Skip to main content

The Real Housewives of Wall Street
Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs?

America has two national budgets, one official, one unofficial. The official budget is public record and hotly debated: Money comes in as taxes and goes out as jet fighters, DEA agents, wheat subsidies and Medicare, plus pensions and bennies for that great untamed socialist menace called a unionized public-sector workforce that Republicans are always complaining about.

Most Americans know about that budget. What they don't know is that there is another budget of roughly equal heft, traditionally maintained in complete secrecy. After the financial crash of 2008, it grew to monstrous dimensions, as the government attempted to unfreeze the credit markets by handing out trillions to banks and hedge funds.

Now, following an act of Congress that has forced the Fed to open its books from the bailout era, this unofficial budget is for the first time becoming at least partially a matter of public record. Staffers in the Senate and the House, whose queries about Fed spending have been rebuffed for nearly a century, are now poring over 21,000 transactions and discovering a host of outrages and lunacies in the "other" budget. It is as though someone sat down and made a list of every individual on earth who actually did not need emergency financial assistance from the United States government, and then handed them the keys to the public treasure. The Fed sent billions in bailout aid to banks in places like Mexico, Bahrain and Bavaria, billions more to a spate of Japanese car companies, more than $2 trillion in loans each to Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, and billions more to a string of lesser millionaires and billionaires with Cayman Islands addresses. "Our jaws are literally dropping as we're reading this," says Warren Gunnels, an aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. "Every one of these transactions is outrageous."

If you want to learn how the shadow budget works, follow along. This is what welfare for the rich looks like.

Read more
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Welfare for the rich...what a joke. 97 to 98% of all the tax revenue the Federal Government collects is TAKEN from 2 to 3% of tax payers...more specifically, those RICH tax payers that just aren't doing enough, according to some of you complaining. Let break that down for you...that is like earning $100 per month only to have the government take $98 of your earnings in taxes. Something like 52 to 53% pay no taxes at all but through the structure of the tax laws, they are able to draw a nice refund without first funding.

The rich people are the Captains of industry that create jobs and make the economy move, and nothing will be gained by taxing them even deeper. It is not the goverenments role to pump up the economy with tax payer dollars.

"what welfare for the rich looks..." It looks like a never ending waste of hsrd earned money squandered on non-productive people sitting on their butts waiting on their hand outs...entitlements...free cell phones, govt. credit cards for groceries, Obama health care, cash for clunkers, etc.
quote:
Originally posted by SHELDIVR:
Welfare for the rich...what a joke. 97 to 98% of all the tax revenue the Federal Government collects is TAKEN from 2 to 3% of tax payers...more specifically, those RICH tax payers that just aren't doing enough, according to some of you complaining. Let break that down for you...that is like earning $100 per month only to have the government take $98 of your earnings in taxes. Something like 52 to 53% pay no taxes at all but through the structure of the tax laws, they are able to draw a nice refund without first funding.

The rich people are the Captains of industry that create jobs and make the economy move, and nothing will be gained by taxing them even deeper. It is not the goverenments role to pump up the economy with tax payer dollars.

"what welfare for the rich looks..." It looks like a never ending waste of hsrd earned money squandered on non-productive people sitting on their butts waiting on their hand outs...entitlements...free cell phones, govt. credit cards for groceries, Obama health care, cash for clunkers, etc.


"American by birth, Southern by the grace of God." and ignorant by choice.
quote:
Originally posted by dolemitejb:
quote:
97 to 98% of all the tax revenue the Federal Government collects is TAKEN from 2 to 3% of tax payers


This isn't true.

The income tax accounts for less than half of total federal government revenue. Beyond that, the top 2%-3% still don't account for 98% of income tax revenue.


Really...?? Where do they get the other 50%....General Electric?? I think not. An extremely small portion of the U. S. population carries the financial burden for those who will not, do not work or contribute. Hurl all of the verbal insults you like, it doesn't alter the facts...approximately 52% of the population contribute ZERO in income tax and yet draw a refund because the tax code is structured to spread the wealth around.
quote:
Really...?? Where do they get the other 50%....General Electric?? I think not.


It changes from year to year, but an approximate breakdown is as follows:

45% income tax
36% payroll tax
12% corporate tax
3% excise tax
4% other taxes

quote:
Hurl all of the verbal insults you like


I haven't insulted anyone.

quote:
it doesn't alter the facts...approximately 52% of the population contribute ZERO in income tax and yet draw a refund because the tax code is structured to spread the wealth around.


That's pretty accurate. About half of the population has an adjusted gross income that reduces their tax burden in such a way that they only provide about 2%-3% of income tax revenue. That is very, VERY different than saying 2%-3% of the population account for 98% of total federal revenue. It takes roughly the top 50% of taxpayers to account for 98% of income tax revenue. That portion of revenue ends up being a little less than 40% of total revenue.


“Wake me up when the mailman comes with my government check.”

About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability.

That's according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research organization.

The bottom 40 percent, on average, make a profit from the federal income tax, meaning they get more money in tax credits than they would otherwise owe in taxes. For those people, the government sends them a payment.

Here's how they did it, according to Deloitte Tax:

Read all about it!
quote:
Originally posted by Winston Niles Rumfoord:
quote:
Originally posted by dolemitejb:

45% income tax
36% payroll tax
12% corporate tax
3% excise tax
4% other taxes

Whatever you want to call it, the capitalists, businessmen, and workers pay it, and the dems use it to buy the votes of the idle moochers, all the while demonizing the producers.


There are a lot of people who would love to be producers, but alas, one of the people you idolize sent their job overseas so he could get a fat bonus.
Now, the fatcat you idolize says he owes nothing to the economic system he takes from and owes nothing to pay the repurcussions for his decisions.
How moronic is all that?
quote:
Originally posted by SHELDIVR:
quote:
Originally posted by dolemitejb:
quote:
97 to 98% of all the tax revenue the Federal Government collects is TAKEN from 2 to 3% of tax payers


This isn't true.

The income tax accounts for less than half of total federal government revenue. Beyond that, the top 2%-3% still don't account for 98% of income tax revenue.


Really...?? Where do they get the other 50%....General Electric?? I think not. An extremely small portion of the U. S. population carries the financial burden for those who will not, do not work or contribute. Hurl all of the verbal insults you like, it doesn't alter the facts...approximately 52% of the population contribute ZERO in income tax and yet draw a refund because the tax code is structured to spread the wealth around.


And amazingly about 52% think the tax structure is just about right. I hope they enjoy spending my money.
quote:
Originally posted by The Propagandist:
quote:
Originally posted by ferrellj:

And amazingly about 52% think the tax structure is just about right. I hope they enjoy spending my money.


Too bad GE doesn't share your attitude.

________________________________________

You socialist keep bringing up GE.
GE and Obama are inseprable. With the loop holes that Obama's
boys have created for his elite friends in so called renewable
energy. They end up not only not paying taxes, they get taxpayer
money given to them as a bonus. Or should we say Chinese money.

Keep Marching,
Skippy Cool
quote:
Originally posted by skippy delepepper:
quote:
Originally posted by The Propagandist:
quote:
Originally posted by ferrellj:

And amazingly about 52% think the tax structure is just about right. I hope they enjoy spending my money.


Too bad GE doesn't share your attitude.

________________________________________

You socialist keep bringing up GE.
GE and Obama are inseprable. With the loop holes that Obama's
boys have created for his elite friends in so called renewable
energy. They end up not only not paying taxes, they get taxpayer
money given to them as a bonus. Or should we say Chinese money.

Keep Marching,
Skippy Cool


Silly me! All this time I thought the problem was LOW taxes on the rich. Actually, as exemplified by GE, the problem is NO taxes on the rich.
quote:
Originally posted by SHELDIVR:
quote:
Originally posted by b50m:
The problem is loop holes and bonuses to move overseas.


The problem is an "entitlement society" that wouldn't get off the couch unless it was on fire...too many users and not enough producers of wealth.

That too. It's not a simple, 'tax the rich', and all is better.
Both the Ryan plan and the debt commission's plan recommend cutting out most income tax and corporate tax loopholes. Both also recommend ending government subsidies to private businesses.

When, Obama made the statement that Ryan wanted to give oil companies a break at the expense of the elderly, I knew he was either ignorant, or a demagogue. I'm going with the later.
quote:
Originally posted by SHELDIVR:
quote:
Originally posted by dolemitejb:
quote:
97 to 98% of all the tax revenue the Federal Government collects is TAKEN from 2 to 3% of tax payers


This isn't true.

The income tax accounts for less than half of total federal government revenue. Beyond that, the top 2%-3% still don't account for 98% of income tax revenue.


Really...?? Where do they get the other 50%....General Electric?? I think not. An extremely small portion of the U. S. population carries the financial burden for those who will not, do not work or contribute. Hurl all of the verbal insults you like, it doesn't alter the facts...approximately 52% of the population contribute ZERO in income tax and yet draw a refund because the tax code is structured to spread the wealth around.


Turn off Faux News, get some information, and stop sounding like a fool, if you expect anyone to pay any attention to you.

Add Reply

Post

Untitled Document
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×