Christian Beyers last blog post..Dead Jewish Comedian Preaches on Atonement

– No fiscal sense of reality. The same problem that caused the Wall Street / Mortgage troubles right now. Just spending without really having any idea what anything costs or how you intend to pay for it. It’s difficult for most of us to wrap our brains around 1 trillion dollars… “is that more or less than bazillion? How long do I have to work at my Wall Mart greeter job to make a trillion dollars? Probably at least 80 years or something.”

Re administration: tell me about it. We vote in a ‘conservative’ and end up with this HUGE government with a bunch of new multi-billion dollar agencies… Maybe we would have been better with Gore…? AAhhhahhhha hahhhahh [big breath] bwaaahahhhaaaaaa [snort] hhahhhahhh….

Christian Beyers last blog post..There Oughta Be a Law

Certainly we have to pay tax, but as you say it needs to be a fair tax (which is not what we currently have).

Curious… with the exception of Washington DC, why do you say we don’t have representation?

The thing is, unless you espouse anarchy, taxation is necessary. And (with the exception of the ‘judicial activism’ which I believe is unconstitutional) we have taxation with representation here in the USA. We have seen the enemy and it is us.

Certainly isn’t now. I’m not sure (care) what other folks make it. I won’t be sent to prison or lose my house if I skip a tithe one month. However, if I refuse to to contribute to a broken welfare system or have my money support planned parenthood or bail out a corrupt billion dollar insurance company…

According to Wikipedia (granted, not necessarily an authority but easy to search):

A tithe (from Old English teogoþa “tenth”) is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a (usually) voluntary contribution or as a tax or levy, usually to support a Christian religious organization. Today, tithes (or tithing) are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes could be paid in kind, such as agricultural products.

Isn’t that what the tithe is/was?

Christian Beyers last blog post..There Oughta Be a Law

A level playing field… how is one portion of the population carrying a huge burden and the majority carrying almost (or exactly) nothing a ‘level playing field’? You are absolutely right, money talks… this entire county and especially is elected officials are consumed with greed.

Good point re the constitution. I agree.

I would point out that the founding fathers put the Congress in Article 1 because they considered it the first among equals.

Boy if that were only true… Name me one member of Congress who isn’t in that elite top %5 ‘wealthy’. They are far from equals or representatives of the people. God forbid a farmer, or soccer mom, or truck driver run for Congress. The media and politicians will(are) eat(ing) them alive. Obama boasted the other week that he spends three times the annual budget ($12M) of Wasilla Alaska EACH MONTH on his campaign ($36M)… how’s that for a level playing field. The waste of money s enough to make you sick.

You are absolutely right. We need to return more power, authority and money back to the states. The Federal Government has far exceeded it’s bounds and the current administration hasn’t helped any toward a contraction. We need to delegate responsibility back to the state, county, local governments and particularly to the individual.

About the constitution. In the powers of Congress, in Article 1, Congress is to provide for the general welfare and also to regulate interstate commerce. I would point out that the founding fathers put the Congress in Article 1 because they considered it the first among equals. They distrusted the unitary executive and wanted to limit his powers (No more GeorgeIII).
But I am going beyond the constitution. When I have been talking about the government;, I am speaking about ALL levels of govenment, national, state, county and local. In our federal system, each needs to take its part. A ‘level playing field’. We aren’t there. We aren’t even close. But it is worth striving for!!!

Margaret…. ummm… sure, let me think on that….

Bill. That’s exactly why I think a flat tax on earned income with no exemptions is the fairest possible system. Let me ask a question however… why is it that so many folks insist on comparing percentages when talking about taxes? Even your example of Warren Buffet vs the secretary, I don’t know the exact figures, but I would bet that even though he might pay a smaller percentage, the actual dollars he pays is an order of magnitude larger than the secretary’s entire annual earnings.

You said: i>”Why shouldn’t the top 1% pay more taxes? They get more services for it.”

You can’t be serious… the people who receive the most services are the bottom 33% in the US (as reported by the IRS) that pay absolutely no tax.

I agree with you on all of your ‘resents’ 100%. This current economic situation is the result of pure, immoral, cutthroat greed. The greed of the CEOs, bankers AND the politicians that sell their sole to line their pockets (read some articles about the relationship between the CBC and Fannie Mae, it’s enough to make your stomach turn)

I have no problem paying a FAIR tax. I just don’t like being subjected mandatory charity. I consider myself a very generous, compassionate person, let me keep more of my money and I’ll be able to be even more giving, I don’t need to be legally compelled to so.

How about 15% across the board to everyone who earns wages? No exemptions or loopholes. That sounds fair. It certainly would lower the government overhead, maybe even eliminate the IRS completely. That would save hundreds of millions alone.

You said: “one of its most important jobs is regulation of things so that the powerful do not take unfair advantage of the less strong.”

I don’t necessarily disagree, but as a curiosity, where to you see that spelled out in the Constitution?

BTW: How can Obama promise to give tax cuts to 90% of all Americans when 33% already pay 0 taxes? Does he mean they’ll get a percentage cut too? Let me see, a 10% cut of $0.00 equals…. $0.00… sounds a bit deceiving.

RICH & POOR. Contrary to the beliefs of some, there is no correlation between the ‘good’ and the ‘rich’ (speaking of economic wealth). Why shouldn’t the top 1% pay more taxes? They get more services for it. Does it make sense that Warren Buffet pays a lower percent of tax on his income than his secretary does? He does by taking advantage of provisions in the law. He said so.

Some people may resent the wealth of the wealthy. I don’t resent wealth accumulated by hard work and diligent effort. I do resent wealth accumulated by taking unfair advantage of others. I don’t like it when a CEO gets a big bonus for running thew company into the ground (perhaps thru selling stock options just before selling the Co. off and then getting a ‘golden parachute’).

I do resent it when a banker makes a lot on sub-par mortgages (because his bonus is based on the volume of mortgages written, not the quality of the mortgages–and then the company has to be bailed out.

I do not resent paying taxes. Sometimes it is a squeeze, but I recognize that the government serves an important purpose. At its best, it protects the people. Some believe, as one libertarian put it, that the government should be shrunk down until it is small enough to drown it in the bathtub. They are wrong. To the contrary, one of its most important jobs is regulation of things so that the powerful do not take unfair advantage of the less strong. The law of the jungle is not the law of civilized society. And it certainly is not what Jesus meant when he gave us the greatest commandment and the second that is ‘like unto it’.