So you want your tax breaks do ya.......

This is actually from the "New Rules" section this week on Bill Maher. He talks about the American Empire over seas & you hear Ron Paul also talk about this issue also in his speeches. We have 500,000 troops on 500 bases in 150 countries. Now Ive seen a lot of people cry about taxes and the upcoming tax increases but yet I dont hear anyone talk about maintaining the world empire. The fact is as long as we have to police the world we are going to have to pay for it...period and yes half of our money every year goes to fund this empire.

Ive argued with people about the tax issue on other threads and my personal opinion is we need to abolish the income tax for it is really just slavery for you are taking money from someones labor. This is not right and it really is legalized slavery. But the fact is as long as we have to police the world, run the nanny state (the war on drugs & telling people how to live their lives), the welfare state, and the police state we are going to have to pay for it. Sorry its reality and this is not a Democrat or Republican issue for they BOTH love all of the above just some more than others. So for all you folks who dont want their taxes increased I want to know what YOU want our government to cut back on because frankly to pay for our big government we ALL should be paying 90% in taxes right now. If we all had to pay that there would be a lot more people speaking up about these issues.... Anyways watch the new rules and let me know what you think....

www.youtube.com...

No need to watch the New Rules in order to see this...

IMO, any American with at least little bit of gray matter in his head should shut up and not speak of it EVER AGAIN...

Republican leaders are especially proud of this logical fallacy, go figure

reply to post by mybigunit


Absolutely. Why the hell should we have our troops in all these countries? It makes no sense.

They are there for a World that no longer exists.. where we had the clouds of war constantly over our heads, and we where bracing for impact with the Worlds only other Super Power (that no longer exists!!!)

They are also there perhaps to remind the World who's in charge.. to keep a military presence in protect American .. "Interest" and economic investments..

Granted. In some areas of the World a military presence would in fact succeed in stemming extreme violence and genocide.. like say, if we built a military base in the Republic of Congo or Rawhanda .. stopping the death of innocents (nearing 3million to date).

But we don't have troops where we need them. We have them in Afgahnistan, Iraq, Germany, Japan, England... There is no justifiable purpose to it except to extend the reach of Washington.

I personally am content with America protecting America. Close the bases in Germany, England, Japan, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Slash the defense and military budgets dramatically.

How much would it save us? .. Doesn't really matter actually, the "stimulus", "Bailouts" and "Insurance against toxic debts" so far exceeds all major war operations for the past century. The amount of money that will go to servicing our debt will rise dramatically, meaning a huge tax increase at some point is destined.

Puleeeze!

www.cia.gov...

Rank Country Military expenditures (% of GDP) Date of Information
1 Oman 11.40 2005 est.
2 Qatar 10.00 2005 est.
3 Saudi Arabia 10.00 2005 est.
4 Iraq 8.60 2006
5 Jordan 8.60 2006
6 Israel 7.30 2006
7 Yemen 6.60 2006
8 Armenia 6.50 FY01
9 Eritrea 6.30 2006 est.
10 Macedonia 6.00 2005 est.
11 Burundi 5.90 2006 est.
12 Syria 5.90 2005 est.
13 Angola 5.70 2006
14 Mauritania 5.50 2006
15 Maldives 5.50 2005 est.
16 Kuwait 5.30 2006
17 Turkey 5.30 2005 est.
18 El Salvador 5.00 2006
19 Morocco 5.00 2003 est.
20 Singapore 4.90 2005 est.
21 Swaziland 4.70 2006
22 Bahrain 4.50 2006
23 Bosnia and Herzegovina 4.50 2005 est.
24 Brunei 4.50 2006
25 China 4.30 2006
26 Greece 4.30 2005 est.
27 Chad 4.20 2006
28 United States 4.06 2005 est.

US GDP in 2005 was 14.5 Trillion, 4.06% of this is $588.7Billion.

Bailouts - $8.5 Trillion ($8,500 Billion)

Obama Budget - $3.6 Trillion ($3,600 Billion)

Military Budget - $0.5 Trillion ($588 Billion)

The US's total military expendatures = every nation listed above us combined.

The report of .5trillion ($500 billion) is a play on numbers. Total Defense budget in 2008 was $653B, + $180B for the Iraq/Afghanistan occupations which has it's own budget not associated with the Department of Defense. The Budget does not include the Black Budget, which constitutes a massive piece of Top Secret spending. It also does not include the Benefits of past military personnel.

In fact, the US alone accounts for nearly 50% of the World's military spending.

Just because you close the bases in other countries doesn't it will cut the costs of running them.

Lets say we close all of them and bring every troop back home.

Where are you going to put them?

We will need to build new Posts to support them all. So we would be closing one and building one here. Which will cost more money because we have to build them, then we would be spending the same amount maintaining them like we do in Germany.

So in reality we would be spending more money. Not saving any.

Originally posted by Dbriefed
Puleeeze!

www.cia.gov...


US GDP in 2005 was 14.5 Trillion, 4.06% of this is $588.7Billion.

Bailouts - $8.5 Trillion ($8,500 Billion)

Obama Budget - $3.6 Trillion ($3,600 Billion)

Military Budget - $0.5 Trillion ($588 Billion)

It doesnt include all of the "off budget" military spending also. which was anywhere between $100 billion per year to $500 billion per year from 2001-2008

upload.wikimedia.org...

Here is a 2008 chart for example of our spending......21% goes to military now when you add the "off budget" for 2008 which was around $120 billion which is closer to 35% of our overall spending. That doesnt even include black budget items that youll never find anything on. Here is a good source for our spending compared to the world....

www.globalissues.org...

Now if you look at our actual income in 2008 it was $2 trillion dollars meaning the total costs for maintaining the world empire is actually 40 to 50% of our actual revenue. I totally agree on the bailouts but they arent the reason for the $12 trillion dollar debt....yet that is......



[edit on 29-3-2009 by mybigunit]

[edit on 29-3-2009 by mybigunit]

Originally posted by jd140
Just because you close the bases in other countries doesn't it will cut the costs of running them.

Lets say we close all of them and bring every troop back home.

Where are you going to put them?

We will need to build new Posts to support them all. So we would be closing one and building one here. Which will cost more money because we have to build them, then we would be spending the same amount maintaining them like we do in Germany.

So in reality we would be spending more money. Not saving any.

Heres an idea. Disband them back into the private sector. Yes let them have jobs and be productive and if WWIII breaks out call them in....

I agree with the OP. John Adams once said, "Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will be America's heart, her benedictions and prayers, but she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator of her own."

We need to set an example for the rest of the world instead of forcing them to believe what we do. If democracy and capitalism works, then we are a shining beacon to follow. As of late, I'm starting to wonder if our system really does work...

I have always liked the idea of abolishing income taxes. I'm very open to the idea of replacing it with a higher percentage of sales tax though. It would solve most of the problems that come along with tax fraud since nearly everyone needs to purchase goods, and paying for the tax right then saves time and confusion.