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Roads? Police? Fire departments? Defense? Currency? Disaster relief? Courts? Prisons? Environmental regulations? Food inspection? Waste disposal? Mail? Professional licensure?
Unfortunately, the items you listed here are a very small small part of the overall budget.. What you should have posted is:
Combined Federal, State and Local Welfare Budget
(millions) Entitlements make up 65% or more of the overall budget.
Medicaid $118,067
AFDC 24,923
Food Stamps 24,918
Supplemental Security Income 22,774
Lower income housing asst. 12,307
Earned IncomeTaxCredit 9,553
Veterans medical care 7,838
Stafford loans 5,683 Social Services (Title 20) 5,419
Pell Grants 5,374
Low-rent public housing 5,008
General medical assistance 4,850
Foster Care 4,170
School Lunch 3,895
Pensions for needy veterans 3,667
General Assistance 3,340
Head Start 2,753
Food supplements, Women, infants and children 2,600
Training for disadvantaged youth and adults 1,744
Low-income energy assistance 1,594
Rural housing loans 1,468
Indian Health Services 1,431
Summer youth employment 1,183
Maternal and child health 1,059
JOBS and WIN 1,010 Job Corps 955
Child care block grant 825
School Breakfast 782
Child care for AFDC 755
Nutrition Program for Elderly 659
Housing interest reduction 652
Child and adult care food program 624
"At risk" child care 604
Source: Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, "Cash and Noncash Benefits for Persons with Limited Income: Eligibility Rules, Recipient and Expenditure Data, FY 1990-92," Report 93-832 EPW and earlier reports.
THIS IS FROM 1992!
So, please don't post all the benefits of the taxes I pay since a HUGE portion of my money goes to people who have been brought up in a family that has worked the system their entire lives and choose not to work while other people work to support them!
We need to get to a system were if you are going to collect welfare, cash assistance, food stamps etc.. you work for it period. There are roads to fix, trash to collect, rooms to clean, trails to build in state parks.. Someone might even learn a skill that they could use to get hired somewhere.. Wouldn't that be a novel idea eh?
Oh wait, we can't have folks on welfare working picking up trash, cleaning up road garbage etc.. that would take away union jobs that pay folks 3 times what the job is worth AND the poor folks on welfare would be discriminated against by being made to work against their will because they are poor..
Is it ANY wonder why we are in the situation we are in?
I guess you don't understand that every single one of these can be classified as insanely over-costly for the benefit (Fire Departments, roads when all taxes and tolls are considered), a billion times overly large for the purpose (Defense), mismanaged to the point of catastrophe (Currency), a feeding frenzy for corruption (Disaster relief, which I saw as a survivor of 3 major hurricanes), misused so as to almost entirely nullify the benefit (Courts and Prisons going after drugs while letting killers out due to overcrowding), counter-productive (most environmental regulations, which so costly and time-consuming that people must hide the problems instead of fixing them), worthless to protect the public (professional licensure), corruptly misused (police giving out speeding tickets while ignoring REAL crime), better and cheaper handled in the private sector (mail, internet).
For those of use who don't see Big Government as God, this post proves the point it apparently was intended to refute.
So what is your proposed solution? No fire protection, no roads, no defense, no currency, no disaster relief, no courts and prisons, no environmental regulations, no professional licensure, no speeding tickets, no mail service? I do not agree that privatization is handled better and more cheaply in the private sector for mail service. UPS doesn't give much "service" at all, frankly. I quit using them for that reason. If you think professional licensure doesn't protect the public, you really need to think again. Do you want some mail order doctor treating your cancer? Do you think you can diagnose and treat yourself over the internet? (A lot of our patients do, BTW.) Some things just don't lend themselves well to privatization.
Actually that guy had the exact opposite idea, he thought he would get the service without paying for it because he refused to pay for the service that he ended up needing.
I'd say about 17% on all income (including cap gains) above say 3 times the poverty level based on family size. And about 8%-10% FICA/medicare tax (no employer match) on ALL income (including cap gains), with NO income cap. Of course, you might have to adjust the both rates up or down a bit to create the proper yield.
Corporations, small businesses, families and individuals should be paying the same rate, NO tax incentives, NO deductions, NO credits, and NO shelters for anyone.
Local and state income taxes could be done the same way, and could even be collected at the same time and redistributed by the IRS.
Could you afford this???
Do you understand the deductions keep prices down???
You do not pay anywhere NEAR the total price of goods and services in the country.
Guess, what...it's not a flat tax. It's a ZERO tax. I pay for what I need. Why is that so hard to understand??? Is it ok to steal money from people?? We put people in JAIL who do that.
You have your own private police and fire department do you?
A 10% - 15% flat tax .. across the board .. from the poorest all the way to the richest .. No exemptions .. No Tax Credits .. Nothing .. just a simple two page tax code would suffice
So what is your proposed solution? No fire protection, no roads, no defense, no currency, no disaster relief, no courts and prisons, no environmental regulations, no professional licensure, no speeding tickets, no mail service? I do not agree that privatization is handled better and more cheaply in the private sector for mail service. UPS doesn't give much "service" at all, frankly. I quit using them for that reason. If you think professional licensure doesn't protect the public, you really need to think again. Do you want some mail order doctor treating your cancer? Do you think you can diagnose and treat yourself over the internet? (A lot of our patients do, BTW.) Some things just don't lend themselves well to privatization.
If the Government is set to only receiving a certain amount .. they would be forced to manage it within their means .. less city workers standing around doing nothing while on the clock .. lawmakers actually doing what they are supposed to be doing .. that sort of thing.
An increase in taxes usually defaults to an increase in the cost of services .. No one buys services or equipment unless they can afford to .. if these things are too expensive, then the manufacturer lowers the price in order to make the sale.
The trouble with the local and state government is that there are always 5 guys standing around watching 1 guy dig the hole .. this kind of B.S. needs to stop.
I notice that ZERO isn't a choice. That would be MY choice. If I want/need something, I'll pay for it.
And if we paid for them you can bet they'd be affordable.
How expensive are things paid for with our 50% tax rate?
Very.
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