Monday, November 9, 2009

Opinion

Sam Dealey

Thomas Friedman's McCarthyite Tax Attack on Sarah Palin

October 08, 2008 05:06 PM ET | Sam Dealey | Permanent Link | Print

Reader Comments

Turbo Tax

How are you. When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.

I am from Leone and also am speaking English, give true I wrote the following sentence: "Mysql connect - access denied for user."

:-D Thanks in advance. Elena.

tax patriotism,

How it once was said zeakile, Yes spelled right or not, such mentallity has not been reflectted since Hittler.

The truth was at the tea party long ago. Ahh, are not taxes unconstitutional?

What of laws that influence indaviduals wealth in 1984 all insurance company were going down! Then blam mandatory insurance, nice con, greedy people force everyone to buy thier product, that is an idea, dwelling on the human races paranoia. so many people spending thier money on nothing, And now where is it all at?

Sollution of the econmic crissis is to end such unconstitutional law. Shut'em down and return all premiums paid the those people whom never recieved services. most everyone paying

Or shall we say, now you all pay and take it up thier there!!

Dumbing America down?

Dumbing America down is placing Obama in the White House; his pretty smile won't make up for his lack of experience. He is sugar floss; will melt when wet.

Friedman a McCarthyite??? Sigh...

The manner in which Mr. Dealy calls Mr. Friedman's point of view "McCarthyite" brings to mind three words:

Pot --> Kettle --> Black

Tax Fairness

Cutting programs does seem like an easy way to find some of the money we'll need to balance the budget ... until you start to name programs. Programs that help our citizens lead healthy, productive lives should not be cut! As it is things like education are being cut to the point of damaging our educational standard in the world where the Organization for economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ranks the US as 29th in science, math and reading!! Who is going to come up with alternative energy if our students are so bad at science?

Now if you want to cut out the no-bid contracts we give to companies like Halliburton, right on!

In the meantime, stop the rhetoric and look at some numbers at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/09/ST2008060900950.html

where the differences between the two candidates' tax plans are shown clearly. And what's clear is that people earning more than $600,000 a year should be able to stay quite wealthy while paying a fairer share of the financial burden of running this great country!!

Tax Fairness

Cutting programs does seem like an easy way to find some of the money we'll need to balance the budget ... until you start to name programs. Programs that help our citizens lead healthy, productive lives should not be cut! As it is things like education are being cut to the point of damaging our educational standard in the world where the Organization for economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ranks the US as 29th in science, math and reading!! Who is going to come up with alternative energy if our students are so bad at science?

Now if you want to cut out the no-bid contracts we give to companies like Halliburton, right on!

In the meantime, stop the rhetoric and look at some numbers at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/06/09/ST2008060900950.html

where the differences between the two candidates' tax plans are shown clearly. And what's clear is that people earning more than $600,000 a year should be able to stay quite wealthy while paying a fairer share of the financial burden of running this once-greaat country!!

employment

My late husband, and his father, in speaking of taxing the rich of this country more, asked," Did you ever hear of a poor man putting people to work?" Make the rich poor by taxing them out of existence will just add to the unemployed. Logic, right?

Cheat the Other Guy

Sam Dealy is right - cutting existing spending is a legitimate additonal means to create dollars for needed services. Thomas Friedman would no doubt agree, but that's not the point. Americans have slipped into the habit of expecting government on the cheap. The Bush administration has made this a national way of life. Two examples: fighting a trillion dollar war in Irag without cutting services or raising taxes, and our $10 trillion national debt. (Sidebar: Alaskans are like Americans,only worse. We proudly proclaim our rugged self-sufficiency while we have the lowest taxes in the nation including no state taxes,get more federal spending per capita than any other state, and recieve annual $2000 checks in the mail.) No one likes paying taxes, and yeah, like all big institutins, the federal goverment wastes a lot of money. A famous bar in Anchorage has a slogan "we cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you". Most people have a similar view of taxes - they like what they recieve, but want the other guy's programs cut. If people actually didn't want good roads, clean air and water, good schools, good health care, etc, it would be differnt. But I'm convinced the large majority of people want the large majority of the services government provides. We just would rather not pay for these services. Or equally bad, we want what's good for us individually, but oppose some comparable benefit to the "other guy". Palin is simply offering people cover to continue to avoid taking responsibility. That's not patriotism, that's just being selfish and dishonest.

Accountability

Ms. Palin should have said,"fair," if that's what she meant. And why shouldn't the wealthy and large businesses pay their fair share of taxes? They have obviously benefited greatly by being a part of the American Dream.

Lack of Accountability

The soul of honesty is a fully accountable thought process. It demands careful listening, and a judicious, accurate, and thorough response. I am disheartened by the level of inaccurate statements and rebuttals/counter claims in our political process. This story is a perfect example. It has become a "Win at Any Cost" affair, devoid of rational thinking. Welcome to George Orwell's 1984!! Can you say DoubleSpeak?! I am stunned by the number of statements that are of a purely self serving nature. Some people may think it's fun to getemotionally worked up - all hopping mad and excited - but it doesn't serve the best interests of our country, the world, or the human race. I read the original article by Thomas Freidman and I don't believe that he used Sarah Palin's words out of context. I believe she blurted out a very thoughtless retort. TF went on to point out that our tax monies pay for the body armor that protects her son. Nobody is going to argue that we want our tax money spent with care. AND, it's foolish to paint all Government spending as a burden on the taxpayer. We all constantly benefit from the way our Government keeps money circulating through the economy for the benefit of all. It is dishonest to claim that the Government's spending was that limited in the 70's. And why should the Government spend money only on Armed Forces and war?? Is this more Military/ Industrial Complex propaganda?

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Sam Dealey is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and Reader's Digest. He has written for many publications, including Time, GQ, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

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