What they want
I don’t believe a Republican can ever again be president in a country where more people are in the wagon than are outside pulling it. If we can’t beat a president who has been a total failure in his economic policies and has pushed America into an ongoing recession (it’s been his economy for the last two years), then we never can.
People vote their pocketbooks, and the people in the wagon know the liberals will give them more handouts than the conservatives. And they will continue to believe that it’s the Republicans’ opposition to President Obama’s policies that have extended the recession.
The government only takes in $1.2 trillion a year on federal income taxes. Those who think raising taxes on the rich from 35 to 39.5 percent (around 10 percent) is going to help with the deficit have no understanding of economics. That move, which I really don’t object to, will only raise, at the most, another $90 billion per year. Nothing compared to the deficits this administration is running. Those who think that raising taxes higher than 10 percent would help must realize that at some point, the “law of diminishing returns “ will kick in and less revenue will come in.
My proposal is the Republican Congress give the liberals whatever they want on taxes and spending. Let the liberals show us their policies work, and don’t sink us into oblivion. If they work, great. But if they don’t, the liberals have to take the blame.
DAVID F. MOSER
Winston-Salem
Businesses closed
I am a postal-service letter carrier. I would like to reply to the letter writer who recently complained when he found the DMV closed on Veterans’ Day (“Monday holidays,” Nov. 24). He included the U.S. Postal Service, among others, for criticism for observing the holiday “while for the private sector it is just another workday.”
Speaking only for myself, I must note that every Saturday, when I carry my route, I find a great majority of my private-sector businesses closed. Recently on Black Friday, and annually on Christmas Eve and Good Friday, I will once again encounter most of them closed. This is not a complaint. I am fortunate to have a good job.
At Waughtown Station, about half of our employees are veterans, including two reservists who were called up to serve in Iraq. I think we need not apologize for observing Veterans’ Day. Instead, let us express our gratefulness to the first responders and hospital personnel, among many others, who are on duty 24/7/365.
DAVID OHMBERGER
Winston-Salem
On a playground
We send representatives to emerging nations to assure that, when they hold elections, citizens have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote. In our own country, there are many reports of voter suppression that attempt to prevent our own citizens from exercising their right to vote. Who is protecting our citizens' rights?
Our ambassadors go to foreign countries to assist in negotiating cease-fire plans and to broker peace deals using compromise and diplomacy. In our own country, elected officials engage in covert actions and a different kind of warfare to undermine the future of our country. They quibble and squabble and sometimes sound more like children on a playground than duly elected officials who should have the welfare of their constituents foremost in their minds.
Who is assisting our members of Congress in learning that compromise is a positive, not a negative? That compromise is a time-proved method of making our country stronger and more productive? That compromise is not a sign of weakness? That our citizens deserve better than we are getting?
Perhaps the answers lie within each of us.
BARBARA WATKINS DAYE
Boone
Clinton-era economy
There’s been a lot of chatter about the “fiscal cliff” and what to do about it. We hear a lot about Clinton tax rates tossed around and about. Well, if both houses of Congress want the Clinton era tax rates, then they must also include Clinton spending limits. The spending rates cannot be one dime more than what was spent in the last two years of the Clinton term in office.
I would love to see the president, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House John Boehner wrap their arms and fiscal brains around that.
STEVE HENDERSON
Winston-Salem
Sum It Up
The Sum It Up question from Sunday was: Do you think Americans will put aside their political differences for the holiday season?
Absolutely not. Two words explain why: fiscal cliff.
SAM JONES
I do believe they would overlook their political differences for the sake of Santa Claus except probably for the ideological die-hards who could not get over the Waterloo they suffered in the last elections and the fact that President Obama gets four more years to run the country.
BOON T. LEE
LTE#1...What They Want
ReplyDeleteTwo lines stand out clearly: "a president who has been a total failure in his economic policies and has pushed America into an ongoing recession" Ongoing Recession?? and "have no understanding of economics." Recession: A period of general economic decline; typically defined as a decline in GDP for two or more consecutive quarters. At this point the U.S. economy has had 13 consecutive quarters of economic growth. That 3.25 years of growth. The only things ongoing are the misconceptions, misstatements, and the obstruction. The analogy isn't all that great either because I've seen a one human powered cart pull a family of 4.
Good AM, foks!
ReplyDeleteI sit to be corrected, of course, but if I'm following his logic, it appears that our friend Steve "Caniac" Henderson recommends solving the "fiscal cliff" problem by having us go over the fiscal cliff.
Methinks the gleeful Boon Lee overstates matters by calling the election "Waterloo." The popular vote was close, and the balance of power remains essentially the same, but with a slightly increased advantage to the Dems. His "Waterloo" depiction may ultimately be more accurate if Boehner et al do not see that standing on Norquist's pledge will not sell with the electorate.
If the budget matter is not resolved before taxes increase on everyone and both consumer and government spending cuts send us into recession, the R's will be assigned the blame. The Dems have the advantage here, and the R's will need to give on taxes before the Dems will on spending, and the Dems know this. Unless he changes course, Boehner will spend this Congressional term warming the Speaker's seat for his Dem replacement in 2015.
Whoa, ah say whoa there! Fiscal cliff or no, we are likely in for recession next year anyway. This nonrecovery recovery is a hallmark of a L-shape recovery. Any little puff of good news is little more than a dead cat bounce brought on by over printing by the Fed. Without the Fed over printing, we don't know if this baby can even walk on its own.
DeleteYesterday I complimented Boon on a sensible letter. Today I take it back. No mandate was won, a stalemate was won. If the Rs give on taxes, that is all that will happen. No agreement about spending cuts will ever produce any. Lucy always yanks away the football. Trust but verify worked with the Soviets but it does not in DC.
Reps are always blamed for things in DC, biz as usual. It is one thing to blame the opposition in a Presidential election, but in off year elections that won't fly as we have been in this soup for too long with no prospects of getting out. Blue seats stay blue, red stays red and Indies won't buy the blame game anymore. Democrats may scheme because they are capable of nothing else. A scheme is not a plan. Schemes backfire. No deal is better than a bad deal to quote Sen Bernie Sanders.
What was the Fed supposed to do? You can see the magic of overvalued currency working right now in Ireland and southern Europe.
DeleteYou would have made an excellent medieval barber, Whitewall. The patient is weak...bleed him some more!
Francisco D'Anconia made a lovely speech -- interesting philosophy, but smart policy it most definitely is not.
DeleteHey Arthur. The Fed did its job early on but any real good was negated by harmful economic policy from elected officials: auto bailouts, wasted stimulus bill that produced virtually nothing and most importantly, the cram down of Obamacare. For the Fed action to work, the private sector needs confidence to do its thing. There was no and is no confidence. More Fed printing did little but devalue our dollar thereby reducing the buying power of consumers and businesses. It has reinflated a stock market bubble by cheap money in hopes of recreating a wealth effect. It hasn't. Southern Europe and Ireland have a debt overhang from a credit binge.
DeleteArthur is like most young people whitewall, they know everything until things go horribly wrong.
DeleteThe stimulus stopped the free fall -- there's a reason why our economy is doing better than countries that have embraced austerity. You don't reduce unemployment by laying government employees off, nor do you help the private businesses said gov't employees patronize. The main reason the stimulus didn't didn't produce a v recovery is because it wasn't big enough and was counteracted at the state and local level.
DeleteCram down? Obamacare was passed by majority vote in the House, and the meat of it passed with 60 votes under regular order in the Senate. And, it was ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court. I don't know yet how exactly it will affect the employment picture (neither do you, nor does anyone) but I do know it means millions more Americans will have health insurance, and that will save lives. And it makes an honest effort to begin to control costs. Is it perfect in that regard? Of course not, but we should wait and see what works and what doesn't, and fix it accordingly. It has the promise of a more humane health care in this country, and that's worth fighting for, in my opinion.
And the confidence fairy. The problem isn't confidence, it's demand. People are still rebuilding their finances after the housing bubble. Things are starting to improve now, but these recoveries take time. Businesses just need more customers...it's that simple.
Devalue the dollar? The right has been predicting hyperinflation for 4 years now, and has been consistently wrong. Core inflation remains low, as you would expect given such weak demand. Zimbabwe we ain't. The answer just isn't tight money right now, especially when so many people are deleveraging. Let's make that debt more expensive and harder to pay off! We'll have less customers, but that'll show those lazy moochers...teach 'em a lesson.
But I've said all this stuff umpteen zillion times before. You tired of having the same old arguments over and over and over and over and over and over and over ..........................................
Spoken like a Keynesian.
DeleteA proud one at that.
DeleteWell Arthur, pride will go before an implosion.
DeleteThings might be getting better out there. I had real estate agent want to charge a 10% commission the other day. Is that anywhere near normal for commercial property or does he just think I'm stupid, and he doesn't know that I have someone like a Whitewall to a least query.
DeleteDestroy the village in order to save it, eh?
DeleteWordly, non residential commercial property is often 10% but it is not set in stone. Also, raw land is frequently 10%, even developable land.
DeleteThanks, Whitewall. That makes me feel better about the situation. Not sure what we'll do, but did initially seem like a lot to me although I didn't say anything, but no one signed any papers either. Nice to know that someone thinks he has a buyer and sought me out regarding selling.
DeleteArthur, the kind of decades old credit expansion that ended in 2008 was so massive in leverage that we will be dealing with it for years if not decades. Villages are being destroyed...litterally. There is no good way out. There is no easy way out. There sure as hell is no painless way out. Ditto Europe. Japan has been enduring this problem for nearly two decades. All markets will find their bottom, even if that process is being delayed by massive liquidity injections. Markets correct and then rebuild and we will pay in discomfort equal to the joy we felt in the leveraged "good old days".
DeleteAll I know is, contractionary gov't policies when you're in a downturn like this are self-defeating, especially, by the way, when interest rates are still rock-bottom.
DeleteJust look at Europe now, for Pete's sake, and look at us. I'd much rather be an American right now. Austerity becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom.
You have a depressive personality.
I have a realistic personality as I see things as they are. Part of my formal education was in Europe many moons ago in the city of Graz, Austria. So you can see the basis for some of my views. It is instructive to look at Europe as we are about a decade from being them. In the world of sovereign government balance sheets, austerity and deleveraging are synonyms. Pols and media people can say deleverage and no one gets upset or antsy. But let them say austerity and look out! BTW, I would never be trusted as a barber...my hands tremble too much.
DeleteHah! In Viet Nam we had a barbershop on base. The guy was fabulous. Whenever I had the time, once or twice a month, I liked to go in and get a shave. He used a straight razor...a good thing he wasn't VC or we would have been wiped out.
DeleteTalk about a close shave...at the end he would dump this lavender smelling stuff on your face and you would think that someone had dropped napalm in the wrong place. The burn continued for at least 24 hours, but you didn't have to shave again for several days.
As to austerity, there is no record in human history where it worked. If our pols want to implement austerity, they are our assassins.
Austerity alone will not solve things as Europe is learning. They and we need reform of decades old labor laws that harken to a bygone era. Europe won't do it-yet. Our tax structure is an antique that fits mid 20th century America not 2012. It needs to become flat and accomodative to the tech world and the rewarding of saving and investment vs borrowing and spending. Many things need to be done in close order- not just one thing-though that one thing will happen. No easy way out.
DeleteI do think a consumption based VAT tax might be a good idea, but where's the heart of tech? California.
DeleteThink about it.
For now Ca is the heart of tech. I could see consumption/VAT in place of the mess we have now. Though VAT is a pols dream as it tends to be invisible to the public at the various stages which pols like.
DeleteFor now, NC is not the heart of tech, but extremely dependent on tech, cf Research Triangle and our own budding PTRP...and many other areas, especially east of Raleigh and Charlotte and south of Charlotte...
DeleteWe are staking our future on biotech and it must work or else.
One of the reasons that we are where we are is that we have resisted VAT for decades.
We'll have to go into some type of catastrophic economic event to make liberals wake-up. They're thick as a brick.
DeleteThe thickness of a standard brick is 2 1/4". With a few minutes training, almost anyone can learn to break brick with either their hand, foot or forehead.
DeleteObviously, the fool above failed the training course and has tried to break a brick on his forehead way too many times, causing severe damage to an already feeble brain.
What they want. Give liberals what they want on taxes and spending and see what they give us? Fine, if what you want is France 2012. That's all.
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: And some on the right side of the aisle continue to live a life divorced from reality (sigh). Before spouting off about having "no understanding of economics", it would be wise to spend some time on understanding concepts such as recession so you don't make claims that simply aren't true. How does an almost doubling of the Dow, rising GDP (2.7% in the 3rd qtr alone), and additional jobs added every month translate into "total failure"? The fed govt has both revenue and expenditure problems which require additional revenues and fewer expenditures. Only true believers think the deficit can be solved with just tax increases or spending cuts alone.
LTE 2: Nice response from Mr. Ohmberger. Veteran's Day is a federal holiday to recognize all those who have served this country. It would be nice if the entire private sector chose to recognize this day by giving its employees off. Some do, however those who do have to go in should be grateful that they have a job to go to instead of whining about those who have the day off.
LTE 3: The courts have done a decent job so far of protecting our right to vote. Politicians throughout history have squabbled like children over policy issues. It's nothing new. The President should be the one guiding Congress to come to an agreement, but it does often fall to the public to apply pressure to get anything done.
LTE 4: If a deal is failed to be made by Dec 31, Caniac Steve will get his wish. The major difference between now and then is that the US in the 90's had ~10% fewer people and was at essentially full employment. That naturally translates into much fewer dollars required to meet the nation's needs.
Sum it up: Are you kidding? Some are wanting to start a fight over "Happy Holidays" vs. "Merry Christmas". Guess some people just aren't happy unless they are in a fight over something or other.
LTE #1 - ⬇
ReplyDeleteLTE #2 - ⬆
LTE #3 - ⬆
LTE #4 - ⬇
Sum It Up - ⬇
Lazy man's comments.
Speaking of sitting in the wagon and being pulled by the rest of us, did you see where Billy Prim will no longer have to pay any property taxes on the stadium we built for his baseball team?
ReplyDeleteActually, Sports Menagerie has never paid any taxes on the ballpark, because the city owns the ballpark and city property is not taxable. They were paying taxes on the intangible value of the lease with the city.
DeleteIf the city had cut a sweetheart deal on the lease and allowed Menagerie to pay less than the going rate for the lease, Menagerie would have been liable for city and county taxes on the difference. But since Menagerie's lease is above the going rate, the county board of equalization and review held that they owe no tax on the lease.
The city has a separate agreement that Menagerie will pay the city's $140,000 share of the taxes whether they are liable or not, so the amount received by the city will not change. The county will be out the $200,000 that they had been receiving, but they played no part in building the ballpark in the first place, so they haven't got anything to complain about.
In fact, as is often the case, county taxpayers were freeloading off those of us who pay city taxes.
I'm sure Forsyth County residents go to the ballpark, so the city, and its residents are, in effect, free loading off of county residents.
DeleteAs usual, NW's logic is back a$$ backwards.
After I read the entire article, I did not feel quite as bad about it. Inherently, I still feel that something is unjust about the property tax situation.
DeleteBB&T ballpark cost approximately $48.7 million to build. The city of Winston-Salem paid approximately $15.3 million of that cost. The city now owns BB&T ballpark, lock, stock and barrel, and Menagerie leases the ballpark from the city.
DeleteThe lease payments made by Menagerie vary slightly from year to year, based on a complicated formula that includes ticket and concession sales and other factors. For the 2011 season, Menagerie made a total lease payment of $848, 526 to the city. That has been about average. All payments have been on time.
So the city owns an entertainment facility that cost $48.7 million for an investment of only $15.3 million, which will be paid off in about 18 years, considerably less than most mortgages. I wish I could find such a sweet deal.
Property tax is a non-issue, as the city does not assess the city for its own property. Unfortunately, the county was able to cash in for about $400,000 the first two years on a hunt in which they had no dog. They were solicited to participate, and should have, but anyone who follows the proceedings of the county commissioners knows that they are more concerned with praying at meetings and supporting measures that are none of their business which attack private citizens' civil rights than in the welfare of county citizens.
And, of course, government is not meant to be involved in profitable deals to begin with. Government is supposed to be concerned with the welfare of its citizens. Already, in just 3 years, over a million citizens have enjoyed a delightful night at the ballpark. During the term of the 25 year lease, another 10 million or so will have a similar experience. Those who have not are missing out.
If you want to feel sorry for someone, make that Billy Prim and the team owners, who paid in over $33 million for a ballpark that they now have to lease. But don't feel too sorry for them. Billy is doing quite well financially in his private business, thank you. And Menagerie, through its association with Mandalay Entertainment, is not exactly starving.
Mandalay owns 5 of the most successful minor league baseball teams in the country, and "manages" about 5 more, including the Dash. This summer their Dayton Dragons set an all time sports record with their 815th consecutive sellout crowd. Last year they were named one of the "Top Ten Hottest Tickets in Sports". The only other baseball team on the list was the Boston Red Sox. And the Winston-Salem Dash are in the hunt.
Weep not for anyone in this deal…for once, we are all winners.
Thanks, I do feel better. Might even attend a game now.
DeletePlease do. I cannot think of a better thing to do on a hot summer night, except for skinny dipping at the local pond. Unfortunately, nowadays that can lead to an encounter with "authorities", which might prove embarrassing to one of my delicate age. Just ask Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kansas) and his wife, who got scolded by the always boring Daddy Eric Cantor for daring to traipse nekkid in the Sea of Galilee. What would Jesus have thought?
DeleteWhen I go to BB&T Ballpark, I like to sit on the first base side, about midway up in the stands, which is a reasonable compromise. That would be specifically section 108, say around row 14 or a bit higher.
If you sit any lower, in the high priced box seats, it is difficult to see the arc of the pitch, so you have no idea whether the pitcher has thrown a fast ball, a curve, a knuckler, or god forbid, a spitball. Yet this position gives a good view of the jumbotron, home plate and first base, where much of the action takes place.
The best pitchers generate a lot of ground balls, thus the basic drama of baseball, the infielder scoops it up and fires to first and the runner is either safe or out. Why should the umpires be the only ones who get to make the call? From my perch I have just as much right as they do, and can let them know when they are wrong.
Of course, if you've got a bunch of antsy kids, the Nature's Secret grassy knoll in left field is perfect and the cheapest ticket. Or if you have little interest in the game and just came to sit outside and drink beer, the right field bleachers are fine, sections 101 through 104…great view of the entire park and sometimes not so crowded…not to mention that you might get a shot at catching a home run ball, not recommended for those over about 22.
Every community needs a fool for comic relief. In the nation, we have Congress. In the state, we have the legislature. In the county we have the county commissioners and the various city councils.
ReplyDeleteWe can all have a good laugh at their antics, especially the ridiculous things that they say. Of course, we have to pay them for it.
A community as small as this forum normally could not afford to pay a full time fool. But we are fortunate to have one who is willing to work gratis.
As my grandmother used to say, "We are blessed."
Indeed.
Delete:-))
DeleteAs suggested by my friend Hunter James yesterday, there is no actual fiscal cliff, just a fiscal slope. But it will be a very unpleasant slope unless some people come to their senses, if they have any. I have serious doubts about that.
ReplyDeleteGet It Or Die