Regarding asking those that have “gained” for a little help…. were you aware that if we confiscated 100% of the wealth of every millionaire in America that we could only run the government for 1 year? 100% of the wealth of the Forbes 400 richest Americans would only run the government for 6 months. Almost 50% of Americans pay no Federal Income Tax. The top 10% (of which I am a part) pay more than 70% of all Federal Income Taxes. How exactly is that NOT paying our fair share?

On that same topic, do you really believe that if we just taxed high income earners more, that the government would stop spending more than they take in? Like just because we raise taxes on people that earn $250K and up to 50%, that all of a sudden, magically, politicians will be come fiscally responsible? Please let me know if you believe this? I don’t really think you do.

So while your perception is that it does not seem like you are asking too much, those of us on the other side see it as though you’re asking us to give the heroin addict just a little bit more in his dose. Believe me, most rich people I know would take the trade off of higher taxes with a Constitutional Amendment that REQUIRES hard and fast a balanced budget IMMEDIATELY, not in the future, and that the national debt MUST be paid off within 10 years, or whatever.

Why is it that we the tax payers are the ones being asked to sacrifice and the politicians and bureacrats are not? When do they have to sacrifice and cut their spending?

Anyway, thank you for your discussion, sky. I very much enjoy speaking with you and learning your positions and thoughts.

Have a wonderful day, sky!

In 1939, ten years after the crash on Wall Street, the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., told the House Ways and Means Committee:

“We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong…somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises…I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started…And an enormous debt to boot!”

History repeats itself, my friend. Obozo’s Keynesian motivated policies match FDR’s almost perfectly. Government debt and spending and more debt and more spending and m0re debt did not work then and it is not working today. It can’t work, sky. It can’t work.

Think of it this way. For every dollar gov’t spends, since government produces nothing, it must first get that dollar in only 1 of 3 ways:

1) taxation and fees,
2) sales of debt instruments (Treasury bonds), or
3) The printing press.

Taxation takes money from the productive sector of the economy, and no one disputes the fact that we should have taxation. The problem with debt spending is one of scope and it’s effect on the overall budget. For example, if we had no debt, adding some during a slow down may be a positive. However, if we already have debt that exceeds our annual income, every new dollar issued must mean that a portion of existing revenues must be taken off the top to pay for interest on that debt. You guys on the left like to say “you cant equate government finances and private/personal finances as the same”. Not true. The laws of mathematics apply equally in all situations. Eventually, interest payments become an overwhelming component of the budget and all other legitimate expenditures government makes become squeezed. This is what you are witnessing in Greece.

The 3rd option of printing money to paper over debts NEVER ends well. You know that and so does every other sane person that knows even the most basic history.

The point is this: No matter where government gets the money to spend, debt spending takes from future tax revenues and money printing destroys the value of the currency and crushes retirement savings and fixed income people like seniors.

Understanding the above, you ask where do we go from here? The answer is to do the exact opposite of what we are doing now. Reduce government and slash the budgets. Wipe out huge swaths of duplicate or triplicate regulations that drive costs so high. Increase freedom and free market economics. Slash or eliminate corporate income taxation since the reality is that there is no such thing since they just pass the costs onto consumers anyway. Flatten the tax code so we increase the tax base of people who are paying income taxes but decrease the rates with 2 brackets: none and 15% (or whatever) on everything over a certain amount.

History has proven that the best economic plan is to allow for maximum individual freedom and free market economic choice at the lowest overall cost possible.

The problem with this idea is that I don’t believe we have the political will in the electorate to support it. Too many people are getting too many goodies for free that are paid for by the labor of someone else. It’s like a drug addict who doesnt realize he’s on a crash course with the coroner, and he’s gonna lose.

While you guys on the left love to play the compassion card and demonize anyone that does not agree with your prescription for a cure, you fail to realize that your prescriptions for the past cures have been utter failures. Yet, you keep thinking that we just need to spend more. This is why I say that “Liberalism is the disease that presents itself as its own cure”. Since the 1960′s and LBJ Great Society programs, EVERY SINGLE social ailment they sought to eliminate is at least 10 to 20 times worse now than it was then.

This does not mean that conservatives have no compassion or that we dont care about the poor, downtrodden, or elderly. All it means is that we have different ideas about how to deal with them instead of creating never-ending and self perpetuating government programs that drain the public treasury and never fulfill their promise.

I have to run sky. I hope this helps you to understand my positions on things better.

Have a nice day!

Have a nice night!

Democratic National Convention Schedule
4:00 PM – Opening Flag Burning Ceremony
4:05 PM – Singing of “G_D___ America” led by Rev. Jeremiah Wright
4:10 PM – Pledge of Allegiance to Obama
4:15 PM – Ceremonial ‘I hate America’ led by Michelle Obama
4:30 PM – Tips on Dodging Sniper Fire – Hillary Clinton
4:45 PM –Al Sharpton Leads Castrati Choir in Singing “Great Balls of Fire”
5:00 PM – UFO Abduction Survival – Joe Biden
5:30 PM – Eliot Spitzer Speaks on “Family Values” via Satellite
5:45 PM – Tribute to All 57 States
6:00 PM – Joe Biden Delivers 100,000-Word Speech Featuring 23-Minute Question and 2- Hour Answer
8:30 PM – Airing of Grievances by the Clintons
9:00 PM – Bill Clinton Delivers Rousing Endorsement of Obama Girl
9:15 PM – Tribute Film to Freedom Fighters at Gitmo – Michael Moore
9:45 PM – Personal Finance Seminar – Charlie Rangell
10:00 PM – Denunciation of Bitter Gun Owners
10:30 PM – Ceremonial Waving of White Flag for IRAQ, & Afghanistan
11:00 PM – Obama Energy Plan Symposium /Tire Gauge Demonstration
11:15 PM – Free Gov. Blagojevich rally
11:30 PM – Obama Accepts Tony and Latin Grammy Awards
11:45 PM – Feeding of the Delegates with 5 Loaves and 2 Fish – Obama Presiding
12:00 AM – Official Nomination of Obama by Bill Mahre
12:01 AM – Obama Accepts Nomination, declares that the Kenyan thing was a distraction, he was really born in Bethelehem
12:05 AM – Celestial Choirs Sing
3:00 AM – Biden Delivers Acceptance Speech
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OPTION: Closing with a Declaration of War on the rich To be decided just before the Convention