The godawful truth and irony about the deficit.

[HeyNorm]

.

How about you let this sink in.

You could confiscate a tenth of the entire world's wealth ... And not pay off our current debt.
Half of the entire world's wealth ... Wouldn't even cover our Unfunded Liabilities.
So ... How about you stop fooling yourself ... Into thinking we can possibly tax our way out of the hole we are in ...
Unless we decide to conquer a few other wealthy Nations to get there.


Eighteen months of servicing the interest ...

.​

Did you think I was posting that increasing taxes was a good idea?

At 35 trillion in debt, increasing taxes is a band aid.

 

[BlackSand]

Did you think I was posting that increasing taxes was a good idea?

At 35 trillion in debt, increasing taxes is a band aid.

.

About the only way we can actually do anything ... Is to drastically cut spending ...
And even with that ... It would a few lifetimes to recover.

Since I don't really see that happening ... I would suggest a 90-day plan.
Figure out how you are going to live for 90 days ... When all this mess collapses.

It'll probably be a nightmare ... Death and destruction ... Total upheaval.
But ... If you manage to live through the first 90 days of that ... There's a slim chance you might be one of the few folks ...
That carries what is left of the human race ... Into wherever we will be going.

And ... It probably won't look anything like what we have now.

.​

 

[Crepitus]

Looks like the tax code needs to be revised. This is why I advocate for a consumption tax. The more you consume, the more you pay in taxes.

As Trump aptly points out, many of his most hated critics who are wealthy are taking advantage of the same tax code.

Consumption taxes are regressive. Someone who lives paycheck to paycheck will be paying far more as a percentage than someone who doesn't, all the way up to the billionaire extreme paying the least.

 

[LeftofLeft]

Consumption taxes are regressive. Someone who lives paycheck to paycheck will be paying far more as a percentage than someone who doesn't, all the way up to the billionaire extreme paying the least.

That’s the similar argument to the current system….. you people get hung up on people paying more as a percentage of their income on taxes. How about the people that pay 0 in taxes without deductions?

Class warfare is not going to solve the problem and trying to punish the the high income earners for success is only going to push income earners towards tax shelters

When it comes to taxes, How about cutting spending instead of playing games with percentage of income?

 

[Couchpotato]

Regardless of money spent on foreign aid Americans are the main beneficiaries of government largess. They/we should be paying for these benefits through higher taxes. When our taxes are lowered (to buy votes) the government borrows the money for these benefits and pays interest on the loans. As taxes remain insufficient to repay these loans they are simply renewed, and more money is borrowed for yet more benefits and to maintain previous programs. The irony is that repayment of these loans is guaranteed by "the full faith and credit" of the U.S. government, which is the power to levy taxes on the people to pay debts.

We should do that.

We dont have a revenue problem we have a spending problem.

 

[Couchpotato]

Consumption taxes are regressive. Someone who lives paycheck to paycheck will be paying far more as a percentage than someone who doesn't, all the way up to the billionaire extreme paying the least.

And those people use more of the services provided by those taxes.

 

[Woodznutz]

We dont have a revenue problem we have a spending problem.

I think we have to look at both.

 

[Couchpotato]

I think we have to look at both.

We generate more than double the tax revenue than the next country on the list which is China who has 3 times our population. I'll say again we have a spending problem.

 

[Couchpotato]

@Woodnuts

To be fair I am lightyears from being a tax expert of any kind let alone on Chinese taxes and how those are calculated/collected.

 

[Woodznutz]

@Woodnuts

To be fair I am lightyears from being a tax expert of any kind let alone on Chinese taxes and how those are calculated/collected.

My point is that sometimes you have to use some chemical fertilizer in order to return the land to organic farming.

 

[initforme]

Social security and medicare should not be cut other than waste. Then take that $ and put it right back into those 2 programs. People work and pay into them.

 

[initforme]

I'm saying that everyone who receives government benefits should pay the most taxes.

Define govt benefits of which social security and medicare are not a part of.

 

[Woodznutz]

Define govt benefits of which social security and medicare are not a part of.

Government benefits are funded from general revenues. SS and Medicare are funded directly by workers using after-tax funds.

 

[Independent thinker]

Define govt benefits of which social security and medicare are not a part of.

Great analogy! Thanks. Yes, people pay into both SS and Medicare and then they receive benefits back from it in return. This is EXACTLY what I was referring to. So, the people that get the most government benefits outside of SS and Medicare should be paying in the most to the very programs they receive benefits for. Why should I pay taxes to cover government benefits that I don't even receive any of?

 

[Woodznutz]

Great analogy! Thanks. Yes, people pay into both SS and Medicare and then they receive benefits back from it in return. This is EXACTLY what I was referring to. So, the people that get the most government benefits outside of SS and Medicare should be paying in the most to the very programs they receive benefits for. Why should I pay taxes to cover government benefits that I don't even receive any of?

That defeats the purpose of government benefits.

 

[Couchpotato]

My point is that sometimes you have to use some chemical fertilizer in order to return the land to organic farming.

That's fine but the answer is never look at the spending it's always look at the revenue because no one ever wants to have the hard conversation. Our politicians are far too worried about getting reelected to care about what's actually good for the country.

If we reduced our spending to pre pandemic levels which were only raised because there was an emergency (and I'm relatively sure we are past that emergency) we would be over a trillion dollars in the black. That's one Presidential term ago. We are almost 2 trillion in the red currently.

2018 expenditures were 4.1 trillion dollars we pulled in over 5 trillion in tax revenue last year at the federal level.

 

[Independent thinker]

That defeats the purpose of government benefits.

Maybe so but it doesn't change my argument. Why should I pay taxes to help deadbeats? Like SS & Medicare, the people receiving the benefits should be the ones paying into it.

 

[Woodznutz]

Maybe so but it doesn't change my argument. Why should I pay taxes to help deadbeats? Like SS & Medicare, the people receiving the benefits should be the ones paying into it.

If they could afford to pay in, they wouldn't need the benefits. Anyway, it's a small price to pay to keep them from running amok.

 

[initforme]

If they could afford to pay in, they wouldn't need the benefits. Anyway, it's a small price to pay to keep them from running amok.

I paid into it tor 40 years while I worked for this God awful rat race. Emphasis God awful.

 

[Woodznutz]

I paid into it tor 40 years while I worked for this God awful rat race. Emphasis God awful.

I've paid in for 69 years, but I'm still enjoying my working life although at some point I gotta retire. Hard to leave a job you love.