Republicans vote to raise taxes

[depittydawg]

My cuts in order:
1. All foreign aid. Flat out we are broke and need to keep our money at home
2. Get out of Eraq and Afganastan
3. Eliminate many gov't agencies. Start with Dept of Ed. State and locals do a better job and federal beurocrats just screw things up. Dept of Agriculture can go too. stop paying farmers to let their land sit idle. Thats just stupid. Get rid of this notion that only certain people can grow peanuts on certain land. I bet the price of peanuts would go down. Let the free market prevail.
4. Cut federal employees. There are way too many. This can be done in a nice way by simply not replacing anyone when a person leaves for any reason. If one dept must have another employee it must come from another dept.
5. all welfare, section 8 must be pay for play. You must do something for the benefit.
This is just a start. I could go on and on.

Here's a scary thought for you. I agree, to a certain degree, with just about everything on your list.

[dnf777]

My cuts in order:
1. All foreign aid. Flat out we are broke and need to keep our money at home
2. Get out of Eraq and Afganastan
3. Eliminate many gov't agencies. Start with Dept of Ed. State and locals do a better job and federal beurocrats just screw things up. Dept of Agriculture can go too. stop paying farmers to let their land sit idle. Thats just stupid. Get rid of this notion that only certain people can grow peanuts on certain land. I bet the price of peanuts would go down. Let the free market prevail.
4. Cut federal employees. There are way too many. This can be done in a nice way by simply not replacing anyone when a person leaves for any reason. If one dept must have another employee it must come from another dept.
5. all welfare, section 8 must be pay for play. You must do something for the benefit.
This is just a start. I could go on and on.

I would not eliminate the Dept. of Ed. It is too important to not have a national-level involvement. I've been part of the education systems in 5 different states as a student and parent. While some would do better if left alone, several need some help! I would be for eliminating the unfunded mandates from the Bush era, and a re-vamping of NCLB. The goals are laudable, but the logistics were flawed.

[mjh345]

My cuts in order:
1. All foreign aid. Flat out we are broke and need to keep our money at home
2. Get out of Eraq and Afganastan
3. Eliminate many gov't agencies. Start with Dept of Ed. State and locals do a better job and federal beurocrats just screw things up. Dept of Agriculture can go too. stop paying farmers to let their land sit idle. Thats just stupid. Get rid of this notion that only certain people can grow peanuts on certain land. I bet the price of peanuts would go down. Let the free market prevail.
4. Cut federal employees. There are way too many. This can be done in a nice way by simply not replacing anyone when a person leaves for any reason. If one dept must have another employee it must come from another dept.
5. all welfare, section 8 must be pay for play. You must do something for the benefit.
This is just a start. I could go on and on.

I think your list is a good start.
Your item #5 I particularily agree with. However the welfare mentality of getting something for nothing applies to all regardless of social or economic status. For instance, corporate welfare and bailouts. Additionally the ill concieved wars started by Bush and his wealthy supporters need to be paid for.
This means the "temporary" Bush tax cuts set to expire this month need to be allowed to expire. They should have never been implemented in the first place in a war time as per your "pay for play" analogy.

I certainly don't want a higher tax bill, but it is only fair that it be paid by my generation, who incurred the debt rather than be shuffled off to a future generation. We all need to buck up and get this deficit under control; the interest on it is scary

[M&K's Retrievers]

Personally, I have no problem with ending the employment benefits. I can see the extension to 12 months. But this now pushing 2 years. Thats nuts.

Here's a scary thought for you. I agree, to a certain degree, with just about everything on your list.

Where is DS and what have you done with him?

[cotts135]

My cuts in order:
1. All foreign aid. Flat out we are broke and need to keep our money at home
2. Get out of Eraq and Afganastan
3. Eliminate many gov't agencies. Start with Dept of Ed. State and locals do a better job and federal beurocrats just screw things up. Dept of Agriculture can go too. stop paying farmers to let their land sit idle. Thats just stupid. Get rid of this notion that only certain people can grow peanuts on certain land. I bet the price of peanuts would go down. Let the free market prevail.
4. Cut federal employees. There are way too many. This can be done in a nice way by simply not replacing anyone when a person leaves for any reason. If one dept must have another employee it must come from another dept.
5. all welfare, section 8 must be pay for play. You must do something for the benefit.
This is just a start. I could go on and on.

I agree mostly with your ideas. Number 5 is a particularly good one though. What I would propose would be if you collect welfare or even unemployment benefits (after a certain time frame) then you would have to work on building up this country by working on infrastructure projects. It would be a start

[Marvin S]

My cuts in order:
1. All foreign aid. Flat out we are broke and need to keep our money at home
2. Get out of Eraq and Afganastan
3. Eliminate many gov't agencies. Start with Dept of Ed. State and locals do a better job and federal beurocrats just screw things up. Dept of Agriculture can go too. stop paying farmers to let their land sit idle. Thats just stupid. Get rid of this notion that only certain people can grow peanuts on certain land. I bet the price of peanuts would go down. Let the free market prevail.
4. Cut federal employees. There are way too many. This can be done in a nice way by simply not replacing anyone when a person leaves for any reason. If one dept must have another employee it must come from another dept.
5. all welfare, section 8 must be pay for play. You must do something for the benefit.
This is just a start. I could go on and on.

Didn't you at one time post that you were not a citizen of the US?

1. Some foreign aid serves a purpose. The 4 Bil $ that we send to Israel contains some really bad people at a cost far less than we would be able to do that.

2. My wife said that recently & while I do not agree with the game plan, I also do not want to abandon those young women to a life of servitude when I believe they can contribute to making their countries a better place to live.

3. Agree to a point - I believe Richard Halstead was a plant scientist, & that part of the DofA I would continue. The subsidies would go along with the associated jobs. I have been involved in Education as a student, (coming from a fairly dysfunctional background it was standardized testing that provided me opportunities) a parent in large school systems & a School Board member. The deeper my involvement the more contempt I developed for a system that is broken as there is no escape from a bad system. The educators want to keep it that way, at the local, state & federal level. & it is people like DNF that are enablers of a bad system.

4. This is funny, there is a big article in the Seattle Times today about the plight of the underappreciated Federal employee whom the paper mislabels as workers. The poor thing is lamenting that she has a MA in Public Administration & is paid a little over 100K per year , which she believes insufficient. I wouldn't wait for attrition, I would do like the aerospace industry did in the early 70's, let them find other employment. It's not hard, but sometimes it requires some ingenuity.

5. Many years ago we lost a grievance at the mine where I was employed. The General Manager stated " the ruination of this country will come from paying people who do not do the work". I think welfare is in this category.

But to this I will add -

6. No more immigration until employment is below 4%. While people negotiate Unemployment benefits as part of their work package, the extension by the Feds is welfare & should have a work stipulation, regardless of that persons preference. Some people have become unemployable because they have too many stipulations in their implied contract before they perform .

7. No more retirement packages for elected officials - a 5 year requirement after they are voted from office before they can have any contact with the government or it's officials.

8. Rethink the 30 years to retirement thing - many people are leaving their positions at the peak of their productivity & the taxpayer is not getting the return they paid for.

JMO

[Roger Perry]

My cuts in order:
1. All foreign aid. Flat out we are broke and need to keep our money at home
2. Get out of Eraq and Afganastan
3. Eliminate many gov't agencies. Start with Dept of Ed. State and locals do a better job and federal beurocrats just screw things up. Dept of Agriculture can go too. stop paying farmers to let their land sit idle. Thats just stupid. Get rid of this notion that only certain people can grow peanuts on certain land. I bet the price of peanuts would go down. Let the free market prevail.
4. Cut federal employees. There are way too many. This can be done in a nice way by simply not replacing anyone when a person leaves for any reason. If one dept must have another employee it must come from another dept.
5. all welfare, section 8 must be pay for play. You must do something for the benefit.
This is just a start. I could go on and on.

As far as your cuts go
1. We need our allies and we do not need for them to look to other unfriendly countries for aid.
2. We should never have started the war with Iraq and should have been out of Afghanistan when Bin Laden disappeared. Now we are left fighting the Taliban which was never our intention and we f'ed up both countries so now we have to stay until they are stable again.
3. Our school children are far behind in their studies compared to China and India we may never catch up in the future.
4. 3&4 are just a drop in the bucket as far as spending goes.
5. Bush put the people and Companies out of work and on the welfare roles and now you just want them to fend for themselves.

Obama should never agree to the extending the Bush tax cuts because that will cost the Country Trillions of dollars. I also believe a 15 cent tax increase on gasoline is needed to help pay down the debt. I say this even though I drive a suburban which gets about 14 miles to the gallon. Y'all didn't have a problem when gasoline was almost $5.00 a gallon during the Bush years.

[sandyg]

As far as your cuts go
1. We need our allies and we do not need for them to look to other unfriendly countries for aid.
2. We should never have started the war with Iraq and should have been out of Afghanistan when Bin Laden disappeared. Now we are left fighting the Taliban which was never our intention and we f'ed up both countries so now we have to stay until they are stable again.
3. Our school children are far behind in their studies compared to China and India we may never catch up in the future.
4. 3&4 are just a drop in the bucket as far as spending goes.
5. Bush put the people and Companies out of work and on the welfare roles and now you just want them to fend for themselves.

Obama should never agree to the extending the Bush tax cuts because that will cost the Country Trillions of dollars. I also believe a 15 cent tax increase on gasoline is needed to help pay down the debt. I say this even though I drive a suburban which gets about 14 miles to the gallon. Y'all didn't have a problem when gasoline was almost $5.00 a gallon during the Bush years.

Are you kidding me?!?!? EVERYONE had a problem when gas was $4.00 a gallon during the Bush years.

And if YOU want to pay more taxes, pay more taxes! The IRS won't return your check if you want to send them a few extra thousand.

Libs love to talk about raising taxes but they're the first to avoid them by maximizing their deductions. Some don't pay them at all, a la Rangel and Geithner.

[Roger Perry]

Are you kidding me?!?!? EVERYONE had a problem when gas was $4.00 a gallon during the Bush years.

And if YOU want to pay more taxes, pay more taxes! The IRS won't return your check if you want to send them a few extra thousand.

Libs love to talk about raising taxes but they're the first to avoid them by maximizing their deductions. Some don't pay them at all, a la Rangel and Geithner.

Bush entered office with a balanced budget. When he left office there was a record debt. Just who do you think should pay it off????? Your kids, grandkids or great grandkids?????????????????? And yet the Republicans are crying for tax cuts Just doesn't make sense to me.

For those who have hidden cash in the Cayman Islands, stashed swag in Switzerland or bagged a bundle in the Bahamas, the day of reckoning with the Internal Revenue Service

Read more: IRS goes after taxpayers who have money hidden in foreign accounts | South Florida Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/southflor...20/story7.html

Any bets that most of the people with secret foreign bank accounts are fat cat Republicans???????????

[sandyg]

Bush entered office with a balanced budget. When he left office there was a record debt. Just who do you think should pay it off????? Your kids, grandkids or great grandkids?????????????????? And yet the Republicans are crying for tax cuts Just doesn't make sense to me.

And now that Obama is in office there is a new record!!
I think folks like you should pay off the debt. Start feeding your dog the cheapest garbage you can find, stick a brick in your toilet tank to save water, use the new mercury-filled light bulbs to save energy, ride your bike to work to save gas, and send all of the savings plus a few thousand more to the government. You know that they'll spend it wisely now because Bush is out of office.

C'mon, do your part to save the country!!!