I received this email today from a colleague. I believe that he sent it looking for a reason why it was not true. I replied to him that I found it amusing and listed several examples of why it could not be taken seriously.
But this is a good example of how a Republican can twist something into a reason to hate/dislike/spurn/disdain of/for Democrats. I thought it worth my time to add a few comments to it. If you ever receive anything like this, you will know that it is false and represents twisted thinking.
The Democrats do this, also, but they are not nearly as prevalent as the Republicans. Or if they are, they never get sent to me. If you have one, send it to me and I may post it also.
This email comes in three parts:
Part 1:
In just one year. Remember the election in 2006? Thought you might like to read the following:
A little over one year ago:
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high; (2 years is not significant but reflects the leadership of a Republican administration for the previous 4 years, and a business cycle induced by profligate spending and a lack of tax revenue.
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.
Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen: (This is linking a false cause to the following effects)
1) Consumer confidence plummet; (due to price increases in staple items because of falling dollar and rise in gasoline prices. Bush economic policy, not a Democrat Congress.)
2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon; (Due to falling dollar causing oil prices to rise. Recently, some analysts believe that speculators may be driving up the price of oil for personal profit. They postulate that as much as 57 % of the cost of oil is speculation. )
3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase); (again due to a flagging economy denied by the Adminstration for four years prior to this)
4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses); ( Overpriced and overinflated stock values were not based upon company performance and this was corrected by the market)
5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars; (Thanks to a housing bubble in overinflated real estate markets and a crisis in the sub-prime mortgage lending by America’s top financial companies…not banks. This was done by a Republican Congress in the 90’s when they refused to control financial companies like they control bank lending.)
6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure. (See above)
America voted for change in 2006 and we got it!
Remember its Congress that makes law not the President. He has to work with what’s handed to him. (This is a partial lie. While Congress writes new laws, it is the President that is responsible for carrying out the ones that exist. President Bush has not had to change his Administration of American government significantly to this point in time.)
Quote of the Day……..’My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you’ll join with me as we try to change it.’ — Barack Obama
Part 2:
Taxes… Whether Democrat or a Republican you will find these statistics enlightening and amazing.
www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html
Taxes under Clinton 1999 /Taxes under Bush 2008
Single making 30K – tax $8,400 /Single making 30K – tax $4,500
Single making 50K – tax $14,000 /Single making 50K – tax $12,500
Single making 75K – tax $23,250 /Single making 75K – tax $18,750
Married making 60K – tax $16,800 /Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K – tax $21,000 /Married making 75K – tax $18,750
Married making 125K – tax $38,750 /Married making 125K – tax $31,250
Both democratic candidates will return to the higher tax rates
It is amazing how many people that fall into the categories above think Bush is screwing them and Bill Clinton was the greatest President ever. If Obama or Hillary is elected, they both say they will repeal the Bush tax cuts and a good portion of the people that fall into the categories above can’t wait for it to happen. This is like the movie The Sting with Paul Newman; you scam somebody out of some money and they don’t even know what happened.
PART 3:
( Reasonable Citizen: I can only say that the author of this email is over-the-top on illegal immigration and confuses legal immigration and illegal immigration. In addition, he adds up costs that are the same costs allocated differently. GO HERE to read about the federal costs of immigration and why some of the figures below are misleading. Here is one excerpt: “With nearly two-thirds of illegal aliens lacking a high school degree, the primary reason they create a fiscal deficit is their low education levels and resulting low incomes and tax payments, not their legal status or heavy use of most social services,” Camarota said. )
You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much? Read this:
Boy, am I confused. I have been hammered with the propaganda that it is the Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us.
I now find that to be RIDICULOUS. (He finds it ridiculous because he does not know that our national debt is over $8 Trillion dollars and that when Bush took over it was at $5.6 Trillion. Only President Clinton has lowered the national debt during his term in office and he accomplished this feat with a Republican-controlled Congress. Illegal aliens are not the cause of this 8T debt. Go here and see for yourself.)
I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them. I have included the URL’s for verification of all the following facts. ( Please note that the author has confused federal and state governments and attributes state spending on illegal aliens as a reason for federal spending excess. In each case, look to see if this is federal responsibility or a state responsibility. You will need to paste the link into your browser.)
1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments. Verify at: http://tinyurl.com/zob77
2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. Verify at: http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens. Verify at: http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English! Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies. Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. Verify at:http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers. Verify at:http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html
9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. Verify at:http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01html
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that’s two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US . Verify at:http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html
11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the US from the Southern border. Verify at: Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht
12. The National Policy Institute ‘estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.’ Verify at: http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf
13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. Verify at: http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm
14. ‘The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants in the United States .’ Verify at: http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml
The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.
Are we THAT stupid? ( Well…..)
ReasonableCitizen says: If you ever see emails like the one above, please don’t assume it is truthful. It is likely a lie. Like this one.
Save America and Vote Responsibly
3 responses so far ↓
DAN // May 20, 2008 at 6:13 am
This is nothing more then normal typical right wing zealot bullshit – throw out crap & hope someone believes it.
Whoever wrote this is either a lame little liar, or is just plain stupid enough to write about a subject he knows nothing about. The most hilarious part of this nonsense was:
THE NUMBERS ABOVE WOULD APPEAR TO BE QUITE CLEAR. I FIND IT AMAZING HOW PEOPLE DON’T SEEM TO UNDERSTAND SIMPLE BASIC NUMBERS !!! BUT THEN AGAIN IT’S TAKEN ONLY 40 YEARS TO DUMB DOWN A VERY LARGE SEGMENT OF THE AMERICAN POPULATION.
At least he’s right about the dumbing of America – he’s an excellent example of that.
The writer of this crap certainly showed his complete lack of knowledge concerning income taxes. He listed a link: http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html knowing that some will blindly believe that his following calculations are shown on that web site. What the link actually brings you to is a report titled “Federal Individual Income Tax Rates History“ from 1913-2008. It shows all the tax brackets for each year, but it does not, for example, say how much tax a single taxpayer making 30K actually paid any year.
Here is where the laughs really take off. He claims:
Taxes under Clinton 1999 Taxes under Bush 2008
Single making 30K – tax $8,400 Single making 30K – tax $4,500
Single making 50K – tax $14,000 Single making 50K – tax $12,500
Single making 75K – tax $23,250 Single making 75K – tax $18,750
Married making 60K – tax $16,800 Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K – tax $21,000 Married making 75K – tax $18,750
Married making 125K – tax $38,750 Married making 125K – tax $31,250
ALL OF THESE AMOUNTS ARE INCORRECT!
Let’s examine one of the claims – that in 1999, a single taxpayer making 30K paid income taxes of $8,400. The writer looked at the 1999 tax brackets showing that 30K for a single taxpayer was in the 28% bracket. So he multiplied $30,000 times 28%, and claimed $8,400 of taxes was paid. FUNNY, FUNNY STUFF!
First, the writer doesn’t even know that tax brackets are based on taxable income, not what someone makes. In 1999, the single standard deduction was $4,300 & 1 personal exemption was $2,750. So this single taxpayer making 30K had taxable income of $22,950.
So this single taxpayer who made 30K in 1999 was actually taxed on $22,950 (or less if he itemized deductions) which was taxed @ 15%.
Therefore his tax was $3,446, not $8,400.
Secondly, the writer thinks that if your total income figure is within a higher tax bracket, then all your income is taxed at that rate. MORE FUNNY, FUNNY STUFF!
The reality though is that even if you make a $million, your taxable income is taxed progressively up the brackets.
Take the claim that a single taxpayer making 50K paid $14,000 in taxes in 1999. The writer took this whole $50,000 & multiplied it times 28%
This taxpayer actually had taxable income of $42,950 (even less if he itemized). Even though this $42,950 falls in the 28% bracket, the first $25,750 was taxed at 15%. His income tax was $8,686, not $14,000 as claimed.
ALL of the numbers in his BS are not even close to reality. He claims the single taxpayer making 30K is paying $3,900 per year less than in 1999 ($4,500 in 2008 compared to $8,400 in 1999), as I said – NOT EVEN CLOSE.
Are the numbers for the same income less in 2008, than in 1999? YES. For example, the single taxpayer making $30,000 paid $690 less in 2008 than in 1999. Anyone who thinks this taxpayer isn’t paying back more in increased local or state taxes or fees or rate increases, think again. For example, when U.S. Treasury revenue declined due to the tax cuts, less federal money was sent to the states. One of Jeb Bush’s solutions was to reduce the percentage of local school taxes that the state paid. You now make that up by paying a greater percentage of local school taxes. In other words your property taxes increased to help offset your income tax cut. The politicians want you to disregard everything else, & just see what happened on your 1040. Sadly, some are fooled this way.
The BS continues with:
“If Obama or Hillary are elected, they both say they will repeal the Bush tax cuts and a good portion of the people that fall into the categories above can’t wait for it to happen.”
Now either the writer just blindly believes any propaganda that sounds good to him, or he is simply mistaken, or he’s an outright liar. Neither of the Democratic candidates are saying they will repeal the tax cuts “of the people that fall into the categories above” (This nonsense specifically stated income of $125,000 or less).
Clinton’s plan for income taxes is to “Increase on income over $250,000. Make the current (Bush tax cut) rates for “middle class” families permanent.” Also “Would create a matching refundable tax credit for contributions made to 401(k)s.”
Obama’s plan is “”Repeal Bush’s tax cuts for top 1%. Eliminate income taxes on seniors earning $50,000 per year or less.”
So the reality is “the people that fall into the categories above” would do better under Clinton’s or Obama’s plans, not worse as the scare tactic propaganda claims.
BTW – Clinton’s & Obama’s plans are also on the Tax Foundation’s web site @ http://www.taxfoundation.org/candidates08/compare/ Guess the writer just happened to miss that page.
DAN // May 20, 2008 at 6:17 am
When you put on 50 pounds, you aren’t going to lose it overnight. The mess caused by the combination of a bush administration and a republican Congress obviously wasn’t going to be fixed in a little over a year. Hell, whoever the next President will be is going to have a problem getting the bush 8 year mess fixed in 1 term.
But you gotta love some of the wording:
“Also, two years ago:” HMMM- the Democrats only have controlled Congress for 1 1/4 years.
“Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high” – which means it was lower then 2 3/4 years before
“Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;” – don’t know when this bullshit was written, but according to eia.doe.gov, 2 years ago the price was $2.76. But OK, since we want to compare the price of gas, in January 2001 when bush took office, the price was $1.45.
“The unemployment rate was 4.5%” – And the unemployment rate was 3.9% in December 2000, the month before bush took office
“The stock market was at record highs.” Actually the market hit it’s record high in October 2007, then the sub prime credit correction took hold. But in reality, can you say big whoop? The DJIA has declined during the terms of only 2 of the previous 12 Presidents, Carter & Nixon. And the average yearly increase in the bush years is the lowest of the other 10 Presidents.
“American home ownership was the highest percentage in history.” & “Cumulative American home equity was the highest value in history.” – Can you say Sub-prime mortgage!
“Congressional committees create the pork-barrel budgets that are now bankrupting our nation.” Yep, we are all supposed to forget about the deficit forged in the 1st 6 years of the bush administration – with a republican Congress!
And then the next 2 lines were separated enough in this bullshit knowing that it might take a little thinking to put it together:
1)”Remember, it’s Congress that makes national law and policy, not the President.”
2)”Other than under his constitutional authority as Commander in Chief, our president must work with what’s handed to him by the Congress, or veto it. That veto threat is the only thing that has postponed a greater disaster than what we now already face.”
So if Congress makes the policies, but the President has the power to veto it, who is the ultimate blame for the mess? Sorry, but the “buck stops here” doesn’t only apply to a Democrat President, no matter how many times this bullshit blog email is cut & pasted.
zeezil // May 20, 2008 at 6:43 am
Amnesty for illegal immigrants has once again reared it’s ugly head with Senator Feinstein (D-CA) slipping in her amnesty for agricultural workers into the Iraq Supplemental Spending bill being voted on this week in the Senate. This would amount to amnesty for over 3 million illegal aliens. Her amendment is not only not germane to the bill’s intent, polls indicate 80% of Americans are opposed to amnesty on principle.
Unless Americans immediately, once again, pepper the Senate with complaints, amnesty could come to pass. Want to fight against sellout politicians, illegal immigration and amnesty? Here’s how:
http://www.alipac.us/article-3191–0-0.html
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-115596.html
http://www.alipac.us/article3201.html