name two things you'd like congress to address....

[her209]

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: Bowfinger

Originally posted by: charrison
The last thing you want is a goverment with a surplus. It will only find a way to spend it.

Sure, because then we might reduce the federal debt, reducing the moeny we waste on interest payments. That might further increase the surplus, allowing us to reduce the debt even faster. It's a viscious circle, ending only once we've restored some sense of fiscal responsibility to government. Horrors!

Oh wait. What was the downside again?

I guess you dont quite understand what a surplus is. Money left over after everything has been budgeted for.

I think you misunderstood what Bowfinger is saying. By reducing the principal owed, your interest payments are less therefore assuming you bring in the same revenue, have a larger surplus.

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: Bowfinger

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: Bowfinger

Originally posted by: charrison
The last thing you want is a goverment with a surplus. It will only find a way to spend it.

Sure, because then we might reduce the federal debt, reducing the moeny we waste on interest payments. That might further increase the surplus, allowing us to reduce the debt even faster. It's a viscious circle, ending only once we've restored some sense of fiscal responsibility to government. Horrors!


Oh wait. What was the downside again?

I guess you dont quite understand what a surplus is. Money left over after everything has been budgeted for.

I guess you don't quite understand what the federal debt is, nor what a government "budget surplus" is.

Neither of our insults is true, of course. You do understand, but you're playing semantics games to avoid addressing the point.

Reduction of debt would not be a bad thing, unless you are holding government bonds as an income source However I don't trust either party with a surplus of any sort. Any surpluses should be returned to the tax payers.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: charrison
Reduction of debt would not be a bad thing, unless you are holding government bonds as an income source However I don't trust either party with a surplus of any sort.

Any surpluses should be returned to the tax payers.

Bahahahahahaha this is rich coming from a rabid borrow and spend supporter.

 

[techs]

I think Congress should give more TAX CUTS and INCREASE SPENDING.

 

[ntdz]

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

Originally posted by: bobdelt

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit
1. Raise taxes on the rich.

2. Raise taxes on the rich again.

And why do the rich deserve to pay an even larger proportional amount than you already do? Are you jealous? Is that why you want to steal their money and have it pay for your things?

Why do the rich deserve to make so much money when we have so many WORKING people living at the poverty level? It is they who reap the greatest benifits from our society, who skim the cream off the top, and they should gladly pay for that privledge and appreciate what they have instead of whining like the spoiled rich kids they are.



If someone is a thief in this matter it is them and they aren't stealing money, they are stealing something much more valuable, people's lives.

Who cares why they have their money, they have it...it doesn't mean they deserve to be punished for being successful. Last time I checked, our country is great because of capitalism, not socialism like you advocate.

 

[ntdz]

Originally posted by: shadow9d9

Originally posted by: ntdz
1) Fix the budget deficit without tax increases

2) I can't think of anything else the Democrats would do that I'd be supportive of.

That is sad.


I'd vote for ethics reform-ntdz wouldn't support this as he said.

Cutting ties to lobbyists-ntdz also doesn't support this apparently.

Approve more stem cell research.

Get rid of the patriot act.

Get rid of NSA spying without warrants.

NTDZ wants them to fix the 300 billion deficit without taxes though;... how convenient... the republicans get us into a massive deficit, and then want the democrats to fix it without raising taxes!? So stupid. If people cared so much about taxes, they shouldn't have re-elected Bush after what he did with the deficit the first half of his term... Reckless spending requires cleanup...

I'd support the first three things you mentioned, stem cell is the only thing that has a chance of succeeding though.

 

[Dissipate]

The necessity of their own existence.

 

[ntdz]

Originally posted by: homercles337

Originally posted by: PELarson

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit
1. Raise taxes on the rich.

Or simply raise taxes on CEO's and members of company boards on anything over a maximum salary, combined monetary and stock, of say $1 to $2 million dollars by 200%.

My two -

Make sure that the funding for armor, personal and vehicle, is availalbe to the military and that they use it for that purpose.

Restart Congress's oversight of the government.

Not possible. People with money (large incomes or trusts) have very clever ways of hiding it from the government. Corps like to use tax shelters too. If corporate amurika paid its fair due every single american would see their tax burden HALVED!

Maybe the reason they do this is because they are being taxed out of their asses. Make $500,000 last year? Give $250,000 to the government in various forms of tax.

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: ntdz
Maybe the reason they do this is because they are being taxed out of their asses. Make $500,000 last year? Give $250,000 to the government in various forms of tax.

Haha... if I made that much, I wouldn't want to give any of it up, but I'm a greedy bastard.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: ntdz
Maybe the reason they do this is because they are being taxed out of their asses.

Make $500,000 last year? Give

$250,000 to the government in various forms of tax.

$250,000 not enough for you to live on???

 

[CrackRabbit]

1. Set up some sort of path and system for easier legal immigration to this country. And cut off all forms of support of illegal immigrants.
2. Repeal The Patriot Act

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: ntdz
Maybe the reason they do this is because they are being taxed out of their asses.

Make $500,000 last year? Give

$250,000 to the government in various forms of tax.

$250,000 not enough for you to live on???

Some people have such a cross to carry that I don't see how they do it.



I wouldn't mind trying it though, that cross looks like it would fit me perfectly.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: ntdz
Maybe the reason they do this is because they are being taxed out of their asses.

Make $500,000 last year? Give

$250,000 to the government in various forms of tax.

$250,000 not enough for you to live on???

Who are you to make that determination? The desire to keep what you earn for yourself is not a bad thing.

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: ntdz
Maybe the reason they do this is because they are being taxed out of their asses.

Make $500,000 last year? Give

$250,000 to the government in various forms of tax.

$250,000 not enough for you to live on???

Who are you to make that determination? The desire to keep what you earn for yourself is not a bad thing.

Maybe Dave's really an IRS agent in disguise? Besides, who are you to judge Dave's opinion?

Exactly.

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
Who are you to make that determination? The desire to keep what you earn for yourself is not a bad thing.

No one is more qualified in making that determination than the person who earned it, I say.

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: Zorba
Undo the recent 12Billion cut in student loans and make the interest rates variable again.

Restore the 4th amendment

hear hear!

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy

Originally posted by: HombrePequeno

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
Privatize social security... lock in the tax cuts.

That's not very fiscally responsible. You want to keep our deficits and also add to them by privatizing SS?

Nope. I'm encouraging fiscal responsibility by shrinking governemnt (no need to raise taxes with less federal spending) and preventing a whole generation from being victimized by continuing to promote a pyramid scheme that masquerades as a retirement program.

even the SSa does think of itself as a retirement program. If you want to help save SS:

allow the ssa to buy higher rate municiple bonds instead of very low rate short term t-bills, perfer even allow investment grade corporate bonds to be purchased. Raise the tax limit on SS tax.

Privatizing SS is a terrible idea, it will lead people to making stupid risks (junk bonds, crap stocks) knowing that if they lose it, the government won't leave them out to dry. This has been done in several financial sectors, such as pension funds, banks, s&l's etc. Basically people will make lots of longshot investments and lose lots of money that the governemnt will end up paying for.

Killing SS would be a much better idea than privatizing it.

 

[ntdz]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: ntdz
Maybe the reason they do this is because they are being taxed out of their asses.

Make $500,000 last year? Give

$250,000 to the government in various forms of tax.

$250,000 not enough for you to live on???

It's not about being enough to "live on." The government punishes you for being more productive, having special talents, and the ability to be successful. It's just pure idiocy and it's ass backwards.

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: MovingTarget
0) Congressional term limits - two terms max for members of each house [This seems to be a pipe dream, so I'm not counting it in my two.]

There are so many problems with term limits.

*what if the representative is doing a great job and people want to reelect?
*removes experience and knowledge from the congress.
*throws a wrench into the appointment and committee systems.
*bunch more stuff.


personally i think it is quick clear that if the people are willing to reelect a representative than they should be allowed to do so.

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: HombrePequeno

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: HombrePequeno

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: HombrePequeno

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
Privatize social security... lock in the tax cuts.

That's not very fiscally responsible. You want to keep our deficits and also add to them by privatizing SS?

Just remember, if spending and tax receipts keep on their current paths, the budget will balance itself by 2008. However there is much fat that could be removed from the federal government.

That's nice but I would still shoot for a very large surplus before we go privatizing SS. That's also assuming that the economy will continue growing at a similar rate when there is quite a bit that can go wrong.

The last thing you want is a goverment with a surplus. It will only find a way to spend it.

Are you referring to the tax cuts?

If a government does run a surplus it should be required to return those surpluses back to the taxpayer, other wise it has to find new ways to spend the money. And once and government program gets started it is almost impossible to get rid of.

a better idea might be to pay down debt.

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: ntdz

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

Originally posted by: bobdelt

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit
1. Raise taxes on the rich.

2. Raise taxes on the rich again.

And why do the rich deserve to pay an even larger proportional amount than you already do? Are you jealous? Is that why you want to steal their money and have it pay for your things?

Why do the rich deserve to make so much money when we have so many WORKING people living at the poverty level? It is they who reap the greatest benifits from our society, who skim the cream off the top, and they should gladly pay for that privledge and appreciate what they have instead of whining like the spoiled rich kids they are.



If someone is a thief in this matter it is them and they aren't stealing money, they are stealing something much more valuable, people's lives.

Who cares why they have their money, they have it...it doesn't mean they deserve to be punished for being successful. Last time I checked, our country is great because of capitalism, not socialism like you advocate.

progressive taxation is not socialism.

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: ntdz


Maybe the reason they do this is because they are being taxed out of their asses. Make $500,000 last year? Give $250,000 to the government in various forms of tax.

few people pay that high a % of tax, especially in that income bracket.

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: ntdz

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: ntdz
Maybe the reason they do this is because they are being taxed out of their asses.

Make $500,000 last year? Give

$250,000 to the government in various forms of tax.

$250,000 not enough for you to live on???

It's not about being enough to "live on." The government punishes you for being more productive, having special talents, and the ability to be successful. It's just pure idiocy and it's ass backwards.

considering that its the government that provides the system that allowed this hypothetical individual to earn such an excellent income, perhaps he should stfu and be happy for what the system has provided him.

 

[Bowfinger]

Originally posted by: ntdz

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: ntdz
Maybe the reason they do this is because they are being taxed out of their asses.

Make $500,000 last year? Give $250,000 to the government in various forms of tax.

$250,000 not enough for you to live on???

It's not about being enough to "live on." The government punishes you for being more productive, having special talents, and the ability to be successful. It's just pure idiocy and it's ass backwards.

It's also purely false. The government doesn't punish anyone for being successful. The possible exception might be the upper reaches of the middle class who, on the average, pay a higher effective rate than the top one or two percent. (But even that isn't punishment, it's just shifting wealth from the upper-middle class to the ends of the economic spectrum.) First, the taxes in the United States are significantly lower than most of our industrialized peers. Second, Americans are fabulously well paid in comparison to most of the world, in large part due to the extraordinary physical, financial, and educational infrastructure of the U.S., infrastructure largely funded with tax dollars. It is perfectly reasonable to expect those who have benefited most from the opportunities here to pay the most.

 

[MovingTarget]

quote:
Originally posted by: MovingTarget
0) Congressional term limits - two terms max for members of each house [This seems to be a pipe dream, so I'm not counting it in my two.]



There are so many problems with term limits.

*what if the representative is doing a great job and people want to reelect?
*removes experience and knowledge from the congress.
*throws a wrench into the appointment and committee systems.
*bunch more stuff.


personally i think it is quick clear that if the people are willing to reelect a representative than they should be allowed to do so.

One could say the same about the presidency, but even after a president as successful as FDR, such a limit was still thought necessary. The only reason I advocate this is because of the corruption and entitlement to special interests that seems to entrench itself in government's longest serving members. We still have to deal with the same corrupt politicians for decades on end. Being a representative should be a job of service, not a career in and of itself. There are plenty of qualified people to represent any given constituency. Perhaps this will make them more accountable to them...