July 4th 1776-Aug. 2nd 2011

[BeeNo]

in another thread i quoted George Washington. its really incredible the amount of insight he had, he was against political parties before political parties existed.

Mr. President makes some good points, it is our responsibility to educate ourselves, and look for our own answers, ultimately we are responsible for electing our own public officials. For too long have i heard people say, "well i'm not voting for him, he's not republican or democrat and has no chance to be elected, that would be a waste of my vote."

here is the link to the united states senate, go ahead and research for yourself who votes for what and how they actually represent you.

http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/leg...ative_home.htm

and here is the link to the house of representatives.

http://clerk.house.gov/legislative/legvotes.aspx

also you can quickly just type in your senator or representatives name and go to their website to learn a little more about them. some of them have quick links to show how they have voted on various issues, some do not. just remember it may be a little bias toward them.

Is the american public smart enough to see threw the BS they are fed everyday? some of us are...

i see more eye to eye with democrats than republicans, but really i have found individuals from both parties who i agree with.

what i don't understand is how both parties can't articulate their side and meet somewhere in the middle. were not doin this! we'll never do that!

on a side note i did watch an actual debate on CSPAN featuring the house of representatives on tax reform. one issue that was brought up that received bipartisan support was corporate tax reform. the united states corporate tax rate in 35%, however there are so many tax subsidies in the law that if they eliminated the subsidies they could substantially lower the corporate tax rate and still have enough money left over to knock off some of the national debt.

now what does that mean to me? well i take it some of these subsidies are necessary and needed, but i have not actually had the opportunity to examine corporate tax law. but it seems to me a little disingenuous to say we have a 35% tax rate when he effective tax rate is much lower. basically reform and removal of many of these subsidies could in fact create a more accurate number for us to study.

anyways i've been drinking for more than 12 hours straight at this point so, i'm just going to leave my thoughts there and take up my discussion later.

[BeeNo]

actually i can't resist posting again!!!

every political leader, representative, or senator i have heard speak so far has said that they in the very least will raise the debt ceiling. why are they putting this deadline out there? well because we are facing a huge national debt crisis, and one way to bring attention to it and to really get stuff done about it is to put a deadline on it.

i don't know about some of you, but for me nearly every time i sit down to write a paper or complete an assignment its no less than two days before its due. if that deadline wasn't there i'd still be off watching my minnesota twins get destroyed every night.

[Xavior]

American politics. Its really hard to understand it without living in America I suppose.

Theres no easy fix to America's problems. On one hand, you've got political parties connected to the wealthy corporations. Each owing each other favors. Theres conflict of interests galore, theres government contracts handed out left and right to big money donors. Theres a electoral system where 75% of each term is spent trying to get re-elected. Theres extreme division along ordinary citizens. You see it even here on the forums. People more concerned with name-calling than working together to see what they have in common. A 24 hour news network that makes mountains out of molehills.

Sure, every country suffers from these problems to a certain extent. But in the behemoth that is America, every problem is magnified 10 fold, 20 fold. Banks that are too big to fail. Debt that will soon be more than 100% of GDP. European countries have shown they will fall like dominoes unless people from all parties speaking many languages show they can work together and get things done.

I'm no Economics major. There are people here that are more knowledgeable on this subject than me. But even I can see there is something so fundamentally wrong with America. Perhaps its the tax code that needs to be re-written. Maybe you need to scrap Medicare/Medicaid and come up with something else to fill its role. But I'm sure everyone can see that something major needs to be done. Or maybe its just the ways are meant to be in a new era. I'm sure -Z- would have a field day with that line of thought.

If there is one question I would love answered, its how American culture is so different from any other culture in the world. People from Europe often jokingly refer to Canada as a smaller America, or even part of it. But thats not true at all. I've been to America. Theres just something so different about it, and impossible to pinpoint. If Canada were to have 300 million people, would we resemble what America is today? I honestly don't know.

[BeeNo]

well xavier, what you see and hear about is the national level of politics in america. the truth is most of our great ideas today come from the local level. one township or county tries something that works out, more adopt it, and it moves up the chain to the state and federal levels.

personally i think many americans have a hard time finding reliable news sources. where honesty and integrity are upheld. as a result you get bombarded with these factioned world ending theories suggesting if your not on our side it could mean the end of america!

while the truth is thats complete crap, and the more opinions and viewpoints you can get on a subject the better. but, there needs to be a fundamental understanding that its ok to disagree. you can take these opposing sides and create laws and reform that are based in the middle, not pulled to the extremists on either side.

and the absolute truth is america has always been a little slow at adopting policies and agenda that other countries around the world have proved work well. look at slavery? how many years behind was america on that? the same could be said today when you look at universal healthcare and other systems.

fact, we spend more money on healthcare than any other country, and the quality of our health care is much lower. oh gee, however do we solve such a dilemma? i don't know maybe would could take a look at some of the better health care systems around the world and evaluate what they do well? what a shocking idea.

in my opinion there are simple solutions to many of the problems facing america today, but being able to unite people behind those ideas is proving to be nearly impossible.

[Mrmcjoey15]

Lol watch out Beeno, i dont think alot of ppl in this thread are ready for universal health care.

[BeeNo]

let me put it to you in another way. we have republicans on the right and democrats on the left. where does america stand? in the middle. so no matter who wins, we lose.

[Will]

Lol watch out Beeno, i dont think alot of ppl in this thread are ready for universal health care.

We've had it for 60+ years now, works pretty well.

As to the thread topic:

Scaled tax rate based on income:

no tax for first 20k dollars earned.

over 20k = 10%

over 40k = 20%

over 60k = 30%

over 80k = 40%

100k and everything above that = 50%

Cut defence spending by at least 50%, cut aid to Israel.

Probably other things could be done, but that's off the top of my head.

[ranger2112]

if you go with a National Sales tax, that closes each and every loophole available. tax on consumption and not income will get the freeloaders off the national teat. keep 100% of your income...pay an additional 10% sales tax and invest in your own retirement plan, we could be, as a nation, solvent in no time at all. universal health care, as a concept, is a great thing. what our country has passed is not. it is an abomination and several "friends of the administration" already have temp waivers.

Based on current events...THIS IS MY FAVORITE QUOTE

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

[Will]

A sales tax overwhelmingly favours the richest in society, the very people responsible for most of the economic mess the world is in.

Full socialism is the way to go.

[Xavior]

A sales tax overwhelmingly favours the richest in society, the very people responsible for most of the economic mess the world is in.

Full socialism is the way to go.

This. Most 'Socialist' countries that Americans sneer at are the most stable and have the highest standards of living in the world today. Hell, in Denmark they pay you to go to University (or so I hear).