OT: Then and now

[Tim Daneliuk]

I feel your pain. I've certainly not "flipped ... to Republican". I can only recall voting for an R Presidential candidate twice in 30 years. But - thanks to that very same irresponsible administration and party now in power - I think, come November, I'm going to do something I've never done - pull a straight R vote. It's not that I love the Rs - they're mostly as lousy as the Ds. It's just that with a more balanced distribution of power, they'll spend more of their time arguing and actually doing less, which will be very good for the nation.

OTOH, the fiscal irresponsibility you see comes first from the population at large that hires its politicians to go get them "free" stuff. The politicians respond by spending money we don't have. To fix this mess requires the entire population to become personally responsible fiscally ... it ain't gonna happen.

[Tim Daneliuk]

You mean like the 50+% of the Federal budget spent on:

- People refusing to take responsibility to save for their retirement, medical care, and wellbeing in old age?

- People repeatedly making bad personal choices and then demanding the everyone else pay to remediate the consequences?

- People having far more children than they can afford and expecting us all to pay for their cost of care?

The government consumes what it does because FDR and his minions have repeatedly, aggressively, and blatantly ignored the doctrine of enumerated powers and arrogated power to the Federal government it does not have. They do this to support the culture of mooching that elects them.

[Swingman]

Your words, not mine ...

Depletion allowances allow either a statutory or cost method of sheltering only some of the income from producing wells from _gross_ income derived from the sale of product.

IDC's are those expenses deductible up front from drilling expenses, whether the drilling was sucessful or not, and not designed as "tax deductions that exceeded cash invested", but used instead to subsidize the "risk" involved. Not all ventures carry the same risk ... however, it is generally accepted that the greater the risk, the greater the reward.

Nonetheless, that was not my point ... the point was a reduction in the availability of investment funds brought about by a reduction in selected tax rates, irrespective of the type of venture. The O&G business was not the only sector to suffer this phenomenon.

However, and sadly, the state of affairs mentioned in the original post was one of the biggest factors in killing domestic exploration in this country, to the detriment of our energy policies, and to all to this day.

[Douglas Johnson]

My tentative plan is to vote against the incumbents regardless of party. Some people need to get fired. -- Doug

[Zz Yzx]

Or was it due the vastly increased productivity associated with the adoption of desktop PC's and the internet? Or was it due to the documented decreased crime rate resulting from Roe v. Wade 17 yrs previously (ugly as the conclusion is)? And why didn't the peace dividend kick in during Bush Sr's administration? Heard of beer goggles? You got partisan goggles on. THe fact is that since 1980, the first $8 to $9 trillion were added on mostly by Republican administrations.

-Zz

[Doug Winterburn]

Presidents don't do budgets, congress does. Which party controlled congress during the spending sprees?

[Zz Yzx]

GOOD point Doug, I'd have to check.

Sooooooo, Reagan didn't win the cold war? Congress did?

-Zz

[Doug Winterburn]

Right, congress went to Reykjavik and told Gorby to "tear down that wall".

[Zz Yzx]

Yeah, THAT'S what convinced them, fer sure. After they watched his B-movies, and hearing that, they were shaking in their boots. And after Congress bankrolled the real victory? Which is it?

-Zz

[Doug Winterburn]

Ah, you mean words don't matter - like "Ask not..."? Or the voters of

2008 buying into the "Yes we can, Hoax & change, etc" after untolds of millions came in from unknown donors? Which is it?

[HeyBub]

Here's another trick. In places where judges are elected, get the local bar association's rating sheet of candidates and vote them in reverse order. For example, a judge that all the lawyers like is probably a bad hat.

[HeyBub]

Yeah, I remember those provisions of the tax code.

I was invited to buy into a sand pit. The money worked as follows:

• As the sand was sold, you took a depletion allowance on the diminishing resource (the sand).

• Ultimately, you had one big honkin' hole in the ground. You then charged people to dump stuff in the hole (trees, concrete, etc.). As the hole filled, you got another depletion allowance as the resource diminished (the hole).

• When the hole filled up, you covered the site with top soil and sold the ten acres for low-cost housing.

[Mark Hansen]

Then you should be blaming Congress.