Sorry for being MIA for so long. Suffice it to say, January always sucks for me, and this one was worse than normal.
But I’m back, and madder than ever. My latest pet peeve? The deficit, and the “lack of political will” (for which read “lack of balls”) to do anything about it.
Let me get this straight: We have the Tea Party Movement (not to be confused with Bowel Movement, though there are many similarities), which is chock full o’ people claiming to be “patriots.” Meanwhile, we have a government that for many reasons (most of them traceable back to some guy named Dubya) is in debt up to its eyeballs. We also have a multitude of economists who tell us that a) deficits are bad for the economy, and therefore bad for all of us, and b) that it’s not really a good idea to cut spending massively in the midst of a recession because it could shoot us straight past the recession and into a DEPRESSION (something I’d really like to avoid, because I deal with the personal version of that daily, and it ain’t much fun).
Am I right about all that?
Okay, so here’s my thought: If all you Teabaggers are such frakkin’ patriots, here’s your chance to step up. Our elected officials believe that they can’t do anything about the deficit because if they raise taxes they won’t get reelected.
Tell them they’re wrong. Tell them that as true patriots, you are willing to do what it takes to get our government out of this mess. Tell them you’re okay with raising taxes with the express purpose of paying down the debt our government has racked up. C’mon, I dare ya!
Hey, what can I say? I needed a good laugh this morning.
But for what it’s worth, I’m going on record as saying I’m patriotic enough to be willing to see my taxes raised to reduce the deficit. I can’t afford it, but I can’t afford to see the economy go in the dumper because of the deficit either. And in case any of you forgot, the economy was humming along nicely under the Clinton administration, a time of HORRIFIC TAX BURDENS according to the loony right. I also appreciate all the stuff I get from our federal government, and I’d like to see all that continue.
So, to Betsy Markey, Mark Udall and Michael Bennett, please, raise my taxes. I won’t hold it against you.
Screw up health care reform, however…
You know, people don’t become super wealthy by being generous with their money. They tend to get that way by pinching every penny in sight, even the ones they steal from others. So, a tax that reduces their accumulation of money even slightly is never going to be accepted by that class of people. And, since they have super wealth they have the ability to manipulate the opinions of the uninformed majority of the country, to get them to be their mouthpieces in this battle.
Any tax increase that is even halfway rational will take more money from the super wealthy than from anyone else, so that group will always oppose any tax increase. And, when they oppose something, they spend what it takes to defeat it.
It is all about the greed of those with the most.
BuggyQ. I appreciate your offering to raise your taxes. That must mean that you make more that $250,000 a year! Congrats. Because unless you are in that category you really shouldn’t need to raise your taxes.
As Hoppy said, the rich use their money to convince others that to be mouthpieces for the battle. That is why they get a black man who wants to role back affirmative action to be their mouth piece. Having lower or middleclass people who believe that taxes are evil and that the cutting the deficits need to come from “entitlements” is brilliant.
The money should come from the war spending. We have billions of dollars being dumped into Iraq into non-military and the waste is intense.
But that isn’t even on the table
Corporations hiding money offshore. Individuals hiding money offshore. Lobbyist changing the laws to create tax loopholes.
People always talk about pitchfolks and torches. Sure that would scare people, but what they really fear is an honest DA and the IRS.
if we can prevent ANY sale of that egg cracking thing, raise taxes.