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$16.00 muffins
Posted: Sep 22, 2011
Wonder if anyone here knows where to find these?.... maybe there are some leftovers at the White House....
;
Maybe they need to start having their meetings at a - la Quinta and get free muffins! nm
[ In Reply To ..].
$16.00 muffins - Pauline
[ In Reply To ..]I saw that on TV last night too. Those people in Congress can afford to pay those prices and as a small business company that caters to them, I do not blame them for hiking the prices up. Go for it little companies, but in the end we the taxpayers are the ones who pay while they sit in Congess and have those speeches. They just foot the bill and we pay for it eventually. My muffins look just as good. May be I should bake and sell which I love to do, but it takes money to make money. Most of them really do not care about the middle to lower class families. I would like to see them live from payday to payday like we have to. There would be no way they could survive. They should live a month like some of us have to, not knowing if Lights, Water being turned off, house payments being made and struggling when going to the store and taking a calculator just to be sure we have money in our pockets to pay for the little amount we get. I really have done that. I used to have a good job until 3 years ago then got outsourced. It has a financial nightmare and not getting any better and now I have lost another outsource job that had good benefits, but $$$ was not that great compared to what I used to make but it was enough to pay bills and buy some groceries. No extra for clothes. Greedy American companies say they care, but deep down it is how much money they can make with the least amount of money out of their pocket to make it work. That is the reason USA has so many jobs to foreign countries. America needs to support America and help get the economy back in the black. Just my thoughts. no wonder my blood pressure has been out of control lately.
Not to thread jack, but have you noticed - mthead
[ In Reply To ..]how hard it is to find things in Walmart, Target, Kmart, etc, that are NOT made in China? The dollar stores are guilty of this, too. Do you think consumers launching a letter-writing campaign or a boycott directed at the big retailers, asking them to try to source more of their products from the US, would be more effective than waiting for the government to help US workers out? I try to shop local, but this year at back-to-school, I shopped at Walmart and Kmart to save money and it killed me to buy paper, pencils and markers made in China when those things could be made here by American workers, putting food in American mouths and money in American pockets. Just a thought.
I have always believed that there is power in....sm - VTMT
[ In Reply To ..]numbers and there is little us peons can do to change things. One thing we CAN do that would be a job creator is make a commitment to do with less and buy American whenever possible. Not enough people are committed to affecting change and would just rather stay in their own comfort zone and complain and blame.
This is a tough one - sm
[ In Reply To ..]We have slowly let things change to where the US produces very little any more. We can write as many letters as we want but those places aren't going to change what they are doing. American made goods are generally more expensive as well because we pay our people better than China does their people. That is why their product is cheaper. So it is almost a double-edged sword. We either pay higher prices for our goods made in the US, or we get cheaper stuff from China and continue to produce less in the US. Not everyone is going to forego the cheaper stuff to buy the more expensive American made stuff....the perfect example of this are cars. I don't know how many foreign cars I see on the road everyday and it annoys me.
Yes, it is a vicious circle. No jobs here, unemployment, - underemployment, SM
[ In Reply To ..]therefore little money to spend. You are almost forced to buy cheap. The only thing that will stop this is to seriously penalize offshoring companies and reward companies who don't. Of course, this will not happen because wall street and corporations own the politicians. I had great expectations when Obama was elected, I actually thought things would change, but it appears to be impossible to really change anything to a significant degree. What I find puzzling is the fact that over 80% of people agree with Obama's jobs bill, but that will not be reflected when the election happens. 80% of people realize how awful things are and are going to continue to be, but 80% will not vote for him. Although on the surface it appears he is "for the people" in reality what he is proposing is nowhere near what needs to happen. Apparently, you can't fight "City Hall" and this includes a president. I do feel that democrats tick a little more for the middle class, basically all of them care more about themselves and keeping their jobs with all the perks that go with it. Many make empty promises, people believe it, nothing really changes when they are elected, and the cycle continues.
What does it say about our country if 80%...sm - VTMT
[ In Reply To ..]of the population agrees with passing the jobs bill and we will likely see it fail in any meaningful form if at all? Nothing new here. Our voices are obviously not being heard.
Not sure what polls you all are looking at, but - even the article I read from the
[ In Reply To ..]Huffington Post said that the support for the jobs bill is weak. Where I live, there is definitely not 80% of people in favor of this bill. I sure hope it fails.
this lefty liberal agrees - sm
[ In Reply To ..]That is crazy. BTW, this audit spanned the Bush and Obama administrations. However, I do not think this is an across-the-board thing. To their credit, the Department of Justice did this audit of themselves and this practice will be changed. There have been some individual departments that will run amok, but it is certaily not the norm in every government office (federal, state, county,city, local).
Also,I worked at a PRIVATE college. There was SO much waste, it makes me sick that students received government grants and scholarships to attend this money pit. This apparently is a problem in our culture, not just the government.
I agree...colleges waste major money - Conservative MT
[ In Reply To ..]as well. I live in a college town with a private Christian college. The amount of tuition they charge is criminal, IMO. Every year they are tearing something down and building something else and wasting a butt load of money and each year the tuition ticks up.
You cannot hardly survive without a college education. We don't have the factory jobs like we used to. Now we have kids going to college and getting out of college in major debt and not able to find a job because there are no jobs out there.
A college degree is a must....but I think we are getting ripped off.
I think trade schools are under-rated in this - country. sm
[ In Reply To ..]For a fraction of what college costs, people can go to vo-tech or other trade school and become a mechanic, an electrician, a plumber, etc., you know, the guys who the rich complain about when they get bills from them.
We will always need people with those kinds of careers, and they make pretty good money.
I feel for the college grads who have the sheepskin but don't have a job.
Hopefully this means that our government is really...sm - oldtimer
[ In Reply To ..]serious about seeking out waste and cutting spending. Good grief, $16 would buy me enough muffins to last more than two weeks! Why do high echelon government workers feel entitled to abuse our tax money this way? I hope to see more of these exposés in the future. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Ralph Nader where are you? Waste needs to be stopped before services for the poor and the elderly are cut.
I agree - Annoyed American
[ In Reply To ..]There is a lot of waste that isn't even being looked at. I personally feel we need to go through all the programs and see where the waste is and figure out how to get rid of it before we start cutting and slashing things people need. Also, I have to admit I get so tired of politicians threatening the elderly, the military, or Americans in general about losing programs they depend on and yet I have not heard any politician mention that their benefits, healthcare, salaries will be cut because they are doing such a sucky job when they are the ones wasting our money. I'd like to shove some $16 muffins up some of their butts!
They must shop at the same place GOP Rep Fleming uses - to "feed his family"
[ In Reply To ..]which he claims costs him $200,000 per year, leaving the poor guy with only $400,00 after taxes, paying rent, overhead and wages for 500 employees (whose average income is $11,000 per year) and maintaining equipment in his 33 Subway and UPS franchises. He whines he cannot afford a tax hike that would leave him with a paultry $381,000 each year. It is unclear whether these pittance earnings include the $174,000 annual salary as a US rep or the proceeds from his medical practice in LA. Probably not, since the context of the interview had to do with his role as a self-proclaimed virtuous successful Subway "jobs creator" who would not disclose in the interview if a tax hike would force him to lay off some of those 500 minimum wage sans benefits part-timers.
Rep Fleming - sm
[ In Reply To ..]"What he actually said was:
"Yeah, that's before you pay 500 employees, you pay rent, you pay equipment and food. The actual net income of that was only a mere fraction of that amount....I would say that since my net income, and again, that's the individual rate that I told you about, the amount that I have to re-invest in my business, and feed my family is more like $600,000 of that $6.3 million, and so by the time I feed my family, I have maybe $400,000 left over to invest in new locations, upgrade my locations, buy more equipment, all of that."
He points out, "Class warfare has never created a job and that's people that will not get jobs...".
So after Fleming takes care of his family (house note, insurance, taxes, bills, car notes, etc.) he has $400,000 to re-invest in his business.
That's $400,000 to re-invest in new jobs by theoretically upgrading his locations, as he says, or buying new locations, hiring more people, upgrading equipment, paying health care costs that are soon to increase...well, $400,000 won't go terribly far.
And he's right. Obama's decision to raise taxes on the millionaires is a job killer.
I think Fleming's comments illustrate that perfectly."
Newsflash. Net personal income is not reinvested. - That might have been your first clue
[ In Reply To ..]that something is amiss. The interview was focused on tax hikes on personal income. You are so busy defending him you neglected to post the entire comments about allegedly "creating jobs" with his leftover personal income. Let's back up here a minute.
During the interview, after whining about only having $400,000 left over after using $200,000 TO FEED HIS FAMILY (no $5 foot-longs allowed), he was asked whether he understood "that the average person out there who's making maybe $40(000), $50(000), $60,000 out there, when they hear you only have $400,000 left over, it's not exactly a sympathetic position. You understand that?"
His full dodge...errr, I mean response (not your abbreviated version) was, "Class warfare never created a job. ... This is about creating jobs, Chris, this is not about attacking people who make certain incomes. You know in this country, most people feel that being successful in their business is a virtue, not a vice, and once we begin to identify it as a vice, this country is going down." Notice he didn't repeat his mispeak twice (about reinvesting). Instead, he got defensive by referring to the leftover $400,000 as his income, which he also reffirmed when he emphatically referred to the "individual rate," a term that applies to PERSONAL income. What businessman uses his personal income to create jobs?
Before getting to your "theory" about how he is selflessly using this personal income to create jobs, let's crunch a few numbers first. On Subway's website, reference is made to "qualified" employees who are offered certain benefits but, oddly enough, no description can be found as to what criteria has to be met, other than a fulltime schedule. If Subway employees AVERAGE $11,000 (meaning a substantial number of them make less than that) and assuming the franchise owner is in compliance with minimum wage laws, then a fulltime employee would make $7.25/hr x 40 = $290/week x 4.3 weeks = $1247 per month x 12 = $14,964 per year. This implies that the AVERAGE employee is not working a fulltime schedule and therefore is not getting benefits, so that paying health care expenses is essentially a figment of your imagination for the most part, especially since Fleming himself never mentioned it. He must have learned his lessons well from those folks at WalMart.
Everything else your theory imagined he was doing with the leftover $400,000 was already accounted for when Fleming was whining about only netting $600,000 out of the the $6.3 million, so I have to wonder why you are trying to give him credit for this TWICE. BTW, he RENTS new locations, he does not buy them, and franchise transactions generally involve low or no interest internal loans from the franchiser against the cost of adding new locations. Seeing as how he already has 33 successful locations, receives $174,000 annually as a US rep, and has an active private physician's practice, I'm quite sure that accessing seed money for expansion is no problem for Mr. six-figure-I-can't-afford-a-tax-hike Fleming.
I think his avoidance of the question about laying off employees if a tax hike were enacted illustrates the complete fallacy of tax shelters for alleged "jobs creators" who freeze hiring or threaten to lay off at the first mention of the possibility of returning to pre-Bush tax cut rates. History teaches us that same lesson. The last time the marginal tax rates fell below 30% (1926 to 1930) the result was the Great Depression. Conversely, between 1944 and 1960, marginal tax rates ranged between 89% and 94%, at record highs. The world as we know it did not come to an end and there was no socialist takeover. In fact, those years correspond to unprecedented economic stability and prosperity. So much for that coddling the "jobs creators" theory....full of holes.
Amazing how a person can start a - thread about
[ In Reply To ..]government waste in general that involved both political parties and yet you spin it around to point out 1 person. One person didn't create this mess. There is nothing more obvious than the fact that both political parties have a spending problem. Taxing the rich more won't solve this problem. Yes, it will bring in more revenue but it won't stop those running our country from spending it unresponsibly. Until our government can spend OUR money wisely, why should we give them more of it to spend? I think that is the point here and one that you have obviously missed.
Fleming's comments are just as out of touch - with reality as a $16 muffin. sm
[ In Reply To ..]Both are examples of warped perspectives that show a total disconnect from and disregard for the plight of the middle, working and lower income earners in this economy. The OP never said one person was responsible but I think the kind disconnect conveyed in the Fleming interview is shared by many of our representatives and is just as much a part of the overall problem as wasteful spending. There can be more than one point to be made, just as there will be ultimately be more than one solution to the problem.
IMO, raising revenues by closing loopholes and adjusting marginal tax rates, at least temporarily, would be an good place to start. I also think the last paragraph in the newsflash post makes a third excellent point you seem to be missing:
"...[Fleming's] avoidance of the question about laying off employees if a tax hike were enacted illustrates the complete fallacy of tax shelters for alleged "jobs creators" who freeze hiring or threaten to lay off at the first mention of the possibility of returning to pre-Bush tax cut rates. History teaches us that same lesson. The last time the marginal tax rates fell below 30% (1926 to 1930) the result was the Great Depression. Conversely, between 1944 and 1960, marginal tax rates ranged between 89% and 94%, at record highs. The world as we know it did not come to an end and there was no socialist takeover. In fact, those years correspond to unprecedented economic stability and prosperity. So much for that coddling the "jobs creators" theory....full of holes."
I say get the name of every person that attended those conferences - and have them pay it back
[ In Reply To ..]They know who attended. All they have to do is get the list of people, divide the food and beverages and send them a bill.
It is not the fault of the attendees. How would they...sm - VTMT
[ In Reply To ..]know the cost of the muffins at a conference? It is the fault of an incompetent organizer and that is who should get the bill. I would like to see an itemization of every government expenditure posted on the internet down to toilet paper. I sure hope they get a quantity discount on that! What an eyeopener that would be. Would that be covered under the Freedom of Information Act?
The organizer may be incompetent or - mthead
[ In Reply To ..]they may be getting gifts or kickbacks for doing business with this particular enterprise. Years ago I worked in a corporate setting and for using a particular venue for corporate functions, I got all kinds of goodies, like front-row tix to concerts, etc. I felt guilty about taking them but was urged by my boss to accept the gifts as a perk of my job. I can't imagine things are done much differently in the government realm in that regard. Just MHO.
I think there is A LOT of this very - thing going on
[ In Reply To ..]with our government and lobbyists create much of this. I believe there is a lot of corruption in our government due to greedy politicians who have the "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" way of thinking. I think this has caused many of our problems....not to mention much of the wasteful spending going on. That is just my opinion though.
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