AP POLL: How to pay for health overhaul? Tax the rich

[Berkut]

I think the poor should be given free vouchers at health clubs and organic food stores,

You don't need a voucher to live a healthy lifestyle. 

We really need a sarcasm smiley. Honeslty....I was exaggerating about the health clubs and organic food stores. Sheesh. You guys need to lighten up a bit. I know it's tough with Obama being in power.

Your suggestion did not seem anymore fruity lefty liberal than any number of other suggestions made for how the government can fix all of societies problems if only we throw enough money at them. How was anyone to know?

[Josephus]

From now on I will use this  to indicate that I was being sarcasticl and not fruity lefty liberal for which I will use this: 

[Caliga]

Where does this end though? We've been doing this for a rather long time, to the extent that the poor in the US don't pay taxes really at all anymore. In fact, most of them receive tax credits and actually get "refunds" on the taxes they do not pay to begin with. Should we do even more of this?

Of course, we did not do this in some effort to stimulate consumer spending - we did it because the poor needed the money.

I'm not saying it is generally a good policy, but from an economic standpoint we do not live in 'typical' times.

But maybe it is a good policy, I dunno.  Bread and circuses

[garbon]

Give the poor more tax breaks, and they'll be able to spend more, thus contributing more via sales taxes.

Hmm..that's odd. I don't remember asking for taxes to be raised on the poor.

Oh and what Berkut said later on.

[garbon]

You can certainly send them more money though, in the rather bizarre hope that they will spend it, which will somehow increase tax revenues via sales tax!

That is an order of magnitude more ridiculously than Reagans trickle down economics.

I put my stimulus check into my savings account. I hate America!

[garbon]

I'm not so sure.  I spend more per week on fruit and veg than I do on anything else.  I think it's extortionate.

Yeah fruits are expensive. We tried to have more healthy breakfast choices at our weekly department meetings but with our small budget, we can really only afford less healthy things like bagels or donuts.

[garbon]

You don't need a gym membership to be healthy.

That's definitely true. I supposedly lost a good deal of weight walking around in European capitals the past two weeks.

[DGuller]

You don't need a gym membership to be healthy.

That's definitely true. I supposedly lost a good deal of weight walking around in European capitals the past two weeks.

I think you took a wrong turn somewhere.

[garbon]

I think you took a wrong turn somewhere.

Oh I certainly did. I didn't even have a map while walking around London and Berlin. And in Madrid, I lost my map a few minutes after leaving the hotel.

[MadImmortalMan]

You can certainly send them more money though, in the rather bizarre hope that they will spend it, which will somehow increase tax revenues via sales tax!

That is an order of magnitude more ridiculously than Reagans trickle down economics.

I put my stimulus check into my savings account. I hate America!

I used mine to buy some shares of stock in a Spanish bank. 

USA!

[Josephus]

NOTE WHAT FOLLOWS IS SARCASM. CAUTION. WARNING. ETC ETC.

And all the lazy poor people used their stimulus cheques to buy Big Macs.


NOTE WHAT I JUST WROTE WAS SARCASM.

[DGuller]

And all the lazy poor people used their stimulus cheques to buy Big Macs.

If they made the effort to go to McDonalds, and could afford the Big Macs, should they really be considered lazy or poor?

[Josephus]

And all the lazy poor people used their stimulus cheques to buy Big Macs.

If they made the effort to go to McDonalds, and could afford the Big Macs, should they really be considered lazy or poor?

Isn't there a McDonalds on every intersection in America? Thus it's not much of an effort. Even fat, poor people can walk a block. And they can only afford the Big Mac, thanks to their benevolent kind-hearted government that taxes the rich and gives them back nice stimulus cheques.

{do I need to put the sarcasm warning...or can we get beyond that now? ]

[Capetan Mihali]

And all the lazy poor people used their stimulus cheques to buy Big Macs.

If they made the effort to go to McDonalds, and could afford the Big Macs, should they really be considered lazy or poor?

Isn't there a McDonalds on every intersection in America? Thus it's not much of an effort. Even fat, poor people can walk a block. And they can only afford the Big Mac, thanks to their benevolent kind-hearted government that taxes the rich and gives them back nice stimulus cheques.

{do I need to put the sarcasm warning...or can we get beyond that now? ]

Big Macs are too damn expensive anyways.     What is it, $5+ for the meal?  That gets you 3 pieces of tasty chicken and 2 ribs at the Crown Fried Chicken.  At MickeyD's you have to go for the new non-Dollar menu Double Cheesburger for $1.19.

[Josephus]

The Economist uses the Big Mac Index to determine whether a currency's currency is over or under valued.

http://www.economist.com/markets/bigmac/