No, you’re not right. In fact, you’re pretty much a fucking moron. But you’re right, it’s all a big conspiracy to make the tax code complicated so that guys like you have to hire tax lawyers… oh wait, guys like you don’t hire tax lawyers. in fact, it’s pretty much only corporations and really rich people who need tax lawyers. And to them, the lawyer fees are small beans compared to the benefits they get from… can it be? The use their influence to get tax laws passed that are favorable to them? It’s not a big lawyer conspiracy? Well holy shit! Who would have guessed that you’re wrong? Oh yeah. I would.
No one really wants a simple tax system. They want a fair tax system, and fairness is in the eye of the beholder, and the US has lots of beholders, so the shit gets messy.
MHO is that most of the tax simplification talk is really just smoke and mirrors; of those Americans who actually pay. US FIT (which is about half), the vast majority have pretty simple returns (ie, they have a job and sold some stocks and have some interest). So lots of the talk is just agitation to agitate.
So you’re saying it’s not a lawyer conspiracy, it’s a wealthy conspiracy. And the wealthy lobby to make the tax laws more complicated so they can pay less. And the wealthy pay the fees for this to…tax lawyers. Yes, quite the distinction.
ETA: @ivn1188.
The fact that filing my taxes is relatively simple doesn’t mean the tax code is relatively simple, or even that my tax burden is relatively simple. Most people file the 1040EZ and take the standard deduction because the difference between their itemized deduction and their standard deduction isn’t big enough to bother - but that doesn’t mean the option isn’t there. It just means you can pay a slight penalty (or not, depending) for the no-hassle way of doing it.
Just because I didn’t grow sorghum in Guam, or purchase a landline for 51+ % commercial use, or drive a hybrid, or earn interest on a Roth IRA, or any one of the other ba-fuckin-jillion things you could take a deduction for doesn’t mean I couldn’t have.
Don’t be silly. The tax code looks the way it does because Congress keeps adding things to it.
Indeed - surely they don’t keep adding things because of lobbyists, though, right?
And I’m still waiting for my bitchin’ Pursuit Special. How else am I supposed to survive the dystopian wasteland caused by socialized medicine?
Oh, toady of Rand Rover, who tries so hard to clean up his elephant dung which he calls “arguments,” I said absolutely nothing about conspiracy. I simply asked the question, “Who benefits from a complicated tax code?”
The publishers of Congressional Quarterly?
Protecting property rights isn’t the only thing I’m concerned about, it’s just one of the very few things I think the US federal government should be concerned about.
If missing the point were an art form, you’d be michaelfuckingangelo. No one sets out to create a complicated tax system because they think they’ll benefit from it. They just want their own little exception. And lots of people want their own little exception. And then something gets screwed up or changes so certain of the exceptions have to be modified. So, it gets complicated. But none of this matters to losers like you, because you are one of the 50 percent that don’t pay shit.
And you juuuuuust happen to benefit from such a system.
Tell me, Rand, do you support a simple tax system, or is that yet another point of hypocrisy for you?
You know, it’s interesting that when I posted a response to Rand, ivn1188 responded. And when I posted a response to ivn1188, Rand responded. It’s so sweet to see you guys finish each other’s sentences like that. What are you going to get Rand for his birthday, ivn?
I’m still waiting for a good explanation as to why any of us should be concerned whether Mr. Rover gets taxed a bit extra or not.
Look, Duke. I’m not against socialized medicine. Nor do I care about state aid. I don’t even care about you being a tax burden.
What I do care about is that you are an incompetent intellectual pantywaist who sees the world in a nice crisp black and white. You spout stupid bullshit about how complicated tax laws are horrible and benefit the rich while you, the proletariat, shoulder the burden of supporting the bourgeois.
Unfortunately for you, you are in fact a complete imbecile. Our tax laws are complicated because everyone wants their little tax break and so they write their congressman and over time we have all these little complicated deductions and people like you, who don’t even understand the system, decry the tax law as being bad because it’s so complicated you must be sure that someone is getting a free ride.
Really, though, it’s just your constant inanity that annoys me. It must be nice to live in your world, where repetition of simplistic canards serves as intellectual debate. Even your insults are worthless.
Your excoriation of Rand Rover for being a hypocrite for taking public money to go to school (if indeed he did) is a good start, but what about you? Why aren’t you a lawyer working to simplify the tax code or to grind whatever other personal axes you have? You have the exact same opportunity to get student loans, and you have just as much right to put your own worthless opinions out there.
No, instead you have a simplistic view where you, the poor huddled mass of cheeto-dust and cheap liquor, are the sole shining beacon of reason in the wilderness. “Can’t you see it’s all so simple?” you exclaim, secure in the knowledge that you alone have achieved nirvana and have transcended chaotic reality to achieve an olympian detatchment granting you nigh-ominscience. Sadly, the real world remains the messy and difficult thing it always has been, where even the smartest, most well intentioned, and thoughtful people run into tradeoffs and disagreements and unforeseen problems.
Even better is your apparent hypothesis that people who are successful must have gotten that way because they are conniving backstabbers out for their own good. Of course no one in congress actually cares; they are simply trying to survive in a dog-eat-dog world, unlike you, who are a shining beacon of selflessness. If it’s true that the world is indeed based around everyone being out for themselves, it speaks volumes that you have most assuredly failed to compete. Like the computer in War Games, you have decided the only way to win is not to play. But your failure serves to rebut your very own point, because we do have safety nets in place, put there by the very people you elected!
But hey, why don’t you just stick to asking me what I am buying Rand Rover (or any of the other people disagreeing with you) for their birthdays? That way, you are not going to be in the position of exposing even more of your ignorance to the world, and you can go home and jack off over your signed picture of Steve Forbes, comfortable in the afterglow of telling it like it really is on the internets, exalting in your victory over the confused cognoscenti who just can’t see that it’s, like, all so simple if you just think of them as people, man.
ETA: By the way Duke, your family members are probably all gimps too. You probably formed your opinions by watching MTV turned up really loud to drown out the sound of your parents humping at the other end of the doublewide. Oh wait, did I cross a line, there?
I surely understand that there are a lot of vested interests muddying up the water of the health care debate in America. It ain’t gonna be easy, but if anyone can do it I think this guy can.
Here’s what I can’t wrap my head around. How can people not understand that there is no room for the profit component in health care? They would be outraged if their fire services or police services were for profit. (Think for a minute what a capitalists wet dream a for profit model for police / fire services would be!)
Canadians may bitch about wait times, from time to time, but they’d never support a politician who wanted to substantially alter access. For true.
I see the scare ads about letting the government make your healthcare choices for you. What the? Currently it’s all insurance hacks denying people access to things their Doctor’s want them to have. Here in Canada the doctor’s control access to resources, a much MUCH better idea.
You have to understand that in any triage system, like an emerg, there is always a guy who thinks he should be next because he was ahead of the gunshot wound! These people don’t disappear with universal healthcare.
No, thank you. Basic health insurance with the emphasis on prevention is what everyone needs. I am so glad you’re here to help provide it for us, just like my paying taxes helps provide you with interstate highways and the dept. of defense etc. See how it works? We all help one another on certain stuff. And now USA can join the rest of the civilized world that actually takes care of its citizens and invests in its peoples. What a notion.
The rest of your post is so silly I won’t bother to reply to it.
Also, Rand I’d like a Mountain Dew please. I mean if you’re offering I might as well ask for one.
And you talk just like him! It’s so sweet. Here, I dedicated this song just for you.
What if terrorists attacked us with biological agents that could only be fought by providing comprehensive health care?
I’m sorry, I don’t speak stupid, so you’re going to have to spell this out for me–where’s my hypocrisy?