“If they’re going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk of what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate for the future.” Rick Santorum, March 22, 2012
That statement sounds like Santorum is just out for himself instead of the country.
The Big Hoax,
By Thomas Sowell, March 14, 2012 — There have been many frauds of historic proportions — for example,
the financial pyramid scheme for which Charles Ponzi was sent to prison in the 1920s,
and for which Franklin D. Roosevelt was praised in the 1930s, when he called it Social
Security. In our own times, Bernie Madoff’s hoax has made headlines.But the biggest hoax of the past two generations is still going strong — namely, the
hoax that statistical differences in outcomes for different groups are due to the way
other people treat those groups.The latest example of this hoax is the joint crusade of the Department of Education
and the Department of Justice against schools that discipline black males more often
than other students. According to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, this disparity
in punishment violates the “promise” of “equity.” … more at TownHall.com
[The Tea Party] has to be the first “Totalitarian” movement
in the history of mankind that, if it gets everything it wants…
will leave you the hell alone. ~ Ed Driscoll
The middle between freedom and slavery is still slavery.
I’ve tried poor and I tried rich and I like rich better. It doesn’t mean that I am a bad guy. I didn’t go in to business to create a public policy success for either party, Republican or Democrat. I went in business to create jobs and opportunity, create opportunity, create value for myself and my investors. And that’s what the president should be praising, not demagoguing us simply because Warren Buffet says he pays more than his secretary. He should pay the secretary more and she will pay more.
Robert Johnson, BET Founder. October 2, 2011
” It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.” – Warren Buffett
As has been Buffett’s refrain for years, he wants higher taxes. But during the years of calling for higher taxes, Buffett has continually refused to put his money where is mouth is and pay more himself. In fact, Buffett uses shelters and taxes to avoid paying more taxes himself. He and Bill Gates have set up charitable foundations to avoid paying taxes on their fortunes.
Hypocrite? Of course. If you truly think you should be paying more, do not shelter tens of billions of dollars from taxes by using “loopholes” (a term used represent something legal, voted on by Congress to manipulate the uninformed). Lead by example.
How about this proposal: a wealth tax on all billionaires who voted for President Obama at 30% of their net worth. Also applied to any tax loopholes used to shelter their billions.
Fairness is equality, not equality in the animal farm sense where some are more equal than others.
(see
http://rights.com/2010/11/21/warren-buffett-the-hypocrite-of-omaha-says-taxes-are-too-low/
http://rights.com/2007/10/30/buffett-says-taxes-are-too-low-but-doesnt-pay-more-himself/
http://rights.com/2010/09/24/hypocrite-of-omaha-buffett-says-taxpayers-need-to-get-over-anger/
)
When you relay on force instead of freedom, the goal becomes to polarize. Many politicians in Washington have that as their goal – less freedom, more polarization between groups.
“Californians already labor under sales-tax rates usually reserved for states without income taxes (at8.25% [9.25% in L.A. County], the nation’s highest) and sharply progressive income-tax rates usually reserved for states without sales taxes (the state’s top rate is 10.55%, and it doesn’t allow you to deduct your federal taxes, as some states with income taxes do).”
…
“California’s four most influential Democrats are [Jerry] Brown, U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who are 73, 77, 70 and 71, respectively: ‘No other state’s political ruling class is as gray, a terrific irony for youth-worshipping California.’ [State senate leader Bob] Dutton and other relatively anonymous Republican legislators can, by being constructively obdurate (“no”), shake the foundations of reactionary liberalism — the regulatory state that seemed so right in the septuagenarians’ formative years, a half-century ago.”
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): “With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery.” May 12, 2011
Sub-prime lending is making a come-back in some areas due, as before, to government pressure to lend to people unqualified to borrow.
Why don’t some of these people at the non-profits and the government put their OWN MONEY at risk here. If it makes sense to lend money in these areas, they should be happy to do so – they think there is a good reason to loan there and a good rate of return, GO AHEAD.
The question is not skin color, the question is ability to service the loan. If we want a repeat of the sub-prime crisis, repeat the process and force people to loan when it is not safe to do so.
The choice will be: lend less everywhere or lend to people who won’t be able to pay back the loan.