JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago

What a load of bumf. The Democrats didn't index Social Security - Congress did. Only 28 Republican members of the House voted no and it passed that chamber 302-35. That's called bi-partisan. In the Senate the vote was 78-3. That's called bi-partisan. It was signed into law by Richard Nixon, believed by historians to be a Republican.

Yes, the Democratic Party has a sordid past having been run for a long time by the southern states. We changed all that and today I would suspect that 100% of the KKK is Republican.

In 1983, with the baby boomers a concern, Congress increased the payroll tax and raised the age for full benefits to 67. To say that contributions were not indexed is stupid.

I'm glad we had this little chat.

Thatcher 2 months, 1 week ago

JimHeim-- "We changed all that and today I would suspect that 100% of the KKK is Republican." Sorry. You haven't "changed all that." You've simply gone from being overtly racist, to accusing others of being racist. Cheers!

JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago

Thatcher - Oh you mean like that charming gentleman from North Carolina at CPAC who said that the slaves should have been grateful for all that free food and shelter. And wondered why we can't have racial segregation. And the crowd that cheered him and said that whites are being disenfranchised?

You think he's a Democrat?

geoffcutler 2 months, 1 week ago

The Democratic Party behind Obama built the last campaign and won in part on calling Republicans racist.

From today's WSJ "My Unrecognizable Democratic Party" by Ted Van Dyk:

"...it was based (Obama's victory) on a four year mobilization- executed with unprecedented skill- of core democratic constituencies, and or fear campaigns in which Mitt Romney and the Republicans were painted as waging a 'war on woman,' being servants of the wealthy, and of being hostile toward Latinos, Africans Americans, gays and the middle class. I couldn't imagine any of the Democratic presidents or presidential candidates I served from 1960-92 using such down-on-all-fours tactics."

Cracks are beginning to form in the Obama ranks. About time.

JD 2 months, 1 week ago

So I had to look up what Heim was talking about since I was on vacation and avoided the news.

A CPAC session sponsored by Tea Party Patriots and billed as a primer on teaching activists how to court black voters devolved into a shouting match as some attendees demanded justice for white voters and others shouted down a black woman who reacted in horror. Scott Terry of North Carolina, accompanied by a Confederate-flag-clad attendee, Matthew Heimbach, rose to say he took offense to the event’s take on slavery. (Heimbach founded the White Students Union at Towson University and is described as a “white nationalist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.) “It seems to be that you’re reaching out to voters at the expense of young white Southern males,” Terry said, adding he “came to love my people and culture” who were “being systematically disenfranchised.” Smith responded that Douglass forgave his slavemaster. “For giving him food? And shelter” Terry said. Attendees interviewed by TPM afterwards expressed outrage at the way the event turned out. Not at the Terry and Heimbach — they were mad at Brown for her interruptions. Brown, who took offense at the suggestion modern Democrats were descendants of the KKK, tried to ask a question later once things finally calmed down. She was booed and screamed at by audience members. “Let someone else speak!” one attendee in Revolutionary War garb shouted. “You’re not welcome here!” a white-haired older woman yelled.

Oh boy did that sounded like a raucous event. Whoever voted for Scott Terry should be ashamed about now.

JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago

geoff - I read that column at breakfast. (surprised? I read The Economist, too) Mr Van Dyk speaks for Mr Van Dyk. Like other Blue Dogs, he represents a small (and dwindling) part of the party. I'm sure he'll be happier as a Republican.

If you want to hear from someone who's been totally abandoned by his party, talk to a fiscally conservative, socially moderate Republican. This area is rife with them.

geoffcutler 2 months, 1 week ago

I don't think so, Jim. The same cracks in the Republican party, and there are many, are growing in your party. Obama's agenda, and the way he fulfills it, is turning traditional, non-extremist Democrats off. I know you'll never admit it, but the fiscal cliff, and sequester fiascoes were real eye openers. Leadership in your party has almost no resemblance to the Democratic party of old. It's leftist European styled Socialism and damn anyone who gets in the way.

JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago

geoff - Maybe you could take that up with a Republican congressperson from New England. Oh, wait...

If you read Mr Van Dyk's column all the way through, he noted that previous Democratic presidents negotiated with Republicans to get bipartisan cooperation. Those Republicans are long gone. Now we have tea party radicals willing to destroy the nation's economy to get their way. They are terrified of compromise since the nutbags who elected them don't allow it.

Mr Obama was naive to think the any deal could be done with modern republicans, unless it was strictly on their terms. And that would be lethal to our economy. We can hope that he took the lesson and will hold his ground.

geoffcutler 2 months, 1 week ago

Jim, again I'm not saying the Republican party isn't cracked or in need of repair. There was also an article highlighting that in today's WSJ. All I'm saying is, so is yours, and the cracks are widening. Obama has badly damaged production out of Washington. What's different now is people are beginning to see Obama's the reason, and not the Republicans and everyone else besides himself that he's attempted to blame since he became president.

skylinefirepest 2 months, 1 week ago

Jim Heim...I'll give you that a few Republicans are racist and make stupid comments at times. But then I remember right off that the liberal media ALWAYS portrays the right as racist and I do remember Pelosi's now famous comment that "we have to pass it so we know what's in it."

DingoMike 2 months, 1 week ago

Lock the leadership of both houses in a large conference room, feed them MRE's and wait a week, 7 days not 5 and see if a budget deal gets done. If no deal after that time then cutoff the air conditioning and give them 7 more days. If no deal after that time then cutoff the bathroom breaks and take away the cots on which they sleep. How long till a deal after all this BS? I'll bet it ends after the first week. What do you think people????

JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago

Back to the topic. Social Security remains solvent and is self-funding. It is in no way a contributor to the federal deficit. The letter writer was entirely wrong in his statements about Social Security.

geoffcutler 2 months, 1 week ago

"Yes, the Democratic Party has a sordid past having been run for a long time by the southern states. We changed all that and today I would suspect that 100% of the KKK is Republican." JimHeim

We were on topic. You love labeling Republicans as racist and your party used it to great effect getting Obama re-elected.

JD 2 months, 1 week ago

If you want to hear from someone who's been totally abandoned by his party, talk to a fiscally conservative, socially moderate Republican.

Hi, what would you like to know?

Spocks_Brain 2 months, 1 week ago

Heim is unbelievable and WRONG on this one....amazing..all the money has been taken out of, SS, and now way ahead of schedule, SS 'calls' bonds to make up shortfalls

Social Security to start cashing Uncle Sam's IOUs: Paper bonds parked in Parkersburg By Associated Press on March 14, 2010 at 6:24 PM, updated March 14, 2010 at 6:52 PM

Email

Associated Press, FileIn this July 1, 1998, photo, Vice President Al Gore, speaking in Cranston, R.I., points to a graph representing decreasing Social Security revenues, that if allowed to continue, would render the fund in solvent by 2032. During his 2000 presidential campaign Gore talked so much about the "lockbox" he'd use to protect Social Security, that he was parodied on "Saturday Night Live." STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer

PARKERSBURG, West Virginia - The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration.

It's time to start cashing them in.

For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in taxes than it paid out in benefits -- billions more each year.

Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes -- nearly $29 billion more.

Sounds like a good time to start tapping the nest egg. Too bad the federal government already spent that money over the years on other programs, preferring to borrow from Social Security rather than foreign creditors. In return, the Treasury Department issued a stack of IOUs -- in the form of Treasury bonds -- which are kept in a nondescript office building just down the street from Parkersburg's municipal offices.

Now the government will have to borrow even more money, much of it abroad, to start paying back the IOUs, and the timing couldn't be worse. The government is projected to post a record $1.5 trillion budget deficit this year, followed by trillion dollar deficits for years to come.

Spocks_Brain 2 months, 1 week ago

HEIM is wrong wrong wrong

JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago

If I'm wrong, so are the Social Security actuaries. Of course, they use math and math is hard. So Spock's_Rearend might not understand.

BTW - S_R, I hate to get all arithmeticky on you, but this year's deficit will be under $1 trillion. In fact, Obama has reduced deficits by more than any president since Truman. Pretty cool, huh?

And the Social Security system is self-funding. It was never intended that the trillions of dollars in advance payments into the system twould sit idly gathering dust. Just as with any other responsible economic system, those funds were loaned out at interest to bolster the fund. It's called capitalism. You should consider it.

JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago

Spocks - It was anticipated that the Social Security fund would pay out more than it took in during the baby boomer years. That's why the tax was increased under Reagan - one of eleven tax increases he signed.

The fund was pre-loaded to account for that. People who plan such systems are not stupid. Can't say that for everyone.

And borrowing from the fund was cheaper than going elsewhere. Congress was able to lower tax rates by quite a lot by doing that borrowing. Now we pay it back, kind of like a mortgage. Not a problem.

Thatcher 2 months, 1 week ago

Social security is fine, just like JimHeim says. Unless you consider: http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/01/the-truth-about-how-bankrupt-social.html. Sad. But true. Cheers!

Spocks_Brain 2 months, 1 week ago

Wow HEIM you are amazing - you can explain away everything ! Pure genius!
I've dealt with more money than you ever will in your lifetime x 5 in my banking career and I call you out on this-Jim you cant refute facts-your facts are wrong.

By the way, I have just found out that Smithfield Foods in Tarheel, one of the largest if not the largest slaughter house in the world (up to 30000 hogs per day) is going to lose its USDA inspectors almost immediately due to sequester. Now Mr Heim has just asserted that Obama is a deficit hawk...he prints close to 100 billion a month, and now no money for USDA inspectors. Obama did not cut the outreach and expenditure to Mexican groups vis a vis foodstamps.

This is Obamas plan in part to create panic, fear and shortages of food and continue to blame Republicans. This de facto is the effort to create a dictatorship.

A certain lawyer in Aberdeen used to have small framed letter signed by Woodrow Wilson addressed to Walter Hines Page that voiced disapointment in not receiving a vote by Hines on a vote of some kind but was gracious and acknowledged that he himself, Wilson understood the US had a system of party politics..there were no threats, no public haranguing

Robert N. Page - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

People check your food supply-events could move very rapidly...Obama controls very few outcomes and has created dozens of possible unintended consequences

Thatcher 2 months, 1 week ago

Or you can consider this: http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/08/09/not_in_25_years_social_security_is_bankrupt_now_98611.html. And JimHeim would never seek to tax your bank accounts... like they are doing in Cyprus. That's unlike JimHeim. Just ask him. Cheers!

geoffcutler 2 months, 1 week ago

Spock, The DNC playbook is to say whatever it takes to get votes. Socialism is like brainwashing. Riddle the foolish with the buzzwords, and flood them with how little they'll have to do to miraculously experience a better quality of life. Lying is how you get there. Live long and prosper!. The lack of truth, reason and logic would have seen Spock shuttle the Enterprise and commit suicide by now.

Spocks_Brain 2 months, 1 week ago

Geoff yes I agree...its an interersting study how dictators become dictators..can it happen here? Yes. It did in Venezuela as Chavez had a skill in fashioning electoral majorities into a political steamroller, squeezing opponents and allies alike in a single-minded campaign to gather

power in his own hands

But tampering with the food supply is a great way to create panic.. when you take out the meat inspectors of the largest slaughter house on earth....wow..will this be on the news tonight? You heard it here

This is serious...I know managers in that plant-they want to force Smithfield to pay for the inspectors therefore layoffs en masse

Thatcher 2 months, 1 week ago

geoff- Chekov was gay. And Obama knew it. Cheers my friend!

fugitiveguy 2 months, 1 week ago

Does anybody know what Jim H does for a living when he isn't here doing his "economic standup routine" here?

Spocks_Brain 2 months, 1 week ago

He's married to a doctor so he feeds off her, or so Ive heard...

geoffcutler 2 months, 1 week ago

It's sad. Particularly because the card's been played so many times before and been proven to not play...like a pair of deuces against four aces. But here they are...still taking advantage of the foolish and uneducated.

Spocks_Brain 2 months, 1 week ago

HEIM's about as astute as Krugman-the basic premise of all these clowns is to smooth out economic cycles but now you have a system where no recession will ever be allowed again-but when it happens again, will checks say for $50,000 be mailed to everyone? By the way those with green cards get all those checks like were sent out under Bush, 200 here 200 there...right now you have worthless paper deemed to have worth..when that changes watch out-only a 'command' economy will exist

geoffcutler 2 months, 1 week ago

Jim, think Cyprus let this out of the bag a little too soon. Obama not yet on board yet...that kind of thing....best to lead with the ace... let'em know know to fold? What do you think, Jim?

Spocks_Brain 2 months, 1 week ago

I think what we have is de facto Sharia economics-no usury, no interest. Banks make no money now on mortgages except servicing and fees, and an WSJ connected writer is calling the mortgage market de facto nationalized, this in just the last few days

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2997104/posts?page=4

Is this what we want???

nothingspecial 2 months, 1 week ago

So true, Geoff. The liberal playbook so well followed by Jim also painstakingly avoids getting into detailed explanations of often incomprehensible liberal policies and seeks alternatively to pointedly attack conservatives whenever possible on little things, preferably personal. The only problem with Jim's strategy here is that under ten NC liberals actually care to read enough to get to the Pilot comments section, which was clearly revealed during the 2012 election.

Spocks_Brain 2 months, 1 week ago

HEIM is one of the one per cent ! lmao bet they dont send in any extra money to halp pay down the deficit

JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago

I've been retired since 2001, but as a sideline I make it possible for you to hear Rush Limbaugh on the radio. And that hyper-frightened nitwit Mark Levin. maybe even my old lunch buddy, Neil Boortz. I don't listen, so I'm not sure if he's still on.

Thatcher 2 months, 1 week ago

JimHeim-- Boortz is retired. Thanks for letting us hear Rush and Levin. You are fair to us. Cheers!

JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago

Gosh, Spocks, I'm flattered. To be compared with a Nobel Laureate is beyond thrilling.

JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago

Spocks, banks here get mortgage money for free and loan it out a 4%. Nice racket.

Thatcher 2 months, 1 week ago

JimHeim-- "To be compared with a Nobel Laureate is beyond thrilling." Many here compare you to Obama, or Pelosi (she'll win next year for her "Unemployment Benefits Build The Economy" idea.) Congrats. Cheers!

fugitiveguy 2 months, 1 week ago

"And that hyper-frightened nitwit Mark Levin."

Jim, is it a source of frustration to you that conservative talk is so wildly successful while you can't pay people to listen to lefty radio? Same thing with conservative authors. What gives, why is liberalism such a failure in these venues?

geoffcutler 2 months, 1 week ago

I don't listen to any of them...being able to think for myself, Jim. Can't say the same for you. You take advantage of people. Make them feel weak, vulnerable, victims. The other guy's keeping you down. He's a racist, he's taking all your money. He's using you. Then you tell them you'll make everything better. As long as they vote for you. And then, you don't make anyone or anything better. You just make everyone and everything broke and miserable. You and Dunn and your kind have been destroying free nations from within for centuries

Lib Perfection

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