Comments Posted By Nagarajan Sivakumar
Displaying 111 To 120 Of 136 Comments
TIME TO FORGET MCCAIN AND FIGHT FOR THE FILIBUSTER IN THE SENATE
Gustav,
A quick question - how much exactly do people earning say between 45,000 and 60,000$ contribute towards all those services you mentioned ?Do those people who earn say more than 125K have to pay more from their income for the same services ? I assume that you want them to feel "fortunate" that they are earning a high salary?
Why exactly should people earning more than a certain arbitrary amount that you decide give back more to "society" ? You think they get this money by chance and happenstance? You think that they dont contribute to society by creating jobs ?? Jobs that allow 95% of this country never to worry about creating jobs themselves? Jobs that allow 95% of the people in this country to live and of course be taxed by the Govt ?
Have YOU EVER created a job for some one else? Ever worked for a start up where you can see how difficult it is for your boss to meet his payroll every month ? Try starting a business on your own and see how it is when you are expected to pay for your employees health care, social security AND still manitain a profitable margin without which it is meaningless to start a business.
How absurd is it that people earning 245K are not touched with these tax increases while those earning 250K and above are hit ?
When Ayn Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged, she probably knew what was coming. She did try to warn us.
Comment Posted By Nagarajan Sivakumar On 16.10.2008 @ 21:29
funny man,
Conservative educated elite have absolutely no chance in hell of being heard - they are conservative to begin with and that in itself guarantees that they will be shut down. Unless of course they agree with liberals. David Brooks is a pretty good example of this.Chuck Tucson,
Hey, we meet again. Though you may not remember.Let me first define entitlement - take social security and medicare. You pay taxes for both these programs every day you work ( assuming that your salary is above 40K which is approximately 67% of the working population). How ever, you are paying for other people's retirement and other people's health care.
When you do finally retire, you now expect the younger generation to do the same. After all, you did that when you were younger didnt you? There in comes the feeling that you are entitled to receiving these benefits. You feel that you have a "right" to getting these benefits after contributing to these very benefits when you worked.
Unfortunately these benefits dont fall from the sky - if there arent enough younger workers, you actually may not receive you stated benefits fully. either that or the Government taxes younger people more so that you get your benefits. With higher taxation, younger workers now have lesser to save, invest, spend. And this problem never really goes away.
"Would you have those programs abolished? What, if anything, would replace them?"
Well, i wont blame you for going straight to the question of "abolishing" them - there isnt much moderation in this country is there? Keep the program or abolish it - is that the Hobson's choice we are left with ?I would reduce the current payroll taxes by half - with the reminder that social security benefits will be halved for the current workers (who got their taxes slashed in half). I would abolish the "employer co-pay" - this is the charade of employers paying their share of 6.25% on SS taxes.. news flash - they DONT. they reduce this amount from your annual salary and make it look like they are paying as well. Of course passing on the cost of higher taxes to consumers is the oldest trick in the book of businesses - they know how to "distribute" too.
This leaves us with the current retirees- what about them? First off, there is enough money in SS to go through 2017 without raising any more taxes.The Govt then dips into the "trust fund" (i dont know what the hell that is) which is last till 2042. After that period, the Govt can only pay about 75% of the actual benefits.In short, the current generation of workers who joined the workforce in 2006/07 are estimated to face 25% reduction in benefits 35 years from now.
This obviously means that Government has to reign in spending. What exactly are the biggest priorities? How much waste is there in Govt ? Is the Govt efficient in managing its finances ? i dont see people asking these questions any more. In fact most of them have given up.
It would require a dose of principled conservatism -but that is no where to be found in this country and is an absolute laugher when a supposedly conservative Bush Govt has increased the size of Federal Govt more than
what LBJ did !!If people think that that we can tax our way out of these two monster Govt programs without any recognition of the side effects it will have on job creation, growth etc, i feel for them.
The financial crisis bailout costs, the Iraq/Afghan war costs, the present federal deficit all combine to about 8 or 9 trillion. Unfunded entitlement programs are about 6 times more !
Comment Posted By Nagarajan Sivakumar On 16.10.2008 @ 21:18
"What is wrong with the best people (the elite) leading the country? Do you want Joe Sixpack performing surgery on you?"
Funny man, you are indeed funny. "the Best people" leading the country huh ? who exactly grades them to be the "best" or "elite".? Would that be the "best" people at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who wouldnt know what risk analysis is,if their life depended on it ?
Your country faces a 53 Trillion dollar entitlement crisis that the "elite" people have lead this nation to. I dont think even Joe Sixpack would have managed to financially RUIN this country over just 2 GIANT entitlement programs - Medicare and Social Security.
It is so distressing to find people supporting the "elite" who are the biggest reason America is in the crapper today.
Comment Posted By Nagarajan Sivakumar On 16.10.2008 @ 20:15
funny man,
"class warfare" is no fake - it is as real as real can be - Obama spent a week talking about McCain's 7 million houses and demagoguing him on his jestful comment that you need to be a millionaire to be considered rich.There is an intense feeling of jealousy and hatred among a majority of Democrats that they dont have the financial success of "rich people" (read Republicans). Is it any wonder that people on the left openly welcome the idea of the rich paying their "fare share"? of course "fair" for them means fleecing successful people at every possible opportunity. And "fair" means trying to kill conservative radio and union thuggery in the name of "free choice" ! Positively Orwellian.
Two words. Punitive liberalism.
Comment Posted By Nagarajan Sivakumar On 16.10.2008 @ 20:07
REZKO SINGING: OBAMA SWEATING?
Tominsti,
Comment Posted By Nagarajan Sivakumar On 11.10.2008 @ 23:39
Ready to be Obama's lap dog already? Good for you man.
J.H. Bowden,
Why are you making so much sense? It is painful to read some of things that are plain to see for those who havent closed their eyes yet.I do have quibbles about you saying that McCain is a fake maverick - he is no saint - he is most definitely not much of a conservative - but he has crossed party lines on important issues more than any other politician has - his stance on immigration, environmental issues, gang of 14 judges, and yes even campaign reform took a lot of guts to stick to - no matter whether you think it was right or wrong to do so.
By contrast,we will have a President ready to sign Employee "free choice" act into legislation within the first 100 days of office, ready to withdraw from Iraq in 16 months (and if he doesnt his hand will be forced by a filibuster proof Democrat Congress) and ready to increase capital gains taxes, payroll taxes and income taxes NO MATTER how crappy the economy is.
It's going to be a long 4 years.
Comment Posted By Nagarajan Sivakumar On 11.10.2008 @ 12:44
I am posting what has been rated the best comment by Ann Althouse readers at her blog (http://althouse.blogspot.com/)
"Why not call a socialist a socialist? Don't tell me not to call a spade a spade or a club a club, I'll call them as I see them.
Everything about this post speaks to socialism, jealousy, income redistribution, class war. Joel Roberts [sic], whether or not he likes to hear it, is a socialist. There's nothing else to make of peeling off the most left of the left.
I didn't bother with the word clouds presented here earlier, but I recall hearing the word "fairness" a lot by both Obama and Biden. Now there's a word that grates. There. is. no. such. thing ? <--- emphatic period. What is an attempt to achieve fairness through social engineering if not a yearning for socialism? Bah. This was all so very interesting the first time we read about it in Animal Farm. Yes, Obama is socialist. In his bones. As socialist as allowed in American politics with himself at the control levers. Joel Rogers is attempting to stretch that allowance. I'm in poor spirit this morning. I fumbled boiling water and burned my leg. So I'm really not in any mood to be instructed how to redefine my native language. I spent too much time learning these words [than] to have somebody I don't know tell me they actually mean something else so that it becomes easier to slip proven-to-fail economic policies into American politics under another name."
There is some thing that is striking about this post, especially the words "he is a socialist in his bones". See, this is what scares me too - i wont blame Obama as such - the entire Democrat party pretty much sings the same song - you know, that magic word - "fairness" ! it has become code for re-distributionist policies.
Health care, it now seems is a "right" - HUH?
Comment Posted By Nagarajan Sivakumar On 9.10.2008 @ 20:59
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY INSANE: THE MOTHER OF ALL BIDEN GAFFES
I have been a Joe Biden fan willing to look past all his gaffes on areas that he has no expertise in - but this is foreign policy - His FORTE' - and HE fricking turned INTO a gasbag and outright LIAR ! Boy, what a story !!
He confused Syria with Hezbollah, lied about Obama calling for a NATO presence in Lebanon ( huh ?? the same NATO which would have no part of the Iraqi invasion would now like to meditate in the Middle East ?? You can imagine the French, German, British forces competing with each other on who will send the MOST forces to the region !)
But his worst piece of gasbaggery was the "vaccum" that was left and regained supposedly by Hezbollah?
When exactly was Hezbollah kicked out of Lebanon ?? Are we now supposed to believe that the 2006 Israel attack "kicked them out" - but wait a minute France and the US kicked them out according to Biden !!
IMAGINE if Sarah Palin had said the same things that Biden did ! It would be FRONT PAGE NEWS !
I doubt if God exists.
Comment Posted By Nagarajan Sivakumar On 3.10.2008 @ 22:14
"I remember the 80’s, when Japan was “cleaning our clock” and America was already just a few days away from the sunset, and permanent night. Read the last few pages of “Rising Sun” by Michael Crichton again, to get a sense of our sense of American doom."
Well, America had Ronald Reagan to turn to then - and thank God, he was the right man for the right time.
What this country faces today is an absolute lack of leadership - as Rick pointed out, the US Congress is going to play a huge role - if by some miracle McCain wins, (and its going to take nothing short of a stunner for McCain to win) the Democrat dominated Congress will go out of its way to confront McCain on EVERY POSSIBLE ISSUE. He will be a lame duck President to start with.
When Obama wins, there were will be solid majorities for Democrats in Congress - there is going to be no "bipartisanship" - legislation like Sarbanes-Oxley that have helped drive investment away from the US will be shoved down our throats in the name of "necessary regulation".
The entitlement problems caused by Medicare and Social Security will once gain be ignored - dealing with these problems requires a conservative solution - heck, it requires conservatives.! None of them exist in the Congress today.
What every one is looking foward to is MORE entitlements/NOT Less. They will not accept even the smallest reduction in benefits. Why should they ? They are "entitled" to it, arent they ?
No one dares to ask the simple question - why the heck we need Social Security ? or if it could be have an opt out clause. Why exactly does health care cost so much ? Well, when employers are footing the bill, why do you care about how much it costs?
The country is ripe to depend into the socialist model of European countries- the Democrats have always salivated over this prospect.
Comment Posted By Nagarajan Sivakumar On 28.09.2008 @ 19:25
Rick,
Why do you keep dishing out such brutally honest stuff :-)I have pretty much resigned myself to an Obama Presidency, a Pelosi lead House and a Reid led Senate. The Trifecta.
Card Check = "Free" Choice
Obama = "bi-partisan"
1 + 1 =3.Wake me up when 2016 elections come around. wait a minute. dont worry, i will be back in India within the next year.
Good luck America - you NEED LOTS OF IT.
Comment Posted By Nagarajan Sivakumar On 28.09.2008 @ 18:05
