There was a long list of reasons why I voted for Barack Obama (and, indeed, was on hand to witness his 2008 election in Grant Park on an abnormally warm Chicago night):
Takes the help of congress, but there has been some reform, more to come.
??? Health care reform
Has done more than any president before him.
??? Closing Guant??namo Bay
Stopped transfer to Gitmo - mad an attempt to move Gitmo to the US but no state would have it. He believes that suspected war criminals should be held indefinitely - or at least that they govt should have that right. Not very liberal of him but there are how many Gitmo prisoners left? A few hundred tops?
??? Ending the open US practice of torture
Done as far as I know.
??? Ending the Bush tax cuts for the rich
Needed congress to get this done.
??? Ending DOMA, if not allowing for gay marriage
Basically done. Holder said it is unconstitutional.
??? Ending DADT
Basically done.
??? Upholding abortion rights
As much as a president can do this...
??? Focusing the DEA / allowing for decriminalization, if not legalization
You must be insane if you think this is a) sound policy; and b) would ever become federal law as voted by congress
??? Strengthening the EPA
Done to some extent as far as I know.
??? Upholding internet neutrality
Not in Obama's hands.
??? Providing a moral beacon to the world / improving international relationships
He has obviously done this.
??? Standing up to News Corp.
Please.
??? Standing firm on principle
??? Consistently communicating truth to power
??? Leading, instead of merely providing a diplomatic hand to hold/shake or another Government Department to give the impression of Work Getting Done
He is the best president of at least the last 30 years in doing all of the above.
Who would choose invading/exploiting another nation for their oil over drilling on our land/water and/or getting it from friendly governments south and north of our own borders??
Why not invade Mexico? Then you can have it both ways!
Thanks to KVH. I was reading through Luck's OG list and thinking, "wait, haven't a lot of these things been addressed - to some degree - over the last two years?"
Who would choose invading/exploiting another nation for their oil over drilling on our land/water and/or getting it from friendly governments south and north of our own borders??
Why not invade Mexico? Then you can have it both ways!
Or have them send us a barrel of oil a month for every undocumented alien that's come from there in the last 10 years.
As far as Indiana goes, yes, to curtail over spending and balance a budget someone has to bite the bullet......except on Gum Drop Island where they have magic wands.
rock , from what i understand, cutting taxes on the highest sectors has had a significant impact on budget shortfalls. grover norquist "starve the beast" strategy: cut taxes at the top, create budget problems, cut back the safety net and government, privatize as much as possible, etc. Class warfare in a nutshell.
Warren Buffett said it best:
"It turned out that Mr. Buffett, with immense income from dividends and capital gains, paid far, far less as a fraction of his income than the secretaries or the clerks or anyone else in his office. Further, in conversation it came up that Mr. Buffett doesn???t use any tax planning at all. He just pays as the Internal Revenue Code requires. ???How can this be fair???? he asked of how little he pays relative to his employees. ???How can this be right????
Even though I agreed with him, I warned that whenever someone tried to raise the issue, he or she was accused of fomenting class warfare.
???There???s class warfare, all right,??? Mr. Buffett said, ???but it???s my class, the rich class, that???s making war, and we???re winning.???"
Link please how drilling for natural gas creates a radioactive water table?
rock, i can try to link somethings up tonight, but the concerns are specifically concerning fracking, which im sure you are familiar with: pumps millions of gallons of water, mixed with chemicals (some known carcinogens among them) as well as proprietary secret chemicals which we dont even know about into the ground to produce an earthquake like effect that breaks up the rock and releases the shale gas. i forget if radioactivity is in the chemicals or a byproduct of the process cause it was in the earth, but about 80% of the tainted water comes back up (and has to be disposed with somehow) the other 20% "stays" down there. real messy
Who would choose invading/exploiting another nation for their oil over drilling on our land/water and/or getting it from friendly governments south and north of our own borders??
Why not invade Mexico? Then you can have it both ways!
Or have them send us a barrel of oil a month for every undocumented alien that's come from there in the last 10 years.
we already sent them a gun for each of those illegals and they still sent us barrels of coke, those guys are the best.
Link please how drilling for natural gas creates a radioactive water table?
rock, i can try to link somethings up tonight, but the concerns are specifically concerning fracking, which im sure you are familiar with: pumps millions of gallons of water, mixed with chemicals (some known carcinogens among them) as well as proprietary secret chemicals which we dont even know about into the ground to produce an earthquake like effect that breaks up the rock and releases the shale gas. i forget if radioactivity is in the chemicals or a byproduct of the process cause it was in the earth, but about 80% of the tainted water comes back up (and has to be disposed with somehow) the other 20% "stays" down there. real messy
I know the process pretty well and while there are definite contamination/carcinogen worries I don't see how "radioactivity" can come into play.....but I do want to find out if it's possible.
Labor holding the line + Obama doing nothing = x
Labor holding the line + Obama expressing his opinion as a democrat who won with support of labor = less than x ??????
cant agree enough. he should be using this to highlight how anti-working class republicans and teabaggers are. punch that bitch walker in the gut over this and play up how its always alterior motives with these dudes.
but no. big ol whiff and missed opportunity, O
Gentlemen, I think we're talking past one another.
I agree it was a missed opportunity. My point was that, ultimately, when it comes to "social leadership," I look to collective social action rather than national leaders. So while Obama's reticence to get involved is a let down, I didn't have high expectations for his engagement to begin with. As I've tried to stress, most presidents have be dragged into these fights; few willingly jump in, regardless of what side they take.
Duh.....all politicians have maids and groundskeepers.
No, that's not where the real hypocrisy is. From the article:
"Texas state Rep. Aaron Pena, a Democrat, said the exception is a wise one.
"With things as they are today, her bill will see a large segment of the Texas population in prison" if it passes without the exception, he said.
"When it comes to household employees or yard workers, it is extremely common for Texans to hire people who are likely undocumented workers," Pena said. "It is so common, it is overlooked.""
Link please how drilling for natural gas creates a radioactive water table?
rock, i can try to link somethings up tonight, but the concerns are specifically concerning fracking, which im sure you are familiar with: pumps millions of gallons of water, mixed with chemicals (some known carcinogens among them) as well as proprietary secret chemicals which we dont even know about into the ground to produce an earthquake like effect that breaks up the rock and releases the shale gas. i forget if radioactivity is in the chemicals or a byproduct of the process cause it was in the earth, but about 80% of the tainted water comes back up (and has to be disposed with somehow) the other 20% "stays" down there. real messy
I know the process pretty well and while there are definite contamination/carcinogen worries I don't see how "radioactivity" can come into play.....but I do want to find out if it's possible.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11060/1128778-455.stm
looks like its part of the Marcellus shale itself that the drilling is kicking up and combining with its already problematic water.
long story short...opting to exploit a short term energy resource (gas) while poisoning an essential resource (water) is sociopathic and criminal. add insult to injury...PA doesnt tax energy extraction, so basically the gas industry makes heaps of profits and we get dick in the eye
Who would choose invading/exploiting another nation for their oil over drilling on our land/water and/or getting it from friendly governments south and north of our own borders??
Why not invade Mexico? Then you can have it both ways!
Or have them send us a barrel of oil a month for every undocumented alien that's come from there in the last 10 years.
Hmm...let's say that's roughly 4-5M. So...that'd be 5M of oil a month but the US consumes 20M barrels of oil A DAY.
Who would choose invading/exploiting another nation for their oil over drilling on our land/water and/or getting it from friendly governments south and north of our own borders??
Why not invade Mexico? Then you can have it both ways!
Or have them send us a barrel of oil a month for every undocumented alien that's come from there in the last 10 years.
Hmm...let's say that's roughly 4-5M. So...that'd be 5M of oil a month but the US consumes 20M barrels of oil A DAY.
Every little bit helps....and of course it would be FREE
The two truly transformative presidents in US history were Lincoln and FDR. Think about the catastrophic events they were involved with and ask if you're ready for a re-run. Because that's what it takes for the sort of massive realignment some people want.
Or something less catastrophic like the Gulf of Tonkin or 9/11, but something tells me the next catastrophic event isn't going to usher in Lincoln or FDR type of reforms. It'll be more like full on conservative fascism and martial law.
The Tonkin incident and 9/11 aren't even close to being the catastrophic events the Civil War or the Great Depression/WW2 were. I doubt that more than 10% of the population could even tell you what "Gulf of Tonkin" means.
They are not, that's why I said less catastrophic events, but they both led to a lot of changes coming straight from the executive office, all changes that were in the conservative direction.
thats why i hope gas prices go through the roof. i dont think politicians will allow that to happen as long as they have some control over it. but $7 a gallon will shake people up and get them to push a bit harder for alternative energy systems ( or more likely, alternative parts of the world to exploit and go to war with)
$7 a gallon isn't going to do shit. A lot of whining and talk but nothing would change. Gas price in Germany is 1,60 Euro the liter. Translated into gallon and US$ this would be $8,40 per gallon..
Frank: the key difference is that gas in Europe has historically cost a shit load more than it does in the U.S. Even adjusted for inflation, the only times Americans have had to pay $4 or more at the pump have been in the late 1970s and in 2008. If gas hits $7/gallon, there's no telling how exactly people will react, especially as the higher cost of gas gets passed down the consumer pipeline b/c of increased overhead for businesses.
I don't expect that the reaction will be a nation full of shrugs though. Americans don't care about The Local German Experience ;)
I've been living in the US for 4 years back in the 90s when the gallon was under a dollar (or do I remember this wrongly?) and I know that "gas in Europe has historically cost a shit load more than it does in the U.S." but history has always been abut change. Future decades will see the US price of gas go up a great deal alongside the general cost of living as there will be much more demand for oil from other places on this world. I also "don't expect that the reaction will be a nation full of shrugs " but what is anybody going to do? Vote for the other one out of two parties? You're still going to swipe your card and refill that tank.
There was a long list of reasons why I voted for Barack Obama (and, indeed, was on hand to witness his 2008 election in Grant Park on an abnormally warm Chicago night):
??? Strengthening the economy
??? Ending both wars
??? Financial reform / holding executives responsible
??? Health care reform
??? Closing Guant??namo Bay
??? Ending the open US practice of torture
??? Ending the Bush tax cuts for the rich
??? Ending DOMA, if not allowing for gay marriage
??? Ending DADT
??? Upholding abortion rights
??? Focusing the DEA / allowing for decriminalization, if not legalization
??? Strengthening the EPA
??? Upholding internet neutrality
??? Providing a moral beacon to the world / improving international relationships
??? Standing up to News Corp.
??? Standing firm on principle
??? Consistently communicating truth to power
??? Leading, instead of merely providing a diplomatic hand to hold/shake or another Government Department to give the impression of Work Getting Done
In 2011, this list is populated by abject failures, weak-tea compromises on the path to failure, or impermanent patchwork that will be easily reversed when someone like Captain Mormon or Marco Rubio assumes the Office in either 2012 or 2016. And then, there's the historic BP disaster, which can hardly be blamed solely on the President, but is still a monumentally bad look that actually ended up invoking less Government control of the oil industry and environment. Most of the items on this list were Obama's actual campaign promises, as opposed to some vague and diaphanous Hope. Every stance Obama ran on in 2008 that has not totally collapsed since the 2010 elections now seems like it's got a price tag affixed as if it had been placed in some moral yard sale. In the midst of this, the National Dialogue has not changed - it's gotten worse. A good executive communicator actively changes conversation out of action just as much as impressive speeches.
I will give the man two demonstrable left-of-center Supreme Court justices, his adult handling of the Arizona shooting (although it was nearly a sure thing for any pulse-bearing President), and, you know, being a symbol of the hope of nascent American minorities/human beings - something that's scarcely up to him. But that's it. Every other Presidential "victory" in 2011 is hollow, enervated to inconsequentiality, or achieved with half-measures. Lilly Ledbetter and START would have been signed by GWB, the latter in shorter order. Random House Reps shouting out directly ironic comments about "lies" in the middle of a Presidential speech appear to have more power and sway then and now. Hell, Jan Brewer - a dessicated, leathery corpse in charge of an embarrassing, wingnut-laden state, still manages to make Obama look bad, and individual States are finding ways to dissolve what's left of the health-care bill, if not the collective bargaining of entire Unions.
There is actually a web site dedicated to reminding people what Barack Obama has "done," and each of these "achievements" is embarassingly weak, mundane, or "not on him." Nothing historically permanent exists on that site. With GWB, no one had to be told what he did. Why not? Because he actually accomplished things. He invaded Iraq, established and maintained the terrible status-quo in Afghanistan, gleefully tortured potential innocents, played a part in strengthening deregulation to the point where it led to the bankruptcy of America, widened the wealth inequality gap, and stepped up unwarranted Executive Branch control. But we these are the known knowns; they are the devil we could see. Barack Obama, on the other hand, has achieved the impossible - after the masterfully-run 2008 campaign (easily the most impressive political campaign in our nation's history), he has become the worst Presidential Communicator in my lifetime. The mere fact that whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com exists is proof of this.
I fully understand and maintain that Barack Obama was given the toughest bag of verity of American President since FDR, if not Lincoln. But there was real opportunity for positive national Change to occur precisely because of that/this milieu. I have applauded some of his pragmatism and reasoned middle-ground opinions. I appreciate that Obama was loathe to invoke Executive Signing Orders -even justified ones - because he viewed them as a usurpation of power that wasn't his. Obama was also the first President to have the erosive and inhumane 24-hour news cycle hit him throughout his entire political lifetime - from his 2004 DNC speech through the present day. He was and is subject to abominable lies, an uneducated and obese populace coddled by jingoism, a mud-headed Tea Party, multiple and moneyed echo chambers dedicated to his destruction, and even 60s-style race baiting. His inherited Nation was already in decline because of the active hubris that eventually snuffs out all global superpowers, and he clearly did not set these hands in motion. Too Big To Fail still stolidly exists and lobbies against even symbolic Change with more money than the GDP of over 100 countries combined. We and Obama can only witness these forces in motion.
I also have sympathy for a man that probably receives more death threats in one day than most of us have accrued in the lineage of our entire family tree.
But this is reality, and these are the loaded dice that we as a Nation have to shoot with. These are the dice that Barack Obama, a decent albeit politically vain man with too heavy a saddle to bear, volitionally ran to toss. We cannot ultimately feel sorry for the bull-rider that gets thrown.
The worst factor of Obama's manifold failures is that the man has made GWB and Dick Cheney look justified, if not inevitable. The country's moral and executive center is now so far to the Right that compromise and even rank intransigence are What We Can Hope For. There is a coating on this country like the dusty, fetid grease on the back of a kitchen range, and we as its citizens are getting served an underscored lesson: not only is it impossible for one man to clean it up, but also: no concentrated assemblage of our citizens can, either. As a result, the resultant effluvium is stifling.
In the back of my mind, I knew that I was electing a heartbreaker. But I had no idea that, in 2011, my country would scarcely have anything else left to break.
Say what you want about Obama, but the Pips are awesome.
I make a decent income.....I take ONLY the very basic tax write-offs that are available to ANY home-owning family. I leave a lot of money on the table annually by not taking what I see as unecessary tax write-offs and I sleep well at night as a result.
The one time I hired an acccountant to do my taxes he called me a fool and I wound up doing my taxes myself as I have for the last 33 years.
If Warren Buffett believes the rich are not paying enough taxes he should do the same thing....but instead he takes advantage of every law and loophole a bazillionaire like himself is privy to and then takes a "moral" stand about how it's wrong.
Fucck Warren Buffett......lead by example you greedy mofo.
Frank: Actually, I see what you're saying now. I guess it depends on how quickly gas prices increase and how far. Millions of Americans can't literally afford to swipe and pay if they're already living on the socioeconomic edge.
I have some quibbles. I was going to post a Keith Van Horn style reply. But arguing about details diminishes the point of your post; he broke your heart, and things are fusked up. No arguing with that.
While I said I thought of doing a KVH style reply, I am pretty sure he is alone in this view point:
"??? Focusing the DEA / allowing for decriminalization, if not legalization"
"You must be insane if you think this is a) sound policy; and b) would ever become federal law as voted by congress"
I might argue that Obama never campaigned on decriminalization/legalization but, almost every honest person on the left and right knows it needs to be done.
I make a decent income.....I take ONLY the very basic tax write-offs that are available to ANY home-owning family. I leave a lot of money on the table annually by not taking what I see as unecessary tax write-offs and I sleep well at night as a result.
The one time I hired an acccountant to do my taxes he called me a fool and I wound up doing my taxes myself as I have for the last 33 years.
If Warren Buffett believes the rich are not paying enough taxes he should do the same thing....but instead he takes advantage of every law and loophole a bazillionaire like himself is privy to and then takes a "moral" stand about how it's wrong.
Fucck Warren Buffett......lead by example you greedy mofo.
Buffett does endless work for charity and his statements on tax fairness are valid. The true greedy motherfuckers don't give a damn and work actively to make the tax code (and everything else) even less fair.
Frank: Actually, I see what you're saying now. I guess it depends on how quickly gas prices increase and how far. Millions of Americans can't literally afford to swipe and pay if they're already living on the socioeconomic edge.
Everything under $4 a gallon is actually crazy cheap... this might be a stupid question but is fuel subsidized in the US instead of being taxed?
When I was in Ghana in January, they hiked up the prices by over 25% to 7 Ghana Cedis which is about $4,60/ Basically over night. The government said they would have to do this, otherwise they couldn't continue to buy fuel on the world market.
Needless to say that there is a larger percentage of people living on the socioeconomic edge, there is almost no functioning railroad system so all the groceries and other goods are being transported by trucks, busses and cars. Basically, the entire cost of living went up by 25%.
How can anyone argue that Americans should be able to buy their fuel for less than what a Ghanaian has to pay who (if he's lucky) earns less money in a day than what folks around here make in an hour.
Then you look at these crazy SUVs and all of that shit... I'm getting carried away and I'm also in the wrong thread, sorry about that.
If you can't afford to buy fuel than go and set up a car pool.
Just looking at folks driving themselves around in a car that you could easily fit 6 people in makes me mad.
Everything under $4 a gallon is actually crazy cheap... this might be a stupid question but is fuel subsidized in the US instead of being taxed?
Fuel is taxed both federally and on the state level. But oil companies get immense tax breaks and subsidies apart from that.
I mentioned the tax break that people get for auto mileage earlier. In 2011 business travelers are able to deduct 51 cents for every mile driven. It's seldom talked about but that's a huge subsidy in and of itself.
I make a decent income.....I take ONLY the very basic tax write-offs that are available to ANY home-owning family. I leave a lot of money on the table annually by not taking what I see as unecessary tax write-offs and I sleep well at night as a result.
The one time I hired an acccountant to do my taxes he called me a fool and I wound up doing my taxes myself as I have for the last 33 years.
If Warren Buffett believes the rich are not paying enough taxes he should do the same thing....but instead he takes advantage of every law and loophole a bazillionaire like himself is privy to and then takes a "moral" stand about how it's wrong.
Fucck Warren Buffett......lead by example you greedy mofo.
Buffett does endless work for charity and his statements on tax fairness are valid. The true greedy motherfuckers don't give a damn and work actively to make the tax code (and everything else) even less fair.
Does Buffett actually max out his tax breaks? I don't know and neither do you. But to pretend he's the bad guy here is just silly.
Charity work aside....we DO know, by his own admission that he pays a lower tax % than his secretary. As you yourself have explained the tax rates here based on level of income, you know this would be impossible without tax shelters/write-offs, etc.
You can pay taxes without using such advantages if you choose to.
Everything under $4 a gallon is actually crazy cheap... this might be a stupid question but is fuel subsidized in the US instead of being taxed?
Fuel is taxed both federally and on the state level. But oil companies get immense tax breaks and subsidies apart from that.
I mentioned the tax break that people get for auto mileage earlier. In 2011 business travelers are able to deduct 51 cents for every mile driven. It's seldom talked about but that's a huge subsidy in and of itself.
This $0.51 per mile tax break is offered ONLY to those folks who can prove that this travel is part of them performing their job.
Comments
Why not invade Mexico? Then you can have it both ways!
Or have them send us a barrel of oil a month for every undocumented alien that's come from there in the last 10 years.
Warren Buffett said it best:
"It turned out that Mr. Buffett, with immense income from dividends and capital gains, paid far, far less as a fraction of his income than the secretaries or the clerks or anyone else in his office. Further, in conversation it came up that Mr. Buffett doesn???t use any tax planning at all. He just pays as the Internal Revenue Code requires. ???How can this be fair???? he asked of how little he pays relative to his employees. ???How can this be right????
Even though I agreed with him, I warned that whenever someone tried to raise the issue, he or she was accused of fomenting class warfare.
???There???s class warfare, all right,??? Mr. Buffett said, ???but it???s my class, the rich class, that???s making war, and we???re winning.???"
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html
That's our "problem," not theirs.
Here's my favorite current example of hypocrisy on the non-issue of illegal immigration:
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-03-01/politics/texas.immigration.bill_1_immigration-bill-unauthorized-immigrants-issue-of-illegal-immigration?_s=PM:POLITICS
Duh.....all politicians have maids and groundskeepers.
Gentlemen, I think we're talking past one another.
I agree it was a missed opportunity. My point was that, ultimately, when it comes to "social leadership," I look to collective social action rather than national leaders. So while Obama's reticence to get involved is a let down, I didn't have high expectations for his engagement to begin with. As I've tried to stress, most presidents have be dragged into these fights; few willingly jump in, regardless of what side they take.
No, that's not where the real hypocrisy is. From the article:
"Texas state Rep. Aaron Pena, a Democrat, said the exception is a wise one.
"With things as they are today, her bill will see a large segment of the Texas population in prison" if it passes without the exception, he said.
"When it comes to household employees or yard workers, it is extremely common for Texans to hire people who are likely undocumented workers," Pena said. "It is so common, it is overlooked.""
Hmm...let's say that's roughly 4-5M. So...that'd be 5M of oil a month but the US consumes 20M barrels of oil A DAY.
Every little bit helps....and of course it would be FREE
They are not, that's why I said less catastrophic events, but they both led to a lot of changes coming straight from the executive office, all changes that were in the conservative direction.
I've been living in the US for 4 years back in the 90s when the gallon was under a dollar (or do I remember this wrongly?) and I know that "gas in Europe has historically cost a shit load more than it does in the U.S." but history has always been abut change. Future decades will see the US price of gas go up a great deal alongside the general cost of living as there will be much more demand for oil from other places on this world. I also "don't expect that the reaction will be a nation full of shrugs " but what is anybody going to do? Vote for the other one out of two parties? You're still going to swipe your card and refill that tank.
Say what you want about Obama, but the Pips are awesome.
I make a decent income.....I take ONLY the very basic tax write-offs that are available to ANY home-owning family. I leave a lot of money on the table annually by not taking what I see as unecessary tax write-offs and I sleep well at night as a result.
The one time I hired an acccountant to do my taxes he called me a fool and I wound up doing my taxes myself as I have for the last 33 years.
If Warren Buffett believes the rich are not paying enough taxes he should do the same thing....but instead he takes advantage of every law and loophole a bazillionaire like himself is privy to and then takes a "moral" stand about how it's wrong.
Fucck Warren Buffett......lead by example you greedy mofo.
Thank you.
I have some quibbles. I was going to post a Keith Van Horn style reply. But arguing about details diminishes the point of your post; he broke your heart, and things are fusked up. No arguing with that.
While I said I thought of doing a KVH style reply, I am pretty sure he is alone in this view point:
"??? Focusing the DEA / allowing for decriminalization, if not legalization"
"You must be insane if you think this is a) sound policy; and b) would ever become federal law as voted by congress"
I might argue that Obama never campaigned on decriminalization/legalization but, almost every honest person on the left and right knows it needs to be done.
I don't think that is funny.
Stuff like this makes me agree with Luck.
The people he has appointed in many key spots is actually quite scary IMO.
Buffett does endless work for charity and his statements on tax fairness are valid. The true greedy motherfuckers don't give a damn and work actively to make the tax code (and everything else) even less fair.
http://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/183-warren-buffett
Does Buffett actually max out his tax breaks? I don't know and neither do you. But to pretend he's the bad guy here is just silly.
Everything under $4 a gallon is actually crazy cheap... this might be a stupid question but is fuel subsidized in the US instead of being taxed?
When I was in Ghana in January, they hiked up the prices by over 25% to 7 Ghana Cedis which is about $4,60/ Basically over night. The government said they would have to do this, otherwise they couldn't continue to buy fuel on the world market.
Needless to say that there is a larger percentage of people living on the socioeconomic edge, there is almost no functioning railroad system so all the groceries and other goods are being transported by trucks, busses and cars. Basically, the entire cost of living went up by 25%.
How can anyone argue that Americans should be able to buy their fuel for less than what a Ghanaian has to pay who (if he's lucky) earns less money in a day than what folks around here make in an hour.
Then you look at these crazy SUVs and all of that shit... I'm getting carried away and I'm also in the wrong thread, sorry about that.
If you can't afford to buy fuel than go and set up a car pool.
Just looking at folks driving themselves around in a car that you could easily fit 6 people in makes me mad.
Fuel is taxed both federally and on the state level. But oil companies get immense tax breaks and subsidies apart from that.
I mentioned the tax break that people get for auto mileage earlier. In 2011 business travelers are able to deduct 51 cents for every mile driven. It's seldom talked about but that's a huge subsidy in and of itself.
Charity work aside....we DO know, by his own admission that he pays a lower tax % than his secretary. As you yourself have explained the tax rates here based on level of income, you know this would be impossible without tax shelters/write-offs, etc.
You can pay taxes without using such advantages if you choose to.
This $0.51 per mile tax break is offered ONLY to those folks who can prove that this travel is part of them performing their job.
It's one of many I refuse to take advantage of.