What should be done, if anything, to bring home $5 trillion held overseas by American businesses?

[Boss]

If they bring home $5 trillion what will they do with it?

More jobs?
Higher wages?
Just keep it?

Even if they just keep it, it's better for it to be kept in American banks than overseas.

Why should I care?

It is not helping our economy

It can't help, it's not here, that's the point!

 

[JohnnyApplesack]

outlaw multinationals and put sanctions on the wealthy depositors using tax havens offshore

every thing else is horseshit

 

[Slade3200]

Horrible comparison... Housing costs are primarily mortgage payments or rent and that is comparable to mandatory spending like Social Security and Medicare which are the primary drivers of our debt. In the discretionary spending arena I'd look at my food, entertainment, travel, and commodity purchases... If i was spending more than 50% of my budget on food and much of that was eating out then i'd probably start by making adjustments there. A 10% cut on that is going to be much more effective than cutting 10% on something that only comprises a small fraction of my budget.

I disagree. I think our national defense is mandatory. My example was regarding the complaint that we spend a lot on defense, therefore, this is where cuts should be made. I think that reasoning is invalid.

Sent from my SD4930UR using USMessageBoard.com mobile app

National defense is discretionary spending, thats fact not opinion...

Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go

I didn't say it wasn't discretionary... if it weren't it would be pointless in discussing it, wouldn't it? Can you cite the last year congress failed to fund defense? I would say it's mighty fucking mandatory, discretionary or not.

And again for the dimwitted... of all the things government spends money on, that is the most constitutionally important and fundamental.

Funny that you use the word dimwitted when you apparently don't understand the difference between mandatory and discretionary spending. Do a little homework then we can start the conversation over.

I understand the difference between discretionary and non-discretionary. I never claimed it was not discretionary. You want to tell the class what year congress didn't appropriate funding for defense, or did the dog eat your homework?

They always have and always will... I can only hope. What's your point?

 

[Boss]

I disagree. I think our national defense is mandatory. My example was regarding the complaint that we spend a lot on defense, therefore, this is where cuts should be made. I think that reasoning is invalid.

Sent from my SD4930UR using USMessageBoard.com mobile app

National defense is discretionary spending, thats fact not opinion...

Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go

I didn't say it wasn't discretionary... if it weren't it would be pointless in discussing it, wouldn't it? Can you cite the last year congress failed to fund defense? I would say it's mighty fucking mandatory, discretionary or not.

And again for the dimwitted... of all the things government spends money on, that is the most constitutionally important and fundamental.

Funny that you use the word dimwitted when you apparently don't understand the difference between mandatory and discretionary spending. Do a little homework then we can start the conversation over.

I understand the difference between discretionary and non-discretionary. I never claimed it was not discretionary. You want to tell the class what year congress didn't appropriate funding for defense, or did the dog eat your homework?

They always have and always will... I can only hope. What's your point?

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

 

[Boss]

outlaw multinationals and put sanctions on the wealthy depositors using tax havens offshore

every thing else is horseshit

None of that is possible in a free country, chairman Mao!

 

[Slyhunter]

Military spending is the largest driver of the deficit BY FAR (from descrssionary spending) I support a strong military and am not calling for massive cuts. But you are naive if you don't think there is just as much waste in military spending as there is in government programs. I'd bet there is more waste in military spending than any other department

Nope... biggest driver for of the deficits are servicing the $20 trillion debt. Defense spending is high but it's the primary function of our government.

Now.... your housing cost is probably your biggest expense... does that automatically mean you need to cut your housing cost because your checkbook is overdrawn? Or could the problem possibility be something else?

Horrible comparison... Housing costs are primarily mortgage payments or rent and that is comparable to mandatory spending like Social Security and Medicare which are the primary drivers of our debt. In the discretionary spending arena I'd look at my food, entertainment, travel, and commodity purchases... If i was spending more than 50% of my budget on food and much of that was eating out then i'd probably start by making adjustments there. A 10% cut on that is going to be much more effective than cutting 10% on something that only comprises a small fraction of my budget.

I disagree. I think our national defense is mandatory. My example was regarding the complaint that we spend a lot on defense, therefore, this is where cuts should be made. I think that reasoning is invalid.

Sent from my SD4930UR using USMessageBoard.com mobile app

National defense is discretionary spending, thats fact not opinion...

Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go

Why do we even need Standing Armies during real times of Peace and definitely Not, real times of alleged War; since we can Lower taxes and not Raise taxes to meet any real times of War, exigency.

Where is the duh stupid emote? Those who don't have a standing army risk being invaded with no notice, and then it's too late to draft.

 

[Slade3200]

National defense is discretionary spending, thats fact not opinion...

Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go

I didn't say it wasn't discretionary... if it weren't it would be pointless in discussing it, wouldn't it? Can you cite the last year congress failed to fund defense? I would say it's mighty fucking mandatory, discretionary or not.

And again for the dimwitted... of all the things government spends money on, that is the most constitutionally important and fundamental.

Funny that you use the word dimwitted when you apparently don't understand the difference between mandatory and discretionary spending. Do a little homework then we can start the conversation over.

I understand the difference between discretionary and non-discretionary. I never claimed it was not discretionary. You want to tell the class what year congress didn't appropriate funding for defense, or did the dog eat your homework?

They always have and always will... I can only hope. What's your point?

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

 

[Boss]

I didn't say it wasn't discretionary... if it weren't it would be pointless in discussing it, wouldn't it? Can you cite the last year congress failed to fund defense? I would say it's mighty fucking mandatory, discretionary or not.

And again for the dimwitted... of all the things government spends money on, that is the most constitutionally important and fundamental.

Funny that you use the word dimwitted when you apparently don't understand the difference between mandatory and discretionary spending. Do a little homework then we can start the conversation over.

I understand the difference between discretionary and non-discretionary. I never claimed it was not discretionary. You want to tell the class what year congress didn't appropriate funding for defense, or did the dog eat your homework?

They always have and always will... I can only hope. What's your point?

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

There's nothing wrong with my terminology. My economy understanding is just as sound. Typical lefty, when someone challenges your religion your instinct is to personally attack.

Let's go through this... Let's say we lose our collective fucking minds and cut our defense budget 33%...that's never going to happen, but let's play along and pretend... Well, that amounts to about $200 billion, or enough to fund our current level of spending for about 17 days.

This is without mentioning a third of the military bases closing and entire towns being left to wither away or the thousands of jobs dependent on defense contracts.

It amounts to really stupid economic suggestion. Borderline retarded.

 

[Slade3200]

Funny that you use the word dimwitted when you apparently don't understand the difference between mandatory and discretionary spending. Do a little homework then we can start the conversation over.

I understand the difference between discretionary and non-discretionary. I never claimed it was not discretionary. You want to tell the class what year congress didn't appropriate funding for defense, or did the dog eat your homework?

They always have and always will... I can only hope. What's your point?

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

There's nothing wrong with my terminology. My economy understanding is just as sound. Typical lefty, when someone challenges your religion your instinct is to personally attack.

Let's go through this... Let's say we lose our collective fucking minds and cut our defense budget 33%...that's never going to happen, but let's play along and pretend... Well, that amounts to about $200 billion, or enough to fund our current level of spending for about 17 days.

This is without mentioning a third of the military bases closing and entire towns being left to wither away or the thousands of jobs dependent on defense contracts.

It amounts to really stupid economic suggestion. Borderline retarded.

I never suggested cutting he military by 33% and never suggested closing down bases. Your injecting a false narrative to try and make me sound crazy and yourself sound right. Nice try

 

[Slade3200]

Funny that you use the word dimwitted when you apparently don't understand the difference between mandatory and discretionary spending. Do a little homework then we can start the conversation over.

I understand the difference between discretionary and non-discretionary. I never claimed it was not discretionary. You want to tell the class what year congress didn't appropriate funding for defense, or did the dog eat your homework?

They always have and always will... I can only hope. What's your point?

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

There's nothing wrong with my terminology. My economy understanding is just as sound. Typical lefty, when someone challenges your religion your instinct is to personally attack.

Let's go through this... Let's say we lose our collective fucking minds and cut our defense budget 33%...that's never going to happen, but let's play along and pretend... Well, that amounts to about $200 billion, or enough to fund our current level of spending for about 17 days.

This is without mentioning a third of the military bases closing and entire towns being left to wither away or the thousands of jobs dependent on defense contracts.

It amounts to really stupid economic suggestion. Borderline retarded.

Also your understanding of economics is not very sound. You claimed that the biggest driver of our deficit was interest on the debt in response to my claim that military was by far the largest outlay of our descretioary spending budget. First off, servicing the debt costs us 230 billion and military costs us 600 billion, and second the largest driver over our debt is social security/unemployment at 1.25 Trillion

 

[Boss]

I understand the difference between discretionary and non-discretionary. I never claimed it was not discretionary. You want to tell the class what year congress didn't appropriate funding for defense, or did the dog eat your homework?

They always have and always will... I can only hope. What's your point?

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

There's nothing wrong with my terminology. My economy understanding is just as sound. Typical lefty, when someone challenges your religion your instinct is to personally attack.

Let's go through this... Let's say we lose our collective fucking minds and cut our defense budget 33%...that's never going to happen, but let's play along and pretend... Well, that amounts to about $200 billion, or enough to fund our current level of spending for about 17 days.

This is without mentioning a third of the military bases closing and entire towns being left to wither away or the thousands of jobs dependent on defense contracts.

It amounts to really stupid economic suggestion. Borderline retarded.

I never suggested cutting he military by 33% and never suggested closing down bases. Your injecting a false narrative to try and make me sound crazy and yourself sound right. Nice try

Oh, I know you didn't suggest it, I didn't claim you did, moron. I am addressing the very real narrative of the liberal left, that we should make substantial cuts to defense spending. If that's not what you advocate just say so.

I'm simply trying to illustrate the absurdity of the argument here. Even at an insanely high level of cutting it reduces our deficit by very little. So these idiots who jump in to chortle that we need to cut military spending to get the deficits under control are borderline retarded. That will not do it!

 

[Boss]

I understand the difference between discretionary and non-discretionary. I never claimed it was not discretionary. You want to tell the class what year congress didn't appropriate funding for defense, or did the dog eat your homework?

They always have and always will... I can only hope. What's your point?

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

There's nothing wrong with my terminology. My economy understanding is just as sound. Typical lefty, when someone challenges your religion your instinct is to personally attack.

Let's go through this... Let's say we lose our collective fucking minds and cut our defense budget 33%...that's never going to happen, but let's play along and pretend... Well, that amounts to about $200 billion, or enough to fund our current level of spending for about 17 days.

This is without mentioning a third of the military bases closing and entire towns being left to wither away or the thousands of jobs dependent on defense contracts.

It amounts to really stupid economic suggestion. Borderline retarded.

Also your understanding of economics is not very sound. You claimed that the biggest driver of our deficit was interest on the debt in response to my claim that military was by far the largest outlay of our descretioary spending budget. First off, servicing the debt costs us 230 billion and military costs us 600 billion, and second the largest driver over our debt is social security/unemployment at 1.25 Trillion

Yes, it's about a third of our defense budget and we get absolutely nothing for it. What's more, at the current deficit rates, servicing the debt is going to quickly become our primary expense. Eventually, we'll get to a point where we can't pay for social security and other non-discretionary items and also service our debt... then, the interest starts to snowball into increased debt... shortly thereafter, our entire economy collapses. This happens rapidly when it all starts coming undone.

 

[Slade3200]

They always have and always will... I can only hope. What's your point?

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

There's nothing wrong with my terminology. My economy understanding is just as sound. Typical lefty, when someone challenges your religion your instinct is to personally attack.

Let's go through this... Let's say we lose our collective fucking minds and cut our defense budget 33%...that's never going to happen, but let's play along and pretend... Well, that amounts to about $200 billion, or enough to fund our current level of spending for about 17 days.

This is without mentioning a third of the military bases closing and entire towns being left to wither away or the thousands of jobs dependent on defense contracts.

It amounts to really stupid economic suggestion. Borderline retarded.

I never suggested cutting he military by 33% and never suggested closing down bases. Your injecting a false narrative to try and make me sound crazy and yourself sound right. Nice try

Oh, I know you didn't suggest it, I didn't claim you did, moron. I am addressing the very real narrative of the liberal left, that we should make substantial cuts to defense spending. If that's not what you advocate just say so.

I'm simply trying to illustrate the absurdity of the argument here. Even at an insanely high level of cutting it reduces our deficit by very little. So these idiots who jump in to chortle that we need to cut military spending to get the deficits under control are borderline retarded. That will not do it!

The same arguement can be made for cutting the EPA and funding for other government programs that are being slashed

 

[Slade3200]

They always have and always will... I can only hope. What's your point?

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

There's nothing wrong with my terminology. My economy understanding is just as sound. Typical lefty, when someone challenges your religion your instinct is to personally attack.

Let's go through this... Let's say we lose our collective fucking minds and cut our defense budget 33%...that's never going to happen, but let's play along and pretend... Well, that amounts to about $200 billion, or enough to fund our current level of spending for about 17 days.

This is without mentioning a third of the military bases closing and entire towns being left to wither away or the thousands of jobs dependent on defense contracts.

It amounts to really stupid economic suggestion. Borderline retarded.

Also your understanding of economics is not very sound. You claimed that the biggest driver of our deficit was interest on the debt in response to my claim that military was by far the largest outlay of our descretioary spending budget. First off, servicing the debt costs us 230 billion and military costs us 600 billion, and second the largest driver over our debt is social security/unemployment at 1.25 Trillion

Yes, it's about a third of our defense budget and we get absolutely nothing for it. What's more, at the current deficit rates, servicing the debt is going to quickly become our primary expense. Eventually, we'll get to a point where we can't pay for social security and other non-discretionary items and also service our debt... then, the interest starts to snowball into increased debt... shortly thereafter, our entire economy collapses. This happens rapidly when it all starts coming undone.

Ah yes the famous debt cliff, scary. Question, servicing the debt that does absolutely nothing... where exactly does that money go? Can you explain?

 

[Slade3200]

They always have and always will... I can only hope. What's your point?

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

There's nothing wrong with my terminology. My economy understanding is just as sound. Typical lefty, when someone challenges your religion your instinct is to personally attack.

Let's go through this... Let's say we lose our collective fucking minds and cut our defense budget 33%...that's never going to happen, but let's play along and pretend... Well, that amounts to about $200 billion, or enough to fund our current level of spending for about 17 days.

This is without mentioning a third of the military bases closing and entire towns being left to wither away or the thousands of jobs dependent on defense contracts.

It amounts to really stupid economic suggestion. Borderline retarded.

I never suggested cutting he military by 33% and never suggested closing down bases. Your injecting a false narrative to try and make me sound crazy and yourself sound right. Nice try

Oh, I know you didn't suggest it, I didn't claim you did, moron. I am addressing the very real narrative of the liberal left, that we should make substantial cuts to defense spending. If that's not what you advocate just say so.

I'm simply trying to illustrate the absurdity of the argument here. Even at an insanely high level of cutting it reduces our deficit by very little. So these idiots who jump in to chortle that we need to cut military spending to get the deficits under control are borderline retarded. That will not do it!

You're not illustrating the absurdity of anything, your injecting a false narrative by trying to fosus on the extreme elements of an opposing argument instead of the discussion at hand.

 

[rightwinger]

Gotta love Republicans....They are outraged at the idea of giving amnesty to some poor Mexican family struggling to survive

But amnesty to tax cheat corporations? They grovel over how much money to give them

 

[JoeNormal]

Nope... biggest driver for of the deficits are servicing the $20 trillion debt. Defense spending is high but it's the primary function of our government.

Now.... your housing cost is probably your biggest expense... does that automatically mean you need to cut your housing cost because your checkbook is overdrawn? Or could the problem possibility be something else?

Horrible comparison... Housing costs are primarily mortgage payments or rent and that is comparable to mandatory spending like Social Security and Medicare which are the primary drivers of our debt. In the discretionary spending arena I'd look at my food, entertainment, travel, and commodity purchases... If i was spending more than 50% of my budget on food and much of that was eating out then i'd probably start by making adjustments there. A 10% cut on that is going to be much more effective than cutting 10% on something that only comprises a small fraction of my budget.

I disagree. I think our national defense is mandatory. My example was regarding the complaint that we spend a lot on defense, therefore, this is where cuts should be made. I think that reasoning is invalid.

Sent from my SD4930UR using USMessageBoard.com mobile app

National defense is discretionary spending, thats fact not opinion...

Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go

Why do we even need Standing Armies during real times of Peace and definitely Not, real times of alleged War; since we can Lower taxes and not Raise taxes to meet any real times of War, exigency.

I'm not quite following what you're trying to say. While I do think there is tremendous waste in our military spending and plenty of opportunity to make cuts. I also believe in maintaining a strong military. We are the world leaders and our military is crucial for humanitarian support, disaster relief, and peace keeping efforts. We also need to be ready should there be an attack or threat to our security.

I don't want to minimize the importance of our military but I also don't think they warrant a blank check and no financial oversight.

I used to see it that way too. These days however, I see it more as empire building and protecting the interests of the elite.

 

[JoeNormal]

I didn't say it wasn't discretionary... if it weren't it would be pointless in discussing it, wouldn't it? Can you cite the last year congress failed to fund defense? I would say it's mighty fucking mandatory, discretionary or not.

And again for the dimwitted... of all the things government spends money on, that is the most constitutionally important and fundamental.

Funny that you use the word dimwitted when you apparently don't understand the difference between mandatory and discretionary spending. Do a little homework then we can start the conversation over.

I understand the difference between discretionary and non-discretionary. I never claimed it was not discretionary. You want to tell the class what year congress didn't appropriate funding for defense, or did the dog eat your homework?

They always have and always will... I can only hope. What's your point?

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

I admire your patience in conversing with Boss but he exemplifies the right wing tendency to think in binary. He also seems to own some defense industry stock from the look of it.

 

[Slade3200]

Funny that you use the word dimwitted when you apparently don't understand the difference between mandatory and discretionary spending. Do a little homework then we can start the conversation over.

I understand the difference between discretionary and non-discretionary. I never claimed it was not discretionary. You want to tell the class what year congress didn't appropriate funding for defense, or did the dog eat your homework?

They always have and always will... I can only hope. What's your point?

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

I admire your patience in conversing with Boss but he exemplifies the right wing tendency to think in binary. He also seems to own some defense industry stock from the look of it.

Yeah he gets a little emotional at times
And I have yet to hear him admit he's wrong. Humility is lost in many on this board

 

[Boss]

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

There's nothing wrong with my terminology. My economy understanding is just as sound. Typical lefty, when someone challenges your religion your instinct is to personally attack.

Let's go through this... Let's say we lose our collective fucking minds and cut our defense budget 33%...that's never going to happen, but let's play along and pretend... Well, that amounts to about $200 billion, or enough to fund our current level of spending for about 17 days.

This is without mentioning a third of the military bases closing and entire towns being left to wither away or the thousands of jobs dependent on defense contracts.

It amounts to really stupid economic suggestion. Borderline retarded.

Also your understanding of economics is not very sound. You claimed that the biggest driver of our deficit was interest on the debt in response to my claim that military was by far the largest outlay of our descretioary spending budget. First off, servicing the debt costs us 230 billion and military costs us 600 billion, and second the largest driver over our debt is social security/unemployment at 1.25 Trillion

Yes, it's about a third of our defense budget and we get absolutely nothing for it. What's more, at the current deficit rates, servicing the debt is going to quickly become our primary expense. Eventually, we'll get to a point where we can't pay for social security and other non-discretionary items and also service our debt... then, the interest starts to snowball into increased debt... shortly thereafter, our entire economy collapses. This happens rapidly when it all starts coming undone.

Ah yes the famous debt cliff, scary. Question, servicing the debt that does absolutely nothing... where exactly does that money go? Can you explain?

Mostly to Chinese and Japanese banks holding our debt.