Your sooo freaking naive its unreal!! Its 45% in theory *****.... but the wealthy (unlike you) don't sit at night scouring over their taxes to file in April. They can employ people to help them navigate through the myriad of loop holes ..and these people are at their beck-and-call all year! Their wealth affords them this pro-active stance.
Yes, there are plenty of loopholes in tax laws. But, legally speaking, in the end the law still states that US citizens with the highest incomes are supposed to pay 45% of that income in taxes.
Ironically I can see a kind of consensus between your position and USMC's; while you want to quit giving the wealthy tax breaks, he thinks they shouldn't have to pay so large a slice of the pie bottom-line. If those loopholes you deplore so much are viewed as de facto tax breaks, then the elimination of those would probably make it possible to lower the baseline percentage our wealthiest citizens have to pay.
But the proof is so obvious to see. If this was sooo depressing ..if it was such a burden ..why do they stay here? They can always leave ..and make the money in a less taxing environment!! But they stay right here and amass this wealth through rain and shine! And while they do this ...while the gap between their income and the average middle calss worker widens (under this so called burdensome taxes) they have lap-dogs like you fighting for them!!
They stay for the same reasons most American citizens aren't cutting and running for Europe - safety and ideology.
Its as if the way your trained ...if you have a dollor to spare and Bill Gates stand besides a family in NO who just lost their home ...you would prefer to give it to Bill Gates!! Thats the way your trained. These people got you trained to somehow see the wealthy as victims ..un real!!
Obfuscation.
It goes more like this: You see a Bill Gates standing next to a family that's just lost their home and you need to take a dollar from one side or the other...then you step back and ask yourself if you really need that dollar - or if you have any right to that dollar.
Nobody is taking away their liberty ...they are free to leave the country ...at will! And they are free to stay here .... and hide their money over-seas!!
But they stay because they know all too well that here is where their chances of amassing the wealth is the highest in the world!!
You can only play the "if you don't like things here, just leave" card when people talk about how the situation is intolerable - as in, the present situation is so bad they can't abide it enough to get politically involved and try to change it.
Let's say the government sponsored a law that required every citizen to kill children. I would not be able to follow that law long enough to go out and vote for people who'd get it repealed, so I'd be on the next bus to Canada.
Now let's say the government sponsored a law that required every citizen to turn over fifty percent of their total income to the government every year. I wouldn't like such a law, but I could deal with it long enough to vote for people who would get it repealed.
The government you villify one day ...and run to the next (when it suits you) is what seperates the US from the rest of the world. True it may be some what in-efficient ..but in the end its the glue that holds us together.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Tell me you don't actually believe this.
So, the glue that holds us together is administered by George W. Bush. That's some glue you got there.
Just imagine if Africa for example was to adopt a unifying system like we do? With such resources I predict in 20 years they would be the mightiest nation on earth ...ever!!
Its what the European nations are trying to model themselves after (though I think they'll fail due to language and culture differences).
And...you're making very little sense.
You need to be re-programmed!! The corporations want to have their cake and eat it too! That is ...build their widget abroad ..and sell it to the country with greatest consumer resource ...the US!! Thats what they want to do *****!!
And why is it that they want to do that? Because it's cheaper.
If it were cheaper for them to manufacture here in the US, they'd do it here in the US. That would NECESSARILY create more jobs - which benefits the little guys out there (that's us).
But guess what? If the jobs leave ...guess what happens to that purchasing power..eventually?? CEO's don't give a crap about America or Americans ..all they care about is making the next earnings projections ..period!! Use to be these jobs were thought of as only affecting low skilled worker ...but no longer! So as this practice escalates ..its the engineer, accountant etc jobs that will be on the chopping block!!
How can outsourcing affect service-based jobs?
The fact is the CEO's are doing what they are supposed to do ..make money for the company ...but they do so with absolutely no concern for America or Americans. The CEO's job isn't to stimulate the economy .idiot!! Their job isn't to create jobs for anybody!! Thats just a means to an end!
The CEO's job is to make money for the investor!!
True, the purpose of the corporation isn't to create jobs - it's only the NECESSARY BY-PRODUCT.
Go out and pick up a copy of Adam Smith's
Wealth of Nations. You need it badly.
And as the race to the bottom continues ..they do so eventually at their own demise! This is where the government need to step in.
...and do what? This "race to the bottom" is occurring
because corporations are outsourcing more and more manufacturing every year. When you say that this is where the government needs to step in, I can't help but wonder - what do you expect the government to do about it?
If Al Queda was to make toys or shoes and sell to us cheap ...people in America will buy it!! Wouldn't you want the government to step in?
Once again, what is it you expect the government to do about this? There are always boycotts and embargoes but those aren't lasting solutions.
But there is more. Corporations must grow in order to survive...because even if the stock hits $400 per share for example ..investors will buy it expecting some type of ROI. And to that end companies must not just grow .....they must grow at a growing rate.
To that end ...if corporate taxes were lowered (as our infrastucture crumble ..including the millitary under the loss of revenue) much of that windfall will find its way into investors pockets. And after the dust settles ..with the lower tax burden ..the very same corporations will still be tasked by investors to grow at a growing rate ..and soon we are right back where we started. With them and you telling us they need cheaper labor!!!
So, in your world, does corporate growth only benefit the very few people in executive positions?
Here's how it works. We lower corporate taxes, and suddenly investors have more money in their pockets. What do investors do with that money? They invest it! This expands the economy, which creates jobs and diversifies what we produce, which improves our import/export figures.
Oh, and as for your worries about the infrastructure and the military, you might want to remember that you're talking to USMC, a conservative, who would much rather pull funding on the state's welfare programs. The roads and the gentlemen with guns would be just fine.
Again ...you keep up the stupid rant about taxes (cause they told you to) and yet back a president who bloated the government!! Why the hell didn't you demand that bush chop the tax rate even more for corporations!! In fact why not demand bush eliminate taxes!! I know this age old smoke-and mirrors all too well. Having lived in a republican controlled local district where every year the morons all run on the same .."I'm here to lower taxes" talking point! And what happens ..they come in and taxes go up!!
You haven't been here very long so you're forgiven for this one - USMC, on a number of occasions, has expressed his dissatisfaction with Bush's expansion of the federal government.
) we usually find we are not all that far apart on most base issue... abortion being one that is a little more polorizing. 
