I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange
Comments
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White Rabbit, how would you prefer to be called - "Wabbit" or "Rabbit" ?
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I heard today that approx. 1/3 of the federal budget goes for Defense. Some of that is for things I think we all want; veterans benefits, health care for military personnel and their families but some of it is for programs Congress can't seem to get rid of because the defensse contractors put facilities with jobs in many different congressional districts and then each Congressman screams when anybody tries to cut a program. We need to elect Congress men and women who are as clever as defense contractors.
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They HAVE to cut more from defense, not heating assistance for old folks. Sheesh. Everyone has to take a hit. Get rid of some government bureaucrats. Most workers are good but I was a contractor dealing with many different agencies and some people come to work, sit there, paint their nails, take long breaks and basically do nothing. Grrrr. And they are almost impossible to get rid of. I am sure we all have a laundry list of cuts they SHOULD make. Yikes. My brain is frying.
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Rosemary, I think you're on to something. I heard today that Speaker Boehner just pushed through an earmark (although I don't think he's calling it that) for some defense spending in his district for something that the Pentagon doesn't even want....and I wish I could remember what the heck it was but I was under some duress at the time.
Back to kids and running free in the neighborhood. My oldest grandchild just turned seven so they're still too young to gauge anything by them. But something that is different from when I was raising my girls is that now in Michigan you can check to see where registered sex offenders live...great....they seem to be all over. The problem is that a teenager sleeping with his underage girlfriend, I believe even if he too is underage, is treated as a registered sex offender. So it's hard to separate true perverts from these situations. And it is really hard to ignore once you know how many offenders are in the neighborhood.
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Yeah ... I just finished our federal taxes and got them efiled! Now on to the state ones. Which are a PITA because their forms are horrible. But ... they give you almost zilch in deductions so there is not much to compute.
Athena ... Either is fine. Wabbit does make me smile though
My name is actually Marilyn ... I'd answer to that too.Good discussions here. Looking forward to coming back and reading it all better when I have time.
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I've been gone all day and have really enjoyed catching up on the last couple of pages.
When I was a kid we could wander the neighborhood, ride our bikes and visit friends with no fears. I let my son ride his bike in the neighborhood and play with friends too. Back then, we didn't call them 'play dates.' Things have sure changed.
Bren
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I don't think all sexual perverts are registered and they can roam in their car looking for children. Wise is the child who doesn't go near any car with a male in it looking for "directions". It can have a horrible ending and it happened in my day and I am sure they still roam. More than ever we should tell our kids "not to talk to strangers" even ones who seem like "nice" people.
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Ok, Wabbit
Federal taxes?? Am I the only procrastinator? It's not even April, for Heaven's sake! I have been known to do them (or pay to get them done, should I say) in March but only once or twice.
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1Athena: I finished and mailed all my taxes for family Federal and State on Feb 2nd. I will never do that again! The same week my DD got some additional info she wasn't expecting which was to be included so I ended up having to do Amended Fed and State taxes for her. I also got told very abruptly by the IRS rep that I should control my need to do taxes so early and from now on wait until later to complete and mail. From now on, even tho it will be hard for me to control my need, I will not mail them off or do them until the end of February to make sure all needed info has arrived. When they say all 1099 INTs or DIVs etc. have to be mailed by Jan 31st, I forgot that it may take a week or more before "we" receive them. A hard lesson learned but it is the first time in all these years I have had this happen. Usually they are done and mailed first week of Feb without any repercussions and this is the first time I have ever had to do "amended taxes".
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In my area, if one looks up registered sex offenders on the police website, one will see that they are ranked by severity of the crime with 1 being the lowest rating and 5 a violent rapist.
As for government workers, there is a way to get rid of excess staff. It's called a reduction in force. Depending on the agency, things can be structured to get rid of specific units within the larger agency. I worked for a government agency and was RIF'ed when the need for my specialty was ended. Recently I was asked to return but turned it down.
If anyone knows of government agencies that are overstaffed, one should send an email or call the Chairman of the House Committee of Oversight and Reform. Assuming that Darrell Issa is an honorable man and not just interested in witch hunts, he should be interested in reducing excess government staff. One will need to be specific about dates, times, agency and department.
I think that if the intellegent, warm hearted women on this site as well as people throughout the nation demand efficiency and effectiveness in government, we will see an improvement all around.
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Geez .. I am lazy about my taxes. I filed an extension for 2009 .. but my tax person is doing my 2010 now. I'd do them myself, but she's an E.A. and knows all the ins and outs and writeoffs I can take. I'm so lucky my sis is a tax person and can do them. She's a wizard and I always break even. yay!
Bren
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Wow....don't get me wrong, I am not the April 15th at 11:55 pm filer, but I am the April filer.
I have no problem declaring myself too stupid to do even my relatively simple return. The one year I tried I had to pay a penalty for making a mistake, so now it's H&R Block or a private accountant or a low-cost internet service. So far, I haven't been dragged off to prison. :-)
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Turbo Tax works for me. DH is a 1099 person with needed deductions he couldn't take with the EZ like tubes for amps, strings for guitars, etc. so our filing is more complex. I also do a 2106 Unreimbursed Employee Business Expenses. I must attend trainings that help me do my job better and most times they pay but sometimes they don't.
Working on entering it all now. Need the $$, little though it will be.
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This is an interesting and mildly funny article about a serious issue. If any one can find a factual error in the numbers about federal spending in Kentucky, please provide links to the information.
When talking about taxes, the late Sen. Russell Long once said, "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind that tree." And so it is with cutting government spending.
Take Kentucky, please. Kentucky has given us Makers Mark bourbon, Churchill Downs, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Kentucky has also given us Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, tea party favorite Sen. Rand Paul and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers. While Rogers was once dubbed the "Prince of Pork" and McConnell has hauled so much pork he's at risk for trichinosis, they are now converts to Sen. Paul's anti-government gospel. McConnell says President Obama's new budget is "unserious" and "irresponsible" because it merely cuts projected deficits by $1.1 trillion. "The people who voted for a new direction in November have a five-word response," McConnell said, "We don't have the money."...
Fair enough. So here's my two-word response: Defund Kentucky. Cut it off the federal dole. Kentucky is a welfare state to begin with. The conservative Tax Foundation says the Bluegrass State received $1.51 back from Washington for every dollar it paid in federal taxes in 2005 (the most recent data I could find on the Tax Foundation's website.) We need to listen to the people of Kentucky. They don't want any more federal spending in their state-and they certainly must be appalled by the notion that they're a bunch of welfare queens, living off the taxes paid by blue states like California (which only gets 81 cents back on the dollar), Connecticut (69 cents), Illinois (75 cents) and New York (79 cents).
A report in the Lexington Herald-Leader says 80 percent of Kentucky's Medicaid bill is paid by Washington and more than one in five Kentuckians receives a monthly check from the Social Security System, totaling $8.5 billion a year. Washington also spends over $2 billion a year on flood insurance for Kentuckians, $667 million in crop insurance, and $877 million in mortgage insurance. Plus the Bluegrass State is home to federal facilities ranging from Ft. Knox to the Department of Energy's Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah. ...
Defund Kentucky. Kentuckians are addicted to federal spending-they're the Lindsay Lohan of states, the Charlie Sheen of commonwealths. Let's put them in detox. By trying this experiment in one state we can honor the conservatives' belief in states' rights, allowing Kentucky to truly be a laboratory of democracy. If it were up to me, they'd go cold turkey-not one federal dime. But that may be going too far, too soon. So, I have to ask Kentucky, with all due respect: Can we just reclaim the extra 51 cents you take from Washington for every tax dollar you send?...
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notself, very interesting. I am off on a research quest.
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Hey notself, this is interesting.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/02/the-largest-earmarkers-in-cong.html
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BinVA
Bad things happened to kids back then also - many times in their own homes - it just wasn't advertised like it is now
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You're right Claire .. bad things did happen, but people didn't talk about them like they do now.
Bren
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http://www.620wtmj.com/shows/charliesykes/116236429.html
Making state and federal employees contribute to their health care and retirement might be a good place to save. Teachers in wis all took off work today - many took students along to protest the new governor's law requiring them to pay 10% of their retirement and 17% of their health care benefits which they currently don't pay a penny for. So the taxpayers paid them to protest AND paid for substitute teachers. this was 4K - through university level. No one should get a free ride on employee benefits
Above is a link - one college professor took attendance at a protest yesterday requiring all students to attend.
Same thing happened today
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Federal employees contribute to their health care.
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y'all are right. No one talked aout it. No one even talked about cancer then either. My mother is of that era that I call the ostrich era...stick your head in the sand and it isn't happening. She drives me insane and my brother (in ICU) is like that, too. I mean, I believe in back-backburnering stuff until I have to deal with it but ignoring serious crap is nutty. That's my family.
I keep going to the ICU twice a day and every couple days go fetch Mom. Get her into car, drop off at hospital, park car. get wheelchair, take to ICU, reverse all then do it all again in a couple days. Sorry for whining but I have a job and this is really wearing me out. BWAAAHHH!
Need a life.
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Oh Barbara
You are doing great things for your mom and your brther. Hang in there.
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BarbaraA, is your brother making progress, hope so. I always found things easier to deal with if I could see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
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In Alabama, state employees have to contribute to both retirement and health insurance. The personal contribution isn't much for a single adult health coverage but family coverage is considerably higher.
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Erica - I like your new governor...he has cojones. So does Sarah and Michelle B. C. Christi is whipping the NJ unions into shape...big time! We need more of their mentality in office. 2012...can't come soon enough.
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I'm the double checker supreme, but I won't even bother to double check Notself's numbers on Kentucky - afraid I'll come up with even worse ones! And as bad as those numbers are, we then send Mitch and Rand to represent us. Sigh ....
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I don't know how you are doing it Barbara. All that and working too is a big load for one person. Hoping your brother gets out of the hospital soon. (((hugs)))
Federal employees pay health insurance premiums and always have. How much it costs us depends on the benefits of the plan selected. They have also been contributing 7% of all their salary to their retirement plan since before I started working for them in 1969. Federal workers hired since 1984 pay both Social Security and another additional contribution to the federal retirement plan. There is no such thing as a free ride ... even for feds. I don't know about the various states.
I know there are lots of emails being spammed around out there saying otherwise ... they are in error.
I'm probably the only person out there that enjoys doing their taxes. I did budget work in my career and I still think crunching numbers is fun. Once a year anyway.
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Nice parents (2 teachers) organized this on facebook. 800 students walk out of school with their teachers. Their little pride and joy came to school today with a trunk full of signs to carry.
A KID WILL leave school for any excuse so don't tell me these kids know what this is about.
Those 2 low class teachers should be fined big time
There are so many videos of these poor brain washed kids. One reported asked a kid what he was doing and he said "I don't know, protesting something"
Parents here are all being told that tomorrow is "TEACHER CALL IN SICK DAY" So many have to scramble to find arrangements for their kids if both parents work
The National Guard was called up by the governor because the prison workers plan on calling in sick also.
In WISCONSIN the TEACHERS pay nothing
Nice way to thank the struggling taxpayers
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Erica, that's unions for you. I wonder if New York ever looked deeper into why it took so long for the cleanup after the huge snow storm. I had read it was because the unions told them to because of cuts. Way to go.
Seems like all the money should be paid back before bonuses are given.
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/AP-Source-GM-spend-millions-capress-4213041553.html
GM made $4.2 billion in the first nine months of 2010 and is expected to soon announce a fourth-quarter profit. The company needed a $49.5 billion government bailout to survive a mid-2009 bankruptcy filing, and the government still owns 25 per cent of GM's stock. Chrysler, which needed a $12.5 billion bailout, plans to pay bonuses as well. The government owns about 9 per cent of Chrysler stock.
SNIP
Final numbers for the bonuses won't be calculated until after GM announces its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings, said the person briefed on the bonuses, who asked not to be identified because the numbers have not been made public.
The 45,000 hourly workers at GM's factories will get more than $4,000. Another 3,000 workers at four factories that GM took back from Delphi Corp. will get around $3,000, the person said. GM is trying to sell the old Delphi facilities in Kokomo, Ind.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Rochester, N.Y.; and Lockport, N.Y.
The person briefed on the payments did not know the total cost of the salaried bonuses, but it's likely to top $200 million. Most GM salaried workers make more than $100,000. A bonus of 8 per cent, the midpoint of the range, would give them roughly $8,000. That means GM would pay out roughly $224 million.
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In Wisconsin the teachers may pay nothing, I don't know about that. That is something that is the choice of the people of Wisconsin and if they want to change it they can.
I do know that federal employees pay for their health care and reirement. There is a lot of misinformation being spread and repeated over and over again. That does not make it true. We all need to check the information we post so that we are not party to the spread of misinformation.
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