Beware of the Ides of April also. Today is traditionally Income Tax Day. Moan, groan.
This year taxpayers (and the winos) get a break. Taxes do not have to be filed until April 18 by 5 pm locally.
Today is also my brother’s birthday. He is rapidly becoming a geezer. Happy Birthday Raymie.
Is spring really here or is Mother Nature giving us a false sense of security?
cargo – I did not think that you were that naive that letting the country (and world) go into a depression is the prudent thing to do. Where is the union in Goldman Sachs, AIG, and Bank of America – sure there were union workers bailed out, and executives, and car companies – the shock of GM and Chrysler going out of business would have been a depression blow to the economy. What about the reduced revenues? http://www.heritage.org/budgetchartbook/current-tax-receipts – What about Medicare Part D – enacted under bush, but being paid for now? Bush, with a roaring economy still managed to increase the deficit and let the housing bubble continue until it popped.
Where is all the Waste, Fraud, and Abuse money that the TP’ers were talking about last November?
Neither side is proposing a solution that is workable or realistic – spending needs to be reduced, the tax code needs to be simplified and revamped, and priorities needs to be evaluated – something neither side has decided to do.
Where is the union in Goldman Sachs, AIG, and Bank of America? Remember what I said about the politically connected?
Personally, I think, everybody needs to pay taxes. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/04/20/if_washington_is_so_great_lets_all_pay_for_it_109607.html
Flat tax. No deductions. On everybody above what we decide is the “poverty level.” A LOW flat tax. 18% sounds about right to me. Reform medicare and medicaid. Reform all of these subsidies or get rid of them.
But, this won’t happen because the people that are responsible for fixing it won’t give up that power.
@Cargo
And what would we be paying that on? wage earnings? dividends? capital gains?
On a nicer note:
Rankin County, Mississippi demonstrates the meaning of “Semper Fi.”
http://unitedconservatives.blogspot.com/2011/04/rankin-county-mississppi-shows-meaning.html
Someone even got a butt-whuppin’! And nobody saw nothin’!
Yes.
Then I would be totally opposed to that. Why should the average Joe own equities? What would happened to people when they sold their houses? I think that would encourage people to keep their money in cash buried in the back yard.
Senator Ensign to resign on Friday. Resignation keeps him and those closely connected to his scandal from being questioned during a senate ethics investigation.
53-46 now?
Will a special election be held? January 2013 seems like a long wait.
Censored and Lafayette — Very much appreciate your thoughtful responses on NS. It does seem to me that Loudoun has to address possible changes in the way we do business in this regard, with a key factor being a lessening of a very discomforting gulf between the citizens and the official enforcement mechanism. There are times when it seems like we are dealing with strangers. This too often leaves citizens in despair of making any effort at all to seek official remedies for problems. The problems fester; and one very unfortunate result is the transference of the anger toward any particular ethnicity which may be involved in a quality of life problem. I think you may understand my drift in that.
We personally have been rather fortunate in that, as the principal Neighborhood Watch in our very diverse covenanted community, we have been working with a pro-active, on-site HOA staff and a pro-active board of directors which is itself diverse. Together we have developed a remedial program which focuses not on ethnicity but strictly on the complaints pers se regardless of ethnicity. We started out from a rather disconcerting position when we and the rest of this town were hit by a major wave of demographic changes, abetted by the fact that Sterling Park is THE place in a very wealthy county for affordable housing. I will be very candid in this. Although it still demands vigilance, it looks to me like we have made some great strides over the past five years of intense effort. We are now for the most part a community where it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell one residential unit from another in terms of who lives there unless you have an actual visual of the residents. And I can tell you that inter-ethnic conflict has taken a significant nosedive around here in terms of quality of life. Mrs. W, who is the equivalent of a master gardener, has told me that, in her considered judgement, there are now recent immigrant homes in our community which, in terms or exterior appearance and especially landscaping, rival or even outdo the homes of many native-born citizens. We have here perhaps what could be considered as a miniature version of the PWC Neighborhood Services with enhanced cross-ethnic cooperation.
The problems come when we leave our covenanted HOA “island” and go out into the surrounding community. In many of those areas decisions were made long ago to get rid of HOA’s as being an unwanted encumbranced on personal decisions with regard to property. The result has been that those areas are now stuck between their quality of life problems and an unhappiness with the overall level of responsiveness from the official zoning authorities. Ergo, since it is almost legally impossible to ressurrect HOA’s in developed out areas, it does seem to me that one solution might be to try to develop a Neighborhood Services system similar to your own — which is specifically why I posed those questions about enhanced responsiveness and efficacy.
Any other insights and comments from PWC on this would be most welcome.
This plan of mine can be tweaked. So, ok then, no capital gains taxes. Oh, wait, then the “rich” will be paid by options…no taxes. Or corporate taxes. Tax the shareholders.
Heck, let’s think outside the box. Get all those “experts” in DC to dedicate some time to reforming the tax code.
If the income is taxed at a low rate, everybody can afford it.
My favorite is to get rid of income tax altogether and use a national sales tax.
Of course, any and all of my ideas are pipe dreams. Congress likes it this way becaus3 they have tremendous power to lord it over the peons, control business, and demand bribes.
I forgot to add on the Nicer Note comment.
It was a Westboro Cult butt whuppin’ that nobody saw….. 😈
@cargosquid
Don’t you just love it when a plan is executed in precise military fashion? That is a great posting by you!
german swan falls in love with blue tractor
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504784_162-20056188-10391705.html?tag=cbsnewsTwoColLowerPromoArea;morenews