I wonder how AA will do in the next several years?  Asking since they didn’t so great with airline travel booming the last couple years and, if I’m a betting man, we see a little bit of a slow down in the next couple of years.  

If the Trump/GOP don’t lower the deficit then it was all a joke.  I get how they want to “increase spending at a lower rate” compared to the Dems, but this is the same nonsense they (the GOP) have done before.  If someone wants to know where I stand, look at what Massie says and I’m sure I’m close to his position.

18 hours ago, Lord Ratner said:

Rumor mill is that American Airlines is halting new hire classes after March 4th. 

 

 

Well, last fall they publicly said they would hire 2K in 2025, then around the holidays it was said closer to 1500, then I think at the latest conference people were hearing closer to 1K-1.2K.  Delta also went from around 1K, to 700-800, to a little over 500.  BL:  It’s not going to be some hiring boom year.  If AA is going to pause new hire classes after a week, then those with original class dates afterwards will probably find out in the next 1-2 weeks, so we’ll know soon.

18 minutes ago, Banzai said:

But we do know the answer to what you would have done.

Nice try at a save lol.

3 hours ago, Banzai said:

Did you refuse to accept your COVID stimulus checks because you oppose government spending? If you didn’t, then why not?

I never got a Covid stimulus check…but nice try.

2 hours ago, 17D_guy said:

Been hearing about the debt my entire life with promises from Reagan on down to fix it. During that time the wealth divide increased and middle class families that could afford to have a parent at home have been disappearing. Real wages and purchasing power for normal Americans (not you or I) have gone down.

Only a Democratic President balanced the budget and ran a surplus. Trump added more to the deficit before Covid with his cuts. The latest R funding bill adds more to the deficit. But wrap yourself in the "party of fiscal responsibility" while Trump wastes millions golfing more than Obama ever did.

Did you voluntarily return your tax cut under Trump to pay to reduce the debt?  If you didn’t, then why not?

Best news I’ve heard all day!

4 hours ago, nsplayr said:

Actively abandoning our allies in Europe to appease a Russian dictator who’s already instigated several hot wars in Europe, including an ongoing one!

If this is what’s required for “peace” in Ukraine I’m a hard, hard no. NATO allies are allies and if we want to have U.S. troops there for our mutual benefit then Putin can fuck right off. If Russia wanted domination of Europe they should have won the Cold War rather than lost it.

Perhaps, wait for it…Europe could defend…Europe.  This is not the late 1940s after much of Europe was destroyed during WW2 and we were wanting to hold back communism.  Germany is one of the strongest economies in the world, but yet they “can’t” defend themselves and the neighbors?…no, the reality is that they would rather spend their money elsewhere.  We’ve been the fool for far too long and spending anything less than what we’re currently doing is a step in the right direction.

5 hours ago, nsplayr said:

Latest I saw was everyone survived, 2x in critical but stable condition, several other less serious injuries. Thank god everyone lived! Next time they really gotta remember to land right side up.

At least the gear is down and this was their intended destination, amirite C-17 bros? 😁

This from a nav…

12 minutes ago, Banzai said:

Your assertions about how relatively progressive our tax system is is not backed up by the data.

https://ourworldindata.org/income-inequality-before-and-after-taxes

 

You lost me at “income inequality”…it’s called life, and some people are just better at it than others.  Sorry, but if you’re a progressive who believe in more social programs than less, then you’re right, we’re definitely not going to agree on much.  

2 minutes ago, Banzai said:

I am for high earners paying a proportionally higher amount of their income or net worth in taxes, yes. It’s called progressive taxation, and it is highly popular. And I’m bothered that rich people and corporations don’t pay enough in taxes, just like 60-80% of Americans:

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/07/top-tax-frustrations-for-americans-the-feeling-that-some-corporations-wealthy-people-dont-pay-fair-share/

This forum will be biased, but it is not reflective of broader American views.

I think we’re at a stopping point here. I acknowledge your views. But I think they are over simplistic and I disagree with them.

The problem with socialism is the eventually you run out do other people’s money.  We already have a very progressive tax system and yet we’re extremely in debt…but sure, let’s just do more of it.  And have you seen the average American today?—yeah, not what I would call a model example of thriving society.

14 minutes ago, Banzai said:

When it comes to funding society, everything is about giving/taking from people based on their income/wealth. You just believe it should be done differently (in a way that I would argue would have negative second and third order effects).

For example, if we went to a tariff based tax system, the poor would have to pay significantly more of a percentage of their net worth or income to taxes than the rich. 

Again, we have too much welfare and federal spending as it is…and the poorest don’t pay federal income taxes, and if they work, they actually get paid by the IRS, so don’t give me the “poor pay too much in federal income taxes” BS.  Compare apples to apples and tell me what percentage of revenue received from federal income taxes are paid by the top 20% of earners vs the bottom half of earners.  You’re just for more social programs, paid by higher earners, and I am for less.  

1 minute ago, Banzai said:

Then do you think we as citizens of the USA don’t have a duty to the debt we have accumulated? Who does?

You didn’t say anything abut debt, you originally were taking a hit giving/taking from people based on their income/wealth.

As for the debt, yep, I’m all for reducing it as much as possible by reducing spending.  We have a spending problem, not a tax problem.

12 minutes ago, Banzai said:

How is giving more money to the owning class and taking away resources from the working class going to get us back to the affordability you claim existed in the 1940s?

Reducing taxes on people who make more money is not “giving” them anything…it was their money to begin with.  And “taking away” from the poor is not taking anything from them as was never their resources to begin with.

With regards to progressives complaining about the cuts, this is nothing new.  In 2013 Pelosi said there wasn’t room to cut anything…and now we’re paying for DEI stuff overseas, promoting trans nonsense in other countries, paying hotels for illegals here in the US, on and on.  It’s almost hard to fathom how the left is defending this crap, but that’s just who they are/how they think.

https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-now/2013/09/pelosi-says-the-cupboard-is-bare-173214

Progressives are upset that Trump is doing a lot of what he said he would do, and yet, non-progressives are supposed to be upset as well?  And I love the “unconstitutional” part of what Trump is doing…this is their new catchphrase since the Musk Nazi-salute nonsense didn’t work.

^^^Too funny coming from the guy who said Biden was doing a good job as president

4 hours ago, Sua Sponte said:

No, it was the irony of the party that prides itself on being fiscal responsible is slashing the government then proposing to increase the budget and spend more. You just randomly came in with a false equivalency for whatever reason assuming I’d defend whatever progressives allegedly do.

Perhaps we’re talking past each other.  I’m for cutting waste, cutting overall spending, and cutting taxes.  I’m probably one of the few on here who is for cutting welfare and the defense budget.  As for social security and Medicare, that Ponzi scheme was never going to work and was doomed to failed, just like any other Ponzi scheme.  

18 minutes ago, Sua Sponte said:

You know both can be wrong, right? Of course you did. Does the government need to be cutdown? Sure. Does it need an autistic technicrat who’s a defense contractor of all things data mining American’s data to run through his Grok 2.0 AI with this band of college aged broccoli haired retards named “Big Balls” shutting down agencies without authority to do so? No. Conduct auditing with qualified people who can conduct auditing. 

But hey, at least Elon’s government contracts are doing great!

https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/FY25-Procurement-Forecast.xlsx (NAISC Code 311999)

SpaceX also was awarded a $38M contract yesterday. 

So, a CEO of multiple government contractors will be “auditing” competing government contractors? But don’t worry, he said he’ll recuse himself of any conflict, all is good.

Your original post was about “tax cuts for billionaires”, was it not?  So if those progressives who are against tax cuts, my question is why don’t these same progressives give back their tax cuts to the government?  Your response above literally had nothing to do with the tax cuts.

19 minutes ago, Sua Sponte said:

Elon and Trump have to find that $4T in tax cuts that are set to expire this year for their billionaire friends. Here’s the House’s proposed budget with…a $3.3T increase!

https://docs.house.gov/meetings/BU/BU00/20250213/117894/BILLS-119NAih.pdf

Funny how progressives never give back their savings from tax cuts back to the government…

Tulsi is in.  Curious as to what she’ll do in the next several weeks now that she’s in charge of the intel community.  The intel community/progressives were fervently against her so there must be a reason they were so worried.

28 minutes ago, nsplayr said:

Well thank god we got all the big problems at the FAA all ironed out and  now have time to focus on these administrative details!

 

Then why was the previous administration so focused on changing it?

6 minutes ago, KWings06j said:

Fairly certain they have VHF. Every Blackhawk variant I've been in had it. Not uncommon for busy airspace to have a dedicated helicopter frequency regardless. 

Yep…(checks own username)—I agree.