will health care bill affect November elections?

[Red Arrow]

Dreaming up a real whopper, eh? 

Probably, but I'm willing to give him a chance to unconfuse us.

[Gaspar]

Probably, but I'm willing to give him a chance to unconfuse us.

I'm anxious too.  I enjoy his creative interpretations.


There's another major hurdle to a new year of prosperity: our tax code. No human being understands it. The current code, which runs over 8,000 pages and countless thousands more pages of IRS rulings and interpretations, is beyond redemption. ..Incalculable amounts of the nation's intellectual brainpower are devoted to the dead-end task of coping with the current tax code. Over one-half million people in the U.S. make their living off it, whether in lobbying, lawyering, tax preparing, or accounting. ... Americans spend five and one-half billion hours a year filling out tax forms ... and spend between $100 billion and $300 billion to comply with the current code. – Malcolm S. Forbes

[JeffM]

Sorry to upset the revisionist history of the Reagan deification squad, but....

I don't have my tax papers from the 80s, so I'm relying mostly on memory and my annual "Social Security Statement"...

Between 1981 and 1988, my income ranged from around $1200 to around $3600 per year.  I was a high school student the first two years, and a full time college student with some pretty hefty scholarship responsibilities for the other years...

I drove a '76 Chevette, while a couple of my Reagan loving friends drove an MG and a Fiero-- the Fiero guy used to love to go late night shopping for Beemers (BMW's).... I remember one young republican girl who refused to date me, because someday she was going to "marry money"...  so we could only be "friends"..... ah, the good ol' days....

What I remember is that there was a tax increase that hit me, but didn't make as big of a difference as the arbitrary policies that would make me EXEMPT one year from any taxes and fully taxable the following year.

When my Pell Grants were getting cut on a regular basis, I had to work more.  When I worked more, my income went above a certain level ($2000? or $2400?) which would affect the tax refund after I filed my 1040-EZ   ....  I remember those new payroll taxes as just adding a little extra bite on every single paycheck-- memories pretty foggy, but I remember not having to pay much, if anything, in federal taxes, but felt the bite of those hefty increased ss/medicare taxes.  I felt the effect because I was consistently broke.... that'll happen when Jesus tells your stepdad to sell everything to become an evangelist, but that's another story for another day.

So, I accepted the increase in payroll taxes, because my generation was consistently told that Social Security will not be there for us when we get old; the baby boomers would bankrupt the system.  The tax increases were supposed to keep the system solvent for at least the next couple of generations.  And Reagan agreed with these regressive payroll tax increases, because liberals were busy scaring old people by telling them that Reagan and Republicans were going to take their ss checks away...... (please see my other youtube reply that has 10 mins of the 2nd Reagan/Mondale debate). http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?topic=15341.45

I was undecided about who to vote for until a couple of weeks before the 1984 election.... on the Mondale side, I was still thinking about voting for him because I was afraid of further cuts in Pell Grants and eligibility for student loans and a minimum wage perpetually stuck at $3.35 per hr...... on the Reagan side, I thought unions had become too powerful, and that the economy had indeed turned around (even if it didn't turn around for struggling college students like me).

I'm referencing this blogger because his post quotes both conservative  economist Bruce Bartlett and the more liberal views of Paul Krugman...
Reagan raised taxes
http://brewcitybrawler.typepad.com/brew_city_brawler/2008/10/reagan-raised-taxes.html

I voted as one of those "Reagan democrats" because I felt his admin would be more serious about handling the deficit problem.  (even though I knew it was likely I'd take a financial hit personally to accomplish it).  I also voted for Reagan so that I could thumb my nose at the liberals who supported the public funding of "abortion on demand" and insisted Reagan would instigate a nuclear war and destroy social security.  When liberals played the fear card, I recoiled... I wish conservatives these days would take note.

I'll save my post about the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and how the Gramm-Rudman budget cuts screwed with me for another day.....

[Gaspar]

At birth each man is given a large stone. 
   

Release your bitterness, your jealousy and your anger.

[JeffM]

[nathanm]

i]There's another major hurdle to a new year of prosperity: our tax code. No human being understands it. The current code, which runs over 8,000 pages and countless thousands more pages of IRS rulings and interpretations, is beyond redemption. ..Incalculable amounts of the nation's intellectual brainpower are devoted to the dead-end task of coping with the current tax code. Over one-half million people in the U.S. make their living off it, whether in lobbying, lawyering, tax preparing, or accounting. ... Americans spend five and one-half billion hours a year filling out tax forms ... and spend between $100 billion and $300 billion to comply with the current code. – Malcolm S. Forbes[/i]

You'd think Malcolm Forbes would have both been better at math (half a million folks is only .025% of a population of 200 million, which I use to be fair to a man who died 20 years ago) and have known what it is accountants do. (which is, and was, largely not "coping with the current tax code")

While I would appreciate simplification of the tax code through lowering the base rate and removing deductions and that sort of thing, software renders the whole thing mostly irrelevant for those who can bother to keep even half-decent records.

[Gaspar]

. . .He may carry it on his shoulders complaining of its weight, and blaming the great burden for his inability to succeed.  He may demand that others come to his aid, and curse those who do not.  Each of his failures become the stones fault, and his triumphs are in spite of it.

He may chisel the stone until it is no more than rubble and dust, and at his death, leave no evidence of his being.

He may see the beauty in the stone, shaping it into a monument to his struggle, illustrating the pain and passion of individual endeavor.  The stone becomes his legacy long after his bones are dust.

--Yoder.

[JeffM]

   

I simply posted what happened.  It happened a long time ago.
Bitter?  Nope.  Jaded?  You betcha.  

And I refuse to take personal advice from a DOGMATIC GROVER NORDQUIST CLONE.  

I will NEVER support any federal, state, or local policies that use our greatest human resource (young people struggling to better themselves) as a political football... I oppose policies that hurt full time students directly or indirectly by freezing minimum wage, raising payroll taxes, slashing Pell Grants, privatizing govt. student loans while subsidizing bank profits, standing idly by while tuition costs skyrocket.... etc, etc, etc.....

As an old geezer, I will consistently support certain progressive education policies even though it may not always be in my short-term economic interests to do so....

[Red Arrow]

When my Pell Grants were getting cut on a regular basis, I had to work more.  When I worked more, my income went above a certain level ($2000? or $2400?) which would affect the tax refund after I filed my 1040-EZ   ....  I remember those new payroll taxes as just adding a little extra bite on every single paycheck-- memories pretty foggy, but I remember not having to pay much, if anything, in federal taxes, but felt the bite of those hefty increased ss/medicare taxes.  

Pretty much as I expected.  You moved from a tax exempt income (Pell Grants) and very little other income to taxable income.  A belated welcome to the world of taxpayers to you.  I think the results may have been similar no matter who was President.

I won't argue whether it was "fair" or not.  I was fortunate enough to go to Grad School at TU (77-79) on the GI bill and a Teaching Assistant scholarship.  Very little income tax.  When I got a real job, I got sticker shock for sure.  I welcomed the income tax cuts. I wasn't fond of the SS increases but accepted them as a forced retirement savings that wouldn't reach a "lifetime limit" of benefits if I reached my Grandparents ages (95 for Grandpop, 97 for Grandmom).  One or two years I maxed out and got one or two paychecks without SS taken out.  The idea of a maximum benefit based on contributing up to a certain salary was OK.  Then "they" started talking about taxing without limits but only providing benefits based on taxes on lower wages.  Means based benefits are even more disturbing to me since I have been contributing 15% (including my employer's share) of my salary for a lot of years.  I will be really unhappy if big brother punishes me for also saving to have a more comfortable retirement.

Edit:
Almost forgot...(it's been a lot of years)

Based on my High School performance, I earned a National Merit Scholarship.  As I remember, it was worth about 20% of my expenses for the first couple semesters. Unfortunately, in spite of my work and achievement, my dad "earned too much money" and it was taken from me.  I believe you have said you did get through college so you didn't need the grants but life would have been a lot easier with them.  I can at least somewhat sympathize on loosing money to help go to college. The summers between my freshman and sophomore and between my sophomore and junior years I was fortunate enough to get a manual labor job that paid more than minimum wage. Between my junior and senior years that job had to go to a minority because of affirmative action even though I had two summers of seniority.

[Red Arrow]

I drove a '76 Chevette, while a couple of my Reagan loving friends drove an MG and a Fiero-- the Fiero guy used to love to go late night shopping for Beemers (BMW's).... I remember one young republican girl who refused to date me, because someday she was going to "marry money"...  so we could only be "friends"..... ah, the good ol' days....

The Fiero guy wanted a motorcycle?  I remember seeing an article in an engineering magazine that all the Fiero body mount pads were machined in one setup on a giant milling machine.

Beemer = BMW Motorcycle
Bimmer = BMW Automobile
Per the BMW Car Club of America, at least around 1995.
I believe a Beezer was a BSA (English) motorcycle. (not totally sure on this, I'm not a motorcycle guy)

Yes, I know that (those not in the know) often call a BMW automobile a Beemer.

[fotd]

fotd has a '74 2002 beemer...the first car he ever bought...the zen of automobile maintenance.

bmw....Bob Marley and the Wailers 

[Red Arrow]

fotd has a '74 2002 beemer...the first car he ever bought...the zen of automobile maintenance.

bmw....Bob Marley and the Wailers 

2002 (model, not year) Bimmers are pretty much a cult car anymore.  Neat cars but like many of their era, not maintenance free.

[Red Arrow]

RM,

You asleep?

We're drifting here.

[RecycleMichael]

Back on topic youse guys...don't make me come over and smack y'all.

[Ed W]

Back on topic youse guys...don't make me come over and smack y'all.

"Please, sir, may I have another?"

I could have sworn Kevin Bacon just walked by.