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This is true. I should have re-thought my initial post. Why tax only smokers and nicotine when other items are bought often like Fast Food, Alcohol, and other items. But I believe the real problem is that spending 100 billion a year on military or more and then a Child Health Care bill costing 35 billion over 5 years is too much?
It's a sad day.
Dave
My husband grosses 50k/yr. We have 4 kids. We pay roughly 300.00/mo for our family plan health insurance. Our mortgage is 923.00/mo. My husband pays 800.00/mo. child support. I don't get child support from my ex. He's in prison for not paying child support. So my husband has to support not only his children, but my ex's as well. Groceries 400+/mo. I shop at Aldi's and Sav-A-Lot, only going to Wal-Mart and Kroger for items the other stores don't carry. I cut everybody's hair, including my own. I do my own nails. I buy all my clothes and most of my kids' clothes at consignment and thrift stores. We have ONE car, a Ford minivan. Our idea of a vacation is going camping (in tents, not RVs) and this year, we couldn't even afford to do that. Nearly our entire house has been furnished off of Craig's List. I make my own jelly and jam. We don't even order pizza...I make my own. I was lucky enough to find a chest freezer cheap on CraigsList, so now I stock up on things during sales and freeze them. I sew and mend instead of buying new. We eat a LOT of hamburger and oatmeal. Do you have any idea how much it costs to eat healthily? Fresh fruits and veggies are expensive as hell. I even bake our bread when time permits.Quote:
Originally Posted by killerweed420
More...I don't even buy regular cleaning products. I use peroxide, white vinegar, and baking soda for most things. I recycle everything I can. We've replaced every normal lightbulb in our house with CFLs. We use our fireplace in the winter and close off unused rooms. I compost, and next spring will be growing the vast majority of our produce. I already grow our cooking herbs and our smoke. I make side money from fixing people's PCs, some graphics art work, and figure modeling.
We got married in our backyard. My dress cost 43.90. Our entire wedding didn't go over 500.00.
We don't have ANY credit cards. Our only debts are school loans and our mortgage.
My point? I don't have a frigging boat, a fancy car, or take vacations. I think characterizing people in my family's income bracket as over educated frivolous spenders is painting with too broad a brush. I am lucky that my husband's employer offers a health plan. The millions of un or under-insured people in this country (the vast majority of which are children) are not so fortunate. Working class people (who pay taxes BTW) are the hardest hit, simply because we are seen as making "enough" money to pay for healthcare, thereby not qualifying for any government aid.
I'd like to point you to this article that came out today on living paycheck to paycheck.
None of it was news to me, but I'm glad to see that it's finally being acknowledged.
It's a damn shame that in the U.S., seen worldwide as a prosperous nation and a land of opportunity, our own citizens are still hungry and ill. The system is tragically flawed, and skewed in favor of those who are well-to-do. Hell, even our own soldiers aren't reaping the benefit of our ridiculously high military spending. They don't have sufficient armor, shelter, weapons or HEALTHCARE!!! WTF are we spending that money on, if it's not to take care of our soldiers?
...just a very off-topic, abstract 2 pennies; I believe the inability of our nations capital to provide reasonable health care for all, is an obscene display of their desire to supress the heart of our nation. I also see our schools teaching very questionable curriculum. I feel like we force feed our children irrelevent information, and in the process, deny them the right to truly be an individual.:wtf:Quote:
Originally Posted by bstheory
...and I definately wanna vote for the 'McTaxables'!...:thumbsup:Hell of an idea! I think the bigger problem here is that there are so many scapegoat type distractions for them to play off, it makes it hard to see enough truth to develope a truly educated decision.:stoned: