Tax the Rich

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Originally Posted by Bruno

Oh, and plenty of people in the US cannot pay their bills. Not because they are lazy / big spenders, but because they a) don't have a job, or b) had some kind of misfortune (like a medical emergency) which takes away all their money in one swoop. Don't talk like poverty is voluntary or doesn't exist structurally.

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I have an internet friend. I have known her for years. She lives in Alabama and has 3 kids. She is a Veteran. She recently remarried....and she infuriates me.

I once asked her what her job was, the answer, "my kids are my job." She has a house, a cell phone, at least 3 computers with a fast connection, and spends her whole life playing World of Warcraft. Her new husband also doesn't have a job. Working at Walmart made his back hurt so he quit.

Alabama is a very poor state. It should not be possible for her to do all she does on welfare, yet she does and gets a lot of free medical from the Veterans hospitals. I know she has at least two cell phones.

Knowing her is where my extreme skepticism about our welfare system and the so called "poor" comes from.

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Originally Posted by OCDshaver

This is the kind of talk that serves the purpose of fueling class warfare no matter how much humor was intended. In these tax negotiations what all of us should be asking of both sides is simple - does your plan deliver a balanced budget? Mr. Obama, do you plan to tax the rich to the point of balancing this years budget? Mr. Boehner, do you plan to cut spending to balance this years budget? I think you'll find neither side is doing enough to accomplish this goal. The Tea Party is often mislabeled as being "extreme" in its conservatism. One of their core beliefs is that we should have a Constitutional amendment that requires a balanced budget. Isn't that radical? Isn't that extreme? It leaves open the possibility that either side can tax the hell out of the rich for social programs or cut everything and bring tax rates to zero. The public can decide every two years what they prefer. But in the end, a balanced budget must be accomplished. As long as we continue to have these discussions on the back of US credit, we will be forever distracted by this three card monty that is being played or distracted by the class warfare used to prey on our emotions. When we get to the point of this level of fiscal responsibility, I believe the rest will sort itself out. But until we commit to a fully balanced budget, the shell game will continue.

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How can you balance the budget when there is no budget? Obama and Reed haven't even proposed a budget in 4 years.

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Originally Posted by WillN

No one in Washington is doing a very good job of any of those either with the exception of defense, I'll give them that much so far.

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You must be joking, unless you think that when a country with two of its borders being vast oceans is doing a good job spending 40% of what the whole world spends on 'defense', 5 times more than the next biggest spender and more than the next 13 countries combined, when such a country spends that much money and still isn't able to protect its borders, while fighting all sorts of wars on behalf of other people thousands of miles away, unless you think that this is doing a good job.

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

It doesn't much matter how well written a law is. Even if it is black and white, as I've said before, once smart lawyers get a hold of the laws and get into court black and white turns to grey and then mud.

Besides, who writes our laws? Lobbyists mostly or staff people influenced by lobbyists.

The Tax codes are thousands of pages long and they could cut all that to probably a couple hundred pages and that would cover 95% of the population. The rest is for wealthy and businesses and corporations.

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You don't have to be too much of a smart lawyer if what say about lobbyists and staff are true. They already gave you the road map when they wrote the laws. Yea, it is a rigged game.

Bob

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Originally Posted by Crotalus

How can you balance the budget when there is no budget? Obama and Reed haven't even proposed a budget in 4 years.

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You really ought to cut on the kool aid, it's not good for you and makes you look funny. I'll give you a hint, since this particular type of misinformation is a recurring issue with you - all the bills, including the budget proposals are available online.

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Originally Posted by gugi

You really ought to cut on the kool aid, it's not good for you and makes you look funny. I'll give you a hint, since this particular type of misinformation is a recurring issue with you - all the bills, including the budget proposals are available online.

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Ok, I stand corrected. Obama did propose a budget last year, but it was so bad it got ZERO votes.

Okay how about this, if you make less than $30,000 you don't pay income tax. If you make more but less than 50,000 then you would pay X, 100,000 2 times X, and so forth up to $1 million, at which point you would pay a higher rate than the rest. If you are lucky enough to make more than that then you would pay the equivalent amount in taxes but and I do mean But, the government cannot keep spending and printing money that we don't have. Make them live within their means, like the rest of us. It doesn't sound that far-fetched and it seems to make sense to me at least. As far as loopholes. I'm not really sure of all of them are bad but I'm not a financial expert, but it doesn't make sense to me that if I inherit $50,000 that my father saved and paid taxes on why should I have to pay taxes on them again? This is double dipping isn't it?
Another way to keep people in Washington honest, which we will never see his term limits on Congressman and Senators and other professional politicians and make them live by the same rules we do. I don't think our founding fathers meant for these professional politicians to be above the law. It's just that I think there is a serious lack of common sense and personal responsibility these days. And as far as personal responsibility goes if someone's down on their luck then there should be a way to help them, but there are also professional leeches who know how to game the system get food stamps collect welfare still live a reasonably good life, without paying any taxes or working, if these people can be rooted out and held accountable. That certainly wouldn't hurt. As I said, I am no financial expert, but these just seem to be common sense rules that all of us should live by. Just my humble opinion.

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Originally Posted by gugi

You must be joking, unless you think that when a country with two of its borders being vast oceans is doing a good job spending 40% of what the whole world spends on 'defense', 5 times more than the next biggest spender and more than the next 13 countries combined, when such a country spends that much money and still isn't able to protect its borders, while fighting all sorts of wars on behalf of other people thousands of miles away, unless you think that this is doing a good job.

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I did say it with a little sarcasm, but my original thought was that we have for the most part done a fair job of keeping America out of an armed domestic conflict.

I do however agree with you that we have done a terrible job at securing our borders. Your point is valid and well taken about the borders. There is no excuse in not having this done quite some time back.

Will N.

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Originally Posted by WillN

I did say it with a little sarcasm, but my original thought was that we have for the most part done a fair job of keeping America out of an armed domestic conflict.

I do however agree with you that we have done a terrible job at securing our borders. Your point is valid and well taken about the borders. There is no excuse in not having this done quite some time back.

Will N.

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I'll say your borders are a bit leaky Romanian illegals trying to sneak into Canada caught at Quebec border | Canada | News | Toronto Sun and ours too.

Bob

You all know, one of the countries with the biggest problem of folks sneaking into the country is Mexico.

Keep in mind, though everyone wants to cut the size of Govt and it seems like a great idea, the reason Govt has grown so much is either in response to what people want or to deal with issues mostly caused by the private sector acting badly.

So you want to cut farm subsidies and your a farmer? You want to do away with the mine safety people and your a miner? You want to cut the FDA and you brother gets bad medicine and dies? Everyone wants to see cuts as long as it's not their interests being affected.