Official SOTU thread

#151
#151
He did mention immigration. He made the claim that his presidency has been the most effective at tackling illegal immigration, and then told all illegal immigrants that all they need to do is get here and enroll in college.
 
#154
#154
GAVol said:
It's probably for the best. Your eyeballs might have come out of your head when he essentially proposed to double the capital gains rate to at least 30%.
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This was the clip I heard this morning.

Leaves the door open to be a lot more than 30%.
 
#158
#158
Just finished watching the Mitch Daniels response. Best GOP response I can recall.

Favorite lines:

...pro-growth approach that breaks all ties and calls the close ones in favor of private sector jobs.

...government should serve the people rather than supervise them.
 
#161
#161
volinbham said:
But he's the smartest, most intelligent POTUS ever who's answers are long because of his deep understanding of issues and nuance.
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Not sure this will make sense to you, but In politics delivering a speech that is readable to a wider audience does not make him dumb.

Perhaps if he had hit a few grade levels lower this would be easier for you to understand.
 
#162
#162
lawgator1 said:
Not sure this will make sense to you, but In politics delivering a speech that is readable to a wider audience does not make him dumb.

Perhaps if he had hit a few grade levels lower this would be easier for you to understand.
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actually the point was

The University of Minnesota's Smart Politics conducted an analysis on the last 70 State of the Union addresses and found that President Obama's three addresses have the lowest grade average of any modern president. "Obama's average grade-level score of 8.4 is more than two grades lower than the 10.7 grade average for the other 67 addresses written by his 12 predecessors," they conclude.
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#163
#163
lawgator1 said:
Not sure this will make sense to you, but In politics delivering a speech that is readable to a wider audience does not make him dumb.

Perhaps if he had hit a few grade levels lower this would be easier for you to understand.
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Yeah, because about 1% of the voting-aged viewing public reads at an 8th grade level. He wanted to appeal to them.
 
#164
#164
lawgator1 said:
Not sure this will make sense to you, but In politics delivering a speech that is readable to a wider audience does not make him dumb.

Perhaps if he had hit a few grade levels lower this would be easier for you to understand.
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See PJs comments.

Further evidence Obama sees citizens as morons that must be supervised by his government.
 
#167
#167
volinbham said:
See PJs comments.

Further evidence Obama sees citizens as morons that must be supervised by his government.
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More or less.

If he keeps the moron count high going into Nov. he has a solid chance to supervise them again while the rest of the crowd suffers through it.
 
#168
#168
Volst53 said:
A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circlue of our felicities.

Thomas Jefferson



Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

Thomas Jefferson


I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

Thomas Jefferson
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"A government big enough to give you everything you need, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have"
 
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#170
#170
so, warren buffett's secretary is not quite in the 99%. I imagine this meme will quickly fade away.

Chalk this up as the first strategic blunder of the Obama campaign. The poster-child of their class warfare narrative, Warren Buffett’s secretary, has just made a tax claim that, if true, reveals her to belong in the top 1% of income earners in America.

The Obama campaign communications team–in this case, ABC News–teamed up this evening with Warren Buffett and his secretary, Debbie Bosanek, to selectively release some information about their personal tax returns. Note that neither Mr. Buffett nor Ms. Bosanek took the transparent approach of *releasing their complete tax returns for the past four years for review by the entire public, as I called on them to do yesterday.

Here’s what they claimed in the ABC *report: “Bosanek pays a tax rate of 35.8 percent of income, while Buffett pays a rate at 17.4 percent.”

It’s hard to interpret this statement without additional information. Do they mean “effective tax rate” or “marginal tax rate” ?

When they say “income,” do they mean total gross income or taxable income?

Since the top marginal rate on taxable income (which kicks in when taxable income exceeds $379,150) is 35%, it’s impossible that Ms. Bosnak’s claim that she pays a tax rate of 35.8 % applies to her taxable income. Since taxable income is always less than total gross income, the claim is even less credible for that measure.

Despite these factual inconsistencies, Bosanek doubled down, putting herself forward as the face of Obama’s tax inequality mantra:

“I just feel like an average citizen. I represent the average citizen who needs a voice…Everybody in our office is paying a higher*tax rate than Warren.”

If she’s really paying a marginal rate of 35%, she’s earning over $379,150 per year in taxable income, which places her in the top 1% of income earners nationally. If this is true, Ms. Bosanek is anything but an average citizen. An average citizen–say someone who earns the median salary of a secretary to a CEO, which is $67, 791, according to a 2011 survey conducted by Certified Compensation Professionals–pays a much lower effective tax rate on taxable income than Ms. Bosanek. Assuming this average citizen took about $15,000 in deductions, she would pay an effective tax rate of 17% on taxable income of $52,791, the same rate Mr. Buffett claims to be paying.

Whether Ms. Bosanek is in fact in the top 1% of earners, or her claims, along with those of Mr. Buffett, are simply not correct is something no one will know for sure until both Ms. Bosanek and Mr. Buffett release their personal tax returns for the last four years.

In either case, as the story continues to unfold it will be painfully obvious to most voters that the Obama Campaign’s attempt to portray Ms. Bosanek as the sympathetic face of tax inequality has backfired badly.
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Buffett and His Secretary Can’t Get Their Story Straight on Taxes | Broadside Books

Warren Buffet’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, served as a stage prop for President Obama’s State of the Union speech. She was the President’s chief display of the alleged*unfairness of our tax system – a little person paying a higher tax rate than her billionaire boss.

Bosanek’s prominent role in Obama’s “fairness” campaign piqued my curiosity, and I imagine the curiosity of others. How much does her boss pay this downtrodden woman? So far, no one has volunteered this information.

We can get an approximate answer by consulting IRS data on tax rates by adjusted gross income, which would approximate her salary, assuming she does not have significant dividend, interest or capital-gains income (like her boss). I assume Buffet keeps her too busy for her to hold a second job. I also do not know if she is married and filing jointly. If so, it is deceptive for Obama to use her as an example. The higher rate may be due to her husband’s income.* So I assume the tax rate Obama refers to is from her own earnings.

Insofar as Buffet (like Mitt Romney) earns income primarily from capital gains, which are taxed at 15 percent (and according to Obama need to be raised for reasons of fairness), we need to determine how much income a taxpayer like Bosanek must earn in order to pay an average tax rate above fifteen percent. This is easy to do.

The IRS publishes detailed tax tables by income level. The latest results are for 2009. They show that taxpayers earning an adjusted gross income between $100,000 and $200,000 pay an average rate of twelve percent. This is below Buffet’s rate; so she must earn more than that. Taxpayers earning adjusted gross incomes of $200,000 to $500,000, pay an average tax rate of nineteen percent. Therefore Buffet must pay Debbie Bosanke a salary above two hundred thousand.

We must wait for*further details to learn how much more than $200,000 she earns. The tax tables tell us about average ranges. For all we know she earns closer to a half million each year, but that is pure speculation.

I have nothing against Debbie Bosanke earning a half million or even more. Buffet is a major player in the world economy. His secretary deserves good compensation. At her income, however, she is scarcely the symbol of injustice that Obama wishes her to project.

I imagine that there are any number of secretaries who would want her job and her place in the Congress gallery for the President’s State of the Union address.
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Warren Buffett's Secretary Likely Makes Between $200,000 And $500,000/Year - Forbes
 
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#172
#172
Pepe_Silvia said:
I had a different screename and then had it changed.
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Gotcha.

Did you know that the reason Charlie had so much mail for Pepe Silvia is because he is illiterate and so he was reading "Pennsylvania" as "Pepe Silvia" or "Pepe Sylvia"...whatever. And, obviously, every letter is going to have "Pennsylvania" written on it because they're in Philly.

It took me a couple years to figure that out, and a google search to confirm I was right. I was really proud of myself when I did.
 
#173
#173
MG1968 said:
Despite Unfair Tax Burden, Warren Buffett's Secretary Was Just Able To Buy A Second Home | The Smoking Gun

I'm sure LG is crushed at this new information, his poster child for income inequality likely makes more than he does and all she does is answer phones for a billionaire.
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This shouldn't shock anybody. If you've ever had a secretary(ies), you'll know that the divide between a good secretary and a useless secretary is the San Andreas freaking Fault. A good one can make your life A LOT easier. If I'm Warren Buffett, the last thing I'm going to do is cheap out on a secretary. And if I'm Warren Buffett, I'm not overly concerned with the price tag on this (hugely important) expense.
 
#175
#175
[IMG[http://i40.tinypic.com/neuuzp.jpg[/IMG]

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