"Most all of the Republican lawmakers in the past 20 years have remained true to their pledge."

Hard to believe the author is complaining about politicians keeping their promises.

Bozo, the aggregate cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is approximately $1.2 trillion. Equal to our current spending deficit.

Hepburn, nothing that the rich earn is taken from your pockets. It's not a zero-sum game. While the rich were supposedly "squashing" the middle class, tens of thousands of households were moving from middle class to the so-called rich. The pie is there for the taking, if you'll just get off your butt and work for it.

I want to ask, what is a rich man's fair share? And, more to the point, what is expected as a result?

Confiscate all the wealth of the 400 richest people in the U.S. (not the income, mind you, the entire wealth), and you will get an amount that approximates this year's spending deficit.

In 2009, 243,000 taxpayers who reported incomes of over $1,000,000 represented a little over $702 billion (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/279355/why-millionaire-tax-bad-idea-veronique-de-rugy). Those numbers indicate about $3 million income per return. This number, by the way, includes those in the top 400.

That $702 billion, if taxed at 100%, would cover a little less than 2.5 months spending at Obama's current budget ($3.8 trillion divided by 365 days = ~ $10 billion/day, $300 billion per month).

So, again, what is to be the actual result of a "millionaires tax? Little, or nothing, of course. It is not Obama's intent to address our fiscal crisis. He wants class warfare to obfuscate the real problem: runaway government. And, yes, the government was running away before Obama. He just wants to put his foot on the accelerator.

"We definitely need changes in Washington. "

Wasn't that the left's mantra 4 years ago? You got it and now it's one lone right-winger's fault that things are still a mess. Poor, poor Obama and the Dems. Well, guess what, they had their hands solidly on the reins for 4 years and all the left can do now is frenetically look for a GOP boogeyman. Gotcha two tongue clicks

Unfreakingbelievable.

"The lobbyist Grover Norquist, has coerced all of the Republican members of the U.S. House and Senate to sign a pledge to not raise taxes at any time as long as they remain in office. If these people change their minds and vote for a tax increase, then Norquist and his lobbying group have threatened to fund a competitor to run against the traitors."

Source?

Is it not possible they also agree with him? It drives you lib socialists crazy that some people actually think we shouldn't raise taxes so the government can spend even more money to fund their incompetence.

It also drives you guys crazy that not all of us are naive enough to believe these career politicians when they say they will handle the money responsibly. I mean, come on! It ruins your HAPPY TIME!

Taxpayer Protection Pledge I, ___, pledge to the taxpayers of the __ district of the state of_, and to the American people that I will: ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and
credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

"The lobbyist Grover Norquist, has coerced all of the Republican members of the U.S. House and Senate to sign a pledge to not raise taxes at any time as long as they remain in office."

The truth would have been sufficient. Unfortunately, Mr. Hassur chose to begin with a lie. The fact is that " 238 of 242 House Republicans and 41 out of 47 Senate Republicans (have) signed" the pledge. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_N...) (http://s3.amazonaws.com/atrfiles/files/files/120111-federalpledgesigners.pdf)

When the first sentence fails to pass the truth test, all that follows is suspect.

You are 100% right. I, too, have been calling for a reform of the lobbyists' making contributions to our government representatives. This, in and of its self, is the stumbling block to all the proposed legislation the Congress has debated. This practice must stop. But how?

As long as Congress is getting paid by these people, there will never be a change. This is the way they go to Washington a representative of the people and come home as a stooge of the lobbyists. How do we stop this? The only way, as I see it, is to have a constitutional convention and rearrange some of the ways we do business in our capitol. But then Congress has to call this convention and because it is their pocketbook we are talking about, they will never do that. We are sunk!