Sorry dusty, but I could only get about a minute into this melodramatic drivel before I had to stop.
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Just to hit the first few points: (1) all that is happening to FEMA is that a few of their slush funds are being shut down - they will still be there for natural disaster response; (2) Able bodied adults without young children who are on Medicaid will be be required to work, seek work, attend education programs or volunteer for 20 hours a week (and why the fuck shouldn't they?); and (3) Veterans who are already covered by VA benefits will not be able to double dip with Medicaid.
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I'm sure that this rest of this drivel was just as off point.
I know that Trump supporters are so brainwashed it doesn't matter the amount of terrible things he does or evidence you see you'll still support him anyway. I'm sure you didn't even watch or consider what a horrendous bill this is for all of us not just those terrible liberals.
^ You've given us no evidence dusty, just spun horseshit. Go read the text of the these provisions yourself if you don't believe me.
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We have to find a way to trim this budget and pretty much everything that was covered in that first minute was low hanging fruit. Why should taxpayers have to pay to make wealthy peoples' beach houses more "climate resilient" (one of the FEMA slush funds)? Why should able bodied adults without young children be allowed to stay on the public healthcare dole without even trying to work (I mean fucking seriously now)? Why should we be paying for Medicaid for vets who already qualify for free healthcare through the VA system?
I mean seriously dude. I'm always open to opposing views as it is how I form my own positions on different topics. But what you gave us was just melodramatic spun crap.
@rickdugan - I agree, the BBB doesn't go far enough in terms of cutting costs. I had hoped DOGE would go through the DOD and healthcare; now that's where the real waste, fraud, and abuse is, but libs (including the TUSCL Lib Cope Squad) treat every nickel cut as a holocaust.
The Lib Cope Squad here also treats the latest red meat MSNBC or TikTok post like it'll singlehandedly turn the tables. Dusty once asked my legit opinion on something political then when I responded started ranting with "I don't care what any fucking Trump supporter thinks!" The anger is all an act to compensate for their little penises.
^ @skibum - that's the modern progressive mind for you. Recent studies show how unhappy liberals are (especially unmarried liberal women). They cultivate behaviors like learned helplessness (we are at the mercy of our environment and need outside factors like the government to save us), they treat their emotions as facts--euphoria is a right and resilience is a cuss word. They are more likely to cut off their families and friends over disagreements. They lie to themselves and say it's because they're more conscious of social issues, but studies disprove that too.
Then when their ideas don't work--as they never do--they blame sabotage or the rich or capitalism or Jews or something.
Here's some of Prof. Sowell's wisdom...we can see the anger and personal attacks on display above. (I've added a couple notes in parentheses)
That people on the political left have a certain set of opinions, just as people do in other parts of the ideological spectrum, is not surprising. What is surprising, however, is how often the opinions of those on the left are accompanied by hostility and even hatred.
Anyone who studies the history of ideas should notice how much more often people on the political left, more so than others, denigrate and demonize those who disagree with them — instead of answering their arguments.
In a sense, the political left’s attempts to silence ideas they cannot, or will not, debate are a confession of intellectual bankruptcy.
The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.
(Note: Academia is a great example of places where ideas do not need to work to survive)
The political left has never understood that, if you give the government enough power to create ‘social justice,’ you have given it enough power to create despotism. Millions of people around the world have paid with their lives for overlooking that simple fact.”
(They want despotism and think they will be more enlightened than everyone else who was trusted with it but turned evil.)
The whole political vision of the left, including socialism and communism, has failed by virtually every empirical test, in countries all around the world. But this has only led leftist intellectuals to evade and denigrate empirical evidence.
The vision of the left, full of envy and resentment, takes its worst toll on those at the bottom — whether black or white — who find in that paranoid vision an excuse for counterproductive and ultimately self-destructive attitudes and behavior.
(They can't admit failures, even in places like Baltimore and Detroit)
No one can really understand the political left without understanding that they are about making themselves feel superior, however much they may talk piously about what they are going to do to help others.
(Tom Klingenstein wrote a great article on purity spirals, that covers this.)
Facts are seldom allowed to contaminate the beautiful vision of the left. What matters to the true believers are the ringing slogans, endlessly repeated. Darwinian adaptation to environment applies not only to nature but also to society. Just as you don’t find eagles living in the ocean or fish living on mountain tops, so you don’t find leftists concentrated where their ideas have to stand the test of performance.
Wherever you get enough far left people in power, you can find a similar willingness to force everyone into collectivist conformity at all costs.
(We saw that in all the cancellations in 2020 and shortly thereafter)
The left is not necessarily aiming at totalitarianism. But their know-it-all mindset leads repeatedly and pervasively in that direction, even if by small steps, each of which might be called ‘micro-totalitarianism.’
(This one I disagree with. Like Big Brother said, power is the ends.)
What socialism, fascism and other ideologies of the left have in common is an assumption that some very wise people—like themselves—need to take decisions out of the hands of lesser people, like the rest of us, and impose those decisions by government fiat.
Although the big word on the left is ‘compassion,’ the big agenda on the left is dependency. The more people who are dependent on government handouts, the more votes the left can depend on for an ever-expanding welfare state.
(That is why the left has become the party of government employees, radical activists, and dependent poor.)
The greatest moral claim of the political left is that they are for the masses in general and the poor in particular. That is also their greatest fraud. It even fools many leftists themselves.
No government of the left has done as much for the poor as capitalism has. Even when it comes to the redistribution of income, the left talks the talk but the free market walks the walk. What do the poor most need? They need to stop being poor. And how can that be done, on a mass scale, except by an economy that creates vastly more wealth? Yet the political left has long had a remarkable lack of interest in how wealth is created. As far as they are concerned, wealth exists somehow and the only interesting question is how to redistribute it.
===> "Notice Dusty is hoping for someone's child to be raped. Very very progressive."
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This is what happens when self entitled cupcakes wallow in self-indulgent anger. When someone questions a belief they hold, they feel justified in saying anything in response. It's a sad product of emotional immaturity and intellectual laziness.
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Someone like dusty (et. al) doesn't want to look at an issue dispassionately. She just wants her emotional beliefs confirmed because she's already convinced of the moral superiority of her position. Anyone who doesn't this belief is demonized by default and, in the process, fair game for poor behavior.
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Be better than that Dusty.
===> "the BBB doesn't go far enough in terms of cutting costs."
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@Puddy: I couldn't agree more. The problem is that there is no political will to do anything besides tinker on the margins. Heck the Republicans of today look almost like the Democrats of 30 years ago.
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We had affluent people retire in droves when Obamacare was passed because they could voluntarily reduce their income and get heavily subsidized insurance. They already owned their homes free and clear, had healthy investment and savings accounts and were still working primarily for the insurance coverage. Imagine what a simple liquid asset test could do to reduce subsidies and make more people pay from their own pockets?
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Heck imagine what a liquid asset test could do to salvage the Social Security system? Just how many people are collecting it who don't really need it?
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But nobody wants to draw the ire of millions of people who would lose their government funded goodies. So here we are, still kicking the can down the road.
Trump raped E Jean Carroll and his wife Ivana Trump. He bragged about grabbing women by the pussy. He intentionally walked in on nude teenage girls at his beauty pageant. Women have said that Trump did sexual things with them when they were 13 years old at Epstein's Island. If you don't think that Trump would rape anyone he could get away with you are delusional.
Trump is 79 years old, morbidly obese and shits his pants multiple times per day so his raping days may be over. Probably more sexual assaults now. He's too unhealthy for his dick to work well enough for rape.
The grabbing by tbe pussy comment, he was saying if youre a famous star you can do almost anything you want to women and theyll let you do it.. even grabbing by the pussy. So it might be vulgar but its not talking about sexual assault. It is true. Lets not kid ourselves, what % of these famous rich people are super hot or have incredible personalities? Even among pro sports players… many of them look odd or ugly. Yet still have women all over them. Trump is just talking about that same phenomenon.
@PT
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I don’t care to weigh in on this topic because it’s just a shit show, nothing good is going to get done, here’s the rub though, there’s going to be hell to pay soon enough, but means testing for Social Security is a total nonstarter, this is something that we’ve paid for, they could easily fix the problem two ways, with very little pushback, raise the cap on the SS contribution make it 75% of income subject to the contribution, and raise the age for retirement to 68 years as people are living longer than they were when the full retirement age was set.
Any hint of means testing or anything else is a total nonstarter and will cause major damage to the country.
What in the world do ancient rape allegations, which have never been proven, have to do with everything that Trump has done while in office?
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I mean sure, if you're going to hate him for those allegations then nothing he ever does will look good to you. But I prefer to judge policy positions on their merits and thus far I've liked what he's been doing as President.
@25 - I didn't talk about means-testing social security. That was @rickdugan. And I have in the past agreed with both of your suggestions to make SS solvent.
Elsewhere, I point out the mean-spiritedness and venality of the left, and of course Icey and Dusty come out and validate it without a shred of self-awareness. The left are fundamentally shrill, self-indulgent white women who throw tantrums when the world doesn't conform to them.
^ sorry I see that now RD was replying to you.
@RD
The reason why SS is an entitlement, should obvious to anyone with half a brain. It’s paid for by the recipients, it’s not a gift nor is it unearned. That money was deducted from your paycheck and your employer made a matching contribution based on your EARNED income. This program was forced upon us, now that you’ve taken my money every week for over fifty years I’ll throw a fucking fit if anyone tries to take that money away from me, and believe me I won’t be the only one.
@25: I understand the theory behind SS quite well. But the reality is that something has to give eventually.
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Your proposal to peg SS contributions to 75% of earned income would represent an extraordinary tax increase for a lot of people. 6.2% for W-2 employees on every dollar in between $176,100 (the current cap) and whatever 75% of their income is and a whopping 12.4% for small business owners and other self-employed people. That income cap currently serves as a source of moderate tax relief when the marginal federal rate jumps from 24% to 32% at around $200k (depending on the type of filer). Without it we'd be forcing higher income earners to hand over a substantial portion of their income to the federal government.
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That's on top of whatever burdens they carry at the state and city level. FFS some people would basically be government tax slaves for every dollar they earn over 200+k. There are too many consequences to easily list, including the deaths of many small businesses, people fleeing blue states even faster than they are now, etc., etc.
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I bet that, if you asked affluent people currently working which choice they would prefer, they would overwhelmingly choose future means testing over getting bent over the table like that for potentially decades.
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Now I'm not saying that we should apply means testing to existing recipients. But it makes an awful lot of sense to create a glide path to it for future potential recipients.
A Fox News investigation revealed that George Soros spent a billion dollars to make a real Star Trek transporter, so he could beam his shit into Trump's pants.
What’s the big fucking deal with taxing 75% of your income at the SS rate of 6.2% that’s where it needs to be, when the tables were created most people earned less than 5K per year, I’m not sure what the median income is but right now most people earn more than 40K, taxing 75% of wages total would settle the system for good right now the taxable wages go up to 176K, why not offer a reduction and tax 75% of total wages that’s easily doable. If you ask affluent folks they don’t want to pay in to the system at a fair rate, especially considering the most affluent have the longest longevity
@25: Fair? You want high income earners to pay out potentially unlimited amounts for a future benefit worth today's version of $3,822 monthly (the current cap) if they retire at 65? How is that remotely fair?
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But also consider this. Let's say a single filer small business owner in NYC earns a cool $1 million. He's already handing over an estimated $430k combined to the Feds, NY state and NYC, so he nets $570k. Your proposal would whack him for a whopping $71k per year. That's real money. He's now handing literally half his damned income over to the government.
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Now I'm sure that very few people here will feel sorry for him, which is understandable. But what if it cuts into his ability to hire another employee? Or make a capital improvement on his business? What will be the cumulative national impact on small business hiring and investment decisions if they get hammered like this?
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Or what if it's the straw that broke the camel's back and he decides to relocate to Florida or Texas to recoup it from state and local tax savings? This has already been happening just because of the more limited SALT deductions. How many more affluent taxpayers can NY and CA, among others, really afford to lose?
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Where there is an action, there is a reaction. Hammering people with additional taxes always has negative consequences.
Oops, silly me. I forgot to add the 22k he already paid in SS taxes up to the existing 176,100 limit. So his net income was 548k before your proposal to club him with yet another $71,000 in additional Social Security taxes. My bad.
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You really think that a small business owner making a million and having to kick $93,000 into Social Security in a single year, when he is capped at such a low number coming back to him, is really "fair?" You were never asked to do that, no matter how much you made.
This is a typical Dem/Progressive Strawman. If the Left is so sures this will collapse the economy and America, they should let it happen. Why? They get Congress and POTUS back for generations to come. Why don't they support it? Growing the economy and tax revenues, again, will prove how wrong they are.
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None of the CBO analysis takes into consideration growing the economy to 3.0%-3.5%. Tax cuts have been proven over and over, within limits, to stimulate the economy, bring in MORE tac=x revenues and increases wages. It happen w/Reagan and Trump 45.
The important deal is to CUT SPENDING! It was OK when Clinton had work requirements for Welfare. Spending cuts are hard with tight votes in Congress. This will not be the only Bill - more to come especially from whiny bitch Leftists.
Good job using TikTok as an "authoritative" source from some "Influencer." Get ready for some reality.
If America is as bad you y'all claim, Canada is calling. You'll love it.
@RD
Your numbers are ridiculous. right now the max tax paid is $!0,700, employers portion is the same, self employment is a bit more than $!4K, you make a ridiculous argument, then make up completely fabricated numbers, to support your ridiculous argument, I ran a business for close to 50 years, the cost of doing business is high, but not that high.
@25: My numbers are accurate, at least with respect to the self-employment tax. I know firsthand because I pay it. The total Social Security tax rate is 12.4%, which for W-2 employees is split between a 6.2% deduction from the employee and a 6.2% employer match. Self employed people pay the whole 12.4% as a self-employment tax.
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So the self employment tax on the first $176,100 (2025 cap) of earned income is $21,836.40. But OK, sue me for rounding to $22k for discussion purposes. 😉
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For that small business owner I mentioned above, the new self-employment tax on $1 million would be $93,000 (12.4% of 750k). That's a whopping tax increase of $71,163.60 (want to be sure to be precise lol), at the same time that this person is also paying higher marginal rates to everyone else.
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Now the small silver lining in this is that self-employed business owners get to deduct half of the self-employment tax from AGI for federal income tax purposes, so assuming the highest tax bracket the small business owner would recoup $13,165.27 back in federal income tax savings. But that's still a net tax increase of $57,998.33. Ouch.
So congratulations 25. You're effectively proposing a 6.23% net tax increase (after factoring in AGI deduction) for small business owners on every dollar earned over the $176,100. Add that to the top federal tax rate of 37% and the new effective top bracket tax rate is 43.23% for small business owners.
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Then, back to my NYC example, that's on top of the 6.85% he pays to NYS and 3.876% he pays to the city, for an effective cumulative top tax rate of about 54%. And if the dude keeps growing past his current $1 million in net income, his NYS rate will jump by almost 3% more, bringing him to almost 57% of every additional dollar earned.
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For every action, there is a reaction. If you make it more expensive or less profitable to run small businesses, fewer people will do it. Those who do will also trim hiring and/or limit how much they expand when they have to hand the bulk of each additional dollar earned over to government agencies.
NYC/NYS is modeling for the wasteland called Kalifornia. Another lemming headed for the cliff. Kolorado is trying to catch up. While income tax is low, FEES are all over the place to do a run-around TABOR.
^^ no honey you really are not reading what I’m saying at all.
The tax will be levied on 75% of all income at the same rate, exempting the first 25% of earnings before computing the tax.
It’s going to increase regardless of what happens so …….
@Mogul: It amazes me how, despite all evidence to the contrary, politicians in high tax states just can't grasp that high income earners will not just sit still and take it when they're getting pummeled by yet more tax increases. Eventually those who can leave when it gets bad enough.
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Which makes me sad in a way. There's a lot I love about NYC. It was my stomping ground for a long time. But between the confiscatory taxes and the wretched commute times, I moved my operation elsewhere when the time was right.
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I also very much like a lot about CA. I've been there several times. Outside of the urban hell holes, much of the state is beautiful. The weather is also simply fantastic.
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But as more fiscally sane people continue to flee these two states, the loopiness that remains becomes even more concentrated. Case in point is the recent mayoral primary in NYC. So your analogy about these places continuing to march towards the cliff is apt IMO.
@25: Go up and read more slowly. I already factored in the 25% exclusion in my calculations.
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As far as the inevitability of a future increase, I don't agree. Means testing for future recipients is a viable alternative to taxing the shit out of people and probably much more palatable to many. Younger people are already assuming that SS will not be a guarantee when they get older because of its solvency issues.
^ Means testing is a nonstarter and you know better, the rest of your argument isn’t valid, those calculations are just dumb. They need to figure out what they actually need to keep the program solvent, then find a way to agree on how to increase the revenue stream. Your proposal is going nowhere.
My calculations are spot on. The only thing that makes that very punitive self employment tax palatable to many business owners and other self-employed types is the income cap, which conveniently kicks in right when other marginal tax rates start to go up. Without that cap, you quickly turn them into tax slaves, especially in high tax jurisdictions.
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Small businesses account for over 50% of new jobs. The best way to wreak havoc on local economies and to ensure decreased access to services is to kick these businesses in the teeth.
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We shall see who is right about the proposal, assuming either of us lives long enough to see it play out. I still believe that faced with the prospect of paying a lot more in taxes or some day being subjected to a means test, a lot of people will embrace the latter.
Maybe they’ll create a carve out, still most small businesses won’t be leaving their states, big businesses have that ability but most of the small businesses are service providers and just like I did, keep their own salaries low, and retain earnings within their own businesses until they sell them, and then there are many work arounds for them.
I think the guy in the video is the type of lefty that helps Trump in many ways. I've worked at several tech companies who were supposedly gun ho on DEI. The repetitive, lawyer-designed DEI training was almost worse than water boarding. There were lots of male immigrant Asian employees, and management would declare "look ma, brown people, we're DEI swell!!!". But few women, and fewer black Americans and Latinos. And if a group has 10 males and one female, guess who gets assigned to the work secretaries use to do, like setting up meetings. So, when you simply say Trump is bad because he'll end bullshit DEI, it can make people laugh more than make them angry.
@ilbbaicnl - DEI is a shared psychosis, a way for corporate America to say "Look! We believe The Right Things!"
If it were in and of itself some great thing, some performance multiplier for the business, you'd see companies doubling down on it. Instead, even before Trump won, companies were running away from it. Half my LinkedIn feed was DEI people pissing and moaning that they were getting laid off, and how that meant America was so homoraceosexistophobic.
Now for the last 30 days, we've had militant LGBTQROFLMAO+!s beating their breasts that corporate America has abandoned them by not changing their logos or sponsoring pride parades. I guess all the puberty blockers stunted their mental development until they forgot corporations care about profits, not them.
It's all a joke; it's just that now more than just Republicans are laughing at it.
By the way, male immigrant Asian tech employees are the wrong kind of diversity. Forget that they had to pass higher standards than Chad or Zach to get their jobs.
I agree Rick's numbers are correct. Our consulting teams in NY have seen an immediate increase in business to provide impact analysis and remediation steps. Low and behold, the top recommended remediation step is to move out of NY.
@chiefwiggum,
it's just not practical, think it through, most of the businesses can't just pick up and relocate, they have specialized equipment, a large footprint, and need to be close enough to their customer base to service them, the vast majority of these businesses aren't lawyers, or financial services firms, it's just not practical nor is it likely, sorry but the majority of these consultants just don't know what the fuck they're talking about. Tax saving strategies are important, but the persons advocating strategies need to have some actual experience running a business.
Moving a business away from their base never works.
ilbbaicnl regarding tech companies having lots of male asian immigrants, that makes sense, although i would think you use asian broadly and to include chinese, korean, indian, bangladeshi, etc.
You mention there arent many latino or black americans in those tech companies… well another tbing to consider is there arent many asians or indians in the entertainment industry or highschool/college/pro sports.
Or, you could look at politics where there also arent many of them.
DEI doesnt mean you stuff people wherever theyre under represented compared to their overall population. The first thing to consider is why are these different races under represented or over represented in certain industries. One of your friends on here gave me the excuse that some races are more muscular than others and thats why they have more representation in sports. Well, if thats the case, it also means some races are smarter, or faster, or taller or nicer etc than others.
Different people choose to pursue different professions. Just because whites are 65%, blacks are 13%, latinas 16%, asians 1% etc doesnt mean these exact ratios need to hold up in every industry and that its a problem if they dont. And DEI initiatives like affirmative action actually hurt asian people and helped black and Latino people.
@25: There are also plenty of businesses that can move. And even the ones that cannot for practical reasons still have options, including scaling back, foregoing expansion plans or even closing down altogether and do something else instead.
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Changes in economics result in changes in behavior. The harder we make it for small business owners to make a sufficient return on their capital and time investments, the fewer businesses we have. Opportunity costs matter.
^ It's not so easy to move a business, not a profitable one, I ran my business for many years, there were always obstacles placed in my path, that's just the nature of the beast. meanwhile I made a good living, and finished up in great shape, look I had many friends that took different routes, some went into professions others went to work for large corporations, we get together from time to time, play golf, have a few drinks, and there seems to be a consensus, those of us who did well, are satisfied with our outcomes. My life has been very good overall, and I wouldn't trade places with anyone that I know of. In all honesty there are some things I would do differently , but not many.
Israeli politician Anna Eban said this
“Men and nations do act wisely,” the Israeli diplomat often said, “when they have exhausted all the other possibilities.”
I hope that’s true because the Social Security issue is now at hand, there’s very little road left to kick the can.
Keeping the tax cuts, and thus increasing the deficit, puts upward pressure on interest rates. So, at least for households making less than $200,000. If you need a mortgage or car loan, or you have significant credit card debt, you'll probably pay more in extra interest than what you'll save on taxes.
@25 and @Dugan
You guys both have a lot to say, and you’re clearly more informed about this stuff than most, but damn now you make me feel kind of stupid for not caring more about taxes and social security than I do. Between property taxes, federal income tax, and significant capital gains taxes, I pay A LOT of tax. So much that I don’t want to even think about it. Not to mention I paid A LOT of inheritance tax and intangible taxes back when they were still a thing in FL. Despite all this, I still live pretty well, and $3,800 per month in social security isn’t going to make a difference either way.
The businesses we consult with (at least my group) are tech-heavy or professional services. I'm sure the businesses that are capital intensive will have a harder time moving. Those that can't move are going to have their prices increased to cover their tax burden. Those that can't move because of capital infrastructure will pay higher closer to the median in terms of tax burden and loss in profits. My group's clients will have the largest tax burden along with the largest loss in profits.
Retirment plan A: Have a small pension and social security for the both of us. We enjoy each others company until death do us part.
Retirement plan B: We saved, but it wasn't enough and being melanin free we no longer qualified for social security. We draw straws to see who has to shoot the other and then themselves.
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last commentSorry dusty, but I could only get about a minute into this melodramatic drivel before I had to stop.
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Just to hit the first few points: (1) all that is happening to FEMA is that a few of their slush funds are being shut down - they will still be there for natural disaster response; (2) Able bodied adults without young children who are on Medicaid will be be required to work, seek work, attend education programs or volunteer for 20 hours a week (and why the fuck shouldn't they?); and (3) Veterans who are already covered by VA benefits will not be able to double dip with Medicaid.
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I'm sure that this rest of this drivel was just as off point.
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Yeah, what we need is more shrieking liberal chicken littles screaming orange man bad even louder!
I'll file this with your Harris 400 EVs prediction. Get a new magic 8 ball, bud.
Lulz
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I know that Trump supporters are so brainwashed it doesn't matter the amount of terrible things he does or evidence you see you'll still support him anyway. I'm sure you didn't even watch or consider what a horrendous bill this is for all of us not just those terrible liberals.
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^ You've given us no evidence dusty, just spun horseshit. Go read the text of the these provisions yourself if you don't believe me.
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We have to find a way to trim this budget and pretty much everything that was covered in that first minute was low hanging fruit. Why should taxpayers have to pay to make wealthy peoples' beach houses more "climate resilient" (one of the FEMA slush funds)? Why should able bodied adults without young children be allowed to stay on the public healthcare dole without even trying to work (I mean fucking seriously now)? Why should we be paying for Medicaid for vets who already qualify for free healthcare through the VA system?
I mean seriously dude. I'm always open to opposing views as it is how I form my own positions on different topics. But what you gave us was just melodramatic spun crap.
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Brainwashed Rick. Trump could rape your daughter and you'd still support him.
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@rickdugan - I agree, the BBB doesn't go far enough in terms of cutting costs. I had hoped DOGE would go through the DOD and healthcare; now that's where the real waste, fraud, and abuse is, but libs (including the TUSCL Lib Cope Squad) treat every nickel cut as a holocaust.
The Lib Cope Squad here also treats the latest red meat MSNBC or TikTok post like it'll singlehandedly turn the tables. Dusty once asked my legit opinion on something political then when I responded started ranting with "I don't care what any fucking Trump supporter thinks!" The anger is all an act to compensate for their little penises.
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Were they escorting those people in wheelchairs? Proof they were arresting them, and what were they doing prior to being arrested?
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Icey those protesters needed to be served with a lil’ something for their vandalism and property damage
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Ntoice Dusty is hoping for someone's child to be raped. Very very progressive.
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^ @skibum - that's the modern progressive mind for you. Recent studies show how unhappy liberals are (especially unmarried liberal women). They cultivate behaviors like learned helplessness (we are at the mercy of our environment and need outside factors like the government to save us), they treat their emotions as facts--euphoria is a right and resilience is a cuss word. They are more likely to cut off their families and friends over disagreements. They lie to themselves and say it's because they're more conscious of social issues, but studies disprove that too.
Then when their ideas don't work--as they never do--they blame sabotage or the rich or capitalism or Jews or something.
Thomas Sowell has a lot to say about them.
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Here's some of Prof. Sowell's wisdom...we can see the anger and personal attacks on display above. (I've added a couple notes in parentheses)
That people on the political left have a certain set of opinions, just as people do in other parts of the ideological spectrum, is not surprising. What is surprising, however, is how often the opinions of those on the left are accompanied by hostility and even hatred.
Anyone who studies the history of ideas should notice how much more often people on the political left, more so than others, denigrate and demonize those who disagree with them — instead of answering their arguments.
In a sense, the political left’s attempts to silence ideas they cannot, or will not, debate are a confession of intellectual bankruptcy.
The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.
(Note: Academia is a great example of places where ideas do not need to work to survive)
The political left has never understood that, if you give the government enough power to create ‘social justice,’ you have given it enough power to create despotism. Millions of people around the world have paid with their lives for overlooking that simple fact.”
(They want despotism and think they will be more enlightened than everyone else who was trusted with it but turned evil.)
The whole political vision of the left, including socialism and communism, has failed by virtually every empirical test, in countries all around the world. But this has only led leftist intellectuals to evade and denigrate empirical evidence.
The vision of the left, full of envy and resentment, takes its worst toll on those at the bottom — whether black or white — who find in that paranoid vision an excuse for counterproductive and ultimately self-destructive attitudes and behavior.
(They can't admit failures, even in places like Baltimore and Detroit)
No one can really understand the political left without understanding that they are about making themselves feel superior, however much they may talk piously about what they are going to do to help others.
(Tom Klingenstein wrote a great article on purity spirals, that covers this.)
Facts are seldom allowed to contaminate the beautiful vision of the left. What matters to the true believers are the ringing slogans, endlessly repeated. Darwinian adaptation to environment applies not only to nature but also to society. Just as you don’t find eagles living in the ocean or fish living on mountain tops, so you don’t find leftists concentrated where their ideas have to stand the test of performance.
Wherever you get enough far left people in power, you can find a similar willingness to force everyone into collectivist conformity at all costs.
(We saw that in all the cancellations in 2020 and shortly thereafter)
The left is not necessarily aiming at totalitarianism. But their know-it-all mindset leads repeatedly and pervasively in that direction, even if by small steps, each of which might be called ‘micro-totalitarianism.’
(This one I disagree with. Like Big Brother said, power is the ends.)
What socialism, fascism and other ideologies of the left have in common is an assumption that some very wise people—like themselves—need to take decisions out of the hands of lesser people, like the rest of us, and impose those decisions by government fiat.
Although the big word on the left is ‘compassion,’ the big agenda on the left is dependency. The more people who are dependent on government handouts, the more votes the left can depend on for an ever-expanding welfare state.
(That is why the left has become the party of government employees, radical activists, and dependent poor.)
The greatest moral claim of the political left is that they are for the masses in general and the poor in particular. That is also their greatest fraud. It even fools many leftists themselves.
No government of the left has done as much for the poor as capitalism has. Even when it comes to the redistribution of income, the left talks the talk but the free market walks the walk. What do the poor most need? They need to stop being poor. And how can that be done, on a mass scale, except by an economy that creates vastly more wealth? Yet the political left has long had a remarkable lack of interest in how wealth is created. As far as they are concerned, wealth exists somehow and the only interesting question is how to redistribute it.
(i.e. envy)
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That was Joe Biden in a Trump mask who raped Rick's daughter.
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===> "Notice Dusty is hoping for someone's child to be raped. Very very progressive."
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This is what happens when self entitled cupcakes wallow in self-indulgent anger. When someone questions a belief they hold, they feel justified in saying anything in response. It's a sad product of emotional immaturity and intellectual laziness.
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Someone like dusty (et. al) doesn't want to look at an issue dispassionately. She just wants her emotional beliefs confirmed because she's already convinced of the moral superiority of her position. Anyone who doesn't this belief is demonized by default and, in the process, fair game for poor behavior.
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Be better than that Dusty.
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===> "the BBB doesn't go far enough in terms of cutting costs."
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@Puddy: I couldn't agree more. The problem is that there is no political will to do anything besides tinker on the margins. Heck the Republicans of today look almost like the Democrats of 30 years ago.
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We had affluent people retire in droves when Obamacare was passed because they could voluntarily reduce their income and get heavily subsidized insurance. They already owned their homes free and clear, had healthy investment and savings accounts and were still working primarily for the insurance coverage. Imagine what a simple liquid asset test could do to reduce subsidies and make more people pay from their own pockets?
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Heck imagine what a liquid asset test could do to salvage the Social Security system? Just how many people are collecting it who don't really need it?
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But nobody wants to draw the ire of millions of people who would lose their government funded goodies. So here we are, still kicking the can down the road.
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Weirdos bonding with a right wing cookie toss
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Trump raped E Jean Carroll and his wife Ivana Trump. He bragged about grabbing women by the pussy. He intentionally walked in on nude teenage girls at his beauty pageant. Women have said that Trump did sexual things with them when they were 13 years old at Epstein's Island. If you don't think that Trump would rape anyone he could get away with you are delusional.
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Trump is 79 years old, morbidly obese and shits his pants multiple times per day so his raping days may be over. Probably more sexual assaults now. He's too unhealthy for his dick to work well enough for rape.
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^he could still lick their pussy, use his big hands or a dildo
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The grabbing by tbe pussy comment, he was saying if youre a famous star you can do almost anything you want to women and theyll let you do it.. even grabbing by the pussy. So it might be vulgar but its not talking about sexual assault. It is true. Lets not kid ourselves, what % of these famous rich people are super hot or have incredible personalities? Even among pro sports players… many of them look odd or ugly. Yet still have women all over them. Trump is just talking about that same phenomenon.
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@PT
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I don’t care to weigh in on this topic because it’s just a shit show, nothing good is going to get done, here’s the rub though, there’s going to be hell to pay soon enough, but means testing for Social Security is a total nonstarter, this is something that we’ve paid for, they could easily fix the problem two ways, with very little pushback, raise the cap on the SS contribution make it 75% of income subject to the contribution, and raise the age for retirement to 68 years as people are living longer than they were when the full retirement age was set.
Any hint of means testing or anything else is a total nonstarter and will cause major damage to the country.
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What in the world do ancient rape allegations, which have never been proven, have to do with everything that Trump has done while in office?
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I mean sure, if you're going to hate him for those allegations then nothing he ever does will look good to you. But I prefer to judge policy positions on their merits and thus far I've liked what he's been doing as President.
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@25 - I didn't talk about means-testing social security. That was @rickdugan. And I have in the past agreed with both of your suggestions to make SS solvent.
Elsewhere, I point out the mean-spiritedness and venality of the left, and of course Icey and Dusty come out and validate it without a shred of self-awareness. The left are fundamentally shrill, self-indulgent white women who throw tantrums when the world doesn't conform to them.
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Trump is a rapist business fraud who stole from children's charities. He's so misunderstood.
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^ sorry I see that now RD was replying to you.
@RD
The reason why SS is an entitlement, should obvious to anyone with half a brain. It’s paid for by the recipients, it’s not a gift nor is it unearned. That money was deducted from your paycheck and your employer made a matching contribution based on your EARNED income. This program was forced upon us, now that you’ve taken my money every week for over fifty years I’ll throw a fucking fit if anyone tries to take that money away from me, and believe me I won’t be the only one.
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@25: I understand the theory behind SS quite well. But the reality is that something has to give eventually.
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Your proposal to peg SS contributions to 75% of earned income would represent an extraordinary tax increase for a lot of people. 6.2% for W-2 employees on every dollar in between $176,100 (the current cap) and whatever 75% of their income is and a whopping 12.4% for small business owners and other self-employed people. That income cap currently serves as a source of moderate tax relief when the marginal federal rate jumps from 24% to 32% at around $200k (depending on the type of filer). Without it we'd be forcing higher income earners to hand over a substantial portion of their income to the federal government.
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That's on top of whatever burdens they carry at the state and city level. FFS some people would basically be government tax slaves for every dollar they earn over 200+k. There are too many consequences to easily list, including the deaths of many small businesses, people fleeing blue states even faster than they are now, etc., etc.
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I bet that, if you asked affluent people currently working which choice they would prefer, they would overwhelmingly choose future means testing over getting bent over the table like that for potentially decades.
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Now I'm not saying that we should apply means testing to existing recipients. But it makes an awful lot of sense to create a glide path to it for future potential recipients.
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A Fox News investigation revealed that George Soros spent a billion dollars to make a real Star Trek transporter, so he could beam his shit into Trump's pants.
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What’s the big fucking deal with taxing 75% of your income at the SS rate of 6.2% that’s where it needs to be, when the tables were created most people earned less than 5K per year, I’m not sure what the median income is but right now most people earn more than 40K, taxing 75% of wages total would settle the system for good right now the taxable wages go up to 176K, why not offer a reduction and tax 75% of total wages that’s easily doable. If you ask affluent folks they don’t want to pay in to the system at a fair rate, especially considering the most affluent have the longest longevity
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@25: Fair? You want high income earners to pay out potentially unlimited amounts for a future benefit worth today's version of $3,822 monthly (the current cap) if they retire at 65? How is that remotely fair?
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But also consider this. Let's say a single filer small business owner in NYC earns a cool $1 million. He's already handing over an estimated $430k combined to the Feds, NY state and NYC, so he nets $570k. Your proposal would whack him for a whopping $71k per year. That's real money. He's now handing literally half his damned income over to the government.
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Now I'm sure that very few people here will feel sorry for him, which is understandable. But what if it cuts into his ability to hire another employee? Or make a capital improvement on his business? What will be the cumulative national impact on small business hiring and investment decisions if they get hammered like this?
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Or what if it's the straw that broke the camel's back and he decides to relocate to Florida or Texas to recoup it from state and local tax savings? This has already been happening just because of the more limited SALT deductions. How many more affluent taxpayers can NY and CA, among others, really afford to lose?
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Where there is an action, there is a reaction. Hammering people with additional taxes always has negative consequences.
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Oops, silly me. I forgot to add the 22k he already paid in SS taxes up to the existing 176,100 limit. So his net income was 548k before your proposal to club him with yet another $71,000 in additional Social Security taxes. My bad.
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You really think that a small business owner making a million and having to kick $93,000 into Social Security in a single year, when he is capped at such a low number coming back to him, is really "fair?" You were never asked to do that, no matter how much you made.
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This is a typical Dem/Progressive Strawman. If the Left is so sures this will collapse the economy and America, they should let it happen. Why? They get Congress and POTUS back for generations to come. Why don't they support it? Growing the economy and tax revenues, again, will prove how wrong they are.
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None of the CBO analysis takes into consideration growing the economy to 3.0%-3.5%. Tax cuts have been proven over and over, within limits, to stimulate the economy, bring in MORE tac=x revenues and increases wages. It happen w/Reagan and Trump 45.
The important deal is to CUT SPENDING! It was OK when Clinton had work requirements for Welfare. Spending cuts are hard with tight votes in Congress. This will not be the only Bill - more to come especially from whiny bitch Leftists.
Good job using TikTok as an "authoritative" source from some "Influencer." Get ready for some reality.
If America is as bad you y'all claim, Canada is calling. You'll love it.
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@RD
Your numbers are ridiculous. right now the max tax paid is $!0,700, employers portion is the same, self employment is a bit more than $!4K, you make a ridiculous argument, then make up completely fabricated numbers, to support your ridiculous argument, I ran a business for close to 50 years, the cost of doing business is high, but not that high.
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@25: My numbers are accurate, at least with respect to the self-employment tax. I know firsthand because I pay it. The total Social Security tax rate is 12.4%, which for W-2 employees is split between a 6.2% deduction from the employee and a 6.2% employer match. Self employed people pay the whole 12.4% as a self-employment tax.
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So the self employment tax on the first $176,100 (2025 cap) of earned income is $21,836.40. But OK, sue me for rounding to $22k for discussion purposes. 😉
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For that small business owner I mentioned above, the new self-employment tax on $1 million would be $93,000 (12.4% of 750k). That's a whopping tax increase of $71,163.60 (want to be sure to be precise lol), at the same time that this person is also paying higher marginal rates to everyone else.
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Now the small silver lining in this is that self-employed business owners get to deduct half of the self-employment tax from AGI for federal income tax purposes, so assuming the highest tax bracket the small business owner would recoup $13,165.27 back in federal income tax savings. But that's still a net tax increase of $57,998.33. Ouch.
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youtu.be
Trumps big fat bitch bill
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So congratulations 25. You're effectively proposing a 6.23% net tax increase (after factoring in AGI deduction) for small business owners on every dollar earned over the $176,100. Add that to the top federal tax rate of 37% and the new effective top bracket tax rate is 43.23% for small business owners.
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Then, back to my NYC example, that's on top of the 6.85% he pays to NYS and 3.876% he pays to the city, for an effective cumulative top tax rate of about 54%. And if the dude keeps growing past his current $1 million in net income, his NYS rate will jump by almost 3% more, bringing him to almost 57% of every additional dollar earned.
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For every action, there is a reaction. If you make it more expensive or less profitable to run small businesses, fewer people will do it. Those who do will also trim hiring and/or limit how much they expand when they have to hand the bulk of each additional dollar earned over to government agencies.
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NYC/NYS is modeling for the wasteland called Kalifornia. Another lemming headed for the cliff. Kolorado is trying to catch up. While income tax is low, FEES are all over the place to do a run-around TABOR.
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Mogul stop spamming right wing exteemism on a strip club site fucking troll
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^^ no honey you really are not reading what I’m saying at all.
The tax will be levied on 75% of all income at the same rate, exempting the first 25% of earnings before computing the tax.
It’s going to increase regardless of what happens so …….
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@Mogul: It amazes me how, despite all evidence to the contrary, politicians in high tax states just can't grasp that high income earners will not just sit still and take it when they're getting pummeled by yet more tax increases. Eventually those who can leave when it gets bad enough.
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Which makes me sad in a way. There's a lot I love about NYC. It was my stomping ground for a long time. But between the confiscatory taxes and the wretched commute times, I moved my operation elsewhere when the time was right.
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I also very much like a lot about CA. I've been there several times. Outside of the urban hell holes, much of the state is beautiful. The weather is also simply fantastic.
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But as more fiscally sane people continue to flee these two states, the loopiness that remains becomes even more concentrated. Case in point is the recent mayoral primary in NYC. So your analogy about these places continuing to march towards the cliff is apt IMO.
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Baghdad bob back at spamming the forum
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@25: Go up and read more slowly. I already factored in the 25% exclusion in my calculations.
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As far as the inevitability of a future increase, I don't agree. Means testing for future recipients is a viable alternative to taxing the shit out of people and probably much more palatable to many. Younger people are already assuming that SS will not be a guarantee when they get older because of its solvency issues.
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^ Means testing is a nonstarter and you know better, the rest of your argument isn’t valid, those calculations are just dumb. They need to figure out what they actually need to keep the program solvent, then find a way to agree on how to increase the revenue stream. Your proposal is going nowhere.
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My calculations are spot on. The only thing that makes that very punitive self employment tax palatable to many business owners and other self-employed types is the income cap, which conveniently kicks in right when other marginal tax rates start to go up. Without that cap, you quickly turn them into tax slaves, especially in high tax jurisdictions.
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Small businesses account for over 50% of new jobs. The best way to wreak havoc on local economies and to ensure decreased access to services is to kick these businesses in the teeth.
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We shall see who is right about the proposal, assuming either of us lives long enough to see it play out. I still believe that faced with the prospect of paying a lot more in taxes or some day being subjected to a means test, a lot of people will embrace the latter.
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^ Not a lot of small businesses paying employees more than the cap. My bet is not even enough to cover this conversation.
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^ I'm talking about the owners of those small businesses. They are the ones who will get hammered. Behaviors will change accordingly.
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Maybe they’ll create a carve out, still most small businesses won’t be leaving their states, big businesses have that ability but most of the small businesses are service providers and just like I did, keep their own salaries low, and retain earnings within their own businesses until they sell them, and then there are many work arounds for them.
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I think the guy in the video is the type of lefty that helps Trump in many ways. I've worked at several tech companies who were supposedly gun ho on DEI. The repetitive, lawyer-designed DEI training was almost worse than water boarding. There were lots of male immigrant Asian employees, and management would declare "look ma, brown people, we're DEI swell!!!". But few women, and fewer black Americans and Latinos. And if a group has 10 males and one female, guess who gets assigned to the work secretaries use to do, like setting up meetings. So, when you simply say Trump is bad because he'll end bullshit DEI, it can make people laugh more than make them angry.
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@ilbbaicnl - DEI is a shared psychosis, a way for corporate America to say "Look! We believe The Right Things!"
If it were in and of itself some great thing, some performance multiplier for the business, you'd see companies doubling down on it. Instead, even before Trump won, companies were running away from it. Half my LinkedIn feed was DEI people pissing and moaning that they were getting laid off, and how that meant America was so homoraceosexistophobic.
Now for the last 30 days, we've had militant LGBTQROFLMAO+!s beating their breasts that corporate America has abandoned them by not changing their logos or sponsoring pride parades. I guess all the puberty blockers stunted their mental development until they forgot corporations care about profits, not them.
It's all a joke; it's just that now more than just Republicans are laughing at it.
By the way, male immigrant Asian tech employees are the wrong kind of diversity. Forget that they had to pass higher standards than Chad or Zach to get their jobs.
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Puddytat youre on here supporting christian terrorism and going off on anti trannie irades
No one gives a fuck about you spamming right wing shit on a strip club forum.
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^ LOL, you care enough to follow me around posting the same rubbish.
By the way, this thread is on the Political Discourse forum, retard.
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youtu.be
Trumps BBB
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^So gay.
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I agree Rick's numbers are correct. Our consulting teams in NY have seen an immediate increase in business to provide impact analysis and remediation steps. Low and behold, the top recommended remediation step is to move out of NY.
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Also, let's not forget, at least for me, the most important part of the bill: keep the tax cuts!
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@chiefwiggum,
it's just not practical, think it through, most of the businesses can't just pick up and relocate, they have specialized equipment, a large footprint, and need to be close enough to their customer base to service them, the vast majority of these businesses aren't lawyers, or financial services firms, it's just not practical nor is it likely, sorry but the majority of these consultants just don't know what the fuck they're talking about. Tax saving strategies are important, but the persons advocating strategies need to have some actual experience running a business.
Moving a business away from their base never works.
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ilbbaicnl regarding tech companies having lots of male asian immigrants, that makes sense, although i would think you use asian broadly and to include chinese, korean, indian, bangladeshi, etc.
You mention there arent many latino or black americans in those tech companies… well another tbing to consider is there arent many asians or indians in the entertainment industry or highschool/college/pro sports.
Or, you could look at politics where there also arent many of them.
DEI doesnt mean you stuff people wherever theyre under represented compared to their overall population. The first thing to consider is why are these different races under represented or over represented in certain industries. One of your friends on here gave me the excuse that some races are more muscular than others and thats why they have more representation in sports. Well, if thats the case, it also means some races are smarter, or faster, or taller or nicer etc than others.
Different people choose to pursue different professions. Just because whites are 65%, blacks are 13%, latinas 16%, asians 1% etc doesnt mean these exact ratios need to hold up in every industry and that its a problem if they dont. And DEI initiatives like affirmative action actually hurt asian people and helped black and Latino people.
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@25: There are also plenty of businesses that can move. And even the ones that cannot for practical reasons still have options, including scaling back, foregoing expansion plans or even closing down altogether and do something else instead.
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Changes in economics result in changes in behavior. The harder we make it for small business owners to make a sufficient return on their capital and time investments, the fewer businesses we have. Opportunity costs matter.
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^ It's not so easy to move a business, not a profitable one, I ran my business for many years, there were always obstacles placed in my path, that's just the nature of the beast. meanwhile I made a good living, and finished up in great shape, look I had many friends that took different routes, some went into professions others went to work for large corporations, we get together from time to time, play golf, have a few drinks, and there seems to be a consensus, those of us who did well, are satisfied with our outcomes. My life has been very good overall, and I wouldn't trade places with anyone that I know of. In all honesty there are some things I would do differently , but not many.
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Israeli politician Anna Eban said this
“Men and nations do act wisely,” the Israeli diplomat often said, “when they have exhausted all the other possibilities.”
I hope that’s true because the Social Security issue is now at hand, there’s very little road left to kick the can.
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Keeping the tax cuts, and thus increasing the deficit, puts upward pressure on interest rates. So, at least for households making less than $200,000. If you need a mortgage or car loan, or you have significant credit card debt, you'll probably pay more in extra interest than what you'll save on taxes.
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@25 and @Dugan
You guys both have a lot to say, and you’re clearly more informed about this stuff than most, but damn now you make me feel kind of stupid for not caring more about taxes and social security than I do. Between property taxes, federal income tax, and significant capital gains taxes, I pay A LOT of tax. So much that I don’t want to even think about it. Not to mention I paid A LOT of inheritance tax and intangible taxes back when they were still a thing in FL. Despite all this, I still live pretty well, and $3,800 per month in social security isn’t going to make a difference either way.
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The businesses we consult with (at least my group) are tech-heavy or professional services. I'm sure the businesses that are capital intensive will have a harder time moving. Those that can't move are going to have their prices increased to cover their tax burden. Those that can't move because of capital infrastructure will pay higher closer to the median in terms of tax burden and loss in profits. My group's clients will have the largest tax burden along with the largest loss in profits.
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Retirment plan A: Have a small pension and social security for the both of us. We enjoy each others company until death do us part.
Retirement plan B: We saved, but it wasn't enough and being melanin free we no longer qualified for social security. We draw straws to see who has to shoot the other and then themselves.
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