Comment Loc: California

They are called FICA taxes, (Federal Insurance Contributions Act). 12.4% of total wages must be paid into SS and 2.9% goes to Medicare. These percentages are split 50/50 between the employee and the employer. If one is self employed as I have been for the past 35 yrs. , one pays all, 15.3% on the first $113,700. For a small businessman making $113,700, property taxes, state and federal income taxes, FICA taxes, sales taxes eat up more that 50% of the sum. People that pay no taxes, 47% of the population have no skin in the game and they will readily turn to socialism, not to build themselves up, but to bring down that small business owner who works 7 day and 7 nights. If the t***sformation of wealth was going to build people up, The Great Society would have brought them up. It did just the opposite; after 100s of billions poured into welfare there are more people in poverty than anytime in history. The irony of this is that when one makes a lot of money the gov takes more than half. But, if one goes bankrupt they give none of it back. I have had that experience. Welfare is evil. If people were cut off they would rise above it, excepting, the very needy.

JQP Loc: Earth To Heaven

That's right, so you pay, and pay, and pay, and.......etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

AnnMarie Loc: Madison, Wi

I think most people (even the people who were most against it) came to like Medicare. I think the same thing will happen to Obamacare. I don't see how that opinion makes me a Marxist. We DO have majority rule. The majority of people chose Obama. The majority of people (1 million more v**es) chose Democratic congresspeople, but the republicans gerrymandered the districts. If we DID HAVE majority rule, we would not have a republican congress.

Be careful what you wish for.

VladimirPee

Democrats didn't gerrymander districts? Are you kidding? They created Black Congressional majority districts for decades. Check this one out. Carved out to increase the black v**e.

AnnMarie Loc: Madison, Wi

The party in power gerrymanders. Both sides. The point I made was that strict majority rule would have created a democratic congress.

I think gerrymandering is BAD for the American people-it lets more far right and far left politicians get elected by creating safe districts. Politicians pick v**ers instead of v**ers picking politicians. So the only thing the politicians have to worry about is the primary-so to appease their base, they get farther and farther to one side, refuse to compromise, (so they do not get primaried by an even nuttier person) and the result is GRIDLOCK. I like the idea of California-that every district drawn requires square lines, or Iowa, who has an independent board draw districts.

VladimirPee

California is one of the worst? Straight lines ?? Like a true Liberal. Say ridiculous things that can be easily disproven in 10 seconds.

Dave Loc: Upstate New York

Majority rule was against gay marriage, didn't seem to matter. Polls show the majority are against Obamacare, doesn't seem to matter. Gerrymandering was invented by Democrats to assure safe districts for minorities v****g for Democrats.

VladimirPee

Dave is correct. If we had a true Democracy we would v**e on every issue. Gay Marriage would fail. Obamacare would have never been passed.

Confused

Good point about the gerrymandering and redistricting . Medicare , however , is much different . It takes a small % ( ? 1.6 % ) and doesn't " mandate " that I pay for coverage I don't want . Example : A retired person being charged for birth control coverage and can't opt out . At least in the private market we can customize and only buy what we want . Another sticking point is the 20 % profit margin . The entire food industry ( grocery stores ) operates on a margin of 2 to 3 % . Where else will a government guarantee a profit margin like that ?

Confused

Just for the record let's break down that asinine 47 % comment from the corporate raider / candidate Romney . 50 % of them are drawing S.S. , which has been taxed in the year it was earned . Another 25 % use the tax codes to avoid paying anything . ( Romney paid NO income tax in 2008 & 2009 ) . That leaves about 25 % which includes students with summer jobs and low income earners ( like Wal Mart employees who we subsidize directly with SNAP and other programs already ) Why in the world should we subsidize Wal Mart's labor costs ?
Next class we will cover corporate welfare ( about 10 times the actual amount as the " welfare " you spoke of ) and tax loopholes ( 2.8 trillion a year ) .

VladimirPee

Actually the profit margin is not 20%. They must return 80% of the money for an individual that is not used for healthcare. What about the next person who gets a triple bypass for $150,000?

Confused

100 % minus the 80 % leaves 20 % profit . It is not figured on a case by case basis . The insurance companies actually wanted to add salary bonuses to the " cost of care " . B S .

VladimirPee

No actually the company could be losing money overall and still have to return money to an individual if less than 80% was used for their healthcare. Lets take 10 people

1-5 have no claims but paid in $5000 each or $25,000 Company has to return 80% to them or $4000 each
6-10 are cancer patients who had $225,000 in claims

Did the company make a profit?

bahmer

We lost majority rule a long time ago. Nobody wanted gay "homosexual" marriage but it was forced down our throat and even the throat of the military. We didn't want obamacare and it was run through in the dark of night by the democrat party without one republican v**e. In the schools today if there is one atheist or any other religion but usually atheist then school prayers become offensive what about majority rule there. If you put up Christmas decorations or a manger scene and somebody objects you have to take it down. If you put up cross or Easter symbols and one person objects you have top take them down. The ten commandments in a court house had to be taken down because an atheist objected. Majority rule is a joke in this country today. Maybe thirty or forty years ago we had majority rule but since we have all these socialist judges in office today it has become minority rule.

VladimirPee

The goal of socialism is c*******m.
Vladimir Lenin
One man with a gun can control 100 without one.
Vladimir Lenin
The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency.
Vladimir Lenin