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POPSFascism in America As most of the rest of the world struggles to privatize industry and encourage free enterprise, we in the United States are seriously debating whether or not we should adopt 1930s-era economic fascism as the organizational principle of our entire health care system, which comprises 14 percent of the GNP. We are also contemplating business-government "partnerships" in the automobile, airlines, and communications industries, among others, and are adopting government-managed trade policies, also in the spirit of the European corporatist schemes of the 1930s. The state and its academic apologists are so skilled at generating propaganda in support of such schemes that Americans are mostly unaware of the dire threat they pose for the future of freedom. The road to serfdom is littered with road signs pointing toward "the information superhighway, health security, national service, managed trade," and "industrial policy."
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POPSIts the gas mileage, stupid Oh, yes. I won't buy an American car because they get crummy gas mileage. It has nothing to do with the fact that they cost thousands more due to the unions. What a load of crap. If that were the case, why on earth would SUV's and trucks be selling so well. They think we are stupid and they are going to use it to push through their agenda.
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POPSThe body politic runs off the rails IT IS DESTABILIZING How can you run a company when the rules keep changing, when you have to worry about being second-guessed by Congress..? At this point, most Wall Street bankers would rather be attacked by wild dogs than take part. They fear that they’ll do something — make money perhaps? — that will arouse Congressional ire. Or that the rules will change... Not all the employees who face the possibility of having their bonuses taxed out from under them work for the evil financial products division... Taking away their bonuses — after they’ve already put the money in their bank accounts — hardly seems like the right way to motivate them. Maybe they can't see it from the shamrock-hued vistas of their "cottages" on the west coast of Ireland, but the political class has done nothing this last week but destroy the wealth of this country.
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POPSIs this what he promised? “Although my new spending proposals may raise the federal deficit in my first year to $1.75 trillion, I promise the American people that by the end of my first term, I will halve the federal deficit — albeit adding another $3 to $5 trillion to the national debt. “Those savings can be accomplished by upping the federal income tax to about 40 percent on those rich 5 percent of Americans who currently pay only 60 percent of our aggregate income taxes — as well as lifting Social Security caps on their payroll taxes and cutting out many of their tax deductions. “With state income taxes, federal income tax, and Social Security and payroll taxes, along with new cutbacks in deductions, some of these rich will pay over 60 percent of their incomes in taxes. That is not an unreasonable rate in comparison with past levels — or the fact that well over 40 percent of Americans do not make enough to pay any federal income taxes.