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