Molly's Middle America - Why So Many On The Government Dole?

It's actually such a ridiculous side to take. The tea party wants to not help anyone or give anyone anything because they don't want to pay taxes. In reality taxes, for everyone, are way too low. Americans hardly pay anything in taxes and we really get nothing for it. When people tell me they are taxed enough I laugh.

So the debt ceiling is going from 12 trillion to 14 trillion? What difference does that make? Once you get that high what's the difference having 2 trillion more?

This country has lost it's mind.

The debt is never going to be paid for.

Years ago people could not understand what one trillion was or even a billion. Think of it is Funny money. Nobody has taken money with it when they die.

I have been hearing the deficit my entire life. All of a sudden now a republican wants to balance the budget when we have a black president. No republican has had a balanced budget since Eisenhower. This is what we get when they elect Billy Bob, the owner of the hardware store in nowheresville Iowa.

Hi guys... and thanks for posting part of my article!

I am a member here but I haven't posted very much.

I wrote the above article as a reply to a reply to an article at CNN on the debt ceiling and the social safety net.

The person to whom I replied wrote:

"No wonder the country is going broke. Practically the entire country is on the government dole. How did it get to this point?"

I don't know if the person meant this comment as it sounded, but I felt he was blaming people for being on the "government dole".

My reply to him wasn't quoted above. In part, I wrote:

" Let's look at unemployment and underemployment first of all. We've got about 29 million people unemployed or underemployed.. and that only includes those who want work. Do you really think that anyone enjoys trying live on $300 bucks a week? ... (I should also mention that only about 7 million people now are receiving and/or eligible for unemployment insurance compensation. That means that we have at least 22 million who are unemployed or underemployed who aren't getting a dime.)

...

Then look at the corporations who pay their workers so poorly and give them so few hours of work that even "full-time" workers (34 hours/week) qualify for food stamps or some kind of housing assistance. Isn't that a kind of corporate welfare? "

Anyway, there is more at the link.

The best way to deal with the debt, of course, is to get people working and paying taxes. And our taxes are too low if we want to be a first-class country. We only collected 15% of our GDP in tax revenues last year. During the Clinton years, we were close to 20%.

Perhaps huge tax jumps would be a drag on the economy (though I'm not even sure about that), but everybody paying a bit more, and the rich people paying a bit more than that, will not kill jobs.

I'm so tired of the "job creator" mythology that the right has started and actually has so many people believing in. We are all the "job creators", and we have no or little money to spend, so that's why no jobs are being created.

It doesn't take rocket science to figure that one out.

MiddleMolly wrote:
I'm so tired of the "job creator" mythology that the right has started and actually has so many people believing in. We are all the "job creators", and we have no or little money to spend, so that's why no jobs are being created.

It doesn't take rocket science to figure that one out.

I'm ALSO tired of the "SHARED" Sacrifice BS too. They haven't sacrificed one thing, EXCEPT us. They have roofs over their head, food in their bellies and BLOATED wallets OF OUR MONEY all the while standing up their on the HOLY mountain preaching their hypocrite tripe.