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.

THAT SAID...

The title should actually be, “That Said, and other warnings of flip flops to come.”

Have you ever noticed how a pundit, politician or talk show personality, host or guest will say something that seems to put forth one side of an argument only to add the words, That Said?

It’s the ‘That Said’ part that signals the complete opposite thought is coming.

Now if you are paying close and complete undivided attention to the entire statement you may be able to parse exactly what side the speaker espouses.

Sadly most of America, myself included has not the patience nor deductive reasoning skills to keep our focus long enough to realize the speaker is generally full of it and merely trying to confuse the listener.

The two words basically mean I want to say both sides of the issue upon which I am pretending to pontificate in the hopes that you the listener will believe I am on your side when in fact I have no side except my own!

It is also a way to get a point across while attempting to stop the other side from debating you since you already stated their supposed position.

If your opponent should decide to go ahead and state his side after you have used the ‘that said’ ploy he will only look foolish repeating what you have already said.

It is similar in tactic to throwing in the, “And as you know,” phrase to get the audience to think you in fact know you are wrong and the speaker is the authority on whatever he is saying.

But there are other ways you can tell when the speaker is lying or fibbing or merely attempting to mislead.

For one his name is Willard Mitt who will never admit he is on one side or the other.

To flip flop is not
bad unless you
rotate!

But in general if a politician has his mouth open then look out!

Lately the Republican Party has been so guilty of this form of constant prevarication as to have the wonderful people at Guinness take note.

That is not to say that Democrats don’t hide the truth sometimes as well but generally when they do so they are trying to hide their allegiance to the so called 99% or the non-super, non-uber wealthy.

If the Democrats come out too much in favor of the common man they run the risk of losing all their funding from the group that can basically buy the country ten times over, as is being shown in the post ‘Citizen’s United’ ruling of the supreme beings of the Supreme Court.

That said I cannot condone any lies from either side of our political system.

That that said I understand that there must be some level of secrecy involved when dealing with matters of homeland security and foreign relations. After all if we the people know what’s on the minds of our leaders and their strategy going forward then there is a fair bet so do the enemies of America.

That that that said I also feel there should be some form of accountability for actions taken by our leaders in the name of country. (Note I left off the words ‘God and’ in front of that phrase.)

I note that our founders never wished America to be run by one branch of government or the church for that matter but rather by three branches. And only the office of the President is held by one individual while Congress, by its very name is a group of hopefully intelligent people to balance and check the other offices.

And my last ‘that said’ is one can only hope that our leaders will come to their senses soon and stop our downward spiral into total and abject stupidity within the halls of all government offices and agencies.

I would like to see one final flip flop and this time it would be toward actual compromised decisions and governance in the spirit of those wonderful words, “of the people, by the people and for the people.” For without ‘we the people’ what good is America?