@Cycloptichorn,
Quote:I don't need any more money from the gov't or any help from anyone. I won't benefit personally from almost any of the plans that I believe would help the nation.
So, how am I - or other Dems - engaging in 'class warfare' when I argue that marginal taxes on the wealthy (everyone really) should go up? When I point out that the wealthy pay a far lower share of their income in taxes now than they have in 70 years? And that these things are greatly harming our nation in a wide variety of ways? I don't think so. It's just an attempt to invalidate the arguments of your opponents for which your traditional answers don't quite cut it.
Well, that's an interesting argument.
Let’s, for the sake argument, assume you really will not profit in any way from the largess of a federal government that bloats itself on increased taxes the way a tick bloats itself on blood.
Maybe you really believe this nonsense or maybe you're just inextricably tied to the purveyors of the ideology you've decided to embrace.
In any case, if you really don't stand to benefit from government handouts, you are not a typical Democrat voter, and you certainly are not a Democrat politician.
Power corrupts as we, unfortunately, saw with the last Republican controlled congress, and yet you believe that Democrat politicians have remained pure.
It makes no sense whatsoever, I suppose, for Democrat politicians to foster class warfare.
Why would they?
They have nothing to gain from it?
Nothing, that is, except power and all the benefits that power brings.
The Democrats' strategy for the securement and preservation of power has become to buy the votes of citizens who are not asked to contribute to the common welfare but live, to one degree or another, as wards of it.
The Democrats need money to pay for the programs they put into law to buy votes. It's finally reached a point where almost no one but the most rabid Democrat partisan believes we can keep borrowing money to fund these programs. If the credit card gets cut in half what happens to Democrat office holders?
You can bet they are not going to tell their constituents: "Sorry, but the gravy train has come to a stop. We just can't afford to fund these programs that you like and depend upon."
Hell, if they did that, they would become pseudo-Republicans and then who would vote for them?
No, if it is becoming harder and harder to get the country to accept that we can borrow our way to prosperity and social equality, where do they get the money they need to spend?
It's simple...The Rich. Most of those sons-of-bitches aren't going to vote for them so no big deal if they piss them off. They've spent the last few decades cozying up to the Mega-Rich so that the Jeffrey Immelts of the nation consider it good sense to hedge their bets and provide them with support. Obviously the number of Mega-Rich votes is meaningless so it is all about money and acting the quisling.
Immelts is clearly a brilliant individual. He knows that there are no guarantees that the country will be run by Republicans for a significant stretch of time, so the best strategy is to curry favor with Democrats.
If Republicans win, their policies will work to his favor. If Democrats win, he will have bought dispensation. Brilliant.
When the Democrats talk about making billionaires pay their fair share, the only billionaires they intend to target for a "fair" contribution are the ones who clearly oppose them. the Immelts and Buffets aren't going to be hurt. How can they manage this selectivity? Through the labyrinth that is our tax system.
It's all a sham anyway because Obama know that the real fatted calf is the group of Americans who, in bygone years, were called Upper Middle Class, people who make over $200,000 a year. There's a lot more of them than Buffet sized billionaires and most of them don't vote for Democrats and most of them don't feel the need to hedge their bets and contribute to the Democrat party. So screw them, "they have the money," so let's take it.
Never mind that the vast majority of them have not been making $200+ for but the last two to five years of their careers. Never mind that all-in, the majority of these individuals don't have net worths in excess of $2.5 million. They are rich pigs and the poor people of the nation demand they pay their fair share.
I realize I am a capitalist running dog, but it seems to be that if Democrats were, in any way, true to the ideology they try to foist on us, they would be all for tax reformation that eliminates the thousands of special interest loopholes.
Surprise, surprise...they're not. Why not? Because they benefit from them as much, if not more, than Republicans.
Appreciating the effect that referring to Palin invokes in so many members of A2K, she is absolutely right about calling out crony capitalism. Even the NY Times agrees with her, and yet what is being ignored is that the Democrats are as guilty as or more so than the Republicans.
What was the $400 million in taxpayer dollars spent on propping up a failing business like Solyndra if it wasn't crony capitalism?
It's easy, and perhaps accurate, to charge that both parties are power mad scum bags, but how are left-wingers consoled by the belief that their chosen party is "no worse" than the other?
At their most realistic and their worse, which party betrays its followers more?