One of the joys of living near a state border is that the radio stations cover local news from more than one state. The station I was tuned into covers at least three.
So they were interviewing some clown who is running for the state legislature. This candidate said that, in going around and talking to voters, two of the major concerns were crumbling infrastructure and keeping taxes low.
I wanted to pull over and bang my head on the steering wheel. Who do those idiots think will come by and fix the roads and bridges, the Infrastructure Fairy? That takes money and it has to come from somewhere. it sure as shit isn't going to trickle down in grants and gifts from the oligarchs who are basking in their anticipated tax cuts. Re reporter, to his eternal discredit, didn't ask the candidate what the plan was to reconcile those conflicting ideas.
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Robert Wagner is now a "person of interest" in the 1981 death of Natalie Wood. As far as I can tell, the difference between "suspect" and "person of interest" is a matter of quibbling. If Wagner has an attorney who graduated from a brick-and-mortar law school, the last thing he'll ever do is sit down for an interview with the cops.
I Don’t Have The Energy To Argue, Part 2
3 hours ago
11 comments:
The money sure didn't "trickle down" for infrastructure in the previous 8 years either, did it?
We have the money, we just need to stop wasting it. Choose more wisely where we spend it. Stop subsidizing businesses that fit the agenda (like Solyndra) and enriching DNC donors and such (Or RNC donors either). Or Social Programs that don't help anyone.
Bet those rising incomes from people gaining jobs and getting higher wages and such will generate more taxes too....
Could also save some $$$ by cutting spending for that big, long, wall thing is.
Dale
Yea, B., the extra tax income on that secretaries $1.50 a week will help a lot. Let’s see...$1.50 x 52 = $78 x 0.1 (estimated tax rate) = $7.80 of lost tax revenue and she ain’t getting a raise, so no offset. All those Corporate tax breaks, going into buying back stock, no tax increase there...those tax bonuses, one time and no salary increases, so much for that helping beyond one time...
Why not tax Wal-Mart (and any other business) for the cost of providing SNAP to their employees they won’t pay a living wage? Quit paying farmers to soil bank and instead buy some of the crop to disfribute to those below the poverty line? Provide free lunches to all school students, save the cost of running the lunch accounts (whoops, that’ll be some of Donnie’s friends businesses) and stop kids from being hungry so often? Provide a Universal Basic Income in place of the other social security net programs, that money will be spent in the economy! Given the coming job losses, something has to give, and if we don’t figure that out, the next Revolution will be the newly out of work and the impoverished versus the 1% (or maybe the 40-50%.
Found a counter-example, B
The Senate passed the biggest transportation infrastructure bill in a decade Thursday, sending to the White House a $305 billion five-year package that keeps federal money flowing to highway, transit and rail projects — and reopens the controversial Export-Import Bank.
After years of public pleas from the construction industry, a forceful lobbying blitz backed by Big Business and labor groups, and billions of dollars in bailouts, the Senate easily passed the bipartisan bill on a 83-16 vote just hours after the House approved the measure.
https://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/senate-transportation-package-ex-im-renewal-216420
DA:
If that is the case, then why did spending on roads DECREASE during Barry's reign?
Not saying your example was wrong, it just never went anywhere.
And if we build a wall, it'll save Billions in aid to illegals.
CP: The tax cut works out to be a LOT more than $1.50 a week for most folks. Closer to $57/week for the average person THAT WORKS. Don't let those lies about averages that include those folks who don't earn a wage fool you..... For the average person who *works*, it isn't chump change. Plus the tax cut is generating huge investment in America, with LOTS more jobs coming online, which will not only employ people, but pressure wages upwards for workers. Yes, I know you hate Trump. But the fact businesses believe in his economics. And businessmen make jobs for people.
Maybe the decrese was due to the fact that it was the first such bill passed in over a decade at the end of his 6th year in office.
I noticed you assign no blame or agency to the Congress in not sending any such legislation earlier. You do know that in our system of government, the President may propose something, but he can’t even introduce a bill into Congress in either House.
B: Republicans in congress blocked Obama's infrastructure proposal right after they threatened to crash the economy by failing to raise the debt ceiling.
And this from Krugman:
"So here’s how the bait and switch goes: pass a huge tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the rich, but gives ordinary workers a few crumbs — or actually a bag of fries now and then. Then point to the big deficits created by that tax cut as a reason social program essential to many ordinary families must be slashed. Lather, rinse, repeat.
It’s such an obvious scam that you might think either that its perpetrators would get embarrassed or that the public would get wise. But the first won’t happen. The second – well, we’ll see in November."
-Doug in Oakland
Infrastructure and low taxes aren't nevessarily incompatible....if you don't have much in the way of social services, healthcare and education. Look at the road in AZ, FL and (the major ones in) Mexico. Much better than the ones in the NE, yet the taxes are peanuts....along with minimal social services, healthcare and education. The powers that be like it that way...their business work and the things they need for them are there...including desperate poor workers.
No winter (to speak of) in those states to destroy roads.
Frost and freezing are what make potholes.
And the taxes for road repair are gas taxes, generally (or sales tax on gas, earmarked for roads),
Your point is still somewhat valid, however.
I guess all the potholes I see here in the San Joaquin Valley despite the few days per year when the temp gets below freezing and frost about half of the days in wintertime.
My dad, who was a road construction inspector for the Forest Service said that most potholes on non-city roads are because of uneven compaction of the subsurface that forms cavities and breaks holes in the blacktop. And that's why filling them with more blacktop doesn't always work.
-Doug in Oakland
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