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[60 Minutes] state budget crisis

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Commodore, Dec 20, 2010.

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  1. Commodore

    Commodore Member

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    <embed src="http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/cbsnews_player_embed.swf" scale="noscale" salign="lt" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" background="#333333" width="425" height="279" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" FlashVars="si=254&uvpc=http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/uvp_cbsnews.xml&contentType=videoId&contentValue=50097650&ccEnabled=false&amp;hdEnabled=false&fsEnabled=true&shareEnabled=false&dlEnabled=false&subEnabled=false&playlistDisplay=none&playlistType=none&playerWidth=425&playerHeight=239&vidWidth=425&vidHeight=239&autoplay=false&bbuttonDisplay=none&playOverlayText=PLAY%20CBS%20NEWS%20VIDEO&refreshMpuEnabled=true&shareUrl=http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6902442n&adEngine=dart&adCallTemplate=http://www.cbs.com/thunder/ad.doubleclick.net/adx/request.php?/can/news/undefined;site=news;show=undefined;undefinedpartner=news;lvid=50097650;outlet=CBS+Production;noAd=undefined;type=ros;format=FLV;pos=undefined;sz=320x240;ord=764430;playerVersion=1.0;&adPreroll=true&adPrerollType=PreContent&adPrerollValue=1" />
     
  2. s land balla

    s land balla Member

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    Illinois is f'd.
     
  3. rimrocker

    rimrocker Member

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    We all are.
     
  4. Qball

    Qball Member

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    I have a great idea......let's give the rich a tax break.....they'll spend the money they save to create jobs.

    :rolleyes:
     
  5. thadeus

    thadeus Member

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    All these problems have come to be owing to the fact that a significant number of Americans have been convinced by the wealthy 2% that their possession of most of the wealth in the country is somehow good for the rest of us.
     
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  6. rtsy

    rtsy Member

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    I have a better idea. Stop the spending.
     
  7. rhadamanthus

    rhadamanthus Member

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    Truth.
     
  8. GladiatoRowdy

    GladiatoRowdy Member

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    We will need to do both to balance the budget.
     
  9. MiddleMan

    MiddleMan Member

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    Do both!!!
     
  10. PigMiller

    PigMiller Member

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    Wealth is not a pie, wealth is created. Why and how is it any of your business how much somebody else has? It doesn't affect you. How about trying to get your own wealth like the "2%" did, instead of trying to drag that "2%" down.

    The problem in this country is that our government has spent us in to oblivion and in to a debt that we can not possibly repay.
     
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  11. bingsha10

    bingsha10 Member

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    balancing the budget is not that important if the spending levels are reduced. The whole point of saving/tax breaks etc. is to grow capital investment through voluntary savings. Can't do no matter what tax breaks you give anyone if the govt. keeps borrowing more money to put in the economy which keeps the price of everything up.
     
  12. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    So, Wealth is created out of a Vacuum?

    Rocket River
     
  13. FranchiseBlade

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    You think the 2% got their own wealth? Most of it comes from family, if not directly from family from family connections.
     
  14. PigMiller

    PigMiller Member

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    If that's the way you'd like to look at it. Wealth is created by people taking calculated risks (i.e. starting a business) based on some sort of incentive (i.e. making money and improving their lot in life).

    I'll stop there...but this notion that wealthy people got rich by stealing from the poor is comical.
     
  15. PigMiller

    PigMiller Member

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    Right. Bill Gates got rich because not because he was the founder of Microsoft, but because he inherited it from family. Same with Donald Trump, Michael Dell, Warren Buffett, and on and on.

    And by the way, not only did those people improve their own life, they improved the lives of millions of others...by creating jobs and creating goods and services that people want and need. To begrudge them for their wealth is flat ignorant.
     
  16. FranchiseBlade

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    I don't begrudge them their wealth. Those people want the tax rate for top earners increased just like I do.

    Actually some of those people did come from wealth. They increased it, but they already had a leg up.
     
  17. PigMiller

    PigMiller Member

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    If you think raising taxes on the top earners will actually do anything to lower our deficit and debt, you are mistaken.

    We have drifted in to a complete disconnect between government spending and revenues. It doesn't matter how much we tax any tax bracket, the government as it stands today will not stop spending much more than it takes in. All taxes serve to do now is steal money from certain groups at certain rates, not to support and fund the government.
     
  18. FranchiseBlade

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    I understand the anti-govt. sentiment, but you are saying makes no sense logically.

    A deficit is spending more than the revenues coming. If, like you say, the government will spend anyway, the only way the govt. will cut that deficit is to increase revenues. Taxes are revenue for the government

    Non-partisan groups have calculated the cost of less taxes. Taxes add to the deficit. Cutting spending and raising taxes on top earners is the best way to reduce the the deficit.
     
  19. rimrocker

    rimrocker Member

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    Bill Gates' parents were well off enough to send him to Harvard. His dad was a lawyer, his mom served on the board of a bank, his grandfather was a bank president. Trump's dad was a wealthy real estate guy and Trump joined his company when he got out of college. Dell is the son of an orthopedist and a stockbroker. Warren Buffett's dad was a multi-term U.S. Congressman.

    None of that is meant to take away what these guys did, but one fact that is inescapable is that they had the freedom to take risks because they had a good family backstop if they failed. Not everyone is so lucky and not everyone could afford to take such risks, especially if they had a family to support or needed constant income for an elderly or sick relative.
     
  20. pippendagimp

    pippendagimp Member

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    "the only place we can find $$$$ to bankroll our precious junkets, porkbarrel corporate subsidies, ballooning penitentiary systems, etc - is in your pension and K-12 education funds" :rolleyes:
     

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