health care bill

Congress has spent months now working on the health care bill that is going to cost us A lot of money .If they ever do pass it I have my doubts if we will be any better off then we were before.Congress has'nt done much of anything else except to spend A lot of money trying to cure the recession.I never thought the best way to cure your financial problems was to spend A lot of money that you already do'nt have.If it works for the government I may go out and buy A few cars that I do'nt need just to shore up my bank account,Global warming is another problem that our government and other world leaders are working on and it could be A serious problem .Especialy for all the people that are living on those islands out in the oceons that are going to dissapear under water.And we should try and do something about it but I am not convinced that our activities on this world have anything to do with it. I think mother nature is going to do whatever it is going to do in spite of what we do, According to science and history there have been climate changes in this world for millions of years.How about the ice age when this whole country was covered with ice. And there must have been A tropical age when all those tropical animals and fish that we are finding skelatons from lived here. I am more concerned that we as people are going to destroy ourselves with all the chemicals we are producing and the eficient killing machines like the atomic bombs etc, My opinion by John Zilverberg.

recovering

The president and some of the democrats claim we are recovering from the recession .But frrom my side of the fence it dos'nt look so good.The washington athorities keep talking about phisical responsibilities but I do'nt think they know what the word means.Congress just voted in an expence bill to run the government and the legislaters added 5000 ear marks ( those are pet projects of individual senators)that are costing us billions of dollars.The fact is we are drowning in red ink and if we do'nt learn to swim we are going to die. The fact is this twelve trillion national debt is not going to be paid off unless we raise the taxes to pay it and the destitute people with no jobs and no money can not do it so it is going to be up to the people that have the money to do it. We better get with it and get this country back on A sound financial basis or all that money is'nt going to be worth anything anyway. my opinion by John Zilverberg.

christmas greetings

Merry christmas and happy new year to you all.I hope this finds you all healthy and happy. I have been living alone now for A year and it has been A long year but I try to keep myself busy . I raised A good garden this year and was able to supply A lot of people with tomatoes cucumbers and squash this summer.I played A lot of golf and played A lot of pool at the senior center.I guess the high light of my year was my trip to the national senior games in Sanfrancisco california. My son Gary and their two children went with me.While there I managed to win A gold medal in bowling and A gold in shot put,A silver in the 100 meter run and A silver in the discus. I had A slight stroke but I recovered from that in good shape.Otherwise I have been in good health I have developed A newspaper column (My opinion by John Zilverberg) that rus in the Highmore herald every week .And in eleven other papers on occasion. that takes up some of my time .We have only one bowling league this year so I only get to bowl once A week.My bowling isnt what it used to be . My average is way down but I still enjoy it and feel lucky that I am still able to do it at the age of 96 years. Best wishes John.

the 26 week unemployment law is about to run out and congress is considering an extension that isgoing to cost another 100 billion dollars that is on top of the 140 billion that is already being paid out in unemployment benefits.I know we can't just let these people starve. But we will soon be A bankrupt nation if we have to keep this up very long.And these people will eventualy turn to crime or whatever they have to do to make A living. I am wondering how many of all these illegal emigrants that are in the country are recieving the unemployment benefits. Or have the jobs that our legal citizens should have.Health insurance for all these unemployed people is another problem that is going to cost us billions.I think Mike Huckabee is getting A bad rap being blamed for signing the papers the released Clemmens from prison who then went out and shot four police officers.We all know now that that was A bad mistake but at the time he was following the recomendation of the patrole board.Clemmens was arrested A couple more times after he was released on serious crimes and again let loose. The people that turned him loose the last times are the ones that should have the blame for turning him loose again.they say it takes up to 20000,00 to keep one of these fellons in prison for A year and that is quite A stran on our econamy and in some cases may influance the athorities to turn these criminals loose.And if we don't find employment for all the unemployed people we will have A lot more criminals to support.I am sure that is what is fueling the big drug cartels in Mexico ,Afghanistan and columbia,I believe if most of these people could find A job and make an honest living they would not be involved in these criminal activities. My opinion by John Zilverberg

salaries

I was appaled recently to learn of the salaries some of the people were getting that run the charities that I was supporting It was in the hundred thousands to over A million dollars.Just imagine anyone taking A salary of A million dollars out of money they colected to help needy people.That would be enough to give 200 needy familys $5000.00 each. Well black friday has come and gone and from all reports most of the stores did perty well.That is A good sign but we have A long ways to go.With over ten percent of the people in this country unemployed and the national debt we have we better find A way to put these people to work and pay off the national debt.If we get these wars settled and our military personel comes home we are going to have A lot more people looking for jobs.The only way I can see out is to lower the minimum wage back to five dollars so we can get some factories going and start manufacturing some of our own goods.And put in my recomended tax increase of one percent for every one hundred thousand dollars after the first 250 thousand on personal incomes.up to 90 percent that would lower the living expence for everybody and eventualy lower the income tax for the low income people. our present income tax is creating A class of multi millionairs and billionairs at the expence of the general public.Some people say that is socialism and wont work. the only reason it wont work is because the big money people that are in controle wont let it work. This is supposed to be A democratic country where the majority rules. There is no good reason why 90 percent of the people should let the other ten percent of the people have 90 percent of the money. My opinion by John Zilverberg

service men sentnace

I suppose everybody heared about the three aservice men that were sentanccedd to life in prison for shooting prisoners that they were supposed to be delivering to the athorities.I thought the sentances were perty severe considering the circomstances.If you just came out of A fire fight and these guys probably killed some of your buddies and you got to thinking these might be some of the guys that killed the prisoners they were holdingg. choped their headsoff and threw them in the river.If we deliver them they will be housed taken care of and probably turned loose you might be tempted to apply some of your own justice. what they did was A crime and they should be punished for it. But I would consider A ten year sentance more appropiat.This is A war and these guys are under A lot of pressure. I was exposed to the same kind of situation on Boganville during world war two.A sargent and myself were assighned to deliver A jap prisoner back to headquarters.When we got part way the sargent decided we ought to shoot the prisoner.I convinced him it was A bad idea.We delivered the prisoner.I dont know what happened to him after that but at least my concionce was clear. There is still A lot of contoversy over the war in Afghanistan but I don't believe we can afford to give up the fight now. I see where the Samali pirates are still active.Spain just paid three million to get their ship and crew back.Those guys should be hunted down and blown out of the water.All ships should have armed guards with orders to shoot to kill any pirates that try to board A ship. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Last week the democrats were congratulating them selves and patting each other on the back because they had passed the health care bill in the house .But that is only the first step .It still has to be passed in the senate and there are A lot of contivercial issues still to be settled. the cost is one big issue.The last estimate I heard was one and A quarter trillion dollars . that is A lot of money that is going to have to come from some where.Obama said he wouldnt sighn any bill that was going to add to the national debt.Majoity leader Harry Ried had suggested taxing the high income peope that are making over $500000.00 to pay for the health care bill .But I am afrid there is to much big money influance in Washington to let that happen. The fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people and wounded an additianal 29 of them was A very tragic event that never should have happened.But maybe it woke some people up. I see where the government has siezed four Muslim Mosques and A thirty six story office building owned by A Muslim organization and cotrolled by the Iranian government.There are also some Muslim schools and other organzations that that should be carefuly checked. We may be raising more terrorists in our back yard. My opinion by John Zilverberg

To listento the ads on tte T.V,from the psople that want to settle your account with the I.R.S,. They make it sound like the I.R.S. is your mortal enemy.They are not they are your friend. It is up to them to collect the money to run the govwernment.Build your roads , educate your children ,Supply the military and whatever other benefits you get from the government. How many people do you think would pay their share of the taxes if there was nobody to check up on them.The I.R.S. has A big job.If you pay your taxes on time and the right amount they wont give you any trouble.Sure they can and do make mistakes ocasionaly.But if you paid your taxes and have good reords you shouldnt have any touble correcting any mistakes. If your money is being wasted by the government that isn't the fault of the I.R.S. That is the responsibility of your legislators.If you cheat on your taxes you are cheating on your neighbors because the taxes you dont pay your neighbor will have to pay. My opinion by John Zilverberg

I was listening to lou Dobbs

I was listening to Lou Dobbs the other night and he brought up the subject of the unequal pay between company workers and the Ceos ,managers and directors that sometimes get millions in salaries and bonusses. some of them make as much in one day as the workrs do in A year. That is exactly what I have beentrying to get acrost for years.We are creating A class of multi millionais and billionairs at the expence of the general public.And A very simple soloution to the problem would be what I have been recomending for years.Raise the personal incone tax on individuals one percent for every100 thousand dollars after the first 250 thousand up to 90 percent.That would take care of A lot of our problems. We could pay off the national debt and return the excess money back to the states to use for projects that would help the general public. WE could raise the tax credit on capital purchases. Then the people that are getting all this money .If they knew they were going to pay most of it out in taxes would spend it on capital purchases to expand their operations . There by creating more jobs so more people would be paying taxes and we wouldnt have to be paying out so much in unimployment benefits The country and everybody in it would benefit.The only reason we can't get this done is because we have to many rich people in washington making our laws and they make the laws to protect themselves and their rich friends that help keep them in office.My opinion by John Zilverberg

Afghanistan in the News

Afghanistan has been in the news a lot lately and some people are thinking we should get out of there. It sure would be nice if we could bring all of our troops home, but consider the consequences. Maybe if we were not fighting our enemies over there we might be fighting them here at home. Just think how many people would be getting killed and how much of our infrastructure would be destroyed. These people hate us and they are not going to leave us alone if we go home. Remember they attacked us several different places and we didn’t do anything about it. So they attacked us here at home and in one sweep killed 3000 innocent people and did billions of dollars in damages. The object of the Muslims is to control the world and they won’t stop at anything to accomplish that. Their bible says all Christians must be eliminated and they have been trying to do that for a thousand years. The Bush policies have kept us safe here at home up to now but we better not let our guard down. There are cells in this country right now that would destroy us as a nation if they could or can. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Unless our law makers in Washington get realistic and do something about our national debt this country is going to be in real trouble like you have never seen before. The Govenment paid 190 billion interest on the national debt this year and at the rate washington is spending our money it will soon be double that. No company or government can exist very long spending more money then it takes in.Obama says we are making headway on the recession . But we are going deeper in debt all the time and our unemployment rate is at19.8 percent.We are loosing jobs because our wages are to high and we can not compete in the world markets. Every time we raise the minimum wage our cost of living goes up and more of our jobs go oversea where the cheap labor is. Now the Unions are pushing hard to get the law passed that would that would eliminate the use of the secret ballot in union elections. That in effect would force everybody to join the union or face the consequences which could be very serious as we have seen in the past.If we had implimented My recomended plan to raise the income tax on personal incomes one percent for every 100 thousand dollars after the firs 250 thousand we wouldnt have all this national debt and maybe not even the recession.Also it would help if we had all the taxes owed on the money the multi millionairs and billionairs have hidden in overseas banks. we owe China alone 800 billion .The mexicans have already taken over A big share of our language . maybe China will be next. My opinion by John Zilverberg

One of the high cost of our medical bills is caused by the high cost of the liability insurance of the phasitions and the hospitals.Which is caused by the extrmly high awards given to the plaintifs by jurys. i have always thought there should be some kind of limit set on these awards. Notthat doctors or anybody else shouldnt be respponsible for their mistakes and made to pay for them.but many of the awards to plaintifs in many cases are exccesive Not only in medical cases but others as well.Some jurys seem to think there is no limit to what companies or doctors can pay. One example is the case where A woman ordered A cup of coffee inMcDonalds and spilled it in her lamp burning herself. and A jury awarded her five million dollars.If you order coffee you expect it to be hot and if you spill it on yourself that sure isnt the establishments fault.I suppoe everybody herd the presidents speach to the gay community.It seems he wants to change the definition of the word marriage.THe dictionary says the word marriage is the union between A man And A woman. A union in my opinion between two people of the same sex would be A partnership.I would presume A definition of marriage would include the ability to produce children and create A family. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Politics now days is all about the presidents health care plan and it dosnt look like its going anywere.A government run health care plan as an option might be good in that it would give some competition to the private insurance companiesand drug companies and keep the prices down. Phizer drug company recenttly had to pay two billion three hundred million in fines for their miss deeds.Just imagine how much money they were making to be able to pay that big A fine. But all that dosnt do anything for the millions of people that do not have A job and no money to buy insurance. And there are now an estimated twenty million illegal emigrants in the country. Who is going to pay their insurance.I havnt seen anybody address that problem and give any remedies for it. The only way I can see would be free health care for everybody paid for by the government. that would be A mighty big bill that would have to be paid for by higher taxes on the people with the big pay checks and I dont see anbody volonteering to pay the bill. My opinion by John Zilverberg

I have ofton voiced my opinion that diffrent ethnick groups speaking diffrent languages in the country could cause trouble. And in some cases some exotic religions could do the same thing.I have recently learned of muslim communities in this country that could be A threat to our peace and security.Three young muslims from the Minneapolis area were recruited to be trained as suicide bombers one of whome has already blown himself up as A suicide bomber .Some universities in this country already have special foot baths and prayer rooms for their Muslim students.In some schools students are tought the muslim prayers and that the holy quram is gods word and everyone should live by its teachings.Teaching the Quram could be A threat to our way of life and eventualy lead to war between the muslims and christions in this country because the Quram spacifies that all christians should be eliminated. Any muslim that turns christian is to be stoned to death. We better be on our guard. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Keeping Our Jobs

In the sept.24th Daily Plainsman columnist George will criticizes Obama for putting A 35% tariff on tire imports from China just because the United steel workers union asked him to. Makes you wonder if George had an interest in A tire manufacturing plant in China. But the fact of the matter is that may be the only way we can keep our jobs here in the U.S. Of course if we put heavy import duties on manufactured goods we can expect retaliation by duties on our exports so will we be any better off. We are presently in A world market and we are priced out of the markets because of our high wages. U.S. companies can not compete with foreign companies where they have cheap labor so they are forced out of business unless they move their companies out of the country where they have cheap labor. The unions are strong and are forcing us to keep raising our minimum wage. By doing that they are raising the cost of living for everybody .sending more of our jobs out of the country and encouraging people to sneak into the country looking for those high priced jobs that they wont find because most of our jobs have been sent out of the country. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Some of the supper rich people in this country are putting on A lot of pressure to permantly eliminate the inheritance tax or death tax as they like to call it because it sounds bad.Dont let anybody kid you we already have A six million exemption so the only people it is going to help is the supper rich.If you made that much money in this country while you were alive you ought to be willing to give some of it back when you die.If you have heirs that you feel you owe something to you better take care of that while you are still alive. A vote to eliminate the inheritance tax is A vote to make the supper rich even ritcher. The government needs taxes to operate.We demand A lot of services from our government and they have to be paid for.We are running A defficet government and no government or anybody else can exist very long that way.We have A national debt that is costing us billions in interest and now we are trying to ad A health plan that is going to add another trillion to that. My opinion by John Zilverberg.

why cant congress pass A law to make english the official language of the U.S. Eighty percent of the voting bublic is in favor of it so what is the hold up.Everybody better get on their senators and congressmen to get that law passed. There are at least thirty plus languages in the world and we couldnt afford to print all official corespondece and public documents in that many languages.And if we print them in one or two extra languages that would be discrimitation which is against the law.Besides one nation with one language will help keep the country unified . If we have diffrent ethnic groups speaking diffrent languages that will eventualy leed to discord like is happening in other countries where diffrent ethnic groups,clans or thibes whatever you want to call them are fighting each other. My opinion by John Zilverberg

question. Is the recession getting better or worse. A lot of people are still losing their jobs.And some of the athorities are talking about the danger of inflation. It seems like with the labor unions making some concessions and all the people out of jobs willing to work for less prices should go down instead of up.On the other hand all these unemployed people have to be taken care of .Those unemployment payments are adding up to A big bill.Add the universal health care bill they are trying to push thru congress .That is another big bill that is going to have to be paid and the only way they are going to get paid is by raising taxes . Not on the companies that are prviding the jobs but on the individuals that are taking the big profits out of the companies. America has been the land of oppertunity but we can no longer afford all the multi millionairs and billionairs that are making the big bucks at the expence of the general public .We are in A world market now .A world where we are saving more babies and people are living longer.A world that is fast becoming over populated. Our law makers better be working on some answers .Not creating more problems. Of course if we get an attomic war started that would probably eliminate most of the people on this world. My opinion by John Zilverberg

I see Obama wants to charge busineses $750. for each employee not covered by health insurance to get the money to pay for unemployment benefits.That is going to put quite A financial strain on the companies and probably force some of them out of busines thereby creating more unimployment.Also at the price of health care these days I dont believe companies could afford to furnish health insurance for $750. A month so the companies that could afford it would just pay the $750. and let the government buy the insurance that would probably cost between three and five thousand dollars per family so that would soon add up to another big bill to add to the national debt. It would be A lot smarter and more practical to raise the top bracket of the personal income taxes on the individuals that are taking the big bucks out of the companies . I join A lot of other people that are sick of hearing about michel Jackson.there must be some other news more important then the death of one man.there are A lot of good men dying every day.A lot of them just as important to this world as Michel Jackson. If the president of the U. S. died I doubt if he would get that much media coverage. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Governor Sanford

South Carolina governor Sanford, a married man with four children lies about where he is going and disappears for a week to spend with another woman. If you are a governor, you took on a job and you owe it to the public that elected you to do that job. You also have a responsibility to your family. This man is not fit to be governor. In fact, he is not fit to hold any responsible job. He should be removed from office at once.

I see where the United Auto Workers Union made some concessions to General Motors, thereby making it practical for the company to build 51,000 cars in the United States instead of in China as originally planned, thereby saving a lot of jobs. I am glad the Union finally got the message that it is better to have a job at $20 an hour than at $30 an hour.
My opinion by John Zilverberg

Governor Sanford

கவர்னர் Sanford

Obama is pushing his health care plan hard ,He wants everybody to have health insurance.I dont see how youare going to force anybody to buy health insurance if they have no money and no job.Any way you figure it the public is going to have to pay the bill, by forcing companies to supply health insurance to their workers the cost is going to have to be added to the goods you buy and the services you use and that still dosnt do anything for the people that dont have the resourses to buy the insurance. The only way we are going to have everybody covered is by the government guarateeing everybody free health care and then figure out A way to pay for it,Either by raising our tax rates or putting A heavy duty on imports. We have 12 million illegal emigrants in the country and more coming in every day that we will also be paying for,So we better put more effort into keeping them from coming in. We are constantly sending money and food to the poorer countries where the people cant seem to feed themselves,And missionaries are constantly going over there to try and save the starving children. What we should be doing over there is teaching them how not to have those children that they cant take care of. My opinion by John Zilverberg

card check

I see where the unions are realy putting on the pressure to pass their card check bill which would in effect force everybody to vote for the unions or face the consaquenses which could be serious as has happened in the past.The secret ballot is the only fair way to have A vote. That way nobody can target you because of the way you voted.Obama has made his trip to the middle east and talked to the saudies and the Arabs which some people were against. But I dont think he did any harm.In fact he may have done some good.I never felt it was wrong to talk to people you disagree with. If they will talk to you.If you dont talk to them how are you ever settle your disagreements except by going to war and killing A lot of people. Just because you talk to them you dont have to let them take advantage of you. If you walk around with A gun in your hand and A chip on your shoulder you are bound to get into trouble. I see Baltimore is working on A plan to cancel A lot of mortages forclosures That is letting A lot of people keep their homes which is what the federal govenment should have done in the first place instead of bailing out all the big financial institutions.By bailing the people out they could have kept their homes and when they paid the financial institutions they would have gotten the money in the end.That way the money would be doing double duty and the housing industry would have gotten A lot of benefit from it. My opinion by John Zilverberg

I see where the Unions finaly made some consessions to the auto companies and its about time. They share A big resposibility for the problems the auto companies are having by forcing wages and benefits up so high that the auto companies couldnt compete in the world markets,And they lost A lot of jobs by forcing the auto companies to export A lot of jobs over seas to try and stay in competition therebycontributing to the trouble the country is now in. Obama is pushing hard to get a universal health plan passed that is going to cost A lot of money which may be O K if they can come up with A workable plan. But I would like to see some plans to recoup some of that money we are spending. This has been A country of great oppertunity and has created A lot of multi millionairs and billionairs, That money has to come out of the economy which is the wealth that is being produced by the working people most of whome are working for from 30 to 50 thousand dollars A year, A proper tax system would get some of that money back into circulation where it would benefit the general public that produced the wealth in the first place. My opinion by John Zilverberg.

the medias time

The media is spending A lot of time these days reporting what some people consider our mistreatment of prisoners and our methods of interigation and that is not improving our image abroad. Lest we forget , we would be better served if the media spent more time reminding us of what our enemies have done to us in the past and are still trying to do.When youare dealing with an enemy that has no scruples and no morals you some times have to take desperate measures to defend your self. We took all those prisoners to Guattamola spent millions of dollars taking care of them feeding and guarding them and now we are turning them loose so they can go right back to plotting against us. Maybe we would have been better off if we had just chopped their heads off and throun their bodies in the river like our enemies did. I am sure that wouldnt have helped our popularity . But lets not forget and keep our guard up. Things are not always fair or right in this world.for example here we are hauling food and supplies to the Samallies and the samalie government is letting their pirates capture our ships and crews and hold them for ransome.Luckily they havent got any of our ships and crews yet But they have ships and crews from several other countries that they are holding for ransome. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Russian deal

I see where Obama is intending to make A deal with Russia to reduce the number of nucular war heads we have.Before we start reducing our armaments of any kind we better be sure there are arangements for thurough inspection agreements with all countries like Iran or any other country that might be A threat to us. with the condition the world is in right now and the number of enemies we have,This is no time to let our defenses down. I believe it would be alright to talk to our enemies and try to settle our differances but that is no reason to let them take advantage of us.We have to be in A strong position to negociate any peace deals. My opinion by John Zilverberg

Trouble in this Country

We are in trouble in this country because we have to many millionairs and billionairs in the country that they have made at the expense of the general public. They made their money in this country and they should be willing to spend that money to support the country that gave them the chance to make all that money. We could cure all our problems by raising the personal income tax one percent for every $100 thousand after the first $250 thousand up to 90 percent. With our present system the rich just keep getting richer .For example the mayor of New York is worth $20 billion .If he earns 4 percent on that he is getting $800 million richer every year. That is money that has to come out of the economy. I know he spends some of that money but even if he spends two million and gives two million away he still made 796 million to ad to his wealth’.Even if the government only got one half of that 796 million in taxes , That sure would help A lot of people that have no money and no job. And lower the taxes for the general public. I know this is A pipe dream because we have to many rich people in Washington making the laws that benefit them more then the general public and that is part of the trouble we are in now. My opinion by John Zilverberg

recession cure

Our first attempt to cure the recession was to bail out American International Group, Inc. to the tune of $83 billion. Their stock was originally selling for $74.00 a share. At last report it is selling for $.85. I don't know how many shares they had out, but I suspect that was a loss to the stockholders for another $83 billion that would bring the loss to our economy of $166 billion.

Question is where has the money gone and what do we have to show for it? Now Washington is passing a 1100 page, $787 billion stimulus bill that most of our representatives have not even had time to read yet. At 5% interest that brings the cost next year to $826 billion, 350 million and will increase accordingly every year to add to our national debt and that does not even include the normal cost of running the government. A big part of the stimulus bill is a big reduction in taxes, so our income will be down. So where are we going to get the money to pay off all this debt? Seems to me we are digging ourselves a bigger hole all the time.

The bill also includes $70 billion to shelter the upper income people from higher income taxes. So who do you think is going to pay the taxes to make the repayment if we ever get in a position to do so?

My Opinion by John Zilverberg

Taxes

Taxes are A necessary evil. most people hate to pay taxes. but taxes are necessary to run the government. We expect A lot of services from the government and theyhave to be paid for. If we make enough money so we have to pay taxes we should be glad to pay them for the services we get. That of course is income tax.That is the fairest tax there is because if you dont make any money you dont pay any taxes.Property taxes is another matter . . property taxes you have to pay weather you make any money or not.If you dont make any money and cant pay your taxes you can loose your home or busines, South Dakota should have an income tax .With our present tax system the property owners are paying most of the taxes to pay for most of the government services we get including schools.The people that are working for wages and do not own any property are getting A free ride.Of course they pay federal income taxes but so do the property owners if they make any money. There have been bills introduced in congress to do away with the IRS and have A flat tax. How many people would be paying their fair amount of taxes if there was nobody to check up on them. Then again there are some people pushing for A national sales tax of 22 percent. that again would put most of the tax burdon on the lower income people.For example A person working for 50000 A year or less would be be spending all of his wages on taxable goods to support his family so they would be paying the 22 percent tax on all their income. while the person making one hundred million probaly would only spend one million on taxable expenses so they would be paying taxes on only one percent of their income, That would give the supper rich high income people even more of A tax break then they now have under our present tax system . My opinion by John Zilverberg

money matters

I guess it pays to be president of the U.S. I see where bill Clinton made nearly six million making speaches in 2008, He is getting anywhere up to 525thousand per speach.Thats an income equal to the combined income of 120 working people if they were making 50000.00 each.Just to put these big money people in prospective .For example John Thain CEO of merrill Lynch took compensation from the company of 83 million. That would be equaal to the income of 120working people maing 50000.00 each.besides he managed the company so well that it lost 27 billion dollars That would be A loss of $50000.00 for each of 54000 stock holders.Thenbefore he turned the company over to the Bank of america he paid out over three billion in year end bonnuses. That would also be A loss to the stock holders. The government has allready paid forty five billion to bail out Bank of America and agreed to pick up another 97 billion in losses if needed . now we have A new stimulus package passed by congress of 819 billion .That amounts to 5000.for each of 163 million800000 families. this is money we mostly do not have. there is apt to be A day of reconing when we have to pay all this money back.I dont believe reducing taxes is going to get this money back. We have to tax these individuals that are taking millions out of the econamy every day.We have to get this country back on A paying basis and take care of the national debt or the prblems we are having now will look like A honeymoon compared to what we will be having in the future, my opinion by John Zilverberg

government spending

The government ( that is us ) is spending A lot of money trying to cure this depression that we are in,That has been caused by A lot of greedy people. For one thing the working people most of which are controled by the unions could have taken an accrost the board A cut in wages, enough to bail out the companies, Then the companies could stay in busines and everybody could keep their jobs,Its as simple as that. We could sell our goods cheaper and that would help everybody.Also we would be more competitive in the world markets, That would keep more of our jobs in the U. S. All those companyC. E,Os. or managers that are taking millions in compensation out of these companies at the expense of the general public and running the companies into bankrupsy It dosnt take A smart person to run A company into bankrupsy ,Any dumbel could do that. Its A crime what they are doing and they should be in jail.Any manager of A company that is not making A profit should be getting A minimum wage if anything .we need A change in this country . With our present programs we are creating A class of multi millionairs and billionairs at the expense of the general public. The big money people are running this country and they are running it right into the ground causing A lot of hardship for A lot of people.

president leaves office

President Bush is leaving office as an unpopular president Some say A bad president which I dont think he deserves,,He did not play politics he did what he thought was best for the country. He is getting the blame for everything that went wrong most of which was not his fault. For one thing he asked the democratic congres several times to create A committe to oversee the big financial institutions that are mostly responsible for the mess we are in now but nothing was ever done about it. The public was also partly to blame . To many people spending to much money they did not have. The auto companies building to many high priced cars that the dealers could not sell, Now we are spending A lot of money to bail out the auto companies so they can keep on building those high priced cars till that money is gone then they will be in the same trouble as they were before . Our trouble is the country is not on A paying basis.No person or country can continualy spend more money then they have income and exist in the long haul.We have A small percent of the people in this country making to much money at the expence of the general public. We need to increase our top tax bracket so as to get some of that ecsess money back into circilation where it will balance our budget and help the general public.When A ball player signns A contract for 41 million or A C O takes A 100 million income out of the company he is managing the general public has to pay for it in the long run. my opinion by John Zilverberg

the rip off

It makes me mad and it should make every one else mad that is being ripped off by the execatives of some of these big companies that they managed into bankrupsy.At the expense of the general public.Some of wich are being bailed out by the government (that is us) but we are not having anything to say about how they are using the money.For examlle Lloyd Blankfien C E. O.of Goldman Sachs had 2007 compensation of 54 milllion and John Yahain C.E.O, of merrill Lynch that he managed so that it lost 11 billion and had to sell out to Bank of america had compensation of 83 million and now is asking for A bonus of 10 million. If we cant stop these people from legaly robbing us we at least should have A tax system that would get some of that money back to the government to pay off the national debt ,Run the government and return to the states to pay for work to benefit the general public.If we were to raise the present tax system one percent for every 100 thousand dollars after the first 250 thousand up tp 90 percent on individual incomes that would get the job done and still leave the muti millionairs and billionairs with plenty of money for whatever they wanted to use it for.That would reduce the taxes for the general public and put the country on A sound financial bnasis. My opinion by John Zilverberg

A new president

we will soon have A new president and he has big plans to fix our economy.He is doing it by spending Alot of money that he evidently thinks we dont need (and dont have).I think part of his plan is O K. That is the part that creates jobs.But giving everybody A big tax break is A big mistake.He is helping the people that have jobs.The people that need the help are the ones that dont have jobs. If you dont have A job and no money to pay taxes with what good is A tax cut going to do you. he could do A lot more good with all that money by freezing all forclosures for two years and guaranteeing the interest payments on homes and small businesseswhere the owners couldnt pay the interest take A lien on the property. That way the financial companies would be getting the interest payments ,That should bail them out.The businesses could stay in bussines and that would create more jobs. The home owners could keep their homes. That way we wouldnt be putting people out on the streets and in homless shelters.It also should help the housing industry and give us two years to get the economy back on track. A tax break for businesses would be O K because businesses create jobs. we should be raising the taxes on the individuals that are taking the big profits out of the companies. My opinion By John Zilverberg. .

Depression Cure

The fastest way to cure our present depression:
First, freeze all foreclosures on homes and small businesses for two years and guarantee the interest. Take a government lien on the property where the owners could not pay the interest. That way the financial institutions would get the interest money. That should bail them out and the home owners and small businesses could keep their property.
Next, the auto workers and the workers of the companies that supply the auto companies should take a cut in salaries that includes the top management.
That should bail out the auto companies and the workers could all keep their jobs. At the present we are priced out of the world markets. Most of the goods we buy these days are made in foreign countries. That is where our jobs are going. Next we should raise the income tax on private individuals that make over 250 thousand one percent for every one hundred thousand dollars after the first 250 thousand. Don't raise the taxes on businesses. If we tax businesses out of business we put people out of jobs. We need to tax the individuals that are taking the big profits out of the companies at the expense of the general public. With that kind of tax system we would have enough money to pay off the national debt, take care of all government expenses including medicare and all our other problems. That would lower the taxes needed from the general public.

My opinion by John Zilverberg