Shut 'em Down!

WrestleMania IV was the Ultimate Warrior's first Wrestlemania. Get it right.

1) Shutdown : Correct

2) Breaks for the oil corporations : Only because they don't realize that those breaks are keeping gas prices as low as they are, who would want to pay $5 a gallon for gas (besides California).

3) Tax cuts for the top 1% in general: There are no tax cuts for the top 1% that anyone else can take advantage of. In most cases, the "non-1%" of America has more tax cuts and credits than the 1% do. Obama is just playing people like fools, saying that he will punish the rich for being successful, and yet, doing nothing to do so (he is instead punishing everyone, successful or not).

4) Roe Vs Wade : Depends on the area. But since (assuming you are from Germany) your sources are very biased in terms of what people really want or think, you wouldn't see that.

5) Lack of oversight in gun ownership : Our laws are ok as it is, it is the agency (the federal government mainly) that is lax in enforcing said laws, just so they won't hurt their voting base.

6) Homophobia on gay adoptions/marriages : Maybe 10 years ago, but that fear is artificially created now, just to have more advertising revenue. In reality, not many people give a flying flip about other people, so why should we stop them from getting married? Some states are still banning it because of their Christian upbringing, but that will change when they retire and my generation takes office. That is already starting to happen.

7) Ignorance in regards of women : I don't understand what you are talking about here. The majority of the people in the USA (who are women btw) are ignorant about themselves? Or are you just throwing out another talking point you saw on MSNBC?

What are you talking about?

I am mistaken.

I looked at the annual reports for Exxon Mobil, Valero, and Royal Dutch Shell, and I saw that there were no oil subsidies for either of those 3.

So, yes, there are no tax breaks for oil corporations.
Exxon Mobil 2012 Annual Report: Look at page 43 for financial statements

Valero 10-K: Look at page 33 for financial statements

Royal Dutch Shell Consolidated Financial Statements: their annual report is completely web-based

As you can see (and you would have to view the accompanying footnotes to verify this) there were no subsidies made for these companies. I bet you that you can find the same thing for any other major oil corporation also.

I was incorrect in my assumption, because I used common sense without looking at the actuality of the event. Common sense would dictate that if you have pressures of competition, and some of your expenses are subsidized by the government, you would lower your price below your competition to gain larger market share, therefore having a larger gross revenue.

Ok. I'd just like to add that crude oil is based on commodity market prices, which is not necessarily (rarely ever) based on costs.

Most of the fuel price that is paid at the pumps come from the price of crude oil (70% supposedly).
http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=22&t=6

The government doesn't subsidize big oil by giving them tax breaks. Saying that the top 3 don't get any subsidies because you don't see a debit on their quarterly statement is asinine. (Oil is also ALWAYS referred to as the big 5, always, by everyone in the field, everyone).

That said, Energy subsidies aren't designed to have an impact on fuel prices by subsidizing them. They're intended to encourage companies to:

bring their product here
adhere to our ethics and environmental code
seek clean energy

The problem is that these subsidies were conceived in a time post WWII when there needed to be a real incentive for them to bring their oil here at a competitive price. That's not the case anymore, and hasn't been for a long time. The DoE is spending 70% of it's subsidies on the big 5 oil companies, that money should be going to clean energy research.

Well, if you are going on just crude oil (the main supply) and not anything else, it is 54% of the cost, not including post production costs (taxes, transportation, etc).

I wouldn't doubt that, after all expenses are taken into consideration for the price of gas, crude oil's commodity price accounts for 52% of the total cost at the pump. That is still over half the price though.

No offence to your source document Kara, but the US government isn't known for their facts. Even in your source document, the total % of price per gallon of gas is over 100% (101%). So, please forgive me if I don't accept their findings.

Problem is, these annual reports are required by law to report any subsidiaries they receive by the government.

Unless I missed it, I did not see any subsidiaries in either of these 3 reports.

Also, please look at the last paragraph in my above post.

So, maybe the DoE subsidiaries are going to somebody else and they are reporting it as oil subsidiaries. The federal government isn't required to report the truth, unlike other entities.

Yes, that's why I said supposedly. The percentage also changes depending on the price of crude oil since that varies.

Edit:
looking at p. 41 of the exxonmobil report (this of course does not include profit per gallon just costs)
2012
Crude oil costs: 265,149
Total costs: 403,569
Percent: 65.7%

2011
Crude oil costs: 266,534
Total costs: 413,172
Percent: 64.5%

2010
Crude oil costs: 197,959
Total costs: 330,262
Percent: 59.9%

A lot of the subsidy isn't directly to the crude oil divisions. Most of it goes toward acquiring equipment, transportation (not truck and rail but things like pipelines), refinement (environmental aspects), and the companies that operate drilling rigs.

My point wasn't that oil subsidies are a bad idea, it's just one way to encourage companies to make sound environmental choices and sell their products to us. I was just pointing out that there are huge amounts of money that go toward subsidizing energy (the vast majority toward petroleum) that isn't in the form of a tax break.

And a lot of that subsidy really should be redirected toward clean energy because the demand alone makes the US a competitive market that it wasn't when those subsidies were conceived.

Todd Akin is a nimrod. "if a woman is legitimately raped, their body has the ability to reject a pregnancy". (not an exact quote) There is a sect of the Republican party that is incredibly ignorant of women's issues, but that ISN'T the majority. The problem is the insane amount of money injected through religiously motivated activist groups. And to be fair, there are quite a few on the other side of the isle that are pretty ignorant of women's issues as well.

Lets not forget the amazingly comedic first panel of the "Republican Hearing on Contraception". An all-male panel consisting of a Roman Catholic Bishop, a Lutheran Reverend, a rabbi and two professors. This was put together by D. Issa in 2012.

To which Rep. Elijah Cummings responded, "A hearing stacked with last-minute witnesses who offer no competing views only contributes to the perception that our Committee is fostering a circus-like atmosphere intended to further politicize this debate."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/06/us-politics-congress


I'm glad obamacare funding is more important than a "technical default". Priorities are in order....

I'm curious what happens when several members of congress mysteriously disappear, do they just write off their votes and go with the remaining members votes?

On a more serious note, there has to be a provision for removing members of congress who are blatantly obstructionist.

feels like congress is a bunch of old men who didn't grow up past kindergarten

Career politicians are some of the most petty people alive.

Reflections of the people who elected them. Politics is supposed to be about bickering but eventually arriving at a deal, not constant states of dysfunction.

Hardcore Tea Party districts sent their elected officials to do exactly what they're doing right now by attempting to repeal Obamacare.

FTFY

Considering the profile of your average Tea Partier, perhaps the apocalypse is exactly what they're trying to evoke? I kid, I kid.

Either way, these people were elected to office and if constituents don't like them then be sure to hire more moderate candidates. All signs point towards such fear coursing through the Republican party of primary challenges and that the true face of the party wants to tilt even further to the right.

Irreparable harm? Even I don't think Tea Party officials are stupid enough to *** with the US debt. They'll dance until the constituents back home are sated then cut a deal.

Yeah, my faith in congress is not that high. The amount of stupid crap that comes out of their mouths makes me think they have no idea what ramifications could occur with a default.

The congressman last week (sorry I forgot the name) complaining about government websites being down. Not understanding that if you don't have funding you can't pay for website hosting, electricity, etc.

The disconnect....it is very large.

I wish even political analysts were as confident in that as you are. There is some power in leading the opposition to believe you are legitimately crazy. But the last 6 or so years, the republican party has had a lot of people feeding them piles of undue praise.

The fact that Mitt didn't even write a concession speech because he was so sure of what his people were telling him. There is a level of disconnection from reality that is very scary for the more level headed people in and out of the republican party.

We've been going through these cycles of brinksmanship for so long that I'm convinced that greater political self-interest will prevail.

While the concerns of disconnect within the Republican party are legitimate I feel that enough people in Congress know of how dire things would get if this deal isn't cut that no one will win. Obamacare will vanish into the night as we see a global crisis unfold the same way Egypt did when Syria used chemical weapons. Sure, some of the delusional might not see it but pressure coming from moneyed interests will rein in their representatives to cut a deal.

Who wants to be in the party that blew up the economy? No one.

They can continue to play this game as we've still got some time before the debt 'deadline' as the Tea Party holds fast to the kill Obama...care mantra but lets see what happens when the pressure gets turned up further. Right now we're in a high stakes game of chicken and someone is going to blink.

Worst case scenario, we tumble off the debt cliff and learn a powerful lesson about what happens when radical politics takes hold in a country. I certainly don't want to be around to see the effects of that lesson however.

Also, I'd hate to be John Boehner right now.

Just having this "conversation" again could warrant another downgrade on investment ratings. Investors like to be compensated for the risks they take and the US is acting like a risky investment.

Perception is very important in the markets.

I just don't understand that sentiment. There are some lessons that serve no purpose in learning. For instance...

I could learn the lesson not to play with fireworks by blowing off my hands, but how could I ever even play with fireworks without hands again?

Or the more obvious analogy of a lesson that is already innate. Humans are born with instinctual knowledge that jumping off a cliff is a bad idea. That's an evolutionary trait built into our DNA, because it's a lesson you can never learn. If you jump, you die.

There is absolutely no merit in even contemplating a worst case scenario when the obvious truth is that ACA could never be as bad for the country as we know a default would be.

Like this douche nozzle who took the time to attempt a lame PR stunt to defelect attention and blame. Instead of being on capitol hill doing his job and resolving the issue?

There is a very different kind of filth on a person who will purposefully defund an agency of the government and then attack the currently unpaid workers of that agency for doing their job.

And how many American flags do you have to wear to convince yourself that you are a patriot? He literally grabbed one of the giftshop flags and stuffed it in his pocket before he stepped in front of the camera...