Yeah, straw men are everywhere already.

Mostly I'm referring to McCain's plan to keep tax breaks for oil companies, and other corporate subsidies in place, while promising a shallower tax cut for the middle class than Obama, but a huge one for the top 1%, while Obama raises taxes in that range.

As for taking from the rich to give to the poor...not directly. I think the rich should be responsible for subsidizing better public education, universal healthcare, and unemployment protections, among other things.

What was it Karl Marx said, "from each according to ability, to each according to need"? I think a little of that is a good idea for everyone, rich included (not that they need help).

I think government programs should most benefit those who have the least, and find the revenue primarily from those who're producing the most.

I'm not in favor of some absolute socialist setup, but I think there needs to be a "compressing" pressure on income disparity, and in the last 8 years the Bush policies have been aimed at removing that pressure, and it's driven income disparity to near record highs in less than a decade.

I think there should be a bottom limit to how low we allow people to sink in terms of poverty. I think children born into poverty should have the opportunity to reach their full potential, despite whatever failings their parents had.

I think there's more than enough money in the country, and more than enough money passing through government to do all that, likely without even raising taxes a dime, just by shifting what we use government for.

I think tax cuts aimed at the rich are redistributionary -- in the wrong direction, and that supply-side economics in a nutshell is to say "in order to best help the poor, give more money to the rich" which is on its face insane, and only gets worse as the explanation goes on. It's a policy invented by the rich for the rich, of the rich. The "take more of my money, and give it to big corporations, because they'll spend it better than me!" is what I think 90% of the people voting for Republicans are unknowingly saying with their vote.

That's more than you asked for, and more than I originally intended to write, but I go on a tear sometimes.

In reply to this comment by deedub81:
Which corporations does McCain propose to give your money to after he takes it away?

Do you believe that the government should increase taxes on the wealthy and redistribute wealth to the poor?

P.S. Just so we're clear, I dislike McCain. I just like to focus on the facts instead of propagating straw man arguements.

In reply to this comment by NetRunner:
^ It's a metaphor for the other problems with John McCain, such as thinking the economy is just fine, that tax cuts should be largely skewed to the highest income individuals, and that generally speaking we're better off than we were 8 years ago.

If we must boil everything down to money, shouldn't everyone vote for who will give them the biggest tax cut?

For 90% of the country, that's Obama.

A vote for McCain is to say "take more of my money, and give it to big corporations, because they'll spend it better than me!"

You don't have to explain all of that to me. I understand and agree with it. I know that the majority of people benefitting from social programs are wonderful, deserving people. I'm not rich, either. I know what it's like to earn nothing and survive on it. Even then I was not happy with taxes because my taxes weren't going where I wanted them to go. Were you listening to what I was saying? I would be happy to share my money with whoever needs it, and I do! If everything was all fuzzy wuzzy like you said; taxes going to poor little elderly folks, single mothers, disabled people, etc., it would be great! I would love and adore taxes if that were true. I would love taxes if they simply funded transportation and education and medicare and welfare and all of those good things, but I know that this isn't the case. Taxpayers (including single mothers) pay for government waste, pointless wars, and yes, the occasional freeloader. We pay for the National Wildlife Turkey Federation in South Carolina, for transit centers for minor league baseball teams, for halls of fame and a million other ridiculous things. Wouldn't t be better to fund those sorts of things at a more local level instead of wasting so much money on overhead? I just found an IRS study that says that the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) provides about $31 billion in refundable tax credits to 19 million low-income families. Great! However, the IRS estimates that $8.5 billion to $9.9 billion of this amount, nearly one-third, is wasted in overpayments each year. Ick.

My siblings and other family members have had to make use of "those services," and I very much appreciate their existence. I don't believe in the idea that people on Welfare are lazy drunks. I agree with Karl Marx about a lot of things. But Welfare IS abused and it needs to be a system where we encourage self-reliance and help people break the cycle of poverty instead of perpetuating it. And I think by "a couple of bad eggs" you mean tens of thousands.

I don't care about Joe Shmoe's birth control. It is not a neccesity. I don't care how good his sex is. I intend to use birth control pills. I never had my teeth straightened. I still have my wisdom teeth. I'm not complaining about my quality of life. A vasectomy is a luxury, plain and simple.

The Soviet Union was athetisic because it wanted to concrete power upon itself not to anyone else including God.

They followed the teaching of Karl Marx, that religion is the opium of masses.

Not because they didn't like theology or anything, its about power and control of it. They sought absolute power.

QM You used to be pretty good at this.

>> ^quantumushroom:
I won't enjoy voting for RINO McCain, but it's either him or one of the two marxists.


Lol, You dont know who Karl Marx was, do you? Have you ever read a book? ANY book? I know reading is probably a bit too Marxist for your liking, but maybe you could try it as a sort of "know your enemy"-type experiment?

Obama ain't gonna be President. He'll blame "racism" when he loses.
Hillary ain't gonna be President. She'll blame "sexism" and Obama when she loses.

"McSame/Same/Shame" is half a conservative. Half is better than Karl Marx.

Dag - would you feel the same way about David Duke? or Bill Kristol? or Noam Chomsky? or Karl Marx? or Adolf Hitler?

That's a *quality contribution ambassdor.

I daydream of watching her and Karl Marx debate over tea. They had some uncanny similarities.

Five seconds of googling reveals that the "strength in numbers" quote is Jesse Ventura quoting Karl Marx not Hitler.

Nice research staff, Joe.

I love it when idiots do idiotic things to try and convince other idiots that their idiot social programs will work 'if only they get a few billion more dollars..." Of course, all the worlds problems would be solved if only the U.S. spent less on defense. Well, this thread proves that there are plenty of stupid people on the internet.

Tell you what - how about this? How about we stack up all the cookies that are spent on SOCIAL programs?

http://www.infoplease.com/cig/economics/government-share-economy.html

You see - what the moron from "Ben and Jerry's" (Pht - nice 'expert' to bring in...) didn't want to share is that the U.S. federal budget is already dominated by spending on social crap like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and so on. So how about this - every dollar we cut from Defense must be matched by a cut in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Stack up THOSE Oreos, why don'tcha? "Wah wah wah - the U.S. spends money on its own DEFENSE!" You morons do know that the Federal government is constitutionally ordered to fund defense, right? Or were you too busy reading Karl Marx to bother with the Constitution? Please show me in the Constitution where we are supposed to fund Ben & Jerry's education fund, and health care, and all the other crap that whiny liberals THINK should be funded?

BTW - all that money the government gets... They SURE do a good job of getting it to the poor and needy don't they? How about instead of picking everyone pocket to federally waste money, you guys put your money where your mouth is and donate money to the causes you support?