-=> Aaron Goldblatt wrote to Utopian Galt <=-
UG> I know the progressives want single payer, but unless we pay down our
UG> budget deficit a bit, I do not feel comfortable with the start up
UG> costs.
AG> Reforming our tax system such that all incomes pay something
AG> approximating a fair share, and reforming defense spending, would go a
AG> long way toward paying for the creation of a national health system and
AG> a stable Social Security system.
AG> Non-exhaustive example: Defense spending is known to be rife with
AG> waste, but efforts to control it and figure out what money is actually
AG> being spent on are stymied at every turn (and this week's firing of the
AG> Inspector General at DOD will not help). Defense spending is the number
AG> general line item in the budget after Social Security (see below), yet
AG> nobody wants to make any serious effort to touch it. Social Security
AG> used to be the third rail of politics; now it seems to be guns.
AG> Non-exhaustive example: Social security could be considerably shored up
AG> by lifting the maximum income limit on the tax (currently approximately
AG> $176,000).
AG> Non-exhaustive example: Taxing capital gains at a higher rate than we
AG> do presently, especially for gains values over $1 million. Currently,
AG> the individual rate sits at 20%, down from a maximum of 35% in 1979,
AG> and the corporate rate sits at 21%, down from a maximum of 35%
AG> beginning in 1993. Yet it's well known that large corporations pay
AG> little to nothing, sometimes even getting millions to hundreds of
AG> millions in refunds. In a fair system, that would not happen.
AG> Instead, politicians focus on penny-anty nonsense like cutting NASA and
AG> the USPS (both respectively less than 0.06% of the total spend in
AG> 2024). The USPS in particular would be self-supporting if not for that
AG> silly retirement pre-funding accounting gimmick that no other business
AG> in the world is required to use. (And there is a significant argument
AG> to be made that not everything must be for-profit.)
AG> On the other hand, Republicans seem to have a significant aversion to
AG> doing anything at all that will help average people and make their
AG> lives easier. Non-exhaustive examples: Proposals to repeal the ACA
AG> without any kind of plan to replace it, despite now having had 14 years
AG> to come up with something; litigation and plans in legislation to
AG> destroy the SAVE plan for student loan borrowers; continual attempts to
AG> tighten eligibility for Medicaid, SSDI, SNAP and school lunches.
Sounds like you should move your socialist commie-wannabe ass to
Venezuela. I hear it's nice there this time of year.
... Your proctologist called - he found your head.
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