[speaker002:] okay you first
[speaker001:] all right um well basically I think we uh probably pay more out in taxes than we should uh we don't see the sort of feedback that we need from it um I think the government waste a lot of the money um and spends it on purposes that that the government really shouldn't be spending it on um I don't think that it's effectively used
[speaker002:] yeah I I agree I don't think it's uh effectively used um as far as the amount um
[speaker001:] so
[speaker002:] I'm never really sure about the amount because there's so much that needs to happen in this country that isn't happening and that not that the government necessarily should be the agent through which it's accomplished but there's a lot of things that are crying out for somebody to do something with and the last fifty years everybody looked to the government for that sort of thing primarily
[speaker001:] um-hum right
[speaker002:] and uh I I agree with you that things are just not used effectively
[speaker001:] yeah I think
[speaker002:] and we you know people don't want to live within their means we've got huge deficits that doesn't appear to you know nobody's talking about the deficit at all on the current campaigns at all
[speaker001:] um-hum  right right
[speaker002:] and I was amazed in the State of the Union address and Bush I don't think mentioned the D word once the whole time it was amazing and it kept he keeps coming with these spending plans and I'm like okay where is the money coming from
[speaker001:] exactly exactly I mean it they keep on thinking that you know it's okay to borrow against the future indefinitely um and they don't realize that once they create these programs
[speaker002:] yeah  um-hum
[speaker001:] you well they have such a hard time killing off a program yeah once once it starts receiving funding it its like yanking wisdom teeth to try and get it uh
[speaker002:] right  yeah
[speaker001:] killed you know even when and you know I don't know a lot of the things I think the federal government does uh it does very poorly um I'm kind of a state's right person and I think that a lot of of what the federal government could do could be handled uh more efficiently uh on a state level
[speaker002:] um-hum  um-hum
[speaker001:] uh you know state to state because the states I think have a better idea of where where they need to spend the money for the kind of population that they have um and I think the federal government is just too far removed from the the specific situation
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] um you know I mean there there are some things that our taxes need to be spent on um at a federal level like national uh defense and uh you know common rule making and things like that
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] but I think a lot of it could be handed over to the states you know especially things like welfare and and you know food stamps that kind of programs um so
[speaker002:] yeah yeah  and round most of those are state administered aren't they
[speaker001:] um yes and no um a lot of it you know the states get like matching funds or you know they they get a certain amount of funds that they get to do with as they please but um
[speaker002:] um-hum  okay
[speaker001:] why you know why doesn't the state take in the revenue directly then you know uh kind of eliminating some of those bureaucracy that goes on
[speaker002:] right right  right if if yeah it sounds sounds very good and I but I wonder about states like Mississippi and Louisiana that always tend to have and Arkansas and Arkansas significantly with Clinton running but it states that always seem to have really poor educational systems um and just generally a very very poor economy I mean Louisiana was picking up for a while with the energy boom in the seventies but still their economy never really got off the ground and you know it it I don't know I don't live in Louisiana or any of those states and I don't ever think that I will but so it's really none of my business but it's like something you know I I it's
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] I don't know it seems like somehow not enough is being done to educate people there and things like that to to be able to participate with yeah the rest of us in the in the world it's just pre elitist but you know the the rest of us in the country at least
[speaker001:] yes oh yeah I agree exactly um
[speaker002:] and then I yeah I know there's plenty of people in California here who don't have enough education either I mean you know that's always the a major political football problem in any state the education system
[speaker001:] um-hum  oh yeah yeah I well I think we're seeing a major decline um but
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] um I'm I'm not sure how that relates directly to taxation um
[speaker002:] yeah that's true that's true
[speaker001:] uh trying to stay on the topic here
[speaker002:] yeah well I don't think it really matters anyway because it you know they'll what they want is natural conversations and I think the topic just to kind of give us a boost in that direction
[speaker001:] right  yeah
[speaker002:] but getting back to taxes um currently I think the the current system we got isn't really it it isn't taxing the rich enough essentially um it I think that
[speaker001:] hum
[speaker002:] people people don't have an idea that the whole we're all in this together and in the eighties that wasn't the common theme the common theme was you know get rich quick for a lot of
[speaker001:] um-hum  right