Project Wonderful Banner

Friday, December 17, 2010

That damned Education

What's Mallard raving about today?

Santa Claus, Education.

I mean to do that, they'd have to spend money on Education, but Billionaires need tax cuts, so that ain't going to happen.

22 comments:

Tog said...

We better build statues in tribute to the Two Percent, or they'll go Galt on our asses!

Look over at Britain. Until very recently, if your grades were good enough you didn't have to worry about paying for college, because Britain gave a shit about its future. Then the toffs decided it was time for the prats to give them more money so they could keep more of the money they already had. The riots almost took Prince Charles from us! Oh horror!

NickE said...

If you remove the word balloons and just leave the artwork, this one becomes a contender for Creepiest Self-Revelation of the Year.

Toots McGee said...

I have to say that I'm not all that entertained by this new Santa Claus comic strip. The Santa Claus character is, frankly, kind of a dick.

Anonymous said...

No need to complain taxes aren't high enough - just pay some more yourself!

Tog said...

No need to whine that your taxes are too high; just leave the country!

Kip W said...

I'll be darned, he does look like Santa Claus. No wonder Tin's been drawing him all week: he's finally found a character with such broad defining characteristics that he can actually draw him without having to hang a label on him or (today excepted) announce his own name.

Star Light, Star Bright, please keep the damn duck out of sight.

dlauthor said...

Anonyrast is upset because his tax dollars pay, in part, for the tracking ankle bracelet that tells the police when he's too close to an elementary school or day care.

Bill the Splut said...

Hey, little kid, I have that same expression on my face whenever I read a Mallard punchline. Though it's more of a joke-like statement that I assume to be a punchline, due to it being in the last panel.

rewinn said...

Xmas came early this year, when the GOP made it official: all that stuff about cutting the deficit was to fool the teabaggers into voting for them.

(You'll note that most of the 'no' votes were Dems.)


Anyone thing Mallard's gonna complain about that?

Anonymous said...

The wealthy pay taxes - 86% of all federal income taxes are paid by the top 25% of income earners.

The TOP 50% pay 97% of all income taxes.

The TOP 1% pay 39% of all income taxes.

Neo Tuxedo said...

Source? And does said source mention what their total share of the pie is?

Neo Tuxedo said...

Even better question, now that I think about it: never mind how much they pay as a percentage of total tax revenue, how much do they pay as a percentage of actual income? You don't even have to limit that to wages in your answer, anon.

Anonymous said...

Rewinn - Are you the same person who watches the 'View' and believes these people are strong and intelligent?

1) One of the promises your president made to the liberals is that he would let the 'Bush tax rates' expire at the end of 2010.
Your man did not do that.

2) Presently an unemployed person can receive government checks for 99 weeks. Now the country is in greater debt because on top of 99 weeks they will receive another 13 months of government handouts. Great incentive to look for a job don't you think?

3) The reason the Dems voted against Obama's tax bill is he has pissed them off, they did not want the present tax rates to remain in place. They also were not satisfied with taking inheritance tax from 0% to 35%, they wanted 45%. Greedy bastards with other peoples money who have already paid taxes on this money.
But, this is the Democrat Party.

dlauthor said...

Your president too, Anonyrast! That reality must get you more agitated than the line for Santa's castle at the mall.

Kaitlyn said...

I don't think he's referring to the fact that our public schools are horribly underfunded, but to the fact that teachers are evil liberals who are in unions and hate God and Jesus.

Tog said...

Ah, yes, the "unemployment benefits teach people to NOT seek work" argument.

Not to put too fine a point on it: Horseshit.

People can't work jobs that aren't there. The Two Percent have had their Bush tax breaks for ten years now. Where are all the jobs this was supposed to create? Taken by illegals? Horseshit.

Can anyone live even remotely comfortably on the amount of money they get from unemployment benefits? I know FOXNews, corporate-owned pundits, and their pet idiots think so, but in reality? Horseshit.

Where was anonymous' concern about the deficit for the past decade? Did he really believe Junior Bush's insistence that "we'll pay for it all out of the (Clinton) surplus"? Horseshit.

Sorry, anonymous, you're choking on your own horseshit. (Now cry that I'm not being civil. C'mon, pull out your best bawling Boenher.)

CW in LA said...

"Democrat Party"? That's shorthand for "I let the giant-assed kiddie-diddler do my thinking for me".

Ever tried living on those sumptuous unemployment benefits, anonymelonfucker?

Factinista said...

Yeah, I don't know if you realize this, Anon, but inheritance taxes are unearned income. What happened to the mantra that people should have to work for their money? Last I checked, having a wealthy relative die doesn't count as work.

rewinn said...

Anonymous Coward doesn't have the guts to provide an ID, so why bother replying?

Except I can't help noting that Anonymous Coward keeps referring to "income taxes" and not to "taxes". Why is that?
Is it because when you figure in "ALL TAXES" then Coward's argument is backward?

By Anonymous Coward's logic, if I pay $10,000 in taxes and the Koch brothers (who inheritted their daddy's coal business) pay $10,001 in taxes, well they are paying more than me so STFU!

Really, Anonymous Coward is just a toady. And you'll notice that he still hasn't criticized the GOP who Boehned him!

rewinn said...

BTW as to unemployment "benefits" - in the real world, there are five people for every job.

The MAXIMUM amount of job-seeking behavior possible accross the USA is for EVERY unemployed person to apply for EVERY job.

And with that, we'd still have 80% of job seekers without jobs.

So what are we gonna do? Tell them to die?
----

Also also: the theory of supply and demand requires that there be DEMAND for there to be economic activity. We have plenty of SUPPLY; what we don't have is DEMAND. Unemployment insurance props up demand more effectively than tax cuts for the rich; this is econ 101.

AllenM said...

Anonymous may also be using the common right-wing deception of not counting payroll taxes as income tax, even though the programs they support constitute a major chunk of the federal budget- carefully not counting them because they fall predominantly on the working class. Following his masters, Tinsley also engages in this policy of careful omission.

As for Tinsley's take on education, he seems to be implying that private schools give a superior education to what one receives in a public school, but never cites any reputable studies demonstrating that students receiving vouchers (the "remedy" the Right loves) do any better academically than public school students. To the best of my knowledge, there aren't any studies demonstrating a consistent positive effect on voucher students, so Tinsley et al treat this as just something that "everyone knows", without need for further elaboration.

I worked as a public-school teacher in the Florida school system, so maybe know some things a bit better than Tinsley. To start with a previous Tinsley rant, you don't just get an "education degree", you get it in some particular subject area, which usually includes subject-area coursework comparable to an undergraduate degree. (Some of the people I worked with, particularly the Math teachers, had Master's Degrees.)

Private schools? The Catholic schools had the best reputation, and they hired their teachers from where? The state-sponsored teacher training program for public school teachers, complete with their Education Degrees. The smaller, Fundamentalist-type schools certainly paid their teachers much less than the public schools, but many of those schools required nothing more than a high school diploma to teach.

DaveyK said...

Have pity on Anonymous this Christmas season...

Not only is he too cowardly to post under his own name, but he also sucks at Math/Statistics (now who does that sound like?)

In 1980, the effective tax rate:
* for the top 1% was 34.6%
* for the top 5% was 30.8%
* for the top 10% was 28.3%

In 2005 (last data available from CBO), the effective tax rate:
* for the top 1% was 31.2% (down 3.4% points)
* for the top 5% was 28.9% (down 0.9% points)
* for the top 10% was 27.4% (down 0.9% points)

The reason the percent of total tax paid by the wealthy beame such a large percentage of total taxes is that they’re earning a much larger share of income.

The amount of tax paid on each dollar of income has dropped, but they’re earning vastly more dollars (unlike the rest of us), so they’re paying more taxes.

They are not being asked to pay more, but they are taking more.