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The first clause of Article I, Section 8, reads, "The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence (sic) and general Welfare of the United States.
In United States v. Butler, 56 S. Ct. 312, 297 U.S. 1, 80 L. Ed. 477 (1936), the U.S. Supreme Court adopted an interpretation of the General Welfare Clause that gives Congress broad powers to spend federal money. It also established that determination of the general welfare would be left to the discretion of Congress.
If you don't like it, blame the SCOTUS from 1936.
In that day welfare meant well being, not a check. I blame the SCOTUS for a lot.
In that day welfare meant well being, not a check. I blame the SCOTUS for a lot.
but you do see where the constitution gives congress the authority to provide for the general welfare and also give congress the authority to make the call of what general welfare means, Right? so, what general welfare is whatever congress says it is TODAY.
Simply ending the Bush tax give aways and restoring the sane and reasonable levels of taxation we had under Clinton, when we had a massive economic boom, would bring in an additional $700 billion per year and halve the deficit over night. Anyone who refuses to look at the tax side of the equation isn't serious about balancing the budget especially when they refuse to cut the military which eats up 50% of the discretionary budget. It is absurd and wasteful for the US to be spending 43% of the world's total military budget; no reasonable defense needs for our country requiring wasting that much money. Since 2000 the military budget has gone up 87% and virtually all of it is worthless pork which politicians use to pay back campaign contributors instead of doing anything useful for the defense of the country. Military spending needs to get slashed by at least 50% and even then we'd so out spend any other country no one would ever cross us.
Sorry, but your premise is wrong. You could cut social programs across the board without exterminating certain ones. Your premise implies that social programs can only be exterminated and not reduced and as such is flat on its face wrong.
Can a heroin addict "cut back" on his heroin?
Or does he need to be cured of his addictive disease?
Curing the disease means no more heroin.
Welfare, food stamps and other such programs were designed to help hard-working people who were suffering a temporary setback (namely the Great Depression).
But now those programs are abused by generation after generation of degenerate low-lives who are addicted to shiftlessness and allergic to a hard day's work.
Unless they are cured of their disease they can not heal...and it will cost those of us who wake up too early in the morning to go to work to EARN the money to pay them more and more until we ALL starve.
but you do see where the constitution gives congress the authority to provide for the general welfare and also give congress the authority to make the call of what general welfare means, Right? so, what general welfare is whatever congress says it is TODAY.
Yes, today you are correct. Hence why congress will always do what it can to give the most to the people who will elect them or keep them in some form of power.
How about we just close some loopholes so that people whose primary earnings come from capital gains pay their fair share as well?
Taxing the rich more will only make them move more of their money out of this country. That is not to say I am not for the bush tax cuts expiring, I am. They should not have been enacted in the first place but that is an argument for another thread.
The long term capital gains tax rate is only 15%. Come on! High capital gains earners pay less of a percentage then someone making 50K a year!
This is one loophole that needs to be closed.
The threat of the the rich moving out of tghe country has no credibility, did they move out of the country in the 1970's, 80's with the higher marginal andcaptial gains rate?
Someone cashing in $10M of stock pays 15% but taxpayers making $50K are paying 30%, that is patently unfair.
It would NOT have helped, in fact the higher the rate, the longer people hold their investments, and the longer they hold them, the LESS taxes they pay..
This goes to show how little Democrats know because you could tax Buffet at 100% and he still would pay hardly ANYTHING.. You guys keep repeating quotes from Buffet without understanding what Buffet meant. Maybe you lack the ability to understand that Buffet is donating billions a year in order to AVOID taxes.
Maybe you lack a definition of fairness and equity.
Do you think Warren Buiffett has an agenda and has no concept of fairness? He went so far as to gather up wealthy to donate $1M to charities, they understand that the separation is growing and is far from a healthy situation.
The threat of the the rich moving out of tghe country has no credibility, did they move out of the country in the 1970's, 80's with the higher marginal andcaptial gains rate?
Someone cashing in $10M of stock pays 15% but taxpayers making $50K are paying 30%, that is patently unfair.
you need to look again because they have much of their money more and more invested out of the country. Funny but even Government motors is doing it also.So you thnik that the rich do not have options;think again.Look at investment around the world and where factories are being bulit and who invests in them. Its actaully been going on since the 70's.I don't see anyone making 50K paying 15% of income.By the time he adjust on just the standard decutions he pays maybe 10% on gross and lower if has itemized deductions enough.
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