12 cent federal gas tax increase coming?

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by darcane

It's supposed to be a final safety net for a small percentage of old and disabled (as in actually unable to work... lots of fraud these days here.) rather than a pool of money for all to dip into.

SS for retirement is supposed to be for everybody that paid in. It shouldn't be relied upon as the total provider for retirement income though.

[sheepdog 44]

This is a true story about Obama care.

My story: I filled out the forms (on their broken website) in October of last year, and i'm still uninsured. I just got a stupid letter saying to wait for their decision. April comes along and the signup deadline expires. I get a letter which is just a piece of paper saying to bring it if i need to go to the ER and i'm provisionally covered by it; "were still making our decision." June comes and that letter expires. I guess i'm out of luck? Via official health connector FB: the only way to get insured is to send a very angry letter to my senator. I don't make very much money, and would probably fall under free medicaid. I've never had insurance because i'm young and healthy, and it would be too expensive. The only one who sees a doctor is my dog which i pay out of pocket.

Example B: I know this relative first hand, who doesn't work and makes money by selling drugs. He doesn't pay any taxes, and "officially" makes no income. He collected unemployment because he CHOSE not to work for 6 months prior. He got signed up for free healthcare in the winter of 2013. I wish i wasn't related to this person but this is first hand and true. How many drug dealers have free healthcare?

And people say Obama care is working? I wish it was!

[sheepdog 44]

Originally Posted by darcane

As a parent with children in public schools, I don't think schools should be paid by property taxes. Throwing a nearly limitless pile of money at schools only encourages waste and grift and does nothing to improve their education.

My opinion would be to slash almost all of defense spending. What a pile of money we spend for over-cost things. It's been said that the money spent on the Iraq war could have funded a full college education for every highschool graduate during that period. The cost of shipping supplies over seas for war is exorbitant. I don't recall so i'm probably wrong, but i believe it cost $80 per gallon of fuel.

We could fund everything if we slashed defense spending. Aren't we an Island nation? It would be cheaper to throw cash at our enemies and enrich them to content laziness! The amount of food and aid that money could have bought instead of death and destruction.

[Xist]

Gentlemen, I hope this discussion remains civil, and that I am not making things worse.

Some of you may recall the discussion I led and lost control of for a school project, that I asked to have closed.

Dad always wanted to help the Native American tribes out here. He wrote grants and oversaw construction. He came up with projects to help them, building schools and other facilities, he built them a very large prison, and a total of $22m in buildings.

My understanding is that they needed to approve his projects and pay him a small portion of the funding they received, but he needed to fight to complete his projects and receive his pay.

I guess that he wore out. He passed away three weeks ago, leaving us a fair amount of debt.

No retirement.

He does not need it now, but Mom cannot support herself and my autistic brother. He always had plans for supporting the family.

As far as I know, he was at the hospital for 15.5 hours before a doctor actually saw him. It sounds like only nurses nurses talked to him and they took a cat scan, which they sent overseas, where it was misread.

Then there is me. I have two Bachelor's degrees and am a veteran. I work hard and try to take care of myself and others. Despite my studying, I do not do well in school. It took me two years to finish Dad's fence. I am thirty-five, want nothing more than to raise a family, and may never find a girl who wants to marry me that I actually want to marry. I am also very bad at sports and dancing.

Some people have more success in life because they work harder. Some smart people work hard all of their lives and still die poor.

Life is not simple, is it?

[darcane]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

SS for retirement is supposed to be for everybody that paid in. It shouldn't be relied upon as the total provider for retirement income though.

Yes and no. It's for everyone who hasn't become worm's meat.

The fund is called OASDI for Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance. This used to be a much smaller percentage of the population. As life spans continue to increase, the percentage of people drawing off SS continues to expand and the program was never intended to support that many people.

[user removed]

Funny thing is Va dropped their gas tax and raised the sales tax. At 1600 miles and $104 a month (Fiesta-miles jumped a lot), gas cost is not a big deal for me. Truck will go two months on a tank and the bike is 4 cents a mile.

Fed gas tax should have been a percentage to begin with. You could not repave the Interstate system for what they originally appropriated to build it in the Eisenhower administration. Of course back then our national debt was under 1 trillion, a lot of that from WW2.

regards
Mech

[XYZ]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

You also misread the context of my use of violence, as the context was the system doing harm to the innocent individual. Violence doesn't necessarily imply physical harm; one of the definitions is "an unjust or unwarranted exertion of force or power, as against rights". This is the definition I invoked.

Is taxation by government harmful to the individual?

Root means that no further cause can be attributed to the state of being.

Huh? That's philosophical double-speak.

Peter being robbed to pay Paul can never be the root problem, because he would never be robbed if Paul didn't "need" to be paid.

Who's doing the robbing? The STATE. The governmental STATE, not "the state of being".

The beginning of both peoples problem still lies with Paul's poverty, hence the root problem.

So the "problem" is that Paul is "poor" and the STATE is invoked by those like you to make things even, square and fair, and "just" - according to you and as many masses of people that can vote for "justice", AKA political coercion.

That's the essence of socialism.

Clearly untrue. The flu cannot be eliminated by political force. Things would actually be much easier if political force were effective because the solution to any problem could be government intervention. As we know, government intervention often has unintended consequences and fails to achieve the objective.

But you still support it. I won't excoriate you for having a Socialist mentality. It's a free world and we are free to think and espouse whatever we wish, including Socialism. But I will point out that taxing Peter to pay Paul is a Socialistic notion.

I've never heard that word before, and I'm surprised English doesn't have an equivalent. It's an important concept, and something that isn't in the conscious thought of most people.

I assume you are referring to shadenfreude. It a German word, from the same folks who gave the world National Socialism. You can look it up and realize its meaning.

You might also become aware that the National Socialist party of Germany was referred to with an infamous, well known, abbreviation. (Hint: we probably know what it is, and to where it leads.)

BTW, another attribute of Socialism is that "misery loves company". If we vote for being miserable, we will spread the coercive misery such that virtually every one (except the rich) are affected by it.

Then will you be satisfied?

Shadenfreude...

[XYZ]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

This is not an assumption, it is an observation.

Does the observation apply to everyone, under all circumstances?

Except that all too often, it is not straightforward aggression that creates problems, it is oblivious stupidity, of the "Why shouldn't I empty my chamber pot in the street?" sort. There are just too many people who, if they can't see the consequences of their actions right then and there, will assume that those consequences just don't exist.

I don't see anyone using chamber pots, nor do I see them emptying them in the streets. We are no longer living in the 16th century. BTW, there is a difference between stupidity, ignorance and willful disregard.

Fine, when you manage to convince everyone that 'let live' is just as important as 'live' :-)

If you don't support "let live" you will end up living in a world of imposed misery. "Misery loves company." It a very social concept and a socialistic one. We must share everything. And when there is little left worth sharing, we will continue to share misery.

[XYZ]

Originally Posted by darcane

What are you trying to pull? Bring the thread back on topic? Sheesh!

I am for use-based taxation and would support increasing the gas tax...

if it were used to make improvements directly related to transportation that used that fuel.
Increasing the gas tax to pay for schools? Nope.
Increasing the gas tax to pay for defense? Nope.
Increasing the gas tax to pay for rail? Nope.
Roads, bridges, and to a lesser degree ferries, and buses. Yes.

if it were used to make improvements directly related to transportation that used that fuel.

"if".

If, if, IF. That tiny word that makes all the difference...

[XYZ]

Originally Posted by darcane

Yes and no. It's for everyone who hasn't become worm's meat.

The fund is called OASDI for Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance. This used to be a much smaller percentage of the population. As life spans continue to increase, the percentage of people drawing off SS continues to expand and the program was never intended to support that many people.

OASDI?

Welcome to the land of Government alphabet soup.

First we raid the Social Security fund (that began under the Nixon administration with "revenue sharing.) Then we put IOU's in it. Then we say there are too many subscribers to it, even though they have been paying into it by mandatory payments for decades.

HA, HA! Fooled YA! We're the Government. We can take your money and anything else we desire.

Promises, promises...