Why does Obama want to destroy Social Security?

[kalm]

We've been through this before, and trust me, I wish the rest were doing well enough in this economy to remove some of that burden. Maybe we should raise taxes on the bottom 99%.

Maybe we should stop spending money like drunken sailors?

I agree, but there's a whole bunch of defense contractors, oil men, farmers, welfare mums, doctors, insurance companies, big banks, auto industry folks, hetero re-education practitioners, and ranchers who would suffer. You want their blood on your hands?

[AZGrizFan]

Maybe we should stop spending money like drunken sailors?

I agree, but there's a whole bunch of defense contractors, oil men, farmers, welfare mums, doctors, insurance companies, big banks, auto industry folks, hetero re-education practitioners, and ranchers who would suffer. You want their blood on your hands?

So you're a fan of the military industrial complex? Orwell would be so proud.

[kalm]

I agree, but there's a whole bunch of defense contractors, oil men, farmers, welfare mums, doctors, insurance companies, big banks, auto industry folks, hetero re-education practitioners, and ranchers who would suffer. You want their blood on your hands?

So you're a fan of the military industrial complex? Orwell would be so proud.

I'm an Eisenhower Republican.

[AZGrizFan]

So you're a fan of the military industrial complex? Orwell would be so proud.

I'm an Eisenhower Republican.

You're a McCarthy communist and you know it.

[kalm]

I'm an Eisenhower Republican.

You're a McCarthy communist and you know it.

Until this moment, Z, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Have you no sense of decency, Z, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

[AZGrizFan]

You're a McCarthy communist and you know it.

Until this moment, Z, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Have you no sense of decency, Z, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

28,000 posts and you're just NOW figuring out I'm cruel?

[grizzaholic]

Until this moment, Z, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Have you no sense of decency, Z, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

28,000 posts and you're just NOW figuring out I'm cruel?

LIES. LIES. LIES.

[kalm]

28,000 posts and you're just NOW figuring out I'm cruel?

LIES. LIES. LIES.

7,079 posts and you're just NOW figuring out I'm gullible and slow on the take?

Typical banker, over-inflating his numbers and worth.

[BDKJMU]

No they don't. Spending needs to be reduced. You could take 100% of EVERYTHING the Forbes 400 richest Americans has and it won't even balance the budget for one year. More taxes won't solve anything.

They're both a problem and those top 400 and a bunch of corporations haven't paid enough to deserve the riches they have accumulated.

BS. They have paid MORE than their fair share. If anything, they should be paying less. 09' tax return data from IRS, Top 1% had 16.9% of AGI but paid 36.7% of Fed Income tax revenue.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html#table1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kalm]

They're both a problem and those top 400 and a bunch of corporations haven't paid enough to deserve the riches they have accumulated.

BS. They have paid MORE than their fair share. If anything, they should be paying less. 09' tax return data from IRS, Top 1% had 16.9% of AGI but paid 36.7% of Fed Income tax revenue.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html#table1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Double BS. They're unproductive disloyalists who hurt the overall economy. Steve Jobs created 40,000 jobs in the U.S. and 700,000 overseas.

[BDKJMU]

BS. They have paid MORE than their fair share. If anything, they should be paying less. 09' tax return data from IRS, Top 1% had 16.9% of AGI but paid 36.7% of Fed Income tax revenue.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html#table1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Double BS. They're unproductive disloyalists who hurt the overall economy. Steve Jobs created 40,000 jobs in the U.S. and 700,000 overseas.

Triple BS and whose fault is that? Without the highest corporate tax rate in the world & an excessive regulatory environment that drives up the cost of doing business Jobs would have created a lot more jobs in the US.

[kalm]

Double BS. They're unproductive disloyalists who hurt the overall economy. Steve Jobs created 40,000 jobs in the U.S. and 700,000 overseas.

Triple BS and whose fault is that? Without the highest corporate tax rate in the world & an excessive regulatory environment that drives up the cost of doing business Jobs would have created a lot more jobs in the US.

Quadruple BS. We like our environment and middle class and have 38th highest effective corporate tax rate.

[AZGrizFan]

BS. They have paid MORE than their fair share. If anything, they should be paying less. 09' tax return data from IRS, Top 1% had 16.9% of AGI but paid 36.7% of Fed Income tax revenue.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html#table1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Double BS. They're unproductive disloyalists who hurt the overall economy. Steve Jobs created 40,000 jobs in the U.S. and 700,000 overseas.

Kind of ironic, then, that HE'S the guy the 99% worship like Jesus Christ.

[BDKJMU]

Triple BS and whose fault is that? Without the highest corporate tax rate in the world & an excessive regulatory environment that drives up the cost of doing business Jobs would have created a lot more jobs in the US.

Quadruple BS. We like our environment and middle class and have 38th highest effective corporate tax rate.

Quintuple BS.

[BDKJMU]

Triple BS and whose fault is that? Without the highest corporate tax rate in the world & an excessive regulatory environment that drives up the cost of doing business Jobs would have created a lot more jobs in the US.

Quadruple BS. We like our oppressive environmental regulations & litigation, no matter how many jobs its costs & how negative the effect is on our economy and middle class and have 38th highest effective corporate tax rate.

FIFY

[kalm]

Quadruple BS. We like our environment and middle class and have 38th highest effective corporate tax rate.

Quintuple BS.

Sorry, should have put OECD countries:







http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2 ... ing-lower/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Are you suggesting we assume the environmental regulations and corporate tax structure of the third world?

[BDKJMU]

Quintuple BS.

Sorry, should have put OECD countries:



http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2 ... ing-lower/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Are you suggesting we assume the environmental regulations and corporate tax structure of the third world?

Well, the liberal Center for American Progress study used in the AJC blog that you cited says one thing about Effective US Corporate Tax rates. The Tax Foundation says something entirely different:

U.S. Corporations Suffer High Effective Tax Rates by International Standards

by Philip Dittmer

For a PDF of the full study: http://taxfoundation.org/files/sr195.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; A summary of the report and the key findings are below.

Tax Foundation Special Report No. 195

Key Findings

• The U.S. has the second-highest statutory corporate income tax rate in the developed world. Despite anecdotes regarding a few companies that exploit the dubious carve-outs in the tax code to minimize their tax liabilities, the results of 13 unique studies of the effective tax rate on corporate investment across the globe show that the average U.S. effective corporate tax rate, like the statutory rate, is nearly the highest in the world.

• By every available measure, the U.S. imposes a very high tax burden on its corporate sector, in comparison to other nations, even after credits and deductions are considered.

• The most recent studies show that the average effective corporate tax rate for corporations headquartered in the U.S. is roughly 27 percent, while the average of other nations is about 20 percent. The effective average rate for new investment in the U.S. is roughly 29.8 percent, 7.4 point above worldwide competition.

• The U.S. effective corporate tax rate consistently ranks among the five highest of nations considered. The only nation with a higher effective tax rate in each study is Japan, which not by coincidence is the only developed nation with a higher statu­tory rate than the U.S.

• The literature shows that high corporate taxes and high effective tax rates are detrimental to attracting investment, and subsequently detrimental to economic growth.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/27609.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kalm]

Sorry, should have put OECD countries:



http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2 ... ing-lower/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Are you suggesting we assume the environmental regulations and corporate tax structure of the third world?

Well, the liberal Center for American Progress study used in the AJC blog that you cited says one thing about Effective US Corporate Tax rates. The Tax Foundation says something entirely different:

U.S. Corporations Suffer High Effective Tax Rates by International Standards

by Philip Dittmer

For a PDF of the full study: http://taxfoundation.org/files/sr195.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; A summary of the report and the key findings are below.

Tax Foundation Special Report No. 195

Key Findings

• The U.S. has the second-highest statutory corporate income tax rate in the developed world. Despite anecdotes regarding a few companies that exploit the dubious carve-outs in the tax code to minimize their tax liabilities, the results of 13 unique studies of the effective tax rate on corporate investment across the globe show that the average U.S. effective corporate tax rate, like the statutory rate, is nearly the highest in the world.

• By every available measure, the U.S. imposes a very high tax burden on its corporate sector, in comparison to other nations, even after credits and deductions are considered.

• The most recent studies show that the average effective corporate tax rate for corporations headquartered in the U.S. is roughly 27 percent, while the average of other nations is about 20 percent. The effective average rate for new investment in the U.S. is roughly 29.8 percent, 7.4 point above worldwide competition.

• The U.S. effective corporate tax rate consistently ranks among the five highest of nations considered. The only nation with a higher effective tax rate in each study is Japan, which not by coincidence is the only developed nation with a higher statu­tory rate than the U.S.

• The literature shows that high corporate taxes and high effective tax rates are detrimental to attracting investment, and subsequently detrimental to economic growth.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/27609.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And CAP's sources for those three charts are the OMB, the OECD, and the U.S. Treasury so they should be pretty legit. Of course the difference between your source and mine is the Tax Foundation uses the entire world while I was making the comparison to other OECD countries. Once you throw the Ivory Coasts of the world into the mix then yes, even our effective rates after loopholes are applied are going to sit pretty high, just like Japan's do.

Obviously one reason is the third world countries can't or don't invest in physical infrastructure. If they have valuable resources, they rely upon large multinational corporations who benefited from the economic success of a higher tax nation to make those investments, throw a few crumbs at the local dictator and then reap the lions share of the profits.

And have you seen the Somalian Navy lately? They just don't seem to have spent quite as much as we have.

Another comparison to think about is the shit running down the streets phenomenon. A clean and safe environment has an often overlooked value, but it also costs money.

It's no coincidence that higher taxed countries tend to be the most economically successful and have the highest standards of living.

The conk talking point of claiming we're the the 2nd highest taxed country in the world is meaningless unless you take all of that into consideration.

[BDKJMU]

And CAP's sources for those three charts are the OMB, the OECD, and the U.S. Treasury so they should be pretty legit. Of course the difference between your source and mine is the Tax Foundation uses the entire world while I was making the comparison to other OECD countries. Once you throw the Ivory Coasts of the world into the mix then yes, even our effective rates after loopholes are applied are going to sit pretty high, just like Japan's do.

The CAP saying the US has an effective rate of 13.4% and the Tax Foundation citing numerous studies showing an effective rate of 27% and being highest one of the 5 highest effective rates in the world has nothing to do with how many countries are included. Even if you included only OECD countries in the Tax Foundation's report, the US is still one of the highest effective rates among OECD countries.

It all comes down to which study & who's stats you give more credence to.

[kalm]

And CAP's sources for those three charts are the OMB, the OECD, and the U.S. Treasury so they should be pretty legit. Of course the difference between your source and mine is the Tax Foundation uses the entire world while I was making the comparison to other OECD countries. Once you throw the Ivory Coasts of the world into the mix then yes, even our effective rates after loopholes are applied are going to sit pretty high, just like Japan's do.

The CAP saying the US has an effective rate of 13.4% and the Tax Foundation citing numerous studies showing an effective rate of 27% and being highest one of the 5 highest effective rates in the world has nothing to do with how many countries are included. Even if you included only OECD countries in the Tax Foundation's report, the US is still one of the highest effective rates among OECD countries.

It all comes down to which study & who's stats you give more credence to.

I'll stick with CAP's OECD and US Treasury numbers versus the Tax Foundations "numerous studies".

And which (rather than how many) countries we are comparing has everything to do with the discussion as do things like how depreciation rules are applied in each developed country.

But yes, "US corporate taxes are high" makes for an effective sound bite.

[AZGrizFan]

I'll stick with CAP's OECD and US Treasury numbers versus the Tax Foundations "numerous studies".

And which (rather than how many) countries we are comparing has everything to do with the discussion as do things like how depreciation rules are applied in each developed country.

But yes, "US corporate taxes are high" makes for an effective sound bite.

To paraphrase a famous basketball player, "we may make a lot of money, but we spend a lot of money too!"

[kalm]

I'll stick with CAP's OECD and US Treasury numbers versus the Tax Foundations "numerous studies".

And which (rather than how many) countries we are comparing has everything to do with the discussion as do things like how depreciation rules are applied in each developed country.

But yes, "US corporate taxes are high" makes for an effective sound bite.

To paraphrase a famous basketball player, "we may make a lot of money, but we spend a lot of money too!"

For someone who supposedly sucks at analogies that's a pretty damned good one Z.

[Ibanez]

Maybe we should stop spending money like drunken sailors?

I agree, but there's a whole bunch of defense contractors, oil men, farmers, welfare mums, doctors, insurance companies, big banks, auto industry folks, hetero re-education practitioners, and ranchers who would suffer. You want their blood on your hands?

People love to bring up defense contractors but never the major companies like Dell, HP, Microsoft, Cabela, Coleman, Nortel, Ford, IBM, OshKosh, GE, Boeing, Lockheed, Goodwill Industries and Sprint that makes millions (possibly billions) off the the Government.

[AZGrizFan]

To paraphrase a famous basketball player, "we may make a lot of money, but we spend a lot of money too!"

For someone who supposedly sucks at analogies that's a pretty damned good one Z.

Even a broke clock is right twice a day (right, GATW?)

[89Hen]

To paraphrase a famous basketball player, "we may make a lot of money, but we spend a lot of money too!"

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=681&sid=2727443

There are reports the First Lady and the Queen of Qatar recently closed off part of Madison Avenue to go on a shopping spree at a high-end lingerie store, according to the Daily Mail.

Michelle Obama ended up spending $50,000 on pieces from Agent Provocateur, which the Daily Mail says was founded by the son of fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.

The luxury brand's celebrity clientele include Beyonce and Christina Aguilera.

Mrs. Obama's reported purchase comes on the heels of criticism for the cobalt blue dress she wore for the President's State of the Union. The dress reportedly sells for $2,000.