Paul Ryan: Conservatives Should Support the Obama Tax Deal

I see, and hear, the whole complex picture. Societies must maintain a balancing act between security and freedom - recognizing that they are opposites. To gain more of one, a like amount of the other must be given up.

Societies and governments are dynamic - default settings must often be changed. Currently, both left and right are rigid in their ideology. This is a perilous situation for our nation, for now is the moment we need innovation, not dogmatic stagnation. I am not writing of compromise or the trading of political chess pieces. But rather of the necessity of both sides objectively recognizing what needs to be done and proceeding toward the common goal of a better America - as a team, not squabbling adversaries negotiating an armistice.

For the sake of the nation, both sides must become flexibly dynamic in this crisis - while recognizing that America's default settings can, and should be, constantly adjusted and reset within the general framework of our Constitution.

Will this happen? Not a chance.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 11:59AM December 13, 2010

You wrote, "Just because rich has much, does not negate ones ability to also earn much."

I'll keep this simple - try playing Monopoly with a bunch of guys who start with all the money and you have none.... I wonder who will win.

Yesterday, David of ID, countered my suggestion of returning to the tax rates of 10 years ago for those making over 350k with a story of the 49ers heading west, building towns and panning for gold. The implication being that it's much easier now to become rich than in yesteryear.

Don't think so. First off, you try goin' "off-road" with a wagon and they'll lock you up for disturbing the native soil. Second, unless you're building a wind or solar farm I don't reckon you could get a permit to build anything on "free land". Furthermore, panning for gold has been outlawed most places because the Enviros say that the disturbed silt plugs up the native fishies gills (guess they never witnessed a spring run off - rivers and streams are brown with silt and mud). Hell, you can't even cut fire wood or have a fireplace these days - much less build a cabin without a mountain of permits, regulations and fees.

Things weren't all honky-dory in the old days in the cities either. You may want to check out the Homestead Steel Strike, The Matewan Massacre, and the Great Railroad Strikes of 1877 and 1886.

The struggle continues gentlemen, and like I said, maybe 20% of the population can be self employed or chief executives - the rest are wage slaves, and the wages aren't increasing at anywhere close to the rate of executive pay increases and bonuses.

We're in a tight - everyone needs to sacrifice and pitch in - or we may as well simply step aside and make room for China.

For further illumination I recommend Tennessee Ernie Ford's song of, "16 Tons" or reviewing "Robin Hood" and perhaps, "Citizen Kane".

R.L. Schaefer of CA 12:48PM December 12, 2010

Bill, you say,"What one does is in their hands." That may have been true in 1800, but certainly not now. One could have an academic debate regarding the precepts of hard right, Libertarianism, but we live in a "real world" where 1 % control 50% of the wealth and 10% have about 80% of the money.

Everyone can't be a CEO or a brilliant entrepreneur - some need to be employees. Corporations have been stripping their employees of money and benefits for a long time. As I have mentioned, in 1960 top executives earned about 15 times more than their employees - now they earn 366 times what their employees earn. This disparity has forced nearly all middle class families to have few or no children, so both parents can work - hoping to maintain the same standard of living that one income once provided.

On the other extreme, you have government unions providing their employees with absurd salaries and benefits. The legacy costs are burying many states in debt.

A complete overhaul of our economic and regulatory system is needed. However, we lack the national will to do what must be done, and so we will continue our slide into ruin. There is absolutely no way to change it - it's too late.

Sorry, but there's no way to stick a happy face on this one.

Bill, in your current post you write, I like to "complain about CEO pay" . No I don't. I just want them taxed a little more, and I'd like it if they'd stopped screwing their employees - cutting hours, reducing benefits, dumping folks over 45, etc.. And note, this has been going on for 20 years. The middle class would have nearly disappeared if it weren't for two incomes per household and never ending home equity allowing them to keep their heads above water as the glutted moguls screamed for more. Now they've got "more" and many of the rest of the common people are broke and foreclosed upon.

We don't need Ayn Rand or Karl Marx. But, we do need another Teddy Roosevelt with a "trust busting, big stick" and a generous dollop of common sense. Unfortunately, we have Barack Obama.

Our nation is on the edge of total collapse - I can see that without watching Glenn Beck.

We're gonna need all the tools we can get our hands on to stop it; reduce the size of government at all levels, reduce regulation, get a real energy program - dump the "Green Dream", slash union legacy costs, cut all government salaries by 10%, infuse some common sense into ObamaCare, deport illegals, secure the border, incentivise companies to bring jobs back home, reduce the size of foreign commitments, and means test SSI and MediCare.

We can't go on spending what we don't have. It's sink or swim.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 8:45PM December 11, 2010

Might be good to review Econ -101. Productive jobs can not be created by government. Government can only transfer funds from the private sector to the public sector - with a large percentage of the wealth lost in the process through government graft, pork-pie and inefficiency.

America has spent decades destroying its manufacturing base through "out sourcing", regulation, crazy union demands/legacy benefits and taxation. We have become a nation of paper shufflers that imports most of its basic needs; energy, food and raw materials.

Corporate bean counters are cutting employee hours and slashing benefits to pump up stock prices, as well as executive pay and bonuses. In 1960 executive pay was approximately 16 times more than the average employee's - now it's 366 times the average wage. Yeah, I think they can afford to have their taxes raised, at least back to 2000 levels.

Environmentalist theology has made every human endeavor more time consuming and expensive. Industry and businesses have moved to countries where the Environmentalist religion hasn't yet taken full control - as it has here in the U.S..

For 40 years our schools have emphasized "white collar" jobs - "blue collar" jobs were referred to contemptuously by school counselors and administrators as, "dead end", "unfulfilling", "unskilled" and "going nowhere" jobs. I recall a high school counselor referring to my father's job as a machinist as a, "...meaningless job - a road to nowhere.". Well, the intellectual bigots have gotten their way - all those "dirty" jobs are gone. But can a nation survive shuffling papers and pecking at keyboards?

Corporate greed, government regulation/taxation, lack of character and self discipline, Environmentalist dogma, and educational/vocational bigotry have transformed America, in just 40 years, from the industrial giant of the world to a country that can't provide the basic necessities of life for its people or even control its borders.

I don't believe there is any way back - We lack the personal and national will to make the necessary sacrifices.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 12:45PM December 11, 2010