RAISE TAXES!
November 17th, 2005 | by Jersey McJones |There. I said it. It’s time to raise federal income taxes – not that I think anyone on the Hill has the backbone and integrity to say it, let alone do it. Someone has to say it, though, and I may be a lot of things, but at least I’m honest.
The 2006 Budget Reconciliation is under way. Yes, it’s more tax cuts. Representative Bill Thomas, a con from Conifornia, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee has an idea: leave the Alternative Minimum Tax in place for a while more (raping the middle class more and more every year), keep those Capital Gains tax cuts coming, cut 2 billion more from Vet spending, cut 15 billion more from Student Loans, cut almost a billion from Foodstamps, and, well, it pretty much goes on like that. And then there’s that war everyone is finally waking up to!
Yes, you know, the war in Iraq? The one that accomplished everything Osama Bin Laden was trying to accomplish? Yes, that one. Not only do the CONgress”men” not fight in this war, they don’t pay for it either! That’s for our children to do – when they pay back China with interest. It’s a sacrifice for me, Lord knows. As a resident of New Jersey, I barely get by on an income that puts me well over the national average. But I pay the same rate as a worker, with my same income, who lives in the poor, Red States, on my taxpaying back. But I pay. And I’ll pay more if I have to. I don’t want to steal from children and the elderly and the vets and the nation to pay my bills. I guess that means I’m not a sleazy con.
Neither war nor disaster nor Medicare give-away-to-the-pharmaceuticals-and-insurance-industry will keep the sleazy cons from their appointed tax breaks for the wealthy. If they have to turn us into a debtor nation, so be it. They have cut taxes every year since the sleazy Bushies coup d’tat. They cut taxes through 9/11, two wars, a recession, Katrina – you name it. By the idiot logic of the idiot Right, there is never a time to raise taxes. “Lower taxes!” That’s all they can think. How low is too low? Too complicated a thought for them.
It’s time for the wealthy, those who have prospered so much in recent history, to pay back: TO GIVE BACK TO THE NATION THAT GAVE THEM THEIR OPPORTUNITY.
Reinstate the “Death Tax.” We don’t need an American Aristocracy. We can always add provisos for inherited preexisting productive assets.
Reinstate/raise ALL taxes on UNEARNED gains.
Raise the top margin on income by at least 5 points.
Reform the Alternative Minimum Tax to account for modern living costs.
I can go on and on, and well beyond taxes, but that’s basically it, people. We have to do this eventually, or we will decline into a debtor nation that never bounces back. History has shown the consequences of this. Think of the great colonial empires. How did they all perish in the end? Debt. Mostly war debt. We’re heading in the exact same direction. If we are going to fight wars and rebuild cities and educate our kids and secure our future, we have to pay for it. We can’t just keep borrowing. We have a 300 billion dollar budget deficit and a 700 billion dollar trade deficit this year. Throw in the record borrowing, and we’re in big trouble. If America was a household, it’d be homeless. The greatest irony of all here is that the sleazy scum in CONgress “reformed” the bankruptcy laws to keep individuals from doing exactly what the CONgress is doing right now.
26 Responses to “RAISE TAXES!”
By Treason on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
TAX CUTS McJersey!!!!
All you loonie lefties are more then welcome to send in more taxes if you’d like or send back your refund at the end of the year. IT’S YOUR CHOICE just like it’s A WOMAN’S CHOICE!
By Jet on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
It’s amazing, isn’t it? We are so far beyond living within our harvest that the country is unrecognizable. My grandparents would be appalled. I know I am.
By LiberPaul on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
Treason,
I guess that’s the difference between guys like you and me; I’ll gladly give up a few hundred dollars a year so that my fellow citizens won’t starve, so that they can get educated (say Head-Start with me), so that we can ALL live prosperously. You people act like, “just because you are better off, you’re better than.” Who should feed and shelter the least fortunate among us if not government?
By pia on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
I agree totally with everything you have to say with one exception
My mother left an estate that would have beeen exempt this year. It wasn’t that much and could have been put into trust that she could have controlled very easily but she didn’t want that.
As we live in New York, a high tax state, it felt like we did a lot of work to basically pay taxes.
I think that any estate under two to three million should be exempt–and I have no personal interest in this anymore
I do agree that taxes should be raised on unearned income; taxes should be much higher on high incomes
But the really big problem that nobody addresses is trusts
Trusts are very easy to make; every really rich person has one or more
It’s the middle class who worked hard to have assets to have for their old age and hopefull leave to their children who get screwed.
Most of us are one or two very serious illnesses away from poverty. It shouldn’t be like that in this country
It’s time to get real and cut out the trusts, but nobody dares mention that.
Trusts are allowing an entire new world of pre-income tax rich
And while I loved my $400 check for owning a coop in NYC during these difficult times, I think the city needed it more. But no, I didn’t give it back–my health insurance went up by $200 a month
By Treason on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
LP, for all I care the poor can starve to death. I pay plenty of federal taxes and enough is enough! In Minnesoata 50-52% of all state taxes goes to education…over HALF! That’s plenty! The poor can go out and get a god damn JOB! End of discussion!
By pia on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
Oh I forgot when you mentioned paying back China with interest; we pay many countries mucho money
But can we get decent health care in this country for decent money?
Don’t expect Medicare to be there for me, and look at all the trouble people are having understanding their prescription benefits
We have all paid into Medicare; it should be sufficient for decent health care. Don’t think even Treason can say that it is
It’s disgraceful. Oh this whole frigging country is disgraceful. Head start? where?
We have to throw out every model that we have used for both taxes and social services in order to reprioritize from the ground up
By Treason on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
Pia wrote: “We have to throw out every model that we have used for both taxes and social services in order to reprioritize from the ground up.”
Pia, I actually agree with that! But, don’t see it happening in our life time.
By Tom Harper on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
Great post. We need the “death tax” (as the neotards call it) to prevent an aristocracy from forming in this country. What did Paris Hilton (and thousands just like her) do to earn her wealth?
And it’s absurd that money earned by dallying in the stock market should be taxed at a lower rate than money earned by working. Let’s have some sanity here.
By MARTIN S FRIEDLANDER on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
BUSH AND RUMSFELD BETTER FIND A WAY OUT OF IRAQ BEFORE THEY GET CHARGED WITH WAR CRIMES UNDER THE NURENBURG LAWS. THESE ARE THE LAWS THAT SENT THE NAZIS TO THE HANGMAN. TEXAS IS WAITING FOR THEM
• Sunni Arab leaders are calling for an international inquiry into a secret underground prison run by the police in the capital and furiously denouncing the Shiite-led government as supporting the torture of Sunni detainees there.
• The discovery of the prison by the U.S. military in a raid on Sunday has galvanized Sunni Arab anger and widened the country’s sectarian divide just a month before elections for a full four-year government.
• Iraqi investigators finished searching the prison Wednesday. The U.S. general responsible for securing Baghdad, Major General William Webster Jr. of the 3rd Infantry Division, said Sunni Arab leaders had been supportive of the search.
• Webster said that U.S. officers would help scrutinize the evidence seized from the prison and that his troops were prepared to investigate other complaints of secret detentions by Iraqi security forces.
• The U.S. raid forced the prime minister of Iraq, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who is a Shiite, to announce that the government would investigate accusations of torture at the detention center, where many of the 173 prisoners were weakened and malnourished. A former prisoner said in a telephone interview that he and other inmates, mostly Sunni Arabs, were regularly beaten and subjected to electric shocks. He said he was blindfolded for the entire duration of his stay, more than three months.
• The Interior Ministry acknowledged that “instruments of torture” had been found and that torture had occurred.
• The prison was in the basement of a bomb shelter built by Saddam Hussein’s government and converted into a major operations center for the Interior Ministry after the U.S. invasion. Several Iraqi officials said police officers working there belonged to a powerful Iranian-trained Shiite militia, the Badr Organization.
• For many Sunni Arabs, the uncovering of the prison and the ensuing investigation have lent support to the widespread rumors that Shiite police officers and soldiers have been abducting Sunni Arabs and torturing or killing them.
• The investigation comes at a politically delicate time. U.S. officials have been urging Sunni Arabs not to boycott the Dec. 15 elections, as they did during a vote last January, and instead to take part in the formation of the new government.
• The Iraqi Islamic Party, a prominent Sunni political group, called for the United Nations and human rights organizations to “condemn the violations of human rights that the Iraqi government perpetrated” and demanded “an international investigation to punish all those who were involved in these crimes.”
• The deputy interior minister for intelligence, Hussein Kamal, said the ministry had no policy condoning torture. The government has begun its own investigation, he said, and the prisoners have been moved to another location for “humane care.” He added that the prisoners were accused of crimes like terrorism and kidnapping, and that they were arrested with court warrants.
• Kamal said he did not know whether the police in the bunker were members of the Badr Organization, which acts as the military wing of one of the governing Shiite parties, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The headquarters of the Supreme Council is just a half-mile south of the prison, and the interior minister, Bayan Jabr, is a senior official in the party. Since Jabr took office last spring, members of the Badr Organization have flooded into the ministry’s police and commando units, and Sunni Arabs have regularly accused the ministry of sponsoring death squads.
• Falah al-Naqib, Jabr’s predecessor as interior minister and a Sunni Arab, said in an interview that the bunker was run by a group called the Special Interrogations Unit that answers directly to Jabr. The unit began using the building as a prison in June, said Naqib, who lives a block away from the bunker, which is surrounded by seven-foot beige walls laced with concertina wire. Naqib said that he often saw ambulances entering and leaving the compound and that prisoners might have been transported in those vehicles.
• The two-level bunker measures about 1,000 square meters, or 11,000 square feet, and was used as a headquarters for the nascent Interior Ministry under L. Paul Bremer 3rd when he was the U.S. occupation administrator. Naqib, who became the interior minister after the transfer of sovereignty in June 2004, said he moved the headquarters after a month, but kept an office and bedroom on the first floor, and ministry officials continued to work in the building.
• Interior Ministry officers under Naqib were accused of torture and prisoner abuse as well. Naqib, who is running for Parliament, acknowledged in the interview that “there were some mistakes made.”
• A resident of Falluja, a former guerrilla stronghold, described in a telephone interview how he was taken to the bunker after an arrest last June and tortured. He spoke on the condition that he be identified only by his nickname, Abu Jasim, for fear of retribution. His account could not be independently verified.
• Abu Jasim, 40, said he and two relatives were picked up by Iraqi forces and taken to Baghdad on June 27. They were held for 20 days in Nosour, one of the unofficial prisons. He shared a 20-square-meter room with about 80 detainees.
• “We were beaten with cables, hoses and wooden sticks,” and often given electric shocks, Abu Jasim said. “Your back would turn purple or dark blue, depending on what you were beaten with.”
• It is lucky for Bush that Al Gonzalez is the Attorney General, however I am available to assist in this deserved prosecution.
• Can you believe the lies being spouted by Rumsfeld regarding this evidence?
• Why is Chalabi being permitted to lobby Washington and the Media that “he may be the next Prime Minister� He is “prime†alright, but not to occupy the building that seats the head of government.
MARTIN S FRIEDLANDER, ESQ.
http://WWW.FREEDOMPOST.TYPEPAD.COM
By The Bastard on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
Martin,
What on Earth does that have to do with taxes or this post?
By MARTIN S FRIEDLANDER on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
BASTARD:
If we were not in Iraq, taxes would not be much of an issue at this time. It cost the US $1 billion a day to maintain the charade in the Middle East.
This post is my attempt to raise the issue of no war, tax cuts.
Martin
By Jersey McJones on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
Great comments, folks!
Pia, you are right that the Inheritance Tax can create some tricky circumstances. I wouldn’t change my stance, but I will say this - if we’re talking about residential non-productive property, perhaps the way to go would be sort of a Homestead plan, whereby the inheritor should have to continue ownership for a lenth of time to avoid taxation. If the inheritor sells before then, the tax rate could reflect that, as opposed to any usual sale.
Treason, I hope, if you are ever down and out, that you remember people like us out there are fighting for you. Also, remember, it isn’t education, the welfare state, and other domestic spending that’re running us into the hole right now - it’s your beloved, and insipid, tax breaks and the wars that are doing it.
Martin, your point is noted, but let me say this, I’d rather shell out more taxes now to better secure Iraq then cut and run. In the long run, it would be better for all. Bush’s “War on the Cheap” is more of a disaster than the war itself. He can’t even secure Afghanistan. That makes two already ruined, war-torn nations our Idiot in Chief can’t conquer.
By Keith Eubanks on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
Send me a copy of your last tax return, or better yet - post it. I would specifically like to see the page where you add on a “few hundred” additional dollars to “help out” the government.
Maybe you can post the new one also after the first of the year. I’d love to see you liberals put up or shut up.
By Treason on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
Keith, BAM! Thank you for the best answer/question yet. Don’t think you will be getting what you asked for!
McJersey, if I’m ever down and out just SHOOT ME! Or guess what McJ? I’d deserve whatever monies I had coming to me because I’ve paid my dues and I have damn good FUDGING INSURANCE. And guess what else? I might be dead tomorrow so please don’t become a fortune teller for me McJ;)
I’ve worked for over twenty years McJ. and I’ve paid a pretty penny with no complaints into helping the poor. There just not getting any more of my check then they ALREADY DO!
By steve on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
Jersey:
PUSH BACK FROM THE BONG!!!
Why do we need to the supplement the nation’s income? We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a SPENDING problem. (using a quote from Schwarzenegger) You should be lobbying for government waste. What a solution, tax Americans. Unbelieveable!!!
My God, move to FINLAND if you wanna work your ass off to pay taxes. You guys bitch about people not living with a minimum wage or lack of home ownership (even though it has been higher that ever)what you going to do when the middle class, who struggles and scrimps and saves and buy a home now gets the McJones Tax Bill. Are you mental?
By steve on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
Oh and secondly Jersey, do you have any debt besides a home mortgage or student loan? If you do, you have a SPENDING PROBLEM!!!
By The Bastard on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
Stevie boy,
Read the post and follow the links,
Spending the money seems to be no problem, give us a plan, you’re go about asking about plans, how do we pay for it?
We have to pay for it, how do we pay for it?
By The Bastard on Nov 17, 2005 | Reply
And Keith,
Us libs put up every time we do not complain about a tax hike that makes sense.
And I raise the question to you too, how do we pay for a war, Katrina and every other god damn catastraphe that has happened? You will all be the first to complain a crime on the rise.
Answer (right wing) - lock them up!
How many people do we lock up before you have to address the root cause? At some point you have to answer the root cause, what’s your plan?
NO, stop, what is your plan? You don’t have one do you?
Win the war in Iraq? Is that your plan? What is your plan for domestic policy?
YOu are all so big on fucking plans, what is your plan?
By steve on Nov 18, 2005 | Reply
Hmmm…
Stop basing welfare off of the amount of kids you have for starters.
Legalize drugs. Seriously. We should just give up. We will have less people on government programs and less people with substantial drug habits because they’ll OD and die. There is a lot drug addicts aren’t tax payers anyway so fuck them. We’d be better off if they were dead.
Abolish the minimum wage. This hampers free competition in wages. Some people pay minimum wage in small businesses because they can! I fully believe wages would rise due to intense competition for a better product. I have seen countless restaurants that were packed at 40 bucks a plate while the 10 dollar meal place was dead as a doornail. The 10 dollar a meal pays minimum low wages while the upper end place has career workers with houses and cars thus more tax revenue.
Open the border to the south. It is a proven fact Mexican labor works harder for less, which will increase tax revenues.
End countless bitch sessions for Supreme Court Nominees. Wanna cut spending Bastard, and Jersey for that matter, stop crying because Alito is going to the Supreme Court.
Tax email. Countless spam companies would still be in business if spam cost 1 cent to send. The money would be used for education. You’d still foward email from the cubicle next to you.
Lower the tax rate to the rich. Rich people spend insane amounts of money for no reason but the fact they can. The money goes somewhere in this country and what better than to put it into the poorer majority.
Stop corporate sponsership of candidates for government offices. It is well known that corporations own this county. Let’s put to the vote like Prop 75 proposed.
Abolish unionized government jobs. Schools are in bad physical shape because some union fuckheads that want $200 an hour to paint a class room with a minimum of 2 employees and 8 hours work. If a teacher were to paint it herself, the government unions would crack down and get her fired. We’d be better off with out unions.
We should abolish the death penalty.
As far as the war, if I was in charge, I’d escalate the war. I’d start bombing the shit out of cities suspected of harboring the enemy. I’d threaten the cities with extreme force with pamphlets dropped from the sky and when the insurgents started fleeing I’d start shooting until everyone was dead.
I am so glad Dick Cheney lived up to his name and was such a Dick to you all. He was classic last night!!
By LiberPaul on Nov 18, 2005 | Reply
Steve,
“Lower the tax rate to the rich. Rich people spend insane amounts of money for no reason but the fact they can.”
That is complete BS, they spend money in Monaco, on BMW’s and other foreign luxury items. You give tax breaks to the middle-class and we ACTUALLY spend the money here instead of spending it on foreign goods and making more money off of their money. Giving the middle-class more cash also allows us to invest more heavily in our 401K’s and the market too. You can’t keep allowing the middle-class to be destroyed through globalization and taxation and expect our country to continue doing well. The middle-class is the back-bone of our society and the Republican Fascists are slowly dragging us down….
How much federal tax saving would I have had over the past couple of years making $42k a year? I don;t have my W-2 here to look, but maybe someone will have an answer. I’ll bet good money I am not saving thousands on income tax…..
“Stop corporate sponsership of candidates for government offices.”
“Legalize drugs”
For once I agree with you (maybe it’s the second time)
“As far as the war, if I was in charge, I’d escalate the war.”
Where would we get all of those troops from? Are you implying a draft?
“Tax e-mail” That would work for me.
By steve on Nov 18, 2005 | Reply
I forgot one: Dismantle the ACLU.
It is a truth that we need a group of people unholding civil rights for others but not like the ACLU. These people tie up our court systems with stupid cases that involve the rights of pedaphiles, removal of anything Christian-like off of old historic State buildings, and teaching of anything religious in public schools.
We should also dismantle the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal, the ACLU’s cohort in all this mess. Get this, we cannot teach anything about religion in the public schools but they can take responsibility how and when they teach about sex.
By LiberPaul on Nov 18, 2005 | Reply
While I may not agree with everything the ACLU does, they are a necessary evil to check government power when it comes to freedom of speech. Government has no power, and niether do you, to dismantle an organization like the ACLU. If it wasn’t for them, I may not get to look at porn anytime I wanted
By getmad.ca on Nov 18, 2005 | Reply
I cant believe anyone would ever want to raise taxes! ubbelievable!
–
discuss with me at http://www.getmad.ca
By Jersey Mcjones on Nov 20, 2005 | Reply
Getmad, by your logic:
I CAN’T BELIEVE ANYONE WOULD EAT MORE ONE DAY THAN ANOTHER!
I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT EVERYDAY IS NOT EXACTLY THE SAME!
I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT CHANGES IN CIRCUMSTANCES EVER HAPPEN, EVER!
Look, if you spend more then, by definition, you are paying more and then, by definition, you jave to raise more money. Genius.
Look gang, it’s easy to bash the ACLU, Defense Attorneys, Beaurocrats, Attorney Advocates and the like. It’s easy. Any dummy can do it. But they are necessary to a Free State to Balance the Power of the State and Moneyed Ineterests and Individuals.
So, go ahead and pick your scapegoats. We all know the Righteous Rabble of the Right’s list:
Blame the poor for poverty.
Blame minorities for racism.
Blame Attrorneys for lawsuits.
Blame the grieved for their grievances.
Blame protestors for failed wars.
Blame the old growth trees for forest fires.
What a steaming pile of stupidity.
Don’t you guys ever stand up for anything that isn’t dumb and easy?
Keith, I have a household income about 25K over the current national average, have no kids, and am not a homeowner, so you figure it out.
Treason, fine. Then what you are doing is forcing your children and grandchildren to pay for your national needs. Nice.
Steve, the ACLU adds a drop in the bucket to your tax liability. If you ever need them, you’ll be damn glad they’re there.
Welfare is for children. Do you blame children for their lots in life?
Legalize drugs because they’ll OD? Ever lose a family member to drugs? No? Jesus man, where’s your sense of decency today?
Abolish the minimum wage? What is this lust you have to turn America into Somalia?
Open the border to the south? Strange… but how’s about we just employ more realistic immigration policy? (Why is that so much to ask?)
“End countless bitch sessions for Supreme Court Nominees. Wanna cut spending Bastard, and Jersey for that matter, stop crying because Alito is going to the Supreme Court.”??? Hey, I have an idea! Let’s just tear up the whole constitution! The whole f’n thing!
“Tax email.”??? Oh yeah, THAT won’t add to red tape and beaurocracy!
“Lower the tax rate to the rich. Rich people spend insane amounts of money for no reason but the fact they can. The money goes somewhere in this country and what better than to put it into the poorer majority.” This is stupid and proven wrong. Wealth amasses at the top. It does not “trickle down.” The fact is that people only spend so much. The lower your income, the more of it you spend. Our economy is 2/3s consumer spending. That’s spending by regular schmucks like me and you - not the rich, who make up a tiny percentage of the consumer class. Grow up and stop worshipping the rich. They’re not your God.
“Stop corporate sponsership of candidates for government offices. It is well known that corporations own this county. Let’s put to the vote like Prop 75 proposed.” First of all, prop 75 did no such thing, so stop lying. But, I do agree that corporations should not be able to give money to campaigns. They are corporations, not people. Only individuals should be able to contribute and that should be capped at 10 bucks. Period.
“Abolish unionized government jobs.” Another stupid idea. unions are people coming together for a common aim - just like corporations, nonprofits, churches, etc. Anyone who would abolish anything like that is a totalitarian facsist. Period.
“We should abolish the death penalty.” I agree. The state should not (and does not - “right to life”) have that power.
“As far as the war, if I was in charge, I’d escalate the war.” So would I, but not in the inhumane disgusting lowbrow Hitleresque way that you would. I would simply send over a half-million troops, disarm the populace, establish the peace, and then we’d have the environment over there to get a healthy democracy going.
“I am so glad Dick Cheney lived up to his name and was such a Dick to you all. He was classic last night!!” I’m glad you’re happy. I wouldn’t want to be surprised.
By steve on Nov 20, 2005 | Reply
Jersey:
Again it’s a proven fact then when you start to lose an argument, you pull out the fascist and totalitarian name comments. What’s wrong? Not smart enough to come up with anything on your own? Need to have Bastard and the others hold your little hand and wipe your ass for you.
As for the Prop 75 comment, read what I wrote again. I said we should have a prop 75 for corporations. Did I stutter or are you just skimming through these comments because you are a beligerent fool?
And no shit dumbass, welfare is for children… so lets stop basing it on quantity and maybe people will stop having kids on welfare. I don’t even know why I have to explain that to.
Your mentality is apalling.
By Uncle Pavian on Nov 27, 2005 | Reply
Paris Hilton didn’t do anything to “earn” her money. Her grandfather was in the hotel business. I hear they’re nice. The hotels, not the Hiltons.