I'm paying about $4K more .. and no I don't make more than $250K a year.
Funny how went it comes to spending a few bucks to help desperate workers whose unemployment benefits have run out, everyone becomes a deficit hawk. Exactly where is this money going to come from, is the question on every pundit's lips.
Somehow the same, where's the money to pay for this expenditure, attitude dosn't seem to apply to the tax cuts (which were supposed to pay for themselves but didn't) or for the war (which was supposed to pay for itself but didn't)
If you want to know why we have debt in the double digit trillions, these two "gonna pay for themselves" items are a good play to start looking.
About unemployment benis ... The Dem congress 'promised' to pay as you go bills .. they have not kept their bargain on that. the repubs wanted that money to come from TARP .. apparently the dems don't want that .. that TARP money must have already been promised to Wall Street and banks .. and they won't let you know where that TARP money is going either .. why that would require an audit .. which they have most cleverly avoided.
If you want to know why we have trillions in deficit .. gee it might be that we;re spending more than we are bringing in .. by quite a bit - who manages those purse strings .. why congress does (or doesn't mange it very well)
Get the unemployed jobs - not hand outs.
Okay, sure I will go along with what you are saying except that in the short run there aren't enough jobs for all of the unemployed. Not even enough jobs for 10% of the unemployed from the numbers I have seen, so some of them have to get benefits in the meantime.
The previous administration worked hard to export American jobs overseas and to let unlimited undocumented workers into the US to compete with American workers, so this problem cannot be solved overnight, it was many years in the making.
It is true that we are in deficit because Congress has been spending more than it has taken in every year since 2002, but in fairness to Congress, they did things like pass the Tax Cuts and vote in favor of attacking Iraq because they were told tall tales, including the ones these actions would not cost us tax money.
Do you blame the liars or the ones who believed the lies? Or perhaps both.
EDIT: I was going to plug my numbers in but the source of this article is very close to the one that predicted that the tax cuts wouldn't cost us anything, so I have to conclude that this is at best a questionable source of hard information.
Gramps .. you still haven't read Sellout, written by a lifetime democrat. The book devotes a few dozen pages which details his investigation of Al Gore's activities with the INS prior to the 1996 election. In an effort to expedite the naturalization of one million immigrants who might be more likely to vote Democratic, Team Gore pressured the INS to suspend standard background check procedures on applicants for US citizenship. The result was 75,000 convicted felons naturalized--20% of whom had re-offended as US citizens within two years--and another 168,000 naturalized without proper fingerprinting and FBI criminal history checks. Clinton/Gore imported criminals to maintain power. Literally thousands of US citizens were needlessly robbed, raped, and murdered as a result.
It was Clinton that signed NAFTA - not that jobs weren't leaving before that bill.
Clinton Foundation proves American liberal sell-out to foreign interests.
Congress has been spending more than it brought in forever - except for Jackson back in the 1800's - every administration has spent more than it brought in. If you're referring to the Pledge with America when the republicans attempted to balance the budget in 2002 .. bravo to them. There was also a economic bubble that was about to burst at that time over the expanding Dot Coms to hurt the economy.
I blame the people who keep voting the liars into office - I blame the liars who keep lying about it's always the other guys fault when everyone in congress is responsible for this mess .. and has been for many years. I blame the press that doesn't report an unbiased news story and skate around issues and talk ask the tough questions.
The US needs to start investing in America ... not giving money to banks that then 'loan' the money to foreign banks and countries ... simply amazing that people haven't grasped this issue.
Invest in energy in the US .. apparently not this administration .. shut down the oil well s- let them go somewhere else. Promote Nuclear energy .. not this administration - Obama 'says' he wants to invest in nuclear .. Reid wants to shut down Yucca mountain. A $41K hybrid car from GM .. yeah that's really what America needs from a company that the US owns more than 60% off.
Big_T
Cool Calculator .. not cool - paying more taxes.