Math is hard. Arithmetic is not so hard. If you took every penny the rich had, you couldn't pay our deficit for the year.

Is China even buying our bonds anymore? If we had an honest bond sale, would anyone buy?

We the serfs must support our overlords.

The giant sucking sound you hear is DC vacuuming up the nations production for their plans. Lets wait and see if those plans have a good outcome.

@MarkD: Not even a year - it would only run the feds for a few months.

I would expect that kind of gimme gimme attitude from the other governors by virtue of their being democrats. But Christie was a large, pun intended, disappointment.

His words and attitude have made him a fat fuck non gratis in my household.

It all boils down to the same question over and over. Why is it our job in San Antonio, or insert your locale here, to pay for your choice to live on the beach up there in never never land?

Since when is Christie a Democrat? Makes me doubt the accuracy of the rest of Andrew Malcolm's post.

Ron:

It's some degree of sarcasm.

Christie has declared himself a Republican, but hardly been conservative.

He did take on teachers unions, publically, and people are so starved to see Republicans that will stand on principle and not cave at the slightest insult flocked to his support.

I tried to tell a number of them at the time, he's not really a Republican, he just picked that party as the easier one to run in in NJ.

Since when is Christie a Democrat?

Let's see...if sarcasm were posted to the Internet, would anyone notice?

Christie = Republican In Name Only. Kind of like Bloomberg, but less nanny-stater. He whined piteously and cursed Republicans when the House held up the $51 billion relief package:

Still, the Club for Growth and other budget watchdogs, such as Taxpayers for Common Sense, say the $51 billion package that Congress is expected to consider this week also includes millions of dollars for Amtrak upgrades, FBI salaries and road projects in states not affected by the storm.

Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/14/watchdog-sees-pork-sandy-relief-bill/

If you need pork in a relief bill to vote for it, there's something fundamentally wrong with you and you should not hold the office of dog catcher let alone one in the House or Senate.

If Nashville could pretty much bail itself out, why can't New York, Boston, and Newark bail themselves out?

"If you need pork in a relief bill to vote for it, there's something fundamentally wrong with you..."

I would differ on that opinion. I dislike pork of any kind, and think we would be much better off with the gridlock that would come about from having to vote on individual bills on their own merits.

But to say that if you don't vote for relief bills there is something wrong with you...well, that sounds exactly like the over-emotional liberal/progressive argument. Do it for the poor (insert interest group here).

As a matter of charity, I fully support helping those who lost their homes. However, as a matter of national policy, I think it is wrong to force others to pay for poor choices in home location.

I find it objectionable to be held financially liable, along with my children and grandchildren, for forseeable events that could have been avoided with even a little bit of planning and foresight. So now I and my line unto seven generations are on the hook to rebuild a bunch of beach homes in NJ, just so they can rebuild them...and then do it all over again the next time a storm runs through. Because who would have thunk it that wind and water comes along the coastal shores every once in a while? Or that in the case of New Orleans, that a city that lies several feet below sea level and is surrounded by water on three sides actually might experience flooding after a hurricane?

Do I feel sorry for them? Sure. But not enough to not resent the hell out of being forced to be their go to insurance plan without being given the benefits of an insurance carrier, or the insurance payments that should go with it.

Great Leader needs to be blamed, but so do the two houses. Great Leader can't spend a dime that Congress doesn't allow him to: yes, he signs pork filled bills into law, but Congress is his willing partner in financial irresponsibility. We need to remember that the problem is government, not the JUST the president, congress, senate. And we vote the bastards in.

Now, everyone sympathizes with those impacted by Sandy's devastation.

I dont.

They had weeks of warning, everyone waited til the last second to prepare

The governemnt had more detail warnings than those released publicly, no one thought to shut off the power. Who many fire would have been avoided just by that?

Hurricanes are a yearly occurance, and on average some do make it that far north - and yet for years local ogvernemnts refused to upgrae storm barriers

I fail to see why I should feel any sympathy for them at all

Now, doesn't the Jewish prohibition on pork sound like a good idea? :)

My prediction, we'll soon be hearing that (despite increases, including on the middle class) the rich *still* aren't paying their "fair share."

While you're looking at taxes, be sure to note that if you got a refund last year, it is considered income this year.

That's right. Let the Feds hold too much of your money during the tax year, then when you get it back you must pay for the privilege.

That the Democrats think that working 146 days (40%) of the year for the government is fair is just disturbing. Then the state governments also want people to work 58 (16%) more days and consider it still fair?

Then they give Phil Mickelson crap for suggesting he might move out of California?

I don't want to be that anywhere near reality but it is.

"While you're looking at taxes, be sure to note that if you got a refund last year, it is considered income this year."

WHAAAAAT? Is this new this year? If it is, I need to get to work on trimming my withholding to the exact penny. We do have that deal with the state tax -- you deduct the state tax withheld from you federal income, but the next year you have to claim the state refund as income because that represent tax money that you didn't actually pay.

If it is, I need to get to work on trimming my withholding to the exact penny. -- Cousin Dave at January 30, 2013 6:58 PM

What I would love to see is 20M federal taxpayers set their withholding to 10 dependents. Then they pay the estimated quarterly taxes and file the normal tax forms at the end of the year.

If the employers aren't sending in those millions of dollars from workers on a monthly or quarterly basis the reality of the government being broke will hit quickly.

Speaking of state vs. federal taxes, something new occurred to me recently. If you itemize, you can deduct your state income tax. That sounds great, right?

But wait! That means that people in low-to-no income tax states are subsidizing the people in the we'll-squeeze-cash-from-turnips states.

I can hear it, somebody is going to say, but people in the low income tax rate states can deduct their sales tax.

Two things on that. 1.) That is really freaking onerous! 2.) It only diminishes the level of subsidy. If there were some sort of cap, it might work, but there's not.

Say CA wants to take 10% of your income, and you deduct say $7,000 for it, how much would somebody in a no-tax state have to spend (and track) to match that?

Well, that's 7,000/(sales tax rate). So, let's take a really high sales tax like Chicago's 10% (it's about there, might not be exact). That gives us 7,000/.10=70,000. In other words, you'd have to SPEND $70,000 in sales-tax purchases to get the same credit that a CA person with a $70,000 income could get.

Am I late to the party, or have other people noticed this?