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:stoned

ADG

He doesn't seem to realize that he has become exactly what he hates.
The FOX News of GFY.. Loud, opinionated blasts of slanted, biased mostly irrelevant garbage.

do you support "equality" in the world? or just the US? do you realize the fact that if world income was equally distributed, our standard of living / income / etc would be fraction of what it is now? we would be considered the 1% when looked at the world scale, we would be considered the "exploiters", everyone would say that we are living in excess, many would even say that we are the 1% simply by dumb luck because we got born in the US, instead of some village in china, etc?

so when this "equality" is preached, are we discussing world scale or just the US?

(by US I mean your own country)

Gallup just did a poll and 72% of Americans view Big Government as the biggest threat to the future of the U.S. 21% view Big Business as the biggest threat.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/166535/re...utm_term =All

While all you fuckers keep bitching.... I have a vacation house in Hawaii.

Pawned
 

Big Business OWNS Big Government.

Again... I keep saying over and over...I don't know why people think like that.
The Govt. is GIANT.

It's bigger than all the "big business" put together.

So how do you figure that the biggest big businesses like Walmart (which profited 15.7 billion dollars in 2012) can "own" a Govt. that spends more than Walmart made all year...in TWO DAYS?

Do big businesses pay off Congressmen? Hell yes. I would too if they would take my money from porn.

But you can't buy what's not for sale.

It's Govt. that is the problem. It's full of crooks on the take. And it DWARFS every "big business" put together financially.

The Govt. is so big that it has made itself "The Decider" when it comes to which businesses succeed and which ones fail. And then the individual Congressmen and Senators put their votes up for sale.

If Govt. were not so big and powerful...that would not be possible.

Need to reverse citizens united ruling, would help to start cleaning things up. Seems more likely to go the other way though

It was already bad way before that ruling too. That's not a magic pill...it would be a start. But the Supreme Court doesn't generally change it's mind that quick, so I'd say that ain't gonna happen.

I think step one would be to get all those career politicians OUT of there.

We need to vote them ALL out. One and done. These guys in Washington D.C. aren't geniuses who have become "experts" in anything. They are simply a bunch of people taking full advantage of power.

They need to GO.

I know the argument is that they have "experience" and "knowledge". Bullshit.

The new guys get briefed and are up to speed in a few days. The only people who count for "experience" and "knowledge" would be the Presidents Appointees. Like the Secretary of State for instance.

Congress is supposed to represent the PEOPLE. Not be a bunch of lifetime politicians making bank and stealing money.

It should be one term and DONE. Guy is your Congressman? Then let him serve ONE 2 year term. Then if he wants to, he can run for Senator next time around...or President.
Or better yet...GO the fuck HOME.

We the people still have the power to do this. But we live in a very apathetic age. Not many people give a damn as long as they have their smartphone and Ipad and cable television. :(

The aids and bureaucrats would end up running everything. This might not be a good thing either. According to what I have read, this is what we have now. The politicians have to put many hours a day of fundraising to stay in office so the underlings run the govt for them.

This article is around 2 years old, but still very valid...

The Real Welfare Problem: Government Giveaways to the Corporate 1%

by John Atcheson

While Romney and Ryan lie about welfare (and just about everything else), and Obama and the Democrats demurely mumble objections, there is a real welfare horror story going on in America.

But it’s not about welfare queens vs hard working whites; its not about race or ethnic divisions; it’s not about any of the standard Republican bait and switch, divide and conquer BS.

It’s about handouts to the uber-rich and the corporations.

Bottom line: if you’re a Fortune 500 company or a member of the wealthiest 1%, you’re getting welfare, and a hell of a lot of it.

If you’re one of the dreaded entitlement crowd – which, if you include social security and Medicare, is the vast majority of the remaining 99% -- you’re getting chicken feed, and the Republicans want to take even this meager sustenance away.

Let’s run the numbers.

Corporate Subsidies: We spend $59 billion on social welfare programs, but more than $92 billion on corporate subsidies. According to the Environmental Law Institute, fossil fuel industries alone get more than $70 billion in subsidies, with most going to the oil and gas sector. Yeah, we certainly can’t afford to deprive Exxon of its record profits just to give money to needy kids.

Sheltering Off-Shore Profits: Corporations are given $58 billion* a year in tax breaks for “deferred” taxes for off shore profits. Yep. Sure want to encourage US companies to hide profits off-shore. Can you say “job creators?”

Capital gains: Rich folks make the majority of their money in the form of dividends and capital gains, which are taxed at only 15%. This allows them to avoid some $59 billion in taxes per year.

Carried interest: Hedge fund managers avoid at least $2.1 billion in taxes a year. This sweet deal – not available to the ninety-nine percenters, by the way – lets hedge fund managers and other selected fat cats take what amounts to ordinary wages and have them taxed as if they were capital gains. So instead of being taxed at 35% (39.5% if we eliminate Bush’s tax cuts for the rich) it’s taxed at 15%. Ayn Rand would be proud. Thomas Jefferson, not so much. This amount – $2.1 billion – is roughly equivalent to the entire budget for the Administration on Aging. Wouldn’t want to deprive millionaire and billionaire hedge fund managers of their windfall just to help a lot of old geezers.

Bank Bailouts: Then there’s the $700 billion bank bailout – to rescue banks from problems they themselves created. Yes it got paid back; and yes, we had to do something. But the reason this money was little more than welfare was because the banks got to do what they wanted to with it. It could have come with strings – we could have insisted that they write down mortgages to market value or allowed refinancing at lower interest rates or longer amortization periods. We could even have given the money directly to stressed homeowners, instead of the banksters who caused the problem. Any of these approaches would have prevented defaults, slowed – or even reversed – the precipitous declines in real estate values, and given low and middle income consumers some ability to consume, which, at the end of the day is the real “job creator.” And we most certainly could have insisted that banks money loan out the money to small businesses and home buyers.

But we did nothing like that. Instead, we allowed the banks to play a high stakes game of pump-and-dump – complete with flash trading – with our money. Instead of loans designed to jump start the economy, we got risky investments underwritten with our tax money that paid off only the Wall Street elite.

Talk about welfare. Talk about your welfare kings and queens. It doesn’t get any more obscenely selfish and opportunistic than this.

$9 Trillion in Low and No Interest Loans from the Fed: And now for the mother of all welfare programs, how about $9 trillion loaned at below market rates – some of it as low as .5%. Here again, this money disappeared into the money vaults of the select few, rather than benefiting the common good.

And here again, we could have insisted that public money be used to serve the public good. But instead, it was given as white-collar welfare – a freeby to the real welfare kings and queens – the financial sector and the fat cats they serve.

To the extent conservatives acknowledge these facts, they justify it with a neo-Reaganomics logic that the wealthy and the corporations who receive this largess are the “job creators.”

But here’s the deal. As long as the middle class is in debt and feeling insecure, no company in its right mind will invest in expanding or any other type of job creation. Why on earth would they? If people aren’t buying your service or product now, how will making more of your product or expanding your capacity to provide your service make them do it? And Paris Hilton, Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan and other millionaires can only buy so many yachts; so many second, third, fourth or fifth homes. They simply don’t have the numbers to lead to an economic recovery.

The proof of this is in the numbers. Corporations are sitting on over $2 trillion in profits. What job creation is occurring is happening overseas in China, India and other low wage countries.

So the next time some conservative comes up to you praising the power of the free market and bemoaning the welfare state or our slide into socialism or some other mindless talking point, make a deal with them. Tell ‘em we’ll agree to cut welfare by 90%, but we get to decide whose welfare gets cut.

You have a good point. I guess we have to start somewhere though, right?

Here are the 1% we are talking about.

And yes Robbie, it is the governments fault. They get bribed by these giants and create policy to suit them. Dems and Republicans both do it. Republicans are worse in my opinion because they want to give 'more' to these companies.

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:stoned

ADG

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Not only do they take bribes...most times the politicians are really IN the companies getting all that money.

It's a huge scam. And no, I don't think Republicans are "worse"...these fuckers are ALL holding hands to make this happen. :(

And BFT3K...please stop posting cartoons in a discussion.
If you have something to say, you know a real opinion...then please just say it and state your case.

The cartoons where you are just insulting half the country are stupid and childish. You're smarter than that.

They don't even hide it anymore. There is footage of John Boehner passing out checks on the floor and when asked about it he said he probably should have done it in private. Most of them go right from office into lobbyist positions or onto the boards of various companies. They help them while in office then get paid for it when they get out of office.

The odd thing about that lobbying scene is that there are some very wealthy people who serve in Washington. Guys like Herb Kohl..he's worth a couple of hundred million. Ron Johnson is another one from my state that isn't going to get *bought*. Not that they are not capable of being bought, but i have a hard time believing any lobby group could afford it.

I haven't looked lately to see what the financial makeup of the senators is. But i don't imagine it's changed a lot since the last time I looked.