PolicyMic

John Giokaris I had to mic this Jonathan for laying out such a sound and thought out comment. Obama certainly did take a lot of risk making his comment. If anyone noticed, nowhere did I criticize the stance itself. I support gay rights and he should be commende...

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• 2 weeks ago

John Giokaris That wasn't the point I wanted to make with this piece. It's out of scope. But you're entitled to your opinion, thanks for sharing.

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• 2 weeks ago

John Giokaris A.) I didn't criticize his stance, I support gay rights. B.) It does bother me that so many in my party can still be against it, and I've written countless articles on the propler role of government in people's lives and what those ...

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John Giokaris Alright Andrew fair enough. Yes, I am taking a stand this election. I do believe Romney's vision for America is better than Obama's, and I will defend that. I can't surgarcoat that in any way.

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John Giokaris Wow. You're equating me to partisan Civil Rights cynic? Really? As usual Andrew, you couldn't be more wrong. I believe in equal rights for everyone. I've marched alongside Log Cabin GOP in the Chicago Pride parade. I live in the sou...

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John Giokaris All my debt to GDP %'s were based on external debt. I guess I should stated thay, my apologies Michael. Thanks for the comment.

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John Giokaris Fair enough. But all media does that, including lefty networks MSNBC, Current TV, HLN, and the rest. Opinion/commentary shows get way more ratings than hard news coverage. Heck, my own articles are the same way. My raw opinion pieces get ten times...

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John Giokaris Jeff, I don't care how he frames that claim, you're missing the fundamental flaw in that argument. The lack of economic revocery is not because Americans are "soft" and "lazy." It's because big government legisla...

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John Giokaris Bingo. Like I said Gary, "Welcome back Carter."

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John Giokaris Simpson-Bowles advocated pro-growth tax reform, which does more to raise revenues than raising tax rates. Kinda like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Aewj_IndN4

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• 4 weeks ago

John Giokaris In regards to your last point Jeff, A.) PolicyMic didn't start till 2011, and B.) If you knew me in 2002, you would've heard it then too.

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John Giokaris Susan, I didn't say Medicare was welfare. I said <i>Medicaid</i> is the largest welfare program.

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John Giokaris Thanks for the correction Jeff.

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John Giokaris Well said Jesse. Obama 2012 will be a campaign of lowering expectations.

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• 1 month ago

John Giokaris "It's all a subterfuge that, I hope the American public recognizes so we can finally clean out the White House." Amen Sal.

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John Giokaris Rachel, I never said raising taxes shouldn't be done as part of the solution. I'm simply pointing out that spending is so out-of-control, you couldn't even raise taxes high enough or fast enough to keep up with it. We have got to put a...

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John Giokaris Paul anything mandated is ultimately paid by the taxpayers. You should know "free" is never free. I'll make a deal with you. I'll drop the hope & change cracks if you guys will finally put to rest the "It's still ...

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John Giokaris The stats were compiled from the BLS: http://www.scribd.com/embeds/88740691/content?start_page=1&view_mode=list&access_key=key-60x1gjqowlxtwixuh83#

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• 1 month ago

John Giokaris The stats were compiled from the BLS: http://www.scribd.com/embeds/88740691/content?start_page=1&view_mode=list&access_key=key-60x1gjqowlxtwixuh83#

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John Giokaris Hope you're right.

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John Giokaris I see what you're saying Paul, but then if we're not going to use any numbers or budgets that come from politicians, what can we use? How about the Simpson-Bowles debt commission?

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John Giokaris I agree James, but how do you propose we do that when Democrats won't cut any spending outside of defense, won't even touch entitlements (which now eat up 65% of tax dollars), and have no other ideas to tackle any problems or renew economic...

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John Giokaris That's right, and I hope Paul Ryan keeps those same ideas in his budgets year after year after year. They're exactly what this country needs. Btw where's the Democratic Senate's budget proposal? Oh that's right, haven't ...

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John Giokaris "A look at his record denotes he's a choice of last resort." Including the current White House incumbent? Who's now added more debt than Bush in less than half the time. Who presided over a first ever credit downgrade. Who'...

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John Giokaris "But it's an election year document. Obama doesn't grapple with spending. Ryan doesn't grapple with math/reality. Both budgets are silly." So we just do nothing again? For another year? And watch the red ink go up? &quo...

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John Giokaris "It would be nice to give people line-items about where their tax dollars go. Some website does that, right?" Living in the information age that we live in, it's not that the info isn't readily accessible or available. It is. ...

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• 2 months ago

John Giokaris Agreed, Paul.

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John Giokaris Regarding your 2nd point, that's the answer I hear Romney give the most.

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John Giokaris Ah. Well said Jeff. I like it.

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John Giokaris Thank you sir!

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John Giokaris Thanks for all the math equations Paul lol. I agree with your last line: tax increase + spending cuts <> better budget. Pro-growth tax reform + spending/entitlement reform = balanced budget. If there were more Democrats & Republica...

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John Giokaris Vithar, I understand where you're coming from, but as I told another Ron Paul supporter below, the problem for Paul is he never gets anywhere in the electoral process. Are Paul's economic ideas closest to what America needs today? Of course...

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John Giokaris Gary, I would mic your "There are countless examples" comment 1,000 times if I could. Beautifully put. You have a whole column there you could brilliantly write up.

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John Giokaris You're saying Bush didn't call his own shots when he was in office...? Ryan isn't offering "feeble lip service." He's actually done the math and calculated budgets that get him demonized by liberal media & politic...

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John Giokaris I respectfully disagree Daniel. Re: health care, again, there were several of his ideas that the state legislature threw out in the end. Yet it has an approval rating in MA by a 2:1 margin. Granted, balancing the budget in MA may be a constitut...

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John Giokaris Interesting points Jeff. First of all, as a fiscal conservative and supporter of smaller government, I do sincerely believe there are lots of things government should <i>not</i> be running or regulating. I don't want government ru...

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John Giokaris I beg to differ Paul. Yes, the Bush tax cuts dropped revenues from its historic rate of 18.5% of GDP to 16.3%. However, spending has increased from its historic rate of 20% of GDP to 25%. Even if we let the Bush tax cuts expire, we're still s...

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John Giokaris You're absolutely right Paul. Absolutely right. I think a lot of people in the silent majority haven't put much thought into what they do like, just what they don't like. It's frustrating. Poll after poll shows that if you a...

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John Giokaris Thanks for the comment Max, but I simply pointed out that's what the silent majority sees Ron Paul's views as. Don't shoot the messenger :-)

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John Giokaris "As a fiscal conservative and foreign policy hawk - I say Romney 2012. Of course, I said Romney 2008 for all the good it did me. You know how much it sucked having to pull the lever for a big gov't RINO like McCain? Ugh!" Amen broth...

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John Giokaris I would've gone further in depth on that but this article was already running too long. Even in inflation adjusted dollars, defense spending as a % of GDP is at near historic lows, despite the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, while entitlements a...

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John Giokaris Lol touche Ethan, touche.

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John Giokaris "HC cost inflation dwarfs all else in scale." Tort reform? I really believe our frivolous lawsuit-happy environment is responsible for <b>so many</b> problems, more than most people even realize. Romney had a great line wh...

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John Giokaris Domestic energy development is definitely in play. The House-passed Keystone XL pipeline stalled in the Senate with a 56-42 majority vote, which included 11 Democrats. That's an interesting piece you provided, but I have to correct the misper...

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John Giokaris Again, great points Jeff. I keep the example of Schwarzenegger close in mind as well. Indeed, it's very important that whoever the executive is be able to reach across the aisle and build consensus among both parties. Schwarzenegger dealt wit...

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John Giokaris All good points Jeff. From what I understand, all states but Vermont are constitutionally mandated by law to balance their budgets. But not all states certainly follow suite. In my home state of Illinois, for instance, we've balanced the budg...

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John Giokaris That's $453 billion over 10 years Darwin. Meanwhile we're spending trillions every year, racking up trillion dollar deficits now, and adding trillions in debt. That's trillion with a "T". The truth is we can't rais...

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John Giokaris Aw Zack, I was just about to mic this right up until "they want to keep bombing 'terr'rists'." A bit of an oversimplification ;-) I agree with 98% of what you said. But I think the clear majority of Americans are actually ...

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John Giokaris I think Gary summed it up best: "I have no doubt that Ron Paul would be the overwhelming TP favorite if he sounded like Mitt Romney on foreign policy."

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John Giokaris At a campaign event in Chicago, Romney endorsed Paul Ryan's budget plan: "I'm very supportive of the Ryan budget plan. It's a bold and exciting effort on his part and on the part of the Republicans and it's very much consi...

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John Giokaris "I noticed that it morphed into more than just the debt..." Like what?

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John Giokaris Romney has indeed endorsed and strongly supported Paul Ryan's budgets: http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/03/romney-endorses-ryan-budget-118079.html

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John Giokaris DeMint came out in support of Romney today: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/22/romney-meets-with-key-republicans-on-capitol-hill/

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John Giokaris "Do you think Mitt Romney would have voted against any of the legislation enacted under Bush? Not a chance. " I have to disagree Gary. As Governor of Massachusetts, he cut $1.6 billion in spending and balanced the budget without raising ...

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John Giokaris Um, reality check: http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2012/01/12/the-worst-economic-recovery-since-the-great-depression/ Still loading your Kool-aid with PCP?

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John Giokaris Oh of course not, he just had to give taxpayer money to all his campaign donors, union friends, etc. I mean, what kind of a Chicago Machine Democrat would he be if he didn't???

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John Giokaris Oh bs. There has been countless documentation on the hundreds of millions of dollars that was wasted in the Stimulus: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2010/08/03/abc-highlights-stimulus-waste-funding-cocaine-monkeys-will-other-net ht...

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John Giokaris That may be true Constantine, but then millennials have to ask themselves what happens when this unsustainable system crashes & burns? How do they expect to have any entitlements after they're bled dry by 2037? The very thing they're af...

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John Giokaris We are Gary??? So then why all the student debt?

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John Giokaris But you gotta admit, Romney did have a point re: entitlements/debt. That's how I see it anyway.

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John Giokaris I understand where you're coming from Meghan. I really do. It's more competitive now than ever before, and the bar's never been raised higher. Back in the day, a Bachelor's degree used to mean something. Today it doesn't. I g...

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John Giokaris Thanks Daniel. I'm sure it'll be a highly competitive contest. Only 12% of registered voters in Massachuestts are Republican for Pete's sake. The only way a Republican can ever get elected in states like that is by appealing to the ...

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John Giokaris I understand where you're coming from Jesse. But the GOP don't control all of D.C. all of the time. So when we have divided government like we have now, is all we can expect is nothing but 2-4 years of gridlock? That's all we can offer...

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John Giokaris Amen Douglas!

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John Giokaris Good, looking forward to it :-)

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John Giokaris Very good point. All I know is the GOP House has passed a 2012 budget. The Democratic Senate? 1,050 days and counting...

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John Giokaris Oh OK. Then yes, we're in full agreement!!! More moderates, centrists, and independents need to be informed, get involved, and grow a pair! All year round too, not just in October.

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John Giokaris ...who do you mean by "you" Jeanne? Me??? Did you know I happened to work on Mark Kirk's campaign in 2010? Not to mention countless pieces I've written calling for bipartisanship...

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John Giokaris Well said Jeff.

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John Giokaris Whoops! Lol good catch, I think I need some more coffee lol!

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John Giokaris They're out there Jeanne. They just have to gather enough support to make it through the primaries and general election. But you'll definitely find more of em in blue & purple states than red states. Mike Castle, for instance, was a ...

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John Giokaris Highly disagree David. Talk to any small business owner, startup, or entrepreneur and they can tell you how insanely and unecessarily difficult it is for them to compete with big business and corporations. This evens out the playing field and gives t...

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John Giokaris "Most Jews are very bright people, which may explain why they vote rather Democrat than Republican." Very cute. What about Milton Friedman, the godfather of free market economics? Or Barry Goldwater? Or Alan Greenspan? The greatest Jewish A...

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John Giokaris "All the Jews I know who are less educated or more crazy are Republicans...Many prominent crazy Republican fear-mongerers are also notoriously known as anti-semitic." That's hitting a little below the belt Natalie. I'm a Republ...

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John Giokaris Well I think we're all in agreement that entitlement reform is badly needed. It's eating up 65% of tax dollars. And I'm sure you're aware of the unsustainability of SS as it is, etc. I can't speak for the far right GOP, th...

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John Giokaris And, there is also penty of support on both sides of the aisle for bills that would increase access to credit for small business owners & entrepreneurs. The House passed the Small Company Capital Formation Act, the Small Banks' Access to Cap...

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John Giokaris Well Jeff I've often cited many areas where there is bipartisan support & opportunties for cooperation in solving numerous problems. Like pro-growth tax reform for instance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Aewj_IndN4). Tax reform should be e...

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• 3 months ago

John Giokaris Thank you Gary! Look at all the House passed legislation sitting in the Senate: http://majorityleader.gov/JobsTracker/ Oh but's it's the GOP House who are "obstructionists" and the "do nothing Congress." Not to ...

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• 3 months ago

John Giokaris "I believe amending the constitution should be the solution of last resort, only after everything else has failed. I don't believe we're there yet." - I can understand where you're coming from Douglas, but at $15.4 trillion i...

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John Giokaris Couldn't have said it better Jesse. Great quote from Reagan. See? I don't think the far right even remembers his advice anymore. A friend of mine said today: "You're right on the money about Reagan, Republicans (conservative Repub...

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John Giokaris I know Jeff, I wish the polling in Greece were more thorough too. I was looking for something that cut up the opinions by age group. But I guess the pollsters can't stick around too long when they're asking these questions inbetween ducking...

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John Giokaris Fair points David. Actually, I did write about a hypothetical scenario of a technocratic admin coming to power in the U.S. (http://www.policymic.com/articles/2517/what-if-america-followed-greece-and-italy-and-applied-the-technocratic-solution). Fu...

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John Giokaris Jeff, of course marginal changes aren't going to spur any activity, but lowering the corporate tax rate from 39.2% (when including state & local taxes) to 25% is more than a marginal change. It's why the president's own Simpson-Bow...

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John Giokaris I think that's a fair assessment Mark. All it takes is 51% of the population sucking on the government teat and we've hit the tipping point. Then we're done. Game over.

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John Giokaris Jeff, thanks for the comment. But not all economists are in agreement with that (Friedman, Laffer, Greenspan, etc.) & economists aren't the job creators; business owners & employers are. Demand only goes up with income, income only goes ...

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John Giokaris Before you start popping champagne bottles, 3 things: A.) Watch how fast the private sector starts shedding jobs & the markets clam up in anticipation of the Bush tax cuts expiring at the end of the year. B.) While the official unemployment...

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John Giokaris "Bush didn't want to push his religion onto others like Santorum does." Uh, really? What about the vetos of stem cell research, the Federal Marriage Amendment, denying federal funding for any non-abstinence only sex ed, granting fed...

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John Giokaris It's definitely a gray area Benjamin, but I certainly understand what's going through lawmakers' minds when they're making these decisions.

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John Giokaris Thank you Jeanne!

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John Giokaris Well said Ethan. In times of crisis, I think that definitely is the case.

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John Giokaris I was dreading your response to this one Gary ;-) Let me state that the auto/bank bailouts of 2008 were the exception to the rule - not the new rule. But had we let them all fail at the same time in '08, I'm convinced there would've...

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John Giokaris That's f*cked up. There's Reagan Democrats and there's Obama Republicans. You just joined the latter. I don't know what you're looking for but there's 3 other guys running for the GOP nomination. If any of em don&#...

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John Giokaris Romney is a 25 year private sector veteran & an unapologetic free market capitalist w/ 1 term in public office vs. a career politician & "community organizer." Yeah, yeah, "what about healthcare?" You mean the reform Ro...

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John Giokaris Rounding error or not, he's the only GOP candidate who even comes close. And you know what the South Carolina thing means? As Mark Levine put it - "Bupkis." South Carolina will go GOP in November no matter what. Were Gingrich to have w...

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John Giokaris And before we poke fun at Romney for using corporate money to finance his campaign, are you aware Obama's slated to spend $1 billion on his campaign this year? Where do you think all that's coming from? "Community organizers?"

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John Giokaris Ben, Jesse & I see eye to eye on a lot of things in case you haven't figured it out yet :-) But to your points: As far as the way the delegates are cut up, every state has its own rules. You must really hate the Electoral College syste...

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John Giokaris "People get the government they deserve." So will you if you stay home. I have no idea if you're a Ron Paul fanatic or an ultra-religious moral crusader akin to Rick Santorum, but whatever it is, if you don't want to see Obama ...

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John Giokaris I have no idea where you're getting that from. Does the media overhype everything? Of course. Having said that, winning Florida <i>is</i> a big deal. What about the fact that Romney currently leads Obama in the swing states? ht...

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John Giokaris More like, "Hasta la vista, baby." ;-)

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John Giokaris Well said Laura.

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John Giokaris Agree again Laura. I'm all for smaller gov't in people's professional lives as well as their personal lives. The proper role for gov't, as defined by the U.S. Constitution, is to protect its citizens from all internal & extern...

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John Giokaris Totally agree Laura. It's naïve to think that if we simply ignore the rest of the world, the rest of the world will ignore us. I notice Paul likes to keep saying that "the U.S. should mind its own business," but once again, if he thin...

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John Giokaris That's actually a fair point Matthew, especially re: Gingrich & Romney.

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John Giokaris Of course biased media exists Ben. I'm not denying that. But to blame Ron Paul's lack of wins all on biased media is, I think, a little too much. By that logic, I can blame every Republican loss to the bias of the liberal media.

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John Giokaris Ah, gotcha. Well, I'm doing everything I can as a board member of the Chicago Young Republicans to make millennials care :-)

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John Giokaris You're right about millennial turnout. But I think you have your first stat reversed, voter turnout is typically 60%, while around 40% of all eligible voters do not vote: http://www.factcheck.org/2009/01/2008-voter-turnout/

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John Giokaris Kudos on the title switch, but are you suggesting outside interests are "tampering" with the primary elections against Paul?

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John Giokaris It was just a question Kevin.

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John Giokaris Interesting point Melissa. I agree that all (most) people really want is just to make their money at work and go home at the end of the day. If you don't have a job to do that or a house to come home to, you probably won't be satisfied. I a...

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John Giokaris Calm down Ben. For starters, as I think you realize, the editorial board chose the title. But I can't say I disagree with it. Unless of course he makes a 3rd party run (in which case I think it would just be 1992 all over again), I think most...

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John Giokaris Great point Matthew. Practicing sound economics while trying to maintain social stability has always been a tough balancing act for politicians.

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John Giokaris I'm surprised Santorum's slipped under the radar with the far right like he has thus far. But he certainly doesn't have nearly as much campaign money & organization as Romney does. Frankly, I think the longer he stays in there the ...

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John Giokaris Well I could say that about any politcian Joe.

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John Giokaris Good luck.

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John Giokaris Fair enough! And I agree, this will probably go till Super Tuesday before it's finally over.

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John Giokaris Long time, no see Jeff! Glad to have you back. Fair enough, though I do think Romney's got this in the bag if he wins Florida. Will Gingrich go away after that? No. But looking ahead at the Feb primaries - Nevada, Maine, Colorado, Minnesota, ...

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John Giokaris Agreed. Again, I wish he would’ve pressed Santorum on what he would do about free riders who don’t currently have healthcare insurance and receive treatment on the taxpayer’s dime. This issue's really getting old. I would've loved to ...

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John Giokaris Fair enough Ben.

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John Giokaris Again, my only gripe is I wish Romney would’ve pressed Santorum on what he would do about free riders who don’t currently have healthcare insurance and receive treatment on the taxpayer’s dime when Santorum was whining about Massachusetts healt...

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John Giokaris Big time.

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John Giokaris Well that judgment is in the eye of the beholder. Can we at least agree on that Warner? You don't want to believe Romney but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. There. It's not like the alternative (Obama) is exactly pro-...

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John Giokaris Well I'm flattered to serve as inspiration for a whole column Warner. Here's my question. Throughout this entire thread, many of your points alluded to rhetoric vs. action. Reagan did sign the Therapeutic Abortion Act when he was governo...

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John Giokaris Democrats are a centrist party? Not the ones running it! Democrats & Republicans in both the House & Senate have come out in support of pro-growth tax reform, domestic energy development projects like Keystone, and increasing access to credit...

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John Giokaris First of all, the "Coke vs. Pepsi" analogy was applied to the far right's comparison of Romney vs. Obama. Second, if Reagan & Romney are Coke & Pepsi that's "bad for you," then Obama's Draino.

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John Giokaris Couldn't agree more Joyce. Didn't you find it hilarious when Obama called for broader consensus among the parties during his SOTU speech when he's failed to take any action on golden opportunities for bipartisan cooperation like pro-gr...

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John Giokaris How about seeing Obama become a 1 term president?

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John Giokaris Yeah there is, you just don't want to see it. I'm saying Romneycare was a BIPARTISAN piece of legislation that had BIPARTISAN support in MA, just as the 1982 Job Training Partnership Act, the 1983 Social Security Amendments, the 1984 Def...

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John Giokaris Romney "imposed" it? Wrong. It was passed with overwhelming bipartisan majority in the state legislature & the majority of the state is happy with it, unlike the way Obamacare was passed & recieved. And are you forgetting Romney ...

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John Giokaris Not to mention Newt Gingrich has a history of supporting federal mandates as well, before he "decided he didn't": http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jan/24/rick-santorum/rick-santorum-calls-newt-gingrich-longtim...

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John Giokaris You're dead wrong. Romney's a superb debator & the only of which I'm confident can & will tear Obama in half head-to-head. Of all the candidates, Romney's the one with the least amount of gaffes & foul ups. Show me whe...

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John Giokaris Well I obviously disagree with you. Health Connector was meant for MA, not the whole country. It's unconstitutional federally, but not in MA. And the overwhelming majority of MA are happy with it. I know what I'm looking for & where to ...

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John Giokaris OK but a couple things. "Remember in 2007 he was running as the more moderate candidate compared to McCain." Are you serious??? Romney was considered the conservative guy in 2007-2008! I guarantee you anyone else will say that. Jesse Merkel...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris That was Reagan's real success. That's what led to the greatest bipartisan solutions this country ever came up with. Regardless of what some of what the far right wants to believe, Reagan understood that elections are won by addition, not s...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Well Warner you'll obviously believe whatever you want to believe. I could say the same thing about what Reagan did vs. what Romney did: Liberal Democrat in Hollywood, FDR New Deal supporter, Therapeutic Abortion Act, divorced and who's chi...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris ...OK

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Even Ron Paul disagrees with Romney's "vulture capitalist" accusations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwKu8ST0Ino

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris I'm not sure what you mean, Ben. First of all, as I stated in my piece on Romney's Bain record (http://www.policymic.com/articles/3332/setting-the-record-straight-on-the-bain-of-mitt-romney-s-2012-campaign) this image perpetrated by the ...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris rest of the world will. There's nothing wrong w/ idealism, but it also needs a healthy dose of reality & pragmatism, or you'll never get anything done w/ it, unless you're just looking to collect speech fees. Before anybody gets...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris And getting rid of our intelligence agencies would be grossly reckless & irresponsible and would leave us completely vulnerable for another 9-11 type terrorist attack. Which segways into Paul's foreign policy stances, most of which I don&...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Omar, As far as Ron Paul goes, I think he's an extremist as well - a libertarian extremist. I consider myself a conservative libertarian, or center right Republican. I'm for smaller gov't in both people's professional as well a...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/general_business/december_2011/most_voters_still_feel_tax_cuts_spending_cuts_help_the_economy Now as far as who I who else I would classify as far left or far right, I think politicians like ...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Raoul, I would basically classify anybody who refuses to find common ground with the other side and build on top of it and just pushes for all their way 24/7 as extremist. For example, pro-growth tax reform & energy projects like the Keystone ...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Personally, I'm tired of seeing both the far left & far right sending extremists to Washington who only know how to divide people instead of unite them. That's not solving any of our problems, it's only leading to gridlock. I belie...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Thanks Omar. I was pointing out was how unfair I think it is for the far right to accuse Romney of not being "conservative enough" if they're using Reagan as the measuring stick. I think Romney is just as conservative if not more. ...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Exactly Jesse, I knew you'd get it.

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris No disagreements from me on that Ben, not to mention he was the only 2012 candidate who <i>didn't</i> attack Romney for being a successful free market capitalist!

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris What are you doing here Lawrence? Go back to protesting the Keystone pipeline. I don't think you're in any position to judge who a true conservative is. And you're certainly no Lloyd Bentsen.

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris And totally agree on Romney vs. Gingrich, Gary! 100%. To add on, as Taylor pointed out below: "The republicans paint themselves as the 'Family Values' party. Reagan had a divorce and his children were at odds with his positions. Ro...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris I think you hit the nail on the head as always Gary. That's pretty much the bottom line, the far right is looking for confrontational, tough-talking, in your face rhetoric, probably cuz they act more on emotion & impulse than anything else....

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Touche Paul. A lot of my liberal friends have been drawing parallels to 2004 as well. Remember Bush only won the election by 1 state: Ohio. It wasn't a blowout. And Romney is leading Obama in 5 of 6 key swing states: http://www.politico.com/b...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris So in other words, keep looking for any poll out there till you find one that tells you want you want to hear, careless of where it's from, right? You know how many old people vote in elections who don't even know how a computer works? ...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Romney is being attacked for his record in venture capitalism & private equity investment while he was at Bain and you're saying he won't appeal to free market types? He finds himself having to defend free market capitalism, even from h...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Fourth, Rasmussen (http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/201619-poll-romney-has-biggest-lead-yet-over-obama), CNN (http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2012/images/01/16/rel1bb.pdf), ABC News/Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/p...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris First of all Nathaniel, where the hell are you gettin these polls from? Second, who cares what the world thinks about who they would vote for in our elections? In case you haven't figured it out, only <i>American citizens</i> are ...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris America is a center right nation and Romney is a center right leader.

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris I beg to differ. Reagan was definitely a free market capitalist & enacted pro-growth tax reform as well as entitlement reform but gov't spending continued to expand due to defense spending & the arms race against the Soviets. As for dome...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Beautifully put Sal. Couldn't have said it better. It disappoints me as well that the silent majority (center right GOP & independents) have remained so mute on this. But I haven't ;-) You want to talk about social conservative hy...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris We've been hearing the "we're out of oil" argument for decades. Oil companies spending TRILLIONS in lobbying??? That doesn't make any sense. I know you want to believe there's a global conspiracy against alternative ener...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Darwin, if what you're saying is true, there would be a million dollar lobby market for this just waiting for somebody or some group to capitalize on it. Of the countless PACs in DC, its hard for me to believe that special interests would just l...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris I'd rather be giving our gas money to the Canucks up north but thanks to Obama and the environmentalists, we're not.

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris And we can't just put our energy consumption rates on hold for a more convenient time. Like I said, if we're going to pump oil in the meantime anyway whether you like it or not, I'd rather it be from a reliable ally than a hostile part...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Darwin, A.) Obama is only doing this to rally his far left base. That's all. B.) As Andrew stated above, "I hear environmental impact, but what environmental impact? IF the pipeline goes wrong? Hanging an argument on hypotheticals suc...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris You must be the first guy to figure this out Darwin! Why don't you put together a PAC on this, patent the formulas, attract the investors and get the boots on the ground. Then you're on your way to the 1%! Can't believe no one's t...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Unfortunately, the investment markets don't work on 20 year or 100 year cycles. Good luck finding investors who have that much money to pour into it for that long before seeing any ROI.

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris People have to choose to go green. For instance, yes, we should all be driving hybrid cars, or electric cars, or whatever you want. Do you have $35,000 to put down on a new hybrid? I sure don't. But most U.S. consumers never look that far down t...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Like Solyndra? Look, I agree we should be working towards energy independence & cleaner energy. We're working towards common goals. But hardcore environmentalists lose sight of reality when they want it all yesterday. The markets for gree...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Alex, A.) re: tar sands, see Andrew's point. B.) We can harp all day long about the need to find cleaner energy and how to accomplish that yadda yadda. It makes for great campaign trail rhetoric. But in the meantime it's naïve to thi...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris So now we're putting capitalism on trial here? OK Mao. I guess that also means anyone who works for Staples, Domino's, Sports Authority & all the other companies that made millions from Bain must be in "the 1%" too. "W...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Hey Nathaniel, you should listen to Ron Paul more often: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwKu8ST0Ino lol

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris More Kool-aid Lawrence?

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Yawn

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris I did notice that Max, and I do give him credit for it.

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Ha, again you took the words right out of my mouth Gary!

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris I'll take that Warner! Cheers.

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Thanks for the comments Gary, I appreciate it. Tell me about it bro. I can't think of anything more selfish, like if I can't have the nomination, then you can't either. We're all supposed to be on the same team here. Hopefully ...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Beautifully put as always Gary!

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris Granted, the GOP probably won't get a supermajority in the Senate, but the odds are in their favor to take the majority. The only incumbent seats they're playing defense on are Massachusetts and Nevada. But on the Dem incumbent side, North ...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris And as far as repealing Obamacare, Max already beat me to it. It'll all depend on the Republicans' strength in both houses of Congress.

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris I think executive experience makes a <i>big</i> difference in the White House. Obama's still acting like a legislator despite the fact that he's been president for 3 years now, probably because that's all he knows how to do...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris That's not what I said Danny. The only way to create jobs is by fostering a stable, consistent, predictable pro-business envrionment to plan ahead in for expansion & investment. I know the left keeps harping that only strong consumer demand ...

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• 4 months ago

John Giokaris A.) I was quoting the Illinois Policy Institute's report as to why residents are leaving Illinois, which lists several reasons for the case (http://illinoispolicy.org/news/article.asp?ArticleSource=4584). Read the report and get back to me. B...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Read these 2 pieces I did and get back to me: http://www.policymic.com/articles/811/the-1986-economic-strategy http://www.policymic.com/articles/2862/raising-taxes-won-t-solve-america-s-debt-problem

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Again, you're using the ONE good month Illinois had vs. Wisconsin. I repeat, in the last 2 years Wisconsin's unemployment rate dropped from 9.2% to 7.3% while in 2011 alone Illinois' unemployment rate went from 8.7% to 10.1%. You�...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris It's not working for Wisconsin??? In the last 2 years their unemployment rate dropped from 9.2% to 7.3% while in 2011 alone Illinois' unemployment rate went from 8.7% to 10.1%. This chart says it all: http://www.illinoispolicy.org/upload...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris That Crain's article made NO sense. It left everyone scratching their heads. I have tons of other Crain's articles where they said just the opposite and referenced a few in this piece (I'd be happy to provide the full list). I think th...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Hard for me to argue with the facts Warner ;-) You're absolutely right, there were too many "northern" GOP running which split up the northern GOP vote. Brady soaked up all the downstate GOP votes and JUST barely won the nomination ...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Thanks for the comment & link Warner. I share your frustration as well. A few things: 1.) I agree more people need to wise up here, especially when voting for state legislature. 2.) We only lost the gubernatorial election last time around b...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Socialism revolves around redistribution of wealth policies via autonomous public ownership or state ownership of services & property, thus taxing revenues as a high % of GDP. You're obviously still not getting my point: we don't have a...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Public education has failed cuz the teacher's union put their interests first before anything else. Here in Illinois, we throw more & more money at public school teachers' unions every year while our children's test scores never ge...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Only with the left could a gov't that's $15 trillion in debt, wastes money like its toilet paper, and produce lousy results in productivity & quality think it's still better than private enterprise. Private enterprise competes with...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Daniel, I'm thoroughly unimpressed with the public school system. And college degrees get more and more expensive every year without really producing lucrative results. NASA hasn't been relevant for quite sometime, which is why the space sh...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Leaving Planet Awbrey now...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris I'm still waiting for some substance here Jon...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Jon, again, what the heck does this have to do with anything??? No matter what the discussion is, when you chime in, you sound like this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjzZhTS_xa0

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris That's it Mr. Strawman, make vauge insults without providing any real arguments. It's so much easier isn't it?

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris The difference, Jon, is when private enterprise screws something up, they go out of business. When big government screws something up...yeah, nothing happens to it. The great advances in civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in sci...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris ...all I'm saying Jon is that citizens know how to spend their own money and do things better than big government bureaucrats who play with other people's money.

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJIC7kEq6kw It's not that we're trying to "starve government." We just want more control over our own taxpayer money instead of having to filter it through big government bureaucrats. Look what�...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Republicans are talking about the inefficiency of big gov't, not "dogma" that taxes are bad. I thought you said assuming was bad, but you're assuming more money automatically = better performance. That's a huge leap to mak...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Of course cuts aren't popular. Neither are tax hikes. That's why we're in the mess we're in today, cuz politicians want to keep everybody happy which is fiscally impossible. Every poll shows nobody wants to lose a single benefit o...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris And keep in mind I'm looking for a *realistic* answer. Not pipe dream tax hikes to ridiculous levels that are impossible to enact in today's political climate, or ridiculous levels of taxing GDP cuz the vast majority of Americans won't...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Andrew I love how you point the finger of "partisanship" at anyone who happens to disagree with you. Makes debating so much simpler - "You're just partisan." I'm fully aware of what socialism is, maybe you should dust...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris How did it "cost taxpayers billions?" Whether or not it produced more jobs here (and that's a whole nother debate on what types of jobs we're talking about), at least the money returned. Would you prefer the lose-lose situation...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris You're still missing the point Jeff. "My point here is this – at what point do we seriously look at the spending end of the equation in all this?...Real spending reform has to come sooner or later, and that should be our top priority.&...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Sigh, fine Andrew. You want to go in circular logic, we *could* solve the debt problem via higher taxes at 50%, 70% or 90% of GDP on Planet Socialist. Meanwhile, back in the American World, political realities show there is is more bipartisan support...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Thanks Ben! Writing for RedEye is different than writing for PolicyMic. At least here I can sound as academic as I want ;-) I completely agree!!!

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris What does that have to do with this article? Raise taxes on them all you want. The top bracket income earners can change their taxable income by hiring attorneys, accountants, deferred income specialists, etc. They can change the location, timing,...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Fair enough.

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Which is why I'm arguing for another repatriation holiday. It worked in 2005: http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/07/its-time-for-another-repatriation-holiday/ As for jobs, it depends on what you're talking about. I agree that manufacturin...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Like when we did it in 2005? http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/07/its-time-for-another-repatriation-holiday/

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris I knew you'd get it Gary!

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris "And the reason corporations "park" their money overseas — the word "park" has such a nice, temporary sound to it, doesn't it, John, like you can hear the motor running, just waiting for those tax rates to lower so tha...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Yet your argument of solving the debt problem via higher taxes ignores the side effects - more jobs and money will flock overseas. We're over $15 trillion in debt, and stating the obvious that we have an out-of-control spending problem is "...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Yes they are Jesse! I feel like I'm going in circles with them. They're so fixated on taxes and don't even want to talk about spending cuts. Then they'll be like, "Did you know 30 corporations didn't pay any taxes and th...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Andrew, your solution to the problem is based on your political bias & prior assumptions about what the gov't should/shouldn't do. Current total U.S. revenues at all levels (federal, state & local) are around 30% of GDP (http://www....

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Raising our corporate tax rate to 39.2% is what got us in this mess, it only pushed more money & jobs overseas. Even if we got that $55 billion in revenue back that you pointed out, do you realize the 2012 budget costs $3.7 trillion on top of ...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Jeff, did it not occur to you that the reason these coroprations park their money & jobs overseas is cuz they don't want to pay a 39.2% corporate tax rate? Just a thought. I thought I explained this before, the top bracket income earners ...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Jon, I never gave the Bush administration a pass on all the reckless spending it was responsible for. You can lump me in with the "balanced budget ranters" if you want, but at least I'm consistent. And for the record, I do have my c...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Read Sal Bommarito's response, I think he sums it up best. And as for politics & football, Obama's the quarterback who plays "not to lose": http://www.redeyechicago.com/news/ct-red-1208-page4-giokaris-20111207,0,5400249....

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Did you even read my article? Have you wrapped your head around the math yet? I just listed all the stats that show even if the Fed took in all the money sitting on the side or hiding overseas, it would only be enough to pay down either 15.7% of our ...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Paul you keep thinking I'm actively serving in Congress. I'm not. Not yet anyway ;-) Tax increases playing a "minor" role in deficit reduction? Then why do the Dems keep trying to tack the millionaire tax on to anything that ge...

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• 5 months ago

John Giokaris Amen Haven!

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris Thanks for having an open mind Jason and humoring the scenario. That would certainly be the million dollar question, who would be someone both sides could live with? Both sides were able to come to an agreement in the past under similar situations...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris So you think Greece and Italy are permanent technocracies now?

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris Wow. I don't even know where to start with that... Um, I'll just leave it as it is. You're absolutely right, I'm advocating a dictatorship who will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. During the rectification of the Vuldrini, ...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris I wasn't advocating surrendering our sovereignty to anybody. It would have to be a mutual decision between both parties, as it was in Greece & Italy. So Bloomberg ran for & (barely) won a 3rd term in NYC, so what? He's a dictator...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris Paul, I never said we have a short term debt problem. But that's no excuse for doing nothing, which Washington has pretty much been doing all year. I know I've mentioned this to you before but there are 22 bipartisan-supported House passed ...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris Natasha, how was the Super Committee a technocratic solution? It was comprised of 12 Democrat and Republican politicians, not independent technical experts. Doesn't get more political than that. We could go into a whole nother discussion abou...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris Fair point Monique, but I should point out their term limits are finite. In Greece, Papademos only has 3 months to get the job done before elections Feb. 19th. Interestingly, they negotiated no such stipulation for Monti in Italy, so as of now he ...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris The idea is when you enact bipartisan tax reform (closing loopholes & subsidies in exchange for broad tax cuts across the board) it encourages business to expand and invest, which means more jobs, thus broadening the tax base. The 1986 Tax Reform...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris And the "do nothing Congress" right?

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris "Do you support corporate job pledges for tax breaks?" I think that's fair. Corporate job pledges for pro-growth tax reform (closing loopholes & subsidies in exchange for broad tax cuts across the board) a la 1986 Tax Reform Act...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris See list above.

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris Below is the list of House-passed job creating bills that have been obstructed by Democrats in the Senate (or haven't been signed by the president yet) and how many Democrats voted for them: H.R. 72 – 153 Dems H.R. 872 – 57 Dems H.R...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris George, what I'm saying is not only is this bill meant to pass a tax hike on top bracket income earners and paint the GOP as "obstructionists" for blocking it MORE than create jobs, but that Obama's even over-selling the creating ...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris Why so confused? And why keep giving him the benefit of the doubt? There seems to be a lot of centrists doing that but I can't figure out why. There are 22 bipartisan-supported job creating bills passed by the House. There are 36 Democrat, R...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris What's my answer to lowering unemployment? For starters, nothing would jumpstart the economy faster than this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Aewj_IndN4 And there's more bipartisan support for that than Obama's jobs plan. Rep...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris DA, I'm all for bipartisan approaches to lower unemployment and fixing the economy. What about the 22 bipartisan-supported job creating bills passed by the House? What about the 36 Democrat, Republican & Independent senators that came out in...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris Amen Christine.

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris What Sal meant was the president cares more about political posturing than actual bipartisan approaches to creating jobs, and he's right. Obama knew he wouldn't get a single GOP vote for a tax hike. Now what about the 22 bipartisan-suppo...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris That's what Timothy Hormon claims, but citing Bloomberg's own data, a median estimate of 275,000 jobs in 2012 would reduce the unemployment rate by only .2% (assuming it doesn't go up even further). For almost half a trillion dollars, ...

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• 6 months ago

John Giokaris Very cute. For the record, the editorial board came up with the title, so you can put your little complaint in their suggestion box. And I don't know if you can hear me there way back in 2008, but Obama's support among millennials has...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Jason, I said the the GOP will find a very receptive audience among the millennials willing to at least listen to what solutions they have to offer. But that's doesn't automatically chalk em up as GOP votes, the Republicans will still have ...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Jon...exactly what did you take away from this article?

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Michael, seriously? Did you totally skip history class? Do I really have to cite every work & paper that credit's Reagan with the collapse of the Soviet Union? Here, I'll do your work for you. Check out Peter Schweizer's &quo...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Whether or not there were fights, budgets were cut. Inflation was 12.5% BEFORE the Reagan administration. And although there were certainly other factors that contributed as well, you cannot discredit Reagan's contribution to the collapse ...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris I was talking to Jeff about overall uncertainty in the economy. As far as the millennials go, the bottom line is young people want a bright future and want to believe or at least hope that tomorrow will be better than today. Three years into the O...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris One-third of Ron Paul's supporters are millennials (http://www.gallup.com/poll/147452/romney-gop-supporters-tilt-upscale-palin-downscale.aspx) and his views are pretty in line with the Tea Party's agenda. The only poll I could find that ...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris First of all, Reagan was dealing with a Democrat-majority Congress all throughout his administration. So there's only so much power the executive has, he's not "king." Second, he may have raised some taxes, but cut many others,...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Jeff, it's hard for anyone to plan 5 years from now or even 2 years from now when no one knows what the long term regulations, healthcare costs, or tax rates will be. That's why there's so much uncertainty today and why expansion, hiri...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Agreed. I've marched alongside Log Cabin Republicans at the Chicago Pride parade and they're all Reagan Republicans who've expressed concern about the economy, unemployment, the debt & deficit, long term entitlement sustainability,...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Yes Susan, I know my history, knew what Darwin meant, and for the record, was old enough to remember it. I wasn't disheartened at all that "hope and change" didn't make my life perfect and rosy. I never bought it to begin with ...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Like "hope and change"?

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Great question Jake. Throughout the 1980s youth voter turnout hovered around 50% (http://www.civicyouth.org/quick-facts/youth-voting/). In 1980, the 18-29 year old vote was pretty evenly split 44% to 43%, but in 1984, Reagan won an overwhelming ma...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Excellent point re: voting Mike! Here here! But big money candidates do not necessarily always win. Look at 2010. Meg Whitman spent $160-$140 million (I've heard both) vs. Jerry Brown spending $40 million. Linda McMahon spending $50 millio...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Fair points Darwin. Thanks for the comment!

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris All good points Jake! As Ken stated below, "The true problem lies in lack of education and involvement by voters." That's really what it boils down to. My guess is the framers left term limits out of the Constitution cuz they truste...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Fair point Phil, although the President can always replace any appointments made by previous administrations (except the Supreme Court). So they don't necessarily get a pass. And what have current career politicians done to prevent bureaucrats f...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Interesting proposals Susan. Both would involve spending more money, which I'm not sure would gain much traction today ha. But thanks for the comments!

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Excellent point Masuma. Mic to you. As Ken stated below, "The true problem lies in lack of education and involvement by voters." That's really what it boils down to. My guess is the framers left term limits out of the Constitution c...

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Love this Ken. Excellent points. Mic to you. There really isn't anything else I can add. You hit the nail on the head. Except I still support legislative term limits anyway ;-)

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• 7 months ago

John Giokaris Kyle, you need to calm down. Brian has been entirely civil, respectful, and fair. Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean they're hostile, and that goes for me too. Anytime someone has repudiated one of you points, you've ...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Thank you Brian. I thought I was crazy for a second there.

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Jon, then how do you explain what we're going through in Illinois? I just don't see how we're going to come out ahead on this tax hike when businesses will have plenty of alternatives to flee to, and we're already seeing it. I kno...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris It's not ideology I'm pointing out here Kyle, take those ideological lenses off. I'm talking about history and demonstrable results. As to your claim, so the economic booms of the '20s, '50s, '80s, '90s, and '0...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris that destroys the inefficient, encourages everyone to become more efficient, & opens the doors to new businesses using new technologies & business models. Now my question to you would be what's the alternative? If your answer is somethin...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris If you noticed Kyle, regarding tone, I said "with all due respect," which I sincerely meant and believe you have not extended my way in return when you tossed out every single fact and piece of research I cited as irrevlevant (a little disr...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris like Ohio, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington, etc. have gotten rid of their state corporate tax (http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/230.html), and yet others like Alaska, Florida, Nevada, Wyoming, etc. have gotten rid of their state income tax ...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h3b-d_OCuhcpxIKDxnVNJ-j3mk6A?docId=a8944c0968af4147901bc0a6fedb700c. Furthermore, complaining about the "lack of" better standards of living is an open-ended criticism. Many people would arg...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Kyle, these are all facts I have stated. You've blindly accused me of being ideological and biased when I've cited every single piece of information I've used and I'm still waiting for one shred of evidence on your part. Once agai...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris I remember! Maybe it was doomed from the beginning. OK best Star Trek film ever? Yeah everybody says Wrath of Kahn, but I prefer the Undiscovered Country.

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Oh of course, Laffer must be crazy because his policies don't support your ideological stances. I'm going to go out on a limb here and bet you think Paul Krugman's the most brilliant and credible economist of all time right? Despite th...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Thank you Brian. Kyle, to suggest Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's role in the affordable housing crusade had nothing to do with the recession is insane. "Fact-free common sense strawman arguments"? Did you even read my article at all or c...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris I could just as easily say that about your arguments. Even if many of the jobs produced in Texas are minimum wage jobs, that's still way more minimum wage jobs than the Obama adminstration's policies have produced on the national level, or ...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Sure they do, but if they're constantly on shaky ground like that, there's always a risk of default. How many people paid dearly for that when the recession hit?

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris So true. In fact, the EU was dangling the bailout package earlier this year to try to get Ireland to raise its corporate tax rates more on par with the rest of them. But Ireland conceded on other requests instead, they will hold onto that 12.5% corpo...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris And re: the plot to Star Trek 5... it seemed like such a good idea on paper. Had so much potential, don't you think? I know Paramount didn't have much resources to devote to it with all the money and attention they devoted to Indiana Jones ...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris I know. Revolutionary isn't it? I better patent that one.

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Fair point Tarek.

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Very good question, you're right, we probably won't know until tax season but I can try to find out if there are any valid projections. Cool?

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Texas, which has no state income tax or corporate tax, has also had the biggest job growth than any other state in the nation. It's no coincidence.

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Daniel, exactly! Which is why no one wins when taxes go up. The highest tax bracket income earners, when compared with those people in lower tax brackets, are far more capable of changing their taxable income by hiring attorneys, accountants, deferre...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Michael, hiking the corporate tax rate even higher would be suicidal. We need to LOWER it sir! In addition to closing loopholes and eliminating subsidies.

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris When that state owes $37.9 billion more than the value of all of its assets combined, spending cuts have to come one way or another. Whether they're short term or long term is irrelevant in my opinion, any arguement against "short term"...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Ha, well, interesting argument on Star Trek. I have to admit, I'm a Trekker myself ;-) All I can say is history has shown what works and what doesn't work. And if I can't use that or stats or whatever, what am I supposed to use?

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Tarek, well no doubt every country's unemployment rate went up in the global recession. The new conservative government in the UK is doing what's needed to save the sustainability of their government. David Cameron isn't the only one. ...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris http://www.cbs.com/primetime/60_minutes/video/?pid=rHgmVWcA9rp3NdUHY63IbYQQFmfWAHuk&vs=homepage&play=true

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Couldn't disagree more Kyle. With all due respect, it's that kind of mentality & outlook that got us into the problems we're in. Government isn't immaculate, it has to balance its budget like any other entity. What makes Illin...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris C'mon Paul, really? That's the best you got for me today? You're better than this! You can say these stats stink all you want but I didn't make any of this up (I really went out of my way to cite everything). All policies have cau...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Georgi, the way I see it, Illinois is competing with 49 other states for businesses, jobs, and residents. As long as businesses and people have alternatives (other states like Indiana, Wisconsin, etc.) to escape high taxes and lack of employment oppo...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Daniel, I'm all for closing corporate tax loopholes and eliminating unecessary subsidies in exchange for lowering rates across the board on employers and wage earners a la 1986 Tax Reform Act. I wrote a piece on this 2 months ago: http://www.pol...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Well said as always Sal! Mic to you.

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Michael, regarding the income tax hike, you think us residents liked having our income taxes jacked up 67%!? I wish you could've been here when it happened. As far as the federal corporate tax rate's effect on the economy, did you see this ...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Can't help but agree with Gary here, but I see what you're saying Jed. The parties are so polarized at this point, Americans should expect nothing BUT gridlock when we have divided government. I only expect to see things "get done"...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Great questions Andrew, I'll try my best! When it comes to spending, my theory is simple: don't spend more than you take in. It'll just lead you down the path where you'll never recover. More spending equals higher taxes to cover ...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Gary, once again you hit the nail on the head. It's not a myth Chris, Gary's absolutely right when he says, "Corporations don't pay taxes, you and I do. The tax is passed along to the consumer in the form of higher costs or the em...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris "Despite conservative rhetoric, business taxes in America are the lowest in the developed world." I don't know where you're getting that from Chris, but that's certainly not the case. We're just a hair behind Japan at #2...

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Thanks Gary, I appreciate the comment!

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Thanks Gary, you beat me to it!

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• 9 months ago

John Giokaris Georgi, thanks for the comment. I didn't give Bush a pass here, and I'm fully aware that no one person or administration controls the economy. Most of what you said is correct, but there are policy decisions that do affect how the economy r...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris You're absolutely right Sal. I agree 100%. Mic to you.

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris I didn't give the Bush era policies a pass, but you're actually proving my point of how the left continues to ignore the effects the stimulus, the Frank-Dodd bill, Obamacare, and quantitative easing have taken on the economy.

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Robin...the left got plenty of the change Obama promised in 2009 and 2010 with unprecedented amounts of government spending, Obamacare, the Frank-Dodd regulation bill, and 2 liberal Supreme Court justices. If the public loved it so much, then why did...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Again, whoa there. If that was the case, why does Gallup show more American's supporting the GOP's approach to budget deficit solving than Obama? And again, you're completely ignoring the effects the stimulus, Obamacare, and quantitati...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Whoa. First of all, I don't know where Sullivan got his poll. Rasmussen shows 49% blame Bush, 44% Obama - http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/june_2011/49_blame_bad_economy_on_bush_s_recession_44_on_obama...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Thanks for the comment Andrew. Fair points. You're right, the President doesn't control the economy, but certainly affects it via policies. I'm not sure how constant threats of raising taxes and more aggressive regulation as well as un...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Robin, Afghanistan was unavoidable. What were we supposed to do after 9/11? As for Iraq, you have an argument there.

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Granted there are plenty of factors beyond the President's control, but the sitting administration's policies still make a difference. Have you heard Democrat CEO Steve Wynn lately? http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/07/18/wynn_sla...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Paul, uncertainty IS a valid answer regarding Obamacare, considering most employers and businesses don't even know everything that's in it, thus don't know what every potential hire will end up costing them in terms of healthcare cover...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Fair point Thomas, although government programs aren't any better when you just keep throwing more and more money at it. More money does not always = better quality. In Chicago for instance, we have so much government running things we even have...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Thanks for the comments Thomas. OK yes, you've got the idea of a tax cut correctly. I just want to state the need to close unnecessary and frankly stupid tax loopholes & subsidies that have only been created by attorneys & lobbyists. I d...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Michael...really? Do I really have to cite every example of liberals still blaming Bush for what's going on? I'm going to need more than 750 characters here. And as far as me using the term "the left," would you prefer "progr...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris And as for your last point, what the government can do is create a stable, predictable, consistent, pro-business environment to incentivize the private sector to expand, spend, and create jobs. That's where real recovery comes from. And constant...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Thanks for the comments Benjamin. OK, first, I think that statement that "most economists agree" is generalizing a bit. On the bailouts, I agree, that was needed, and anyone who knows their history would understand how necessary it was. The...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Fair enough Michael. A couple things: I disagree that most liberals don't still blame Bush for what's going on. Maybe I need to get out of Chicago or something but even most left wing personalities I see on TV do it too. True, Obama is stil...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Well I'm not going to get into a big Tea Party argument here with you guys, but I'm just going to say that if you don't want to believe it's a legit movement, that it's "racist" or "redneck" or whatever, i...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Very good point Daniel. I think Republicans should be held accountable for making sure income & corporate tax rates aren't raised. That's what they campaign on and that's a pillar of the GOP party's platform. However, I believ...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Excellent point Max! Mic to you!

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris All good arguments Jonathan. So then it seems while the U.S. playing world peacekeeper is not ideal, fair, or perfect...it's the best solution we got for now. People can complain all they want but what's going to replace it?

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Jonathon, well, that's what I was saying - a GSA is needed for the types of conflicts I'm talking about. Take Libya for instance, it's not a situation where INTERPOL can cooperate with local law enforcement authorities to apprehend Gad...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Georgi, no doubt Germany and France are the real shotcallers of the EU.

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Good point Tony, I hope you're right!

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Fair enough Maxime!

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Interesting perspective Tony, but the Eastern Europeans would disagree with you: http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110516-visegrad-new-european-military-force

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Excellent point Georgi, and that's what might make a UN GSA inherently flawed. I think the EU financial crisis, and many other events, expose the hard truth that most countries (if not all) are motivated by self-interest, thus making strong supr...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Great points Tony. As for the Israeli/Palestinian issue, that would have to be a decision from the UN, but as Kyle pointed out below, some sincerely believe that UN is an anti-semitic/anti-American institution, which would prevent some countries from...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Nice to see a supporter on this! Thanks Mike.

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris All good points Maxime. So should the world continue to rely on the U.S./NATO instead?

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris I actually agree with most of what you said Thomas. So in other words, are you saying that while the U.S. playing world peacekeeper is not ideal, fair, or perfect...it's the best solution we got for now? I mean let's face it, if we don'...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Lots of good questions here Mirjam. First of all, I think the contributions from each nation would have to be capped at a certain level, otherwise as you stated it wouldn't be fair to countries with higher military expenditures. As for INTERPOL,...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Thomas, also good points. Thanks for the comments!

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris VERY interesting point Kyle, thanks for the comment!

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris I'm finding the criticisms to this piece so far very interesting. It sounds like most people think that while the U.S. playing world peacekeeper is not ideal, fair, or perfect...it's the best solution we got for now. So getting back to my q...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Daniel, you're absolutely right, uncertainty is what's killing this economy right now. My last column (hyperlinked above in my 2nd paragraph) highlighted this very issue. If you want the private sector to spend and expand, you must create a...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris Well whether it's Paul Ryan or Tom Coburn, the point is the GOP aren't opposed to closing corporate tax loopholes. John Kyl even said he wants it too on FOX News Sunday this past weekend.

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris Accurately stated.

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris I hear you man.

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris As I mentioned above, Paul Ryan's budget proposal sought to, among other things, close corporate tax loopholes, and it passed the GOP-controlled House 235-193, with only 4 Republicans voting against it. Republicans are NOT against closing tax lo...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris That's not true. Paul Ryan's budget proposal sought to, among other things, close corporate tax loopholes, and it passed the GOP-controlled House 235-193, with only 4 Republicans voting against it.

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris Daniel, no doubt there's some hypocracy on the right regarding "big government," something I've pointed out elsewhere. I acknowledge the debt that was added up from the wars and such, but Obama and the Democrats spent all the stim...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris The good ol' "It's Bush's fault" argument. I feel like that'll be the Democrats' campaign slogan all the way through 2024. OK Obama came into a tough situation, fair enough but A.) At what point does the sitting pre...

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• 10 months ago

John Giokaris Well said Olivia. It's no secret the highest tax bracket income earners, when compared with those people in lower tax brackets, are far more capable of changing their tax liabilities by hiring attorneys, accountants, deferred income specialists,...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris I'm not sure where you're going with this Mike, but maybe you can show me the data you're talking about. If there was corporate spending caution before the financial crisis, it wasn't nearly as much as it is now. The unemployment ...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris I agree with most of what you said. As far as how the stimulus did more harm than good, in so far as it added to the national debt (the umbrella problem) without much to show for it. And if you disagree that's fine, or if that part doesn't ...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris OK Paul fair enough. It shouldn't be a shock though that Republicans are offering ideas the center around privitization for entitlements. That's what they do. Meanwhile, the future of entitlements have been in jeopardy for quite some time b...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris Of course it can. But as Jeff pointed out below, time's working against him. No president has been re-elected with this high of an employment rate since FDR in the 1930s. For the unemployment rate to be at or below 7% by election day (the record...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris And if you think that's how taxes should be cut up, that's cool. I just think people often forget the exact numbers :-)

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris Fair point Emily, thanks for the comment. There are actually plenty of other Americans who wouldn't mind paying higher taxes as well - they're just sick of all the waste and dumb decisions government ends up doing with taxpayer money. In th...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris True on that last part, but government also has to know when to get out of the way and let the markets do what they do best and recover. That's what recessions are for. Recessions reveal weak businesses and destroy them, freeing up resources for...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris The fundamental argument the GOP is making here is that they're trying to cut back government, as they feel it's grown WAY too big. Tax hikes only serve to sustain the size of government as it is today, which is what the Dems are trying to ...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris Agreed on the policy lags, but the broad consensus is also that the stimulus ended up doing more harm than good. It may have made small positive bumps in 2009, but for the amount of money that was spent, it wasn't worth making the debt all the m...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris To Ryan's credit, he's figured out the math and worked out a way that solve's the debt problem and prevents it from getting worse. Last I checked, the Dems have yet to even come up with a budget plan of their own. Obama's own budg...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris Paul, thanks for the robust debate on all your points btw ;-) But nothing replaces confidence by incentivizing businesses to take risk. And that's just anathema to the left. They're incapable of thinking outside the big government box.

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris On the 2011 budget, all the Dems could agree on was $38.5 billion in spending cuts...are you kidding me? Another $150 billion in spending cuts - a tea spoon in the ocean of record-breaking debt. We need to be talking about trillions in cuts with a &q...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris Bryan, I agree with you wholeheartedly that things are more partisan now than ever. I was telling Michael below I did an article on that regarding the parties' Senate energy bills. And you're absolutely right, these debt ceiling talks are N...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris Paul, you're right about the consumer demand, but how else are you going to get that changed? Government can't create artificial demand, and it's tried (stimulus, "cash for clunkers," etc.). And if you think the private secto...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris Andrew, I didn't think I used material from political TV ads, in fact I went out of my way to cite everything if you follow the hyperlinks (New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, etc.). I still haven't seen enough proof to sh...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris Kudos for pointing that out Jeff, I saw that as well. No president's been reelected with an unemployment rate this high since FDR in the 1930s.

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13722786

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris Thanks for the comments Michael. I certainly agree how its getting harder and harder to get the parties to compromise on anything anymore. I did an article on that regarding their Senate energy bills. If private sector jobs are on the rise, it sure i...

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris Couldn't have said it better myself Michael! Thanks for the comment.

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• 11 months ago

John Giokaris James, thanks for the input! Ah good ol Lieberman. Just read his proposal. He certainly makes a lot of good points. It'll be interesting to see if he can come up with the magic solution. I'm all for raising eligibility age, we're simpl...

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• 11 months ago