Bobert: "Should the rich have the right to be rich... Of course they should but... 1. not by cheating as Wall Street has done and gotten away with and still continues to get away with and 2. the rich shoould also pay their sahre in taxes as it relates to how much wealth they have corrled for themselves...

Okay, that's fair.

Fact, GfinS: The tax rates on all individuals now in the US is lower than any industrialized country in the world and at a 30 year low...

Are you saying you want YOUR taxes to go up??

Fact, GfinS: The upper 5% percent has corraled 80% of the cpountry's wealth yet pays only roughly 50% of the taxes... That means that 30% of the nation's wealth is exempted...

Those figures are a little skewed. Look at it another way, using the same numbers...5% of 'those people' are paying 50% of the taxes. Many people pay NO taxes!..and many of those people are on 'the dole'.

Fact, GfinS: Cutting taxes even more will contribute to the deficit unless Draconian cuts are made in spending...

Good idea!!!

Fact, GfinS: All the "earmarks" that the Repubs complain about (even though they get well over half of them) don't account for even 1% of the federal budget...

1% is 1%....if that is at all true.

Fact, GfinS: There are people within the Republican Party who believe in the theory of "starve the beast" (like Bush almost did) as a strategy to kill off the New Deal...

I would rather see a re-structuring and better efficiency. The amount that the poor get, is LESS than the amount to administer the bureaucracy!! Bigger, wasteful government, and bigger wasteful spending, agreed?

Fact, GfinS: John Beohner is from Mars... Jus' kiddin'...

...and I'm from Sanity....

Bobert: "But, no, let's get real here... The debate right now that the needs to occur is how we get the country out of a 30 year downward spiril... We spend 17% of out GNP on health care yet are tryiong to compete with the rest of the industrialized world that averages 8% and with much better results... I mean, we don't rank in the top ten in life expectancy and we're now like 24th in infant mortality??? That won't get fixed with simplistic bumper-sticker Tea Party slogans... Our eductaional system is shot... We don't rank in the top 20 in math and science when there was a time we were 1st in both??? That won't get fixed with simplistic bumper-sticker Tea Party slogans..."

What I would like to see, as long as you are attacking the 'rich', is a moratorium in regards to paying the private banking concern, called 'The Federal Reserve', for all the fiat money they've printed, THROUGH THE YEARS and charged us the maximum interest rates at whatever time it was printed. Most of our tax money does not pay for services rendered by the Federal government, but rather paying off the interest on the printed, 'loaned' money!!...I mean, if you really want to go after the rich...go after the biggest schmucks of all!!!

The Federal government is also W-A-A-A-Y to bloated, and grossly inefficient in regards to their entitlement programs. This cost could, and should be brought under reasonable control, to better serve the people who REALLY need the assistance....agreed?

GfS