Come on, it's hacker news: Home of many libertarians, aspies (and wannabes), grammar sticklers, and concern trolls. Obama doesn't have a chance in hell here, even when he's trying to give a shout-out.
He, and anyone who doesn't have a tax break or credit in hand, will get the same treatment here. As a bleeding heart liberal, I've come to terms with it :)
Is it radical that entrepreneurs want to keep their money, so they can invest it the way they see fit? As a bleeding heart thinker, I've come to terms with this.
He wants us to work harder that day so to pay off the raises he's been giving to the federal workers.
"The number of federal workers earning $150,000 or more per year has risen tenfold in the past five years. And it has doubled since Obama took office."
That's meaningless without info about what those jobs are. Clueful SEC investigators, skilled engineers, top scientists aren't going to come cheap.
Also, "since Obama took office" doesn't mean much, since Obama's first year in office was under Bush's last budget.
Finally, if you outsource or contract out lower-wage Federal jobs, it should be expected that the remaining employees will have a higher concentration of high-wage specialists.
> Also, "since Obama took office" doesn't mean much, since Obama's first year in office was under Bush's last budget.
Actually, it wasn't; Congress didn't pass a budget during Bush's last year. It passed some continuing resolutions during the end of the Bush administration and passed a budget during Obama's first few months.
"Bush administration and passed a budget during Obama's first few months."
Who came up with the content? Was it based on the Bush administration's proposals, or the new Obama administration's proposals? The Obama administration was hardly even staffed out for months.
Congress basically ran the spending from 2006 on. Bush didn't threaten a veto, let alone do one. (The last deficit from a repub congress was $100b/year. The current deficit is over 10x as big.)
Considering how little that Obama has deviated since then, it's unclear why you think that the budget passed in early 2008 isn't what he wanted.
Please. Bush didn't threaten vetos of profligate Republican spending either. He doubled the national debt from about $5 trillion to $10 trillion, and it didn't all happen in the two years after 2006.
Really, you need to grapple with this reality. Two wars paid for off-budget, a medicare drug benefit that they made no attempt to pay for and thus went straight to the deficit, and tax cuts.
> Please. Bush didn't threaten vetos of profligate Republican spending either.
I didn't intend to suggest that he did.
> He doubled the national debt from about $5 trillion to $10 trillion, and it didn't all happen in the two years after 2006.
You're right - it didn't. The deficit went up, to a peak of around $600B, after 9/11 and the prescription drug monstrosity, but had dropped to $100B when repubs lost congress. That six years, plus the 2 years of a Dem congress, added $5T to the debt.
Obama is on schedule to add $5T in four years....
Yes "profligate Republican spending" was horrible. My point is that Dems have been worse.
"Clueful SEC investigators" You mean those hard working folks that ended up NOT prosecuting any of the investment/banking heads that crashed the market?
"top scientists" you realize that NASA just had a massive 1200 people layoff?
"remaining employees will have a higher concentration of high-wage specialists" We're not talking about the average here. More federal workers made more money. It's that simple. Unless you're implying that the money they saved in outsourcing was then spent on the remaining workers, in which case, how is that better?
"Hey Entrepreneurs! It's your day! Please bail out the country, the rest of us have no idea what we're doing!"