"of course I knew you were being facetious. I wonder if this war is going to plan as far as the WH is concerned. "
Probably. Too soon to tell. Today's moderately bad news (for the American side) is just one day, and the news a few days ago was very "awe-inspiring" for the American side.
I have maintained my opposition on the grounds of my basic principles, that the U.S. is not the world's cop, that such dreams of empire often backfire, and that it is wrong and unconstitutional to tax me so heavily to pay for crack addicts, welfare moms, lesbian awareness programs, and for the military protection of Germany, Poland, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and dozens of other countries.
Marginal income tax rates on skilled people in America approach 45% (Federal rate plus effective state rate). Add to this the very significan "socialist security tax" (15% on ever-increasing base), property taxes to pay for local programs (duh...what's the 45% for, then?), energy taxes, highway taxes, utility taxes, sales taxes, user fees, special assessments, and the overall individual tax rate is easily approaching 55-70% of income. This means, of course, that we citizens are working for the first 6-7 months of the year for Big Brother, so he can disperse it out to welfare bums, corporate welfare bailouts, subsidies, a large and bloated military roaming the world looking for places to use its toys, and, of course, to payoffs and bribes to foreign potentates.
And this isn't even counting the double and triple taxation that corporations not exempted from taxes face. Halliburton, Cheney's company, managed to get the government to exempt it from most taxes. Meanwhile, if Joe Sixpack builds a company he faces 50-60% taxes on his profits (income tax plus the same misc. property, utility, payroll taxes). If he takes the remaining profits out as dividends, he gets whacked with the tax rate I described above. Net net, easily 60-80% of the profits of a company end up going to Big Brother.
Our tax rates are, overall, grossly higher than what the Roman Empire exacted from its citizens, and grossly higher than what medieval lords exacted from their serfs.
All to build a massive cradle-to-grave welfare state, a world power which can bomb distant cities to rubble even when no direct threat to America has been established, and a world power which topples semi-democratic regimes in places like Iran and installs corrupt dictators (e.g., CIA removal of Mossadegh so that Pahlavi could take over, and grant oil contracts to U.S. and British firms).
We bribe the Zionist Entity with $5 billion a year so they can kill more Palestinian farmers and seize their land. Without this handout, its economy would sink. We also bribe Pharoah with $4.5 billion as "his payback." And the Turks wanted us to give them $30 billion for our defense of _them_ (I say this because Turkey is one of the neighboring states supposedly quaking in fear that Iraq would attack _them_. Instead of dealing with Iraq themselves, or at least paying _us_ money, they are shaking us down for $30 billion. That's a _lot_ of money, much of it of course destined to end up in private bank accounts.
America has become Corruption on Earth. I hope its hard drive gets reformatted.
--Tim May |
