THE QUESTION - some of you shouldn't look - you have been warned

THE QUESTION - some of you shouldn't look - you have been warned

Unfortunately, there really is no good choice.

Carl Stanley said:

Unfortunately, there really is no good choice.

Anybody is better than who we currently put up with.

I bet you wont say that in 4 years! Democrat or Republican, either way, we will probably be even worse off!

We may indeed be worse off in four years. We have so much downward momentum now that a ruling coalition consisting of Pericles, George Washington, Gandhi, Steve Jobs, and Alexander the Great would have a tough time reversing it. But I'd be shocked (and probably suicidal) if it was because the next guy we elect is actually worse than what we have now.

Well, seems to me that if the dem gets it, we'll all have a lot less to spend on astro toys. I'm retired, but do some consulting work and by the time I get through with income tax (30%) self-employment tax (15%),state tax (5%), I'm already at 50%. Why do I want to pay MORE in taxes? Pray tell!

Fred

Oh, I don't know. It seems to me that one good reason to collect taxes is to reduce the incredible growth of the federal deficit over the past 7 years and prevent the country from sinking even deeper into debt to foreign powers of uncertain intent. I was always taught that spending vastly more than you take in and living by borrowing was unwise. But of course, I'm only a naive "liberal", and thus these matters of high finance are probably beyond me. At least I can take comfort in knowing that those nice people in the oil industry aren't being soaked by ruinous taxes, even if you are.

Your consulting business must be booming if your Federal tax is 30% on top of the 15% for self employment. I'm also self employed, and my Federal tax is always around 15%, or 30% with self employment.

Nick Lloyd said:
Anybody is better than who we currently put up with.

Oh, I probably should just ignore this whole discussion. But I cling to some small hope of a calm, sane, and rational discussion not involving name-calling and invective ...

Let me presume that you disagree with the President on the decision to invade Iraq. Put that aside for the moment (we may come back to it if this discussion proves to meet the above criteria). Can you give a few other *specific* issues on which you disagree with the President?

Terry (astrotrf)

Carl Stanley said:
I bet you wont say that in 4 years! Democrat or Republican, either way, we will probably be even worse off!

I don't share this pessimistic view. The economy's gone through both major and minor downturns before (and, I hasten to add, we are still seeing a small amount of economic growth each quarter) and always rebounded. The price of gasoline is up, but European economies have been dealing with much higher prices for years (granted, they've got much shorter transportation distances). The housing market is down, but will recover; eventually, the current spate of foreclosures will be processed through the system (the inventory of homes on the market is decreasing). And eventually, investment institutions will regain some measure of the trust they've lost.

There are a few weak banks, and there may be a few more closures. But there are a lot of strong banks, too ... and most banks will weather this storm.

Other than the probability that we won't see a major decrease in gasoline/oil prices, I just don't see anything fundamental and long-term to justify all of the pessimism ...

Terry (astrotrf)

Joe Bergeron said:
It seems to me that one good reason to collect taxes is to reduce the incredible growth of the federal deficit over the past 7 years and prevent the country from sinking even deeper into debt to foreign powers of uncertain intent.

I second that notion, and if I thought reducing the national debt (not merely reducing its *growth*) would actually HAPPEN, I'd be happy to pay increased taxes.

I was always taught that spending vastly more than you take in and living by borrowing was unwise. But of course, I'm only a naive "liberal", and thus these matters of high finance are probably beyond me.

What has always frustrated me about this, however, is that "liberals" are the ones who fought tooth and nail to defeat a balanced-budget constitutional amendment. If they all thought like you do, that amendment would be a reality now. (Of course, that is not to say that Congress wouldn't pass law a law declaring an "emergency override" or some such thing every year ...)

But "conservatives" don't do anything to reduce deficit spending, either, so I don't know *what* to do. I really hate it when I look at my nephews and realize that we're saddling them with a near ten trillion dollar (and rising) debt ...

Democrats and Republicans are all politicians -- and therefore none of them can be trusted with money ...

Terry (astrotrf)