[Spirit100]

Let's say you're right about what I have highlighted. Since corporate greed is not funded by our tax dollars, I fail to see where it has anything to do with the state of the Union. And after all, corporations which make huge sums of money provide jobs and tax dollars to help run this nation, do they not? I just don't get why so many think big companies are a bad thing. Actually, at present 27% of our federal tax dollar is spent on health care (that is the same ratio people who pay their own health insurance premiums must endure BTW), and 10% is spent on welfare (FTR, there is zero difference in my mind). Another 23% is spent on pensions, (government and military). Those three alone account for 60% of our budgetary outlay. One could take/tax every last dime that the so-called one percenters make, and it wouldn't make a blip on our financial radar screen.

If you're suggesting that we should be doing more for the poor, I would think that the constraints of the US Treasury would be coming clear to most about right now. We have reached the national tipping point and therefore, people demanding only the best jobs may have to actually go to work at whatever they can find. The financial facts are no longer debatable, the money is gone.

Ergo, the heavily tax burdened middle class is disappearing because they can no longer afford to save. The aggregate result of that is the rash of home re-fi's in order that home owners can liquidate their hard earned equity to spend on the necessities of life. Like the farmer who ate his seed, this country and her residents are in hock up their eyeballs. And, with no place else to borrow, bankruptcy looms certain. Same thing is true for the US at the national level. America with a gross earnings to debt ratio exceeding 100%, finds herself in the same pickle. A run away EPA has driven up energy prices across the board. Did you happen to notice that momentary wave of financial relief when gasoline prices fell to 2 dollars?

No, what's killing the economy is unrealistic regulations, ObamaCare and the highest overall tax rate at 39.1% (federal and state), in the free world. Owing to those three cataclysmic economic killers, the middle class has practically dissolved during this administration.

At least Donald Trump places the USA at the top of his priority list. I'd vote for him in a New York second over Hillary. Pun intended. At any rate, every time I hear Democrats get up there and berate Republicans because they're trying to hold taxes down I wonder what has happened to the common man's common sense for not voting them out of office.

I agree with you here. Corporate greed concept I was referring to is the still growing disparity between wages of upper management and the shop floor. You are a lot better at crunching/providing numbers than I to substantiate your points. So I won't even try. :biggrin:

Middle class wages have and continue to drop with added work loads due to job consolidation. Workers aren't getting wage increases while upper and middle management net bonuses. So no the route I poorly eluded to has nothing to do with the poor. Although many middle class will get there sooner rather than later at the current rate!

I am for de-regulatuion, less taxes, and the free market. Which one of these clowns will get us there that hasn't already been bought and has enough "spine" to lead us out of this bureaucratic mess?

For now I like the fat guy! :Thumbs: