I'm not sure about his lips, but his cheeks say "Store up plenty of acorns for winter."

So "taxes" are now going to be called "fees"...got it.

/That's how it works in Minnesota with Pawlenty...

In fact, he's now offering a temporary refund adjustment.

Pander, pander, pander...

Yeah like they are going to cut back on spending. Nice try, I don't buy it.

Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.

So he will just pass the huge debt along to the next administration like W...

GodsTumor: So he will just pass the huge debt along to the next administration like W...

Could you imagine 16 years worth of debt... just piling up?

Our economy would be ultra farked. Which is different than super farked which is were we are now.

GodsTumor: So he will just pass the huge debt along to the next administration like W...

It IS the Republican way... Can someone post the graph of deficits and subsequent debt under each president?

Another good reason to vote for McCain.

McCain also said he was open to the idea of helping homeowners facing foreclosure, provided they were "legitimate borrowers" and not "engaged in speculation."

That bit of pandering is worse than a no new tax pledge. How can the government get into the practice of altering contracts without screwing up te very underpinnings of American business? Answer: you cannot. That is a scary Pandora's Box. The door already opened recently on this and it should worry us all.

Don't worry... the revenues generated by the expansion of US industry in this thriving economy, coupled with increased exports around the world, will prevent the need for additional taxation in order to bring about a balanced budget.

In other news, I see my walls crawling away, and I hear the Sun.

Guess_Who: Another good reason to vote for McCain.

More debt for your kids?

FTA: "Spending restraint is why our base is not energized," he said. "I think it's very important that we send a signal to the American people we're going to stop the earmark pork-barrel spending."

Yeah, the American people are upset about earmarks and not the billions spent in Iraq each month and the general sense of incompetence in all things the current administration exudes.

McCain told ABC's "This Week" that under no circumstances would he increase taxes, and added that he could "see an argument, if our economy continues to deteriorate, for lower interest rates, lower tax rates, and certainly decreasing corporate tax rates," as well as giving people the ability to write off depreciation and eliminating the alternative minimum tax.

So, by borrowing more money, devaluating the dollar, and growing the wealth gap he's going to fix the economy. Sounds like a McCain presidency would be great for the rich at the expense of everyone else. Why do 'conservatives' dislike him again?

Well at least it's self contained and not contradictory, so you know what you are getting into. McCain doesn't forsee raising taxes, but he also doesn't forsee getting out of the multibillion dollar war on terror anytime soon. So we get more of the same, reduction in other government programs while our debt continues to rise. But hey it's not our problem to worry about, our grandchildren will be able to take care of it.

Shaggy_C: Why do 'conservatives' dislike him again?

Because he doesn't have Jesus's dick in his mouth.

lolmao666: He's full of shiat. How he plan to fund his 100 years war in Irak, or his bombing of Iran and Pakistan?

Seriously, you want to elect a moran like that who doesn't know shiat about the economy?

You misspelled the name of the country within which we are embroiled in a war. Your privileges to call others "morans" has been revoked.

Christ. I liked McCain about a year ago. But every time he opens his mouth, he makes Hillary a more attractive option. And I cannot believe I have found a candidate more repulsive than Hillary. His record is great, but he keeps saying things like this, which drive moderates and center-lefties like me that don't like Hillary away from him.

m2313: Because he doesn't have Jesus's dick in his mouth.



It's in there, he just refuses to swallow. It tastes too salty.

Check the transcript again: He said "No nude Texans".

/couldn't find a Bush 41 facepalm, so this will have to do

The Onanist: So "taxes" are now going to be called "fees"...got it.

/That's how it works in Minnesota with Pawlenty...

And Maryland with Ehrlich.

lolmao666: He's full of shiat. How he plan to fund his 100 years war in Irak, or his bombing of Iran and Pakistan?

McCain wants to bomb Iran, Obama wants to invade Pakistan. Get it right.

Deneb81: And Maryland with Ehrlich.

And Alaska with Murkowski...

Shaggy_C: It tastes too salty.

Well that explains the Duke "I've got balls of steel" Nukem mentality he keeps in foreign policy matters. He has to balance out the taste.

Year: 1954
President: Eisenhower (R)

Marginal tax rates:

up to $2,000.00 20%
$2,000.01 - $4,000.00 22%
$4,000.01 - $6,000.00 26%
$6,000.01 - $8,000.00 30%
$8,000.01 - $10,000.00 34%
$10,000.01 - $12,000.00 38%
$12,000.01 - $14,000.00 43%
$14,000.01 - $16,000.00 47%
$16,000.01 - $18,000.00 50%
$18,000.01 - $20,000.00 53%
$20,000.01 - $22,000.00 56%
$22,000.01 - $26,000.00 59%
$26,000.01 - $32,000.00 62%
$32,000.01 - $38,000.00 65%
$38,000.01 - $44,000.00 69%
$44,000.01 - $50,000.00 72%
$50,000.01 - $60,000.00 75%
$60,000.01 - $70,000.00 78%
$70,000.01 - $80,000.00 81%
$80,000.01 - $90,000.00 84%
$90,000.01 - $100,000.00 87%
$100,000.01 - $150,000.00 89%
$150,000.01 - $ 200,000.00 90%
$200,000.01 or more 91%

(Marginal rates, for those who have forgotten, means you paid 20% on your first $2000 of earnings over your exemption, 22% on your next $2000 and so on. Just like tax brackets work today. You take home more if you earn $4001 than if you earn $3999).

By the end of the Reagan years, the top rate was 28%. And we were in serious debt.

Not saying we could or would go back to anything near those rates. But, if you're wondering how we built the Interstates, sent millions to college, and paid off WWII debts... this might give you a good idea.

McCain sez he's gonna stay teh course in Iraq, maybe attack Iran and all the while lower taxes even corporate ones?

Awww, but I wanted a pony too!

Actually, make that a flying unicorn.

Lawnchair: But, if you're wondering how we built the Interstates, sent millions to college, and paid off WWII debts... this might give you a good idea.

Socialist! Everyone knows we did all of those things by believing in Jesus and a can-do spirit where people pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. Plus black people knew their place.

I have no respect for a man that feels waterboarding is torture but won't support a bill banning waterboarding because that's the party line.

Lawnchair:

Newsletter?

Hey, Anything would be welcome....

"McCain was defending his support for an extension of tax cuts sought by President Bush, which McCain voted against. The Arizona senator now says allowing the tax breaks to expire would amount to an unacceptable tax increase.

McCain's "no new taxes" statement marked a turnaround. Last September, he was forced to defend his refusal to sign a no-new tax pledge offered by the conservative Americans for Tax Reform.

"I stand on my record," he said during a televised debate in Durham, N.H. "I don't have to sign pledges."



Senator McCain sounds like he is changing his 'core beliefs'.

Again.

Lawnchair: Year: 1954
President: Eisenhower (R)

Marginal tax rates:

up to $2,000.00 20%
$2,000.01 - $4,000.00 22%
$4,000.01 - $6,000.00 26%
$6,000.01 - $8,000.00 30%
$8,000.01 - $10,000.00 34%
$10,000.01 - $12,000.00 38%
$12,000.01 - $14,000.00 43%
$14,000.01 - $16,000.00 47%
$16,000.01 - $18,000.00 50%
$18,000.01 - $20,000.00 53%
$20,000.01 - $22,000.00 56%
$22,000.01 - $26,000.00 59%
$26,000.01 - $32,000.00 62%
$32,000.01 - $38,000.00 65%
$38,000.01 - $44,000.00 69%
$44,000.01 - $50,000.00 72%
$50,000.01 - $60,000.00 75%
$60,000.01 - $70,000.00 78%
$70,000.01 - $80,000.00 81%
$80,000.01 - $90,000.00 84%
$90,000.01 - $100,000.00 87%
$100,000.01 - $150,000.00 89%
$150,000.01 - $ 200,000.00 90%
$200,000.01 or more 91%

(Marginal rates, for those who have forgotten, means you paid 20% on your first $2000 of earnings over your exemption, 22% on your next $2000 and so on. Just like tax brackets work today. You take home more if you earn $4001 than if you earn $3999).

By the end of the Reagan years, the top rate was 28%. And we were in serious debt.

Not saying we could or would go back to anything near those rates. But, if you're wondering how we built the Interstates, sent millions to college, and paid off WWII debts... this might give you a good idea.

Actually, the post WW2 boom was a direct result of the rest of the industrialized world bombing the shiat out of each other.

Lawnchair
i>Not saying we could or would go back to anything near those rates. But, if you're wondering how we built the Interstates, sent millions to college, and paid off WWII debts... this might give you a good idea.

Except since Reagan implemented his tax reform revenues achieved record levels and still grows. Unfortunately so does spending. Entitlements dominate the current budget. Defense spending including supplementals for the war equals about seven percent of GDP so it barely registers when you look at what the wefare state costs us.

High taxes are not/never the answer read Milton Friedman. he explains it better than I ever could.

DoctorWorm21045: Christ. I liked McCain about a year ago. But every time he opens his mouth, he makes Hillary a more attractive option. And I cannot believe I have found a candidate more repulsive than Hillary. His record is great, but he keeps saying things like this, which drive moderates and center-lefties like me that don't like Hillary away from him.

Well, why Hillary and not say, some other candidate currently leading in delegates and polls?

lhinds: Entitlements dominate the current budget. Defense spending including supplementals for the war equals about seven percent of GDP so it barely registers when you look at what the wefare state costs us.



Is that so? (new window)

He's either lying, or he's so irresponsible that he shouldn't be allowed near the Presidency.

If he actually planned on cutting spending enough to offset debt payment, that'd be one thing, but all he talks about - like every other Republican Presidential candidate for the past quarter century - is cutting "special" programs. They never say which programs they will cut, specifically, just that they're "special".

What makes them "special"? Two things: either they're popular social programs like Medicare neither the nation nor Congress will allow him to destroy, or they don't farking exist.

Enjoy your shell game again, Republican voters. Let us know when you get that counseling for your political equivalent of battered wife syndrome.

lhinds: Entitlements dominate the current budget.

"Entitlements" of some sort or another dominate the budget of every country in the world except North Korea. So?

The problem is, we (being both Reagan and Tip O'Neil) promised a whole, whole lot more than we were willing to pay for.

Meanwhile, infrastructure (roads, bridges, power grid, water supply) has been undermaintained and insufficient for our growth, or privatized and then undermaintained.

The Bestest: Is that so?

That poster only displays discretionary spending. The 'entitlements' he is referring to are considered mandatory spending. What always strikes me as odd is that the vast majority of what is referred to 'entitlement' spending is actually a bit of a misnomer; the recipients of Social Security paid into it and now receive their money back. 'Entitlement' is a bit of a misnomer because it implies direct wealth transfer. The actual cost of true entitlements (welfare programs) is quite small, actually.

m2313: Shaggy_C: Why do 'conservatives' dislike him again?

Because he doesn't have Jesus's dick in his mouth.

When McCain puts Huckabee on his ticket, Jesus' dick should be engorged and tingling by then.

Rann Xerox: When McCain puts Huckabee on his ticket, Jesus' dick should be engorged and tingling by then.

I don't know man, I wouldn't get your hopes up. Lots of people have predicted Jesus's Second Coming and failed.

It doesn't matter; if McCain wins the nomination he is toast, regardless of whether Obama or Clinton gets the nomination. Once the "Bomb Iran" and "100 Years of War" fiascoes are plastered all over the place during the general election, he's going to look like the Mondale of the New Millennium.

m2313: I don't know man, I wouldn't get your hopes up. Lots of people have predicted Jesus's Second Coming and failed.

Jesus has a 3,000-year refractory period.

m2313: Rann Xerox: When McCain puts Huckabee on his ticket, Jesus' dick should be engorged and tingling by then.

I don't know man, I wouldn't get your hopes up. Lots of people have predicted Jesus's Second Coming and failed.

I lost respect for McCain when he got bent over by the Bush Smear Machine back in 2000 and asked for seconds. I'm just saying that McCain, if he needs the votes, would put a fundamentalist on his ticket.

Also...... I saw what you did there. ;)

Shaggy_C: The Bestest: Is that so?

That poster only displays discretionary spending.

The lower right portion has the full budget.

Gee. I knew it was mistake when Bush Senior did it and I know it is a mistake now.

Even if you don't intend to raise taxes, it is insane to make make promises that are contingent on things beyond your control.

Now it does make sense to lay out when it is appropriate to raise taxes, when it is appropriate to lower them, and when taxes should be unchanged. Also even if you don't raise overall taxes, you might want to reform the system and that would mean that some will get more taxes and some will get less.

What is next. Maybe someone will promise that there will be no wars if he is president. Same thing really. I am sure any sane person would like no wars, but it not something that one can honestly and reasonably promise.

In any event, if he is forced to raise taxes McCain will have the same thing happen to him that happened to Bush Senior.

Finally, lets us remember that some taxes cuts can be a tax increase. If the government borrows to pay for its spending then it will have to pay interest which over time can really add up. If your McCain's age it might not make a difference, but if you young it will add up to considerably more taxes over your lifetime. If the government spends it, you will pay taxes for it unless the government can find sources of outside income. While some exist (selling of resources, radio spectrum, etc.), they neglectable next to total government spending.

Americans need to get it through their heads that we must either cut spending or raise taxes or both. And they must realize that cutting spending means not just cutting what the government gives to some other guy, but cutting something that the government spends for them.

Shaggy_C: That poster only displays discretionary spending. The 'entitlements' he is referring to are considered mandatory spending. What always strikes me as odd is that the vast majority of what is referred to 'entitlement' spending is actually a bit of a misnomer; the recipients of Social Security paid into it and now receive their money back. 'Entitlement' is a bit of a misnomer because it implies direct wealth transfer. The actual cost of true entitlements (welfare programs) is quite small, actually.

Bottom right hand corner - total federal budget, inlays and outlays

The Bestest: The lower right portion has the full budget.

Ah, I see it now. It looks like it was kind of an afterthought to the 'WTF!?!' factor from the discretionary budget :P

Read my lips: I'll say anything to get elected.