A BILLION in POLITICS

[Davaroo]

Even my wife Lori, a staunch liberalist spender, thought this was thought provoking.
Regardless of your political leanings, I hope we can keep it without getting it modded out. Everyone behave on this one, ok?

HOW MANY ZEROS IN A BILLION?

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend for most of us, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of it's releases.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D. A billion days ago, no one walked the earth on two feet.

E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.


Now, while this thought is still fresh in your brain... let's take a look at one current example, the city of New Orleans.
We'll just apply a little simple division to see what we can learn.

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D) is presently asking Congress for 250 BILLION DOLLARS to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number that one... but what does it mean?

A. Well... if you were one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, and child) you'd each get $516,528.

B. Or... if you have one of the remaining 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.

C. Or... if you are a family of four in the Big Easy, your family gets $2,066,012.

None of which WOULD happen. This money is to rebuild the city, not go into anyones pockets... well not any of the residents.

=============================================
Now, here's a glimpse into where these BILLIONS OF DOLLARS come from.

Accounts Receivable Taxes
Building Permit Taxes
CDL License Taxes
Cigarette Taxes
Corporate Income Taxes
Dog License Taxes
Federal Income Taxes/Federal Unemployment Taxes (FIT/FUTA)
Fishing License Taxes
Food License Taxes
Fuel Permit Taxes
Gasoline Taxes
Hunting License Taxes
Inheritance Taxes
Inventory Taxes
IRS Interest Charges (Those are taxes on top of taxes)IRS Penalties (more taxes on top of taxes)
Liquor Taxes
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Taxes
Medicare Taxes
Property Taxes
Real Estate Taxes
Service charge taxes
Social Security Taxes
Road Usage Taxes (Truckers, drivers, motor cyclists, etc.)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Taxes
School Taxes
State Income Taxes
State Unemployment Taxes (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Taxes
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Taxes
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charge Taxes (taxes on money you pay, not earn, whether it appears regularly or irregularly?)
Telephone State and Local Taxes
Telephone Usage Charge Taxes
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Taxes
Vehicle Sales Taxes
Watercraft Registration Taxes
Well Permit Taxes
Workers Compensation Taxes

Many of these taxes are covert, too, snuck in when you aren't looking. I'm certain this isn't a complete list, either. So, the next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want these 'politicians' spending YOUR appropriated tax money.

Still think this is just another flippant, Davaroo moment? Well, I wouldnt blame you. And if this stuff wasn't true, it would be at least inanely funny.

But, not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago... and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. Things weren't perfect, of course, and times were admittedly different.
But we had no national debt, the largest middle class in the world at the time and Mom and Dad were raising their own kids.

So, what happened? Can you spell 'politicians'? Not Democrats or Republicans, but the people on both sides of the Congressional aisle. The same guys who claim they can talk nice to muderous terrorists.
The same folks who fight the deportation of drug-dealing illegals - for fear that they'll lose their chance to become US citizens if sent home.

And I still have to press '1' for English?!

We're being force fed the notion that we need "change" - in everything. The change we need is not progressive, but retrogressive. Go on up and re-read the above... please. We've had change, for the last 100 years. Frankly, I'm fed up with it.

 

[DuckLady]

I think some of those are really classified as fees.

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Youre right.
Isn't that what a tax really is? A fee you pay, over and above, in return for... what?

 

[DuckLady]

Exactly.
Person 1..."I paid $1000 in taxes!!"
Person 2..."You poor thing, I only paid $600 in taxes, and then only $400 in fees. Too bad about all thoise taxes you paid!"

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Quote:
We do need change.

We need parents to take responsibility for their children and their children's behavior. We need to take back the inner cities from criminals and drug addicts.

We need dads and moms who don't have custody to get involved in their children's lives. We need young people to THINK THINK THINK before getting married and having kids. We need birth control.

We need to spend less on charity and force people to get out, get jobs, and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps; I'm sick of people toting Bridge cards, Nike shoes, fancy nail jobs and hairdos and cell phones (in college, I worked at a grocery store and stuff like this ticked me off...I couldn't afford anything like that and I wasn't on welfare).

We need to respect the aged and take care of them, rather than dumping them into nursing homes and retirement villages and forgetting about them.

We need to become less dependent on gasoline. A HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT invented a car that runs on recycled vegetable oil from McDonald's. I have no doubt the big car companies can do even better.

We need to respect our school teachers instead of making them the laughingstock of our culture. Maybe if we gave them some respect, kids would, too. It's like that in Japan, and look at THEIR test scores.


We forget that our country was built BY immigrants. We need a system that allows immigration to continue but in a legal manner, rather than assuming a snobbish stance that is supposedly "patriotic" rather than completely forgetful of our ancestors' shared experiences. I don't want to watch another 4.0 Hispanic student dissolve in tears because she can't go to college without a Social Security number (her parents brought her to the US when she was only 1; she doesn't even know what it's like to live in Mexico).

I think a lot of old people are getting scared because the younger generation is beginning to take over the country... That's just how it goes. Technology has changed our lives forever and the past -- as it was -- will never return. The world is flat and immediately accessible anywhere, anytime, thanks to the Internet.

 

[DuckLady]

Let's not turn this into a political debate, ok?

 

[eggzettera]

Let face it the smartest thing the government did was make our employers the tax man. We never see that FICA money so we don't miss it. Both my parents, who are divorced & don't agree about ANYTHING, say that if people truly understood how much of their money was going to the gov't there would be a tax revolt...

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
Well, and if it hurt. Since it doesnt we dont notice. Terry is right this wasnt about politics but the state of mind we've come to.

"Retrogression for America," our new slogan.