Anonymous wrote:In fairness, outsourcing has some advantages. You can cut a project faster, you can switch vendors, ramp up quickly. It isn't all going to in ground pools.

I agree there is a TON of waste on both the contractor side and gov side. HOWEVER, as a contractor, I see the benefits of being able to slash people that are not performing, whereas the government is STUCK with the gov employee forever. On out contract, we have had our fair share of immediate removals of non-performers or people who simply cannot play nice. That could have never happened with gov employees.

Anonymous wrote:

http://www.thepaincomics.com/

Amen!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just because I make more than 250,000 doesn't mean I'm rich. In fact I feel as if I can just enjoy our salary after trying to educate 2 kids etc. we worked hard for this. Instead of asking for higher taxes why don't you just write a check to the government?

If you only make a little bit more than $250,000 you would hardly notice a tax increase (it's marginal, you know). If you make a lot more than $250,000 you might notice the tax, but, guess what? In that case, you're rich.

But you haven't articulated why the government should take more of our money. Except that they should.

NP because we need to pay our bills like anyone else. We the People have decided on a social security system, a medicare system, defense infrastructure and wars that costs a certain amount of money. And because of that we have racked up a lot of debt, which we need to pay down.

One thing is clear from the last budget debates. The Republicans can't even put together a plan that accomplishes this, without taxes, and has solid Republican support. Because in the end, Congressmen want to keep their jobs, and Americans want to keep their programs. It's that simple.

Actually we need to raise taxes to pay for Obamacare. A plan that just raises healthcare costs. The current tax structure as fucked up as it is covers everything else. And have you ever heard of budget cuts? Govt workers make too damn much and we have too many of them. We need to slash.

Yeah, our budget was doing great before the health care plan. Nice try. Silly lie.

The lazy, incompetent, unqualified ones. Not so for the hardworking, overqualified ones.

In fairness, outsourcing has some advantages. You can cut a project faster, you can switch vendors, ramp up quickly. It isn't all going to in ground pools.

Anonymous wrote:My story,
I live in the 2nd wealthiest county in the US. I have spent the majority of my adult life working as an IT professional on large federal projects of questionable value. I make about 70 dollars an hour for work that my employer then charges the government about 180 dollars an hour for. The federal government employees are unwilling and unable to do this work themselves. My manager lives in a 1.5 million dollar house with no yard. I spend about two hours each day to drive in traffic stuck behind BMWs and Mercedes cars. My parents live in a state with over 12 percent unemployment. Where I live the unemployment rate is 4 percent. Please tax me more. Whatever you do don't tax me less. I won't have a job. I am going to vote democratic for life. I don’t want to live where my parents live. Things are not nice there…

With all due respect, there has been a tremendous push over the past 30 years to outsource to the private sector jobs like yours that you could have done for $70 an hour working for the government. This supposedly in the name of the vaunted "efficiency" of the private sector. As a result, we get to pay $110 extra per hour in taxes for your services so that your fatcat manager can live in a 1.5 million dollar house.

The Rand Corporation has estimated that outsourcing jobs that could be done by the same person in the employ of the government increases the cost of those services by up to 100%. So much for government workers making too much. With regards to the efficiency of the private sector, those who have drunk the Republican Kool-Aid and never took (or if they did, never understood) Econ 101 mistake at their own peril Adam Smith's idealized free market of small businesses operating in near perfect competition with the mixture of crony capitalism and monopolistic competition we actually live in.

People who continually undermine and demean their government finally end up with the government they deserve.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just because I make more than 250,000 doesn't mean I'm rich. In fact I feel as if I can just enjoy our salary after trying to educate 2 kids etc. we worked hard for this. Instead of asking for higher taxes why don't you just write a check to the government?

If you only make a little bit more than $250,000 you would hardly notice a tax increase (it's marginal, you know). If you make a lot more than $250,000 you might notice the tax, but, guess what? In that case, you're rich.

But you haven't articulated why the government should take more of our money. Except that they should.

NP because we need to pay our bills like anyone else. We the People have decided on a social security system, a medicare system, defense infrastructure and wars that costs a certain amount of money. And because of that we have racked up a lot of debt, which we need to pay down.

One thing is clear from the last budget debates. The Republicans can't even put together a plan that accomplishes this, without taxes, and has solid Republican support. Because in the end, Congressmen want to keep their jobs, and Americans want to keep their programs. It's that simple.

Actually we need to raise taxes to pay for Obamacare. A plan that just raises healthcare costs. The current tax structure as fucked up as it is covers everything else. And have you ever heard of budget cuts? Govt workers make too damn much and we have too many of them. We need to slash.

Yeah, our budget was doing great before the health care plan. Nice try. Silly lie.

Anonymous wrote:My story,
I live in the 2nd wealthiest county in the US. I have spent the majority of my adult life working as an IT professional on large federal projects of questionable value. I make about 70 dollars an hour for work that my employer then charges the government about 180 dollars an hour for. The federal government employees are unwilling and unable to do this work themselves. My manager lives in a 1.5 million dollar house with no yard. I spend about two hours each day to drive in traffic stuck behind BMWs and Mercedes cars. My parents live in a state with over 12 percent unemployment. Where I live the unemployment rate is 4 percent. Please tax me more. Whatever you do don't tax me less. I won't have a job. I am going to vote democratic for life. I don’t want to live where my parents live. Things are not nice there…

But you realize all this wealth is due to the US government and it's excessive spending.

My story,
I live in the 2nd wealthiest county in the US. I have spent the majority of my adult life working as an IT professional on large federal projects of questionable value. I make about 70 dollars an hour for work that my employer then charges the government about 180 dollars an hour for. The federal government employees are unwilling and unable to do this work themselves. My manager lives in a 1.5 million dollar house with no yard. I spend about two hours each day to drive in traffic stuck behind BMWs and Mercedes cars. My parents live in a state with over 12 percent unemployment. Where I live the unemployment rate is 4 percent. Please tax me more. Whatever you do don't tax me less. I won't have a job. I am going to vote democratic for life. I don’t want to live where my parents live. Things are not nice there…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just because I make more than 250,000 doesn't mean I'm rich. In fact I feel as if I can just enjoy our salary after trying to educate 2 kids etc. we worked hard for this. Instead of asking for higher taxes why don't you just write a check to the government?

If you only make a little bit more than $250,000 you would hardly notice a tax increase (it's marginal, you know). If you make a lot more than $250,000 you might notice the tax, but, guess what? In that case, you're rich.

But you haven't articulated why the government should take more of our money. Except that they should.

NP because we need to pay our bills like anyone else. We the People have decided on a social security system, a medicare system, defense infrastructure and wars that costs a certain amount of money. And because of that we have racked up a lot of debt, which we need to pay down.

One thing is clear from the last budget debates. The Republicans can't even put together a plan that accomplishes this, without taxes, and has solid Republican support. Because in the end, Congressmen want to keep their jobs, and Americans want to keep their programs. It's that simple.

Actually we need to raise taxes to pay for Obamacare. A plan that just raises healthcare costs. The current tax structure as fucked up as it is covers everything else. And have you ever heard of budget cuts? Govt workers make too damn much and we have too many of them. We need to slash.

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just because I make more than 250,000 doesn't mean I'm rich. In fact I feel as if I can just enjoy our salary after trying to educate 2 kids etc. we worked hard for this. Instead of asking for higher taxes why don't you just write a check to the government?

If you only make a little bit more than $250,000 you would hardly notice a tax increase (it's marginal, you know). If you make a lot more than $250,000 you might notice the tax, but, guess what? In that case, you're rich.

But you haven't articulated why the government should take more of our money. Except that they should.

NP because we need to pay our bills like anyone else. We the People have decided on a social security system, a medicare system, defense infrastructure and wars that costs a certain amount of money. And because of that we have racked up a lot of debt, which we need to pay down.

One thing is clear from the last budget debates. The Republicans can't even put together a plan that accomplishes this, without taxes, and has solid Republican support. Because in the end, Congressmen want to keep their jobs, and Americans want to keep their programs. It's that simple.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just because I make more than 250,000 doesn't mean I'm rich. In fact I feel as if I can just enjoy our salary after trying to educate 2 kids etc. we worked hard for this. Instead of asking for higher taxes why don't you just write a check to the government?

If you only make a little bit more than $250,000 you would hardly notice a tax increase (it's marginal, you know). If you make a lot more than $250,000 you might notice the tax, but, guess what? In that case, you're rich.

But you haven't articulated why the government should take more of our money. Except that they should.

Instead of complaining that 47% don't pay taxes how about recognizing that 47% of working families are too POOR to have taxable income. If you want more people to pay taxes how about figuring out how to help them escape poverty rather than expecting them to pony up from their already meager earnings.

Anonymous wrote:Just because I make more than 250,000 doesn't mean I'm rich. In fact I feel as if I can just enjoy our salary after trying to educate 2 kids etc. we worked hard for this. Instead of asking for higher taxes why don't you just write a check to the government?

If you only make a little bit more than $250,000 you would hardly notice a tax increase (it's marginal, you know). If you make a lot more than $250,000 you might notice the tax, but, guess what? In that case, you're rich.

Just because I make more than 250,000 doesn't mean I'm rich. In fact I feel as if I can just enjoy our salary after trying to educate 2 kids etc. we worked hard for this. Instead of asking for higher taxes why don't you just write a check to the government?