Clo,
You don't seem to get it: as a nation we are WAY past bankrupt. There is NO way out and the more we borrow from here the harder the fall will be and the more likely it is that the fall will come under the worst possible circumstances. The situation is not really any different than if an individual or a family or a business were bankrupt. You are mistaken in your belief that the size of the fictitious entity known as a “country” conveys some sort of wisdom or mystical power. The US as a fictitious entity is particularly stupid, sociopathic, and deranged; it is not wise at all and it has no mystical power. Would you advise an individual or a family or a business to BORROW MORE to ease their bankruptcy problems? Would you recommend an individual or family or business to take up ROBBERY AT GUNPOINT as a sensible way out of their self-induced bankruptcy?? Would you tell an individual or family or business which is BANKRUPT (liabilities exceed assets beyond any possibility of pay off) that they MUST make good on their bills? Or, at some point, would you face reality and try to salvage something and start over? What the hell makes you think a government is any different than any other fictitious entity? Actions have consequences, Clo, and -- just as with an individual, family, or business -- the more the government legislates or taxes or counterfeits or ... think of any other act of criminality and oppression ... the more blow back there is … the worse the side effects and the more the inefficiency becomes. "They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work." was the inside joke in the FORMER USSR world power aka "workers paradise". There is a lesson in there, Clo: a government cannot EXTRACT without blow back. People wise up and they act rationally. If they can’t escape they start acting passive aggressive … or worse.
Now I agree that capital gains tax should not be LESS than ordinary income tax. I really think this is just a matter of common sense stemming from understanding the law of human behavior. I believe this even though I have a lot of capital assets and make a lot of money when I occasionally sell a capital asset. But there are plenty of special interest groups -- including pension fund owners and managers (your retirees, not just your “billionaires”) -- who don't want common sense...and so far have ruled the day.
But is it so much a matter of capital gains taxes should go up or that ordinary income taxes should come down? It is just a LAW of human behavior (it's a law, Clo, it can't be twisted without giving really twisted results...as the USSR demonstrated) that
what you punish you get less of and what you reward you get more of. So taxing PRODUCTION (ordinary income) MORE will get you LESS PRODUCTION. Does that seem like a really bright idea: reduce production so we can reduce national wealth … so we have LESS income to pay welfare and charity? Hmmm?
You never did respond to my analogy of the pimp who kidnapped your grandchildren, "promised" them to some Johns, and then asks you and the grandchildren to "make a deal". *I* have ZERO moral obligation to live up to some "promises" made by a bunch of criminals in Washington without my consent and against my morals and, further, in violation of ALL common sense and economic/financial/mathematical rules. This was an easy SCAM for generations of politicians to make and it was an easy SCAM for generations of voters to vote for. The politicians -- including Clinton, whom you love so much -- **EMBEZZLED** the money that WAS paid in. But the voters themselves, the people you claim are "owed" NEVER DID PAY IN ANYWHERE NEAR THE AMOUNT THEY WOULD HAVE HAD TO PAY IN TO GET THE BENEFITS THEY NOW CLAIM THEY HAVE A "RIGHT" TO EXTRACT. And they kept VOTING for more cons!! So those who banked everything on “social security” or other WELFARE getting them through their old age, or who thought they were being so clever by selecting ONLY politicians who would lie the most to them, are supposed to be protected from reality … from taking responsibility for their own sort of dishonesty and sloth? This may sound harsh, Clo, but what else can you say when a person persists in self destructive delusion and behavior, when they refuse to grow up?
Clo, the deal CAN'T be kept. The country is bankrupt. Most of the promises MUST be reneged upon. It is just a matter of how that reneging -- that failure to keep promises made by past pimps to eager and complicit Johns -- is going to be worked out.
Your idea that you -- or some politician you select -- is going to somehow FORCIBLY EXTRACT that money from other people who have their own plans, mobility, and options is delusional. Seriously delusional.
The money is GONE, Clo. If you voted for Obama or Clinton or Bush or Reagan, or any of their cohorts in the Senate or House, you ASSISTED in the heist. As a nation we persisted in our greed and delusion and we kept only and always voting for obvious crooks. So we got the predictable result: the money is gone. It ain’t coming back via more taxes and graft and insistence that pimps keep promises.
Ok. So with that settled are we okay with cut, cap, and whatever now? ;-) Personally, I think the best effort should be made to take care of the aged and infim as best we can. But our best years of taking care of others as if money were no object are behind us. We can face that FACT and get to the hard work or keep screwing around, finger pointing, lying, pimping, and hoping that more delusion or drugs or non productive behavior will somehow -- magically -- make reality comply with our fantasy.
The grandchildren don't owe ANYTHING, but maybe retribution, to the pimps and the Johns, Clo. Surely you can figure that out?
I have come to realize that men are not born to be free. Liberty is a need felt by a small class of people whom nature has endowed with nobler minds than the mass of men. -Napoleon
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