Mitt Romney has written an editorial. It should prompt a national discussion. It won't.

[martybegan]

They are called airplanes.

Are you really comparing orbital launch vehicles to aircraft?

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

That would be a HUGE tax increase for wealthier, not necessarily rich, Americans. Many small business owners would be decimated.

A self-employed person making 300k per year would pay about 16k more in taxes per year or $1300/mth. That is money they will never see, so it effectively raised their taxes 12.7%. That is absurd. For the same person working for a company, the employee would pay an extra 8k and the company would have to foot the bill the additional 8k.

This would kill the economy, by slowing wage growth, decreasing hiring and limit the number of small businesses. But hey, what do you care as long as you don’t have to pay, right? That seems to be the mantra of today’s youth and Democratic Party. Never mind the long term consequences.

You make more, you pay more. I believe that was one of the basic prems for implementing SS.

 

[marvin martian]

Are you really comparing orbital launch vehicles to aircraft?

He's not the sharpest tool, is he?

 

[hadit]

That would be a HUGE tax increase for wealthier, not necessarily rich, Americans. Many small business owners would be decimated.

A self-employed person making 300k per year would pay about 16k more in taxes per year or $1300/mth. That is money they will never see, so it effectively raised their taxes 12.7%. That is absurd. For the same person working for a company, the employee would pay an extra 8k and the company would have to foot the bill the additional 8k.

This would kill the economy, by slowing wage growth, decreasing hiring and limit the number of small businesses. But hey, what do you care as long as you don’t have to pay, right? That seems to be the mantra of today’s youth and Democratic Party. Never mind the long term consequences.

I've often said that we could have done something a lot less painful to fix SS when we first became aware that it would run out of money, but lacked the will to do it. Now it's going to hurt, a lot.

Think, who is going to fight to keep benefits where they are and increase them? A block of voters well known for voting in large numbers, that's who. Given that, who do you think will have a larger influence on the eventual changes, the people getting the benes or the ones paying for them?

 

[pknopp]

Are you really comparing orbital launch vehicles to aircraft?

We have had reusable aircraft for over 100 years.

 

[August West]

This is the only thing dems have is to tax tax tax. They never have had a solution. Romney should give up some of his billions then so he can pay for worthless wars and social programs. No, it's time that the govt do without. They've been screwing the populace forever.

Damn those dems for wanting to pay the bills that we all made. I want free stuff!

 

[Auld Phart]

Democrats (in power) always insist on higher taxes for the rich when running for office but do nothing about it while in office.

Pelosi, and Shiff would never put up with it.

(neither would Bernie, as far as that goes.)

 

[Marener]

And then destroy the entire concept of social security. The cap is there because there is a cap on benefits as well.

If we were to stick to the concept of social security, then benefits will have to decrease by about 30% when the trust fund runs out.

Is that any better of an option?

 

[pknopp]

Pelosi, and Shiff would never put up with it.

(neither would Bernie, as far as that goes.)

Maybe not......here is the difference though......if someone I vote for promises something and then does not follow through, they don't get my vote again.

 

[Mac1958]

So too we need to have a discussion about the debt, during which both higher taxes and lower spending are on the table. There are still more.

The problem is, with Trumpsters, you're dealing with people who (a) have zero understanding of macroeconomics and (b) believe Trump when he says something absolutely insane like "tariffs can replace income taxes".

I don't like higher individual income taxes. But we have no choice now. We have done this to ourselves. Making American employers pay higher tariffs, and having some mega-rich guy prancing around on a stage with a fuckin' chainsaw after laying off thousands is not the way to go either. This has to happen from BOTH ENDS.

No, it's not "fair" to place a higher revenue burden on higher earners. But there are a lot of things in life that happen that are unfair. In the grand scheme of things, this would be LESS unfair.

The Dems have to grow some balls and figure out a way to message this. To date, they have not.

 

[Auld Phart]

The debt continues to grow, grow, grow under Republicans........is that our solution?

does it go down under Democrats?

 

[pknopp]

The problem is, with Trumpsters, you're dealing with people who (a) have zero understanding of macroeconomics and (b) believe Trump when he says something absolutely insane like "tariffs can replace income taxes".

It's not that they can't. It's that they are still a tax.

I don't like higher individual income taxes. But we have no choice now. We have done this to ourselves. Making American employers pay higher tariffs, and having some mega-rich guy prancing around on a stage after laying off thousands is not the way to go either. This has to happen from BOTH ENDS.

No, it's not "fair" to place a higher revenue burden on higher earners. But there are a lot of things in life that happen that are unfair. In the grand scheme of things, this would be LESS unfair.

The Dems have to grow some balls and figure out a way to message this. To date, they have not.

Because they don't actually support it.

 

[Crepitus]

Of course zero discussion on reducing the size of government and corruption via government which is the cause of this mess in the first place.

Because DOGE was such a roaring success....

 

[SweetTea]

You make more, you pay more. I believe that was one of the basic prems for implementing SS.

A person making 300k already pays more. We have a progressive tax system. SS wasn’t meant to be a welfare system. Lower income workers already receive a higher replacement rate of their pre-retirement earnings than high earners.

 

[pknopp]

does it go down under Democrats?

No and I condemn it.

 

[martybegan]

We have had reusable aircraft for over 100 years.

We have not had reusable booster rockets to get loads to orbital velocity.

Musk has lowered the cost per ton to get cargo to earth orbits significantly.

 

[martybegan]

If we were to stick to the concept of social security, then benefits will have to decrease by about 30% when the trust fund runs out.

Is that any better of an option?

Oh well.

Social security was supposed to be a supplement to retirement, not the main supplier of retirement funds.

 

[rightwinger]

This is the only thing dems have is to tax tax tax. They never have had a solution. Romney should give up some of his billions then so he can pay for worthless wars and social programs. No, it's time that the govt do without. They've been screwing the populace forever.

Democrats are tax and spend
Republicans are cut taxes and spend

 

[pknopp]

We have not had reusable booster rockets to get loads to orbital velocity.

Musk has lowered the cost per ton to get cargo to earth orbits significantly.

Just a different use of what we already do. On the cost side you aren't adding in the billions of debt.

 

[martybegan]

Because DOGE was such a roaring success....

It was a noble first attempt. Hopefully President Vance creates version 2.