John McCain funded by Soros since 2001
This is from Bill.
WND-As Sen. John McCain assumes the GOP front-runner mantle, his long-standing, but little-noticed association with donors such as George Soros and Teresa Heinz Kerry is receiving new attention among his Republican critics.
In 2001, McCain founded the Alexandria, Va.-based Reform Institute as a vehicle to receive funding from George Soros’ Open Society Institute and Teresa Heinz Kerry’s Tides Foundation and several other prominent non-profit organizations.
McCain used the institute to promote his political agenda and provide compensation to key campaign operatives between elections.
In 2006, the Arizona senator was forced to sever his formal ties with the Reform Institute after a controversial $200,000 contribution from Cablevision came to light. McCain solicited the donation for the Reform Institute using his membership on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, he supported Cablevision’s push to introduce the more profitable al la carte pricing, rather than packages of TV programming.
McCain is a very dangerous man. He only considers his own agenda as important. Haven’t we just had 8 years of a President that is like that?
Hmmmm? So are the other candidates like that? So, does it matter which party wins? We aren’t going to like the long term results either way. Both will have some short-term benefits for their special interest groups but both will be bad for the nation as a whole.
Jan
I hope conservatives don’t waste a lot of time and money rallying behind McCain. And I don’t say this out of being a disloyal Republican but time and money would be better spent sending money to specific conservative organizations I’m thinking. I mean how could a “100 years of war” neoconservative possibly win anyway?
I agree. Also, I will vote but I will write in a candidate. I will not vote for McCain or Hillary or Obama.
I am tired of choosing between worse and worst.
quote:
Uneasier than Ever
Despite long-running propaganda from conservative TV pundits, the financial services industry, corporate America, the media and the Bush administration that circumstances have never been better, there’s little doubt that most Americans have felt for quite some time that things are not quite right in this country.
In “Hard Times Heighten Long-Felt Unease,” the Associated Press’ Adam Geller reveals the extent to which the recent downturn has exacerbated a growing sense of fear and uncertainty about what happens next.
Financial Armageddon
I posted that on my forum, Bill, if you want to comment on it. The article covers some things that are on the “minds” of people and which are just now starting to show up on charts for economic indicators.
John McCain has already said he doesn’t know much about economics and I agree with that. But, it is obvious the democrats don’t know much either or they wouldn’t be making the promises they are making.
Everybody look at Jan Paul’s post #3.
If we all took that posture, we might be able to fix things in this nation peacefully! But if the ruling class continues on with their “nation busting” plans, who knows what will happen and how?!
And to Bill, I say “hell” with any concern about being a “disloyal Republican”. Bill, it’s our very Nation which many of us don’t consider these days! That’s where our loyalties should be. “Nation” first, “party” further on down in the priority list!
quote:
Auto loan delinquencies are at a 10-year high. “Repo lots overflow with reclaimed cars,” says the USA Today.
The Wall Street Journal reports that more families are falling behind on their heating bills.
The Daily Reckoning
I am so glad the President told me the economy is strong. Think what it would be like if it was weak.
Thank goodness the candidates are promising every need we have will be satisfied once they are in office.
It’s the prisoner’s dilemma Hugh.
No one really knows how the others will vote. So you vote in such a way as to minimize any damage done by other voters.
“Thank goodness the candidates are promising every need we have will be satisfied once they are in office.”
Obama was very clear in the California debate that “rich folk” (himself included) should expect a tax increase if he is elected.
And once we have confiscated their wealth, who will pay the bills?
We confiscate a portion of their wealth. Yes.
However, in return for that confiscated wealth they get to live in a nation where the poor don’t turn on the rich.
I admit that I have a biased point of view. I’m not rich. However, I’m not naive, and I know that many of the “rich” don’t “earn” their wealth. Their money “earns” their wealth. The compounding effect of interest rates is a magical thing. Good for creditors, and not so good for debtors (AKA people without money).
In biblical times they referred to this as usury. In fact, Jesus didn’t think too highly of it.
That is why they won’t stay. There are many other nations now where the poor aren’t turning on the rich. They are becoming rich themselves.
The wealthy don’t mind paying their share of taxes or even a little more than others but, when they are the bulk of who is paying taxes, they will leave. Some already are. I am reading of more that have gone to places like Argentina or Singapore or Duabi or Hong Kong, etc. where the economies are much better. In some cases they may end up paying more in taxes (not sure on their rates for personal income)but, due to the much better business climate, they can make much more.
Jesus had no problem with wealth but did have a problem with placing wealth before God’s will. Remember Jesus, who is God, rewarded many in the Old Testament with vast amounts of wealth if they were using it wisely and helping the people have jobs and income and homes, etc. Saving and wise investing has always been pleasing to God if his will is for a person to manage resources and provide jobs, build infrastructure, etc.
When we were more “religious” we encouraged saving and investing and wealth accumulation and being debt free. We encouraged personal responsibility not taking the wealth of others to meet the needs of the lazy and criminal who defraud programs meant to help the truly needy.
Responsible lending, is of course, as important as responsible borrowing and we have neither. Currently credit card companies are allowed to legally go back and raise interest rates on debt already acquired.
That is why we will see more people leave who are productive at all income levels. Our nation is too corrupt for many, even many who are wealthy but, want to act responsibly.
France is losing a millionaire a day due to their taxes and they are going to low tax nations and taking their investment money with them. More and more people are turning to other nations now to invest in new companies or to expand existing companies. Wealth, real wealth is fleeing the U.S. by the billions even if the people themselves, so far aren’t leaving in mass.
If you were wealthy and had the whole world to choose from and could afford to live in low crime places like Singapore or Duabi, why not. You would live in brand new cities with state of the art infrastructure, sound economies, good government, and huge opportunities for business growth.
Here we have decaying infrastructure, they have brand new infrastructure. We have high taxes on business, they have low. They have economic growth sometimes in double digits while ours has been negative for years when real inflation is used to determine it.
Look at the charts on the trends in the U.S. here.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words?
The wealthy go where wealth is respected and can be protected. Which brings up another point. How are they going to tax the wealthy? Kerry paid 12% by simply owning tax free government bonds. They have foundations, trusts, and overseas accounts. When we had tax rates of 90% we got less in tax revenues, not more. The wealthy simply move their money to “safe harbors.”
When the 16th Amendment was passed it was passed by wealthy Congressmen or by Congressmen who were advised by wealth party leaders. At the same time they passed the Amendment, they also passed the legislation needed to protect their wealth and that has never changed. If anything there are more protections for them now.
There of course is no tax on business since that is all paid by consumers in price so they can’t get the tax revenues from them without hurting lower wage earners even more. Currently a low wage and lower middle class worker pays 50% in taxes even though he pays no income tax because of taxes on goods and services hidden in the prices.
The only people that will pay the most for the promises are the ones who can afford it the least. The wealthy who can’t protect their wealth will leave now that the world is so different than a decade or two ago. With the U.S. in deep decline economically and the other nations in rapid rise mode, why shouldn’t they go where they will be treated like “royalty.”
China is adding about 40-50 million middle class consumers a year. Our middle class is in decline. They won’t riot as fast as our citizens will, now.
We are soon going to see riots in our inner cities as services are cut and the needs of the people can’t be met. California is cutting dental services to the poor, cutting education spending and releasing 30,000 criminals early to cut spending on incarceration. 30,000 more people when jobs are in decline. 30,000 people who have “graduated” from “crime college” will be introduced into a society were police departments are cutting back, wages can’t keep up with inflation and jobs are declining.
1 million people have moved out of Detroit and homes are burned or vandalized and left for cites to care for because there are no buyers. Three of the largest skyscapers in Detroit can now be bought combined for $10 million.
As cities and states have to cut back on spending, services are going to cause a lot of problems this nation has never experienced. The wealthy travel and know what those other nations now offer. They have the businesses, the high standards of living, the respect for wealth.
I should add, I am not rich but, I read what is going on all over the world and I read what the wealthy are doing to protect their wealth. Don’t go by the “wealthy” we see on the media that are tied to this corrupt government we have. I am talking about wealthy people who were small businessmen or investors and aren’t corrupt and aren’t tied to this government.
I am seeing more and more of our seniors who aren’t wealthy moving to retirement communities in other nations. I am seeing some of our best students going to Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong to work. I am seeing more manufacturing leaving for low tax nations. Now I am even seeing R&D, pharmaceuticals, high tech, and financial services leaving.
Capt. menace
Here is a trend I believe will increase as our economy and nation continues to decay.
quote:
Cross-border abductions of U.S. citizens have been increasing along the U.S.-Mexican border, a trend that is yet another example of the deteriorating security situation along the 2,000-mile frontier. While most of the victims are linked to the drug trade, a number are legitimate businesspeople who are targeted because of their ability to pay ransoms.
AMERICANS FOR LEGAL IMMIGRATION PAC
I think that many cities will see this trend take place as city services are cut, especially cuts in police departments.
I just got my tax notice for my home here in Mesa. It is down almost $50,000 in value for tax purposes. That means that the millions of homes the state depends on for tax revenues will be paying less since they are required by law to adjust tax revenues as values rise and fall.
California saw a 40% rise in tax revenues, much tied to the housing boom. During that time, the increased spending 44% and now have a $14 billion shortfall bearing down on them due to the lost tax revenues.
This is happening in city after city, state after state. Cutting spending is going to be tough on some people more than on others and guess who those people will be. They will be the ones that can least afford it.
Hugh
re: #7 I’ve got numerous reasons to qualify my statements as being from the Republican side. But getting worked up in a cold sweat about what people think ain’t one of them.
Capt. Menace said:
I know that many of the “rich” don’t “earn” their wealth. Their money “earns” their wealth. The compounding effect of interest rates is a magical thing. Good for creditors, and not so good for debtors (AKA people without money).
===============
That is a good point. One of the things we gave the Federal Government power over was monetary policy so we would have uniformity in trade between states and nations with our states. We have a government that once again, has failed in its responsibility and done so for almost 100 years now, with it getting worse over time.
We need loans, we need to encourage those who have saved to lend that money and do so with interest. However, we don’t do that well. We take $1,000 in savings, pay the saver a paultry 1 or 2% and then loan it out 9 more times at 6% and thus, the lending institution, no the lender, gets 6% on 8 of the loans and 4% on the actual money the saver had in the bank.
Fractional banking, created by the Rothschilds long ago and who created the banking cartel that controls many nations, by controlling the supply of money, benefits while the lenders, those who save, get next to nothing. It is a fraud in that your money that you save, is “used” by people who didn’t earn it, to lend out 9 times (10 to 1 required reserves) and reap the interest from.
It isn’t the “wealthy” that lend money making the big bucks, it is the people becoming wealthy using somebody else’s money that are making the biggest bucks. They then take that unearned wealth and buy companies with it, control political parties with it, and in the end, control our lives.
Why the panic in Congress and the Federal Reserve right now? It isn’t because you are going to lose your home. It is because that system of banking has been put in jeopardy globally, not just here.
quote:
The British government said Monday that struggling mortgage lender Northern Rock would remain nationlized until the current financial climate improves.
art.rock.afp.gi.jpg
Customers line up to withdraw cash from a Northern Rock branch during the height of the crisis.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that the bank will be run at arms length from the government while detailing nationalization plans on Monday, according to the Associated Press.
Trading in Northern Rock shares was suspended following the decision
CNN News
The Central Banks and Financial institutions are who government is in a panic about. The same bunch that created our Federal Reserve in 1913 are still at it, or rather their followers. Fiat money, based on nothing is at risk. The printing presses that don’t print actual money but just “credit and debit entries” on accounts around the world is what is at risk. Think about it $400-700 trillion in derivatives floating around. They don’t really know how much or how much is bad. That is 9 times or so of the entire world’s GDP.
Jan Paul, you really haven’t answered the very basic question…
We owe $9 trillion (and climbing).
Who will pay?
“taking their investment money with them”
FYI, global markets and electronic transactions allow investors to invest anywhere they like, and live some place different. Investment dollars are no longer tied to a physical locality. Investment dollars only seek a reasonable risk/reward premium, investment dollars don’t care where they are invested.
The flight of capital from our country has more to do with shaky economic fundamentals than it does with tax policy (in my opinion).
Regarding the $9 trillion. Often the money is inflated so high that the debt is nothing. They pay it off with pennies on the dollar. It is a type of bankruptcy nations use when things go too far.
However, that also means Social Security and Medicare will be a disaster. You could get a S.S. check for $10,000 and it won’t buy a weeks worth of goods.
Regarding flight of capital, look at the billions going to Ireland where wages are higher than ours but taxes on business lower. Here it is about 42% with state added and there it is 12.5%
Inflated money is inflated money. So you are saying that hyperinflation IS our exit strategy, and that we should all prepare ourselves for this eventuality? I’m inclined to agree, but this is a worst case, pessimistic point of view. Basically the end of the U.S. as we know it.
If we say that hyperinflation is off the table, then how do we pay down the $9 trillion?
“Here it is about 42% with state added and there it is 12.5%”
Eh, why not tell us what the tax rate is in capital gains?
Capital gains tax is currently 15% in the U.S., and in some cases can go as low as 5% (for lower income brackets). This is income made from non-labor. As a policymaker I would target this type of income before I targeted labor income. And no, I’m not running for president.
The rich are wealthy because of their ownership stake in certain investments, not because they labored so many hours at an hourly rate.
In fact this subtle tax-dodging tactic was used by our wonderful president: George W. Bush. When he paid for his “professional management” services, he received the pay as if it was a long-term capital gain, rather than ordinary income. Sorry taxpayers, you can foot the bill.
Some might wonder why you would invest in foreign companies when the tax on capital gains here is going to be the same whether it was a foreign stock or not. One reason is that a low tax nation can undercut the prices.
A U.S. company making widgets that wants a $500,000 after tax profit to give shareholders has to mark the widgets up $870,000. Then the 42% takes it down to the $500,000. So why invest in an Irish widget company only returning the same $500,000 after tax profit.
That Irish company only has to mark it up $570,000 to have the same return but, he can mark it up $600,000, $700,000 or evern $800,000 and still under cut the price and use that extra revenue for research, marketing, debt free expansion, etc. Thus, in the long run, the Irish company will pull further and further ahead of the U.S. company because of the difference in tax rates.
That is why socialist nation have been cutting taxes, going to flat taxes, creating business enterprise zones with special business incentives, etc. That why Hong Kong is ranked #1 in economic freedom and we are 5th with Ireland and Singapore and Australia also ahead of us.
You send your money where business and money is treated the best. With the consumer base of the emerging markets increasing consumers 100 million a year, and our consumer base stressed and currently in decline, why invest here? Invest in the manufacturing nations that are selling to those consumers growing at 100 million.
Too many say that China has 1 billion in poverty. So? Do you think businesses building in China care about that? They only care that there are 250 million people buying what they make and another 250 million in India and another 500 million in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Brazil, Eastern block nations, Dubai, Singapore, etc.
So, investing here and you have a 1-2% GDP growth if you believe inflation numbers put out or -1-2% if you use real inflation. In Asia, your investments are growing 10% if you are in the right industries like those Jim Rogers points to in his book “A Bull In China.”
I am not talking about “stock markets” but rather the actual companies and their revenues and dividends. I can buy Huenang power that is rapidly expanding power lines throughout China along with the other power companies. China is building 15 nuclear power plants in the next 15 years. We are suffering from a lack of power plants.
I can buy Canadian Oil trusts that pay 16% dividends (you pay a 15% Canadian tax) while we are blocking many of our oil lands from being used.
GM makes more money selling cars in just China, than in all of the U.S. I think eventually, GM will stop making cars in the U.S. and just produce and sell in overseas markets because of many things but, they can’t compete with Toyota, Honda and Nissan here due to pension costs.
Manufacturing was 30.4% of GDP in the 50’s and now it is under 10% and still in decline. We still buy all the things they made but we buy them from other countries where labor, taxes, insurance, health care, etc are lower.
The American consumer is not going to pay for heath care, taxes, compliance costs in our prices. They will buy foreign even if it is a product that competes with their job.
Your tax numbers aren’t exactly 100% accurate Jan.
Irish Taxation Institute
It appears that Ireland employs a progressive tax system that taxes the wealthier at higher rates all the way up the income tiers.
For instance: Married couple
(one spouse with income) is taxed at 20% up to $43,000 (UK), and 41% for anything over that amount.
Personal capital gains in Ireland are taxed at 20%. In the U.S. personal capital gains are taxed at 15%. You are correct that Irish corporate tax is 12.5%, but U.S. corporate tax can go as low as 15%.
What you also don’t account for in your equation is trade relief, and subsidies provided by the U.S. government. These represent substantial incentives for corporations to operate in the U.S.
So, while your analysis may apply to some corporations (very dependent on specific industry), it clearly doesn’t apply to individual investors looking to move away from the U.S. due to tax issues.
I wasn’t talking about income tax. I was talking about why people invest in other countries. Ireland is talking about reducing personal income tax. They are beginning to lose people to lower income tax nations.
However, for “investors,” the tax isn’t 42% but 20%, still higher than here (15%).
That is another thing people miss when they talk about taxing the wealthy? They don’t always have “income” that is taxed with “income tax rates.” If their income comes from capital gains, they only pay 15% (or 20% in Ireland. If they buy bonds and they are “tax free” they only pay the AMT and no taxes on their income.
The wealthy, often don’t have earnings income which is what income tax normally applies to. Thus, high income taxes are often very misleading indicators of what Congress is doing regarding the wealthy. Remember they are for the most part wealthy themselves and protect their wealth and in the process, protect the wealth of all wealthy people.
Different nation use different tax codes to “encourage” investment. The low cap gains tax is to get people to invest in business. The zero tax on bonds is to get wealthy people to loan their money to governments. But, if you work for a living, then you need to pay a lot of taxes. Working is “bad.” It must be. Workers are taxed the most.
A low wage worker pays the highest. He is at 50%. 7.5% payroll, 35% in the prices of living from paycheck to paycheck and not saving, and 8% or more in state and local taxes.
John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry on the other hand paid 12% plus the 35% if they bought U.S. goods with the money they didn’t invest in government bonds. As a percentage of “income,” they pay very little because we want them to loan as much as possible to the government.
France is losing a millionaire a day to lower income tax nations. Wealthy people have the money that allows them to move and live a high standard of living in virtually any nation in the world.
35% includes compliance costs on collecting tax from us through business prices.
Quote:
Vietnam has recently announced it is cutting its corporate rate to 25% from 28%. Singapore has approved a corporate tax cut to 18% from 20% to compete with low-tax Hong Kong’s rate of 17.5%, and Northern Ireland is making a bid to slash its corporate tax rate to 12.5% to keep pace with the same low rate in the prosperous Republic of Ireland. Even in France, of all places, new President Nicolas Sarkozy has proposed reducing the corporate tax rate to 25% from 34.4%.
What do politicians in these countries understand that the U.S. Congress doesn’t? Perhaps they’ve read “International Competitiveness for Dummies.” In each of the countries that have cut corporate tax rates this year, the motivation has been the same — to boost the nation’s attractiveness as a location for international investment. Germany’s overall rate will fall to 29.8% by 2008 from 38.7%. Remarkably, at the start of this decade Germany’s corporate tax rate was 52%.
We’re Number one (in tax rate for corporations)
Taxes are used to regulate behavior. Higher taxes (70%) on hard liquor and even higher taxes on tobacco. We also eliminate taxes to get you to buy a home (interest deduction) and borrow money. We give you no taxes on income if you loan the government money.
If you invest and create jobs we give you a 15% rate. If you don’t save and invest we tax you more. It is all about regulating what you do with your money and lives. It is to get you to take risks (15% to gamble you pick the right investment or open the right business).
Ever since we passed the 16th Amendment, the Federal government has tried to use taxes on various types of income to regulate our behavior. (States always have).
“Sin taxes,” are nothing more than trying to tax us into not doing something that is legal.
The only “good tax,” is where the states fund the Federal government and tax the people in the way the people in each state want to be taxed for their State’s share of the revenue needed for Federal Government.
The best, of course is some type of consumption tax. That allows business to be as competitive as possible and leave the decision to risk capital starting or funding businesses up to the individual rather than trying “direct” the types of behavior government, not the people, think is best.
That would probably lower prices 20-30% and the people would have more control of how much tax they pay by saving more and spending less. Then, they too, would be using the advantages of compound interest and return on capital to growth their own wealth.
A person who saves $200 a month from 25 to 35 in a mutual fund returning 8.5% will have $400,000 at retirement even though he only saved for 10 years. If he waits to 35 and saves $200 a month for 30 years, he will only have about $300,000.
That is the lesson my father taught me. He said even if I was only working at minimum wage, save 10%. Soon I would be making money on my money and eventually making more than I made in wages. He was right. It meant sacrifice for a few years and finding a wife that agreed with that principle. It meant living in a three room rental home for awhile and driving 2nd hand vehicles and not dining out, but we were able to save 10%.
However, we don’t teach that enough anymore. Many wealthy people I have met, started with nothing but a few dollars and then studied how to best invest them and then re-invest what they made and then re-invest that. Many went bankrupt and started over but in the end, they got it right finally and became wealthy.
Quote:
The last thirty years have been the most tumultuous in international monetary
history. The banking systems in forty or fifty countries–including Japan, Mexico,
Finland, Sweden, South Korea, Thailand, Russia, and Brazil—collapsed in one of three
waves; the first wave began in 1982 and involved Mexico and many other developing
countries, the second wave began in 1990 and included Japan and Sweden, and third
wave began in 1997 and included Thailand and its neighbors in South Asia as well as
Russia. The combined loan losses of the banks in some of these countries ranged from
thirty to forty percent of the annual government budgets in many of these countries.
THE THIRTY FIVE MOST TUMULTOUS YEARS IN MONETARY HISTORY:
SHOCKS AND FINANCIAL TRAUMA
Robert Z. Aliber
University of Chicago
It is more common than many realize, to have a financial system collapse. That is why the current panic not just in the U.S. but globally.
We are not to “hyper-inflation,” yet. What would trigger it? It probably wouldn’t be by design but rather due to an unintended series of actions by other nations. The main concern is that OPEC stops selling in dollars.
The loss of demand for dollars to buy oil with could set in motion a whole series of other events that each would be based on others and each would then, in turn, cause those other events to worsen. Then, as they worsen, the others worsen until the who system is imploding due to a lack of trust in a currency with no backing, only “faith,” in the government to pay what that currency is supposed to be worth.
I don’t see that happening now. It may later. If we get by this crisis, then we are back to the “boomer crisis” that could end up imploding our currency. As the government would print more and more money to cover social security and Medicare payments, the currency would continue to devalue until other nations finally won’t accept it as having the value we claim it has.
“Wealthy people have the money that allows them to move and live a high standard of living in virtually any nation in the world.”
Yes, but they may find hidden costs in the nation they live in.
I learned that in Mexico for instance, you should count on getting suckered for $100 on any vacation trip (if you plan on driving somewhere). I got burned on a speed trap, and paid cash to resolve the issue. I also got burned at the Pemex station where a uniformed attendant pulled the old switcheroo con on me. I handed him a 200 peso note, and he came back saying I only gave him a 20 peso note. It worked the first time, but not the second.
Anyway, the point is that when you move to places with lower taxes you are likely to pay more in other ways. We call these externalities.
I would also argue that people aren’t nearly as liquid as dollars. It is much more difficult for us to simply pull up and move to a completely different place (new customs, language, laws, etc.). It’s not a pain-free experience. Investment dollars on the other hand only need go through a currency exchange to make the transformation.
And you still haven’t provided an answer to my question.
The U.S. currently has a $9 trillion debt (and growing).
Who should pay?
Who should pay the $9 trillion? All citizens equally. Each pays a flat rate of their consumption money. I pay 17%, or 20% or 30% (whatever it takes), you pay it the wealthy pay it, etc. Everyone pays.
However, that won’t happen and it will never be paid because it is not the real debt. The real debt is $53 trillion and rising each month we don’t reform Medicare and Social Security.
David Walker, the Comptroller General that is retiring, reported to Congress that each full time worker in America now owes $400,000 as he share of the debt. That is just for the debt. That is in addition to what he will have to pay for the running of the rest of government.
That is why talking about $9 trillion that not one in government has any intention of paying off, is rediculous. There is no way to pay off the debt except with hyper-inflation. Not that they will do that but that is the only way it is possible.
We will have the debt ceiling raised every future term we have. Both parties will raise it. As long as we are “sound,” the foreign governments and investors that loan us the money will continue to loan us more and get their interest payments.
With interest now at 1/2 a trillion, how do you pay down debt when you have trouble making the interest payments with the rest of running of government?
What is worse is that about 1/2 that is “trust fund” interest that we turn around and borrow as soon as we pay it. That comes from payroll taxes. As the seniors retire and we go from 36 million retirees to the projected 71 million (and higher if more medical advance raise longevity), they will stop paying in and start drawing out. Any severe recession will destroy all projections. Instead of not having surpluses until 2016, it could be as soon as 2012 if payroll taxes really drop. Instead of 2041 being the “broke” target it could move up by a decade.
But, the “crisis” is not when it goes broke. It is when there isn’t a surplus to loan the general fund. At that point, we have to step up borrowing from foreign government double the amount of the surplus loss. 1- the loss itself and 2- the amount we are having to pay back to cover the money and interest we borrowed from trust fund.
Thus, nobody will ever be asked to pay off the $9 trillion. Nobody will be asked to pay off the $53 trillion either. All Congress has to do is declare those programs unsustainable and end them. Then that “debt” is gone, disappeared, vanished in the signing of a bill.
At that point, taxes could cover the interest and probably pay down the debt. Those two, S.S. and Medicare are 1.3 trillion. That is why Payroll Taxes are counted as part of our tax collections for spending and not as loans to the government in the same sense as foreign loans. The government itself says, those programs can be ended and the tax revenues then are only general fund revenues.
So, either “hyper-inflation” or nothing. We either keep growing the debt or end entitlements like social security and Medicare. Think the voters will go for that?
There is no way out.
You said it is hard for people to uproot and leave. 100% correct. Yet, millions came here leaving families behind for economic opportunities, to escape bad government, etc. Many of them weren’t wealthy. They had to sell everything to have enough to leave.
One friend of mine came here from the Philippines with $125 dollars upon arrival. He immediately got a job, any job and started saving. Finally he bought a home, got a college degree then bought rental property and finally, though never becoming wealthy, became very comfortable as he was used to not spending much. He still longs for home.
But, why would people leave here? Simple, in 10 years this will be the nation that people won’t want to live in.
Quote:
Today, California sloshes knee deep in its 37.5 million population overload. It grows by 1,650 people daily! (Source: http://www.capsweb.org) By 2050, if this immigration-driven population phenomenon continues, California explodes to 79.1 million people. Source: “Projecting the U.S. Population to 2050” by Jack Martin and Stanley Fogel, March 2006.
If you think Los Angeles’ smog, traffic, water and power shortages create problems today, hold on to your girdle because you ain’t seen nothing yet!
In Dr. Otis Graham’s “Unguarded Gates: A History of America’s Immigration Crisis”, he writes, “Most Western elites continue urging the wealthy West not to stem the migrant tide, but to absorb our global brothers and sisters until their horrid ordeal has been endured and shared by all–ten billion humans packed onto an ecologically devastated planet.”
In literary terms, it’s called ‘hubris’ or false pride. Many of Shakespeare’s protagonists suffered this self-destructing trait. Today, Obama, Hillary and McCain maximize ‘hubris’ through their actions.
Hillary, McCain or Obama will not only legalize up to 30 million illegals, they will support doubling legal immigration to 2.1 million annually. They already voted for it in 2007.
Frosty Woodbridge
Workers, if we haven’t done away with entitlement will face that $400,000 tax burden for a system that won’t be there when they retire. Even the good paying jobs are leaving. You might want to stay here but if you can’t make a living, how can you stay?
quote:
“One in five Americans has considered leaving America, three million Americans would do so right this moment if they only knew how…”
snip———————-
Expatriating? Give up U.S. citizenship? Who in his right mind would give up his U.S. citizenship? Lots of people. You could practically fill a Boeing 747 with well-heeled U.S. citizens who have taken on foreign citizenship rather than submit to what Learned Hand called “enforced exactions” at a level that amounts to virtual confiscation. The exodus may speed up under an Administration that campaigned for office on a tax-the-rich platform.
In 1981 Ronald Reagan lowered taxes. The following year not a single American gave up his citizenship. In 1993 the expatriate community grew by 306 names.
The expatriates of recent years have included:
Michael Dingman, chairman of Abex, and a Ford Motor director. Dingman is now a citizen of the Bahamas and lives there.
Billionaire John (Ippy) Dorrance III, an heir to the Campbell Soup fortune. Dorrance is now a citizen of Ireland and lives there as well as in the Bahamas and Devil’s Tower, Wyo.
J. Mark Mobius, one of the most successful emerging market investment managers. Born a U.S. citizen, Mobius has the German citizenship of his ancestors and lives in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Kenneth Dart, an heir to Dart Container and his family’s $1 billion fortune. He is a citizen of Belize and works in the Cayman Islands.
Ted Arison, founder of Carnival Cruise Lines. He kept Israeli citizenship and now lives there.
These newer emigrants join others of longer standing, including Robert Miller, the co-owner of Duty Free Shoppers International Ltd. Miller has a British passport obtained in Hong Kong, though he was raised in Quincy, Mass.
The New Refugees: Americans who give up citizenship to save on taxes.
It is only a trickle. But there is a new “home” that the wealthy are using.
quote:
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For those that want to own real estate that can take them around the world, then a Residential Cruise Ship might be the right choice. Helium Report has compared all the options and provides the answers you need to make a smart decision.
Residential Cruise Ships
I saw a documentary on this and looked it up. In the documentary, their permanent residence was thousands of square feet. They had formal dining, casual dining, room service, maids, etc. The only difference between owning a home on the ship and one in some penthouse was that it sailed to all the ports of the world year after year.
Some, even weren’t retired but had a business they could run by computer. The ship had all the recreation you could want but, it had one thing no home in New York could offer. You never saw a poor person unless you left the ship in some port. You dined and socialized only with other wealthy people.
What is now a trickle will be much larger in 10 years if the current trends continue.
Jan, if this comes down to keeping the rich here so that they can continue to bend the middle-class over, or having them leave to live in the Bahamas… then I say good riddance.
I’m not afraid of losing our rich.
The only part that bothers me is losing smart people. This nation is dumb enough already, we can’t afford to lose more brain power. Luckily, I don’t believe there is a direct correlation between intelligence and wealth.
It isn’t the rich so much as the government policies that create the situation that pits them against us.
If you lose the rich, you have no jobs to speak of. The poor don’t hire people. Also, you have to try and get the poor to pay the taxes then. You end up with a socialist nation where the people are equal, equally miserable.
However, to have CEO’s making 400 times the worker (if it isn’t from stock gains (real gains not stock options that are manipulated)) is nuts. It is a reflection of the “elite” that control the board of directors of corporations and set the pay for “puppets” that do what they are told as CEO’s for the elite. That same elite control the party leaders. Look at the membership of the CFR. I but some names I am familiar with in bold. These are the same people who have ties to the Bilderbergs and the corporate list there is impressive too. The companies and our government and other governments are “advised” by the same people.
Quote:
http://www.cfr.org/
Officers and Directors Emeriti:
Leslie H. Gelb (President Emeritus)
Maurice R. Greenberg (Honorary Vice Chairman)
Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. (Director Emeritus)
Peter G. Peterson (Chairman Emeritus)
David Rockefeller (Honorary Chairman)
Robert A. Scalapino (Director Emeritus)
Board of Directors
Carla A. Hills
Co-Chairman; Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hills & Company
Robert E. Rubin
Co-Chairman; Director and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Citigroup, Inc.
Richard E. Salomon
Vice Chairman; Chairman, Mecox Ventures, Inc.
Richard N. Haass
President, Council on Foreign Relations
Peter Ackerman
Managing Director, Rockport Capital, Inc.
Fouad Ajami
M. Khadduri Prof. of Middle Eastern Studies, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Madeleine K. Albright
Principal, The Albright Group LLC
Charlene Barshefsky
Senior International Partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
Henry S. Bienen
President, Northwestern University
Stephen W. Bosworth
Dean, The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Tom Brokaw
NBC News
Sylvia Mathews Burwell
President, Global Development Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Frank J. Caufield
Co-Founder, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Kenneth M. Duberstein
Chairman and CEO, The Duberstein Group, Inc.
Martin S. Feldstein
President, National Bureau of Economic Research
Richard N. Foster
Managing Partner, Millbrook Management Group LLC
Stephen Friedman
Chairman, Stone Point Capital
Ann M. Fudge
Helene D. Gayle
President & CEO, CARE
Maurice R. Greenberg
Chairman & CEO, C.V. Starr & Co., Inc.
Richard C. Holbrooke
Vice Chairman, Perseus LLC
Karen Elliott House
Alberto Ibargüen
President & Chief Executive Officer, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Henry R. Kravis
Founding Partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Jami Miscik
Managing Director, Global Head of Sovereign Risk, Lehman Brothers
Michael H. Moskow
Senior Fellow for the Global Economy, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
Distinguished Service Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Ronald L. Olson
Senior Partner, Munger Tolles and Olson LLP
James W. Owens
Chairman & CEO, Caterpillar Inc.
Colin L. Powell
United States Army (Ret.)
David M. Rubenstein
Co-Founder and Managing Director, The Carlyle Group
Anne-Marie Slaughter
Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
Joan E. Spero
President, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Strobe Talbott
President, Brookings Institution
Vin Weber
CEO and Partner, Clark & Weinstock
Christine Todd Whitman
President, The Whitman Strategy Group
Fareed Zakaria
Editor, Newsweek International
—————————–
It isn’t the companies are the wealthy, but a select group of people. Some live here and some don’t. The wealthy we think of are usually just “puppets” that are rewarded very well for doing what they are advised is best for corporations and the government policies in some key areas (not all) that move us toward one global government overseeing the government we have and think of as being “our government.”
Until it has “power” we will see the two parties both with different agendas, struggling for that government but, after it happens, you will see that the parties have been pawns and only thought they would be in power once that “one world government was gained.”
As, Mr. Rockerfeller you see listed above says,
Quote:
“My lifetime pursuits as an internationalist might best be summarized by one rather extraordinary day in 1995. October 23 was a busy day at the Council on Foreign Relations. The fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations had drawn almost two hundred heads of government to New York, and many had asked to speak at the Council. but even then the day was unusual for the diversity of the speakers: Jiang Zemin, president of the People’s Republic of China and heir apparent to Deng Xiaoping; Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic… Yasser Arafat… and, finally, Fidel Castro…. With the exception of Havel, these men had vowed to fight to the death against imperialist America. Now, with the end of the Cold War, they flocked to the center of world capitalism, eager to meet and close deals with American bankers and corporate executives, or at least to be seen with them — even Castro….
“For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure–one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.
Quotes from David Rockefeller’s Memoirs (Random House, New York, 2002) Chapter 27, pages 404 and 405.
It isn’t the rich we want to get rid of. We can’t survive as a nation without them or at least not have a high standard of living. It is the “corrupt rich” internationalists that are controlling both our corporations and government we need to get rid of.
By the way, that Peter G. Peterson is who has the foundation that our Comptroller General is going to work with when his resignation is complete from Government.
Remember, many of these people believe that “one world government” is the only salvation for the U.S. and many other nations. Only a “ruling elite” is adequate for sound fiscal and economic policy. Only a select few people are qualified to rule this nation.
Here is where we need to target the elite. The Federal Reserve and Central Banking. These quotes are good.
“The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Their common characteristic is obviously their sordid avarice.”
– Aristotle
(384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Aristotle.Quote.8163
“This Act (the Federal Reserve Act, Dec. 23rd 1913) establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President (Woodrow Wilson) signs the Bill, the invisible government of the Monetary Power will be legalised… The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking and currency Bill.”
– Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr.
(1859-1924) Congressman (R-MN), father of famous aviator
Source: his book, Banking and Currency and The Money Trust, 1913
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Charles.Lindbergh.Quote.419B
“The whole profit of the issuance of money has provided the capital of the great banking business as it exists today. Starting with nothing whatever of their own, they have got the whole world into their debt irredeemably, by a trick.
This money comes into existence every time the banks ‘lend’ and disappears every time the debt is repaid to them. So that if industry tries to repay, the money of the nation disappears. This is what makes prosperity so ‘dangerous’ as it destroys money just when it is most needed and precipitates a slump.
There is nothing left now for us but to get ever deeper and deeper into debt to the banking system in order to provide the increasing amounts of money the nation requires for its expansion and growth. An honest money system is the only alternative.”
– Frederick Soddy
(1877-1956) British author, professor, Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1921
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Frederick.Soddy.Quote.222A
Maybe it can get a little complicated if used in a different way.
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