On what issues do you cross party lines?

[ceo_pte]

Promising tax cuts for working people.



I got mine... Not to mention I have about 6K in write-offs b/c of my company... My refund is gonna be nice... Thanks for the Marriage credit Mr. President....

 

[Sparx]

It is frightening that you do not realize the contradiction in those statements.

Yeah, you better explain to me how this is a contradictory statement

 

[vraiblonde]

Originally posted by Sparx
Yeah, you better explain to me how this is a contradictory statement

I'll help. Where do you think that money in the treasury comes from?

 

[ceo_pte]

hmmm... you are socialist too?

I guess you believe in taxing the producer to death and giving money to the non-producer... That is a bunch of crap. The Federal Government has no Right to TAX people who make more money at a higher rate than someone who makes less.

Everyone who says this doesn't have money and never will with that mentality... stay poor is what I say!

 

[SurfaceTension]

Originally posted by Sparx
It is frightening that you do not realize the contradiction in those statements.

Yeah, you better explain to me how this is a contradictory statement

You are loosely quoting Alexander Tytler on the fall of the Athenian Republic....The point is that democracies quickly fail when people look to the government for money, NOT when people are allowed to retain their own money.

If you used the quote to reinforce the poor idea of large, government-run health and prescription plans, it would make sense....To use it to deride a tax cut is contradictory.

The full quote:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess (i.e. money/gifts) from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."

IMHO Tytler had it right, and we are somewhere in the apathy-dependecy stage.

 

[ceo_pte]

That is a really good quote 'Surface'.

 

[Christy]

I've said it a billion times already, but I'm a social liberal and a fiscal conservative.

What one does in their personal life is no business of the gov't. I could care less if someone is gay. Heck, I could care less if someone chooses to smoke crack all day in their living room, just so long as they keep it in their house and don't bring it to mine. I guess the same thing can be said for the gay lifestyle. The gay pride parades are just ridiculous. They should all be arrested for public indecency. And before anyone goes off and calls me a gay basher, I can't stand lude behavior in public from straight people either. Keep your no clothed bumping and grinding segregated to a club, or your own property, not a parade or a public place where kids are around. One's "personal freedoms" should not be shoved down the throats of everyone.

My beef with the Republican party at this time is how liberal they are in their spending habits these days. They're trying to cater to both sides, and despite their efforts of "do-gooding" (bazillion dollars to Africa for AIDs ) the liberals will STILL loathe them, so why bother? :shrug: I'm still annoyed that they made airport screeners a Federal position. Same service, just now it's paid for by taxpayers dollars.

I'm FOR large tax cuts for big business, I'm FOR the elimination of income tax. I'm with Vrai, they should abolish all forms of tax with the exception of a sales tax, then everyone would be taxed fairly.

 

[Tonio]

Originally posted by Christy
I guess the same thing can be said for the gay lifestyle. The gay pride parades are just ridiculous. They should all be arrested for public indecency. And before anyone goes off and calls me a gay basher, I can't stand lude behavior in public from straight people either. Keep your no clothed bumping and grinding segregated to a club, or your own property, not a parade or a public place where kids are around. One's "personal freedoms" should not be shoved down the throats of everyone.

While I can't agree that orientation is a "lifestyle," you're right about that kind of public behavior. Straight or gay, anyone who acts like that is doing so out of a pathetic need for attention. I think the only difference is that some of the gays are wallowing in their own feelings of victimhood. (Remember Jon Lovitz's killer sendup of Harvey Fierstein? "All I want is to be loved--is that so wrong?")

 

[Sparx]

I guess you believe in taxing the producer to death and giving money to the non-producer... That is a bunch of crap. The Federal Government has no Right to TAX people who make more money at a higher rate than someone who makes less.

So, you would you would agree with a flat tax?

Who are the non-producers you talk about? Those guys who build your walls for you? I don't think you would get too many built without them would you?
I pitty any poor fool who would work for the CEO of a company with opinions of working people that you have.

 

[dems4me]

Re: Re: Re: On what issues do you cross party lines?

Originally posted by Tonio
Pete, you seem to assume that people choose to be gay (as opposed to choosing to be in a relationship). That has never made sense to me. I can never in a billion years imagine being romantically attracted to another man.

You have a good point about the children of gay couples. Still, kids will find something to pick on others about, whether it's glasses or unfashionable clothes or skin color or a disability. School is a tough world if you're not popular. But to your credit, you didn't fall for the bull about "Omigod, the kids of gay couples will be gay themselves! It's a massive conspiracy to turn everyone gay!"

 

[SurfaceTension]

Originally posted by ceo_pte
That is a really good quote 'Surface'.

Please, my friends call me "Surf".

 

[dems4me]

Originally posted by Sparx
Sparx, why don't you tell us what YOU think Republicans believe?

In the begining, the republican party was the party for the working man. Somewhere along the way they became the party of corporate America. While Democrats had control of Congress, all the republican party wanted to do was shrink government. "It was probably inevitable that big central government would look better to republicans when they got control over it."

You know it has been said that democracy can not survive once the people realize they can legislate money out of the treasury? Thats exactly how Bush got in office in the first place. Promising tax cuts for working people. Confusing the people that work for a living all along the way, knowing all along the biggest tax cuts were for the richest 1% and corporations. Don't tell me that tax cuts for big business will trickle down..hogwash. If that were the case we wouldn't have Enron and Mediacom executives on trial. This administration is sucking money from the treasury by the boatloads and handing it directly to companies like Halliburton..who' by the way' I see is advertizing on TV now trying to smooth over their tarnished image for ripping us off in IRAQ.

Your answer in two words? BIG BUSINESS

 

[pixiegirl]

I'm feeling especially poetic today.

Baa, baa, safe sheep,
I am not a fool -
Conform, conform's
Def'nitely best of all:
Once for my culture,
Just to be the same -
And once 'cos there's nothing
Going on in my brain.

 

[Frank]

"In the begining, the republican party was the party for the working man"

You DO know who started it, and why, right?

 

[Toxick]

Originally posted by Sparx
So, you would you would agree with a flat tax?

I sure would.


You see, since I entered the job force at age 15, I've been trying to improve myself. In fact, I have been busting my ass to improve myself.

Started off washing dishes in a crappy kitchen making minimum wage. Almost 20 years later I am an engineer making a rather comfortable living.

I want to make even more money. Call me greedy if you wish, but I want a bigger house. I want a larger yard. I want my kids to have more toys. I want to get my wife bigger rocks in her rings. I want to make more money - but the more money I make the more gets taken out at an almost geometric rate. Where's my continued incentive to improve? Why should I want to move to a different company, or rise up in my current company if my increase in pay goes half to me and half to the gub'mint?

I want that new money going to me. So my kids can have higher quality clothes. So my wife can have a more reliable car during the day. So I can buy a bigger television set.

I friggin earn that money. Nobody else is entitled to it - although they seem to think they are - but if the government HAS to take money from me and I HAVE to part ways with the money that I busted my ass for the past 20 years to make, I don't want to be punished for my hard work.


And a progressive tax rate is exactly that. Punishing me for being good at what I do, and trying hard to get good.


So yeah. You're damn skippy I would fully agree with a flat tax - or better yet, as expressed earlier, a sales tax to replace the income tax altogether.

And I'm proud of it.

 

[Christy]

Originally posted by Toxick
I friggin earn that money. Nobody else is entitled to it - although they seem to think they are - but if the government HAS to take money from me and I HAVE to part ways with the money that I busted my ass for the past 20 years to make, I don't want to be punished for my hard work.


And a progressive tax rate is exactly that. Punishing me for being good at what I do, and trying hard to get good.


So yeah. You're damn skippy I would fully agree with a flat tax - or better yet, as expressed earlier, a sales tax to replace the income tax altogether.

And I'm proud of it.

Tox, you go wit your bad self.

It absolutely SUCKS getting hammered on taxes to pay for those looking for a free ride.

 

[justin anemone]

We live to believe that it's the American Dream to work hard and become successful.
Yet...with the way they levy taxes...the dems would have you believe that to work hard and be successful is an abomination.

 

[Tonio]

I agree about the idiocy of having higher tax rates for wealthier payers. Maybe these were instituted because of countless deductions in the tax code. That was one reason for the Alternative Minimum Tax.

I think a flat tax rate with no deductions, while not as good as a nationwide sales tax, is the best option for income taxes. Whether or not you earn $15,000 or $15 million, you still would pay, say, 3 percent of your salary. The $15M guy pays $450K, while the $15K guy pays $450. Sounds fair to me, and it doesn't penalize people for earning more.

 

[Christy]

Originally posted by Tonio
I think a flat tax rate with no deductions, while not as good as a nationwide sales tax, is the best option for income taxes. Whether or not you earn $15,000 or $15 million, you still would pay, say, 3 percent of your salary. The $15M guy pays $450K, while the $15K guy pays $450. Sounds fair to me, and it doesn't penalize people for earning more.

$450 is a lot of Newports and lotto tickets, it'll never fly.

 

[Christy]

What also chaps my azz, is folks receiving back more tax dollars than they've paid in.