I will agree that there are inherent problems within our tax code, but your solutions only exacerbate the problem.
I wasn’t even offering solutions. I was offering the rough outline for beginning. And, in any case, if we scuttle our current process entirely and start afresh within say two or so years of the new laws, that wouldn’t exacerbate any problems. It would help alleviate them.
And no real economist, or even a student of economics, would suggest requiring a balanced budget.
That’s not true.
Just because the government doesn't currently effectively use the Macroeconomic tool that is deficit spending doesn't mean we need to take that tool away.
I’d agree that there may be a value in federal debt — to some extent under certain circumstances. But that doesn’t mean it ought to be the norm.
A progressive tax system is fundamental to the perpetuation of a functioning democracy.
Absolutely false.
Our problem is we don't have an effective progressive tax system.
No. Our problem is that we adopted a progressive tax “system” at all: and riddled our budgetary foundation with so many exceptions and exemptions and similar technical “loopholes” that our tax law, rules and regulations are a monstrous 72,000 + pages of often indecipherable and even contradictory gibberish.
While the poor pay a lower percentage of their income in taxes than the middle class, and the wealthy sometimes pay a higher percentage than the middle class, the uber-wealthy pay a lower percentage.
So what? We don’t tax wealth. Nor should we. We supposedly tax income. In a (hypothetical) flat tax system, the very wealthy may not pay as much as we could expect because they
aren’t earning income. The poor would pay relatively little because 10% of a smaller number is obviously less than 10% of a larger number. The folks in between would end up still paying more than their fair share, but yet less than in this convicted idiotic system we currently have.
And that is on a national level. At the state level, every single state has a regressive, not a progressive, tax system.
I was addressing the onky federal level.
First, there should be no distinction between earned and unearned income.
Of course there should as things currently stand. Why? Because we don’t tax wealth.
Second, the cap on income subject to the Social Security tax should be eliminated.
That’s a matter for a very much separate debate. And it is debatable even standing alone.
Third, eliminate all tax loopholes.
As a general rule, under our current system, the word “loophole” is so broad as to be almost meaningless.
The mortgage interest deduction first and foremost.
In the current system, that impacts only those who can afford a home in the first place. It would raise holy hell to try to eliminate it. Although it is certainly an example of a so-called “loophole.”
They do nothing more than produce an ineffective allocation of resources.
No. They provide some measure of relief for the vagueness of home ownership and mortgage interest rates etc. Plus, it is one of the few “loopholes” most people would favor.
Tax forms should be one page long.
Absolutely.
A certain percent for the first dollars of income, a higher percentage on the next level, and perhaps two or three additional, increasing levels after that.
Nope. You’re just back to “progressive” taxation which is plainly just unfair.
That is a "fair" tax because as incomes increase households utilize an increasing amount of government.
That’s a weak argument. We all use the same roads. We all get the same municipal water supply services and sanitation services and police and fire protection, etc. (at least within our own localities).
In fact, even in terms of what we supposedly “get” from the Federal government, that too is pretty equally distributed.
(
I have come up with a more rational and logical basis in favor of a so-called “progressive” taxation system. But it is a story for another day. I’ll just note that although I fundamentally otherwise disagree with a “progressive” tax, I could compromise on that point to a limited extent.)