I make a decent income.....I take ONLY the very basic tax write-offs that are available to ANY home-owning family. I leave a lot of money on the table annually by not taking what I see as unecessary tax write-offs and I sleep well at night as a result.
The one time I hired an acccountant to do my taxes he called me a fool and I wound up doing my taxes myself as I have for the last 33 years.
If Warren Buffett believes the rich are not paying enough taxes he should do the same thing....but instead he takes advantage of every law and loophole a bazillionaire like himself is privy to and then takes a "moral" stand about how it's wrong.
Fucck Warren Buffett......lead by example you greedy mofo.
Buffett does endless work for charity and his statements on tax fairness are valid. The true greedy motherfuckers don't give a damn and work actively to make the tax code (and everything else) even less fair.
Does Buffett actually max out his tax breaks? I don't know and neither do you. But to pretend he's the bad guy here is just silly.
Charity work aside....we DO know, by his own admission that he pays a lower tax % than his secretary. As you yourself have explained the tax rates here based on level of income, you know this would be impossible without tax shelters/write-offs, etc.
You can pay taxes without using such advantages if you choose to.
Most of his income comes from capital gains. Capital gains aren't taxed like "normal" income - they're taxed at 15%.
No shelters/write-offs necessary beyond that. That's how it works. Nothing "impossible" or even difficult about it.
Hedge fund managers - who tend to make shitloads of money - also benefit from this reality.
Everything under $4 a gallon is actually crazy cheap... this might be a stupid question but is fuel subsidized in the US instead of being taxed?
Fuel is taxed both federally and on the state level. But oil companies get immense tax breaks and subsidies apart from that.
I mentioned the tax break that people get for auto mileage earlier. In 2011 business travelers are able to deduct 51 cents for every mile driven. It's seldom talked about but that's a huge subsidy in and of itself.
This $0.51 per mile tax break is offered ONLY to those folks who can prove that this travel is part of them performing their job.
It's one of many I refuse to take advantage of.
Well, good, you're a secular saint.
But the standard of "proof" needed to take that deduction is surprisingly low. It's still a backdoor subsidy for the oil industry in reality.
Moe Larry Bandito is killing you guys in here. Buffett (with Bill Gates' father) has lobbied very hard against the current tax code including the estate tax give aways that he feels will only further weaken our economy.
As for Luck's complaints about Barry. I would simple ask him to write an alternative vision based on the other potential winners in 2008 and see if he could live with that. Don't forget Hillary's husband acceded to Wall Street's demands about deregulation which had a lot to do the financial crisis that we've been living through. Though he (somewhat) balanced those give aways with tax hikes that helped create budget surpluses. I just disagree that Obama hasn't made major advances in public policy. Health Care, DADT, winding down in Iraq, restoring sanity to foreign relations, the stimulus bill (which saved the economy from total collapse by most economists reckoning), confronting Israel about the settlements while trying to forge a peace in Palestine, ending torture in interrogations, two very good supreme court justices, and the list goes on. My biggest beef with him was his handling of the Wall St. He blinked and it is going to hurt us big time years from now. Heads should have rolled and had he started with that, he could have gotten much more meaningful reform. I agree with those who say he could have done better on health care but I can live with what he got.
A few items on Luck's list are oddities. Obama stated clearly that he did not support gay marriage so how could you have expected him to legislate it's repeal? Of course, now he has begun the painful and slow process of building consensus to end that monstrosity while walking the fine line electorally. So i guess he should get credit there. As for the Bush tax cuts, he had no choice. His own party was unwilling to make the move before the elections out of fear that they would lose even more seats. Afterward, he took what he could get. The jury's still out on Afghanistan. Troop withdrawals are scheduled for this summer. He very deftly has maneuvered Petraeus so he won't be boxed in by the military as he was in Iraq. However, I'll believe when I see it. When or where did he mention ending the drug war?
What is going on with gov't workers and their pensions is a joke right now. The greatest increase in public sector costs is in runaway health care costs which nobody appears willing to take out of the hides of insurance companies and the medical industry. So we get what we pay for. The growth in the level of salaries and pensions for public employees in the last decade is peanuts compared with what the bailout kings are walking away with right now. On top of that we just gave $700 billion to the top 2 percent for the next decade. Where's the shared sacrifice? I agree with Rock, someone has his hand in my pocket but it ain't my local postman or teacher. If anyone trots out the old chestnut that those riches will trickle down, I will simply ask, "what happened during the Bush years?" when all those breaks were in effect. Wage growth was nil during his reign.
A CEO and 10 tax payers were sitting in a room with 12 cookies.
The CEO took 11 cookies, then said "you guys better watch those public employees, they are trying to take your cookie".
A CEO and 10 tax payers were sitting in a room with 12 cookies.
The CEO took 11 cookies, then said "you guys better watch those public employees, they are trying to take your cookie".
The growth in the level of salaries and pensions for public employees in the last decade is peanuts compared with what the bailout kings are walking away with right now. On top of that we just gave $700 billion to the top 2 percent for the next decade. Where's the shared sacrifice?
for real. palpatine's party is just shooting smokescreens and the dems arent able clear the air and get people to see it
While liberals complaining about Obama's minimal accomplishments (like universal health care would have happened with out him?), the right has a whole new line of attacks.
Turns out (according to Gingrich, Huckababy and others) that Obama was raised in Kenya and has a... wait for it .... (sorry Herm)... anti-imperialistic world view.
This is of course funny because a) he wasn't raised in Kenya and b) America was founded on anti-imperialism.
But that is beside the point. What gets me is apparently his critics on the right have never read Dreams Of My Father. They come up with all this fictional stuff about his childhood and past to attack him when the book is filled with factual fodder. They could be attacking him for his years in Indonesia, or his drug use, or using the N word, or his ineffectual attempts at community organizing and on and on, instead they come up with birth certificates and anti-imperialism.
And yet, like Charlie Sheen, the crazies are winning.
A CEO and 10 tax payers were sitting in a room with 12 cookies.
The CEO took 11 cookies, then said "you guys better watch those public employees, they are trying to take your cookie".
Who is the "CEO" of public employees??
Rich, here in Oregon, state public sector employees have taken pay freezes in something like 7 of the last 21 years. They have had their pensions cut too. When the state has needed it, they have always be willing to share the sacrifice. Which makes the 50 million dollar a year tax break we give Intel all the more galling. Here's how it works. Intel and Nike, by far our two largest employers, went to the state and said, "we don't sell many goods and services in your state, so why should we pay income taxes on those profits". Of course, this was an exemption that only applied to companies of a certain size, joe record dealer who sells to japan need not apply. Amazingly, the only two companies who generate enough sales to qualify for this exemption are Nike and Intel. Now, interestingly, the tax breaks are not tied to guarantees of investment here in Oregon.
This is on top of the $100 million annual property tax write off we give Intel so they won't leave. The tax break is call the SIP (Strategic Investment Program) intel and Nike get them whether they invest or not. Who's hand is in who's pocket?
why is everyone so surprised at "your" president failing? your president has always failed! everytime you vote someone into office you "boo-hoo" about it later. has any president ever done anything good? would mcCain have done better? maybe it's time to stop depending on some elected official to govern you because so far everyone in washington has failed. just something to think about.
A CEO and 10 tax payers were sitting in a room with 12 cookies.
The CEO took 11 cookies, then said "you guys better watch those public employees, they are trying to take your cookie".
Who is the "CEO" of public employees??
Rich, here in Oregon, state public sector employees have taken pay freezes in something like 7 of the last 21 years. They have had their pensions cut too. When the state has needed it, they have always be willing to share the sacrifice. Which makes the 50 million dollar a year tax break we give Intel all the more galling. Here's how it works. Intel and Nike, by far our two largest employers, went to the state and said, "we don't sell many goods and services in your state, so why should we pay income taxes on those profits". Of course, this was an exemption that only applied to companies of a certain size, joe record dealer who sells to japan need not apply. Amazingly, the only two companies who generate enough sales to qualify for this exemption are Nike and Intel. Now, interestingly, the tax breaks are not tied to guarantees of investment here in Oregon.
This is on top of the $100 million annual property tax write off we give Intel so they won't leave. The tax break is call the SIP (Strategic Investment Program) intel and Nike get them whether they invest or not. Who's hand is in who's pocket?
Of course you would be better off with them and w/o the incentives......
But would your state, as a whole, be better off w/o Intel and Nike altogether or with them with these tax break incentives??
A CEO and 10 tax payers were sitting in a room with 12 cookies.
The CEO took 11 cookies, then said "you guys better watch those public employees, they are trying to take your cookie".
Who is the "CEO" of public employees??
Rich, here in Oregon, state public sector employees have taken pay freezes in something like 7 of the last 21 years. They have had their pensions cut too. When the state has needed it, they have always be willing to share the sacrifice. Which makes the 50 million dollar a year tax break we give Intel all the more galling. Here's how it works. Intel and Nike, by far our two largest employers, went to the state and said, "we don't sell many goods and services in your state, so why should we pay income taxes on those profits". Of course, this was an exemption that only applied to companies of a certain size, joe record dealer who sells to japan need not apply. Amazingly, the only two companies who generate enough sales to qualify for this exemption are Nike and Intel. Now, interestingly, the tax breaks are not tied to guarantees of investment here in Oregon.
This is on top of the $100 million annual property tax write off we give Intel so they won't leave. The tax break is call the SIP (Strategic Investment Program) intel and Nike get them whether they invest or not. Who's hand is in who's pocket?
Has OHSU a quasi-govenment run teaching and research hospital first. HP and Kaiser as the largest private employers. All that you said applies to HP, and to a lesser degree Kiaser. But Intel is by far the biggest tax taker in the state.
A CEO and 10 tax payers were sitting in a room with 12 cookies.
The CEO took 11 cookies, then said "you guys better watch those public employees, they are trying to take your cookie".
Who is the "CEO" of public employees??
Rich, here in Oregon, state public sector employees have taken pay freezes in something like 7 of the last 21 years. They have had their pensions cut too. When the state has needed it, they have always be willing to share the sacrifice. Which makes the 50 million dollar a year tax break we give Intel all the more galling. Here's how it works. Intel and Nike, by far our two largest employers, went to the state and said, "we don't sell many goods and services in your state, so why should we pay income taxes on those profits". Of course, this was an exemption that only applied to companies of a certain size, joe record dealer who sells to japan need not apply. Amazingly, the only two companies who generate enough sales to qualify for this exemption are Nike and Intel. Now, interestingly, the tax breaks are not tied to guarantees of investment here in Oregon.
This is on top of the $100 million annual property tax write off we give Intel so they won't leave. The tax break is call the SIP (Strategic Investment Program) intel and Nike get them whether they invest or not. Who's hand is in who's pocket?
Of course you would be better off with them and w/o the incentives......
But would your state, as a whole, be better off w/o Intel and Nike altogether or with them with these tax break incentives??
This is the argument.
But would your state, as a whole, be better off w/o public employees altogether or with them with collective bargaining??
A CEO and 10 tax payers were sitting in a room with 12 cookies.
The CEO took 11 cookies, then said "you guys better watch those public employees, they are trying to take your cookie".
Who is the "CEO" of public employees??
Rich, here in Oregon, state public sector employees have taken pay freezes in something like 7 of the last 21 years. They have had their pensions cut too. When the state has needed it, they have always be willing to share the sacrifice. Which makes the 50 million dollar a year tax break we give Intel all the more galling. Here's how it works. Intel and Nike, by far our two largest employers, went to the state and said, "we don't sell many goods and services in your state, so why should we pay income taxes on those profits". Of course, this was an exemption that only applied to companies of a certain size, joe record dealer who sells to japan need not apply. Amazingly, the only two companies who generate enough sales to qualify for this exemption are Nike and Intel. Now, interestingly, the tax breaks are not tied to guarantees of investment here in Oregon.
This is on top of the $100 million annual property tax write off we give Intel so they won't leave. The tax break is call the SIP (Strategic Investment Program) intel and Nike get them whether they invest or not. Who's hand is in who's pocket?
Of course you would be better off with them and w/o the incentives......
But would your state, as a whole, be better off w/o Intel and Nike altogether or with them with these tax break incentives??
This is the argument.
But would your state, as a whole, be better off w/o public employees altogether or with them with collective bargaining??
Not a good analogy....every state needs public employees.....not every state needs big business with supposed outrageous tax benefits.
Obama called for all of us to pitch in. What are you doing within your communities to pitch in?
I spend many hours every week posting my opinion to this board which makes the world a better place. (This board makes the world a better place not my opinions.)
I spend the same 8-16 hours a month doing volunteer work, picking up trash, shoveling neighbors walks, etc I did when Bush was president.
I have some quibbles. I was going to post a Keith Van Horn style reply. But arguing about details diminishes the point of your post; he broke your heart, and things are fusked up. No arguing with that.
While I said I thought of doing a KVH style reply, I am pretty sure he is alone in this view point:
"??? Focusing the DEA / allowing for decriminalization, if not legalization"
"You must be insane if you think this is a) sound policy; and b) would ever become federal law as voted by congress"
I might argue that Obama never campaigned on decriminalization/legalization but, almost every honest person on the left and right knows it needs to be done.
Wait, most "honest" people believe drugs should be decriminalized? This may deserve its own thread.
Excluding marijuana, please explain why drugs should be legal. I am not aware of an elected democrat or republican who agrees with you. The Rand Paul libertarian and tea party types may agree with you. Anyone else who does has clearly not thought the issue through.
A CEO and 10 tax payers were sitting in a room with 12 cookies.
The CEO took 11 cookies, then said "you guys better watch those public employees, they are trying to take your cookie".
Who is the "CEO" of public employees??
Rich, here in Oregon, state public sector employees have taken pay freezes in something like 7 of the last 21 years. They have had their pensions cut too. When the state has needed it, they have always be willing to share the sacrifice. Which makes the 50 million dollar a year tax break we give Intel all the more galling. Here's how it works. Intel and Nike, by far our two largest employers, went to the state and said, "we don't sell many goods and services in your state, so why should we pay income taxes on those profits". Of course, this was an exemption that only applied to companies of a certain size, joe record dealer who sells to japan need not apply. Amazingly, the only two companies who generate enough sales to qualify for this exemption are Nike and Intel. Now, interestingly, the tax breaks are not tied to guarantees of investment here in Oregon.
This is on top of the $100 million annual property tax write off we give Intel so they won't leave. The tax break is call the SIP (Strategic Investment Program) intel and Nike get them whether they invest or not. Who's hand is in who's pocket?
Of course you would be better off with them and w/o the incentives......
But would your state, as a whole, be better off w/o Intel and Nike altogether or with them with these tax break incentives??
Intel is by far the largest private employer with about 15,000 here locally. I don't know where that list Laserwolf posted comes from.
Nike is at around 7,000 employees which should make it the second largest private employer. OHSU is quasi governmental.
Rock, the real question is would they leave if they had to pay more taxes? In both cases it is highly unlikely.
Intel has billions of dollars of infrastructure tied up in Oregon. The only money saving move would be to China and they are terrified of opening themselves up to rampant Chinese intellectual property theft. That's why they haven't moved there already. Moving within the US simply wouldn't be worth the hassle. This may change in the future but for now this is where it's at.
Nike is a personality driven company, by which I mean Phil Knight is the company and his identity is deeply rooted here. Leaving would be an act of inconceivable betrayal for him. But he would spend whatever it took to preserve the business environment as he wants it. So the chances of anyone playing chicken with him are nil. How do I know this. I wrote my master's thesis about Nike's Sustainability program. I spent more time with this company than I care to admit.
The truth is no politician would even dare raise the issue for either institution so we will never know. But right now the truth is both companies are playing us for fools and they know it. I should know I used to work in the Public Affairs dept at Intel (which does all their lobbying) and was privy to the conversations about the tax breaks and how they would construct a PR campaign to justify them. Shit is evil times ten trust me.
I have some quibbles. I was going to post a Keith Van Horn style reply. But arguing about details diminishes the point of your post; he broke your heart, and things are fusked up. No arguing with that.
While I said I thought of doing a KVH style reply, I am pretty sure he is alone in this view point:
"??? Focusing the DEA / allowing for decriminalization, if not legalization"
"You must be insane if you think this is a) sound policy; and b) would ever become federal law as voted by congress"
I might argue that Obama never campaigned on decriminalization/legalization but, almost every honest person on the left and right knows it needs to be done.
Wait, most "honest" people believe drugs should be decriminalized? This may deserve its own thread.
Excluding marijuana, please explain why drugs should be legal. I am not aware of an elected democrat or republican who agrees with you. The Rand Paul libertarian and tea party types may agree with you. Anyone else who does has clearly not thought the issue through.
Didn't mean to suggest that you were not being honest. Just that most others would not agree with you.
Few elected democrats or republicans would give their honest opinion on the topic. IMHO.
Not sure why marijuana is excluded. I think the same arguments that you (or someone else) would use for marijuana can be made for other drugs.
THIS THREAD SHOULD HAVE BEEN CLOSED AND STICKIED AFTER POST ONE.
reading this political discourse is like rubbing your sleeve on a dirty window to reveal a brown horizonless landscape with tumbleweeds and one-way signs pointing in opposite directions.
Comments
Most of his income comes from capital gains. Capital gains aren't taxed like "normal" income - they're taxed at 15%.
No shelters/write-offs necessary beyond that. That's how it works. Nothing "impossible" or even difficult about it.
Hedge fund managers - who tend to make shitloads of money - also benefit from this reality.
Well, good, you're a secular saint.
But the standard of "proof" needed to take that deduction is surprisingly low. It's still a backdoor subsidy for the oil industry in reality.
I also like some things Buffett says about taxes.
But he is a greedy mo fo.
Don't be fooled by his so called endless charity work.
Rock:
If you decline tax breaks, that you can HONESTLY claim, then you are a rare bird and I salute you.
I don't think people become billionaires without being greedy.
But I also know I prefer greedy mofos like Buffett and Gates to the Koch brothers. I'm not going to ignore the difference.
"Traitor to his class" was the famous insult thrown at FDR because of the New Deal. Buffett gets similar feedback, to his credit.
I like to bitch about how my tax money is spent so I make sure I pay my fair share and then some.
Nothing pisses me off more than people who bitch about others not paying their "fair share" while they themselves don't pay ANY taxes.
The record selling world is filled with these fuckers.
As for Luck's complaints about Barry. I would simple ask him to write an alternative vision based on the other potential winners in 2008 and see if he could live with that. Don't forget Hillary's husband acceded to Wall Street's demands about deregulation which had a lot to do the financial crisis that we've been living through. Though he (somewhat) balanced those give aways with tax hikes that helped create budget surpluses. I just disagree that Obama hasn't made major advances in public policy. Health Care, DADT, winding down in Iraq, restoring sanity to foreign relations, the stimulus bill (which saved the economy from total collapse by most economists reckoning), confronting Israel about the settlements while trying to forge a peace in Palestine, ending torture in interrogations, two very good supreme court justices, and the list goes on. My biggest beef with him was his handling of the Wall St. He blinked and it is going to hurt us big time years from now. Heads should have rolled and had he started with that, he could have gotten much more meaningful reform. I agree with those who say he could have done better on health care but I can live with what he got.
A few items on Luck's list are oddities. Obama stated clearly that he did not support gay marriage so how could you have expected him to legislate it's repeal? Of course, now he has begun the painful and slow process of building consensus to end that monstrosity while walking the fine line electorally. So i guess he should get credit there. As for the Bush tax cuts, he had no choice. His own party was unwilling to make the move before the elections out of fear that they would lose even more seats. Afterward, he took what he could get. The jury's still out on Afghanistan. Troop withdrawals are scheduled for this summer. He very deftly has maneuvered Petraeus so he won't be boxed in by the military as he was in Iraq. However, I'll believe when I see it. When or where did he mention ending the drug war?
What is going on with gov't workers and their pensions is a joke right now. The greatest increase in public sector costs is in runaway health care costs which nobody appears willing to take out of the hides of insurance companies and the medical industry. So we get what we pay for. The growth in the level of salaries and pensions for public employees in the last decade is peanuts compared with what the bailout kings are walking away with right now. On top of that we just gave $700 billion to the top 2 percent for the next decade. Where's the shared sacrifice? I agree with Rock, someone has his hand in my pocket but it ain't my local postman or teacher. If anyone trots out the old chestnut that those riches will trickle down, I will simply ask, "what happened during the Bush years?" when all those breaks were in effect. Wage growth was nil during his reign.
You mean regurgitating newspapers worth of idiotic political/celebrity mumbo jumbo doesn't help the economy?
hopefully the US taxpayer has paid for some of these quality poasts
The CEO took 11 cookies, then said "you guys better watch those public employees, they are trying to take your cookie".
Who is the "CEO" of public employees??
for real. palpatine's party is just shooting smokescreens and the dems arent able clear the air and get people to see it
Turns out (according to Gingrich, Huckababy and others) that Obama was raised in Kenya and has a... wait for it .... (sorry Herm)... anti-imperialistic world view.
This is of course funny because a) he wasn't raised in Kenya and b) America was founded on anti-imperialism.
But that is beside the point. What gets me is apparently his critics on the right have never read Dreams Of My Father. They come up with all this fictional stuff about his childhood and past to attack him when the book is filled with factual fodder. They could be attacking him for his years in Indonesia, or his drug use, or using the N word, or his ineffectual attempts at community organizing and on and on, instead they come up with birth certificates and anti-imperialism.
And yet, like Charlie Sheen, the crazies are winning.
Rich, here in Oregon, state public sector employees have taken pay freezes in something like 7 of the last 21 years. They have had their pensions cut too. When the state has needed it, they have always be willing to share the sacrifice. Which makes the 50 million dollar a year tax break we give Intel all the more galling. Here's how it works. Intel and Nike, by far our two largest employers, went to the state and said, "we don't sell many goods and services in your state, so why should we pay income taxes on those profits". Of course, this was an exemption that only applied to companies of a certain size, joe record dealer who sells to japan need not apply. Amazingly, the only two companies who generate enough sales to qualify for this exemption are Nike and Intel. Now, interestingly, the tax breaks are not tied to guarantees of investment here in Oregon.
This is on top of the $100 million annual property tax write off we give Intel so they won't leave. The tax break is call the SIP (Strategic Investment Program) intel and Nike get them whether they invest or not. Who's hand is in who's pocket?
Of course you would be better off with them and w/o the incentives......
But would your state, as a whole, be better off w/o Intel and Nike altogether or with them with these tax break incentives??
Very true.
Except while Intel and Nike may be the most profitable business in Oregon I doubt they are the largest employers.
Here is a list:
http://www.careerinfonet.com/oview6.asp?soccode=&stfips=41&from=State&id=11&nodeid=12
Has OHSU a quasi-govenment run teaching and research hospital first. HP and Kaiser as the largest private employers. All that you said applies to HP, and to a lesser degree Kiaser. But Intel is by far the biggest tax taker in the state.
I paid $106.64 in Fed Taxes and SS today so I'm sure I made up for at least a few slackers.
This is the argument.
But would your state, as a whole, be better off w/o public employees altogether or with them with collective bargaining??
Not a good analogy....every state needs public employees.....not every state needs big business with supposed outrageous tax benefits.
I spend many hours every week posting my opinion to this board which makes the world a better place. (This board makes the world a better place not my opinions.)
I spend the same 8-16 hours a month doing volunteer work, picking up trash, shoveling neighbors walks, etc I did when Bush was president.
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11487214&cm_mmc=BCEmail_Sept2010Mailer-_-Focus-_-83-_-ShelfRelianceTHRIVE
Wait, most "honest" people believe drugs should be decriminalized? This may deserve its own thread.
Excluding marijuana, please explain why drugs should be legal. I am not aware of an elected democrat or republican who agrees with you. The Rand Paul libertarian and tea party types may agree with you. Anyone else who does has clearly not thought the issue through.
Intel is by far the largest private employer with about 15,000 here locally. I don't know where that list Laserwolf posted comes from.
Nike is at around 7,000 employees which should make it the second largest private employer. OHSU is quasi governmental.
Rock, the real question is would they leave if they had to pay more taxes? In both cases it is highly unlikely.
Intel has billions of dollars of infrastructure tied up in Oregon. The only money saving move would be to China and they are terrified of opening themselves up to rampant Chinese intellectual property theft. That's why they haven't moved there already. Moving within the US simply wouldn't be worth the hassle. This may change in the future but for now this is where it's at.
Nike is a personality driven company, by which I mean Phil Knight is the company and his identity is deeply rooted here. Leaving would be an act of inconceivable betrayal for him. But he would spend whatever it took to preserve the business environment as he wants it. So the chances of anyone playing chicken with him are nil. How do I know this. I wrote my master's thesis about Nike's Sustainability program. I spent more time with this company than I care to admit.
The truth is no politician would even dare raise the issue for either institution so we will never know. But right now the truth is both companies are playing us for fools and they know it. I should know I used to work in the Public Affairs dept at Intel (which does all their lobbying) and was privy to the conversations about the tax breaks and how they would construct a PR campaign to justify them. Shit is evil times ten trust me.
Didn't mean to suggest that you were not being honest. Just that most others would not agree with you.
Few elected democrats or republicans would give their honest opinion on the topic. IMHO.
Not sure why marijuana is excluded. I think the same arguments that you (or someone else) would use for marijuana can be made for other drugs.
Here is an article on Portugal's experience with decriminalization:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=portugal-drug-decriminalization
I think that list I linked to is a little wacky. These numbers shift, and Intel is likely the largest private, not for profit employer in the state.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2009/01/oregons_largest_private_employ.html
reading this political discourse is like rubbing your sleeve on a dirty window to reveal a brown horizonless landscape with tumbleweeds and one-way signs pointing in opposite directions.