"LONG TERM Resolutions!"

[Hoosier Hillbilly]

I want to see some 'long term resolutions' for our current deficit situation and I want to see them now!
#"WE" can't wait any longer on Washington to do something!
* if they haven't got a plan to get "US" out of this mess ( THEY CAUSED! ) by the end of this year, it's time we joined the middle-east in a revolt!
(+) I'm serious, this has gone on long enough. This Nation is never going to make it if 'we' don't make plans now on what we're going to do!
No one wants to invest until there is some certainty in the market and a game plan for the future. This includes lowering the unemployment rate and stabilizing the economy. A forecast for the future would do this.
Our trade agreements, tariffs, and consumer agreements need to be looked @ closely and modified to fit our needs.
"WE" can no-longer afford to cater to foreign powers ( not from the US ) we must decide our own fate!
Be it [ fat or famine ] we have no choice!
It's now or never!

[indago]

From AgentGenius 6 June 2011:

Homeowners foreclose on Bank of America office — In Naples, a couple paid cash for a home owned by Bank of America who recently began sending foreclosure notices to their home. The homeowners hired a real estate attorney, sued, and the courts agreed that there was never a mortgage to foreclose upon given that they had paid in full. ...The courts ordered Bank of America to pay the homeowners’ legal fees which were only $2,534, but as they had treated these homeowners prior to the Judge’s order, they became non-responsive and did not pay.

Rather than roll over as so many Americans feel they have to, the couple brought their lawyer, a moving truck, movers and two armed deputies to their local branch that was not responding and the deputy instructed the bank manager turn over all assets in the branch, including furniture, desks, file cabinets, and even the cash in the drawers.

An hour later, Bank of America cut a check, claiming they instructed payment of an attorney that they were not aware had since gone out of business.

article

These "Cosmopolitan Financiers" just don't give a shit what they're doing. It's time to delve into paying into the National Debt on their backs, and shrink their stake in the wealth pie.



From The New York Times 18 August 2008:

An investigation by the Government Accountability Office found that almost two-thirds of companies in the United States usually pay no corporate income taxes. Big companies, those with more than $50 million in sales or $250 million in assets, are less likely to avoid Uncle Sam altogether. Still, about a quarter of them report no tax liability either.

Chuck Raasch wrote for The Californian 9 April 2011: "Personal, shared sacrifice is only solution to debt woes".

article

NO!

Working folks have sacrificed enough. Over the past few years, working folks have sacrificed their jobs, their homes, their families, their life savings, etc. Wealth and their lobbyists, and congressional toadies, created this mess, let them clean it up. Working folks have paid enough already.

Now, this wouldn't hurt so much...



...and do it every year until the National Debt is paid off!

[dent]

That "pie chart" and article arte not really accurate. Simple fact is that the top 1% they reference pay most of the taxes paid into this country. The graph ignores the FACT that almost 50% of this country pay no taxes at all. It ignores the FACT that big companies pay no corporate taxes because they pay so much into helping people that by the time they get all their legitamate deductions, they owe no more. Ever watch "Extreme Makeover-Home Edition"? Ever notice how much Sears and CVS Pharmacy give to the people in that show? You can reduce your tax burden by giving money to charity, why can't they. Ever read how much the founder of Microsft gives to charity each year? Bill Gates is not stingy at all!!
This class warefare and redistribution of wealth crap is just pure Bovine Scatology. No one who ever had even Economics 101 would put any faith in that BS chart. Another thing, hate the rich all you want to, but when was the last time a poor man gave you a job. never bite the hand thaty feeds you. A little sense of gratitude is called for.
If you are not making it, it's not their fault, that all falls in YOUR lap.

[indago]

Jun 8, 2011 22:02:42 GMT -5 dent said:

The graph ignores the FACT that almost 50% of this country pay no taxes at all.

That's impossible. You can't live in this country and not pay taxes. There are taxes embedded into just about everything you buy.

Federal Excise Taxes

A variety of taxes levied by the federal government, which make up a fairly minor part of federal revenues are called excise taxes. They come in several categories:

Transporation, Communication and Energy Taxes

Gasoline, gasohol, and various other fuels like diesel, boat fuel, and aviation fuel, as well as liquefied petroleum (LPG), liquefied natural gas, kerosene, and coal are subject to excise taxes on a cents per gallon or per ton (in the case of coal) basis. Last time I checked, the tax on gasoline was 18.4 cents per gallon at the federal level (states have their own gas taxes). Gas taxes and some of the other transporation taxes are earmarked to pay for highways.

Gas taxes in the United States are far lower than those in most of the developed world. This is one of the important reasons by gasoline costs $3-$4 per gallon in Europe and Japan, while costing about $2 per gallon in the United States. In other countries gas taxes are means of implementing Energy policy, as well as a way of funding Transportation infrastructure (i.e. highways).

Heavy motor vehicles (55,000 pound of larger) pay a highway motor vehicle tax of $100 to $550 per year. Highway tires over 40 pounds are subject to another excise tax, and purchases of commercial grade trucks and trailers are subject to a federal sales tax of 12% of retail price. Expensive passenger vehicles are subject to a luxury tax which is in the process of being phased out.

There is also a gas guzzler tax of up to $7,700 per vehicle charged on vehicles with really bad mileage.

Air travel is subject to fedral ticket taxes which are now rather complicated. These taxes are also basically users fees earmarked for the Transporation Security Admininistration (TSA) in the Department of Homeland Security and for the FAA which runs the air traffic control system.

There is a tax on each passenger transported by water and a tax on imports by ship which pays largely for harbor maintenance.

There is a federal excise tax of 3% of charges for telephone services.

Alcohol, Tobacco, Gambling and Firearms Taxes

Both states and the federal government tax cigarettes on a per cigarette basis. Related taxes are imposed on other forms of tobacco and cigarette papers and tubes.

Alcohol is taxed by volume with different rates applying to beer, wine and liquor (with additional distinctions among wines by alcohol content). There is some crude proportionality to the amount of alcohol in the drink, but it is not exact.

Legal gambling operations operators must pay of licensing fee, and both lotteries and other gambling operations must pay a 0.25% of wagers excise tax on gambling.

There is a federal sales tax on firearms and ammunition (10%-11% depending on the item), a transfer tax per firearm, and a fairly hefty licensing fee in order to import, manfacture or sell firearms.

These taxes are commonly known as "sin taxes". The do raise revenue, but they largely exist to discourage purchases of the type in question, or at least, to pay for the costs to government associated with these activities sometimes associated with bad conduct.

Hunting and Fishing Taxes; Vaccine Taxes

There are federal exercise taxes on fishing equipment, bows and arrows ranging from 3% to 12.4% of retail value depending on the item. These are inteded to pay for parks and conservation.

There is also a 75 cents per dose tax on certain vaccines intended to pay for certain health programs.

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The federal income tax is an excise tax. Government was never granted the power to lay a direct tax upon the inhabitants of the States.

[indago]

Posted by Ed Harrison:

Take a simple example we can all understand like a retail store that sells a candy bar to a customer and that customer pays the $1.00 at checkout, before adding any state or local taxes. Let's look at that $1.00 price a little closer, as far as everything that is contained. Employee wages and benefits, building rent, utilities, computers, software, store equipment, replacement, repairs, returns, inventory shrinkage, store profit, AND yes, the candy bar itself.

Every single item I just mentioned that contributed to the cost, and also had an existing FEDERAL TAX COMPONENT already included, which is already EMBEDDED deeply in the $1.00 price of the candy bar. For example, some part of the wages paid to the store employee were in the price. Then the FICA on the wages that were paid have to be recovered and is also added. Then the FUTA on the wages that were paid also have to be recovered and is added. Then some health insurance, and maybe life insurance which is provided by a insurance company is added. But wait. That insurance company that sold the insurance to the store also paid FUTA and FICA on it's employees, and it must recover it's costs, so that was also included in the price to the store, which now is also included in the price of the candy bar. But wait. The broker that is involved in handling the wholesale insurance policy (re-insurer) has also paid FUTA and FICA on it's employees, and that cost must be recovered, so it was added to the insurance, which was paid and now was passed on and is finally also added to the cost of the candy bar. But wait. The insurance company pays rent on it's offices and leases the computers and pays utilities, and their employees were paid wages, which meant that FUTA and FICA were also collected, and thus had to be recovered, were passed on, and ultimately were added to and are contained in the cost of the candy bar. Along with the leasing companies, computer companies, software companies as well as every single component involved in the delivery of the $1.00 candy bar. And we haven't even started to look at the cost by the candy bar distributor who purchased it from the manufacturer, and everything involved in the ingredients, factory equipment, energy, transportation, packaging, distribution costs, fuel, and all the FEDERAL TAXES already paid that have been added into the price that are also ultimately passed on in the $1.00 candy bar.

You can see that we are a LONG WAY in my example from even getting to the real cost of the candy bar. Every step of the way, there were costs that were added due to the EMBEDDED FEDERAL TAXES which were already paid. This total cost, all along the way, has been estimated to be .23 of that $1.00 price, that WE, AS CONSUMERS, ALREADY PAY AT THE CHECKOUT COUNTER.

So, as you can see, to say that "almost 50% of this country pay no taxes at all" is absurd, at best.

[Deleted]

If the people want a long-term solution...
Get rid of the IRS and replace income tax with a national sales tax with NO loop-holes or exceptions.

www.fairtax.org
Read up on the Fair Tax and express your opinions.

[indago]

Jun 9, 2011 11:01:21 GMT -5 Sweeper said:

If the people want a long-term solution...
Get rid of the IRS and replace income tax with a national sales tax with NO loop-holes or exceptions.

www.fairtax.org
Read up on the Fair Tax and express your opinions.

In discussions that I have had with those who are proponents of the FairTax, two items are in the forefront: Repeal the sixteenth amendment income tax, and eliminate the IRS.

A tax structure is written into the Constitution of the United States, and, from this, there will always be a revenue collecting system. So, be it named IRS (Internal Revenue Service), RCS (Revenue Collecting System), or whatever, government will have a system by which the revenues will be collected, and it will not be gotten rid of.

When the Constitutional tax structure was being constructed, during the Convention of 1787, there were two distinct categories of taxation developed: the direct taxes, and the indirect taxes, as described by the Supreme Court of the United States. The direct taxes, as were known at the time, were taxes upon the people, and their property. The indirect taxes were the excise taxes. Mr. Justice William R. Day, delivering the opinion of the United States Supreme Court, explained what an excise tax is: "Excises are "taxes laid upon the manufacture, sale, or consumption of commodities within the country, upon licenses to pursue certain occupations, and upon corporate privileges." "...the requirement to pay such taxes involves the exercise of privileges..." In the Congressional Record, it is noted, concerning direct taxes: "...the power granted to the federal Government to impose a direct tax was granted upon condition that the Government should estimate the amount of revenue it might require from that source and apportion the sum among the States on the basis of population as shown by the preceding census. This plan was intended to give the States the right to contribute their pro rata share from their own revenues without complicating their local systems of taxation. This was regarded as a matter of much importance to the States." During the construction of the direct tax system during the Convention, it was proposed that if the States did not ante up their share of the taxes, then the federal government would come into the State and collect the tax directly from the inhabitants of the State. This proposal failed. During the construction of the Bill of Rights, the same proposal was introduced in the House of Representatives: it failed again. When the House of Representatives sent their assemblage of the Bill of Rights to the Senate, the Senate also made the proposal, and it failed again. The Congress of the United States was never granted the power to lay a direct tax upon the inhabitants of the States.

It was Alexander Hamilton who originally subverted the federal taxing system with his promotion of the carriage tax. He promoted that the tax be collected from the individual after the carriage was sold to him by the company. It was promoted as an excise tax. He promoted this tax while he was Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington. When he left office, he argued for the tax before the United States Supreme Court, and the Court was so enthralled with his oration that they found in his favor. This subversion was finally overturned 100 years later.

Although the sixteenth amendment income tax was described by government before the Supreme Court of the United States as a new kind of tax, somewhere between the direct and indirect taxes, the Supreme Court declared that this was an "erroneous assumption". It was settled that the Congress never intended to breach the gap between the direct and indirect taxes, and that the income tax was in the excise tax category; that the sixteenth amendment created no new powers of taxation for government. As described in the Congressional Record: "The income tax is, therefore, not a tax on income as such. It is an excise tax with respect to certain activities and privileges which is measured by reference to the income which they produce. The income is not the subject of the tax: it is the basis for determining the amount of the tax."

The fact that the Constitutional tax system has been subverted into what we have at present is testament to the gullibility of the inhabitants of the States.