April 15th Is Coming - Shut Up And Pay Up

-- In 2005, the federal government took $2.4 trillion out of the pockets of the American people. To put this number into context, it is about the same as the size of the entire U.S. economy in 1959 in inflation-adjusted terms. Only two other countries on earth have economies as large as our federal government: Germany and Japan -- and Germany just barely makes the cut, with a gross domestic product of $2.7 trillion. China, which everyone is so alarmed about, has an economy significantly smaller than the federal government, with a GDP of $1.9 trillion -- about equal to what the United States raises just from taxes on individuals.

-- Contrary to popular belief, the vast bulk of federal taxes are paid by the wealthy. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, in 2006, 53.7 percent of all federal income taxes were paid by those with incomes over $200,000. Those with incomes between $100,000 and $200,000 paid 28.3 percent of all individual income taxes. Thus those with incomes over $100,000 paid 82 percent of the total. They also paid 44.4 percent of all payroll taxes.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/04/tax_facts.html
 
I agree with Redstates. ABOLISH TAXES and privitize the MILITARY/POLICE/FIRE DEPT/EDUCATION/PUBLIC WORKS. LETS DUMP GOVT ALL TOGETHER AFTER WE WANT LESS GOVT NOT MORE.

Tax Policy Taking U.S. Down the Road to France: Kevin Hassett

By Kevin Hassett

April 9 (Bloomberg) -- The Bush administration's tax cuts have received an enormous amount of attention in recent weeks, with Democrats signaling they'll try to let them expire in 2010. Taxpayers at the top might see bad news even sooner than that.

If House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel has his way, the 1 million biggest taxpayers can expect to see an attempt to increase their payments as early as this year.

Rangel recently discussed plans to fix the Alternative Minimum Tax, a levy originally targeted at the wealthy but which now threatens to ensnare millions of middle-income earners.

He said in a television interview: ``There are a million people that have enjoyed some $2 trillion in tax cuts. It would seem to me if you admit that 30 million people are paying taxes that they should not be paying, and 1 million are getting $1 trillion in taxes that they didn't request, that you could rearrange the rates and come out without a tax increase and more equity in the system.''

Yet the reversal of the Bush tax cuts would be just the tip of the iceberg. Looking to the coming decades, a perfect storm of events may be poised to fundamentally alter the character of the U.S. economy.

The U.S. has consistently outgrown its European allies for many years. There is little dispute among economists that the U.S.'s big advantage is its relatively small government. Federal government outlays take up about 20 percent of U.S. gross domestic product; in France, it's almost 55 percent.

Losing Our Edge

The latest budgetary maneuverings in the U.S. have virtually guaranteed that a good bit of that advantage will disappear, at least if Democrats remain in power.

The current laws, as written, have put the U.S. on the road to France. The primary culprit is our programs for retirees.

According to the latest long-run outlook of the Congressional Budget Office, government spending may take up fully 50 percent of GDP by 2050.

Yet revenue will increase tremendously over the same time period. Revenue relative to GDP, currently a smidgen more than 18 percent, will climb to 23.7 percent by 2050 and extrapolate out to a whopping 27.5 percent by 2075. A spending binge is coming, and a good chunk of the revenue needed to pay for it is coming as well.

The bad news for fans of small government is this: Even if spending were reined in enough to keep it equal to revenue, the size of the government will increase by about 50 percent in the coming decades.

No `Free Money'

Why the big climb in revenue? There are three reasons. First, current law calls for the expiration of the Bush tax cuts in 2010. Second, the Alternative Minimum Tax, which isn't adjusted for inflation, sucks in more and more revenue over time. Finally, as the economy grows in real terms, more individuals get thrust into the top tax bracket.

This is not ``free money.'' The government is increasing its take because individuals are seeing big tax increases. If we want to keep raising the same amount of revenue relative to our output each year, we are going to have to pass big tax reductions relative to the baseline.

But the House of Representatives has now adopted ``paygo'' rules that make it virtually impossible to stop this revenue surge from happening, and the Senate may soon follow. Any attempt to reduce taxes relative to this inflating baseline must be offset by accompanying spending cuts.

To stop the unprecedented growth of tax revenue relative to GDP, taxes need to be cut at some point.

Soaring Entitlements

The cost of entitlements is skyrocketing. There is no question that the only feasible tactic to restrict their growth is to ``starve the beast,'' that is, force Congress to pass politically unpopular tax increases to finance the giveaways to seniors. Congress then would have to choose between raising taxes and slashing benefits.

But the pressure to reduce benefits will abate significantly if the money from these stealthy tax increases is allowed to keep pouring in. You can bet that when it does, the cash will be diverted to ``save'' Social Security and Medicare.

Sacrosanct Target

It is clear that nobody wrote the current law with the objective of increasing government's share of GDP so dramatically over time. It's also clear that paygo rules are an important part of the budget process. They would have been a great help in the past few years when Republicans spent irresponsibly huge sums on bridges to nowhere.

But these rules also have long-run consequences. The biggest is that they make the current law baseline -- the estimate of spending, revenue and debt -- a sacrosanct target, regardless of how irrational that baseline might be.

If our political leaders wanted to, they could simply use paygo to block every new tax initiative for the next few decades, and watch while the current law gradually pushes the U.S. down the road to France.

(Kevin Hassett is director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He was chief economic adviser to Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona during the 2000 primaries. The opinions expressed are his own.)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_hassett&sid=acRknNQPg89c
 
Good..I am glad that the top earners are going to have to pay more...I dont see a problem with that. They have been living the life under Bush while the rest of us have been paying out the ass. And dont give me that tax break bullshit.. All I got was a little over 100 bucks. I would much rather my tax brackets back that Bush took away from me. Its impossible for me to fall into another tax bracket because I make like 80K...I cant deduct like 40 grand to fall into the next bracket.
 
Good..I am glad that the top earners are going to have to pay more...I dont see a problem with that. They have been living the life under Bush while the rest of us have been paying out the ass. And dont give me that tax break bullshit.. All I got was a little over 100 bucks. I would much rather my tax brackets back that Bush took away from me. Its impossible for me to fall into another tax bracket because I make like 80K...I cant deduct like 40 grand to fall into the next bracket.

I'm just LMAO at the fact that Creek George is trying to have a personal conversation with RSR and for responses he gets cut-n-paste.:lol:
 
I'm just LMAO at the fact that Creek George is trying to have a personal conversation with RSR and for responses he gets cut-n-paste.:lol:

I really am starting to think about the fact that he really is nothing but a newsbot
 
creek writes like he just stepped out of the Poetry thing on HBO. It's kind of funny. It's like Messageboard Political Poetry. Kind of cool.
 
Creek George is coolth.
 
Good..I am glad that the top earners are going to have to pay more...
Do you really think that Paris (I got my trust fund) Hilton is going to pay more? Somehow I doubt that the very wealthy will pay more except to the accountant that hides it.

I dont see a problem with that. They have been living the life under Bush while the rest of us have been paying out the ass.
What is the problem? It's not like you were hurt. If the tax breaks had been passed to you in the form of a tax hike.....

And dont give me that tax break bullshit.. All I got was a little over 100 bucks.
Waaaa, cry me a river. What are you doing to promote tax reform?
I would much rather my tax brackets back that Bush took away from me. Its impossible for me to fall into another tax bracket because I make like 80K...I cant deduct like 40 grand to fall into the next bracket.
I would much rather go for a national sales tax or a national property tax. Then 15 Apr is just another day. Trust fund babies, illegal aliens, drug dealers, corrupt business owners, the mob, the pols, every freaking one gets to pay.

Fairtax fixes it all.
 
Good..I am glad that the top earners are going to have to pay more...I dont see a problem with that. They have been living the life under Bush while the rest of us have been paying out the ass. And dont give me that tax break bullshit.. All I got was a little over 100 bucks. I would much rather my tax brackets back that Bush took away from me. Its impossible for me to fall into another tax bracket because I make like 80K...I cant deduct like 40 grand to fall into the next bracket.

The top earners are the ones who invest, provide working capital, start and expand business, hire people, and help grow the economy

84% of all Federal income taxes are paid by the top 25% earners - how much more should they have to pay

Libs have this flawed theory that if you raise taxes you increase revenues - the opposite is true.

The current tax cuts are increasing revenues, lowering the annual defict, and growing the economy
 
I'm just LMAO at the fact that Creek George is trying to have a personal conversation with RSR and for responses he gets cut-n-paste.:lol:

We were have a conversation - I posted two links to back up my other posts - perhaps you should try reading them
 
Translation - Im an idiot and have no original thought so I will just insult you. Typical republican debate tactic. Oh wait, isnt what you just did below what you accuse libs of doing? HAHHAHAHA BUSTED !!!!!

Well at least you are starting to think - that is an improvement
 
Translation - Im an idiot and have no original thought so I will just insult you. Typical republican debate tactic. Oh wait, isnt what you just did below what you accuse libs of doing? HAHHAHAHA BUSTED !!!!!

Once again:

The top earners are the ones who invest, provide working capital, start and expand business, hire people, and help grow the economy

84% of all Federal income taxes are paid by the top 25% earners - how much more should they have to pay

Libs have this flawed theory that if you raise taxes you increase revenues - the opposite is true.

The current tax cuts are increasing revenues, lowering the annual defict, and growing the economy
__________________
 
same tired old RNC talking points.

Got anything that refutes em? If so I for one would be very interested. Taxation is now my favorite rant in the Domestic Issues arena. As the kids move out, the money "saved" that was gonna finance a workshop is going to uncle sugar to feed the worlds hungriest pig.

Since I decided to abandon practical reality in favor of tilting at windmills, I sent this to Charlie Rangel as soon as the Democrats took control of Congress.

Upon further review some of the points made might not be the most effective at winning hearts and minds......

Enjoy, Laugh, I sure did.

To the Members of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee:

Greetings,

My name is MSgt PE Gwinn, United States Marine Corps, Retired. I live in the [redacted] District of the State of Texas. I am writing to express my personal support for HR25 also known as the Fairtax.

I am sure that you will receive statements from professionals more qualified than I about economic issues in regard to taxation and revenue generation. My statement is intended to discuss HR 25 from the man-on-the-streets perspective.

Our income tax code has grown or changed substantially since the first year (1981) that I filed a tax return. Today’s tax code is so complicated that a layman cannot hope to comprehensively understand it. Instead, the average person is forced to hire professionally trained tax preparers to assist them. Ironically, if you ask three nationally known preparation agencies a tax question, and then the IRS, you are likely to get four answers. I did just that as an experiment in 1999.

So, the first and most important reason from my perspective to support HR 25 is the elimination of approximately 13,400 pages of Title 26 of the US Code of Federal Regulations and another 3,387 pages of Title 26 of the United States Code.

The simplification inherent in HR 25 will pay huge dividends simply by removing the need for professional help to do your part as a citizen.

No American agency should be feared by her citizens, ever. Yet the average person at tax time lives in dread of “the audit”. The second big reason to scrap the tax code is obvious. HR 25 will remove the potential IRS abuses of individuals.

Let’s face it. Politicians do not have the best of public reputations. The weekly scandals and the partisan infighting do nothing to detract from the image of politicians as little better than sharks. At least with sharks the dorsal fin is obvious. So the next great reason to support and expeditiously pass HR 25 is in public relations. The folks you need to impress are the indifferent middle. Passage of this bill will target those people where they live, in the wallet. They will know who voted for and against the reform. On election day they would very likely remember those who voted to directly make their daily lives easier.

Finally passage of HR 25 will ensure fairness and eliminate manipulation of the tax code by politicians in order to reward or punish. Further, everyone, whether they are rich or poor, saint or sinner, legal or illegal will pay. Even better is that each person chooses how much to pay as a direct result of their spending habits. The very poor may actually make money if the prebate exceeds the amount they spend on new goods or services.

So, if each Member is truly a representative of all of the people within their districts they will vote to pass HR 25 without delay or excessive modification. Your constituents will thank you for eliminating 17000 pages of existing legislation and regulation. They will note that the IRS can no longer be the American Gestapo. They will remember who ignored the lobbyists and stood up for the folks who put them into office, and they will remember who helped bring about fairness and relegated “Tax Day” to the other failed experiments of American History.

MSgt PE. Gwinn USMC/ret
[redacted] TX
 
Here is what drives libs nuts

More proof tax cuts work everytime



US Treasury Sets New 1-Day Tax Receipt Record Of $85.8 Billion
Tuesday September 19th, 2006 / 0h04


WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. government recorded record-high overall and corporate tax receipts on Sept. 15, which was a quarterly deadline for tax payments, the Treasury said Monday.
Total tax receipts were $85.8 billion on Friday, compared with the previous one-day record of $71 billion on Sept. 15 of last year, the Treasury said.
Within the overall figure, corporate tax receipts Friday were $71.8 billion, up from $63 billion in September of last year.
Treasury Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Randal Quarles said Friday's numbers provided a "continuing demonstration of the strength of the U.S. economy."
"In fact, Friday's gross receipts were the largest in a single day in the nation's history - 20% higher than receipts on the same quarterly tax payment date last year," Quarles said in a statement.
-By Benton Ives-Halperin, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9255; [email protected]

Tuesday September 19th, 2006 /
 
RSR, I think you are alittle confused. April 15th is the day the Government pays back the money they've wrongfully taken. They take our money all year around.
 

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