To: Rodger Lemonde, August 8 at 10:19 am

Hey Rodger Lemonde:

The miscreants you describe belong to MIPIC,MEDICAL INSURANCE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX.

So when you say:

“Major players in the health and insurance industry are fomenting and feeding fears to get the support of those who would benefit least from a status quo health system.”

I’d say amen brother.  And when you say:

“The operation of the presidency is not driven like a Ferrari, rather like a ponderous oil tanker.
Turning around failed practices takes care, planning, teamwork and time.”

I’d humbly like to add, someone working for we the people & not WALL STREET.

Read My Lips: We Need to Cut Spending.

1. Bring all the troops home from the 170 bases around the world, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Japan.

2. Close down the Department of Education and empower the States to make their own decisions.

That would save 100s of billions right there.

I doubt if the truly rich pay any taxes at all.

In a liberal capitalist economy, the fruits of labor are divided up, not according to contribution, but according to whatever arrangement the participants (laborers, capitalists, governments, bankers, and so on) agree to.  But in bargaining about this arrangement, usually the richer one is, the more power one has, and so the more one can bend the arrangement towards one’s desires and interests.

There are some exceptions to this rule.  During World War 2 and the early years of the Cold War, the capitalists of the U.S. and its satellites were under a lot of pressure from fascists and Communists, and had big wars to fight, which made it advisable to pay the workers enough to keep them from becoming interested in alternate ideologies.  As the Cold War cycled down, however, that need faded away, and that is why we now see a greater difference in income and net worth between the richest and the majority than has existed for a long, long time; maybe than ever.

In short, when you tax the very rich, they simply take it away from those who have less; and so on down the economic food chain, until you reach the point where people have nothing and are kicked around as political footballs.

Simply raising the income tax is not going to change this, because that doesn’t change the power relations.

On raising taxes.

The deficit spending by the Federal Government is one big ponzi scheme.  Paying off current investments (spending) with future investments (taxes).  The concept that the USA can continue to spend more than it “earns” in taxes is ludicrous.  As debt increases, the amount (percentage) of future income needed to cover the interest on that debt increases and eats up an even greater portion of future income (taxes). 

There are at least two areas where taxes could be raised without causing excessive harm to average Americans.

1.  A tax of $.10 (ten cents) on every share and option traded on AMEX, NASDAQ, OTC, and any other stock exchange in America.  This is well within the difference between the bid and asked margins within which the financial companies are currently working.

2.  A tax of $50 per barrel on crude oil punped in the USA or imported into the USA.  This would convert to approximately $1.25 per gallon in increased gas prices and they would still be below where they were last summer.

The income from both these taxes could be earmarked for reducing the national debt and could expire when that debt is reduced to zero.

Obama had a chance to institute these taxes and blame them on the excessive spending of the Bush Administration.  He could even have called them “The George W. Bush excessive spending taxes”.

He has lost the opportunity to do this.

By liecatcher, August 5 at 8:18 pm #

To:rfidler, August 5 at 6:31 pm

Hey rfidler:

Which part of what I said needs clarification?
——-

I’m not rfidler, but as to which part of what you said needs clarification, I’d have to say all of it.  When you write:

“his [Obama’s] main objective is to guarantee the enslavement of America, which is a done deal. ‘Our’
military is ready to crush any uprising & soon Obama will have prisons ready to put the ‘terrorists’ in” you expose yourself as a nutcase. 

Now, if you can come up with data, with chapter and verse, with other than a discombobulated rant, then maybe someone will listen to you.  You have, in other words, a lot of work ahead of you.  Good luck.

To:rfidler, August 5 at 6:31 pm

Hey rfidler:

Which part of what I said needs clarification?

rfidler:

“And last but not least!! Frugal chariot: Pardon my boundless naivete, but, who would protect us from Kim Jong Il, let alone Hugo Chavez, if we disbanded our military? Do you have any knowledge of history?”

You don’t think that for an expenditure of $500-600 billion PER YEAR (do the math: a trillion, give or take, reduced by $400 billion, give or take) that we couldn’t protect ourselves from the likes of N. Korea and Venezuela?  Good grief, what world do you live in?  We spend more money on warmongering shit than roughly the next twenty nations combined, a list that obviously includes China and Russia. 

US financial woes are assignable, since the end of WWII, to unwarranted and outrageous military expenditures and totally bogus wars.  Why is that?  Remember the words of American industrialist (G.E. CEO) and former U.S. Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson, in 1944: “The revulsion against war ... will be an almost insuperable obstacle for us to overcome. For that reason, I am convinced that we must begin now to set the machinery in motion for a permanent wartime economy.”

Do YOU have any knowledge of history, rfidler?

The top marginal tax rate under Ike was 91 or 92% every year he was in office. That got chipped away gradually and the washed up B actor got it down to 28%. It’s now at 35% I think, bump it up to half of what it was under Ike and we’re on our way.

What Obama is trying to pass may do some good but it’s in reality just throwing more money to the leeches that have been making money on denying us care and charging us ever more for what they do approve. Each year the premiums, co pays, deductibles, and out of pocket maximums just keep going up.

Keeping us in an employer based system isn’t good for anyone but the insurance companies. It’s dumb, and an unfair burden for employers in a world economy.

Comprehensive subsidized single payer care is what we need to do, but it won’t happen this time, the money being thrown around to beat it down is just too much, our system of government is terribly broken.

freedom loving american: I paid $150,000 in income tax last year, seriously. How much did you pay?

P.T.: Right of course, but it falls on deaf ears.

Fat Freddy: Brilliant!

Paul_GA: Then you’ll have a bunch of unemployed G.I.s to find work for.

G.Anderson: Right of course, but it falls on deaf ears.

Political Insurgent: Listen. All together now- “Corporations don’t pay taxes, their customers do.” (e.g., If you raised Exxon’s taxes by ten cents a gallon, the price at the pump would go up ten cents. Honestly.)

hippie4ever: I paid $150,000 in income tax last year, seriously. How much did you pay?

Anarcissie: Thank you.

voice of truth: Thank you, thank you, thank you!

liecatcher: Please clarify.

And last but not least!! Frugal chariot: Pardon my boundless naivete, but, who would protect us from Kim Jong Il, let alone Hugo Chavez, if we disbanded our military? Do you have any knowledge of history?

CUT “DEFENSE” SPENDING!  My god, it’s so bleedin’ SIMPLE!  There’s at LEAST $400 billion PER YEAR waiting there to be used for something other than warmongering—close to $100 billion PER YEAR simply from walking away from those two lost causes named Iraq and Afghanistan.  Plus, CLOSE most if not ALL of THOSE 800-PLUS U.S. OVERSEAS BASES!  What is so damned hard about admitting that American global hegemony is non-existent, always has been? 

Oh, and raise taxes as high as possible on the buggers that profited immensely from warmongering.  Halliburton comes to mind.  KBR, also Blackwater, et al. ad nauseum.

Read My Lips: We Need to Raise Taxes

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090804_read_my_lips_we_need_to_raise_taxes/

Posted on Aug 4, 2009 By Ruth Marcus

Hey Ruth Marcus: You ask ”  Does President Obama care more about passing health care reform

that truly gets costs under control or getting re-elected?

Does he care more about getting the nation’s fiscal house in order or getting re-elected?”

The answer is none of the above. This Bush 3 FASCIST deceiver has permanently bankrupted

America within 6 months. Despite several red herrings like the beer meeting & the healthcare hoax,

his main objective is to guarantee the enslavement of America, which is a done deal. “Our”

military is ready to crush any uprising & soon Obama will have prisons ready to put the “terrorists”

in.

There are so many inaccuracies and half truths in this column, and some commenters, that it would take forever to lay out the actual facts.

FLA states that there are no taxes on the rich and powerful.  Unfortunately, just yesterday the IRS released its latest tax information, and the top 0.1% of all taxpayers, a total of 141,000 people, pay 22% of ALL the income taxes.  That can’t seem “fair” by any rational standard.

The author of the article makes the assertion that “Obama has said he won’t sign a bill that isn’t paid for. A lot more than George W. Bush did when he charged the new prescription drug entitlement to the national credit card.”  Sorry, Obama has already signed three huge bills that are not paid for.

Fat Freddy wants to tax campaign contributions.  Freddy, they are already taxed.

At least Hippie4Ever, despite what I believe is a wrong opinion, states his openly

People, we have huge issues that will not be solved unless we can debate using actual facts, not simply regurgitated talking points.  Did Bush and Republican congress go on a debt-laden spending spree.  Yes?  Has Obama already, in 6 months, approved spending enough to quadruple the national DEBT, not deficit, over the next ten year, even without the debacle of “healthcare” bill?  Yes.

And one final thing, wether you agree with Reagan did or not, when he cut taxes the amount of money that flowed into the national treasury went up by a factor of 4.  Again, that is a fact.

P.T. is right, of course, but beyond that, we have reached a stage in the management of the government’s finances where money is becoming increasingly meaningless.  Many billions have been created out of thin air and can disappear into thin air again, quite independent of any labor being done or any products or services actually being produced.  One has to be doubtful about what wealth this money actually represents, which would be the necessary basis for setting a level of taxation rationally.  The rich and the rest of us for that matter may be a good deal poorer than we think.

Read My Lips: We Need to Redistribute the Wealth, Downwards.

@PaulGA

Amen.

Cut military spending and increase taxes on private corporate money. Tax the cheerleader, save the world.

The American people are having trouble paying taxes, or haven’t you heard that tax revenues have fallen.

Do you even care why? In case you haven’t noticed the American people are having serious financial problems.

The tax rate for the middle class is already too high.  I have a better idea why not reform the IRS?

Why not end the stupid wars and bring everybody home if he really wants to help the country out economically?

Here’s an idea. Tax campaign contributions.

You don’t raise taxes or cut government spending during a recession unless your goal is to make it worse.

If he continues to try and compromise with the republicans it will be bad. He needs to stick to sound democratic values and he needs to raise taxes and raising taxes is never popular.  However, restoring our country to fiscal responsible tax levels of the 60’s and 70’s is prudent. Additionally, we a tax on the stock market why not something like national sells tax, since I have to pay 8% on every package of beans I buy .  This would smooth out the wide swings and help pay for some of the trillions the rich have stolen from the US treasury.

In 1980 Reagan slashed the taxes on the rich from 70%-28% and raised the taxes on the rest of America by doing away with common tax deductions, raising SS taxes, and other methods.  This has created huge deficit spending, but deficit spending is only a problem when democrats want to spend a small amount on the neediest Americans.  As long as all tax dollars are funneled to the rich it is fine? Why is that?

Anyway we can no longer afford being a nation of corporate welfare and no taxes for the rich and powerful. After 30 years the rich need to contribute something to America, besides hate filled messages from the Limbaugh types.