Besides the fact that you can't tax people who don't have anything to give. Someone who is successful benefited more from the social contract than someone who isn't. You have to pay taxes to live in a society that has laws, roads, police, firefighters, public education, military etc. Someone who is successful relies on others a lot more than say a homeless person who has no need for any of that.

I agree the tax code needs some major renovations, but until we address income disparity and why the wealthy continue to get wealthier while everyone else just sort of stagnates it won't mean a thing. If you want the lower 90% to pay more taxes then they should have a bigger piece of the pie.

If all it took was hard work to make it to the top I don't think we'd be even having this discussion. Americans are the hardest working people in the world, but they are just now discovering that they've been abused and sold out for greed.

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"I used to be a conservative and I watch these debates and I'm wondering, I don't think I've changed, but it's a little troubling sometimes when people are appealing to people's fears and emotion rather than trying to get them to look over the horizon for a broader perspective and that's kind of where we are."

False!...

Someone who is successful benefited through their own motivation and perseverance using the SAME social contract that someone who did NOT have that motivation and perseverance to succeed had...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

The U.S. debt in terms we some can all understand

Fixed...

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

Leftists and very small children don't seem to be able to understand that the Government isn't there to "fix" the economy, anymore than a tick is there to fix your dog.~Oftencold

Even if you were correct, and all it took to become successful was motivation and perseverance your still ignoring how much the rich benefit from the social contract. First of all, nobody in this country became rich and successful on their own. Even Bill Gates moves his goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; he hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; he was safe in his factory and his home because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. He didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize every copy of Windows 95 and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Copyright laws protect his work all over the world.

The hard work and motivation cure is a myth. A myth that also whispers, of course, that the people who are out of work, losing their homes, or who are underemployed/underpaid are lazy. The real problem is a culture which has embraced radicalized, end justifies the means ideas about profit and unbridled greed. Greed that kills people. Greed that destroys the planet.

Our country is being governed by the money and for the money. This means, among other things, that regular people will now be accepting more and more hardship and risk in order to stay employed and fewer and fewer of us will be willing to speak up for fear of losing what little we have left. And that's why OWS is so important.

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"I used to be a conservative and I watch these debates and I'm wondering, I don't think I've changed, but it's a little troubling sometimes when people are appealing to people's fears and emotion rather than trying to get them to look over the horizon for a broader perspective and that's kind of where we are."

You seriously call yourself "RedState"???...

This is the EXACT SAME BS we recently heard from class warfare specialist and Democratic Mass. Senator-candidate Elizabeth Warren just last month...

Like you, she did NOT mention that "the roads and firefighters and police force" were paid for with taxes that he was paying BEFORE he became rich...he brought and paid for those roads and firefighters and police force as much as you or I...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

There is a line that has been crossed.... those who continue to work are now being drained of any risidual cashflow by increasing costs (brought on by inflation, but that's another thread) and additional taxation to support those who aren't working. You have obviously missed my other posts regarding paying for others what I/we cannot even afford for ourselves, but let me clarify. I don't object to paying taxes for communally used things, such as firefighters, roads and schools. I object when there are people using these same things who not only don't pay taxes, but get money BACK they didn't pay in.

You cannot make everybody 'rich', and the only way to eliminate the disparity is to make everybody poor. And 'they' are giving it their best shot to do so.

Businesses are paying rising percentages to State unemployment funds, reducing the cash a business has to pay employees with, yet unemployment payments get extended.

If this path is continued, the economy WILL collapse, and then they will have reached their goal of income equality = ZERO.

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"Try and fathom the hypocrisy of a Government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured, but not everyone must prove they are a citizen".

An analogy even Republicans can understand:

The "family" needs another source of income. An additional source. And meantime needs to quit robbing Little Johnny's college fund for dad's gambling habit.

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214 Days
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56 Minutes Days till Christmas

No, the family needs to change its spending habits, a budget rigorously enforced is an effective means of doing this. As long as they continue operate on the dynamic of spend 140% of income additional income only makes things worse.

I agree "dad" needs to stop gambling on things like Soilyndra with the household expense funds.

Let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget.
• Annual family income: $21,700
• Money the family spent: $38,200
• New debt on the credit card: $16,500
• Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
• Total budget cuts: $385

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This family needs to cut up it's credit cards, balance it's budget, make serious cuts to spending and have more family members get jobs.

They also need to fire their financial planner.

It doesn't matter what kind of jam-up budget software I have; if I don't get a second job or talk the biggest eater in my house into bringing home some groceries, guess what? We will be bankrupt.
Guess what happened to America?

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214 Days
9 Hours
56 Minutes Days till Christmas