The Welfare System.....

[PPHSfan]

....was broken long before Mexican women with four kids and a brand new Excursion got food stamps. Contrary to popular belief, you don't get food stamps if you are an illegal alien. I have done some research and found that you must have identification and a social security number, as well as somewhat of a clean criminal background in order to qualify. I have also found that a large number of folks who carry the Lone Star card, bought if for fifty cents on the dollar from some "Legal" citizen that would rather spend the money on cigarettes, beer, and methamphetamines.

Furthermore, unless a person makes well over a hundred grand a year, the amount of "income tax" they pay is minimal. The majority of tax collected from the middle class is sales tax, which everyone pays...even the so called illegal alien.

Maybe we should push for a federal sales tax, and do away with income tax altogether. That way everyone, including the over-taxed super rich, such as myself could start paying their fair share.:)

[NHSRattler60]

Just Clarifying this. I'm like 99% sure but


That way everyone, including the over-taxed super rich, such as myself could start paying their fair share. :)

That's sarcasm right?

[PPHSfan]

Originally posted by NHSRattler60
Just Clarifying this. I'm like 99% sure but



That's sarcasm right?


Which part? The part about fairness, or the part about me being super-rich?:D

[NHSRattler60]

can it be Both? lol

[Ranger Mom]

Originally posted by PPHSfan
....was broken long before Mexican women with four kids and a brand new Excursion got food stamps.

It was a Ford EXPEDITION!!!!

I wasn't aware they made Excursions anymore!!:p

[Adidas410s]

Originally posted by Ranger Mom
It was a Ford EXPEDITION!!!!

I wasn't aware they made Excursions anymore!!:p

they do...it just looks like this after the remodel:

http://www.rlm.at/galerie/22/hydro_06.jpg

[Phil C]

SHOW SOME COMPASSION!

:mad:

AND LET'S BE POLITICALLY CORRECT!!

[spiveyrat]

Originally posted by PPHSfan

Maybe we should push for a federal sales tax, and do away with income tax altogether. That way everyone, including the over-taxed super rich, such as myself could start paying their fair share.:)

The FairTax:
Abolishes the IRS
Closes all tax loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
Maintains our current Social Security and Medicare benefits
Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
Allows American products to compete fairly
Reimburses the tax on purchases of basic necessities
Enables retirees to keep their entire pension
Enables workers to keep their entire paycheck

http://fairtax.org

[Z motion 10 out on 2]

I support a national sales tax much more than the income tax.

[Aesculus gilmus]

Originally posted by PPHSfan
...
Furthermore, unless a person makes well over a hundred grand a year, the amount of "income tax" they pay is minimal. The majority of tax collected from the middle class is sales tax, which everyone pays...even the so called illegal alien.

There is no federal sales tax. We do not need any more federal taxes. The federal government is already more than $8 trillion in debt. The Federal Reserve is creating money out of thin air to "monetize" that debt. This is the main (although underreported) cause of the inflation we are experiencing.

The taxes that hit the middle class most heavily are taken out of our paychecks. FICA, which funds Social Security and Medicare, is what the $100K and under earners are paying. If the feds could just eliminate these "entitlement" payments or at lest get them under control, more money could be freed up for the war machine, which is the first, last and only priority for those in charge.

They are "at war" with most of the world. It doesn't matter whether the public opinion is against that. Public opinion went out the window when they "computerized" the elections. They already know how the elections will come out. They have the "source code" to make any election come out any way they want it to. All it takes is a cell phone call to a central tabulator.

Why do you think the President went out on a speaking tour for several months last year trying to "reform" Social Security? He hasn't given up on that, although you should give up on ever hoping to receive Social Security or Medicare.

I can't believe any Republican would propose a new tax. Republicans are supposed to be about eliminating taxes. But they also have to fund a $600 billion a year "defense" budget (including "emergency" off-budget expenses for Iraq and Afghanistan). It is entertaining to watch the contradictions in logic.

[PPHSfan]

FICA is not a tax.

It is an insurance premium.

[Aesculus gilmus]

Social Security is "pay as you go" and so every dollar taken in every few weeks from people's paychecks is immediately paid out to the retired folks. If an insurance company tried to operate as does Social Security, it would be shut down and its executives prosecuted.

The "trust fund" is a myth. All the funds paid in are counted as revenue for this year's federal budget. That's why the federal budget deficit is "only" about $400 billion. However, the national debt will rise by almost twice that this year, as it has nearly every year since 2001.

Medicare has more of an insurance aspect to it, but it is in far worse shape than Social Security, merely because medical care is so expensive.

The best thing the young people reading this could do would be to join the military. It needs the cannon fodder. The wars will go on the rest of your lives and you WILL love it! And if you die, die quickly. Uncle Sam does not want to pay for your long-term medical care.

[spiveyrat]

Originally posted by Aesculus gilmus
There is no federal sales tax. We do not need any more federal taxes. The federal government is already more than $8 trillion in debt. The Federal Reserve is creating money out of thin air to "monetize" that debt. This is the main (although underreported) cause of the inflation we are experiencing.



I have no way of proving this, but I suspect high fuel prices are the primary reason for an increasing inflation.

[PPHSfan]

There was a woman on the news in New Orleans this morning. She was very well dressed, standing on what looked like two good legs, had what looked like a hundred dollar hair-do, and was wearing what looked like some rather expensive jewelry.

The reason she was on the news....she was at a city council meeting complaining about the fact that FEMA had not fixed her home yet.

Why did I find it laughable?

She felt like she should already have her home fixed since she had been living in it "since 1987".

She said it "is a disgrace that I don't have a place to live".

The home she was speaking of was her free housing that she has been living in for 19 years.

Yes, the welfare system works great. It's all the rich folks who don't want to pay taxes, and the Republican government's fault, that this country is in such a mess.

[Aesculus gilmus]

Originally posted by spiveyrat
I have no way of proving this, but I suspect high fuel prices are the primary reason for an increasing inflation.

It does not make my analysis any more valid than anyone else's, but I do have an economics degree from UT-Austin.

You are confusing cause and effect, IMHO. High oil prices are not the cause of inflation. They are a first-order effect of the massive creation of dollars out of thin air since 2001. Recall that former Fed Chairman Greenspan lowered the interest rate to almost zero as an "emergency" measure to jump-start the collapsing economy. The rate was held there for about three years before he gradually began returning it to normal.

The "emergency" policy worked too well. It created a "housing bubble" to replace the imploded "dot com bubble" of the late 1990s. When you hear a reference to "excess liquidity," it is a reference to the fiat money creation process. Our money is called into existence by the creation of debt. That's why you haven't heard the powers that be harp on the necessity of "balanced budgets" and/or "fiscal discipline" ever since 2001. Paying off debt would reduce "liquidity" and increase the danger of deflationary collapse.

Basically, the economic philosophy that governs our money power controllers right now is "inflate or die." Central bankers really cannot fight a deflation and so they fear that worse than anything else.

Sure, there has also been an increase in demand for and fall in supply of crude oil, because of China and India on the demand side and the war not going as planned in Iraq on the supply side, but ALL commodities are skyrocketing in price. This brings to mind one of the classic definitions of inflation: "too many dollars chasing too few goods (or commodities or services, etc.)"

[SWMustang]

What do you think of more passive government role in the economy? A laissez-faire approach? I think all this manipulating only delays the inevitable economic downturns and makes them worse. I think it's wrong for them to bail out the airlines. Let them fail if they can't make money.

[Aesculus gilmus]

I think the U.S. government is now so huge (with a budget projection of $2.77 trillion for Fiscal Year 2007 beginning in October) that "laissez-faire" is impossible. A huge amount of the increase has come since G.W. Bush took office. Basically the Congress has rubber-stamped all his spending and added on much pork of its own. Plus there is the never-ending "war on terror." Wars by definiton are inflationary. It took us a decade to dig out from under the inflationary spiral set in motion by the Vietnam War.

What we need is a "divided government" and "gridlock." Back when the GOP held Congress and the Democrats the White House, federal spending was actually held in check.

[spiveyrat]

Originally posted by Aesculus gilmus
It does not make my analysis any more valid than anyone else's, but I do have an economics degree from UT-Austin.

You are confusing cause and effect, IMHO. High oil prices are not the cause of inflation.

And I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. (Sorry, couldn't resist ;) ) With higher fuel prices and thus an increased cost to get goods to the market, how could fuel prices not be causing some inflation?

[wedo]

was broken long before Mexican women with four kids and a brand new Excursion got food stamps. Contrary to popular belief, you don't get food stamps if you are an illegal alien.

Amen!!!

[Aesculus gilmus]

How do you explain all the other commodities going up in tandem with the rising crude prices then?

The U.S. dollar has gradually been losing value against other currencies and also against precious metals such as gold and silver. The more dollars created out of thin air, the less each individual dollar will buy. It's just common sense.

The supply-demand imbalance does not explain the price of crude oil nearly tripling since 2001.

Basically, our federal government and the international bankers which control its policies are attempting to inflate our way out of what could have been a deflationary depression. They see no other way out.

Everyone remembers the 1930s or has read about it in school. The current Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, is an expert on the topic of the Great Depression. He does not want to repeat the history that he knows so well.