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DEL.ICIO.USState GOP can’t give in to a money grab
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In vetoing a $142 million tax cut on the 39th day of a 40-day session, Gov. Sonny Perdue said he was reminded of a Chinese proverb: “A man who cannot feed himself has one problem. A man who is full has many.”
Sonny has many. The Georgia General Assembly does, too.
Republicans, in general, have a media problem. They can’t set an agenda. They can’t control the playing field. And with an embarrassment of riches flowing into the state’s coffers, they’ve set themselves up for a big-league fall in the 2008 legislative session. A party that looked to govern Georgia for decades to come is burning its days at both ends. If the Democrats weren’t wrong on message and reduced to living off trial lawyers and Mark Taylor, the GOP would be in more serious trouble than it actually is.
Vetoing the tax cut was a mistake. With record tax collections announced by the Department of Revenue on Friday, the state will end the fiscal year with a surplus of $600 million. For the year, tax collections grew by $1.2 billion. Georgia now has reserves of $1.2 billion, up from $51 million four years ago.
It’s not yet certain that fiscal conservatives are a majority in Georgia. Fiscal conservative talkers are. But taxpayers should shudder at the prospect that excess money, piled to either $600 million or twice that, is on the table in a state lacking in leadership and discipline.
I’m beginning not to trust this crowd any more than the one in Washington to rein in spending. Now, having allowed too much money to accumulate, they have just signaled the money-grabbers who market woe that the cash drawer’s open. It’s near impossible to contain the special interest pleaders when money’s tight. It’s considered cruel and inhumane to deny them when the coffers are flush. Absent a strong agenda and vision, it’s penny-ante to the poorhouse, a nickel and a dime at the time, like every other winner of a lottery scratch-off bonanza.
Republicans can’t do media. Most of them don’t know how. The rest of them are bummed out on it, convinced that it’s a filter filled with bias. They get elected with direct mail, phone banks, TV and grassroots organizations and are convinced they can govern the same way.
So they spend the legislative sessions — and they will again in 2008 — reacting defensively to critics’ charges, which are themselves based on stereotypes. Some dumb bill — Sunday liquor sales, for example — will be crack for critics. Meanwhile, every outstretched hand will come with an indictment-by-stereotype. A failure to hire more bureaucrats or to create new spending programs is evidence of the GOP lacks compassion for the poor, concern for the environment or a commitment to “save Grady.”
The dirty little secret among fiscal conservatives is that this crowd, unaccustomed to power and uncertain about their course, is awfully vulnerable to spending your money to prove that the stereotypes apply to somebody else.
A handful of school districts using taxpayer money to sue state taxpayers for more of their money insists that the $142 million was just what they needed. “Ironically,” said Joseph G. Martin Jr. of Atlanta, “the amount of the proposed refund was almost exactly equal to the continuing ‘austerity cuts’ in the funding of k-12 education long after the end of the recession.” Martin, a former Democratic candidate for state school superintendent, is executive director of the Consortium for Adequate School Funding, a group like many around the country that sue states and hope on activist judges will get them more money.
Expect more lines of outstretched hands from here to Hahira.
Republicans will find themselves in PR disaster they’ve not shown they can handle. Having $600 million in excess collections, and special interest pleaders lined up with their marketing campaigns in tow, should convince legislators of the need to adopt a taxpayer bill of rights that limits new spending to the rate of inflation, plus population growth, a version of which has passed the state Senate.
Georgia needs a vision, leadership and the discipline to manage as fiscal conservatives when the state is flush with cash. It needs a cap on spending.
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By jbmlaw
July 17, 2007 8:06 AM | Link to this
Good morning all, or at least I thought it was. Jim’s thesis today is sufficient to put a libertarian-conservative into clinical depression. Idiot Republicans and Democrats now compete only to see who spends most. Sounds like our temporary majority in the legislature has a severe case of Potomac fever, determined to fleece the taxpayer to spend as the overlords wish. Too bad there are no libertarian democrats, this would be a golden opportunity for them; unfortunately dems spend even more freely. (Essay in today’s WSJ: the national democrats finally found a non-defense program where they will cut spending, the Office of Labor Management Standards – a real budget cut, not just a reduction in the increase, the latter of which is also a “cut” in Dem-speak. The office audits unions, which are otherwise exempt from anything that looks like Sarbanes-Oxley or audited financial statements. Turns out the Fed office has convicted too many thugs over the past half dozen years, cannot have democrat contributors going to jail for mere theft of members’ dues. http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110010343. Pelosi ethics in action, I guess. In all fairness, jbmlaw believes the budget cut is appropriate – anyone who is a member of a labor union deserves to be fleeced by his leadership. jbmlaw is starting to sound like harold and bob dole.)
Back to topic, as aptly reported in Jim’s analysis, the best fiscal discipline is always a cut in taxes, as that also stimulates the economy (thus the genius of the Bush tax cuts, about to be unintelligently reversed by Democrats – can’t they do anything right on the economy? Congenital incompetence.) A good second choice (for fiscal discipline) may be one of Dr. Williams’ odder ideas, one that first sounds like a huge spending increase – a constitutional amendment that grants every citizen of the state an absolute right to every state benefit or payment enjoyed by any other citizen of the state, exempting only competitive bids.
The funniest part of the whole line of outstretched hands is, if you ask dems, they oppose “corporate welfare.” Obviously they do not know it when they see it, kinda like me saying I admire honest leftists. We know Sonny does not have a fiscal backbone, but where is Richardson? Still planning to give it to Grady? Schmucks, every one of them; time to learn how to speak Estonian.
By Mid-South Philosopher
July 17, 2007 8:23 AM | Link to this
Good morning, Jim.
You column today is most reflective and addresses the fundamental problem with a democratic-republican form of government…* re-electability *!
Many, many good people run for the state legislatures (the General Assembly here in Georgia) around this country or for the Congress with the honest desire to contribute to the overall good of the state or nation. They get elected, sworn into office, and suddenly realize that they will be highly, highly lucky if they are able to get one bill through their respective legislative body during their term. Consequently, they have to begin immediately on their re-election campaign…a major task of which is the raising of campaign funds. Those funds must come from contributions from those who can and will contribute…hence the special interests.
The only way to ever deal with this situation is term limitations. No person should be eligible to serve in any legislative body more than two 4 year terms.
Of course to affect that change would require constitutional amendments at both the state and national levels, and that just isn’t going to happen.
As a result, the only thing we can do is to continue to point out publicly and often the ridiculous ramblings, of Silly Sonny, Goofy Glenn, Swaggering Georgie, Godfather Dickie, “Staggering Teddy, *Roaming Robert, Hooten Hillary, Haircut John, Naughty Newt, Invisible Fred,Bashing Obama, Skinny Huckabee, and on and on and on.
By Redneck Convert
July 17, 2007 8:29 AM | Link to this
Well, I sure was relieved last night to learn there was somebody the Godly Sen. Vitter didn’t diddle. Anyway, he says he didn’t have nothing to do with that New Orleans Lady of the Evening and I believe him. I was watching his wife during the press conference and all I got to say is he better sleep with one eye open or else she will pull a Bobbitt on him and he will be singing in a boys choir. Her mouth was saying one thing and her body was saying something else. I don’t know what it is about our good Republican politicans. They Think Right, but the minute they get control over people they want to diddle everything in sight. Like that Mark Foley and the House pages. Course, its OK to do that to Democrats and libruls.
Anyway, I’m with Wooten on the leftover tax money. There is all kind of people with their hand out. If the politicans can’t find a way to return the money to us, I don’t want nothing from them. Well, maybe a new road from the trailer park and a new entrance on to GA 400. I sure hope they don’t use the extra money to pay for this kids welfare program Peach Care. I hear My President will veto a bill to put more money in to kids health care, and our state ought not to undercut him by turning around and making up the diffrence with the extra money we got. If you keep rolling money over to Those People, they will just live a long time and never leave the state and we won’t never get our two House seats back.
I sure hope things is calmer here today. What with this Pope guy spilling the beans about TFTTs mother and his birthing, it got kind of nasty yesterday. And gentle Sister Dusty went off on him and even Captain Freedom and me. It got so bad it minded me of the times the missus looses her temper and walks around with the big frying pan looking for somebody to bang up side the head.
Well, they let that guy that kilt the cop off for 90 days. I was down about it for awhile but then I figured they was just letting people quiet down before they give him the juice kind of quiet like. I was downright ashamed to see TFTT taking up for the guy yesterday. It just goes to show TFTT don’t always have control of hisself. He needs some head doctoring so he can always be a good GA conservative. When you get the chance to get rid of one of Those People, you got to take it.
By Jerry
July 17, 2007 8:34 AM | Link to this
Does it bother anyone else that the excess tax revenues came mainly from workers’ income taxes, but the proposal is to distribute it only to property owners? Can you say redistribution of income?
By Laurie
July 17, 2007 8:36 AM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten proposes a taxpayer bill of rights that limits new spending to the rate of inflation, plus population growth. Wooten also proposes that we remain near the bottom with SAT scores and near the top in high school drop out rates. Also embedded in this proposal is that we continue to under fund the Department of Family and Children Services (allowing more children to slip through the cracks), State park rangers that could have prevented the burning of tens of thousands of acres in South Georgia, an indigent defense system that would reduce the number innocents from being convicted for crimes they didn’t commit, State Troopers that keep our roads safe, PeachCare and Grady Hospital that provides a Level 1 trauma center and medical training that all Georgians benefit from.
And no, the best fiscal discipline is not always a cut in taxes. Republicans in Washington proved that fallacy wrong. The best fiscal discipline is to leave within our means and to save for emergencies. We have plenty.
By Analchord
July 17, 2007 8:37 AM | Link to this
fiscal what? liars!
Read David Brook’s column in AJC today.
Sounds like, “We aint nevah gonna git outta Iraq”, dont it?
“Tee aint NEBAH bonna bit touta Minaq”! (if it were pronounced by gumby)
By E. T.
July 17, 2007 8:42 AM | Link to this
One of the PR problems that Republicans have is that they don’t have any control of the liberal media. This group helps set the Democrats’ agenda, furnishes “free advertising” for them on a daily basis with their biased reporting, and picks apart every word or action that Republicans say or do. And the Republicans, sad to say, play right into their hands. This is not an excuse for the clumsiness of our Republican leaders, but it is one contributing factor to their inability to show the public the kind of success that will keep them in office.
By Kent
July 17, 2007 8:43 AM | Link to this
Jerry,
Excellent observation! Although, to clarify, most State taxes come from sales taxes, not income taxes. So, literally all Georgians should be entitled to any refunds.
Yes, I can say — redistribution of income. It’s reverse Robin Hood.
By DJ
July 17, 2007 8:54 AM | Link to this
“Republicans can’t do media.”
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Thanks for the laugh, Jim. That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in a long time. “Republicans can’t do media.” Ha ha ha. That’s about all they can do. Spin spin spin. Obfuscate obfuscate obfuscate. Leak leak leak. They certainly can’t legislate, that’s for sure. Just look what’s happened under six years of imperial rule by republicans at the federal level. Media is all they do well (that and give corporate welfare to their industry buddies).
THAT’S FUNNY JIM - THANKS FOR THE LAUGH!!
By Jim
July 17, 2007 8:55 AM | Link to this
DittoHead at 8:42,
One of the PR problem that Republicans have is that they say one thing and do another.
Your liberal media rhetoric is exactly that. I suggest you turn off the television and radio and read something.
By james
July 17, 2007 9:07 AM | Link to this
This surplus need to go back to the taxpayers of Georgia. You can always create places to spend money. but that shouldn’t happen or your will continue to expand government to the point that most of our income will go to paying taxes. Expanding government should be a last resort. Cutting programs not need should contine to be top priority to keep taxes low and a balance budget.
By bo
July 17, 2007 9:07 AM | Link to this
Yes, Republicans control all aspects of the state government, but they can’t get ‘it’ done because of the liberal media. Yeah, right!
By Jeff
July 17, 2007 9:14 AM | Link to this
MSP:
I gotta agree with you on term limits. And I do my part to enforce them WITHOUT Constitutional Ammendments: If a person has been in office for more than a decade (or their next term would put them over that mark), I WILL NOT vote for them. The only exceptions are those with 6 yr terms (US Senators), in which case I will NOT vote to give them more than two terms in office. (And may not vote for their second term, if I didn’t like them in the first!)
We need Jack Ryan/ Thomas Nathaniel Thorn type politicians…
By RCH
July 17, 2007 9:21 AM | Link to this
James
You hit the nail right on the head. Notice Lauri at 8:36am. She already has that money spent. It rightfully belongs to the tax payer.
By Curious Observer
July 17, 2007 9:26 AM | Link to this
Who gives a rat’s behind about the $600 million surplus? In a few months, it will all be gone to fund the paving of some road through cotton fields or perhaps the building of a bypass around some great metropolitan center like Jesup.
The real story is going to be the inevitable restructuring of Georgia’s tax system. It will start with the state income tax. Instead of the current system of taxing the first $10,000 at $340, with a flat 6% rate for any taxable income over that, we are likely to see a flat $2,000 on the first $40,000 and a 2% rate on any excess. It’s the Republican way, you see. Sock it to lower income people, but claim that the lower rate on higher income levels will encourage investment and business growth. The Republicans simply can’t get over the Nixonian Trickle Down theory. We see a version of it here every other day, in the flatulent jbmlaw’s praise of the Laffer Curve.
Otherwise, we will see the legislature toy with the notion of direct funding of counties, but all that is mere posturing. No legislature wants to offend the powers running the counties. Campaign donations might dry up, you see.
The poor will get poorer, and the rich will get richer. Fortunately, in less than two years’ time, the redneck states will be marginalized with the election of a Democratic administration and an increase in the Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. We can then return to sniping about undone zippers and pretend-investigations of firings in some obscure White House office, while work to address real national needs proceeds at the national level.
By Dusty
July 17, 2007 9:38 AM | Link to this
Oh my, I want my money!! Tax cuts are the tops!! And please, Jim, tell us why you think that Gov. Perdue vetoed a tax cut.(Chinese proverbs don’t cut it.) And what do you think he SHOULD have done?
I keep thinking “What would I have done if I were governor?” Maybe buy US government bonds and help the WHOLE USA..replace Atlanta’s sewer system (it is the Capitol city),…. build rocket trains to Chattanooga, Savannah, Macon and Augusta,…hire 500 new highway patrolmen and put most of them on expressways….restart the Civilian Conservation Corp for the unemployed, the juvenile delinquents and anyone dropping out of high school. AND as a dessert measure, the state would issue a $2000 gift certificate to Georgia’s vacation resort of choice for all combat veterans returning from a war zone!! That’s right. Support and encourage the troops.
OK, that’s it. What do the rest of you think should be done with Georgia’s surplus money?
By Dennis
July 17, 2007 10:18 AM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten said, “Georgia needs a vision, leadership and the discipline to manage as fiscal conservatives when the state is flush with cash. It needs a cap on spending.”
Ah, Mr. Wooten. Over half of America tried to tell you that, and more, about George W. Bush, but you didn’t want to listen, did you?
But, you kept on singing the praises of George W. Bush, didn’t you? His tax breaks to the already rich and to the corporations.
His efforts to circumvent the oversight of the Congress regarding the appointments of Attorney Generals with “our kind” of Republicans.
His refusal to help protect the environment.
His continuing delusions, or outright lies (take your pick or chose both) about how things are “improving” in Iraq - and all the while the Republicans are putting party politics ahead of the deaths and shed blood of more American soldiers (and you’re in it, too), (nor are some Democrats doing any better), (we gotta have control of that oil before we pull out, and we don’t have that control, yet).
Yes, Mr.Wooten. Damn the lies. After all, they are the truth. It’s full steam ahead for a neocon writer, such as yourself.
But, Americans who had/have a grasp on reality, told you.
You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
By Curious Observer
July 17, 2007 10:19 AM | Link to this
Count me as in favor of using the surplus to send Dusty, TFTT, jbmlaw, Van, RCH, and other fascists to Red China, where they can enjoy the autocratic governmental style they love, while the rest of us proceed with building a decent society in the United States.
By RCH
July 17, 2007 10:31 AM | Link to this
Curious Observer
Count me as in favor of using the surplus to send Dusty, TFTT, jbmlaw, Van, RCH, and other fascists to Red China, where they can enjoy the autocratic governmental style they love, while the rest of us proceed with building a decent society in the United States.
Where will you then get the money build that decent society? All the taxpayes will be in China.
By time for the truth
July 17, 2007 10:32 AM | Link to this
At least the pardons board did the right thing yesterday - hopefully the truth of what happened will now be established and an innocent man will be freed and massively compensated or he will have his guilt unequivocally reaffirmed and the pardons board will decide his fate.
It is quite sickening to be on the same side of an issue as the odious master race baiter J Lewis, who is undeniably one of the most vile of all shrill black racebaiters in modern US history.
inbred rednekkk’s Aryan Nation anti-black hate is as sullenly predicktable as its incestuous behaviour with its crystal meth abusing auntie/sister. Only a liberal super moron could seek to excuse inbred’s daily rabid anti-black racism as “sardonic” leftist irony. inbred is simply a knuckle dragging KKK thug that needs to be nailed to a big ol fiery cross!!
As for the snake bellied child rapist rednekkks NAMBLA - the truth about its own mother and lineage is beyond viscerally shocking. Having one’s mammy literally be an obese illiterate sex addickted Aunt Jemima look alike w hore in a Louisiana leper colony is bad enough. But the child rapist rednekkks is the demon seed progeny of one long drunken bestial night when his Leper Queen mammy voraciously raped George Lincoln Rockwell and literally left both her feet and what was left of her crumbly, dessicated t its in Rockwell’s nazi compound, only to agonisingly hobble away to try and desperately find an illegal voodoo trained abortionist with a golden coat hanger. Sadly the incurable leper lesions, the scabies ridden blubber and the always peeling, frothing cellulite proved too immense a barrier to repeated coat hangers and so the Leper Prince rednekkks was arduously born, proudly oinking like a pardon selling Arkansas rapist in the leper colonies’ only Kennedy funded rehab pig sty.
By dd
July 17, 2007 10:34 AM | Link to this
Curious, their style is more like, “I work hard, but nobody else does, so I deserve credit and nobody else does, so I blog emotional righteousness so obnoxious that even the angels hold their nose.”
real thinkers!
By Kelly
July 17, 2007 10:36 AM | Link to this
Dusty, TFTT, jbmlaw, Van, RCH, and other fascists are happy to derive the benefits of our government (ex: police, fire, state troopers, courts, military, state and national parks, highways, schools, and FEMA) but they want their children and grandchildren to pay for them.
The fires in South Georgia are a perfect example. As much or most of the money spent to put those fires out came from the federal government via FEMA. That is, since the feds have no money, money to put those fires out was borrowed from our nation’s children. Why? Because Perdue and the General Assembly cut funding for our state park rangers — the number of forest rangers, whose duties actually included looking for forest fires to catch them early, were reduced in Georgia. Those fires could either have been prevented or identified sooner. The direct result is that thousands of acres of Georgia burns, Georgia has a fiscal surplus, and America’s children foots the bill.
Sweet.
By Bart
July 17, 2007 10:38 AM | Link to this
If the posts on this blog are a random sampling of the population of Georgia, I live in a state filled to the brim with idiots.
By AmVet
July 17, 2007 10:41 AM | Link to this
I’m beginning not to trust this crowd any more than the one in Washington to rein in spending.
Beginning? I understand that after being on the outside looking in for 40 years the GOP in Washington did offer some promise.
But the architects of the 1994 revolution, with Newt being the poster boy, were unfortunately significantly unscrupulous, in many, many cases marginally competent and seemingly simply intent on exacting revenge on their political opponents.
And the Ga. GOP has also demonstrated that Democrats do not hold a monopoly on fiscal incompetence.
Republicans can’t do media. Most of them don’t know how. The rest of them are bummed out on it, convinced that it’s a filter filled with bias.
And as alluded to earlier this is the one that really makes me laugh!
Again, just look to Washington.
Tony Snow or whoever has preceded him can always fall back on, “Well, we haven’t done a very good job of getting the President’s message out to the people.”
What?! To me, that is just one of the most lame excuses imaginable.
It is the equally illogical counterpart to Mr. Wooten’s “bias filled filter”.
If this or any administration had consistent good news for the nation, I definitely think that they would have NO problems getting that message out.
The GOP is literally imploding. And from both ends. The far right-wing is rabidly upset as the party, in response to the outcry of many Americans as evidenced by last November’s elections, begins to finally show some moderate tendencies. And the moderates/liberals within the party walk a tight rope trying desperately not to push away the religious, hawkish base.
But in response, and as usual, the Democrats are doing everything they can to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
By Nathan
July 17, 2007 10:43 AM | Link to this
Re: the topic “State GOP can’t give in to a money grab”, Dennis the Menace wrote at 10:18: Mr. Wooten said, “Georgia needs a vision, leadership and the discipline to manage as fiscal conservatives when the state is flush with cash. It needs a cap on spending.”
He continued: “Ah, Mr. Wooten. Over half of America tried to tell you that, and more, about George W. Bush, but you didn’t want to listen, did you?”
After exhaustive research, I’ve found that George W. Bush does not control the budget for the State of Georgia.
From the DNC headquarters to your fingertips to our little ‘ol pupils, BDS strikes again. Yawn.
By Pompano
July 17, 2007 10:45 AM | Link to this
Geeez Dennis - typical libo-wimp. I realize you guys blame GW for everything allegedly wrong in the world - Global warming, drug use, Beckham’s sore ankle - but what the heck does he have to do with the topic of tax revenue in GA?
You high-light one of Jim’s comments and then go off with a standard GW rant that has nothing to do with the topic.
Do you just post the same entry to all blogs regardless of the topic or do you actually read Jim’s article first?
By time for the truth
July 17, 2007 10:48 AM | Link to this
curious peeping tom is the kind of ultra dim witted leftist dogturd that thinks Red China looks good on a white table cloth!!
I am mighty proud to have made it onto peeping tom’s hate list. I wouldn’t have it any other way!! And hilariously we get a two for one as the equally deranged dogturd Kelly like a brain dead almost half witted parrot pukes up peeping tom like hate.
If nothing else folks these leftist vermin and their extreme intolerance of any opposing views perfectly demonstrate the reason why these worthless leftist moral fascists need to be forcibly deported … pine boxes at the ready for the less than willing - eh??!! … huge smirk
By DebbieDoRight
July 17, 2007 11:06 AM | Link to this
Wooten is again delusional in his representation of the Republican Party and the job its doing. He says they should give the 1”surplus” money back to the 2”taxpayers”.
jbmlaw is again agreeing with everything Wooten says. Big surprise there.
Jerry & Kent accurately pointed out that most State taxes come from sales taxes, not income taxes.
I recall clearly when Dumbya, after his first six seconds in office, declared he was giving “tax breaks” back to the “people”. At the time I was working part time as a sales clerk at Macy’s downtown and I was really looking forward to that tax cut I was promised, (I was making maybe 19K part time, weekends and holidays), to help out with tuition; didn’t seem to get it though. The year I graduated and accepted a job for over 40K, guess what?! I got a tax check then!!! That’s when it dawned on me, when they say Tax cuts or tax refunds, what they’re really saying is “this is not for the people who would REALLY need it”, this is for the people who can afford to give me campaign contributions.
A GUIDE TO WOOTEN SPEAK BELOW:
1)surplus: the surplus fund mentioned comes from SoonyDoo cutting the PeachCare program funding and other various service programs. However, jokes on SonnyDoo, he had to go with his hat in his hand and ask his good ole boy pal Dumbya for money. Unfortunately Dumbya turned him down.
2)taxpayers: Anyone but poor people.
By RCH
July 17, 2007 11:14 AM | Link to this
DebbieDoRight
Tax refunds are for those who pay taxes not for those who “would really need it.” Those individuals usually pay little or no tax at all anyway!
By DebbieDoRight
July 17, 2007 11:15 AM | Link to this
I say reinvest the money in our future. EDUCATION. That’s the ticket. Georgia has some of the finest universities here in this state, we need to trickle it down to our secondary and primary education system. How can we have such exemplary universities, but are at the bottom in scholastics achievement for our public schools? (YES, I know most of the universities are private not publicly funded — however the quality of the education is what I’m talking about, not the price tag).
By DebbieDoRight
July 17, 2007 11:17 AM | Link to this
Tax refunds are for those who pay taxes not for those who “would really need it.” Those individuals usually pay little or no tax at all anyway!
EVERYONE in Georgia pays sales tax. Duh.
By Pompano
July 17, 2007 11:17 AM | Link to this
DebbieDoRight - Sonny NEVER cut PeachCare funds! That’s a flat out lie. Of course it takes a lot less effort to make up info that to actually read & research. Typical Demo-babble from a Dem-wit.
By time for the truth
July 17, 2007 11:21 AM | Link to this
The $600 million surplus should be immediately spent on rounding up and jailing/deporting illegal leeches and ensuring they get NOT A PENNY in either direct or indirect tax payer funded benefits. The aggressive targeting by local and state police of of thuggish hippety hop gangbangers. NOT one more penny of tax payers money should be p!ssed away on pointless, imbecilic spanish speaking public services and lazy leftist teachers. Equally important as all these vital tasks is the hunting down and the merciless public exposure of ALL GA based treasonous hate America cut and run leftist surrender monkeys.
By RCH
July 17, 2007 11:24 AM | Link to this
DebbieDoRight
Try property tax.
By getalife
July 17, 2007 11:26 AM | Link to this
Nice work Jim.
By ga farmer
July 17, 2007 11:46 AM | Link to this
When I was young we had a feed room where cow feed was stored. Occasionally the cows would pick the lock and invade the feed room. Instead of eating around the edges they would climb to the top of the pile, eat a little, and mess up the rest.
That’s the problem with Republicans and Democrats. They are so busy climbing to the top of the pile of personal power they mess up what they are climbing over.
We need public servants who will work for the public good rather than personal reward. Term limits are good mechanisms until applied to the few public servants we have in office.
By the way, thanks for the paved road through the cotton field. It allows us to get to metro to buy the high priced high tech stuff yall sell that we use to grow cotton for peanuts.
By RCH
July 17, 2007 11:51 AM | Link to this
So lets compromise and give this surplus back to all. Lets lower the sales tax at the fuel pumps. It will give the taxes back to those who paid them in the first place both poor, moderate, and wealthy.
By DebbieDoRight
July 17, 2007 11:51 AM | Link to this
Oh ye of SonnyDo faith:
Perdue’s Fiscal Year 2004 budget cut case management fee reimbursements to doctors in the Georgia Better Health Care program from $3 per patient per month to $2, resulting in $8 million cuts. He also cut physician Medicaid and Peachcare reimbursements by 10%, leading to a $72.3 million cut, according to the Medical Association of Georgia (MAG) website.
By DebbieDoRight
July 17, 2007 11:55 AM | Link to this
RCH: Jerry & Kent accurately pointed out that most State taxes come from sales taxes, not income taxes. Duh.
By An ITPer
July 17, 2007 12:00 PM | Link to this
Hey Jim, Gosh…I almost agreed with you today, but then I realized (being an intown resident) instead of finishing this week’s high-minded op/ed on how everyone should just think more like you, I should just polish off the rest of that bottle of Wild Irish Rose I have left in the cabinet! Cheers!!
By An ITPer
July 17, 2007 12:02 PM | Link to this
Hey Jim, Gosh…I almost agreed with you today, but then I realized (being an intown resident) instead of finishing this week’s high-minded op/ed on how everyone should just think more like you, I should just polish off the rest of that bottle of Wild Irish Rose I have left in the cabinet! Cheers!!
By RCH
July 17, 2007 12:04 PM | Link to this
DebbieDoRight Yet that income tax is still a huge number. See my blog at 11:51. Give the money back to those who payed it and where at this time it hurts the most. At the pumps.
By Katharine
July 17, 2007 12:30 PM | Link to this
I don’t believe there’s a surplus, except in how they are juggling the numbers. I believe the state has a huge cash flow problem, because it can’t seem to pay its contractors on time.
I think the Department of Revenue and the governor should put all the state’s income and expenses on the web, since taxpayers are paying so much money for information technology. I’d especially like to see how much money is generated from taxes, as well as cushy deals with out-of-state contractors for things like ethanol plants, income from the lottery, fines, renting and selling public land, and the like.
This administration doesn’t deal well with the media because it has too much to hide.
By Jackie
July 17, 2007 12:39 PM | Link to this
The Repubs want to reach into our pockets, take as much money as you have and tell you that they are giving a tax break to those that really deserve it, the people that pay taxes, i.e., the well off! Then they tell you that the Repubs are doing all these things for your best interest but can not get their message out because the liberal media has distorted their message. In other words, they have no other words to use to explain their incompetence. The citizens of the state are in a quandry. Do we believe our lying eyes?
By Jackie
July 17, 2007 12:46 PM | Link to this
The phrase “believe half of what see and none of what you hear” should be transformed to “believe none of what you see and none of what you hear” with those crowd. Stand in one place when they say something because they will continue to speak and their words and logic will come full circle, right back to where they left. They have said much without any positive substance with the average citizen.
By Jill
July 17, 2007 12:57 PM | Link to this
Term limits haven’t stopped Presidents, Vice Presidents, Governors and Mayors from being corrupt. There’s no reason to think that they would be any more effective in the legislative branches.
The answer is Clean Elections. Clean Elections give candidates the option to qualify for public funding to run their campaigns. While the specifics vary, typically a candidate must collect a set number of small qualifying contributions—usually $5—from people in their district. The number of signatures and contributions required varies according to the office sought.
If a candidate runs under the Clean Elections system and faces an opponent who is running with private contributions and outspends the publicly funded candidate, the law typically provides a matching grant, to a limit, to the publicly funded candidate. Extra funding is also often available if there is independent spending against a candidate by an outside group or individual.
Candidates who choose not to be participate in the Clean Elections system can raise money from private donors, but must follow state campaign finance limits and disclosure laws. Clean Elections laws must be voluntary to comply with the Supreme Court’s 1976 Buckley v. Valeo ruling, which specifically approved of voluntary public financing systems.
Clean Elections is a practical, proven reform that puts voters in control of elections. Rather than being forced to rely on special interest donors to pay for their campaigns, candidates have the opportunity to qualify for full public funding which ends their reliance on special interest campaign cash. Being freed from the money chase means they have more time to spend with constituents, talking about issues that matter to them. When they enter office, they can consider legislation on the merits, without worrying about whether they are pleasing well heeled donors and lobbyists.
http://www.publicampaign.org/
By jbmlaw
July 17, 2007 1:35 PM | Link to this
Dear Curious @ 9:26, strange comment you offer about the Laffer Curve. I suppose I should also disclose my support for the theory of gravity, and my belief that we first see the sun in the east every morning.
Dear TFTT @ 10:32, the only thing I have learned in the past 24 hours is that TFTT says “jump,” and the parole board asks “how high?” Well-written argument yesterday, my compliments.
Dear all morons who don’t have any idea what “fascist” means, including but not limited to Curious Observer @ 10:19 and Kelly @ 10:32: ask a Latin teacher to beat you with a bundle of sticks until you understand. You may also wish to consider the historical relationship between fascism and “state control of economic production,” a traditional definition of socialism, coincidentally the greatest desire of most morons who use the term. TFTT @ 10:48 demonstrates full grasp of the term, learn from him.
Dear Debbie @ 11:06, I see you lament the fact that people who actually work for their money don’t want to allow you and/or other nonearners to determine how it is spent. We understand how grievously this wounds your heart. We promise not to laugh.
Dear Jackie @ 12:39, although you condemn Republicans, you are obviously also aware that Democrats are the ones who raise taxes and spend the most (that is why they work so hard to eliminate the Republican-generated earmark disclosure requirements.) Your language confuses me – do you think government expropriation of private wealth (for redistribution either to “corporate” friends or to the productivity-challenges) is a good thing or a bad thing?
By jbmlaw
July 17, 2007 1:43 PM | Link to this
Dear Jill @ 12:57, you intelligently argue the strongest case imaginable for constraints on free speech and reining in public discourse. I disagree, on principle. Political speech is too important to be “managed” by bean counters and bureaucrats.
By Curious Observer
July 17, 2007 1:44 PM | Link to this
While I am in agreement with Jill’s advocacy of the Clean Elections movement, I do not see funding as the largest problem. Vote-counting and assuring the integrity of the voting process are higher on my priority list. If we had enjoyed the benefit of voting integrity in the 2000 election, we would not have a system whereby someone could unleash the “butterfly ballot” on the voting public and we would not have the disaster of the Bush dynasty to live with. And who knows? Maybe someone would have remembered to empty the trays containing all those punched-out slots from voting cards, and actual votes might have been recorded.
It does no good to address the evils of money in the political process if the voting itself is going to be a sham.
By DebbieDoRight
July 17, 2007 1:50 PM | Link to this
Dear Debbie @ 11:06, I see you lament the fact that people who actually work for their money don’t want to allow you and/or other nonearners to determine how it is spent. We understand how grievously this wounds your heart. We promise not to laugh.
Dear jbmlaw: Get a job, chase more ambulances. I promise not to laugh.
By RCH
July 17, 2007 2:09 PM | Link to this
jbmlaw
Your forgetting the feel good mentality. They feel good helping others with our money. I could do that all day long.
By For the Record ...
July 17, 2007 2:11 PM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten:
Here is a simple question, which goes well beyond stereotypes as it is a quotidian dilemma for places like Grady and other Georgia hospitals, and which also goes to the essence of who or what we are as a people and as a nation:
Do you believe a poor child with a potentially fatal — albeit treatable — medical problem should be turned away from a hospital door because his or her parents cannot afford to pay?
By Jill
July 17, 2007 2:23 PM | Link to this
Curious Observer,
I hear you, and I concur.
Addressing voting fraud where it has been shown to actually occur (i.e. absentee ballots) and paper ballots are the answer.
Every voting method should produce a paper ballot, so that voters can verify that their vote is recorded correctly and kept for counting and recounting.
By deegee
July 17, 2007 2:33 PM | Link to this
Would it be worth mentioning that at the start of 2007 Georgia owed $7.5 billion in principal alone? By the end of 2007 it will be $8.8 billion. That amounts to $934.00 in debt for every man, woman and child in the state of Georgia. This whole discussion about what to do with an extra $142 million sounds like Ma and Pa quarreling over how to spend the egg money.
By spaceman109
July 17, 2007 2:33 PM | Link to this
an earlier quote from tony snow said that they have not done a good job getting the president’s message out to the people.
excuse me?!?!?
after all, there is fox news, which is the unofficial mouthpiece for the republican national committee.
there is sean hannity, who, for the most part, cannot bring himself to ask tough questions of republican politicians for fear that he might lose his chance for a skybox suite at the next republican convention.
there are other talk radio hosts too numerous to mention.
as for jim’s lament about no tax cuts….i would firmly remind him that the georgia legislature was in session this year. this republican-controlled body could not bring itself to override sonny-boy’s veto of the property tax break. small wonder that sonny-boy got a decidedly frosty reception at the state gop convention in gwinnett county.
and the beat goes on…..
By spaceman109
July 17, 2007 2:39 PM | Link to this
oh, and by the way, i occasionally listen to hannity for comic relief. when i was serious conservative commentary and viewpoints, i listen to neal boortz.
By RCH
July 17, 2007 2:44 PM | Link to this
Jill
I have no problem with paper receipts to record your vote;or any other process to eliminate voter mistakes or miscounts. But in the same breath why are we not as diligent when it comes to who gets to vote. Asking for proper identification should fall in line with these other procedures to derive the results that the legal populace intended.
By spaceman109
July 17, 2007 2:47 PM | Link to this
that should be “when i want” and not “when i was”; the fingers got out in front of the brain! :D
By Dusty
July 17, 2007 2:50 PM | Link to this
For the Record,2:11
You are trying to promote a false premise @2:11. No child is turned away from a hospital door because his or her parents cannot afford to pay. In fact, no one is turned away. It is illegal.
That is one reason hospitals are going broke. Not only are “poor” people pouring into hospitals, a lot of people who would rather pay for something else than medical insurance and costs are also coming.
Medical insurance is expensive. So is running a hospital.
If you are trying to make the state or country look bad for political reasons or otherwise, you should get better information. There are many medical resources for people who do not have big incomes. But in this affluent country of ours, “poor” is the label for families with incomes up to forty thousand/yr.
People all over the world are trying to get to the USA so they can be “poor” here instead of their really dirt poor countries. Maybe you have watched “Sicko” and believed it. It has already come under debate for the adjustment of facts without truthfulness.
By Kevin
July 17, 2007 2:53 PM | Link to this
Isn’t Boortz that guy that wants to replace a progressive federal income tax system with a regressive federal retail sales tax system (humorously named “FairTax”)? Serious indeed.
Adam Smith, the “father of free enterprise”, wrote in The Wealth of Nations —
“The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.”
Well said, Mr. Smith. Well said.
By DebbieDoRight
July 17, 2007 2:53 PM | Link to this
Oh please!! That same old tired line is ridiculous and you KNOW it RCH!! No illegals are voting, heck, three quarters of the time when they are a victim of a vicious crime, they don’t even want to call the police for fear that their illegal status will be found out. Vote!?!? That would be suicidal for them! The only people still dealing in fallacies, misconceptions and outright LIES about this issue is the repugnant repuglican party. This is NOT the party that Lincoln envisioned, he’s probably still spinning and throwing up in his grave.
By jbmlaw
July 17, 2007 2:54 PM | Link to this
Dear For the Record @ 2:11, I believe nobody is obliged to give anyone anything. That specifically means that doctors have no obligation to give their services free to anyone. Not even to children whose parents are unable or unwilling to pay. We outlawed slavery 140 years ago
By DebbieDoRight
July 17, 2007 2:56 PM | Link to this
But in this affluent country of ours, “poor” is the label for families with incomes up to forty thousand/yr.
OMG. So when I was just starting out after graduation I was considered “poor”!!! Gasp!!! I thought I was at least middle class!!
By Curious Observer
July 17, 2007 3:08 PM | Link to this
RCH,
Why don’t you go ahead and identify one person, other than the sainted Ann Coulter, who has voted illegally?
You and I both know that the so-called “voter identification” initiative is a scam designed to discourage minorities from appearing at the polls. If you were really serious, you would be demanding that those who cast absentee ballots (largely Republican upper class white people)show identification before a ballot is accepted.
There is absolutely no evidence of illegal voting among those who appear at the polls in person. In fact, I’ve never voted anywhere without first having to show an ID of some sort.
Get off your tired old hobby horse and find some other mania to pursue.
By JK
July 17, 2007 3:22 PM | Link to this
…I believe nobody is obliged to give anyone anything. That specifically means that doctors have no obligation to give their services free to anyone. Not even to children whose parents are unable or unwilling to pay. We outlawed slavery 140 years ago.
Aren’t you forgetting someone, fake lawyer man? You’re perfectly willing to force a woman to “give” FULL GESTATION and BIRTH, regardless of how she came to that circumstance, aren’t you? Don’t pretend you don’t believe in slavery. Don’t pretend you CARE about the helpless unwanted little babies, because you just said it was okay to deny them medical care on the basis of…. Lordhavemercy, who even knows the basis of your sanctimonious tripe, anyway? ‘crite…
By time for the truth
July 17, 2007 3:25 PM | Link to this
jbm
Cheers mate for the kind words again. I am pretty sure that the parole board missed my modest urgings yesterday. If nothing else this case just proves how ‘trustworthy’ the vast majority of death row cases are - whatever one’s feelings on capital punishment. Occasionally a case such as this comes along that maybe isn’t so cut and dried (maybe a few more in Illinois too) … naturally from the time of comprehensive demoNcrat control of GA … that was undermined by (supposed) witness lies/intimidation/wilful witholding of vital evidence etc.
The far left nutters on here glibly and persistently use the term ‘fascist’ in plebian like perjorative conjunction with GOP types with little or NO actual concept/understanding of the term and its political meaning. My tutors at my English university where I did final year politics assured me - as did all the course text books - that the corporate state was one of the corner stones of fascist ideology. Along with syndicalism of trade unions etc - which in 1930’s Europe was a big deal. Indeed Mussolini himself suggested that Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.
Clearly GOP types and other advanced democratic centre right thinkers noisily eschew this approach to real politik. Whereas moveyourbowels.org and code pinkoscum types are classic fascists who wish to sullenly and rapaciously impose their unrepresentative tiny (far left) minority political will on everyone - a mindset which is enormously reminiscent of Adolf and his beer hall loving nazi brownshirts.
By time for the truth
July 17, 2007 3:28 PM | Link to this
Its time for Kerry to go windsurfing again!!! Lets hope he takes most of the Kennedy’s with him!!
http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2007/07/16/news/news01.txt
By Dusty
July 17, 2007 3:30 PM | Link to this
Dear DebbieDR,2:56
Did you go to the hospital door and get turned away? I don’t set the standards for who is considered “poor”. I don’t even know how to keep Grady from sinking in red ink? What are your suggestions for Grady other than what most libs suggest , i. e. Impeach Bush!!!
PS—I’ve been very nice and did not say that back in the dark ages of your graduation there were no standards for the “poor”. Not mine either. I guess we just muddled along one way or another, not knowing whether we were rich or poor.
By time for the truth
July 17, 2007 3:37 PM | Link to this
JK
HA HA HA HA HA ….. HA HA HA HA HA … HEEEHEEEEEHEEEEEEEHEEEEEEEEEEEE
just can’t stop LMFAO …
for the deranged feminazi JK has doltishly equated the WHOLLY NATURAL PROCESS of women having babies with - wait for the implicit (if not explicit) racebaiting … s l a v e r y!!
It is only the modern day sick and twisted far left d ikish feminazi b itches that would insanely equate pregnancy with slavery. Irregardless of how the pregnancy came about!!
Time to round them up and kick them out of the USA!! They surely will NOT be missed!!
By DebbieDoRight
July 17, 2007 3:38 PM | Link to this
That specifically means that doctors have no obligation to give their services free to anyone. Not even to children whose parents are unable or unwilling to pay.
Hmmm then that means the doctors will be violating their oaths…..what were those oaths called again…you know the one I mean…..the one that states something about, “To keep the good of the patient as the highest priority.” in one text and “To avoid sexual relationships or other inappropriate entanglements with patients and families.” (that was put in for the repuglican doctors).
The newer more “updated and modern” version has these two lines you might recognize:
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism
By DebbieDoRight
July 17, 2007 3:50 PM | Link to this
PS—I’ve been very nice and did not say that back in the dark ages of your graduation there were no standards for the “poor”. Not mine either. I guess we just muddled along one way or another, not knowing whether we were rich or poor
Hey!! I’m only 29!! I won’t be 30 until NEXT YEAR!! Watch your mouth there Nancy Reagan!!
I’m just saying I didn’t know i was poor; I had a car that was paid for, (an old Dodge), I had just bought my first property that I was fixing up, (in Decatur), I had a brand new wardrobe, (courtesy of my Macy’s employee discount), I had a fierce new hairstyle, (done by best friend for free), and I had a boyfriend who was a chef and who loved to cook!! I thought I was the sh#t!!!
You’ve just burst my bubble by telling me I was poor. I may need counseling.
By For the Record ...
July 17, 2007 3:53 PM | Link to this
So jmblaw, from your comments about “killing babies” yesterday, you believe it is morally repugnant for a woman to end her pregnancy when a fetus is a mere blastocystic appendage to her body, but it isn’t morally repugnant for a doctor to kill a human baby through treatment inaction because people have no right to be taxed for public goods like poor children’s health?
Mr Wooten, you have written in the past about what heartless ogres liberals believe you conservatives to be. You write that we deal in stereotypes. It is not true. Jbmlaw and his ilk are the rule, not the exception when it comes to “Christian piety” in the South. They really don’t care if poor children die.
Ironic, isn’t it, that the agnostics like myself would save the child, and the “Christians” like jmblaw would let it die.
Who is John Galt, indeed ….
By jbm fan
July 17, 2007 4:00 PM | Link to this
If a child were drowning in a pool and jbmlaw was the only one around, jbmlaw would have the child’s parents sign and fax a contract for services before jumping in to rescue the kid. $25,000, non-negotiable.
Slavery, free enterprise and all that.
By DebbieDoRight
July 17, 2007 4:03 PM | Link to this
What are your suggestions for Grady other than what most libs suggest , i. e. Impeach Bush!!!
I’m not a financial analyst, but I can do a quick trouble shoot off the top of my head, (even though I’ve never looked at Grady’s records and/or book keeping).
First: They need to cut back on some of the fat cats on the board with those incredible salaries for doing little of nothing.
Second: All indigent patients need to do some type of “give back” once they’re back on their feets, (not financially so much as physically). Sort of a’la Habitat For Humanity. They can come in and do things which a volunteer or a candy stripe type person would do. This would free up the staff and take a lot of pressure off of them too.
Third: KEEP GOOD RECORDS. A friend of mine was in Grady for an emergency gallbladder surgery, they said he wasn’t there and couldn’t find him. His family was upsest, I was upset, his wife was upset, it was just a big mess.
Fourth: Once they’re bailed out (again), they should give a WEEKLY accounting on monies coming in and going out (via reports), until they are deemed fiscally prudent. THEN they’ll need to give a monthly report. This report would go to the two counties currently funding Grady, as well as, an independent outside source; AND be logged bi-monthly on their website for ALL to see.
Fifth: IMPEACH BUSH!! Hey, you put it out there, it was too hard to resist, sorry :(
By DebbieDoRight
July 17, 2007 4:11 PM | Link to this
Ironic, isn’t it, that the agnostics like myself would save the child, and the “Christians” like jmblaw would let it die
That is SOOO not true! jbmlaw would NOT let that child die….in the womb, he’d force the mother to carry the baby full term and deliver it, probably unhealthily because she couldn’t get affordable insurance, but deliver it she will! Once it’s out of the womb, it’s on its own. The mother shouldn’t of had it in the first place.
“Are there no poor houses, are there no prisons!!?!!??!” Ebeneezer Scrooge
By Pope rednecks Amerikkka's Al Qaeda I
July 17, 2007 4:37 PM | Link to this
Speaking of blastocystic appendages, what if tft-tranny’s mother, the common street prostitute Tricksea (rhymes with Dicksea) Shagnasty Truth, had had the forethought to have a rectal exam, then she would have had the option to induce the abortion of tft-tranny merely by wolfing down the contents of a box of ex-Lax?
What a better life the poor wretch would have had, and what a better place Planet Earth would be without that sorry POS.
By Katharine
July 17, 2007 4:53 PM | Link to this
First, humanity did fine before doctors. Babies were born without doctors. Doctors have given lots of free medical care over the centuries, but the issue is whether they do it by choice or whether others force them to do it. No one should be forced to work for free. That is slavery.
deegee at 2:33: Maybe GA should use that $143 million “surplus” to pay down principal on its $8.8 billion debt?
By time for the truth
July 17, 2007 5:03 PM | Link to this
By Pope rednecks Amerikkka’s Al Qaeda I
July 17, 2007 4:37 PM | Link to this
Speaking of blastocystic appendages, what if tft-tranny’s mother, the common street prostitute Tricksea (rhymes with Dicksea) Shagnasty Truth, had had the forethought to have a rectal exam, then she would have had the option to induce the abortion of tft-tranny merely by wolfing down the contents of a box of ex-Lax?
What a better life the poor wretch would have had, and what a better place Planet Earth would be without that sorry POS.
the coprophagic child rapist Leper Prince has puked again … smirk
By Free Markets RULE!
July 17, 2007 5:07 PM | Link to this
Babies were born without doctors.
Yes they were. Babies also aborted naturally without doctors (miscarriages for the medically ignorant). Women also died during and after pregnancy and childbirth, sometimes giving birth to live offspring, sometimes not. Still do where there are too few doctors. The important thing to remember is that if a woman’s life actually matters, divine intervention will let her live. If she suffers or dies, oh well, she must deserve it. Let’s not let doctors get in the way; it’s only women we’re talking about.
By Say Again?
July 17, 2007 5:13 PM | Link to this
Humanity did fine before doctors? What was the life expectancy back then?
The issue of whether to provide medical services for free or by choice is a straw man issue intended to distract and mislead.
The issue is how best to finance quality health care for all. Nobody has to work for free.
Focus Katherine. Focus.
By Jackie
July 17, 2007 5:19 PM | Link to this
@jbmlaw
Dear Jackie @ 12:39, although you condemn Republicans, you are obviously also aware that Democrats are the ones who raise taxes and spend the most (that is why they work so hard to eliminate the Republican-generated earmark disclosure requirements.) Your language confuses me – do you think government expropriation of private wealth (for redistribution either to “corporate” friends or to the productivity-challenges) is a good thing or a bad thing?
The Dems have been wasteful in some instances with our tax money, however, they have erred on the side of all people, not the rich and affluent. You say that they government has expropriated money for income redistribution. You are making the argument that the citizens of this country have no responsibility to fund the government, with decisions being made by the elected representatives of this country. Further, you argue that private enterprise has been efficient with the money that they earn. Do you realize that those same companies get corporate welfare based upon the reciprocal effects of taxes paid to build the roads, bridges, judicial system, military, postal service, business laws and regulations, and on and on and on… Do you realize that business pays a lower tax rate than individuals in this country, yet, they make record profits and try to pay each of us as little as possible. You factual information is incomplete, therefore, your conclusion to your argument is invalid.
By jbmlaw
July 18, 2007 8:27 AM | Link to this
Dear For the Record @ 3:53, I think you change my language, you tricky devil. At 2:54 I said, ” I believe nobody is obliged to give anyone anything. That specifically means that doctors have no obligation to give their services free to anyone. Not even to children whose parents are unable or unwilling to pay. We outlawed slavery 140 years ago.” You then affirmed, “but it isn’t morally repugnant for a doctor to kill a human baby through treatment inaction because people have no right to be taxed for public goods like poor children’s health?” Were I as tricky as you I would accuse you of being the new enslaver, compelling doctors to do your bidding.
Dear Jackie @ 5:19, I do not doubt that your heart is good, but your brain does not allow you to understand what is “corporate welfare.” Suggestion, next time you wish to do good with other people’s money, notice who is receiving the cash.
By Analchord
July 18, 2007 8:28 AM | Link to this
The Daily Show reported that the Catholic Church has “sex abuse insurance”, which paid out most of the 660 million dollar sex settlement.
Insurance? You can underwrite sin?
I wonder how long the “Good Hands” people argued that it was an act of God?
I wonder if the deductible was “innappropriately long lingering hugs”, or acting out any scene from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”.
And if any abuse occurred hidden in a confessional booth, did it count?
YOu can see why the good hands people get the big bucks……..D’OH!
Someone has to save my church again. Lord? I hate to bring this up, and I certainly respect your right to stay put, but now would be a really good time to save mankind again.
It didn’t take the first time. We let our premiums lapse.
But I think we’re all still in the grace period……..
By Joe
July 18, 2007 9:37 AM | Link to this
The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords has a book out that tells all about the end times which are at hand.Iv’e read the last chapter and the HERO is on his way. Have you made the necessary choice. I hope so. Come hear Dr Dean Haun at Jonesboro First Baptist. You’ll be glade you did.
By Joe
July 18, 2007 9:37 AM | Link to this
The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords has a book out that tells all about the end times which are at hand.Iv’e read the last chapter and the HERO is on his way. Have you made the necessary choice. I hope so. Come hear Dr Dean Haun at Jonesboro First Baptist. You’ll be glade you did.
By Craig also
July 18, 2007 10:17 AM | Link to this
Wooten said “Some dumb bill — Sunday liquor sales, for example” Yeah, a bill supported by the majority of Georgians, and one that increases freedom. Terrible bill, just awful…
I can only hope that someday true conservatives wake up and realize how un-conservative their leaders and pundits are.