Time to tax churches and NGOS.
Comments
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although I'm fairly sure is is not the case, it makes me feel better to believe that you are being intentionally incoherent.
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okay i think at this point jimmy is just trolling everyone lol.
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Peanut gallery-
believe it or not, Jimmy and I are making progress.
Jimmy-
Now, in those other countries that you state we have maintained religious freedom, do they all handle the:Net Income
Capital gains from investments
Real estate
and other taxes
for NGOs and religious institutions the same way we do as in the US?
Answer: No, they don't.
Therefore, one could change our present taxation of these entities and not create a state sponsored religion. Problem 1: solved
Which leads us to ....Problem 2. Can we figure out a way in which we can tax these entities and remain in compliance with the Separation of Church and State rulings of our own Supreme Court?
Such actions will likely take time, and there will be some mis-steps along the way. But I completely believe that as this nation moves toward one which is not dominated by one religion, we will attempt to tax the entities more and more.
For a while, we might have to euphemistically call them "fees".
...the time for taxing them has not yet arrived, but make no mistake about it: The tax man cometh.
Nobody rides for free.
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whynot_31 said:
Therefore, one could change our present taxation of these entities and not create a state sponsored religion.I'm not so much worried about a state-sponsored religion. As stated, it would inevitably be Christianity, which would be fine by me. I'm worried about government persecution of religions and religious organizations via tax policies.
Which leads us to ....Problem 2.Can we figure out a way in which we can change how we tax these entities and remain in compliance with the rulings of our own Supreme Court?
Such actions will likely take time, and there will be some mis-steps along the way. But I completely believe that as this nation moves toward one which is not dominated by one religion, we will attempt to tax the entities more and more.
For a while, we might have to euphemistically call them "fees".
...the tax man cometh.
Nobody rides for free.
In other words, you don't know how to enact such laws without violating the Constitution, but that shouldn't stand in anyone's way when there's taxes to be collected.
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The Constitution is a living document; the Supreme Court interprets it and applies it.
Yes, I think the Constitution will continue to live and breath, and serve the needs of the country.
The document is constantly referenced by people who are for and against taxation. If a document can get "used to something", the Constitution is used to be pointed at by both sides in a tax debate.
There is no need to worry about the Constitution; it will be fine.
...we just need to appoint a Supreme Court that will agree that our interpretation will serve the country best in the long and short term.
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Not charging churches, too me, is a violation of Separation. The government is excluding religious organizations from taxes because of the Tribe of Levi tradition. Where it states in the Old & New Testaments that the Tribe of Levi are holy and shall almost be a separate entity unto themselves. They literally get to eat the fat of the lamb and are excluded from most taxes and government service. Now, not to pick on the Catholic church, but they would have a good loophole to avoid taxes by stating that each church is an embassy unto the Vatican. And we all know how embassies work. religious organizations get the same benefits (if not more) and protections like the rest of American citizens and companies. Time for them to kick in their fair share.
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whynot_31 said:
Michael-
You got your skin tone back now that you died! Congratsyou know who he is haunting, the la corner(or where ever he died)!!
they check African American on that box!!! when they did the autopsy!!
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armchair_warrior said:
you know who he is haunting, the la corner(or where ever he died)!!they check African American on that box!!! when they did the autopsy!!
Maybe they looked at his birth certificate as they filled out his death certificate. Who knows!?
Poor Michael, everyone was out to get him.
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Taxes on the wealthy are at their lowest rate in modern history, the chasm between the nation's rich and poor is at pre-Depression levels, and, just as an aside, we're in a giant, jobless recession. What the ideologues are proposing is a flat impossibility, but they've staked their very reputations on somehow delivering it to their increasingly reality-impaired, cult-like base.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/14/994467/-The-debt-ceiling-vs-Eric-Cantors-ego
Stay stay strong Cantor-loving-tea-partiers.
There's no data or a single proven economic theory that supports your strategy, but by all means, keep at it.
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Well our current course of "promise now, pay for it later, call it 'progress'" isn't doing us too many favors either.
Not to mention, unless I'm mistaken, the left has been adamant about the sacredness (and consequential off-the-table-ness) of the ballooning of entitlement programs that are a huge part of this whole mess. So let's not play coy as if it's only been one side holding it up. Both sides have been unreasonably ridiculous in some of their demands, and the gravity of the situation has been undermined by this mindless circus. Just as the loudest voices on the right dry heave at the thought of even a transitional debt ceiling raising, so do the loudest voices on the left retch at the idea of even thinking of touching the entitlement programs that have grown to consume half the federal outlays. Bankruptcy = progress
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Obama is currently offering a deficit-repairing program of 3:1 in terms of spending cuts to closing tax loopholes (not even raising taxes, just closing loopholes). And Cantor is still crying to reporters.
Do not equate culpability in this mess.
In the face of a massive depression and miserable employment numbers, with corporations sitting on piles of cash and refusing to hire (b/c there's no demand, b/c people are out of work and have no extra money), austerity is literally the exact opposite of any strategy that any reasonable economic theory would advocate.
There is literally no school of theory (or example of success) that suggests that now is the time for austerity.
In fact, this is precisely the type of crisis that reasonable nations have a government for:
To help break an economic stalemate, get things rolling.
Also to provide job and health programs at a time of increasing unemployment, with less fortunate families being hit the hardest and being least able to deal with health or housing issues.
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OMG, I can't believe you two are having this conversation again.
Despite having 9000+ posts, I wonder where you get the energy.
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Current events are relevant to my beliefs.
I make observations.
It is what it is.
The Republicans, and specifically tea partiers, are a joke when it comes to economic policy during a time of great crisis.
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Boygabriel said:
Current events are relevant to my beliefs.I make observations.
It is what it is.
The Republicans, and specifically tea partiers, are a joke when it comes to economic policy during a time of great crisis.
A joke, as opposed to progressives suggesting we raise taxes on the group already paying the lions' share of taxes, and continue to support programs that have ballooned to the point that we are on the brink of a federal default.
El oh fucking el.
Not gonna get into the hilarity of the tax rate complaints (I've already decimated that), nor am I going to say again that I don't assign any culpability to the right. The whole thing is a freak show. But let's not ignore the debt laden elephants in the room that some equate to progress.
This is a fire sale BG. Everything must get slashed. More taxes are not the answer. The out of control growth of the government is what got us here, not tax cuts. The outpacing of the growth of our outlays vs our revenue/GDP shows this clearly. The only changes that should be made to taxes are the closing of loopholes & behavioral deductions.
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A joke, as opposed to progressives suggesting we raise taxes on the group already paying the lions' share of taxes
The group who's making the lion's share of the money? Who's income has skyrocketed over the past two decades while everyone's has stayed relatively stagnant? Yeah, that group.
It is just not true that public programs are the source of our deficit.
Currently single biggest source of our deficit is actually the Bush Tax Cuts, which were enacted in a time of surplus, were intended to expire (now would be a good time, with our debt problems) and never actually brought the trickldown effect that supplysiders all promised, and have been promising since the 80s.
Read more, I implore you:
This is a fire sale BG. Everything must get slashed. More taxes are not the answer. The out of control growth of the government is what got us here, not tax cuts. The outpacing of the growth of our outlays vs our revenue/GDP shows this clearly. The only changes that should be made to taxes are the closing of loopholes & behavioral deductions.
No argument here, public debt is a huge problem.
But the idea of tackling it during literally one of the worst economic downturns of the past 100 years, with systematic unemployment or underemployment going up up up, not to mention the very evil return of "speedup" (more productivity, stagnant wages) couldn't be more illogical.
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also:
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can we all agree we should cut the military spending a quarter is way too much, should be less than few percent like almost all places on earth!!!
also cut ss medicare etc...
raise taxes on everybody, but the poor people who don't pay taxes to begin with. close all the loop holes!! cut the pension of congress and president come on. you don't need no freaking money they are so rich these days isn't funny.
didn't obama raise like a billion lol. its obscene the amounts they'll use to win these things. hmm how bout use some of the money for the poor!! instead of throwing those fancy victory parties that gonna cost millions etc..
anyone who believes the democrats are really for poor people lol look at their personal spending should tell ya they don't give a rats ass as republicans lol.
i hate both parties yet people keep on voting for the two.
get laws pass to raise taxes on ngo's and religions.
and lower the repatriation money for companies who have money overseas. hell even europe doesn't have these high taxes on those things.
now i'm sure they are gonna hype the Iran threat and try to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan, blame them for funding the terrorist etc... if this fails, america is going to do something with china threat and use countries close to china to drum up threats etc....
the same people been operating american policies for half century now not even funny any more. actors have change but policies have stay the same no matter which parties are involved. How come nobody listens to Ike?
talk about Ike, I have no idea why they gave Kennedy the credit for the space program lol. it was Ike who funded the missile programs who lead to moon etc...
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and lower the repatriation money for companies who have money overseas. hell even europe doesn't have these high taxes on those things.
companies just hoard the money overseas until with come up with a "one time" exemption at a ridiculously low rate, every 10 years or so.
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I wish everyone luck on cutting defense.
The cynic in me says we should all either join the military, or sell things to them ....that seems to be where the jobs and $ are going.
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vidro3 said:
also:lol @ revenue during the Bush years.
And Armchair-
Stop saying the poor don't pay taxes. They most certainly pay taxes, they just don't pay INCOME tax (b/c they don't make enough to even pay any). They pay sales tax and payroll tax and a lot of other taxes just like everyone else. A significant percentage of their income goes to taxes, as is true for most Americans.
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armchair_warrior said:
can we all agree we should cut the military spending a quarter is way too much, should be less than few percent like almost all places on earth!!!Drastic cuts in defense spending are warranted. As well as changes in the bidding/contracting that leads to costs an order of magnitude higher than other countries.
also cut ss medicare etc...why? SS is in fine shape. Medicare costs are increasing rapidly but we need an overhaul of our healthcare system as a whole to help bring them down.
(fixed it vidro - BG)
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why? SS is in fine shape. Medicare costs are increasing rapidly but we need an overhaul of our healthcare system as a whole to help bring them down.
Our current philosophy as espoused by our leadership, and driven largely by tea party mentality, is that we'd rather have high-cost uncontrolled medical care for fewer people, rather than cheaper care for more people.
This is objective fact.
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Boygabriel said:
lol @ revenue during the Bush years.And Armchair-
Stop saying the poor don't pay taxes. They most certainly pay taxes, they just don't pay INCOME tax (b/c they don't make enough to even pay any). They pay sales tax and payroll tax and a lot of other taxes just like everyone else. A significant percentage of their income goes to taxes, as is true for most Americans.
my grammar sucks, i said but the poor
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why not ss, you have fewer people coming in eventually.
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armchair_warrior said:
why not ss, you have fewer people coming in eventually.not really, the generation born 1990-2000 was larger in absolute terms (though not % of population) than the baby boom generation.
SS has small problems which will equalize and go back to running a surplus over time.
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BG wrote:
Stop saying the poor don't pay taxes. They most certainly pay taxes, they just don't pay INCOME tax (b/c they don't make enough to even pay any). They pay sales tax and payroll tax and a lot of other taxes just like everyone else. A significant percentage of their income goes to taxes, as is true for most Americans.
Some of the poor also chip in by paying more liquor and cigarette taxes than the rest of us.
....one could also consider the lottery a tax. People with low incomes tend to buy more lottery tickets than then non-poor.
(um, wait....)
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