You can read Perry’s economic plan by clicking here.
A request by Rodan.
When reading Rick Perry’s economic plan, it may seem very familiar to you. That’s because it is. For anyone who doubts Perry’s conservative bona fides, a review of this plan should immediately alleviate those fears. This plan is a comprehensive list of the very things we free marketeers have been saying for years. It is also very similar to what has been offered both by Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain. Right off the bat here are my main impressions of the plan, the highlights so to speak. Perry introduces his idea for a flat tax, proposes balancing the budget by statute and by cutting spending. He seeks to eliminate special tax breaks for behaviors approved by government, and a massive roll back of onerous regulation inflicted by a bloated Executive Branch. You may recall that yesterday I came out in favor of Newt Gingrich based on his 21st Century Contract With America, but I also hedged somewhat by stating that any of the Gingrich, Perry, Cain trio would be O.K. with me. With that in mind, I will give Perry’s plan an overall grade of A-. There is room for improvement, but all in all, it is Red Meat for us Conservatives.
TAXATION
Perry starts out by pointing to a little talked about government statistic. It costs American Taxpayers $483 Billion per year to comply legally with our current tax code. Remember that figure for later, it will be important. If you log onto the IRS website, you will see an estimation from the IRS as to what percentage of Americans who pay taxes, in fact overpay. This percentage usually hovers around 90%. According to the IRS’ taxpayer advocate in testimony before congress, this is due to the fact that the tax code has become too complicated for even the IRS to follow anymore.
Personal story:
Last year, I called a CPA on behalf of a client. I asked about a specific deduction a client wished to take. The CPA gave me a negative response, saying, “that’s ridiculous.” The client pressed on, so I called the IRS help line. The IRS told me sure, the deduction is good, and here is the publication that I found that info in. I called the CPA back, feeling somewhat not confident in the info, first being conflicted, and also the IRS’ own disclaimer about their answers not being guaranteed. As it happens, they were both wrong. The CPA, graciously followed up by reading the entire publication and not just the first paragraph, or even only the first sentence as I suspect. As it happens the deduction was allowed, but with very severe caveats. The client was not Warren Buffett, but an average American tax paying citizen.
Why does this happen? Over the last decade, there have been 4428 changes in the tax code. There will be 350 changes for 2012. 60% of Americans employ the help of paid professionals to file their personal returns. One mistake Perry makes here is one that I have noticed personally. Many of the professionals hired have no actual training or expertise in tax law or preparation. There are a lot of people who operate tax preparation businesses with no more expertise than the software they purchased at their local book store. While I do not wish to disparage the fine software products being sold, It is not the same as paying for the services of a CPA or an Enrolled Agent.
Perry also points out that the Average Corporate Rate paid in the United States is the second highest rate of any industrialized nation. While most of the other industrialized nations around the globe are lowering their rate of confiscation, our government is seeking to increase our corporate tax rates. Perry has also done his homework and refers to a graph originally produced by Art Laffer. In this particular chart, Laffer pointed to the past, and noticed that no matter what tinkering occurred with the tax code, revenues were consistently around 18% of GDP. Fluctuations in tax rates only served to affect GDP in the long term, while increases or decreases in revenue were only affected by increases or decreases in GDP.
The basic reason for this is something the political left will never be able to comprehend, and when they do get it, will always revert to attempts to force the issue through increased government oppression. The universal truth is that people will alter their behaviors. Rick Perry obviously gets this. This is why a Democratic Socialist State will invariably become a Totalitarian Socialist State. If our tax rates are increasing on our corporations while other industrialized nations are decreasing theirs, any corporation who can afford to, will at least consider doing business elsewhere. Individuals will also adjust their behavior, by not investing capital that would otherwise be used to produce economic growth or create jobs.
anecdotal question:
How hard do you personally need to work in order to earn $1000 that is free and clear of any bills which are needed to maintain your lifestyle. If a person knocked on your door and told of his great business plan, and you can make money by investing your $1000, what return would you expect for that $1000? Would you be happy with getting your original investment back only, or would you expect to make more than that back? How would the government’s self proclaimed ability to take a portion of your earnings affect your decision? At some point, if you are a prudent person with your own finances, you might very possibly decide to keep your $1000 rather than investing it.
What Perry proposes, as if it were a shock to anyone at this point is a flat tax. He uses the previous proposal pushed by Steve Forbes during the 80′s. His program would allow for certain deductions, but few enough of those to, “keep the return the size of a postcard.” He argues against a national sales tax, which is also something that I am personally against. A national sales tax has been employed by 10 other industrialized nations, and in 9 of those, the percentage taken has increased already. A national sales tax also has the ability to embed extra hidden costs by layering taxation during several different stops along the product manufacture and distribution cycle. In practice, it has not worked out well for those nations that put it into place. Perry’s plan also calls for a corporate rate that is flat. He places the corporate rate at the average of the other industrialized nations, 20%. His flat tax is designed to keep us on pace exactly with Laffer’s graph referred to above.
My biggest problem with the Perry tax policy is the caveat of allowing people to opt out in favor of choosing the current structure in place. I understand his reasoning that people made investment decisions based on the old system and would face undue costs by losing those benefits afforded under the old system, but there is another way to handle that, and it is called a grandfather clause. Going forward, we all should be playing by the same rules. The flat tax would do something else for us, it would give the 47% of Americans who do not pay any taxes at the federal level skin in the game. Clamoring for an increasing supply of gifts from a benevolent federal big brother will take on a whole new meaning when the recipients are forced to pay something for it also. We should all have a stake in the game, and not have half of the country be supported by the other half. It won’t be long before the working half realizes it is more fun to receive than to give.
Perry seeks to end taxation of passive income, dividends and capital gains. This would certainly spur investment in our country that would give an instant boost to employment and economic growth. Personally, I feel that there is no reason to drop this to zero, but it would have a positive effect. Dropping those rates to 10% would give a very similar boost, while allowing the people who make money by investing and not working for a wage to also have skin in the game. (I can see no reason to allow Warren Buffett to pay zero in taxation.) The Perry plan would eliminate the inheritance tax, which is money that has been taxed once already. Taxation of estates is nothing more than the Federal Government’s attempt to re-confiscate the earnings of successful people rather than allowing that to be passed on in accordance with the wishes of the deceased. The wealthy in our country are able to manipulate the laws via trusts, foundations and insurance plans anyhow, so in the end, it is only the middle class which ends up paying this bill.
Perry advocates the cessation of tax credits for approved behaviors. Every liberal friend I had jumped for joy at the concept of government subsidy for green technology. They all told me with pride that it was about time that we broke the oppressive hold over us by the evil oil companies. Then, when GE took advantage of the program by forcing those stupid cfl light bulbs upon us and building those Windmills which now dot our landscape, they cried like babies that a fortune 500 company was able to make a huge public sponsored profit while avoiding all taxes. Again, a flat rate of 20% with no deductions, ie, loopholes.
Perhaps the best part of the Perry tax plan will be the least talked about. Repatriation of American funds. It will seem counter intuitive, but I will try to do it justice anyhow. Currently, when an American company operates over seas, they will pay taxes on their income at the foreign rates first, and our government then charges an income tax at American rates to repatriate that money back to America. This has the effect of discouraging businesses from bringing money back. Capital is then invested in foreign nations for new factories, job creation, etc. Currently, only enough money will ever be brought back to pay what ever dividends will be necessary to keep shareholders from getting angry. For those of you with longer memories, George Bush did this in 2003 and in 2004. The result was that when John Kerry went around the country screaming about how Bush had the worst record on jobs since the great depression, it was no longer true by the time of the 2004 election. Perry seeks to make this a permanent change.
REGULATION
Our Executive Branch has added 38,710 new regulations over the last decade. These new regulations are contained in 628,100 pages of print so fine that even pilots will need a magnifying glass to read it. Only 10% of these regulations are reviewed or audited by anyone at all. That means that 34,839 new government regulations contained in 565,290 unreadable pages have been added to our regulatory labyrinth without anyone voting on it, or any consideration beyond the bureaucrat who decided upon that rule arbitrarily. The cost of compliance for our regulatory structure in the United States today stands at $1.1 Trillion Couple this with the cost of compliance to our tax code, and you have a compliance cost in this country of $1.6 Trillion. Does that figure sound familiar, like say an amount equal to our annual budget deficit, maybe a little more. I am not advocating for an elimination of all federal regulations, and neither is Rick Perry. When the regulations are being added to our structure without so much as a second opinion however, clearly a line of common sense has been passed. To illustrate just how egregious it has become, farmers are now responsible to spend a fortune on milk spill prevention and cleanup programs. It appears that the EPA has declared milk to be a dangerous substance and errant farmers have been endangering the public by not developing programs to deal with the possibility of large quantities of milk being spilled ruining the environment. You may have noticed a sharp increase in your costs of milk at the grocery store, and now you know why. When the Perry Campaign requested a list of Federal Regulations which carried a possible penalty of prison time, the Congressional Research Service responded the the request represented a task that was so onerous and time consuming that they could not possible be expected to actually complete the task. The list would be impossible to compile under any standard. For an independent business owner anywhere in America, what chance would they have to make their way through this maze of possible pitfalls?
The result of all of this is far more onerous for small businesses than those who can employ legal teams and accountants in house.
From the graph above, what you see is that the cost of compliance costs small business owners an average of 44.77% more per employer than his larger competitors. When Dodd-Frank was instituted for example to make certain that we would never again fall victim to the too big to fail trap, its result was in fact opposite to that intention. To add insult to injury, this law even exempted the two primary entities that created the fiasco which spurred on its passage in the first place. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have in fact re-instituted the very same practices which caused the financial collapse to begin with. And why shouldn’t they. According to law, the government has declared them exempt once again from the consequences of poor risk analysis. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The price will be paid by the smaller entities of the financial system, Dodd-Frank has made certain of that.
Perry’s plan would force every current regulation through a review process and prevent all further additions of regulation from occurring until that process has been completed. Each regulation will be forced to be justified by stringent criteria, including a cost benefit analysis. Regulations which can not pass the test will be canceled completely. Some that partially pass, but not every aspect of the criteria process will be rewritten and or simplified. All regulatory agencies will be given a specific budget to work within, and funding will be cut off once those funds are exhausted. Currently, these agencies, by statute have no limitations on their expenditures. (And you wonder why we are in a fiscal mess.) Perry also calls for a searchable database where every American would be able to easily identify what the rules are.
SOCIAL SECURITY
Rick Perry took a lot of heat for, and I can not stress this enough, correctly calling Social Security a Ponzi Scheme. So, for a bit of snark in an otherwise wonkish analysis, enjoy Steven Crowder reporting the Social Security Administration to the SEC.
Perry states his goal to be repairing the system, which will collapse without some one taking immediate steps to prevent this from happening. Whether you agree with his language or not, the fact remains that he is in fact quite correct in his analysis. His proposals are also nothing new. Gradual increases in the age of retirement phased in according to increased life expectancy, Giving private control over our own individual accounts based upon the choice of each citizen, (he refers to the very successful Chilean model for this, which George W. Bush was roundly vilified for.) He also proposes making it illegal for the system to be robbed for other government uses, such as highway funding, or a model cities program, (two previous uses for raiding the social security fund.)
MEDICARE AND MEDICAID
He proposes similar steps to be made with respect to Meicare and Medicaid. He also includes placing the responsibility for these programs back with the states. The interesting thing here is that he in effect uses the exact same argument made by Romney when he was defending his Romneycare program. Many people have been beating Romney up, and deservedly so, over his Romney care law, but in actuality, there is a difference between putting that into place at the state level and making it a national program. With respect to that specific argument, Romney is right.
SPECIFIC REPEAL
Dodd-Frank. As stated previously this will have the exact opposite affect from what its purported purpose is.
Sarbanes-Oxley. Requires duplicate audits of a company’s books. All public corporations were previously required to audit their own books, and have an independent auditor assess the companies reports and speak to their validity. This wasteful regulation forces a third audit to be performed by the company to audit the audited report of themselves. It in a nutshell would prevent zero crime from occurring, as anyone crooked enough to cook their own books, take the time to sneak it past an independent auditor would not then tell on themselves in a third round of paperwork. What this idiotic piece of legislation does do however is cost a hell of a lot of money to enforce. It also has the added benefit of preventing smaller privately held businesses from going public and possibly expanding.
Obama Care. Go to the search engine of this blog and type in, “finding out what’s in it.” I believe that I am up to 12 now. Suffice it to say, I am against Obamacare, and yes, I realize that I have only scratched the surface.
BUDGET
He proposes to balance the budget by cutting spending. Perry recognizes that our budgetary problems are related to spending and spending alone. He proposes an end to Baseline Budgeting, that Carter era law which requires that our national leaders ignore reality when drafting a budget. In this world of the Congress Critter, increases in tax rates are scored by the CBO as revenue increases even though history has thoroughly debunked that myth many times over. The law also forces the calculation for the opposite assumption. It also forces the CBO to include an automatic growth for all budget items which is in fact greater than prevailing inflation rates, as well as holding that even implied expenditures be included for calculations involving future savings or deficits. So, all of this serves to give us a picture that starts off being deceptive, and that is before any politician has the ability to lend their spin. I give Perry high marks for taking on this issue.
He also advocates the repeal of Davis-Bacon which prevents the Federal Government from seeking competitive bids for contracted work on federal projects. I also agree with this. He proposes the end to continuing resolutions being used to circumvent the budgetary process. I agree with this as well. The idea that a budget will be imposed upon our nation with out the signature of our chief executive is preposterous. Putting a stop on budgetary items being stealthily passed by using the emergency budget provisions for things that are not emergencies but merely items for which no one is willing to face accountability, will be accomplished by defining emergency.
Ending bailouts, ending earmarks, hiring freezes and paygo with a twist round out his budgetary proposals. Perry was able to find duplicate regulatory oversight in some instances as many as 34 different agencies watching the same lucky group of people. I am not sure, but I bet a national regulatory database would be able to find these wastes, and help us to end them.
Cross Posted at Musings of a Mad Conservative.
Tags: Rick Perry, Tax Plan
That Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post (who is a Mittens supporter) seems to have made it her life mission to trash Rick Perry. She is a real Kathleen Parker.
@ Speranza:
I have to say, this plan is solid, and attempts to trash it will make Rubin seem like a fool for the exercise. The only thing I have seen from the left so far is simple dismissal. Dylan Ratigan sat on the Tele and said, “it is not a serious plan, because it does nothing to address the disparity between the rich and poor.” Not one piece of the plan was discussed or dissected in any way.
It is good and solid, and what is more is that it is doable. I can’t stress enough that you have to be able to move whatever plan you seek through congress. You can promise the moon, but if all you can deliver is a moon pie, well, people aren’t going to be very pleased. With a Republican House and Senate, though, especially with as many Tea PArty candidates as we will hopefully elect, Perry should be able to deliver on this.
It seems good, but I would like to see it scored. Right now there’s not enough detail for that to happen.
I would be more excited if there wasn’t an opt-out. It’s hard to see how it complicates things any less, as anyone that doesn’t currently pay taxes will continue to get a refund through EITC.
It’s good to see he’s set a spending cut goal as well.
Flyovercountry wrote:
Disparity from the rich to the poor – I guess he means wealth redistribution not wealth creation.
The plan looks good to me.
Bumr50 wrote:
The scoring system is part of the problem. The CBO estimates use the Baseline Budgeting Process as a matter of law. At best it gives us a very distorted view of things. in any case, let’s start by looking at the $1.6 Trillion it takes to comply with our current tax and regulatory schemes in place. Perry’s plan would save the taxpayers of this country at least half. Without even getting into entitlement reform, that is a step much farther towards balancing the budget than anything seriously proposed by the current group holding power.
Back to the Baseline Budgeting, Perry is the only one who proposed getting rid of this asinine law. If we accomplish nothing else with our 4 years, passing a law which made us deal with reality vs the illusion that the CBO now deals with would be a helluva start.
@ Speranza:
That’s how I took it.
@ Speranza:
Wealth, like matter, can neither be created or destroyed. It must be redistributed equally. If someone has more wealth, that means they have plundered it from those who have less wealth.
[/LLLeftist LLLogic]
That is what they really believe. I wonder what that makes their sugar daddy George Soros? There is a reason Lenin called them “Useful Idiots”. They are willing tools of those who would enslave us, and they celebrate the chains in the name of “equality” while promoting only the equality of misery for the masses, and the inequality of result for the powerful elite. In a word, they are evil.
The trend has always been that taxes rise. That will never change unless we reduce spending.
Iron Fist wrote:
As a Son of the South, I demand an RC Cola with my moon pie.
wow…epic post…
i give this plan a solid B
@ The Osprey:
Mmmmm, moon pie! I’ll take mine microwaved, with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream…
@ coldwarrior:
It is probably the best we can hope for. Even with a Republican congress, there will be lots of opposition to this. It hurts too many special constituencies that are making money off the current system. It is like making the flat tax voluntary. Sure, I’d prefer just a flat tax period, but you are never going to get that through Congress. Just like Herman Cain’s “9-9-9″ plan. It has promise, but you’ll never get it through Congress, and you can’t bind future congresses to it without a Constitutional Amendment, and that is never going to pass in Today’s political environment.
@ coldwarrior:
On economic issues, you and I are usually in agreement. Where did you deduct points to come up with the B? I’m just curious, as I found a few things which I considered pretty minor. Or, are you just a tougher teacher than I am?
@ The Osprey:
Does RC Cola use real sugar or corn syrup?
@ Flyovercountry:
That’s my pet peeve as well. Allowing people to opt out and stay in the current system. Other than that, I like this plan. It would reduce my taxes.
Thanks for takinmg the time and breaking it down!
@ Flyovercountry:
Why is the Stock Market going up? Is 2.5% GDP growth good now?
@ Iron Fist:
cant…wont…
why not give it a try after we get more gains in the house and take the senate.
make people get on record at least for a later primary challenge.
we need a massive overhaul of the tax code and regulations or we are realy finished as a nation.
Rodan wrote:
eu debt resolution plan…
QE5?
@ coldwarrior:
Crony Capitalism and more debt. The FED actually have been doinga silent QE3.
Should a United Nations global treaty on mercury pollution become reality, America’s dentists could find the U.S. government’s proverbial hands inside their patients’ mouths.
That is the goal of “mercury-free” activists, who are pinning their hopes on an international consensus to get a ban on dentists filling routine cavities with “silver amalgam” containing mercury, already present in the mouths of some 122 million Americans.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/27/us-weighs-support-for-un-treaty-that-could-force-dentists-to-change-materials/#ixzz1c0giKcXK
Nothing wrong at all with Silver Filings. But if they ban them, I’ll make a lot more money.
Flyovercountry wrote:
opt out
corporate tax rate way too high, it has to be lower than other coutries, people pay this tax, so it is a tax on you no matter how ya slice it.
taxes wages not consumption ( we still have a problem everywhere with a confusion between a sales tax at final retail level and a VAT…i am done trying to explain that one)…so he gets a C there
then on regulations he gets an A
this gives me a 85% B
Rodan wrote:
there has been massive activity at the fed discount window in the past 48 hours…so, its a QE for europe
@ Nevergiveup:
long live gutta percha!
@ coldwarrior:
More debt, lower our living standards so the Global Elite live good.
You gotta love Global Neo-Feudalism.
@ Nevergiveup:
I won silver so silver prices will go up!
@ coldwarrior:
That’s my grade. I don’t like the Opt out.
So much for the “obstructionist” argument.
coldwarrior wrote:
I don’t disagree, but you have to keep in mind what you can sell to the voters, as well as what you can get through Congress. You have to be elected to do anything, and Perry’s plan is about as ambitious as you can get. Remember when Ryan came out with his budget? That was just a good place to start, but public outcry was such that it disappeared quickly. Just fielding that budget may be a political impediment to Ryan ever advancing farther than he has gone in American government. Perry’s ideas aren’t 100% what we need, but I’ll take 80%, if we can get it.
@ Rodan:
A combination of factors, and please remember that the investors could care less about politics. To these folks, who is President is nothing more than an annoyance, and campaigns are white noise.
That being said, there is an emotional factor in today’s buy up. A couple of months ago, the market repriced to account for a recession which everybody felt was on the way. The 2.5 GDP number suggests that the repricing for that recession may have been premature. Also, numbers withing the report itself suggest that when the revisions come along next month, for the first time in years it won’t be revised down this time. Realize that 2.5% increase in GDP is a shitty number, especially when you consider what we need to make up in order to reach the level seen in 2007. Also, consider that Obama’s rosy budget estimates need a 4% growth rate in order to have a prayer of working out the way he is telling folks it will work out. Part of it is the EU deal to shore up the failing countries. So, when people realize that the deal sucks, or if it falls through, the reaction will be in the opposite direction. If the GDP numbers are revised down, likewise. When people realize that they paid too much today because of emotion, that will trigger a pull back.
Long term, the market has an upward bias, and I personally stay away from day trading.
Off topic, Gold has dropped about 10% this month, today is not going to help the gold bugs at all.
@ Flyovercountry:
I don’t get how the economy can grow even at 2.5%. Wages are not going up and jobs are hard to get. What’s driving this “growth”?
@ Flyovercountry:
Both gold and silver are on my long-term planning. I want both as hard assets, just in case. I intend to pretty much stay away from the market, now, except maybe a few stocks. The market is an insider’s game, and I don’t have the connections, nor the time to do the research needed, to make money in the market. The days of just buying a fund and sitting back and watching it grow are over.
@ Bumr50:
Republicans should not help Obama. Any uptick in economic activity benefits Obama. Man the GOP is stupid.
Consumer confidence declined last week as Americans’ views of the economy sank to the lowest since the recession, highlighting the challenges facing the recovery.
The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index fell to minus 51.1 in the week ended Oct. 23, the lowest in a month, from minus 48.4 the prior period. Ninety-five percent of those surveyed had a negative opinion about the economy, the worst since April 2009 and one percentage point shy of a record high.
@ Rodan:
I think that they’re daring the senate to start passing this thing in pieces.
I’m not sure that the administration wants them to.
@ coldwarrior:
That’s why I don’t get the 2.5% GDP growth. It makes no sense.
@ Bumr50:
I think the Administration was hoping everything would die in the House. Passing some small parts of it kills the “Obstructionist Congress” meme, and if they do it right (and it looks like they are) Obama doesn’t get any real credit for it. Contra Rodan, it won’t help the economy much, anyway, and certainly not in time to help Obama in the coming elections. There are 376 days until the 2012 Presidential election. Nothing that makes it through Congress at this late a date will have enough effect to change that.
@ Rodan:
It’ll be revised downward, but I agree. I don’t see where they are coming up with those numbers. There are businesses building around here. Commercial real estate construction has some life around here. The housing markt is dead as whomever is in Grant’s Tomb, though.
Rodan wrote:
it will be revised downward. also, food sold form the farm to the market counts as gdp, its harvest season. the weak dollar is allowing us to export more from factories that are refusing to hire, so peeps are working overtime in these places. i bet it is revised down to 2 or less.
“The better-than-expected performance this summer doesn’t look sustainable,” said Kathy Bostjancic, director for macroeconomic analysis for The Conference Board. “Weak consumer sentiment could limit the rise in consumption through the holiday season and right into winter. Cuts in spending by state and local municipalities weigh on the economy.”
Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said the increased consumer spending came from cuts in the savings rate rather than from gains in income. He’s also concerned that exports, an area of strength in recent quarters, are likely to decline in coming quarters due to slowdowns around the world. And he’s looking for further cutbacks in government spending.
“The upshot is that a lot of the strength in the third quarter was due to temporary factors that will fade next year,” he said.”
@ Iron Fist:
I don’t trust the numbers.
Besides teh market going up, guess what else is going up?
Oil, it’s up to 94 a barrel.
@ coldwarrior:
I forgot, back to school shopping!
@ Rodan:
Seasonal shit. I predict that retail sales will increase in the period between November 28 and December 25, and then crash for a few months. What do I win?
@ Rodan:
Here’s the thing. GDP dropped pretty much into toilet territory following 2007. because I like easy to understand numbers, we’ll call the 2007 GDP 100. By 2010, that number was 60. We got news this week that the GDP was 61.5. The Dems are jumping up and down screaming, see we have growth. Are you happy? I know that looking at the 61.5 number, I do not feel like things are better in any appreciable way.
There is something else really sinister here and it bears some discussion. CW mentioned the QE policies, and those policies have had a hand in all of this. There is a common misconception equating rising prices with inflation, and the two are different animals. rising prices are a symptom of inflation, a lagging indication in actuality. The economy has been inflated, monstrously so with the QE policies. Because the fed utilized a back door method to do this, rising prices took well over a year to start popping up. We are beginning to see this now, and the GDP numbers have not been reflected to give us this view of the world. I do not have a handle on how much of the GDP increase is due to the inflated economy, and how much is real. What is scary, and bad news for the Bamster by the way, is that I do not believe anybody has a clear answer for this question. Right now, it looks as though we will be paying for the QE policies in earnest by August of next year.
@ Flyovercountry:
Thanks alot for that. SO this was artificially inflated growth. Makes sense now.
Now this guy I like!
100% truth. The Democrats can’t handle the truth!
A pretty good, well-reasoned, and non inflammatory counterpoint.
@ Iron Fist:
That reads like something any one of us would say or write.
@ Bumr50:
Non-inflammatory will never do! We need gasoline and a match! Otherwise, this thread will never get the comment count it should. Start a fight!
@ song_and_dance_man:
Yes, exactly! But coming from the mouth of a black man, it has more visceral power. I have been waiting a very long time to hear someon from the black community make these kinds of statements. I hope this guy’s stars are rising!
@ Iron Fist:
I wouldn’t hold my breath.
@ Iron Fist:
Soros is like a James Bond movie villain.
Useful idiots?
@ Iron Fist:
Look at the Romneybots at this Politico forum.
One person even said he will be greater than Reagan.
@ Bumr50:
Hey they are going after Romney. It’s a Progressive pissing match. I declare neutrality.
The irony is that Mitt Romney supports OWS.
Speranza wrote:
Agreed!
Rodan wrote:
Good question. I had one late Tuesday night from the vending machine at the hotel in Tucson but I didn’t think to look at the ingredients on the label.
I guess that how you can tell Tucson was once part of the CSA…
@ Bumr50:
i just saw some vid of that.
there are more people at primantis for lunch than there are at this ‘protest’
@ The Osprey:
rc uses hfcs…not sugar
Flyovercountry wrote:
Gold! Ron Paul!
That’s why I prefer copper, brass and lead.
Even if the Pocky-clips doesn’t happen, I can still have a good ol’ time at the range.
@ coldwarrior:
I love RC Cola. Always an underrated refreshment!
Flyovercountry wrote:
That’s was my choice as a kid. The other was called Mother’s Pride and it was sold in gallon bottles only. I haven’t seen any RC in the stores in this neck of the woods.
@ Flyovercountry:
Cherikee Red!!!
hmmm….sign sez “no corporate welfare”
so when that cat gets his welfare check, he gives the money to corporations for goods and services…hey! i agree! no corporate welfare!
no welfare money reduces money going to corporations from welfare payments, no corporate welfare!
@ song_and_dance_man:
Check with the local bottler. 7 up usually gets the distributorship.
Flyovercountry wrote:
mexican coke in the bottles
@ The Osprey:
hey, Can you get Mexicqan Coca cola in ARizona? It has real sugar and I taste the diference.
@ Bumr50:
Never tried it.
coldwarrior wrote:
hmmm
Iron Fist wrote:
Except in the South we make our own. Here in California, they come wrapped in cellophane and look about as appetizing as a cardboard box.
Rodan wrote:
Yes we do! There’s a great little burrito place just down the street from me here that has it.
A lot of the gas stations and truck stops have it in their drink coolers too.
It’s old school, in the bottle. Tastes like Coca Cola used to taste when I was a kid.
@ Rodan:
Chipotle has a restaurant in our building – and they line up out the door for their “burrito bowls” (if it’s in a damned BOWL, it’s not a burrito, okay?) 100 steps away, across the alley, is a little place called “Rico Mex” which is a hole in the wall, where the food is inexpensive, and ten times better than anything on the Chipotle menu. They have Coca Cola from Mexico and I get one every time I pick up lunch. That tastes like the Coke I grew up with!!
Rodan wrote:
If I had to guess, I’d think that maybe kids were going back to school and parents bought clothes, school supplies, and stuff for dorm rooms.
@ Carolina Girl:
Ooops….read the whole thread, Carolina……read the whole damn thread……
@ The Osprey:
Exactly! I love real sugar, not that corn crap.
@ Carolina Girl:
That’s what I thinka s well. I just know the Left is proclaiming recovery and that said Obama has been vindicated.
The Osprey wrote:
Damn! That sounds awfully palatable right about now….
@ Rodan:
Of course, just wait for a couple months from now, when Seasonal hiring is up and of course, GDP goes up for the holidays. The MSM will predictably claim an end to the recession and chair dance in homage to the Obama recovery.
And ….just as predictably, they will shocked – SHOCKED – when GDP begins to fall to recession levels and jobless claims increase.
Good post, Flyovercountry.
Let’s look at the underlying facts.
1. Trans Texas Corridor, worlds largest Crony-Govt.-Road Construction-boon dogggle ever.
2. Perry’s tax ideas so good as soon as he puts them out he says he will not debate any longer.
3. This whole deal is Steve Forbes deal plagerized.
4. Perry still is a dumb as ever, maybe more so now.