ONE of the first answers to to this problem is TERM LIMITS ……never did the framers of the Constitution envision professional politicians- in office for 20-30-40 Years ! Government was supposed to be run by normal, honest hard working people.If we got rid of multi term possibilities….it would be simple- you get 4-6 years to get it done and then YOU ARE OUT. No more late term lying,wavering,over-promising and out right prostituting yourself to get re-elected.

Since none of our term squatters has the figuative balls to put through and pass term limits (why would they want to get off their own gravy train)…..then we go with what the poster above noted- VOTE NON-INCUMBENT. Maybe that should be the theird party….since our other third party does not work.

FLAT TAX —YES….YES….YES. I just don’t like the fact that we can solve our problems by turning over the funds to a system (our government) that is horrifically wasteful, corrupt and makes things 2-3-4 times more expensive then they need to be.

GILD - Gilead Sciences Inc. said Friday the Food and Drug Administration has approved its ambrisentan tablets. Foster City-based Gilead (NASDAQ:GILD) said the drug, called Letairis, is designed for once-daily treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Announcement came after hours Friday, and stock was up $1.3; pre-market today up $0.93.

To that end, Ill email you my address, and you all can take up a collection for me. Please dont bother with anything less than 10%

and thanks in advance !

Now try to find enough congressman to simply form a committee to produce a bill that both Houses will pass. It would end up being political suicide for any committee member, so the committee won’t be formed and the necessary first step in a bill enactment process won’t occur.

It’s sad, but true. The power of persuasion that money provides allows many inefficient systems to exist and assures their continuation.

Regarding Canada and it’s top rate of 29% for income tax can’t be the reason more of our billionaires don’t hop over the border; you forgot all the additional taxes besides the income tax, needed to pay for the gov’t sponsored “free” health insurance, etc. that accumulates to an almost 60% cumulative tax on a median Canadian income earner (and then they still have to wait months on a list for critical health testings, so many end up coming to the U.S. and pay now for medical procedures, so that they will be alive to utilize their free health benefits in the future). The 60% cumulative tax rate is the hindrance for any U.S. citizen, and is the primary reason for Canadians, to switch tax residency. (Preventing mass departure of its citizens is the real reason Canada suggests we limit immigration (and you thought they meant just middle east immigrants?), but not quicker green card issuing policies.)

Good quotes Dragon! I especially liked the Camara, it mirrors my experience writing about it…

Should the state intervene: I believe (to be clear) that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are inalienable rights (I know, such a radical!) which to me means health care, basic food, basic housing, transportation (freedom to travel), education that leads to equitable job opportunities ARE EXACTLY what the government is for. I think it’s all well and good to argue as to how best accomplish this but if you can’t start with a basis that every citizen has the right to food, shelter, medical care and education at a level where that person’s child has the probablility (not the possibility) of being able to earn the median US income, then we are flawed at the outset.

Distribution of wealth - I agree there is a difference but it’s the flow of money that creates the wealth. While those trump apartments may be creating new wealth for The Donald, they only do so because $2.4Bn in quarters trickeld up to him from the lower half of society. It’s that giant sucking sound Ross Perot promised us in 1992 as the great vacuum of money that is created by 1,000 $2.2M luxury apartments pulls in money from every nook and cranny of society like the event horizon of a black hole. You can think of the Uber-Rich, our 1,000 American Billionaires as black holes with a capital density so vast that, in order to add just a small percentage of mass to their own, will suck up entire solar systems worth of cash without a thought.

I’m not calling for wealth distribution, that has many problems of course but I am saying that a family with 3 children, for whatever reason they are poor, has a RIGHT to expect to be able to live in a 2BR apartment with clean water and heat, have enough food to get through the week, decent health care when needed and schools and whatever other sort of training is required to make their children employable. I’m not saying they shouldn’t have to work, make that a provision. I’m not saying they can live wherever they want - ship them all off to South Dakota or something but poverty is OUR failure, as a society. We would have, could have, should have done something at some point in these people’s lives and we failed. Now the problem is harder because we have ignored it for generations but how long will you ignore it? 98% of the people in this country make less than $80,000 a year but a corporate “person” like XOM can make $40Bn in profits, enough money to pay 500,000 people $80,000 or, more appropriately, enough to pay a $2,000 utility bill for 20M people. A 25% tax on that money could suppliment 50% of the utility bill for 10M families and would represent less than 1/3 of the money that XOM spent buying back their own stock last year.

At a certain point, you are literally chosing to let people freeze to death while XOM pads its balance sheet because it doesn’t have anything better to do with all that money. When is it going to be enough?

=====================================================

Kfat - I 100% agree that education is the key. You say $250,000 for 25 students but, is it enough? Can your teacher afford to live in the town with the highest US property taxes on what you pay her? Teachers should be active parts of the community, people with good jobs held in high esteem - which was once the case - IN 1870! I don’t know when that all fell apart but school budgets should not be voted on - someone should assess the needs of the school, write a budget and collect it. How did school tax turn optional? Could you imagine if Bush had to put the Defense Department budget up for referendum every year. Educating out children is the best national defense we can have yet I see school districts cutting gym, art, music, science labs… because all the old folks go out and vote down the budgets to save $200 on their property taxes.

DJ - as to what’s wrong with the system, it still goes back to education. Bless your Mom for being there but not everyone is lucky enough to have a well educated, well valued parent and then we as a society need to provide a surrogate (or test people before letting them breed). Discipline is a huge problem in school so you reinstate the concept of “In loco parentis” including whatever discipline is necessary to teach the children that certain behavior is NOT OK. When I was a kid, bad kids were tossed out of class and sent to the basement class where they either worked it out or were expelled and sent to the dreaded “Catholic School” where they were seldom heard from again - needless to say we were generally well behaved!

I don’t see it as catering to failure to try to do better for the 6M people (that’s all) who are on Welfare and perhaps 2M who are homeless. We are a $13T economy! Take 1/3 of those people who are most capable (2M) and pay them $40,000 ($80Bn) to work directly with 2 people each and provide another $80Bn in assistance ($20K each) to the other 4M people and see how many people still need help after 2 years. Cost to every American to eliminate perhaps 60% of the problem in 2 years = 1% of your income.

40M Americans without health insurance = another 1% of your income. Done!

Shame on us as a nation for saying we can’t solve these problems - it’s a scam that the top 1%, who would shoulder 12% of the burden simply because they earn 12% of the money - hide behind and it’s INFINITELY cheaper for them (them includes corporate “people like XOM”) to spend a few hundred million a year on lobbyists and PR people to tell the top 10% and the middle class that this is just another government hand-out than to take 2% of their profits and solve the problem.

Let’s not forget that of this $280Bn in proposed assistance (less than 1/3 of our annual defense budget), a good portion of it will flow back into the economy and will return to you in the form of expansion, but just not to the same people who would be forced to contribute - so they’re against it…

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Jim, Mike, DC - thanks for the personal anecdotes, it’s good to remember that there are real people here, not just statistics.

Karm - that would be great if person 10 didn’t actively avoid paying their share of taxes. We collect less than 20% of our GDP in taxes and Seve Forbes is dead right with the flat tax. A 17% no exception policy would INCREASE revenues. The problem is that the top 10%, who earn 50% of the income, do not pay your fictional 38% - if they did, the rest would have to pay none. Our top tax rate is generally 5-10% lower than most industrialized countries but it’s the lack of collection that’s the real problem. Canada’s top rate is just 29% yet no on moves that way across the boarder so it’s not the rates that keep our Billionaires local. China’s top rate is 45% and their economy is flying.

The sickest thing of all is that the US is one of the only major nations with no VAT. Only Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Egypt have no VAT. That is an average of over 15% of the GDP left on the table by the government - $2T a year that we already don’t collect to feed, clothe, house or educate ANYBODY in order for 10% of our population to be able to spend an average of $1.2M on yacht rentals and massages…

Japan*

18149.52
178.03
0.99%

Hong Kong*

21582.89
565.84
2.69%

DJ Shanghai*

446.30
12.72
2.93%

S.Korea*

1806.88
34.62
1.95%

India

14175.66
12.95
0.09%

* at close
Sources: Dow Jones, Reuters

Dinner costs $100 each week and doesn’t fluctuate in cost regardless if less than 10 persons are present per an agreement with the restaurant’s owner.

The ten split the cost of the meal as follows:

Persons 1 and 2 pay $ 0
Person 3 $ 2
Person 4 $ 3
Persons 5-6 6 each $ 12
Person 7 $ 11
Person 8 $ 15
Person 9 $ 18
Person 10 $ 39

Total $100

Owner comes over to their table one night and says in thanks for your patronage I am going to reduce the cost of your meal next week and from now on to $80. So it is agreed that the cost to each of the ten will now be:

Persons 1 and 2 pay $ 0
Person 3 $ 0
Person 4 $ 2
Persons 5-6 6 each $ 10
Person 7 $ 10
Person 8 $ 13
Person 9 $ 15
Person 10 $ 30

Total $ 80

After a couple of weeks paying these amounts all but the 10th person start talking together and saying how unfair it is that the 10th person is saving 9 dollars while the biggest savings any of the others individually have enjoyed is only $3. They become so upset that after the next meal together they beat up the 10th person in the parking lot.

The next week person 10 doesn’t show up so an argument over how much each person needs to pay entails because persons 1-3 who hadn’t paid in the past; didn’t bring any money and left. Dividing $80 by the 6 remaining persons with money averaged out to mean each would pay a little more than $13 each. Persons 4 through 7 screamed this would amount to an almost 50% increase, refused to pay more than the usual amount, threw their $22 on the table and also left. Persons 8 and 9 scrimped together $29 each, knowing they would be spending money not budgeted, which would mean they would need to apply for a loan the next day to make up for the shortfall, and would not be able to afford dinner next week. The weekly dinners stopped.

Moral of the story? Those that pay the most tax before and after a tax reduction should not be chastised without understanding the monetary consequences that could occur if off shore tax havens and non resident tax status are employed by those persons. We need person 10 to come to dinner!