Taxes, We Hardly Knew Ye!

Here's Reason.tv's run of Tax Day-inspired videos. Take a break from cursing out the Turbo Tax call center folks and watch, laff, learn, and…love.

Our most-recent release is here:

For a playlist of our Tax Day vids, go here now.

Comments

[Warty]

This year, I fucking owe fucking Uncle Cocksuck five hundred thirty-six goddamn worthless shitty fucking-ass Federal Reserve fucking shitdollars. So by all means, let's raise fucking taxes, because taxes are fucking awesome.

[fish]

Cass Sunstein thinks you should be celebrating your voluntary contribution of five hundred thirty-six goddamn worthless shitty fucking-ass Federal Reserve fucking shitdollars.

Time for a party Warty~!

[Spencer]

Does that mean I should be deep down in the dumps over my $8.5k return?

Juuuuuuuust rubbin' it in.

[Episiarch]

You're rubbing in the fact that the government had zero interest loan from you all year? That's nothing to be proud of.

[spencer]

rubbing it in fail. 🙁

[Mr Whipple???]

Wow. I hadn't realized the Earned Income Credit was so much.

[shrike]

Just send them $536 worth of Glenn Beck survival seeds and gold-plated Goldline coins!

You are up on that investment, aren't you?

[Episiarch]

Why did you report all that gambling and tip income, you fool?

[Old Mexican]

Warty,

Did you remember to lower the number of deductions on your W4 this year?

[Warty]

Nope. Oops.

[shrike]

Its only fiat money!

Don't sweat it!

[fish]

Cool! Then I'm sure no one will mind if I print up some of my own.

[Treasury Agents]

Pardon us, sir.

A moment of your time. Outside.

[Mr Whipple???]

Don't feel bad. I owe them every quarter (estimate).

[Uncle Cocksuck]

Taxes are fucking awesome! Thanks for doing your part, as a tax paying patriot, contributing to my insolvency!

[Colonel_Angus]

Voluntary contribution to pay the debt. Huh. I don't expect them to do anything except whatever the fuck they want with that money. What kind of lemming patriot asschump would give anything away like that?

[Colonel_Angus]

Its fucking retarded that the discussion is about which individuals should pay what percentage.

[The Truth]

Oh, those poor, poor millionaires and billionaires! SOOOO oppressed by us! Why,if taxes go up they might have to sell their fourth house in Aspen! HORROR!

[The Lie]

Oh, those poor poor! Without taxation, they would all starve! They are certainly incapable of fending for themselves! Children would die in their mothers' arms! Why are the rich soooooo stingy????

Only government can help!

[Tony]

Don't bother. These gun-toting extremists would rather see poor people die than let the government take a few thousand dollars from them.

[Spencer]

And most left leaning hyprocrits would rather see poor people die than voluntarily pay for their needs, then complain that it's other people's fault because we didn't force them to pay.

[The Truth]

You favor private charity with zero safety net because you want poor people to be as humiliated and shamed as possible as they have to go find a church and beg on the steps for crumbs from millionaires.

[Spencer]

You favor forced public charity because you are hoping that someone else will take care of the problem. Churches need not be involved. You can take your money and give it as nobly as you'd like to anyone in need.

[The Truth]

Charity isn't nearly enough of a safety net in Dickens or Upton Sinclair sometime. You would really get a society that looks like 1800s England or Gilded Age New York City if you hard your way. And yes, at that time children were literally fucking starving in disease filled slums while industrial magnets built huge mansions in the countryside.

[Ice Nine]

Hope they were all-wood mansions.

[Doktor Kapitalism]

What you don't seem to get is that we don't want anything like that.

Mercantilism, government collusion with capital, the runabout...is not free market capitalism.

But why do I try?

[The Truth]

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the right-wing version of "But the USSR wasn't *TRUE* Communism!"

[Spencer]

I call bullshit. If everyone registered democrat gave 10% of their annual income it could give free healthcare to them, plus anyone who they wanted to get it- completely! Make it 15% and you could erase hunger. Why do want to FORCE other people to pay for what you can take care of without any force whatsoever? Why would you risk poverty, illness and hunger if you could do away with it for a mere 15% of your annual household income?

[The Truth]

"Why do want to FORCE other people to pay for what you can take care of without any force whatsoever? "

Because people are at heart selfish bastards, or at least enough are that taxes need to be mandatory, not voluntary.

[The Lie]

Because people are at heart selfish bastards, or at least enough are that taxes need to be mandatory, not voluntary - so say the thiefs!

[oncogenesis]

people are at heart selfish bastards

That's core "progressive" belief number one in a nutshell -- abject distrust of other people.

[silent v]

It's called projection. Progressives believe that everyone is as heartless as they are.

Libertarians err on the side of thinking that everyone is as generous as they are and therefore think there will always be enough private charity

[R C Dean]

Because people are at heart selfish bastards,

Fucking projection, etc.

[Mr Whipple]

Because people are at heart selfish bastards, or at least enough are that taxes need to be mandatory, not voluntary.

So, we must FORCE them to be generous, and lock them up in a cage if they refuse.

Yeah, that will work, for sure.

[The Truth]

Hell, there was one epoch in our history where taxes (at least at the federal level) were completely voluntary--it was called the Articles of Confederation. And, surprise surprise, the Confederation government was unable to pay its bills because nobody will voluntarily pay taxes.s

[yonemoto]

The confederation government was unable to pay its bills because it was up to its neck in debt from that war it had just won.

[Maybe]

If shreek, tony and the truther would get off their collectivist asses and enlist in Obama's Armed Forces our public obligations would be mitigated. They could be boots on the ground in the next bloody progressive African or Asian adventure.

[The Lie]

Charity isn't nearly enough of a safety net in the imagination of a statist. You would really get a society that looks like 1930s Soviet Union if we had our way. And yes, at that time children were literally fucking free of disease and fully fed and clothed!

[Old Mexican]

Re: The Truth,

Charity isn't nearly enough of a safety net in Dickens or Upton Sinclair sometime [sic[].

So wrote the result of American Pulbic Educashion

[fish]

Industrial Magnets?

You mean like the kind that will pick a whole car on Modern Marvels.

Spelling.....how does it work!

[Mensan]

I'm glad I read down thread, because this was my intended response almost verbatim.

[Mr Whipple???]

You would really get a society that looks like 1800s England or Gilded Age New York City if you hard your way.

That's what happens in a Mercantilistic society. You do know the difference between Mercantilism and free market Capitalism?

[Dr. Ben Franklin]

I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

[Concerned Citizen]

exfuckingactly. or, as a black woman told Bill O'Reilly, "there's no consequences in the hood. no matter what bad decision you make, there's a program to help"

[Mr Whipple]

No points here for racial remarks. You must have us confused with another website.

[Heroic Mulatto]

You favor private charity with zero safety net because you want poor people to be as humiliated and shamed as possible as they have to go find a church and beg on the steps for crumbs from millionaires.

Yeah, pretty much.

Lazy bastards.

[cynical]

What? Why would they be forced to go to churches or millionaires when there are so many charitable secular middle class lefties who would open up their homes, hearts, and wallets for the needy without compulsion?

[P B]

HA!

[The Lie]

You favor public charity with a safety net because you want poor people to be as humiliated and shamed as possible as they have to go find a Welfare office and beg on the steps for crumbs from bureaucrats.

[yonemoto]

So... How's that public charity working out for you. Last I checked, plenty of people fall through the cracks.

[oncogenesis]

Name three.

[The Bearded Hobbit]

Well, there's the Pooper, and you. . . and me!

..."whose movie is this?" Hobbit

[Anonymous Coward]

You favor private charity with zero safety net because you want poor people to be as humiliated and shamed as possible as they have to go find a church and beg on the steps for crumbs from millionaires.

Because going to welfare office to beg a bureaucrat is very empowering and life-affirming.

*Headdesk. Apply directly to the forehead.*

[Left-Leaning Hypocrite]

And most left leaning hyprocrits would rather see poor people die than voluntarily pay for their needs,...

It is much easier to just vote for Democrats, than to take out your checkbook and have to write a check, and mail it to a charity of your choice. Choice is HARD. It is much better for me if government were to make those decisions for me, and everybody else...

[Old Mexican]

Re: The Lie (which was me),

Tony: These gun-toting extremists would rather see poor people die than let the government take a few thousand dollars from them.

Wow - I was right.

[fish]

Poor people no. You....maybe.

[Sam]

The Great Society has worked so well. Maybe after a few more generations of welfare recipients and a few more trillion dollars in debt we'll see the end of poverty.

[Ice Nine]

That Stephen King is a real hunk.

[Dr. Ben Franklin]

Hunk of what?

[Joshua Corning]

Ok we need an animated .gif made from 0:57 to 1:00 of that video.

GO GO GO GO!!!!

[The Truth]

We need new tax brackets, many more, stack 'em up--50%, 70%, and 90% marginal rates for millionaires and billionaires. We also need a wealth tax so if the Wall St. thugs don't invest and create jobs we'll confiscate some of the money to distribute for the public good if they won't.

We also need higher tariffs, and guaranteed a minimum income.

[Spencer]

Ok, the parody went too far and lost all sense of reality.

[The Truth]

I'm being spoofed.

[Tony]

I agree that this is ridiculous. 90% is absurd.

But going back to Clinton-era rates would be a good start. And increasing capital gains and corporate taxes would help as well.

[Joshua Corning]

increasing capital gains and corporate taxes would help as well.

All of socialist Western Europe disagrees with you.

Don't make a Frenchman cry it is a horrible thing to see.

[The Truth]

People in Germany, France, and Scandinavia have a much better quality of life than Americans.

They have things like five to eight weeks PAID vacation, free university tuition, free healthcare (as a right), two years (!) of PAID maternity leave, free daycare for their children, and on and on.

[The Lie]

People in Germany, France, and Scandinavia have a much better quality of life than Americans!

If by "quality of life" you mean living in tiny apartments, like pigeons, with barely a loo.

[The Truth]

Wow.

When is the last time you were in western Europe? 1960?

[Old Mexican]

When is the last time YOU were in western Europe?

[The Truth]

And yes, their houses are a bit smaller, but I think having six weeks of paid vacation and healthcare as a right is more important than having some hideous McMansion filled with cheap plastic crap and a gas-guzzling polluter in the driveway.

[Old Mexican]

Re: The Truth,

And yes, their houses are a bit smaller

A bit....

but I think having six weeks of paid vacation and healthcare as a right is more important than having some hideous McMansion filled with cheap plastic crap

Whatever turns you on, asshole.

[The Truth]

And, at least they aren't underwater on their mortgages like about half this country is. We'd be better off if people did live in two and three bedroom apartments rather than McMansions, because (1) we can actually afford them and (2) its much better for the environment and more sustainable.

[Old Mexican]

Re: The Truth,

And, at least they aren't underwater on their mortgages like about half this country is.

Yeah sure, buddy:

http://www.worldpropertychanne.....s-4122.php

We'd be better off if people did live in two and three bedroom apartments rather than McMansions, because (1) we can actually afford them and (2) its much better for the environment and more sustainable.

Wouldn't one bedroom apartments be even BETTER for the environment?

[Mensan]

Wouldn't one bedroom apartments be even BETTER for the environment?

Not to mention the bunkbed industry.

[TheZeitgeist]

We'd be better off if people did live in two and three bedroom apartments rather than McMansions, because (1) we can actually afford them and (2) its much better for the environment and more sustainable.

If you want to configure your life that way in this country you can. Don't buy the McMansion and fill it with cheap plastic crap. If you do that, you did it to yourself. Its not exactly mandated by the government you have to do that.

[Edwin]

except the wife makes you do it

oine of the best policy changes for the environment would actually be q change in marriage laws to make them more reasonable and more fair to men, so guys wouldn't have to consume frivolous shit like mother fuckers just to keep the bitch and avoid a bajillion $/month in alimony and chilkd support

lulz

[spencer]

but wait, i don't want to do it if you aren't MADE to do it. That's not fair.

[spencer]

but wait, i don't want to do it if you aren't MADE to do it. That's not fair.

[yonemoto]

wait till they have to start paying for their foreign adventures (Libya, ahem) and don't have the US army as a bulwark. The European socialist paradise is basically subsidized by the US.... And there's still a huge demographic FAIL about to tide them over.

[Mr Whipple???]

And yes, their houses are a bit smaller, but I think having six weeks of paid vacation and healthcare as a right is more important than having some hideous McMansion filled with cheap plastic crap and a gas-guzzling polluter in the driveway.

Yes, yes. Sounds like those minimum security federal prisons. Living in slavery can be a very pleasant existence.

[Mr Whipple???]

People in Germany, France, and Scandinavia have a much better quality of life than Americans.

But can they wear a burqa in public???

[Edwin]

one poster put it best in the comments to another article about why America is better

I'd rather be a second generation mexican living in America than a second generation Libyan (or other North-African) living in Europe

[spencer]

Europeans can be some of the most racist people alive.

[spencer]

Europeans can be some of the most racist people alive.

[Joshua Corning]

People in Germany, France, and Scandinavia have a much better quality of life than Americans.

If that is true then the US should lower, not raise, its capital gains and corporate taxes as low as France's then right?

[The Truth]

The EFFECTIVE corporate tax rate in this country is effectively zero.

For example, General Electric paid $0 in taxes last year. ZERO DOLLARS.

[yonemoto]

I'd be all for a 20% corporate flat tax, 10% flat tariff, and zero income tax. That would probably cover the US budget pretty well.

[fish]

Nope they would still spend up to the amount collected in revenues.....and then they would spend a whole lot more!

It's called responsible government.

[Old Mexican]

Re: The Truth,

The EFFECTIVE corporate tax rate in this country is effectively zero.

Bullshit.

For example, General Electric paid $0 in taxes last year. ZERO DOLLARS.

That had nothing to do with the US Corporate Tax Rate.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics.....d=13224558

"For those unaccustomed to the loopholes and shelters of the corporate tax code, GE's success at avoiding taxes is nothing short of extraordinary. The company, led by Immelt, earned $14.2 billion in profits in 2010, but it paid not a penny in taxes because the bulk of those profits, some $9 billion, were offshore. In fact, GE got a $3.2 billion tax benefit."

[Mr Whipple???]

GE Capital received a bailout, didn't it? That goes against any corporate taxes paid. Not to mention subsidies for wind turbines and what not.

The C-corp tax rate is 35%, I believe. S-corps pay 0%. IIRC, REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) have a 0% tax rate, as well. There are, of course, restrictions.

[Ska]

You'll hear 35%, but corporate taxable income from 335,000 - 10,000,000 is taxed at 34%. Corporate taxes have four brackets with different rates when taxable income < 335K; the rate at 10MM - 15MM is 35%; 15MM - 18.333MM is 38%; and anything over 18.333MM is 35% again. I guess I just wanted to put that out there so no one thinks there's some flat tax rate for corps.

S-corp taxes are paid at the owner's (or owners') rates, so that really depends on how the income passes through to the shareholders.

[Mr Whipple]

Ska,

C-corps, and other incorporated entities are "double-taxed", meaning the same income is taxed twice. Once on the corporate entity, and second, on the shareholder dividends. S-corps are single taxed through its shareholders dividends only.

[Ska]

Yes, I am aware of this. I was just trying to clarify the reality of the corporate rate (where we get the effective 35%) and that net income from S-corps isn't exactly tax free. Sure there is no federal corporate tax on S-corps at the corporate level, but the shareholders are paying personal income taxes at their rates on that S-corp business income.

If you want to say that corps are taxed at 35%, and their dividend distributions are taxed again at 15% (for the most part), yeah I think that's fair to say.

[MJ]

In other words, GE's profits were in those low corporate tax rate countries. Because of the way the US corporate tax works, those profits stay in those countries and do not get invested in the USA. It does not make for great argument that the US corporate tax rate is too low.

[Liberal Democrat]

The EFFECTIVE corporate tax rate in this country is effectively zero.

For example, General Electric paid $0 in taxes last year. ZERO DOLLARS.

General Electric isn't a person. It doesn't have "income". Only the people working for GE and its shareholders have an income. They're taxed appropriately.

[The Truth]

General Electric isn't a person.

Uh, according to the Supreme Court, it is. They hold that corporations are persons.

[cynical]

Is this more Citizens United bullshit? The Supreme Court ruled that corporate speech is speech. The First Amendment doesn't say anything about legal persons having the right to speech, it says that Congress shall not abridge freedom of speech. It doesn't matter if that speech came from outer space, a talking dog, or a Ouija board -- if it's recognizable as speech to a person, it's protected.

And the fact that a left-allied corporation that is buddy buddy with your left-wing president uses left-wing policies to help itself to government welfare checks through abuses of a power government doesn't deserve in the first place is our problem how?

[Left-Leaning Hypocrite]

General Electric isn't a person.

According to the IRS it is. When you "incorporate" a business, you are separating the owner(s)' fiances from the business' finances.

[Joshua Corning]

For example, General Electric paid $0 in taxes last year. ZERO DOLLARS.

10$ says they got tax relief from green initiative loop holes that were championed by left wing nuts just like you.

blaming libertarians for your team's failings is pretty stupid.

Go to Daily Kos and Balloon Juice if you want to drop blame for corporate welfare and left wing subsidies to pick market winners and losers.

No one here supports those policies dipshit. Your team championed them.

[Anonymous Coward]

For example, General Electric paid $0 in taxes last year. ZERO DOLLARS.

It pays to buy a President, doesn't it?

[spencer]

Bullshit again. They paid taxes for every worker they employed. They paid ss and fica too. They paid sales tax, import taxes, franchise taxes, license fees, etc. They paid taxes, just not on "income" because they managed to reinvest and give away the rest.

Please don't perpetuate the lie of nuance that is GM didn't pay taxes. They did. They paid HUGE amounts of taxes, just not on income like we would.

[oncogenesis]

They have things like five to eight weeks PAID vacation, free university tuition, free healthcare (as a right), two years (!) of PAID maternity leave, free daycare for their children, and on and on.

I don't like to use ad hominem, but in this case I gotta make an exception. You must be a fucking idiot to believe that any of that stuff is "free". And on and on.

[spencer]

It's free if you don't think about the fact that you pay for it (and you make everyone else share your costs).

[The Lie]

We need new tax brackets, many more, stack 'em up--50%, 70%, and 90% marginal rates for millionaires and billionaires...

... and I don't know what would be next.

[The Truth]

And unicorns! Those monacled fat-cat bankers from Wall Street could be spending money on genetic research to create me a unicorn, but instead they're wasting it on bullshit like factories! WHERE'S MY FUCKING UNICORN?!

[Mr Whipple]

WHERE'S MY FUCKING UNICORN?!

Turn around. It's there. You can't see it because it's behind you with its horn up your ass.

[Joshua Corning]

Oh yeah and tony pause the video at 1:24.

See how the graph diverges? Spending sky rockets while revenues plummet. The red line goes up and the white line goes down. You can also see that at the very tips spending started going down and at the same time revenues started to go up.

Your claim that we must keep spending or the economy will fail is now disproved. The evidence is in complete and utter opposition to your claim.

Time to find a new moon bat theory to hitch your star to.

[Mr Etonyall Optimist]

Correlation is not causation, statists will parrot without understanding.

Besides, statists are a weird mixture of pessimists who think everybody is too incompetent to do anything good, and optimists who think that if they keep on grabbing everybody else's money, sooner or later that will fix things. It's just GOT to!

[Joshua Corning]

Correlation is not causation, statists will parrot without understanding.

I am not claiming any causation.

Tony claimed that we need to keep increasing spending or the economy would tank.

Spending dropped slightly and the economy improved slightly. This is a direct falsification of his claim.

I making no claim here that the cut in spending improved the economy...i am only falsifying his claim that spending is necessary for an improved economy.

[The Truth]

Shorter Old Mexican:

Don't worry about not being able to afford healthcare when you're sick, having zero vacation time, having to go into hock just to get through college, etc, cause hey! We have more cheap plastic crap and McMansions! GO USA!

[Old Mexican]

Shorter The Truth:
Don't worry about not being able to afford healthcare when you're sick, having zero vacation time, having to go into hock just to get through college, etc, [be]cause, hey! YOU WON'T HAVE ANY MONEY LEFT AFTER THE GOVERNMENT FINISHES WITH YOU! So, why worry?

[Truther, you parasite]

Enlist in the Marines, give something back to Obama.

[spencer]

um, wouldn't all of those things be a failure on the individual's part to adequately prepare their lives or disaster/complication?

[?]

Just because there is no tuition fee doesn't make you less in debt when you graduate, even in fabulous Sweden.

[Mr Whipple???]

Some people like to point out that in the 50s (from WWII to Kennedy), the rich paid 91%. What they don't tell you, is that the Middle Class paid as much as 40%, and the POOR paid 20%. The lowest bracket was $0-2,000. So yeah, let's go back to that 50s code, assholes, and tax the poor. And, no, they didn't have the EIC back then.

[fish]

We have more cheap plastic crap.....

Did somebody get a defective dildo?

[Ska]

My fleshlight broke after four thrusts. Cheap ass POS.

[Mr Whipple]

You must have bought one of those counterfeit fleshlights out of trunk of somebody's car.

Here's the quality stuff:

http://www.kanojotoys.com/index.php

[The Truth]

FACT: In the United States nearly 14% of Americans live in poverty ? about 40 million people ? compared to 6% in France, 8% in Britain, and 5% or less in Germany, Sweden and Belgium. Twenty percent of American children live below the poverty line, as do nearly 23% of the elderly, the highest figure by far in the west with the exceptions of Russia and Mexico. The U.S. is ranked 29th in infant mortality, tied with Poland and Slovakia (in 1960 the U.S. was ranked twelfth) and 37th in health care (France is ranked first). The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans now owns 70 percent of the wealth but in Germany the top 10 percent owns 44 percent.

The claim that Americans have a higher standard of living is based on the U.S. having a higher 'average income' than most European countries. But average income doesn't convey much about income distribution; if Bill Gates walked into a bar the 'average income' of everyone in the bar would increase by about a billion dollars!

Besides, Europeans invest their wealth into other important things besides income that benefit everyone equally, such as quality health care, child care, more vacations, more generous retirement pensions, paid parental leave after childbirth, free or nearly free college education, affordable housing, supportive senior care, better parks and more. In today's economically insecure age, quality of life is not only about income levels but also about adequate support institutions for families and individuals. If the average American has more income than a European, how come Europeans have a much higher savings rate than Americans?

[NotSure]

You are a strange person, you advocate more aircraft carriers and at the same time a more European style economy. If you do the maths you will probably end up needing a 300% tax rate to pay for all your desires.

[Episiarch]

BUT THE CHINKS ARE COMING TO GET US!!!

[Ska]

So he gimme'da watch...

[Sam]

The last time I checked the US didn't prevent anyone from emigrating. Go ahead and move to Canada or Sweden if you want. You can give up 60 percent of your pay in income tax and pay 25 percent sales tax. I studied hard to get two degrees and work hard for a decent pay check. I have 1 kid and a modest house. I'm not giving up another damn dime in taxes to subsidize someone who dropped out of high school, has 5 kids or spent beyond their means.

[The Truth]

Shorter Sam:

"I've got mine, FUCK YOU!"

The libertarian "philosophy" in a nutshell.

[Episiarch]

THE CHINKS ARE COMING FOR OUR WOMEN AND OUR MONIES! RUN!!!

[Mr Whipple]

Yes. Holding people accountable for their actions (or inaction) is a horrible thing. Mommy and Daddy were always there to bail me out when I blew all my money on crack and whores. So should the government.

[Mr Whipple]

Not that I have anything against spending money on crack and whores, as long as one is responsible about it.

[Edwin]

no, he's actually right there. You would much more quickly solve all your issues you have with this country by moving

not everybody who espouses liberal dogma could be said to be a hypocrite, becuase one could genuinely prefer to stay here and try to change things in our country, but the hysterical way many liberals talk about our lack of supposedly essential public services while choosing to stay doies make a lot of them full of shit

[Just An Engineer]

I worked hard and earned mine while you were smoking pot on your couch, so yeah FUCK YOU.

[Sam]

Success is not a zero sum concept. If I'm successful because of my hard work it doesn't mean you can't also succeed. And it doesn't obligate me to pay for your irresponsibility.

[The Truth]

Those poor kids were so irresponsible in choosing to be born to wrong mother, huh?

99% of your life is already decided just by what kind of circumnstances you're born into. If you were Somalia, or for that matter born in Detroit to a janitor, chances are you wouldn't be nearly as successful.

[Mr Whipple]

DRINK!!!!

[Curly Howard]

I'm a victim of soicumstance.

[Curly Howard]

I'm a victim of soicumstance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxAk3B_zS5k

[Bill Clinton]

If you work hard, and play by the rules, you should be rewarded.

[The Truth]

BTW, you remind me of the cat in this cartoon:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dvIn.....oto-1.jpeg

[Mr Whipple]

Voluntarily choosing to help others, and being forced at gun point to help others, are two, very different things.

[The Truth]

Have you ever *actually been mugged*?

Whiny fucking babies. Nobody comes to your house with a gun April 15th.

[Mr Whipple]

Yes, I have been mugged. And I've been locked up for an extended period of time. One hurts more than the other. Can you guess which one? Have you ever been locked up?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Shorter The Truth:

"FUCK YOU, DAD!"

The progressive "philosophy" in a nutshell.

[Ted S.]

A good portion of the European leftist philosophy is "I've got yours, FUCK YOU!"

That, and "Xenophobia is awful unless it's our anti-American xenophobia, in which case it's suddenly virtuous."

[califronian]

define "poverty".

I don't think that word means what you think it means.

[Edwin]

poverty -

from the french "poivre",

noun - the state of being full of peppers

[R C Dean]

Umm, racist?

[Concerned Citizen]

does Europe have the descendents of slaves reproducing as fast as possible to get bigger welfare checks?

[The Truth]

Wow. Just wow.

Normally libertarians keep their racism just below the surface, but sometimes their real motivations come out.

[Mr Whipple]

Normally libertarians keep their racism just below the surface, but sometimes their real motivations come out.

Wrong.

3.5 Rights and Discrimination

We condemn bigotry as irrational and repugnant. Government should not deny or abridge any individual's rights based on sex, wealth, race, color, creed, age, national origin, personal habits, political preference or sexual orientation. Parents, or other guardians, have the right to raise their children according to their own standards and beliefs.

http://www.lp.org/platform

[spencer]

They also are demonstrably less free in those countries. Freedom has a price. Some of that is people are free to fail and be left to die in the dirt.

Sorry, but that's the way it is.

[Shorter "TheTruth"]

"FEEEEEEEEEEEEEED MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE -- !!!"

[Edwin]

federal taxes on the ownership of boats. taxes on other luxury items. Taxes on the ownership of single-family real estate greater than $1 million in value. Taxes on the ownership of cars greater than $70,000 in value.

Taxes to be paid on vacations - people would have to prove if their leaving the country was for business.

Hell, just create a point system based on assets and income, and people over a certain level of "wealth" get a head tax. That is literally just tax the rich for being rich.

Just some ideas I have come up with.

Even if we did all that, we still would not be able to pay our debts and unfunded liabilities, especially if there are more wars and/or natural disasters.

This is where liberals like Tony fail.

I'd be willing to pay heavier taxes and my future potential wealth from my trust fund and business take a hit if congress would actually lower spending significantly. Yes, even those extreme taxes mentioned above. But congress would still have to lower spending significantly. And yes, Tony, fr4om the military too.
But liberals like Tony aren't willing to budge on the issue.

[Auric Demonocles]

This new Edwin is confusing me.

[Edwin]

R-tard, I never said I was a fan of taxes or liberals, you morons keep saying that, because your knee-jerk reaction to anyone disagreeing with you is to yell "socialist!". Noting that you morons are wrong about the basic concept of taxes especially where you call it theft doesn't make one a fan of high taxes - every idiot on the planet could tell you how wrong you are with your basic claims about taxes.

so yeah, obviously it is spending that needs to be lowered. It WOULD also be reasonable to raise taxes to help lower the debt - see that? it's called being reasonable. That's why I'm not a libertarian, because I'm reasonable and actually think things through. I would rpefer NOT to pay more taxes, but it could be part of a REASONABLE COMPROMISE with the democrats/liberals to get spending lowered so that the debt could be lowered. Compromise, ever heard of it? You're not the only person in the world and the world doesn't revolve around you and you aren't in fact completely independent and you do owe society basic behavior and a little basic acquiescence, especially considering that you CHOOSE to reside in this country/your country of choice, gaining the benefits of modern civilization.

[Mr Whipple]

Fuck you. I create the benefits of modern civilization. I CHOOSE to serve my community by providing a quality product for a reasonable price. You, obviously CHOOSE to be a slave, and force slavery on others.

[Edwin]

so being taxed is the same as being forced against your will to work all day long for some asshole, on pain of MORE whippings (the whippings happen no matter what), working some 14-16 hours a day, since you also need to feed yourself, and your body belonging to the slaveowner, which can be a big problem if you're a woman, and the slaveowner can kill you if he feels like it?

got it

[Edwin]

yes, you CHOOSE to live in a society where everybody respects your property rights, and they are enshrined in law, and courts and cops strongly protect those rights. So you have to fucking pay for it. I never see libertarians bitching about HOA dues, which are essentially the same, choice-wise.

speaking of choice, other people did NOT choose to not have the roperty you have. They're not allowed to drive your car or sleep over in your house if times get tough for them - and they didn't choose that. Or how about land ownership? Did anybody choose that you get to restrict people from a piece of the Earth, which you had no hand in making, just because some asshole 200 years ago was good at killing injuns? didn't think so

so fuck yourself and your supposed choices

[Edwin]

if I live in a condo or a house in a subdivision, I get to use the pool whenever I want, whether I want that right, but I also have to pay for it, again, whether or not I want to

Yes, I have the choice of leaving the HOA/condo unit. Just like you have the right to leave this country whenever you want. As a matter of fact, it's easier and less costly to leave this country than it is to sell your unit or leave a lease. So much for property rights giving people freedom

[spencer]

Wait, so we tax their money when they get it. We tax it when they spend it, and then we tax it again on a regular basis because of what they spent it on?

This is a joke right?

[Tony]

I've never said tax cuts are the only solution... there's plenty of spending I'm willing to do away with, particularly in defense and pointless corporate subsidies.

But repealing the Bush tax cuts would save $4 trillion over 10 years.

I'm no deficit hawk but if I were, I would propose cutting and raising that leaves behind the least amount of misery possible. That means the first place to go to are those tax cuts.

I think the compromise is talking about deficits at all when we still have high unemployment. If we're going to play the game where we pretend Republicans are fiscally responsible and bow to their demands that we put the budget more in balance via immediate-term changes, then I'm only in favor of cuts and tax hikes that don't halt economic growth.

[Edwin]

I disagree with the idea that tax revenue could most effectively be raised through corporate taxes. There are too many issues with that effecting business and incentives. A lot of that money being taxed would normally go to buying equipment and paying salaries.

There is plenty of money taxable from the rich directly that wouldn't directly effect businesses and production were it taxed. In other words, if you want to tax the rich, actually tax the rich. Doing the corporate tax thing is just weird and obfuscating because of the double taxation thing. Wanna tax the rich? Then actually apply taxes to the rich. GE isn't a rich person, it's a company, the fatty glarbo with the yacht who plays golf half of his life (the most impotent of sports) and cheats on his wife with prostitutes and owns GE stock is the rich guy.

[Lil Jon]

YEAH!

[califronian]

Leviathan cannot be sated. Ever. It doesn't matter how much or how little tax revenue it gets.

[Curly Howard]

I'm a victim of soicumstance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxAk3B_zS5k

[Curley Howard]

I'm a victim of soicumstance

[Curley Howard]

Fucking spam filter. That was a response to:

99% of your life is already decided just by what kind of circumnstances you're born into.

[heller]

I'm amazed The Truth can manage the mental effort it takes to continue breathing.

[Warty]

He called us racists and cats, dude. Much worse, he seems to think there's something wrong with being a kitty. Fuck him.

[The Wine Commonsewer]

And, of course, Stephen King doesn't know shit from breakfast. He's paying a cadre of accountants to keep him in the 28% bracket, which ends at around $210,000.00.

Show of hands? How many people believe that King's royalties are under $210,000.00 a year?

[*]

According to Forbes is was $34 Million in 2010.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/20....._BJH0.html