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Forums - General Discussion - Why do people vote for Hilary and Obama?

Come on people, at least make your jabs GOOD.



 

 

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From http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/detail/10004352.2005.html

Does the performance of this program compare favorably to other programs, including government, private, etc., with similar purpose and goals?

Explanation: The VA Insurance Program regularly measures its performance against and compares favorably to other programs with similar purpose and goals. Because the VA Insurance program is similar to a commercial insurance company, it compares its performance with other private companies as a member of a life insurance industry trade association and a well-known organization that tracks customer satisfaction for commercial companies. Both organizations provide performance data on customer satisfaction, timeliness and other performance indicators. Results of the Insurance Industry Trade Association study indicate that the Insurance program consistently exceeds its benchmark targets and compares favorably to commercial life insurance companies. In addition, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), another performance study that tracks trends in customer satisfaction, provides benchmarking insights for commercial companies, and government agencies. The program's score of 90 out of a possible 100 in death awards processing exceeded the private life insurance sector's score of 75 and the federal government-wide score of 68.6. In the program's toll-free telephone service study, Insurance earned an overall score of 80 out of a possible 100, the highest score of Government agencies performing similar functions.

Evidence: ACSI Survey (May 2001); ACSI Survey (November 2003) Insurance Industry Turnaround Survey; VA 2006 Congressional Justification.



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So can we expect you at the Crow Eating Thread



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My advice to fanboys: Brag about stuff that's true, not about stuff that's false. Predict stuff that's likely, not stuff that's unlikely. You will be happier, and we will be happier.

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Sen. Pat Moynihan
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elprincipe said:
Final-Fan said:
Also: I can't dig up the specific case without doing more research than I care to do at work, but I recall a comparison of a U.S. government employee health care system (run by the federal government, natch) that was super-efficient with very little bureaucratic overhead that put private health care companies to shame. What has you so convinced that they couldn't duplicate that example writ large?

When companies merge, they usually eliminate a lot of duplicated and wasted effort, right? So one entity doing all the work would, all else being equal, be most efficient, right?

Finally, the U.S. government is the largest nonprofit organization in the world. There isn't a constant drain of money to stockholders. And the CEOs don't drain coffers further with ridiculous pay packages.

Don't think I'm unaware of the drawbacks of government control. But there is a lot of upside, too.

Your confidence in government is exceedingly naive. I've lived in the Washington, DC area most of my life. I've seen these guys at work. Government efficiency is an oxymoron.

You think that government-run health care is more efficient than private? Prove it. I'll be prepared to eat crow if you do, but I seriously doubt ever having to do that.

Constant drain of money to stockholders? Yeah...government does so well with its finances that it has a debt of over $9.1 trillion currently (http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/) that is increasing every second of every minute of every day. Yeah, sure, government has less bureaucracy and higher efficiency...except that it never has for any government program in the history of mankind. I await any proof (nonexistent though it may be) to the contrary.

Note that I am not defending CEO pay packages, some of which are ridiculous.


Dude, check my first post in the thread. I detail how the US medical system, with the least government involvement in the developed world, is among the least efficient.

You do have a point that the US government often does a terrible job of administrating public programs. That's a failure of your government, not a failure of public health care systems in general. There are a great deal of public or partially public health care systems that work much more effectively than the US private system.

It may not be easy, but it is possible to get better performance out of your government. They say that in democracies, people get the government they deserve...



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.

elprincipe said:
Final-Fan said:
That said, yes, of course we could afford it. We could afford 100% taxes if the government provided 100% of everything we need. But you know what? I don't like that system. Not only don't I like that system, it's been tried before and failed miserably. And that's what we'll be if government takes over health care: miserable. I'll say it again: there is nothing in the history of government that has ever been run more efficiently than the private sector does it. Sure, there are some things that by necessity must be run by the government (military, foreign relations and a few more), but making us pay more taxes because "we can afford it" is pretty dumb. I don't know about you, but I'd rather make my own financial (and other) decisions instead of having the government screw them up for me.

Why do you put up this communist strawman? It'd be closer to the truth to accuse Ron Paul of wanting to completely abolish all government above the county level. But I'm not accusing him of that, because even if it's true in his heart of hearts I have no evidence to back it up.

Oh, and the privately run airlines are a fucking joke. A joke that the government has to step in and bail out about every decade. How is that "more efficiently" run?

I don't want my tax dollars wasted on inefficiently run, shitty programs that don't benefit the country. Therefore, I want the government to take back the airlines so our tax dollars won't keep lining the pockets of the airline companies.

First off, this had nothing to do with Ron Paul whatsoever, so I'm not quite sure where you got that.

And it's not a strawman. The government owning 100% of everything and controlling everything has been tried. It failed. Badly. The people under this system were miserable and life was horrible.

I agree government shouldn't bail out airlines. If people want to travel by air, let them pay the full costs of said travel. It's ridiculous that someone who never flies on an airline has to subsidize someone who does so all the time.

That said, I don't see how it then follows that the government should control airlines. That is even more ridiculous than the government subsidizing them.


I only used Ron Paul as the subject of a counterexample of your attack.  Portraying the Democratic agenda as even socialist is laughable, and trying to imply that it's advancing towards communism is just stupid.  That was the strawman I referred to.  And if that's not what you were trying to say, then why did you even mention it?  Not even really communist regimes like China, Vietnam, and the former USSR stuck to 100% government control.  And much of the hardships people in communist countries faced was due to the brutality and incompetence of the regimes in question rather than communism itself.  (Don't mistake that for a defense of communism!)

If government stopped supporting airlines, they would fail.  FAIL.  They're too greedy and incompetent to do otherwise, unless they jacked up the price so high the industry would be reduced to a shadow of its former self before it reached a capitalist equilibrium.  Maybe you're OK with that -- in which case I respect you a little more for sticking to your ideological guns -- but that is irrelevant to and doesn't change the fact that airline service in the US was more punctual, courteous, and all-around better before privatization.  At least, that's what I've heard; I'm not old enough to testify to that personally.  



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My advice to fanboys: Brag about stuff that's true, not about stuff that's false. Predict stuff that's likely, not stuff that's unlikely. You will be happier, and we will be happier.

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Sen. Pat Moynihan
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The old smileys: ; - ) : - ) : - ( : - P : - D : - # ( c ) ( k ) ( y ) If anyone knows the shortcut for , let me know!
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Also, what's up with all the republicans being behind Rudy? I mean, isn't this the party who was pissed Bill Clinton got a BJ.

Rudy is Pro gay marriage, Pro abortion, cheated on two wives, and has cross dressed on national tv atleast twice. Most hardcore republicans got pissed off against Kerry when he said he was less against gay marriage then other people because he didn't want a constitutional ammendment to make something that's already illegal super double illegal.

Quoted For Awesome



Tag (courtesy of fkusumot): "Please feel free -- nay, I encourage you -- to offer rebuttal."
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My advice to fanboys: Brag about stuff that's true, not about stuff that's false. Predict stuff that's likely, not stuff that's unlikely. You will be happier, and we will be happier.

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Sen. Pat Moynihan
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The old smileys: ; - ) : - ) : - ( : - P : - D : - # ( c ) ( k ) ( y ) If anyone knows the shortcut for , let me know!
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Eomund said:
http://www.fairtax.org

woot

I would support a fair tax. 

 



FactCheck.org is about as neutral and accurate as they come.  Here's what they have to say about the FairTax:  

http://www.factcheck.org/taxes/unspinning_the_fairtax.html

This is the Treasury Department's graph of who will pay what percentage of tax revenue under the FairTax as opposed to current tax law.  Notice how everyone is actually paying MORE except for the extremely poor and very rich?  

You should also check out the part about the misleading "tax-inclusive price" tax rate. 

In conclusion:  the FairTax would be LESS FAIR THAN THE CURRENT TAX SYSTEM.  (Giving handouts -- shades of welfare? -- to the poor while effectively dropping taxes on the rich and raising them on everyone else.) 



Tag (courtesy of fkusumot): "Please feel free -- nay, I encourage you -- to offer rebuttal."
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My advice to fanboys: Brag about stuff that's true, not about stuff that's false. Predict stuff that's likely, not stuff that's unlikely. You will be happier, and we will be happier.

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Sen. Pat Moynihan
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The old smileys: ; - ) : - ) : - ( : - P : - D : - # ( c ) ( k ) ( y ) If anyone knows the shortcut for , let me know!
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I have the most epic death scene ever in VGChartz Mafia.  Thanks WordsofWisdom! 

Final-Fan said:

FactCheck.org is about as neutral and accurate as they come. Here's what they have to say about the FairTax:

http://www.factcheck.org/taxes/unspinning_the_fairtax.html

This is the Treasury Department's graph of who will pay what percentage of tax revenue under the FairTax as opposed to current tax law. Notice how everyone is actually paying MORE except for the extremely poor and very rich?

You should also check out the part about the misleading "tax-inclusive price" tax rate.

In conclusion: the FairTax would be LESS FAIR THAN THE CURRENT TAX SYSTEM. (Giving handouts -- shades of welfare? -- to the poor while effectively dropping taxes on the rich and raising them on everyone else.)


Riiiight... do you realize what percentage of the population is current paying that 53.5%?  

If the extreme minority of people is paying a majority of taxes I don't exactly call that fair. I can understand making those who make more pay more.  But what you aren't realizing is that the reason this tax is considered fair isn't because it reapportions who is paying what but because it is based on what these groups spend each year.  

What could be more fair then applying the same thing to every person and letting the fact that rich people spend more account for the extra they should pay?  If anything you are suggesting we punish people for saving money...that makes no sense.  

And I will also say that any system that doesn't involve a death tax is infinitely more fair than what we have now. Seriously who the F thought up the idea..."Oh hey...lets go to everyone who has just lost a love one and ask them for money!! And even better is that we have already taxed this when that person earned it so in addition to being a bunch of douchebags for thinking of it we are breaking one of the fundamental rules of not double taxing people...yes this plan is awesome!"



To Each Man, Responsibility
Sqrl said:
Final-Fan said:

FactCheck.org is about as neutral and accurate as they come. Here's what they have to say about the FairTax:

http://www.factcheck.org/taxes/unspinning_the_fairtax.html

This is the Treasury Department's graph of who will pay what percentage of tax revenue under the FairTax as opposed to current tax law. Notice how everyone is actually paying MORE except for the extremely poor and very rich?

You should also check out the part about the misleading "tax-inclusive price" tax rate.

In conclusion: the FairTax would be LESS FAIR THAN THE CURRENT TAX SYSTEM. (Giving handouts -- shades of welfare? -- to the poor while effectively dropping taxes on the rich and raising them on everyone else.)


Riiiight... do you realize what percentage of the population is current paying that 53.5%?

If the extreme minority of people is paying a majority of taxes I don't exactly call that fair. I can understand making those who make more pay more. But what you aren't realizing is that the reason this tax is considered fair isn't because it reapportions who is paying what but because it is based on what these groups spend each year.

What could be more fair then applying the same thing to every person and letting the fact that rich people spend more account for the extra they should pay? If anything you are suggesting we punish people for saving money...that makes no sense.

And I will also say that any system that doesn't involve a death tax is infinitely more fair than what we have now. Seriously who the F thought up the idea..."Oh hey...lets go to everyone who has just lost a love one and ask them for money!! And even better is that we have already taxed this when that person earned it so in addition to being a bunch of douchebags for thinking of it we are breaking one of the fundamental rules of not double taxing people...yes this plan is awesome!"


OK, I will admit that we perhaps are using competing senses of the word "fair".

But as for the estate tax:
A) You don't pay shit unless your estate is worth more than $1.5 million. [Correction: $2 million.]
B) You don't pay much unless it's more than $5 million.
C) Most such estates include very substantial assets that have grown in value in nontaxable ways, so
D) "Estates worth more than $10 million were 56.4 percent made up of unrealized, untaxed capital gains." [edit: Or, in fact, it may be much more; see below.]

In short, the estate tax falls heavily only on extremely rich people, who can shut the fuck up about society sqeezing them for cash [edit:  and that goes double for income taxes]; and much of the assets of estates would NEVER BE TAXED if not for the estate tax.

(thanks FactCheck.org: http://www.factcheck.org/article328.html )

"We have found no study disputing these findings. In fact, they may be understated. For one thing the authors couldn't find any way to estimate the unrealized capital gains on art work or other collectibles, which can make up a sizeable part of some estates. More importantly, the very richest Americans aren't covered by this study, because the Federal Reserve Board survey on which the study is based doesn't include them. It is quite likely the averages are even higher for billionaires, whose fortunes are often built on appreciated stock or real estate that would go untaxed at their death but for the estate tax."

Taxable Farm or Business Estates, 2004

   

Number of Returns

Average Tax (thousands)

Average Rate


Under $1 million   0   $0   0.0%  
$1 - $2 million   190   $26   1.6%  
$2 - $3.5 million   60   $190   7.5%  
$3.5 - $5 million   40   $449   12.0%  
$5 - $10 million   80   $1,322   19.3%  
$10 - $20 million   50   $2,832   22.9%  
More than $20 million   30   $23,442   22.2%  
All   440   $2,238   19.9%  

Source: Tax Policy Center, Table T04-0163
Note: Number of returns rounded to nearest multiple of ten.






Tag (courtesy of fkusumot): "Please feel free -- nay, I encourage you -- to offer rebuttal."
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My advice to fanboys: Brag about stuff that's true, not about stuff that's false. Predict stuff that's likely, not stuff that's unlikely. You will be happier, and we will be happier.

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Sen. Pat Moynihan
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The old smileys: ; - ) : - ) : - ( : - P : - D : - # ( c ) ( k ) ( y ) If anyone knows the shortcut for , let me know!
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I have the most epic death scene ever in VGChartz Mafia.  Thanks WordsofWisdom!