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lockedaway -> RE: Translation from Republicanese (8/16/2011 7:38:18 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: MusicalBoredom
Oh come on locked, I didn't say anywhere in any of my posts that I thought health insurance should be free. I said it should be regulated. And in answer to your questions yes we do regulate other needs such as electricity. I doesn't mean that people get free power it means that power providers can't take advantage of the consumer.
As to what rhetoric, when I hear politicians say empty popular thoughts such as "cut spending" without any plan or data or hard facts to support a detailed solution then it's just talk, in other words, rhetoric. If you read my actual words I asked what we would do with all of those adults and children if we just cut them off. We have to include what we will do with the huge numbers of people that would be affected. I don't have a plan for that. I look to the people that I vote for to come up with that plan. I don't think that it's responsible to say we are not going to raise taxes and we are going to cut spending without an actual plan. Again, a desire does not equal a plan!
I have a client that came to me and said we wanted to develop a new piece of software and said his budget was $8,000. I looked at what he wanted and told him I couldn't do it for that. He was pissed. He went to about 20 other places and they all said the same thing. He came back to me and agreed, in a written contract, to my hourly rate which resulted in a lot more than $8,000 when we were finished. I had to sue him to get paid. He only looked at his desire rather than the facts and he was under the delusion that his desires were a plan.
There is no way to have a budget discussion with meaning without all parties becoming willing to talk about both revenue increases and spending decreases. Those talks should also have a real plan with real numbers.
ETA: My questions and opinions aren't reasons why things can't be changed, they are reasons why "cut welfare" isn't a workable plan without our officials applying some sort of plan that addresses everything fully. I know that we can change things. Can and will aren't always the same thing though.
I don't really have the time to engage in this today but there are simple solutions, Musical and they do not include increasing taxes. The simplest solution, of course is to cut spending across the board. That is the easiest and most direct way of doing things. It will cause hardship...not doubt about it but such is life. There is no way to stop the death spiral without some real hardship coming to huge numbers of people. Ok...so you don't want to cut? Alright...go back to the 2008 Federal budget and freeze it for ten years. You DO realize that would be a pretty substantial cut according to the Congressional Budget Office, right? In fact, they would score it has having reduced out debt by 80% after the tenth year. That, of course, is bullshit, right? Because we haven't "CUT" anything, we have simply capped. But, I say that is not enough. There have to be cuts, salary caps, pension reforms and reforms to health care that spur private sector insurance providers.
You want to increase taxes? If you increase taxes on those making a billion dollars per year or more and raised their rate to an INSANE 40%, it would raise approximately 40 billion dollars per year according to Ben Stein who actually FAVORS such a plan. Tell me, Musical, what percentage is 40 billion dollars of 1.6 trillion? Does it seem like a drop in the pocket to you? It sure does to me. IF increasing that tax rate causes those millionaires and billionaires to fire enough people to cause the unemployment rate to go up by half of one percent, what have you accomplished? If, in addition to causing even a small rise in unemployment, those people lay off their consumer spending or move out of high tax areas like L.A. and NYC, what have you gained???????? Tell me, Musical, a man loses 35% of his income to the Fed, 9% to the State of New Jersey (if he lived in NY he would lose money to NY State and NY City), pays his real estate taxes and every other toll, permit, license, surcharge, line tax, gas tax, sin tax, luxury tax....etc. how much higher do you think the percentage should be?
You already spend your year (I'm saying "your" because there are a lot of people on this board that don't earn a fucking penny and so this argument means NOTHING to them) working until August 12 to pay the various governments in our country. That leaves you with 19 days in August, all of September, October, November and December to work for you. Now Musical is in charge and you want to push August 12 back to September 1? Or would you prefer October 1? Exactly how much of the fruits of someone's labor should a "free" person be allowed to keep?
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