Fiscal Irresponsibility

Bush's fiscal plan is not working and will never work so long as he insists on squeezing the middle class.

I refuse to pay more taxes.

This govt better start cutting spending, and I am not confident any Democratic Party member has the ability to do that. I am not sure there are any republicans either who have the balls to cut spending.

Although I waver on the line-item-veto for presidents, it would sure be nice if the pres could veto the pork out of an otherwise good bill (not that we see a lot of good bills). Perhaps a law requiring zero-base budgeting would help. That way, all agencies would have to justify their whole budget every year, rather than just justifying increases.

Cy

I wonder if Dubya can explain to us again why the 1.35 trillion dollar tax cut was a good idea.......?

And congress is moving to make the tax cuts permanent? What part of this am I not getting??

The part where congress hasn't cut any pork. Why would you want to give them more money to play with? More tax money isn't going to solve the problem - they need to quit spending money on pet projects.

It's a combination of both; cutting pork AND raising taxes. Folks, we are seriously in debt here!

Cycloptichorn

So let me ask you Cy, what percentage of a person's pay should go to our government? Currently, this particular middle class clown gives our federal government roughly 15% of my income. Will you be satisfied only when I am giving 20%? Or will it take 30%?

Even then, they will only spend more and more, so increasing taxes is not the answer. Only when they get spending under control will the problem begin to get better.

I agree that spending is a problem that needs to be gotten under control.

Personally, I believe that people should pay a rising tax rate based upon what they earn, that caps off at something like 30 mil per year. Anyone who makes more than that, pays every cent they make over that in taxes.

My problem is that most of the tax cuts benefit the rich tremendously. Over the last 5 years, the average wage of the average worker in America has risen .5%, I believe; the average worth of the top 3% , however, is up tremendously.

Lemme see if I can hunt some numbers down; but regardless, tax cuts in a time of huge deficits and debts are insanity! Especially cuts for the rich...

Cycloptichorn

fiscal irresponsibility
have you forgotten about...TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS...?
just stay close enough to the table when the goodies are being served up and you may catch some of the crumbs. surely, you will find that satisfactory ?
(laughing and crying) hbg

Cy, no need to hunt down numbers on the average worth of the top 3%....I'll take your word for it since that is not really (imo) a stat that is too germain to this discussion. Net worth and income are two very different things.

As to your statement about tax cuts benefitting the rich tremendously, I can only agree. Simply because when you cut taxes by a certain percentage, those who make more (and thus were paying more) will get a bigger break. But that is how it should be.

Example: Tax cut of 1% across the board.

Wage earner of 500,000/yr realizes a $5000 gain
Wage earner of 100,000/yr realizes a $1000 gain
Wage earner of 50,000/yr realizes a $ 500 gain
Wage earner of 20,000/yr realizes a $200 gain

And of course, anyone who was not paying anything in taxes gains nothing. Simple. But each tax payer got the same percentage of their earnings back. So how is this unfair. Unless of course you give the upper brackets a bigger percentage of a cut, then I would agree that the top wage earners were indeed getting a bigger break.

Now, if I am not taking something into account that you are taking into account, let me know.

It isn't really a question of '1% tax break for everyone.'

It's things like the Estate tax being repealed.

It's investment taxes being repealed.

It's having a cap on Social Security taxes at 90k; anyone who makes more than 90k pays way less in taxes than anyone who makes less than that much, in SS taxes alone.

It is a persistent failure to tax businesses to the proper level; large numbers of businesses use loopholes to pay essentially zero dollars in taxes.

All of these factors favor the rich, hurt the poor.

Any tax cut should be smallest for the richest group of our society; they need it the least!

Cycloptichorn

Surely you don't think businesses actually pay taxes. Even when they technically write a check to the government, that expense is passed along to the consumer. Tax at 100% everything over a certain dollar amount? What do you want to bet NO ONE would every earn that dollar amount? How stupid would you have to be want to pay 100%?

I say we eliminate all taxes, go with a sales tax on everything but essentials. Those that spend lavishly (the rich) will pay lavishly. Those that spend frugally, will pay very little.