In the first place, I have a problem with money being indiscriminately used to help our economy. A large part of the problem is that the American people have no say over if the money should be used much less how and where it should be used. And about the if part - we have no guarantee that throwing money at various entities will have the desired effect, and the last time I checked, the United States is in a crap load of debt. Indeed, wasn't it Mr. Obama himself who was decrying the amount of debt this country was in because of the war in Iraq?
In the second place, I have a huge problem with "a new economy that is more just and fair." I agree that financial institutions have preyed on people, but it seems to me that they are now reaping what they sowed. And what do you mean by "just and fair?" If you are referring to the taxes that are paid, I would like to explore that with you, gentle readers. According to the National Taxpayers Union the top 1% of people, with incomes over $364,000, pay 40% of the taxes. The top 5% of people, with incomes over$145,000, pay 60% of the taxes. The top 10% of people, with incomes over $103,000, pay 70% of the taxes. The top 50% of people, with incomes over $30,000, pay 96.93% of taxes!!! The bottom 50% of people pay just 3% of the taxes collected in these United States. May I reiterate that 10% of the population of this country pay for 70% of the taxes collected? So how should we make it more "fair and just?"
I would also like to remind Ms. vanden Heuvel and others who think that we should pay for everyones' health care that this is called socialism. This is the type of health programs that they have in Canada, England, etc. I would like to cite a personal story in regard to this. I have a friend whose daughter resides in Canada. When she needed an MRI concerning her seizure condition, the wait was 4 months.
Ms. vanden Heuval's suggestion that we "cut billions from wasteful defense budgets that empty our treasury without making us more secure," made me wonder if her letter was even serious. (Are you serious??? - thanks SNL) Countries without militaries to protect them quickly become victims of the ambitions of other countries, victims of rebellion, victims of lawlessness... need I go on? Well, I won't tonight. I'm tired. I'll continue my shouting and yelling (jk) another day.
2 comments:
I agree with you that the government should be very careful in how they spend tax money to help the economy recover. I do have a question about your statistics. You say that the top 1% of people pay 40% of the taxes. Is that 1% measured by count of population or dollars earned? It is possible that the top 1% of our population earns 40% of the nations income in which case 40% of the taxes isn't ridiculous. if the top 1% of our population earns 1% of the nations income then 40% is ridiculously high. I would tend to believe that the statistic is saying that 1% of the U.S. citizens earn more than $364,000, but doesn't tell what percent of the nations income that 1% accounts for. I'm not being critical, I would just like to know if you are aware how they consider it. The National Taxpayers Union website doesn't bother to clarify as far as I can tell.
The top 1% of people refers to the population. The IRS also has this statistic somewhere on their website, but I couldn't find it this time when I went looking. Steve has printed the statistics out before,(from the IRS website) but I didn't keep the paper.
Post a Comment