Republicans raising the bar on insane!

[Jimmy Higgins]

Unveil Highway Funding mechanism

And Boehner says it is solid. Their plan, which only adds funds for the next fucking 12 months, only requires taking 60% of the fund from a process known as "pension smoothing", a term which may have just been invented by the Republicans. What is "pension smoothing"?

...an accounting move that allows companies to delay contributions to employee pension plans. This boosts short-term corporate profits, producing more tax revenue collected by the U.S. Treasury.

No words, should have sent a poet.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

OK, assume that the Republicans are being honest here (I know ... but just bear with me for the sake of the argument).

Why would a company agree to this? They delay the pension payments and therefore have to pay more money in taxes ... and then need to pay the exact same amount into the pensions in the future. All it seems to do is have them pay more taxes with nothing in return.

 

[laughing dog]

Pension smoothing also raises the deficit in the long-run:

While pension smoothing saves the government money in the short term, it increases future deficits by more than it saves. This occurs because in the near term, companies have higher profits (or employees have higher wages) subject to taxes, since companies take fewer deductions for employee compensation (or employees have more taxable income). However, contributing less to pension plans now means that companies must make greater contributions in later years, thus increasing their deductions, reducing revenue, and increasing the deficit. In addition, underfunding pensions makes it more likely that a company will need a bailout from the federally funded Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

(source:http://crfb.org/blogs/pension-gimmick-rises-again)

As to why a company might choose this option is that it might increase needed short-term cash flows (i.e. the tax liabilities are less than the pension contributions).

 

[SimpleDon]

OK, assume that the Republicans are being honest here (I know ... but just bear with me for the sake of the argument).

Why would a company agree to this? They delay the pension payments and therefore have to pay more money in taxes ... and then need to pay the exact same amount into the pensions in the future. All it seems to do is have them pay more taxes with nothing in return.

Please don't tell the speaker this, he thought this up all by himself and he is proud of it.

Here in Georgia the legislature had no control over the money collected from the state fuel taxes, the money went straight to the highway department and they are charged with building and maintain the most sensible roads. As a result we had the best and cheapest roads in country because there was no political interference in the department. Unfortunately though the legislature didn't have any reason to increase the gas tax.

About the same time as it became obvious that the highway department needed more money the legislature and the good old boys switched from being Democrats to being Republicans who never raise taxes. So here is what they did. In one of the many bills that they write and which gets stuffed with all kinds of local interest bills like convention centers etc. they instructed the revenue department that ever since the sales tax had been enacted that they had failed to collect the sales tax on motor fuels, that they were to start collecting it immediately and that they were to treat this bill as to override anything in the bill authorizing the sales tax that lead the revenue department to believe that motor fuels were exempt from the sales tax. Of course, the bill authorizing the sales tax said something like motor fuels shall be exempt from the sales tax. But in this allowed them not only to say that they hadn't raised any taxes, it put the highway department back under the control of the legislature. They had to bow down to the politicians because the legislature controls the sales tax receipts. We now have the same poorly maintained roads built expensively by the same incompetent but politically connected contractors that plague the rest of the country.

 

[braces_for_impact]

This pension smoothing is bullshit. A corporation is a person, and if a person can't pay all their bills they get into trouble. Now get crackin' with the taxes you lazy ass companies! If you can't meet all your financial requirements, maybe you shouldn't be in business.

 

[coloradoatheist]

This pension smoothing is bullshit. A corporation is a person, and if a person can't pay all their bills they get into trouble. Now get crackin' with the taxes you lazy ass companies! If you can't meet all your financial requirements, maybe you shouldn't be in business.

Except individuals get those tax adjustments too, so it's not just about a company. Are you complaining about individuals getting charitable tax credits/deductions or mortgage interest writeoffs?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

This pension smoothing is bullshit. A corporation is a person, and if a person can't pay all their bills they get into trouble. Now get crackin' with the taxes you lazy ass companies! If you can't meet all your financial requirements, maybe you shouldn't be in business.

Except individuals get those tax adjustments too, so it's not just about a company. Are you complaining about individuals getting charitable tax credits/deductions or mortgage interest writeoffs?

Stay on-topic. Republicans are actually proposing a Rube Goldberg funding mechanism to pay for roads and bridges in 14/15. That seems quite absurd on several levels.

 

[coloradoatheist]

Except individuals get those tax adjustments too, so it's not just about a company. Are you complaining about individuals getting charitable tax credits/deductions or mortgage interest writeoffs?

Stay on-topic. Republicans are actually proposing a Rube Goldberg funding mechanism to pay for roads and bridges in 14/15. That seems quite absurd on several levels.

I agree. But they are trying to fund it without increasing taxes on individuals. It should be an increase in taxes at the pump.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Stay on-topic. Republicans are actually proposing a Rube Goldberg funding mechanism to pay for roads and bridges in 14/15. That seems quite absurd on several levels.

I agree. But they are trying to fund it without increasing taxes on individuals.

At the expense of pension stability. And we don't even know if the additional taxes would be realized anyway because of the accounting games that are played.

It should be an increase in taxes at the pump.

Yes, agreed fully. Increase the gas tax (which probably should be called a Gas fee, as it is a flat cents per gallon, not a percentage).

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Actually this is the latest salvo of: Government employee pensions are bankrupting America.

Let's face it, they have nothing left to offer.

Gays are bad: Failed
Obamacare is evil: Failed
Benghazi: Failed
Women's privates: Failing
Outreach to minorities: Failed
Budget stalemate: Failed
Viable National Candidates: Failing

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Looking through some of the tax legislation, both US and Canadian, it is all ridiculously complicated. I think we should simply scrap what is there and start all over again fresh. Make it simple and to the point and don't leave room for tax loopholes or write offs without vetting them publicly and making everything as clear and fair as possible.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

ISIS could be the savior for the Republican party, no? The same drum beat that brought Bush his second term and got the US into the mess it is now in, could happen all over again. All you need is a good folksy republican chickenhawk to call for a new invasion. You even have Iraq government actually inviting you in. This time you MAY actually be greeted as liberators.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

ISIS could be the savior for the Republican party, no? The same drum beat that brought Bush his second term and got the US into the mess it is now in, could happen all over again. All you need is a good folksy republican chickenhawk to call for a new invasion. You even have Iraq government actually inviting you in. This time you MAY actually be greeted as liberators.

Except the US people are, in general, not buying into ISIS is a problem for American interests. If gasoline hits $6 a gallon, that may change, but seeing ISIS is out of reach of major oil areas, that may not happen for a bit.

But this is really driving the thread off the cliff as it is very off-topic.

 

[laughing dog]

I disagree with the OP on one point - the Republican party is lowering the bar on insane, not raising it.