Hugh Hewitt, who has the distinction of always being wrong about everything (he wrote a book edited by a plagiarist called “Painting the Map Red”, about a permanent Republican majority in the same year that the GOP historically lost the House and Senate) has one of his wacky readers write in to say that the net effect of Gov. O’Malley’s successful session in the assembly will be flight from Maryland. Yes, people are just running away from Maryland’s high-performing schools, access to top-tier jobs and proximity to some of the leading colleges, universities, think tanks, and the like.
Run away!
(And Hewitt’s post somehow ties this in to an eventual Hillary Clinton presidency. Yes, I have a pro-MD bias, but I think if you were to ask most Americans if the rest of the country could be run as well as MD is, you’d have a landslide in favor. A beautiful place to raise a family? OH NOES.)
The people of Silver Spring, MD suffer under the yoke of Democratic leadership:
Oliver, stop. You are full of it and you know it. People are not happy, er I mean so happy with O’Malley and his TAX INCREASES that they are flocking to Maryland. Ha!
I just put down a payment on a new car to find out that I just “made it” before the new car tax goes in effect. Before it was 5% and now it is 6% — a whole $250 more than what it was before for the car I bought.
People are so happy with O’Malley that hoards of them went to his house to protest his new taxes. Video here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=SFUs2vtG-Fg
When you start paying more for your XBOX 360 games and whatever it is you get, I am sure you will take off your kneepads.
“Oliver, stop. You are full of it and you know it.”
Shut the fuck up, Ian.
I would go into detail why you are wrong, but evey time I try to debate one of you losers, you run away.
And yet you’re not moving anywhere, are you Ian? I’m supposed to take a protest by a bunch of College Republicans seriously? College Republicans are already effed in the head, I would have to assume CRs in a state like Maryland are even more effed. O’Malley is fixing a Republican error just like Democratic governors and presidents always have to after their Republican predecessors.
Yep. Taxes are going up because of gross mismanagement from the previous administration, a Republican administration, I should add.
Granted, the people are not happy that taxes are going up, they never are However, the majority are not blaming O’Malley for this, and they are certainly not fleeing the state.
I have run into the nimrod argument before that people will run for the hills to avoid even small increases in taxes. I do not buy it at all; someone will have to show me proof.
Most people do not change their purchases over a 1% (actually, less than 1% marginal) increase in price, whether it comes from taxes or the merchant increasing the retail sales price. When businesses want to market a “Sale!”, they don’t advertise a 1% drop. Why? Because for most goods that’s not enough to move the needle. Economists refer to this as “price elasticity.”
In perfect markets with perfect substitute goods (e.g. a shipment of a ton of X-quality grain from ABC company versus one from XYZ company to the same dock on the same day), price elasticity may be infinite. For someone living on the DC-Maryland border, it may be enough to get them to buy a big-ticket non-car item paying 5.75% versus MD’s new 6%. Maybe. But in Takoma/Takoma Park, they have retail on both sides of the line now when the different is .75%. Ditto Friendship Heights and Chevy Chase. When it’s .25% the other way, will be the same.
Ditto with income taxes. The extra .75% marginal is not going to be enough to move a few upper-income people from MD to Virginia. Why? Because people who bought in Potomac bought for a reason and the transaction costs to sell a house and buy a new one are close in the 5 figures anyway. If low income taxes were the core motivator for rich people’s choice of residence, Manhattan would be broke, Long Island would be a desert, California would be more of a desert than it is and Mississippi would look like the Playboy Mansion.
“I have run into the nimrod argument before that people will run for the hills to avoid even small increases in taxes. I do not buy it at all; someone will have to show me proof.”
You’ll never get that proof. In fact, there’s a 75% chance that Ian will never return to this thread.
He came, he spouted some easily disprovable crap, and now he’s gone.
CS, sorry I have a life and am not able to respond to a comment 50 minutes after someone else does — at 4 in the morning.
LOL — I can’t believe you guys are actually blaming Bush. Didn’t Oliver just blame Ehrlich who was handed a several billion dollar deficit from our previous Governor .. Parris Glendening who was more corrupt than the day is long. And Ollie, you know it so don’t try to dismiss it.
CS is one of those libs who thinks he is a know it all in everything but probably is of age but doesn’t have a college degree. Am I right?
Anyways … Ollie, no there were not just college republicans there. My mother was there for one.
Why do you have to marginalize people? If I said, for example, “Oh, it was just a bunch of black people there” .. wouldn’t you be outraged? There were all types of people there — being outraged at tax increases isn’t unique to one group of people.
But, if you enjoy paying more taxes then good for you. I imagine Soros pays you well enough anyways.
Yes Ian, we know, everything wrong in the world is the Democrats faults. Anyone who dares claim the Republicans have ever caused any of it obviously hates America and loves terrorists (and should either be deported or lined up along the wall and shot).
CS, sorry I have a life and am not able to respond to a comment 50 minutes after someone else does — at 4 in the morning.
Uh…you DO realize that you just put yourself in a corner there, right*? If being up late = no life, then why were you up at 3:58 AM?
*Rhetorical question, answer’s obviously “no”.
LOL — I can’t believe you guys are actually blaming Bush.
Uh, you were the first one here who even mentioned him.
But, if you enjoy paying more taxes then good for you. I imagine Soros pays you well enough anyways.
I know you think you sound clever when you say that, but really, it’s just stupid. What if I were to say that you were being paid by Jack Thompson to post here**? That’s how stupid you sound right now.
**This analogy isn’t quite fair, though, since more people actually know who Jack Thompson is.
Anyways … Ollie, no there were not just college republicans there. My mother was there for one.
I have no way of verifying that one way or the other. However, since you’ve lied quite often here in the past, I think it’s safe to assume you’re lying now.
Why do you have to marginalize people? If I said, for example, “Oh, it was just a bunch of black people there” .. wouldn’t you be outraged? There were all types of people there — being outraged at tax increases isn’t unique to one group of people.
Despite fredfarkie’s propaganda, Republican’s aren’t a race nor an ethnicity.
CS is one of those libs who thinks he is a know it all in everything but probably is of age but doesn’t have a college degree. Am I right?
Once again, the ultra-con mantra of “we hate young people” shows its ugly face yet again. How predictable.
Again, I say あほ
“CS, sorry I have a life and am not able to respond to a comment 50 minutes after someone else does — at 4 in the morning.”
It took you two days, Ian. And you’ve run before, so don’t pretend you are in the right here.
“LOL — I can’t believe you guys are actually blaming Bush.”
You are the first person to mention Bush, so you are wrong again. How does it feel to fail at everything?
“CS is one of those libs who thinks he is a know it all in everything but probably is of age but doesn’t have a college degree. Am I right?”
I have a question, wasn’t it you that was complaining about liberals always getting personal or were you the one complaining about liberals always trying to deflect the issue?
Regardless, you have proven once again that you are a hypocrite.
And once again you have proven you are worth nothing more than a heart, “Fuck off, Ian.”
I hate going down the rabbit hole with you on these things Ian, because you change your arguments quicker than Mitt Romney changes positions. But the issue in question here is:
* Gov. O’Malley is fixing the budget problems left by his predecessor, Bob Ehrlich
* The protest was organized by the College Republicans, a bunch of people who are ineffectual at best in Maryland politics. I don’t care if your mom was there or not, it was a bunch of useless political theater of a tiny minority of people. It was the conservative equivalent of the idiots who march with puppets singing Free Mumia.
* You were the first and only one to mention Bush in this context.
“it was a bunch of useless political theater of a tiny minority of people. It was the conservative equivalent of the idiots who march with puppets singing Free Mumia.”
… I like the puppets.
“* Gov. O’Malley is fixing the budget problems left by his predecessor, Bob Ehrlich”
Oliver, just because you say it doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Wow, he raised taxes!!! That was real hard.
If he really wanted to fix problems he would cut funding for unnecessary programs in our welfare state. He likes keeping the poor, poor so they can continue to vote for him.
“just because you say it doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”
You need to repeat this in front of a mirror 100 times every day.
“He likes keeping the poor, poor so they can continue to vote for him.”
Let me amend my previous sentence. You need to FOAD.
This bullshit is nothing more than a right-wing talking point with no basis in reality.
Look, Ian, I understand that the idea that poor people aren’t starving to death fills you with an unhinged rage, But please, for the sake of those around you, just stop. This goes both to you and the rest of your America hating kind.
Look, Ian, I understand that the idea that poor people aren’t starving to death fills you with an unhinged rage, But please, for the sake of those around you, just stop. This goes both to you and the rest of your America hating kind.
I hope that was sarcasm because where did I mention poor people starving? Thanks.
Yes, he raised taxes to fix Ehrlich’s mistakes. Maryland has and will continue to have one of the highest standards of living in the entire country. Gov O’Malley doesn’t believe in supply side Jesus and other b.s. conservative fiscal policy. He believes in common sense economics and the state will be better off for it. So the rich guys on the Eastern Shore won’t be able to put gold trim on their yachts next Christmas. Cry me a river.
Zython: “Look, Ian, I understand that the idea that poor people aren’t starving to death fills you with an unhinged rage, But please, for the sake of those around you, just stop. This goes both to you and the rest of your America hating kind.”
Ian: “I hope that was sarcasm because where did I mention poor people starving? Thanks.”
Fuck off, Ian.
You were the one to say, “And because you don’t like this war, you hate this country. Sorry, I am just using Oliver’s logic here.” (In a thread that you ran away from.)
You wanted O’Malley to cut programs that help the poor calling them, “unnecessary programs in our welfare state.”
That’s certainly more evidence than you’ve needed to make accusations like that. So stop being a hypocrite.