WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that a new value-added tax on Americans is still on the table, seeming to show more openness to the idea than his aides have expressed in recent days.
Before deciding what revenue options are best for dealing with the deficit and the economy, Obama said in an interview with CNBC, "I want to get a better picture of what our options are."
After Obama adviser Paul Volcker recently raised the prospect of a value-added tax, or VAT, the Senate voted 85-13 last week for a nonbinding "sense of the Senate" resolution that calls the such a tax "a massive tax increase that will cripple families on fixed income and only further push back America's economic recovery."
Re April 14 article, “Tea Party Express roars into region”: The 59-yearold retired Amsterdam fi refighter, selfdescribed libertarian and “Tea Party” rally attendee quoted as being worried about “socialism” should look in the mirror. Last I checked, Amsterdam’s fire department was wholly publicly owned, operated and financed with taxpayer dollars. That looks a lot more “socialistic” than anything in the recently passed health care legislation. Moreover, the generous taxpayerfunded pensions provided such public employees, which allow them to retire in their 50s, surely have something to do with the increasing tax burden that the Tea Partiers rail against.
Andrew doesn't mention the welfare bums who are retired at 30 years old collecting a welfare check for being smart enough to know how to defraud the welfare system. And if they are not smart enough, there is a social worker that will educate them on how to defraud the system.
I'm not sure that fire departments are federally or state mandated. Each local government can choose how their residents are best serviced, unlike Obamacare, where the federal government is choosing for you, and forcing it onto the residents of each state.
After reading Carl Strock’s April 18 column [“Tea Partiers nix socialism, sometimes”], I was in shock! For once in my life, I agreed with him. The Tea Party scares me. Their anger borders on radicalism. I was amused when one of them stated, “I want the government to keep their hands off my Medicare,” while Medicare is a government-run health care program which I have enjoyed having for the past year. They yell and scream but don’t offer any solutions to our problems. I have never been a Sarah Palin fan — less so now that she seems to be heading up the Tea Party. Can anyone out there really picture her running this country? Too bad we didn’t clone Harry Truman — he might have some suggestions for us. Will I keep reading Carl Strock? “You betcha.”
I wonder how long Donna is going to feel this way when she is denied treatment, or her doctor refuses to accept Medicare, or when some procedures are not allowed to her because of her age and her Medicare insurance payment goes up. Many of the Tea Party members are on Medicare and can see to problems that will arise in the future and the cost to the country will bankrupt the system. The government has been running the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid systems for many years now and all of them are broke which is a look into the future of our Heath-Care system as it stands right now it will become unsustainable.
Stats can be made to say ANYTHING....and make one feel as if they pertain to one thing when they dont.....
I want lower taxes, sure, but I'm not deluded into thinking that America has the largest supply of clean drinking water for free.....WE PAY FOR IT......
here's the deal-----I WANT VALUE------not some puffed up, pompus, slick, podium thumper to talk down to me telling me how hard I have it and that they really care and will do something for me(and they make it sound like they do it for nothing, bullsh!t).....
as for some big ole survival system---way too personal for the government to take on......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
If Carl Strock is still curious as to why “the Angry Ones” are upset, he needs look no further than the April 22 Gazette’s front page. State Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. is a poster boy for Tea Party anger: Fraud, theft, nepotism, campaign finance violations dating back to 1996 — why shouldn’t voters be angry? And if Mr. Strock believes the Tea Party to be paranoid and delusional, he should read his own April 22 column [“Under fire, Ely calls cops, justifies self”] again. Two “armed, shaved-headed” police officers standing ready to arrest any citizen bold enough to criticize their elected officials and employees? That’s not America — that’s the police state of George Orwell’s 1984. But perhaps it’s best if Carl not support the Tea Party in his column — under 18 U.S. Code 2385 [advocating overthrow of government], that could get him up to 20 years in jail.
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