How many people of all political parties do you think actually pay the bills they owe?

I don’t know about political parties, but as an apartment manager I can tell you that pastors of congregations who don’t require their pastors to have advanced degrees are almost guaranteed to pay their rent late or default on their lease. (I’m not talking about the traditional mainline churches. )

I think the majority of them pay their personal bills in full. Just a guess based on nothing more than I think most people do pay their bills, especially those who have money, regardless of politcial party.

I accuse the Republicans of not paying our national deficit bill, but I guess that is a different topic.

I imagine that most people pay their bills, if only to maintain what little faith I have in mankind.

There are cases around the world as well, not just the US of course.

Let me ask you this, if a political candidate was found to owe taxes, employ an illegal, or in other way have questionable personal financial practices, would it influence your vote, or would you consider it propaganda from the other side?

@Judi Do you mention the pastors because of the irony in trying to present themselves as moral, and then not abiding to committments they make? It is a disappointment to me that they don’t pay on time.

(Re- Medical bills in US)
One in five struggled to pay those bills each month and one in 10 admitted they wouldn’t be able to pay them at all.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/03/report-a-third-of-americans-burdened-with-medical-bills.html

@JLeslie; I guess it’s the irony and also they tend to be pretty right wing. Not all pastors, but the churches that don’t require a lot of education.

@KNOWITALL Mostly I consider it stupid for them, politcians, to not be above reproach if they are going to be in the public eye. As far as not paying for household help, well, I would need to know the real detail. A live in maid who obviously makes a wage that is well above the requirements to trigger taxes, that I would have a problem with. But a maid that comes in weekly, where the total dollars paid hovers around crossing the line would mean nothing to me either party.

Late taxes, well, if they filed for an extention, and have paid what is required so far, I see no problem with it. If theu failed to disclose some earnings I would have a problem, unless it was one time in 20 years, and possibly an oversight. I would need to know the details.

Medical bills, are horrific and out of control. They are billed in a total scam way, truly, and until there is more integrity in the system I don’t see how it will change. Bills introduced to have more transparency in medical billing have been faught by both republicans and democrats and it makes me sick.

@Judi Interesting. I don’t have that stereotype. I would think both right wing, which I associate with white people, and the black churches here don’t always require a lot of education, and they tend to vote Democrat, even though some don’t because of the social issues. Anyway, I didn’t associate it with a particular party your original statement, just more about church/religion.

Politicians and pastors have a moral obligation, imo, to hold themselves to a higher standard. The political campaign ads are so far out there that not only do I not believe them, I actually start thinking the people who ‘endorse’ them are terrible people.

When it comes to the ‘facts’ of someone’s ‘act’ of evading taxes or hiring illegals, as you said JLeslie, I need to know the details and facts, but the articles all contradict each other.

On medical bills, I agree they are out of control, but do you think that’s an after-effect of illegals and non-payment, or do you think hospitals and dr’s are ‘bilking’ the people?

Coming back to this question, I think that enough of the population pays its bills – otherwise the people doing the billing would be out of business.

@KNOWITALL I do not only mean medical bills are out of control in how much they charge, but that is a problem too, I mean how much they charge depending on who you are what insurace you have and how the medical statements are stated. An example I have given before is if I pay for my thyroid blood test out of pocket it is $15. I only know this because I bothered to ask. If it is billed through my insurance, the charge is $125, then there is a discount because I have blue cross blue shield, so the charge for the test is only $$45. Then I have to pay my 20%, so I am billed $9. That is the biggest most disgusting farce ever. $15 to $125? And then a discount of over 60%? So the explanation of benefits is supposed to make the average person believe they are so lucky to have insurance or their test would cost them $125? No one is charged or pays $125. It is a total and complete lie. Also, I was once charge $1200 for a CT scan for my husband, just my part, the insurance had paid part of it, and I found out if I had self payed it would have been $750 at most. I find it disgusting. I think my husband and I should have refused to pay the $1200, but long story we paid $1,000 and they accepted that as full payment. If I had the stregnth I would gather all the data and knock on politicians doors untill I could get in front of congress and speak out on the issue. It os horrific. Neither party is addressing it to my satisifcation. Augustlan sent me an article on this very topic fairly recently about a bill in Arizona that was proposed to let patients have access to pricing so they can make better decisions, and both parties were against it.

I really doubt illegals are a major problem with costs in the medical system. I think profits sought by for profit hospitals, and profits sought by insurance companies are the biggest problem. Also, some doctors are just too greedy. I want doctors to make good money. They study and work very hard, and they knowledge and skill deserves to be well paid. But, some of the prices are ridiculous. Some of it has to do with them having to pay support staff to deal with insurance companies and billing. But, some of it is just unreasonable fees. I say this about other industries also.

Agreed. A friend rec’d a call from her son who’s a senior in college this week and he’d received a ltr denying him financial aid because one little past due medical bill showed up on her credit. She had never rec’d the bill (it was less than $100), so she called them and paid it, had them call the school and $8500 in aid per semester was approved. It’s nuts.

Let me ask you this, if a political candidate was found to owe taxes, employ an illegal, or in other way have questionable personal financial practices, would it influence your vote, or would you consider it propaganda from the other side?

Depends on the situation and who’s contesting what office, but all of those things have the potential to weigh on my vote. Taxes, they should be required to be right with the IRS – fully up to date on all payments – before being able to run for any elected office. Hiring illegal immigrants, they should face the same penalties any business would face for the same practice. Personal finance, depends on what it is, I’m in favor of full, public, disclosure for those running for public office. I wouldn’t trust any statement out of the either side without public evidence to back it up.

I suspect most politicians are at least in line with the law or have enough of a buffer to protect themselves if found to be sidestepping it. But you don’t get that many people to that type of position without a wealth of hypocrisy and some genuine corruption. I have no doubt a detailed public accounting of their finances, business practices, etc. would land more than a couple in jail or at least with hefty fines and sufficient public outrage to drag them out of office.

I think you have to make the distinction between bills and taxes for the purposes of this question. The circumstances of those who do and don’t pay the respective fee and the reasons for such vary greatly depending on which you are discussing.

I am off to bed at the moment, but I will revisit this question at a later time.

I will add this, most lawyers I know are not afraid of the law. They don’t worry about being lax about things or getting in trouble like the average rule following person. They feel comfortable in courts I guess and know the people in the system, and know typical real life outcomes of skirting around or in the laws. Since lots of politicians are lawyers, I guess that might affect somehwat what they will be sloppy about when it comes to these things.

It’s interesting to me that the hypocrisy by politicians isn’t causing the American people to get more angry.

@KNOWITALL I want to see the movie Outrage, but haven’t had a chance. When it first came out my local theatres and even Blockbuster did not carry it, no surprise, in my conservative part of the woods here. It is about the hypocrisy in Washington about how many gay people work there. Something along those lines.

Heard of it, don’t think it’s here either…of course. Not many people here want to hear the truth just live in their fantasy bubble world.