The Queens Riddle

[Jack Carney]

Subject: The Queen's Riddle

Barack Obama met with the Queen of England.

He asked her, "Your Majesty, how do you run such an efficient government? Are there any tips you can give to me?"

"Well," said the Queen, "the most important thing is to surround yourself with intelligent people."

Obama frowned, and then asked, "But how do I know the people around me are really intelligent?"

The Queen took a sip of tea. "Oh, that's easy; you just ask them to answer an intelligent riddle." The Queen pushed a button on her intercom. "Please send Tony Blair in here, would you?"

Tony Blair walked into the room and said, "Yes, my Queen?"

The Queen smiled and said, "Answer me this please, Tony, your mother and father have a child. It is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who is it?"

Without pausing for a moment, Tony Blair answered, "That would be me."

"Yes! Very good," said the Queen.

Obama went back home to ask Joe Biden, his vice president the same question. "Joe, answer this for me. Your mother and your father have a child. It's not your brother and it's not your sister. Who is it?"

"I'm not sure," said Biden. "Let me get back to you on that one..." He went to his advisers and asked every one, but none could give him an answer. Finally, he ended up in the men's room and recognized Colin Powell's shoes in the next stall.

Biden asked Powell, "Colin, can you answer this for me? Your mother and father have a child and it's not your brother or your sister. Who is it?"

Colin Powell yelled back, "That's easy, it's me!"

Biden smiled, and said, "Thanks!" Then, he went back to speak with Obama. "Say, I did some research and I have the answer to that riddle. It's Colin Powell!"

Obama got up, stomped over to Biden, and angrily yelled into his face, "No! you idiot! It's Tony Blair!"

AND THAT MY FRIENDS IS PRECISELY WHAT'S GOING ON WITH OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN WASHINGTON D.C.

[kenb321]

Wow, Jack, with this message, you have opened my eyes to everything that is wrong. Thank you so much. I look forward to more information from you. You are a wise sage.

[MattCollister]

An oldie but a goodie. Should probably update with current British PM and US Sec of State.

[harris]

But then Biden would be pooping in the ladies room.

[Aussie Rob]

Heh, Jack.

Wrong characters = fail.

Thanks for playing

[Jack Carney]

Still works Aussie. No reference made to positions just names and Chris nailed it can't have Biden in he women's room with Hillary although he could probably wander in there by accident I suppose he is kind of used to stumbling around.

The failure is in the current inept government. And this story nails it just fine. ;D

[MattCollister]

I really feel strongly that for this joke to be as funny as when liberals used it to mock George Bush, the characters should be up to date.

There's actually an unintended irony of Biden walking into the ladies' room to talk to Hillary Clinton. I think it actually makes the joke funnier.

But if you're not comfortable with that, could it be Tim Geitner or Robert Gates?

[watchman]

we need some more of this stuff. I miss the battles. Some were kinda funny.

My only question about Obama is;

Does he really believe that his policies are good? and he is just wrong?

or is he doing this on purpose knowing that they will destroy the country?

I honestly am not sure which is true.

Is the problem ignorance or deception?

( Now don't anyone get overly hostile with this, keep it civil I am just wondering, we can still be friends and disagree right?)

mike

[Aussie Rob]

Yes, but when you consider your friends either malicious or ignorant, it's not likely to go over well.

The reality is, the other side will always say the other is destroying the country. When the reality is it's nigh impossible for one administration to "destroy" anything, and even if they could, that's a highly relative statement.

If anyone gets blamed for a decline, i think it's going to be a whole generation, and we'll all be dead before that determination is made by later generations that have the benefit of perspective. Meanwhile - we all do the best we can.

[watchman]

Obama is not one of my friends. I question him but I do not my "friends " on this forum including you. I do not think any of you are ignorant or deceptive even if we disagree.

as for destroying a country.

I heard an interesting princilpe.

When something is being built it takes alot of time. Like the twin Towers. How long did it take to build them? Many months.

Destroying something can happen very quickly again like the twin towers. Destroyed in a matter of hours.

Obama is doing things ( or at least trying) to change many things quickly.

Is he building or destroying?

I think our country can be very different in a very short period of time.

The only way for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.

( I know, who is evil? and who is good? ) That is for another post

I agree with perspective as time goes by. Also I am trying the best I can to speak the truth when I can and to live it or to " practice what I preach"

Aussie You have good insight for such a young fellow. I knew you would post something

Good job winning Lorain race. I am impressed.

mike

[jamesi]

The county is not being destroyed. Like Rob said, it's a relative thing. Perhaps a certain notion that an individual has of their country can be destroyed, but that's a matter of perception. Our biggest problem is not Obama, or Democrats, or Republicans. It's the fact that rather than taking personal responsibility for their problems, a lot of people just look for someone to blame. The mortgage crisis is a prime example. Regulate or deregulate whatever you want, but short of something terrible happening like losing my job, I know what I can afford. I'll always be sympathetic to those who lost their jobs and subsequently, their homes. That's just terrible. My problem is with sub-prime lenders and the people who signed on the dotted line when they knew they couldn't pay. When it was all said and done, the economy was screwed and these people were the first to criticize the bailouts.

Editors note: I shunned the local news, national news, and ESPN a few months ago. Additionally, I spend most of my time talking to a 2 year old and a 4 month old. I have no basis for political opining. ;-)

[Jack Carney]

politics.usnews.com/opinion/mzuckerman/articles/2010/08/26/the-most-fiscally-irresponsible-government-in-us-history.html?PageNr=3

[watchman]

James I agree about the personal responsibility and the system the encouraged it

to many people looking to the Government for a hand out

There is a point where so many depend on the Government that it is not sustainable.

We are at that point. If they tax anymore it will crush whatever life is left in our economy.

mike

[Jack Carney]

Remember no new taxes for the middle class promise Mike?

In just six months, on January 1, 2011, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect.

They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves.

On January 1, 2011, here's what happens... (read it to the end, so you see all three waves)...


First Wave

Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families. These will all expire on January 1, 2011.


Personal Income Tax Rates Will Rise

The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed).

The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent.

All the rates in between will also rise.

Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as highermarginal tax rates.


The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

The 10%
bracket rises to an expanded 15%

The 25%
bracket rises to 28%

The 28%
bracket rises to 31%

The 33%
bracket rises to 36%

The 35%
bracket rises to 39.6%


Higher Taxes On Marriage And Family

The "marriage penalty" (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income.

The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child.

The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level.

The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.


The Return Of The Death Tax

This year only, there is no death tax. (It's a quirk!) For those dying on or after January 1, 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes, a business, a retirement account, could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones. Think of the farmers who don't make much money, but their land, which they purchased years ago with after-tax dollars, is now worth a lot of money. Their children will have to sell the farm, which may be their livelihood, just to pay the estate tax if they don't have the cash sitting around to pay the tax.

Think about your own family's assets. Maybe your family owns real estate, or a business that doesn't make much money, but the building and equipment are worth $1 million. Upon their death, you can inherit the $1 million business tax free, but if they own a home, stock, cash worth $500K on top of the $1 million business, then you will owe the government $275,000 cash! That's 55% of the value of the assets over $1 million! Do you have that kind of cash sitting around waiting to pay the estate tax?


Higher Tax Rates On Savers And Investors

The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011.

The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011.

These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

The Second Wave
Obamacare

There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:

The "Medicine Cabinet Tax"

Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).

The "Special Needs Kids Tax"

This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children.

There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States , and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education.

Tuitiion rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington , D.C. ( National Child Research Center ) can easily exceed $14,000 per year.

Under tax rules, FSA dollars can not be used to pay for this type of special needs education.

The HSA (Health Savings Account) Withdrawal Tax Hike.

This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 0 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAsand other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.


The Third Wave

The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and Employer Tax Hikes

When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they'll be in for a nasty surprise-the AMT won't be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired.

The major items include:

The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year.

According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center , Congress' failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families-rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.

Small business 'expensing' will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear.

Small businesses can normally 'expense' (deduct) rather than slowly-deduct or 'depreciate' equipment purchases up to $250,000.

The traditional $250,000 figure will be cut all the way down to $25,000!

Larger businesses can currently expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011, ALL of it will have to be "depreciated." (The depreciation period over which a business must write off a major expense is often THIRTY YEARS.)

Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses

There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the "research and experimentation tax credit," but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.

Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced

Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses.

Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut.

Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed.

The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.

Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed

Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA.

This contribution also counts toward an annual "required minimum distribution." This ability will no longer be there.

PDF Version Read more:


And Worse Yet?

Now, your insurance will be INCOME on your W2's!

One of the surprises we'll find come next year, is what follows - - a little "surprise" that 99% of us had no idea was included in the "new and improved" healthcare legislation . . . the dupes, er, dopes, who backed this administration will be astonished!

Starting in 2011, (next year folks), your W-2 tax form sent by your employer will be increased to show the value of whatever health insurance you are given by the company. It does not matter if that's a private concern or governmental body of some sort.

If you're retired? So what... your gross will go up by the amount of insurance you get.

You will be required to pay taxes on a large sum of money that you have never seen. Take your tax form you just finished and see what $15,000 or $20,000 additional gross does to your tax debt. That's what you'll pay next year.

For many, it also puts you into a new higher bracket so it's even worse.

This is how the government is going to buy insurance for the15% that don't have insurance and it's only part of the tax increases.

Not believing this??? Here is a research of the summaries.....

On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE OFFSET PROVISIONS-(sec. 9001, as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002 "requires employers to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employees gross income."

___________


Joan Pryde is the senior tax editor for the Kiplinger letters.

[watchman]

www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/09/07/kevin-mccullough-economy-depression-summer-recovery-obama-biden-bush-tax-cuts/

interesting and scary if true

[Aussie Rob]

That is such an inflammatory piece. Does anyone really take such an article as legit journalism? It was written by someone who's career is based around talking up a reaction.

Murrow is rolling in his grave.

[watchman]

I do not know the author or his motives

exactly what fact did he state that was not true?

Is the econmy getting better? or worse?

If the econmy were a drowning man Obama has been strapping 50 lbs weights to him and saying he is trying to save him.

The principles he is putting in place have never helped any nation in history.

Maybe this will be the first or maybe we should just ignore the evidence and take his word for everything we believe.

Maybe he is the Messiah!

not for me


mike

[Aussie Rob]

Maybe people should stop basing their opinions on what talking heads tell them and take a few econ classes.

[watchman]

Rob. I do not have TV. So I don't watch talking heads.

I could teach an economics class and I have.

Econ 101

When the government promises to give something free it must take from someone else.

Why? The Government does not produce wealth or anything else.

The more it takes the less freedom we have.

The more a government does this the poorer the nation becomes, no exceptions.

There is a point that Govenrment gets so large that it cannot be sustained unless it taxes beyond what the people ( who work) can bear. We are at that point.

Compare North and South korea. One side promised free health care, education, housing ect. Guess which side has people starving?

The smaller the government the better. Government is the problem. It is dangerous. That is why our founding Fathers limited its power with checks and balances. Our curreent Government is going around them.

Personally I do not want to be like the Soviet union in the 1970's. Do you remember it? Oh I forgot you are to young.

What is interesting about that time. I have personal friends who lived there. They were told that they were rich and we were poor. They were shwon video of slums of the inner city and told this is how all Americans lived. They were told the iron curtain was to keep us out.

The friends I have told me the most devastating part for the older generation was the realization that they were lied to in such an extreme way.

So do we just accept that the nation is getting better because we are told? or do we look at the facts honeslty.

Stimulus, bailouts, and larger Govenrmnet cannot and will not work. Any neither will anyone else because it will kill jobs. Just watch.

mike

[Aussie Rob]

Can't post....building fallout shelter.

[watchman]

you are always funny for sure

I take that to mean you do not have any logic or evidence against what I wrote.

Save your money on shelter.

The Soviet Union always said they will defeat the west but not through military but from within.

You might want to move to Venezuela. Obama's buddy Hugo Chavez has a headstart on all of this.

This is a perfect picture we can and have been observing. A prosperous nation a few years ago now has an energy crisis yet it is one of the worlds top nations in oil reserves. They also are beginning to give out food ration cards because they have a food shortages.

He has closed over 40 radio stations, nationalized the energy sector, taken over large portions of the economy. All have fallen apart .

You might like it there but bring along alot of cash Hugo really needs it.



Are you doing the Cedar Point Race?

mike

[Aussie Rob]

Unwilling Mike, not unable.

Nah, ill be racing cx at Wendy Park, then attending a communist rally downtown.

[Jack Carney]

Econ 101? Is that where you learn from liberal professors to make up unmeasurable and disingenuous terms like jobs "created or saved" that will be accepted as truth by your admirers?

No Econ 101 needed to know the current administration is doing nothing positive for the economy. Now they are considering tax cuts to stimulate the economy. Wow what an idea!

[watchman]

Taking the easy way out I don't blame you.

Youth helps with triathlons but it is a disadvantage here.

Let me know what time the rally is I want to talk some of them

They are fun to talk to.

Now are these admitted communists ? or you just name calling?

mike

[Aussie Rob]

I was being facetious, Mike.

Age, or lack thereof, has nothing to do with me not wanting to seriously engage you in a political debate.

Besides, you seem to be doing a remarkably good job of flying the neo-conservative flag with only a tiny bit of prodding from me. Keep running, you're winning!!

[watchman]

I think you are sincere though I disagree. I like to debate therse things with people if they can keep it civil. It is fun . ( I think I prodded you )

I am not a neo anything

Just looking for truth and answers. If I am seeing something wrong I want logic and evidence to show it.

I know the answer is not politics. It goes far beyond politics.

For me I found "the truth" to be a person.



mike

[jamesi]

Gentleman, here's some levity: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMgyi57s-A4

It's not about being a republican or democrat...it's about being bat-nuts crazy! Imagine how intense he'd be if he were running for President of the United States instead of Stark County Treasurer.

[Jack Carney]

Now that is funny! ;D I say vote for him he will no doubt provide endless entertainment.

[jamesi]

Holy crap! This video had about 350 hits last night...71,000 as of this morning!

[benmiralia]

Jack, Mike, and Rob.....Here is the thing, nothing will change. Democrat, Republican, or anything in between. No matter who has the majority in congress or who holds the prsidency we will spend more money than we have. If Jack and Mike think that Republicans are fiscally responsible then you have aquired political amnesia. If Rob really thinks that Democratic control will eventually lead to a balanced budget than you have been asleep for the last two years. You can spin it any way you want and you can produce any number of "experts" who will make a convincing argument that bullshit is the truth, but in the end it's still bullshit. Sarah Palin took more money in earmarks than any other state. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi will always choose politics over the people they represent no matter what the cost might be. Obama and Bush both found ways to spend more money than any two presidents in history. MSNBC and Fox will continue to employ pundits who will tell any lie necessary to inflame passions in order to increase viewership. If any of you seriously believe things will ever change than you are living in a different worl than I am. But it makes for entertaining discussion so have at it.