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March 28, 2024, 02:57:03 am
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Author Topic: Your Federal Government Shutdown Thread  (Read 50412 times)
Red Arrow
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« Reply #180 on: April 14, 2011, 09:26:00 am »

The $250k/yr folks who are the sort to invest (outside of a 401(k) or IRA, anyway) have enough savings in stable instruments like CDs to make losing their entire portfolio not what it would be for you or I. They'd not be taking vacations to far flung places, rather than buying ramen.

They almost all are reliable voters and donors for the Democrats, though. Maybe the ones who are Republicans, who I admittedly speak to less about this sort of thing, would quit investing if they had to pay more. I doubt it, but maybe.


Ironically, the friend (passed away a few years ago) that suggested that I look into tax free bonds was a Democrat in the successful lawyer class.
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Townsend
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« Reply #181 on: April 14, 2011, 09:36:22 am »


Hoax press release targets G.E. tax controversy

Quote
A strong wave of populist outrage greeted last month's news that  G.E.--in addition to paying no income tax on $5.1 billion in U.S. profits--received a $3.2 billion tax refund from the government. Given the country's sour fiscal condition, the company's big refund sparked a fresh round of calls to end large-scale tax breaks for corporations--and for the rich more broadly--as the best way to shrink the deficit.

Enter the Yes Men--a group of anticorporate pranksters known for carrying off convincing parodies of corporate speech and pro-business spin that often receive broad media pickup. The group mocked up a G.E. press release that purported to return the company's IRS refund back to the U.S. Treasury in order to assist the ailing jobs economy.

The fake release included the G.E. logo and a link to a slick website that looked very much like the company's official one. The Associated Press fell for it, as did USA Today (the paper promptly removed its story, and then ran a piece pointing out how the AP had fallen for the prank).

"The AP did not follow its own standards in this case for verifying the authenticity of a news release," AP Business Editor Hal Ritter said in a story explaining the gaffe.

Below is an excerpt from the fake press release:


GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt has informed the Obama administration that the company will be gifting its entire 2010 tax refund, worth $3.2 Billion, to the US Treasury on April 18, Tax Day, and will furthermore adopt a host of new policies that secure its position as a leader in corporate social responsibility.


"We want the public to know that we've heard them, and that we know many Americans are going through tough times," said GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt. "GE will therefore give our 2010 tax refund back to the public and allow the public to decide how to spend it."


Immelt acknowledged no wrongdoing. "All seven of our foreign tax havens are entirely legal," Immelt noted. "But Americans have made it clear that they deplore laws that enable tax avoidance. While we owe it to our shareholders to use every legal loophole to maximize returns — we also owe something to the American people. We didn't write the laws that let us legally avoid paying taxes. Congress did. But we benefit from those laws, and now we'd like to share those benefits. We are proud to be giving something back to America, and we are proud to set an example for all industry to follow."

And just to complete the giddy circuit, the Yes Men--which teamed with another advocacy group known as US Uncut on the prank--sent out its own post-hoax PR statement, underlining the bigger political point.

"This action showed us how the world could work," US Uncut spokesman Carl Gibson said in the statement on the Yes Men's actual website. "For a brief moment people believed that the biggest corporate tax dodger had a change of heart and actually did the right thing. But the only way anything like this is really going to happen is if we change the laws that allow corporate tax avoidance in the first place."

G.E. has long operated an in-house accounting department that's legendary for taking maximal advantage of US tax laws and loopholes. More than 970 employees staff the company's tax division--among them a clutch of onetime IRS agents and former government officials. As one tax specialist noted as word spread of G.E.'s 2010 refund, the company prospers via "fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110413/ts_yblog_thelookout/hoax-press-release-targets-ge-tax-controversy
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Red Arrow
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« Reply #182 on: April 14, 2011, 09:55:46 am »

It's interesting how the withholding and estimated tax system lets us believe we get a tax refund when really it's only the overpayment that is refunded.
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Red Arrow
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« Reply #183 on: April 14, 2011, 10:56:14 am »

Just saw on a breaking news segment that the Obama administration is pulling the plug on the border fence.


Darn.  I thought the electric fence was a good idea.
 Smiley
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Townsend
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« Reply #184 on: April 14, 2011, 10:57:05 am »

Darn.  I thought the electric fence was a good idea.
 Smiley

I think they were going for the collars with the shock boxes.

« Last Edit: April 14, 2011, 10:59:08 am by Townsend » Logged
Teatownclown
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« Reply #185 on: April 14, 2011, 02:46:07 pm »

During Bush Presidency, Current GOP Leaders Voted 19 Times To Increase Debt Limit By $4 Trillion

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/14/republican-leaders-debt-limit-hypocrisy/

Teabaggers/GOP are such hypocrites. Well, there will be more folly after the next Apprentice episode. Shocked

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Conan71
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« Reply #186 on: April 14, 2011, 07:51:11 pm »

Nate, Conan, you can both be pissed!

CBO has scored the cuts to be voted on today.
A Congressional Budget Office analysis of the fiscal 2011 spending deal that Congress will vote on Thursday concludes that it would cut spending this year by less than one-one hundredth of what both Republicans or Democrats have claimed.

A comparison prepared by the CBO shows that the omnibus spending bill, advertised as containing some $38.5 billion in cuts, will only reduce federal outlays by $352 million below 2010 spending rates. The nonpartisan budget agency also projects that total outlays are actually some $3.3 billion more than in 2010, if emergency spending is included in the total.

The astonishing result, according to CBO, is the result of several factors: increases in spending included in the deal, especially at the Defense Department; decisions to draw over half of the savings from recissions, cuts to reserve funds, and mandatory-spending programs; and writing off cuts from funding that might never have been spent.



Holy smoke-screen Batman, we've been BSed.  I wish Biden were awake to see this!

http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/121xx/doc12109/ContinuingResolutions.pdf

Guess those Tea Party nut jobs were right!  Neither side is serious.

You mean the same CBO which made a $500 bln error in calculating Medicare savings under Obamacare?
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"It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first” -Ronald Reagan
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« Reply #187 on: April 15, 2011, 04:46:36 am »

You mean the same CBO which made a $500 bln error in calculating Medicare savings under Obamacare?

Strange how they never make those mistakes in the people's favor?

I wonder what the real number is?
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When attacked by a mob of clowns, always go for the juggler.
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« Reply #188 on: April 15, 2011, 08:33:09 am »


I wonder what the real number is?

http://www.mathwords.com/r/real_numbers.htm


Real Numbers

All numbers on the number line. This includes (but is not limited to) positives and negatives, integers and rational numbers, square roots, cube roots , π (pi), etc.

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Red Arrow
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« Reply #189 on: April 15, 2011, 10:46:29 am »

Strange how they never make those mistakes in the people's favor?

I wonder what the real number is?

(CBO# x 0.0) + correct answer = real number
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Teatownclown
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« Reply #190 on: April 15, 2011, 11:00:08 am »

Y'all are so silly. Here, I enjoy getting a rise out of you! Grin
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOZ-Hf6JgNA&feature=player_embedded#at=17[/youtube]

This is not for the fat heads.....but it is directed at the waster and the corporatist.
Many of you are at lunch (eating sh!t) and have no concern for how poorly managed health hurt our economy and our environment.  Lips sealed
« Last Edit: April 15, 2011, 11:03:44 am by Teatownclown » Logged
Teatownclown
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« Reply #191 on: April 15, 2011, 12:37:17 pm »

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/the-deficit-america-has-f_b_849468.html?ref=fb&src=sp#sb=720593
"Everyone is focused on the budget deficit. But here's the thing: the trade deficit is the jobs deficit and the jobs deficit is the budget deficit."
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Townsend
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« Reply #192 on: April 15, 2011, 12:47:23 pm »

Many of you are at lunch (eating sh!t) and have no concern for how poorly managed health hurt our economy and our environment. 

You were one of the posters we discussed actually.

Guys, I think Hoss is right.
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dbacks fan
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« Reply #193 on: April 15, 2011, 01:26:14 pm »

You were one of the posters we discussed actually.

Guys, I think Hoss is right.

That there has been a rebirth of a couple of notable, interesting posters?
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Teatownclown
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« Reply #194 on: April 15, 2011, 01:27:14 pm »

 Must have been fun! http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/156329-drama-erupts-on-house-floor-in-vote-over-conservatives-budget
It's too bad this article doesn't go one more paragraph into detail of how the maneuver worked, why flipping from "no" to "present" would set the TeaBaggers and the GOP at each other's throats. But it sounds like the House Dems are starting to fight back, that's good.
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