Meals on Wheels, or trips to Mar-a-Lago? Tough call!

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, D-Md.: Well, this budget tells me that Donald Trump is already getting very out of touch with the American people.

It’s the kind of budget you might expect from somebody who jets off to Mar-a-Lago every other week. And, by the way, that costs taxpayers $3 million each time, which is the amount usually in the budget for the Meals on Wheels program to help feed over two million elderly.

He wipes that out of the budget. And if you look at the overall budget, it really is an attack on working people and on educational opportunity in the country.

It is a recipe for cleaner — dirtier air and contaminated water. It’s really a bad deal for the American public.

And I was thinking that you'd be critical...we're good.

If the wealthy get tax cuts but pay their fair share, is that fair? They are the job creators. There must be incentive for them to do that...Otherwise they invest overseas, yes?

Posted by DoctorKz on 3/17/2017 9:21:00 AM (view original):
If the wealthy get tax cuts but pay their fair share, is that fair? They are the job creators. There must be incentive for them to do that...Otherwise they invest overseas, yes?

Yeah, I really don't understand the anger towards the "wealthy". If you own a business and employ others, isn't that a good thing? If you earn a (BIG) paycheck, doesn't a (BIG) chunk of that go towards taxes? (BTW, if you remember that this is ostensibly a sports board, I don't get why people say "Well, if the salaries are millions, the owners must be making billions... that's not fair!" Hey, ownership is a financial risk... some owners LOSE money year over year, they bought the team as an investment, hoping to cash in when they sell, which wasn't always a guarantee. If you think the scales are tipped in their favor, hey, become an owner)

This misplaced resentment is the class warfare of the liberals. "Oh, you should hate that rich guy because he has stuff that you don't..." Hey, maybe you should stay in school, develop your skills, and become "that rich guy" rather than ***** and moan about how someone has more crap than you.

And can someone define "wealthy" so that we're all arguing/discussing the same thing? I live in the Bay Area, and I'm pretty sure some people consider themselves "poor" around here that are making $50K because of the cost of living.

Wealthy individuals aren't the enemy and nobody should hate someone because he/she is wealthy. That's a given.

Wealth has absolutely NOTHING to do with character, leadership, stability, foresight, intellect, knowledge, humility, respect, etc.
No one should consider wealth to be related to ability of leadership of a society or government. Doesn't apply.

History kinda tells us (doesn't it?) that too much DIVISION of wealth between the haves at the top and the "not enough" folks at the bottom will ultimately (and inevitably) lead to a situation wherein "that rich guy" DOES indeed become the enemy (along with the rulers, often times!).
It's happened repeatedly.

Believe me............ I'll never have to worry about that target being on my back. :-) Bigly!

Posted by laramiebob on 3/17/2017 11:44:00 AM (view original):
Wealthy individuals aren't the enemy and nobody should hate someone because he/she is wealthy. That's a given.

Wealth has absolutely NOTHING to do with character, leadership, stability, foresight, intellect, knowledge, humility, respect, etc.
No one should consider wealth to be related to ability of leadership of a society or government. Doesn't apply.

History kinda tells us (doesn't it?) that too much DIVISION of wealth between the haves at the top and the "not enough" folks at the bottom will ultimately (and inevitably) lead to a situation wherein "that rich guy" DOES indeed become the enemy (along with the rulers, often times!).
It's happened repeatedly.

Believe me............ I'll never have to worry about that target being on my back. :-) Bigly!

Interesting. I agree with you here.

I'd be interested to hear some of the farther left responses to this....

Posted by toddcommish on 3/17/2017 11:32:00 AM (view original):

Posted by DoctorKz on 3/17/2017 9:21:00 AM (view original):
If the wealthy get tax cuts but pay their fair share, is that fair? They are the job creators. There must be incentive for them to do that...Otherwise they invest overseas, yes?

Yeah, I really don't understand the anger towards the "wealthy". If you own a business and employ others, isn't that a good thing? If you earn a (BIG) paycheck, doesn't a (BIG) chunk of that go towards taxes? (BTW, if you remember that this is ostensibly a sports board, I don't get why people say "Well, if the salaries are millions, the owners must be making billions... that's not fair!" Hey, ownership is a financial risk... some owners LOSE money year over year, they bought the team as an investment, hoping to cash in when they sell, which wasn't always a guarantee. If you think the scales are tipped in their favor, hey, become an owner)

This misplaced resentment is the class warfare of the liberals. "Oh, you should hate that rich guy because he has stuff that you don't..." Hey, maybe you should stay in school, develop your skills, and become "that rich guy" rather than ***** and moan about how someone has more crap than you.

And can someone define "wealthy" so that we're all arguing/discussing the same thing? I live in the Bay Area, and I'm pretty sure some people consider themselves "poor" around here that are making $50K because of the cost of living.

Not everyone wants "stuff," Todd. It's true that some may look at a guy like Trump, the human embodiment of cupidity, and think, "Man, I'd like to crap in a solid gold toilet bowl, too! I'd like to buy a younger wife! I'd like to have all my meals delivered to me from KFC and McDs!"

Others may look at him and think, "I wish he paid his employees more than $10-13 an hour. I wish he didn't stiff contractors all the time. I wish he didn't brag about not paying taxes."

exactly.

Trump pays taxes. A ****-ton. Does he also have ****-tons of deductions and exemptions we don't know about? Of course, his companies employ thousands of people, paying taxes and wages along the way with most employees making a wage commensurate with the market. Why should he pay his office staff more than market rate, if they're doing the same job? I would guess the people with the highly marketable skills are making MORE than the market rate because he can afford to pay more to keep them from jumping jobs, and the people with replaceable skills are making EXACTLY the market rate since they're easily swapped in and out.

If you don't want to get minimum wage, don't have minimum skills.

In this case it's all about this SPECIFIC "wealthy"............ That should be easy for all of us to agree about.

Posted by toddcommish on 3/17/2017 2:52:00 PM (view original):
Trump pays taxes. A ****-ton. Does he also have ****-tons of deductions and exemptions we don't know about? Of course, his companies employ thousands of people, paying taxes and wages along the way with most employees making a wage commensurate with the market. Why should he pay his office staff more than market rate, if they're doing the same job? I would guess the people with the highly marketable skills are making MORE than the market rate because he can afford to pay more to keep them from jumping jobs, and the people with replaceable skills are making EXACTLY the market rate since they're easily swapped in and out.

If you don't want to get minimum wage, don't have minimum skills.

I didn't say Trump doesn't pay taxes -- I said he bragged about not paying them. Do you deny that?

By the way, we've seen two pages of his tax returns -- tax returns marked "Client Copy" -- and by sheer coincidence those two pages showed he actually paid taxes in that particular year.

About the Meals on Wheels cuts...A glance at the program's 2015 financial statement shows the program brought in just over $7.5 million in funding that year, mainly from corporate and foundation grants making up $5.15 million.

Government grants made up just $248,347 of the funding – or 3.3 percent of total funds.

This probably won't end the program...

Is this really Kool-aid I'm drinking?

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/03/17/will-be-adults-or-children-ugly-truth-about-americas-spending.html