Results 1 to 27 of 27

Thread: Elon Musk calls out Elizabeth Warren: "If you could die by irony, she would be dead"

  1. #1

    Elon Musk calls out Elizabeth Warren: "If you could die by irony, she would be dead"

    I'm starting to like Elon Musk after his interview the other day:

    "he struck first, obviously. She called me a freeloader and a grifter who doesn’t pay taxes, basically," Musk said of Warren in an interview with satirical website the Babylon Bee published Wednesday. "I’m literally paying the most tax than any individual in history has ever paid this year, ever, and she doesn’t pay taxes, basically. And her salary is paid for by the taxpayer like me. If you could die by irony, she would be dead."



  2. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  3. #2
    Last edited by Occam's Banana; 02-22-2022 at 10:36 PM. Reason: replaced tweet with image
    The Bastiat Collection · FREE PDF · FREE EPUB · PAPER
    Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)

    • "When law and morality are in contradiction to each other, the citizen finds himself in the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense, or of losing his respect for the law."
      -- The Law (p. 54)
    • "Government is that great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
      -- Government (p. 99)
    • "[W]ar is always begun in the interest of the few, and at the expense of the many."
      -- Economic Sophisms - Second Series (p. 312)
    • "There are two principles that can never be reconciled - Liberty and Constraint."
      -- Harmonies of Political Economy - Book One (p. 447)

    · tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito ·

  4. #3
    How is it Warren isn't paying Taxes?

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Occam's Banana View Post
    I like him, too.

    https://twitter.com/Chesschick01/sta...66704715329542
    "Could you explain that last part?"

    Here, honey, let me help you: given a situation in which no crimes have been committed, a policeman can hit you over the head and you can go to jail (because he "had to" hit you over the head!) But the other way around will never happen. That's the essence of a monopoly on violence...
    Jer. 11:18-20. "The Kingdom of God has come upon you." -- Matthew 12:28

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by VIDEODROME View Post
    How is it Warren isn't paying Taxes?
    Her paycheck is written on Federal tax revenues. Federal employees don't pay Federal income taxes on income they earn from the Federal government.
    Jer. 11:18-20. "The Kingdom of God has come upon you." -- Matthew 12:28

  7. #6
    This whole interview is quite good:

    Jer. 11:18-20. "The Kingdom of God has come upon you." -- Matthew 12:28

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by VIDEODROME View Post
    How is it Warren isn't paying Taxes?
    Basically, what ClaytonB said.

    To clarify, though, Musk should have said "she doesn’t pay federal income taxes" instead of just "she doesn’t pay taxes"

    People (like Warren) who draw a salary from the federal government do "pay federal income tax", but only in the sense that they fill out federal tax forms and submit them to the IRS - and maybe they even write out a check to the Treasury Department. But any such payment is merely a reduction of what they had already been given by the Treasury Department in the first place.

    IOW: The federal income tax that they supposedly "pay" is just a "bounce back" transfer of money from the federal government to a person (like Warren) and then back to itself again. It might as well not have happened at all, for all the difference it makes. They give her some money, and then she gives some (but not all) of it right back to them. The net effect of this is that Warren does not pay federal income tax on her salary as a U.S. senator. Neither does anyone else who gets a paycheck from the feds. Their federal income tax "payments" are just a formality. Effectively, they were never really paid the part that they "pay back".

    IOOW: Federal income tax "paid" by federal paycheck receivers is not a source of income for the federal government. It's just money that the federal government already had to begin with - with a bunch of extra paperwork thrown in for the sake of appearances.
    Last edited by Occam's Banana; 12-23-2021 at 09:10 PM.

  9. #8
    Musk calling Warren Senator Karen is probably the hardest I've laughed in a long time.
    "Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration is minding my own business."

    Calvin Coolidge



  10. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  11. #9
    "And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

    "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Occam's Banana View Post
    But any such payment is merely a reduction of what they had already been given by the Treasury Department in the first place.
    Not really. If Warren or any other federal employee has other types of income (e.g., interest, dividends, book royalties, speaking fees, etc.) the tax paid on such income isn't attributable to the salary paid. I suspect Warren's income from other sources is larger than her salary.

    If a federal employee has deductions that are large enough he or she might not pay any income tax on salary. It would be a very strange employment arrangement to lower someone's salary because of non-empoyment-related activity.

    The bottom line is that with respect to the federal income tax a federal employee is in the same economic situation as a worker in the private sector -- each has less take-home money. Calling it a reduction in salary instead of a tax is just a rhetorical device that could be construed as a claim that government employees get preferential treatment when it comes to the federal income tax.*

    Moreover, the theory that a government employee doesn't pay federal income tax is at odds with the notion (shrilly espoused by many on this site) that taxation is theft. After all, if the tax paid by such an employee is merely a reduction in salary then taxing it can't be theft because the employee voluntarily entered into the employment arrangement.

    * This isn't to say that government employees (especially Congressmen) don't get preferential treatment in other areas. There is merit to the argument that Congress should never pass a generally-applicable law that its members and their staff aren't also subject to.

    In addition, as a legal matter the claim that an income tax is essentially a reduction in salary is baseless. About 100 years ago a federal judge made that same argument and claimed that taxing his salary violated Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution, which prohibits reducing the compensation of a federal judge. Although the Supreme Court initially agreed with this argument and held federal judges' salaries were exempt from federal taxation it reversed itself 19 years later and held that federal judges' salaries were taxable just like anyone else's compensation.
    Last edited by Sonny Tufts; 12-26-2021 at 06:07 PM.
    We have long had death and taxes as the two standards of inevitability. But there are those who believe that death is the preferable of the two. "At least," as one man said, "there's one advantage about death; it doesn't get worse every time Congress meets."
    Erwin N. Griswold

    Taxes: Of life's two certainties, the only one for which you can get an automatic extension.
    Anonymous

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Sonny Tufts View Post

    The bottom line is that with respect to the federal income tax a federal employee is in the same economic situation as a worker in the private sector -- each has less take-home money. Calling it a reduction in salary instead of a tax is just a rhetorical device that could be construed as a claim that government employees get preferential treatment when it comes to the federal income tax.*

    Moreover, the theory that a government employee doesn't pay federal income tax is at odds with the notion (shrilly espoused by many on this site) that taxation is theft. After all, if the tax paid by such an employee is merely a reduction in salary then taxing it can't be theft because the employee voluntarily entered into the employment arrangement.
    Wrong.

    Suppose she gets paid 100K and then pays 20k in taxes. That means she has reduced the "government pot" by 80k. Compare that with a private sector worker who makes 100k and pays 20k in taxes. The private sector worker has increased the government pot by 20k. Who's the freeloader?

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Madison320 View Post
    Wrong.

    Suppose she gets paid 100K and then pays 20k in taxes. That means she has reduced the "government pot" by 80k. Compare that with a private sector worker who makes 100k and pays 20k in taxes. The private sector worker has increased the government pot by 20k. Who's the freeloader?
    How has she reduced the government pot? The government got $100K in services for which it paid $100K. It broke even. It then gets $20K in taxes, just like it does with respect to a private sector worker.
    We have long had death and taxes as the two standards of inevitability. But there are those who believe that death is the preferable of the two. "At least," as one man said, "there's one advantage about death; it doesn't get worse every time Congress meets."
    Erwin N. Griswold

    Taxes: Of life's two certainties, the only one for which you can get an automatic extension.
    Anonymous

  15. #13

  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Occam's Banana View Post
    honestly
    A savage barbaric tribal society where thugs parade the streets and illegally assault and murder innocent civilians, yeah that is the alternative to having police. Oh wait, that is the police

    We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
    - Edward R. Murrow

    ...I think we have moral obligations to disobey unjust laws, because non-cooperation with evil is as much as a moral obligation as cooperation with good. - MLK Jr.

    How to trigger a liberal: "I didn't get vaccinated."

  17. #15
    When did the guy who seems to have built a car company on inside information that the government was about to try to outlaw internal combustion, and has been living since on NASA's budget, become a paragon of free market capitalist virtue?
    Quote Originally Posted by wizardwatson View Post
    ...sad that this man's greatness is defined by the hatred he attracts and this is why Americans love him.

  18. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by acptulsa View Post
    When did the guy who seems to have built a car company on inside information that the government was about to try to outlaw internal combustion, and has been living since on NASA's budget, become a paragon of free market capitalist virtue?
    No one said Musk is a "paragon of free market capitalist virtue", because he isn't.

    But there's nothing wrong with exploiting "insider information", he spends NASA's money at least as well as NASA ever did, and he calls out fools like Elizabeth Warren and Robert Reich for what they are.



  19. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  20. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by acptulsa View Post
    When did the guy who seems to have built a car company on inside information that the government was about to try to outlaw internal combustion, and has been living since on NASA's budget, become a paragon of free market capitalist virtue?
    Yeah, I've said the same thing but it's all relative. Compared to Warren he IS a paragon of free market capitalist virtue. Besides that the US leans socialist so it's almost impossible to run a successful business without taking advantage of government freebies. If you don't your competitors will and they'll put you out of business.

  21. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Sonny Tufts View Post
    How has she reduced the government pot? The government got $100K in services for which it paid $100K. It broke even. It then gets $20K in taxes, just like it does with respect to a private sector worker.
    Providing a "government service", even if it was productive, is not adding to the pot.

    If your "logic" was correct there's be no need for taxes at all, the government would just "break even" as you claim.

  22. #19
    Elon Musk is the brand of $#@! that when I look at him I feel I am looking in a mirror.

    There is something good to be said about men who call them as they see them. Trump is like this, only less artful, which has proven a tremendous problem for him. I'd still rather him as he is than some slick production attempting to slip me the willie. Hi Michelle!
    freedomisobvious.blogspot.com

    There is only one correct way: freedom. All other solutions are non-solutions.

    It appears that artificial intelligence is at least slightly superior to natural stupidity.

    Our words make us the ghosts that we are.

    Convincing the world he didn't exist was the Devil's second greatest trick; the first was convincing us that God didn't exist.

  23. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by CaptUSA View Post
    This is hilarious, a satire site has taken on the role of actual journalism
    It's all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work, whether it's fitness or whatever. It's about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.
    - Kim Kardashian

    Donald Trump / Crenshaw 2024!!!!

    My pronouns are he/him/his

  24. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by Madison320 View Post
    Providing a "government service", even if it was productive, is not adding to the pot.

    If your "logic" was correct there's be no need for taxes at all, the government would just "break even" as you claim.
    The government breaks even only because it has tax revenues with which to pay its employees, who aren't about to work for free.
    We have long had death and taxes as the two standards of inevitability. But there are those who believe that death is the preferable of the two. "At least," as one man said, "there's one advantage about death; it doesn't get worse every time Congress meets."
    Erwin N. Griswold

    Taxes: Of life's two certainties, the only one for which you can get an automatic extension.
    Anonymous

  25. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Sonny Tufts View Post
    The government breaks even only because it has tax revenues with which to pay its employees, who aren't about to work for free.
    I'd be a Senator for free, or at least at no cost to the government. The real money is in the speeches, book deals, and regulatory revolving doors.
    It's all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work, whether it's fitness or whatever. It's about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.
    - Kim Kardashian

    Donald Trump / Crenshaw 2024!!!!

    My pronouns are he/him/his

  26. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Sonny Tufts View Post
    The government breaks even only because it has tax revenues with which to pay its employees, who aren't about to work for free.
    Yeah, tax revenues from guys like Elon Musk. All government employees are freeloaders, that is they take money out of the pot. I'm not an anarchist so I recognize that some freeloaders are necessary. But they are still freeloaders. That it why Elon Musk is 100% accurate in his criticism of Elizabeth Warren.

  27. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Madison320 View Post
    Yeah, tax revenues from guys like Elon Musk. All government employees are freeloaders, that is they take money out of the pot. I'm not an anarchist so I recognize that some freeloaders are necessary. But they are still freeloaders. That it why Elon Musk is 100% accurate in his criticism of Elizabeth Warren.
    Then you'll need to explain why a government worker who provides the same type of service as a worker in the private sector is a freeloader, while the latter isn't. Since you concede that certain government employees are necessary it won't do to answer that their services are worthless.

    In other words, the term "freeloader" usually means someone who mooches off someone else without providing anything in return. So you'll need to explain why, say, a construction worker who works on a project at the Smithsonian and gets paid is a freeloader while he wouldn't be if he were working on the same project for a private museum.

    Btw, I'm no fan of Warren's.
    We have long had death and taxes as the two standards of inevitability. But there are those who believe that death is the preferable of the two. "At least," as one man said, "there's one advantage about death; it doesn't get worse every time Congress meets."
    Erwin N. Griswold

    Taxes: Of life's two certainties, the only one for which you can get an automatic extension.
    Anonymous



  28. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  29. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by Sonny Tufts View Post
    In other words, the term "freeloader" usually means someone who mooches off someone else without providing anything in return. So you'll need to explain why, say, a construction worker who works on a project at the Smithsonian and gets paid is a freeloader while he wouldn't be if he were working on the same project for a private museum.

    Btw, I'm no fan of Warren's.
    Because he paid Warren thousands in brib er, I mean campaign contributions to ensure he got the contract for three times the currency that any private museum would have paid.
    Quote Originally Posted by wizardwatson View Post
    ...sad that this man's greatness is defined by the hatred he attracts and this is why Americans love him.

  30. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by Sonny Tufts View Post
    Then you'll need to explain why a government worker who provides the same type of service as a worker in the private sector is a freeloader, while the latter isn't. Since you concede that certain government employees are necessary it won't do to answer that their services are worthless.

    In other words, the term "freeloader" usually means someone who mooches off someone else without providing anything in return. So you'll need to explain why, say, a construction worker who works on a project at the Smithsonian and gets paid is a freeloader while he wouldn't be if he were working on the same project for a private museum.

    Btw, I'm no fan of Warren's.
    Well for one thing the public construction worker gets paid by money that was stolen, the private construction worker gets paid voluntarily.

    Besides that Elizabeth Warren is a double whammy, not only does she damage the economy with her salary that has to be stolen, she then turns around and wrecks the economy with the laws she passes.

  31. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by Madison320 View Post
    Well for one thing the public construction worker gets paid by money that was stolen, the private construction worker gets paid voluntarily.
    But in both cases the worker provides a valuable service in exchange for his pay, so neither is a freeloader.

    The view that taxes are stolen is a debatable philosophical topic, but it has absolutely no legal basis and has nothing to do with freeloading. Do some people freeload off of tax revenue? Of course they do -- but the guy who does a paint job at a government office ain't one of them.

    Quote Originally Posted by acptulsa View Post
    Because he paid Warren thousands in brib er, I mean campaign contributions to ensure he got the contract for three times the currency that any private museum would have paid.
    The guy who actually does the work can't afford to make campaign contributions to a Senator in the hopes that he or she will use his or her influence to get him the job. And if he's an in-house employee, he doesn't need to.
    We have long had death and taxes as the two standards of inevitability. But there are those who believe that death is the preferable of the two. "At least," as one man said, "there's one advantage about death; it doesn't get worse every time Congress meets."
    Erwin N. Griswold

    Taxes: Of life's two certainties, the only one for which you can get an automatic extension.
    Anonymous



Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 4
    Last Post: 04-30-2020, 06:29 PM
  2. Replies: 6
    Last Post: 04-17-2020, 09:24 PM
  3. The "Una Nation" Tribe in Oregon Offers Elizabeth Warren Membership
    By Origanalist in forum U.S. Political News
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 02-28-2019, 09:45 PM
  4. Editorials: "Actually, Elizabeth Warren is a terrible candidate" & "Shut Up, Elizabeth Warren"
    By RandallFan in forum 2016 Presidential Election: GOP & Dem
    Replies: 28
    Last Post: 08-18-2018, 02:41 PM
  5. Replies: 1
    Last Post: 04-25-2015, 05:08 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •