As for Ronald Reagan, he was indeed a great and transformative President — he gave America back its self-confidence, and he popularized free market economics across the world. But we don’t need to idealize him to recognize his weak as well as his strong points. He did little to shrink the size of government, and ran up huge deficits. His catastrophic error in pulling American troops out of Lebanon in response to the marine barracks bombing was probably the single greatest impetus to middle eastern terrorism, not to mention a signal to area allies that we couldn’t be relied on.

If you really believe that raising top marginal tax rates from 35 to 39% is “socialist”, you have no idea what socialism really is. It is not exactly radical to want to redress the failed economic policies of the last 8 years of GOP White House rule in order to begin to undo the damage that has been done — a runup in the national debt greater than all other US Presidents combined. Our economy did quite well in the Clinton years as I recall. And by the way, the top marginal rate is not in any way the actual tax rate. Take the Palins, for instance. In the last two years of tax returns they released, they paid on a six figure income, actual rates of 11% and 7% of gross income. The deductions available to the well-off, myself included, are myriad — mortgages, charitible contributions, medical expenses, oil depletion allowances, capital depreciation, lower capital gains rates, and so on infinitim — and mean that few, if any, of the top earners in the country end up paying anything near the top marginal rate.

Let me explain my own economic views. I obviously don’t speak for all Liberals (to you, I’m sure, “socialists”), but I think many if not most Liberal Democrats including Senator Obama would probably agree with much of what I will say. I believe that free market capitalism is the best economic system ever devised for delivering the greater economic prosperity to the greater number of people. But I also believe that there is a place for governmental regulation of unbridled market capitalism — child labor, adulterated food and drugs, price-fixing, anti-competitive trusts and collusion. Americans have long recognized this since the days of Teddy Roosevelt.

I also believe that although capitalism does produce the greatest good for the greatest number, it inevitably leaves some out, and society has a responsibility — in return for protecting the economic property rights of those, like me, who prosper under the system — of taking care of some of those resultant ills, including poor children who wouldn’t otherwise get effective medical care, or the elderly, infirm or unemployed. It would be nice if private philanthropy took care of all such needs, but it just doesn’t happen. Just as we use the power of taxation to “provide for the Common Defense” in the words of our great Constitution, so should we use it “to promote the General Welfare”. We use our tax system for lots of things that benefit some more than others — schools, building roads, conducting space exploration, advancing scientific research. You might favor some of those tax uses — e.g. enriching Haliurton and other war profiteers, or building larger and bigger bombs — more than others, such as feeding poor families or providing health care to uninsured children, while my priorities for my tax moneymay be just the opposite. That’s how it works in a democracy.

We’ve lived now through 8 years of GOP priorities in tax and spend policies, and the pendulum has shifted. For the next eight years, I suspect that I’ll be a little happier and you’ll be a little angrier. But that’s OK. We’re both lucky to be living in the best country in the world, and you’ll be just fine.

Have a nice day, and try to relax a little.

Here’s my own view — I obviously don’t speak for all liberals (or “socialists” in your mind), but I think much of what I say is shared by many thinking liberal Democrats, and by Senator Obama: Free-market capitalism is the best system ever devised for producing the greatest economic good for the greatest number of people. But… First, it needs governmental oversight in many respects to correct evils that it can spawn if unregulated (child labor, adulterated food and drugs, price fixing and other antic-competitive behavior, discriminatory practices, and so forth). Since Theodore Roosevelt, we have recognized this. Second, although free market capitalism does produce the greatest good for the greatest number, it leaves in its wake people at the bottom rungs of society. In return for adopting a system which benefits the great majority of us very well – better than any other system – we have a societal obligation to take care of people at the bottom whom the system leaves out, for whatever reason. It would be wonderful if private charity took care of all these cases, but it doesn’t. I and I think most people in this society believe it is a good thing for society to insure that people who can’t afford it be provided with access to good medical care, to food and to shelter. And yes, just as we tax for the “common defense” in the words of our wonderful Constitution, we tax to “provide for the general welfare” and for many things that benefit some more than others — roads, schools, space exploration, scientific advancement, etc. You don’t seem to mind your tax money going to enrich the coffers of Haliburton and other war profiteers; you do mind if your tax money goes to treat sick poor kids or feed unemployed families. I’m kind of the opposite, but I recognize in a Democratic society that the views and interests of many will be compromised. We all pitch in, and not all of what our tax dollars go for are what we would spend it on if we had individual control. But that’s how it goes in a democracy. I sure haven’t been happy about the allocation of burdens and benefits these past eight years — maybe you haven’t either — but I suspect I’ll be happier in the priorities of government for the next eight. Who knows when the political cycle will swing back again?

But calm down. You’ll survive. We’re all lucky to live in this great country.

From everything I have researched in the last two years, has lead me to conclude that Obama was selected, tutored, groomed, scripted, and financed by Radical Marxist/Socialists to become the puppet leader of the USSA.

There is a vast difference between Social Democrats and Radical Marxist/Socialists. Hillary Clinton is a Social Democrat. Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, Schumer, Durbin, Franks,Boxer, and a few others now in Congress are Radical Marxist/Socialists.

On my website: [valsword.spaces.live.com] I have a 16 minute video of an interview with Yure Bezmenov a KGB agent who defected in 1970. This interview was recorded 24 years ago,
and the transcript highlights, in Yuri’s own words confirm what I mentioned in the first paragraph.

I pray that I am wrong, but from everything I have researched, I believe Obama, with a Reid Pelosi led Congress, with a radical judicial system will pull a Hugo Chavez.

With a filibuster proof congress led by Reid and Pelosi. What is to stop Obama from pulling a Hugo Chavez. A closed mind is like a locked door, unless the right key is found, nothing enters. Unfortunately for many the key will be hindsight.
Frank Marshal Davis
Ayers
Rezko.
Wright.
Dohrn
Odinga
ACORN
The New Party

All Radical Marxist/Socialist links in Obama’s
chain that launched his political career, and
unlike the theory of evolution, there are no missing links.
Davis, a known, avowed Communist Mentored Obama
as a teenager shaping his social views, and fostered his hate for whites.
The rest of the Radical Associations reinforced
Davis’s teachings, and the Socialist NEW PARTY launched Obama’s career.
Obama, selected, tutored, groomed, scripted,
and financed by Radical Marxist/Socialists to become
the puppet leader of the UNITED SOCIALIST STATES OF AMERICA If you do not believe associations shape the
character and judgement of a person, why do you
NOT let your child hang out with the local street gangs and crack heads. All of the people I listed are linked together, all share the same values, all are long term and continious Associations of Obama. They are not just random accidental associations with whackos that everyone encounters occaisionally.

In a recent address to his subjects, carried by fiat on all of the nation’s television channels, Venezuela’s authoritarian president Hugo Chávez Frias, who has previously taken over the airways for the celebration of his own birthday, now turned his country’s attention to more urgent matters. The time had come, he explained, to move the “Bolivarian revolution” from its Lenin-like beginnings of transitional capitalism towards a more robust command economy. The nation had at last “broken the chains of the old, exploitative capitalist system,” he said. “The state now has the obligation to build the model of a socialist economy.”
The next stage of the socialist revolution will require making thirty-three separate amendments to the Venezuelan constitution—a document Chávez previously rewrote upon his ascension to Miraflores Palace in 1999. The most dramatic and controversial change will eliminate presidential term limits, ensuring the fulfillment of Chavez’s promise not to leave office until 2021. To Hugo Chávez, a permanent revolution requires that he wield permanent power. It’s a risky move, considering recent opinion polls showing a majority of Venezuelans skeptical to further constitutional “reform,” especially if it means the possibility of adopting a President Chávez for life. But the same public, polling data demonstrates, also opposed the government’s refusal to renew a broadcast license for RCTV, the country’s oldest and most anti-Chávez private television network, and that storm seems to have passed.

W Bush is NOT a staunch Conservative. Neither is McCain. As for Reagan, he did more to reduce the size of government than just about any president over the last 30 years. So don’t distort his record and think we won’t notice.

Obama is clearly going to enact socialism by taxing the wealthy and the middle class to give to those who don’t deserve it. How dare people work hard and be successful! Don’t give me that BS that he’ll only take from the “rich”. He has said publicly he will NOT renew the tax cuts we of the middle class were given. That’s a tax increase. Combine that with the massive spending on socialist programs and it only proves there will be NO tax cuts.

Jack Russel, stay in Europe and STFU. Your opinion is worthless.

I hold no brief for Hugo Chavez or his thugocracy in Venezuala, and the sooner the Venezualan people (or the Colombia army) can take him down, the happier I’ll be.

As for the liscense of that TV station in Venezuela, I doubt “the people” were the ones actually speaking.