I meant, of course, tax increases.

Sixty-five percent of Americans registered to vote are in favor of greater taxes on corporations, while 33 percent are against them.

That’s because 65% of Americans don’t understand economics and don’t understand that taxing business simply benefits the huge cash-rich companies over smaller ones.

For example, a large company making a lot of cash would be able to absorb the tax cuts and keep prices the same while a smaller competitor on a tighter margin would have the pass the taxes along to the customer making them less competitive. This would tend to favor Google over Yahoo in the search engine market, or Google over Microsoft in the mobile devices market.

In tight margin markets where there isn’t a major dominating player with a lot of cash, the entire tax increase will simply be pushed out to customers.

Here’s a better idea:

1. Eliminate the tax exempt status of labor unions and eliminate the tax breaks for Hollywood.

Sad to say, but the GOP has controlled the House for the last two years and they have been the ones to okay the insane, budgetless spending. If the left won’t do their Constitutional duty, at the least, then let the feral government shut down. THAT is what should have happened and what should happen in future “negotiations”. The House is the originator of all spending.

yup.. this is exactly it. And the president has nothing to do with spending under the constitution. So why is there any negotiation with him at all?

I say they pass a budget, send it to the Senate, let Reid sit on it and not pass it and when the bills come due, well, there ain’t no money to pay so sorry American people, the Democrats have been playing politics with your money for 4 years and we’re not covering for them anymore.

JellyToast on December 10, 2012 at 1:29 PM

can’t argue with reducing waste, which I believe Simpson-Bowles identified $1.2 trillion/year of in waste, duplication, fraud.

ThePrimordialOrderedPair on December 10, 2012 at 1:37 PM

Yep. That was my first thought after the election. LiB. But the house did win and something tells me if they would go rogue and do what their constituents sent them there for things would improve. I guess this brings us back to Boehner after all since he started out negotiating with himself and has gone silent since.

I don’t even think the issue of public relations should be considered since those framing the meme are not on the same side of America we believe in.

OCare was the best example of this in our history.

conservative tarheel on December 10, 2012 at 2:08 PM

Good luck with that! We are going to go directly from horrific fiscal cliff, to irresponsible, Republican induced default. Most of the population doesn’t know what that means, especially since we hold 75% of our own debt, but it sounds scary and just like something those evil Republicans would do.

Greedy politicians lie so much you don’t know what to believe anymore.

Best to believe NOTHING THEY SAY. Only what they do.

And look at their track record.

PappyD61 on December 10, 2012 at 1:04 PM

Yep.

And seeing as they are meeting behind our backs and both sides are refusing to say what they are discussing or planning to do, leads me to believe that no one on either side would be happy to hear what it is.

tax loopholes

In other words, the last negotiation results.

I put most political promises in the bull sh!t column immediately.

Cindy Munford on December 10, 2012 at 1:55 PM

that is because you are a very smart lady …:D

how can you tell a elected official is lying ? their lips are moving

Give the idiots their tax increases. Then when we have another $1 trillion deficit the Republicans can say, “See it’s not the lack of taxes that’s the problem.”

Unless someone has a better solution?

SteveMG on December 10, 2012 at 1:02 PM

I will go with you there … but not a dime more on the Debt ceiling ….

conservative tarheel on December 10, 2012 at 1:45 PM

I put most political promises in the bull sh!t column immediately.

Someone wrote that the negotiations should be on C-Span, and they are 100% dead on the money.

Cindy Munford on December 10, 2012 at 1:37 PM

yup … we were not promised that the healthcare “debate” would be on C-span?
you saw how that worked out right?

Bammie’s skill is reading a teleprompter.

slickwillie2001 on December 10, 2012 at 1:39 PM

Actually, the Indonesian’s not even very good at that simple task:

“Oh’-ree-ahn!”

“Corpse-man”

Barky is a uniquely untalented and inept individual.

Remind me again why these talks are private. This is OUR money and OUR lives they’re messing with, right?

conservativescientist on December 10, 2012 at 12:51PM

So Boehner can grovel and then ultimately cave to Obama sparing him the humiliation of the whole country seeing what a wimp he really is.

KickandSwimMom on December 10, 2012 at 1:32 PM

So the world can’t see that little Bammie has zero leadership ability. He’s a teleprompter savant. Some savants can count spilled toothpicks, some are perpetual calendars and idiots otherwise. Bammie’s skill is reading a teleprompter.

conservativescientist on December 10, 2012 at 12:51 PM

Someone wrote that the negotiations should be on C-Span, and they are 100% dead on the money.

Harry Reid doesn’t produce a budget in over four years, Obama has lorded over 6 trillion worth of debt and we destroy Boehner for not stopping it? Somebody make a decent proposal for us to discuss.

DanMan on December 10, 2012 at 1:10 PM

The House controls the purse strings and the budget. The Weeping Boner’s JOB was to not appropriate any more money until the Senate passed a budget and it was reconciled and put into effect. The Weeping Boner was not put into power to pass CR after CR and raise the debt limit time and again – all without getting anything in return, like the full repeal of ObamaScare which is what the 2010 elections were all about.

Sad to say, but the GOP has controlled the House for the last two years and they have been the ones to okay the insane, budgetless spending. If the left won’t do their Constitutional duty, at the least, then let the feral government shut down. THAT is what should have happened and what should happen in future “negotiations”. The House is the originator of all spending.

Do people realize that if they acquiesce to theft from one minority segment of the population, that they are acquiescing to theft from other segments of the population?

Galt2009 on December 10, 2012 at 12:47 PM

first they came for the ultra top 1% and I said nothing because I was the top 1 %

then they came for the top 10 and I said nothing because I was not the top 10

the the top 50 percent … and I said nothing because I was not the top 50

finally they came for me … and there was no one left to say “stay!”

paraphased from the poem “the hangman” by Maurice Ogden

Remind me again why these talks are private. This is OUR money and OUR lives they’re messing with, right?

conservativescientist on December 10, 2012 at 12:51 PM

So Boehner can grovel and then ultimately cave to Obama sparing him the humiliation of the whole country seeing what a wimp he really is.

Harry Reid doesn’t produce a budget in over four years, Obama has lorded over 6 trillion worth of debt and we destroy Boehner for not stopping it? Somebody make a decent proposal for us to discuss.

DanMan on December 10, 2012 at 1:10 PM

Well… just off the top of my head… without any high priced researched people looking for things:

Here’s just 10 of the 20 listed…
#1 A total of $3 million has been granted to researchers at the University of California at Irvine so that they can play video games such as World of Warcraft. The goal of this “video game research” is reportedly to study how “emerging forms of communication, including multiplayer computer games and online virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life can help organizations collaborate and compete more effectively in the global marketplace.”

#2 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the University of New Hampshire $700,000 this year to study methane gas emissions from dairy cows.

#3 $615,000 was given to the University of California at Santa Cruz to digitize photos, T-shirts and concert tickets belonging to the Grateful Dead.

#4 A professor at Stanford University received $239,100 to study how Americans use the Internet to find love. So far one of the key findings of this “research” is that the Internet is a safer and more discreet way to find same-sex partners.

#5 The National Science Foundation spent $216,000 to study whether or not politicians “gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions.”

#6 The National Institutes of Health spent approximately $442,340 to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.

#7 Approximately $1 million of U.S. taxpayer money was used to create poetry for the Little Rock, New Orleans, Milwaukee and Chicago zoos. The goal of the “poetry” is to help raise awareness on environmental issues.

#8 The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent $175 million during 2010 to maintain hundreds of buildings that it does not even use. This includes a pink, octagonal monkey house in the city of Dayton, Ohio.

#9 $1.8 million of U.S. taxpayer dollars went for a “museum of neon signs” in Las Vegas, Nevada.

#10 $35 million was reportedly paid out by Medicare to 118 “phantom” medical clinics that never even existed. Apparently these “phantom” medical clinics were established by a network of criminal gangs as a way to defraud the U.S. government.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/government-waste-20-of-the-craziest-things-that-the-u-s-government-is-spending-money-on

All just drops in the bucket, I know. But why not highlight them? And don’t we know there are so many more?

How about talking about 4 million dollar vacations? How about talking about $100. lb steaks at the WH?
Why is our President eating $100. lb steaks while all of us are expected to go with less? While school children are suppose to cut down in meats in their lunches?

All little drops in the bucket.. I know. But what kind of waste does the GOP know of and yet say nothing about? What kind of waste could be eliminated from the government without touching most entitlements?

Here’s a link to a list from CBS. Just one item on the list:

$30 million to help Pakistani Mango farmers: This was part of a four-year, $90 million effort to boost hiring and sales among Pakistani businesses funded through the U.S. Agency for International Development.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505144_162-57345686/10-most-outrageous-ways-government-wastes-your-money/

Have you heard Boehner say much about government waste? I haven’t.
He talks about cuts in entitlements. Is 30 million to Pakistani farmers going to affect medicare?

Why is this so freaking hard?

You know.. if the GOP had a little bit of passion and creativity they might actually move the spotlight towards the hypocrisy of the Democrats! It might actually provoke a thought in low information voters.

Heck.. who am I? I just Binged “government waste.” It didn’t take long to find two lists. Can’t the GOP.. with all their resources come up with even better lists of government waste?

Will someone please primary Boehner ..
and in the mean time … will the GOP strip him of his speakership
and get a LEADER in there …

conservative tarheel on December 10, 2012 at 12:44 PM

…if he doesn’t get all his people to vote Present…and gives in to anything else…that HAS TO HAPPEN!

rrpjr on December 10, 2012 at 1:06 PM

Not that it makes much difference but I wish there was a way to let them know that we are on to them. Both parties are secure that their voters have no place else to go. And only one side’s voters are willing to show them that it isn’t true.