Well, lets se... like 95% of Federal taxes are payed by the top 50% of the population.... 35% corporate tax I think it is... now I've heard rumor that Obama is proposing a tax increase on small businesses, which employ the majority of Americans still. Seriously?

 

I haven't heard any such rumors, but I do know that the recent tax cuts on the wealthy costs the Gov $700B, adding unnecessary strain to the ones that carry the brunt of the spending: the middle class.

 

The spending is never going to decrease! This thread is proof... you guys didn't want budget cuts to the EPA, a few other things such as sanitation, education, etc., yet we generally want spending cuts. We kind of want something to go... but not something we like. It will never go down because no one will ever win an election on a campaign of "We need to keep taxes at teh status quo, and take some things away from you... maybe your highway gets bumpy, maybe your school doens't get new computers as often, maybe your fire department will have to make due with an older truck, maybe your police force will have to make due with one less officer and 3 less cars.. maybe our military will have to make due with current guns, aircraft, and naval fleet while even downsizing and cutting back enlistments"

It doesn't work. It never will. No, the guy who wins is the one who borrows from the future.

The analogy that I think Morton Freeman drew was that if you're spending your money on someone else, you don't care about the quality, but you really care about price. If you're spending someone elses money on yourself, you care about quality, but not price. If you're spending your own money on yourself, you care about price and quality, whereas if you're spending someone elses money on someone else, you don't care about quality of price. That's why this spending is out of control and that's why we have all these inefficiencies.

Another problem is an analogy drawn of a dinner. If you want a steak, and value that steak at $10, and it's $8, you buy it. And after eating it, you think about buying a pie for desert, and value a piece of pie at $2, and it is $4, then you don't buy i.t However, if your'e eating with 4 people, yourself included, and you're all splitting the bill, you buy the pie because you're now only paying $1. However, everyone else thinks the same way, and buys the most expensive things for themselves. Then you complain, "HEY, you guys are making this bill too expensive by eating pie. You guys need to quit!" But at the same time, you don't want to give up your own pie. That's why spending isn't going down.

You can fill the halls with Libertarian,s Republicans, whoever.. the thing is, the people who have money now wnat ot keep all of it and raise hell if you try to take it... and others want more money yet. You don't keep your job by taking jobs and money away from people... you get it by giving. We have to change this mentality, or we're screwed.

And historically speaknig, Republicans are worse than Democrats. Republicans have campaigned on and on about being fiscally responsible, balancing budgets, and cutting taxes. However, they're usually only good for one of the three, and you don't get three guesses as to which one.

Ronald Reagan, the man all the Republcians try to model themselves on... well, the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark under his Presidency, and then hit the multi trillions... the man really started the whole national debt!! He cut spending to everywhere except defence, where he increased it exponentially trying to outspend the USSR... which, in my opinion, Gorbachev killed that, Reagan just took the credit... but anywho..

The Republicans and their "Contract with America" in 1994 that some of you remmeber, but I was 5.... well, they didn't keep but like 2 things of that, one of which being the line item veto that the supreme court vetoed. We had a balanced budget... that was it... yet their were spending increases!!!

The Republicans are the worst about going back on their word... at least the Democrats don't claim they're going to balance the budget and be fiscally responsible.

I think that mayor in Tennessee who let the home burn down because the owners had not payed their fire department fee.... that man should be the President of the United States. He's the only guy in the country fiscally responsible enough to lead the Tea Party and practice what he preaches.

Sound cold?

 

It's an unfortunate fact that the US is changing, economically and socially, dividing the country even more than just along racial lines. That economic reform is needed, to include taxes and the welfare system, is old news. The current system can't handle the weigh of medicare/medicaid/food stamps and other programs for the older/poor/sick folks, while giving tax breaks to corporations that take their jobs out of the country. Nor can the country continue to be the world's police force while using our own funds to pay for it.

The current administration has come up short on several levels, including the health care bill and the tax cuts for the rich, but cutting spending is among the biggest short falls. The defense budget is grossly wasteful, the biggest federal leeches can be found there in the form of contractors.

I'm all for cutting "wasteful" spending from all areas that need it, but not from services to the elderly/poor/incapacitated/sick. Whether we like it or not, these people are part of our society and should be treated as such. Education is another department that could use some sprucing up, but cutting Pell grants while universities/colleges continue to charge outrageous tuition fees is idiotic.

In this new age of global economics and instant communications, the US is lagging on several things like health care of it's citizens (the US ranks pretty low compared to most European countries) and our immigration system is a joke. Politicians and judges sell their souls to Corp/ubber rich and there's no accountability, we only need to look back to the last 10 years to see the results. Voters vote for a party, not for a good candidate, and are ignorant of what the candidate's agenda is or who's paying for their campaign. Like I said earlier, short of a revolution there's no fixing all our problems.

 

A very sensitive subject, yet it is one we must discuss to create a future we want. Cuts are not easy as someone will be hurt. I don't blame factories for moving over seas as we created it as consumers buying and demanding the cheapest product possible. If we as a consumer based only purchased products made and assembled in the U.S. then those factories would return. I have faith that we as citizens will guide our leaders in the right direction through our voting and voice. I am always amazed at how many in our younger generations do not vote. 50% voter turn out is pathetic to me.

 

Thanks member's for sharing your comments/opinions.
I've enjoyed reading your thoughts. Great Thread & infor `Lisa...

What are you doing to make it better ? (I ask myself, I ask you?) I pray that "we the people", can resolve the many problems our country is facing....

I think demanding integrity/honesty of all leaders would be a good start (?)

Quote:

“Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching.”

How many people are homeless in the US?
Nobody knows. This in itself is a sad fact. The number is always growing. More than 90% of the homeless are in urban areas. According to estimates by the National Law Center on Homelessness and... How many homeless people in the US in 2009?
about 1.4 million homeless people across america How many homeless people die in the US in a year?
1.2 million

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_homeless_in_US#ixzz1G0Usgnnl

 

I think our debt is now 14 trillion.. .which means it is roughly equal to our Gross Domestic Product. In short, what this means is each American, for one year, would you have to take all of their spending for a fiscal year and isntead of buying groceries, clothing, house payments, and whatever else, you wuld have to give it to China, Taiwan, Canada, and everyone else who owns us. The debt is pretty much out of control to a point of no return. There is just hardly a way to pay down the interest and the debt. Obama is trying to cut $100,000,000 from a $3.82 trillion budget... Roughly 2.6%, while bringing in about $2.17 trillion. That's out of control. I can't run my personal finances like that, and the government shouldn't either. John Keynes sent this country straight to hell. The problem with his increasing government revenues, evne if that meant debt, caused a really big problem.... the other half of that coin is that when times are good and the economy was going to grow too much, you were supposed to increase taxes to curb spending and let the government run a surplus... well no one wnats to see the government running a surplus, that means they're taking too much of your money... so when times are good, tax breaks come along, the budget is balanced, yet we maintain a debt.... when times are bad, we add to the debt. We really need a new economic mind set in this country. We have to realize that we can't vote ourselves money from the treasury any longer.

Programs must go... I do'nt want to see our elderly suffer anymore than the next guy... But I think we can stop all of these "dead people" from getting social security... stop sending out checks for a month. Those who raise hell about not getting a check, give them their check... those who don't turn up don't get a check. Most of the people on this forum, if my predictions on age serve correctly, will never collect social security in the manner thier parents and grandparents are unless a major reform is conducted.


But I'm right there with you guys on what to cut... I'm going to be teaching in the public school system next year, hopefully.. budget cuts to education are bad news to me. I might have to take up some other type of job for awhile... I do'nt know what I'll do. Someone has to lose a job, that's all their is to it. Maybe it should be some of these guys who got a job by being a friend of the guy who got elected... these guys who just wander around some government building and collect a big paycheck every month for it while not doing a job. Maybe massive layoffs are necessary... if I (bascially, whoever conducts the layoffs) walk up to you and aks you what your job is and what you do in that job, and you cannot tell me, then you are fired.

Another thing about laying off government employees is that htey are automatically granted an appeal. A teacher of mine who was a colonel in the army for many years once told us how they had a secretary once who was costing the Army more money than she ever saved.... she was just that bad. She once printed a set of tests, thousands of copies, with the teachers copy that had the correct answers marked. It was cheaper to hire another secretary and let her do whatever than it was to fire her though... if you did that in private industry, your @$$ is out of a job, and it should be that case in government as well.

If I can't be an effective teacher when I go into the field... then I don't need to be a teacher. Hard luck, I know... but I've got to find some skill, some trade, that I can be successful at.

 

..Thanks again `Duane for your thoughts/opinions & the knowledge you share on this issue. Do you think your children will have it better then you ? It scares me to think what it will be like ten years + from now I shall continue to pay my taxes, vote for who I believe is best, and pray a lot 4-Sure....

I hope this will not be `true

^^^Not Yet ? ^^is it ?, give all the member's a drink on `me...
Keep them drunk/stoned/drugged `up & maybe they will not realize how
bad things really are in our World (?).

 

All these problems that we are facing, as well as future generations, could have been avoided if the three branches of government would have, in good faith, done their sworn job of working for the people. Instead, they sold them self's to big business (greed) and made it easier for the few to become wealthier (trickle up economics) and sent the country into the mess we are in now.

I realize complaining won't bring jobs back, nor will it help our economy stabilize it self but, and it's my personal opinion, it may be too late to bring about the necessary changes to correct the course. The most important resource of every country is it's people and to abandon them to their luck by cutting medicaid/medicare/welfare programs for the poor is criminal. Education should be available to all who seeks it, not those who can afford it. What better use of our people resource than to educate them?

Reform is needed and many will hurt economically and socially because of it. It will affect the working poor and middle class the most because the rich are protected by our mediocre government, and no one in Washington cares about the other 98%. So changes are a coming and belt tightening will be the norm. And our children will have it even worst than us, short of a miracle!

 

I agree with the wisconsin tea baggers. Making the US worker attractive to business again is fairly easy. Abolish unions, the 40 hour work week, and minimum wage. If you pay an American less than the anyone else in the world, it makes sense to hire them. If you don't want to work at an unregulated steel foundry for $15 a week, then quit. Watching your children starve will show you who the boss is. Heck, you might even get you job back at he foundry (who won't be able to offer the same exorbitant salary)