"Mad Dog" Mattis SECRETARY OF DEFENSE!!! WHOOOO-HOOOO!

[Gandalf]

It's a terrible decision. Suggests the Bush years are back.

Now you see it? What took you so long?

Just didn't want to see Clinton. Sanders would have been okay.

Sanders? Wtf?!?! You mean with his 93% tax rate? Hahaha

Your country is broke and the rich have paid very little in taxes for decades because they have clever accountants and can buy government policy anyway. The rich should be paying 90% in tax and be forced into exile if they don't. They have got away with it for too long and under Trump will continue to get away with it. The debt will continue to balloon, he won't be able to invest in America's devastated infrastructure, and the middle classes will continue to decline and shrink as the burden is all placed on them. You need higher taxes on the rich.

[brocktonblockbust]

It's a terrible decision. Suggests the Bush years are back.

Now you see it? What took you so long?

Just didn't want to see Clinton. Sanders would have been okay.

Sanders? Wtf?!?! You mean with his 93% tax rate? Hahaha

Your country is broke and the rich have paid very little in taxes for decades because they have clever accountants and can buy government policy anyway. The rich should be paying 90% in tax and be forced into exile if they don't. They have got away with it for too long and under Trump will continue to get away with it. The debt will continue to balloon, he won't be able to invest in America's devastated infrastructure, and the middle classes will continue to decline and shrink as the burden is all placed on them. You need higher taxes on the rich.

That is pure Big Brother Communism.

[Gandalf]

It's a terrible decision. Suggests the Bush years are back.

Now you see it? What took you so long?

Just didn't want to see Clinton. Sanders would have been okay.

Sanders? Wtf?!?! You mean with his 93% tax rate? Hahaha

Your country is broke and the rich have paid very little in taxes for decades because they have clever accountants and can buy government policy anyway. The rich should be paying 90% in tax and be forced into exile if they don't. They have got away with it for too long and under Trump will continue to get away with it. The debt will continue to balloon, he won't be able to invest in America's devastated infrastructure, and the middle classes will continue to decline and shrink as the burden is all placed on them. You need higher taxes on the rich.

That is pure Big Brother Communism.

Not it isn't. It is how liberal democracies of the 20th century typically functioned. You taxed the rich so that everyone had a better chance and for a long time it worked very, very well. It came unstuck when the neo liberal brigage with its ideological ring master Milton Friedman came along with the crazy idea that if you stopped taxing the rich, deregulated markets and took away unions and labour rights, then things would magically be better for all. You know what? That has failed miserably and Donald Trump wants to continue it.

If you want a neo liberal society, then you are welcome to it, but you will drown and don't say I didn't tell you so. You need to hold the elite accountable and that is to tax them. Not only are they avoiding tax, but they are still making government policy for themselves and to bring everybody else down. Donald Trump with his selections so far is enabling it. He obviously does not understand the financial system or if he does he is on their side.

His picks are pretty terrible and you should be man enough to see and admit it.

[brocktonblockbust]

If I work hard, work 3 jobs, make smart decisions---- and I earn great dough-----WHY SHOULD I PAY MORE OF MY FAIR SHARE?

[Gandalf]

If I work hard, work 3 jobs, make smart decisions---- and I earn great dough-----WHY SHOULD I PAY MORE OF MY FAIR SHARE?

If you are working hard doing 3 jobs, then I doubt you would be among the super rich. Why should they be able to avoid even paying their low tax rate through clever accounting and off shore tax havens? If you have been able to make a lot of money in banking for instance which is legalised criminality, then you should pay back a lot of that. If you have made a fortune borrowing money from the central banks at low interest rates and are getting bigger returns by investing, then you really should be paying your share of taxes. It goes on and on. The super rich are beyond all law and they should be brought back under control.

Why would you make excuses for that? Your country has terrible roads, run down transport systems, ghettos, a declining middle class, 3rd world poverty and you are making arguments to perpetuate a system that created such misery? It makes no sense. If that's what you want then fine, but it looks a bit daft. America has become a banana republic because the rich pay so little yet control the entire system.

[brocktonblockbust]

Ok miles I want to give you a real life example of one of my good friends in San Jose California. I graduated high school with him in 1982 and his father moved out to California that year. He worked two jobs very hard and never went to college invested his money in real estate and wound up now owning 5 houses. 3 of them are in Texas and two in California. The average price of all the houses are about $400,000 each. Means he has about 2 million dollars worth of assets right now and the houses are all paid off. He took out a 2nd loan against the two million dollars and invested heavily during the early 2000s in the stock market and made a killing and he is now worth about 6 million US dollars. He earned it the hard way. I do not think people like him with six million dollars worth of assets should have to pay more than their Fair of taxes just to help out the poor people in the inner cities and ghettos. Whatever happened to every man for himself?

[Gandalf]

He would have paid his property taxes and that's the end of it in that regard. Whilst saving he would have paid his income tax too and I doubt he was earning enough to be considered super rich. Now when it comes to people investing in the stock market. Well, yes people should be taxed on that. You pay VAT everytime you buy a loaf of bread, then you should have a similar tax on your investments. You even save money in a bank and get taxed on that. Investing in a stock market is not doing anything the hardway. It is gambling and it has paid off and should be taxed.

If you work hard then you have rewards for it. We are talking about the super rich here Brock. The people that don't even pay their basic taxes and use offshore tax havens and use their wealth to buy government policy. It's an entirely different thing to Joe Bloggs who sacrifices having children and plods away saving year in year out investing a bit on the way. Someone earning 100,000 a year is not super rich, but should certainly pay more than someone on 20,000 a year. A redistributive tax system where the more you earn the more tax you pay. If you take home 400,000 a year then you should pay more taxes. People who earn more money in a corporation do not neccessarily work harder, provide better value for money, none of that and they end up making decisions that end up with companies relocating to cheaper countries, leaving people unemployed etc. In that sense, you fucked up the country and still got rich with your heartless decisions. Tax that fucker and that firm! Looking out for number one all the time, now give back to the society that now has to pick up the welfare tab.

It's about balance Brock and you have experimented with neoliberalism and it has failed. You have half the country on welfare because there are no jobs and only illegal immigrants will do it. How about going back to a system that actually worked and provided wealth for the country? See neo liberalism actually increases the welfare state and because there are less taxes and well paying jobs the government debt just continues to rise. It isn't sustainable. It explains why the US makes so many weapons, which I am sure Mattis will be wanting to utilise.

[Spicoli]

Interesting choice but proven leader. They'll find another exception to a law that stands on the books and Trump is gradually surrounding himself with ex military. Seems like Mattis already knows Trump doesn't know what he speaks of in regards to Russia.