Comments on: WHITE HOUSE: Tax Rates On The Rich Will Go Up

By: montanabill

montanabill — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:36:00 +0000

Obstructionism is in the eye of the beholder. Both parties have certainly participated.
I can’t really suggest many sites because I rarely depend on any of them for information. I peruse sites of both the left and the right to be sure that I’m not missing information that one side or the other doesn’t wish to discuss. The latest example is the Benghazi incident. If I had depended on this site or MSNBC for information, I wouldn’t know that security was botched from the beginning, that the people who died were expecting help, or that the administration knew from the beginning that it wasn’t the response to a video.
I come by my beliefs from experience. Raised by parents who suffered through the real depression and were very poor for the majority of my childhood. I learned to work for what I wanted at a very early age. I put myself through college. It took eight years and five universities. But I now have graduate degrees. I’ve had a variety of careers, worked for fortune 100 companies and very small start-ups. I’ve started a number of businesses. The early ones didn’t make it, the latter ones did.
I discovered that starting a business that will succeed means working very long hours, no days off, no vacations. I’ve been laid off, out right fired and even been made obsolete. Each time, I did whatever I had to do to get back on my feet. A lot of those jobs weren’t much fun. Along the way, I’ve recovered from teenage polio. I recognized in my 20′s that I should never depend on SS (there was no Medicare) and made my own plans for my retirement years. My wife has supported me through thick and thin. It became a habit to save for things we wanted rather than to go into debt for them after we learned about debt the hard way.
I’ve never taken one dime of government assistance, no student loans, no unemployment. Because I achieved my dreams, I donate my SS to veteran relief funds and can fortunately donate substantially to charities. I still own companies and employ quite a few people. We have done well, even in this economy. My companies are either S corps. or LLC, so all taxes on earnings are paid at my personal rate (the highest possible) and contrary to popular belief, the only deductions I get are the Standard Deduction we all get and some for charity.

You can still achieve the American Dream of succeeding at your chosen profession, but every year, new regulations are piled on top of old regulations that make the climb ever harder. And the pace has accelerated. Soon we will be like Europe, where precious few even attempt it.

Here are a few of conservative web sites that I review from time to time:
Heritage Foundation (heritage dot org) and the Cato Institute (cato dot org) and the Media Research Center (mrc dot org). For factual information, nothing beats getting the real data from government and for quick summaries, try Wikipedia.

By: montanabill

montanabill — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 13:40:00 +0000

In most cases I would not go to a chiropractor, but the one I go to has a very long and public, proven record, particularly with sports related problems. Except for an occasional bout with sciatica, I use see regular physician, who now that he takes Medicare, has to be scheduled about 45 days in advance for a 3 minute ‘how are you’. My wife will not put up with that and goes to a cash only physician where her time with the doctor is typically 30 minutes.

By: ralphkr

ralphkr — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 07:36:00 +0000

I remember a few decades ago when a number of entities, both public and private, agreed to aid in cutting the unemployment rate by offering early retirement to employees and even sweetening the deal by not only giving them full benefits up to 10 years early but paying them bonuses and thereby opening up positions for current employee promotion and leaving entry level vacancies available to new employees.

You have bought into the fable that overall life expectancy has increased without considering that it has only increased marginally for the lower middle class and less than 2 years for those who have been struggling to get into middle class earners (in case you missed it, those 2 groups make up the majority of the work force) and these are the people most dependent upon SS. The higher the earning group you consider the more their lifespan has increased with the greatest increase appear in the top 10% on the income graph and those people retire whenever they wish and are not really a factor in the unemployment picture. What is needed is for the bottom 60% of the income group to increase their income, perhaps even up to a survivable wage, since this is the group that is most apt to spend any extra money and that is what drives an economy.

For some inexplicable reason the Republicans (a supposedly business oriented party) are unable to understand that people can not spend money that they do not have and that any retail establishment that has no customers shall not need to restock their full stock rooms which means that distributors have no business, and then the manufacturers shall have to shut down since the distributors do not need to buy stock, and then we have a deep recession or even a depression.

Your suggestion that the work force should be forced to take a later retirement (which shall do nothing to increase the overall work force but shall shut out new, younger, prospective employees) and reduce worker hours (which shall increase the number of workers) shall not help the economy because it merely results in more workers sharing the same amount a money. For example, if you are now paying 100 workers 40 hours a week and cut their hours to under 30 hours (which shall save the company by not needing give them health and retirement benefits) you shall now have 134 workers but they shall each be drawing 25% less per week (ignoring the fact that most businesses pay less to new employees than to seasoned employees) so more people shall have jobs but they shall each have less money to spend and most likely shall reduce their income to the point where they shall be on food stamps which means it shall not aid in combating a recession. TaDa! indeed.

By: jarheadgene

jarheadgene — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:58:00 +0000

Nice…most people I know don’t use Chiropractors at all, because their insurance doesn’t acknowledge Chiropracty as legit. Didn’t know Medicare pays anything for it. Awesome.

By: jarheadgene

jarheadgene — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:36:00 +0000

Not a very nice joke…I understand it is just a joke…probably plays well while singing songs around the burning cross campfire. Just before the Scary stories start like the one about President Obama WHIPPING Romney’s A$$ in a general election by well over 100 electoral votes. Yes, even while being extremely outspent and voter suppression being utilized in 13 states. Enough to give any “Hooded” camper nightmares.

By: jarheadgene

jarheadgene — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:25:00 +0000

Well….HELL YES…..after all I’m still waiting for my Obamaphone. What do you think I voted for. Not because The GOP is full of Corruption, Scandal, Greed, Bigotry or Misogynists. And not because Romney and Ryan are 100% liars…..I just want a new phone.

By: montanabill

montanabill — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:25:00 +0000

I recently visited a chiropractor well known for his ability to help with sciatica. According to the statement I received from Medicare, the doctor billed $50 for my visit. He spent 10 minutes with me and I had another 20 minutes of machine treatment. Medicare paid $20 and allowed the doctor to charge a $5 copay. So the doctor was paid $25 for my 30 minute visit. I have reviewed the statements on compensation provided to my regular practitioner and while the compensation is slighter higher, the reality is that it is barely enough to allow 3-5 minutes of professional time. Compensation to hospitals is much higher, but it is because they bill for an over abundance of tests, services and get a much higher compensation for medication. It is one reason why many physicians are selling their practices to hospitals.
Now that Obamacare is kicking in, physicians and practitioners who used to supplement the meager Medicare compensation with higher charges to insurance or cash customers will no longer be able to use insurance to cover for Medicare underpayment. So, we are seeing practices move to cash only leaving us with a two level medical system. Those who can afford to pay cash and get the level of service they want, and those who will increasingly have to rely on over-crowded and rationed service. If a physician cannot move to a cash practice, will not work under hospital management or accept an over-work, under-compensation environment, they will simply move to another profession. They are well enough educated to do it.
Make no mistake. It is already happening.

Are there charlatans who scheme to over-bill Medicare? Absolutely.
Are there charlatans who scheme to over-bill on defense contracts, commerce department contracts, labor department contracts, treasury contracts…in fact, you name the branch of government,…absolutely.

It appears your solution to all problems is raising the contribution cap or taxes on the wealthy. Well, that is happening because of Obamacare . It is the additional 3.6% tax on high incomes already in place that Obama never talks about when he proposes his 4.5% income tax hike. The result is a nearly 8.1% tax hike on the high earners and small business owners. Sadly, neither will have any noticeable impact.

By: jarheadgene

jarheadgene — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:19:00 +0000

Well, so far they haven’t been as bad as Romania’s Ceausescu ….but further elections are starting to look pretty dim for Mr. McConnell, Mr. Boehner, Mr. Cantor and Mr. RYAN.

By: jarheadgene

jarheadgene — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:57:00 +0000

Love your post Artie….It goes further back than that. Cheney is a NIXON re-tread. And like a re-treaded tire, they have a tendency to blow apart all at once, just like the GOP is now.

By: jarheadgene

jarheadgene — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:49:00 +0000

And yet I saw McConnell and two other Senators, just 2 days ago…..whining about “protecting the job creators” and refusal AT ALL cost to raise taxes on 2%.
The only way to get through to these KNUCKLEHEADS….VOTE them out.
BYE BYE McCONNELL to you and any uncompromising bastard like you. Look up how much money he has received from big oil…and don’t get me started on Grove Norquist. He is as UNAMERICAN as you can get…..a bribery artist and loudmouth.