You (And George Bush) Should Read This

[JPN4265]

I am proud to say I voted for John Kerry. At first, I was one of those "Anybody But Bush" Democrats and felt lukewarm towards Kerry. But as the 2004 campaign went on and the more I saw of him, the happier I was to vote for him. I am very sorry he's not our president right now.

I can't tell you how happy I am that he is not the president right now!

 

[DawnCt1]

I

Veterans do not deserve our respect. People who went to war in defense of our country deserve ridicule for their accomplishments. Contempt for the men and women who have served in our Armed Forces has always been an important foundation of the Republican party. So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Republicans reject everything Kerry has to say because he was once awarded the Silver Star. Only a partisan dupe would think otherwise.

If someone says something that upsets your blindly held assumptions, try to find out if that guy is a decorated war hero. If he is, attack him for it. It is far better to discredit someone in this manner than to actually engage in the ideas that are being debated.

I think that there is PLENTY of debate with regards to how and why Kerry ended up in Viet Nam and the value of his medals as it relates to his behavior. DH is a colonel and he has NEVER heard of an officer leaving his troops behind for superficial wounds. To me, that invalidates whatever medals he has laid claim to.

 

[sodaseller]

The tax cut was excellent and helped the economy recover resulting in increased tax revenues.

The problem is needless spending, e.g the arts and farm subsidies.

The tax cut had almost no stimulative effect and likely had the opposite effect. It also did not result in increased tax revenues. That is a continual lie put out by Heritage types (the rest of the conservative world is even too embarassed to repeat it) that is easily disproven by the numbers. The Laffer Curve does not work in reality. To repeat it is a lie. I know you don't care because truth is not important, but it's false.

Your other statement is even more stupid. You are blaming an annual deficit in excess of $500 billion dollars (after we true up for Iraq, which we keep off budget) on arts and farm subsidies excess. First, the feint at farm subsidies is just that. While I agree with te President's position on ag subsidies, he has no real intention on fighting for them through the budget process - this is show for the rubes. But even if he did, the numbers don't come close to adding up

http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/AFP/2005/02/06/719808

Agriculture Department officials told the daily the proposal would cut payments to farmers by five percent, or 587 million dollars in the fiscal year 2006,

http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/1343.html

Under the proposed budget, the NEA would receive $121.2 million, the same amount it received for fiscal year 2005

So he could get all his proposed cuts in ag subsidies (he won't, nor will he try) and zero budget arts and still only address about .0014 of the annual debt.

Do math before you make arguments (Edited because the disparity was even greater than realized

 

[Independent]

If our economy is so robust, how come our local conservative paper reported yesterday that pawn shops are doing a record business.

That people are bringing in family heirlooms that had been in families for generations just to pay the bills. Most people stated they needed gas money to get back and forth to work.

People who drive for a living, ie: construction workers, landscapers, taxi drivers, truckers, realtors, etc are hurting. The article stated that for many of families, the gas bills were adding an additional $200.00 a month to their monthly budget - an expense many cannot absorb.

Gas at over $3.00 per gallon, while the gas companies post record profits.

THAT does not sound like a robust economy.

There are many more indicators evidencing that our economy is not the healthy one that some would believe. For instance, foreclosures rose 38% during the first quarter.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-24-2006/0004345737&EDATE=

That does not sound like a robust economy.


But then, 70% of this country actually does realize that.

 

[JoeEpcotRocks]

The tax cut had almost no stimulative effect and likely had the opposite effect. It also did not result in increased tax revenues. That is a continual lie put out by Heritage types (the rest of the conservative world is even too embarassed to repeat it) that is easily disproven by the numbers. The Laffer Curve does not work in reality. To repeat it is a lie. I know you don't care because truth is not important, but it's false.

Your other statement is even more stupid. You are blaming an annual deficit in excess of $500 billion dollars (after we true up for Iraq, which we keep off budget) on arts and farm subsidies excess. First, the feint at farm subsidies is just that. While I agree with te President's position on ag subsidies, he has no real intention on fighting for them through the budget process - this is show for the rubes. But even if he did, the numbers don't come close to adding up

http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/AFP/2005/02/06/719808

http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/1343.html

So he could get all his proposed cuts in ag subsidies (he won't, nor will he try) and zero budget arts and still only address about .0014 of the annual debt.

Do math before you make arguments (Edited because the disparity was even greater than realized

The arts and farm subsidies were just EXAMPLES. Perhaps you should read my posts more closely before YOU use the word "stupid" amongst your usual insults.

And do tell us all how tax cuts "likely the had the opposite effect" of NOT stimulating the economy.

 

[sodaseller]

You can't rescue the inanity of your point. I know the point ya'll try to make - the deficits aren't because tax revenues are down 4% of GDP while aggregate spending is largely flat and discretionary nondefense is down. But math always betrays you. Sure there's wasteful spending, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to the tax cuts and Iraq. You realize that the %500 billion (which is also about the amount of the annual deficit) or so that we've spent on Iraq exceeds annual discretionary nondefense. Of course you don't. Put another way, you could zero the whole nondefense discretionary budget. ZERO all of it, not just arts and farms, and you'd still have a deficit, albeit a small one.

So that argument is nonsense. We're not going to a zero budget, not could we. The defect is not a function of wasteful spending, though that's a component. But a very small component, dwarfed by the tax cuts.

And they likely had the opposite effect on balance. Rubinomics (which you won't understand). Their limited stimulative effect was purely Keynesian, and was dwarfed by the effect of the lowest continual fed funds rate in memory and the gush of defense spending, all Keynesian, none of it Supply-Side Satanomics.

But hey, today's NYT points to another quarter of expansion! But the public remains pessimistic!
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/28/b...00&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

In the most recent CBS News poll, conducted last month, 55 percent of respondents rated the economy as good, even though 66 percent of Americans said the country was on the wrong track.

In 23 years of polling by CBS, only once — in late 2005 — did a higher percentage of people say the country was on the wrong track.

But hey, here's that Bush economics stimulation that deserves credit

Spending by upper-income families appears to be driving much of the economy's growth. The average hourly wage for rank-and-file workers — who make up roughly 80 percent of the work force — has fallen by 5 cents in the last four years, to $16.49, after inflation is taken into account. Yet most well-paid workers have continued to receive raises.

Must be that the public is being influenced by the media. They don't realize how good they have it. Of course, we recently had an inverted yield curve, suggesting that investors also see some issues. No worry - Fed raised rates. We can't have inflationary pressures! Hey, we've avoided inflation to date despite a massive foreign financed deficit because workers wages have been kept down, cutting half of the spiral. Now they're agitating to get some of the raises that come with economic growth. God forbid - let's raise the fed rates to nip that in the bud.


That's Bushenomics for you, although I think he borrowed liberally (a dirty word to him) from Marie Antionette and Supply-Side Jesus. Economic growth through downward pressure on wages on the bottom 80% and luxury spending from upper income brackets!

Of course, calling it a stimulus plan is generous, as it was also the {b]precise plan{/b] he offered as the perfect antidote when the economy was doing too well! Remember Campaign 2000? Tax cuts for the wealthy are the perfect antidote for an overheated economy. Tax cuts for the wealthy are the perfect antidote for a stagnant economy! Certs is a candy mint! Certs is a breath mint. We're in a war spending over $100 billion a year. This requires sacrifice - Buy a yacht for the cause!

 

[charlie,nj]

GDP Growth at Two-Year High

U.S. Gross Domestic Product Grew at the Fastest Rate in More Than Two Years in the First Quarter of 2006

By DAN ARNALL
April 28, 2006 — - The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis says that the U.S. economy saw a big bump in activity during the first three months of the year -- the biggest in more than two years.

The report out this morning shows that the U.S. gross domestic product grew at an annual pace of 4.8 percent between January and March. That's the best performance since the middle of 2003 and is well above the disappointing performance seen in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2005 -- just 1.7 percent growth. Economists had been expecting growth around 5 percent.

This is the first of three reports on Q1 2006, so the number will be revised up or down during the next two months. The next revision is due May 25.


So What Got Better in Q1?

Today's release has some interesting numbers showing that consumer spending (+5.5 percent), business investment (+16.4 percent) and government spending (+10.8 percent) helped goose growth upward between January and March. Increases in U.S. exports (+12.1 percent) also helped move things along.

The high GDP number seems to indicate that businesses are finally beginning to spend their record profits. Since the 2001 recession, business has been hesitant to invest. Today's report shows that businesses are beginning to pick up some of the slack as consumers slow their spending growth.


What Does This Means for Consumers?

The Federal Reserve System uses this data -- along with many other stats -- to determine whether an interest rate hike is needed. The governors raise rates to diffuse inflationary pressures. If the report shows inflation, you'll likely be spending more to maintain a credit card balance or borrow against your home.

In fact, today's report contains the Fed's "favorite" inflation gauge, known as the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index. This measure shows that prices increased at an annual pace of 2 percent during the first quarter. This level likely indicates that the Fed will once again raise rates at its June meeting … and then may pause at the following meeting for the first time in two years.

What Is GDP? The gross domestic product is the broadest measure of economic activity in the United States. The report measures the value of all goods and service produced in the country.

(from ABS News )
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[JoeEpcotRocks]

GDP Growth at Two-Year High

U.S. Gross Domestic Product Grew at the Fastest Rate in More Than Two Years in the First Quarter of 2006

By DAN ARNALL
April 28, 2006 — - The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis says that the U.S. economy saw a big bump in activity during the first three months of the year -- the biggest in more than two years.

The report out this morning shows that the U.S. gross domestic product grew at an annual pace of 4.8 percent between January and March. That's the best performance since the middle of 2003 and is well above the disappointing performance seen in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2005 -- just 1.7 percent growth. Economists had been expecting growth around 5 percent.

This is the first of three reports on Q1 2006, so the number will be revised up or down during the next two months. The next revision is due May 25.


So What Got Better in Q1?

Today's release has some interesting numbers showing that consumer spending (+5.5 percent), business investment (+16.4 percent) and government spending (+10.8 percent) helped goose growth upward between January and March. Increases in U.S. exports (+12.1 percent) also helped move things along.

The high GDP number seems to indicate that businesses are finally beginning to spend their record profits. Since the 2001 recession, business has been hesitant to invest. Today's report shows that businesses are beginning to pick up some of the slack as consumers slow their spending growth.

.

Good news!