rollingstone
"It's liberal, left wing, socialist policies that got us to this point - so congrats :("

Yea you got to watch them liberals. When Pres. Clinton let office the fed buget had a surplus. When Pres Bush II left office we had a deficiet. Yea you gots to watch them liberal fellows

Tax receipts are down and federal spending is through the roof, so yeah I would guess that Texas is probably not a net donor anymore. It's liberal, left wing, socialist policies that got us to this point - so congrats :(

That chart was up to 2005. I wonder if it is still the case today? A lot can change in 5 years.

B2BM, the link is:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/...

Click on arrowhead in upper right corner to get to Texas.

I'm a dedicated follower of fashion

Yes, perhaps you should your should follow my lead Ex.

;-)

"a nation that FAR surpassed ANY other nation ever created on the face of the earth throughout the entirety of HISTORY"

How exactly did you arrive at this conclusion? What metrics did you use?

Please show up at the Tea Party get together on April 15 downtown! It WILL be interesting!!

Bottom line, folks: We had the GREATEST country every devised by humans in the history of mankind.

The disaster of our "President" IS "fundamentally changing" this country.

Read: "Marxist overthrow."

Sure makes sense to me: a nation that FAR surpassed ANY other nation ever created on the face of the earth throughout the entirety of HISTORY, MUST be destroyed........

Anybody who truly believe "redistribution of wealth" in any way, shape, or form contributes to the health of a culture just sickens and disgusts me.

Bottom line, folks: We had the GREATEST country every devised by humans in the history of mankind.

The disaster of our "President" IS "fundamentally changing" thing country.

Read: "Marxist overthrow."

Sure makes sense to me: a nation that FAR surpassed ANY other nation ever created on the face of the earth throughout the entirety of HISTORY, MUST be destroyed........

Anybody who truly believe "redistribution of wealth" in any way, shape, or form contributes to the health of a culture just sickens and disgusts me.

Can you post the link where you got that info, rollinstone?

Texas is a net donor to the federal government. For every dollar we send to Washington we get back 95 cents. Whats bad is 40% of that 95 cents was borrowed money!

ex,

I never said it was fact. It's more along the line of common sense. Most states cannot support themselves without government money (yes, I know government money is taxpayers money) for projects that are needed.
I personally wouldn't want to live in Texas if "we" had to pay for everything ourselves. Texas is too large and there are too may people living at, or below, poverty level, so they would be of no help. It would ultimately fall on the shoulders of the same taxpayers it is falling on now, so how would we gain? It would also give some states unfair advantage over others.

I love how people are talking past one other instead of talking with one other.

Earth to code, earth to code, come in code, do you copy?

Well where to start? Let's start with your pure democracy thesis. We (including you code) are not a democracy we are a republic - look it up.

I know you're enamoured by the welfare state - you have claimed the high ground and moral advantage over us savages. But let me point out just a few things:

1. First you mistakenly think that we do not provide for our poor. I will put our poor up against the poor of any country on this planet - care to wager?

2. The massive welfare state that you contemplate does not work, yes code listen carefully, I will repeat it does not work. It does not alleviate misery it creates more. It creates an ever growing systemic population of dependents. They are forever beholding to the political class - it is enslavement without the chains and whips.

3. It creates more unemployment, not less while at the same time lowering the standard of living of everyone regardless of their income.

4. Code again listen carefully, your welfare state has just one other tiny, little, insignificant problem it is extraordinarily expense - it is bankrupting us, it cannot be sustained.

Have a nice day, code :)

ex,

Of course you pay taxes so you use the services now. But, you are acting like you don't want to pay taxes. In that case then all that you enjoy would cease to exist, so be careful what you ask for.

And I love the liberal way of thinking.....it's ok to take your money and give it to the poor. But did anybody other than me notice how many people BO appointed that hadn't paid their taxes.....think about that.

Been busy working so the slack jaws can sit around all day ex. I just popped in and couldn't resist.
The first federal statutes imposing the legal obligation to pay a federal income tax were adopted by Congress in 1861 and 1862 to pay for the Civil War. The 1862 law levied a 3% tax on incomes above $800, rising to 5% for incomes above $10,000. Rates were raised in 1864. This income tax was repealed in 1872, but a new income tax statute was enacted as part of the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act in 1894.

In simple terms it was used to pay for the cost of war. Not for some slack jawed lazy SOB to sit on his/her couch, watch tv, make 100 kids and collect money so they don't have to work.

It's not robbery is you make use of one thing that federal taxes pay for. Just look around you. All the things you now take for granted are possible because of federal income taxes.
If you don't want those things to make your life easier, then maybe America isn't the place for you. Oh I forget. You all want "someone else" to pay for those things and let you keep all of your money. That's not how it works.

Ex, you have to put it in simple terms for some people. They think this "redistribution of wealth" is great until the finally figure out that everything they work for is going to be split with everybody that sits at home watching their "stories" all day and refuse to go look for work even though they are able. Infact Code...I think I'll quit my job, sit at home and just collect your paycheck. So, I guess you could say that you will be working for me.

1) If you rob your neighbors to fund your "nation," you have sided with the barbarians. It is a farce that you would call yourself "civilized."

You call it "rob", I call it redistribution of wealth. If you do not tax the wealthier to help those in need society will become segregated, fractured and will inevitably decline which, in the end, affects even those of wealth. That's a high level view. However, Government policies may be unfair and tax those that should not be taxed and conversely we might give tax breaks to those should not have them but the underlying goal of society should always to cater for the group majority not minority - otherwise there is no point.

2) There is no "greater good" that ignores the individual good. Society is nothing but a collection of individuals. What is bad for one is bad for all.

Conversely what is good for one is good for all. The needs of a few wealthy individuals have to be tallied with the needs of many less wealthy individuals. That is plain fact and a consequence of partaking in society. You may have individual rights but you also have responsibilities to the group.

If you don't like it your only option is to opt out of society - let me know how your commune/cult/militia goes if you take that route.

3) Where can I find this "nation as a whole?" Can I shake its hand? Spare me the abstractions, reality is what we're stuck with.

Reality is subjective, you can't name a system that's works the way you seem to want it to.

4) You have no ground to stand on trying to play this "greater good" card. Your president and your congress are out there killing innocent people in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Your president is locking people up for consuming a plant. Your president is funding the rapidly exploding war in Mexico, and YOU have the gall to tell me about the greater good?

The greater good is whatever 51% of the people who make up this particular society deem necessary. You get your chance, as do we all, to partake in that every few years. Sure it's far from perfect but, again, you have failed to offer a viable alternative!

Ex:

Name me a civilized major country in the world where you are not taxed for the greater good of the nation as a whole?

You can label it robbery all you like but it has always been this way and always will be, I don't know what system of taxation you'd ideally enjoy living under, perhaps you'd care to enlighten?

WE HAVE THE BEST HEALTH CARE IN THE WORLD!! It's our insurance companies that need reform, not healthcare.

IMAGINE THIS SCENARIO; with government run healthcare they can choose to regulate what retailers and private business owners are cooking with or how they are preparing meals and how much to charge for those meals. Far fetch right?

Let’s say, to pick a place at random, New York City sandwich stands are cooking fried foods, or preparing foods with oils high in trans-fat. The GOVERNMENT can step in and say WE are paying too much to treat people for adverse health issues due to eating these types of foods. Now the GOVERNMENT can step in and command under their authority, privately owned businesses can only cook with GOVERNMENT CERTIFIED food products and instruct how to prepare the food or pay penalties to the IRS. The GOVERNMENT will then be in control of what people are putting in their mouth!

That’s not BIG GOVERNMET invading what is and should be a free market society? If an AMERICAN wants to eat a triple meat bacon cheese burger, than that’s the right of a free person, just wait and see.

Anyone in Victoria ever pay $55 bucks for case of beer? That’s what they cost in Canada, because the Canadian run healthcare system says people that drink alcohol use more healthcare so the tax the hell out of it.

Aren’t we the fattest country in the world? Can you put 2+2 together?

Wake up folks…this is a hostile take over of the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Mike,

You sound just like a congressman, there was not one once truth in what you just posted. They will tax everything from band ads to Q-tips and or anything that has to do with the medical industry, so that includes the poor to the rich, no taxes below 250,000 is BS…

Medchest, you couldn't be more spot on. Just think about everything the goverment runs. It's broke and bankrupt. SS, Medicare, Medicade and the Postal service. Next will be the auto industry....well, worse than it is now. The goverment has the opposite of the Midas Touch, everything the touch turns to ....well you get the point. Insurance companies will start raising premiums, which they have already stated they will be doing by 2011. What some people don't realize is that in this bill there are two little bits of information they are trying to keep quiet. The first being that it calls for 16000 new IRS employees to be hired to "inforce" the bill. They are in charge of inforcing the fines, penleties and/or jail time if you do not have health insurance. And it gives the goverment to shut down ANY buisness they deem necessary or that is standing in their way. They have already called Cat, AT&T and one other company to see their company records, which the goverment never had the right to do until this bill was signed into law. BO stated that he would never tax anybody making less than $250000 a year, but that's what he is doing now. Nancy Pelosi wanted to tax your retirement, which is already taxed and that includes your 401k and IRAs, and she wanted to redestribute the wealth, and I forget right off the top of my head what she called it, but that's exactly what it was.

Ms. Kelly, you're so completely off-base with your viewpoint I don't even know where to start.

Well, let's start with the Constitution.

"If the people fear the government you have tyranny. If the government fears the people you have freedom."

PLEASE burn that wisdom into your brain...

Why in the world would ANY thinking person support massive government take-overs of ANY industry? Please educate me: I need ONE example in the history of mankind demonstrating a successful society that is run by an omnipotent central government. Just one will do...

To answer your question: YES, Social Security AND Medicare ARE socialistic programs. They both are broken and failing. Another government-run healthcare system that is atrocious: the VA system.

All of your objections concerning the state of affairs of health insurance HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY GOVERNMENT INTRUSION AND REGULATIONS!

I hear no hue and cry over the horrifically unfair practices of auto insurance companies. I see no uproar because of your inability to insure major appliances. Do a little thinking and research and try to figure out WHY..... (hint: government regulation and mandates of companies proving health insurance...)

Remove government intrusion, allow free market competition, and magically health insurance would no longer be an issue.....

Government has broken it. So it befuddles me that people think that the answer to bad government is more intrusion of that bad government.

If you want a precious package delivered efficiently, you would go to UPS or FedEx, NOT the post office (the overwhelming majority of people would agree with this viewpoint).

The federal government cannot even DELIVER PACKAGES efficiently and effectively. And you think they can run this industry????

Wow. Please look up the word "naive" in your online dictionary.

This "government-run" rampage by the Marxists who are in control till next January is horrifying.

THAT'S what has terrified "Mr Hager."

Texican...I believe you will see SS payments when you retire, if you continue working to 75 or 80. There would be a revolution if the government was to break its Social Security contract with the citizens. You are correct about it being a ponzi scheme, though. Imagine what a good stock mutual fund would be worth today (even with the problems of the last couple of years) had you been able to put the FICA money into YOUR OWN IRA. If you had that option when you started working for a living and had faithfully put the FICA money into your IRA account, you could retire wealthy while still young enough to enjoy it.

Social Security is the world's biggest ponzi scheme. Explain to me how I, a 30 year old, will benefit from the taxes I pay into that program, and we'll talk. All indications are that I'll never see that money again.

And yes, Social Security was the start of America's descent into socialism. LBJ's programs only put the vehicle into overdrive.

Wow. All I can say is, Wow

Mrs. Kelly, Health reform will not reduce premiums in fact it will do the opposite. This bill is the worst thing that has happend to the US. You will find out come January 1 2011 when they will be taking funds from your paycheck for future Long Term care. This is for any working individual. You will see how they have slaughtered the Medicare benefits what many people have already paid for. You will see insurance companies going out of business due to the strict mandate that forces insurance companies to pay claims with 80% of the premium dollars paid in beginning January 1st 2011. We need insurance reform but the government does not need to be involved. The statement what you made about an insurance company being able to drop you is wrong. In the State of Texas this cannot be done. If this situation happens you should exercise your right and inform the State board of insurance of this practice and I promise you it will be taken care of. This type of practice is usually done by fly by night companies. Health insurance cost are outrageous but there's a lot more reasons for these high cost. Drug companies, hospitals, lawyers, insurance companies and paying the large cost for the uninsured bills. In closing I will say that you think it's bad and high now; you wait and see and also read the Obama bill.