EvilMonkey

Gordon B.

They can sure be just as bitter (ie Johnny Weir), if not worse.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 25, 2014 -> 09:23 AM) I'll consider giving you the unemployment tax, but Payroll and Social Security? Come on, that's a tax paid per employee. If the company fires its employee that removes those taxes they would have paid on that worker. That's an income tax by another name. Balta, you are only half right. There are deductions from the employee paychecks for those two items but as an employer, you pay an additional amount into the SS deposits you have to make each month/quarter. Whatever amount the employee contributes, so does the employer, on TOP of what the employee pays. And yet the system is still broke. Unemployment is generally called unemployment insurance, and you pay into it regardless of if you have ever laid anyone off or not. I paid into it for 17 years as a business owner and only had one employee in all those years use it. and then they fought me when I tried to claim it for myself after I closed my shop.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 25, 2014 -> 06:57 AM) Anyone earning less than $24,000 and files a return has a negative tax rate. After credits and deductions, they will not pay federal income tax, and probably receive a refund check beyond what they actually paid in taxes. Think about that for a moment. Now if the person does not file, for example if they are here illegally and using a fraudulent social security number, they will not be receiving a refund. The federal income tax that the employer paid and the contribution from the worker will stay in the treasury. Now, if that worker files a return, that money leaves the treasury as a refund to the individual. For more information look up effective federal income tax rates. Or the person whose number they are using gets screwed out of a refund because the $20k the illegal made pushed the citizen over the threshold for getting a refund. Or the IRS comes calling wanting to know why they didn't report that extra $20k in income on their taxes.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 24, 2014 -> 04:04 PM) The reason you arent following my logic is because you dont want to accept that the best policy is to make legal immigration as easy as possible. You are asking me to discount my position "the best way to end illegal immigration is to make all immigration legal." The only way you can stop illegal immigration is to also prevent US citizens from leaving. If you have a completely closed border, you will have the best chance of stopping illegal immigration. As soon as you let people in and out, you have a risk of illegal immigration. I can come up with countless "gimmicks" to curtail immigration, at best it will marginally slow it down, at worst it will spend govt money with little to no result. Which is why the best answer to end illegal immigration is "make legal immigration easier." 2 birds, 1 stone. So if we can't stop 100% we should stop nobody? A 'risk' is acceptable. A sieve that catches almost no one is not.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 24, 2014 -> 03:01 PM) e.g. the Bonus Army You have this bad habit of trying to make one bad thing OK by saying that the 'other side did it too'. THE VA SCREWED UP. Do you dispute that they are a really messed up place? Do you dispute that at least more than one someone lied about wait times? Do you dispute that people got bonuses based on this faulty data?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 24, 2014 -> 12:37 PM) Increased funding for the va would be helpful. The VA budget has gone up more than almost any other governmental agency. Your answer alone is so emblematic of liberal group-think. MORE MONEY! Bulls***. More accountability. These assholes cooked the books on wait times so they can get bonuses and to cover their butts. more money is NOT the answer. Start by firing a whole bunch of people. And rescinding all the bonuses that were not earned. ALL of them. Then perhaps jail time for some if their actions truly resulted in deaths. This isn't a Democratic witch hunt, or at least is wouldn't be if Democrats weren't trying to cover something up. This should be as bi-partisan as we can get nowadays. The system is broke. It should be abolished, except for the prosthetics units which I am told to excellent work. Just give every vet insurance that they can go to their own doc. Oh wait, that would be privatizing something, and hurt all the VA employees who are unionized. Ah, there is where the politics comes in....

Dayan V.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 24, 2014 -> 11:34 AM) This is what they said about your family when they came to the US. Its the exact same argument. Its always saddening to see those who were once the oppressed turn into the oppressor. You may not be able to compare historically, but most economists agree that generally speaking increased immigration is good for an economy. You can read Cato or any number of think tanks which almost all come to the same conclusion (which is no different than Adam Smith), artificially controlling labor is bad and hurts the economy. And there is plenty of jobs available, just many Americans dont want to work them. Which is the exact reason why we need immigrant labor to fill that niche. If there were no jobs, they wouldnt be coming here. Its really just that simple. Half my family was already here, descending from Sioux and Blackfoot tribes, although by the time you get to my grandfather, they were just Appalachion rednecks. Of the other half, one came here LEGALLY from Germany and joined the Navy. The last quarter, we are not sure on, so can't speak to that. And how is trying to maintain America being an oppressor? Seriously, why can't America defend its borders?

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 24, 2014 -> 10:28 AM) Because once they are legal immigrants, we have their social, we have records, we can keep track and we can either approve/deny benefits. Its not offering a blank check, but its providing them an opportunity. There will be some who screw it up, but history has shown the majority will become valuable to America. You really think they would ever be denied benefits? Never happen. This current crop of non-producers is just here for Uncle Sugar and to act as an anchor to bring over their extended families. We can't find them to send the kids back, but once the kids are let in, I am sure they will somehow manage to find each other.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 23, 2014 -> 07:03 PM) These are the real problems facing the people trying to solve the problem. These kids come from towns without a bus stop. Would you send the kid on a week long multiple bus trip, that will only get them possibly near the place they left from with no one waiting for him? Maybe you would. To me that sounds like not caring if the child lives or dies. The problem that we are facing are not easy ones. It will shape how America is known for possibly generations to come. Did we ignore tens of thousands of refugee children, or not? Are we really the country that our enemies claim we are? First, you assume that I gove a s*** what other countries think of us in that regards. Mexico in particular can b**** and moan all they want, but with the way they treat immigrants, they have zero room to talk. As for the kids, they took worse trips getting here, courtesy of their parents and/or unscrupulous mules bringing them here. I am sure a bus ride wouldn't be anywhere near as traumatic. I agree it isn't an easy problem. So stop them from even getting here. Stop them from having a reason to think they can come here and skirt the rules, get free stuff and so on. Just control the goddamn border already. There isn't a nation on this earth that doesn't have the right to control its own borders. Why is America the only country that gets s*** for doing so? The buffet is not endless, no matter how much your heart bleeds.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 23, 2014 -> 06:30 PM) And when the kid doesn't know where home is or if there is a parent there to meet him/her? Then they get a bus ticket to Harry Reid's house in NV.

I think all these illegals should be set up in housing in the affluent parts of DC, Virginia, NYC and LA. They see, to be the areas most in favor of them coming here, let them house them as well.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 23, 2014 -> 06:15 PM) And just like our debate here, the children are caught up in this problem. I don't think Alpha would turn away an 8 year old on his doorstep asking for help. But it is easy to say no to a faceless illegal out to screw America. I would give the kid a meal, maybe find him some new clothes and shoes, maybe even pay for a bus ticket back home, but I will NOT take him in, feed him until he is 18 and pay for his college when I can barely do that for my own kids.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 23, 2014 -> 06:05 PM) You need a SS# to apply for benefits. So the American you hire at a low wage job applies for the benefits, the undocumented worker, does not. The illegal worker buys food, pays rent, buys clothes, etc. without receiving additional government benefits like SS, unemployment, child care, college tuition, etc. There is ample evidence that business owners prefer to pay legal workers and not risk getting caught. But, there are not enough workers to accept the worst jobs in our economy. Citizens do not want to follow the crops as migrants. They don't want to scrape dishes and mow lawns. Thankfully, our education system is creating workers that do not need to work these lowest level jobs. Instead we need to import workers to do that. The problem is our immigration program is not set up for $7.50 / hour jobs. Instead we can bring in $80,000 per year software engineers and doctors. Are you just ignoring the massive ID fraud that occurs with illegals?

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 23, 2014 -> 04:57 PM) I like that you think immigrants take away from the pie. Immigrants increase the pie for all Americans. Its one of the most basic capitalist ideas. Now granted, you may not be a capitalist, but if you believe in a truly free market economy, you can not believe in the restriction of labor. But I am a capitalist, so I believe that we should let immigrants in. I think ILLEGAL immigrants take away from the pie. I have zero problems with legal immigration and even a guest worker program if it can be implemented correctly. Flooding us with illegals, whether they be 8, 38 or 88 does this country no good at all.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jun 23, 2014 -> 04:21 PM) Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" It is our responsibility as Americans to take care of all of those who seek shelter here. I wont forget that over 100 years ago my family were the poor ones seeking a chance in a world where they wouldnt be murdered for their views. I will do my best to ensure that all who want it, get a similar chance. I would wager that your family also had a desire to become Americans, and not with a hyphen. They desired to learn English, to fit in, to succeed. You are fooling yourselves if you think these kids are here seeking merely refuge from violence, although there are sure to be some that fit that category. They are here for the promised goods that they think are there for the taking. Taking from you, me and anyone else that pays taxes. It is a very Christian thing, a very noble thing, to desire to help. But at some point the help becomes a detriment to your own survival and/or well being. Sure, easy to SAY "well you can do without the latest iPhone to help some poor kids". But when it comes to actually DOING that? People seem to want to use 'tax dollars' to help, conveniently forgetting that those also come from your pocket.

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Jun 22, 2014 -> 07:00 AM) What the hell is with this if she was a republican crap? No president has been ridiculed and attacked as much as Obama Were you asleep during the Bus***ler years?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 11:27 PM) This Hillary Clinton cannot be our next president. Is America that dumb to elect her?? Read this and weep https://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/hilla...s-politics.html Feminists will either ignore it or excuse it, just like they did Bill's womanizing. But if she were a Republican.........

Abreu

If you have the time, check out your prospective apartments on both a week night and a weekend night. Some places are pretty loud come Saturday night, and that may or may not be a good thing for you.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 19, 2014 -> 08:25 AM) It's shaping up to be another huge non-scandal at the IRS, as there's a perfectly plausible explanation for how those emails went missing: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fi...ss-lois-lerner/ Also, lol, no National Review is not a reputable source. And it was perfectly plausible that Nixon's secretary accidentally stepped on the record peddle while answering the phone as well. I know you bleed Democrat, but that fact that you can't at least see how this APPEARS to be criminal is just dumbfounding. Maybe you should change your screen name to Sgt Schultz.

Connor G

I dunno why I bother picking these anymore since I am far and away kicking all of your collective butts. However, for today I will pick GorDON B.

Alexei