Business and Politics
16
Aug 12
Mitt’s 13% tax return piqued my interest…
So, Mitt Romney proudly announced today, after perusing his past tax records, that he’s never paid less than 13% for federal income taxes.
After perusing my own past five years of tax records, I’ve never paid less than 18% for federal income taxes.
Granted, our incomes are are drastically different (it would take him a mere day and a half to make my and Shelley’s yearly income), but it raises questions about the conservatives’ penchant to gift the very rich with huge tax cuts. Or not.
Our federal income taxes are primarily a progressive tax system. In a progressive tax system, as one’s income increases they pay more taxes. The percentage is adjusted based on income; as income increases, the rate or tax bracket also increases. Our federal tax system does just that, up to a point. The tax rate actually begins to decrease for the very wealthy. The decrease is generally created by the breaks and incentives allowed by our congress for the wealthy.
Even so, the wealthy person ends up paying more for government services than I do. Part of me says it’s not fair to the wealthy. I use Interstate 5 often to get form point A to point B. If a wealthy person uses the same stretch of freeway, should he pay more than me? I don’t really have a good answer for that.
I also understand the theory behind trickle-down economics, which I believe is where all this leads. If we take care of the wealthy, the corporations, the employment sources… they’ll pass the good fortune down to the working class. Correct? I’m sure that there are corporations (they are people, right?), that actually do that. But I also believe that those honest corporations are in the minority, or trickle-down economics would work.
Sales tax is a regressive tax system. In a regressive tax system, everyone pays the same rate on items purchased. Regressive tax is not based on income, rather it’s based on the cost of goods.
The math. So, I go to the hardware store and buy a new handsaw for $24.99. I pay the 9.2% sales tax of $2.30 for a total of $27.29. Mitt Romney sees my new saw and wants one too. Same price, same tax, and same total. $2.30 sales tax is not a huge amount, but it’s a much larger percentage of my hourly wage than it is his. Even if I’m making a good wage of $30.00 an hour, $2.30 is 7.6% of that. Mitt Romney makes $10,384 an hour (based on what he reported as taxable income in 2010). $2.30 is 0.022% of his hourly income.
Bottom line: I paid 7.600% of my hourly income for sales tax. Mitt Romney paid 0.022% of his hourly income for sales tax.
With a regressive tax, the lower wage earners must pay a higher percentage of their incomes to pay the taxes on purchased goods and services.
Where am I headed with all this information? I have some real honest questions about the “best” route for our economy. Is it presumptuous of me to expect the wealthy to be saddled with more responsibility to society? What is most fair for all? I believe in our country and cherish the fact that people can be successful in their business ventures, but I often wonder if everyone truly has a equal opportunity to succeed? What can we do about greedy corporate giants who appear to care less about the less fortunate?
The issues are far broader than our federal income tax system. As I delve into the arguments, more and more questions without distinct answers appear. I certainly don’t have the answers, but searching for them will make me a more informed voter.
BTW, Mitt’s reported 2010 taxable income was $21.6 million. Simple math tells me that he paid $2.81 million in taxes.
14
Aug 12
Like!
An open letter to the people who hate Obama more than they love America
by MinistryOfTruth ~Daily Kos
I meet you all the time. You hate Obama. You hate gay people. You hate black people, immigrants, Muslims, labor unions, women who want the right to make choices concerning their bodies, you hate em all. You hate being called racist. You hate being called a bigot. Maybe if you talked about creating jobs more than you talk about why you hate gay people we wouldn’t call you bigots. Maybe if you talked about black people without automatically assuming they are on food stamps while demanding their birth certificates we wouldn’t call you racist. You hate socialism and social justice. You hate regulations and taxes and spending and the Government. You hate.
You like war. You like torture. You like Jesus. I don’t know how in the hell any of that is compatible, but no one ever accused you haters of being over-committed to ideological consistency. You like people who look like you or at least hate most of the things that you hate. You hate everything else.
Now, I know you profess to love our country and the founding fathers (unless you are reminded that they believed in the separation of church and state), but I need to remind you that America is NOT what Fox News says it is. America is a melting pot, it always has been. We are a multi-cultural amalgamation of all kinds of people, and yet you still demonize everyone who is not a rich, white, heterosexual christian male or his submissive and obedient wife.
You hate liberals, moderates, hell, anyone who disagrees with Conservative dogma as espoused by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. You hate em.
Well, here are the facts, Jack. If you hate the Government then you are unqualified to manage it. If you hate gay people more than you love America than you should take your own advice and get the hell out. There are several countries that are openly hostile to gay people, but they are full of brown people and you don’t like them much either from what I understand. It looks like you are screwed, but that’s not what I am here to tell you.
29
Jun 12
Health Care reactions…
Pelossi: “Thank God, I have money to buy my own insurance if the we go broke…”
Boehner:” Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry…”
27
May 12
Honor Them by Reflecting on Why We Send Them…
By James Milstid
I’m not anti-war. But I’m not pro-war either. When it comes to defending our freedom, our shores, our human rights, I realize that sometimes diplomacy doesn’t solve the issues. But too many times wars are waged because a leader is determined to leave a historical legacy of his “achievements”.
Consider the following quotes from the many people who understood how fruitless war can be:
1. “Old men declare war because they have failed to solve complex political and economic problems.” ~~Arthur Hoppe, columnist
2. “After each war there is a little less democracy left to save.” ~~Brooks Atkinson, theatre critic
3. “War does not determine who is right, only who is left.” ~~Bertrand Russell, British philosopher
4. “We Americans have no commission from God to police the world.” ~~Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States
5. “No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or ensure it of victory in time of war.” ~~Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States
6. “War settles nothing.” ~~Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States and 1st Supreme Allied Commander, Europe
7. “War in the end is always about betrayal, betrayal of the young by the old, of soldiers by politicians, and of idealists by cynics.” ~~Chris Hedges, American journalist and war correspondent
8. “After victory, you have more enemies.” ~~Cicero, Roman philosopher and statesman
9. “The best defense is no offense.” ~~Dr. Ivan Eland, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute
10. “Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both. “ ~~Abraham Flexner, American educator
11. “I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.” ~~Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States
12. “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.” ~~Albert Einstein, father of modern physics
13. “A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.” ~~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, writer and Nobel Prize winner
14. “Violence as a way of gaining power…is being camouflaged under the guise of tradition, national honor [and] national security…” ~~Alfred Adler, physician and psychotherapist
15. “Today the real test of power is not capacity to make war but capacity to prevent it.” ~~Anne O’Hare McCormick, foreign news correspondent
16. “All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.” ~~Alexis de Tocqueville, French political scientist, historian, and politician
17. “Make wars unprofitable and you make them impossible.” ~~A. Philip Randolph, leader in the civil rights and labor movements
18. “War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support.” ~~Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and four-star general
19. “The dangerous patriot…drifts into chauvinism and exhibits blind enthusiasm for military actions.” ~~Colonel James A. Donovan, U.S. Marine Corps
20. “The failure to dissect the cause of war leaves us open for the next installment.” ~~Chris Hedges, American journalist and war correspondent
21. “We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives…inside ourselves.” ~~Albert Camus, French author, journalist, and philosopher
22. “No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.” ~~Alexis de Tocqueville, French political scientist, historian, and politician
23. “We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.” ~~Dwight D. Eisenhower, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States and 1st Supreme Allied Commander, Europe
24. “Wisdom is better than weapons of war.” ~~Ecclesiastes 9:18
25. “I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.” ~~Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States and 1st Supreme Allied Commander, Europe
25
Apr 12
Ahhh… so that’s what happened!
The Great and Powerful People’s Democratic Republic of North Korea is pleased to announce that, in accordance with U.N. resolutions, it has voluntarily taken action to observe the most honorable no-fly zone over its inviolable sovereign territory by shooting down the marvelous Unha 3 space vehicle immediately after a spectacularly successful launch. We took this step to demonstrate how, upon the 100th anniversary of our Great Leader, our People’s Republic is both a wildly prosperous country with superior military capabilities and a deep respect for international laws and conventions.
While shooting down such a powerful missile so soon after launch is a very difficult task, our brave soldiers fulfilled this task by firing multiple, well-timed volleys with their personal weapons from nearby mountain tops. All hail North Korea, her Army, our Great Leader, and his weanie-assed God-given spoiled brat of a Grandson!!
UPDATE: Kim Jong-Un Says “We Meant to Do That!”
North Korean leaders have just announced that they had been aiming at capitalist fish and that their launch was entirely successful. Kim Jong Un noted that the launch was merely a warning shot should Godzilla decide to leave Japan alone and attack North Korea instead.
24
Apr 12
Leave it to IKEA…
Check out this cool cardboard digital camera made by IKEA. It was included as part of a press kit at an event in Europe recently, and apparently the “disposable” camera might go on sale sometime soon in IKEA stores. It uses two AA batteries and stores up to 40 photographs in the built-in memory. Images can be downloaded to your computer using the USB connection that swings out from one of the corners of the camera.