True. Ultra-conservatives only consider the landed to be stake holders and today it would appear to be the CEO's also. We are or should consider ourselves each to be stakeholders regardless of our land or position but if wealthier stakeholders have more influence, and they do, what with their political contributions and corporate lobbying then should they not have be required to pay more. The way it works now they use their money to force the middle class down.

Money is like water. Where there is plenty of it it flows freely. Most "rich" people know this. And salesmen know how easy it is to sell to someone who has money as compared to the alternative. You cannot get blood from turnip or water from a stone. The fortunate thing for poor people is they get to live 24 hours a day just like the more affluent. Obviously money has to go from it is not needed to where it is needed. Merkel is correct but did not explain it very well.

Not at all Archer, I am saying I can pay another grand a year as can most people I know. And others can pay more. All togehter we can pay our debt. It is snakes like many of the guys above that can not stand up to reality.

I have a better and simpler idea: drop a bomb on the Cato Institute. Sorry ass quotes like this have existed since the birth of the republic, during the Civil War etcetera etcetera. Like the income tax was to high when it was first inacted at 2%. Guys like Pilon, Mike, Jim and J above will forever be with us, and we can forever ignore them.

Some body had got to be lying. It has been said that taxes are the lowest they have been since 1950, with a larger percentage paying no tax at all. Some say that we are entering a new gilded age with superrich and abject poor. Some say that we have to stand up like real men and women and pay the debts that We The People have incurred. Some say that those like Bush who inacted a "temporary tax cut" now want it not to be temporaray. Like the Senate leader Mitch McConell these people are "contemptible hypocrites" at least that is what the Louisville newspaper has called him.

What BS. Maybe when we "loan" money to our friends we should tell them keep it in a drawer and don't spend it until you pay it back to me. I stood behind a lady at a bank counter years ago who was demanding to see the same dollar bills that she had deposited days or weeks earlier. Such a bank could not lend you money either unless you had a full reserve to pay them upon demand, there goes the mortage and the car loan down the drain.

Reston is on to something here! I don't fear weapons as long as they are in my hands and not the other guys. Proliferation of weapons is somewhat of a nuisance and somewhat irrational.

This is a great and balanced, thought provoking quote. It is not taking a position on the issue but just stating the facts of the right and of the controversy. Yes generally we have the right to use and bear arms but are also are required by customs and law to do so responsibly. In many places, National Forests for example there are signs that read, "Firearms May Only Be Fired In An Emergency". This sign obviously does not disallow the carine or bearing of arms but does place a prohibition upon there use. I suggest that such a prohibition exists by custom and law throughout our society. Now when you choose to use a firearm you may be called in to court to prove the existence of an emergency. So that is the dichotomy of an absolute right to bear arms versus a limited right to use them.

Yeah it was a lousy comparison. But still "no good deed goes unpunished" is a truth I believe. We don't know fully how the Health Care Bill will work out. A former head of a Blue Cross Blue Shield has praised it. Some Republicans have praised parts of it. While I of course don't know the absolutes about the rightness of "making" people do thngs we certainly have done much of that, requiring folk to pay Social Security Taxes, purchase Auto Insurance, pay for Medicare Insurance. wear seat belts. Why cannot we enforce heatlh inusrance premiumis on the uninsured. I think we can and I think we will and I think we will all then be better off.

As long as the vote is fair and accurate then we are safe. We may not like the outcome but we are saved by the "wisdom" of man, that is that in public affairs in our republic the "wisdom" of the majority shall rule, not that it is correct but only that it shall rule. As far as the Truths of The Book it would appear from a survey of the populace who embrace it that there are many and often opposing Truths. So what gives there? Nice discussion with you.

What you forget Publius is WE are the governmnet. The fact of the seesaw nature of Washington politics is proof positive that WE are in charge and that we are fickle and change our minds every two years or so. I really know of no one who is against the right to own and bear arms. Many folk who have an equal right not to own a bear arms and see no need to do so have a certain jaundiced eye or fear towards those whose homes are veritable arsenals. This election like all of our elections is the proof that arms are not and never will be the source of power in this our country. It is the mind and the pen dear Publius that shall run things in this our country. Not guns, NEVER!

Lousy quotes as usual. Guys who bash our government etcetera. A government which is generally the envy of the world. Many folk and I would bet many of the above will claim proudly like all the politicians on the tube that America is the greatest country in the world. Then the very same people or many of them will say that this same exceedingly great country has the worst government of all time and has had it for a long time. Now what gives with this dichotomay of great country and lousy government? Has are government and institutions had nothing to do with our greatness.

Publius the Massachusetts Pilgrims and the Pennsylvanina Quakers were very pacifist. I agree with what you say about Lexington and Concord, but remember the arms or most of them were in the armory and that is what the Colonists were trying to protect. The arms or most of them were not in the peoples homes. If you have never heard of the concept of "arms race" I cannot imagine where you have been.

Carol you are really missing the historical fact that the Bobbies did not need guns because the criminals did not have guns. You have stumbled upon the fact about violence breeds violence and the size and the power of the weapons needed escalate. Get it, get it? When cops came up with bullet proof vests, the bullet industry came up with and sells "Cop killer bullets". Freedom ain't it great!.

The early American colonists were also peace loving, violence abhoring pilgrims. They eschewed guns and violence. We have anti gun laws for international relations, ever heard of nuclear disarmament, or chemicla warfare disarmament. Mustard gas was "outlawed" long ago. So obviously reasonable people can agree and compromise on common sense. Any reasonable folk ever come on to this site?

All the quotes today like all the crap about the 2d amendment is a false argument or dodge to keep people from voting for really important issues concerning their very lives. No politician to my knowledge has ever run on a campaign to take away guns or the 2d Amendment. Bill Clinton and the Brady Bill Bunch campaigned and passed legislation to get Street Sweepers (like a shot gun Gatling Gun) off of the street and to keep guns out of the hands of convicted felons. Jim K living as close to Mexico as you do you should be ashamed of yourself if you do not know what a proliferation of arms can accomplish, Tog has a point. Go spend a weekend in El Paso's neighbor city across the Rio Grande. They got all of their weapons from the US. As for me I just came from a weekend camping in a National Forest where bear and other desperados may hang out, I kept two guns handy.

Publius is correct that this Congress and the Democrats tried to do something. That of course is a new concept to Republicans because as I have said they have not got a clue. Publius fails to recognize that the individual does not have the right to break or steal from the government. And that is what they do when they rack up hospital and doctor bills under humanitarian laws and leave the government to foot the bill. This Congress and these first two years of Obama will be remembered as one of the most enlightened in our political history. They did what Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton wanted to do and what Bob Dole worked on for years but could never get done. The people that stopped Harry Truman were southern Democrats that feared that Federal Health Policy would cause the south to have intergrated hospitals etcetera. Mike it would appear from some prognosticators that I will be better off financially at least from this new congress. Some feel that it will be better for business and the stock market. I will personally profit. But there is more to life than my personal profit. And that is where I think you and I and several on this site part company. Most of y'all have little or no ability to see beyond self. This new Congress will not be as great a majority of Republicans as the outgoing was of Democrat. The wheel will turn again. The next two years will be interesting. What Obama and the Democrats lost was the progressive wing which feels that the Democrats did not do enough such as the Public Option. Such issues will be back and so will the Democrats. It is nice to see Publius make a kind word at least about the Democrats "did attempt to fix the problem". More than I can say for Republicans. Don't be fooled this election is not about finding good people on the Republican side but only about knocking better people off of their perceived pedastal. The Democrats failed to remember that "No good deed shall go unpunished." Jesus knew that and took his punishmet and so the Democrats can too. But like Jesus they will be back stonger than ever.

These clowns today state not a single idea or solution to the problems that confront us. They are like the new incoming congress that has not a clue about what to do except bash others. Obama and his first Congress took on the health care problem of free loaders who wantonly use hospitals and doctors withour paying for them by requiring that these people at least pay for an insurance premium like most people. For their efforts at responsible policies they get called SOCIALISTS and big government types by clowns like these quoted today. In two years these clowns will be on the chopping block also.

Government issues and agencies etcetera are complex things. To think that a first term or one term legislator can sit on congressional oversight committees and be effective is naive. The quote does have many good points about pork barrel however. The Heritage Foundation is a right wing "think tank" supported by the likes of the Koch Bros and other billionaires and its writers and "thinkers" are careerists who must toe the bosses line.

What a clown, that is exactly what law is. If everyone gave there approbation or in other words every one were behaving in the way that the law directs there would be no need for the law. Law is made to get everyone on board the same agenda. Now kids learn law as they advance in their education, but of course they never gave their approbation. They just have to learn to accept what has come down. But as Jefferson said we should examine and change our law each generation.

Currently the US Federal Taxes are the lowest they have been since the 1950. They are lower than most European countries. The Bush tax cuts were immoral in what they are doing to our posterity. and still the ever complaining will not shut up! Corporations are awash with cash, but the government is in debt to the tune of 13 trillion. When the income tax first came out it only affected a small number of people and it was about 2% but was called exorbitant! Franklin was a notorious cheapskate. Don't you get it no likes paying taxes, or giving out of their pocket to anything. This quote just feeds into the sickness that is already ever present. Study the Hungarian King Mathias who was highly criticized for raising heavy taxes on every one but was lionized upon his death for saving the nation militarily, culturally and in every other way. Franklin must never of heard of him. We've had tax cutters to and look what they did to us, Harding, Hoover, Bush.

I'm with J finally on this one. Audit and verify everything, both personal and private, and all governments.

I dunno. Does the effect of an easement come into play here? If the government has the right to make us pay for Social Security Insurance why would it not have the right to make us pay for Health Insurance. Since we have the right to demand the services of hospitals and doctors even if uninsured it is only fair that hospitals and doctors via the government demand that we pay insurance premiums.

To blindly trust billionaires, Wall Street, is to vest them with excessive power. To distrust your fellow man and those with whom you do business is the beginning of wisdom. The good thing about the state is we are all free to investigate it, complain about it and fix it. We have no such rights as concerns other human institutions.

The control of human life for the sake of wealth is ......unfortunate....