Simplify for Fairness

With all the talk about lowering taxes for all or some or none or whatever one thing seems to have been lost. How can we run a country if no one will be funding it?
I cannot believe how ridiculous some if not all the arguments against raising the tax rate on those who not only can afford to pay a bit more but won't notice it if they do!
Can we all admit for once and for all that they are not the job creators?
They have proverbially more money than, choose you God here and yet the unemployment rate is way up.  And do you know what else is way up?  The job creators' bank accounts.
Corporate and wealthy profits have soared under the relaxed tax burden placed upon them by the right trending Congress.

Shouldn't he be
pointing at everyone,
not just the middle class?

Forget the term class warfare which is merely used as a way for those at the top to complain they are being persecuted.  Many are actually in need of being prosecuted but that's another story.
The bottom line is the country is in need of funding and must also rein in some of the expenditures it makes that are not totally necessary.
And there is the sticking point.
What do we cut from the budget?
So far we only seem to have one clear cut cut and that amounts to war on a large yellow avian creature who's guilty of trying to teach America's youth.  Can't have that!
And as long as we've decided to go after something that helps children at the start of their life why not go after something that ends their lives, war?  Can we please lower our UNBELIEVABLY inflated military budget?
If you listen very carefully you can hear the sound of General Dwight D Eisenhower spinning in his grave over the VAST MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX he so wisely warned against so many years ago.
Could we get Charles Grodin to visit the White House and hand him a copy of the budget book for analysis?  I believe we can rustle up some bratwurst.
One thing we must all realize is that in order for our lives to be comfortable and for the services we ALL want, use, expect and desire to be available we must have a certain amount of collective cash.
Put simply the overall government needs money and where it comes from doesn't matter as long as it comes!
Without going into actual dollar amounts let's use 100% as the amount needed for YOU.  And even if my percentages from this point forward are off you should get the idea.
The Federal government puts in 45% of what YOU need to live.
Your State chips in with an additional 30%, your City, if you live in one antes up another 15% with the 10% balance being forked over by your local community or town board.
If the Federal government lowers taxes and thereby decides it can only opt in for say 35% then they send a little less to the States.  In order for you live the same way you are living now the State must raise taxes or if not then the other collectors of taxes will have to chip in more.  Or rather dip deeper into your pocket.
The end result is you will still be paying the same amount of taxes but just altering the 'to whom' they are paid.
The menu to fix our economy with tax reform and benefit reform is a short one.
On one extreme side of the spectrum we can keep all spending as it is and raise taxes to cover the bill.
On the other end we can keep taxes as they are and get rid of all expenditures.
Either way is absurd so somewhere in the middle must be the best answer.
I believe without question that we must alter our tax structure for America to get back on track!
And even though I have some income, however small, from my investments I would not mind paying taxes on the profits at the same rate as I do regular income AS LONG AS ALL OF US DO!
And by all of us I mean politicians as well!!!
Let's be real and call a spade a spade people, INCOME IS  INCOME!
If you end the year with more money than you started the difference is income!
END OF STORY!
FARTIG!
FINITO!
FINISHED!!!
How hard is that to understand?
If we were to tax ALL income as INCOME and at the rate of income we would be on our way toward a more fair way of collecting America's life blood, AKA taxes.
For a mega-millionaire such as Willard Mitt Romney to get away with saying he pays his FAIR share of taxes and then have the unmitigated gall to blame those who make less than 1% of what he rakes in as moochers paying no income tax borders on treasonous if not at least evil!
Under past Presidents the income tax rate was always higher than it is now and our economy thrived and grew.
To believe that this winning strategy has somehow changed fits the definition of stupidity in the, 'Doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result' sort of way.
During the Reagan years we were forced into trying the 'trickle down' method of allowing the wealthy to get wealthier and the only thing that trickled down was the drool on the faces of the middle class as they watched the CEOs of America disappear in the dust.
A graduated tax scale without deductions of any kind must be the starting point for a fair tax rate for all.
Just making sure every entity, individual or corporation pays a fair share of INCOME in the total and real sense of the word is a must.  To do any less would be to welcome corruption, or actually continue to allow it to survive.
Many of us hand over papers to an accountant who charges absurd amounts to sift through everything and apply every possible deduction only to then check and see if the middle class killing alternative minimum tax rate has to kick in.
Why does a corporation, which is now a person according to a majority of morons AKA the Supreme Court of the US, have a Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax?  Certainly if us mere mortals are subject to the AMT they should have a CAMT for their very own, right?
As an individual tax paying citizen who has never sent money off-shore with the express purpose of defrauding the U S Government I can say that if I lost all my deductions and ended up paying $5 more in total taxes at the end of the year I would be a far happier camper knowing we were all in the same boat!
Figuring out how much money would be placed in the IRS coffers as a result of this fair way to collect revenue is actually a simple thing since deductions would not have to be figured in.  Then we could see how much we had to work with and  how much we could spend on the humans who fund the government in the first place!
If America is to be for all Americans then all Americans must chip in and they MUST do so fairly.
It's not "America, love it or leave it" it's America, love it and help it survive!
And to those who 24/7 think of ways to get around paying their fair share of the tax burden I say put up or shut up.
The previous message was brought to you by the letters U S & A and the number 2012.

On a Dangerous and Serious Note

I realize that I may have offended many of you who believe that the Bible is the word of God and you believe it implicitly. (That means without question.)
But therein lies the paradox and the problem.
If God did indeed place you and I on this Earth then he, or she, did so with our brains and the power to question all things in and even out of our universe. And since God gave us our brains it would therefore appear to be a sin not to use them. And if you further believe that God is all powerful and all knowledgeable then he placed almost each and every one of us on this Earth with our brains intact and in working order.
Scientists are constantly experimenting on ways to cure diseases such as Alzheimer's and other disorders. If one of the ways they can cure the pain and suffering of a fellow Human Being is to utilize stem cells then I say God speed. And to prevent science from pursuing this noble endeavor would be to promote the Devil's work.
If we use our brains and realize that evolution is a fact then the Bible, as good as it is, is merely a great fiction and a guideline to a peaceful contented way of life. It is a wonderous book written through the centuries by very learned men and possibly women who used their brains to put on paper or commit to memory stories and parables to help us live.
But the Bible is not the only path to a full and meaningful way of life. Helping other people, and I mean all people live their lives the way they wish to live is therefore divine. We may feel pity for those who do not live their lives the way we would like them to live or the way we live ours but we are not God. If someone has a different way of feeling for other human beings, be they of a different religion or the same sex then that is their choice. And their choice, as long as they do not attempt to make the rest of us do the same is and should be heaven blessed.
Helping the environment so that all the creatures of the Earth can live in peace and harmony is also divine.
And questioning all things in the hopes of making the world a better place in which to live must therefore most assuredly be divine. If we do not believe in these things and strive to fulfill our brains' potential then we are all committing heresy.
God gave us brains and the ability to question God. God help us if we do not.

Thoughts on Religion

Religion is historically the cause of most of the pain and suffering in this world.
I realize that I will get in trouble for this portion of my ongoing blog but every once in a while it just gets to me. Actually as I get older it is getting to me more and more.
That is not to say that religion is a bad thing just not the religion that humans have used to get themselves and their followers ahead of everyone else.
Religion can be a good thing unless it is taken too far. Unfortunately 'too far' is where we end up taking our religions.
I will not pick on one religion and if it seems that I am doing so I apologize but all of them are to blame for allowing the bloodshed and turmoil throughout history. And what is worse I do not see it ending any time soon.
One of the earliest thoughts I had on this subject came in Junior High School as they used to call today's more politically correct Middle School. My history teacher explained the Papal Wars. Does anyone else find the phrase both oxymoronic and offensive? In order to get converts to the church the Pope sent out his warriors to kill heathens, those who would not convert! And where in our hearts should we place the Spanish inquisition?
Has anything changed? Not really.
Okay the above two examples are no longer in effect and the church is not in the business of outright war anymore. But other religions are or rather the more extreme followers of their religions are. These so-called Jihadists who believe that followers of religions other than their own are to be put to death, even if it means killing themselves to complete that task.
Funny how the leaders of those groups never kill themselves to fulfill their objective. They incite and threaten but in the end they cowardly seek out and brainwash the weak-minded and poor by filling their heads with visions of eternal bliss then glorify the horrendous deeds of these misguided fools with praise and gifts to the families they left behind.
All this in the name of God.
People like these, and I use the term in the loosest possible way give the rest of us reason to believe that there may not even be a God for surely if there were would he or she allow this senseless stupidity to continue? Not any God I would like to believe in!
When I was young I was told that we were all created in God's image and that God loves us as a father or mother loves their children.
So we are all created in Gods image and we are all loved?
Does that mean both men and women?
Does that mean both rich and poor?
Does that mean Arab and Jew?
How about gay and straight?
Black and white? (And any other color.)
And of course does that mean Muslim; Christian; Jew; Hindu and on and on and on and on and ...?
They say that this time of year we are supposed to reflect on our lives and resolve to make them better for the coming year.
Why only now?
Most New Year's resolutions last only a week or two. Does that mean that by the end of next December we will look back on another wasted year filled with hate and murder in God's name?
This is not a good plan.
Somehow we must stop it.
We must do it now.
And we must do so In God's Name.