Here is the big problem for Democrats:
The Republicans are correct when they say that we have not had a new idea for the past 50 years.
They are also right when they say that we have had no real national platform/agenda that we stand for.
I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but at least I have a platform/agenda that I stand for.
I want the federal government to do more and spend more to help our citizens who are poor, near-poor, lower-middle-class, and middle-class who are struggling to survive and to pay their bills. I want the national Democratic Party to be the way that it was in the 1960s when we cared more about all of these people and fought harder to make life better for all of them.
The problem with the national Democrats is that they have offered no way to pay for anything that would help to make life better for us.
So, we are stuck, and have been spinning our wheels for the past 50 years doing virtually nothing to help anyone.
It’s no wonder why people are sick and tired of us. We haven’t offered anything new or different. I’m a Democrat, and I am also sick and tired of us.
The only way to get the revenue to actually do something big to help Americans is something that the national Democrats seem to lack the courage and bravery to advocate for. So I will.
Donald Trump proposed it in 1999. Look it up.
The only way to get the revenue to fund my platform/agenda is to pass a National Wealth Tax. If you want to play “Robin Hood” (as I do) you have to tax WEALTH because that’s where the big bucks are.
So, I advocate for the passage of a National Wealth Tax of 10% on all individuals with a net-wealth and net-worth of $10 million and higher. This will affect less than 1% of our population.
If we want to have a Canadian-style national health insurance program which will cover and help 99% of all Americans, this is the only way to come up with the money to pay for it.
Sincerely,
Stewart B. Epstein
Rochester, New York 14624
phenom51@mail.com
P.S. I am a retired college professor of Sociology and Social Work. I taught at West Virginia University, Slippery Rock University, and SUNY-Brockport.
Now don”t get me wrong, I think there room for a lot of emprovement in the Dem party but Dem’s did get the afore able care act past so I would say they accomplished something that was apposed by many special interest groups, big money and the Rep. Party. Just think of all the people it has helped in this country.
Republicans call Dem. Tax and spend but guess who expanded medicare so that it would cover drugs, which was the biggest expansion in Medicare’s history. Why did the Rep. Do it? Because seniors started buying thier drugs in Canada to save money. So in 2003 the first term of George W. Bush with a Rep. Controlled Congress they made it against the law to buy drugs out of the country (which was apposed by most Dem.) and then the Rep. Controlled congress expanded medicare making tax payers pay for seniors drugs also making it against the law to negotiate drug prices, signed into law by George W. Bush.
I think there is coruption on both sides of the Isle but the Rep. Party is by far the worse of the two.
Yeah ok Stewart, the Dems never used tax hikes to try to pay for there new ideas. Your solution is so groundbreaking, I don’t know how no one came up with that. DB needs to stop with these normie post made by individuals not even effected by the “Local News.” Is there nobody left in Franklyn County with an opinion or a soapbox? What do you expect from some slavebrain from The People’s Republic of “N”ew York? By the way Mr.(I presume) Epstein, Demoncrap and Rebublicons both sold you out a long time ago, but make sure you wave your donkey meme flag and chant USA!USA!USA!USA!
Damn rich people, smarter and more ambitious than me. Let’s punish them!!!
Why is the DB posting this stuff? Nothing to do with anything local. Maybe it’s because it’s from a liberal?
They were also smart enough to chose smart parents who could send them to expensive colleges while other kids were sent off to wars for someones oil profits or to die in distant jungles. Sheesh! As a “captain”you should know this.
What is missing here is any accurate, in depth, enquiry into the nature of JUSTICE. To take 10% from those who earn or have a lot a lot of money without a careful and compelling statement of the nature of JUSTICE is needed. It seems to be unjust for the government to simply take income of people by a vote of the legislature. What many of us, I’m sure, would like to be led to understand are all sorts of things the government does but without any justification based on the nature of justice for examples, is the death penalty just, is the boarder wall just, is a sales tax just are all laws and rules with the force of law, just because a legislative vote has been passed , are the article in the Bill Of Rights just, etc. etc. etc. What is missing is any clear compelling analysis of the nature of justice.
The author writes that those with 10 million dollars of net worth or more have to be taxed 10 % because “…that’s where the big bucks are.” Is not much of a justification. But what of people with a net worth of 9 million 990 thousand dollars. They get off, excused from the “National Wealth tax !!!!! Is that just?
What America needs is a crystal clear analysis and adoption of an account of the nature of JUSTICE
Tax the top 10% more, Next tax the top 10% more then tax the top 10% more. You keep doing this and everybody is taxed more. Why not just get rid of deductions and go to a flat tax?
30, 40,or 50 years ago, I would be a little more in favor of helping people. But the classes are not stationary, they’re fluid, people move up and down and down and up every day. There are countless programs, both privately funded and government funded aimed at helping people to better themselves. In this day and age of technology, 90% of the people in this country has a smartphone with internet capability, locating these programs is as easy as a Google search. There are programs that cover everything from childcare to transportation to secondary education. The only reason for people to not better themselves is laziness and a mountain of excuses. People have it in their head that raising taxes on the rich will solve everything. Here is why it won’t, the top 10% will just put more money in offshore accounts so the government can’t touch it. And to fund all the programs that leftists want to fund will cost somewhere north of $60 trillion over 10 years, if we taxed the top 1%, at 100% that is only $616 billion, where is the rest going to come from? If we stopped paying the UN we gain another $150 billion, still not enough, if we quit paying for Amtrak, $1.2 billion, nope, not there yet we need to hit at least $16 trillion a year, stop funding the program to find out why chimps throw their poop(a real program, dems fund it) $1.6 million, NASA and their manned mission to Mars dietary menu $2 million. There just isn’t enough money to fund everything, that is a cold hard fact. Even here in Maine, we don’t have the money. Do you think leftist Stephen King is going to let himself be taxed another 10% on top of the 38% he already pays? That’s what people don’t understand, rich people can afford to move their money and themselves to places without the high tax burden. Taxation, without representation. We fought a war over that. The working class people want to tax the rich without giving the rich a choice, it is why it failed 2 years ago because the smart people knew what the leftists were up to.
Potato, so you’re essentially saying the parents of veterans aren’t smart?
Hey, Hrtless: I wonder #1) how many people will read your response #2) understand it #3) even care
I, for one, am so pissed at the upcoming spending, I want to choke someone.
Back in the 1970’s my father was in real estate, at the time real estate prices were increasing very fast and he made a bundle. He told me he was in a 50% tax bracket because of his income. He wasn’t any smarter because he made more money and he didn’t get out of real estate because he felt he was paying too much income tax. Since then taxes for high income people have dropped and dropped. In the same period taxes have gone up for middle income americans. But ha if you think doctors that make big incomes after they go to colleges that are subsidized by tax payers (they all are) is OK or insurace is high because they lobby our government then go for it. I have plenty and a little more is fine with me. Thank you for helping out.
Richy, People in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s paid 70% for the highest earners on their total income, for the same reason the highest tax was 94% in 1944, wars are expensive, in 1944 the defense budget was $600 billion equal to $8.5 trillion today, in 1970 the military budget was $400 billion or $2.6 trillion today. In 2018 our military budget is $700 billion. Current taxes on the top 10% barely covers that. Now let’s use Jeff Bezos CEO of Amazon and current richest man in the world, you know how much money he paid in income tax? 32% on $81,000. $81,000 is his yearly salary from Amazon. Amazon cleared $5 billion last year, do you know how much in corporate income tax Amazon paid last year? None. Here is why, it is all unrealized income, exists on paper only. If I have a 1971 Hemi Cuda worth $2.1 million I don’t have to pay income tax on it until I sell it, but what if I never sell it, just use it as collateral on a $25,000 bank loan, take the loan invest it and turn that $25,000 into a $1 million, pay the loan back and buy bonds with the rest, I can then use the bonds as collateral for another loan, and repeat the process until I get super rich or go broke, without ever having to pay a dime in income above on the income I declare, if I work and only earn $50,000, I only pay income tax on $50,000 even though I might have a few billion in the bank, it’s not earned income, it is a loan from various banks therefore I don’t have to pay taxes on it. Now do you see why taxing the top 10% will get us nowhere?
Dear Mr. Stewart B. Epstein of Rochester, New York,
You sound like you are a very smart man in spite of what you say and you should be very proud of that, but then it looks like you already are, so never mind that. I live way up in the mountains in Maine and I am not as smart as you. It is nice of you to write to us up here to teach us this important and complicated information. You must have many friends. Many of mine are dead. I am very old and I have done and seen alot of things, some of which I can still remember. Can you answer my question? Thank you. Good Bye.
Planet
“Potato, so you’re essentially saying the parents of veterans aren’t smart?”
Some parents of veterans have paid more that others
Suggested reading “Skin In The Game, Poor Kids and Patriots” MGen (Ret) Dennis Laich
No Chuck,he means he is not smart. He knows what I meant. He just doesn’t want to risk of offending his other aliases thereby averting a fierce argument that would upset the tranquility of Mother Planet’s basement
Mumma say I smart, potato not have brain. She say bad words from snowflakes not hurt me now. Mumma says never offend aliens or I get ouchy from laser beam.
I still think that Steve Forbes has the best idea. Simply tax EVERYONE at the flat rate of 10%. So, no matter how much you make, you are paying your fair share, but not more than your share.