StrangeSox

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Oct 23, 2013 -> 02:26 PM) It absolutely is theft, born of of greed, envy or whatever you want to call it. That has to be it!

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Oct 23, 2013 -> 02:18 PM) it doesn't matter how he makes it, as long as it is legal. He made it, not you or the Feds. he pays taxes as part of an implied social contract that we all pay our share of running the government. But when his share dwarfs everyone elses, it because punishment of his success. His share dwarfs ours because his wealth dwarfs ours, and his wealth wouldn't exist without the legitimacy of a government-backed IP system. He is in no way "punished" by paying higher taxes on his wealth that dwarfs the mean net worth of a majority of Americans by about five orders of magnitude. The wealth gap in this country has grown substantially over the past several decades; of course those at the top are going to be paying a substantial portion of total taxes when they hold a substantial portion of total wealth/income.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 23, 2013 -> 02:18 PM) Most of Obama's claimed jobs programs were just more government spending without cuts. That was never going to fly. And then Obamacare didn't help. Had he supported a bill of increased short-term federal "investment" and huge tax breaks/cuts for small/medium sized business, businesses that kept (or increased) jobs in America, and/or businesses that simply hired full time employees, I would have fully supported it. Why should a jobs program to get people back to work be tied to "huge tax breaks" for businesses?

I agree, instantaneous Medicare-for-all would have been substantially less complicated and better for society as a whole than this ham-handed market-based solution. But, again, you can't have the pre-existing condition part without something like an individual mandate. And I really am struggling to see how Republicans would be less opposed to the substantial Medicaid expansion than they are to the individual insurance mandate.

[mandatory "abolish the filibuster" comment]

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Oct 23, 2013 -> 01:36 PM) If you are telling someone that because they made X amount of money you are going to take more than half of it, for the same services that everyone else is paying less for, you are punishing them for being successful. While I might want all of Mark Cuban's money, he made something, had an idea or sold something to get the money, it is his money. Not yours. Should he pay double every time he orders a cheeseburger because he is rich? Should you pay more because you make over the poverty line? It is punishment and theft if you want to take more than half. Mark Cuban could make all of that money in large part because of the US's legal patent system and enforcement of it, no?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 23, 2013 -> 01:42 PM) Yeah, shame on the government for passing a bill that took 4 years to be implemented (and still doesn't work) The exchanges are one portion that is not working very well (at the federal level, I think most of the states that designed their own are doing okay). Many other parts have been implemented for a while (pre-existing conditions, coverage until 26, abolition of lifetime caps, Medicaid expansion) and are working fine.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 23, 2013 -> 01:42 PM) I would have much preferred a massive job spending/tax saving plan The ARRA was passed a full year before the PPACA. Obama has since proposed additional jobs plans, but they have gone nowhere in the House. I suppose you could argue that the 2010 Republican wave would never have happened if the Democrats hadn't achieved the signature policy piece they've been perusing for decades and therefore they could have held Congress and passed additional jobs plans, but I'm skeptical given how much the ARRA had to be cut down and loaded with tax cuts to pass even when Democrats held both houses and the Presidency in the worst period of the recession.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 23, 2013 -> 01:35 PM) I'm pretty sure there is convincing data out there showing that as the cigarette taxes have gone up, more and more people have stopped using them. Sin taxes went up as restrictions on where you can smoke, smoking advertising, and the overall social acceptance of smoking changed as well, though.

A lot of people, including well-off people, completely misunderstand our graduated marginal tax system. They think that if you're paying 20% at $249,999 of income and you get a raise that puts you in the 30% $250,000 bracket, you're going to be taxed at 30% on your entire income.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 23, 2013 -> 01:31 PM) Goes along with the 90 MILLION able bodied people in this country not working right now. CCC and WPA!

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Oct 23, 2013 -> 09:11 AM) Maybe it's because we grew up with email and I am in technology but I dont understand people just flat out opening attachments. It makes no sense to me. "It came from somebody within the company!!" Yeah, random dude who you don't know and who has never contacted you before, probably shouldn't open that .exe

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Oct 23, 2013 -> 10:19 AM) Rich people in this country really could pay more. Ultimately they are the ones with the most to lose if the govt goes sideways. Which is why its tremendously shortsighted what they are doing. This applies to gutting the social safety net as well.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 23, 2013 -> 11:11 AM) http://www.weeklystandard.com/ QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 23, 2013 -> 01:12 PM) if they wanted to write an honest article I think I spotted the problem!

whoops, forgot to put in any waiver claims last night

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 23, 2013 -> 08:02 AM) Why would you compare Jay to Manning in this situation? Peyton has long been one of the absolute best at getting rid of the ball extremely fast and not taking sacks, to compare the Bears new line to his veteran line just seems disingenuous in comparison. What is the average? How much have the bears improved from last year to this year? And putting the spotlight on Mills doesnt seem fair either. For a kid that wasnt even expected to play, having him out there not false starting and holding his own while he learns on the job is pretty impressive to me. That alone has been such a huge improvement and unexpected given that we have two rookies on the right side.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 14, 2013 -> 09:59 AM) Yeah, we're a 5 attorney, 10 person total office, so it makes no sense to have a full time IT person. We actually spend more on IT crap than I think it's worth. Sadly, for whatever reason, our email scanner didn't catch this and then my secretary opened up an email she shouldn't have. Paying the ransom did seem to work btw. Now i'm looking into signing up for a better email filter service. Anyone have any recommendations? We just had about five people get hit with this thing, way to go IT department!

The ARRA passed about a year ahead of the PPACA?

Woo!

Get this asshole out of the game

Get this bum out of the league

Harry Douglas was a great pickup in both of my leagues

Why do we need a balanced budget? Show your math.

We don't need to balance the budget, especially when we still have unemployment over 7%.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 18, 2013 -> 01:20 PM) The cost of doing business in the past was considerably less too - no health insurance, workers comp benefits, overtime, annual income increases, etc. Yes, the rich execs got richer, but i'm sure if you looked at the numbers the cost of employing one person today versus 1950 is remarkably different. If you look at income shares and wealth shares, it's pretty remarkably different, too. But they had health insurance, workers comp, overtime, annual raises etc. back in the 50's. American labor was strongest in the 50's and 60's.