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This cracked me up, but I think it's a bit disingenuous.
First off, the Republican Party of today is unrecognizable from the Republican Party of four decades ago.
Unfortunately, the GOP abandoned all truly conservative principles back then in favor of nanny-state Big Brother moral watchdog neoconservativism.
Besides, whatever truth there may be in your statement here, it doesn't mean in any way that Democrats are preferable. They are deserving of just as much scorn and ridicule as the Republicans, though often for different reasons.
the GOP was against social security
the GOP was against medicare and medicaid
the GOP is against raising the minimum wage with inflation
the GOP is now against doing anything about global warming
I could go on and on.
Basically if it helps people or if its good for people the GOP has been against it.
Are you claiming that this chart is inclusive of sales tax and that its creator(s) were somehow able to determine sales tax expenditures by individual citizens and correlate those taxes to the economic strata of those individual citizens?
Yes.
Quote:
Because, I think that didn't happen.
You would be wrong.
From the study:
Quote:
Federal taxes are more progressive than state and local taxes, largely due to their heavy reliance on progressive individual income and corporate income taxes. State and local effective tax rates show mixed progressivity, rising over the first four quintiles but falling between the fourth and fifth quintiles. Heavy reliance on sales and property taxes—neither of which are based on household income—largely explains the relatively flat overall distribution of state and local effective tax rates.
I believe highly in personal accountability. I love people and would help a hurting person, but I am tired of so much being put on a buffet line for all of the lazy, uneducated (by choice) and irresponsible people. I understand disabled people, elderly and people in areas with a non-existent economy receiving help, but there is way too much handing-out to sloths that think not working, not getting training and buying a big-screen HDTV instead of being smart with their money is the American way. The people shouldn't be forced to work hard and contribute to the funding of taking care of these lazy people.
Sure I am. The median German income is 41,412 Euro. Nearly 90% of Germans are in the public insurance system. A significant percentage of Germans earn more than the healthcare tax cutoff and are therefore paying a lower healthcare tax rate than their lesser-earning fellow German citizens. That's regressive.
That's not Germany's median income. According to the OECD, Germany has a median income of less than 30,000 Euros (according to the European Central Bank survey, Germany has an average income of 28,000 Euros--about a thousand Euros less than the OECD has it--and a median income of 22,000 Euros--both gross income numbers). It has a mean median household wealth at 51,400 Euros according to the European Central Bank's survey released earlier this year. The same survey found the mean gross household income at 43,500 Euros. There's no way that Germany has a median income of over 40,000 Euros.
I actually agree with Proud2beaMom's philosophy, if you are bleeding to death or seriously ill you don't have the luxury to ask for a price quote to fix you and wait until later they give you a bill with hidden prices and added billings and say "pay it". Also it is one thing to have a demand and supply issue for instance 5 livers needed but only 4 availible and another to have treatment or a cure readily availible and only give it if you are rich enough. That basically says that your moral compass believes that rich people are better than other people just because they are rich.
However the democrats ruin or make worse just about everything they touch. Just about all their laws have unintended consequences (or intended) which often they use the ploy of helping people to actually tax people or build their power in politics. A few years ago the democrats thought they would help people by issuing more regulations on credit cards but all it really did is make people pay twice the interest rates on their credit card.
A few times on this forum I have read partisan liberals say "if you are middle class how could you support a republican?" Seems the truth is coming out that if you are middle class how can you support ANY of them including the democrats.
I feel that the biggest difference, what it all boils down to is this:
Those of us for the ACA (and particularly those that would have liked a one payer system) see access to health care as a right NOT a privilege.
Those opposed see it as a privilege and not a right.
I see it as a right because, ultimately access to it is a matter of life and death, making it a necessity. Being treated for ailments makes a difference in suffering for not suffering on levels that would be considered inhumane.
It is the ONLY life necessity that carries a price tag most luxury items do. In most cases, procedures, surgeries are priced higher than homes.
Indeed, if you don't have a car or a boat or a plane or the latest TV or gadget , you won't die. Therefore those items don't qualify as a right.. you have to earn the privilege of owning those items.
However, just because you aren't earning a high 6 figure or above salary shouldn't mean that you then suffer and die due to lack of access to healthcare.
I know I care that everyone, regardless of how much money they earn, has access. I don't feel that I'm more deserving of that than any other person, whether they make less or more than me.
And, I feel that access shouldn't mean that people loose everything they have worked for.
I think if we could all agree that healthcare is a right and not a privilege there would still be some disagreement about the ACA, but I think we would be closer together on it than we are. Heck , our healthcare system may not have gotten so bad in the first place.
This is exactly right. Notice all the naysayers offer no alternatives to improve ACA to single payer for example, they just want to get back to the old barbaric system of "it's a privilege" no matter how obsolete that thinking is in a modern civilized word. It's nice to see barbarism dying every day as ACA progresses. I completely agree ACA isn't perfect but is a start and can be tremendously improved, but only people who see healthcare as a right will fight to improve it; the people who see healthcare as a privilege will fight to end it rather than improve it. It is greatly satisfying to see people work to improve upon ACA like the good people in Vermont trying to implement single payer or various states doing a great job with online insurance exchanges and to see the naysayers for what they are, a barbaric minority that will start fading away as time passes.
You can argue all you want. I'm not the only one saying Germany's taxes, which include the healthcare tax assessed on income up to only a certain amount, are highly regressive.
Do we really need to start dragging out the numerous old threads in which the myth of liberal generosity died a slow painful death at the alter of truth and verifiable fact?
As for billionaire buddies of the Democrats, will Bill Gates toss and turn at night wondering how he'll pay his bills after giving away 28 billion?
No.
He'll still be a billionaire.
Ditto Buffet.
As I type this, I'm seated at my kitchen table looking at the credit card and $5 cash that I'll slip into my pocket before I go to work today.
I carry those things on me because I'm a ****ing adult and, as such, am responsible for my own financial affairs.
Other than being your drunk brother's full-time mooch, what possible excuse could you have for not carrying cash when you go out in public?
I am no mooch. My brother and I were at a wedding and during the wedding my brother borrowed all the money I had. I will never forget my brother handing the bartender my $20 bill so he could get fast bar service all night.
Basically if it helps people or if its good for people the GOP has been against it.
How typical of a liberal to feel that massive government programs "help people".
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