Best line of the night

From the rebuttal to the president's State of the Union address, by Mitch Daniels:

"In word and deed, the President and his allies tell us that we just cannot handle ourselves in this complex, perilous world without their benevolent protection. Left to ourselves, we might pick the wrong health insurance, the wrong mortgage, the wrong school for our kids; why, unless they stop us, we might pick the wrong light bulb!"

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Reply to
HeyBub
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RonB wrote in news:49abe15e-ccf3-4bc0-bb20- snipped-for-privacy@f11g2000yql.googlegroups.com:

What's needed is dedicated teachers and involved parents. BOTH! I said BOTH!!

Reply to
Han

I only watched a portion of the pep talk but when he said the best teachers should be rewarded, I asked myself define "best" and then I said with what. I mean some people can't afford their homes much less property tax increases of which help pay for the teachers. I thought maybe a better way was not to reward the "best" teachers but just get rid of the bad teachers. Of course then we have to define what "good and bad" is but aside from the definitions, I think a teacher doing his/her job shouldn't get rewarded but should keep their job instead. I think the reward is seeing their student graduate college and come back to say thank you to that teacher. I realize not many students do this but maybe we need to teach the students "manners / respect" as well as academics. Just my 2 cents worth...

Reply to
Doug

Sadly, for the last generation or two of total duds produced by the failing schools this is probably true. These duds can't calculate the MPG their car gets, don't know how to use a screwdriver, can't balance a checkbook or produce a budget, etc.

Reply to
Pete C.

"Doug" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

It is difficult to define and measure what a good teacher is, Indeed!! I am not saying it would be easy, nor that there shouldn't be ways to so so. But ...

Both my daughter and son-in-law are high school teachers in less than privileged districts. While it is very rewarding for them to see students succeed, especially those they get when they at first appear to be "losers", it isn't helpful to them when their net take home pay gets cut significantly, as happened in NJ when the millionairs' tax was cut, but teachers were told to pay much more for their healthcare and in addition had their pension funds reduced once again (NJ has refused to pay the contractually arrived at amounts into the pension funds).

Reply to
Han

BINGO!!!!!!! Just like most every other business does with employees who do not perform. (By that I mean those trying to make a profit, and not those sponsored or supported by a government.)

Of course then we have to define what "good

Reply to
Ken

That won't cut it. We have a lot of both here.

But we cannot compete with the politics of large, affluent urban schools who must have professional quality sport programs, theaters and other amenities that drive their operation costs through the ceiling. In Kansas we are losing rural education to the whims of a few KC and Wichita area schools.

RonB

Reply to
RonB

What we all need is help from Mitt's tax accountant and Newt's sex therapist.

Reply to
Davej

Eeeeewwwwhhh! I haven't seen "Newt" and "sex" used in the same sentence before....pretty much unimaginable :o) I don't know why anyone gives him a hard time about divorcing his first two wives; I kinda think he did them a favor. Callista looks like a match, kinda lizardy.

Reply to
Norminn

What I wanna know is how such an obvious slimeball has managed to convince three different women to enter into domestic incarceration with him. Clearly he needs to educate the rest of us as to how to be a disgusting human being (although, to be fair, he is quite well educated and intelligent) and still be attractive to the fairer sex.

nate

Reply to
N8N

Everyone wants to pay good teachers more (and get rid of bad ones) but nobody wants to pay for it. The thing is, what legal, constitutional, moral, etc. justification do you have for taxing some people at a higher rate just because they have deep pockets? Why should one person pay $0.50 of every dollar they earn while someone else only pays $0.15 of every dollar they earn? No rational person can be in favor of anything but a single flat tax on all income from all sources as being fair to everyone.

Reply to
Pete C.

"Pete C." wrote in news:4f20387b$0$30338$ snipped-for-privacy@newsreader.readnews.com:

I don't believe there is a single "flat tax" person advocating that we should add up all the tax revenue, divide by the number of tax payers, and make everyone pay that amount. Looking up total federal income tax

: ~1 trillion Number of individual returns filed

130 million 1,000,000,000,000 / 130,000,000 = 1,000,000/ 130 = $7,692

Now how are we going to get that amount from the roughly half of all filers who now do NOT owe income taxes? Or better, where would they get that money from?

I really think (and the "socialist" in me agrees) that paying taxes should be in relation to your ability to contribute. If the income distribution in the US was much, much more flat, a flat tax (in % of income, not a set amount) would be defensible, but it isn't.

Before we get to the flat tax, let's eliminate the tax loopholes, and we should first discuss whether charitable contributions, mortgage interest, state & local taxes should be deductible. After all that's what brought my income taxes down to less than 14% of AGI.

Reply to
Han

N8N wrote in news:bf5b1758-e71d-4b1f-a561- snipped-for-privacy@i25g2000vbt.googlegroups.com:

I don't know what the fimmin brought in, but Newft can collect $$. Probably his official income is but a fraction of what he gets in perks.

Reply to
Han

"Pete C." wrote in news:4f20387b$0$30338$ snipped-for-privacy@newsreader.readnews.com:

Does paying teachers(good or bad) more bring about any increase in kids passing or getting better grades? Does it better prepare kids for entering the real world of employment? No and no.

Fact is,the teachers knew the teaching salaries before they accepted the job,and probably before they selected teaching as a career. Perhaps they should only teach for a few years,and then move on to some better paying job(if they have the skills...),if they don't like their salaries.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

I've long believed that when BHO says "succeed" or "good teacher" that he means different things than the rest of the people in the USA.

I'm agreeing with Rush Limbaugh, I want BHO goals to fail.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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rid of the bad teachers. Of course then we have to define what "good and bad" is but aside from the definitions, I think a teacher doing his/her job shouldn't get rewarded but should keep their job instead.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Those are BHO's idea of best teachers. Keep the kids dependant on government.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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Sadly, for the last generation or two of total duds produced by the failing schools this is probably true. These duds can't calculate the MPG their car gets, don't know how to use a screwdriver, can't balance a checkbook or produce a budget, etc.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

You seem to misunderstand what a flat tax is. It is not the countries expenses divided by population, it is everyone paying the same percentage of their income (from all sources). You make more, you pay more, simple as that, but nobody pays a greater percentage than anyone else. Everyone agrees that there would be a cutoff at about the poverty level.

With a flat tax everyone pays there fair share, regardless of income distribution. Everyone, regardless of wealth (except those under the poverty line) pay the same percentage, so for example you make $100 you pay $20 or you make $100M you pay $20M, absolutely fair.

A flat tax (done properly) eliminates all tax loopholes since there are no deductions and no differentiation between sources of income. Make it working at McD's of from investments and pay the same flat tax percentage.

Reply to
Pete C.

Yes, and yes. Better salaries for teachers brings better teachers into the teaching profession who otherwise go down other career paths that pay better.

What happens is that idealistic teachers come out of college, take teaching jobs and rapidly become disillusioned with the relatively low pay and the poor schools. The good ones generally leave for better jobs in the non teaching world in a few years, while the bad ones remain and get tenure and are protected by the unions. The end result is failing schools full of bad, tenured, union protected teachers.

Reply to
Pete C.

Some people view taxes as how to fund the government. Others view taxes as a way to social justice, what ever that means at the moment.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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The thing is, what legal, constitutional, moral, etc. justification do you have for taxing some people at a higher rate just because they have deep pockets? Why should one person pay $0.50 of every dollar they earn while someone else only pays $0.15 of every dollar they earn? No rational person can be in favor of anything but a single flat tax on all income from all sources as being fair to everyone.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

"Pete C." wrote in news:4f2049c9$0$30347$ snipped-for-privacy@newsreader.readnews.com:

From what you said and I snipped, a flat tax is almost the same as what we have now, except there are no loopholes or deductions And, if you have a "poverty" cutoff, then in essence you have a graduated, progressive tax structure - income more than $XX.XX requires a higher tax (unequal to zero). Having a few more graduations wouldn't be bad, then, IMO.

As intimated, I agree about getting rid of loopholes.

Reply to
Han

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