Gary Varvel for February 05, 2016

“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”.“We are becoming so accustomed to millions and billions of dollars that ‘thousands’ has almost passed out of the dictionary.” .Both quotations from Everett Dirksen (1896 to 1969).I expect within a few decades we’ll be talking about quadrillions.

Go ahead, open another 700 military bases, bomb another 7 innocent countries, and spend another $700000000000000000000000 on your military that can’t even beat the Taliban.

If we ever get the courage both to exercise our votes and to tax the wealthy, we can pay off the national debt in no more than five years.

On average, we plodders pay ca. 9.5% sales tax nationwide for such necessities as food, clothing, shelter, etc., but no sales taxes are assessed on the more than $62 TRILLION in equities traded annually on the NYSE, the CBoT, the NASDAQ, etc. If we assessed a 9.5% sales tax on equity trades, we’d pay off the debt in under five years.

If taxing necessities people need to survive is all right, then surely taxing non-equities is also all right, particularly when it would benefit all society, not merely a small segment. After all, isn’t that what the Founding Fathers implied should be done when the wrote that stirring paragraph that begins “We the People . . .”?

You can tell that we have a Democratic administration, because the GOP cares about deficits and debts and stuff.

OUCH!!

We could be like this?http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/rich-countries/the-only-5-countries-in-the-world-living-debt-free/?view=all

The modern American right doesn’t care about deficits, and never did. All that talk about debt was just an excuse for attacking Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and food stamps.

Heh Cavan – How about Tax Everyone. I’m all for Americans paying for services with todays tax dollars rather then pushing it off on our children.

But I do not agree that it is the Wealthy that should bear all the burden. I would be in favor of raising taxes on everyone by 5%. If YOU aren’t willing to pay more for the government costs – Why should I have to pay more?

Grow up!!!!

@John Spence – All of those programs should be attacked. You may admire a Robin Hood Government but I find it offensive.

You think about all the good the government could bring into the lives of those who are dependent on those programs.

I think about all the good I could have done with those tax dollars for my own family and community. Because they came out of my pocket.

Out in the midwest we pay taxes too but all the tax dollars seem to flow into the cities and away from our communities. That is why I won’t vote for a Sanders or a Clinton.

Under “Ike” the top rate was 90%, and the economy was fine. He warned about the Military, Industrial, Congresssional combine wielding undue influence.

Repubicans have been in charge of the budget for several years now. Besides Planned Parenthood, what do they want to cut?

dear griff the economy was doing fine so ike was able to do a high tax to pay off ww2 // do you think the economy is doing fine? /// wmconnelly stim 1,2,3, etc was for infrastructure // note USA spends more per kid than any other country

The real infection the vector is spreading is from feeding in Iraq, Afghanistan, Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, we’ll all over the globe as mandated by the Military Industrial Complex, it didn’t hardly all come from “social” programs here in the homeland, or even DC. It’s where that MIC brood lives around the country, not DC that’s the real problem, well other than their lobbyists, who are about the only ones who can afford to live in most of the DC area.

Did you ever notice that the ones whining the most about the national debt are always the ones who don’t want actually to do anything about it? Like, f’r’instance, substantially raising taxes, or gutting military spending? No, they just shed their crocodile tears and snarl at the idea of a kid being able to see a doctor.

BTW; most of the interest on that debt is at high rates, to banks that borrow from the fed for free, then lend it back to the government. Manipulating that debt, for profit, by the same folks who whine about it, is interesting “conservatism”.

note to night gaunt 49 poor districts spend MORE per kid look at washington dc ,chicago ,kansas city

The name of the mosquito is (instead of going after al-qaeda terrorists,) Bush’s two country takeovers, no military contractor oversight, no plan for veteran care and tax breaks, subsidies and off-shoring for huge banks and corporations