Amanda, he's not my president. I didn't punctuate my comment correctly, there should have been a comma after fight. I meant they should play Obamas game and just vote present. They have been falling for his coniving for 4 years, no budget, debt commision, all the bills stalled at the senate. The media beats them up and it is never ending and getting worse. He voted present, time to expose him as president. Let them own it.

The George W Bush years exposed the bankruptcy behind the theory that tax cuts for the rich will spur economic growth. "Let the rich get richer and everybody will benefit?" says Stiglitz. "That, empirically, is wrong. It's a philosophy of trickle-down economics that's belied by the facts." Bush and Cheney proved once and for all that tax cuts for the wealthy produce only two things: "lower growth and greater inequality."The GOP's frenzied handouts to the rich during the Bush era coincided with the weakest economic expansion since World War II – and the only one in modern American history in which the wages of working families actually fell and poverty increased.

Most of the income of the wealthy comes from capital gains and dividends. The top rate on capital gains and dividends is 15%. The wealthy do not pay Social Security and medicare taxes on this investment income. The top rate on wage income is 35% plus 7.65% payroll taxes. Wage earner top rate - 42.65%. Investment income top rate - 15%. Could this be why the rich are getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and the middle class is shrinking?

Question: Where is the stopping point in the Liberal takings?

The rich are leaving the USA thanks to business killing government controls on the free market....

....and the poor are getting poorer because the liberal education system is teaching them to be losers. We now have a society that votes for "cool" rather than promoting private sector free markets.

We must find a way to defeat the attack on the so called rich (Marxist approach) and return the society mind set to respect individual property rights (American approach) rather than sticking their hands out to steal someone elses property (Scumbag led Obama approach).

Ray, I found a movie about you and your associates!

Freedom And You - 1962 Communism Threat Social Guidance / Educational Documentary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL4yc0DESp4

Ray, a couple of comments. 1-People claim that the Bush Tax cuts did not spur economic growth. They are mistaken. The reason the US did not see the growth it should have seen was because of 9/11 and the massive spending which included the 2 wars, the Rx expansion and the expansion of the police state. Without the tax cuts, 9/11 would have hurt our economy worst than it did.
2-One can create DEMAND. That is what the entrepreneurial spirit can do. Create products and services where there were no DEMAND prior. Many things would have never been created had people decided to wait for DEMAND before taking the risk. That is why money left in the hands of the people (who expects returns), in pursuit of their own happiness, will ALWAYS be more productive than in the wasteful hands of government.

Entrepreneurs don't create DEMAND consumers do. The consumer has to want the product and also has to have the ability to buy the product. A middle class tax cut puts money in the hands of the consumer. They buy products and that stiimulates demand. If what you said were true, then why were our nations greatest growth rates coincided with higher tax rates on the rich and our lowest growth rates with the lowest tax rates on the rich. There is a negative corelation of growth and tax cuts for the rich. The Great Recession was the only time we have had such a huge income and wealth inequality in the US. It could be that huge income and wealth inequality causes Depressions and Recessions. You have to have a strong middle class or capitalism does not work.

There is a lot of waste and fraud in our nation's budget. There are also some programs that don't work. A bi-partisan committee should look over the budget and eliminate the unnecessary spending. We should strengthen whistle blower laws to protect people who point out wasteful spending and reward them. I talked to a guy who was in the Navy. He said at the end of the year when they were headed back to port they would throw overboard new stuff. The Comander didn't want his budget cut. Perverse incentives.

Ray, correlation does not equal causation. Like with inflation, sometimes the effects are not felt to later. Try this video, maybe it won't make you nauseous, lol

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=Wi-D24oCa...

Video did not display. Correlation does not equal causation but when EVERYONE of our slow growth periods coincided with Republican administrations, It appears to the average person as a little more than correlation. Like when a basketball team lost to a supposedly weaker team, the coach said it was a fluke. The next time they had a game the weaker team won again. The students cheered HI HO TWO FLUKES IN A ROW.

Ray, I can cite studies that refute your statements and you can cite studies that refute my statements. So, let’s focus on the root issue. First, 49% of those living in the USA do not pay any Federal income tax. That forces the other 51% to carry the burden of paying Federal taxes for everyone.
Explain to me how forcing the top 2% of the 51% to pay more in Federal taxes will stimulate the economy. Keep in mind that according to economists the amount of taxes Obama is proposing be raised on the wealthy would fund the government for 6-8 days.
Then explain to me how you see this as being just.
Your statement of, “We have the greatest inequality of wealth and income in our country since the Great Depression’ is often found when citing the NY Times and/or the Huffington Post.
46 Million Americans live in poverty.
49% of Americans receive some form of government assistance.
Current and past government policies are designed to keep those already living in poverty in poverty and to bring more into the system and a means of establishing a voter base.
Now explain to me how taking the wealth from another and redistributing it to someone who did not work for it benefits a free society.
There will always be wealth inequality in any free country that has a capitalist based economy.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.

I do not think I am entitled to anything. I just believe that the rich should pay their fair share of taxes. That is not happening. The rich redefined their income as capital gains and dividents and get preferential tax treatment for their income. Capital gains and dividend top tax rate is 15%. Top rate on wage income 35%. Republicans think this is fair. I disagree.

The 47 percent of people you are talking about do not pay FEDERAL income taxes. But, you forget that they pay about 7.65 % payroll taxes, 9% sales taxes, property taxes, excise taxes, etc etc. In reality poor people pay a bigger percentage in total taxes on their income than millionaires and billionaires. Payroll taxes and sales taxes alone equals 16.65%. The top rate on capital gains and dividends is 15%. The wealthy don't have to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on their investment income.

Considering all taxes — federal, state, and local — the bottom 20 percent of households pays an average of 16 to 17 percent of their incomes in taxes. The next 20 percent of households pays about 21 percent of income in taxes, on average. In fact, when all taxes are considered, the share of taxes that each fifth of households pays is similar to its share of the nation’s total income. ITEP data show that in 2011, the bottom fifth of households received 3.4 percent of the total income in the nation and paid 2.1 percent of the total taxes. The middle fifth of households received 11.4 percent of income and paid 10.3 percent of taxes. The top 1 percent of households received 21.0 percent of income and paid 21.6 percent of taxes. The tax system as a whole is only mildly progressive.

A GAO study found that in every year from 1998 to 2005, approximately 55 percent of large corporations paid no corporate income tax. ** But just 2.7 percent of large corporations reported no net tax liability in all eight of those eight years. This reflects a similar pattern as applies to families and individuals — those who do not pay income tax in a given year often do pay income tax over time.