Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Campaign 2020 Democrating Efforts

For the enlightenment of all, please remind everyone why big corps love stock buybacks. It's a truly perverted reason...well....not for them but for anyone else.

It's simple. The act of buying back the stock drives the stock price up. The board is composed of majority shareholders who benefit from the rising price of their stock.

Of course, it screws everyone else up, most especially the company itself (which becomes under capitalized by definition), but the big boys make some big $$$.

It doesn't hurt everybody. In particular if some (usually elderly) individual owns that stock say in a retirement portfolio, then they benefit by the share price rising if they sell it. You have to keep in mind that every stock transaction has both a buyer and a seller. One of those may be the company of the stock, or maybe not.

There is a theory that by cutting taxes, the population has more money to spend, increasing tax revenue. In theory it is an elegant assumption, in reality it doesn't really work. People are usually inclined to pay their bills, pay their kids college bills, or go to the casino.

In my opinion, every tax cut is a pay raise, and I will take every pay raise that I can get. The Dems refuse to pay down the deficit, the Reps refuse to not keep increasing the deficit, however the Reps will sometimes grow a pair and introduce a tax cut. The last one got me almost $200.00 a month in extra money. Nobody is going to pay down the deficit, nobody in government cares about the deficit, nobody in the private sector wants to think about the deficit.

Mr. Trump, PLEASE push another middle class tax cut through! I would really like another $200 per month in my paycheck. Given the choice of taking care of my family, or some theoretical struggling immigrant who needs a subsidy to make it, I choose my family. Hell, given the choice between the immigrant and take out Chinese food, I choose Chinese food. That is Democrating, my vote is money in my pocket, if I lose the popular vote, and I can't impeach somebody to change the outcome of the popular vote, then I guess I forfeit my Chinese.

But, I will bet on the Chinese food option. People like it when taxes are cut. Charity starts at home and the government never really wants to help you as much as it wants to help itself. Besides, who doesn't like take out Chinese?

Tim

And there you have it.

Some things look great on paper, but just aren't so.

Tim, when you go to the automatic teller and you get a $200 cash advance on your credit card, do you consider that to be a pay raise?

It may be of interest that Obama was steadily reducing the deficit when he left. He had also been working on the national debt as well. Instead of continuing that the jackass Trump decided debt was good (he always did claim he was "the master of debt"). Anway, his solution to debt was simply to not pay it! He had a very long history of that.

Here are some links to understand the national debt (best I've found - easy to understand)
If you read it all it will help you, in part, understand why Trump is messing with SS.
https://www.thebalance.com/national-debt-under-obama-3306293
https://www.thebalance.com/the-u-s-debt-and-how-it-got-so-big-3305778
https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-national-debt-4031393

The result is that we have a president with absolutely no respect for debt. Since the Republicans are forgiving his behavior (they now admit that he did bahave badly) perhaps he will forgive the nation debt, destroy the dollar, and bring on a complete collapse of our economy. Then, perhaps, they might understand why the rest of us are concerned with his behavior?

The big difference is that when I go to an ATM, I never get a cash advance, it is my money, to spend as I see fit. A tax cut is also, in theory, my money. However, I will never have to repay it, as it is obvious that the deficit will never be repaid. I can beat my head against the wall, or I can just take the money and bank it.

I like to tell people that Momma raised ugly kids, not dumb kids. Turning down free money is dumb, and a tax cut is as free as money gets.

Tim

Thanks, that explains everything...

I have another question - do you think there are many right-wingers who are actually fiscally conservative, or better yet fiscally responsible?

Or all they all just selfishly greedy without a care for the consequences?