Crash,

I don't have a problem with some cutting of the military, however the world is not a safe place, and I firmly believe that those who beat their swords into plowshares, will plow for those who did not. We are a hated country, and histrocially there are many who want to do us wrong.  The first to suffer in those atrocities will be the poor and those who can't take care of themselves. I do believe we need to take care of our elderly and the most poor better than we do, but for every one person I know who gets denied government benefits I see two or three more who either do not deserve them or are milking the system. People in this country have their priorities in the wrong place. If you have an I-phone, a running vehicle, cable television, and the internet you are about10 times wealthier than the majority of the world's population, yet these same individuals get food stamps and a Medicaid card which they use to treat their hypertension and diabetes because of thier obesity. They may not can afford insurance, but they will wear the latest shoes and attend a professional football or basketball game where the tickets will be close to $100, while smoking two packs a cigarettes aday.  These images are what causes people to lose faith in the system which appears to award those who will not work and penalize thru taxes those who do.  Until we can figure out a method to fix some of these injustices the real poor, sick, and infirm will continue to be used as pawns in a game that has no real winner.

you don't think trying to be the 'world police' is more draining on our 'system' than the fraud in the welfare system? after searching for statistics on 'welfare fraud' the average 'program' runs at about 3.5% 'fraud payment'.. the largest 'fraud' occurs in  'medicaid' at around 8%. kinda makes you wonder.

Yes, I do think trying to police the world is costly, but in some instances I had rather the fight be there than here in my own back yard. Do you think groups like ISIS and Hamas only hvae eyes for the territoty in which they fight today?  If so I have some beachfront property in Idaho to sell you.  They will not rest till the infidels are put down. They don't care if you are liberal or conservative, you will either worship the way they want or you will die.

Alas, the reported welfare fraud of 3.5%....what a joke.  This number is a falacy and anyone who is familar with the program or worked with elements of it know it to be incorrect.  No one ever tells how they come up with this low percentage, but my guess is that this is the actual number they prosecute. People are constantly selling their cards for crack or booze.  There is an entire black market underground for this trade. People driving Lincoln and big F-150's pulling bass boats who are on Medicaid. I see people (know them personally) who draw disability checks whose only disability is either chronic biscuit poisoning or lazy azz.  My grandfather worked until the day he died at his job at the age of 73.  He never drew a government check for disability despite the fact that he had suffered massive back injuries in his middle ages.  He said the pain was not bad enough to keep him from working.  Today it is not uncommon to see 20 years olds down at the offices applying for disability because of chronic fatgue syndrome, degenerative arthritis, or bad joints. 3.5% is just wishful thinking Crash. There is room to cut in every government program.  No senator goes to Washington without sticking some pork in there somewhere,

Teyates,

 

US fraud auditors and investigators ignore a tool, used extensively overseas, called tax clue.  Those suspected of fraud have their lifestyle examined.  If, they pay few taxes and/or draw government subsides, but have have expensive vehicles, boats, homes, etc,. their actual income is estimated and a tax lien made.  I've heard of farmers who drive new Mercedes, almost annually, show up in old Citroen Ugly Ducklings, the ones that look like sheet metal VW beetles, at government examinations. Homes on the outside that look like hovels, but manor houses inside.

the governor of mass. thought the same way as you.. he initiated his own 'investigation' to show just how rampant 'fraud' had become, in his state, it came out to 1.8%, roughly.. i'm sure he was just 'dreaming'.

Teyates, the first check I got was $600.  A close family member didn't get a check, when they called a government official, that was the explaination.  If you got a bigger refund than the amount of tax paid in, you didn't get a Bush check.  In other words, the check was a way of letting the poor overloaded taxpayer get some of their money back.  If you paid all that "fair share" in and didn't get a Bush check, you really need to investigate why.

Jt needs to find out what he's talking about.

Jt needs to find out what he's talking about.

Please explain the Bush checks to me and the followers of this forum. Tell why some got them and some didn't. I bet you can't.  But you have no trouble telling how I am misinformed about everything. Of course, when you do that, you have no proof of that either.

Unlike you, if I didn't know what I was talking about I wouldn't have posted. Do some research. Oh, right, you don't know how. You have to wait for someone to email or tell you.

Best, give the reason why you think I am wrong. Do some fact checking on the Bush checks. They were tax reductions for the prior year, if you had already got back all you had paid in, no check. Teyates, you got back all the tax you paid in???  Maybe someone else got to your mail box and got the check? If you are still convinced that I am wrong, post it for all to see.

Concerning the two years that there was a "making work pay" tax credit.  It was 2009 and 2010.  On form 1040, it was line 63.  On form 1040a, it was line 40.  If you still think that I am wrong, post it for all to see.

 

Haha....jt....No jt, I did not get any of the 5 digit federal tax I paid back from the government.  Actually during that period I even overpaid one year by $600.  Not hard to do when you have to estimate how much you send in every three months.  I got a letter from the IRD saying I had overpaid them $600. I also got another letter telling me that although I OVERPAID them $600, I had not made EQUAL payments over the year (self employed make them quarterly), therefore I was assessed a $200 fine for my failure to pay evenly. I managed to talk to one of the IRS reps and told them I did not make the same amount of money every month, and paid more at the end of the year. They did not return my money.

Alas, like I said some of us despite paying huge amounts of taxes do not get those little perks. While those who make huge exhorbitant amounts of money can figure out ways to pay far less than either of us.

Poor clueless jt. I'd love to see your computer. I can't imagine a computer that apparently allows email but doesn't allow the simplest thing as search. SMH.

jt is correct about the boosh checks... sorry, best.. once again, you're belittling someone for telling the truth... why does that bother you so much?

t sometimes I wonder about you. You try to paint a picture that Obama is doing a horrible job when you know good and well boner and the repug controlled House is bringing this country to it's knees in like manner of bush the liar.

 

the thieves of the bush administration are keeping us down on every front.

 

you repugs despise the fact that the president is a black man and you will see the nation in hell before you will admit it.

Best, give the reason why you think I am wrong. Do some fact checking on the Bush checks. They were tax reductions for the prior year, if you had already got back all you had paid in, no check. 

Concerning the two years that there was a "making work pay" tax credit.  It was 2009 and 2010.  On form 1040, it was line 63.  On form 1040a, it was line 40.  If you still think that I am wrong, post it for all to see.

 

Poor clueless jt. I'd love to see your computer. I can't imagine a computer that apparently allows email but doesn't allow the simplest thing as search. SMH.

 

Come on Best, tell me and the others where I am wrong.  I did use my computer to check on the tax forms for 2009 and 2010.  Why don't you try to research that way? 

Come on I'm waiting for you to show me where I am wrong. You post an awful lot of posts about me being clueless.  Back up your posts.  The reason you don't, is because you can't stand to be shown to be wrong.

The Making Work Pay Tax Credit

In 2009 and 2010, the Making Work Pay provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provided a refundable tax credit of up to $400 for working individuals and up to $800 for married taxpayers filing joint returns. Most wage earners benefited from larger paychecks in 2009 and 2010 as a result of the changes made to the federal income tax withholding tables to implement the Making Work Pay tax credit.

 

http://www.irs.gov/uac/The-Making-Work-Pay-Tax-Credit

Uh, you do realize that in actually Obama has presided over a budget deficit that has been cut in half from his predecessors  during his admin don't you ?

 

When all the main indicators are added up, Obama will go down as one of the best.

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Almost six years in and the answer is NO!  Expect divine intervention shortly?

In barely 6 years, Obama has managed to drag this country out of a depression, second only to the Great Depression, with the Republican Leadership screaming and howling the whole way ,trying their dead level best to further collapse the economy of our nation in order to discredit the Black president. Well, he showed them , but the really sad part is for us to contemplate, just how much better off we as a nation could have been by now if the Republicans in Congress had worked to put back together the Humpty Dumpty that the former president broke in so many pieces, instead of working tirelessly in an attempt to further scatter said Humpty.

 

I always get a chuckle out the economically illiterate simpletons that think 1 person pulls the strings on  a $17t economy. LOL

jt is correct of course. it's getting bothersome to dire&co

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Have you not considered the fact the reason for the better economic numbers for the last two years is sequestration? That's as if those numbers were all that great. Divided government was one of the reasons for Clinton's "surplus" as well. If two spendthrifts are locked in a fight on how to blow the dough, it doesn't get spent.

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What a crock!  There were recessions as bad before. this one since WWII.However, the recovery is the worst since the Depression.  National debt will be doubted.  The Fed is uncertain what to do next. The EU is out of Keynesian ideas and believed heading for another recession, which will drag the US down.  China is a cypher at present.  If their economy goes down, servicing our debt will be nasty as they sell off US Treasuries increasing future interest rates.

       
       

But we all know that y are bat Chet crazy and actually have  no real clue.

 

 

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Seeweed, lacking anything of note, you retreat to the realm of crush and sling insults. Really pitiful reply!

funny how dire has these little 'retreat to insults' posts he makes.. and i never see one directed at the rt. wingnuts who do it daily! kinda hypocritical, don'tcha think?

Economic FACT: It's a MYTH that Clinton EVER had a surplus.

 

We can debate and disagree on political ideologies all day...but that doesn't change numbers. Facts is Facts, as they say.

 

All of this can be SIMPLY verified by going to the US Treasury website.

 

The general claim is that Clinton had a budget surplus in FY1998, FY1999, and FY2000. And also that the national debt had been reduced by $360 billion in his last three years...except the claim is FACTUALLY FALSE.

 

Clinton had a budget DEFICIT in each and every year he was in office. Again verified by the above GOVERNMENT website. The deficit did decrease the last few years but the deficit had a massive increase his last budget year. So the growing deficit started the last year of Clinton...not the 1st year of Bush.

 

So obviously...according to the governments own numbers...Clinton DID NOT EVER have a surplus and he didn't leave Bush with a surplus to squander.

So how and why are these claims made and repeated? Well in DC up is down...the sky ain't blue, water's not wet, etc.

We have a "National Debt". It is made up of "Public Debt" and "Intragovernmental Debt". I'll link to an article that explains all this but basically during those years the PUBLIC debt went down...BUT...the Intragovernmental Debt went up...and it went up by a greater amount which OF COURSE made the NATIONAL debt go up.

 

ECONOMIC FACT: when someone claims Clinton paid down the national debt, it's just a plain and simple LIE...the national debt went up each and every year. What did happen was to pay down the PUBLIC debt...BUT done so by BORROWING in the form of Intragovernmental debt...mostly from Social Security.

 

Facts are facts...and lies are lies...Stop believing the lie.

 

SEE HERE FOR COMPLETE EXPLANATION