Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) Official Thread

[oneharmonic]

Trump extends social distancing guidelines to April 30, predicts 'great things' by June 1

April 30th, think some will last that long?

@Hueco

Not on $1200. Trump will be burning through another $2 Trillion soon.

 

[4Freedom]

Not on $1200. Trump will be burning through another $2 Trillion soon.

Not a fan of bailouts myself. I thought the "stimulus" was going to be a tax/spending cut, not a massive increase of the deficit. But, seeing how our government loves wasting money im not too shocked. The government soon will be writing blank checks to everyone.

 

[WWShooter]

Not a fan of bailouts myself. I thought the "stimulus" was going to be a tax/spending cut, not a massive increase of the deficit. But, seeing how our government loves wasting money im not too shocked. The government soon will be writing blank checks to everyone.

The deficit is the delta between revenues and expenses - so a tax cut increases the deficit by $1 for each $1 not collected as tax revenue. Spending cuts invariably reduce economic activity. The best and fastest way to goose the economy (which Republicans would never accept) is to give a boat load of money to the poorest among us - who will spend every one of those dollars almost before received - mostly on wasteful things like food, rent, clothing and the like. Give me a tax cut, I just save more.

 

[E4mafia]

Not on $1200. Trump will be burning through another $2 Trillion soon.

FED PRINTING GOES BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR


get ready for phase 4 everyone!

After Three Coronavirus Stimulus Packages, Congress Is Already Prepping Phase Four

Legislators are already roughing out the contours of yet another emergency-spending package to try to keep the crisis from turning into a 21st-century Great Depression.

www.wsj.com

Pensions, food stamps, infrastructure: What Congress might include in its next coronavirus relief package

Lawmakers say they're eyeing a variety of different proposals for a "Phase 4" package.

www.newsweek.com

Power of the purse lies in congress YIPPY!

 

[Devneck]

Give me a tax cut, I just save more.

I'm assuming you wouldn't take the cash out and bury it in your backyard, therefore your "saving" would also stimulate a different part of the overall economy.

Spending on "wasteful things" as well as investing or saving ... it all ends up circulating and causing an impact.

 

[Cavedweller]

The deficit is the delta between revenues and expenses - so a tax cut increases the deficit by $1 for each $1 not collected as tax revenue.

Past experience has shown that tax cuts increase tax revenue by stimulating economic activity and expanding the tax base.

 

[WWShooter]

I'm assuming you wouldn't take the cash out and bury it in your backyard, therefore your "saving" would also stimulate a different part of the overall economy.

Spending on "wasteful things" as well as investing or saving ... it all ends up circulating and causing an impact.

Investing my funds likely only puts money in the hands of folks who are similarly situated - an extra $1k, $2k, $5k just doesn't move my spending needle. Moreover, investing it likely means it gets chewed up in purely financial transactions that fuel the market but not local businesses. Put that in $1k, $2k or $5k the hands of gig economy, part time and full time hourly and lover level management workers and every dollar goes out to retail/service industry pretty quickly.

 

[WWShooter]

Past experience has shown that tax cuts increase tax revenue by stimulating economic activity and expanding the tax base.

Actually, I think the experience for the last two decades is just the opposite.

 

[The Heretic]

$250 B of the stimulus is unemployment expansion/extension. Expansion ($600 per week added onto state benes, and including some people who normally don't get UI but were employed and now are unemployed - such as self-employed) must be used by 7/31/2020. Extension (13 weeks on the end of state benes) expires 12/31/2020.

Both are taxable income.

The one time "stimulus checks" are considered/treated like a 'tax rebate' - only tax payers get this, and it is not taxable.

 

[4Freedom]

The deficit is the delta between revenues and expenses - so a tax cut increases the deficit by $1 for each $1 not collected as tax revenue. Spending cuts invariably reduce economic activity. The best and fastest way to goose the economy (which Republicans would never accept) is to give a boat load of money to the poorest among us - who will spend every one of those dollars almost before received - mostly on wasteful things like food, rent, clothing and the like. Give me a tax cut, I just save more.

Our government spends money on so much useless crap, such as foreign aid to corrupt countries, funding Planned Parenthood (we are trying to save lives, not help people get abortions), enhanced welfare programs, giving large amounts of money and financial support to able-bodied people who are able to work but refuse to do so. I saw this firsthand when I was homeless in my early 20s and I had a rough younger life. I can pull up the list, but since we are in a time of crisis, we should be cutting every non-essential form of government spending that is possible. Non taxpayers shouldn't get a good chunk of any stimulus payment . Sadly, we just cannot afford it,especially when we don't even have the resources to give millions of our citizens life saving equipment in a time of crisis. Our medical professionals cannot even get proper gear to protect themselves from disease. The Democrats are literally out of control and went as far as demanding free education, spending billions and billions on green energy programs (really , during a f***ing pandemic?) , socialized healthcare programs. The Republicans are not that far off the deep end, but are definitely enabling some of the ludicrous measures of the Democrats.

I am no fan of Trump's desire to save some non-essential industries with increasing deficit, such as the cruise ship industry. Yeah, that would suck for Florida, but who cares? There are many more essential industries and our tax money should be redistributed to businesses only under emergency situations (like GM manufacturing ventilators). These companies should have emergency planning situations and not expect the taxpayer to ever foot the bill. Did everyone forget about the too big to fail? Why is this different? If we are going to bailout corporations it should be only because something less important can be sacrificed and the industry is essential to our country. I think the best option to save our corporations is to end our socialist type of economic system. America is a socialist country and has been since the days of FDR and it is coming back to bite us in the a** in this time of crisis. It is times of crisis where socialism comes to haunt a government.

If we want a good solution to saving our corporations and businesses we can end our socialist economic system and dissolve some of the huge bureaucratic infrastructure we have that has plagued our businesses for years and is the one reason so many went overseas and why we now have to lick China's backside. Reducing the tax burden, removing the massive number of regulations (which Democrats want to increase even more now) on our businesses and taxpayers is , in my opinion the only way to save America.. Not by increasing spending, having more stimulus packages and trying to create more debt packages that will throw our economy into a deep Depression. That is what I fear we will see here.

The government is trying to increase its regulatory powers , not lighten the burden of its grip that has been screwing us for generations now.

I am not a fan of big government, never was and never will be.

 

[The Heretic]

Actually, I think the experience for the last two decades is just the opposite.

It depends on who gets the cuts

 

[4Freedom]

I know many will hate Thomas Massie and Rand Paul, but there are many of their arguments I respect are valid. $1200 for every taxpaying citizen doesn't equate to $2 trillion. And, this is just one of the many packages.. There is a lot of money that is not just going to the taxpaying American citizen.. We are not getting tax refunds. WE are being given a check.. A reduciton in our tax payments would have been the more sane means of helping our economy coupled with a large reduction in spending . And, America is notorious for more wasteful spending than any other country on the Earth.. Maybe, excluding some European nations. But , we have a much larger GDP that just goes into the toilet. Why on Earth are we still sending money to African countries, for example? I did humanitarian work in Africa and personally witnessed the politicians pocketing more than 80% of the humanitarian aid. Seriously, The HIV relief organization drove around in Mercedes Benz and stayed at luxurious hotels, always accompanied by attractive prostitutes (who help spread that particular disease). I saw this with my own eyes and saw the Funded by USAID logos and such on their websites and through many conversations with people at various NGOs I worked with. Just more money down the toilet while Americans die. Why are we paying for politicians to fly around the country, vacations? Let them pay that crap out of their own paycheck like the rest of us. I could go on.

These Wasteful Government Programs Need to Go

When considering the leviathan size of the federal government, it’s easy to overlook the quality of individual programs. After all, we can reduce the $4.1 trillion that Washington spent last year to lines in a spreadsheet. However, the truth of big government goes much deeper. Indeed, just as...

www.heritage.org

Five outrageous ways the federal government has wasted your money

Shelling out for unfinished hotels and preserving obsolete technology are just two of the ways the government is wasting your money. Read more.

americansforprosperity.org

BTW, any politician who talks like this has my respect

My colleagues expect truckers, UPS/Postal drivers, grocery store workers, and healthcare professionals to show up for work, so why shouldn't Congress?

 

[WWShooter]

It depends on who gets the cuts

I'd have to see the data. The Bush tax cuts pretty clearly increased the deficit. There's no indication the Trump tax cuts also haven't significantly increased the deficit. Tax cuts, particularly as implement by Bush and Trump, reflect "trickle down" economics which have never been shown to work.

Most of us who have served know what trickles down.

 

[4Freedom]

I'd have to see the data. The Bush tax cuts pretty clearly increased the deficit. There's no indication the Trump tax cuts also haven't significantly increased the deficit. Tax cuts, particularly as implement by Bush and Trump, reflect "trickle down" economics which have never been shown to work.

Most of us who have served know what trickles down.

Cutting taxes and increasing spending is not a good recipe.. Obviously.. It is more important to reduce wasteful spending, but Bush , like many other RINOs before him pretty much contributed to the same self-destructive system of wasteful spending on a bloated socialist government bureaucracy. Cut taxes at a time like that and yes you will increase the deficit. Although with the greed, corruption and self-destructiveness of socialism, even if you raise taxes the crooked politicians find ways of extorting as much of your tax money as possible at the expense of the country. Trump was kind of notorious in the beginning for heavy government spending and wanted to reduce the amount of wasteful spending as one of his campaign promises. That just went out the window with this whole stimulus ordeal.

 

[Cavedweller]

Actually, I think the experience for the last two decades is just the opposite.

"How do changes in income tax rates affect federal receipts?"

"The following graph clearly reveals the answer. The red line represents the top marginal tax bracket while the blue line shows the total amount of Federal government revenue each year. There are two salient points here. First, as the graph illustrates, as tax rates declined, government revenue increased. Second, there is a strong negative correlation between the two."

Do Tax Cuts Increase Government Revenue?

Tax cuts lead to increased government revenue...and this article proves it!

www.forbes.com

 

[DivCurlGrad72]

Just passing this along (w/o endorsement).

Masks Save Lives - COVID-19

www.maskssavelives.org

 

[awshoot]

More evidence droplets stay airborne from new MIT study:

"Given various combinations of an individual patient's physiology and environmental conditions, such as humidity and temperature, the gas cloud and its payload of pathogen-bearing droplets of all sizes can travel 23 to 27 feet (7-8 m)," the authors conclude.

But don't count on this to impress the "just wash your hands" crowd. They probably won't even bother to read the article. Don't rock my boat, bro.

Social distancing: 1.5m may not be enough

www.brusselstimes.com

Great find. It stands to reason too -- anyone who has tried spray painting something outside on a windy day knows for dang certain that mist travels (and when that mist is spraypaint, usually directly at your vehicle).

 

[Cavedweller]

I'd have to see the data.

You can easily see that revenues (as a % of GDP) plummetted under Obama and outlays mushroomed. Since he left office, the deficit, as a % of GDP has been relatively static.

Of course, the recently passed legislation is going to blow those projections all to H-E-double toothpick.

 

[awshoot]

The solution? TELE-EVANGELISM!!
...

 

[sobo]

Um... I missed that one when it came out. Can't imagine how that happened...