Quote:No. What I said was vague. If you want to split hairs, then the overall tax revenue are not down 60%... yet.A) Thank you.
B ) If someone said "I lost 60% of my assets last year", when what they meant was "I lost 60% of the equity in my house" when they had substantial savings and investments that declined much less, that would not be vague - it would be wrong. You can't just take a number for a small part of X, then neglect to say it doesn't refer to the whole of X. This is not hair splitting - this is about a trillion dollars we are making appear and disappear.
Quote:No, I gave you real numbers. Real numbers that indicate a trend. That trend leads to federal tax revenues being down substantially for FY 2008, 2009, 2010, and maybe 2011.Right. And if you look at the growth trend of a 14 year old, it turns out they're going to be tall as a giraffe by the time they're 80. But you can't just extrapolate trends to get numbers that suit you, especially not for something like changes in tax revenue during a crisis. Things might get worse, but they're not in perpetual free fall.
Quote:I wouldn't say that -4% PIT and -15% CIT are hardly equal.The change in total receipts is less than 2%. Compared with the numbers you were throwing around, that's pretty much stable.
Quote:Will it get to -50 or -60? It appears to be on track to do that baring a miraculous turn around in the economy.As I said, if it gets to -50%, you are getting an obsequious apology. But I really wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it - the big drop is over, and you've maybe hit 20%, tops.
Quote:-4% 2008 overall, and my guess is -30% at least for 2009. This fall, and early spring will reveal about 20 to 30 states are insolvent, especially the heavily tax dependent states. Put another way, 7 US states were solvent before the bailout.2007-2008 was about 1.7% (crunch the numbers yourself if you want), and 2008-2009 appears to be maybe 18%. You must be expecting one hell of a 2009-2010.
Regardless, your original post clearly implied that Obama has seen a 60% drop in Federal revenue. (RE: Hero). If that's not what you meant, then fine, but it sure looked like it.
-Jester