SloMotion

I'm not arguing with you, I'm just frustrated at the futility of it all. When the balloon finally goes up, I anticipate having to fight my way out of the city in order to survive. I often contemplate, "Should I head north to Alaska, or south to Louisiana?", . Sometimes I think it's why I like the 'Walking Dead' so much ... it's almost like a training film to me, .

Parameters have to be set before you can really have a meaningful discussion on the subject, which is precisely why Capitol Hill & the White House can't get anything done. My impression of the whole 'tax' argument is that it focuses only on the issue of income tax and largely ignores the big picture.

Everyone in America is taxed, upper/middle/lower class, on a federal, state & city level. Every time you make a purchase, you're taxed ... there's property taxes, water bills/utilities tax, anytime someone provides you a service, you're taxed ... there's the lottery, nothing more than a state-run, voluntary tax you pay every time you play. Unemployment benefits are taxed, and I do believe other forms of government assistance are reportable on individual state tax forms, maybe more to document income/benefits than for tax purposes though, IDK. Anyway, my point is, everyone is taxed in some form or another.

Republicans argue dollars while Democrats argue percentages. It's like trying to have a discussion in two different languages. Sure, Warren Buffet pays more taxes dollar-for-dollar, but his secretary pays a larger percentage of her income in taxes. Until these guys start talking the same language, the debate is never going to end ... and the constant image of Thelma & Louise going over the cliff will play over-and-over in my mind.

We don't need to raise revenue through higher taxes. Leave the tax rates where they are & simplify the tax code. Go to a simple flat-rate, remove loopholes & deductions for all but the poorest of Americans. Go to a 'consumer-tax'. Easy-peazy-lemon-squeezie ... the playing field is leveled. Poor-guy can't complain rich-guy isn't paying his fair share & vice versa.

By 'tax the lower class', I think you mean quit spending so much on entitlements. There should be a concentrated effort to eliminate much of the fraud, waste & abuse in entitlement programs and make them more cost effective. Much like the concept Republicans promote, instead of taxing the 'lower class', streamline the entitlement system and realize increased revenue/savings in that manner.

You can tax the 'lower class', just as you can squeeze blood out of a rock, you're just not gonna' get much for your efforts. Both sides have to realize that. If the 'lower class' is existing on government assistance, then you're taxing the American public to first provide that assistance and than taxing those same dollars once again through the recipient ... kinda' the same 'double-taxed' argument that is used in the lowering of the capital gains tax, except instead of some millionaire getting double-taxed, it's the American taxpayer.

More and more it seems to me like a big ponzi-scheme that's been run on the middle/lower class hitting the proverbial brick-wall, as all ponzi-schemes eventually do. All those m'fers sitting up in Congress/White House have used my tax dollars to fund their private pension plans, to fund their private healthcare plans and to otherwise hold themselves above the fray, there is something fundamentally wrong with that, IMO. They could care less about austerity measures, they have the power to insulate themselves and it won't affect them. Austerity measures are a way of life for the 'lower class', it won't affect them much either. The middle class are the one's left holding the bag.

I don't care anymore ... I got ammo, I got water & I got sandbags. We're headed for disaster at the hands of our elected officials, who, in putting the pursuit of their own agendas & greed first, have left us all in peril.

God save us all ... bet.

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