Buckle up, Constant Readers... I spent 4 hours in Pittsburgh International and Charlotte International Airports yesterday watching Fox News and reading conservative websites...
"Most of what Congress is constitutionally authorized to spend for is listed in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and includes: coining money, establish Post Offices, to support Armies and a few other activities. Today’s federal budget is over $3 trillion dollars. I challenge anyone to find specific constitutional authority for at least $2 trillion of it. That includes Social Security, Medicare, farm and business handouts, education, prescription drugs and a host of other federal expenditures. Americans who have become accustomed to living at the expense of another American would not want Congress to obey the Constitution, especially if it left out their favorite handout.” —
Walter WilliamsI've had plenty of time the last week or so to catch up on Current Events and the talking heads that are tracking the election for me...
I was watching Brit Hume and his “panel of experts” (Krauthammer, Kondracke and Barnes) talking about taxes, and tax rates, and tax receipts, and the gyrations of Congress, and the doublespeak of presidential candidates last week...
Synopsis:
It's all bullshit, and I’m sick of it, and sick of the candidates.
Most of all, I’m sick of Congress taking far more than it needs, and giving it to special interest groups and pork barrel political friends, and upon rare occasion doling back to us the dribs and drabs of their largess at their whim.
“Letting the Bush tax cuts expire... will be the largest increase in personal income taxes since World War II... The tax code changes enacted in 2001 and 2003 are scheduled to expire at the end of 2010. If they do, statutory marginal tax rates will rise across the board; ranging from a 13% increase for the highest income households to a 50% increase in tax rates faced by lower-income households. The marriage penalty will be reimposed and the child credit cut by $500 per child. The long-term capital gains tax rate will rise by one-third (to 20% from 15%) and the top tax rate on dividends will nearly triple (to 39.6% from 15%). The estate tax will roar back from extinction at the same time, with a top rate of 55% and an exempt amount of only $600,000. Finally, the Alternative Minimum Tax will reach far deeper into the middle class, ensnaring 25 million tax filers in its web.” —John Cogan and R. Glenn Hubbard -
The Coming Tax Bomb - WSJHey America- That sucking noise you hear? Yeah- that's your (Democratic) Government hoovering up every possible cent it can bleed from you.
As for Obama's "Change you can believe in"... That will be the only money you have left... some small change. Get ready to start scouring the floorboards of your car and the under the sofa cushions for that "Change" so you can buy groceries, because your government will have most of your paycheck.
Here’s what we need:
1. A flat federal tax rate of 15% for all individuals;
No exceptions, No bullshit.
2. Capital gains tax of 5%;
3. No more inheritance taxes and no alternative minimum taxes;
4. A flat no-exceptions-whatsoever federal tax rate of 5% on sales after expenses (salaries and rents mostly) for corporations.
We've all talked of taxes in the past (national sales tax, graduated universal rates, etc) and in the end I have come to realize that none of it is going to work. Too complicated, too many caveats, and too many ways for We The People to get shafted in new and exciting ways by Them the Politicians/Accountants.
So it’s time to make it simple.
How much did you earn last year? $X
Your tax bill: $0.15X
How much did you earn from investments last year? $Y
Your tax bill: $0.05Y
What were your corporation’s sales last year, after paying salaries and rents? $Z million
Your tax bill: $0.05Z
I don’t want to hear about how the government can’t operate on only a 15% tax rate. In fact, I’m sick and tired of hearing about the government needing this and that.
I need transportation- I get a car I can afford based on my paycheck and expenses.
I can't go to my boss and say:
"Hey Jim. I've decided after careful consideration and research that the best, safest car I can get is a GasSucker Utility Vehicle Mk II, so I need a big fat raise to get one. And I'll need even more because I need to buy more gas to run the big bastard."
Guess what he'd tell me?
Like all the rest of us, it’s time Congress learned to live within its means—and the only reason I suggested a 15% tax rate instead of a 10% tax rate is because things like interstate highways and carrier groups are Good Things. No deficits except in times of national crisis—and we get to decide what constitutes a crisis, not Congress.
Personally, however, I’d go for a flat 20% until we get the deficit down, and then step it down through 15% until we get a reserve, then down to 10%, IF we can ge it down to 10% - I won’t swear we CAN. There ARE two things I’d give a tax break to - Education (REAL Education, not this BS we get now) and BASIC SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, on ALL FRONTS - the real push-the-frontiers-back stuff. None of this pseudo-science stuff either, like ‘do carrots scream when we cut the tops off before steaming them’.
I might be persuaded to entertain the notion for sole federal funding by sales tax. If you wanted to pay less tax, don’t buy as much.
BUT sure as hell I don’t trust those bastards to introduce a national sales tax and simultaneously drop income tax. What would most likely happen is that we’d be stuck with TWO ways to tax us, and neither would ever be repealed.
Military spending?
Want to fight a war- Sell bonds, just like you used to have to do in the old days. When the war becomes unpopular, then Johnny’ll have to come marching home.
Privatize NASA. End of story.
Don’t get me started on Social Security. That sucker should be taken out to the pond and have it's head held under until it stops kicking.
Privatize it, now.
If the assholes in Congress and White House policy wonks are unable to figure it out, ask Chile to send some of their folks here as consultants.
And speaking of foreigners: end all this foreign aid bullshit, Right Fucking NOW, starting with the United Nations.
We’re heading for a financial crisis in this country, and this is no time to be hosting cocktail parties with taxpayer money. Lending or giving money (especially to your enemies) when you yourself are in debt is the height of stupidity. It’s as true for nations as it is for individuals. The west does not win friends when we throw our money at the socialists and savages of the third world. They just take the money, laugh and see us as weak and deluded, further strengthening their will to destroy us. We need to be respected and feared.
Just FYI-
Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic states which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records: Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time
Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time
Morocco votes against the United States 70% of the time
United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.
Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.
Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Algeria votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Pakistan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time.
Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.
Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.
India votes against the United States 81% of the time.
Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.
Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.
U S Foreign Aid to those that hate us:
Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.
Jordan votes 71% against the United States and receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
Pakistan votes 75% against the United States receives $6,721,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
India votes 81% against the United States receives $143,699,000 annually.
Does this piss you off as much as it does me?
Life is getting far too complicated, and far too expensive, when it should be easy, just like ordinary life would be if we weren’t giving a third of our wages over to be pissed down the drain by our so-called government. Right now, I wouldn’t trust government with the wife of my worst enemy. Or vice-versa, a la Hillary &Bill. I shudder to think.
I've said it before- Giving money to the government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys...
We need to tighten our belts, live within our means, and quit all the pork and other shit that Congress ladles out like it’s found money.
We’ve been spending like there’s no tomorrow. Well, tomorrow is here y'all, and unless we recognize that fact and quit farting around with discussions of subsidies and hedge funds and tax breaks and hoping for a visit from the Money Fairy, we’re all, each and every one of us, going to get fucked harder than a $5 hooker during Fleet Week.
TBG out-
