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From the Right by Ed Farnan

The Lilliputians Have Crippled America

Posted on Saturday, May 07, 2011 at 11:28 AM

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Monsoonman | May 09, 2011, 11:57 PM EDT

Walter: Wouldn't the rest of the worlds poor just love to be the American poor, if they could. They are flooding our country wanting the benefits of American poverty, LOL! I'll put our poor up against any of the worlds poor, we'll kick their azz! Flat screen tv's automobiles, cell phones, laptops.....and EVERYBODY gets healthcare, don't believe the propaganda you read. Your puny european welfare states are so small, they don't need cars to get around, their little lilliputian countries.....What are you the spokesman for the teachers unions? All our schools need is more money, right? Wrong. They need less teacher unions and more educators. Whenever you have charter schools and private schools, students and parents get choices, students blossom. You should watch the movie "Waiting for Superman" then you might get a clue. But I think it is too late you have been drinking the kool aid for too long.

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WalterEllis | May 09, 2011, 10:39 PM EDT

Rainman: Here's a fact you might like. The U.S. ranks 4th in global GDP, yet is 92nd in distribution of wealth. The top 5 per cent of Americans are the world's richest. The bottom 25 per cent (that's 77 million people) are the poorest people of the developed world. The U.S., with the most expensive health system – a system that denies coverage to 40 million of its citizens – is counted as 37th in terms of quality of care by the World Health Organization. The point is, Western Europeans are richer, on average, than typical Americans. They can AFFORD to pay more for gasoline. The infrastructure of their countries is decades ahead of that of the U.S. European students (like Asians) routinely outpace their American counterparts. And, just to make things worse, the gaps are widening. Obama knows this. He knows what needs to be done. Hitler and Marx don't come into it.

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NYCsheridan | May 09, 2011, 09:17 PM EDT

The Lilliputians have destroyed Journalism. Farnan, get a real job.

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Monsoonman | May 09, 2011, 08:08 PM EDT

So income tax of 52%, top that off with a vat/sales tax of 20%, plus 10.00 gal fuel/many other "fees"...This is your idea of liberal nirvana? Looks like you might as well give the government all of your money, then let them dole it back to you. What a bunch of sheep, no wonder Hitler rolled through their country with no resistance.

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seanomelbourne | May 09, 2011, 06:53 PM EDT

Walter Australia has a similar system to Holland although the top marginal rate doesn't kick in 'til earnings break the $100,000(AUS). Self funded retirees pay no income tax or medicare on their pensions regardless of how much they draw. I agree with you if the right wish to call it socialism so be it.The U.S.A. needs a systemic shake up to enrich all of it's citizens.Btw I have had post under the Farnan blog re-written to distort what I was saying.

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WalterEllis | May 09, 2011, 05:35 PM EDT

Just a cotton-pickin' moment. I see that the comment below beginning "I see so many conflicts" was posted by me. It wasn't. It was in response to something else I wrote. So what's going on? WHO'S ACTING THE EEJIT? It has to be someone at Irish Central.

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Ratslayer | May 09, 2011, 04:30 PM EDT

Attention right-wing losers: Obama got OBL and Bush did not. Period.

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WalterEllis | May 09, 2011, 01:36 PM EDT

I don't know who wrote that last comment. Was it perhaps the Blogger himself? Anyway ... you are right about one thing. European taxation is graduated. The more you earn, the more you pay. It can go wrong. It can be excessive. It can be irritating. But it tends to protect the weak and strives to meet the old criterion, from each according to his means to each according to his needs. Marx has nothing to do with it. The man died in 1883. America, if it is not careful, will become the first great nation to die of capitalism, suffocating on its own ideals. Europe, meanwhile, for all its difficulties, has become a significantly more advanced place than the United States. European education, health cover, infrastructure and social welfare, as well as the general level of income, are streets ahead of what is typical in the U.S. Economists everywhere are coming to realise this. Once the teething problems of the euro (now, incidentally, worth approximately 40 per cent more than the dollar) have been resolved, the entire Continent will be ready for the next step forward. Does the EU have problems? You bet! Not least an aging population and the rising pressure of muslim immigration. But if it's movement towards a fair and just society you're looking for, look East young man.

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WalterEllis | May 09, 2011, 12:17 PM EDT

Walter: I see so many conflicts in the numbers you just put up, something is out of whack. It seems you make a bit more money and you get terribly whacked by the nanny state. Your bit says it all: "but relate directly to ability to pay". Right out of the Karl Marx playbook. Which seems to be where you are coming from.

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WalterEllis | May 09, 2011, 12:09 PM EDT

Monsoonman: your Dutch friends are wrong. The top rate of tax in the Netherlands is 52 per cent, payable on income above €53,860 ($79,860). The bottom rate is just 2.45 per cent (after allowances), rising to 10.7 per cent, then 42 per cent. Pension, health insurance and social security payments are separately accounted but relate directly to ability to pay. The Dutch system was described last year by Melbourne University and financial advisory group Mercer as "the best in the world". It is a fact that the typical standard of living in the Netherlands is higher than in the U.S. The average Dutch person is better off than the average American – by which I mean that they have more money to spend. In the U.S. the great bulk of the nation's wealth is held by multi-millionaires and billionaires and large corporations pay very little tax. this is not true of the Dutch. Gasoline is expensive in the Netherlands, as it is throughout the EU. This is because of a generally understood and approved "green tax". But the country is compact and well-served by reasonably-priced high-speed trains and trams. Health care is complicated. The state health insurance scheme meets 27 per cent of all health care costs; another 41 per cent is covered by regulated private insurance; the taxpayer provides 14 per cent directly; and the individual, subject to ability to pay, is expected to find the rest. No one is left out in the cold. No one receives a bill they cannot pay. The Dutch certainly have their problems, but, on balance, they are in a better position in most areas than most Americans. If this is Socialism (and it isn't), give me Socialism every time.

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Monsoonman | May 09, 2011, 11:13 AM EDT

Sent to me from a friend, who sees what big liberal government gets you and that's exactly where we are going under obama: Our retired friends from the Netherlands have been visiting us for the last few days. They get taxed 60% on their PENSION, no write-offs. They MUST buy an additional PRIVATE health insurance to suppliment his "free" gubamint healthcare. Their car's retail price is literally DOUBLED by taxes and "fees" (another way to spell taxes). They pay 19% sales tax on everything but food. Their gasoline is nearly $10 USD a gallon with all the taxes and his "use" tax on his little car is nearly a dollar a mile. Their tiny home sits on dirt that cost him $400 a SQUARE FOOT before a building was on it. They marvel at the size of our home and the property it sits on. It would be a multi-million dollar "mansion" in the Netherlands. Move to Europe and live that way and leave us AMERICANS out of your cradle to grave big gubamint system. WE DON'T WANT IT!

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Fran Connor | May 09, 2011, 10:35 AM EDT

You really believe Obama is a moderate? What are you smoking? (Or shooting up?)

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WalterEllis | May 09, 2011, 10:05 AM EDT

That's it! It's time that Ed Farnan was shown the door. I have nothing against conservative commentators. It's often interesting and illuminating to hear their views, and the right of free speech is an important one. My feeling, however, is that Mr Farnan is out of control. He is certainly beyond a joke. His philosophy is a simple one: the Right is right about everything and the Left (such as it is in America) is wrong about everything. I am reminded of Stephen Colbert's inspired observation about George W. Bush – "he is a man who believes on Wednesday what he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday". The idea that Barack Obama is a Marxist is preposterous. To believe that America is in thrall to the proponents of a Green Revolution is laughable. To aver that capitalism, capitalism and more capitalism is the answer to this country's long-term decline is not just myopic, it's insane. We need intelligent debate, not nonsense on these pages. Mr Farnan, sadly, does not provide this. He is the Tea Party on legs. I echo the question posed by the surprisingly-named hollabackgurl: where did you find him?

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seanomelbourne | May 09, 2011, 03:00 AM EDT

J Swift most memorable piece of prose is "burn everything English except their coal" an environmentally friendly quote if ever I heard one.Leave Lilliput alone Farnan.

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LilPaddy | May 08, 2011, 11:47 PM EDT

Having read the comments below.... It is my guess that 90% of the commenters ARE ALSO AMONG THE 50% RECEIVING HANDOUTS FROM "The Government"... (a.k.a "The Taxpayers)..... useless, braindead freeloading Fn. feeders!!

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