Six Months Until The Largest Tax Increase In US History!

[ready4ONE 5,400]

I'm not saying the language in the OP isn't sounding like a hack, but at the same time not one bit of it is wrong as it stands now.

If no action is taken, that is exactly how it stands...

It isn't up to Obama to act, thus the thrust of the OP is off by a mile. Perhaps the party of no would care to be a little less obstructionist?

[Obama 2012 1,714]

It isn't up to Obama to act, thus the thrust of the OP is off by a mile. Perhaps the party of no would care to be a little less obstructionist?

Of course it is. Just as everyone just likes to blame B0000000000SH! for everything that happened during his term, Obama is ultimately to blame here as well. Just as the CEO of a company is responsible for the malfunctions of his/her company. It's the same thing.

Ultimately the president has the final say on everything (minus the SCOTUS in some cases of course). They choose to sign/veto a bill, and Obama is especially good at pushing whatever agenda he wants congress to be working on at that moment. I mean just look at how he sends Rahm Emanuel into the chambers to bully everyone and threaten them in 'or else' terms if they don't vote a certain way or they disagree, etc...

[Scott & Lai 12]

Perhaps the party of no would care to be a little less obstructionist?

Yes, it would definitely help if the Democrats would stop standing in the way of making tax cuts permanent

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The fact that we have a 5 page thread on this makes me wonder if noone was paying attention. It's not as though Obama made it a secret that the tax cuts would be allowed to expire. It was part of his campaign platform.

It's a bit weird to call foul when the guy is following through on an election promise.

[Texanadian 10]

Nothing wrong with pooling your money together to benefit your country, state, city, community and ultimately yourself. Mismanaging of taxes is a totally different issue. If you guys recall, for years now I have been illustrating the utter waste here because of the system. In summary, a situation where every city and county has its own police, school, fire, etc versus it being handle by the state. California has 58 counties. So think of the massive duplication of the aforementioned versus having it managed by the state or a few regions.

Like anything, the problem is with the system yet people will look for anything else to explain it rather than address the real problem. If benefits and tax rates was the case, then surely Canada and Australia would have been bankrupt 100 times over by now. Surely they would not be weathering the global financial storm so well. In reality, I have never heard of any of similar cuts happen there that are taking place all over America today. Also keep in mind that not only do they receive about 100 times the services, you have 1,000 times better and more modern infrastructure.

The trouble with running things at the state level vs the local level is that the individual citizen has less say in how things are run. MORE money is wasted the higher up the government level goes. A city budget will be debated at city hall, covered by the news organizations, and complained about by the local citizens. You can go there in person and raise hell. A state budget, you have much less say in how and where the money is spent. At the federal level, you have essentially zero say in what happens. As such, cities tend to figure a way to balance their budgets. States less so. The Federal government? Not even close.

Mismanagement of taxes is a direct result of the sentence you typed before it. When you're spending somebody else's money, you will never be as methodical and stingy or as efficient as when you're spending your own. This is yet another way that larger centralized government handles money worse than local government. They have more of other people's money.

Infrastructure varies by region. The Trans Canada highway is mostly 4 lanes across British Columbia. Nothing too exciting to write about there. When the BC government built a new highway on Vancouver Island, they chose to put stop lights in the city areas every couple of minutes rather than put in overpasses and underpasses. This is nothing like the multi-layered stacks we have in Texas. Ditto the Texas turnarounds that make the highways a breeze to get on / off / turn around on.

[Ban Hammer 13,644]

It's a bit weird to call foul when the guy is following through on an election promise.

although it's one of the few he's kept.

[JimandChristy 1,689]

although it's one of the few he's kept.

Obama Promises Kept and Broken

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Obama Promises Kept and Broken

Good link.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Obama Promises Kept and Broken

The link lies almost immediately.

There has been no "universal healthcare bill" signed into law.

Of course, a typical ** stretching the truth site does this.. calls certain things "facts" when they're more like half-truths.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

The link lies almost immediately.

There has been no "universal healthcare bill" signed into law.

Of course, a typical ** stretching the truth site does this.. calls certain things "facts" when they're more like half-truths.

Knickers in a bunch much there?

[luckytxn 2,265]

The trouble with running things at the state level vs the local level is that the individual citizen has less say in how things are run. MORE money is wasted the higher up the government level goes. A city budget will be debated at city hall, covered by the news organizations, and complained about by the local citizens. You can go there in person and raise hell. A state budget, you have much less say in how and where the money is spent. At the federal level, you have essentially zero say in what happens. As such, cities tend to figure a way to balance their budgets. States less so. The Federal government? Not even close.

Mismanagement of taxes is a direct result of the sentence you typed before it. When you're spending somebody else's money, you will never be as methodical and stingy or as efficient as when you're spending your own. This is yet another way that larger centralized government handles money worse than local government. They have more of other people's money.

Infrastructure varies by region. The Trans Canada highway is mostly 4 lanes across British Columbia. Nothing too exciting to write about there. When the BC government built a new highway on Vancouver Island, they chose to put stop lights in the city areas every couple of minutes rather than put in overpasses and underpasses. This is nothing like the multi-layered stacks we have in Texas. Ditto the Texas turnarounds that make the highways a breeze to get on / off / turn around on.

Exactly. Government becomes more responsive and adaptable the closer to the region. At the state level in Texas and other states (California is great at this this) we can and do changes to the constitution at every election. The people tell the state what they want the government to do statewide. At the city level it does get fun indeed. I go to the council sometime to give them my input as any citizen can. Changes happen very fast if need be at the city level. At the state level it takes more time but can be done. Just get a certain amount of signatures and present to the secretary of state and they have to put it on the ballot. At the Federal level we get Nada. They make a bad choice and usually we are stuck on it as it is very hard to move that bureaucracy or change it once it is in place. It makes it very hard to make a program to fit all the parts of this country.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics. There must be a positive passion for the public good, the public interest, honour, power and glory, established in the minds of the people, or there can be no republican government, nor any real liberty: and this public passion must be superior to all private passions.

John Adams, letter to Mercy Warren, April 16, 1776