Take Home Pay

[becc971]

...and the amount he's spending on his inauguration. $170 million to "celebrate" this second term. What a thief.

the other guy would be spending just as much ... unfortunately its one of those extravagant parts of the election

[becc971]

Not sure I want to eat that burger!

Also- How about we pick the low hanging fruit like subsidies for Big Oil and Big Agriculture before we alter Medicare?

Maybe we can also stop venture capitalists (like Bain) from buying a struggling corporation and after loading it up with debt to pay themselves dumping the pension plan onto taxpayers?

I wish we could give each candidates for high office a set sum of money to run for the office which would make them much more accountable to the voters and not their financial backers. I think it would produce much more compromise on both sides of the isle. (I know it's just a wish as we would need a Constitutional Amendment to do that. And neither party would want it anyway. Sigh...)

kind of like how they shouldn't be getting paid if they can't compromise and do their jobs instead of hemming and hawing for months on end?

and i bet that burger would be super tasty ... :poop:

[Uncle Fester]

Young and votes democrat?

...and the amount he's spending on his inauguration. $170 million to "celebrate" this second term. What a thief.

Completely inaccurate.

Young and votes republican?

[becc971]

+1

[kentmitchell1961]

Middle aged and votes anarchist........ ;>

[mdeimler]

Completely inaccurate.

Apparently not.
http://voices.yahoo.com/obama-inaugu...n-2529865.html
http://www.sodahead.com/united-state...estion-625789/
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Inaug...ory?id=6665946
Just 3 of the countless sources and the figure may go up. I thought he was for the common people...guess I was duped.

[Judy Canty]

Did you happen to look at the DATES?

[Judy Canty]

BTW, Dick has accomplished his goal, which was to keep the old partisan political discussion alive and ill-informed.

[Uncle Fester]

Apparently not.
http://voices.yahoo.com/obama-inaugu...n-2529865.html
http://www.sodahead.com/united-state...estion-625789/
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Inaug...ory?id=6665946
Just 3 of the countless sources and the figure may go up. I thought he was for the common people...guess I was duped.

How much tax revenue will be generated by the visitors?

[CCGREEN]

old enough to become criminals. Religion: well , I have no use for it and don't want it shoved down anyone's throat.

I believe that no belief of any kind should be "shoved down anyones throat" Wes because you "have no use" for religion does not mean its a bad thing for you or anyone. It just means that you would rather not be bothered with it. And thats your own personal choice to be respected.

Now here is the exception..........You have a need for that religious phrase printed on the money that you spend or it would be of no value. So therefore you have a use for religion. Our courts seem to have a need for you to swear in using the phrase "so help me God". (I don't recall here, is the bible still used in courts to swear you in?) So therefore you have use for religion. When that national anthem is sang, there is a use for religion in the song. Many Christmas songs have religion in them so therefore you have use for religion otherwise you would not believe in the season.

Last but not least, if there was more religion in our schools and the golden rule being taught then there would be less need of religion in our prisons today. When one wants out of prison they are told to do EVERYTHING they can to make themselves look good and they have turned their life around, up to and including getting religion in what ever form or fashion need to convince the parole board.

OK off my stump now.

[Judy Canty]

How much tax revenue will be generated by the visitors?

Arguably less than was generated by the 1.8 million who attended the ceremony in 2009.

[Uncle Fester]

Back to something closer to the threads origin---

We are going to have to raise more revenue if we are going to address the deficit. As I've said before the burden will again fall on those of us making 60 to 150k a year as this is where the money is. The elimination of the payroll tax reduction is a start but sooner rather than later the Piper needs to be paid by us to the tune of several thousands more per year.

It's not perfect as it disproportionally effects the poor but a value added tax would be one way to bring in the big numbers we need to keep from bankrupting our kids.

Someone want to start a poll on realistic various ways of raising revenue?

[Wes]

I believe that no belief of any kind should be "shoved down anyones throat" Wes because you "have no use" for religion does not mean its a bad thing for you or anyone. It just means that you would rather not be bothered with it. And thats your own personal choice to be respected.
While I support many (not all) of the family- and society-preserving traditions handed down by the various religions, I have no use for their supernatural dogma that hinders actual scientific progress or oppresses human rights.

Now here is the exception..........You have a need for that religious phrase printed on the money that you spend or it would be of no value.
That Phrase was not on our currency until 1956. I believe the currency was considered to have value before 1956, yes?

So therefore you have a use for religion.
No, sorry.

Our courts seem to have a need for you to swear in using the phrase "so help me God". (I don't recall here, is the bible still used in courts to swear you in?)
I'd rather swear on an encyclopedia. If someone tries to make me swear on a bible, I swear I'll tell them as much truth as is in that bible.

So therefore you have use for religion.
Still no.

When that national anthem is sang, there is a use for religion in the song.
The Star Spangled Banned did not become the national anthem until 1931, more than 100 years after being written, so whatever did we do before that? God is not mentioned until the third to last line in the fourth stanza. Only the first stanza is commonly used. You will be hard pressed to find anyone who's heard the entire thing in song, therefore most of us got along without god in our national anthem.

Many Christmas songs have religion in them so therefore you have use for religion otherwise you would not believe in the season.
I don't. I "celebrate" it out of social obligation.

Last but not least, if there was more religion in our schools and the golden rule being taught then there would be less need of religion in our prisons today.
Golden rule, maybe, but what does that have to do with religion? I prefer what I call "the Platinum Rule": treat others as they want to be treated. I don't want a masochist treating me the way s/he wants to be treated. Also, a moderate amount of religion is not a bad thing, as it tends to soothe some, and moderate others who cannot self regulate their behaviors. Let us not forget what religion has given us in large doses. Romans feeding Christians to lions, Christians persecuting Pagans and Jews, The Crusades, the Inquisition, and currently, Islamofascism. Overall, I'd rather be without.

When one wants out of prison they are told to do EVERYTHING they can to make themselves look good and they have turned their life around, up to and including getting religion in what ever form or fashion need to convince the parole board.
Yes, these are the types who can't self regulate their behaviors, so fear of a magic man in the sky who will torment them forever unless they do what they're told is the way to control them. I get it. From my perspective, that makes religious people look pretty scary.
Tyrants, and Oligarchies throughout history have used the opiate of the masses (religion) to control those masses for their own personal gain.

OK off my stump now.

Feel free to try again to tell me what use religion is, besides keeping ignorant savages from running amok and butchering us, although it's just as likely to prompt the aforementioned as prevent it.

[Wes]

Back to something closer to the threads origin---

We are going to have to raise more revenue if we are going to address the deficit. As I've said before the burden will again fall on those of us making 60 to 150k a year as this is where the money is. The elimination of the payroll tax reduction is a start but sooner rather than later the Piper needs to be paid by us to the tune of several thousands more per year.

It's not perfect as it disproportionally effects the poor but a value added tax would be one way to bring in the big numbers we need to keep from bankrupting our kids.

Someone want to start a poll on realistic various ways of raising revenue?

Raising revenue? Why not admit we have a spending problem?
Can we start with cutting back on our constant foreign misadventures?
Then, let's pare down the social hammock. I'm rather tired of standing in line behind EBT holders who have a nicer car and eat better than I do. If you get government assistance, you should earn it. Retirees paid into the system; they earned it. Disabled? BS. There is almost always a job that can be found for the disabled. Mandatory drug tests and contraception for welfare benefits. Welfare recipients should go into jobs training programs and be put to work on improving our infrastructure. If they can't do that, they can pick up trash along the highway.
Why should people who got here illegally be given preference over those who are trying to enter legally? That's insane. No amnesty.
I could go on for days...

[CCGREEN]

Feel free to try again to tell me what use religion is, besides keeping ignorant savages from running amok and butchering us, although it's just as likely to prompt the aforementioned as prevent it.

No Wes. I'm to intelligent to have that argument with you. You are set in your beliefs and there is nothing wrong with that. You feel you have "trumped" me. I feel that you have not come near to even "stumping" me.
There are some things I do not argue about, religion and politics. You have your opinion and I have mine. So I see it as a draw buddy.

[Wes]

Actually, I am not set in my beliefs. If God appeared, and convinced me He was God, and not just from a sufficiently advanced civilization with technology indistinguishable from magic, I'd change my mind. As it is, god's miracles have steadily declined from creating everything to flooding the world, parting a sea and raising the dead, to occasionally appearing on toast and talking to crazy people. It is also worth noting that despite the proliferation of video capture technology, no verifiable miracles have been recorded; it's much the same with Close Encounters with Aliens.

I'm not interesting in trumping or stumping you, I was merely pointing out the fallacies in your statement about why I have a use for religion. However, as we probably will never see eye to eye and could go on with this forever, I concede to a draw.

[Uncle Fester]

Raising revenue? Why not admit we have a spending problem?
Can we start with cutting back on our constant foreign misadventures?
Then, let's pare down the social hammock. I'm rather tired of standing in line behind EBT holders who have a nicer car and eat better than I do. If you get government assistance, you should earn it. Retirees paid into the system; they earned it. Disabled? BS. There is almost always a job that can be found for the disabled. Mandatory drug tests and contraception for welfare benefits. Welfare recipients should go into jobs training programs and be put to work on improving our infrastructure. If they can't do that, they can pick up trash along the highway.
Why should people who got here illegally be given preference over those who are trying to enter legally? That's insane. No amnesty.
I could go on for days...

We have both a spending and revenue problem.

Do you think there should be no welfare program? Who pays for and administers the drug test? If contraception fails do we force an abortion or deny medical coverage for the pregnancy and leave the to child suffer? Or will churches and charities be able to shoulder the burden?

Who pays for the jobs training program? We have a monster bill coming due for a highway improvement program congress put on a credit card a year ago so should we add to it with more infrastructure works?

Who administers and gets the "deadbeats" to and from the highways to pick up trash?

I agree we need comprehensive immigration reform and if you bring a family member here they should not necessarily qualify for medicaid.

I'm not trying to raise blood pressures here. I enjoy the debate and don't take disagreements personally but I would like to hear exactly which entitlement programs should be cut and by how much. I am resigned to the fact that I will not receive the same level of benefits my parents had. The vast majority of scholars who study this issue (economists) agree that we cannot cut the budget to resolve the debt without taking us back to second or third world status so seriously where do we cut and how do we raise more revenue?

[rbaker]

BTW, Dick has accomplished his goal, which was to keep the old partisan political discussion alive and ill-informed.

No . . . Dick did not want to keep the old partisan political discussion alive and ill-informed. Dick was just interested in what percentage of Optiboarders had a change in renumeration under the new tax laws.

[shanbaum]

No . . . Dick did not want to keep the old partisan political discussion alive and ill-informed. Dick was just interested in what percentage of Optiboarders had a change in renumeration under the new tax laws.

All other things being equal, except for those who got a raise that went into effect with the New Year, everyone's net pay would be less, because of the end of the 2% reduction in the payroll tax, which everyone pays, at least at the beginning of the year (this year, you stop paying payroll tax at $113K in wages).

As someone else noted, your question was probably a little premature when posted, given that most people would just now be getting paid for the first week in 2013.

While net remuneration may change, I doubt that many of us will get renumerated. Certainly, I would resist that.

[scriptfiller]

Knew about the payroll tax thing month's ago and made plans for it. Changed my deductions on my W4 and claimed my wife and children as dependents (sole income earner here), pretty much negated the increase. Thankful a "fiscal cliff deal got done" it's a few light-years from perfect. The "rich" tax will provide a miniscule amount of "revenue". Confiscatory taxation of the populous won't make a dent in things in Washington, Washington is the problem. We had an opportunity to wipe the slate clean of the Executive branch, the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate, and we played status quo. So we will get exactly what we had the last 2 years for at least the next 2 years. The last election changed nothing. Until term limits are placed on the House of Representatives and the Senate nothing will change. People need to stop making public SERVICE a career. Salaries of the President, House of Representatives and the Senate should be indexed to the current median household income. Service should come with a little sacrifice.