Lets honor Reagan

[tpahl]

We should honor Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan left office in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell. I would like to honor Ronald Reagan, by repealing the income tax and thus immediately bringing the federal budget back to its 1989 spending level. Thats right... Elliminating the income tax would only bring us back 15 years in spending.

According to the Whitehouse's own numbers http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2005/pdf/hist.pdf) the federal government collected $1,782,342,000,000 from all sources in 2003. Individual income taxes were the source of 44.5% of that enormous sum. If we were to subtract individual income taxes from the total, we are left with $989,199,810,000. That is almost exactly how much the federal government collected in 1989.


Who thinks elliminating the income tax and replacing it with nothing is a great idea?

 

[Comrade]

Welcome to the board, by the way.

Comparing 1989 to 2004 dollars is apples to oranges.

1 trillion in 1989 is actually more of a tax burden that our current 1.7 trillion collected today, based on two factors.

Overall inflation rates average around 3% since 1989. So compound your 1989 dollars by: 1.03 ^ 15 = 150%.

Real value, ie., Gross National Product, has exceeded 4% annually for 15 years. Assuming tax rates have remained frozen since 1989 overall tax revenue in real dollars has grown alongside our economy at 4% for 15 years = 1.04 ^15 = 180%.

One Trillion 1989 dollars increased by 150% via inflation and 180% via overal economic growth puts the equivalent number at 2.7 trillion dollars in 2004. 1.7 trillion in today's dollars is a deal, much less of a burden overall.

 

[etoile]

Reagan was a great man, a great president. I think we should indeed honor him. Had we been under Carter, the cold war would have lasted much longer.