The notion that the Fla decision is correct because one thinks bush is a better president is demonstrative of the contempt for things like voting, freedom, choice and the constitution. We don't know that Bush won the electoral college because we don't know who won florida. Even right-winged Fox called Florida for Gore - suddenly, Jeb bush goes to work and his brother wins; when the least bit of sunshine enters that state, the margin of victory is halved. We don't know who won. Bush is killing this economy - he knows he is because that is what neo-con economic policy does: They destroy the middle class. That is the plan: the ruling elite, the wealthy and the serfs. He hopes a military win will camuflage the effects of the damage he has done to the eonomy - and it might. What is neo-confederate economics? 1)Massive government subsidization of industry, paid for by the middle class. This does 2 things. ONe, it completely skews the free market and makes it , well, not free. Some producers operate on investment and risk; others operate on government cushions against possible losses. It ruins the economy, but this is neo con economics 101. Second, it usually will involve deficits (which KILL the stock market - absolutely kill it) as they politically can't raise taxes on the middle class, like they would like to. So, instead, they give them virtually nothing in the way of tax breaks. What they do get is always part of some social engineering plan to make sure we live our lives the way the ruling elite deem we should. 2)Taking care of real low income workers, so that they don't raise too much hell, like bush did when he created an entire new bracket of non-tax payors (while giving low-middle income workers in the 15% bracket ZERO tax rate cut in their bracket). Also note the the lowest cuts went to the 28% bracket (25%) and those in the 15% bracket who weren't moved to the 0% bracket (stayed at 15%) The beauty of the stock market bull run in the mid-late 1990s was that it did involve the middle class, in stark contrast to the 1980s trickle down economics. It was aided by a democratization of brokerages (on-line brokers, laws enacted after brokers stole billions from investors in the 1987 crash). Certainly there was a lot of dotcom action; certainly companies that were losing money hand over fist yet had soaring stock prices are priced more rationally now. But that doesn't explain the big cap stocks which suck now.
Bush is a terrible president. Gore would have been no better. Nader is a hippie. Thr truth is good leaders never become president. Clinton was a genius with vision, but put himself before his job. Old Bush was horrible. Reagan was noble but misguided. Carter sucked. Ford scuked. Nixon sucked. LBJ sucked. Kennedy would have been great. Eisenhower was decent. Truman and Roosevelt were both awesome. I could go on and on, but the point I am trying to make is the best man for the job hasn't gotten it, or for that matter his parties nomination in a long time. We need true conservative candidats to run. We need Alan Keyes and John Breaux. We need Chris John to take a more prominent role in the house. We need Billy Tauzin to ascend to Speaker. We need to RAISE taxes on the super wealthy (those who make excess of 2 mil). We need to LOWER taxes on the middle class (30-100k). None of these things will get done by the ass clowns we put in office. I am very cynical about our countries politicol system. It is becoming very ineffective. Our golden age is long gone. We are 4th century Rome. Our time is running out. We need a good president. I hope someone runs who is worth voting for. If not I'll just vote for Harry Browne again.
I agree that we need to lower taxes on the middle class but raising taxes on the super wealthy might make a lot of people feel good it wouldn't raise all that much new revenue. Even though a few super wealthy people make billions of dollars the percentage of people who are that rich is so small compared to the general population that it wouldn't be signifigant to the tax base. No matter how high you raise the tax bracket for the super wealthy those are the people who can afford to hire the best tax attorneys and accountants to take advantage of every possible loophole. It wouldn't surprise me if I found out that Bill Gates didn't pay a hell of a lot more in personal income taxes than you or me. What should be done is to implement a flat tax rate where everybody pays the same percentage of their income as everybody else. I would suggest 15% with an exemption for those who earn less than $20,000 that would allow them to pay 10%. Eliminate as many loopholes as can be eliminated to insure that the very wealthy pay their share. Lets face it - we all pay way too high a percentage of our incomes in taxes. Lets say you make $50,000 a year for the sake of round numbers. You pay $14000 in Federal income tax and another $3000 or $4000 in state income taxes. You might be thinking " Hey, that still leaves me with $32,000 to pay my mortgage, car payments, health, automoble, life and homeowners insurance along with my living expenses, saving for my kids college tuition and trying to make a few investments and for anything else that might come up like a family emergency." But No! There is still Social Security withholding (Social Security might be broke by the time we are of the age to collect) and everything you buy has local and/or state sales taxes and maybe federal excise tax. Buy a shirt or a new pair of shoes. In East Baton Rouge Parish 9% of the money you fork over is sales tax. Fill your car up with gasoline More taxes. Hey you gotta eat - 4 1/2 % of the money you give the cashier at the grocery store is tax. I know that cities and states have to have money too but I believe that all sales taxes on food and prescription drugs should be eliminated. I'm no mathmatician and I don't have the time to do it but if anybody wants to figure out how much everybody with a middle class income ends up paying in all these taxes and what actual percentage of their income they have left I would love to know. I'm sure the results would shock everybody
That's why there are so many different taxes--you spread them out enough and people don't realize the true tax rate. You left out the worst of all--property taxes, where the gubamint confiscates YOUR home and makes you pay rent to live there. And renters aren't off the hook because landlords pass on property taxes to them.
At least property taxes are low in Loiusiana. I don't remember exactly but last year I paid something like $275 in property taxes on my house. A friend of mine who owns a house in a Houston suburb of comparale value to mine told he his property tax is $3000 a year
