Comments on: Of the Fires in the West, of Brave Men and Women, and of Fairness for Thousands (UPDATE) http://themoderatevoice.com/152627/of-the-fires-in-the-west-of-brave-men-and-women-and-of-fairness-for-thousands/ An Internet hub with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, indies, centrists, moderates, and right Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:33:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: The_Ohioan http://themoderatevoice.com/152627/of-the-fires-in-the-west-of-brave-men-and-women-and-of-fairness-for-thousands/comment-page-1/#comment-313104 The_Ohioan Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:25:31 +0000 http://themoderatevoice.com/?p=152627#comment-313104 The only connection is fire fighters – and their paying a larger percentage of their pay in taxes and (I extrapolated) paying a larger percentage of their pay for health care than Buffett does. And Redstate’s take on it.

]]> By: RP http://themoderatevoice.com/152627/of-the-fires-in-the-west-of-brave-men-and-women-and-of-fairness-for-thousands/comment-page-1/#comment-313080 RP Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:43:12 +0000 http://themoderatevoice.com/?p=152627#comment-313080 So far nice to see that no one has jumped on the executive order bandwagon and criticized the president for these actions.

Executive orders serve a purpose if used in the proper way. This one fits that requirement in my mind.

The Ohioan…what does the buffett rule and tax rates have to do with this article other than a continuation of divisive politics? I lost the point somewhere.

]]> By: The_Ohioan http://themoderatevoice.com/152627/of-the-fires-in-the-west-of-brave-men-and-women-and-of-fairness-for-thousands/comment-page-1/#comment-313070 The_Ohioan Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:20:45 +0000 http://themoderatevoice.com/?p=152627#comment-313070 Every time the President does something I approve, I check with Redstate and WND to get their take. I fully expected to see articles about how this is just an election year political ploy. Nothing so far. Either they haven’t decided their talking points yet or it’s possible Mr. Obama has finally done something they can’t disagree with, impossible as that seems.

I did see on Redstate this excerpt of an article by the owner which shows the contortions they will go to to prove a point. The piece was to decry the “Buffett rule” about fairly taxing millionaires:

From a proponent of the Buffett rule:

Does it seem right that an American who makes over $110 million pays an effective tax rate of about 18 percent, but if they had a fire at their house, those who would be risking their lives to put the fire out, could be seeing far more taken out of their every additional dollar earned while they are risking their lives?

Redstate’s take on that:

For crying out loud, what does public safety have to do with personal tax rates? Are there not other groups who would be far less worthy than millionaires? What about child molesters and other criminals? Should firefighters risk their lives to save their burning houses? And what about those citizens whose effective tax rate is zero? Is it “right” for firefighters to risk death or injury for someone who contributes nothing toward their salary? If this is not class warfare, then I have never seen it. What’s next? Means testing for 9-1-1 calls?”

]]> By: STinMN http://themoderatevoice.com/152627/of-the-fires-in-the-west-of-brave-men-and-women-and-of-fairness-for-thousands/comment-page-1/#comment-313038 STinMN Wed, 11 Jul 2012 03:29:52 +0000 http://themoderatevoice.com/?p=152627#comment-313038 About time.

My spouse’s cousin is a smokejumper out west. In talking to him he knows he is one of the lucky ones – being a smokejumper means he is a employee eligible for health insurance. Unlike many of the other firefighters he worked along side with. He said he never understood why someone worked such a hazardous job with no healthcare coverage for them and their families, even if they did love the work.

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