Monday, August 27, 2012

Again

If you want to criticize Mr. Romney for his lack of specificity and/or for his 4% growth rate scenario, THAT WOULD BE FINE. But to try and predict, via Ouija and alchemy, precisely what a politician will ultimately do several years down the road is utter foolishness.........................................................................................And it's flat-out ridiculous on its face. We're led to believe that Mr. Romney is going to go before the American people and say, "Sorry, folks, but I'm going to have to raise taxes on 98% of you and the two percent that I won't be raising them on are people making over $250,000 a year." I mean, come on, Tax Policy Center people.

35 comments:

BB-Idaho said...

True. I have been looking for the
Romney list of specific loopholes
and how he will address them, but...

Dervish Sanders said...

Romney says that he's going to lower taxes for everyone, but eliminate most loopholes. The centrist TPC crunched the numbers and determined that means a defacto tax increase for anyone who isn't wealthy. Neither a ouija board nor alchemy were utilized... just math.

What's ridiculous is you saying Romney would make such a statement to the American people.

Rusty Shackelford said...



BB,while you were looking for Romneys loopholes,did you happen to run across Obama and the dems budget thats been MIA for well over a 1000 days?

Rusty Shackelford said...




WD,a tax increase!! Whoever its for you should be beside yourself....more revenue....maybe more free stuff for you.All you gotta do is hold your hand out...."may i have another sir."

Dervish Sanders said...

For christ sakes Rusty! ANOTHER, "people who think the wealthy should pay more in taxes just want free stuff" comment? What an ignorant one trick pony you are. Rusty really never has anything of substance to say... just cut taxes on the 2%... claim I'm asking for free stuff to be given to me (even though I've never said a damn thing about me receiving "free stuff")... Obama is a clueless community organizer in over in over his head.

Rusty is just a one message fool, best to ignore.

Rusty Shackelford said...



Ahhh WD,sems like Rusty hit the "I want successful people's money" nerve thats close to your surfice. I'm flattered that you continue to co-opt Rusty's witty retorts.Perhaps one day you'll be able to flash some semblance of humor.Until that day feel free to use my material.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

It isn't math, wd, it's fortune-telling (and the left-leaning Tax Policy Center clearly left out of their "math" municipal bond and life insurance savings interest). Romney's plan decreases taxes on everyone and he claims to make up the difference by eliminating loopholes. The only way that this would constitute a tax increase down the road is if Mr. Romney reneges on his promise to 98% of the American people and proposes a tax increase. I seriously doubt that he would do that.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

He co-opts my jokes, too, Russ.

Dervish Sanders said...

Will: The only way that this would constitute a tax increase down the road...

If, by lowering the tax rates while eliminating loopholes a person pays more... that's an increase. The centrist TPC did the math and determined that Romney's "tax cut" is actually a tax increase for all but the wealthy.

And I've never "co-opted" anyone's joke or "witty" comment. Rusty or Will would have to make a witty comment first. Also, jokes have to actually be funny to qualify as jokes.

The last comment of mine... that was me taking a dumbass comment of Rusty's and turning it into a witty retort.

dmarks said...

There is no centrist TPC. The people of that partisan political pressure group; donate to leftists 50 to 1 over right-wingers.

Rusty Shackelford said...



WD's high school sweetheart had little round black and blue marks all over her body from people touching her with a ten foot pole.


Rim shot here!

Dervish Sanders said...

dmarks: There is no centrist TPC. The people of that partisan political pressure group; donate to leftists 50 to 1 over right-wingers.

That is a flat-out lie. The centrist TPC donates to centrists. Since there are virtually no centrist Republicans most of their donations go to centrist Democrats... but that does not make the TPC not centrist, it only illustrates how far to the Right the Republican Party has moved.

Rusty: ...Obama and the dems budget [has] been MIA for well over a 1000 days?

This is due to Republican obstruction. Budgets have been proposed. Republicans refuse to vote for them.

dmarks said...

In actual fact, Republicans are evenly divided with Democrats around the center. There are no more centrists of one party than the other. There is no difference except in the mind of hypocritacal and blind partisans who ignorantly measure 'the center' as being their own viewpoint, deep in one of the two wings. You do this consistently, WD, and are consistently incorrect on related issues due to this. One example is your calling Will Hart, who is centrist and moderate, some sort of conservative. Or your calling Obama, the most prominent liberal in America, a 'conservative'. Or calling Jim Webb, with his mostly liberal voting record, a 'consrvative'.

As determined by the donations of its members (mostly to left-wingers), the TPC is strongly Left. If it were centrist (which it is not) such donations would be easily divided around the middle, instead of being waaaay lopsided.

Les Carpenter said...

Actually Will, the more I observe the workings of the New Neo Fascist rEpublican pArty of America the less and less I trust any of them. They're all a gang of crooks.

Having had Willard Mittens Romney for Governor for four I'll say especially him.

dmarks said...

RN: Coming from you, such accusations give one pause. At least you are not doing what wd does with his claims that the smaller and less obtrusive government is, the more fascist it is.

Rusty Shackelford said...




RN......it may be time to up the Paxil dossage.


Or better yet,open a nice bottle of wine...sit back and get ready for Chris Christie's speech tonight.

I was going to get a betting line opened if Christie would drop an F bomb in his speech.

Les Carpenter said...

Rusty, I'm so frigging pissed at what at one time was an honorable party I've decided not to watch a fricking minute of their fascist drivel.

I will however open a bottle of fine California Red Zin and watch a movie with the lovely rational better half, Mrs Rational Nation.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Most working and lower-middle-class workers don't even itemize, wd (and so a 20% tax reduction for them would be purely gravy). And a lot of others even higher up, as they continue to pay off their mortgages, also take the standard deduction. Now, if a person making $60-70,000 and who is just starting out with his mortgage, COMPLETELY loses the ability to deduct his mortgage interest and state and local taxes, you may in fact have point on that situation (I'd still want to put the pencil to paper, though). But even there, if that person is still able to take the standard deduction of $5,800 (Romney hasn't advocated getting rid of that, has he?), coupled with a 20% reduction in their rates, I seriously doubt that the consequences would be catastrophic.

Rusty Shackelford said...



Hope you enjoyed the Zin RN but you missed a couple good speeches.I think the only two speakers over 50 were Kasich and Ann Romney.They showcased the new face of the party and I must say there were some pretty impressive ones.Nikki Haley was very good and my fellow Jersey Boy Chris Christie brought the house down.

One great line from tonight...."the democrats worry about the teachers union...the republicans worry about teachers."

Dervish Sanders said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dervish Sanders said...

dmarks: At least you are not doing what wd does with his claims that the smaller and less obtrusive government is, the more fascist it is.

Because a smaller government lacks the ability to keep the wealthy and corporations in check. It is an abdication of power from "we the people" to the plutocrats... and that most certainly is fascism.

Will: ...coupled with a 20% reduction in their rates...

20 percent? Where are you getting that from? Making an ASSumption?

Rusty: One great line from tonight... "the democrats worry about the teachers union... the republicans worry about teachers".

You forgot the rest of the line... which was "...making too much money and being protected from wrongful termination". I can understand you missing that, however, since it was only implied.

Rusty Shackelford said...




Seems like the resident dufuss did'nt like the teachers union line.....so he creates his own....what a sad case he is.

Dervish Sanders said...

Actually, the resident doofus (one of them at least) liked the teacher bashing line very much.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Mr. Romney has said that he plans to cut the rates 20% for all U.S. tax-payers. That much he HAS specified.............And increasing the size of government is hardly a check on corporate power, wd. General Electric, Goldman Sachs (and, in turn, Warren Buffett), Philip Morris, big pharma, etc. have ALL benefited handsomely from Mr. Obama's policies and can you even begin to imagine if they had ended up passing cap and trade?

dmarks said...

WD: "Because a smaller government lacks the ability to keep the wealthy and corporations in check."

So says the fascist who wants the ruling elites to control us all in order to 'protect' us from a nonexistent threat.

This has to be the 800th time WD has passionately defended fascism and abusive government power.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Let's see if he admits that the Tax Policy Center made some questionable assumptions.

Dervish Sanders said...

dmarks: [blah, blah, blah WD is a fascist according to the definition of fascism I made up].

This has got to be the 900th time dmarks has passionately defended fascism and spoken in favor of us being abused by the plutocrats.

Will: And increasing the size of government is hardly a check on corporate power...

You are right, it isn't. Not by itself. We need a government big enough to check corporate power, and a government WILLING to check corporate power because they aren't beholden to the big money interests. For that we need public financing of elections (and a repeal of Citizens United).

Dervish Sanders said...

Will: Let's see if he admits that the Tax Policy Center made some questionable assumptions.

I'd say there is as much chance of that happening as you admitting that they made only reasonable assumptions.

You did say, "Show me where in the Tax Policy Center's study on Romney's budget in which they DO include interest on tax exempt bonds and interest on life insurance savings as a part of their analysis".

I showed you were they included it, so I thought you MIGHT "happily stand down" as you promised.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

here it is again, wd - “Off the table”: (Savings and Investment)
Preferential rate on capital gains and dividends
Exclusion of interest on tax exempt municipal bonds
Deduction for HSA Contributions from taxed income
KEOGH, SEP, & Simple Contribution Deduction
Penalty on Early Withdrawal of Savings
Self-Employment IRA Deduction
Investment Interest
Saver’s Credit
Capital gains exclusion on home sales
Step-up basis of capital gains at deat.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Interesting, you can't any longer say that they didn't make assumptions, so now you have to move the goalposts and say that, yes, they did make assumptions but they were "reasonable" assumptions.............And where in the hell has Romney ever said that he would completely do away with the mortgage interest deduction? Is that simply yet another "reasonable" assumption by the TPC?

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

And I agree with you on the need for campaign finance reform. I would personally prefer to accomplish it without the taxpayer fitting the bill but if we couldn't do that, I would support public financing.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/03/03/think-tank-employees-tend-to-support-democrats - From 2003 to 2010, 97.6% of Brookings' political donations went to Democrats. Must be a lot of conservative Democrats, huh, wd?

dmarks said...

WD said: "dmarks: [blah, blah, blah WD is a fascist according to the definition of fascism I made up]."

I'm running with the real definition, not one I made up. Just about ever definition includes such things as concentration of government power (which fits in with your demand for government monopoly of things, such as single payer) and censorship and stifling of dissent (which fits in with your demand to get rid of the First Amendment).

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

So, how is wd going to spin that 97.6% donations to Democrats statistic? Accuse U.S. News and World Report of being plutocrats?

dmarks said...

Will: You probably read this by now, but WD ended up making up from whole cloth the idea that the 97.6% that the leftist Brookings and TCP donate to are all moderates (and aren't left-wing), and the 2% or so of Republicans that they donate too are hardline right wingers.