The Staton Jones Report

I heard Hillary speak before, and she is a powerful lady with a vision, (even if i dont always agree with her.) On a slightly different subject, I heard Kerry talk about revoking tax exemptions for US corporations that export jobs, and he seems to be pro union. I think we have seen that the days of any corporate loyalty to US workers are gone. I was one that was suckered into thinking that Bush's tax cuts were actually going to benefit the middle class. All Kerry has to do is contrast his line of thinking with W's tax cuts for wealthy, and he's got it; i.e. 10 million jobs as long as we're not ALL waiting and bussing tables.

I was one that was suckered into thinking that Bush's tax cuts were actually going to benefit the middle class.

That's a big part of the Republican disinformation campaign that's been going on for decades now. I actually used to buy into this to some degree back when I was a swing voter. I've since learned that middle class tax breaks actually tend to be more stimulative since the people that get the money have a greater tendency to spend it.

While I think it is possible to over-tax the rich and hurt the overall economy, we are a long way from that now. The effective income tax rate for the wealthy under Bush is now around 17.5%, which is way too low. I think that an effective rate ( the rate they actually pay ) of 40-50% would be more reasonable for the top tax bracket. The extra revenue would allow us to balance the budget and enact universal health insurance ( our current system of employer paid health insurance acts as a disincentive toward hiring more people, as well as leaving some 40% of the people uninsured ).

We have it all wrong. People wont get off of Welfare/medicare because low wage work wont pay health insurance or make it affordable. So why get off the dole ? I thought this would be a keynote issue but i havent heard much about it.

I think the reason the DNC is skirting the health care issue (they do mention making health care available for all, but of course, no real details) is because of how the GOP crushed them with it in 1994. Why Americans are afraid of universal health care is beyond me -- it's one of the few entitlements that makes humanistic and moral sense -- but the GOP has got the Reagan Dems. scared to death of it, even though they desperately need it.

What's worse than government health care? NONE.