I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Awwww... I'm sorry, E.  I'm afraid to go to movies now because of reading articles how they have found bedbugs at movie theaters!  I think I'll wait until it comes out on cable or on DVD.

Gentle hugs, E ....

Happy Friday Ladies!!!

No real dinner for me last night--went to a Bastille Day celebration and ate little nibbles and drank Lillet (which is a fortified white or red wine which I had never had before which was LOVELY!).  After the celebration, DH and I felt the urge to hit the wine store and stock up on nice things to drink for summer meals.

The Debt Stuff:  Honestly, it is hard for me to watch/listen. I have little hope for a resolution that doesn't gut the social welfare system while continuing tax breaks for those who don't really need them. I think there is a nice solid hunk of people (perhaps on both sides) who really think that its all a big to-do over nothing and that nothing bad will happen if the debt ceiling is not increased.  I am the income stream for our family ---and also assist to my MIL who lives entirely on SS payments (lazy woman! started work at about 14 and didn't continue until she dropped in the traces!).  I cannot afford to miss a paycheck and yet it may come down to that.  I am thinking to practice tightening the belt buckle and the purse strings by having a week of no cash out.  Just live on whats in the kitchen.  Beans and rice are healthy, right?

3mons.........is it really going to come to that............God help us all,..............except the "rich" who get all the tax breaks....................

E - I'm sorry about the Arimidex! I was on Tamoxifen, which is supposed to be nothing compared to an AI and it nearly did me in. I honestly can't imagine what you must be going through. You are in my thoughts, though.

I am by no means rich but I pay 28-32% of my income in taxes (depending on my commission). That seems excessive to me. The first option below I could get behind. From a CNN article:

Hiking everyone's tax rate by 1 percentage point would yield an additional $480 billion over 10 years. By contrast, raising the top two tax rates by 1 percentage point would yield just $115 billion.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/04/22/news/economy/budget_taxes_poll/index.htm

All the salsa and tomatillo talk is making my mouth water!  I had the best dish the other day at a neighbor's house - shredded green apples with shredded poblano peppers and cilantro!  No idea what it's called (some kind of coleslaw without cabbage?), and I thought it sounded rather nasty, but omigosh it was soooooo good.

Enjoyful - sorry it's a rough day!

I'm absolutely beside myself after seeing a padlock for the first time ever!  YEEEEHAWWWW

A, I agree we are spoiled. I just feel everyone should pay taxes. And a flat tax rate would be fairest.

E, so sorry you are having a arimidex-kind of day, gentle hugs, pal.

Barbara I think this is where many of us  get caught up. We think of federal as everything, when what is being talked about is just the Federal income tax. Even the working poor pay social security and medicare.What they don't pay is the federal income tax part.

A flat tax is very inequitable. It would unfairly penalize the poor - whether it is calculated as a number or a percentage.

Barbara - if you were rich - better still, very rich, you would have more deductions. Overall, the very rich pay quite lower marginal rates when all the different taxes are taken into account. Warren Buffet famously observed that his secretary pays at higher tax rates than he does.

Kira, so sorry you're feeling icky.  Hope this passes soon.

Good point about FICA taxes and the impact on the working poor.  And of course, because the amount subject to the Social Security tax is capped, lower income folks actually pay a HIGHER rate than the wealthy.

Barbara, my problem with the flat tax is that I don't think it recognizes the very different constraints of folks earning, say, $30,000 a year vs. folks earning $3 million a year.  To me, it's only fair to ask those who are not living hand to mouth (to say the least!) to kick in proportionately more.  But I'm totally with you on tightening up deductions and loopholes, and strongly believe that income should be treated the same regardless of its source (e.g., no special tax rate for dividends or capital gains).

L

*status update break* 

Surgery scheduled for August 23 - so I get my wedding anniversary, birthday and NOTL celebrations after all!

*now back to our regularly scheduled program*

People who have jobs pay taxes.  People who collect unemployment benefits and welfare do not.  Our unemployment has been over 9% for quite awhile now.  If the person currently occupying the Oval office had spent as much time in the last two years getting the economy back on track and getting Americans back to work that he has spent jetting around the country campaigning to keep his job, and raising a record amount of campaign contributions, we as a country would be in much better financial shape and maybe not on the brink of default.

His party had a super majority in congress for two years, and never managed to get a budget passed.  They just lurched from spending crisis to spending crisis driving the country further into debt along the way.

For the current occupant of the Oval Office to even consider stealing money from Social Security recipients, be they retirees or on disability to force tax increases and to avoid defaulting on loans to others tells you who he is.  The first checks to stop should belong to him, and to the members of congress who have let this crisis get to this point.  

I worry that with a flat tax rate, the loopholes would remain and place an ever larger burden on the poor.  If there were guaranteed NO loopholes for the rich in a flat tax, I might be more amenable to it.

I do itemize as a self-employed person.  I take all the tax breaks I can find, including mortgage interest, etc.

Bren

EDITED:   A bit of good news .. I just called the Passport office and my passport card was mailed out yesterday.  I'm so freakin' excited!

Yay, Libby !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I keep wanting to show this. Someone spoke about fraud, waste and abuse. I don't have time to fish for more direct data, but this is a compilation of survey results by Transparency International, which collects yearly data on different issues related to corruption. Here is a list of the percentage of respondants in various countries who reported ever having to pay a bribe for a service:

 Solomon Islands 20%
Taiwan 7%
Thailand 23%
Vanuatu 16%
Vietnam 44%
EU+ 5%
Austria 9%
Bulgaria 8%
Czech Republic 14%
Denmark 0%
Finland 2%
France 7%
Germany 2%
Greece 18%
Hungary 24%
Iceland 3%
Ireland 4%
Italy 13%
Latvia 15%
Lithuania 34%
Luxembourg 16%
Netherlands 2%
Norway 1%
Poland 15%
Portugal 3%
Romania 28%
Slovenia 4%
Spain 5%
Switzerland 2%
United Kingdom 1%
Latin America 23%
Argentina 12%
Bolivia 30%
Brazil 4%
Chile 21%
Colombia 24%
El Salvador 31%
Mexico 31%
Peru 22%
Venezuela 20%
Middle East and North Africa 36%
Iraq 56%
Israel 4%
Lebanon 34%
Palestine 51%
NIS+ 32%
Armenia 22%
Azerbaijan 47%
Belarus 27%
Georgia 3%
Moldova 37%
Mongolia 48%
Russia 26%
Ukraine 34%
North America 5%
Canada 4%
United States 5%
Sub-Saharan Africa 56%
Cameroon 54%
Ghana 37%
Kenya 45%
Liberia 89%
Nigeria 63%
Senegal 56%
Sierra Leone 71%
Uganda 86%
Zambia 42%
Western Balkans + Turkey 19%
Bosnia & Herzegovina 23%
Croatia 5%
FYR Macedonia 21%
Kosovo 16%
Serbia 17%
Turkey 33%

Notes:Figures are weighted

The US was one of several countries surveyed where "political parties" were cited by respondents as the most corrupt.

Source: http://www.transparency.org/

ETA: Data above is for 2010