3) I meant to say barrel instead of gallon (per gallon would suck). They are already investing in the hybrid technology. Look at the new Tahoes. They’ll do it on their own in order to make a profit.

4) I don’t care about a survey done by WHO. Most people over there probably like it because they think it is free. Why do Europeans come here when they need major surgeries done? The problems with our healtcare system is because of government intervention. Just look up what Ron Paul has to say on the subject.

5) Not meaning to link you in with the unions, but it is true.

6) I’ll give Clinton props for signing it. But it would have never happened without the GOP.

7) I fail to see how that has anything to do with invading an Arab country.

8 ) I’m assuming that you are talking about Kelo v. City of New London. It was a 5-4 decision. All of the conservative judges were in the minority.

9) Israel would do fine combating terrorism if we would leave them alone when they take the gloves off.

10)One example: http:// online.wsj.com/article/SB120520656671826555.html

I’m sorry this took so long. If I had your email, I would create you a spreadsheet. You’re going to have to copy and paste links otherwise this probably won’t go through.

1)Here is a link to tax revenues by year since 1934. www. taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=203

Here is a link to historical top tax rates www. taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=213

Link to CPI calculator data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl (it need an http infront of it)

JFK made the first significant individual tax cut when he took office. The highest rate was lowered from 91% to 70%. The 70% rate went into effect in 1964. In 1963, individual revenues were $47.6 billion. The following amount are adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index:

1964 – 48.7 B
1965 – 48.8 B
1966 – 55.4 B
1967 – 61.5 B

In 1981, the top rate was 69.13%. 1982-1986 was 50% and 1987 – 1989 was 28%. Revenues in 1981 were $285.9 billion. I adjusted the numbers back to 1981 dollars. Keep in mind there was a recession in 1982.

1982 – 280.42
1983 – 263.66
1984 – 261.06
1985 – 282.58
1986 – 280.45
1987 – 314.15
1988 – 308.28
1989 – 326.73

In 1990, the top marginal rate for individuals was increased to 31%. I adjusted numbers back to 1989 real dollars. 1989 revenues were $445.7 billion. There was also a recession in this time period.

1990 – 442.0
1991 – 425.9
1992 – 420.7

In 1993, Bill Clinton took office with the beginning of a booming economy. The top marginal rate increased to 39.6%. 1992 revenues were $476 billion. Numbers are adjusted back to 1992.

1993 – 494.89
1994 – 514.15
1995 – 543.34
1996 – 586.95
1997 – 644.68
1998 – 713.71
1999 – 740.66
2000 – 818.09

Note: Capital gains revenue is included in these numbers. The capital gains rate from 1987-1996 was 28%. The rate from 1997-2000 was 20%. On average, the percentage of tax revenue from 1987-1996 was 7.5% peaking at 11% in 1987. From 1997-2000 the average was 10.75% peaking at 12% in 2000. www. cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=3856&type=0 Also, look at the percentage that came from stock sales during the different periods.

Bush’s tax revenues lagged behind Clintons until recently. 2000 individual tax receipts totaled $1,004.1 billion. The 2007 rate was 35% and the revenues (adjusted to 2000 numbers)were $966.3 billion. If you adjust them back to 2001 ($994.3 in revenue), 2007 revenues are $993.8 billion.

Bush has made up ground with corporate tax receipts. The rates were the same (except for certain industries) but Bush allowed faster depreciation schedules. Corporate tax revenues in 2000 and 2007 were $207.3 billion and $370.2 billion, respectively. 2007 adjusted to 2000 real dollars is $307.46 billion.

Hopefully this is suffice. You can play around with the numbers and let me know your findings.
I think we can agree that the problem isn’t the tax revenues but the spending.

1) I’ve heard this before, but no one has ever been able to provide proof. Please be the first, and please make sure that said proof doesn’t come from Fox, World Net Daily, National Review or Little Green Footballs. The only conservative source whose credibility can be guaranteed is the WSJ, and I’ve never read that there.

2) good! let’s keep it up!

3) they may not get oil back to $10/barrel (not gallon), but they might offer tax incentives to get all three american car companies to utilize their own hybrid technology, non-oil vehicles (kudos to GM for the Volt, let’s see if they bring it to market…) or hydrogen power (BMW and Honda are already road testing them) There are too many Republican oil men out there for me to think that they’d okay those options.

4) source? I have too many people related to me that work in medicine that would laugh you off your soapbox on that one. The WHO listed us just ahead of Cuba. Most of the europeans that I’ve ever talked to (save the ones from France and England) are really happy with their countries’ health care (Switzerland and a few others utilize models based off of the German system). Not to mention, I’ll believe you when you can show me a single insurance provider that’ll cover physicals without being forced into it. THAT, right there, is the difference between the German model and the American model. And again, prevention is ALWAYS better than cure. That Americans are too dumb to realize that just proves the vast stupidity of the majority of our citizenry.

5) Dude, I’m voting green party. Don’t blame me for bad actions on the part of unions that I don’t belong to.

6) Clinton gets props for signing the thing. It wouldn’t have withstood a veto. This was a joint effort. Don’t forget it.

7) Agreed. But, when it comes to matters of France and the arabs, trust me, I know more than you on this subject. There’s more there than Fox News wants you to know.

8 ) Activist judges also gave us CONSERVATIVE justices voting for eminent domain. And it was activist judges that wiped out winnings in the case against Exxon re: Valdez. There’s nothing in precedent stating that punitive damages shouldn’t be awarded in a case where a company’s mistake destroyed an entire city.

9) Tell that to residents in Israel.

10) R&D in other energy sources by oil companies is kinda like Phillip Morris’ stop smoking campaigns.

1) Since the Bush tax cuts, there have been record tax revenues. In the long run raising taxes only lower tax revenues because of less economic growth and less foreign investment. The Republicans pushed through a capital gains tax cut during the Clinton years that resulted in a lot of the increased tax revenues.

2) Bush has already attacked targets in Pakistan. I know that is what Obama meant to say when he made his ivade Pakistan gaffe. The problem is that it is already being done.

3) How are the Clinton people going to get oil back to $10 per gallon?

4) We have the best medicine in the world. The increased costs have been because of the government, not insurance companies.

4a) Which political party supports the unions that are increasing the prices of automobiles by an average of $1500?

5) Then why are the armed services meeting their recruiting quotas? www. defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=50466 How are we going to pay for a 10 million man military?

6) The GOP gets credit for pushing through welfare reform in the 90s. I’m not sure what McCain’s vote on a federal holiday has to do with getting people off of welfare.

7) France didn’t want us invading Iraq because they had an economic interest in keeping Saddam in power. Just see the corruption within the UN Oil-for-Food program.

Activist judges gave us Roe v. Wade. I don’t want judges that are trying to find things in the Constitution that aren’t there.

10)If the war in Iraq hasn’t been effective, then why is terrorism down worldwide? The Arabs no longer trust terrorist groups because of the brutality they have shown in Iraq.

11)Oil companies are already investing heavily in R&D. The lack of oil supplies is the problem. We have plenty of oil, it is the environmentalist preventing us from drilling for it.

to answer your points:

1) impossible while we’re involved in two wars. Keynsian spending is an inevitability. If Obama wants to get us out Iraq, that would save us how much per year?

1a) taxes will have to be raised just to pay off the enormous debt we’ve incurred during the Bush presidency. Anyone who thinks otherwise is blind.

2) You don’t know that until he gets into office. It’s all about his advisors. Let’s keep Carter off the table. Even every liberal I know doesn’t have much good to say about him.

3) If Obama’s smart, he’ll bring in many of the people from the Clinton regime, and the 90’s were a time of economic stability, like it or not. There’s no arguing that.

4) Germany’s system is the model we should be looking to for “socialized medicine.” It’s more like how the states in the US regulate utilities. Insurers have to be non-profit, have to take anyone regardless of health, and have to pay out for necessary medical expenses. Not to mention, unlike in the US where it can be a bear to get insurance companies to cover things like physicals, the german model realizes that one heap of prevention is better than two heaps of cure.

4a) fun fact for you to do a little research on: do you realize how much American businesses pay out in benefits? It increases the cost of our automobiles by double digit percentages. I’d assume that the same applies to most of our white collar and unionized businesses as well.

5) A volunteer army is great until a president gets us into a pointless and mismanaged war that plunges enlistment rates into the toilet. I’m pretty sure that the majority of people who don’t believe in a draft are the people who are afraid to be drafted. Sorry.

6) The only reason Obama talks about getting welfare people working is because it’s the right thing to do. Yes, I know that there’s the contingent of urban democrats that don’t want to see people get off of welfare because that’s practically a guaranteed voting bloc for them. But, I’ve got to imagine that the guy with his heart in the right place is the guy who has seen the devastation of poverty, as opposed to the son of the admiral who voted against making Martin Luther King’s birthday a federal holiday.

7)please. France didn’t want us going to war with Iraq because they could see the problems with the idea of toppling an arab government before we went in. Remember, they’re what, 100 miles from North Africa? They’ve been dealing with arabs for the past 300 years (like, well, my relatives), and they knew far better than a cowboy and a bunch of chickenhawks how to deal with the situation.

8 ) uhh, enough of the activist judges talk. Any judge that would go out of their way to obliterate stare decisis is an activist judge. As would any judge be that wouldn’t allow two people to enter into a legally binding contract because of what Alber Mohler has to say about it.

9) Obama wouldn’t be able to do any of that. All of that would have to come through congress, and there are enough yellow dog democrats and republicans out there to keep many of those laws in place. Think realistically here, boy.

10) Both candidates have said at this point that we must keep a force there. Both candidates have also got to understand that pulling out at this point, as much as it’d be a nice option, is not the best one. Politics in practice is a lot different than politics in theory.

10.5) Yeah, now that we’ve invaded and created lawlessness! And that gets right back to the above point: now that we made a spectacular mess out of the middle east, now we HAVE to do our best to fix it, while still trying to protect Israel.

11) I highly doubt it. I doubt that Obama would underestimate the number of jobs at stake. If Obama was smart, he’d be putting tons of money into R&D grants and tax breaks for companies putting forth the energy to come up with better means of, umm, energy.

JNG: you forgot to mention me in that awesome post post.

1) There’s another option: don’t spend. This is what McCain’s famous for.

2) If Jimmy Carter threatened Pakistan, what would they say? Obama is only slightly more credible. The phrase “paper tiger” comes to mind. If McCain threatens someone it will be far more believable.

3) Obama’s crew would destroy our economy. No one will be able to borrow anything.

4) I’m not familiar with Germany’s or Thailand’s system, but I get patients sent to me from single payer systems in other countries. The answer is to change the insurance system (McCain), not nationalize healthcare. Remember, the federal government is the same group who makes companies spend years and years and billions of dollars to bring us Fen-Phen.

5) McCain has kids in the military right now. A draft isn’t necessary and isn’t desirable — who’s going to be a better soldier, a volunteer career soldier or a draftee?

6) Listen to Obama talk for a while. He’s just as out of touch as the guy married to the beer queen. Here Obama is a classic liberal. The only reason he talks about getting welfare people working is because the GOP forced this through 10 years ago.

7) Foreigners who hate us do so because we oppose them (N Korea, Iran, Russia again) or because we don’t let them tell us how to protect ourselves (Germany, France). Of course, not everyone hates us (Australia, Poland). While we don’t want to make enemies unnecessarily, we have to do what’s right and ignore anyone who won’t stand with us. The “citizen of the world” isn’t going to do that.

Besides the above, here are some other thoughts on McCain:

Judges — McCain won’t (intentionally) appoint judges who see the Supreme Court as an alternate legislature.

9) Abortion (remember, the topic of the post) — Obama wants to remove every single moderating restriction ever enacted; McCain will support the existing ones and might even sign some new ones.

10) Iraq — McCain says we broke it, we’ve got to fix it; Obama would just let everything we’ve accomplished there go up in smoke (or at least that’s what he says when you ask him on Tuesdays).

10.5) Iraq — McCain sees it as a theater in the larger war on terror; so does bin Laden. Obama sees it as a distraction from Afghanistan — that strategically important third world country in Asia — rather than as a key part of stabilizing the Middle East.

11) Environment — McCain, while leaning green, is more moderate in his proposals; Obama would slash and burn our economy — except burning creates smoke and that causes global warming.

What is new about Obama’s Father’s Day speech? It has been said over and over. It is just that conservatives are called racist for such a speech.

Hardly anyone in the military wants a draft system. Tommy Franks addresses the issue in his book American Soldier. Also, John McCain has sent one son off to war and a second is about to graduate from the Naval Academy. Will you support him now since he will send off his kids to war?

I don’t expect Denny to post anything he doesn’t believe in.

However, if you’re going to trash him on a personal level (oh he goes to a bad church! Oh his theology is all wrong!) then you are nothing but a two bit piece of trash if you don’t mention at least once when he gets something right (here Denny, I’ll give you an easy one: his father’s day speech at the Apostolic Church here in Chicago). And face it, if JESSE JACKSON didn’t like what Obama had to say, then Obama was definitely in the right.

By the way, it cracks me up when conservatives say that they’re not in agreement with the idea of going back to a draft system for the armed services.