[Southack]

"Once again, please demonstrate how a 1.8 percent increase in average salaries, coupled with a 2.2 percent rate of inflation, is a postive for working Americans. And, it IS relevant to differentiate government salaries from private-sector salaries - because WE pay for government salaries out of our taxes. So if government salaries went up, so did our tax burden. And the private sector drives economic growth."

Average salaries going UP is always a positive for working Americans. Certainly the alternative is unattractive.

And what your tax burden is now is one thing, what it might be in the future, however, is mere speculation.

You have already admitted that your paycheck is larger due to Bush's tax cuts, so your tax burden is lower, not higher.

That you feel compelled to go into future "might be" scenarios simply shows that your overall argument has no merit today.

[dirtboy]

Average salaries going UP is always a positive for working Americans. Certainly the alternative is unattractive.

First of all, spin-boy, the point was, what is happening to salaries? You say they went up. But, after inflation, they went down. And that is what the bottom line is. Salaries could have gone up 10 percent last year - but if inflation was fifteen percent, folks are way behind. Just ask folks from the 1970s about that.

You have already admitted that your paycheck is larger due to Bush's tax cuts, so your tax burden is lower, not higher.

You act as if the federal income tax is the only tax we pay. Hint - it isn't. I pay state tax, Wilmington city tax, FICA, and myriad other taxes.

That you feel compelled to go into future "might be" scenarios simply shows that your overall argument has no merit today.

Uh, dude, government salaries went up last year. That isn't the future, that's the immediate past.

You just can't help yourself, can you? You are making not one lick of sense.