Not even once did Bush call on people to sacrifice.

[Bleacher Creature]

We have a President who has presided over two of the most catastrophic events in American history, and not even once has he ever asked anything of the people who can afford to make sacrifices.

The idea of spending $200 billion to rebuild the Gulf is laudable -- assuming that the money goes to the right people (which it won't with Bush in charge). But by refusing to even consider a rollback of the tax cuts for the wealthy, that money will come disproportionately from the middle and working classes, and its effect on the economy (by blowing up the deficit even more) will disproportionately affect those who can least afford it.

I just finished reading David Cay Johnston's book "Perfectly Legal,' so I am a bit riled up. But the point is clear, every additional dollar that we spend (which I support in theory) will result in a greater redistribution of wealth from the rest of the country straight into the pockets of the richest .01 percent. Somebody needs to call them out about this -- now.

[opihimoimoi]

1. They must have a GUN, etc, to his head...maybe its blackmail?

They know sumthin....the Puppet Masters know some dark secret about the man and hold him hostage???

[Kablooie]

2. He can't ask people to sacrifice because ...

the people that will have to sacrifice haven't been born yet.

[txaslftist]

4. Oh Yes we have...

We've already sacrificed habeas corpus.
fiscal responsibility
a free press
a fairly elected government

They don't ask you to sacrifice because they're taking the money without asking.

You don't ask a robbery victim if it's okay with him.

[Bleacher Creature]

5. I'm not talking about sacrifice from 99% of the country.

We've been paying the bulk of the taxes and have seen our rights curtailed like never before. What I'm talking about is sacrifice from the tiny fraction of people who really are better off than they were 5 years ago.

And P.S. -- I apologize in advance if I am incorrect in assuming that you are not in the top 1% of incomes. I sure as hell am not.

[Skidmore]

3. Oh, he's implicitly called on certain classes of people to sacrifice.

He and the rest of his crew have already created the mechanisms by which the will sacrifice endlessly. It goes without saying. Hence the smug smirk.

[kestrel91316]

6. We can't ask the multimillionaires and billionaires among us to

(GASP) pay more taxes. That wouldn't be FAIR. "WAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! Mean government taking away money I couldn't spend in 100 lifetimes!!! Bullies!!!!!!!!!! WAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!"

Cry me a river.

I don't want the wealthy picking and choosing what charities they give to, and then those charities picking and choosing who to help and who to reject because they are "unworthy". I want the government responsible for seeing that in this GREAT NATION there is a level below which NO ONE is allowed to fall as a result of a natural disaster.