POST SCRIPTS

Yer multinationals, generally, just LOVE Switzerland. Tiny, tidy country, population 7.5 million (there are more people than that in the Bay Area!), which has for years specialized in hiding money from the tax collector.

Did you hear we're going after UBS, Phil Gramm, and the Swiss bank secrecy laws?

Heehaaah!

Did you hear we're going after UBS, Phil Gramm, and the Swiss bank secrecy laws?

Hmmm...yes. How many dems or dem supporters do you think are on that "list" of 52 thousand Americans? I'll bet it's enough to quash that project...especially if BC is on the list.

The individuals should be prosecuted if they can discover who they are.

The laws in Switzerland favor the individuals. It is not against Swiss law to evade taxes. These days I'm thinking that's not a bad idea when our government is bent on wantonly STEALING from some Americans to give to other Americans...for power and votes. It's disgusting!

"How many dems or dem supporters do you think are on that "list" of 52 thousand Americans?"

For the seventy-seventh time: what the "H" difference does it make!~?~! I don't care if yer tax cheats know all the lyrics to every Pete Seeger song ever sung ... we're tracking 'em down, shaking 'em down, and locking 'em up!

Bully fer you. The point was the effort will likely get scuttled ... how far will they get with wealthy political power in the way?

If breaking the law was all it took most of Congress would be in jail NOW...also several of Obamas appointees and friends! Some who should go to jail continue to be upheld and applauded wildly by the masses. For instance...Barney Frank & Chris Dodd. Then there's Howell Raines who cooked the books to get big bonuses at Fannie. What do you want to bet some of these same people are on THE LIST!?!

But to look at it even more simply...how about the numerous jerks who wrote the outrageously progressive tax laws in the first place...when will they go to jail for the thievery behind this Marxist concept? At the very least they should resign in disgrace, be run out of town...or haunted in their graves!

If tax laws were simple and less progressive (make those producers pay pay pay)... producers wouldn't work so hard to avoid paying taxes.

Nobody likes being robbed of what he has earned...and the tax tax tax 'em Dem party system accomplishes just that. They are about to come after every man woman and child in America and all you can think to do is chortle.

I believe that Switzerland still holds secret trials, however the flip side is that in prison you are allowed to drink wine. Switzerland also has socialized medicine.

Yeah, frankly, we should be glad there are only 7.5 million of them. They run a nice orderly society, but I wouldn't want to live in it. Way up there in the corporate creepiness department.

"Nobody likes being robbed of what he has earned...."

And for the eighty-eighth time: you are not being robbed, you are paying taxes. You don't want to pay taxes? Move to Somalia and you won't have to.

All those USB tax cheats want to enjoy the benefits of this nice orderly (more or less) society without paying the freight. This is despicable.

"And for the eighty-eighth time: you are not being robbed, you are paying taxes. You don't want to pay taxes? Move to Somalia and you won't have to."

You have a particular likeing for the eighties...I'm rather fond of umteenth, myself...but preaching won't change my mind no matter how many times you object so you might as well quit counting.

Nothing you have ever said convinces me that we are "headed in the right direction" with an ever more progressive tax structure. Nothing you have said convinces me it is Constitutional to tax people progressively...or that people are better off paying nothing and being "government" dependent.

So I will continue to make the case for a more simplified and FAIR TO EVERYONE tax structure...it is a free country and last time I looked free speech was still my right.

And for the record...what ever "creepiness" (cute baby) you're talking about in the corporate world is the same creepiness that exists on school boards, in union halls, at the local DMV, or any other segment of our society. The main difference is they aren't being targeted and punished by a bunch of ravinous political wolves looking to spend other peoples money...for power and votes.

The trillions and trillions spent on the "war on poverty" has not lifted Americans out of poverty...just the opposite, If eliminating, or even alleviating, poverty was the goal we should be getting a better return on that money...we are not. Yet government seeks more and more money and more and more programs to fund...with more and more unionized government employees also dependent or beholdin to the governemnt. People like you continue to defend the insanity.

A dependent class is a disgruntled class...fodder for ongoing "revolution". And you defend this garbage.

People are people and we are all citizens...we should all have a stake in the country.

We go over the same ground, over and over again. One of the most insightful things Jesus is reputed to have said: "The poor will always be with us." I'm not having them in the gutter. You, maybe, ... but not me.

And then we have to allow for the fact that occasionally the child of two thoroughly disreputable beings, provided the opportunity, turns out something splendid. I, and Mr. Obama, intend to see that opportunities abound.

You can just sit there being your usual resentful self ... while we get on with it.

"One of the most insightful things Jesus is reputed to have said: "The poor will always be with us." I'm not having them in the gutter. You, maybe, ... but not me."

I have never suggested anything of the sort. We have gone over this before. I believe that charitable organizations do a better job and are more personal in nature. People helping people personally...I think Jesus would prefer that don't you? I know I do.

"You can just sit there being your usual resentful self ... while we get on with it."

Oh my...you don't have any idea who I am...and I don't think either you or "Mr." Obama care to find out what I, and others like me, are saying...too busy being right about the one way that has failed terribly for several generations.

"The trillions and trillions spent on the "war on poverty" has not lifted Americans out of poverty...just the opposite, ...."

First of all, it's not trillions. Not even over the last 40 years is it trillions.

Secondly, the inference here would seem to be that you resent spending the money because all those poor people have not been redeemed, lifted from poverty. Quite right. It's merely kept them out of the gutter ... in cruddy public housing and cruddy public schools ... but out of the gutter. Seems to be the best we can do. I hope for better.

"The trillions and trillions spent on the "war on poverty" has not lifted Americans out of poverty...just the opposite, ...."

First of all, it's not trillions. Not even over the last 40 years is it trillions.

Oh really? A few stats and expenditures not usually considered in the cost would say otherwise:

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year2005_0.html#usgs302

This handy chart allowed me to find the stats for every year...here are a representative few:

2008 Welfare 271.4 Billion
2005 Welfare 245.5 Billion
2004 Welfare 237.8 Billion
2003 Welfare 242.4 Billion
2002 Welfare 223.6 Billion
2001 Welfare 183.0 Billion
2000 Welfare 171.4 Billion
1995 Welfare 152.8 Billion
1990 Welfare 152.8 Billion
1985 Welfare 84.7 Billion
1980 Welfare 54.9 Billion
1975 Welfare 32.2 Billion
1970 Welfare 9.1 Billion
1965 Welfare 5.9 Billion

These figures don’t include medical expenditures and they don’t include state expenditures. This is strictly welfare spending by the federal government.

These figures also don’t take into consideration money that is spent on the bureaucracy that supports all of this spending. (It also doesn't include fighting poverty each year from charitable organization or the educational opportunities that the poor enjoy without being taxed for the priviledge including assistance for higher education and scholarships.)

In 2008 California spent 16.2 Billion on welfare and 34.4 Billion on health care.

The real point is that we are spending all of this money. the money should be structured so that people move off of welfare and into the middle class. There is no excuse to keep people living on welfare, totally dependent on handouts, and for generations in this country. It's a sick system!

The following is anecdotal but represents a clear illustration of the damage of the system:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Poverty

William L. Anderson, who teaches economics at Frostburg State University, wrote an opinion column explaining why he believes the war on poverty has caused more harm than good. To show his point, he compared two poor immigrant families to each other. According to Anderson...

One family lived in a very small apartment. The parents obtained entry level jobs, and were eventually able to afford a larger apartment. A few years later, they had purchased their own home, and were now middle class.

The other family started collecting welfare and food stamps, and living in Section 8 housing. Several years later, they were still dependent on those government programs, and had done nothing to improve their circumstances.

Anderson concludes "... the Great Society programs... actually made things much worse."[3]

"the inference here would seem to be that you resent spending the money because all those poor people have not been redeemed, lifted from poverty"

I not only resent it...I find it appalling. I don't think that's a bad thing. Settling for "the best we can do"...when it isn't...is more appalling from my perspective...although I can understand how complacency happens!

The only thing getting in the way of doing better is the political machine that put this monsterous program together in the first place. The incredibly appalling thing about that is they are on course to making sure that more and more of us are stuck permanently in the same kind of dependency.

People don't get into rickety boats risking their lives and sometimes the lives of their children, to come here for welfare and handouts...they come for the chance to work and grow a life for themselves. They come for personal opportunity; opportunity that our trapped "poor" no longer even realize is valuable.