Sunday, September 16, 2012

Chump Change

By Bill Maher

There's nothing wrong with change, but there’s also nothing inherently right with change -- if the "change" you're being offered is "Rich people stop paying taxes and let’s see what happens."

If I had been running the Democratic Convention, I would have barely mentioned Obama at all -- you know, like the Republicans did with Romney -- and I would've put up a 100-by-100 foot poster of Mitt Romney and George Bush and never take it down.

You know the Republican Party's "debt clock"?  I would put up this number: 0.82%.

That's Mitt Romney’s tax rate if Paul Ryan’s latest budget became law. 0.82%. As in "less than 1%."
Maybe you don't think that's a problem. An effectively zero percent tax rate on investment, speculation and inherited wealth. But I'll bet most people do think it's a problem, and that's an argument Democrats can win.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You realize that if Bishop Robmey gets elected, his bubblehead is the only thing lying between us and a Ryan presidency.
My money says he'll do more than Sarah Palin to make sure the other guy wins.

SydneyAustralia said...

I'm an Australian living in Oz and love watching your show!

From what i can see, if you get nothing for your tax i can totally understanding not wanting to pay anything for it.

I cannot fathom why America is so anti socialist policies, and why it is that you don't have a left political party??? that is insane!

Australia is often referred to as the lucky country - which for the most party is due to policies that were put in place by the Labor party (which is not a socialist party, however does cherry pick so of the good ideas).

Our top tax rate is 45% and the lowest 19% which is scaled based on your option of income http://www.ato.gov.au/content/12333.htm so the first 18K everyone earns is not taxed then up it goes until you get to the top -however for that we have a multitude of social services:

http://australia.gov.au/directories/australia/human-services/web-resources-list

as well as that, when there is a problem government steps in and legislates accordingly. we have an aging population and that is going to be a huge problem in the next 5-15 years which we as a country knew and as such in 1994 compulsory superannuation was put in place currently 9% of your income is put aside into a fund to support you in retirement, thus we will eventually have completely self funded retirees.

We prior to 1996 had very lax gun laws, then after a gun massacre incident in Port Arthur we introduced some of the strictest gun control laws in the world.

We currently have slipping education standards, as such the government ordered an independent review of our education system to be done, which was tabled and we are now debating how and where the extra $5 billion will come from to get our education system back on track, which will include an overhaul of our syllabus.

Socialist policies aren't the problem they are the solution, they are a safety net for the weakest and most vulnerable members of society, if you don't protect and support them what happens? they turn to crime, which is why America has the world's highest % of incarcerated citizens.

Socialist policy doesn't need to limit the top, if used appropriately it can help raise the level of where the bottom is. Create livable min. wages, workers rights, outreach programs for disadvantaged youth. etc.

corporations will almost never do the right thing if by doing the wrong thing they can make more money, and you as a country are trying to encourage them to do that?

Think, Australia escaped the GFC, the regulations we put on our banking sector means they are now in the 50 richest banks of the world - despite only serving a small population, we have 5.1% unemployment, our economy to date this year has grown by 3.7% - all of this despite our strong $ causing problems in the retail and hospitality markets.

And if you believe that in doing this it would change your identity - think of this Aust. has followed you into every foreign incursion you have been involved in since WW2 been a very vocal supporter of the USA on a world stage and all your policies, but we have healthcare.

Find/create a Labor party and vote for them, you need it.

Anonymous said...

I think i love you....

SydneyAustralia said...

haha I am rather fabulous! before anyone gets the chance to rip me to shreds, fully aware of the spelling mistakes and the not so coherent sentences, in my defence it was like 2am Sydney time when i wrote it. something that America would be wise to adopt is something we used to do here, not sure if we still do or not.Its called world's best practises -a list is complied of your standing in the world on a variety of social issues from education, life expectancy etc. and if you are way down the list on an item the government reviews the top countries and how they achieve that - look to how you can better it again when implementing. Something the USA could look into.

When Oz formed as a country in 1901 we took how America had been set up and the Westminster system and married the best bits together, and corrected things that hadn't worked - there is no shame in admitting failure eg. George Bush for 2 terms hindsight is a wonderful teaching mechanism - the dangerous and ignorance that is penetrating the Rep. is they wont admit that maybe they got it wrong, and didn't spend the last 4 yrs evaluating and listening to their members, reconnecting with the American people instead they seem to be going further into crazy town. I think people who would have voted for them, are compelled not to because they seem completely out of touch with reality. Which is a sad thing, and not good for your country as a whole. Without a strong coherent opposition pointing out oversights in government policy an elected government can't do its job either, and the Rep. seem to have forgotten that democracy is people working together to achieve something that is best for the nation,intelligent partisan dialog needs to happen for a country to move forward. Failure of gov. whilst only one party is blamed, is the fault of both. If they weren't held accountable, or made to answer difficult questions the opposition haven't done either job either. cont.

SydneyAustralia said...

Cont....Recently in Oz Qld held elections, the premier of Qld (similar to a governor in USA) pulled a George Bush with the state finances, which given the strong economic market she was in should have almost been impossible, but she managed, as such when they went to the election the Labor party lost, in a state with 89 seats they walked away with 7 - The new Labor leader said, the people have spoken, we stopped listening and we paid dearly for it we need to move forward from this, we need to rebuild, to gain back the trust and respect of the people and before that happens we need to reconnect with them, we must listen to them, which is something we weren't doing

A loss can be dealt with in many ways, however in politics it MUST be looked on as constructive criticism, after a loss each party should do research, not with their faithful, but with the other party's and swing voters, what turned them off, do they know what each party stands for etc. Foremost both parties need to use their members to go out into the public and education the populous, achievements and highlight the others mistakes don't hand out flyers with vote for whoever, people don't read them. Why, don't the democrats hand out flyers with a list of the achievements that the administration has made in the last 4 yrs, and the promise of what they hope to achieve if re-elected, and facts no open comments you will find people will hold onto that, read it and make a slightly more informed decision - Dem. can articulate that not paying bills is how America got into this problem to start with and that yes the debt has gone up, when the credit card bill comes after the holiday you have to pay. Similarly Rep. always complain that people vote for Obama cause its cool, well they can educate people into what they believe the failures of this government is and how if elected they plan to correct it.Then finally you might start having intelligent debate regarding topics of national importance, rather then trying to work out if your president is American or not.

SydneyAustralia said...

Cont....
Now, trolls i'm Australian, so i traditionally have a thick skin, but just the same read the next bit slowly so you properly understand before you tell me just how i should kill myself:

1. I'm 23yo female aussie and live in Oz with no rights to vote in the USA fully aware and acknowledged. My interest in your politics is; 1st the crazy things you sometimes say are amusing they even make our news occasionally, 2nd Australia has a somewhat blind faithfulness towards you, even despite ourselves sometimes as such it is good to keep an eye on you. 3rd in being such a powerhouse economy and an international superpower your actions have ripple effects throughout the world, as such i like to stay informed.

2. In Oz i am a proud supporter of the Liberal party however can agree that the Labor party has and continues to do some good things, so no not a communist, promise

3. I don't hate America, love it been a few times. I have family there but from my experience you are incredibly insular and as an external observer i might be able to offer a different insight.

Anonymous said...

you're like a genius doing elementary arithmetic. do something worthwhile with your life, like be a teacher or something. pointing out that stupid people are stupid is like a mathematician proving 1+1 doesn't equal fucktard. cmon man, get real.

Anonymous said...

IF YOU BELIEVE IN DE-POPULATION BE GRACEFUL BILL AND KILL YOURSELF PLEASE.

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