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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: geode00 who wrote (144363)	10/31/2008 11:12:46 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

I'm not talking about the level of taxes, I'm talking about taxes. You said it as a counter to the assertion that lower taxes would be a good idea. Either your making a totally irrelevant point and pretending its relevant, or your asserting that fairly high taxes are indeed necessary for society. I though the latter, judging by your current post its the former. No, your arguments are simply an expression of your opinion. Anything you've expressed, to the extent that your making any clear points at all, is simply an expression of your opinion, including the claim above. But then "the sun will not go explode tomorrow, is also an expression of opinion. Its not a specific known fact, its opinion, but its something we can rely on more than we can most claims of fact. Your disdain for "expressions of opinion" is silly. If you want to state a different opinion then go ahead, state it clearly. My main point - " most of government is not necessary in order to avoid the collapse of society" is a matter of opinion, but its also obviously true. So you want a bare bones government and not an optimum government I didn't express a specific preference between the two, I just pointed out that they aren't necessarily the same thing, and that only the "bare bones government" amounts to the price we pay for society. If the optimal amount of government is greater than the bear bones level of government than the cost of this optimal government goes beyond "the price we pay for society". No, SS without the income contribution cap is self funding as far as the eye can see. Wow, raise taxes and you can pay for the program. So what. Its a meaningless point. The pain caused by large increases of taxes and spending on social security won't be any less because the money comes from a SS tax rather than from an income tax. Taxes are taxes, their labels or legal associations matter little in this regard. Your cuts amount to less than the costs of occupation in Iraq. Simply stop the occupation. There is no occupation to stop. Also the proposed cuts probably add up to more than the cost of our military presence in Iraq per year, and certainly much more over time, since Iraq is a temporary thing, while the programs I would cut or eliminate would otherwise go on indefinitely. And the restraint on the large programs would over time start to save much more per year, eventually saving more per year than the entire amount spent in Iraq since 2003.