Maybe this is a good time to bring up the fact trillions of dollars of tax cuts were expiring, and the OBBB extended them.

And, of course, whenever you're running a deficit budget, and choose to extend otherwise expiring tax cuts, that represents 100% new, additional borrowing. Extending the expiring cuts will cost over $2 trillion, plus service costs, of course.

All newly borrowed, and almost all to give away in tax cuts to the world's wealthiest.

Surprise, surprise! The authors seem to trace a large percentage to tax cuts.

" Income, in the form of a loan against your own assets, isn't taxed at all."

But it takes assets to repay the loans.

" Long term capital gains are taxed lower than labor income."

Same with qualified dividends.

A trust fund baby can open up $55,000 of dividend checks from say, Johnson and Johnson, and owe no federal taxes.

Meanwhile, a janitor who profits $55,000 by the sweat of his brow owes over $10,000 in federal taxes.

Of course, the janitor isn't dealing with the trust fund baby's nemesis:

Opening all those dividend checks could lead to some nasty paper cuts.

In summation, regarding the ten instances of VOTER fraud:

Felons were caught, as they should be.
Dead-spouse's mail-in ballot is garden-variety, and ONE vote.
"Guy gets back in line" is the classic idiot's belief of how voter fraud works. And we all know that self-proclaimed "unabashed conservative" did it for the most common reason given: "I thought the other side was doing it"

Well, according to the staunch, right-wing Heritage Foundation, the sizable majority of vote fraud is committed by Republicans...at least in Virginia.

Oh, and the lady who "misled"? A longtime critic of the school board, she designed a fake website and registered it in the name of a candidate for the board. On the fake website, she posted an election date one week after the real election.

"25 were Canvassers or Candidates...more on that later"

10 were canvassers.
1 Republican candidate lied about his residence.

And in 2007, Appalachian Mayor Sam Cooper and 13 co-conspirators bribed voters, and stole mail-in ballots!

Former Appalachia mayor sentenced in election fraud case
STEPHEN IGO Jan 29, 2007 Former Appalachia Mayor Ben Cooper was sentenced to two years in jail during a sentencing hearing in Wise County this morning.
Cooper was also sentenced to two years of home-electronic monitoring upon release from jail and three years of supervised probation.
Last year, Cooper forged cooperation and plea agreements with Special Prosecutor Tim McAfee and Assistant Special Prosecutor Greg Stewart after investigators unraveled the extent of an election fraud conspiracy. The conspiracy included wholesale plunder and corruption of the absentee mail ballot process. Cooper pleaded guilty to 233 felonies and entered de facto guilty pleas to 10 other felony counts.

Correction!

Upthread, I posted "...adding another barrier to voting would suppress more votes than all the convictions in your home state in the last three decades." Then I posted a link to VA (Bill's resident state), and stated: "They've had THREE CASES in the last 20 years."

I thought I'd read both pages of the list. There were actually four pages, a total of 36 cases, since January 1, 2007. The search goes back to 1985, but some states don't have older data. I read through all the cases. and here's what I found:

25 were Canvassers or Candidates...more on that later

1 conviction was for a woman who created a fake website to mislead voters.

And now....time for the VOTER PART of Virginia's vote fraud over the last 20 years.

8 convictions were Felons voting when they shouldn't have.
1 conviction for voting twice in line, a self-described "unabashed conservative"
1 conviction for a man who filled out an absentee ballot for his dead wife.

THAT's IT! And...stunner...not a single conviction of an illegal immigrant casting a vote. ZERO.

"Every rule in the Navy handbook is the result of a dead sailor."
"Most FAA rules for airlines are from the results of crash investigations and dead passengers."

Yup. ALWAYS reactive, and NEVER pro-active.

Back when I was President of our AFTRA Local, we negotiated the local TV contracts. I got a call one day because the exec at the CBS affiliate tried to cancel a worker's vacation the night before he and his family were leaving town.

The exec's reasoning was he saw no rule in the rulebook forbidding such an action.

I'm sure everyone can guess what we had put in the contract THE NEXT time around.

"Always. At least your lifetime"

I've never seen more sand fall out of your ears, Eb. Never.

^They're

" Always. At least your lifetime"

Absolute bald-faced lie.

"The others are real things but not republican policy."

Their MAGA policy. A difference without a distinction, these days.

" I've paid close to $1,000 to my lawn sprinker guy this past year in cash in probably 4 or 5 different service calls. $150-$200 in cash each time. No invoice, no checks and no record of the service calls. and?"

Well ...
Since you gave him over $75 at a time, and didn't ask him to sign for it, it's not a deductible expense for you, even if you have a home office and see clients there regularly.

And, unless you filed a 1099 with the IRS, you're out of compliance. It also sounds like you purposely didn't file the 1099, so the penalties are much steeper.

Best of all, you are a knowing participant in an illegal chain.

And no record of service calls? Really? Does he come without prompting, or is there a text somewhere?

" Considering recruitment numbers were well below target during the Biden years"

According to history, that's what happens in good economies ...

Why does the natural order of economics surprise you?

^Rudy Giuliani

Auto-correct didn't recognize the name.

Yikes! How the mighty have fallen!

" As far as a disaster, the 2020 election ended up people busting into the Capitol building. That's not a disaster?"

It is, but it has nothing to do with the legal votes, and everything to do with Trump's lies.

Trump lost, he knew he lost, and he lied to his gullible supporters. That's why J6 happened.

Six years later, you don't have any proof at all for any doubt at that time. A lot of feelings, but no proof.

Sounds a bit like what Rudy Giuliano said to Arizona: "We have lots of theories, we just don't have the evidence".

Six years later ... Still no evidence.

" Of course there were cases of improper voting and instances of ineligible people who voted."

I mean, other than the garden-variety version, and you know it. Of course, there will be some mother-in-law or spouse who passed away. Of course, there will be someone who moved and forgot.

The fraud you were talking about is fraud at scale.

Again, look over the heritage database. One thing jumps out: states average about one conviction per year.

Doesn't sound like a huge problem at all. In fact, adding another barrier to voting would suppress more votes than all the convictions in your home state in the last three decades.

I wrote that last line without looking it up, I'm so sure. Then, I looked it up.

Here's the link to your home state in Virginia. They've had THREE CASES in the last 20 years.

"I was saying how I felt that was a disaster in the making."

Because Trump lost.

No claims of improper or stolen votes. No one coming forward with a gripe. No disaster there. Just ... a Trump loss.

And if it was because more minorities got a chance to participate?

TOTAL disaster, amirite?

"I believe were it not for using mail-in ballots, the Capitol break-in would not have occurred. "

You're an idiot; Trump would've chosen a different ruse, and today you'd be bitching about Michigan electors instead.

Truth is, Trump knew he lost, and lied to supporters like you. I know you want to believe him, but if he had any proof, he and his team would've certainly presented it inside of a courtroom.

And at long last, you have no reason for why they haven't.

That means you can't handle the truth.

"Jan 6 proved me right."

I used to think you were dumb. Based on the last two weeks, now I think you're a moron.

You still can't address the fact you have no proof at all of your theory mail-in ballots get purloined by housemates. Almost six years, zero cases.

You've also misrepresented a study, and when faced with the authors warning morons not to come to your conclusion, you doubled down and suggested the authors didn't understand their own study as well as you did.

Now you're suggesting January 6 proved some cockamamie theory of yours, something other than Trump lied to his acolytes, knowing he'd lost.

Dumb just keeps getting dumber.

"Jan 6 proved me right.

When are you going to provide the first piece of evidence inside a court of law? So far, six years later, zero.

All that's been proven, is folks are gullible and Trump is a liar.

"Remember when you railed against the mail-in ballots before Covid?

"A month before the 2020 election"

No, I mean before that.

Never.

Since you're too much of a coward to directly answer, I'll answer for you.

No, you don't believe only Democrats cheat.
No, you don't believe only Republicans cheat.
Despite the facts at the staunch right wing Heritage Foundation's website, you believe Democrats cheat more than Republicans. A lot more than Republicans. 25% more, or 40%, or 50% more.

Okay I'll take you at 50%. That means for every 1000 actions of Republican fraud, Democrats commit 1500 actions. I know that flies in the face of the heritage foundation, but I'm willing to pretend, to show you the math.

Do you know what that math means? When one group commits 50% MORE infractions than the other??

It means for every five instances of fraud, you net one vote. ONE.

950 instances of fraud? Less than 200 net votes.

And in all 950 cases, the threat of a $10,000 fine and a year in jail.

Who is that stupid???

" ... it is apparent you believe democrats have the advantage with mail-in ballots."

It's even more apparent that's the sole reason you dislike them.

Remember when you railed against the mail-in ballots before Covid?

No one else does either.

"I'm not saying I agree that people should be prevented from voting."

You want your own limits on absentee ballots. You're trying to tell other people how they're allowed to vote.

Again, not your business. Not mine either. Every legal voter who wants to cast a legal vote should be able to choose whichever way is most convenient for them.

"Earlier you said as follows, "You're just afraid universal mail-in ballots would allow folks you don't want to vote, to vote."

"Who might those people be? Assuming I am supporting the republican side, that makes the other side democrat."

Yes. I guess so.

And they also happen to be ... surprise, surprise ... in large part, minorities.

You know the funny thing? Republicans absolutely loved mail-in ballots, when they always favored Republicans. It was only once they began favoring Democrats the mail suddenly became dangerous.