Yep, always amazed me. My Father in Law ran a sheet metal company for years, he said two months after tax season was like Christmas for him. His employees would get a big tax check go spend it all on things like TV's and guns. A month later when they are busted again, they pawned the items off. He would then go in an buy the pawn ticket for near nothing go claim the items and sell them for full price again. I told him he had quite a racquet going on and he just laughed, said it was like clock work every year.
No federal taxes on Social Security
- Thread starter DANC
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Man I bet that deli was somethin. Delicious. Would have loved to have been able to say I had it.
As for the employees that’s just human nature. I’m sure they were more than grateful to work at a great place.
I'd have to dive to the bottom and run like hell.
Yep, some have Trumpitis and have forever.
Yeah, I'm not sure about that either since you don't pay SS taxes on the SS income. If he's referring to the whole system as one big pot then there would be less taxes collected.
Some people have no sense of humor... others just have no sense.
Ahh.... I didn't know that.... at least learned something today,
It was a nice little gig until Panera and McAllisters moved in. I bought the place, knowing there weren't really any other delis in town and it was a favorite of a lot of local salaried employees.
Then the chains moved in and the local employer played off 600 engineers. I was trying to run the deli and do my regular job. Something had to give before I lost my mind and I sold it. I'd always thought it would be a great retirement gig for me, but just wasn't meant to be.
I needed you for product development.
My employees were a lot more into opioids than they were working at the deli. I could tell some stories.....
I don't want to be isolationist either but I do believe that part of being more fiscally responsible would be using more discretion on which fights we need to engage in.
In the case of Ukraine, I am with you in that I don't believe Ukraine falling would have led to more dominoes falling among NATO countries. I could even make the argument that Ukraine falling could have been beneficial to the US in convincing our "allies" (most of them are protectorates) in NATO to take their own defense spending a little more seriously lest they should find themselves outside our protective shield and meet the fate of the Ukrainians.
The fact of the matter is that China is our main threat and they are sitting back while we wear ourselves thin. Ukraine was part of the different variations of the Russian Empire for a long time and the US got along just fine. We would have continued to be fine should it have fallen.
One last thought. I think most of our "allies" take our interventionism as a give in. Some of the most critical people of how we operate are the very people who sit comfortably under our protection. I don't think it would be terrible for us if they were provided a reminder of what being outside of that bubble could mean and what a "multipolar" world order as envisaged by China would look like.
NATO country is next? Bwaaahaaaahahhhaaaa. You’re going to contend, with a straight face, that Russia is going to attack a NATO country when Ukraine loses? 😂
Not immediately. He wants to take back other non-NATO former Soviet countries first. This removes more buffer states between NATO and Russia. It increases the chance for direct war. We also know Trump has expressed his desire to leave NATO, and the MAGA faction is increasingly isolationist, pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine. It’s fairly safe to say Putin sees the conditions forming for his stated goal of reestablishing the boundaries of the USSR. Continuing to support Ukraine means further reduction of Russia’s military capability at a fraction of the cost of any direct confrontation between Russia and NATO/USA. It also shows western resolve to support a democratic partner nation. This is firmly in US national interests to do.
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What we’re spending in Ukraine is a tiny fraction of what we’d spend in a direct war. Look at Iraq costs and expect to multiply that. If Ukraine is Russian and on NATO’s border the chances for direct conflict greatly increase. Continuing to support Ukraine is in our national interests for many reasons. Demonstrating NATO resolve to support a democratic partner nation is a deterrent to Russia and an encouragment to other Eastern Europe partner nations. It also degrades Russian military capability on the cheap (relatively speaking, for NATO countries, not for Ukraine). It also has demonstrated the superiority of western weapons, training, operations and tactics, which is another deterrent for Russia.
Social media is the actual culprit in manipulating people. You don’t even have to go beyond this board to see some negative results of that.
In fairness, opposing our involvement in Ukraine doesn't make one pro-Russia.
It's similar to labeling those who support a Palestinian state as pro-Hamas or antisemitic.
That doesn't really answer my question:
Do you honestly think there is a real threat of Russia invading a NATO country?
The USSR never attacked a NATO country over 50 years. And it was thought to have been the second best, largest military in the world at the time. Putin is not a madman. Why would he attack a NATO country now, when Russia can't even secure a victory against Ukraine?
It's OK to say, "it's not very likely at all but all the reasons I listed are why it makes sense for the US to spend billions to defend Ukraine."
Whether something is "in our national interests" also is not, in my mind, a sufficient justification, although it is a necessary requirement.
Of course, that doesn't apply to everyone. But we have to MAGA pro-Russian (Putin), anti-Ukraine posters on this board and there's far to much pro-Russian/anti-Ukraine among the MAGA faction.
Not immediately. I'm not sure Putin isn't a mad man, by the way.
The same way Trump is paying for his tax cuts, not. It is very disappointing we don't care.
We should freeze the overall budget, shift priorities in it but freeze the total, and let the tax cuts expire.
We don't need to raise taxes. We need to freeze spending. It won't take long before we're running a surplus if the federal government kept spending at the same level for a few years.
Agreed. Freeze total spending and let the growing economy grow revenues.
Careful now, you’ll have your MSNBC, radical lefty card revoked and be labeled an unrepentant capitalist.
It would never work. You fascists would fvck it up with tax cuts.
The tax cuts were temporary for a reason. I am not saying raise them, just let the temporary ones expire.
"He's learned promising shit and never having to follow through gets you elected and he learned that from Biden."
I'd say he learned it firsthand (er healthcare...) He also learned that he only has to say he has a "concept of a plan" and some people will still vote for him...
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