Are taxes the ticket?
It’s Tax Day 2011! And while it isn’t the most pleasant thing to think about, it doesn’t sting as bad as when you consider we’re $14 trillion in debt and face a $1.6 trillion deficit. So what got us into this mess? We’ve had an unfortunate habit of spending far more than we can afford – and have been doing it for years. The logical solution is to..well…stop doing that. But some have suggested we should tax our way out of the hole. Beyond the question of whether we should, there’s a more important question: can we?
BA
Stop spending. Stop giving illegals health care I can’t even afford. Stop paying people in Washington and that includes past and future presidents for anything, since they got us into this mess and didn’t earn the $$’s to begin with. Stop paying SSI to people who maybe paid in one year of their life. Close down alot of the government agencies that do nothing but cost money. Let a business man walk into Washington and clean house and start putting them in jail, where they belong.
AMEN
HALLELUJAH!
YES! YES AND YES!!!!!!!!!!
When you count the unfunded liabilities of social security and medicare, its impossible to tax our way out of the hole, those policies need to be changed.
We need to start talking differently about the size of the debt and unfunded liabilities so it sinks into the general public to whom numbers in the $trillions are too abstract.
Federal government will need >$1 million per household to pay its IOUs!
> $116 trillion =”official” debt plus money short for future social security, medicare, etc
Even its “official debt” of $14.2 trillion is $123,754 per household!
Details at http://StopNationalDebt.com
Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Federal-Debt-1-million-per-household-is-too-much/155810177811775
I agree with Evie 110% and I believe all Americans and legal citizens that work for a living, and pay too many taxes, would agree with her too.
The problem is that our congresspeople are in the hands of the corporate interests who financed their campaigns. The Supreme Court decision of Jan 2010 now gives the right of corporations to “speak” with their money. It is next to impossible for a person to be elected on the basis of doing the “right thing”. The astronomical cost of running a campaign prohibits “regular” citizens to obtain public office without making “promises” to the financiers.
Solving the national debt problem first requires the “will to do it”. In a democracy, people only react when there is a crisis. As long as the special interests have Congress in a headlock, nothing will change.
One of the first things that should be done in Health Care is to force the Insurance Companies back to being “mutuals” instead of profit making entities.
Second, we should really crack down on fraud in all aspects of government operations. Every government operation should be audited by serious committed people who are determined to route out the rampant fraud that has been tolerated for years.
Third, take away subsidies to oil companies and others who are responsible for the energy crisis. I also include the auto companies. The idea that we bailed out GM only to have them still manufacture autos that are less than 50 miles per gallon is egregious!
There is more … but time and space are too short!
First off you people sound retarded! Do you know what government is for? First off I pay for social security, medicaid as a seperate tax. So one take those two out of the general fund and put them into there own seperate funds. Next if you want to stop the waste eliminate all corporate loopholes and tax the rich. I do not want to live like the Confederate if you don’t know what I am talking about watch the civil war and look at how the south lived when corporation and rich people controlled everything. Also why do you think the Revolutionary war started not because of them taxing themselves to provide services but because the British government was decreasing taxes on the British corporations and than raising taxes on Americans pushing the small tea businesses here out of the way so the big British corporations can make more money. Also remember in those days you had free labor(Africa slaves here in America) and very cheap labor(poor whites) that is your free market solutions. Now who will be the slave today in America since you want a free market ideology? Wake up people Republicans do not worry about working class people and remember if you aren’t rich mean you can waste $500,000 in the stock market just to see which way the wind blows than you aren’t rich! I know 99.99% of the people on here do not fit in the rich category! Take your head out your but and think of how will we leave our country to our children. I guess they will have to be the slaves of the Chinese?
I hear repeatedly that we are near the tipping point in any number of critical areas, environmental, economic, etc., but my feeling is that we have already passed the point of no return. And Congress goes merrily about its business, pushing us further into debt, and wasting our resources on a colossal scale. Our infrastructure is collapsing, our children are dropping out of school in record numbers, our prisons are overflowing. Where are we not failing. Greed and outright criminality have replaced integrity and fair play. Our values have eroded. Our abilities as well. We are failing at every level, and that is very sad to watch.
A country that borrows 550+ million to bomb a country it’s not at war with is destined to fail.
We do not have a revenue problem…
The debate over the debt ceiling is getting predictably ridiculous. The federal government collects more than enough taxes. Let’s also dispense with the stupid assertion that taxing “the rich” will solve all of our problems…….