said by S_engineer :

Because they work sooo well together.

This is a joke....what made anybody think things were going to be different?

Hook, Line, and sinker!

said by kapil :

Fuck bi-partisanship. In most countries, whoever wins the election governs the country while the losers get to sit in the corner and make noise at random intervals.

said by patcat88 :

In other countries, there is no "2 party system". In other countries there are a handful of parties constantly nipping at the main ones. Parties even form into various "platforms" and "blocks", they often leave those too. New parties come into existence, old ones die out and disappear regularly.

said by S_engineer :

Because they work sooo well together.

.....

said by S_engineer :

Because they work sooo well together.

This is a joke....what made anybody think things were going to be different?

Hook, Line, and sinker stinker!

said by ninjatutle :

This is where the country is heading. We have nobody to blame except ourselves

We the people elected these guys into office.

said by N3OGH :

Actually, I believe you failed to understand his viewpoint.

He knows we are technically a Republic, but calls us a "democracy" (his quotation marks) to denote that when the masses realized they could send people to Washington to take other people's money and give it to them, we ceased being a Republic, and devolved to some sort of organized mob rule....

said by N3OGH :

calls us a "democracy" (his quotation marks) to denote that when the masses realized they could send people to Washington to take other people's money and give it to them, we ceased being a Republic, and devolved to some sort of organized mob rule....

said by N3OGH :

So save your righteous indignation for someone else, eh?

said by Core0000 :

This is why democracy sucks. The majority rules. Now if we still had a republic, maybe things would be different..

said by Core0000 :

but then again, maybe if the south would have won?

said by amigo_boy :

Can you describe the difference between a republic and democracy? I hear people make insinuations all the time. But, for a republic to exist it must have been constituted by popular will, and continue to exist by the continued assent of the people. That sounds like "democracy" (the popular will of a past and present generation).

Likewise, republics always provide a means to amend themselves. For example, we have an amendment process. That too is based upon popular will (democracy).

A pure democracy would be where everyone takes a vote on every single issue. And (or) it wouldn't be impeded by various requirements to change the law.

We don't have either of those (with representative democracy, and a constitution requiring states to ratify constitutional amendments).

So, I never understand what people mean about how we're supposed to be a "republic."

We'd still have slavery?

We'd be under German and/or Japanese occupation (because we wouldn't have responded to WWI and II the way we did)?

We'd have more civil wars, as Missouri attacked Illinois over pollution, or the changing boundaries of the Mississippi river?

Yeah. Let's go back to the "good old days." It sounds so fetching.

Mark

said by ninjatutle :

What the hell happened to this country

said by kapil :

Defense, roads, schools....stuff costs money. You don't want to pay taxes?...move to Saudi Arabia where oil money pays for everything.

said by patcat88 :

Can't move there unless you can prove citizenship to before oil was discovered.

said by kapil :

Defense, roads, schools....stuff costs money. You don't want to pay taxes?...move to Saudi Arabia where oil money pays for everything.

said by pnh102 :

Amen to that.

According to the IRS, half of all income earners pay almost all income tax collected. Perhaps the half that only pays a pittance should endure a tax hike so that these things can be paid for.

said by kapil :

I'd even be okay with a flat tax rate for all income levels

said by amigo_boy :

Even those who propose "flat taxes" propose a minimum income level for the "flat tax" to apply. In other words, that's two rates: 0% and 15% for anyone earning $12k per year.

said by birdfeedr :

So if I explain it as "the threshold below which the cost of processing the tax forms is greater than the resulting tax proceeds", does that fix it?

said by birdfeedr :

The reason the flat tax will not be established is the long history of exceptions. Everyone wants to be special, not the same as everybody else.

said by pnh102 :

Amen to that.

According to the IRS, half of all income earners pay almost all income tax collected. Perhaps the half that only pays a pittance should endure a tax hike so that these things can be paid for.

said by Sammer :

Now there's a really stupid idea, increase taxes on the working poor so the only ways they can survive are welfare or crime. Guess you want even higher taxes if you don't want the working poor to be able to support themselves.

said by pnh102 :

In all seriousness though, the spending problem in this country could be solved by a very easy but highly-unlikely-to-ever-be-enacted policy: allowing only people who pay taxes to vote.

said by hottboiinnc :

If you are not happy with the way your provider is; build out your OWN network and do what you want with it. Then you can give unlimited equal access to everything that touches YOUR network. See how you can handle it all.