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[Fairweather]

I just love the way Peter P is called "peepee", told to "get a clue" and labeled a racist by wholly indoctrinated undergrads who refuse to directly address his points - all the while qualifying, throat-clearing, and expressing indignation at a topic change that they/themselves initiated!

 

Junior, you haven't grown up one bit.

[JoshK]

How the hell did this degrade into a Canada vs. USA debate? The point here is that peepee can't just admit his party is a fucking joke, it has nothing to do with which nation is better.

 

Oddly, my first post praised a DEMOCRAT!

 

Yeah, and he ended up being wrong, regardless of party.

 

Supply side is BS and so is *your* president.

[Fairweather]

Yes, Bush is my president....and yours too!

 

 

[ivan]

Oddly, this is the kind of thing that de Tocqueville thought was best about our country - our unceasing desire to yammer endlessly at one another over politics

 

i don't like bush either josh, but so long as you're living in W-land, he's still your president too

 

i'm far from an econ major, but what i was able to glean from the few econ classes i didn't sleep through is that no one seems to have a proper understanding of what the fuck's going on at the macroscopic level - that said, "trickle down" economics does seem an awful lot like rich people w/ serious prostate problems pissing on the poor folk

[cj001f]

Remember, unless you have it bronzed, you can't polish a turd.

These are republicans dru, their turds blossom

[JayB]

I'd be willing to bet an inflation-adjusted pitcher of beer that neither Josh nor Matt could explain what constitutes the opposite of Supply Side economics without some frantic mouse-clicking.

[AlpineK]

Well I only ever took the basic econ class in college, so I don't know what the opposite of suply side is. What I do know is if you spend more than you make then you go broke and then bad shit happens. I find it very hard to believe that just because the US economy is vastly larger than my economy that this rule doesn't apply.

 

GW has cut taxes and increased spending. The deficit is gigantic now. Eventually we're going to have to pay, and it ain't going to be pretty.

[G-spotter]

Yeah but what if you buy a bunch of gold for hundreds of dollars per ounce, drive up the price of gold and devalue the US dollar, then pay off the debt with the gold which is now worth thousands of US dollars per ounce.

 

Of course that doesn't work if you have to pay your debt in Euros.

[mattp]

Why whould Josh or Matt want to try to explain what the opposite of trickle on economics is? Please enlighten us, oh wise JayB.

 

While I tend to think Ivan has it right about how Trickle On economics is really just a sales pitch for giving tax breaks to the wealthy, I don't think, Mr. K, that it necessarily involves massive increases in governmental spending.

 

[AlpineK]

The increase in spending is mostly due to the Neo-Con agenda that the Bush admin has not Suply Side bs.

[JoshK]

I would bet a pitcher of beer that anybody who claims to be as intelligent as JayB thinks he is would realize there is no such thing as an "opposite" in a science completely devoid of absolutes.

 

Trickle-down is tax breaks for the rich. The only thing trickling down, as Ivan alluded too, is piss. The rest of us (the piss recipients) get to suffer the economic conseuqnces of a huge deficit and a growing pile of debt. You can sugar coat it all you want but in the long term that catches up and screws us all, even the rich.

[Fairweather]

 

GW has cut taxes and increased spending. The deficit is gigantic now. Eventually we're going to have to pay, and it ain't going to be pretty.

 

I'll cede this important and embarrassing point if you agree to teach dbConlin some basic percentage problems. The debt is a real crisis that endangers not only our future prosperity, but our future as a nation. While I believe in tax cuts as economic stimulus, the act must go hand-in-hand with reduced spending. Bush has failed in this regard. The 'war on terror' and 9/11-related spending only account for about 50% of recent annual budget overruns. The rest is debt-service and other 'non-discretionary' bullshit, and ever growing entitlements aimed at keeping voters in check and silencing liberals who scream hysterically when growth of said entitlements is capped.

 

Do any of you on the left really think a Dem exec - together with a dem congress would be any different than Republicans insofar as spending is concerned? I'm almost hoping for a Dem victory in the House this November.

[Off_White]

I was just partially listening to the NPR story on the latest jobs report while on my back inside the sink cabinet replacing a faucet. I didn't listen well enough to regurgitate, but it did set me thinking about my personal jobs report.

 

I'm a general contractor in Olympia, and while there's talk of falling home starts, I haven't experienced it yet. In fact, I have more work than I want or can handle, hired a sixth carpenter yesterday, and would hire a project lead at the drop of a hat if I could just find a qualified one. For the most part, my clients are not wealthy enough to benefit from Bush's tax cuts in any meaningful way, so I sure wouldn't endorse those defict plumping measures, but not looking past the end of my nose, the financial world looks pretty rosy to me.

 

Of course, one of my carpenters is just a temp framer who's moving to Seattle to go to dance school at the end of the month (there's a sterotype shatterer, eh?), and there have been several times I couldn't keep 4 people busy, let alone 6, so I don't know if this is just a temporary boom or my new reality.

[Off_White]

Do any of you on the left really think a Dem exec - together with a dem congress would be any different than Republicans insofar as spending is concerned? I'm almost hoping for a Dem victory in the House this November.

 

I think having house/senate/presidency/judiciary all in one camp, either camp, is a recipe for disaster. Current situation is a case in point, and I don't see much appeasement of my viewpoint going on, so don't blame the deficit on liberals.

[Fairweather]

I would bet a pitcher of beer that anybody who claims to be as intelligent as JayB thinks he is would realize there is no such thing as an "opposite" in a science completely devoid of absolutes.

 

 

Josh, you demonstrated your doctrinal approach to science when you posted this last year:

I predict 4 more posts before a conservative fucktard claims this as evidence that ALL planets are warming up and thus global warming is not the fault of humanity in any way, shape or form.

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/501167/page/0/fpart/1/vc/1

 

It turned out to be of my favorite Joshisms. So please, don't lecture about science here.

[G-spotter]

Economics isn't a science.

[AlpineK]

I have less folks calling me to do tree work this year than last. That's all I know.

[G-spotter]

I have less folks calling me to do tree work this year than last. That's all I know.

 

That's because their trees are happy and growing strongly with all the extra CO2 in the air

[Fairweather]

Maybe you're cutting them down faster than they can grow back? Take a year off!

[DirtyHarry]

my carpenter / contractor friends up in the Methow have more work than they can handle right now too.

[AlpineK]

While I believe in tax cuts as economic stimulus, the act must go hand-in-hand with reduced spending.

 

Conservatives talk a lot about reducing the size of government by cutting off the funding (taxes). I'm not prepaired to argue whether this is a good idea or not, but it is quite easy to get politicians to vote for tax cuts but very hard to get them to reduce spending especially if it's a project that benefits their constituents. It doesn't matter if they're liberal or conservative if money's coming to their district they love it.

[Fairweather]

It's called "Pigs at the Trough". And whether you'll admit it or not, we're all the pigs.

[JayB]

Hahah. So I look forward to getting a pitcher of my choosing from Josh and Matt in '08. Have a nice weekend.

[Off_White]

It's called "Pigs at the Trough". And whether you'll admit it or not, we're all the pigs.

 

Just because I like my slops, it doesn't mean they have to feed those other pigs so well....

 

Here's a good article on pork barrel politics from Harper's last year. Long, but worth reading for those inspired.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

some animals are more equal than others :-))