every group of legislators would just pass the old laws with a simple "All in favor - Aye," and then move on to new and crappier laws.

You do realize that the Federal budget is voted upon every single year, right?

162 165 -- it's been giving me fits for a while now; thus my erratic avoidance of this site as of late

163  If I lived in MI, I'd flee NOW. 

Posted by: Purple Avenger at December 10, 2009 12:45 PM (yckbe)

If I could sell my house for what I owe on it, I would.

164 118 in light of this discussion I would like to point out, to any of my fellow massholes that happen to be here, that Scott Brown (the Republican State Senator who is running for teddy-boy's seat) just signed a no new tax pledge.
yes, it would be a long shot for him to win this election but the amount of anti tax and spend sentiment is increasing every single day Posted by: justanotherbostonian   Saw it.  this will lose him votes in moonbat Mass, where we can't even vote ourselves out of state income tax.   That being said, I pulled the lever for him on Tuesday, and will again Jan 19.  He's the real deal.

165

This is funny because more than half of you dummies argued last year that the gas tax was a good thing.

"More than half" is based on the homogenized figures.  The raw data shows that 100% of M&Ms opposed any increase in the gas tax.

166
Net result: no change. Every group of legislators would just pass the old laws with a simple "All in favor - Aye," and then move on to new and crappier laws.

You do realize that the Federal budget is voted upon every single year, right?

What's your point?

You really think EVERY DAMNED LAW would just get a unanimous reimplementation? There'd NEVER be a stink over the reimplementation of ANYTHING?

167 came up with the idea that we hold a gun to their head and take all their money before they leave

California was thinking about doing this a few years ago. The McCaley-Rooker "Wealth Tax" would have imposed added taxes on people moving out of the state.

168 what good will coverage for all these people do if they can't use it anywhere?

Gives the people pushing "universal coverage" plausible justification for completely nationalizing the industry--building the clinics, hiring doctors and staff directly, creating the list of who gets the pacemaker and who gets sent home to wait for the irregularity to kill them, etc. 

169

Holy shit, it's FREE?

 

Awesome. I'm transferring my company's GL acount balances from the FUTA and SUTA lines to the Dave in Texas is a Fucking Genius Bonus account. 

 

There's a shitload of money in those, just sittin there doing nothing.  Yay for me!

170

170 -- well, Jack, there is bragging, and there is telling the truth with or without embellishment(lol wink)  Good to know I have at least a molecule of understanding about how business works -- it is admittedly not my strong suit.

I suppose I shouldn't have let it slip that I'm a liberal arts major and Eng. Lit. person here, huh? 

171 liberal arts major and Eng. Lit. person

Burn the witch!

172 "I suppose I shouldn't have let it slip that I'm a liberal arts major and Eng. Lit. person here, huh?" Nah, that's OK. I read part of a poem one time.

173 It ain't braggin' if ya done it.

I suppose I shouldn't have let it slip that I'm a liberal arts major and Eng. Lit. person here, huh?

Mostly I want to know how you emerged sane and reasonable.

174

I don't believe I have ever been in favor of the gas tax -- but I haven't been here that long.

I do remember when my state suspended the gas tax it did lighten things up quite a bit for people, so of course they voted to slap that sucker back on there -- revenues, revenues!  And while that was the least of my state's worries, it didn't help them out much (slapping the tax back on), obviously.

175

Yeah, the state revenue situation is only going to get worse. You think people who haven't paid their mortgages are going to pay their property taxes ... after the property's gone to foreclosure or been seized?

And the foreclosures keep mounting.

176 Cash is fucking King!

Cannot be stated enough.

177 You really think EVERY DAMNED LAW would just get a unanimous reimplementation? There'd NEVER be a stink over the reimplementation of ANYTHING?
Posted by: Rob Crawford

Dave's suggestion would actually force legislators to make tradeoffs. Just requiring laws to be re-enacted wouldn't. That's the point.

(What's with the words in caps? Is Spurwing Plover Disease spreading now?)

178

You other states are pussies when it comes to raising unemployment taxes!  Out here in the People's Republic of Hawaii, they're raising the unemployment tax over 1000%!!!  What can go wrong with unexpected, over a ten-fold increase per employee, right?  Goodbye revenue producing small businesses, hello bigger deficits!  At least we'll have pretty beaches for the newly unemployed to live on. 

Holy crap that's amazing. My parents tried to run a business there in the 90s. Between unemployment tax, disability and having to pay for insurance for anyone who worked over 20 hours a week, it was just impossible.

179

177 truman north,

there are a lot of angry people here. he doesn't have to win to send a message. it might boost some other republicans come next year's general election.

I'm going to vote for him as many times as those idiot old people at the polling place let me.

180 Dave's suggestion would actually force legislators to make tradeoffs. Just requiring laws to be re-enacted wouldn't. That's the point.

How about both, then?

181

179 -- Ah, first they came for me because I was a short Italian woman (and I spit on their kneecaps), and now they cast their stones at my choice field of study...sigh.

Heather, believe it or not, some of us are relatively rational and even somewhat sane from time to time. A careful study of the classics and the dynamics of rhetoric is actually most helpful in being at least a little sensible -- that's the reason we're mostly unemployed at this moment...and they no longer teach the classics, nor how to carefully study the dynamics of rhetoric and critical thinking in the English classroom!

 

Sanchez -- as long as it was a dirty poem you should be ok.

182

http://tinyurl.com/ylezvmn

Figure 2. page 20

did someone sneak in that pesky hockey stick graph again?

183 Property tax in our county went up by about 10 percent in the last year.  Mom's PT had been right at $511 for a number of years, but this year's bill was $566.

When I bought my house in 1981 my property taxes were $190/year and sales tax was 4%.  We recently raised sales tax to 8.5% in the county and 10.5% in the city limits (from 6.5/8.5) in order to eliminate the school tax portion of property tax. (Part of a court settlement from the NAACP over school funding discrepancies between "rich and poor" counties)

What did the county do when they lost the school tax?

They added it back on the bills as a "fee".

So what are my property taxes now?  About $600/year.

184 Yeah I noticed that it went from job gains to 450000 more jobs lost.

With the Nobel ceremony and Copenhagen POTUS once again "hides the decline".

185 So what are my property taxes now?  About $600/year.

Posted by: Vic at December 10, 2009 02:04 PM (CDUiN)

 

Good Lord!  I live in CT and I pay nearly $4,000 in property taxes for a small raised ranch and a lot less than 2 acres.  I pay more tax on my truck than you do on your house.

186 You think people who haven't paid their mortgages are going to pay their property taxes ... after the property's gone to foreclosure or been seized?

Not likely.  There has to be a huge wave of tax auctions scheduled at some point.  That's when the banks have to shit or get off the pot and start dumping property at a loss or they'll lose it all.  Right now many are holding off on pulling the trigger even though some are 6 or even 9 months behind.  If they do a foreclosure and eviction, then the property instantly loses $20,000 in value due to being vandalized and stripped of wiring, plumbing, and anything else that's removable.

In years past, it used to be that localities were lax about dropping the hammer and putting something up at a tax auction, but these days that cycle has shortened considerably.  Palm Beach county schedules a tax sale almost instantly when you miss.

187 if it's the original someguy, he's not a lib. 

Frankly, the better argument is that, like police and fire, unemployment insurance is something I don't mind paying taxes on.  It goes into a discrete pool, is only used for one thing, and performs a general social good.  Radical libertarians are idiots, stoners, naive, or some combination of the three--let me cover myself, yeah right.  As soon as we bring back debtor's prison goofball. 

What I DON'T want my employer or me to pay is for "arts programs" and "diversity training" when people are cold, hungry and out of work

188 I live in CT

Flee...Now.  If you stay much longer the suck of the NE liberal black hole will pull you past its event horizon.

189

if it's the original someguy, he's not a lib. 

It's not. He's "erg" sockpuppeting.

190 Good Lord!  I live in CT and I pay nearly $4,000 in property taxes for a small raised ranch and a lot less than 2 acres.  I pay more tax on my truck than you do on your house.

Well, my $600/year is on an assessed value of $60K.  If my house was in CT it would go for $600K and at the same rate of taxation my property taxes would be $6,000/year.

As for taxes on a truck when mine was new it was $400/year. It is now 13 years old and the taxes are $75/year.

191 erg

Ah, well, that explains the lack of a coherent argument.

Sockpuppeting a regular?  Ban.

192 Sockpuppeting a regular?  Ban.

I believe he has already been banned

193 In connecticut 1st quarter income tax reciepts are down $181 million over last year and the state sold almost $1 billion in bonds to cover last years deficit. The states unemployment trust has run out of money and had to borrow $800 million from the fed govt which isn't going to cover the payouts.....so we are now hit with a 1.4% insolvency tax until there is money in the fund again (never) and there is another to pay back the $800 million fed loan. We. Are. Fucked.

194 If it's erg... well, isn't erg a state employee? No fucking wonder he doesn't grasp the idea of why you can't raise taxes forever.

195 Don't get me started on the personal property tax and the super awesome car/bike/boat tax I get raped on every year. Back in the late 1700's people didn't sit back and complain about taxes they did something about it.

196 I'm just waiting for Bloomy to blow the GWB and Verazzano and Patterson to start building a wall to keep people in NY.

197 In Cuyahoga County, proud home of Cleveland, Ohio (cough), they raised taxes to pay for some medical mart which was supposed to bring jobs. Now they aren't getting the medical mart. Think they'll lower taxes? I'm glad I don't live in Cuyahoga County.

198 Radical libertarians are idiots, stoners, naive, or some combination of the three--let me cover myself, yeah right.

Why can't my employer and I pay into my own unemployment insurance account?  Do you only get tax breaks if the government treasurer decides what happens to your money?

199 Back in the late 1700's people didn't sit back and complain about taxes they did something about it.

Well SC tried to do something about it in the late 1800s but people in CT objected.

200 "206 Radical libertarians are idiots, stoners, naive, or some combination of the three--let me cover myself, yeah right. " I am NOT naive.

201 Speaking of bunkers, seriously, a (legitimate) business proposal, not involving any illegality whatsoever:

any military combat veterans from Iraq/Afgan, small squad tactics trained, Sgt/SSgt or above drop me a line.  libertarian001 at the AOhelL dot com

202

Idiocy.  It's bad enough that the Californians have screwed up their state so bad that they are now moving to my state to start again.  BUT!  Our new Rep. governor just had to raise our income taxes.  She couldn't wait to let the new residents take over politics and decided to jump first.

And I thought getting rid of Janet would be a good thing.  Unfortunately, we just got Janet-light.

203

Radical libertarians are idiots, stoners, naive, or some combination of the three--let me cover myself, yeah right.  As soon as we bring back debtor's prison goofball. 

Hey, since we're already talking about getting rid of unemployment insurance, why would bringing back debtor prisons be such a stretch?  If you've spent money you can't/won't pay back, you're stealing from somebody...

And while we're at it, how about setting up charities, rather than government welfare programs?  And get rid of all those art/corn/research subsidies.  And I want a pony.

204 Cautiously Pessimistic

"a pony"

lulz.

Precisely.

I'm thinking a state constitutional amendment that says before they can cut public safety (police, fire, corrections), they have to cut child welfare by 10%, to get to child/senior welfare (direct assistance like medical and food) they have to have cut education administration by 15%, and to get to education,   they have to cut transportation by 20%, and to get to transportation, they have to cut everything else by 30%

205

I want a pony too -- and shhh, with the debtor's prison talk; I think there are some people who would like to see that happen...as long as it only happened to people of the "wrong" political leaning only (the others are victims and must be helped).

206 @182 "I don't believe I have ever been in favor of the gas tax -- but I haven't been here that long."

I have.  He's lying.  It's a condition called "demnesia," most trolltards have it.

207 @197 " He's "erg" sockpuppeting."

Wasn't Ace going to rat out Erg to its employer, or something like that?
What ever happened to that?

208

Here in California, the state tax guys are going to small businesses and doing audits.  Services have always been and are now exempt from sales tax.  What the tax agents do is reclassify older service business as taxable, hit the owner with back sales tax AND penalties.

Story is that lots of small business people have lost everything.

209 I live in Indiana.  Our taxes have not gone up.  Our governor,  Mitch Daniels,  reports on revenues quite often,  due to the recession.

He does not want to raise taxes because of the hardship on people already under strain, and he doesn't want to put additional strain on businesses who are employing people.

He came up with this unique idea of lowering expenditures!  It's amazing!  First he told state employees no travel and no overtime.  No replacements of people who leave.  All departments had to reduce spending by 10%.  Some departments laid off employees. The latest round is a reduction of spending for education, most of which is for the universities, who are howling. Pity.

Seems to be working,  but then,  what do I know?  I am a moronette.

210 Buddy, can you help a bird out here? I need a ride out of this town or my person is cooked.

211 Look at the Northeast for your best example. All Democrat states, all a total mess. And as each one gets worse, the population moves to the next.<\i> My state, Ohio, is a good example...

212 BURBERRY Scarf | CD Keys