I confess that I've never been in favor of forcing politicians to release their tax returns. It always seemed to me that tax returns, like ballots cast in elections, are private matters and nobody else's business. But after reading the Associated Press article on your front page today, regarding Republican Jason Plummer being "in the same boat as Romney," I thought perhaps I should take another look at this issue.
I have concluded that all politicians should be required to release all of their tax returns. In fact, I think it's such a great idea that it should extend to everyone in the country -- you and me included -- and all those returns should be available on the internet as soon as they are filed. After all, don't you want everyone in your neighborhood, workplace, church and social club to know exactly how much you earned each year over your lifetime? Don't you have the right to know if the guy in the next office who goofs off all day is taking home a bigger paycheck than you? Don't you have a need to know how much that snooty lady up the street gives to charity? Can your obnoxious next door neighbor really afford that gas guzzling Escelade and all the expensive gadgets he buys for his family? Don't you have the right to know those things? Of course you do. We all do.
Perhaps we can next dispense with that pesky rule that says each vote we cast is a private matter.
To "OCObserver": YOUR post has brought me, Oliver, out of the terminal woodwork on this forum..What a great one you've done, satirical, saying quite a lot withOUT directly and pedantically saying it, and without interminable links, each of the "Gone With the Wind" variety.
This forum is TRULY on life support, if such a post can languish with not even a nibble from the self-proclaimed saviours for us all!
The only hitch I can see in this FAIR IDEA: EVERYONE show his tax return: 47% owe NO tax and would file only for refunds of withholding AND possibly those great 'freebees' (tax credits, etc; for having little kids, that is, taxpayers who really have the wealth GIVEN to them by the more affluent ones, struggling along in their own ways too, I'm sure) However, part of that 47% MAY include those simply KNOT required to file-period. I think, then, EVERYONE should file, even if he did NOTHING but stay on the computer 24/7!!!!
So, it may not be quite so fun looking at all those returns,,,,unless you know the person and can detect his 20 rummage sales/yr. are not being reported, etc; in which case maybe there's a hotline to snitch at?? Well, maybe it *would* be fun,,,afterall!
Come over and check out a new local (E.Cen. IL) forum where there is some political talk, but it stays (so far) to a more 'fluff' level,,,the kind that would drive some posters here to udder despair!!! Regards, Oliver--
www.danvilleareaconnect.com/index
The only way that evil can win is if good men do nothing. - Someone who has insight
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. - One of our Founding Fathers
The mind is a terrible thing to waste. - My math teacher in my junior year of high school
And last but certainly not least: What, me worry? - Alfred E Neuman
There are those who strive to be eternally vigilant, and those who want only to row, row their boats, 'gently' down the stream...life is but a dream. You get what you pay for...
Where was I? How about we increase the tax on capital gains 100% and give the smokers and drinkers a restful respite?
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