Don't be intimidated by the Republicans during the negotiations over the fiscal cliff by giving into their demands for no tax increases for the super wealthy. The House Republicans will sacrifice the country to keep their wealthy friends in the driver seat.

IRS now withholds payment of taxpayers overpaid income taxes (aka tax refunds) when the taxpayer has been the victim of identity theft via the filing of false returns by unknown third parties. IRS further refuses to release a copy of the taxpayer's tax returns filed under the name and SSN of the taxpayer once a fraud affidavit has been filed by the real taxpayer. The money belongs to the taxpayer, not the IRS. This petition urges Congress to pass legislation whereby IRS is prohibited from withholding tax refunds to taxpayers who provide proof of being the real taxpayer and authorizes all such victims to obtain and any all tax returns filed under their names and SSNs.

Reducing the benefits of the safety net, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is the wrong way to go. Deficit is "not our fault," the blame belongs to the Banks and Wall Street. Start taxing financial, stock and commodity transactions. We can start reducing a bloated Defenive budget, billions wasted on outdated weapons which Generals tell us we don't need. Over $80 billion keeping US Troops in Europe and the Far East. Who are we protecting againist? Bring them home and put them to work on cleaning up the Infrasturcture. That way you will not need to "privitize the commonwealth". Most of the billionaires who realize the problem say they will pay more taxes. If a single billionaire can waste $70 million on partisan elections he can pay more taxes for the protection of civilization.

Congress has repeatedly refused to pass legislation that is in the best interest of this country. Over the last 4 years, Republicans have voted against the Jobs Act and just about every piece of legislation the President proposed. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell revealed the GOP's true intent: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." Well, their plan to sabotage the President didn't work, so now, we need to tell them to do what is in the best interest of this country...work together, so this country can move FORWARD!!!

Lets have John Boehner release his tax returns to prove how fair the tax system is.

Social Security is an earned benefit. In order to collect a retirement or disability benefit, a worker must pay into the system for at least 10 years. In some cases, nonworking family members, such as a spouse, may be eligible for benefits based on the worker’s record. Tough rules in place assure that only legal residents and citizens who have met the 10-year qualification can collect retirement benefits. Congress and the media should stop referring to Social Security as an "Entitlement" inferring that it is unearned. The Social Security payroll tax currently applies to annual earnings up to $110,100. Any wages earned above $110,100 go untaxed for Social Security. Only 6 percent of workers earn more than that and effectively end up paying less than the 6.2% of his or her total earnings. This cap was intended to increase every year with increases in the national average wage; but was not increased in the last three years. Today, the cap covers about 84 percent of total earnings. Eliminating the cap so that all earnings would be subject to Social Security’s payroll tax would help close the program’s funding gap. If your income is under $110,100, you would see no change. If you make above that amount, you (as well as your employer) would currently pay the 6.2 percent payroll tax on your remaining wages. If all earnings were immediately subject to the Social Security tax, the new revenue is estimated to fill 86 percent of the funding gap and equalize the Social Security tax rate, so that all workers would pay the same percent on their earnings Beginning in 1950 the rates were adjusted upward to reflect the rise in inflation and the costs of living on a regular basis. There has not been a rate increase since 1995. The last rate increase was .14% from 1994 to 1995. A small increase in the rate could fill the remaining 14% gap in funding and would only minimally affect employees. Employers already factor this tax into their compensation packages and can adjust accordingly.

I want to start a petition that forces the major media outlets to address the President of the United States as such and not just by his last name Obama! This action is so demeaning and condescending. You don't have to like his personality or his politics, but as a nation I believe it is important to show solidarity to the most powerful office in the world regardless of who is wearing the title and serving in the office! We address everyone else by title. Senator, Governor, Professor, Doctor, milkman etc.

It is about improving the democratic process of voting.

The people of the United States are appalled and embarrassed at the amount of money spent on campaigns for public office, which fuel negative ads and disregard truth-telling. We want only to know what candidates stand for, and what they don't. We want to have access to their records of public service. Limiting the amount of money they have to spend will force them to think through the content of their ads, and spare us from being overwhelmed with vitriol.

We want more competitive voting in our voting districts.

The People of this country, on all sides of the political arena, have been insulted and their ability to act on behalf of their country's best interests severely compromised by allowing Corporations, to be given the same rights and privileges as citizens. Corporations are the very reason that our citizens, who were forced to pay into Social Security, and who believed the government's promise to return that investment by way of disability and/or retirement support, are now being told that there will be no social security for most seniors of today and beyond. Corporations stole with the government turning a blind eye and now you have given them by defining them as people, more votes and more power to corrupt our democratic process and manipulate our people one against the other to create an chaotic climate that they then use to further rob our country of its resources and values. Even the youngest citizen knows that a corporation is an entity, a structure, a self-serving business which may involve the input of human skills to run, but which is not in any way similar to a human being nor deserving of the basic human rights that corporate america has proven to be willing to sacrifice for our country's people in favor of acquiring more wealth for a small segment of an entity operating under the laws of North American business. By granting the corporation "person" status you are essentially granting each member of the excecutives of each corpororation more than one vote in our elections which is not acceptable in a democratic and free nation. The corporations enjoy not only more power than the people but they get the priveleges of extra voting power yet do not have the restrictions that american workers who are humans have to abide by such as restrictions on bargaining power to correct unfair labor practices of any kind. Already we the people, have seen the corporate "mind" in action.....creating propaganda to incite animosity between workers with legitimate claims of mistreatment , and voters who are wary of union extremists. They create this chaos, so that they will be assisted in their attempt to ultimately turn this democracy into a facist regime where the few fat-pockets on the top of the power pole rule the country and the values this country was founded on are trashed. Learn from history, and stop this movement of corporate takeover of American values now while you have the people's attention. You are right when you say you can't change the depth of corruption in the government alone, they'll simply dispose of you like they have done so many other times to leaders who hold to true American values for all its people. So act now and start by getting rid of that definition that allows Corporations to claim the rights only human beings should be allowed to claim. If not, explain to us why you are letting them have the chance to take not only all the social secuirty away but now all future prosperity that is acquired by the sweat of our human people..

Voters outside of King County have just approved I-1240, Charter Schools. Charter Schools waste taxpayer money, and have failed to demonstrate any success over traditional public schools.In fact, while only 17% of charters show better results than public schools, 38% do worse. A recent study called them "engines of racial segregation". Well, if voters outside King Co. want them, let them have them. But if they want to waste our insufficient tax dollars on charter schools, they should NOT be getting $0.40 of every levy dollar we tax ourselves in Seattle. We should repeal the Levy Equalization Legislation, and keep our local levy money in local schools, NOT outsourced to failed experiments.