The day Obama jumped the shark [Reader Post]

@ Greg,

The thing is Greg, when Romney expresses his contempt for those who “pay no income tax” what he’s really getting at is their lack of ingenuity. It’s not easy finding ways to hide tens of millions of dollars overseas to avoid paying income tax. Romney worked hard to not contribute to the US treasury coffers. He rightly sees being poor as a lame cop out.

This reminds me, I need to talk to my accountant. As one of the “47%”, I should have paid zero in taxes, rather than paying at double Mitt Romney’s effective tax rate.

Ah. Failure to address the point, and distraction.

Greg, the recording is jumpy and cut up. That generally means manipulated footage. I didn’t hear anything devastating, nor factually incorrect. Nothing radical. Not on the order of writing off more than half the country as ignorant paranoid xenophobes who cling to guns and religion — a secretly recorded 2008 fundraiser, remember? Obama survived that gaffe because people made up their minds based on other considerations.

Romney refrained from saying the following true statement:

“The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails us. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.”

So he’s got that going for him. And the short attention span of most voters will not allow this recording to get the traction you are wishing for. Besides — people depending on government benefits had better hope for a Republican sweep. The economic disaster being crafted by the Democrats will guarantee that those benefits will be unsustainable. A Republican win means hope for solvency and a return of private sector jobs which are far superior to government benefits. What is anybody afraid of anyway? If Republicans had it in them to alter the basic social safety net deal, they would have done it a long time ago when they controlled the government. All they did was tweak it and that is what Ryan’s plan is proposing.

Tom, what tax rate does Romney pay?

The Middle East is erupting, China is boiling, our leaders are grovelling to islamofascists, our economy has stayed resolutely in the toilet for four years. Golf, football and fundraising occupy our President’s full attention, he’s out to lunch. And here are you guys standing in front of the disaster like Frank Drebin:

“Nothing to see here.”

I especially liked the part about the huge barbed wire fences and guard towers necessary to keep people out, who would otherwise just slip inside and start working.

Is this what he had to tell himself, to rationalize what Bain was buying?

At the very least, this was the sort of worker environment that Bain was putting American workers in direct competition with. This is one way that costs can be cut to boost profits.

So far as I can tell, this continuous segment of the recording doesn’t appear to have been altered in any way. Both the video and audio are there. It looks as if the camera was somehow concealed atop a table.

@Tom:

If it doesn’t add up, which variable do you suppose is more inaccurate?

You, of course. Your non-answer is duly noted.

About 47% of the working age population pay no taxes. If you pay taxes then that 47% obviously does not include you. Yet, you claim it does include you, the better to take offense.

Romney pays something like 15% in Federal taxes. That is the long-term capital gains rate. This will be true of people who make most of their income from investments. He most likely donates a considerable amount of income as well. He gave away an inheritance when he was starting out – remember?

I admit that I have never given away an inheritance. No wonder Romney looks down on me.

@Tom:

I admit that I have never given away an inheritance. No wonder Romney looks down on me.

I don’t think he looks down on you. But if he did I wouldn’t blame him. I mean, I look down on you, and I only just started communicating with you. Whiny bitter paranoia is exceedingly unattractive.

“Whiny bitter paranoia” – that’s pretty good, Sherm. I didn’t think you had it in you.

@VoteOutIncumbents: #7,

“. . . . an Obama win…things are going to get so bad over the next four years that it may finish the liberals for a generation.”

Envisioning the future is highly difficult, nevertheless, there are large road signs one can discern which are harbingers of what lays ahead. Regrettably, I’m not smelling good news. For the past year I’ve tried to work through different scenarios including the different possibilities in the event of an Obama win.

Your friend IMHO is right on one front – things would be bad, BUT they would be bad for a great deal longer than 4 years. In the first half of 2013 the consequence of burdens such as Obamacare’s costs kicking-in, the deficit, the growing debt, Bernanke providing free money to banks while continuing to kill those retiring with savings, etc., will launch a depression. Obama’s win will tell the world that out-of-control spending will accelerate with renewed flourish. Let’s remember what he whispered to Medvedev off-mike.

However, I seriously disagree with your friend that, “. . . the best that could happen is an Obama win”. It would be a disaster which the country would take a generation to recover from. Plus, the Progressive mindset is such that it is too self-righteous to ever believe that it could ever ‘screwed-up.’

Plus, Even if Romney wins, he won’t be able to do what is necessary. With only Negotiated Compromises between 2 parties he would only reduce the amount of the impact. Compromises are rarely THE RIGHT THING.

And then again, I could be right out to lunch and everything will be fine regardless who wins.

@James Raider:

Plus, the Progressive mindset is such that it is too self-righteous to ever believe that it could ever ‘screwed-up.’

That is a key point, right there. Giving up on responsibility for oneself means never having to admit you were wrong.

@another vet:

Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. After all, Mitt Romney just handed Obama the election.

@MataHarley: You might glance as such articles as the one from which the following quote was taken:
” So who are the 49 percent of Americans who don’t pay income taxes? The vast majority are the lowest income households (less that $26,000 per year for a family of four), the elderly and young working families with children.” [The quote fails to mention such categories as disabled people.] http://money.howstuffworks.com/only-53-percent-pay-income-tax.htm

@Tom: That means some of my gun collection I’ve been trying to sell off will probably finally sell and at a higher price as there will be a big rush on gun purchases.

At least I won’t be responsible for the consequences to our country should he be re-elected.

Let’s take a look at Tom’s poor family of four. I rounded it off to $24K/year for a $2,000/month income and placed that family of four in Travis County (Austin), Texas for state/federal assistance programs. Here is what I found:

the family is eligible for:

$668/month in food stamps (applied to the Lone Star card, an EBT card)
$324/month in TANF (cash, also applied to the Lone Star card)
Section 8 vouchers or actual public housing valued at $954/month.
CHIP, which also covers the parents at a cost of $50/year that gives doctor visits and perscription drugs at a cost of $3-10.00.
WIC

So let’s add that all together and you get in-kind income for that family of four whose AGI is $24K and their income just went up by $23,352 not counting the CHIP benefits, or the fact that if they live in a public housing complex, and not a Section 8 housing project, the utilities are also free. This does not include the check they will receive from the IRS for $5,236.00 in EIC credits for a family with 2 qualifying children, since their AGI will be zero.

The beauty part of the Lone Star card (as with many other states) is that it can be used for many other things, such as furniture, which would include large screen TVs, obtaining cash to buy lottery tickets, beer, cigarettes, pay for cable TV, etc. Tom’s family would also be eligible for Obama’s free cell phone program.

Now their income is equal to a family of four that earns $52,588/yr and who pays at least 10% in taxes on their AGI which would be approx. $2,600 in federal income taxes while the family of four making that much due to in-kind income pays nothing. Also, the family of four earning $52,588 has less disposable income as the welfare family because they have to pay rent, purchase groceries, pay utility/cell phone bills, pay for insurance for their children.

Tom is the typical liberal who loves to point to the poor that other taxpayers are supposed to support, but will never mention that it basically pays to be a low wage earner due to in-kind contributions (income) that is NOT taxed.

@Tom: My first and second comments were meant to be independent of themselves. The first, which was tongue in cheek, being that for me the only good coming out of his re-election, should it happen, is that I will make some $$ on the deal. Gun sales skyrocketed under Obama. He was named ‘gun salesman’ of the year last year. People don’t trust him with the Second Amendment. I’ve always been a firearms person regardless of who has been in office. Obviously I’d much rather see him not be re-elected.

The second comment means that another 4 years of his policies and we are essentially finished. There is no way we can sustain his $1.2 trillion dollar deficits. It’ll bankrupt the country. Any sane person realizes this. We’ll find out in a month and a half how serious people are about trying to fix it or at least make an attempt at fixing it. Even the Romney/Ryan plan falls short of fixing the problem. His disregard for our laws and Constitution are also very troubling.

As for building the party, if you look at where people in this country stand on the issues it is much more in line with the Republican Party that the Democrats. The problem is that the ‘R’s are atrocious at getting their message out. Their nickname as “the stupid party” is well deserved. The Dems are way too far to the left. I used to split my ticket up until ’04 when they embraced the anti-war movement. I didn’t appreciate being stabbed in the back. As it stands now, I’ll probably never vote for another one in my lifetime unless they have a major enema and purge themselves of the lefties. If the ‘R’s blow this election, I will probably go back to voting Libertarian.

@another vet:

Tom is the typical DNC parrot. The poor, the poor, the poor, yada, yada. Yet, studies have shown that the “poor” (meaning low income) lives better in this nation than the average middle class European did before the melt down in Europe. They are not honest enough to admit that most millionaires in the nation are first generation money (meaning they did not inherit their wealth like Ted Kennedy or marry it like John Kerry). And they are really less interested in helping the poor than they are in punishing even those liberals like Mark Cuban who made fortunes by their own endeavors.

Yes, Obama had done wonders for the fire arms industry. Smith and Wesson just announced record profits, with the next quarter being predicted to be better than the last quarter. In parts of the nation, buying ammunition is getting difficult due to availability because people are buying it faster than Remington can make it.

Let’s see if Tom has the cajones to address my post about how bad off “poor” people with an annual income of $24,000/year are. I doubt he will. Liberals suck at debating hard facts.