Chris OConnor wrote:etudiant wrote:I don’t think there is a problem with over-taxation in the US.
Something tells me you don't know much about the tax system in the United States. When a person receives a bonus check for $20,000 (for doing an outstanding job at work) and the government takes $8,000 off the top there is a problem. This is what happens in the United States. The government takes 40% of that person's "reward" for hard work. Doesn't this serve as a disincentive to work hard?
Where does the $8,000 that has been taken away get spent? In the United States we currently have a "first-time home buyer tax credit" implemented. This program was implemented by the Democratic Party, the party that believes in redistributing wealth. It expires soon. But literally millions of first-time home buyers have received and will be receiving for FREE an $8,000 tax credit.
A person that busts their ass and earns a $20,000 bonus at work is now taking that $20,000 pile of cash, removing $8,000 of it, and handing it to someone else who has not earned a penny of it. If this seems fair to you then I'm not even sure where to go with the conversation.
Like Robert Tulip said in his quote this "democracy" is slowly turning into a tyranny by the majority. The majority vote into office those politicians that will essentially steal from the earners and redistribute to the non-earners. This is the epitome of evil and the recipe for failure and disaster.
. . . <snip>
I haven't been hanging around here much lately, but this is one excellent post. I'm glad I didn't miss it.
Regarding the Tea Partiers, there surely is a dumb-as-dirt element to it, but I think it's true that generally that's what we are being led to see. Here, David Harsanyi from the The Denver Post shows us a more moderate, reasonable side. It may be reassuring to hear that according to a recent poll, Tea Party activists are "more educated than the average American, more reflective of mainstream anxieties than any populist movement in memory and more closely aligned philosophically with the wider electorate than any big city newsroom in America."
And, this one's for johnson: "A plurality of Tea Party activists do not deem Sarah Palin qualified for the presidency."
http://www.denverpost.com/harsanyi/
Harsanyi: 24-hour party people
Why the Tea Party isn't as "radical" as you think
By David Harsanyi
Posted: 04/16/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
Yesterday, I waded into a mass of Tea Party protesters gathered at the front of Colorado's Capitol and completely forgot to brace myself for a "small-scale mimicry of Kristall- nacht" (as New York Times columnist Frank Rich once characterized these events).
As it turns out, earlier I happened to peruse a new CBS/New York Times poll detailing the attitudes of Tea Party activists, who, it turns out, are more educated than the average American, more reflective of mainstream anxieties than any populist movement in memory and more closely aligned philosophically with the wider electorate than any big city newsroom in America.
What seemed to be the biggest news derived from the poll nationally? A plurality of Tea Party activists do not deem Sarah Palin qualified for the presidency — proving, I suppose, that some people have the ability to be exceptionally fond of a political celebrity without elevating her to sainthood.
More significantly, the polling showed that most Tea Party activists believe the taxes they pay are "fair." The largest number of them wanted their movement to work to reduce the size of government rather than focus on cutting budget deficits or lowering taxes. Whether you concur or not with this viewpoint, it exhibits more economic sophistication than we often hear from pandering senatorial candidates.
It was news that Tea Party activists — unlike our president or most senators — send their children to public schools. (With a public monopoly in place, where else are they expected to send their children?) A majority of them also deem Social Security and Medicare worthy taxpayer burdens, putting a crimp in the left-wing mythology that the anarchist mob is about to explode.
And while Tea Party supporters are more conservative than the average voter on social issues, as well — particularly abortion, according to a separate Gallup poll — The New York Times reports that 8 in 10 Tea Party activists believe the movement should focus on economic issues rather than cultural ones.
How long have we been hearing from moderate, sensible, worldly Republican types that if only — if only — the right found God on economic issues and lost God on the social ones there would be an expansion of appeal and support? Apparently they were right.
Now, I won't allege to have observed any sweeping displays of multiculturism at the Tea Party shindig I attended (though, without question, it featured more diversity than my own cloistered, rock-ribbed, lefty neighborhood). According to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll, "Tea Party supporters skew right politically; but demographically, they are generally representative of the public at large."
More specifically, the economic strata in which the Tea Party movement resides will bear the brunt of Washington's economic reorganization, namely the middle class. The majority of Americans are middle class and their concerns (the economy, job creation, etc.) more closely mirror the Tea Party than Washington's progressive agenda (the environment, entitlements, etc.).
Naturally, the hyperventilating and demonization of these crackpots who carry around copies of the Constitution and babble about the 10th Amendment will continue unabated. It is, perhaps, as much a matter of a cultural divergence as it is an ideological disagreement. Yet, once again, the evidence demonstrates that by the very definition of the word, the Tea Party is less "radical" than are the elected officials busy transforming the nation.
Or, as one sign succinctly put it: "There are no crazies here. They are all in Washington, D.C."
Now, I wouldn't go as far as to say there were "no crazies here," but I can tell you every word on the sign was spelled correctly.
E-mail David Harsanyi at
[email protected] and follow him on Twitter at
http://www.twitter.com/davidharsanyi.