Letter: Everyone should do a fair share

Please, get with it! President Barack Obama was re-elected by Americans who want to see everyone do his or her fair share. I have a job and am happy to do my part. I don’t expect the elderly or people with disabilities or those living at the poverty level to do what I do, and I expect wealthier people to do more. Doesn’t that seem fair to you? Doesn’t that sound like the American way?

So I ask Congress to make a choice. Will we have a country where everyone pays their fair share and has a bit of the American dream, or a nation made up of the very rich and then the rest of us? Do we choose the failed top-down policies of the past, or do we grow our economy from the middle out?

And finally, Congress, never look at me as a bargaining chip. I am one of the millions of proud middle-class Americans who built this great country. I matter.

Linda Kocher

sales

New Orleans

Comments

1) Comment by InPVille - 28/12/2012

In comparison with the tax structures of other western nations the wealthy in the United States are already paying more than their fair share. Other nations use VAT taxes to bring in a larger share of revenue from other economic groups. So if Ms. Kocher really wants a nation where everyone pays their fair share, she needs to come to the realization that she needs to pay more herself. -[**]- It isn't as though the proposed added tax burden on the wealthy is going to solve the debt/spending problem. Should The President actually get that $1,600,000,000 over the course of the next 10 years it will amount to $160,000,000 per year against a project 1,000,000,000+ annual deficit leaving an increasing amount of debt added each year of $840,000,000+. The tax increase only gives the illusion that anything is being accomplished to those without the wit or inclination to understand what is really going on. Add to the current $16,000,000,000 national debt the $24,000,000,000 in unfunded Medicare liability, the $21,400,000,000 in unfunded Social Security, the 3,600,000,000 in unfunded Military Retirements, the $2,000,000,000 in unfunded Federal Employment retirements it comes to about $65,000,000,000. The total GDP of the United States is about $15,000,000,000. This doesn't include the interest that will have to be paid on that amount as it will change over the years. -[**]- Speaking of fair, there is less disparity in economics today between those who are poor and those in the middle class today than there were four years ago. The rich remain in a state of inequality but Washington is working on that too. Pretty soon we will all be poor and there will be no wealthy to blame and use to kick that ,really dealing with the problems of funding the government, can down the road.

2) Comment by Attila - 26/12/2012

@DMJ: If you feel that you are not paying your "fair share" there is a mechanism already in place that will alleviate that problem. When paying your federal income taxes simply write a check for an amount above what you legally are responsible for and send it in with instructions to the IRS that the overpayment should be forwarded to the Dept of the Treasury. We will all sit back and wait for confirmation that you have done, what in your mind, is your civic duty. I am sure that we will be waiting a long, long time.

3) Comment by LSUinVail - 26/12/2012

What bums me out is how easily people will fall for this "fair share" media slogan and then blissfully submit to paying MORE in taxes...astounding! The problem is not a revenue problem...it is a SPENDING problem. How much has the "war on drugs" cost us? And what do we have to show for it? I could go on and on, there is unbelievable waste in government and apparently no accountability. Sheesh!

4) Comment by nimby? - 26/12/2012

in a recent survey 100 percent of those polled said someone else should pay more taxes ....

5) Comment by Mildred Citizen - 25/12/2012

If President Obama gets the tax increases he is asking for, I am guessing that we will then be taxing everyone at their "fair share", right? And that will run our bloated federal government for 8 days. We need to cut spending and stop the generational theft from our kids and grandkids. We are spending money THEY will have to pay back. It's wrong. It looks like we will go down as the worst generation in American history.

6) Comment by DMJ - 25/12/2012

Sounds fair to me, Linda. I'm willing to chip in a bit more to do my fair share as well.

7) Comment by Attila - 25/12/2012

EVERYBODY, should pay their "fair share". This includes income taxes as well as all others. We have set the poverty bar too high. When a family of 5 making $49.5 K annually is "entitled" to an over $5 K Earned Income Tax Credit those paying their "fair share" are getting fleeced. The invalid, mobility or mentally impaired deserve to be looked after by us. The problem is that politicians on both sides of aisle have played fast and loose with the rules regarding eligibility for government assistance to the point that half of us pay no taxes. Social Security was never intended to be a person's sole means of support in their late years. It was supposed to be only a supplement to what a person had saved, and/or their retirement plan if any. Problem is that tens of millions saved nothing and now we have set the "poverty" levels so high that anyone who breathes in and out can qualify for some sort of government largesse. Call me Scrooge, but I am sick and tired of seeing my family do without so that others can have cars, big screen TV, cell phones, subsidized housing, air conditioning, food stamps, low interest student loans, aid to dependent children, WIC, free school breakfast, lunch, and coming soon, dinner. If our hopey changey president had the cahonees to ferret out the fraud in all of those programs, and the hundreds of others that I do not even know about, we just may be able to lower the deficit....and glory be....balance the budget.

8) Comment by arin - 25/12/2012

linda, you do mean everyone else, right?

9) Comment by CountryBoysCanSurvive - 25/12/2012

Let us start with the space poop, this is a gigantic waste of taxpayer dollars. What possible good in finding out if there was ever water on Mars? Then, lets go to aid for all these countries who would gladly blow us off the face of the Earth. Cut them off with a 24 hour notice. Then, lets clean house of politicians who spend our money like there is no tomorrow. Everyone I know lives on a budget. There is times I would like to buy stuff but my budget says NO! Bring our troops home and make OUR streets safe. Free from Drug Dealers and killers. This is only a start ...it can be accomplished.

10) Comment by BigMike - 25/12/2012

Speaking of "fair share", postscript56, lets make sure that applies to blame as well as to credit. Bush was 4 years ago & its time to let that dung go! Yes, Bush ran up debt, but remember, Obama was going to fix it all, right? Hope & Change, remember that? Notice that my comment was all inclusive. Lets face it, our government has become elitest & self-serving, with no intent or plan to do whats right & has been for some time. We are in a whole world of hurt as a nation & there are no signs of "hope & change". Obama has done the exact same thing that Bush did, so get off that bone. Our populace is going to be witness to a very bad train wreck & we have no one to blame but ourselves because we have allowed it to happen. Contrary to the uneducated majority, the man is NOT the messiah &, quite frankly, is no darn different than any other politician we've seen in 60 years. We've hired the wolves to guard the sheep & then have the nerve to act surprised when nothings left but wool. The elite rule over the uneducated & I haven't heard one sorry politician who has the stones to stand up, be honest & do whats right vs. what maintains their popularity for re-election. Until one has the bag to stand up & declare a state of emergency, with a solid plan of serious spending cuts & common sense solutions, we are doomed to go down in history as the brightest hope for this planet that self-destructed from sheer stupidity, while our so-called "leaders" laugh behind closed doors. Absolutely pathetic!! Welcome to the Thrid World, America! You've earned it & deserve it.....

11) Comment by spqr - 24/12/2012

Who gets to decide what a "FAIR SHARE" is? The same government spending money like a spoiled teenaged girl with daddy's credit card at the mall? No Linda, this nation has a spending problem. Force the rich to pay more and they scale back business resulting in massive layoffs. Or, they take their wealth overseas. Linda, ever get a job or paycheck from a poor person? You socialists live in Fantasyland, dear.

12) Comment by postscript56 - 24/12/2012

Linda, I agree. Even after the proposed tax increase folks earning a quarter mil a year will still be bringing home five or six times more than a working man making good money. It's hard for me to feel like those folks are already doing too much. And BigMike, I'm with you brother. But were you railing about the debt back when Bush was running it up, borrowing from the Chinese so he could give tax cuts and fight wars at the same time, giving away mandated but unfunded freebies to seniors and expanding the size and scope of government? If you were more power to you. But all those folks whining about the debt who couldn't have cared less back them...they're part of the problem.

13) Comment by postscript56 - 24/12/2012

Linda, I agree. Even after the proposed tax increase folks earning a quarter mil a year will still be bringing home five or six times more than a working man making good money. It's hard for me to feel like those folks are already doing too much. And BigMike, I'm with you brother. But were you railing about the debt back when Bush was running it up, borrowing from the Chinese so he could give tax cuts and fight wars at the same time, giving away mandated but unfunded freebies to seniors and expanding the size and scope of government? If you were more power to you. But all those folks whining about the debt who couldn't have cared less back them...they're part of the problem.

14) Comment by postscript56 - 24/12/2012

BigMike - Cause and effect, and all that. We don't live in a vacuum. Can't ignore what came before especially if what came before was The Great Recession. My point is simply this: if you are against increasing the debt on principle - meaning you are against increasing the debt no matter who is doing the increasing - then I am OK with that. But if - like most conservatives - you've only been against running up the debt since Obama was elected, then that attitude is part of the problem.

15) Comment by BigMike - 24/12/2012

I, for one, would like our government leaders to do their fair share. Stop spending money like a drunken sailor! I'm tired of doing "my fair share"! The American people's wallets are not bottomless. They are spending so much that taxing everyone 100% wouldn't pull us out of this mess! Its time to cut spending! No one in DC gives a darn about the citizens! The only thing they care about is being re-elected, so they can keep showing up to that cushy office with the scotch in the cabinet. They have no intention, nor are they serious, about balancing the country's checkbook! I mean how hard is it to understand that the American people are tapped out?!?! If you taxed everyone who made $100,000 or >, taxed them 100%, every single dime, you would be 30 BILLION short for 2012 alone!! & thats just federal spending. That doesn't include state or local government spending. How in the heck can they brag about cutting a trillion dollars in spending over 10 years when they are over-spending a trillion dollars EVERY YEAR?!?!? Wake up people.... the dance is over & its time to pay the band. By the way..... Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!