Barrack Obama has announced the creation of a task force to help middle class Americans,does anybody know what this task force will cost?

Manpower!

snide comment about manpower being free.

I mean if there is the same furore like the Lady who has 14 kids.
Are taxes going to be used up at the expense of the lower or upper classes?
Tut Tut,selective entitlement of welfare.

What do you mean by cost? In wages to the people on the force? In opportunity where they could have been doing something else?

@oasis you wrote “Tut Tut, selective entitlement of welfare.” What does that mean?

@oasis Hubuwha?! More details please.

Perhaps a link to a story that explains this “task force”.

It would seem that to put money into welfare causes is not acceptable if you have fourteen kids,yet ok to spend millions on a so called “task force” only for the middle class is acceptable.

@cprevite,i only ever do my own research.No offense.

So, you have no other references for this task force beyond “your own research”?

Well, Oasis, I have to say I am still a bit confused by your question and your follow-up, but I will say this: over the past 8 years, there has been a widening gap between the rich and the poor. Most economists and political theorists will tell you that a strong middle-class is the pre-condition for a strong democracy. If, as seems to be case, our middle class has been eroding, then a White House task force to investigate the problem and offer solutions seems to be an excellent idea.

Methinks Oasis is clarifying the Republican “every man for himself,” er I mean “Personal responsibility” mindset by pointing out that surely there’s no difference between helping the person who works his whole life, never asks for anything from the government until extraordinary hard times hit and he needs a helping hand, and that of a woman on welfare who already has 6 kids she can’t support, who decided to take fertility treatments knowing that multiple births almost always occur with them so that she can have an indeterminate number of additional mouths to feed but no additional way to feed them.

I think your best bet is to realize that Oasis is of the Grover Norquist variety of “Republican” who thinks we should abolish taxes and let everyone support themselves…you’ll waste less time arguing with a lost cause that way.

Places I’ve lived: ENGLAND FOREVER

Why don’t you let us worry about our finances. You can start complaining about what we spend our money on when we start dropping bombs on you.

I HATE that word. TASK FORCE?!?!?!

The difference is, the dollars spent on a woman on welfare with 14 kids are going to have much less of an impact on the national economy than the dollars spent on a task force to study the problems the middle class is having and to recommend solutions.

Spending money to support a woman with 14 kids and extremely poor judgment is part of the expense of being a humane society. Spending money to figure out how to raise the overall standard of living is an investment.

For 2007, the IRS reports that it collected $1.37 billion. If the task force spends $35 million and causes a 0.5% increase in taxable income, it will have paid for itself. If it spends less than that—well, you’re intelligent, you can do the math yourself.

Here’s a link to the article about the Middle Class Task Force which sounds to me like Obama is saying he’s going to ask his economic team to focus on the needs of the middle class and those who aspire to be in the middle class when crafting economic policy. Essentially he’s giving job direction to people who are already being paid, so cost – $0.00. However, in focusing on the needs of the middle class and poor instead of the needs of businesses, they will make decisions differently than they’ve been made in the last 28 years. Ultimately, what will the impact of that be on revenues and expenditures and overall economic prosperity for the citizens of the US is probably the more important question, and these things are so complex that people will still be arguing over them long after each of us has drawn his last breath.

My belief is that the middle class is where the people are, if you make them prosper, the whole nation prospers, so I think the benefits will far outstrip the costs, but if you believe that the way to prosperity is through the failed trickle down economic policies that have brought us to where we are now, or through the every man for himself wet dream economic policies ofthe no taxes branch of the right wing, then it’s not for you.

Powell,never belive what you read,and regards the bombs,maybe just maybe we would fire back!!!
Go away and pick your victims

I think this sums it up.

Wait, @oasis, “never believe what you read.” Really?

Well, now that’s a paradox. You see, I just read that I should never believe what I read, which means, that I guess I can’t believe that, which means that I should believe what I read, which means…

Oh darn.

Correct

Do not craft a response Michael,i will not believe it!

@cwilbur The Internal Revenue Service, in 2007, collected just a bit more than $1.37 billion. In fact, net collections were more like $2.4 trillion. Income tax alone was $1.2 trillion.

See here: http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/compliancestats/article/0,,id=97168,00.html

Well @oasis, I only answer questions that can point to facts to back up their claim as opposed to, say, leading questions that are clearly written with an agenda in mind (e.g.. troll).

No offense.

[mod says:] @oasis Avoid chat style behaviour on Fluther. Posts like “Do not craft a response Michael,i will not believe it!” are unacceptable. Back up your claims and ensure that your discussion meets a minimum quality. Read the guidelines for more information.

Can’t cost more than the “help out lower-class Iraqis” debacle.

@PupnTaco,so who do you think gets the contracts to re-build Iraq,no debacle there.uh

@Michael: Whoops, I missed the little line that said “Amounts are in thousands of dollars.”

I went poking around on the IRS site – the spreadsheet said $1.37 trillion in personal income tax, which I thought was the most relevant to the question of increasing the standard of living of the middle class.

Of course, the fact that I was off by a factor of a thousand makes my point even more strongly. Stupid numbers should realize that I am in my heart a humanist, and correct themselves.

Oh, and DUH, the spreadsheet said Fiscal Years 2006 and 2007.

My posting today shows a remarkable level of attention to detail, and thus I am declaring myself entirely qualified to work on Wall Street now.

@cwilbur Indeed! I hereby borrow lurve from all around the Flutherverse and award it to you as a BONUS!

@oasis: I think it was Halliburton and “Big Oil” and the military industry getting the lion’s share of the contracts and the direct benefit; as a middle-class American, I have yet to see any ROI for that war that we funded off the backs of our children and grandchildren.

That’s because you’re looking for the ROI in the wrong bank accounts.

@fireside

Haha, couldn’t have said it better

My point exactly guys.

An arm… and a leg.