View From the Left
 

No one wants to go back to the confiscatory tax rates of the fifties, but taxes on the top two percent must go up.

The image being projected by the Republican Party is one that they will gut Medicare, privatize Social Security with no corporate contribution, and wipe out the Middle Class through their war on unions.

It has always been accepted as fact that the Republican Party is the party of big business. That has served our country well while the main source of corporate revenue was here at home. This has changed. Big business no longer has a stake in supporting a prosperous middle class here at home. I offer falling salaries as evidence. As further evidence our current generation of college graduates is called the "Ninja Generation". Ninja in this sense means no income no jobs.

All I ask is that you think independently. It was a strong middle class in America that rescued the world in the nineteen forties. Don't let it fall apart because of the greed of a few.

Do The Arithmetic
 

All the back and forth between the left and right about various ideas being floated in the area of budget-balancing is almost laughable. If it wasn't such a dire situation, it would be laughable.

All the soundbites being put out by the various politicians have little to do with what's really necessary to balance the federal budget and begin to whittle away at the national debt. Their soundbites are designed to appeal to various segments of the voting public, little else. The politicians from both the left and the right have done the aritmetic. They know how serious the fiscal problem is that faces us in the next couple of years. And in the end, they know what will be necessary to fix the problem. They may not like what's necessary--none of us will--but each and every one of them knows what will have to be done. Everyone's ox will be gored--the progressives will have to give up important social programs, the conservatives will have rto agree to increasing taxes, the hawks will have to get used to a lot less military power, the doves will have to get used to not being able to help every country or group that gets in trouble somewhere in the world.

They may all fight it, but they know what eventually has to be done.

• There will have to be significant changes to the entitlement programs, changes that will effect all of us.

• There will have to be deep spending cuts to the discretionary budget that each and every one of us will notice...and we won't be happy with the changes.

• There will have to be significant cuts to the defense budget, dramatically more than has been suggested by anyone so far. The days of the U.S being able to afford to settle every war or affront to human rights everywhere in the world is over.

• And yes, tax revenues will have to increase. The only question is who's going to pay them. Will it be the wealthiest individuals, corporations, or all of us (as with a VAT tax)? Uncertain. But what is certain is that the fiscal problems faced by the country cannot be solved with spending cuts alone.

If you don't believe it...DO THE ARITHMETIC!!

Last time I checked GE was Big Business and it sure isn't aligned with the Republican Party. I say the upper two percent should pay more or in GE"s case some taxes as should the 47% of Americans that pay NO taxes.

We really neet a VAT on everything and a cut in all the spending. That way everyone gives a little. If something is not done and done soon there will not be a United States.

We, you and me and the rest of the Americans are to blame for this mess. We did not watch those that we sent to represent us.

If the rest of the world decides that the dollar is not going to be ther world reserve currency anymore, you live will change over night and the US will become a 3d world nation.

I still would like an more comprehensive study of consumption taxes that no one could loophole out of.

Try This
 

After searching around, maybe the best explanation with examples that I could find came from the European Economic Union's own Taxation and Customs web page. It's not easy reading, but it does explain in great detail how the EU's Value-Added Taxation system works. I'm going to read it again to see if there are easy ways for a well-lobbied U.S. Congress to establish rules and loopholes that would permit some to escape this type of taxation. If I understand how the EU works, their governing group isn't commonly subject to lobbying by special interest groups, so their laws and legislation more purely represents the intentions of lawmakers and the member countries, without the amendments and loopholes so common in our body of law.

Anyway, here's the link...

http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs...s/index_en.htm