the 2012 trivial drivel thread

[username]

I saw Ben Stein on some show the other day arguing that hell, yeah, raise taxes on the wealthiest individuals. He drew the line at those making $5million or more as I recall.

Surprised me coming from him.

There isn't enough wealth to tax or confiscate to pay for it all. That's the secret they don't talk about... entitlement programs are the great unfunded liabilities that are crushing budgets - best case scenario is a $45 trillion shortfall over the next 75 years. To cover that, the government would have to find $612 billion a year in additional revenue or spending cuts.

Also note that the above figures do not include any entitlement obligations from Obamacare that will reach into the tens of trillions. It also does not factor in normalized interest rates, which will likely add another $600 billion per year to our deficits when they arrive.

We have never had a tax revenue problem, it's always been a government spending problem.

source here http://www.gao.gov/financial/fy2009financialreport.html

I agree. It bugs the shit out of me that both parties dismissed the bi-partisan deficit reduction committee's recommendations out of hand.