(click the tax tables to enlarge) I’ve been hearing a lot about a proposal to simplify the tax code lately, using a flat tax, which would tax everyone at the same flat rate. Cain says 9%, and would add a Federal sales tax to the mix. Perry says 20%, but doesn’t mention a sales tax. The idea is that we should all be taxed the same rate, because it’s more fair, and that having one tax rate would simplify things. Well, before you fire your accountant (job killers!), remember that it’s not the withholding tables that make things complicated. It’s the exemptions and deductions and credits. So really, in order…

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

I happen to think that the best way for the U.S. to go is toward a Single Payer health plan. The idea that people go bankrupt over health care costs, that people die because their insurance will not pay for the treatment that they need, irks the hell out of me. And both have happened within my own family. Also, the limitations of only being able to see doctors within your own health plan (ala Kaiser) is beyond stupid. If everyone in the United States were automatically covered, just by virtue of being a citizen, then I am sure that we could bring costs down, that yes, our taxes would…

The whole AIG thing is bugging, you know?  I know that it’s important to retain your top talent when you’re a huge company with fingers in every pie in the U.S., such as AIG is.  I do understand that.  If they should fail even worse than they already have, we’re all screwed even farther than we already are.  But it pisses me off that anyone in the WORLD thinks they’re worth this much money, let alone taxpayer money.  No one is worth this much.  No one.  But people who took huge chances that resulted in the collapse of our economy, resulting in this huge loss of jobs, why should they…

“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and…

Ted mentioned the other day that our economic situation is so bad, that even if every American man, woman, and child were to chip in $1 or $5, it wouldn’t really help anything.  I thought, but what if every American man, woman, and child were to throw one shoe at George W. Bush? Heck, even if every man, woman, and child in DC next Tuesday threw a shoe, surely at least one would hit him.  THAT’S a movement I could get behind.  You have at least one extra shoe lying around, don’t you?  That you’d be willing to donate to the cause? A girl can dream, right?