Mark, I'd love to someday run for Congress and give back to the American Military Retirees what the politicians have STOLEN from them. You were promised that if you held up your end of the deal, you'd get FREE HEALTHCARE and 50% of your pay at 20yrs. I think that if we're giving White Trash Sally with 4 kids free healthcare, and a place to live, and a card to get free food, etc, the least we could do is have the courtesy to give it to those who EARNED it. Sorry, though, I hafta disagree a bit on the Flat Tax thing though, I saw a graph one time that showed what it would do, and it would essentially cut the revenue in half. Sure it would seem almost fair, but the government couldn't afford to lose all that MAJOR revenue that they get from the RICH!!! The top 5% of earners pay 50% of the tax revenue!!!
With the current spending of course not...The taxes aren't the problem (while they are unfair for those at the top). But cut the spending in half by eliminating a majority of entitlements and ending these jaunts around the world like Libya, and a flat tax could easily sustain this country. People act as if our money as a country will disappear if the government doesn't control it. We will still work, make wages, and spend them. Flat taxes and a MUCH reduced governmental role in things would just allow us to spend our money more as we see fit. There are more issues wrong with this country than any one man could fix, and I fear that the general attitude of my generation will only make things worse. Everyone feels we are owed something, and we don't have to earn anything. It's why we are where we are at currently.
You are blinded young man.. Here.. an article dating back 3 years on the Iraq war and it's costs... then. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3419840.ece I could throw up countless of info and articles on the subject.. but no need.. just google yourself. Attacking the entitlements is not the solution.. at least not the first one. With a deficit of about 15 trillion.. this war is nearly half that.. and that's just the half you get to know about.. the defense department gets unlimited expenditures. They even ran a covert war in the 80's to help the Afghans beat the Ruskies and the public didn't even know about it. Look up history young Trevor.. countries and empires that fail.. do so through spending on wars. Every time... the Romans.. the Greeks.. the Ottomans... the English.. etc etc etc. And.. the term "entitlements" when describing SS or medicare is used very loosely in my opinion.. since most of us are paying for them anyway. That's not an entitlement and FDR would be turning over in his grave to hear an American say that. I find that reading from outside news sources is the best policy.. many other countries have reporters so much more objective than our own.. since of course they are not bias to the left or the right. Once again however, I am not saying "entitlements" should be ignored.. but this war needs to be confronted first.
Trevor, You're very smart for no older than you are (compliment intended)!!! Part of the issue with the overwhelming Govt. intrusion into everything is that people for some reason TRUST the Govt. We don't need a State Barber Board where you have to go cut someone's hair to determine if you're a trustworthy Barber or not, we don't need a commission to investigate another commission that we never needed in the first damned place, and we don't need Congressmen paying a dozen people to read bills for them and tell them what the bill says so they know which way they should vote for it to keep at least HALF of their constituents happy and ensure "Job Security." Approximately 25% of the federal Govt.'s revenue is divied out to Welfare/Medicaid/Unemployment spending. the last of those 3 I can accept far more than I can the first two. And if our Govt. would make it more financially rewarding for a large corporation to maintain a business here, the last of those 3 could be lessened, while the tax revenue could be increased in personal income taxes. Too many ignorant people think that we should pay NO income tax like they did 75yrs. ago, but they forget the infrastructure we have now vs. what they had 75 yrs. ago, and the fact that somehow you have to maintain it. Far too many problems for even a million men to be able to solve, but it all starts with at least ONE person willing to start tackling the problems.....
No response to the simple math shown in the video dividing our national budget? You believe that the Iraq war is and was more damaging than the implications that could follow health care reforms like the ones currently proposed? It is an entitlement when people who never paid in draw out of it, or people pay in pennies to the benjamin franklins that they receive over their life time. I'm not I don't look at the history of the Romans as very comparable to the USA and todays culture/economy. About the only relevance is that they were and we are the top dog on this rock currently. Idk that it much matters though. It's like a guy is laying on the ground with his right arm and left leg chopped off. I'm screaming for the doc to tend to his leg, while you want him to stop the bleeding of the arm. Either way the guy is screwed unless both wounds are fixed and soon.
Can I ask you a question, after you turn 65 who is going to insure you for medical coverage? One thing for sure is we are all going to have more healthcare after we turn 65. What private insurance company is going to insure any one they lose money on? What was the poverty rate for people 65 and older before Medicare and SS? I am agreement we need to better manage these programs, but let's try to look at the big picture. We can cut the Corp tax rate all we want, manufacture jobs are not coming back. We need to be focusing on small business and innovation. One of the greatest innovators died yesterday, he was not rich or one of the job creatures I hear about everyday. He was an innovator with a vision, without a strong education system we are going to lose our future innovators. I am more worried about our lack of investment in America, then I am are so called entitlement programs. I don't want any of them cut or no new taxes until we end both wars and all aid to foreign nations.
I can roll with that statement. Cut out any money sent to other countries while ours is starting to crumble, then start slashing the excessive programs from within. Again, I don't think it can be an either or statement as to whether we should cut foreign spending/wars or entitlement programs. Both have to be addressed or we will never stop the bleeding.
We've tapered down both wars significantly, we've averted more terrorists attacks I'm sure than we'd either one care to know about, and as long as we keep the war in THEIR country, its better than having it here. Lest you forget many of those INSURGENTS are people not even from the country we are fighting them in, many not even able to be interrogated by the Iraqi's because they speak a different dialect of Arabic than the Iraqi's do. What we are stuck in is a Holy War to THEM, while to us, it's a WAR to try to keep our country safe from them. I don't like it, but I understand it, but it's only a PART of the problem. And when I talk about entitlements, I speak of welfare alike stuff, I don't consider SS or Medicare entitlements.
Good points, but should we not have funding for the wars then? Like every other one we have had in the past. We have brought more insurgents to the other side with the Iraq war for sure.
No Gary, the Muslim propagandan artists have done that, and we've paid a dear price for it. Iraq at some point will become the modern day Vietnam if some sort of resolution isn't found, however, we WON the initial war, and in overwhelming fashion, yet the one that followed was more of a terrorist control measure.
I was going to post something on this thread but I spent all the time reading through it and now I have to go. LOL!
