Monroe

Which political party is misleading the taxpayer more, the Democrats or the Republicans? This problem started better than 10 years ago when George W. Bush was elected president. He's the first president that I can remember that actually got into two major wars and lowered the individual income tax that created this growing debt. He started out as president with a surplus as far as the eye can see, lowered the income tax from 39.6 to 35 percent and refunded the middle class $300, and both of his ideas turned out wrong. He continued to weaken the banking regulations, particularly on home loans and that's why President Obama passed the Dodd-Frank Bill, which is attempting to regulate the hedge funds and derivatives, which, up to now, by some skillful maneuvering, Republicans have blocked so only 5 percent of this law has been put in effect. That's why when Obama talks about taxing the hedge fund dealers, he's closer to balancing the budget than the Republicans. Republicans keep wanting to lower people's standard of living by making cuts to Social Security and Medicare. At the same time, government is borrowing from the Social Security and Medicare fund to make sure they become as broke as our government is. They are taking the money that was put in a fund for the elderly retirement and paying off foreign debt which the government has borrowed. They said they are going to pay them off first and if there's anything left, pay Social Security. Any place there is any amount of money, such as pension funds, Social Security and Medicare, corporations, with the help of our government, goes after and that's why Standard & Poor's and Moody's say that why our credit rating is where it is at. The question is if Obama would follow through and tax the wealthiest 2 percent that have half the wealth, based on ability to pay, and that includes the hedge fund dealers, you could reverse the widening gap between the richest and the poorest and put the word "fair" back into our individual income tax system. You can't keep taking it out on the property tax owner and he only has one home and just because he's old and his working days are done. We need an honest supreme court and an honest legal system to interpret what is fair in our legal system.