Poll Republican Debate

[Flopper]

So far every "solution" has been to cut taxes for corporations.

and

It's Obama's fault.

Corporations=== Jobs, that's why. America has the second highest corparate tax in the world, in order to be competitive we need to lower the corporate tax, so that they will stay here in this country and hire people here.

I don't think it is the tax rate that makes us so non-competitive. It seems to be more of the incessant regulations that corporations are forced to comply with like environmental, employment and governmental regulations. It also has much to do with the lack of regulations in other countries.

I think if it were only taxes, that much of the cost savings of doing business in a foreign country would be lost due to transporting the goods back to the U.S. so companies would avoid that problem by producing here in the states. However, our regulations become the problem.

I'm not going to argue whether or not those regulations are worth having here because they would have to be done on an individual basis, but I think if it were only taxes there really would not be a problem.

Immie

This discussion reminds me of the 95 year-old that died and a friend asked the doctor the cause of death. The doctor replied heart failure but he failed to mention that the man suffered from colon cancer, Alzheimer's, and renal failure. Similarly, the current economic slump has many causes.

Foreclosures are still rising. Consumer confidence is the lowest it's been in years. I saw a recent article that said 64% of American do not have sufficient resources to handle a $1,000 emergency. This is very bad for an economy such as ours which is driven by consumer spending.

American corporations have huge investments in Europe. An economic collapse due to the spreading debt crisis would have major repercussion's in the US.

Outsourcing jobs and manufacturing to foreign countries is a major problem and it doesn't look like it's stopping anytime soon. The problem being that American's have higher wages, safer workplaces, less pollution, safer food and drugs, more consumer protection, and more financial oversight. Start giving up these things and the jobs will come back, but are American willing to do this? I think not.

The rising US deficit only add to the concern about the long term financial stability of the country.

When businesses look at these risks, they have determined the best way to spend their profits is paying higher dividends, buying their own stock, and parking the rest in treasuries hoping for a better day to expand.

How do you reduce the deficit, through spending cuts and/or tax increases without making things worse? Economist tell us those are the things we shouldn't do in poor economic times. How do you convince business to expand in the US without sacrificing the American standard of living and safe guards we expect from our government? The person that can answer those questions convincingly should be the next president.

 

[Immanuel]

Corporations=== Jobs, that's why. America has the second highest corparate tax in the world, in order to be competitive we need to lower the corporate tax, so that they will stay here in this country and hire people here.

I don't think it is the tax rate that makes us so non-competitive. It seems to be more of the incessant regulations that corporations are forced to comply with like environmental, employment and governmental regulations. It also has much to do with the lack of regulations in other countries.

I think if it were only taxes, that much of the cost savings of doing business in a foreign country would be lost due to transporting the goods back to the U.S. so companies would avoid that problem by producing here in the states. However, our regulations become the problem.

I'm not going to argue whether or not those regulations are worth having here because they would have to be done on an individual basis, but I think if it were only taxes there really would not be a problem.

Immie

This discussion reminds me of the 95 year-old that died and a friend asked the doctor the cause of death. The doctor replied heart failure but he failed to mention that the man suffered from colon cancer, Alzheimer's, and renal failure. Similarly, the current economic slump has many causes.

Foreclosures are still rising. Consumer confidence is the lowest it's been in years. I saw a recent article that said 64% of American do not have sufficient resources to handle a $1,000 emergency. This is very bad for an economy such as ours which is driven by consumer spending.

American corporations have huge investments in Europe. An economic collapse due to the spreading debt crisis would have major repercussion's in the US.

Outsourcing jobs and manufacturing to foreign countries is a major problem and it doesn't look like it's stopping anytime soon. The problem being that American's have higher wages, safer workplaces, less pollution, safer food and drugs, more consumer protection, and more financial oversight. Start giving up these things and the jobs will come back, but are American willing to do this? I think not.

The rising US deficit only add to the concern about the long term financial stability of the country.

When businesses look at these risks, they have determined the best way to spend their profits is paying higher dividends, buying their own stock, and parking the rest in treasuries hoping for a better day to expand.

How do you reduce the deficit, through spending cuts and/or tax increases without making things worse? Economist tell us those are the things we shouldn't do in poor economic times. How do you convince business to expand in the US without sacrificing the American standard of living and safe guards we expect from our government? The person that can answer those questions convincingly should be the next president.

The person that can answer those questions doesn't want the job.

Immie

 

[Quantum Windbag]

How about some honesty about taxes? Taxes are at their lowest level in over 60 years; that is a fact. Statutory tax rates are not equal to the effective tax rates, so quit acting like they are and that we are overtaxed. It's pure BS.

Are Taxes in the U.S. High or Low?

Bruce Bartlett: Are Taxes in the U.S. High or Low? - NYTimes.com

That is not a fact.

In 1950 the tax revenue was about 371 billion dollars in 2005 dollars. Today it takes the government about 2 months to collect that much money, and just over a month to spend it.

Those are facts, Bartlett's interpretation of those facts is delusional and serves the position that government has a revenue problem, not a spending one. It also serves the idea that government is somehow more worthy of our money than we are.

Truthfully, trying to discuss anything serious here is a joke. The population of the US was less than half of what it is today, and GDP was a mere $2 trillion in 2005 dollars making your $371 billion 18.5% of GDP. The way you think, we should still be spending $371 billion per year on federal outlays, which would be less than 3% of GDP. Are you seriously telling us federal spending should be less than 3% of GDP? We're spending nearly double that on defense alone. Never mind, seriously, there is not point.

What do either of those have to with the fact that tax revenues are an orders of magnitude larger know than they were then?

I also love the way you attempt to extrapolate my belief in how much the government should be spending from the simple fact that I call you on your misstatement that tax revenues are currently lower than they have been in decades, when they are in fact higher than they have ever been. If you want to know how much I think the government should be spending you should try asking.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Once again, here is the spending problem.

Population of the United States 1965 [FONT=Arial,Helvetica]- 194,302,963[/FONT]

Population of the United States 2006 - 299,398,484

A 35% increase in population.

A 35% increase in median income

And a 334% increase in federal spending​

How did the top 1%'s income do during that stretch?

Jealous much?

 

[Flopper]

I don't think it is the tax rate that makes us so non-competitive. It seems to be more of the incessant regulations that corporations are forced to comply with like environmental, employment and governmental regulations. It also has much to do with the lack of regulations in other countries.

I think if it were only taxes, that much of the cost savings of doing business in a foreign country would be lost due to transporting the goods back to the U.S. so companies would avoid that problem by producing here in the states. However, our regulations become the problem.

I'm not going to argue whether or not those regulations are worth having here because they would have to be done on an individual basis, but I think if it were only taxes there really would not be a problem.

Immie

This discussion reminds me of the 95 year-old that died and a friend asked the doctor the cause of death. The doctor replied heart failure but he failed to mention that the man suffered from colon cancer, Alzheimer's, and renal failure. Similarly, the current economic slump has many causes.

Foreclosures are still rising. Consumer confidence is the lowest it's been in years. I saw a recent article that said 64% of American do not have sufficient resources to handle a $1,000 emergency. This is very bad for an economy such as ours which is driven by consumer spending.

American corporations have huge investments in Europe. An economic collapse due to the spreading debt crisis would have major repercussion's in the US.

Outsourcing jobs and manufacturing to foreign countries is a major problem and it doesn't look like it's stopping anytime soon. The problem being that American's have higher wages, safer workplaces, less pollution, safer food and drugs, more consumer protection, and more financial oversight. Start giving up these things and the jobs will come back, but are American willing to do this? I think not.

The rising US deficit only add to the concern about the long term financial stability of the country.

When businesses look at these risks, they have determined the best way to spend their profits is paying higher dividends, buying their own stock, and parking the rest in treasuries hoping for a better day to expand.

How do you reduce the deficit, through spending cuts and/or tax increases without making things worse? Economist tell us those are the things we shouldn't do in poor economic times. How do you convince business to expand in the US without sacrificing the American standard of living and safe guards we expect from our government? The person that can answer those questions convincingly should be the next president.

The person that can answer those questions doesn't want the job.

Immie

Sad but true. I think someone has to be a little nuts to want to become president.

Look at Bush and Obama. I think both these men really wanted to make America a better place. Bush in his first year had to handle the most devastating attack in the history of the country. The day Obama was sworn in, he was handed the worst the recession since the Great Depression. Both events set the agenda for both presidents. Setting partisan politics aside, you have to wonder what kind president each would have been without these events.

 

[Immanuel]

This discussion reminds me of the 95 year-old that died and a friend asked the doctor the cause of death. The doctor replied heart failure but he failed to mention that the man suffered from colon cancer, Alzheimer's, and renal failure. Similarly, the current economic slump has many causes.

Foreclosures are still rising. Consumer confidence is the lowest it's been in years. I saw a recent article that said 64% of American do not have sufficient resources to handle a $1,000 emergency. This is very bad for an economy such as ours which is driven by consumer spending.

American corporations have huge investments in Europe. An economic collapse due to the spreading debt crisis would have major repercussion's in the US.

Outsourcing jobs and manufacturing to foreign countries is a major problem and it doesn't look like it's stopping anytime soon. The problem being that American's have higher wages, safer workplaces, less pollution, safer food and drugs, more consumer protection, and more financial oversight. Start giving up these things and the jobs will come back, but are American willing to do this? I think not.

The rising US deficit only add to the concern about the long term financial stability of the country.

When businesses look at these risks, they have determined the best way to spend their profits is paying higher dividends, buying their own stock, and parking the rest in treasuries hoping for a better day to expand.

How do you reduce the deficit, through spending cuts and/or tax increases without making things worse? Economist tell us those are the things we shouldn't do in poor economic times. How do you convince business to expand in the US without sacrificing the American standard of living and safe guards we expect from our government? The person that can answer those questions convincingly should be the next president.

The person that can answer those questions doesn't want the job.

Immie

Sad but true. I think someone has to be a little nuts to want to become president.

Look at Bush and Obama. I think both these men really wanted to make America a better place. Bush in his first year had to handle the most devastating attack in the history of the country. The day Obama was sworn in, he was handed the worst the recession since the Great Depression. Both events set the agenda for both presidents. Setting partisan politics aside, you have to wonder what kind president each would have been without these events.

I actually believe that the vast majority of politicians enter the field with the intention of bettering America. Unfortunately, by the time they have entered the national scene they have been forced to compromise so much that they don't even remember what values they once stood for.

Immie