Budget Buffett

Hope you don't mind eating s***. 

"House passes severe GOP-backed budget plan; Bill targets aid programs and tax code" by Jonathan Weisman  |  New York Times, March 30, 2012

WASHINGTON -  The plan drafted by Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Budget Committee, will probably become the standard by which Republican candidates for the House, Senate and White House are measured....

The plan will remain a political focal point of Congress for months.

The budget orders six House committees to draft plans to cut the deficit by $261 billion by early May to help avert automatic cuts to the military....

(Blog editor shakes his head because he predicted it)

Cuts that are relatively abstract now will become concrete in a matter of weeks - and will hit nutrition, health care, and welfare particularly hard....

--more--"

"Ryan apologizes for military criticism" Associated Press, April 02, 2012

WASHINGTON - Representative Paul Ryan said Sunday that he has apologized in a telephone call to the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman for accusing the military of not giving its “true advice’’ on President Obama’s budget plan.

Military generals are required under oath to provide lawmakers their personal views on security matters, even if those views conflict with the White House.

In this case, General Martin Dempsey had testified that he thought Obama’s $614 billion plan for defense spending next year was adequate. Dempsey said he stood by his testimony, despite Ryan’s remarks.

On Sunday, the Wisconsin Republican said he was wrong for suggesting the generals were not on the up and up. Ryan said he “really misspoke.’’ Ryan appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union’’ and ABC’s “This Week.’’

They are not, but you can't say that in AmeriKa, sieg heil. 

And what was he trying to do, get them more money?

In his ABC interview, Ryan also defended his budget proposal, saying it would create a “better, simpler, more competitive tax system.’’

“With respect to the wealthy, we’re saying, ‘Stop subsidizing the wealthy,’ ’’ said Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee. We believe there is an emerging Democrat-Republican bipartisan consensus on doing that, and so we reflect that emerging consensus.’’

The House on Thursday passed Ryan’s plan on a vote of 228 to 191, but it is expected to die in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

--more--"

"Obama criticizes GOP budget, calls Romney out" April 04, 2012|By Tracy Jan

WASHINGTON - President Obama’s address carried the tenor and themes of a campaign speech, with the president seeking to paint himself as savior of the middle class and guardian of popular entitlement programs such as Medicare, while portraying Republicans as Wall Street protectors who look out only for the wealthy.

Also see: Obama's Election-Year Tightrope

Ready for a second helping of s***?

“What drags down our entire economy is when there’s an ever-widening chasm between the ultrarich and everybody else,’’ Obama said during a luncheon sponsored by the Associated Press for the American Society of Newspaper Editors. 

For my part, I'm tired of the false debates. Every two and four years we have the same arguments put before us on the differences in the parties, and then in the interim it is business as usual with the same interests being funded again and again. 

Question: WHY DIDN'T the DEMOCRATS eliminate the oil and gas subsidies and raise taxes on the rich when they had an alleged FILIBUSTER-PROOF SUPER MAJORITY and CONTROL of the HOUSE? 

Why did they EXTEND the BUSH TAX CUTS?  

And WHY, oh, WHY does the AmeriKan media, be it tv, radio, or print, EVER POINT THAT OUT?

“In this country, broad-based prosperity has never trickled-down from the success of a wealthy few. It has always come from the success of a strong and growing middle class,’’ he said.

He hit upon some of the same themes he had put forth during his State of the Union address....

Meaning it was really a State of His Campaign speech.

--more--"

Full up yet?

"The White House released a report by Obama’s economic team making the substantive case for what is essentially a political proposal because it has no chance of advancing in Congress before the election....  

Are you SICK of the SHIT FOOLEYS yet?

--more--"

"Millionaires from Mass. join call to raise their tax rates" by Callum Borchers  |  Globe Correspondent, April 16, 2012

Philippe Villers was a little boy in 1940, when his family escaped from Paris only hours before the Nazi invasion and immigrated to the United States. From the harrowing flight of a wartime refugee, Villers went on to earn degrees from Harvard and MIT and to cofound Computervision, a former Fortune 500 company that made him rich.

“This country has been good to me,’’ Villers, 76, said. “I’d like to do my part to give back.’’

As part of his effort to give back, Villers has made an unusual request to the federal government: Raise my taxes, please.

Villers is one of a handful of Massachusetts members of a national organization called Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength, which supports a 30 percent effective tax rate on million-dollar annual earners under the “Buffett Rule.’’ The Senate will hold a procedural vote on the proposal Monday.

The US tax code’s top income rate is 35 percent but imposes only a 15 percent levy on capital gains on investments, where many affluent Americans earn much of their money.  

Like Mitt Romney.

Billionaire Warren Buffett, for whom the rule is named, has complained publicly that he pays an effective tax rate of just 17.4 percent, much less than what his secretary pays.

Senator Scott Brown has said he opposes the Buffett Rule and is expected to vote against it. The bill is not expected to garner enough votes to prevent a Republican filibuster....

It's what we call a waste of time, but at least the busy work makes it look like they are doing something down there.

--more--" 

Also see: US budget deficit sets record for March