The Observation Deck

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they say adding a dollar a pack federal tax on cigarettes will raise 9 billion dollars for states.

cigarettes are kind of tapped out for taxation purposes.

can we get a nickel tax per serving of coffee? A dime tax on Soda?
A Big Mac Tax. a quarter per box of Mac and Cheese.

ryan costa wrote:Slightly Smaller Link

they say adding a dollar a pack federal tax on cigarettes will raise 9 billion dollars for states.

cigarettes are kind of tapped out for taxation purposes.

can we get a nickel tax per serving of coffee? A dime tax on Soda?
A Big Mac Tax. a quarter per box of Mac and Cheese.

Shrink government.
You won't need the taxes at all.

which government programs would you shrink or eliminate.
name them.

The Dept of Education.

Who is going to pave our nations interstate.

I vote we shrink Department of Defense.

Jim DeVito wrote:Who is going to pave our nations interstate.

I vote we shrink Department of Defense.

Clinton tried that and we ended up with 9-11

Stephen Eisel wrote:

Jim DeVito wrote:Who is going to pave our nations interstate.

I vote we shrink Department of Defense.

Clinton tried that and we ended up with 9-11

Some how I doubt that is why 911 happened. By that logic we need to spend more on defense then we do right now. Two nut jobs have already been on planes with bombs. More defense spending did not stop those two attacks. Those guys just happened to suck at blowing things up.

http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budge ... tion1.html

okay. the department of education is off the board. about 59.2 billion in budget. plus or minus whatever the budget actually was.
maybe whatever other funds they administered.

what else? any departments, agencies, activities, laws, acts to end?

Department of Corrections. Quit paying to keep small time drug users (not dealers) in prison.

Hi Ryan....

The Dept of Education was really easy. What a total waste of $60 billion a year.

Now it gets tougher, but only just a little bit. I'm going with the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). These are the people we spend tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to assure us that our food and drugs are safe, driving up costs for both, when we should be looking out for ourselves. Especially since they have done such an incredibly bad job. Vioxx? Approved at a cost of billions then withdrawn for billions more. They need to be gone and we all need to decide for ourselves what we consume, based on our own judgment on who to trust and who not. I mean why should we spend tens of billions to presume that whatever we put in our mouth is safe?

Tim Liston wrote:Hi Ryan....

The Dept of Education was really easy. What a total waste of $60 billion a year.

Now it gets tougher, but only just a little bit. I'm going with the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). These are the people we spend tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to assure us that our food and drugs are safe, driving up costs for both, when we should be looking out for ourselves. Especially since they have done such an incredibly bad job. Vioxx? Approved at a cost of billions then withdrawn for billions more. They need to be gone and we all need to decide for ourselves what we consume, based on our own judgment on who to trust and who not. I mean why should we spend tens of billions to presume that whatever we put in our mouth is safe?

Tim

Does this mean the next thing you would cut is the War on Drugs?

Just curious.


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Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, tons of federal money used to encourage the subpar mortgage mess.

The Post Office. But closing that would put the junk mail industry out of business.

The Department of Agriculture, dedicated to the preservation, at high cost, of inefficient agricultural firms.

The Interstate Commerce Commision, whatever they do.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which never seems to notice any fraud until it is reported in the newspapers.

The Federal Elections Commission. Have they ever done anything?

The Transportation Security Administration. Have they ever caught anyone (they did catch my wife carrying a jar of blueberry jam).

The list goes on and on and on, but I tire.

Tim

Does this mean the next thing you would cut is the War on Drugs?

Just curious.

Marijuana should be legalized and taxed... The government could probably save billions in law enforcement, court cost and not having to jail offenders.. American farmers could grow it along with avid gardeners..

To start, I would eliminate government credit issued cards. Government workers have grossly abused these for years with very little recourse against the employee.

I would also launch a review of all contracts for the last 10 years. Anyone who authorized or was otherwise involved in severely wasting taxpayer dollars (for example buying hammers for $5,000) would be canned.

Next would be a 15% across the board reduction in department budgets. If the departments can't figure out how to cut 15% and keep the same level of service, then I would get people in there who could.

Say goodbye to overseas fact finding missions of our senators and congresspersons.

Stephen Eisel wrote:

Tim

Does this mean the next thing you would cut is the War on Drugs?

Just curious.

Marijuana should be legalized and taxed... The government could probably save billions in law enforcement, court cost and not having to jail offenders.. American farmers could grow it along with avid gardeners..

Stephen

I was just seeing if Tim had thought this through.

If we are not going to hold pharmaceutical and food companies accountable at some level
why not make all drugs legal? How can we send the pusher man up the river for bad
heroin, if we are not sending the man away for bad product.

I personally have zero issues with giving up on the war on drugs. It is a total waste and
really we have other laws in place to protect us. If a junkie robs us for a fix, he is breaking
the law. Make it all legal, tax it all.

As for Marijuana, 170% better at turning into ethanol than corn and or sawgrass.

But the corn lobbyists will never let it happen.

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