General News Martin O Malley announces Presidential Run

I think income tax should go away completely, it should all be based on a national sales tax. The more you make and spend, the more tax you pay. This way the wealthy do end up paying more, but by choice. I also think that the budget should be made based on what the revenue was for the previous year, not on hopes of what it might be during the coming year, that way there would never be a deficit.
Plus, almost the entire IRS could be disbanded almost overnight saving billions a year.

But back to OweMalley, if anyone is interested, they could also search back to how much he damaged Baltimore when he was the Mayor there. Maybe someone could find the millions of dollars that ended up missing during his time in charge.

I cant mention the Maryland based forums that are consumed with people talking about this idiot, but if one were to search them out they would discover that the citizens of this state pretty much have no respect for him.. Oh, and his band sucks.

 

Replacing the income tax with a national sales tax would make our taxes even more regressive than they are currently. And at the rate they would need to be set in order to fund even basic federal operations would be very high.

Personally, I already find it beyond ridiculous that I pay a higher federal tax rate than very wealthy, high income people like Mitt Romney. And that's just the couple of years he released.

There are sometimes very good reasons to run a deficit. Taking away this tool is foolish and causes economic harm. This is well known, basic economics stuff.

 

I paid over 40,000 in federal taxes last year.
how am I not paying my fair share as far as someone that paid maybe 5 or 6 thousand?
consider that as of now the current per citizen share of the debt is roughly 59,000.
that means that in just an 18 month period, I will cover my share of the debt.
yet, it would take the 5 or 6 thousand a year taxpayer 10 years to do the same thing.

 

Congratulations. If you're paying 40k in federal income taxes, you're making quite a handsome salary, and even more than that if you're getting income via capital gains. I think you're probably well into the top 10% of all earners in the USA, and probably close if not in the top 5. You really going to complain about that, cause someone who makes merely 40k a year pays less in taxes?

The great news is that national debt does not work the way you think it does. There's no time when it comes due and the irs sends every person an equal bill, for starters, so I find it funny to talk about "your share". Unless the congress does something stupid like it tried a few years ago, we have an entirely manageable federal debt load.

It's still the case that the government can borrow for less than the expected rate of inflation, which in economic terms is called "free money". We should be borrowing and turning it into infrastructure repair and projects which would also put a ton of people to work, directly and indirectly, increasing the tax base.

 

I know how it works, I just find it insulting for someone like those occupy people that didnt even have jobs to be crying about someone else paying their fair share.
Im just pointing out that when you look at the overall bill, those that are not paying their fair share are in most cases paying wll over what their fair share would be if it was actually fair.
I do have a friend that paid out almost 1 million in taxes. Of course, the money he has was inherited and then put into some rather impressive stocks. But regardless, how can anyone say he is not paying his fair share? Is there a point that taxes actually become too much?
we need to have a flat tax with no deductions, make a dollar? send in a quarter. (or something like that) again, no need for filing tax, no need for an IRS, and again the key to it all, government spending for any physcal year can not exceed what was taken in during the previous year. Since pay should ( SHOULD) go up with inflation, there would be no need for tax increases.
Honestly if they came out and said that the rich would be over taxed for the next 4 years to reduce the debt/deficit (they are two different things) But after that there would be a flat tax that would equally tax every dollar that changed hands, I would be happy to pay a little extra to see that happen.

 

You find it insulting that people who could not find work in the worst economy since the Great Depression complained about it in front of the institutions that caused the crash? That's what you take offense with?

You ask if there's a point where taxes become "too much"? Yeah, there is. It's asking that people who are scraping by to pay more so that multimillionaires and billionaires pay less. When people who make millions are able already to pay a lower rate than people in the middle class.

Your friend who paid over a million dollars in tax will, unless he's a complete moron, will never want for food or housing or anything, but you want me to pity him while there are people who had everything taken from them in the crash and lost their home and retirement?

A government that cannot raise revenue is a government that cannot, for example, effectively fight world war 2. That's a government that can't ever create Medicare, so we would still have senior poverty rates over 30%. The articles of confederation failed, you know.

Personally, I'd like to see tax rates return to where they were in the 1950s. Graduated rates going to 70% of all income over $1 million a year, rising to 90% over 5 million. That makes a lot more sense than a flat tax that robs from the poor.

 

Yep. Not a fan. Would be hugely disappointed if she did win. And, if the ACA would sort of buckle in the next couple of years, and she couldn't do anything about it, it would make her all the more ineffective.

 

The "rain tax" is an attempt to control pollution in the Chesapeake bay. Those who live in those locations contribute to the pollution more because they're in the bay watershed.

 

In Maryland, there are no republican concepts, have not been for the last 50 years.
as far as the rain tax being fair, its not, they claim it to be based on the non-permeable surfaces on a property, its not, they claim it has to do with the run off from ones property, it does not.
take my property for instance, I have 6 acres, mostly wooded, the majority of the property is sloped so the water runs to a field of mine, the neighbors properties run off to my field too. The field being lower than the areas around it create a catch basin for runoff, it is soaked into the ground, not released into a river or stream.
the state road that runs the lenght of the property, roughly 900 ft of frontage, is also higher, so the road runoff is also being filtered through the property.
My non-permeable surfaces are roughly 2096 square feet with the remaining 259,264 square ft of property left to filter.
yet, I pay more than someone in a town house that has basically no property to filter rain water, paved parking in front of the house and storm drains to carry all of the runoff to the bay.
In all honesty, I think the county should give me a tax break for doing my part in keeping the bay clean, and when you consider my land is taking care of their road debris, that just makes it even more of a reason to give me a break. Yet, I pay over 100 a year more for this tax than the people who live in a home that creates much more of a problem.

 

I like Maryland much better after O'Malley; I think he did a lot of good things. I do not like this new Hogan guy; he seems greedy, for the rich, and is doing nothing to help save the bay...our poor environment. It's sad, how polluted it is here, and how he plans to do nothing 'cause it will hurt business. I've never seen such bad water till I moved here. The so-called rain tax is fine;we need to protect our water. It's not that big a deal to bring back the bay, and all the life it used to support, not to mention the fisherman who used to be able to make a living.

But now, it seems like the snobby rich folks in the burbs just do not care, and we have Hogan...it's sad.

Anyhow, I LOVE O'Malley, and thank him for his time in office.

 

O'Malley hurt the state, evident by the large number of democrats that turned out to vote for Hogan.
O'Malley was only concerned with Baltimore City and Prince Georges County, he raided the other counties to pay for special projects in those areas. Our roads are the worst that they have ever been, he has taxed people to the extent of causing financial hardships. He has reduced our highway safety by allowing uninsured undocumented persons to hold a drivers license. The loss of almost 100,000 jobs during his time speaks volumes. I actually had a company, 15 employees, tech type work. his taxes made it so I was making less as the owner than my employees were. I shut it down before I went broke, that was 15 high paying jobs that were gone. ( average pay was 25 an hour )
he raised the price of the tolls so much that Ocean City actually saw a decrease in its summer traffic. When I went to Virginia Beach I would take 95 to 17 instead of heading down 301 and over the bridge, just to avoid the toll. (spite) I would however use the 301 bridge coming back because it was not charged in that direction.
80 tax and fee increases in 8 years was excessive.
Larry Hogan is going about it the right way, he wants to reduce the number of people on assistance, he wants to make Maryland friendly for business again to create jobs. He wants to reduce the tax burden in an attempt at keeping more people from fleeing the state.
O'Malley would destroy the entire country much like he did Maryland.
I am on many political sites right now spreading the truth about O'Malley. one does not have to lie to ruin his chances of winning the oval office.
Do you know if Baltimore city ever found those missing millions that just up and dissapeared while O'Malley was the mayor?

 

^This is coming from someone who lives in Maryland. I don't know much about O'Malley but its nice to hear from someone that actually lives in the state, I still wont be voting for him however.

---------- Post added 3rd Jun 2015 at 01:38 PM ----------

Larry Hogan is going about it the right way, he wants to reduce the number of people on assistance, he wants to make Maryland friendly for business again to create jobs. He wants to reduce the tax burden in an attempt at keeping more people from fleeing the state[/QUOTE]

How does he plan on reducing the number of people on assistance? Is he for raising the minimum wage? I'm guessing you assume just because someone is on government assistance they don't work, while that's not the case.

 

Larry Hogan is trying to bring business back to the state. the same business that left under OweMalleys oppressive tax and regulations.
that will bring back jobs, about 100,000 of them lost under OweMalley.
rasing the minimum wage will do nothing, it will actually create a larger population living in poverty. Since the middle class will not see their pay increase because its already over the mninimum wage, they will see their buying power reduced as prices go up to cover the additional wages. You can also count on jobs being lost as companies downsize to try and maintain the bottom line. the lost jobs will increase the number of people on assistance and give yet another reason to have to raise taxes again.

Now, go ahead and post that tired chart of how the U.S is so far behind other countries when it comes to a minimum wage.
I just dont see how people fail to realize the impact it would have to double the minimum wage. Flipping a burger at McDonalds is not a job that is supposed to enable one to raise a family of four. Its a job for high school kids to make some money for gas in their car.

 

I agree with some of what you posted, like the affordable college. Im back in going after yet another degree, just because. the class with in state rates for 3 credit hours cost me 402.00, then the books, two required, one was 195.00 the other 149.00 for paperbacks.
I have to ask, how do kids paying their own way afford this? thats just one class.

a low wage is not punsihment, its what the work is worth. to raise minimum wage will not bring the bottom earners up, it will bring the middle class down, it will create an even greater disparity between the rich and the poor. It will increase government assistance needs, and then it will require taxes to be raised.

At no time in the history of this country can anyone point to an increase in minimum wage and show how it reduced poverty, at best, those affected might see a couple months of greater buying power, then it all goes right back into perspective.
But hey, if 15 an hour is going to get rid of poverty, I say lets make it 50 an hour and make everyone upper middle class.

 

Coming from someone who worked my way through college and lived on my own part of the time, I was lucky enough to have a job that paid better than minimum wage and lucky enough to have my parents help me. Not everyone has that option and skim by and go without food working minimum wage jobs while putting themselves through college.

This whole argument "minimum wage jobs are for college students for gas" is BULLSHIT. It's almost as insulting as Mitt Romney suggestion every student should just ask their parents to pay for college instead of student loans.

I don't think people working at McDonalds warrants $15 an hour but it should be raised and adjusted with inflation. People are making less now working at McDonalds than 50 years ago!

Also I'd like to add that "flipping burgers" is a shitty job, luckily I've never had to work in retail or fast food but have plenty of friends that did.

I'd love for someone to tell me where people that aren't smart enough for college, have mental disabilities (but still work), ex prisoners are suppose to work that pays a livable wage. Enough to pay rent, utilities, food without public assistance, and I'm not talking about a family of 4 I'm talking about 1 person.

It's obnoxious reading Bi in Md responses they're almost copy and pasted from Fox News.

 

There are actual studies about the effect of the minimum wage on employment that you could read. Quite simply it does not work the way you're positing, and you betray your lack of knowledge about the way that supply and demand work in the labor market.

The minimum wage has not kept up with inflation nor productivity gains. It used to be possible to get by on that and it no longer is. No one is suggesting that it be raised to $50/hour outside of silly slippery slope arguments made by people who live very comfortable lives.

 

Let's keep this thread on topic. Further argumentative posts will be deleted. They will also result in further action being taken against the members involved.

 

This entire election cycle is a total wash for any left-of-centre voter.