aaaaaaaaAAAHHHHHHHH!!! Glad there is some free music/entertainment in West Seattle this weekend. Yikes.

Cool link cjb – thanks for sharing.

And, just to jump on the downer dogpile of economic gloom & doom with a staggering fact which blew MY mind: I had a conversation last week with a Bank of America mortgage officer. So, she tells me, Bank of America has hired 3,000 people to take calls in their Eminent Default Department. That’s just one lenders strategy to deal with the people who have not YET defaulted, but are gonna’. Multiply that by how many others …….grimmer than grim.

So, yeah, I’ll go look at cjb’s site. No problem.

Perhaps another way of looking at the data referred to in the right-wing propaganda above is that it is almost too irrelevant to believe.

Perhaps the banks are going to start answering the phones from mortgatge holders who are attempting to negotiate deals, rather than just ignore them until it is too late.

did you notice how they overload you with debt scare so you miss stats like this one…

More than 40% of those employed in the United States are now working in low-wage service jobs

Perhaps the lack of investment in US based manufacturing jobs and the huge tax breaks given to the uber wealthy have more impact on our national debt than social programs on US debt?

Smitty…

Ok…

it’s a budget.

like any budget.

you can’t provide more services

or wage more war

and cut income…

Bush did.

well, ok.. he wasn’t so good on the service part

unless you count the payouts to big pharma masquerading as prescription assistance to the elderly

but he more than made up for it on the war

and corporate handouts

and corporate tax exemptions

and tax relief to high income earners…

and it paid off big time to both groups

their income is at an all time high

yet they aren’t doing their part of that trickle down thing…

When large corporations don’t pay taxes

and don’t invest in American jobs it’s a double whammy on the budget…

Bush left the mostly unfunded war

and the financial mess he created

for the next president to clean up…

It could have been McCain..

and the twit from Alaska

but You got lucky

a democrat picked up the pieces

and you can bitch to your heart’s desire

DP,

The “Bush tax cuts” lowered income taxes for ALL people – except those who didn’t pay any at all, of course (and here is the key ) PROPORTIONALLY more to the “poor”. The lowest bracket went from %15 to 10% (33%) and the highest bracket went from 39.6% to 35% (12%).

In addition – as they relate to income taxes – the removal of the “marriage penalty” helps ALL brackets but has a bigger impact at the lower levels since their overall tax burden is so much less.

Oddly enough – despite all the rhetoric – the “Bush tax cuts” actually made the income tax code MORE progressive, not regressive despite what (probably) most people think (thank the media).

oy vay iz meer….

Saw that on the internet earlier this morning. Also saw the following. We are all so invested in capitalism, but perhaps we’ve outgrown it. This fellow says some interesting things. I’m finding it a challenge to wrap my mind around it, but he makes a lot of good points.

http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/2010/06/28/rsa-animate-crisis-capitalism/

Thank you for clarifying those figures for me, Smitty. In terms of tax cuts, it looks like you’re right: percentage-wise, President Bush did help people in lower income brackets more than he helped those in higher ones. Although I was against Bush on other grounds, I have to concede this point.

At the same time, JoB makes a good point about what a few percentage points mean to a millionaire versus what they mean to a middle-class person, don’t you think? Now I know that some people (including some flat tax advocates on this blog) think that the question of how you make your money, and how much money you start off with shouldn’t enter into the tax discussion, but I can’t agree with them.

That “50 Statistics” link that ToddinWestwood posted was an interesting mixture of facts and opinions presented as facts. Most of the items seemed to be neutral or left-wing in their slant, but there were a few that were definitely from the right—like the one about a “projected” shortage of doctors resulting from the Obama health care reform. In my book, that’s not a statistic. It’s propaganda.

What I really got out of that “50 Statistics” page was the idea that America, as a country, and Americans, as individuals, are living beyond their means. And I can’t argue with that! I tell my kids not to use credit to pay for things that aren’t personal necessities—things like cell phones and cable TV—but they never listen. Similarly, I tell my government not to borrow money to pay for things that aren’t national necesseities—like war in Iraq and Afghanistan. But my government never listens either.

In a particularly ironic turn of events, my daughter, against my advice, recently enlisted in the Army Reserve and will soon be shipping out for Afghanistan.

Why has she done this?

 Is it for love of her country? -No.

 Is it for love of her fellow man? -No.

 Is it because of the $10,000 bonus the Army is paying her? -Yup.

And what does she need this money so badly for? So badly that she’s willing to die for it?

-Why, to pay off her cell phone bill, naturally. Along with a few other bills she’s racked up over the years since high school.

Weird, huh?

I wonder what percentage of our young soldiers enlisted specifically for the purpose of paying off debt.

Now there’s an interesting statistic for you . . .

–David