Thursday, October 11, 2007

The trillion dollar tax fight

You know what..I'm okay with this, almost.
If congress was going to get rid of the AMT and therefore CUT about 200 million dollars a year of failed liberal social programs that create a permanent underclass of government dependant losers, I would say go for it.

4 comments:

hashfanatic said...

Depends upon which specific programs you consider "failed"...

At this point, if Republicans and corporatist Democrats refuse to pay their fair share of taxes (and/or continually find new and inventive ways to dodge their share), I'm all for getting rid of the income tax, if the government gets the corporations to make up the difference, and we can have some value-added sales tax that is dedicated by region.

The Game said...

first, what is a cooperations "fair share"
Remember, these are the people that create most of the jobs and economic growth, so lets not beat up on them all the time..

and Hash said:
we can have some value-added sales tax that is dedicated by region.

What does that mean?

hashfanatic said...

"Remember, these are the people that create most of the jobs and economic growth, so lets not beat up on them all the time.."

Not really...and it's not a question of "beating up" on them, it's a question of asking them to pay their fair share, after years of sweetheart deals and incentives, only to have them ship the jobs out to China, Malaysia, etc., anyway...

I have never understood the neocon fascination with "Islamofascists" when the Chinese have completely achieved the upper hand already...
I was never supportive of GATT, NAFTA, "free trade" anyway, but the flip side of that equation is that we would have to re-industrialize, which I support because I believe it's unnatural to have all imports from China with items like food, baby lotion, GE washing machines (yes, GE) or other consumables when their quality doesn't meet our needs anyway.

If we dump this income tax shell game (that we will never agree upon and therefore, never enforce), even with corporate rather then our support, we'll still need a high sales tax. Folks have a right (IMHO) to decree a portion of those taxes to the region, not just the state, they live in. We have an obligation to fiscal responsibility on a local level as well, and careful budgeting, stringent policing of corruption, and an eye to paying today instead of deferring debt and necessary expenditures till tomorrow should be rewarded, instead of the government punishing the municipalities for managing their own priorities.

It's complicated, and I'm not sure it will work at this point, with our foreign debt situation hovering ominously, and subprime foreclosures hitting unprecendented levels on the fifteenth of this month, and every month thereafter till February. But I'd be willing to support the idea and give a shot, even if it meant paying more initially for goods and services, because I think it would shake up things a bit and get us all away from this resentment we all feel toward other people paying less.

I've been in other countries where they have such higher taxes on goods and services, and it actually doesn't come out to being much more, simply because the sellers of said goods and services simply lower their prices in order to compensate.

My main issue is that I want our government to live within its means, I want us as a people to scale back the crazy spending on luxuries they can't afford, I want us to go back to being the biggest creditor rather than the biggest debtor nation again, and I want us all to be able to save more for the future.

IF abolishing the income tax (and that's a BIG if) is the one variable that can help us accomplish those goals, I'm no longer resistant to seriously considering the idea.

PCD said...

Che Hashhole,

You can not dictate the economic model in a free society. Oops, I forgot, you do not want a free society, you Marxist jerk.

I don't want any kind of VAT tax. It makes it all to easy to hide from the people the consequences of tax hikes and who is responsible for the economic havoc it causes.