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filkertomFixing the rising US budget deficit may require higher taxes.
Gosh, ya think...?
For the past thirty years, ever since Reagan, conservatives have done everything they could to slash taxes for the rich, and dump the burden of keeping up with services on the poor, on the states, on the cities. After eight years of BushCo -- during which we had massive tax cuts for the highest income brackets, two off-the-books wars, incredible deregulation in the financial industry, acceleration of outsourcing to cheaper overseas facilities and constant erosion of the protective effect of labor unions and various other factors leading to rampant unemployment, using many of the National Guard troops that are supposed to deal with local situations in Iraq instead, an ongoing collapse in the housing market, and the insane rise of health care and health insurance costs -- the freakin' Repub leaders keep saying the people have to make sacrifices.
There's damn near nothing left to sacrifice.
Again again again: Taxes are your membership fee for civilization. Some people can afford a lot more. They also be the ones who happen to use a lot more. This isn't an attack on their lifestyles or wealth or anything; this is a simple fact.
Some people are determined to go it alone, or at least make others go it alone. But there's too damn much civ we all take advantage of not to all pay a little bit for it, and some to pay more because, again, they use more of it.
"Promote the General Welfare" is there so we don't have bodies in the street, poor people on every corner, unemployment riots, and a gazillion other things.
The article quotes someone who says Horrors! There'll be more tax evasion! Then do something about it. Laws are in place. Hell, the US is pressuring UBS in Switzerland to close its secret bank accounts.
Everybody's bleeding right now except really rich people. And they apparently still don't understand that their really rich world is built on a foundation of poorer people, of middle-class people, of employed and healthy and relatively happy people, that is crumbling beneath them.
Gosh, ya think...?
For the past thirty years, ever since Reagan, conservatives have done everything they could to slash taxes for the rich, and dump the burden of keeping up with services on the poor, on the states, on the cities. After eight years of BushCo -- during which we had massive tax cuts for the highest income brackets, two off-the-books wars, incredible deregulation in the financial industry, acceleration of outsourcing to cheaper overseas facilities and constant erosion of the protective effect of labor unions and various other factors leading to rampant unemployment, using many of the National Guard troops that are supposed to deal with local situations in Iraq instead, an ongoing collapse in the housing market, and the insane rise of health care and health insurance costs -- the freakin' Repub leaders keep saying the people have to make sacrifices.
There's damn near nothing left to sacrifice.
Again again again: Taxes are your membership fee for civilization. Some people can afford a lot more. They also be the ones who happen to use a lot more. This isn't an attack on their lifestyles or wealth or anything; this is a simple fact.
Some people are determined to go it alone, or at least make others go it alone. But there's too damn much civ we all take advantage of not to all pay a little bit for it, and some to pay more because, again, they use more of it.
"Promote the General Welfare" is there so we don't have bodies in the street, poor people on every corner, unemployment riots, and a gazillion other things.
The article quotes someone who says Horrors! There'll be more tax evasion! Then do something about it. Laws are in place. Hell, the US is pressuring UBS in Switzerland to close its secret bank accounts.
Everybody's bleeding right now except really rich people. And they apparently still don't understand that their really rich world is built on a foundation of poorer people, of middle-class people, of employed and healthy and relatively happy people, that is crumbling beneath them.
