I hate Air America, BUT...

Posted By: Average American
Posted on: May. 30, 2006 at 6:24 PM

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I hate Air America. Not that they are out there, just their content. But... today I got an interesting phone call from a gentlemen named Doron (I appologize if I misspelt that). He is one of the people who looks into complaint about the programming for Air America in Phoenix and Arkansas. I think he said he is a freelance person but I really didn't hear much after he threw me into a state of shock with is comments.

Let me explain, I heard a commercial, really a slam spot against all things conservative in which Denny Hartert's comments were being played about a family of 4 making $40,000.00 per year not paying taxes. The Air America guy (because I have no idea who does the voice over work in the commercial) goes on to say something about Denny's comments being ill imformed and that he is basically a moron for not knowing about all the other taxes, gas, state, sales etc. that the family of four still has to pay.

Well, I called the message line they provided to vent a little on the commercial's content. I believe I started with "You guys are full of s***," or something just as poetic and moved on to the real point of the call which was Denny was speaking about FICA only, to which I added that once the family took the deductions for the children they had (remember, this was a family of four we are talking about) that they would actually get a refund and thus, "would not pay taxes". Again, following with Hastert's comments regarding FICA taxes.

Doron asked if I was the guy who made the call and I said yes. I was waiting for him to rip my ass for saying they are full of s*** and offer some lame ass defence of them running the comments and the short editorial comments made. You know, the "don't ever call here agin, you offened us" call.

Instead I heard this, and I paraphrase as I don't recall word for word, "You were right, we did some research and Hastert was referring to FICA only and we even called a tax accountant to verify the income tax paying part, we have pulled the add as of 2:00pm today from both the Phoenix and Arkansas markets. You will never hear it again". Then he had the balls to thank me.

Well, what the hell am I supposed to do with this information. They did an honest investigation of the facts, agreed with an ooenly conservative person and then thanked me for letting them know about the situation. I was, for the first time in recent memory, completely SHOCKED.

Now don't get me wrong, Loose Change shocked me a bit, even made me question a thing or two about my government, but to have the organization that I listen too purely for the purpose of hearing the other side of the story, the side I completely disagree with, actually call me on the phone and admit to an error, my God man, can you imagine if Rush Linbaugh called one of you at home and did the same, you'd freak out.

I told Doron that I was going to write this article and he actually said that wasn't the reson for the call. I knew that of course, then I asked him if he had ever read anything on VofA and if he was aware of Average Americans articles, to which he said he was aware. I think he was just a little surprised that he was talking to me, surely not as surprised as I was to be hearing from him though.

So to Air America and Doron I offer this, thank you for being men about it. And thank you for taking the time to call a listener, one you did not know disagrees with every word you broadcast (nearly every word anyway) and acknowlegding that you do really look into complaints and have the courage to correct them. I have gained respect for you that I never thought possible.

SO in honor I want to rename this aricle here at the bottom...

"I used to hate Air America, now I just hate Al Franken and Randy Rhoads and Mike Newcomb, because the guys at Air America are ok."

(Yes Mike, I know you own it and it bugs me that you hired such fine people and you probably deserve some credit for this too) So "I hate Al Franken and Randy Rhoads", there, happy now.

But what would I know; I'm just an Average American.

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William

May. 30, 2006 at 06:40:27 PM

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Live in your close world and let the rest of us, live in peace.

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Average American

May. 30, 2006 at 06:55:38 PM

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You idiot, you didn't read it did you? Tell the truth, if you can.

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William

May. 30, 2006 at 06:59:26 PM

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I don't care to read and that's the truth until you understand that when I was trashed(my apology) you all crossed the line and you are going to be sorry. Any other articles, I would not have cared and therefore I wouldn't be doing this. That the truth. Any other truth do you want........

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Normalized Vector

May. 30, 2006 at 07:04:16 PM

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Translation #217

Live in your clothes
And let the rest of us live outside of them
You go now, and live in peace.

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Average American

May. 30, 2006 at 07:10:34 PM

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Thanks Norm.

William, WHAT?

"I don't care to read and that's the truth until you understand that when I was trashed(my apology) you all crossed the line and you are going to be sorry"

ARe you threatening your constituency? Are you threatening me? Do I need a body guard at the station this weekend? This is not the way a man looking for votes acts William. Now I will take your appology now, here or live on the air Saturday, makes no difference to me, but threatening me is not going to get you any better treatment here. Even though many here don't care for me, they are a good people to be sure.

Or we can meet at the movies, and you can try to sit by me, then I won't have to see you spill the blood when you make me pay...

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www.MoronInCharge.com

May. 31, 2006 at 12:34:03 AM

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O.K. AA. I have searched everywhere without success for the complete transcript of Hastert on the House floor where he made the now infamous statement:

"Well, folks, if you earn $40,000 a year and have a family of two children, you don’t pay any taxes. So you probably, if you don’t pay any taxes, you are not going to get a very big tax cut."

So can you provide for me the evidence that this statement only refers to FICA tax? Even if true, I'm still not sure how this qualifier changes the erroneous of this statement. Yes, they do not pay income tax after claiming the 4 child credit - they probably get an income tax refund, as you say. But they also pay about 7.65% of their $40K income in payroll taxes. That's about $3000. Remember that after our first $94,200 of income, we are free and clear of having to pay any further Social Security tax. That is clearly weighing the economic burden of Social Security upon the lower economic classes. Why shouldn't this be considered by any fair tax cut to stimulate spending? And yes, gas tax and sales tax are still tax burdens that affect a disapportionately larger percentage of a poor person's income.

I will not reprint here the table from the Tax Policy Institute tabulating estimated tax cut amounts for given incomes. Pitfalls with this table, as my very conservative friend and I have been discussing quite a bit lately, are 1) the Tax Policy Institute is not nonpartisan, 2) the calculated numbers are estimates, and the basis for the estimates were not published for verification, and 3) the table is publish citing tax cut in dollars for a given range of incomes, and that can be misleading if not cautiously interpreted (e.g. what does it mean to say someone who makes $1,000,000 or more will get back $42,000?). But what is clear from this tax cut is that it is basically extending or increasing already existing interest and dividend income tax breaks, and this implicitly will benefit the upper income households.

In short, I can not conclude anything else except that Denny Hastert is being completely disingenuous about his statement. Please explain my error.

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bobf

May. 31, 2006 at 07:35:10 AM

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WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, AGAIN! ANOTHER DISINGENUOUS ARTICLE BASED ON MISUNDERSTANDINGS!

AA, when someone receives a tax refund, it merely means that the INCOME taxes withheld exceed the calculated tax liability. That does NOT mean the taxpayer pays no income taxes as you contend.

A family of four reporting a gross income of $40,000 would have had FICA withholdings of $3060 which are NOT refundable. FICA payments end when a taxpayer’s income reaches about $100,000. If FICA withholding continues after reaching that income level, the taxpayer is due a refund for the excess payments.

Hastert was referring to income taxes when he left the ignorant with the impression that the $40,000 family has no tax liability.

“Well, folks, if you earn $40,000 a year and have a family of two children, you don’t pay any taxes. So you probably, if you don’t pay any taxes, you are not going to get a very big tax cut.”

No way was he talking about FICA, AA. As usual, your hatred colors your interpretation, understanding and reporting.

Given your fallacious premise, one simply cannot believe your report of the discussion with that Air America rep because you only hear what you want to hear and disregard the rest.

Had you done some research - like plugging numbers into a 1040A - you could have determined the amount of the deductions necessary for the $40,000 family to have a negative tax liability equal to their FIT withholdings. Those deductions would have to be unrealistically massive.

But, I’m sure someone of your wealth and social stature has an accountant preparing your taxes so you’re probably unfamiliar with the process. Before you compose another article that reveals your ignorance, you might consider engaging someone to do the thinking for you, too.

MIC, you may find a video of Hastert’s remarks at:

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/18/hastert-no-taxes/

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bobf

May. 31, 2006 at 07:55:13 AM

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Here's another link that shows by context and by his comments, Hastert was trying to mislead listeners into supporting tax rebates for the wealthy - incidentally, financed with deficit spending!

CSPAN 5/18/2006 12:38:32 AM: ...of exactly what the priorities are but what we in a democracy can agree is the right direction. so to close on our side, i would like to recognize and yield the balance of our time to our friend and the speaker of the house, denny hastert. the speaker: i thank the gentleman from iowa, and as he moves his last budget before the house of representatives, i want to thank him for his years of service, his steadfastness and, jim, we wish you well in all your future endeavors. thank you very much. god bless you. friends, the hour is late and we have heard a lot of arguments and we voted on a lot of budgets today. but three things i just want to talk about very briefly. first of all, i've heard some arguments on the other side of the aisle saying, well, if you had -- if you earn $40,000 a year, you wouldn't get a very big tax cut. well, folks, if you earn $40,000 a year and have a family of two, you don't pay any taxes. so you probably -- if you don't pay any taxes, you are not going to get a big tax cut. now, if you earn $1 million a year, you are going to pay about $400,000 of taxes. maybe you'll get a $40,000 tax cut, maybe. but look at the math. but i am saying, those are relative things. you have to look at them. we also heard that, you know, we have a lot of numbers. but i'll tell you one of the numbers that's important this year because of fiscal discipline that this house has had, and our tax policy that this house -- that this conference has had, this congress has had, is that just in our revenues this year alone we have almost $140 billion more in revenue than we projected even in january and we are only five months into the year. so if you can grow the economy, if you can make things work, if you create jobs for people and incidentally those taxes that some folks talked about that were so terrible, that's putting small business and letting them take their money and create new jobs, as a...

http://mms.tveyes.com/Transcript.asp?pl=9942229582542443603

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www.MoronInCharge.com

May. 31, 2006 at 08:06:59 AM

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That's the transcript I wished to see. Nowhere in the substance of Hastert's statement did he say anything about FICA taxes, as if that would make any difference. Assuming he knew better, he was simply saying this to mislead because he knew the cameras were rolling and a soundbite will resonate better with people too ignorant or too lazy to care (and I say that because until very recently, in matters of economics I was both too lazy and too stupid - now I just know enough to be dangerous). Thank you Bob. I think you should call AAR-Phoenix and convince them to put their public service announcement back on the air.

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Average American

May. 31, 2006 at 08:10:26 AM

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Hey, this was not a tax article.

This was a compliment to Air America. Your bitch is with them. They did the research and pulled the adds.

Call Air America if you question my integrety on this article.

Hastert's comment were taken out of context, end of story. I am not arguing the tax code with you.

But it's nice to see that you can all read somethign into this that is not here.

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