Quote:Original post by tstrimp
Quote:Original post by LessBread
I disagree that you can't tax your way out of a deficit. The idea is complete nonsense really. The US paid for WWII and the Cold War with high taxes, "obscene taxes on the wealthy" actually.
I can use the same argument. The country didn't implode in the 1910's when the top marginal tax rate was 7%.
No you can't make the same argument, at least not without demonstrating a large degree of ignorance of US history. We are living in a world remade by WWII, not the Spanish-American war. And at any rate, your claim was that we couldn't tax our way out of a deficit. Pointing to 1910 and 7% tax rate does not change the fact that "The US paid for WWII and the Cold War with high taxes, "obscene taxes on the wealthy" actually."
Here's another graph for you.
Quote:Original post by tstrimp
... and they sure as hell didn't have nearly half the working population paying no income tax at all.
How do you know that? What about all those single income households that were so common back in the 1950's and 1960's?
I always finding amusing when conservatives complain that some people don't pay income tax. It seems to me that conservatives should be proud of their handiwork and celebrating what they've accomplished instead of falsely complaining about how the poor get a free ride. I say falsely complaining because the complaint overlooks the fact that poor people pay state taxes and sales tax as well as other fees and so on. The complaint is leveled more for the purpose of stoking class resentments than anything else. It's meant to divide middle income people from lower income people. It's the same with conservative complaints about the deficit. The latest tax compromise demonstrates beyond a doubt that they don't care about the deficit at all. They care more about maintaining a low tax burden on billionaires. The deficit talk is euphemistic complaint about social spending. One that also serves to stoke class resentments.
Quote:Original post by tstrimp
It was also a different time. WW2 was a real war against a legitimate enemy and it was a war that the US people supported. The cost of WW2 (in lives and dollars) dwarfed our little tryst in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Are you saying that when it comes to fake wars only the poor should pay? I mean, really, the implications of your remark are disgusting. Bush lied the nation into invading Iraq and then cut taxes on his benefactors and everybody but the rich should be stuck with footing the bill?
"I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes." - the Laughing Man
