A new poll put out by Vanity Fair and 60 Minutes says that over 60% of the people say we should increase taxes on the wealthy to help reduce the deficit. Another 20% say we should reduce defense spending. Only 7% say we should cut medicare or social security.
81% say increase taxes on the wealthy or cut defense spending. 7% say reduce medicare or social security.
That's 81% versus 7%
Here are the poll results.
Yet, all we hear is that republicans want to cut medicare and social security. Why is that the discussion?
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I believe that is a no brainer question Jerry, regards why. These numbers are encouraging, and...discouraging for me. encouraging that it is pretty damned obvious that the wealthy are getting away with robbery in the tax department, and a hellofa lot of us know it. Discouraging that the percent for cutting defense is so low. The freaking defense budget is totally out of control, but we have been brain washed to believe that we will all be destroyed by the boogie men if we don't have a fat military out there beating the crap out of the brown side of the world.
ReplyDeleteWe are being told that it takes a trillion dollars a year to take out a suicide bomber.
ReplyDeleteThat's pure bullshit!
Jerry,
ReplyDeleteYou should send the White House and the Democratic leadership the results of that poll.
I've gotten to the point where the so-called fairness argument is irrelevant. We have created a class of superrich. If we can improve our own lives by taxing them more, so be it. If it's unfair, so what? Life has been exceedingly fair to that crew anyway.
ReplyDeleteThere's something distressing about this poll, though, which is its implication that cuts to Social Security can reduce the deficit. Actually, they wouldn't impact the deficit one way or another, except to to continue the practice of using a solvent program to mask the deficit's actual extent.
I would increase the number of brackets at the top, say adding higher tax brackets at 1 million and 10 million.
ReplyDeleteWhat about these schools that the rich go to and donate to for tax write offs?
ReplyDeleteBut five at the top each have nearly $6 billion more than any school outside that group: Harvard ($34.6 billion), Yale ($22.5 billion), Stanford ($17.2 billion), Princeton ($15.8 billion) and the University of Texas system ($15.6 billion). The survey marks the end of the most recent fiscal year, which at most schools ended last June 30, so the numbers don't reflect the recent downturn in the stock market.
Among them, Harvard's endowment _ the largest overall _ expanded by an amount last year that's more than Ivy League rival Cornell has altogether. Princeton now has over $2 million in the bank for every student. Stanford raised nearly $1 billion during its last reported fiscal year alone.
There is a "tremendous dispersion in wealth from the people right at the top to the lesser ones," said Ronald Ehrenberg, an expert on higher education economics at Cornell. "It falls off very, very quickly."
Hey there! Stopping by to wish you a Happy New Year (besides that pesky $14 trillion debt issue)...
ReplyDeleteYou asked
Why is that the discussion?
I answer:
Because many in Congress qualify as the oober wealthy & they are covering their own interests & asses. If not that directly, it is because of the lobbyist controlled cash flow. To be in Congress, you have to be beholden to someone to have enough $ to be in the game.
I resent the idea that Social Security & Medicare are considered "entitlement programs"... when the working class stiffs have been contributing into those funds all their working lives.
The heartlessness of it is they immediately go for programs of social uplift or necessities...
so many Seniors count on Soc Sec to survive. Need Medicare as the only health care coverage they have...
But slashing the bloated budgets of military spending are held sacred & not to be messed with.
Of course we will have to make cuts.....
but don't inconvenience the wealthy with taxes.
Never mind we've already lived with that experiment for 10 years & theory of more jobs & cash flowing as a result has been disproved, big time.
What the American people want is pretty clear. However, what the American people want does not matter to the Republican party. They do not represent the American people.
ReplyDeleteIt's a discussion because the Rovian tactics of the rightwing nutters has worked for decades, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
ReplyDeleteSame thing applies to Johnny Boehners remark that the CBO numbers on the effect of repealing the healthcare law are purely an opinion, not a fact.
Forgot who said it, but we Americans have the best politicians money can buy. Who can afford their own personal politicians? The wealthy of course.
ReplyDeleteDitto Jack but include the Republicans.
ReplyDeleteOne would hope that the Republicans would do what's right for America, since they claim to love America.
ReplyDeleteI don't see how bankrupting America, can be good for America at all. It's not!
So do Republicans love America?
It does not show by their actions and policies.
Jerry, while I essentially consider myself a keep the taxes low kind of fellow, I agree. The only way that we can really get a hold of this massive debt/deficit is if (in addition to some budget cuts) we ultimately raise taxes. AND, being that the millionaires have most of the major money......Hell, even Ben Stein thinks that the super rich pay far too little in taxes.
ReplyDelete