Oh, my... I'm sorry, this appeared to be yet another RS7 feigning of interest in things politic just to be able to tell us all about The Life and Times of RS7 (and now Fido, of course). Oh, and don't forget the ever so tragic things that happen to RS7 (and how could we, the late wife has appeared on these pages numerous times).
A couple of things first. One, I'm sorry to hear about your first wife. Two, the Living March looks very interesting, although it looked like the participants are primarily Jewish but I'm sure it's something I will do in my lifetime. OK, having said all that let's move on here. Obviously I am not going to convince you that democrats are primarily representative of the working class and the unions and the republicans tend to be the class of the entrepreneurs and white collar crowd and there are animosities on both sides, let's leave that argument alone for a second. You have stated on this thread that you are not a liberal and not a democrat but rather an independent thinking person that votes on the issue and not the party. OK, fair enough. Let's put this to the test and straighten some things out. I'm going to ask you where you stand on a list of issues. Please have a response, don't say I don't know or I'm not sure, just think about where you are on that issue or at least where you are leaning. The first issue is taxes. Do you believe in a progressive tax structure? Do you believe in property taxes? Do you believe that stock dividends and long term capital gains should be taxed? Do you believe in the estate tax? Next issue, abortion. Do you believe in a woman's right to choose or do you belive in protecting the rights of unborn children? Where are you on the 2nd amendment? Where are you on universal healthcare? Do you believe in school choice i.e school vouchers and open competition for federal funds for schools? Do you believe national defense to be a top priority in this country? Do you believe in social welfare? Do you believe in corporate welfare? Do you belive in upholding the Constitution or do you favor removing certain words and changing the Constitution to represent modern times? There you go. These are not all the issues but certainly the major ones. Think about your answers, you are not trying to win anything here, it's not about being right or wrong. I just want you to be honest with yourself. The liberal answer is not the wrong answer. So be true to yourself. And one more thing. About your first wife. I can assure you that had the US government been in control of her health, the result would not have been different. A corrupt over sized, bureaucracy, like the government would not have been able to provide you any better health care. Yes, we have serious problems with our healthcare system. The biggest problem is we have a country of people that have chosen not to live healthy lifestyles and this is being representative of high premiums. Malpractice insurance for doctors is way too high, and we have too many individuals abusing the system without any accountability being brought down upon them. These problems can be fixed, but we have to fix them, not the government. Go ahead, think about these issues and give us your answer. Don't tell me what I want to hear. Be honest and explain your thoughts on these issues and we will have an intelligent debate about them.
Maverick...I think I can work with this...let me give it a shot. A couple of things first. One, I'm sorry to hear about your first wife. Two, the Living March looks very interesting, although it looked like the participants are primarily Jewish but I'm sure it's something I will do in my lifetime. Thanks for the comment about my wife...yeah, it was a rough deal (especially for my son...he was just 10) and soured me on the way health care was handled by the insurance companies. I hope you can understand. As for the March of the Living...yes, it is mostly, but certainly not exclusively attended by Jews. I would like to do it also. I have been told that while the tours of the death camps are very moving (as you would imagine), the thing that most people (and a lot of the participants are school age kids) are affected by the most is the actual intolerance the marchers are subjected to as they walk the streets in Poland. The Poles are very aware of why these people are marching, and they spit on them. To me, this is astounding. I have never been in Poland. I have been in Germany, and I felt no anti-semetism at all there. But the hatred of the Jews is very much alive and well in Poland (apparently), and it's important to see that this has not died off. It is a very scary thing, but a very real thing. And clearly when I say it is important, I don't mean important for Jews. I mean it is important for the whole world to see and be aware of. On to more pleasant things: The first issue is taxes. Do you believe in a progressive tax structure? Do you believe in property taxes? Do you believe that stock dividends and long term capital gains should be taxed? Do you believe in the estate tax? I do believe in a progressive tax structure. I hate paying taxes as much as the next guy, and a flat tax rate would benefit me personally. But as I mentioned before, I am grateful enough for being an American, I think it's worth the price. America has been good to me. I can't dwell on the fact that I am paying to much (and certainly not getting my money's worth). I think the most regressive taxes (ie: sales taxes) should be abolished. I can't see why Bill Gates and a person making minimum wage should be taxed the same on a pair of socks. Property taxes.....I think that this is one of the very few issues in which I believe a local government (town, county, etc.), should be involved. Really, since my kids went to public schools, and so did I, I guess I probably don't mind paying for a good education. Now my kids are done with school. And I CAN avoid paying those taxes. But not where I live. So we are, in a sense, given choices with property taxes. Pay more, get better schools and better community services (trash pickup, road maintenance, etc.). And of course, usage taxes can and in some cases do take some of the burden off homeowners. In the way of tolls, parking meters, whatever. Bottom line is the money has to come from somewhere. You probably know (like most traders) about revenue bonds, and GO bonds. So you also must understand that expenses can be covered with taxes, or by usage. Is it better to "tax and spend" or to "borrow and spend"? No real clear cut answers. But as far as all the little bullshit taxes, I hate them. I would rather pay a little more in income tax than get nickeled and dimed to death with utility taxes, sales taxes, phone taxes, parking meters, and on and on. But how realistic is it to eliminate all these pain in the ass taxes? We really would almost have to "un-invent" the technology that makes all these taxes trackable. But if a flat tax were instituted I would NOT be unhappy about it. But I do see a great degree of fairness in a progressive income tax. So I guess put me in the liberal camp on that one. (I hope I can make the rest of my answers shorter and more concise). Oh, I almost forgot....I think long term captal gains should be totally exempt. Same with dividends. But estate taxes are a different story...I have no problem with them. But the way they are handled needs work. I don't think it's reasonable that a poorly planned estate should be ruined. And I think real property should be exempt. And if not totally exempt, there should be a formula to ensure that no one is stuck with having to liquidate a home or property to pay the taxes. I think only if and when the property is sold should it be subject to estate taxes. Next issue, abortion. Do you believe in a woman's right to choose or do you belive in protecting the rights of unborn children? I don't believe in abortion. But I don't see any reasonable alternatives. Unless we make adoption much easier. And I do believe in protecting the right of the unbor" but only to a sensibel degree. And this is where it gets sticky. Because we each have our own varyiing definitions of what is sensible. But I will NEVER believe that a woman should be forced to give birth to a likely unhealthy fetus. I have a friend who's child was born with MD....the kid is now 19, and still cannot walk or talk. Still in a diaper. Health care (we are ALL paying for that insurance) has been in the millions of dollars. They CHOSE to have the baby. I would never ask if they regretted the decision, but I honestly don't see how they could not. Where are you on the 2nd amendment? I believe we should have the right to own a gun. I have said this before. I don't own a gun myself now, but I have. Many. However, I belive that guns should be licensed, and there should be guidelines on what KINDS of guns you can legally own. I see no reason for anyone to own a bazooka, or a heavy assault rifle. Or a .22 revolver (Saturday night specials). They serve no legitimate purpose. I know this may not make sense to a lot of anti-gun people, but it's how I feel. I think a cheap .22 or .25 is more of a danger than a 9mm or a .45. Where are you on universal healthcare My first thought is "against"....But show me the plans, and I will let you know. I do know we all need health insurance. We are never going back to the kind of medical treatment we had 40 or 50 years ago...$5 house calls and no expensive MRIs and CAT scans, etc. That stuff does have to be paid for. So we need something. And I for one would rather have an MRI than exploratory surgery. I like living in today's world as far as that goes. Do you believe in school choice i.e school vouchers and open competition for federal funds for schools? In theory yes. In reality no. School vouchers as we know them now, are just a way of circumventing the separation of church and state. It is a smokescreen. Better to put the money into improving our public school system. At least for now. Do you believe national defense to be a top priority in this country? Yes. Do you believe in social welfare? Do you believe in corporate welfare? I believe there has to be some kind of "safety net". When a mother is abandoned by a dead beat husband and has 3 or 4 kids at home, and no place to put them, then yes, I believe that mother should not be left to fall through the cracks. But I also believe that she should be put into job training or whatever it takes to "mainstream" her. Corporate welfare? Define that. If you mean closing all the tax loopholes that exlclude the biggest companies form paying taxes, I am certainly in favor of that. I owned small businesses. I paid taxes. Maybe I did not employ100,000 workers, but I did create jobs And I did pay taxes. And I had no real complaints. My big complaint about my expenses as a business owner? The insurance premiums. Too much litigation in our society. And it cost me a fortune in insurance because of that. Do you belive in upholding the Constitution or do you favor removing certain words and changing the Constitution to represent modern times? I believe very very strongly in upholding the Constitution as it is written. I see no reason to change wording. I believe that amending it as prescribed is as it should be. I believe that we will always need a Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution. So why re-word it? You may interpret what I say as the equivalent to re-wording it. I don't. I hope this makes sense to you. It could be a whole interesting thread though. And one more thing. About your first wife. I can assure you that had the US government been in control of her health, the result would not have been different I agree completely with this. The facts suck. And it was just bad fortune that she got sick during that window when she was stuck with the HMO. The very day she was able to switch to the PPO, she was able to schedule her ear surgery at the House Institute in LA. So her "good" insurance was great. And as I think I said, teachers do have very good health benefits. Better than anything I can pay for out of my pocket now. No matter how much I spend. So obviously, it is POSSIBLE to have great insurance. But I can't buy that kind of insurance.
RS, I wrote a very lengthy response and unfortuantely my cable modem got cut off before I could send it. I'm not sure I feel like re-writing that long post. Maybe later.
I know how that is. I think we have all experienced that. Also, if you write a long post on ET, and it exceeds the amount of characters, you just lose it all when you hit "send". Which is why I sent one of my responses to you in this thread in two parts. I wonder how Darkhorse seems to get a "bye' on this deal Also, not that it matters, but I re-read my last post..the response to your "poll" on my positions. I mentioned that a friend of mine had a child with MD...that was wrong. It is cerebral palsy. And it is a kind of interesting situation. This guy is a manufacturers representative. So he is self employed. This was his father's business. Then he took it over about 15 or so years ago. So he worked for his dad for a bunch of years before he bought him out, and the old man retired. But all along, the father had always had himself and his employees insured by being part of a group health policy. The group consisted of the employees of one of the manufacturers he represented. For I don't know how many years, this went very smoothly. Then this child was born with CP....After about two years, and a few million dollars in medical claims, the insurance company did a little investigating. And sure enough, they took the position that since my friend was working WITH the manufacturer, but was not actually an employee, he was not entitled to be part of the group. So they sued him for all the benefits that were paid. I remember that it was around two million dollars. And this was after just two years. The child was never going to be "cured", so the expenses were never going to cease. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the expenses aren't constantly going up. (other than the neo-natal care, which was behind them long before the insurance issue ever came to light. What happened ultimately was that they settled. He (my friend) had to return something like a million dollars to the insurance company. And he had no way of getting insurance for this kid. (talk about a "pre-existing condition). Now the good news is that he had the kind of wealth to pay the bills. Full time nurse 24/7...that will be forever. Lots of medications, daily physical therapy, just constant care. He is an exceptional case. Not many people can afford to do what he does out of pocket. So while no one WANTS to see the government foot these kinds of expenses, what are the alternatives? Private health insurance? How does a family that makes a combined income of $30k a year gross pay $10k (or more) a year in health insurance premiums for an average family of four? Is it much of a wonder that we have so many uninsured people? (and this is almost completely unique to America....highest medical care costs...highest cost of prescription drugs, and therefore highest health insurance costs). What is the solution? No national healthcare programs for those who cannot afford to put half their income into insurance premiums? And no abortions, so the problem becomes compounded? What you object to is easy to agree to in terms of ideals. But in terms of practicality.....in the real wold, denying benefits and/or the freedom of choice (re: abortion) just does not add up. Sometimes reality just sucks. Very sad. But very true. Peace, RS