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The real problem is govt. spending on useless foolishness .. I'd love for someone to get out in public and express that opinion .. I guess because it isn't the popular idiot opinion of the masses for the week, you don't see any hollywood stars pointing out that problem.
You really need to be more thoughtful in your assessment of the problem and your recommended solutions. The big chunks of spending contributing to our deficit right now are Medicare, Social Security, defense, and interest on the debt. They may be growing too fast relative to tax collections (largely due to the Bush tax cuts and the recession) but I wouldn't call them Obama "foolishness" as none of those programs has changed much between the last two administrations. Social security benefits have not been increased, the Medicare drug benefit was implemented under Bush, and Obama has not increased defense spending while still fighting wars started by Bush. Which one(s) of those first three should we cut and by how much? I'll throw my recommendations out on the table:
1. Cut spending on the Medicare drug benefit
2. Reduce defense spending by getting ouf of Afghanistan and significantly reducing our overseas troop committments and weapons programs.
3. Collect social security tax on all income up to $250,000.
4. Let the Bush tax cuts expire and raise the income tax on those making in excess of $1 million.
I predict anyone who runs for office in 2012 on taxing the rich will win by a landslide. It's a very widely held sentiment right now. A majority are seriously POd that the debt deal didn't include such tax increases.
I think that point is very easily addressed by pointing out that Washington doesn't have an income problem: it has a spending problem.
As for our dear President, he can harp all day about corporate jets. Number of limousines in the State Department in 2008? 238. Number in 2010? 412.
Cost of this little spending spree? $1.9-billion dollars.
Total number of billionaires in the US? 314.
It's all fun and games until you realize that you could confiscate all of the wealth of the richest 5% and still couldn't pay for this mess. The morons who think you can sustain this level of spending clearly haven't run a business, particularly from the ground up.
When I think of Rich... I think of people like Oprah, Gates, and others that have more money than they could spend in a lifetime even if they never worked another day...
In general... people that work for a living, especially those that work for others... unless you happen to be at the pinnacle of professional sports, would not make my idea of Rich.
And these people, on the whole, don't pay income taxes, anyway, as their money is in markets and other pockets of investment.
The way around this would be to trash the income tax and go to an expenditures tax. It would also seal a lot of the corporate favortism and cronyism you see with the political elites. Put in a bill that does that and offers no deductions or special favortism towards one corporation or industry over another, and I'd be game.
Rich people are paying the smallest portion of their money for taxes in 70 years. This is problematic.
That's actually not true. As a percentage of GDP, tax receipts are higher today than they were in the past (specifically referring to the years when taxation was a ridiculous 70-90% of income on wealthy tax earners). And as you point out, wealth is more concentrated in the hands of the wealthy at this time. How does this happen? The wealthy own a higher percentage of wealth and account for a higher percentage of GDP, we have lower tax rates, and yet tax collections are higher. Well, the wealthy obviously weren't paying taxes then. How? There are ways around these things.
And businesses and individuals will find their way around them today. There's absolutely no reason a company has to do business within the United States. Many have been packing up and leaving due to confiscatory taxation practices and overly burdensome regulation.
Increase the taxes on the wealthy and corporations? More will leave.
I would. Without hesitation.
What you tax, you will get less of. What you subsidize, you will get more of.
Right now we're subsidizing poor lifestyle choices and cronyism and taxing productivity. Now isn't that a great investment model for the future?
Increase the taxes on the wealthy and corporations? More will leave.
I would. Without hesitation.
No you won't. Also, you've not offered any solutions but some pie in the sky expenditures tax. Always something outlandish from you folks. The reasons for the debt are pretty easily identifiable: Bush tax cuts, Medicare costs increases from underlying growth in healthcare costs and the drug benefit, fighting two wars, and the recession. So tell me specifically what you suggest we cut to get out of this? You can't because you have no clue. When things get tight, my wife and I don't reduce our household spending, but instead we get off our butts and do things to make more money, which is what the government needs to do.
You really need to be more thoughtful in your assessment of the problem and your recommended solutions. The big chunks of spending contributing to our deficit right now are Medicare, Social Security, defense, and interest on the debt. They may be growing too fast relative to tax collections (largely due to the Bush tax cuts and the recession) but I wouldn't call them Obama "foolishness" as none of those programs has changed much between the last two administrations. Social security benefits have not been increased, the Medicare drug benefit was implemented under Bush, and Obama has not increased defense spending while still fighting wars started by Bush. Which one(s) of those first three should we cut and by how much? I'll throw my recommendations out on the table:
1. Cut spending on the Medicare drug benefit
2. Reduce defense spending by getting ouf of Afghanistan and significantly reducing our overseas troop committments and weapons programs.
3. Collect social security tax on all income up to $250,000.
4. Let the Bush tax cuts expire and raise the income tax on those making in excess of $1 million.
What are your specific recommendations?
1. Fine
2. Fine
3. Social security is already funded and then some.. It's a lie that it is not funded by the income it receives.. It is washington's favorite thing to dip into though and thus why some portion is missing...Go take a look at what the fed dipped into when it ran out of borrowing room during this budget fiasco ... Social security should end right where it ends today... The payouts have a cap and so should the pay-ins ... Otherwise, this is literally redistribution of another person's money which is unfair. Again, what people dont understand is that that EIC (earned income taxes) dont apply to investment income.. The only people you are hurting is the working class.. THe rich dont make money on Earned income.. They make it on investments.
4. LOL, pure lunacy
... I recommend substantial cuts in :
> Foreign Aid (we can't pay our bills.. I dont want my tax payer dollars going to pay someone else's)
> Defense (No one is attacking us and actually our borders are insecure as a result of playing around in other countries) .. Pull out of afghanistan .. Pull out of Iraq.. wtf are we even doing in libya (that's all obama) .. Cut back foreign military bases ... cut back severely on defense spending.. in the trillions.. IMO .. Bring them back home.. have them work on the nation's infrastructure.. securing our borders.. and deporting all the illegal immigrants.
> 10-15% pay cut for govt. workers.. end of pensions across all govt. agencies.. 401ks are good for private sector .. and they are good for govt.
> Focus on the essentials .. cut the fat .. let china who claims its #1 police the d*m world .. We got important things we need to do at home for our people.
Stop overpaying for govt. work .. and stop paying for non-essential crap.
Nuke these corporate tax loopholes.. Nuke em dead
Import tariffs on any products for which x% of it is not made in the U.S .. Start making trade balanced.
Focus on paying the debt down too ...
Taxes are just fine.. cut the subsidies to crap .. no more fannie/freddie...
No more tax loopholes for the rich ..
If richer people (or wealthier people) are saying they need to pay more in taxes, something is seriously out of whack.
Too bad Matt's full of crap. He says the wealthy have the lowest tax rates in history, but that's a complete LIE.
And I can guarantee he doesn't pay a penny more in taxes himself than he owes. I bet he has an accountant make sure he pays the least amount he can. And I can guarantee he doesn't write a check to the government with the extra amount he thinks he should be paying.
Typical liberal nutjob - thinks the rich should pay more. But not himself, naturally.
No you won't. Also, you've not offered any solutions but some pie in the sky expenditures tax. Always something outlandish from you folks. The reasons for the debt are pretty easily identifiable: Bush tax cuts, Medicare costs increases from underlying growth in healthcare costs and the drug benefit, fighting two wars, and the recession. So tell me specifically what you suggest we cut to get out of this? You can't because you have no clue. When things get tight, my wife and I don't reduce our household spending, but instead we get off our butts and do things to make more money, which is what the government needs to do.
"You folks," eh? Funny. I'm the one footing the tax bills now.
You think I won't? I've already got my exit strategy in place to Australia if this debt problem isn't fixed, and unlike the US, they actually have an immigration that makes sense and favors English speakers and the productive (with about a 6-billion dollar debt--not 14-trillion)1. I'm not going to pay outlandish taxes on excessive expenditures with irresponsible social policies. The wrecking ball is swinging towards this country, and evidently many haven't taken the hint.
Sorry, those of us who are business owners have been working. We typically run circles around people like you. More time to get off your butts and make money? Ha! Why are you on your butt in the first place?
As for cuts:
1) send the troops home. Put them on the borders.
2) >70% of illegal immigrants are receiving welfare benefits in border states. Impose $100,000 fines per worker on businesses who hire illegal immigrants, put a system in place to monitor this, and end citizenship by birth. Approximate savings? We're forking out roughly 400-billion dollars per year to subsidize illegal immigrants. Not to mention suppressing wages.
3) End the Department of Education. Massively cut funding to NIH research to areas of questionable import. Yes, $1.5 million went to study the psychological effects of male, ahem, anatomy size and its effects on gay males. Massively cut the Deparment of Energy, if not eliminate it. Housing and Urban Development? gone. Commerce Department? Gone.
4) Restructure medical expenses to more highly fund primary care and decrease reimbursement for procedures and imaging.
5) Gradually decrease defense spending.
6) Restructure the tax system into an expenditure-based model. No exemptions. No exceptions. If you're wealthy and you spend, you're taxed. If you're a business, you get no special treatment. It allows small businesses to better compete in niche markets with corporations, as well.
7) Increase revenue by dropping the corporate taxation rate. Companies don't pay taxes. They redistribute costs to consumers or they leave. Companies would return to the US were this the case. This would bring more jobs and higher levels of income tax. There would be a lag in place in order to collect this increase, however.
8) End the subsidization of college education with the exception of perhaps useful fields such as engineering. We're creating a massive debt problem in our young by allowing universities to give their own students massive debt loads. Pehaps this actually funds the federal government, seeing as how college loans were 2.9% interest rates until the feds showed up, kicked out the private lenders, and raised the rates to 6.8%. That said, it creates a drain on our economy.
9) Push back the age where one may collect social security. Tighten disability claims (I see fraud here all the time, particularly with regard to mental health). Decrease unemployment benefits. There are plenty of jobs available in agriculture, for instance, but many lack the motivation to do them. I made pretty good money picking blackberries and strawberries on the side, I might add.
Which sounds like wide public support to not end tax breaks for the rich
Would you end specific "Tax Breaks" for everyone or suggest means testing to qualify?
Many Rich already do not qualify for popular Tax Breaks... The Home Income Mortgage Interest Deduction is a huge loophole Tax Break that is of no value when you have a large mortgage or multiple homes... as a Rich person might have.
Another, is the Alternative Minimum Tax that requires Income Tax liability to be calculated twice...
Some very wealthy invest in Tax Free Government Bonds... I guess we could make these bonds only Tax Free for people of modest means so the Rich would no longer loan money to the Government... since this is what a Bond essentially is... a loan to the issuer to be paid at a future date with interest.
I was always taught to be fair, you treat everyone the same...
Progressive Tax Structures by nature are not fair... but then this would be a whole new topic...
I'm sick of career politicians that are milking the system with their large salaries, pensions, and retirements plans. I think they should cut their own salaries, limit the terms in office and anyone who leaves an office, due to shameful behaviors or just quits like Palin, loses it.
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