Greg_Groogan's Blog

The government is responsible for trillions of dollars in waste as PBMom states and should cut their budget first and make the corporations pay their share. The extremely wealthy have all kinds of loopholes to hide their money, those loopholes need to be closed. We are taxed from birth to death. Everything we buy is taxed (except food here in Texas), gas is taxed, property is taxed, clothes are taxed, supplies for our childrens education are taxed (except for one day a year), even when we buy from a used clothing store our purchase is taxed, so are used vehicles. Where will it all end? We will all go bankrupt paying taxes.

Chassan, As usual, you are correct.

No one likes to pay higher taxes. But as PB's Mom said wasteful spending is a major cause of the problem. Congress and local government entities continue to have an affection for pork barrel legislation. A much reviled liberal senator, William Proxmire used to award the annual "Golden Fleece" for the most wasteful project funded by US Congress. The issue here is governmental accountability of the use of public funds and we are no where close to controlling. it. Also, the much larger tax problem is the Alternative Minimum Tax which will potentially affect 25 million taxpayers this year if Congress does not act.

This is a story that is as old as time, or at least when the Democratic/Republican wars started. Republicans have always been for lower taxes,"trickle-down" economics and less Government input. Democrats have always been for taxes to pay for Government Spending and more regulation. When one of the parties is in charge for a long period of time, you hear cries for change from the other side. Our two-party system is extremely flawed. We need some clear Independent thinkers to come up with a balanced-economic plan. I've heard some of the Flat Tax ideas and some of them make sense. The Pork-Barrel spending is way out of hand. There has got to be some oversight. It's kind of like the kids have stolen Mom & Dad's credit card and are on a shopping spree. And, we are headed for a recession, simply because oil is approaching $100 a barrel. That affects EVERYONE. Inflation is happening due to that and long-term inflation will send this economy into a deep recession. And, cutting interest rates is a short-term solution, but it is devaluing our dollar every time they do it. We need long-term financial overhaul at many levels from an Independent Point-Of-View or a STRONG bi-partisan effort.