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And we can see what happens in France, their sky high top rates are about to set in the the rich are fleeing like rats off a sinking ship. Time will tell if the French made a good move, my bet is that they will end up hurting themselves.
In the age of corporations being people too, you know that if frankenfoods are banned or even if GMOs have to be disclosed to the public to enable an informed choice, it will "only embolden the terrorists". Creating crops that cannot produce seeds for next year is unconscionable. But there will be no agribusiness left behind in this war on obsene and unjust corporate profits.
Cutting Social Security is crazy!! Our retirement saving are at the mercy of the Wall (Fraud) St. banksters as it is. Froma Harrop, a syndicated columnist, said that if the ceiling on earned income was removed and all of it was subject to the OASDI tax, Social Security would be self- sustaining in perpetuity. Time to look at that and at the same time maintain the benefit cap. If the 1% balks at maintaining the benefit cap, then how would they their Social Security means tested?????? Too few have too much and too many don't have enough and Its getting old!!!
I believe Obama is more than well aware that the GOP will not give in to increased revenues and will never, never accept his budget. I think that Obama, rather than being a conservative democrat (though I do believe he is very moderate), is actually a skilled politico, using the GOPs intransigence against them. Again, he looks reasonable, they look obstructionist. Boehner absolutely cannot pull together enough votes to accept this plan, period. While it seems a bit Machiavellian to me, I'm not losing any sleep over this ploy.
How long will it take for Progressive Democrats to acknowledge that Obama is a conservative democrat (a wolf in sheep's clothing if you will)?
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/03/trusting-obamas-liberal-rhetoric-...
If you are going to use history, we should know as much about it as possible. When the UK raised the top tax rate and the rich left the country, how did the economy do? When measuring an economy, I think one should look at how the 4 factors that Larry Beinhart pointed out. Namely, he said we should look at the changes in GDP (the usual metric that the creator of it said not to use), the stock market, the number of jobs, and the median wage. Also, since it was a time of worldwide economic distress, we need to compare the effect of the 40 to 50% tax rate increase to countries that did not change the tax rate. Another factor that seems to be ignored by all the economic commentators is that the average length of time for an economic policy to take effect is 7 years. I think the lag time for the effect of the rich leaving the country would be between 3 and 4 years. On the other hand, a stimulus package seed to have an effect within a month. One of the largest lag times IMO is the effect on the economy of educating the workforce.
I think one of the things history should teach us is that a high tax rate should be viewed as a stick and not a source of revenue.
Alan Grayson is one of the best Congressional representatives America has. Florida Should be grateful and honored for his service. Seeing Thom this afternoon on cable talking with the honorable Alan Grayson about this rhetoric going on about cutting Social Security by indexing it down does fly in the face where it is contrasted to the right to life. My own believe is that Social Security should be doubled. Yes doubled and quickly!
From my view if being born has rights or a safety net to swoop up a new baby through the womb in a heartbeat so should any person that has lived through the rigors of making a life in America, working hard, honestly as a citizen paying taxes for all time and staying out of trouble which is not always easy because of the variability of the Congress in that some make stupid legislation that causes grief or hardship.
Individual citizens that make it to retirement should have a living safety net. The minority in government which are Republicans are of a bad stroke in today’s culture. The Republican representatives and or leadership in the presidency like the Bush family compared to years ago of the Eisenhower types serve themselves not the public that’s why the Republican Party leaves an ugly trail.
Actually anytime a recession is declared all credit companies should be lawfully refrained from dispersing credit reports. A new monetary position should be in balance for bailouts, Federal Reserve payouts for citizens should also be part of the policy. Yes, for John Doe and as well as the corporations. Since corporations are people and John Doe is a person, loans or money given on request which should occur from the Federal Reserve then perhaps America can eliminate unemployment. Sound crazy; of course, I am a monetary maniac. You have to be a maniac to be fair in this discussion.
Just an aside re Deborah Skinner:
She cannot remember her first two and a half years (how many of us can?)
She utterly rejects she was raised in a box, was unloved, went crazy. For what it is worth:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/mar/12/highereducation.uk
Welcome back and thanks for everything you do.
Don Davis
A large majority of the public disagrees with cuts to Social Security. I am qualifying a petition for the White House web site asking Obama to reconsider cuts to Social Security. Please help get it going. This link takes you to the petition. http://wh.gov/MbjL
yup!
You are actually suggesting a tax increase of over 500 billion dollars? You have got to be kidding!
You need to learn one truth, those who do not study history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. And England made the same "tax the rich" mistake you are making here in 2008. They had so many rich leave the country when they pushed the top rate fom 40% to 50% the country actually lost revenue, and they had to pare back the "tax the rich" tax increase substantially to stop the bleeding.
Here are some more numbers for you, all round numbers.
Last I looked those making over $200,000 a year made a total of 2 trillion dollars a year. Figure the Feds get about 25% of that, or around 500 billion. If you hit those households with all or most of this tax increase (which I assume you want to do) you will roughly DOUBLE their taxes.
Do you expect them to stick around and take that kind of a beating. Guess again, they didn't get rich by being stupid.
And remember the top 1% in this country pay 35% of all taxes, the top 10% pay 70% of all taxes.
And to those of you who say good ridance, when they leave who is going to pay for all these give away programs you feel are the lifeblood of this country?
And you can tell Herb Kohl (Democrat) and Tom barrett (Democrat) that they don't need to pay for new basketball stadiums either!
Sorry 10K Canada does not have Universal Healthcare . It has a National health Act. Each province (state) has there own health care system. Doing this on a national level is insane. Every State has different needs so they should all have there own system in my option.
But I agree the government shouldn't bale anyone out. No Obama didn't create all the debt just 6 trillion of it. Still blaming Bush Wow.
Ya the tax thing is so complicated. It's so hard to understand. Trust me I am a non resident trying to do things right in the US and I had to go to five different accountants just to find one who knew what the hell he was doing. How many don't bother and pay any taxes.
Adin Kenneth is going to be one lucky little dude to have you as his Grandpa, Ken. Although I don't always agree with you I am sure everyone else would agree we can tell you are a great guy.
Kend - We pay State Tax and tax on non-food products that we purchase. Not to forget the tax on gasoline and every other thing we might have to purchase. I would not doubt that in the end we pay up to 50% of our earned income on taxes! We pay a yearly tax on our homes as well. This shit just keeps getting deeper when it comes to paying taxes to our Federal, State and City governments!
Nope, not yet! Adin Kenneth will arrive here somewhere in the middle of May. Thank you for asking. My daughter insisted his middle name will be Kenneth, it makes a parent and grandparent to be proud. We are all waiting in great anticipation for him to arrive, so grandpa can start spoiling him! He will be my first grandchild from an only child. I can hardly wait for him to arrive! Again, thanks for asking. The doctors have said he is healthy with no birth defects, what more could you ask for, then having a healthy new born in the family!
Ducinni: Yup, I know about, and agree with, what you are saying. This myth of God is a rather ridiculous superstition...no better than the Sun God or the Moon God or any of the other ridiculous superstitious ideas that man has conjured up in his mind over the hundreds of thousands of years of his existence.
They even conjured up a great and all-powerful one, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent but invisible one that acts more like a psychopath than a loving and caring God.
Praying (ie: pretending to talk to) elicits no more effect than praying to one's Teddy Bear. It might have some psychological calming effect...but then so would praying to one's Teddy Bear if one believed that Teddy Bear had some supernatural powers that would make things all better.
That so-called "God of love" is also a vengeful and hateful God and has even commanded the Israelites to mass-slaughter men, women, and children.in the land of Canaan after spending 40 years in the desert after being subjected to Egyptian humiliation....except he made an exception to some of the women and children who were taken as wives and concubines...all blessed..nay, "commanded!" by God. But, those slippery devil believers always find excuses...like...oh, that was the Old Testament God but not the New Testament God...yeah, right. The Christian and Muslim religions are based on the Jewish religion as well as a good dose of paganism (thank you Constantine...you rock!).
And some people who are smart enough to know all of the pitfalls, non sequiturs, and inanities in those sanctioned religions...still seem to be fallible in flagellating themselves with yet other derivations of those old and antiquated superstitions. They conjure up their own demons and gods and then, with straight faces, try to convince others that only they have the truth and every one else is in error.
They will usually berate those ancient superstitious ideas...those old Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Hindu, Greek, et al, gods as superstitious non-sense believed by people that didn't know any better. But they seem to disconnect and won't see themselves as just as superstitious and full of the same kind of non sense as those ancient people they berate. Many modern believers don't even have a clue that their religion was largely plagiarized from those more ancient ones. HELLLLLOOOOO!
Dog is love! Get a pet!
President Obama said over the weekend -- where? Florida? -- when asked what his stand was on global warming, he answered that global warming will have to take a backseat for now. Jobs were his number one priority and if meant global warming measures would get in the way of jobs then jobs have it, global warming will have to wait. Maybe in another year or two, global warming could be revisited but not for now. President Obama's record on the environment has been disappointing. When it comes to oil patch, I don't see any difference between his policies and those of his predecessor, George Bush.
Ken: yes, I agree with everything you have said in all your posts. I guess I am just a little bit paranoid but I suspect we are closer to being like the old Soviet Union than we'd all like. It will most likely just get worse...especially if all we do is make phone calls, write emails or letters, throw what little money we have left into some questionable internet-beggar "movement" whose top execs are likely skimming off the top anyway, vote for corporate-owned Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum...or demonstrate. The last one would be much more effective if millions of people hit the streets. Bring business as usual to a halt. Boycotting would also have a better chance of working. But history has shown that it will take something much greater than all of that to really change things.
There are a lot of internet "beggar" web-sites that try to convince you to "sign-up" and then give them donations. They say all the right things to get you emotionally upset making you think they are "on your side". But just like any shady lawyer (Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe)...how can you trust them to really be working in your interests? Even some of the fairly prominent ones are raking in the cash, your cash, promising you that your bucks will make a difference. Sorry, but your widow's-mites won't make a difference, you are just making some other person, or persons, rich and the truly wealthy in this country will continue to screw us all. There is only one thing that will make a difference and that has already been stated.
I say abolish income tax all together.
Why should my hard earned peanuts be taken away from me and spent on bogus wars; i.e. War on Drugs, War on Terrorism, etc.
If we can't manage to keep the country functioning and opperating on Sales tax, Corporate tax, and Capital Gains Tax, then we need to re-evaluate those incharge of the accounting department.
I lost hope in the Democrat Party along time ago, and left. They are nothing but Doormats for the Republican Christians, Doormat Democrats. When the Doormat Democrats grow a set of nuts like Senator Liz Warren, maybe I'll rejoin the Party, I refuse to associate my good name to a bunch of COWARDS. I am sick of the Doormat Democrats always taking the High Road of Intellience to deal with Christians, people who believe that an ALL powerful, ALL knowing, ALL wise, ALL loving, talking, thinking, creating GOD was "THERE" "JUST THERE" no beginning, never evolved, was "JUST THERE". A GOD that knows the past, present, and future before it happens, created Lucifer, knowing before He (GOD) created Lucifer, he (Satan) was going to destroy the Human Race, by turning the first Human couple away from GOD..... GOD knew that and with ALL His Love and Wisdom created Lucifer anyway. This is who the Doormat Democrats COWARD down too. Two pictures come to mind when I listen a Doormat Democrat talk (President Barack Hussein Obama) or read the word "DEMOCRAT" (Human photos by Robert Mapplethorpe: Google them it will turn you Christians on) (1). A Man (Republican Christian) with his arm up the asshole of another man (Doormat Democrat). (2). A standing Man (Republican Christian) pissing in the mouth of another man (Doormat Democrat) laying in the ground in front of him.
Speaking of other industrialized nations and their tax rates, maybe we should pause for a moment and review just what the others get in return for their tax burdens. Thirty two of the thirty three advanced nations have in place a wonderful socialist program known as Universal Healthcare, like the one Kend gets in Canada. We all know who the laggard is, and we in the United States, compared to the other thirty two nations, get to pay twice as much for less, thanks to the useless middlemen commonly known as FOR PROFIT Health Insurance Companies.
Instead of Universal Healthcare here in the United States, we get for a return on our tax burden, things like, bailouts for rich guys committing bank fraud, FOR PROFIT warfare, and tax subsidies for Corps like Exxon Mobile..... giant corp. welfare programs!
Of course Obama did all of the spending on these things, Fox told me so! If only he was as restrained with his spending as those past thrifty Republican Presidents were, you know, Reagan, King George I and II. I hope that helps you a little Kend!
Taxing all income over $1 billion dollars sounds like a good place to start. Or maybe better yet, how about taxing all income over 100 million? This would recycle back into our economy, money that the job cremators like Romney stole from the real wealth creators.... also known as the working class.
Thanks Ken, this is just Federal tax right? This is personal taxes right? I was right about personal tax rates going up to 39.6 % Though. Canada is 49 % max. But your right with it being complicated large companies sure benefit from that crap.
It looks like your taxes are a lot lower than ours but you don't have free health care though. I am kidding about the free part of course. Sorry but wait until you add 30 million more people toObamas new health Care plan to your taxes have to go up. By the way there is only 34 million in my whole country.
hey are you a Grandpa yet?
I would feel a great deal better about all this shit if there weren't so many democrats selling out. Democrats seem more like Republicans than Republicans. I'm not sure what is going on in DC.
Seems like we are in step and fetch mode to Wall Street. When's the last time anyone went to a small independent phamisist or gas station, or ice cream parlor. There is a reason for the treason and an explanation for the betrayal but no one wants to say it out of fear. Why is there so much pentagon weapons development for civil disturbance and riot control. There have been some huge demonstrations against nafta, SOA watch etc but there is no media coverage. Frankly I think there woud be a great many citizens interested. We are alloted venting our anger at candy jpurnalism like 60 minutes, and other nebulous programs that act like their desenting but who are so tied to corporate dependancy their flash broadcast are tame and manageable. It's been said before and I reiterate, "wheres the outrage ?"
The tax code actually gives a Corporation tax breaks if they move their Corporation or business to another country. The Corporations got their politicians to revise the tax code when the Free Trade Agreements came into effect and companies were leaving this country for cheaper labor costs and it continues to this date. You can thank Washington and their Free Trade Agreements for the fact we produce very little in this country today. Even the parts on the vehicles made here are shipped in from a country with cheaper labor like Mexico and our favorite competitor, CHINA. Get use to it, nothing is going to change as long as the Corporations get tax breaks and cheap labor for leaving the American work force in the dust as they pack up and leave. Good bye middleclass workers, hello to a two tier society, the RICH and the POOR working class. Within twenty or so years when most of us 55 and older are gone or about to leave this life, there will be nothing left of the world we grew up in and lived our lives with good jobs. I really feel sorry for the kids who cannot afford an education at the university level or a job skill they cannot ship overseas for the masses of cheap laborers that are waiting in the isles for the rest of our jobs.
The proper URL is http://www.nobillionaires.com/ (NOT NoBillionaries.com).