Comments by "" (@A86) on "Pres. Obama's First State of the Union Address" video.

  1. "Market regulation by government protects the big boys from competition" In some cases yes but not all cases. That's about like saying all medicine just worsens a problem. Antitrust laws often don't protect Big Business. As for government protecting corporations Big Business can still form even if a government was absent, such as natural monopolies. One has to wonder though without a government who would print money? Where would the military come from?
    2
  2. "A.K.A the poor and middle class" We keep getting screwed because we keep allowing the upper classes to shift costs onto us. While we get worked up about their minimal tax hikes (most of their personal money comes from capital gains, not income) they shift tax burdens from tax cuts onto us and funnel the savings into their own pockets while not creating more jobs. I'd be far more concerned about small business than bankers and big corporations.
    2
  3. "50% of Americans do not pay any income tax" Go to Google and type in "income tax brackets" and see for yourself. What you said is incorrect. And about the top 1% I was incorrect. The top 5% earns nearly 70% of national income, not just the top 1%. While you're talking about "statist lies" you seem to be bought off by corporatist lies.
    2
  4. "Who is it that is providing more jobs for people to become taxpayers?" Small businesses employ far more people than large businesses. As for providing jobs it's a two-way street. Without workers there wouldn't be any jobs and thus no revenue or tax dollars. "Business loans aren't a government service" Many business loans and many utilities receive billions in government subsidies every year.
    2
  5. @jimistreets - Corporations do not feed the world, most people are employed in small businesses. What corporations produce we can thank the employees for. This computer was created by scientists, technicians and employees. Not CEOs or shareholders. "Tax cuts have spurred HUGE economic growth" No they haven't: (dot) huppi (dot) com / kangaroo / L - taxgrowth (dot) htm (dot) cbpp (dot) org / cms / ? fa = view & id = 692
    1
  6. @billabong24041 - By more "democratic" I don't mean mob rule or majoritarianism. I mean our government should be able to just be bought off by the highest bidder and completely ignore the taxpayers and the public.
    1
  7. The danger with a private military is they derive a profit from war which means they have a vested interesting in making sure wars continue. They have a vested interested in making sure as many wars as possible are going on at all times. If there is peace they don't make a profit.
    1
  8. I absolutely hate the mandates but they aren't to buy government health insurance. There is no government health insurance in the bill anymore. This was paid for by the insurance industry by way of Max Baucus, Olympia Snowe and Harry Reid. It's basically like if you had to buy McDonald's or Burger King at least once a week or else face a fine.
    1
  9. Apparently you never heard of the 1982 recession (the second worst in the 20th century) or the 1987 small recession. The 1982 recession didn't fully stop until 1985. The 90s business cycle was much stronger. "tax revenue doubled" I don't know where you got that from. Reagan had a total of -0.6% growth in tax revenue. "Who made the computer you are using" Engineers, technicians, etc. "whom you are callling vampires" I'm calling the practices of CEOs and shareholders vampirical.
    1
  10. "Democrats are tax and spend. Republicans are borrow and spend. Enough of the wasteful spending from both parties" Agree 100%.
    1
  11. "the only president to spend trillions has been Obama" Bush spent $2.8 Trillion in 2008 alone. He spent a total of $11.5 Trillion in his 8 years in office.
    1
  12. Reagan was in the pocket of corporate America, bankers and the military-industrial complex like the rest. I think Eisenhower was the last truly unowned President.
    1
  13. "They're investors. They're small business owners who don't make the millions" Most small business owners make less than $250,000/year. Obama's "tax hike" on those over that limit is still pretty low. Ronald Reagan raised the tax rate on the rich to as must as 50%. Obama's rate for them is 11% lower. "Takes a lot of income to pay multiple people $15k per year and up" Small businesses make money from the value added from the labor of employees.
    1
  14. "increasing tax burdens" On whom? Most of us are getting tax cuts. It's the top 2% who will be getting the tax increase. I feel no sympathy for them because they've shoveled debt and the tax burden onto the rest of us for decades. You can't continue to dole out corporate welfare and pay for multi-trillion dollar military adventures every year without spending. No president after Eisenhower has decreased spending.
    1
  15. @jimistreets - I don't think it's that simple. I think we should lower taxes on some things and raise it on others. Most large businesses are not paying their taxes as it is, which is why need to restore Glass-Steagall. I think for small businesses taxes should be lowered.
    1
  16. @billabong24041 - Of course I have a problem with it. But Republican policies do nothing but add to the debt as well. "Bush had it right with his tax cuts" Tax cuts did jack shit except shift more of the tax burden to the middle class and increase debt. He cut taxes while increasing spending. That's horrendously stupid. That's like cutting your salary in half then buying a new car. You can't fight multi-trillion dollar wars if you cut taxes.
    1
  17. I don't know about your business but in general tax cuts for the wealthy don't trickle down to small businesses: (dot) cbpp (dot) org / cms/ ? fa = view & id = 692 Most small business owners are not wealthy. Even if you don't increase spending it still decreases tax collections and puts a burden on small businesses to pick up the slack. Most savings are just pocketed and/or put in overseas bank accounts.
    1
  18. The corporations wouldn't exist without the people that work for them. Don't forget. "The Reagan tax cuts increased tax revenue" Not really: en (dot) wikipedia (dot) org / wiki / Reaganomics # Tax _ receipts Tax cuts don't increase tax collection revenue and aren't intended to do so. The whole point of them is to encourage more spending or investment.
    1
  19. A monopoly forms by cornering the market and limiting competition. That makes them anti-competitive by nature. Cornering the market and limiting competition coerces the consumer. If a company has not cornered the market and squeezed out all competitors they're not a monopoly. "Every new product or service creates a monopoly" So McDonald's "Southern Style Chicken Sandwich" created a monopoly for chicken sandwiches?
    1
  20. CRA is only part of the problem. The other problem was deregulation put into place by Bush, Reagan and "ironically" Carter. You have more than one culprit in this. You have deregulation and bad regulation.
    1
  21. @CalifSunshine2008 - It was the same way with Bush. Paulson, Gramm, etc. All those characters. Both parties are pretty much the same.
    1
  22. No, some planets are cooling while some are warming: (dot) skepticalscience (dot) com / global - warming - other - planets - solar - system (dot) htm Solar activity has been at a minimum for decades. There has never been a period in earth's post-Cambrian history where atmospheric CO2 composition has jumped 107ppm in just 250 years. If so I'd like you to point me to that period or chron. There is no such thing as "Planet X".
    1
  23. From the CBO, the Department of Treasury, the Department of Labor, the Census Bureau and the NBER. I can PM them if you want.
    1
  24. Tripled the national debt? Please explain how so. Our foreign debt at the end of the Bush Admin was $10.4 Trillion. Bush brought it up to that from the $5 Trillion foreign debt under Clinton. Reagan increased Carter's foreign debt of $0.9 Trillion in 1980 to $3 Trillion by 1988. Under Obama our current foreign debt is $12 Trillion. Every president since Nixon has increased our foreign debt. But $12 Trillion is not triple of $10.4 Trillion.
    1
  25. America is not above question or condemnation. It's a nation like any other. Not a god or something holy. If you read the Bible you would know that nation-worship is idolatry.
    1
  26. The public ended the Vietnam War through protests and lobbying Congress to end it. "Without government, I doubt Blackwater would be stirring up trouble in Iraq" According to that logic no business would exist without the government. Blackwater exists because there is money to be made off of war. A business will form around anything that money can be made off of.
    1
  27. Actually employment and economic growth was higher under Eisenhower and Clinton than Kennedy and Reagan.
    1
  28. Bush left over a trillion in deficit and Obama has so far left nearly 2 trillion in deficit. That's not quadruple, that's nearly double. "stolen from future generations" The only problem I have is that when people complained about Bush stealing from future generations Republicans just went "Oh be quiet you silly libs. He knows what he's doing. This is for the best." now those same people are wringing their hands about Obama. "Born-again fiscal conservatives" I call them.
    1
  29. "It doesn't take a genius to deduct Rev. Wright doesn't like America" Not that I'm a fan of Rev. Wright but you're taking what he said out of context. He said "God damn America" about slavery, extermination of the Natives, etc. He was cussing he saying "damn" as in "condemn". He said "That's in the Bible" because prophets in the Old Testament such as, ironically Jeremiah, called down God's condemnation upon their nation (being Judea) for their nation committing various sins.
    1
  30. Exactly. The heating which started at the end of the Little Ice Age ended back at the end of the 50s, which is why the temperature temporarily dropped in the 1960s before it started going back up again in the late 60s/early 70s. If human pollution didn't exist the earth's temperature would be going down right now or leveling off. Instead it keeps going up at an ever-accelerating rate. I guarantee there is no time in earth's history where CO2 jumped 107ppm in less than 10,000 years.
    1
  31. "denying the facts" Such as what? And single-payer is government insurance. The government does not actually run the pharmaceutical system of the country or regulate the doctors. Speaking of facts over the past 40 years the income of the top 5% of this country has increased more than fivefold while the income of the bottom 90% of income earners in this country has stagnated or even decreased since 1983.
    1
  32. "But to tax them extra lacks any meaningful sense" They already don't pay most of their taxes as it is (and leave working/middle class Americans and small businesses to pick up the slack). Taxing them even less would just mean they pay even less of taxes they already mostly avoid paying. That's what happened with the Bush tax cuts and to a large degree the Reagan tax cuts. Tax cuts are better for small businesses instead of corporate vampires.
    1
  33. If you think our private sector is a "free market" then there is little hope for you. It's so far from what Adam Smith or David Ricardo envisioned they wouldn't even recognize it. "tax payers are forced to participate" The Constitution grants the government the right to collect taxes and all citizens are expected to pay them. Since everyone uses public services that's why you are "forced" to pay them. Living on American territory is a public service in and of itself.
    1
  34. Monopolies are by nature coercive. A non-coercive monopoly is sort of like a "non-harmful criminal" or a "altruistic bully". If competition was a threat they wouldn't be monopolies.
    1
  35. The Housing Market Crash was because of both deregulation and bad regulation (in the form of the CRA). Bush and Reagan are just as responsible as Carter in Clinton. If you want to blame it all on the CRA (which is ridiculous) the Republicans still had 6 years of a Republican Congress and Executive Branch and did nothing about it.
    1
  36. The debate among scientists is over how fast this is occurring, if humans can significantly lessen our impact and how.
    1
  37. As for private services you aren't forced to partake of any particular service but you have to by necessity since it's impossible for most citizens completely self-sufficient. I don't even know about not being forced anymore to partake of private services. The current healthcare bill says you HAVE to buy private insurance or else pay a fine (a tax). Also when certain private businesses fail everyone HAS to pay for it through corporate welfare and bailouts.
    1
  38. @jimistreets - Actually the mandates are to buy PRIVATE INSURANCE. You need to go back and re-read that bill. This was bought and paid for by the insurance industry. Good ole corporate America sold you and I out. Yet again. Are you waking up yet?
    1
  39. Usually "small businesses" are defined as ones with less than 100 or less than 200 employees. "It's simply unjust to say that someone at the top should pay substantially more than those in the middle or bottem" They should because those at the top use more government services and functions than those at the middle and the bottom. Most working/middle class people don't use tons of energy every year, or use shipping lanes, land grants, business loans, etc. Public services aren't free.
    1
  40. I agree and I sincerely hope President Obama follows through on his promises. I really hope this isn't just hot air like a lot of what he said last year was. When he says he wants to go through with reform he needs to do it. And no more of that bank bailout shit.
    1
  41. @CalifSunshine2008 - Not really. Obama's deficit is only slightly larger than Bush's. As for his spending he's spending at around the same rate as Bush. Bush spent $2.8 Trillion in 2008. In 2009 Obama spent in the neighborhood of $2.4 Trillion. Two flavors of shit. Take your pick.
    1
  42. While I generally agree about fiat currency some printing is necessary. I don't think the US could operate if we only had the same number of greenbacks today as we had in 1770. "A government military creates massive casualties & enemies all over the world" So can a private one like Blackwater/Xe. A military is a military whether public or private. Just like cops are cops whether state or private. The benefit with a government military is you can at least control it.
    1
  43. I disagree here. The market is not magical and it's not a panacea. Markets can handle some things better than public enterprises but public enterprises are better at handling some things than the private sector. Government entities can work on things with long-term incentives with no immediate payoff or sometimes little incentive at all. Markets are mostly only interested in things with short-term profitability. Markets are also usually bad at handling negative externalities.
    1
  44. Adam Smith also believed government action was sometimes necessary to prevent the growth of large corporations. The government can be a tool of the people if made more democratic. Of course it will be on the side of Big Business if you have a government composed of wealthy people on the dole of corporations like we have now. Again it's sort of like saying all medication is bad just because half of the medicine out in the market today is bad.
    1
  45. From what I heard it was $12 Trillion foreign debt. Bush took Clinton's foreign debt of $5 Trillion to $10.4 Trillion.
    1
  46. "The bill punished businesses that do not buy gov't insurance with an 8% tax" I heard that rumor but it turned out to be a myth. It actually provided small businesses with tax cuts so they could provide employees with the public option. Ones that didn't weren't penalized. There is no such thing as "government-run healthcare". Single-payer systems are simply government insurance for private healthcare. Those are the most successful system in the world and every industrialized nation has it.
    1
  47. The recession of 82 was largely an effect of policies enacted in 1981: (dot) huppi (dot) com / kangaroo / L - recession1982 (dot) htm While there is a lag between policy and effect most of the consequences of Carter's policies already came into effect by 1980.
    1
  48. "Competition to serve consumers benefits consumers more" Of course. Regulation is sometimes needed to prevent the growth of monopolies and oligopolies. As for the ban of DDT the chemical itself is very dangerous to humans and animals and it still kills people and wildlife in areas where it is still used. One negative externality that even competing businesses don't worry about avoiding is pollution. Companies usually don't clean up unless the public twists their arm.
    1
  49. Taxes are simply payments for use of public services and public property. You have to pay for use of those just like you would pay for usage of any private service. They're basically a public fee. That's why the Founding Fathers advocated taxes. Benjamin Franklin talked about the sacrifices that you have to make to be part of society.
    1
  50. Don't worry, I'm not trying to defend Carter or just slam Reagan. I'm not a fan of any president after Eisenhower really. Well, JFK and LBJ sort of though I think they also set into effect the wheels of a lot of the policies which are helping destroy the country today. So did Nixon. Reagan, Clinton, the Bushes and Obama are simply the culmination of this decline.
    1
  51. I didn't mind the typo. I've probably made typos of my own somewhere. Lol. "Hence not needing heavy taxation" That sounds more like corporatism than capitalism. Most economists and most of the original capitalist philosophers and economists like Adam Smith believed that large corporations can only come to exist when the government protects monopolies and oligopolies. Oligopolies and monopolies are also counterproductive because they limit choice, quality and competition. I agree.
    1
  52. Government can help if used effectively. Leaving it all to the private sector is just as extreme as leaving it all to the government. Government can help if you reduce spending in some areas and spend money on things that have high returns on investment or things that create jobs. We've been spending on things which don't create jobs. It also helps if you make the government more democratic, more controllable and more transparent. Which neither party is interested in doing.
    1
  53. That's why trying to apply the logic behind an ideal free market to our current system is erroneous. In our corporatist system just because a company sells a better product doesn't mean they will win out. Oligopolies and monopolies can simply squeeze out the competition by lowering prices to a point where startup businesses can't compete. They can also bribe the government to give the established businesses special kickbacks. Even in a free market natural monopolies can form.
    1
  54. By condemned I don't mean calling down the wrath of Heaven. But to be honest a lot of Americans probably say "God damn America" every April 15th. Lol.
    1
  55. @billabong24041 - Bingo.
    1
  56. @billabong24041 - I actually think tax cuts for SMALL BUSINESSES is far more productive than tax cuts for large businesses and the wealthy. Most small businesses make only enough marginal profits that the savings from tax cuts would go more into investment, expansion of production or more benefits for workers instead of pocketed in offshore accounts. I agree with tax cuts on some issues and tax increases on others. It just depends on the situation.
    1
  57. "Why do you defend Obama?" I'm not. The only thing I'm defending is facts and records. Even if I hated someone I wouldn't lie about them just to make a point. As much as I couldn't stand Bush I won't exaggerate and claim he spent $30 Trillion just to rile people up about him. To be honest I only find Obama slightly more tolerable than Bush. He's been Bush Redux so far to me and a huge disappointment.
    1
  58. Another problem is the Republicans want to further cut taxes for entities who already don't pay most of their taxes (now if we everyday citizens did that we'd be in jail) and which shift costs onto everyone else while ramping up spending by spending trillions on more expensive wars. That's incredibly dumb from an economics standpoint.
    1
  59. @kloneo - Agree totally. Capitalism needs regulation so business can flow smoothly and so all parties can have a fair shot. Adam Smith and David Ricardo would totally agree. Adam Smith actually greatly disliked enterprises with more than 50-100 employees. He believed a business cannot become very large without government protection of oligopolistic practices.
    1
  60. None of them are progressive or truly conservative either. They're all corporate. Real progressives and real conservatives are opposed to pro-corporate policies. At least historically.
    1
  61. The thing about the spending though is most of our spending, aside from corporate welfare, is going to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The former of which is even less justified than the latter. I would take tea party people more seriously if they had been this loud about spending all along and were critical of both parties. Many don't seem to mind the trillions spent on the wars and I didn't hear from many when Bush was spending like crazy and bailout out the banks.
    1
  62. The top 1% NOMINALLY pays that much but in actuality pays less because they avoid much of it with loopholes. In net terms they pay less each year. Don't forget the top 1% also earns 60% of the nation's income. "50% of Americans pay no income taxes" Who told you that? The tax rate for poor Americans is 10%. Which is quite a lot when you make $7,000/year. Class warfare is indeed going on. These people have been screwing us for the past 40 years and both parties help them. Time to wake up.
    1
  63. I never said I liked the Fed. The Fed is indeed a loan shark.
    1
  64. They're not really takeover of the banks and auto industry. The government has been buying up their toxic assets at the taxpayer's expense. It's business as usual for them and now corporate America and the government have a cozy relationship where the government pays for corporate America's mistakes with taxpayer money. The problem of many right-libertarians is they believe the government and the private sector are enemies with one good and one bad. No, no, no. They're partners in crime.
    1
  65. "Yet their foreign policy creates generations of enemies & trains foreign soldiers only to fight them in subsequent wars?" I didn't say the government ALWAYS handles long-term incentives well or behaves properly. Our foreign policy over the past 50 years has been pretty crappy. This is actually largely a result of the buildup of what President Eisenhower warned us about: The Military-Industrial Complex.
    1
  66. @billabong24041 - Agree 100% with your last post.
    1
  67. I know. All presidents have and to be honest I'm not a fan of any president after LBJ. But I want him to at least do something instead of just continuing Bush policies and keep building up debt while not creating jobs.
    1
  68. Even before the existence of the military-industrial complex there has always been an industry of war profiteering. Blackwater would exist without government support (though maybe not as easily). There have always been mercenary armies.
    1
  69. I'm not saying he's wrong or right, just explaining what he meant. By "America" I think he was more referring to the American government. Sometimes people don't always make a distinction in common speech. I think America should be praised when it's right and condemned when it's wrong just like any other nation or government.
    1