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  1. SiriuslyLong is offline
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    05-17-2010, 04:10 PM #1

    How big is the US Government

    Read this and find out!!

    http://www.parade.com/news/backpage/...overnment.html

    And the last time I looked, the "poor" get taxed at 10% and the "rich" get taxed at 35% yet the article cites only 47% of all households pay income tax. HTF does that work?

  2. candleman is offline
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    05-17-2010, 05:38 PM #2
    Quote Originally Posted by SiriuslyLong View Post
    Read this and find out!!

    http://www.parade.com/news/backpage/...overnment.html

    And the last time I looked, the "poor" get taxed at 10% and the "rich" get taxed at 35% yet the article cites only 47% of all households pay income tax. HTF does that work?
    Oh for the good ole days!

    I remember paying about 10% of my wages in Federal Income Tax when I was a young man. Then, I made some money and it went up to over 30%. Now, I make even more and it's only about 18%.

    That's what happened! It's a bad business plan and one that can't work. If we ALL pay about 10 to 15%, I think we could have a pretty good system. Tax cuts for guys like me NEVER made any sense. And low wage earners NOT paying taxes makes even less sense. This is all in my opinion of course and I don't expect you to agree.....LOL

  3. Havakasha is offline
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    05-18-2010, 12:43 AM #3
    Quote Originally Posted by SiriuslyLong View Post
    Read this and find out!!

    http://www.parade.com/news/backpage/...overnment.html

    And the last time I looked, the "poor" get taxed at 10% and the "rich" get taxed at 35% yet the article cites only 47% of all households pay income tax. HTF does that work?
    I say lets just return the tax rates to what they were under Reagan. im sure we can all agree on that.

  4. candleman is offline
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    05-18-2010, 10:03 AM #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Havakasha View Post
    I say lets just return the tax rates to what they were under Reagan. im sure we can all agree on that.
    Or before Regan. I liked it when we all paid taxes. Regan was great at cutting taxes, he just didn't understand that we needed to cut spending also.

  5. SiriuslyLong is offline
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    06-04-2010, 09:59 AM #5
    The article is brief and to the point folks. Please read and consider who is driving this country. It's very important.

  6. SiriuslyLong is offline
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    06-17-2010, 02:47 PM #6
    Too big, and the real problem is that the federal government is acccountable to no one. Heck, they can spend money they don't have lol.

  7. Havakasha is offline
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    06-18-2010, 12:00 AM #7

  8. SiriuslyLong is offline
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    06-18-2010, 08:41 AM #8
    Is that all you have? An Op Ed from a liberal Keynesian who believes the government does not need to issue an income statement or balance sheet - a government that is accountable to no one?

    Did you even read the Parade article? Does any of it alarm you? How about this one, "The Economist estimates that the federal government now employs a quarter of a million people to write and enforce regulations." Write and enforce regulations? What does that produce? What does that add to the good of society? Nothing and nothing. It's waste. You and that author want to help those in need? Cut the 250,000 government jobs and give that money to those in need.

    Hey, new news, the 10,000th road project from the stimulus package starts today in Colombus, OH. Building, rebuilding roads will cure what ails America lol.

  9. Havakasha is offline
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    06-18-2010, 09:47 AM #9
    Boy how i would love to see a debate between you and Krugman.
    By the way Krugman doesnt believe half of what you said. "A govt accountable to no one".Please. i could simply say you believe in Banks, Oil companies and large corporations accountable to no one. Does that make it true?
    What you should of said is Krugman is a liberal economist who recieved a
    Nobel prize for his work on trade theory. Doesnt make him infallable but he is pretty damn smart about economics and deserves a little more respect then you showed him.

    i wish the stimulus had been more directed to infrastructure projects and less toward tax cuts (that came and went quickly). From my reading of it the overwhelming majority of economists (conservatives and liberals) believe stimulus is more effective than tax cuts for a recession such as ours. As you would quess the Republicans steered more of the stimulus money toward tax cuts which didnt help very much.

    I did read the Parade article, but its been a while. When i have another chance i will read it again and comment more specifically.

    I was under the impression that Bush/Cheney eliminated many regulators
    and regulations. If they didnt eliminate regulators then i wonder why? But either way its clear that there is a dearth of effective regulators where they are sorely needed (think oil companies, think Banks, mortgage companies, pharmaceutical industry, food industry etc.) So if you can figure out a way to lower the # of regulators and make them more effective i am TOTALLY all for it. I think maybe part of the problem is that Bush/Cheney were not particular strong supporters of regulating.
    Most people agree that we went WAY too far in one direction and that is why we have ended up with the mess we are in. I believe thats a fairly widespread understanding of what went wrong. Would you agree that Paul Volcker is not a particularly radical individual? Well he is pushing for many of the new regulations of the banking industry.
    I know you believe that govt (federal, state, and local) has very many important funtions in serving its citizens so maybe you are just SOUNDING
    like you dont like Govt at all. You still SOUND a little too much like your spouting simplistic talking points. IF only it was as simple as you suggest.
    Last edited by Havakasha; 06-18-2010 at 09:52 AM.

  10. SiriuslyLong is offline
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    06-18-2010, 12:57 PM #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Havakasha View Post
    Boy how i would love to see a debate between you and Krugman.
    By the way Krugman doesnt believe half of what you said. "A govt accountable to no one".Please. i could simply say you believe in Banks, Oil companies and large corporations accountable to no one. Does that make it true?
    What you should of said is Krugman is a liberal economist who recieved a
    Nobel prize for his work on trade theory. Doesnt make him infallable but he is pretty damn smart about economics and deserves a little more respect then you showed him.

    i wish the stimulus had been more directed to infrastructure projects and less toward tax cuts (that came and went quickly). From my reading of it the overwhelming majority of economists (conservatives and liberals) believe stimulus is more effective than tax cuts for a recession such as ours. As you would quess the Republicans steered more of the stimulus money toward tax cuts which didnt help very much.

    I did read the Parade article, but its been a while. When i have another chance i will read it again and comment more specifically.

    I was under the impression that Bush/Cheney eliminated many regulators
    and regulations. If they didnt eliminate regulators then i wonder why? But either way its clear that there is a dearth of effective regulators where they are sorely needed (think oil companies, think Banks, mortgage companies, pharmaceutical industry, food industry etc.) So if you can figure out a way to lower the # of regulators and make them more effective i am TOTALLY all for it. I think maybe part of the problem is that Bush/Cheney were not particular strong supporters of regulating.
    Most people agree that we went WAY too far in one direction and that is why we have ended up with the mess we are in. I believe thats a fairly widespread understanding of what went wrong. Would you agree that Paul Volcker is not a particularly radical individual? Well he is pushing for many of the new regulations of the banking industry.
    I know you believe that govt (federal, state, and local) has very many important funtions in serving its citizens so maybe you are just SOUNDING
    like you dont like Govt at all. You still SOUND a little too much like your spouting simplistic talking points. IF only it was as simple as you suggest.
    Jack Krugman, the dude who played Oscar in the Odd Couple?? LOL. Look, obviously I can't challange such smart man, but you offer up an Op Ed piece to counter cold hard facts. C'mon, you're better than that.

    Banks, Oil companies and large companies are responsible to their stockholders for sure. And as good corporate citizens, they are responsible for their employees and environment.

    Infrastructure? That is sooo parochial. Yes, I suppose we Americans need to fix some of our infrastructure, but if you've ever flown anywhere, you can see there is plenty of infrastructure. We've built all we needed to build, and I suppose that's part of the problem (nothing more to build).

    I take that back. I would love to see low interest federal stimulus loans go to the sporting industry to build new rinks, courts, ballfields..... These types of projects are far more reaching throughout industry, and benefit people directly. That was my point about recycling.

    I don't see "regulators" or the lack thereof as the issue. I recall you posting a link to an article where government officials were having sex with industry representatives .... oh, I know, those were republican officials ... silly me ... democratic regulators would never do that lol.

    Gotta run, one of my solar customers just sent me a note.

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