Don't b.s. me, bro

I'm not as dumb as I look, you know. In deference to my finely-tuned bullshit detector, opinions are expressed, arguments are made, bullshit is called out.

13 Apr 11

Filed under: obama taxes

“Were individuals at every income level taxed at a flat rate of, say, 20%, the wealthy would bear and pay back more as a matter of course. Twenty percent of $200,000 is a bigger number than 20% of $20,000. What Mr Obama means is that the wealthy ought to give up a larger percentage of their income. It’s rather less intuitive that fairness demands that the wealthy not only pay more in taxes, but pay a larger percentage of income. But let’s accept that fairness does require it. Anyway, high-earners in America do pay higher rates. In 2008, the top 1% paid 38% of all federal income taxes, and the top 5% paid 58%. Indeed, America is the industrialised world’s champion of income-tax progressivity! If any country’s upper-crust pays its fair share, America’s does.”

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Obama’s budget plan: Unseriously unfair | The Economist (via jeffmiller)

It’s funny how Obama never mention details like this. Huh.

Just an amazing coincidence, I guess.

(via jeffmiller)

15 Jan 11

Filed under: taxes government spending

CBO: We Can’t Afford Not To Spend Money. Or Something.

Extreme Budget Illogic at the CBO

Why do people take the CBO estimates of spending and revenue seriously?

They don’t even accept the true fact that tax cuts lead to overall higher tax revenues, due to economic growth, do they? Does any governing body in the entire country accept that?

It’s a pretty key point.

The other night I heard some guy on WTTW public television (channel 11 in Chicago) discussing how Illinois tax hikes would lead to some amount of extra revenue. Are you sure about that?

What about the jobs that don’t get created, or worse, end up leaving the state? What about the business owners who decide not to invest in a higher-tax climate?

What about people like me, who are fed up with the bullshit government in this state, where it is business as usual to spend money you don’t have and borrow against the future?

FACT: the budget problem in Illinois is a SPENDING problem. Not a revenue problem. Raise tax rates to whatever you want, and even if you realize revenue gains from them, which you probably won’t due to the above points, it won’t help a spending problem. You can always spend more than you make. Ask anybody with lots of credit card debt.

But for politicians, it’s easier to go crying to the taxpayers and tell them stories about poor people who will die if we don’t raise taxes, than it is to have some fiscal discipline and refrain from spending us into oblivion.

How long do we keep on pretending? ‘Cuz I’m not a big fan of pretending, as an actual adult who is not corrupt and doesn’t rely on economic redistribution — like state-funded pensions — for my future economic well-being.

All those people who wonder what the Tea Party is all about, this is it in a nutshell. And if you had no idea any of this was going on, and just believe all the b.s. in the news about how much government needs your money, it might be time to educate yourself a little bit.