[lit-ideas] Re: Paying taxes for months on end
- From: "Stan Spiegel" <writeforu2@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 19:58:07 -0400
> Mike again:
>
> "Existence ain't free, there are dues, Junior, and the more you benefit
> from human society, the steeper your dues."
Phil's comment:
> I am not sure who is denying this. It seems to me the question was how
> the dues are meted out. It seems to me that if I have dues to pay, that
> I ought to be the one most responsible for paying them out. Getting
> government to do it for me strikes me as, in some way, shirking my
> responsibilities.
SS:
I don't think you understand quite what Mike was saying. It may have to do
with the fact that you're Canadian, not American. What we're going through
under George W. Bush is an exact reverse of what Mike said: those who
benefit the most in America today have the lowest dues to pay.
The giant tax cuts that have gone to the very very very very rich in America
are being paid for by the very very very poorest among us. The very poorest
have been recruited to go to Iraq -- and they aren't even being given the
necessary tools to fight with -- and their health benefits are being cut to
boot. The very poorest in America who get some help from Medicaid have had
Medicaid virtually eliminated in some states, if not severely cut back. The
very very poorest are paying for our giant taxcut to the top !% of
income-earners, the war in Iraq, the elimination of the estate taxes on the
very very very richest who die.
If you have "dues to pay," you're not able to provide the health care that
the very poorest need, the disability income that support them, the school
lunches for their children, the housing for the indigent elderly. That's
where we all contribute -- and the federal and state governments provide it,
hopefully equitably. If a devastating storm obliterates towns in South
Florida or Northern British Columbia, you don't have the wherewithal to pick
up whole regions and get them on their feet again. That's where your taxes
come in. That's where the Federal government comes in.
That's not happening under George W. Bush.
Phil says:
It seems to me that if I have dues to pay, that
> I ought to be the one most responsible for paying them out. Getting
> government to do it for me strikes me as, in some way, shirking my
> responsibilities.
SS says:
You along with millions of others provide what the government does. The
government is there to help when individuals can't provide it themselves.
Their pooled resources available through the government provide it. You are
the government, so to speak, when you have a Federal leader that gives a
shit about the citizens in his country.
Bush doesn't give a shit. He doesn't even care about business -- only big
business. And in my lifetime I don't remember a single President -- not even
Richard Nixon -- who systematically sabotaged the public interest so
thoroughly. I'm embarrassed to have him representing America.
Stan Spiegel
embarrassed by Bush in
Portland, Maine
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