The sad state of the US people.

[Greer]

I will make my points after reading through a lot of back and forth and some wild tangents into gun control.

1) I am all for the rich paying higher taxes, however, it is what is done with those increased taxes I object to. 40% (if I remember correctly) of the US population pay $0 in income taxes. The increase on the top 5% will be used to rebate those that pay nothing. Therefore directly taking money from the "rich" and giving it to the poor. That isn't the same as the rich paying more for infrastructure or national defense. That is paying people to exist. My wife earned her law degree and I earned my MBA, so we both are well off in life, but we made ourselves what we are. Please don't assume I just fell into money, or cheated my way to properity. Also, the truely rich don't pay income taxes, they earn their income through stock options which are a seperate tax issue and more complex. If you raise taxes on stocks then you adversely effect many middle class Americans 401ks, but that is a seperate issue.

My tax plan for those that care would be similar to this:

Income
0 to 25k 0%
25k to 75k 15%
75k to 250 25%
>250k 35%

Then increase tax on annual dividend yields of greater than 100k from 18% to 35%. This will finally tax the rich, but protect 401k's.

But I would not give people money from tax payers just to exist.

Link with info:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122385651698727257.html

2) National Health Care: Why should I pay the same, or more, through taxes for health care as someone who decides to smoke? or drink, or do drugs, or over eat? I take care of my health so I don't have huge health expenses, if others would do the same I would be a much stronger supporter of national health care.

3) That being said, once again we are forced to choose between the greater of two poor choices. We desperately need a 3rd or even a 4th party, to force consensus, not majority party rule with an iron fist. A super majority from either party scares me.  I think our nation is at its best when neither party controls all 3 branches of government.  How much better would our lives be if there were no political parties, just people and their principles.