Imagine that! Poor New Jersey! Why would anyone stay in any state with confiscatory taxes? I would move to Timbaktu to avoid paying so much. I think everyone should pay a fair amount of tax, however some states like New Jersey, New York, and California are ridiculous. California added a 4% sales tax for health care! Instead of saying NO to all the medical expenditures to illegal aliens, they are forcing citizens to cover these expenses through a burdensome tax. No wonder people are moving out.

The rich are leaving New Jersey. So sorry to see them go. For as much as the rich are villified by the left, the rich employ people. Have you ever gotten a job from a poor person? We need the rich.

My concern is that the rich, and their attendant businesses, will leave the US entirely! Then where will we be? Headed toward that proverbial creek, while blindfolded and handcuffed and without a paddle! For the paddle was seized by confiscatory taxes, but the provision of the blindfolds and handcuffs was subsidized by the government through entitlement programs!

As a New Jerseyan living in Alabama I have to add there's more down here than good football. My son pays over $7,000/yr in local property taxes. For a house of the same value I pay under $600/yr. My services are excellent, thank you, and the school system, in Baldwin County at least, is quite fine.

Yeah, I was surprised to find that the roads were paved, people mostly had all their teeth and moonshine was rare. And in spite of earlier, deeply ingrained biases, I have come to appreciate local intelligence as somewhat higher than is found in the uber-liberal North East (refer to paragraph one for starters, and profoundly greater levels of common civility and strong faith, as well).

You speak of taking care of elderly parents like people used to. Used to, elderly people didn't have the free advanced medical care to keep them living past the time appointed for them. Stop the free medical care and make it like it "used to" be and I think you'll see more adult children willing to take care of their elderly parents. That hyperexpensive free medical care is one of those status quo entitlements you speak of and is no different than welfare. why didn't you speak of eliminating it for old people and reserve free medical care for poor children?

Better yet, get rid of all medical subsidy programs including insurance and make it a truly free market proposition. that would never happen because alot of people go into the medical profession for the money, which can only be obtained through the socialized medicine we call insurance.

a huge industry would suddenly have to play by free market rules and would shrink accordingly. people would stop going to the doctor for the sniffles. doctors couldn't charge the current exorbitant rates they do. lawyers couldn't sue because there would be no insurance to attach their suckers to.

how about we just stop talking about the scary obamacare and just realize we are already there and it is unsustainable as it is.

when are the oldest and wisest of us going to be the first to walk away from the welfare and if nature dictates it, die gracefully? i would imagine, never. so again, let's just stop talking about it. The vain, the weak, the elderly, the people who don't take care of themselves, the lawyers, the doctors and other medical personnel all feel entitled.

shoot, if children were allowed to vote, I bet you would see a change in policy.

hey old America, we love you but if it's your time to go, please go and leave the resources for the children that need it. trying to stay alive at the expense of others is incredibly selfish. make the most of the time you have been given by God. it is unnatural to artificially extend it.

i am sure this response it upsetting to folks but i think i am just saying what a lot of folks think but are afraid to say it. politicians wouldn't dare say it.

make it like it used to be, yes. but make completely like it used to be.

OK, we are all 'preaching to the choir' here. How is it we feel so helpless to make change happen? We keep electing the same people is the problem!!!

The #1 reason people choose a candidate is name recognition (a/k/a/ brand). We're not going to get term limits and equal press access to new candidates as long as incumbents keep tilting the election rules in their favor.

Those of you who read this and donate money to politicians...please stop donating to the same lame ducks! Find a way to get the lesser-known candidates in front of the press. Find ones who are not peddling for election dollars from lobbyists before they're even in office.

TELL people your opinion...being PC never won an election for an honest bloke! If we are going to make a change, we are going to have to think outside the box that has been forced upon us by the arrogant, washed-up incumbents we currently have. This means getting off our duff and actually exercising the few freedoms we have left! We simply MUST oust the current administration in every facet of governement: federal, state, and local. If we do not, we are repeating the very history that we tell our elected 'servants' to learn from.

Sorry, Marcus. I've been paying the maximum into Social security since i was 14. I'd like to see some return for that 24 yrs of taxation. Social security and medicare medicaid are not welfare for everyone. alot of us have paid for it.

hambone: I sympathize. i've been paying in for 26 years. I don't expect to see a return down the road. the system can't support us and shouldn't have to support us in 20 years. the money you, me, and my wife have paid in and will pay in still wouldn't cover the costs that just my grandmother incurred on medicaid over the last 10 years before she died. my grandfather had heart and other issues due to a lifetime of of smoking and eating pork and sitting in his chair or car. multiply that over all the boomers retiring.

we are in big trouble.

IF things are run the way they've been running them we are up "S" creek in a chickenwire canoe. I bet my investment broker could run Soc. Sec. at a profit. There needs to be some serious fiscal accountability and a new approach to growing the bankroll.

"trying to stay alive at the expense of others is incredibly selfish", so we should execute the poor? Like Hambone, I've paid a LOT into Social Security and Medicare and I'm not the one who spent it rather than saving it for when it's needed. So you don't want to take care of your parents once they fall below the 100% fit level and you don't want them going to the doctor 'everytime they have the sniffles', why don't you just shoot them now and take everything they have befoe they can waste it on someone other than you? Who's being selfish?

Cal,

Are you suggesting that politicians wake up and display common sense? None of them are Thomas Paine and NO politician will ever do anything against his/her self interest.

The study is nothing new. When Ronald Reagan cut tax rates in 1981-82; the liberals all claimed the government would go broke. Surprise, surprise; with tax rates cut by 50% the revenues collected doubled in five years. That makes sense.

Hmabone said it quite well in his latest post (9 Feb @ 13:34): there needs to be some serious fiscal accountability. But, then again, I go back to the politicians will never do anything against their own interests.

Everyone here is basically saying the same thing, we need a huge change to the system. These changes will only happen once people (voters) realize that they have the power to make those changes.

We have to reeducate the people to understand that politicians work for us, and not the lobbyists. If everyone were to actually think for themselves about what they really wanted from our leaders, we could find leaders who actually have our beliefs and desires in mind, in every locale.

We the people need to take the power back in our hands by being better students and actually doing our homework on the candidates we vote.

www.jaredstauffer.us

The same thing that is happening in New Jersey is happening in Maryland. Overtax business - they move out of the country. Overtax citizens, they move to a different state. The history is plain and simple.

So, Marcus, are you volunteering to be the executioner or the firing squad leader? Which eugenics group would decide who lives or dies and after what age? (I paid a lot into Social Security and I would like to get some benefits when I retire.)

What about people who lived a moderate life, did not smoke or drink, but had bad genes, are they supposed to be killed as well?

Of course I can't speak for Marcus but I didn't read anything into his post about firing squads or executioners. He was just talking about the way we exhaust every medical avenue known to mankind in trying to keep alive as long as medically possible. Just because someone invents a machine to keep us alive doesn't mean we must use it. My grandmother signed a living will years ago stating that she didn't want any heroic efforts to keep her going. She even quit taking her heart medicine and high blood pressure medicine. She didn't do this because she was tired of living but rather because she wanted to live a normal and natural lifespan rather than one sustained by expensive surgeries, cutting edge equipment, and the latest ultra-expensive medications. So far the strategy hasn't worked out too bad for her and she will celebrate her 99th birthday in a few months at our home, where she lives, with her grandson (me) and my family.

To Bob and ileana, I suppose you could call nature the executioner since we all face death and we don't know when it will happen and the family members that I have been around when they passed never had a particularly pleasant passing. But we all have to face the Reaper and we should face him with courage and dignity. My mother died 5 years ago, I did look after my grandmother since that time til her death. She took many medications that I wasn't convinced were necessary (hat's off to David's grandmother for eschewing the doctor and taking charge of her life) and were expensive. Not for her but for taxpayers. the times in and out of the hospitals, the nursing homes for physical rehab, even a cataract surgery a month before she died. She feared death tremendously even though she was a christian. I think this is why she was so adamant that she deserved the medicaid entitlements even though intellectually she understood the huge cost she was passing on to others. I'm guessing here but Bob and ileana sound like they fear death. That is natural. trying to put off death at the expense of others isn't. I miss my family members that have passed. I would like to have them back. but the world moves on. when I die there will be a little more room and resources for my grandchildren. I'm proud of that. in closing, Bob and ileana, if you got sick in old age and required hospitalization would you feel justified in requiring your children and grandchilren to go into debt to pay the potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills you would ring up? i would hope not. following that logic, it is not justifiable to require society to do it either.

Sarcasim button now in operational mode.

Wow! We statists sure didn't see that coming. Whooda thunk it? Why we were so darn certain that the wealthy would suffer the angst and guilt of not sharing their collective wealth that they were going to give us a mandate to increase their taxes to almost 90% of not only total income, but total assests as well! Hmmmm guess we have egg on our faces. Oh well, we'll just start taxing the middle class now, same differnce to us.

Sarcasim button now in off mode.

Hambone, you are right, The "FORCED" Social Security System along with the "FORCED" Medicaid - Medicare are not to be confiscated by the Federal government. This is not a “Welfare Program” to working Americans who have been “FORCED”. Social Security was bad from the beginning, the Federal government knew it was wrong , but they did it any way. Then after the fact, they "changed" the contract from escrow accounts to General Funds. They need to pay it back with interest to those who trusted them.

If you are on Social Security, you should expect the Federal Government to “keep it’s end of the contract” which they “Forced” US to pay.

Marcus, you complain that your Grandmother's care far exceeded what she "contributed to the program". If you think your Grandmother came into more than she was due, You could volunteer to pay back what you think she owes, if it bothers you.

In my situation, which I know is not a "peculiar situation" in this Country. I had three adult brothers pass away before they could collect any money or benefits. My brothers, very prosperous men, paid many years of Forced Social Security and Medicare taxes, which will never be claimed by them or their estates. How many Americans can tell this "story" of the lost money to these "FORCED PROGRAMS”.

Here is the Solution - MAKE SOCIAL SECURITY VOLUNTARY. Pay back with interest those who want a “cash settlement” - The government must stay faithful to those who are “ALREADY” on the Social Security Program.

Now, I have proposed this to Congressional offices and they say , “Nobody would be for this”. Well, I told them, if I’m the only one who is exempted from these nefarious programs, so be it. Just MAKE SOCIAL SECURITY VOLUNTARY to everyone and we’ll see if people voluntarily sign up with the government.

For God & Country

Ruth Ann Wilson