1 hour ago, EVENKEEL said:

The money was wasted, the rail will never operate, in my book wasting 25 mil is fraud waste and abuse.

Plus, as I wrote above, the billions already requested from the federal government to help complete the project.  And billions paid out in 2008-9 with the so called Recovery Act.  Just an example of how not to do infrastructure, courtesy of the California Democratic Party and their friends in Washington.

15 hours ago, heybruce said:

"Use it or lose it" spending at the end of a budget year has been part of all levels of government for as long as anyone can remember, and is common in every large organization including for-profit businesses.

 

It's idiotic but no one can seem to figure out how to get rid of it.

I’ve seen that as well I always wished the ship or entity could save the excess for large expenses like dry docking or infrastructure upgrades repairs ect never made sense to me as far as the debt limit is concerned I’m glad we have someone who is a negotiator willing to make compromises.it’s how our system is supposed to work 

On 5/29/2023 at 12:33 PM, Hanaguma said:

I mean that it isnt worth the effort needed to try and gain some small revenue.  Lean on the rich too hard and they simply find ways to avoid paying. Look what happened in France for example. They tried a wealth tax and it was a dismal failure. 

 

Better to limit the size of government and spending instead. 

More nonsense. In effect, what you're claiming is that raising taxes on the wealthy never works. Only lowering them. Clinton did it, Obama  did it and so did Biden.

And your example of France is utterly irrelevant. France is a member of the EU. So its ultrawealthy were able to move to neighboring countries and have their income taxed at lower rates. 

4 minutes ago, placeholder said:

More nonsense. In effect, what you're claiming is that raising taxes on the wealthy never works. Only lowering them. Clinton did it, Obama  did it and so did Biden.

And your example of France is utterly irrelevant. France is a member of the EU. So its ultrawealthy were able to move to neighboring countries and have their income taxed at lower rates. 

You could confiscate ALL the wealth of EVERY billionaire in the US and it would barely make a dent in the national debt.  It would not even pay for one year of federal government spending.    How about lowering spending instead?   There is no reason that spending today is 30% higher than just 3 years ago.  

2 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

You could confiscate ALL the wealth of EVERY billionaire in the US and it would barely make a dent in the national debt.  It would not even pay for one year of federal government spending.    How about lowering spending instead?   There is no reason that spending today is 30% higher than just 3 years ago.  

There's no reason?  It's magic? Inflation might be a good reason, for starters.

54 minutes ago, placeholder said:

There's no reason?  It's magic? Inflation might be a good reason, for starters.

30% inflation?  Come on, man.  

1 hour ago, Hanaguma said:

30% inflation?  Come on, man.  

I said for starters. And I guess you're going to continue with the childish "Come on, man" nonsense. It's revealing about the intellectual content of what you offer that you have to resort to such taunts.

2 hours ago, placeholder said:

I said for starters. And I guess you're going to continue with the childish "Come on, man" nonsense. It's revealing about the intellectual content of what you offer that you have to resort to such taunts.

I also left a long list of potential budget savings for starters. Any of them seem palatable?  The time is going to come when the cost of servicing the debt becomes overwhelming.  At the moment nearly 7% of the federal budget goes to debt service- nearly $400 billion. Imagine if that money could be spent elsewhere.

3 hours ago, Hanaguma said:

I also left a long list of potential budget savings for starters. Any of them seem palatable?  The time is going to come when the cost of servicing the debt becomes overwhelming.  At the moment nearly 7% of the federal budget goes to debt service- nearly $400 billion. Imagine if that money could be spent elsewhere.

I noticed that you haven't pursued the issue of inflation. From Jan 1, 2012 to Jan 1, 2023, for example, cumulative inflation amounted to 16%. So, now your big scary 30% is down 14% in real terms. Much of that is due to expanded Medicaid and Medicare in the wake of the pandemic.

The deficit in Social Security could be solved by requiring social security taxes to be paid on all yearly income including capital gains of over$260,000,

After pretending to be debt hawks until the debt ceiling was again raised the Republicans return to their usual agenda of tax cuts for the rich.

 

After threatening to force the government into default over the debt ceiling, Republican lawmakers Friday introduced new tax cuts that could add at least $21 billion to the national deficit over the next decade.

 

Three new GOP-backed bills would cut taxes for large companies, small businesses, and individual families while reducing clean energy tax incentives to pay for it.

 

"It's Republican clockwork," the ranking member on the Ways and Means Committee Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) said in a statement. "Not even a week after their manufactured default crisis and it is back to tax cuts for the wealthy and well-connected."

 

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