One only has to go to Redstate to see who won

[Demo_Chris]

29. I don't know what we can do to fight global warming, but....

I suspect taxes are not the answer. My thinking is this: in order for taxes to be an effective curb on greenhouse gas those taxes would have to be so high that people stopped prodicing those gases. This would be a disaster. A literal disaster. I don't know the solution, but I think it is going to involve some serious effort and compromise by everyone. For example, we may NEED to go with nuclear as one of the replacement energy sources.

Back to this deal...

Obama claims that his revenue increases will pull in something like 600 billion over ten years. These were, of course, very small tax increases -- but according to his math they are worth about 60 bil a year.

Our projected DEFICIT this year is 1.3 TRILLION. The projected deficit for next year is 900 bilion. Which means that this tax hike will lower that to about 840 billion -- assuming the revenue is not devoured by additional spending. The amount could have been greater, but they didn't increase taxes on all of the wealthy -- just the hyper wealthy, and that very little. Either way, these tiny little tax hikes do very little and do not address our spending problem.

Next year we will spend about 680 Billion on Defense and overseas operations, or ten times more than this tax cut brings in.

The only way to tackle this problem is to go at it head on. This means a massive cut to defense and ending the wars. It means heavy taxes on the wealthy, including cap gains, and taxes aimed at accumulated wealth. It means no sacred cows, including churches. It means breaking up these monopolies, and nationalizing industries as needed. It means LOWERING the social security retirement age while raising what it pays. It means national healthcare -- that alone would save hundreds of billions a year. Finally, we have got to get the American people back to work building things again, which means ending these so-called Free Trade Agreements. Our motto should be: If you want to sell it here, build it here. This will provide a tax base that can support our society.

Ultimately, it will require a change in how the American people view society, and the importance we place on it. Today, protecting our most wealthy takes precedence over everything. Not only in Washington, but in our hearts. This must change. We view obscenely obese people with pity and disdain, we want to help them get better. We should properly view obscenely wealthy people in the same way. We have people on this very forum talking about how a half a million a year is not that much money. That's like an obese man claiming a large pizza is only a snack.

One in five American kids tonight went to bed with no food. Something like one in ten has no home -- they are living with friends or in their parents car. And here we are talking about how a half a million, or a quarter million, isn't that much. If a Walmart worker managed to save $50 dollars a month, no exceptions, it would take him...

416 YEARS

to save the $250,000 that these guys say isn't much money. To hear them tell it, that's just barely getting by. It's insane. We have got to change this. We have a hundred million people living in poverty. A hundred million people who would have to save that half a millenium just to bank what these guys call "not much."

We have got to change.