The Goat Pen

because my credit score was around 800 (780-810).

Rightttttttt. Yet you decided to feed on the government teet. You 47%.

Owlman wrote:81% includes payroll taxes which is a tax and is not limited to social security (which is a tax that goes into the general fund)

Just to clarify Owlman's statement:

Social Security is not revenue to the general fund. it loans money to the general fund in the form of government securities, but does nothing to reduce the deficit. I'm sure that's what he meant.

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/fundFAQ.html

Thank you Sardis. IOU's essentially from the general fund to the Social Security fund which they started calling in January 2012 I believe.

"The number of people that don't pay income taxes should at the very least be close to the poverty level"

Mitt Romney will be delighted to hear that. The amount of income tax that he has avoided paying is probably equivalent to, oh, I don't know, several thousand of those folks you disdain for not "taking care of themselves". Romney certainly has made sure he's taken care of himself, at least when it comes to avoiding paying taxes. But I'm sure you don't have a problem with rich people not paying their taxes...

"If it's redneck to think that people should support themselves and not rely on somebody elses hard work, well then I'm just a wrong headed"

What about people who play the stock market? Are they not attempting to enrich themselves off of other people's work? Dear god, the bedrock principle of capitalism is the concept of making money off of other people's work....

Owlman wrote:

See it's a loan, and my credit was good enough I could have gotten those loans without the help of the gubment.

Now, that's some great credit that a bank would give you a loan without any collateral. No wonder we went through a crash in 2008.

You don't get it, Owlman. Banks routinely loan hundreds of thousands of dollars to 20-something year old students who are training for jobs that pay them $12 an hour (or was it $6 an hour?) Amazing that BOJ has been able to keep up with paying back those loans on his meagre wages. LMAO...

" I actually had private solicitations for student loans from banks but the rates were a couple of percentage points higher and they didn't have the "forgiven if you die" clause in them so I went ahead and took what every other student got at the time."

BOJ is against government "support" in the form of student loans. Um, unless that's what everybody else is doing! Yeah, every other student got it, so why shouldn't he dip his fat little fingers in the cookie jar, too? Sheesh, talk about "taking personal responsibility". Still wondering how long it's going to take him to pay off a couple of hundred grand on $12 an hour, because, IIRC, BOJ's monthly food bill isn't exactly meager....

Sure seems mighty slow around here lately. I guess that's what having a total failure as the repub presidential candidate will do to a forum full of loudmouth pseudo-conservatives...

Working people and retirees make up 3/4ths of Mitt's discarded 47%. A shit-ton of republicans on that side of the chart, too.

He's in a tough spot, having come across, as Brooks' described, as a country club asshole. One supposes he doesn't have any real choice but to double-down on what he said. More elegantly , of course.

[youtube]3i6OrOZwtmA[/youtube]

Owlman wrote:

because my credit score was around 800 (780-810).

Rightttttttt. Yet you decided to feed on the government teet. You 47%.

Yes Owl, it was but as I understood it I would only feed on the gubment teet IF I defaulted, which I have not and I told you one of the most deciding factors was not the difference in intrest rate but in the "if you die your good" part of the gubment backed loans.

Heck as soon as I fininshed med school all my loans were bought out by private banks because of said credit score even though it was lower than it was before med school.

I don't understand how the student loan thing really works because the only time I was ever a part of it was during medical school. I was put through like everyone else and it was done for me before I got there. I signed the loans and as I said I think only 1500 per semester, so around 3 grand per year, were stafford the rest were private, now they weren't private then because of my credit score as they were through the school. The private banks were willing to do that for all the med students because it's a good risk evidently. They didn't have to have my credit score.

I was speaking of the private offers I had come in the mail from banks BEFORE medical school, after I was accepted. Their rates were close to the rates the school got me but were one or two points higher. They were a direct result of my credit score being so high.

My credit score actually went down during medical school and residency because I had an increased debt to income ratio and my income in school was zero and the income in residency was so low, but it was still high enough that the private banks still bought out the gubment loans during residency. One thing I don't understand is that I write my check to the private bank that bought the loan but I get statements from the private bank as well as Salle Mae, which is confusing since they sold the loan but I guess part of that was that they had to send statements too? Anyway I get two statements from the same student loan but I only make a payment to the private bank.

And I never said I was never part of the 47 (I say 49%), I just said it's rediculous that it is that high. It should be around the poverty level, that's it (I have been below the poverty level for many years of my life but never felt that I should get a break but I would understand if it was around that level).

hedge wrote:

Owlman wrote:

See it's a loan, and my credit was good enough I could have gotten those loans without the help of the gubment.

Now, that's some great credit that a bank would give you a loan without any collateral. No wonder we went through a crash in 2008.

You don't get it, Owlman. Banks routinely loan hundreds of thousands of dollars to 20-something year old students who are training for jobs that pay them $12 an hour (or was it $6 an hour?) Amazing that BOJ has been able to keep up with paying back those loans on his meagre wages. LMAO...

See hedge this just shows how FOS you really are. I wasn't a 20 something. I worked in a factory and put myself through undergrad. I worked in that same factory for 13 years (started a few years before I started taking classes). If I didn't have the money to pay for the class or the books I didn't take it. I worked 40-60 hours per week in the factory as a full time job at night on third shift and took classes during the day. Doing it that way took me 8 years to get a 2 year community college degree (way more hours than needed because they were cheaper and would transfer if I graduated). After that I got a scholarship to finish the other 2 years at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, it was a scholarship due to graduating with a 4.0 and being a member of Phi Theta Kappa and it was voluntarily paid from donations not tax money. Because I had worked so long and owned a house, cars, etc and had absolutely no mark on my credit I had a credit score that teetered around 800 depending on which of the three scores you used. That's why I had the offers of good private loans at reasonable rates.

I finished my last two years to complete my B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry with that scholarship. I had to buy my books but tuition was paid, and while I was doing that my wife supported me working in the factory she worked in. Then I went to medical school. As I said I chose the gubment loan because of the death clause. I had a very bad cancer at one point and I was thinking of my family with that and it was the deciding factor. Besides it was my understanding that the only way I cost the taxpayers anything was if I went into default, so the only chance of that was death. I don't think the gubment has paid one dime on my behalf. It's possible because I didn't read all the fine print etc but my understanding was they were insured by the gubment but they didn't have to pay unless I defaulted, which I have not.

As for how much I made, I have posted the links to the website that showed that I was 100% absofrickinlutely honest about that. It had my name and my salary on there as well as my schedule. I made 9.95 an hour during my intern year. That went up to somewhere around 12 or maybe even 13 by my chief year but that's what it was. I got news for ya, every intern made about that much per hour that year. It's what it was set at and varied very little depending on where you did your residency at.

Have I been in the 47%? Yep, when I was in residency I was dang close paying only about 1000 per year or so after my tax refund, and in my younger years when I worked in a factory I was below the poverty line and was in that 47% too. Never said I hadn't been.

hedge wrote:Sure seems mighty slow around here lately. I guess that's what having a total failure as the repub presidential candidate will do to a forum full of loudmouth pseudo-conservatives...

I'm trying to figure you out, hedge. You hate the social conservatives in the GOP. That leaves you with the plutocrat wing. Now that the #1 plutocrat is saying what the plutocrat wing has always believed, they're making you mad too.

What part of the R party DO you like?

If PNN has been quiet recently, this may explain it. This is from Foxnews.com, by the way:

President Barack Obama has the edge over Republican Mitt Romney in three potentially decisive states in the presidential election.

Obama tops Romney by seven percentage points among likely voters in both Ohio (49-42 percent) and Virginia (50-43 percent). In Florida, the president holds a five-point edge (49-44 percent).

Obama’s lead is just outside the poll’s margin of sampling error in Ohio and Virginia, and within the margin of sampling error in Florida.

The good news for Romney is that among voters who are “extremely” interested in this year’s election, the races are much tighter. Obama is up by just two points with this group in Virginia (49-47 percent), Florida is tied (48-48 percent), and Romney is up by one point in Ohio (48-47 percent).

Independents are nearly evenly divided in each of the states, as well.

Majorities of voters are unhappy with how things are going in the country, yet in all three states more say they trust Obama than Romney to improve the economy.

Likewise, in each state more voters believe the Obama administration’s policies have helped rather than hurt the economy -- albeit by slim margins: By two points in Florida, three points in Ohio and five points in Virginia.

Amid the turbulent situation in the Middle East, each of the polls shows the president is more trusted than Romney on foreign policy.

Obama’s job approval rating and his personal favorability are 50 percent or higher in these three states. In Ohio and Virginia, the president’s favorable rating is 10 percentage points higher than Romney’s, and it’s 6 points higher in Florida.

In addition, Obama supporters are much more likely than Romney supporters to say they “strongly favor” their candidate: In Ohio by 23 percentage points, in Florida by 21 points and by 17 points in Virginia.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09 ... z26xoZCRrV

I call calf rope in politics as well as football. We get what we deserve.

Best case scenario for the R's: after Obama is reelected, the Bush tax cuts expire, the Obamacare costs start to kick in, Europe melts down, thousands of new government regulations go into effect, Israel attacks Iran. We go into a recession even worse than the one we're in. I think the latest round of QE is a signal that the Fed sees this perfect storm coming.

After four more years of that, US voters will be as sick of Obamanomics as they were sick of Bushery after 8 years. Ryan will destroy Hillary in '16.

No, they won't. The media will jump on board and say we just need more and more gubment control and it will all be OK and besides it's the evil rich persons fault we need to tax them more. Then greed and jealusy will again reign supreme and another democrat will win.

Can you imagine how much uglier Hiliary will be in four more years?

Professor Tiger wrote:Best case scenario for the R's: after Obama is reelected, the Bush tax cuts expire, the Obamacare costs start to kick in, Europe melts down, thousands of new government regulations go into effect, Israel attacks Iran. We go into a recession even worse than the one we're in. I think the latest round of QE is a signal that the Fed sees this perfect storm coming.

After four more years of that, US voters will be as sick of Obamanomics as they were sick of Bushery after 8 years. Ryan will destroy Hillary in '16.

If this is a good scenario for the pubs, then we need another party.

Can you propose a better REALISTIC scenario for the R's? If so, please share.

Call mine the Churchill strategy for the R's. Warn about the coming storm. Nobody listens. The storm hits. People finally listen. Lead them through the storm you warned them against. Become a legend.