Not a Fan of Dubbya

My wife and I are going to spend every cent of our $600 in England in October. We're going to try and kick start the British economy with W's idiotic scheme, which will probably backfire and require higher taxes later. Or at least a much larger deficit later.

Igetamortgageinterest

Party hearty, consumer dudes and dudettes. Tell me, which of the freeloaders would you prefer to see cut off? Prison guards? Blind people? FAA controllers? Social Security recipients? Officers or enlisted? National Park Service wardens? Capitol Police? How about smokejumpers or the Coast Guard?

I can't believe you passed high school civics, never mind Econ 101. Take the money, buy your own damned missile defense.

x

to igetamortgageinterestdeduction,

no, i don't have a mortgage deduction, because even after making a salary just under the six digit range, i can't save enough money to buy a friggin house where i live. sigh.

i don't think the previous posters are objecting to contributing for public services, education, roads, basic medical and prescription care, but they're bent out of shape over those who abuse the social services system: healthy individuals who can work and contribute to society but choose not to and may have been that way for a long period of time.

The Comptons

What varied answers! Sounds good that a few people will make charitable contributions. Personally, we'll put it where it'll do the most good. Just completed $8,300 in foundation repair, plus a new gas line to the meter and a new hot water heater. The check also will help make up for the lower interest rate on savings. Actually, we could get by without the check, but we'll use it.

diane

"More open space in the arctic"? There's a huge amount of open space now, which is great with me, but I'm not sure we need more. The amount the White House would like to use to find oil and natural gas is a tiny percentage of that. The Native Americans who live up there WANT this oil drilling because their people need jobs!

Despite the slowing economy, there is stll a large surplus. Pumping the tax cut into the economy may help turn around this slow down we're in. Daschle is trying his best to TALK us into a deficit by complaining about the tax cut and by allowing/encouraging pork barrel spending. If we go into a deficit, it will have been caused by Republicans as well as Democrats in Congress who cannot resist trying to impress the voters at home by bringing home the bacon!

Bob

Why is it so difficult for some people to stay on topic? The Compton's message reads -

Is anyone planning to use the tax refund check for an extra travel experience? Or pay the credit card bill for the last trip? Or what?

After reading the message, you may choose to move on (in which half of the people that posted to this message should have done) or post a reply to the Compton’s message. The answer is simply No or Yes! If yes, simply share your plans for the money! Fodors is not the place to express you political views! There are plenty of newsgroups and chat rooms where you may go and chat or post your political views! LET'S KEEP ON THE TOPIC -TRAVEL AND TRAVEL RELATED TOPICS!!!!

anon

Bob, you must be some kind of control freak. People can discuss anything that they want to. Get a grip and try to refrain from telling people what to do. And stop yelling at us!

x

Sorry ANON or is that ASSANON??? I agree with Bob. This is a travel forum, not a debate board for politics. There are boards all over the internet for debating political viewpoints. And, why is it when someone tries to get everyone back on to travel they are labeled control freak, fodors nazis etc? Sounds to me like you are one the who has the control problem? Or are you a "geek" with no socialization skills who enjoys watching everyone flame each other??

It's not me

Gee, I wonder if "x" and "Bob" could possibly be the same person. Look at the style of the LETTER (if that gives you a hint). Oh, and by the way, I'm not "Anon." Of course, I'm the only one who actually knows this since Fodors doesn't make you register to post.

Ciao

Friday

Sorry Bob and anon (same, probably).
I've frequented this board for a couple years and you're never going to succeed in squelching the 'side discussions'.
There's plenty of good travel info and discussion here.
But what keeps this board popular is the nice mix of travel AND side discussion. If you could somehow immediately edit out all messages not specifically relating to travel, you'd see readership plummet and the board would fail to attract regular posters.

Sorry if that rubs you the wrong way, but that's just the way it is here.

Stella

I just scrolled down through the first 50 messages and almost every one was a travel question. I often enjoy the ones that stray off the topic, and if I don't enjoy them, I don't read them (I certainly don't respond to them!).

I WISH I were going to spend my refund on travel (THANKS GEORGE!), but I think it's going to help pay for a new kitchen floor. That may help the economy a little!

No Bleeding Heart

Our $600 check arrived Saturday. Praise be! It's going into savings today, to be used whenever.

xxx

traveling to bank,by car, to cash it,then on to local Home Depot to purchase SOME more shingles to fix leaking roof....

L

Yikes, $600 from W. and it's all mine ... well, my partner gets her share. And my pay check went up a few cents recently. I'm in fat city. I have those 5 or 6 interest rate cuts, courtesy of Alan, I got my W. refund, I got a faith-based administration cheering me on .... what I don't got is my map to Wal-Mart where they are desperately awaiting me and my check. If I don't make a big impact out there, some more of the faithful women will have to be let go. So, I was staying awake last night, all thrilled and in a dither about how I shall splurge and squander my tax refund from Georgie. That's our Bush!! Ciao

Cindy

I think I'll send it right back to W with September's quarterly tax payment. Just endorse the darn thing over, I guess.

Robin

My wife and I are going to use the $600. for spending money in New Orleans on our vacation in October. We already had our vacation money saved but this will make it even more fun!! Big Easy here we come!!

Texan

My vote is not for sale for $300 and I hope people will see this "refund" for what it is. After all, they spent millions to send out notices that we were getting $300-600--real intelligent. Mine will go to fight the polluters.

Accountant

Bet alot of you don't realize that your tax refund requires taxes be taken out of the $600 in most states! Don't think you got $600 and go blow it, you probably are only going to net about $400 after taxes taken out. many people don't realize that this tax refund is taxable income for states just like lottery winnings. Though you guys might want to know!

Calculator

Accountant, are you sure you got that math right? If the check is $600 and the after-tax amount is $400, that would be state tax rate of 33 percent. Our state taxes are nowhere near that level.

Suzy

Well, we had to ante up almost $2500 to pay our taxes last year. And that was after the hugh amounts they took out of my husband and my paychecks all last year. So the $600 will only replenish a portion of the money we took out of our savings account to finish paying uncle sam.