Re: Tax Day: True patriotism isn't cheap. It's about a fair share of the burden of keeping America going.


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On Apr 16, 5:21 pm, freeisbest <demeter547op...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/a-short-citizens-guide-to_...

Robert Reich
Former Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley

Posted April 15, 2009 | 06:35 PM (EST)

A Short Citizen's Guide to Kooks, Demagogues, and Right-Wingers On Tax
Day

No one likes to pay taxes, so tax day typically attracts a range of
right-wing Republicans, kooks, and demagogues, all of whom tell us how
awful we have it. Here's a short citizen's guide ... responding to the
predictable charges:

. . .

The same people who supported the Iraq war, Voodoo economics, and bank
deregulation are now complaining about paying the piper.

I guess that means you love to pay taxes and you love the IRS?


shouldn't everyone ?

Only someone who likes to have someone confiscate their hardearned money.

isn't that what democracy is all about ?

Taxes have nothing to do with democracy. When this democracy was first formed and for many decades after there was no such thing as an income tax.

why do you conservatives always want a free ride ?

What free ride?

what would you eliminate ?

About nintety percent of government spending.

the biggest costs to the taxpayer are :

Social Security
Medicare
The military

Medicare and Social Security. Medicare because there is no way to effectively control the increase in cost as long as the user of the service is not the one paying for the service. And if there is no effective way to control cost, costs will rise, which means it will consume a larger and larger percentage of total government spendning. Which in turn means that government will not be able to spend money on their other pet projects, or they will have to increase taxes or the national debt. And even if they did that, it will still consume a larger and larger percentage of total government spending. Social Security, because the government has made promises it cannot possibly keep, and besides, it does a lousy job of helping those the system was designed to help and is helping people who don't need the help.



so you would eliminate social security and medicare, and how
do you propose
those millions of people who collect
them would survive ?


It is also unfair to stop the program after making the promises government made is the right answer. So, I would think that no politicians would renege on the promises they have already made to those who did contribute to the system. My guess would be that if they wanted to eliminate a program like Social Security, they have to give people the "choice" on whether they want to stay in the program or not, until they is no one left who they made those promises to. I think the long term solution to Social Security is to figure out how best to help the people you are trying to help out, at the least cost to the government and the taxpayer. And that EVERYONE has to make some sacrifices, and NO ONE should get a free ride, includuing the poor. My preference is to create a system where people MUST set aside some percentage of their income to pay for the time they no longer work, including those who are poor. But it should be THEIR money, not the govenrment money. And this new system should definitely not be helping those who do not need the help, whichi is exactly what the current system does.

As for Medicare, you have to figure out how to return the rationing decision back to where it belongs, the user of the service. But once again, since there is no program in place to do that right now, it is not fair for govenrment to renege on the promises it has already made. The solution are ideas like medical savings accounts, which gives the power back to the people on how much money they want to spend for their own medical needs.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Budget Deficits Lead to lower or higher GDP?
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  • Re: Refresher Course on Social Security
    ... is based on the simple fact that social security does not have the money to meet the promises it made, and someone at some future time is going to pay the price. ... If we take that as a given, then it becomes a matter of what is the best way, with the least amount of pain to both the people who contribute to the plan, and those who will eventually become the beneficiaries of the plan. ... My argument has been that assuming the Bush plan had been approved and "if" it did deliver as promised, then those who decided to participate in the plan, would not be serverely affected by any needed changes to the plan, since the government cannot touch that part of the plan. ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: Nothing to do with marxism or anti-capitalism or anti-US bias
    ... Look at the promises made about ... Social Security was supposed to take a SMALL amount out ... Medicare was supposed to take a SMALL amount form income, ... Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University ...
    (sci.med)
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