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Comment on Column: Social Security is again in the crosshairs of a GOP budget, even though a long-term fix would be simple

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wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Again, I don’t know your personal situation, but the top federal income tax bracket is 37% for individuals making over $500k

You also have to include social security and Medicare. They are a tax as well. We have property taxes as well. The list of taxes we have is insane. State is another 10%.

From my base pay of 17k a month. I end up with a little under 8k after taxes.

If I, or the majority of other Americans, paid half our income, we would be in dire straights

The stop asking me to do it.

Neither Republicans

Maybe you missed the platform most candidates were running on. It was the elimination of several government agencies. To me that’s a good start. The budget should also be tied to revenue. We need to balance the budget where expenditures do not exceed revenue.

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tswiftchair@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

The list of taxes we have is insane.

We can go on and on about this forever. Your opinion is that taxes are too high.

The stop asking me to do it.

To be clear, your position is you would rather many Americans be destitute so that you would pay fewer taxes.

Maybe you missed the platform most candidates were running on. It was the elimination of several government agencies. To me that’s a good start. The budget should also be tied to revenue. We need to balance the budget where expenditures do not exceed revenue.

Trump himself stated, “I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare.” He also added ~$8 trillion to the national debt in his previous term. Additionally, he said he would balance the budget prior to his first term and did not do it.

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- wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  To be clear, your position is you would rather many Americans be destitute so that you would pay fewer taxes
  
  We need to spend less. It’s not that complicated. Our spending is out of control. The only required expenditure is the military.
  
  Trump has said he will eliminate the department of education. That’s a first step in making the government smaller.
  
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  - tswiftchair@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    We need to spend less. It’s not that complicated. Our spending is out of control. The only required expenditure is the military.
    
    Spending less is very achievable but your initial post and claims were about cutting social security specifically. And if you’re saying we should only spend on military, that means cutting approximately 74% of federal spending and function. This is a deeply unpopular position that is not supported by either major political party, which makes it extremely unlikely to happen.
    
    Trump has said he will eliminate the department of education. That’s a first step in making the government smaller.
    
    Nevertheless, he did no such thing when he had the opportunity in his first term. Further, he has stated he would protect some of the largest expenditures in the budget.
    
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    wintermute_oregon@lemm.ee ⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    Spending less is very achievable but your initial post and claims were about cutting social security specifically
    
    It’s a good place to start. It keeps the poor, poor and causes our budgets to continue to grow.
    
    Nevertheless, he did no such thing when he had the opportunity in his first term
    
    The deficit spending was declining until Covid. Are you suggesting we shouldn’t have funded anything for Covid ? That’s the majority of the expense
    
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