Ben Stein Stuns Fox news about Mitt Romney tax cut

Thank you so much for posting this.
It's nice to see at least some people on here are still here to "deny ignorance".

Originally posted by The Old American


Well, let's see here. It worked until 2009, while America enjoyed sub-5% unemployment. I wonder...what was it that happened in 2009?

It's on the tip of my tongue. Can someone help me out here?

Are you talking about the stock market crash and housing bubble bursting in 2008?

Originally posted by The Old American


Well, let's see here. It worked until 2009, while America enjoyed sub-5% unemployment. I wonder...what was it that happened in 2009?

It's on the tip of my tongue. Can someone help me out here?

Are you talking about the stock market crash and housing bubble bursting in 2008?

reply to post by newcovenant

Is this sh*t still going on. It's simple really, not that hard to fix our economy. We live in a consumer society, when things do not move then the economy and products are not consumed then it stops, in fact the whole consumer society thing is a problem in itself, but that may be off topic. But our consumer society is not going through any problems or recessions, that is false, you don't believe me got to the mall and see.

What is going on is that the economic base of things are shifting and there all jumping ship as this ship is likely to sink overtime, like rats when they sense the water may be raising they scurry around looking to abandon ship....And raising taxes on rich people would help things a little, but that's not even really the issue. Since rich people already have a bunch of tax loopholes which the working class do not, they still would not pay those taxes anyways so it sort of becomes a mute point of raising there taxes. You would need to raise taxes, and close loopholes, as it is most of the money they make off this country they invest in other countries to make a profit of the lower wages in those countries, or they sit on it that or buy yachts and mansions and you know the rest.

Its not all that hard to understand. And its not like that they cant afford it, and sitting on all those $$ is just making the value of the over all $ plummet, all they really need to do is cut the necessities for business a bit and things will pick up, necessities such as oil and gas, food, insurance and all the little things that make our society turn, because if people cant afford the gas to go anywhere they then wont, and if they cant afford to buy things then they wont, its not rocket science here people.

But you know why they wont do that, all those things like oil companies and the insurance companies, and all the other companies out there would lose profits, and seeing as they got a great pull in government more so then then the so called people, its kind of like duh on what would happen. If they cut expenses It then becomes a matter of losing short term profit, at the expense for possibility of gaining long term profit and really who would want to do that, its bad business and risky. So they push on it till the whole thing imploded then when everything drops down, kind of like the housing market did when they crashed the whole thing then bought it back for pennies on the dollar, only in this case the primary tool would be outsourcing and keep it going in circles to keep the profits reeling in, after all your dealing with money which is ultimately a mental concept construct, and the constructs of such concepts are not all that tangible and can be changed to suit your need or whim, and that's why you got people on the news, papers, and internet telling you what to think.

But again its not that were going through a recession, its that the economy is shifting from its original consumer bases and away to greener pastures, and as such businesses and rich people will follow suit as they really are like the herds of gazelles that roam the grasslands, and when one grassland has been foraged clean...Then its time to move to another, ie china, India, Europe, etc, etc. I suppose that why they got the Mit Romney character running for president, I mean he made his living as a corporate raider and chopping and selling business to china and other economies, I suppose that business is very lucrative...But seeing as they already got all the manufacturing, and a great majority of other bases already the only thing left really that they would need that they don't have is land and raw resources to power there growing economies. And that's what America has a great deal of, and that's were people like him and pretty much the rest of everybody else comes in, because frankly that's why there all there to begin with to make money, and so the gravy train will continue on. And the new world order will move on.

But anyways I liked ben stein in ferris bueller day off.

Originally posted by jtma508
Fat chance Ben will ever see the inside of a FOX studio again. He'll likely have to surrender his Conservative group pass key as well. Poor Ben.

Probably...but don't be surprised if CBC News picks him up if no other news agency is willing to let him talk.

I like what he said about raising taxes on the rich, but at the same time I don't think increasing the tax on the working class is also the right way to go. Many of those people lost a s**t load of money/jobs after 2008 and so they need more time to recover.

reply to post by Skywatcher2011


if you taxed the wealthy and corporataions properly in America then the middle classes share of the burden would decrease...

hell, imagine if you just cut the US military's budget by 10% for 5 years...

reply to post by newcovenant


I was going to stay away from politics today :-) Hadn't seen this - been enjoying a little news-free time...

So, I can only say:

Lovely - this thread made my day :-)

Ben Stein is an economist - entertainers and 'propagandists' are not

Conservatives are not the enemy - clearly. It would require a whole 'nother thread to name the enemy - but gotta admire anyone that deals in reality - Left, Right and In-between

It's a different world and time.

That time span Ben Stein mentions, 1941 to 1973, was an era where almost everything was made in the US.
We're talking about good, top quality goods made from high quality material, that were designed to last a lifetime.

We now live in a fast paced, impatient world, continually churning out cheap disposable products.
Having a 70% tax in place won't have the same effect as it did back then.

Originally posted by longlostbrother
reply to post by Skywatcher2011

 

if you taxed the wealthy and corporataions properly in America then the middle classes share of the burden would decrease...

hell, imagine if you just cut the US military's budget by 10% for 5 years...

What exact dollar figures would show a 10% decrease for 5 years. Please cite the military budget spending for calculation purposes.

reply to post by newcovenant


IMHO, Ben Stein is just another talking head with his own ideas and opinions. I'm sorry, Ben does not pass muster on what the US Congress or much less the President has to do to fix things.

You people sure hate Republicans. Yet you want to give them MORE money to screw everything up even more, by raising taxes?

Uhm, ok?

reply to post by jibeho


You can also thank President Ford's Earned income credit for adding to that. It's pretty funny how republicans like to pretend that its the democrats that give away other people's money.

trickle down does not work at all. It never has and never will. Businesses are always coming up with ways to better their business model so they cut all their expenditures to bring in better profits for owners/investors and to expand.

To do better business they need to find ways to cut wages and benefits as that is detrimental to profits and expansions.

there is no trickle down. The only thing that trickles is a model that only benefits the top tier of business.

Some things i have viewed as trickle down are opportunities created by businesses that allow others to make a living or supplement income.

Recycling of packing materials used to be something people could collect out of garbage bins at businesses and then sell. soon businesses realized this money making opportunity trickled down and they plugged that hole.

Video game resale has been a big business. Many people have taken advantage of this and it has provided them a lively hood. A business trickled down an opportunity to a common man to make ti.

since then many big stores such as bestbuy (which is not doing well) has begun to do game trade in for credit.

gaming companies have responded to this market by making it harder to resell games in general or by building into their product a necessity to give the gaming company a cut upon resale. (you buy a game key)

I have seen some threads on here about some companies wanting to deny people the ability to resell their belongings.

that is plugging of trickle down wealth. I say this because NO business is in to pay you a good wage as it undermines their profits and expansion capability. the only trickle down there can be is the creation of opportunites by these businesses. unfortunately these businesses always plug those trickle holes which pretty much kills any trickle down.

trickle down does not work... it never will it is a myth. When cup of wealth begins to over flow they just buy a bigger cup and there is no trickle down.

reply to post by antonia


:-)
Ben Stein Apologizes Profusely for Being Truthful About Taxes on Fox News

What I find hilarious about that clip is how attuned Stein is to the gravity of the taboo that he is violating. For endorsing the Simpson-Bowles deficit-reduction plan, urging some tax hikes, and noting the dearth of evidence that they would retard economic growth, he jokes they might not let him out of the studio alive! It's the sort of joke that no one would think to make on a news network that valued intellectual honesty more than the vacuous repetition of ideological dogma.

well - maybe they need to come up with a new party (there's an idea)

the GOP seems to be having some kind of identity crisis these days

Originally posted by newcovenant

Ben Stein is an old school Republican, not an extreme tea partier.
I have read many times, many places the Republican Party used to look like today's Democrats and today's Democrats were more like the Republicans.

edit on 26-10-2012 by newcovenant because: (no reason given)

Check out the definition of a classic liberal. It would shock you to see how different the terms are today.
100 years ago "Liberal" and "Conservative" meant wholly opposites.
Today you have the Neoconservatives and New Democrats, except they call themselves "Conservatives and Democrats" of which by DEFINITION they are not.
I felt enlightened after I read all about it and could thus actually if someone was what they label themselves as.
Ben Stein really is an old school republican (or classical liberal).

Originally posted by Osiris1953
I love Mr. Stein. Right or wrong he calls it as he sees it, regardless of what side of the line he sits. He uses his brain instead of pandering to his party. If there more folks like him in every political party, we'd have a much more balanced America, one that compromise could actually happen in.

for Ben.

You're right - he always has called it as he sees it. I have a complicated love/hate relationship with Mr. Stein :-)

I've been watching/reading him for years, and he's one of those people that constantly makes you reevaluate your position. I so completely disagree with him on certain things that when I do agree with him I am filled with self doubt and occasionally a little self loathing :-)

But when he's right - he's right, and I just kinda like the guy

All of this fighting between Obama supporters and Romney supporters is being done in vain. There's something going on that should inform you that this match is just a play, and that we do not have any real control over those who govern us.

While you might not realize how something that seems so insignificant can actually matter in such a huge way, if you watch this video and use your own curiosity and intuition, you'll see what the real issue is - that McCain, Obama, and Romney, Congress, the Courts, Intelligence Agencies, AND BUSH, have been on the same team the whole time.

Please, check out this video and send it to your friends. This information needs to get out before the election. The video is long, and the guys go on some unrelated tangents, but it is worth sitting through to understand what's going on. They progress to the main point kind of slowly, but I think it's necessary, given the years of bias they have to fight through to get most people to see what's going on. Here it is:
radioactivision.com...

reply to post by NoJoker13
My post is simple dont spend more then what you take in. And I said BOTH parties are at fault. What part didn't you understand. Debt is bad. To blame one party or the other solves nothing. If anything it makes it worse. Think about it.

What firghtens me the most is that we have millions believing that Mitt Romney cares about anyone other than himself or his wealthy investor buddies.

If unemployment rose to 14%, Romney loses no sleep. He cares nothing for regular people who get dirty for a living or break their backs. He sees us as less than human.

He is the epitome of plutocracy.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

I have known idiots that lived solely on credit, and spent way more than they could ever hope of taking in. It's not too long until they can't even make the minimum payment, and lose EVERYTHING!

The fact that we have been allowing our government to operate like this, then let them even mention anything about raising ANYONE'S taxes, rich or not makes the general population morons in my book..... I say we toss these jerkoff politicians on their ass in the streets, sell everything they used to own to pay down as much of the debt as possible, then just write off the rest. Why the hell should my great great great great grandkids be in slavery, because our moron government cannot keep anything close to a balanced budget? Oh yeah, because we are stupid and keep on voting these schmucks into office, and don't hold them accountable for anything.