Anecdotally, I notice that you have avoided my discussion of liberal taxation policies and corporations like the plague........your silence in rebuttal is deafening......
I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings by not responding in a timely fashion. I have been busy working and spending the holiday with my family. But let's be honest, here. We're not going to see any "liberal" taxation policies in the near future. This discussion is really moot.
Your comment that Obama and his minions are no liberals is further damning by its presence, as it infers that you are far to the left of his policies, which have been demonstrated to be basically socialist in nature......leaving us with the impression that you have graduated from liberalism, through socialism (without passing GO) and proceeded directly to some form of totalitarianism.......speaks volumes.
The idea that Obama is a socialist is laughable. I'm not even a socialist, as I explained upthread. If Obama is too right-wing for me (and he is), there's no way he's even close to being a socialist.
And by the way, the reason that consumer spending is so low (as well as consumer confidence) has nothing to do with taxation, or lack thereof, and has everything to do with the fact that one in five Americans either don't have a job right now, or are severely underemployed.......they are in survival mode.
Generally speaking, I agree with you on this. You need to educate your fellow-poster up-thread to whom I was responding. Although, I will add that more progressive taxation would likely put more money in the hands of people who will spend it which will, in turn, stimulate the economy. Of course, as I said above, we're not going to see any new progressive taxation anytime soon because Obama is a conservative.
Reducing the overall tax burden on someone that is earning nothing is just an empty gesture, designed to appear to the uninitiated that the present bunch in charge "cares about them", when this could not be further from the truth.
No person pays no taxes. Conservatives like to talk about one of the only progressive forms of taxation we have (income taxes) and then pretend that income taxes are the only ones that anybody pays. This is disingenuous, at best. The poor pay the highest percentage of their income in taxes (through gas taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, sin taxes, utility taxes, government service taxes, and government fees). The middle-class is also soaked, just not quite as badly (as a percentage of income). This, it apears to me, is unhealthy for our economy and our society.
Critically evaluating all of the government (read taxpayer) funds that have been expended in one "stimulus" or another has had absolutely no effect on the basic problem of lack of private sector jobs that will be the ultimate recovery mechanism for the economy. In the instant case, the example of Greece should tell us what the ultimate result of depending on the creation of government jobs has on the long-term stability of a nations economy.
FDR created a lot of government jobs to get us out of the Great Depression. We've got to find some way to get money into the hands of the poor and the middle-class, or we'll never get out of this recession. Cutting taxes for the wealthy, so far, along with our free treade agreements, has just shipped a lot of good-paying jobs overseas. Obviously, that strategy doesn't work. I'd be happy to discuss other options.
As was wisely stated by Lady Margaret Thatcher........."Socialism is great until you eventually run out of other peoples money" (paraphrased).
As much as posters here might want me to be a socialist, I am not, nor am I defending socialism. I am a liberal, and I think that Thatcher was right about socialism.
-Laelth
