I am generally all for tax reduction, with the provision that spending be reduced accordingly. However, the Congress cannot be trusted to cut spending. In fact, it has done nothing but increase. You all know that. Everybody knows that.
Therefore, I find myself in an awkward position. Ordinarily I would be very pleased with another tax cut. But not now. We simply can’t afford this any longer. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that my son and his kids are going to have to pay the bill eventually, so if it’s all the same I’d like to try to make my contribution now, thanks.
Give me a break. Let’s take these pandering, fiscally irresponible boobs and vote them out in November and let the Democrats try to put our money where their mouthes are. They could scarcely do worse, and while I don’t agree with a lot of the things that the Democrats would surely attempt to fund, they could scarcely be worse than what we have now.
I’m sure that’s what’ll happen. Then they’ll raise taxes and you’ll have Bush saying, “I told you so. The Dems only want your money. Remember how I gave you your money back? You should vote for the candidate I’m backing.”
Okay, who are you and what have you done with our ** Airman**?
Yeah, I don’t mind paying taxes, if they’re spent wisely. As it is, Congress seems determined to put the country in debt for the next zillion years; I think they’re trying to make things so bad that the Democrats will have to raise taxes when they come into power…
They’ve been worth a lot. Although the amount has been proportionally small compared to others, they have allowed me to keep my family afloat for the last few years while Robin has been in school. All the same, I think the time has come to get a grip on this. If that means that I have to suck it up and work harder, so be it.
I’ve saved quite a bit the last couple of years. It’s been nice. Personally, I’d like Congress to go around and cut about a gazillion entitlement programs to bring their expendatures down to the current tax revenues, but I know that’s not happening. And I echo what Una said as well about simplifying the tax code and filing process.
A large part of this latest cut is to change the Alternative Minimum Tax, which is ensnaring far more taxpayers than it was ever meant to.
However, I will forever be at a loss to understand why Congress can’t run the country the way most of us run our households. If I choose to spend money on (let’s say) going out to dinner, then I can either not spend money on (let’s say) going to see Rockies games, or I can do something to bring in more income. Any other way lies bankruptcy, for a nation as well as a household.
My savings last year were miniscule (since I just started a new business and didn’t make much money). The tax breaks, divided by the additional time for paperwork wrangling to get said breaks, yields an hourly “wage” of a few bucks per hour.
Since I hate working for the government (especially for minimum wage or less), I too would prefer a simpler way to pay my taxes. I’d love to see a consumption based tax, with appropriate “rebates” to each and every person to compensate for low incomes, something like (but not exactly like) the “fair tax.” Since I am a compulsive saver and live below my means, I’d do great in that system. It might even discourage people from living WAY beyond their means, as many Americans do now.
They haven’t been worth that much. We’ve been very lucky because much of your Guard pay for deployments is either entirely or partially tax-free, all but a small amount of my income is tax-free and with all three of us in school now, we qualify for some nice tax credits. So I’m not complaining, and Bush is responsible for some of it, but let’s not get carried away.
Honestly? I think the boobs are the numbskull voters who fall for this every time, who think this is a good thing, and keep rewarding Republicans by keeping them in power. (I also blame Democrats for not being able to counter this kind of crap.) I place the blame and the responsibility squarely on the voter as much as the politician. Stupidity such as a $70 billion tax cut in a time of war works because most people out there don’t know how to think critically or don’t want to.
It’s on my retirement/financial planner’s website portal for my company, so I can’t quite give a link. I searched and thought one on CNN might work for you, but I don’t think it’s detailed enough. Sorry about that…
Because the American populace is going to hold them accountable, and if they want to keep their jobs they’ll-
I’m sorry. I can’t say it with a straight face.
You know what’s really haunting me? In retrospect, what a damned good idea Perot’s nutty $.50 tax on each gallon of gas would have been. We wouldn’t be nearly as dependent on furren oil now, the national debt would be in better shape, and, when the price of crude oil actually went high, instead of artificially, they could scale back the tax.
Three problems we wouldn’t be dealing with now if we’d be self-disciplined then.
