I’ve heard that the religious nutters who believe that the Rapture is going down—and believers are going up—this Saturday at 6 PM are “blaming” the gays.
Um… nutters? Isn’t the Rapture supposed to be a good thing? For believers, I mean. And aren’t you guys looking forward to it? So shouldn’t we be getting the credit for the Rapture, not blame?
If gay pride parades and gay marriage brought this about—you’re going home to Jesus!—how about a little gratitude?
I believe in distributive justice. I believe money is a tool to be used in bettering everyone’s life. I believe in the “golden rule,” and loving one’s neighbor as one’s self, treating people as equals with compassion, respect and integrity. I believe in love in all of its many forms. In other words, I’ll read you all on Sunday.
My love to you and your’s.
@ 89 – THANK YOU!!
Bought. 🙂
Thoughtful Christians don’t worry about things like the end days or rapture or anything like that. We worry about injustice and poverty and homelessness, right now. Tomorrow will take care of itself. I’m sure my pastor has her sermon all set for Sunday and will work out the final kinks tomorrow as usual. We are used to being mocked due to stupid things done “in the name” by the misguided and we’ll smile and accept the abuse because that’s just what we do. Comes with the territory. Shouting down a well won’t convince the drowning to climb back up the bucket rope – they need to figure this one out for themselves.
i agree, kim. when life hands you a big slice of the pie, you share. and pie tastes better when everyone is eating it.
I have one hour and a half before my earthquake, any rapture report yet?
Raptor time has come and gone here in the UK. No sign of raptors.
I’m in Heaven now. I don’t think I belong here.
Spent all day traipsing through mosquito-ridden ravines downstate. No sign of the Rapture.
10:30 pm in wisconsin. all is well
peace
101
liberals are all about giving someone else’s pie away (and usually keeping a generious hunk for themselves…)
104 “when life hands you a big slice of the pie…”
how about rolling up your sleves and baking some pie, hoss-
oh wait, creating wealth is someone else’s job
you girls are just into taking and ‘distributing’…..
50% of Americant’s pay ZERO Federal Income Taxes.
Liberals are squealing for “fairness”
Obama wants people to pull their fair share…
Obviously they’re going after the mooch freeloaders; right?
of course not.
They want the folks who are only 5% of the population but pay 70% of Federal taxes to pay MORE…
your Liberal Humanist Socialist Welfare State is bankrupt, girls.
check your inbox…..
I will always remember where I was when the Rapture didn’t happen. I was sitting on the couch playing Borderlands with my husband. He was Mordecai and I was Roland. We were at the beginning of playthrough 2.
@111: Okay, the top 5% pay 58.7%, not 70% (http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/2…). You’ll need to get your facts straight before you try to argue using them. And people who are poor enough, or have high enough tax credits, as to pay zero net Federal income tax, STILL PAY SALES TAX. As far as pulling our weight, you’re complaining that the guys with tractor trailers are being asked to pull harder than the guys who are pulling with their bare hands.
The main liberal tax project isn’t raising taxes on the rich, though. What we’re REALLY working on is closing tax loopholes for corporations. Talking about people who pay zero income tax? A poor single mother working two jobs to make ends meet might pay zero net income tax. General Electric, the second largest corporation in the world, who earned $5 billion in the USA this past year, also paid no taxes. Talk about unpatriotic? Loopholes in the tax code have been encouraging companies to lay off American workers and delegate their jobs to foreign nations.
I’m a poor college student, and I earn just about dick. I pay my taxes, though, and I consider it my patriotic duty to do so. You, Alleged are disgraceful in more ways than I care to count.
113
so we agree that the “rich” pay an obscenely disproportionate UNFAIR share of federal Income taxes?
and that the bottom half pay Jack Squat?
so, in the Qunited States of Gaymerica the majority of citizens are supine helpless moochers who are not expected to sully their tender hands AT ALL?
is THAT it?
we also agree, Junior, that it is your (and every Americans’) patriotic duty to pay their proportionate share of federal income Taxes.
you do not.
please get back to us when you become a contributing member of American society.
till then please don’t interupt when the adults are talking….
I love when people argue about a non-existant god 🙂
@114: Of COURSE the rich will pay more than the poor. If a farmer earns $50,000 a year, and a guy with a Ph.D. in mathematics gets any job he wants and earns $300,000 starting, the mathematician is going to pay a lot more than the farmer. But it’ll still be perfectly fair, because both will be paying about the same percentage of their income in taxes. If I pay 20% of my income in taxes, and a much higher-earning fellow pays 20% of his income in taxes, he’ll be paying vastly more than I will. Unfair? Not exactly; we’re all taxed at similar rates, using the same bracket.
Now, where do these non-tax-paying Americans come in? Well, that’s the result of certain tax breaks, given to encourage societally productive actions. If you are raising a child, you avoid paying income tax on a certain portion of your income. Businesses can claim similar deductions for hiring new workers or similar, and there are myriad other deductions available. Do you think that the Federal government should stop subsidizing actions beneficial to all of us? I’d call such a suggestion downright anti-American.
Now, I pay 10% of my income in the form of paycheck withholdings. (I earn very little, being a college student doing only part-time work, and am thus a so-called “lucky duckie”.) I do my fair share, paying according to the same bracket as EVERYONE ELSE. Feel free to come back when you can explain why it is unacceptable for poor working single parents to pay no income tax, but just dandy for General Electric, the second largest corporation in the world, to do the same.
116
ooooh Junior 🙁
just when you seemed to be getting a clue…..
“because both will be paying about the same percentage of their income in taxes….”
oh really?
did you even READ the nice link you posted?
here’s some homework.
go back to the page you linked, READ it, and report back:
what percentage of their income the top 1% pay in Federal Income Tax and
what percentage of their income the bottom 50% pay in Federal Income Tax.
then write an essay on:
How Can the Federal Income Tax Rates be Altered so Everyone Pays Their Fair Share
@117: Read my second paragraph and get back to me. And then please answer these two questions:
-Do you believe that the Federal government should stop subsidizing such societally beneficial actions as raising children, hiring more employees, and buying necessities? Shouldn’t the government be encouraging reinvestment in the economy and the propagation of civilized society? (And here’s a fun fact. The Earned Income Tax Credit, which allows people to deduct a portion of their taxable income if they are currently raising children, and is responsible for the better part of that 50% of non-payers, was originally quite minor. Who expanded it to prominence? Your boy Ronald Reagan.)
-Why is it acceptable for large corporations such as General Electric to pay exactly ZERO in Federal income tax?
Answer me those questions I’ve been asking you, and you’ll get your essay.
Taxes? I go away for the weekend and this thread has turned into a brawl over taxes? Sweet!
@119: This is internet recycling. We can’t really be afraid of rapture or end of the world for the short term (now, we have until dec 2012) so why not using this perfectly reusable thread for tax discussion? ^^
118
Do you REALLY believe the farmer and PhD ” both will be paying about the same percentage of their income in taxes….” ?
did you even read your link yet?
btw; subsidizing “societally beneficial actions” is how GE gets all the tax breaks you love.
perhaps the tax code should just be used to raise revenue and not to try to social engineer how people behave.
@121: Okay, so you’re against social engineering, and think that the tax code should just be used to raise revenue? Clearly, then, state and Federal governments should stop trying to maintain one particular definition of marriage and allow gay couples to get the same tax benefits as straight couples.
And if the business of the tax code is to raise revenue, it makes perfect sense to tax the rich more heavily than the poor, since they have more taxable income, and are less likely to spend and reinvest less if their taxes go up. Glad to hear you agree with me on those points.
Also, you’re dead wrong about GE. They get their tax breaks by spending and investing their money abroad. Thus, even though they get quite a lot of income within our borders, they don’t pay taxes on it because they invest it overseas. Societally beneficial? Well, for factory workers in India and China, sure. For Americans, not so much. Rewarding companies for offshoring jobs is the result of corporate lobbying, and actively hurts the American economy.
122
So, do you REALLY believe the farmer and PhD ” both will be paying about the same percentage of their income in taxes….” ?
Did you EVEN read your own link, YET?
” And if the business of the tax code is to raise revenue, it makes perfect sense to tax the rich more heavily than the poor…”
Actually not.
Raising rates on the “rich” does not raise more revenue, it inspires the “rich” to shift their wealth around to avoid the taxes.
@123: And so if the rich shift their wealth around to avoid the taxes, as GE demonstrates, the answer is to close loopholes. Raising taxes on the poor is entirely unfeasible; if someone is working- or lower-class, they are spending every dollar they make. Causing them to pay more in taxes will reduce the amount they have left to spend, and thus will contribute less to the economy.
The modern rich, on the other hand, tend to sit on their money, as they earn more than they can possibly spend on costs of living. Raising their taxes will not noticeably impact the amount they spend and invest.