posted on July 21, 2001 05:17:36 PM
I'll reiterate: I also feel the 'merican public would have been better served if the mass mailing was eliminated (adding that savings to the refunds) and include a little note with the check when it finally arrives!!
****************************************
Mark the outside of the envelope your tax refund check is enclosed, include the letter One mailing, one time, with the pertinent information instead of a self serving boasting of LOOK WHAT WE HAVE DONE!
Course even on the City/State level I haven't been able to get the PTB to mail our excise tax bills (which are all sent at the same time) in ONE Envelope...all addressed to the same person same address...yup they are computerized so why cant they put 'em all in one envelope...we have two vehicles and 3 trailers...5 bills, 5 separate envelopes. Another waste of the taxpayers money only this is on the local level!
If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?
If I'm to believe the Clerk of the House, Reagan signed a total of 78 during his two terms in office. This was over 2 times the amount that were signed by Bill Clinton...
<edited to add that 39 were straight vetoes (9 of which were overturned by Congress) and 39 were pocket vetoes>
posted on July 21, 2001 05:36:24 PM
Just did not need saying. My opinion has already been posted. To restate it is redundant and my other comment was rude.
Good night.
[ edited by BittyBug on Jul 21, 2001 07:23 PM ]
posted on July 21, 2001 05:52:50 PM
Ok I have a reading comprehension problem.... I hear ya
You don't send the companies you owe money to a notice that you are going to be sending them a check. I am assuming you are talking about your bills; mortgage, phone, electric, gas etc?
Most people know that they need to pay their bills, and do not send a notice saying they are, obviously, and the companies do not expect you to send notice of such, they expect just a check from you each month, or every other month
But a lot of people didn't know they were getting a check
The gov't sends things like this all the time, lessee, say my dad gets social security, yeah, he does. They make changes to it that doesn't effect him at all, but he gets these notices all the time, which are sent to every retired person receiving social security. So you could b*tch about that too. And this has been going on for a long time.
I get voters pamphlets, tax filing pamphlets, ones you could pick up at the library or post office if you wanted to,so why do they keep sending them in the U.S. Mail, wasting tax payers money?
I do have a reading comprehension problem....
I need to make that a sig line here
posted on July 21, 2001 06:03:41 PM
Ok look, each notice is generic, but they type in the amount and the date, which will differ on everyones.
Mine says $300. and I get it the week of 08/20/01. What if they only sent me $100. or $79? Or what if I didn't get it that week. Maybe that is one reason they sent the notice, so if you don't get it, or the right amount, then you can take it and show them what it says. Maybe thats why they say to keep it with your records?
posted on July 21, 2001 06:10:08 PMThis was over 2 times the amount that were signed by Bill Clinton...
Yup, and at least 3 times (at least to my fuzzy, off the top of my head memory) they had a "Government Shutdown" during Reagan's 8 years. He was forcing the legislature to give him at least part of what he wanted, or make the whole government look bad when the SS checks stopped coming. And we wound up Trillions of dollars in debt.
During Eisinhowers days, we were not in debt at all, in Kennedy and Johnsons's days the debt was miniscule (and we had a little thing called Vietnam going on). It wasn't until the Reagan-Bush team that the national debt went sky high.
Only a major war justifies running the government in red ink, but Reagan-Bush just plain don't care, run up the debt, spend the money with your cronnies, take what kick backs you can get, and put the little mans kids in debt to pay for it all.
If we don't pay the debt off, our kids will have to. Bush is robbing kid's piggy banks to give us this "tax break".
If I could turn mine down, add a couple of thousand to it, and be assured (even if the rest of you take the money and run) that my kids would not have to pay interest on the national debt, I do it in a heart beat. I don't like paying interest, and sure don't like leaving a debt for my kids to pay.
posted on July 21, 2001 06:54:32 PM
Don't get in too big a stew about it because no matter what happens they will be paying that debt with deflated dollars. Inflation has the effect of making the debt itself not as hard to deal with as the immediate interest due. If the government gets in too big a mess with debt we may have to take a wheelbarrow to McDonalds to buy a Big Mack
but paying the debt will be a breeze.
There was a period in Germany pre-WWII that was like that. The prices were so high and going up so fast they would pay people at lunch time for the morning so they could run out and spend it while it could still buy something. That evening would be too late.
It was hard to carry enough bills to buy food. Storekeeps wouyld not even try to count the bundles.
posted on July 21, 2001 07:07:53 PMIf the government gets in too big a mess with debt we may have to take a wheelbarrow to McDonalds to buy a Big Mack
This would make us a third rate country, like Mexico, and their "New Peso" where they took a couple of zeros off the money. Better to pay our bills, and be a first rate country.
Just the idea of NOT paying our bills is repugnant. Are we, as a Country, going to be "Deadbeat Bidders"? (I'll buy that Starwars thing-a-ma-jig, but now just try to make me pay for it...)
People holding government bonds are going to give us all a big red neg.
posted on July 22, 2001 07:36:30 AM
Our small group of CA. friends here have all rec'd the notice of the full $600.00 rebate. So we've decided to put it back into the economy by taking a short trip to enjoy ourselves.
As for those concerned that our national debt needs to be paid down before these tax-rate decreases were given, I want to state that this issue is being addressed in the new tax bill. Over the next ten years it will be retiring 2 trillion dollars in debt. Now, if we can just keep them (Congress) from spending, spending, and spending....
And a quote from Al Gores side of the fence quote/Alan Blinder, advisor to Vice President Gore in last year's campaign who with William Baumol, wrote in their economic text, "Arguments that the public debt will burden future generations, who will have to make huge payments of interest and principal, are based on false analogies. In fact, most of these payments are simply transfers from some Americans to other Americans." The bogus argument that a large national debt can bankrupt a country like the United States ignores the fact that our national debt consists of obligations to pay U.S. dollars "a currency the government can raise by taxation or create by printing money."
MIT professors Fischer, Dornbusch and Schmalensee all say of the national debt, "At this level there is nothing to worry about. The national debt is mostly a debt that we owe ourselves." Paul Samuelson, one of President Kennedy's economic advisers wrote, "A panel of economic experts, in this country or anywhere else in the Western world, will usually put the public debt toward the bottom of any such list of worries."
An article (7-19-01) by Dr. Lawrence Lindsey, from the Federal Reserve Bank of PA is in the URL below. It speaks to the many issues our economy faces at the current time. IE: paying off the national debt; quotes and comments by President Hoover on national fiscal policy; Blue Chip Economic Indicator Polls; President Kennedy's views on fiscal policy; statements from Merrill Lynch, Macroeconomic advisors, etc.; speaks to the GDP saying the facts show the budget surplus this year will be $160 Billion to $200 Billion or between 1.5% and 1.9% of the GDP. The letter also states there is usually a 12 to 18 month gap to see the maximun impact on the economy from this tax bill.
AND besides this rebate, people who receive paychecks will be getting more take-home pay in their checks. Over the next 9 months, 4 separate more boosts to your finances will be seen.
Also, on the rebate issue this article says: quote/starting next week most taxpayers will get an advance refund on their 2001 Federal income taxes due/end quote.
posted on July 22, 2001 09:45:40 AMignores the fact that our national debt consists of obligations to pay U.S. dollars "a currency the government can raise by taxation or create by printing money."
If they print enough money to pay it off, ten dollars won't be able to buy a big mac. Taxing us is better. We bought "Star Wars" during Reagans Tenure. Either we pay for it, or our kids pay for it (in taxes, or by our money being worthless), but either way, if we don't pay for it, our kids and grand kids will.
Seems most people want money NOW, and don't care that they are STEALING from children. So be it. Rome fell too.
Edited to add:
I'm surprised so many people don't care that they country is way over it's head in debt, and just want the checks.
Who Need's a stink'n Sig. File?
[ edited by Microbes on Jul 22, 2001 09:47 AM ]
posted on July 22, 2001 04:39:28 PM
You know.... there is some serious talk that paying off all the govt debt may cause market problems. First in the bond pits, and then inflation.
The current interest rates on CD and passbooks amount to nearly a big 0 when inflation is fatored in, and is some cases you actually lose money.
Hopfully the pay down will be gradual enough not to rock the markets.
Paying the debt down rather than getting paltry rebates does seem more prudent.
posted on July 23, 2001 04:59:35 AM
Somebody doesn't even read their own cuts and pastes?
Sure, nothing to worry about--the government can always pay down the national debt by , uhhum, raising taxes or printing more money.
Well, everybody understands raising taxes, but I wonder if everybody understands that printing more money devalues each dollar and that means INFLATION with a capital "I".
So what if your milk price doubles, you got your miniscule tax refund, right?
You pay no matter how they write it, and it amazes me to see someone continually trotting out the company line of hypnotic BS and apparently believing it.
How far does idiocy extend in this country? Even to this? Anyone who would believe any political pap would also buy pay-per-view wrestling extravaganzas.
posted on July 23, 2001 06:08:50 AM
I did not say it was a GOOD idea - I said they could do it. It has been done before by politicians that were visably brighter than some we could name right now in office.
It also tends to screw the people who have a fixed income and have made long term investments more than a business whose relationship with the economy is dynamic and who can survive in some form that sort of economic crisis.
Take an oil company as a random example. If there is hyperinflation they just keep raising their rates daily and all the product they have stockpiled made with cheap dollars keeps going up in value. All their assets such as refineries goes up and all their
rights to oil in the ground soar. They are not going to be hurt much.
"How far does idiocy extend in this country? "
Gee I don't know krs but I am afraid we might find out. It might be pretty far...
Did that pay-per-view wrestling extravaganza crack strike you personally? I had no idea, of course, but be assured that it was pointed generally elsewhere. However...if the shoe fits, well, you know.
posted on July 23, 2001 07:36:03 AM
Did someone take their Ugli pill this morning or was the coffee just weak? How about a gentler kinder poster for a change, it would knock the socks off a lot of readers, & it might be fun for a change!
Start your day off with the perfect breakfast!
* You're sitting at the table and your son is on the cover of the box of Wheaties.
* Your mistress is on the cover of Playboy.
* And your wife is on the back of the milk
carton.
posted on July 23, 2001 08:14:34 AM
I just went to order over $500. in stuff from a catalog site, went through all of the motions only to have it repeatedly tell me that it could not proceed because my order was blank. Four Times!
posted on July 23, 2001 09:58:21 AM
The wrestling thing did not bother me - I have zero interest in that so it could not cut - but I really wanted to make sure that saying GWB might do something did not label me as a fan - no no no. Pro wrestling is harmlessly stupid compared to politics.
There are a lot of web business sites that still don't get it aren't there? I use the web because I can't hear to use the phone and I still find a lot of sites that are just an ad and expect you to call them to do business. Some even want you to print out an order form and mail it to them. - Duh.
posted on July 24, 2001 04:33:01 AM
Perhaps because it is 100% hype on an official document? Campaign slogans should be put away with the campaign signs, and business conducted in a business like manner.
Government documents should not model themselves after Publisher's Clearinghouse.
There was a court case where the IRS tried a man for tax evasion and he showed the tax form said it was a voluntary contribution and said he was not volunteering. Next year that phrase was gone. Nobody in their right mind believed it was voluntary but that was the myth repeated inside the agency and some fool could not resist putting it in print.
