section 8, article 1 of the constitution states...
"Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States;"
"the state of doing well especially in respect to good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity."
when this was written - we had slaves. obviously this must be adapted and modernized to apply to our world...
in a free market, free labor system - a job is arguably the ONLY way to obtain good fortune, happiness, and well-being. what if people fail to provide these needs? the government must step in or people do without.
but lets move even more forward in time - social uplift safety nets were put into place at some point to further ensure the provision of welfare to the American people...and social security and medicaid and medicare and various other programs eased the pain of falling in the cracks of this free labor system.
the government, therefore, has done their job well in providing welfare to the american people.
the true culprit of our failures is the american people. not government. we do have people who abuse the system - but that does not mean the system is a failure. it is incredibly easy to survive in this country - and so some people choose to live in extreme poverty and simply survive.
could it be better? yes. and i always have said this and will until i die. things can always be better. that is the job of our government - to always be moving us along, striving to make us better.
you will never have 100% efficiency in government, just like there can never be 0% unemployment. compared to other nations though - i think our government is providing almost TOO well for the general welfare.
now that i have set the record straight -- let me get back to the lecture at hand...
i asked where your proof was?
i highlighted a time in history when america's economy was golden - and during that time the wealthiest paid astronomical taxes.
so to put it in pure logic...
highest taxes EVER in history on the wealthiest = golden age in America with a prosperous economy.
currently, taxes nearly 1/3 of that time, yet unemployment is higher and job growth is nearly non-existent.
where is the proof that lower taxes on the rich equates to job growth? i see none. we have maintained lower taxes to cater to your arguments - i think most of america likely shares your views...at least 50%...and this nation leans to the right.
where has this gotten us?
your logic...
"Even if you were to take ALL of the income from the wealthiest 20% of the population, you still could not balance the budget with the current spending scheme."
...is broken. the top 20% own 93% of this nation's wealth.
with the debt nearly 14 times that number just from war appropriations (not counting defense spending, soldiers pensions and benefits, etc.)
we are talking a serious chunk of that debt came from war.
so the government created the debt, which is constantly accruing interest, and has the constitutional means to help the people pay for that debt.
i think we should make cuts...AND raise taxes. i just think we can keep the social uplift programs, ideally work on progressing them, and temporarily tax the wealthiest the most (while raising taxes for everyone) to curb the debt.
on July 24, 2011, 5:00 am, in reply to "