Posted on 07/16/2012 2:04:18 AM PDT by sunmars
Democrats are making increasingly explicit threats about their willingness to let nearly $600 billion worth of tax hikes and spending cuts take effect in January unless Republicans drop their opposition to higher taxes for the nation’s wealthiest households.
Emboldened by signs that GOP resistance to new taxes may be weakening, senior Democrats say they are prepared to weather a fiscal event that could plunge the nation back into recession if the new year arrives without an acceptable compromise.
In a speech Monday, Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the Senate’s No. 4 Democrat and the leader of the caucus’s campaign arm, plans to make the clearest case yet for going over what some have called the “fiscal cliff.”
“If we can’t get a good deal, a balanced deal that calls on the wealthy to pay their fair share, then I will absolutely continue this debate into 2013,” Murray plans to say, according to excerpts of the speech provided to The Washington Post.
If the tax cuts from the George W. Bush era expire and taxes go up for everyone, the debate will be reset, Murray is expected to say. “Every proposal will be a tax-cut proposal,” according to the excerpts, and Republicans would no longer be “boxed in” by their pledge not to raise taxes.
“If middle-class families start seeing more money coming out of their paychecks next year, are Republicans really going to stand up and fight for new tax cuts for the rich? Are they going to continue opposing the Democrats’ middle-class tax cut once the slate has been wiped clean? I think they know this would be an untenable political position.”
Murray’s address, set to be delivered at the Brookings Institution, is meant to influence both the Nov. 6 election and the lame-duck legislative session in November and December
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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In the US, it takes about 30 hours total, for the body, engine, transmission, assembly, paint, etc. doesn't include things like outsourced parts and mining the ore (or recycling old cars). the labor costs from $55-$70 per hour including benefits so about $2100 per car, or roughly 8% the cost of the average car. doesn't sound that high until you compare the tata nano, which costs $2500 total. Labor costs are higher at companies with older presences, because they tend to have more expensive health care, larger families, and because the pensions become more expensive over time. national healthcare and pensions would make doing business a lot easier. Ford and GM pay ~$70 and Toyota pays ~$55. Source unknown.
$70/hr sounds like a ton of money, but starting wage for laborers is only about $14/hr....barely enough to pay the bills in the US. The top earners make $29/hr. Health care and pensions cost equivalent of about $15/hr, vacation time, overtime, sick leave are the equivalent of roughly $10 per hour. Benefits for retirees are roughly $15/hr (this isn't really wages by most definitions but ends up in all the reports). Maybe its time for the US government to step up and provide reasonable healthcare for working and retired people who pay taxes all their lives? Source unknown.
The difference in *time to build a car* between manufacturers is small (10% difference from worst to best). So the difference in *cost to build a car* between Ford's and Toyota's labor cost per vehicle is $15/hr * 30 hours + $70/hr * 2hrs, or roughly $600 , or < 3% of total cost. Source unknown.
Another question to ask is how much does *overhead* cost to build a new car? How much in management, paper pushing, legal fees, etc. Also, instead of beating that old dead horse of the cost of labor (heard it since the 70's!), it might be interesting to know why some manufacturers have better looking, more fun to drive, more reliable vehicles. Making a better-organized dashboard is free....so who are the managers that think this is a bad idea? Who was the brains behind the Pontiac Aztec? Why does GM use cheap plastic instead of more sturdy stuff for $5 more? There are great designers, engineers, craftsmen, and businesspeople in the US. They just don't work in lofty places at the big 3! Source unknown.
The cost of a car or just about anything is the cost of labor. The labor to make the robots that assemble the cars, the labor to build the buildings. the labor for outsourced parts, and even the labor earnings that was invested to buy the land.
beer is an alcoholic drink and you might pee your pants but pooping would be better for your health and if you eat a burrito dont eat beans cause youll fart up a storm
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_labor_cost_to_build_a_new_car#ixzz20pJmsIGB
I heard some commie ‘RAT say that the REPUBLICANS are playing chicken with this. If you take a breath, get yourself in a thoughtful mood and really think about it, it’s the ‘RATS who are playing chicken here.
Patty Murray is an embarrassment! What an idiot!
Let the tax hikes come, no more unequal taxation!
History shows that when Congress gets more revenue, the pols spend it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704648604575620502560925156.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h
In the late 1980s, one of us, Richard Vedder, and Lowell Gallaway of Ohio University co-authored a often-cited research paper for the congressional Joint Economic Committee (known as the $1.58 study) that found that every new dollar of new taxes led to more than one dollar of new spending by Congress. Subsequent revisions of the study over the next decade found similar results.
But no matter how we configured the data and no matter what variables we examined, higher tax collections never resulted in less spending.
"Polls consistently find that a majority of Americans believe any new taxes will be spent by the politicians," pollster Scott Rasmussen told us recently in an interview. The grand bargain so many in Washington yearn for—tax increases coupled with spending cuts—is a fool's errand. Our research confirms what the late economist Milton Friedman said of Congress many years ago: "Politicians will always spend every penny of tax raised and whatever else they can get away with."
“Patty Murray is such an embarrassment...”
But you repeat yourself...
Call the bluff, Tester, McCaskill, Bill Nelson, Ben Nelson (Leaving), Conrad leaving, and Webb leaving. If McConnell makes them vote on raising everyones taxes let them do it.
I remember not too many years ago, some people here were telling all what a benefit it was having products made in Red China as it made them so affordable.
Boy, that worked out great.
Send all your jobs and production overseas, while flooding this country with tens of millions of illegals...
National suicide.
“May” be weakening? When was GOP opposition to increased taxes strong? McConnell and Boehner are both weaklings and equivocators. America is in crisis and there is no leadership.
Using stimulus money!
Thank you jl.
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