Monday, April 10, 2006

Income Tax time

I don't mind paying taxes, but I do resent the Income Tax.

You can read what I've written about it here: Taxing your Survival

Let me take a minute to just say some stuff while we're all thinking about the Income Tax this time of year. (same reason I write about sugar plumbs during Christmas)

This country does not need an income tax.
Our federal budget is 2.7 Trillion dollars.
We don't trade with enough nations.
The new medicare prescription drug plan cannot be paid for without printing more money.

Taxes rates will have to be raised at some point in the future to swallow the girth of what our government is spending. And once they do that you'll see that they'll talk of short term surplus revenue but won't buy back a single bond on which the debt was funded.

In other words it will be like winning the lottery and instead of paying off your credit cards, you open up new ones.

I know I'm sick of it but my question is:

When are you gonna stop putting up with this sh*t?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL. First you say that this country doesn't need an income tax. Then you give a bunch of reasons why we do.

I put it to you that it takes an income tax to fund a nation as big as ours. The system is poorly administered and wretchedly executed by the current administration and most of the past ones. That's the problem.

I suppose you could go with a value added tax like most of Europe and Canada has in lieu of an income tax. But then again, Europe and Canada are not shining examples of success either. But if North America and Europe are failures, who is better? Uganda?

The Liberatarian way, apparently, is every man for himself. You don't need roads if you hole up in a shack in Idaho. Don't need government guarantees for Savings and Loan institutions if you bank in your mattress. Don't need to guarantee pensions when private businesses shaft their employees if you don't work (above the table, anyway).

How about we tax inheritance over $1 million and windfall profits from stock sales? Like the good old days. Larry Ellison doesn't need another yacht and I don't need the AMT.

Tracy said...

Only a Democrat thinks that the Income Tax plays a HUGE role in funding our nation's budget, but only a simple look at the facts shows that your wrong. Less than 40% of the income tax receipts make up for our nation's revenue.

It would not be possible to raise taxes enough for the Income tax to pay for our bloated government. Your taxes (and the taxes of every other American including the working poor) would have to be tripled before it could even reach these heights. Excise taxes and tarrifs (trades of commodities) fuel the true source of our income.

The Libertarian way is NOT every man for himself. That is what you have now. Every man that can pay his own way, hire the right lawyers, afford the right tax shelter can have his own way. The rest of Americans scramble for what's left. That looks like every man for himself more than what I describe. Don't even get me started on how Libertarians would prosecute fraud. Right now we have hearings and a few strawmen go to jail but who gets paid back? No one. That's justice to you?

Windfall profits used to be taxed that's true. But you must also remember that during that time the income tax was NOT on wages, it was on windfalls and dividends. The very tax you're calling for from "the good old days" proves my point.

Pull your head out of the New Deal for a minute and realize these simple truths:

You can't tax yourself into prosperity.

You can't tax yourself into a surplus.

You don't pay off debt unless you actually pay it off.

You can't print money to pay for debts.

Gino said...

open a can, tracy,
go for it!

Anonymous said...

I see. You think you can remove just under 40% of revenue and survive. You probably also think that the pyramids were built by aliens.

You have yet to bring up the solution. What is it? Tax businesses to death so they split for Mexico? Too late. Flat tax? Only the insane think that will work. How about tax breaks for the wealthiest 2%? That's really fixed things.

I never said that we can print money to pay debt or tax your way into prosperity. Printing money is the Republican way and taxation is both parties.

We can't worry about prosperity until we've paid the debt. That's the point. You can't pay debt if you DON'T tax. Bush has proven that. When you're out of debt, that's when you lower taxes.

The clear answer is to stop spending so much. Clinton proved you wrong because he did have a surplus with high income tax. I guess he sort of taxed us into prosperity, though it proved short-lived. His legacy was that he balanced the budget and spent less than he took in. That works.

Bush lowered taxes for the rich and spent more than anyone in history. Wrong move. Reagan did that too and left office with the lowest ratings of any president until Bush.

Also, income tax has existed since 1913. Don't blame FDR. It was only 1% that year, but it was there. It co-existed with windfall taxes very nicely until Bush. Even Reagan didn't have the balls to allow the rich to keep their windfalls.

Okay. Let's hear the solution now, instead of your Libertarian finger-pointing and whining.

Tracy said...

The solution is easy and has already been stated here at length. The Federal Government size is so bloated that the Income Tax can no longer sustain it. It's spending.

As for Clinton, I'm proved right again. The reduction of annual deficit came into reality from a growth in tarrifs and excise taxes from emerging industries. A little software company in Redmond Washington played a bigger role in reducing the deficit than did personal income taxes on wages.

Also, I don't blame FDR for the income tax as you state rightly that it was permanently put in place in 1913 and legalized (to a degree) by the 16th amendment.

I'm not looking for ANY tax alternative. Who needs a federal sales tax if it has to be 40%?

The problem is spending, and it always has been. As for our surplus how much of the debt was actually relieved under Clinton? --You probably have more money in your right front pocket right now than real dollars relieved from our National Debt. That surplus was smoke and mirrors.

There is no tax that can be levied against the average American citizen that can pay for the size of the government we've had since the late 60's.

We can only afford a smaller government. Why is it so radical to suggest the federal government be limited to the enumerated powers in the constitution? After all, the constitution isn't just a suggestion, it's the law...or at least it's supposed to be.

Esther said...

*applauds* Yay for enumerated powers! (Too bad the government and people stopped caring about the Constitution.)

Anonymous said...

Aliens didn't build the pyramids?

Anonymous said...

Illegal aliens built the pyramids. And afterwards they moved to Arizona, causing Bill Frist to have a conniption.

Tracy said...

I resisted commenting on the Aliens building the pyramids, but I did throw it around under my breath.

¿Viva la raz?