That was the least well thought out post I’ve ever seen you put up. - Fact is you can tax everyone, everywhere, every time, for everything made, sold, bought, and manufactured at 100%, and we STILL can’t cover that level of spending, plus the interest on our staggering debt, nor can we now stop the degradation of our monetary valuations.
He didn’t say one damn word about defunding, cutting back, or downsizing expenditures at all - just more taxes that will be thrown into an endless rathole.
SS is a straw man argument - we pay our entire lives into it and should get some of our money back unless it’s simply government theft writ large.
- Now if you want to debate ENDING SS & Medicare, then I’m all ears, but you notice, I’m sure, that he spoke of no such thing. - In fact the sentiment that you ascribed to him wasn’t said by him at all.
Just pay more taxes - and thats not worthy of you running interference for him in the manner that the MSM does for every other dem.
But by all means - pay more taxes.
Have to agree with the man...the 48% who pay no taxes should pay up...do not raise taxes on the other 52%
“- Now if you want to debate ENDING SS & Medicare, then I’m all ears, but you notice, I’m sure, that he spoke of no such thing. - In fact the sentiment that you ascribed to him wasn’t said by him at all.”
Actually Bradley has talked about that in the past - more than just about any other Dem has:
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2007/04/bill-bradley-on-social-security.html
I think he’s just reached the point where he sees that spending will never get cut (for reasons mentioned earlier) - so now it’s time to pay up. we can talk about all you wish, but until you can line up the seniors JUST ON THIS SITE to agree that Social Security and Medicare need serious reform or elimination - how the heck do you expect to get the rest of the country on board?
“SS is a straw man argument “
I wish it were, but the National Endowment for the Arts is a Strawman, as it won’t make a dime’s worth of difference. Even food stamps, EIC, Ag, and Education, and other things like that only help at the margins. Social Security and Medicare are EATING US ALIVE - and I know that you understand that.
“Fact is you can tax everyone, everywhere, every time, for everything made, sold, bought, and manufactured at 100%, and we STILL can’t cover that level of spending,”
That simply isn’t true if you do the math. What you say is true if you try that just for the wealthy, but as long as you hit the middle and lower classes with serious taxes, the money is there. They may not like it, but they will pay it, and with the amount of income they control, it will pretty much cover our needs.
An example - we could raise the federal gas tax from 18.4 cents to $3.68 (i.e., 20 times) and people will continue to drive, and they will still pay significantly less for gas than they do in Europe. We collect about $25B now from the gas tax. Would that increase to $500B - nope, of course. People will adjust - but they still need gas. The government might only collect $350B to $400B per year at the much higher rate - but that is real money and it WILL cut the deficit by about $350B per year, and that is real money - as it’s only one tax. Collect the same from a VAT, from income taxes (when the AMT and Bush’s cuts expire) and you’re close to a balanced budget. Will people be happy - of course not. Will they slow down activity - of course. Will they pay it - yep, unless they have another country to move to.
You may not like paying $7.00 for gas - but if you want your precious Social Security protected, you better plan on it, because $1.6T deficits simply cannot be sustained any better than housing prices in Florida or Las Vegas.