Can Someone Explain?

Jan 25 2012

UPDATE, THU JAN 26, 2012, EARLY AM:

My goodness but we have lots of cranky libs!  This is not a surprise, per se, but a bit of a surprise that they are so free flowing with their crankitude on my itty-bitty corner of cyberspace.  PLEASE see my SOURCED replies in comments below, in my years long effort to correct lib myths.

Help me, some wicked smaht lib, will ya?

How do you reconcile these seemingly opposing memes from Our Dear Leader:

We don’t want to “punish” success. We simply want to see to it that everyone gets a “fair opportunity at the American Dream” which we describe, in part, as being able to “pay for your children to go to college” and to have the “dignity” of a “secure retirement.”

BUT, this will cost boatloads of money, which, if you “hoard” it, makes you a selfish pr*ck and I will tax your ass back to the stone age… which sounds an awful lot like “punishing” you, right?

So how to make the math work with the rhetoric?  Let’s give it a whack:

Okay - Let’s use the Obamas as an example, since it is a President with the last name Obama who is setting the standard. After all, he wouldn’t be so kingly as to presume that others have less of a dreamy dream than him, right?

Tuition for Malia and Sasha to attend what they regard as the best possible school for them (something the President has said, repeatedly, publicly, is every American child’s “right.”) is $40k per year.

Four years for 2 kids at Sidwell Friends will be $320,000.

If they want to go to Princeton, Columbia, and Harvard like Mom & Dad, all the way, for a J.D. or M.D., that’s another $1,000,000. (Just trust me on this.  I’ve done the math.)

Let’s just round that up to $1.5M because you know that by the time your children actually get there, it’s going to be at least that much. Now, maybe you aren’t the kind of parent who would pay for your child to go all the way to an M.D. or J.D. I know in my own case, my father was not willing to pay for a Masters’ degree for me (I degreed in Professional Writing & Film. Why not become an expert in bat snot on the bottom of Ugg boots in Manhattan in the springtime when the wind blows from the west and go make a living, right?), so not on a professional track and I was just so friggin’ grateful he paid for me to get my B.F.A. it never occurred to me then, nor since, to ever be unhappy about that, but, hey… If you’ve got a kid who can go all the way to be a Harvard M.D. or lawyer, who WOULDN’T want to see that happen, right? So let’s go with it.

Median income in this country is about $60k, give or take, depending on who you talk to or what metric you consult, but let’s just go with it, because it’s a nice easy number to work with.

That’s $5k per month, gross. In order to save $1.5M from the time your little snowflakes are born (let’s say they are twins) until the day they turn 18, you would – EVERY MONTH – have to save (absent compound interest, obviously):

$6,950

($1.5M / 18 years = $83 333.33 / 12 months = $6,944.44)

Oops.

I’m just a knucke-dragging neanderthal conservative, but last time I checked, $7k is more than $5k.

Okay. Let’s say you earn that much. Let’s say you earn TWICE that so you can do something other than live in a box while you save for college.

$14k per month is your income, let’s say.

That’s $168,000 per year. You would have to meticulously save 1/2 your income every month for 18 consecutive years to do that. This is not realistic, eh, mon chere?

So, let’s double THAT to $336,000 so we can get your required monthly savings down to a more reasonable 25% of your income. This is still hard, but at least it’s approaching earth.

Ooops.

That would put you WELL over the magic, evil $250k per couple threshold.

Obama wants to tax you Satans-among-us much, Much, MUCH more.

How we gonna send our little snowflakes to Harvard without having to go to the federal government for a handout like Oliver Twist asking “Please sir, may I have some more” unless we get to keep our money without getting it up the wazoo in taxes? Because, remember, the President was kind enough to criminalize private sector school loans when he got the health care bill passed.

And we haven’t even TOUCHED retirement yet.  JUST TUITION.

Libs?

Bueller?

Anyone?

How does this work?

Tags: , , , , ,

28 responses so far

  • Waffle Souffle

    From the top of your worked example:

    “Tuition … is $40k per year.

    “Four years for 2 kids at Sidwell Friends will be $320,000″

    “Just trust me on this. I’ve done the math”

    No, I don’t think you have.

    • http://www.saltusa.com Annie Ashe Fields

      “We need to offer our children the best education in the world.”

      December 15, 2010 President Obama “Remarks by the President on Tax Cuts and CEOs Meeting” during the lame-duck fight over tax rates for “millionaires and billionaires” earning $250,000+ per year just hours after the President’s remarks, which “includes tax cuts to make college more affordable; help parents provide for their children” http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/12/15/remarks-president-tax-cuts-and-ceos-meeting

      —-
      $966,684.00

      Tuition for 2 children to get the education President Obama presumably regards as “the best education in the world.”

      Sidwell Friends School (which encompasses grades 5 through 12), Columbia University, then Harvard University Law School.

      Sidwell Friends School is where the President & First Lady have enrolled their two children. The President is a graduate of Columbia & Harvard.

      $966,684.00 was calculated, for simplicity’s sake, as if the 2010 tuition rates would not rise for the duration, were simply doubled (to account for 2 children), and represents their tuition *only*. It does *not include* housing, food, books, fees, or *any* of the other certain, necessary and related expenses involved in financing such an education in New York City and Boston.

      || $32,069 annual tuition at Sidwell Friends x 2 children for 8 years = $513,104

      || $22,610 annual tuition at Columbia University x 2 children for 4 years = $180,880

      || $45,450 annual tuition at Harvard Law School x 2 children for 3 years = $272,700

      || Sidwell Friends School ~ http://www.sidwell.edu/admissions/tuition-and-fees/index.aspx

      || Columbia University – General Studies, B.A., B.S., JTS Joint Program ~ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/sfs/docs/University_Tuition_And_Fees/tuition-fees-10-11.html#N10531

      || Harvard Law School ~ http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/apply/the-application-process/jdfaq.html#tuition ||

      President Obama & The First Lady did not enroll their two children in the school they chose for them because it’s *not* the “best” they could find because, obviously, *no* parent would do that if they could do anything at all to help it. One then could also safely presume the President & The First Lady would like to see *all* American children enjoy the pride of being able to provide their children a “world class” education, *just like they do – by writing a check on funds they have earned & saved by their own talent and hard work* – not forcing Sasha & Malia to navigate the maze of government loans, funds, grants, etc, or worse, leaving them no choice but to *work* during their college years to afford an education worthy of their potential.

  • anony321

    I will explain. Cheney, Bush spent 4 trillion dollars murdering 100k innocent children in Afghanistan, and Iraq… for Oil and Heroin; AND Bush Tax Cuts for those making more than 250K went into effect after 911. The goal was to allow RICH PEOPLE to continue to employee workers here. Well, that did not happen because instead the rich people fired everyone as soon as Obama was elected and off-shored whatever they could to third world developing countries. And they have refused to hire American workers for the last 3 years and will continue, until THEY LOSE THE 2012 ELECTIONS TO.. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA!

    BECAUSE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE A BUNCH OF IGNORANT STUPID SELFISH PEOPLE JUST LIKE YOU!!!

    YOU JUST DON’T GET IT!!! 4TRILLION DOLLARS DEVELOPING PSTD IN OUR KIDS; NOT YOUR KIDS, THE POOR KIDS!!! WHAT WAS THE TAX RATE IN 1944??? TRY 70%!!!

    I HOPE YOUR KIDS ARE BURNT TO DEATH WHEN THE PEOPLE COME TO YOUR MANSION BURN YOU OUT! Then atleast you dont have to worry about where you will need to send them to school. If they are as smart as you its pretty obvious they are not getting past 10th grade!

    WE ARE NOT AFRAID OF YOUR POWER, ITS YOU R ABUSE WE WILL NOT STOMACH!!!

    DUMBASS!

  • Dan G.

    If the question is, “how to pay for college?” you should start with a different set of assumptions:
    First, no everyone goes to Sidwell Friends private school and pays tuition for grade school. There are good public schools, paid for by local taxes, all across America. Then, not everyone goes to Columbia/Princeton/Harvard and pays $40,000 a year. (Most don’t even pay full tuition at premier universities: Princeton, for example, has a no-loan policy for poor students. See more here: http://www.finaid.org/questions/noloansforlowincome.phtml ) But for the rest of us, who can’t get into Princeton, there are terrific state universities (I went to one) and community colleges that provide the high-quality training that the President was talking about in his State of the Union address. Or, you can go to community college for two years, and transfer. I suppose you can take a worse-case scenario and play it out to make it look impossible to afford college, but that’s not very helpful for those who want to get an affordable education.

    Regarding taxes: what the President is talking about is returning the tax rate for those lucky enough to make a family income of a quarter million a year back to what it was during the Clinton years (when we had uninterrupted growth for six years and ended with a federal budget surplus). No one is talking about dramatically higher tax rates – just a few tics higher to help reduce the deficit, which got out of control during the previous administration. I would think that anyone who is so blessed to make a million dollars a year would be happy to pay 30% in federal income taxes – is that really so much of a stretch?

    Thanks for writing on Friedman’s page – it made me think about what we’re really up against. Our Congress is dangerously divided, but as Americans, we can pull together. As Obama said “Those of us who’ve been sent here to serve can learn a thing or two from the service of our troops. When you put on that uniform, it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white; Asian, Latino, Native American; conservative, liberal; rich, poor; gay, straight. When you’re marching into battle, you look out for the person next to you, or the mission fails. When you’re in the thick of the fight, you rise or fall as one unit, serving one nation, leaving no one behind.”

    Dan G.
    Philadelphia

    • http://www.saltusa.com Annie Ashe Fields

      – Of course I take your point regarding choices of schools. I merely meant to use the Obamas OWN CHOICES as an example, since it is HE, after all, a Columbia/Harvard grad, parenting two girls with a Princeton/Harvard grad, who is telling us how selfish we are for wanting to keep more of our own money so we can just write a tuition check rather than have to go begging. Note, too, that it is people who write checks that make it possible for universities to be generous with less fiscally able, but just as academically able students. VERY important not to forget this wonderful aspect of how capitalism’s tentacles spread and help in ways you do not immediately consider.

      Regarding taxes: what the President is talking about is returning the tax rate for those lucky enough to make a family income of a quarter million a year back to what it was during the Clinton years (when we had uninterrupted growth for six years and ended with a federal budget surplus).

      –You’re linking the tax rates as though they CAUSED the boom. You’re too smart to do that, right? C’mon. And I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll get behind a return to those rates if we can get back to the concurrent rate of SPENDING THEN, too, okay?

      No one is talking about dramatically higher tax rates – just a few tics higher to help reduce the deficit, which got out of control during the previous administration.

      –WRONG. Bush’s highest annual deficit was about $450B, and that was after Pelosi got the purse in 2007. They have TRIPLED under Obama. Again, return to Bush era SPENDING and I’ll help you with taxes (though it will kill me).

      I would think that anyone who is so blessed to make a million dollars a year would be happy to pay 30% in federal income taxes – is that really so much of a stretch?

      — Every single person in America who earns $66k per year pays 84% of ALL FED INCOME TAXES. The top 1% pay nearly 40%. We do NOT have a taxing problem. We have a SPENDING problem.

      Thanks for writing on visiting ;)

      • anony321

        YEAH!! THE BLESSED MILLIONAIRES!! GOD HAS SOMEHOW BLESSED THEM WITH THE ABILITY TO SCREW EVERYONE ON THE PLANET SO THEY CAN SEND THEIR RATS TO THE OLD SCHOOL.

        YOU ARE JUST WRONG LADY!! SO; SHUT UP!!!

        • http://www.saltusa.com Annie Ashe Fields

          –I will explain. Cheney, Bush spent 4 trillion dollars …in Afghanistan, and Iraq…

          WRONG. It cost LESS in Bush two TERMS than Obama BLEW in two YEARS and a NYT ENDORSED source says I’m right. See page 17 of the report linked below and you will see that BOTH wars cost about $108 billion annually. Even my link for NYT endorsement is below:

          SOURCE: March 23, 2010 Congressional Research Service “The Impact of Major Legislation on Budget Deficits: 2001 to 2009” page 17 ~ http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41134.pdf ~ The New York Times wrote a whole piece on war spending in July 2010 using CRS dadata for source material. Sorry, don’t have link, but search it.

          –Bush Tax Cuts for those making more than 250K went into effect after 911.

          Yes, they did. And if you cast your lonely eyes to Obama’s own data, from his very own Executive Branch OMB number crunchers, you will see a MOUNTAIN of REVENUE incoming after that. REVENUE. That’s PROFIT to the federal government, young squire. It’s SPENDING AFTER PELOSI got the purse that was OUT OF CONTROL, NOT revenue to the federal government. The rate of spending TRIPLED after Pelosi got the purse. Again, this is all backed up by the government’s own data, the liberal Tax Policy Center, and that, too, is endorse by the NYT as a credible source, by no less a personage than Nobel Prize winning economist than Paul Krugman:

          SOURCES: “They are not the main cause of the sizable deficit that exists today.” http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=1001423 & Krugman endorsement: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/whats-at-stake/

          –RICH PEOPLE to continue to employee workers here.

          Never worked for a poor guy. Never worked for someone whose business didn’t gross 250k+ either and WOULDN’T WANT TO and NEITHER SHOULD YOU if you had any sense. Bonus fact: MOST people who own small biz file as single filers and 70% of ALL JOBS come from small biz. So explain to me again how giving the government more small biz money = more private sector jobs? How does that work? Hmmm?

          I HOPE YOUR KIDS ARE BURNT TO DEATH WHEN THE PEOPLE COME TO YOUR MANSION BURN YOU OUT!

          –Does that include my autistic daughter, cowering the corner of our palatial 2500 square foot house? (I thought would qualify as HALF the size of a McMansion…)

          Thanks for stopping by ;)

      • anony321

        YEAH!! THE BLESSED MILLIONAIRES!! GOD HAS SOMEHOW BLESSED THEM WITH THE ABILITY TO SCREW EVERYONE ON THE PLANET SO THEY CAN SEND THEIR RATS TO THE OLD SCHOOL.

        YOU ARE JUST WRONG LADY!! SO; SHUT UP!!!

        • http://www.saltusa.com Annie Ashe Fields

          –I will explain. Cheney, Bush spent 4 trillion dollars …in Afghanistan, and Iraq…

          WRONG. It cost LESS in Bush two TERMS than Obama BLEW in two YEARS and a NYT ENDORSED source says I’m right. See page 17 of the report linked below and you will see that BOTH wars cost about $108 billion annually. Even my link for NYT endorsement is below:

          SOURCE: March 23, 2010 Congressional Research Service “The Impact of Major Legislation on Budget Deficits: 2001 to 2009” page 17 ~ http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41134.pdf ~ The New York Times wrote a whole piece on war spending in July 2010 using CRS dadata for source material. Sorry, don’t have link, but search it.

          –Bush Tax Cuts for those making more than 250K went into effect after 911.

          Yes, they did. And if you cast your lonely eyes to Obama’s own data, from his very own Executive Branch OMB number crunchers, you will see a MOUNTAIN of REVENUE incoming after that. REVENUE. That’s PROFIT to the federal government, young squire. It’s SPENDING AFTER PELOSI got the purse that was OUT OF CONTROL, NOT revenue to the federal government. The rate of spending TRIPLED after Pelosi got the purse. Again, this is all backed up by the government’s own data, the liberal Tax Policy Center, and that, too, is endorse by the NYT as a credible source, by no less a personage than Nobel Prize winning economist than Paul Krugman:

          SOURCES: “They are not the main cause of the sizable deficit that exists today.” http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=1001423 & Krugman endorsement: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/whats-at-stake/

          –RICH PEOPLE to continue to employee workers here.

          Never worked for a poor guy. Never worked for someone whose business didn’t gross 250k+ either and WOULDN’T WANT TO and NEITHER SHOULD YOU if you had any sense. Bonus fact: MOST people who own small biz file as single filers and 70% of ALL JOBS come from small biz. So explain to me again how giving the government more small biz money = more private sector jobs? How does that work? Hmmm?

          I HOPE YOUR KIDS ARE BURNT TO DEATH WHEN THE PEOPLE COME TO YOUR MANSION BURN YOU OUT!

          –Does that include my autistic daughter, cowering the corner of our palatial 2500 square foot house? (I thought would qualify as HALF the size of a McMansion…)

          Thanks for stopping by ;)

      • anony321

        Annie Ashe Fields,

        Get a gun. Put it in your mouth. Pull the trigger.

        • http://www.saltusa.com Annie Ashe Fields

          –I will explain. Cheney, Bush spent 4 trillion dollars …in Afghanistan, and Iraq…

          WRONG. It cost LESS in Bush two TERMS than Obama BLEW in two YEARS and a NYT ENDORSED source says I’m right. See page 17 of the report linked below and you will see that BOTH wars cost about $108 billion annually. Even my link for NYT endorsement is below:

          SOURCE: March 23, 2010 Congressional Research Service “The Impact of Major Legislation on Budget Deficits: 2001 to 2009” page 17 ~ http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41134.pdf ~ The New York Times wrote a whole piece on war spending in July 2010 using CRS dadata for source material. Sorry, don’t have link, but search it.

          –Bush Tax Cuts for those making more than 250K went into effect after 911.

          Yes, they did. And if you cast your lonely eyes to Obama’s own data, from his very own Executive Branch OMB number crunchers, you will see a MOUNTAIN of REVENUE incoming after that. REVENUE. That’s PROFIT to the federal government, young squire. It’s SPENDING AFTER PELOSI got the purse that was OUT OF CONTROL, NOT revenue to the federal government. The rate of spending TRIPLED after Pelosi got the purse. Again, this is all backed up by the government’s own data, the liberal Tax Policy Center, and that, too, is endorse by the NYT as a credible source, by no less a personage than Nobel Prize winning economist than Paul Krugman:

          SOURCES: “They are not the main cause of the sizable deficit that exists today.” http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=1001423 & Krugman endorsement: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/whats-at-stake/

          –RICH PEOPLE to continue to employee workers here.

          Never worked for a poor guy. Never worked for someone whose business didn’t gross 250k+ either and WOULDN’T WANT TO and NEITHER SHOULD YOU if you had any sense. Bonus fact: MOST people who own small biz file as single filers and 70% of ALL JOBS come from small biz. So explain to me again how giving the government more small biz money = more private sector jobs? How does that work? Hmmm?

          I HOPE YOUR KIDS ARE BURNT TO DEATH WHEN THE PEOPLE COME TO YOUR MANSION BURN YOU OUT!

          –Does that include my autistic daughter, cowering the corner of our palatial 2500 square foot house? (I thought would qualify as HALF the size of a McMansion…)

          Thanks for stopping by ;)

  • Rich Shadrin

    Never argue with a drunk or a blind zealot and madam you certainly fit the latter category. Your prejudice, and I don’t believe it’s racial is remarkable in its venom focused on a man who inherited a lousy hand and a congress that stated its only job is his dismissal and you point blame at HIM?

    Yes, he’s made mistakes the most egregious was not flushing out his fiscal advisors, but what new president hasn’t? You want perfection look to religion–those guys will tell you very quickly who is perfect.

    Oh wait, that’s you. You can do math.

    This is a guy, who once he read the tea leaves, saved Detroit by getting concessions from the unions as well as performance guarantees from management, presides over a proactive anti-terrorist campaign his predecessor only wished he could have commanded, put forth a private health plan that did not punish any insurance company but set standards and kept post grads under their parents health policies, is slowly creating new jobs not just through public funds (yeah only a government can afford to experiment with technologies that might fail and not go bankrupt) but incentivizing small and medium businesses and insists the rich pony up. Oops, do you think Mittskys profits created jobs…you probably do.

    Lastly I came upon your site accidentally and it’s quite disheartening–rooting for someone to fail is just not who we are. Like the lady in Florida who said the president was a Muslim and should be removed from office, like the legislators who didn’t respect the office let alone the man to show up at the SOTU and the pigs behind microphones who can’t be bothered to precede the name Obama with his title, President. You just add to the coarsening of life in our country. It takes no special talent to spew venom, I mean Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity–not giant talents here kids. It does require much more intellectual horsepower to produce a fair argument–by one definition, someone who can hold two opposing views at the same time and see the merits on both sides.

    Finally, I can tell by reading your other postings facts are not your long suit. Interpretation is. So go ahead and twist em up and turn them around. There’s little doubt you have a following of knot heads hanging on what passes for informed opinion and with a poor showing by the media kneecapped by corporate masters from truly revealing and broadcasting truth, continue to enjoy pushing the mud around in your pen.

    • http://www.saltusa.com Annie Ashe Fields

      –Never argue with a drunk

      Sober as a judge, cupcake. Haven’t had a drink in 6 years come April 9.

      —(He) inherited a lousy hand

      Yes, he inherited a lousy hand. Would you grant a Republican this much grace 3 years into term?

      –and a congress that stated its only job is his dismissal and you point blame at HIM?

      He had the biggest democrat majorities in BOTH houses of congress any Dem prez has had since Carter. He had TWO YEARS and a TRILLION dollars in his sandbox. You’ll forgive me, but any ASSHOLE could spend A TRILLION dollars and create jobs EXCEPT OBAMA. If you visit http://www.bls.gov and look at the unemployment data, which doesn’t use the bullshit metric of “saved or created” which Obama’s people invented (George W. Bush never “saved or created” a job – though he was +1M after 8 years and 9/11 and the housing crash). ALSO – Mitch McConnel didn’t say that until OCTOBER 2010. And OBAMA’s first meeting with GOP in Jan 2009 was WIDELY reported as him having said ‘I WON’ so tough, so it my way. This limp-wristed hand-wringing over McConnel’s statement is nancy-boy sissy. Man up, for god sakes. THis is WASHINGTON POLITICS. The biggest stage in the world. What’s he think? They’re all going to lay down like virgins on their wedding night? Grow a sack.

      —You want perfection look to religion–those guys will tell you very quickly who is perfect

      I don’t want perfection. Remember, I’m a conservative. I don’t fall in love, I fall in line ;)
      Falling in love like a teenage girl is a democrat activity.

      —saved Detroit

      Have you SEEN the pictures of Detroit? They LITERALLY can’t GIVE real estate away! And GM? In summer 2010 he sent $500 MILLION TO BUILD A MFG PLANT… IN MEXICO. If a Republican did that with a taxpayer bought car company you’d split a gut.

      –by getting concessions from the unions

      Those concessions included a “two-tier” pay structure, $14 for new hires, $28 for the heritage guys. IF ROMNEY DID THAT you’d call him a heartless pig. Obama does it and he’s a genius.

      – a proactive anti-terrorist campaign his predecessor only wished he could have commanded

      Obama gets HUGE credit for having big, brass clacking ones with that Seal team incursion to get Bin Laden, because if it had gone badly, which it most certainly had a high risk of, he would have taken a HUGE hit politically, so yes, he gets a big HAZAAH for that — HOWEVER, even his own people, namely, Panetta, said that it was WATERBOARDING that led DIRECTLY to the intel that gave up his location, so if Obama had had the opportunity to design the intel gathering, WE NEVER WOULD HAVE FOUND HIM. That is a FACT, is INCONTROVERTIBLE, but again, HE GETS AN ATTA BOY for doing it. Though he pissed off everyone by being so friggin paternalistic by hiding the pictures of OBL’s bullet drilled head. Please. This is a country that clicked by the millions to see Daniel Pearl beheaded on you tube but we can’t see OBL’s corpse? C’mon.

      —put forth a private health plan that did not punish any insurance company

      NOT PUNISH?????????????? Having your ENTIRE business model UPENDED by some sniffing federal overlords telling you YOU MUST ACCEPT EVERYONE EVERY DAY isn’t a BANKRUPTING MODEL? C’mon. Do you realize that the average profit margin for insurance companies is about 3-4%? Yes. They get 3 or 4 cents profit on every dollar they spend. Of course the dollar amounts are big, but the margins aren’t. I would suggest to you that any CEO who can keep an insurer profitable with a margin that thin SHOULD be paid millions of dollars… No. Obama is PURPOSELY bankrupting the private insurance market and he knows it. EVERYONE WITH EYES knows it. It’s just sand running out the clock now.

      –but set standards and kept post grads under their parents health policies

      I actually have no problem with that because it’s OPTIONAL on the part of the policy holder, and I can see some good arguments for making that option available, so okay.

      only a government can afford to experiment with technologies that might fail and not go bankrupt

      –USUALLY that’s done in service of keeping our asses from getting blown off or glowing in the dark (military). Obama’s way it’s crony and that SUCKS. Solyndra? Hello? Do you REALLY think if ANYONE thought they could make a buck with it THEY WOULDN’T DO IT? Do you realize that after 140 years of trying the electric car battery STILL maxes out at 40 miles? AFTER NEARLY A CENTURY AND A HALF we’ve made ZERO progress and the ones we’ve got a blowing up.

      —but incentivizing small and medium businesses and insists the rich pony up. Oops, do you think Mittskys profits created jobs…you probably do.

      Yes. I do. IMAGINE: What if Bill Gates left western WA state? What if he took his $27 million dollar house and all the contractors, florists, maids, landscapers, etc that keep it going? What about that AND the Microsoft campus GONE? Does Bill Gates wealth make the landscapers in Western WA RICHER or POORER? DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!

      –Like the lady in Florida who said the president was a Muslim and should be removed from office

      You better not go down the road of insisting that Obama has to disavow every lunatic statement or person he’s got around HIM, my friend. Don’t start THAT game.

      Thanks for stopping by ;)

      • Rich Shadrin

        Take a tranq Anne if you’re not drinking. It’s easy to take potshots at a leader struggling to do the right thing when the deck is stacked. Yes he had a complacent and lousy bunch of Dems in congress the first 2 years. Of course many who would have given him the edge in moving his agenda were recruited because they could win GOP districts – so they smelled and acted like Repubs.

        Do you have private insurance Anne. I do, through a former employer and is part of an agreement to keep retirees insured to be backed up by Medicare at 65. All I know is I pay a bit more for meds and office visits but that’s in line with costs–caused by the ridiculous antiquated medical billing PROCEDURES, lack of coordination of records and a few venal doctors. “Obamacare” as it’s called (a diminutive and embarrassment to the office) seeks to correct and is correcting the situation. I know, I asked the head of the largest PRIVATE physician network (200 docs, 5 office complexes and facilities equal to a hospital–an MD with an MBA–in a three county area in NY. First person research is always best don’t you think?

        As to the Bill Gates metaphor–you think his Bush tax savings created his way of life, foundation and innovation at MS? If you do you don’t understand commercial enterprise. I am a sole proprietor–a consultant who can play every tax angle and believe me–or not–there is way around anything.

        I don’t have the time or energy to refute every point. Let me end on a very critical note. The disrespect for this duly elected president, from McConnell on day one and the venality this has spawned humiliates our country before the world. The simple fact that Mitt Romney shows the president due respect as opposed to that harridan Jan Brewer out there in gunville says more about him as a gentleman than his ideas.

        If you can’t agree with the man, at least respect the office. After all the prior occupant, a certifiable idiot, did not get nearly the disrespect even when he set himself up as a target by actual deeds. Maybe that’s because the right blogos and radio hosts who held sway in those days protected him. Thanks the lord for MSNBC. (Blood boiling yet?) Sorry.

        • http://www.saltusa.com Annie Ashe Fields

          Take a tranq Anne if you’re not drinking.

          –If you’d ever known someone with the courage & strength to quit an addiction you would know that the successful ones give up most if not ALL addictive substances, so no, I will NOT have a “tranq” as you call it. Neither will I take any painkillers for my R.A. which is debilitatingly painful because I would rather live in pain than in rehab.

          It’s easy to take potshots at a leader struggling to do the right thing when the deck is stacked. Yes he had a complacent and lousy bunch of Dems in congress the first 2 years. Of course many who would have given him the edge in moving his agenda were recruited because they could win GOP districts – so they smelled and acted like Repubs.

          –So the reason his Dem majorities didn’t work for Dem Obama was because they “smelled and acted” Repub? Way to sack up and take responsibility there, big guy. Wow.

          Do you have private insurance Anne. I do, through a former employer and is part of an agreement to keep retirees insured to be backed up by Medicare at 65. All I know is I pay a bit more for meds and office visits but that’s in line with costs–caused by the ridiculous antiquated medical billing PROCEDURES, lack of coordination of records and a few venal doctors. “Obamacare” as it’s called (a diminutive and embarrassment to the office) seeks to correct and is correcting the situation. I know, I asked the head of the largest PRIVATE physician network (200 docs, 5 office complexes and facilities equal to a hospital–an MD with an MBA–in a three county area in NY. First person research is always best don’t you think?

          –We self-pay a frickin fortune for our family here in RomneyCare MA & talking to ONE person is ANECDOTAL not reliable research and your suggestion that it is again, betrays your ideological shortcomings.

          As to the Bill Gates metaphor–you think his Bush tax savings created his way of life, foundation and innovation at MS? If you do you don’t understand commercial enterprise. I am a sole proprietor–a consultant who can play every tax angle and believe me–or not–there is way around anything.

          –Uh… I was talking about the multiplying effect of capitalism. What the hell you are talking about is your own little straw man which is silly and bores me.

          The disrespect for this duly elected president, from McConnell on day one

          —WRONG. McConnel didn’t say that thing about defeating him until OCTOBER 2010. LOOK IT UP, DAMMIT. I’m at the end of my patience with you nancy-boys getting all lathered up because Washington is partisan! What the hell do you think he signed up for? Student council? This is BIG BOY politics. It’s so WEAK when you guys prattle on and on about that big, mean McConnell statement. Makes you guys look sissy and WRONG because, again, HE DIDN’T SAY IT UNTIL THE MIDTERMS!

          – and the venality this has spawned humiliates our country before the world.

          The “world’s” opinion is what the liberals SAY versus what the world DOES which is BEAT FEET HERE MORE THAN ANY OTHER LAND ON EARTH. So while American liberals hate America and firmly believe everyone outside America hates America, everyone outside America who has a choice, chooses AMERICA BY THE ACTIONS when they choose to leave their homelands. So stuff your America hating shit, I’m tired of it.

          at least respect the office. After all the prior occupant, a certifiable idiot, did not get nearly the disrespect

          –You mean the TICKETED PLAY called ‘KILL BUSH’ or the KILL BUSH signs at EVERY ANTI WAR RALLY were respectful? Tea Party NEVER advocated violence EVER. Maybe some fringe lunatic did, but NOBODY Tea Party would EVER and we have video after video of us SELF POLICING the bad apples ourselves, UNLIKE YOUR SIDE POOPING ACROSS AMERICA in the GIMME TENTS “I’M A LOSER” OWS movement.

          even when he set himself up as a target by actual deeds.

          –Obama has doubled down on EVERYTHING Bush started…. Protests? Hello????? WIth OBAMA burning in effigy like you did Bush? DON’T SEE LIBS DOING THAT DO YOU?

          Y’all come back now, y’here.

          • Rich Shadrin

            Well, Anne, you’re nothing if not amusing. I believe everyone is entitled to their opinion but not their own facts. You seem to invent what is required when it is necessary to push a point. BTW if you are paying too much for health care and I’m not, then Obama and Romney had/have different plans. So good for Barry. And the country.

            Please stop your screaming in CAPS. It’s not necessary – I read your words in their entirety and it only makes you look nuts. I don’t mind a disagreement but leave the name calling on the side. It does you little good if you are trying to make a point or even sway me with your own type of logic. And that leads me to your insane argument that if I don’t see things your way I am firstly a liberal (as if that’s a disease) and I’m anti-American. I’m neither–and as Brooklyn born street kid and a trained self defense specialist, I don’t think I qualify as a nancy boy. (Is that gay code or Brit slang Anne).

            Save your lecture about people running to the US and such. I know the stats. And I’ve traveled the world. Don’t overestimate the average person’s desire to come here. No one in the middle classes of any country in which I’ve worked or traveled has suggested a move to our shores. Visit yes–live, not so much. Unless they are poor or oppressed. Of course I’m sure your immigration policy would not welcome them. Meanwhile we continue to sink in the world in education, quality of life, live births, end of life care, longevity, internet speed, manufacturing, length of the working day and year, vacations, green energy production, innovation (with a few shining examples of individual genius) etc. It’s our culture the world loves; you know Brittany, blue jeans and Nike. This isn’t one man’s doing Anne – it’s systemic. Nor is there any value is choosing isolated facts and extrapolating whole cloth and calling it the truth.

            Frankly the whole government should be fired but seeing as that’s impractical I wonder what your solution is? How would you fix everything?

            Finally I’m not one of your fanatic haters who wants to blow your head off so if we can’t have a discussion then your blog is just a rant pure and simple. Takes two to play Anne. If you want to exchange ideas I welcome the opp – you want to act like a nut case, I’ll step away. Let me know.

            • http://www.saltusa.com Annie

              Well, Anne, you’re nothing if not amusing. I believe everyone is entitled to their opinion but not their own facts.

              —I’ve provided links and data to back up my assertions. Even better, I have provided it from sources YOU trust, like the NYT. You have not. I win the facts battle.

              —You seem to invent what is required when it is necessary to push a point. BTW if you are paying too much for health care and I’m not, then Obama and Romney had/have different plans. So good for Barry. And the country.

              If you think having TSA down your pants is a good way to live, then I guess changing the letters to HHS so they can grab you by the balls isn’t much more. Lenin said that health care is the keystone arch in the socialist state. You want to have the feds have that much control over your ass, fine. Not me.

              Please stop your screaming in CAPS.

              —Stuff your etiquette lessons. And think whatever you want about nancy-boy. I don’t give sh*t. You’re going down with your eyes squeezed shut no matter what I say.

              I’m sure your immigration policy would not welcome them.

              Typical lib accusation. I happen to VALUE my American citizenship and don’t think it should be given out like a streetwalker’s virginity. Come LEGALLY and I don’t care WHO you are or WHERE you come from. Makes no never mind to me. BTW: READ what FDR had to say about immigration. I agree with him.

              Meanwhile we continue to sink in the world in education, quality of life, live births, end of life care, longevity,

              —WRONG, cowboy. If you ever actually BOTHERED to research propaganda like I do, you would find that it is ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS who are pulling ALL THOSE NUMBERS DOWN. Remove them from the data, and we’re #1, all the way across. I’m sure you will find me racist for making an observation of fact. Rational adults recognize it for what it is: non-English speaking, non-educated poverty. It is what it is. No more. No less. Make of that what you will.

              —green energy production

              Exactly how are we going to “lead the world” in green tech if China owns 95% of all the rare earth minerals necessary to manufacture ALL OF IT? Huh, genius? I’ll bet you didn’t even KNOW that, did you? You will, of course, tell me that you did, and I will not believe you because this, being the third bite at the apple, tells me from experience that you lack any critical thinking or research skills.

              How would I fix everything?

              Return all redistribution of wealth services to the states. ALL OF THEM. Provide federal tax credits – BIG ONE – to everyone who makes a charitable contribution to help the least among us. That way everyone with eyes, on the ground, directs their OWN money and the the federal government FOLLOWS US rather than the other way around.

              All that’s left for the fed’s to do after that is that which we cannot do ourselves: like war, foreign policy, basic regulations, etc. Make sure everybody’s got a level playing field, then GET OUT OF THE WAY.

              Okay?

              I would recommend that if you come back, you come back with some links, because you’re starting to simultaneously piss me off AND bore me.

            • http://www.saltusa.com Annie Ashe Fields

              Well, Anne, you’re nothing if not amusing. I believe everyone is entitled to their opinion but not their own facts.

              —I’ve provided links and data to back up my assertions. Even better, I have provided it from sources YOU trust, like the NYT. You have not. I win the facts battle.

              —You seem to invent what is required when it is necessary to push a point. BTW if you are paying too much for health care and I’m not, then Obama and Romney had/have different plans. So good for Barry. And the country.

              If you think having TSA down your pants is a good way to live, then I guess changing the letters to HHS so they can grab you by the balls isn’t much more. Lenin said that health care is the keystone arch in the socialist state. You want to have the feds have that much control over your ass, fine. Not me.

              Please stop your screaming in CAPS.

              —Stuff your etiquette lessons. And think whatever you want about nancy-boy. I don’t give sh*t. You’re going down with your eyes squeezed shut no matter what I say.

              I’m sure your immigration policy would not welcome them.

              Typical lib accusation. I happen to VALUE my American citizenship and don’t think it should be given out like a streetwalker’s virginity. Come LEGALLY and I don’t care WHO you are or WHERE you come from. Makes no never mind to me. BTW: READ what FDR had to say about immigration. I agree with him.

              Meanwhile we continue to sink in the world in education, quality of life, live births, end of life care, longevity,

              —WRONG, cowboy. If you ever actually BOTHERED to research propaganda like I do, you would find that it is ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS who are pulling ALL THOSE NUMBERS DOWN. Remove them from the data, and we’re #1, all the way across. I’m sure you will find me racist for making an observation of fact. Rational adults recognize it for what it is: non-English speaking, non-educated poverty. It is what it is. No more. No less. Make of that what you will.

              —green energy production

              Exactly how are we going to “lead the world” in green tech if China owns 95% of all the rare earth minerals necessary to manufacture ALL OF IT? Huh, genius? I’ll bet you didn’t even KNOW that, did you? You will, of course, tell me that you did, and I will not believe you because this, being the third bite at the apple, tells me from experience that you lack any critical thinking or research skills.

              How would I fix everything?

              Return all redistribution of wealth services to the states. ALL OF THEM. Provide federal tax credits – BIG ONE – to everyone who makes a charitable contribution to help the least among us. That way everyone with eyes, on the ground, directs their OWN money and the the federal government FOLLOWS US rather than the other way around.

              All that’s left for the fed’s to do after that is that which we cannot do ourselves: like war, foreign policy, basic regulations, etc. Make sure everybody’s got a level playing field, then GET OUT OF THE WAY.

              Okay?

              I would recommend that if you come back, you come back with some links, because you’re starting to simultaneously piss me off AND bore me.

      • Lou

        Annie,

        I love how in typical fashion liberal minded folk “defend” their side by blaming others for the shortcomings of their candidates, also how they can spout “fact” after “fact” with out crediting any sources, and then demand that anyone who dares to counter anything they have said must site sources in triplicate from “approved” sources. Keep up the good work, it is refreshing to read your blog.

        -lou

        • http://www.saltusa.com Annie Ashe Fields

          Thanks, brother! You’re getting pretty deep in the weeds, here, aren’t you!

    • anony321

      SHE IS CRAZY.. BRAIN DAMAGED.. DELUSIONAL.. TOO MUCH FAUX “NEWS”..

      A TRUE MEMBER OF “THE 1% REPUBLICAN PARTY”!!! WHO ARE GOING TO LOSE THE 2012 ELECTION.

      • http://www.saltusa.com Annie Ashe Fields

        –I will explain. Cheney, Bush spent 4 trillion dollars …in Afghanistan, and Iraq…

        WRONG. It cost LESS in Bush two TERMS than Obama BLEW in two YEARS and a NYT ENDORSED source says I’m right. See page 17 of the report linked below and you will see that BOTH wars cost about $108 billion annually. Even my link for NYT endorsement is below:

        SOURCE: March 23, 2010 Congressional Research Service “The Impact of Major Legislation on Budget Deficits: 2001 to 2009” page 17 ~ http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41134.pdf ~ The New York Times wrote a whole piece on war spending in July 2010 using CRS dadata for source material. Sorry, don’t have link, but search it.

        –Bush Tax Cuts for those making more than 250K went into effect after 911.

        Yes, they did. And if you cast your lonely eyes to Obama’s own data, from his very own Executive Branch OMB number crunchers, you will see a MOUNTAIN of REVENUE incoming after that. REVENUE. That’s PROFIT to the federal government, young squire. It’s SPENDING AFTER PELOSI got the purse that was OUT OF CONTROL, NOT revenue to the federal government. The rate of spending TRIPLED after Pelosi got the purse. Again, this is all backed up by the government’s own data, the liberal Tax Policy Center, and that, too, is endorse by the NYT as a credible source, by no less a personage than Nobel Prize winning economist than Paul Krugman:

        SOURCES: “They are not the main cause of the sizable deficit that exists today.” http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=1001423 & Krugman endorsement: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/whats-at-stake/

        –RICH PEOPLE to continue to employee workers here.

        Never worked for a poor guy. Never worked for someone whose business didn’t gross 250k+ either and WOULDN’T WANT TO and NEITHER SHOULD YOU if you had any sense. Bonus fact: MOST people who own small biz file as single filers and 70% of ALL JOBS come from small biz. So explain to me again how giving the government more small biz money = more private sector jobs? How does that work? Hmmm?

        I HOPE YOUR KIDS ARE BURNT TO DEATH WHEN THE PEOPLE COME TO YOUR MANSION BURN YOU OUT!

        –Does that include my autistic daughter, cowering the corner of our palatial 2500 square foot house? (I thought would qualify as HALF the size of a McMansion…)

        Thanks for stopping by ;)

        • proteus

          Coocoo! Coocoo! You certainly drink the tea well – a serious hat’s off to that. Why question the political talking points when they disseminate directly from Faux News. Bravo, perhaps you’ll get a promotion

  • Leviathan

    Sorry, you did say the pres “criminalized private sector loans.”
    I guess you mean this?
    The new law will eliminate fees paid to private banks to act as intermediaries in providing loans to college students and use much of the nearly $68 billion in savings over 11 years to expand Pell Grants and make it easier for students to repay outstanding loans after graduating. The law also invests $2 billion in community colleges over the next four years to provide education and career training programs to workers eligible for Trade Adjustment aid.

    The law will increase Pell Grant grants along with inflation in the next few years, which should raise the maximum grant to $5,975 from $5,550 by 2017, according to the White House, and it will also provide 820,000 more grants by 2020. Including money from last year’s stimulus program and regular budget increases, the White House said Mr. Obama has now doubled spending on Pell Grants.

    • anony321

      She cannot possibly comprehend any of the details. NO WAY!
      I am out of here. Let her eat her own brain…

      • http://www.saltusa.com Annie Ashe Fields

        –I will explain. Cheney, Bush spent 4 trillion dollars …in Afghanistan, and Iraq…

        WRONG. It cost LESS in Bush two TERMS than Obama BLEW in two YEARS and a NYT ENDORSED source says I’m right. See page 17 of the report linked below and you will see that BOTH wars cost about $108 billion annually. Even my link for NYT endorsement is below:

        SOURCE: March 23, 2010 Congressional Research Service “The Impact of Major Legislation on Budget Deficits: 2001 to 2009” page 17 ~ http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41134.pdf ~ The New York Times wrote a whole piece on war spending in July 2010 using CRS dadata for source material. Sorry, don’t have link, but search it.

        –Bush Tax Cuts for those making more than 250K went into effect after 911.

        Yes, they did. And if you cast your lonely eyes to Obama’s own data, from his very own Executive Branch OMB number crunchers, you will see a MOUNTAIN of REVENUE incoming after that. REVENUE. That’s PROFIT to the federal government, young squire. It’s SPENDING AFTER PELOSI got the purse that was OUT OF CONTROL, NOT revenue to the federal government. The rate of spending TRIPLED after Pelosi got the purse. Again, this is all backed up by the government’s own data, the liberal Tax Policy Center, and that, too, is endorse by the NYT as a credible source, by no less a personage than Nobel Prize winning economist than Paul Krugman:

        SOURCES: “They are not the main cause of the sizable deficit that exists today.” http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=1001423 & Krugman endorsement: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/whats-at-stake/

        –RICH PEOPLE to continue to employee workers here.

        Never worked for a poor guy. Never worked for someone whose business didn’t gross 250k+ either and WOULDN’T WANT TO and NEITHER SHOULD YOU if you had any sense. Bonus fact: MOST people who own small biz file as single filers and 70% of ALL JOBS come from small biz. So explain to me again how giving the government more small biz money = more private sector jobs? How does that work? Hmmm?

        I HOPE YOUR KIDS ARE BURNT TO DEATH WHEN THE PEOPLE COME TO YOUR MANSION BURN YOU OUT!

        –Does that include my autistic daughter, cowering the corner of our palatial 2500 square foot house? (I thought would qualify as HALF the size of a McMansion…)

        Thanks for stopping by ;)

  • Leviathan

    Ever heard of school loans? That’s how your “Harvard JD/MD” pays for school, despite what the pres said. (I don’t trust you on the math, btw.)

    • http://www.saltusa.com Annie Ashe Fields

      To go all the way to an MD at Harvard TIMES TWO KIDS comes in at just shy of $1M TODAY. Just do it in your head and you’ll believe it. One year is $50k… now add.