Thanks to George...

[cowboydoc]

TBone,
Didn't have a choice. I just bought that piece of ground and it was in that. I assure you that it will be taken out on October 1st and used for hay ground and raising foals. I don't believe in CRP either. In order to take it out though I would have had to have paid for the last ten years of payments made. BTW thanks for the clarification on Wingnut. He has agreed harshly with me on some things but he's still a nice guy.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Cowboydoc,
Wasn't any of my business anyway but appreciate you being honest. Ya'll have a good weekend. My son is moving and I think I have been committed to help. Everybody be safe and enjoy your weekend. T-Bone

 

[GlueGuy]

Here's some more information on the tax cut. This is about the best short review of it that I've seen. Not only does the tax law "expire" in the 11th year, the AMT provisions expire in 2004!

The GlueGuy

 

[DrDan]

What a pile of BS. Essentially we got nothing but somemore misleading politics.

There's no hope.

Dr Dan

 

[Wingnut]

oh ... and TBone ... if you think I'm negative about the States ... ask me sometime about Quebec .... bwahahaha

and I appreciate your comment ... my wife says that I'm always too optomistic and too positive that things can be changed. Gladd everyone doesn't see me that way.


too bad that common sense ain't

 

[Wingnut]

Speaking of beautiful country ... here's something "positive" ... if any of you like to ski (down mountains ... not that wimpy stuff on the water) ... Banff National Park in Alberta has the absolute BEST skiing you could imaging ... at reasonable prices (which is even more reasonable when you consider the conversion factor). A Ski Banff package gives you decent rooms in Banff and free bus transport to 3 different ski resorts (within 1/2 hour).



too bad that common sense ain't

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Does anybody know where this surplus (if any) is at? It was my understanding that this was extra money in the Social Security fund. So, if that's the case, then this isn't really a refund, it's an early retirement. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

SHF

 

[ddl]

The surplus is the over charging the Feds did in the taxes we are charged. As far as the debt goes, do you all know that the amount of the debt that can be paid off is, all that is left is the bonds that have term lifes such as 20, 30 years. The surplus is not SS money.

What amazes me is the difference between the Reps and the socialist Democrats. Reps beleive that it is our money and the socialists believe that it is the governments money. What is so hard in understanding a tax cut means that those who pay taxes shpuld get their taxes cut. What the socialist wants is a welfare gift. Lets get real. If you went into a store and they overcharged you, do you want your overcharged back or would you want ll th overcharges be divided between every person in the town wheather they shopped in the store or not.

Dan l

 

[GlueGuy]

I was just looking at the numbers that the treasury puts up on the web, and I believe that the "surplus" is, in fact, totally fictitious. SS receipts are well in excess of the so-called surplus, so anything we get now is robbing that fund. One of the major hoaxes of the last decade or two is keeping FICA on budget. Tends to hide the actual condition of the budget. Is FICA was kept separate, then we would all see that we are still running a deficit.

The GlueGuy

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

GlueGuy

They've been telling me for years that SS is going BROKE! You mean they've been lying to me? /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

SHF

 

[Wingnut]

>>Does anybody know where this surplus (if any) is at? It was my understanding that this was extra money in the Social Security fund. So, if that's the case, then this isn't really a refund, it's an early retirement <<
well ... Al Bore and the democrats firmly believe that the surplus doesn't exist. And it certainly isn't from Social Security ... on my cheque that's shown as separate from taxes ... FICA they call it (I could put names to those acronyms but this is a family program).
Surplus ... by any definition I've ever come across is defined as "amount above that used or required" ... which basically means the money that they've taken out of my (and yours) paycheque and couldn't invent a reason to give to some dairty farmer. (just kidding, Vermonters).
So .. like, it's mine and I want it back ... with interest please ...

too bad that common sense ain't

 

[Wingnut]

by the way ... that "hallowed" Social Security? Well ... the "gummint" has been stealing that all along. It was NEVER in a "lock box" and has always been treated as general revenue ... until the figures started to show that those of us who would be retiring and looking forward to getting some of OUR money back were outa luck.
And before TBone thinks I'm picking on the US again .... those morons in government in Canada are exactly the same ... except they like to spend the money for social programs even more than Chappy Kennedy!!

too bad that common sense ain't

 

[cowboydoc]

Yea and that was over a penny tax. Now if you make anything at all you pay well over 50% when you consider all the taxes that you pay.

 

[GlueGuy]

<font color=blue>They've been telling me for years that SS is going BROKE! You mean they've been lying to me?</font color=blue>

That depends on when you think it's going broke. According to the "current" projections, SS will go broke in 2038. That date will probably move (a lot) before 2038 comes around.

However, today, the gommint takes the excess in SS receipts to "cover up" the deficit in the general fund. That's because today, SS receipts are far in excess of what's being paid to SS recipients. This is only temporary, as the baby boomers outnumber those that came before, and we are paying. We'll get "paid" later on when the smaller number of people working will be paying into SS when we are retired. The way we will pay is with a smaller benefit (or we will have to wait until we're 95 to retire). /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

The GlueGuy

 

[DrDan]

Yes Glue Guy that's right and there won't be a darn thing we can do about it because our elected representatives don't appreciate and listen to our wishes. Like Jefford, they just do whatever is needed to further their own cause. Lie at election time and the day after elected the promises go out the back door. With the internet we may be able to look at self governing. Heck toss the issues online and ask the constituents what they want. We have the technology to decide for ourselves.

Dr Dan

 

[Phred]

Hess,

I don’t think any body is attacking you personally; you just struck a cord with the education issue as it relates to a lack of accountability by the government. The issue is complex, however, the NEA is a major source of the problem.

The NEA is setup to guard teachers’ rights and therefore frankly does not care about performance no more than the pilot’s union cares about the airlines profits. Sure they give lip service to it, but the real goal is to make sure no teacher can be fired and that the salaries rise as fast as possible.

Now before you become defensive please understand that we all know that a large portion of the teachers are hard working people in a noble profession. However, the NEA position on this has lead to years of waste and horrible performance. Until we have meaningful performance goals and teachers are held accountable, this sad state of affairs will continue.

As one involved in higher education I would agree that not all professors are great teachers, however, they all earned a Ph.D. This is a very high bar that would not be expected or perhaps even desirable in elementary education, however some standard must be in place.

The bottom line is we need a system that lets performance work and eliminates systemic mediocrity.

Again none of these comments are targeted at you personnel they just represent a general frustration that many share towards the sad dollar to performance ratio exhibited by many of the public schools in this country.

Phred

 

[ejb]

>>The NEA is setup to guard teachers’ rights

The purpose of school employee labor unions is to bargain wages and terms and conditions of employment for its dues-paying members. Albert Shanker, former president of the American Federation of Teachers union, once candidly remarked, "When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children."

Kind of sums up what most teachers and teachers unions REALLY care about don't you think?

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

My understanding of the two systems is:

Communism-- The tanks roll first and then the bureaucrats.

Democracy-- The bureaucrats come first and then they roll the Tanks.

In China, you work for the state and they give you money. Here you work for yourself and the state takes your money.