Spending and Collecting

I have been thinking about doing a somewhat (or overt) political ad for this election season. I had decided not to. This is not so much a political ad as it is an attempt at 'spainin' about the deficit and tax revenues in relation to the tax cuts that went into effect last year.

First some numbers on what has happened to the economy due to the tax cuts and the reduction in regulations that the administration has put into place. Unemployment at record lows, employment participation growing for the first time in decades; more importantly, black and hispanic unemployment both at record lows. Consumer confidence is at an 18 year high which bodes well for the important Christmas shopping season and the economy in general. More importantly, tax revenues are UP! (if you car to follow up on that - I did a study on tax revenues following every major tax change over the past decades. I have facts and figures and even a spread sheet where I combined most of the numbers I crunched. Bottom line - tax revenues go up when taxes are cut. Something the Democrats and even other entrenched politicians cannot accept because it puts their money flow at risk.

Like all of you I have been inundated with all the political ads for this election (tomorrow as I write this). I have been traveling and I watch TV online, so I see ads from all over the country. It is surprising how similar the ads are - from both parties. You can substitute candidates and the ads are almost identical. There have been a lot of lies and falsehoods I have heard - from both sides. There has been one theme with the Democratic candidates ads that have really surprised me and made me want to do this post. Democrats have almost NEVER been worried about budget deficits historically. In this election season I have seen mention after mention of how the deficit is growing under the current administration and they imply it is due to the horrible tax cuts. That is pure hyperbole (fancy word for B.S!). Here are the facts:

Now, that is neither here nor there for today except that I did not hear a single Democrat complaining about deficits then. (to be fair I don't hear an Republicans complaining about them now).Now, as always I checked this many times. It is ridiculous how hard it is to find this data. I sometimes think the politicians don't want us looking at it! There are some variations due to rounding and other ways of computing things, but this is a good snapshot. The one thing to note is that this is NOT using constant dollars. There has been an 18% growth in the CPI from 2008 to 2018 so the numbers in 2018 when compared are actually quite a bit higher. Again, for comparison purposes, this works. One thing I want you to not is that 2018 is the HIGHEST revenue year of all time. That is AFTER the tax cuts. The deficit growth, although high, comparably not too bad. If this was an Obama era deficit it would be lower than four of the one during his 8 years, equal to one, and higher than 3. The Obama years almost exactly doubled the national debt during the 8 budgets. That means that in 4 years, the Obama administration had as much debt as every other administration TOGETHER!

Tax cuts are not the issue. The spending is out of control. We are spending tremendously more money than we were just 10 years ago. If you hear about cuts to anything, realize that is hyperbole as well (BS, remember?). Yes there have been some small cuts to some things but overall the government is spending like a sailor on shore leave with a bonus check in their pocket.

That is all. FYI the series of three tax cut and revenue posts are: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4047852223042054038#editor/target=post;postID=9169442785323973641;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=11;src=postname

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4047852223042054038#editor/target=post;postID=7855907237906729050;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=10;src=postname

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4047852223042054038#editor/target=post;postID=6169404039027593762;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=9;src=postname

I hope those work. If not look a number of posts back for names with taxes in the title. There is a #1 - 3.

Who's got gas?

Here is another thing that is bothering me - I am tired of people whining about gas prices. Gas was never free!! When people whine about "$40 to fill my tank" they forget that even at $2 a gallon it was $25 or so to fill it!! Here are some numbers: The average car in the U.S. is driven about 12,000 miles a year. If you get 20 MPG (hey if you are driving a Hummer, getting 10, I don't want to hear it!) That is 600 gallons of gas a year. Most people would be estatic if gas was at $2 a gallon again -SO, that is about $600 a year (for the extra $1 a gallon) or $11.54 a week. Now I know there are a LOT of folks that were struggling to pay the $2, but the average person I know was not. Here is another way to look at it. How many Starbuck's coffees or lattes have you had lately at $$37.33 a gallon? ($3.50 for a 12 oz one) How about a beer on an airplane at $53.33 a gallon? ($5 per) Then there is bottled water at $10.66 a gallon. ($1 a 12oz bottle -and it can be MUCH higher

Our Guv'ment

Section 8 - Powers of Congress The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises , to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States; To establish Post Offices and Post Roads ; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings a

Being Thankful

Here on the eve of Thanksgiving I thought it would be appropriate to be thankful. However there are many, many reasons to be thankful. We are thankful that we live in a country where fortunes can be made by lawsuits over the temperature of a beverage. We are thankful that we have cameras to record every movement of the latest pop tart exiting a limo. We are thankful that we have more lawyers than any other nation on earth - over one million. (I just read that 70% of the lawyers in the world are in the U.S.) We are thankful that we are innocent until proven guilty - unless the charges are of a nature as to be offensive to someone. We are thankful that we have hundreds of channels of television, still with nothing on worth watching most times. Along that theme, we are thankful to be able to watch exiting "sports" like spelling bees and baccarat. We are thankful to have devoted public servants and elected officials that look upon their job as a way to line their pockets. We ar

JUST SOME POSTS

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