Spending up 9%

Cordelier said:

Sure... shove it all on the states. So now a poor state like Mississippi - where the need for better education, better healthcare, and better opportunities are the greatest... they're the very same ones who can least afford it. Screw'em - they should have been born richer. That's brilliant, Connie. Meanwhile, over in Connecticut, where the needs aren't so great - they've got all kinds of money to spend on schools and healthcare and social programs. We need effective Federal programs to level the playing field and make sure everyone has the same opportunities - regardless of whether they were born in Mississippi or Connecticut. Give every kid that level playing field, and rest assured, the best and the brightest of them will rise to the top.

All of those years we lived with slavery or segregation... looked the other way and swept it under the carpet. Everything's honky-dory. Does it ever make you wonder how much talent we squandered as a nation just in the South alone? If you were a black man born in Georgia before the end of Jim Crow, you could have been the most brilliant man who ever lived. Given the right support and encouragement, you could have cured cancer or have been the next Einstein. You could have been America's Da Vinci. Wouldn't have mattered though, would it? You were born poor, and poor is what you were going to stay. Smartest sharecropper who ever lived.

Times changed, though... we've knocked down those racial barriers - now we need to do better on knocking down the income barriers... because just like being born rich is the surest way of becoming rich, being born poor is the surest way of remaining poor.

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Conservative said:

LOL, yep the poor old Mississippi argument ignoring that federal taxes being reduced gives the state more of an opportunity to raise taxes if necessary. Interesting isn't it that people keep moving to Mississippi as they obviously aren't as smart as you

You really have no idea what the role is of the state and federal gov'ts do you? Nor do you understand what funds specific programs including education. This is a problem with the left and why the left believes in a massive central gov't that takes power away from the states

Cannot wait until you get your first job, start paying taxes on everything and maybe then you will understand the reality of a bloated over reaching federal bureaucracy without term limits that have career jobs and power

Keep believing what you are told and ignore reality which again you ignored, 70% of the U.S. budget is entitlement and social spending, 30% of the budget is discretionary including defense. So how much is enough for you?

You want to knock down income barriers? How do you propose doing that? You don't understand personal responsibility nor do you understand the private sector. Nothing is preventing you from joining the rich except for you and your attitude. I know, I used to be a liberal but outgrew it when I saw more of my paycheck going to bureaucrats who spent it in the name of compassion yet never generating compassionate results like solving problems. How many billions is it going to take and where is the accountability.

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Greenbeard said:

There's a reason the guy you're responding to would never in a million years trade in his federal Medicare to enroll in Texas's Medicaid program as part of some large-scale devolution revolution. He usually forgets to write it all out but what he really means is "return the social programs I'm not using to the states."

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Cordelier said:

*LOL* Never fails... you get someone on the ropes, and they start making the debate personal. Fair is fair, though.... I know I did accuse you of reeking of oil earlier, so I'm not blameless on this front myself. But truth be told, you do remind me of every pipe-slinging roughneck I've ever met.... once they start making six figures pumping crude out of the ground, they get to thinking they've got all the answers. Hate to break it to you, but you're not going to find'em buried under that salt dome.

Professional student... maybe technically, I guess. I'm always studying something or other. But I like wine, women (well, woman now) and song too much to do it full-time. After I got out the Army, I did the University thing for a while... but it bored the crap out of me. Apologies to Jessie Dayton, but I guess my collar was a little too blue. Since then I've been (to name a few) a ship's mate, a network administrator, a college instructor, a ranch hand, a butcher and now I'm on a forestry firefighting crew. Literally one end of the country to the other and points in between. I find I can get 5 years out of a career before it starts boring the hell out of me.... then it's either stick with it and stagnate or move on to the next thing that interests me. So good luck putting me in whatever box you want to try and put me into.

As for your last paragraph.... you think I want to be rich?? Screw that... so long as I'm making enough to be comfortable, that's fine with me. Any more than that is just being greedy. Besides, every rich person I've ever met has been stunted in some way. They're either born into it and are so stupid or lazy they can't tell their arm from their elbow... or they've earned it through single-minded determination. They may be a great singer or actor or businessman or lawyer or however they earned their money... but try talking to them about something outside of that field, and they don't have a clue. I never wanted to be that guy either.

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Cordelier said:

I think you called that one, alright... that's always the way with these types, isn't it? Keep your stinking Big Government hands off of my Medicare! *L*

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Conservative said:

Look you have zero credibility, I spent 35 years in the business world running a 200 million dollar a year business employing over 1200 people. You talk about fairness, what is fair about 44% of income earning Americans not paying ANY Federal Income Taxes and the top 1% paying 40% which to you isn't enough?

Every rich person you met?? Looks like nothing but jealousy to me, class envy. Why? What is wrong with you and where did you learn it was their responsibility to pay for your personal responsibility issues? I feel sorry for people like you but see far too many like minded people here that think or should I say feel like you. None have any respect for anyone else but themselves and are the true selfish ones wanting someone else's income

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Cordelier said:

Interesting... so when you were running this $200 million a year business - what kind of pay ratio was it running? How much more did you earn than the typical employee? Ballpark it... Was it 20:1? More like 200:1? 2,000:1?

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Conservative said:

None of your fricken business as it is irrelevant. people were paid based upon their performance and the results generated. Seems that minimum wage would be overpaying you

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Conservative said:

There is no comparison between Medicaid and Medicare. Cannot even believe people are this dumb to believe that you can exchange one for the other. Medicaid has nothing to do with retirement healthcare(Medicare), it is all income based. It is funded by the Federal Gov't whereas Medicare is funded by FICA taxes paid by employees and employers on each paycheck. Where in the hell did you get your information and where are you getting your education?? This is a complete embarrassment. No one can exchange one for the other as they aren't even close to being the same thing.

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Greenbeard said:

Why are you imagining Medicaid will be getting any federal money when Medicare is dismantled and responsibility for social spending on the elderly is left to the states' discretion? Financing care for old folks, should the state have interest in that, will be Texas's problem. I'm sure they will take good care of you.

The good news is the federal budget will be in great shape!

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Cordelier said:

*LOL* I get the impression you feel minimum wage would be overpaying a lot of people.

Why is your pay ratio irrelevant? What the business grossed and the number of employees obviously weren't irrelevant.

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Conservative said:

States aren't going to take over Medicare and SS nor should they as the federal taxes fund those program.

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Greenbeard said:

Great, we can keep the status quo and you can finally shut up with the empty rhetoric about moving social spending to the states. Win-win!

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Conservative said:

You really have no idea what social programs belong to the states and the federal gov't do you? Win-win?? that would be getting rid of all social engineering and your healthcare bull**** about a single payer system for all Americans.

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Conservative said:

Not all people, just people like you who have that entitlement mentality and total lack of understanding of how the private sector works. Never paid minimum wage in my entire career

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Greenbeard said:

...so get rid of Medicare and let the states pick up the slack if they want to. Like I said, I'm sure Texas will take great care of you! Best of luck.

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Cordelier said:

I've been working in the private sector for the past 25 years - I think I've got a pretty good grasp of it. *L*

The entitlement mentality? Because I believe in collective bargaining and I don't us to go back to some Gilded Age tenement existence?

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Conservative said:

Right, it is always someone else's fault for poor personal choices people make and you are a perfect example of a very naive and poor manager of people

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Conservative said:

You really have no idea what you are talking about as usual

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Cordelier said:

I've got to say, that's a pretty judgmental assertion to make about someone you don't even know. *L* You sure you're not engaging in a little psychological projection there?

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Greenbeard said:

I get it, you want your social programs to remain at the federal level. Given the state you live in, that's a no-brainer.

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MTAtech said:

2019 receipts may be up over the same period in 2018, but bother were depressed due to tax-cuts. Both 2019 and 2018 receipts are lower than previous years.

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jimbo said:

Then we need to reduce spending to fit income.

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MTAtech said:

So why don't you tell use exactly what items should be cut? To answer that, you should know the federal government, in terms of spending, is an insurance company with an army. That's where the vast amount of federal spending resides, in five areas: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense and interest on the debt. So, if you are talking about reducing federal spending to lower deficits, you are either talking about cutting the big five or you have no idea what you are talking about.

I have a novel idea: since the 2017 tax-cuts produced little economic benefit, why not go back to the pre-2017 tax-rates -- or better yet, go back to the pre-Reagan rates that created huge income inequality?

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MTAtech said:

So why don't you tell use exactly what items should be cut? To answer that, you should know the federal government, in terms of spending, is an insurance company with an army. That's where the vast amount of federal spending resides, in five areas: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense and interest on the debt. So, if you are talking about reducing federal spending to lower deficits, you are either talking about cutting the big five or you have no idea what you are talking about.

I have a novel idea: since the 2017 tax-cuts produced little economic benefit, why not go back to the pre-2017 tax-rates -- or better yet, go back to the pre-Reagan rates that created huge income inequality?

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