« Ain't this just some bullshit | Main | Perry: Defy "Burdensome" Federal Time Change Mandate »

March 11, 2010

Tom Pauken's still a whiny bitch after all these years

I get that the Tribune is trying to fill some space and they're really trying to create discussion. But seriously, can we all agree that Tom Pauken is just too goddamn stupid to be given any opportunity to do anything other than go to my fucking cleaners and pick up my shirts?

This is the same fuckup who, as chair of the Texas Republican Party, got sidelined by that buttertroll Rove. Now, I know y'all think Rove is some sort of douche with a direct line to Satan, but in reality he can't do shit unless the other guy is crazy, stupid, completely incompetent or a combination of all of the above. Tom Pauken, just so you know, IS ALL OF THE FUCKING ABOVE.

Exhibit A

Fortunately, in my own state of Texas, Republican Gov. Rick Perry and the Republican-controlled Texas legislature have kept the growth of state spending at reasonable levels, tracking the rise of cost of living (the inflation index) and population growth. That was not the case, however, when George W. Bush was governor. Then, state spending grew far faster than inflation and population growth. Nor is that the case in many other states, which kept milking the cow of the productive private sector by imposing higher and higher taxes and spending more and more of the taxpayers’ money. Those high-tax states are feeling the pain, as companies and taxpayers, suffering from high taxes and the loss of good jobs, move elsewhere. Moreover, the drop in housing prices and the slowdown in the economy since 2007 means that many states are racking up even more debt to fund state government.

Tom, you can take your mouth off 39%'s dick now since he's already cashed his paycheck. This is bullshit chockablock with utter nonsense. How big a deficit are we going to run in the biennium? No one can say because our bright as a blacklight Comptroller keeps pushing out different numbers. However, we all know there will be one WHICH IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE ECONOMY IS IN RECESSION, PEOPLE ARE LOSING JOBS AND THE GOVERNMENT LOSES REVENUE. The government can't just magically stop spending, mostly because it provides essential services to people who didn't fucking disappear just because there is a recession and they can't pay their taxes. THAT is why when you're running surpluses, you don't cut taxes. Instead, you store up that cash to meet the needs you have down the road. That's what true conservatives do. Of course, Republicans have already ground through the surplus (which was smoke and mirrors anyway) AND still needed, what, $13 bn from the Feds? Wasn't it Perry, not too long ago, begging for more federal money from the Congressional delegation (so Schwarzenegger-esque) ?

On to Exhibit B

Even in an ostensibly low-tax state like Texas, many local taxing bodies have shown little fiscal restraint in recent years. The housing boom allowed many of these local governments to raise property taxes in a seemingly painless fashion through the “stealth tax” of skyrocketing appraisal values. Property-tax revenues rose ten percent or more annually without local governments actually raising the tax rate. Local officials could tell voters that they had not raised taxes since the tax rate hadn’t gone up, yet property-tax revenue grew from $9 billion in 1985 to $30 billion in 2004. That was approximately three times faster than the rate of inflation during the same period. Texas had the ninth-highest property taxes in the country until Governor Perry and the Texas legislature cut school property taxes by one third in 2006. Unfortunately, that set off a feeding frenzy among local taxing bodies, and a major portion of the education property tax cut was negated over the next three years.

I LOVE conservatives who don't know what the hell they're talking about but seem to want to talk at length in an effort to prove their ignorance. What Tommy doesn't realize because he's too stupid to get is that "the “stealth tax” of skyrocketing appraisal values" is nothing more than APPRECIATION. Ideally, when you buy an asset like, for example, real fucking property (aka, a house, Tom), it will increase in value over time. If the value of that asset is taxed, ideally it will be linked with your income so that an increase in the asset will also increase your income, easily enabling you to pay the higher tax. Of course, in Texas, wages have been essentially flat for more than 30 years (roughly about the time we elected that idiot old man, Clements), after adjusting for inflation. Meanwhile, house prices have gone up considerably. SEE THE PROBLEM? While you're still making basically the same $65k per year, your house is now worth 4 or 5 times what you paid for it and your taxes are 4 to 5 times higher.

Morons like Pauken wanted a cap on appraised value increases, as if a government could dictate such a measure. They did that in California and it's pretty much THE reason they're bankrupt. Well, that and the fact that their economy collapsed spectacularly because they allowed the kind of lending you can't do in Texas thanks to Democrats. Without those caps, property prices wouldn't have spiraled out of control.

What we need is a system of taxation that tracks income and population growth so we can pay for services (PUBLIC SAFETY, ROADS, SEWERS, SCHOOLS... you know, THAT STUFF) as all these new people come here. As it stands now, most new Texans don't pay dick for their first few years, but they sure as hell don't mind dropping the kids into public schools and clogging up the 35. And no, Tom, it ain't the 'messicans'. They pay a disproportionally high percentage of their income in taxes, something you and your conservatives-in-name-only would do well to remember the next time you moan and whine about how immigration is killing Texas.

Now we come to Exhibit C...

Unfunded pension liabilities at the local and state levels present another huge problem that most Americans do not even know exists. Shad Rowe, the former chairman of the Texas Pension Review Board, calls it a “time bomb.” The people who should care are taxpayers, “but they don’t know anything about it,” Mr. Rowe said in an interview with the Dallas Morning News. A report released in March 2009 revealed that the Texas Teachers Retirement Fund had unfunded liabilities of more than $40 billion as a result of the stock-market and hedge-fund collapse of 2008.

To paraphrase the immortal words of Dan Ackroyd, Tom you ignorant slut. TRS has been underfunded since before the meltdown and credit crisis, mostly because the Republican lege hasn't paid it's share. Oh, and those cola's you're whining about also aren't the problem, at least in TRS where the beneficiaries haven't even received one since 1995, you scumbag. And keep in mind, MOST of the money in TRS came from educators. It's their money and your buddy 39%'s appointees went and lost a bunch of it, then blamed it first on 9/11 and now on the Bush Credit Crisis.

It's profoundly insulting, Tom, for you to blame the innocent retirees who have tried to block some of the more damaging decisions at TRS. Every teacher in this state deserves far more than we give them and all you stupid Republicans can do is think of how best to blame them for your screw ups and deny them the retirement benefits they've earned. Think I'm lying? Not so much, as it turns out.

I'll leave you with this bon mot

Our motto needs to be, “Let’s do more with less.”

No, our motto needs to be, "Let's stop listening to old, stupid asshats and put the economy back on a more traditional footing which allows everyone to prosper."

Go fuck yourself, Tom Pauken, you obnoxious, detestable piece of shit.

Posted by mcblogger at March 11, 2010 09:28 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.mcblogger.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/5042

Comments

Man I love the way you shred people. "Bright as a backlight" is awesome!! Mind if I steal that?

And yes blaming teachers and state retirees, for something caused by the Texas GOP's neglect is low.

Posted by: WCNews at March 12, 2010 11:47 AM

please, feel free:)

Posted by: mcblogger at March 15, 2010 08:58 PM

Post a comment