where the hell is all of our money?!

[bobby_steeles]

keeping up with the political tone our forum has adopted as of late, can anyone explain to me why the hell our country is still in debt?
i mean, if you just look at pay tolls for example. how much money do you think those things pull in per day? it's like 40 cents every two seconds x 10 lanes x however many hundreds of thousands of pay tolls there are across the country! most of the roads they were originally put up to pay for have been finished for 30 years. if i could own just one lane of a pay toll for a few weeks i could retire at 25.
factor in other bullsh!t like speeding tickets (which takes up a good percentage of my salary) and property taxes, and i don't see how our government could still be in debt. if they could get there sh!t together and find better bargains on those $500 toilet seats, we wouldn't have to pay so many damn taxes. TESTIFYYYY!

[PunchDrunk]

The government does this for one reason: To p!ss off Rage Against the Machine.

[GinSueDog]

Taken from Routers News, yesterday Oct.24th...-ED


Total revenues in fiscal year 2000, mostly from taxation, climbed to $2.025 trillion from $1.827 trillion in fiscal 1999. Spending also was up, but less dramatically, to $1.788 trillion from $1.703 trillion.

The tax take from individuals grew to $1.004 trillion in fiscal 2000 from $879.48 billion in fiscal 1999. Corporations paid $207.29 billion in taxes, up from $184.68 billion in fiscal 1999.

The cost of running key government programs kept rising last year. Social Security cost $441.81 billion, up from $419.79 billion in fiscal 1999, while defense spending in fiscal 2000 totaled $281.23 billion compared with $261.38 billion a year earlier.

Paying interest on the public debt cost the government $362.12 billion in fiscal 2000, compared with $353.51 billion in fiscal 1999.

[bobby_steeles]

i didn't see any toilet seats in there...

[SweepEm]

simple answer-
when it ain't your money, you will tend to spend it a lot easier than if it's your own.

[Patterson]

The bigger the government is the most ineffective it is. You should vote Harry Browne if you want to downsize government and make your own decisions.

A lot of the debt was created in the 80's by Reagan's defense build-up/tax cut and the increasing costs of Social Security and Medicare. Reagan and the Democratic Congress played chicken, and neither swerved.

15 straight years of deficits creates a lot of debt.

[GinSueDog]

One could also argue that it was that same defense build up that lead to the fall of the USSR, which couldn't keep up. In a way it was like winning the war without aving to kill anyone.-ED

GinSue:

True, true, but debt is debt, worthy cause or not.

[bobby_steeles]

and a $500 toilet seat costs $500, wether you have to go or not...

[royceg420]

If we legalize pot the country would save an estimated $75 billion dollars in law enforcement costs (not to mention lots of jail space and man ours police could be spending on the street)and probably make more through taxes they could put on it like cigarettes. They could also tax the producers and any importers/exporters.