John Boehner Gives One Minute Fiscal Cliff Press Conference

[InstigatinMofo]

John Boehner Gives One Minute Fiscal Cliff Press Conference, And Then Storms Off Without Taking Questions

[Bro]

"Tomorrow, the House will pass legislation to make permanent tax relief for every American," Boehner said. "Then the president will have a decision to make. He can call on Senate Democrats to pass that bill. Or he can be responsible for the largest tax increase in American history."

Then he stormed off stage.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/boehn...#ixzz2FY48mfft

He's pushing to make Bush tax cuts permanent. He doesn't realize that America voted against that. Once again holding America hostage.

Republican scum.

[Bro]

[SiriusDawg]

[SouthernListen]

This puts it in perspective. Both sides are laughing at you for buying their BS. Keep drinking the kool aid.

Congressional Spending Problem in Easy to Understand Format

By Michael Shedlock12/21/2012

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Since 2000, how much has your average hourly wage gone up?
If you are in the upper crust, the answer may be staggering. If not, perhaps the following chart more closely resembles your experience.
Average Hourly Earnings 2000-2012

Just the Facts Ma'am

• The average hourly earnings was $13.75 on January 1, 2000.
• The average hourly earnings is currently $19.84.
• Since 2000, average hourly earnings are up 44.29%

Bear in mind, those are averages. Don't be surprised if you are much worse off because of distributional skew (huge wage increases at the high end pull the average up).
Moreover, the above chart does not reflect sales taxes, property taxes, state income taxes, gasoline taxes, fees, etc., all of which are way higher now than in 2000. In other words, the chart reflects average hourly wages, not spendable income.
Actual spendable income is up far less than 44%.
It's a peculiar thing how the CPI does not properly account for tax hikes.
While pondering those thoughts, please consider federal spending.
Federal Spending

The following table will show without a doubt the purported "revenue problem" in Congress, is without a doubt really an "out of control spending problem".

Problem in a Nutshell

• Average salaries are up 44%.
• US spending is up 112%.

The idea behind this post comes from a friend, Bob Gudas.
The numbers are from OMB Historical Tables. The spreadsheet is from Table 3.1 Outlays by Superfunction and Function: 1940-2017.
I downloaded the excel spreadsheet, hid all columns except 2000 and 2012, then calculated the percentage difference discarding a few columns where the numbers were negative or the calculations infinite.
Military Spending

Wages are up 44%, military spending is up 145%, total outlays are up 112%.
Let's dig deeper.
What are veteran's affairs programs and homeland security? By any rational measure of sanity, those programs constitute defense spending.
How much of NASA is really defense spending? How much of department of education spending is free tuition for those putting in military service? What about the department of state? How much of the cost of building the embassy in Iraq and other places is buried there?
Let's go further yet and investigate the 2012 OMB budget. Specifically, consider the separate budget item of $96.7 billion for "Overseas Contingency Operations".
Where was that line item in 2000?
What about the "National Intelligence Program" at 52.6 billion? Is that not defense?
Let's ignore all of that and simply total up Defense, Homeland Security, and Veteran's Affairs.

• 2000 Total (281,028 + 13,159 + 47,044) = 341,231
• 2012 Total (688,254 + 60,443 + 129,186) = 877,883
• Percentage Increase 157%

I suggest defense spending is out of control, as is nearly everything else.
Medicare and Medicaid
Medicare and Medicaid are not broken out in the spreadsheet, so here are the numbers from the Fiscal Year 2013 Budget (which contains the most current estimate of 2012 spending), and the Fiscal Year 2002 Budget (which contains actual spending for 2000).
Medicare 2000: 200,588
Medicare 2012: 480,202
Medicaid 2000: 117,744
Medicaid 2012: 283,597
Medicare spending is up 139%
Medicaid spending is up 140%
Where's the Problem?

All things considered, what's the bigger problem? Failure to collect more taxes, or out of control spending?
It's Only Make Believe

Regardless of your answer to the preceding question, one thing is for certain: The purported effort to balance the budget is nothing more than an exercise in make believe.
With a tip of the hat to Conway Twitty I offer this musical tribute.

Can we get President Obama, Ben Bernanke, and John Boehner to do remake? If so, we need background vocals. I propose Nancy Pelosi, Dick Cheney, Hank Paulson, Barney Frank, Tim Geithner, along with international rock stars Angela Merkel, Shinzo Abe, and Mario Monti.
We just need one slight change in the lyrics.
People see us everywhere.
They think "we" really care.
But myself, I can't deceive,
I know it's only make believe.
Source: Global [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]Economic[/COLOR][/COLOR] Analysis

[HeinousMark]

"Boehner"

[SiriusDawg]

This puts it in perspective. Both sides are laughing at you for buying their BS. Keep drinking the kool aid.

Well no, most are simply laughing at Republicans who raised the debt limit countless times yet suddenly care about it.

[InstigatinMofo]

God it must suck to be a GOP mouthpiece these days. All the lies are not working, the Democrats have grown a spine and you can just here folks like the anchor Gregg Jarrett, just going through the motions when making shit up and trying to steer the conversation.
This my friends is what it looks and sounds like when an ideology hits the skids after being in favor for the last 40 years (Reagan, morning in America, tax cuts for the rich, trickle down, supply side economics).




Democrat Chris Van Hollen Destroys Fox News' Fiscal Cliff Propaganda -- The Fox anchor was trying to blame the President for not talking to Republicans. Van Hollen replied "Why is that? It's because Boehner walked away from the talks he was having with the president. It's a matter of public record."