About the 5th congressional district (fit in, public schools, high income)

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by Chester Burnett

You have extreme liberals in this country and extreme conservatives. They're not going anywhere. At the end of the day we all have to live together and those people need a voice in government. There have been some conservative lawmakers with some pretty outrageous viewpoints for a long time. Our current administration has opened the door to some very left leaning and inexperienced liberals. Ideally you would have lawmakers closer to the center who work together and compromise to get things done in Congress. Centrists are however an endangered species in this era where playing to the far left or right by highlighting very polarizing and divisive issues wins elections. Real governing is boring and complex and people at the extremes of the spectrum should never be truly happy with Congress. Policy wonks don't do great at rallies.

I'm liberal but I'd vote for a centrist Republican over a very liberal candidate because they might actually get stuff done. People are so attached to their ideals that balanced views get smothered. It's more fun to be outraged shake your fist at the crazies. Politicians love that and you wind up with an unproductive legislature that nobody is happy with. People in the middle need to take the country back. Boring is where it's at folks.

I am a conservative and I agree with you on this.

[Thedosius]

Originally Posted by Kavalier

And I really don't know how anyone could deny that.

I doubt many people will agree with you, and that you find that inconceivable just shows your place on the spectrum.

[Thedosius]

Originally Posted by wamer27

Yes I realize how they work and mine wasn’t correct, but these idiots who think just because you make sh++loads of money you should be forced to give an obscene amount of it to government. Great plan, yeah you didn’t earn it at all, other people need it for things.

It’s why people have residency in states like MT, FL, TX. Why they set up LLC in MT you see high end cars with MT plates in town. Professional athletes will sign in those states for that reason also.

I guess if it's good enough for a former governor (Scott Walker) and a jackass in the GOP House leadership (Steve Scalise), giving an example that in no way reflects how marginal tax rates work is good enough for an anonymous forum poster.

I'm 150% with those who believe in increasing the marginal tax rate.

- During the era when that pinko Communist Eisehhower was president, the marginal tax rate was 90%

- The time period during which the middle classes boomed the most was when marginal tax rates capped out at 70-90%

- I am in the top 20% income bracket, so...my motivation is not sour grapes

- This nation is experiencing more wealth inequality than at any point in its history, including the Gilded Age- a period of wealth inequality so great that it fired up extremist politics and probably gave the Communist party their only chance of ever really making it in this country.

- Anyone else notice that extremist politics are getting fired up? Bueller?

- I care about my country

- I do not believe the wealth inequality is at all due to 'market forces', I believe it's because the already-wealthy get too many advantages. I first started becoming aware of this when I worked in the securities markets: the very, very wealthy have a multitude of advantages

- Millions of people are hurting because they can't afford health insurance, college, etc. I don't accept that it's 'their fault' - they are the frogs in pot of water being brought slowly to the boil, what is bringing it to the boil is a myriad of tax and other policies that are actively concentrating wealth

- From the Founding Fathers on, people have recognized that wealth inequality and democracy are mutually antagonistic and a balance must be found between them; we are not further out of balance than we have ever been as a nation

- We already transfer wealth. Let's not pretend we don't. The only 'government' that does not do so would be an anarchistic one.

- If you think it's punishment to 'take from the wealthy', why is it not punishment to exist in a system that benefits the wealthy by taking from the poor and middle classes?


So wealth tax? Much higher marginal tax rates? Bring 'em on!

[Kavalier]

Originally Posted by Thedosius

I doubt many people will agree with you, .

It just speaks to how much the "media" has manipulated the masses, redefining what it means to be "conservative" and the lemmings eating it up.


Do I need to explain it for you?


The "media" now labels these people all "conservatives": Bret Stephens; Ana Navaro; Bill Kristol; Rick Wilson and many more.


Bret Stephens has called to abolish the Second Amendment and wants legalization for the 22 million illegals who are here. Rick Wilson is a Bush disciple and Bush was very liberal. Same with Kristol.


Just because the media/fake news labels con artists "conservative" doesn't mean they are.

[InnovativeAmerican]

Originally Posted by Kavalier

The difference is very few on the "right" have moved to the extreme right; whereas on the "left" most of the entire democratic party has moved to the extreme left. Moreover, most "republicans" today are RINOs - they just aren't conservatives at all.


And I really don't know how anyone could deny that.

Are you kidding me? BOTH sides have veered far into their partisan camps. That's why our nation is more politically polarized than ever before. Stop trying to paint Republicans as "voice of reason" moderates, when you and I both know that isn't true. BOTH SIDES need to learn how to talk again!

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by Thedosius

I'm 150% with those who believe in increasing the marginal tax rate.

- During the era when that pinko Communist Eisehhower was president, the marginal tax rate was 90%

- The time period during which the middle classes boomed the most was when marginal tax rates capped out at 70-90%

Much higher marginal tax rates? Bring 'em on!

Do you also support reinstating all the loopholes that were available in the 1950s- 80s?

But make no mistake: Many top earners during the high-rate era, such as politicians Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan, entertainer Jack Benny and librettist Alan Jay Lerner, didn’t pay the top rates. In 1952, for example, when the top rate was 92%, the highest-earning 1% of taxpayers had an average rate of 32%, according to Elliot Brownlee, a tax historian and emeritus professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj...te-11547807401

I support a simplified tax system with lower rates and fewer deductions over a complex system of nominally high marginal rates that are effectively reduced by complex system of deductions, credits, and incentives that are largely available only to people like you who are in the higher income brackets, which is what we had last century.

[Kavalier]

Originally Posted by InnovativeAmerican

Are you kidding me? BOTH sides have veered far into their partisan camps. That's why our nation is more politically polarized than ever before. Stop trying to paint Republicans as "voice of reason" moderates, when you and I both know that isn't true. BOTH SIDES need to learn how to talk again!

You are wrong. I've been paying attention to politics and the media for the last two decades and it has all shifted to the left. All of it. I could sit here for weeks giving you examples.

[Kavalier]

Originally Posted by InnovativeAmerican

Are you kidding me? BOTH sides have veered far into their partisan camps. That's why our nation is more politically polarized than ever before. Stop trying to paint Republicans as "voice of reason" moderates, when you and I both know that isn't true. BOTH SIDES need to learn how to talk again!

Best example I can give you is Bill Clinton.


If you look at his 90s (liberal democrat) stance on immigration, gays in military, abortion (among other things), by today's standards he would literally be labeled an "alt-right right wing conservative".

[Thedosius]

Originally Posted by Kavalier

It just speaks to how much the "media" has manipulated the masses, redefining what it means to be "conservative" and the lemmings eating it up.

You're very superior.

[Thedosius]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

Do you also support reinstating all the loopholes that were available in the 1950s- 80s?

Nope - not necessarily. I also support a simplified tax system but it must be more progressive than it currently is to give the middle class and poor a break. The marginal tax rate could be as high as 60-70% on extremely high incomes and greatly simplified. There's nothing mutually exclusive about higher marginal rates and a simplified tax system. The concentration of wealth we are seeing in this age are profoundly destructive to this country.