Taxes and Budget Reformation

from PolMach Forums
Below I will outline why I believe that tax reform is needed. If there is any intrest in the discussion I will put together a posible plan for doing so. :
politics
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Reply #1 from PolMach Forums Top
Ok here is my reasoning. In the near future social security will become a major expense of the country. It will not be able to afford the expense of social security and medicare without further cutting expenses. Further, according to http://www.cbpp.org/10-21-03tax.htm, we have never collected less in income tax when compared with the GDP. Even further, this website goes on to show that we are spending less then ever compared to the GDP. Also, we are driving up huge deficits and have a federal debt of more than 7 trillion dollars according to http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/. That equates to about 70% of our GDP. To offset this and to help the government pay its increasing costs, it is important that taxes be raised. Reagan said that lowering taxes would result in increased tax revenue. You will find this stated on many economic websites. They say that the lowered taxes cause the GDP to go up. They also point you to the fact that tax revenues have never been higher, even when compared to inflation. The problem with all this reasoning is first that the lowered taxes don't help raise the gdp, and inflation does not keep up with the GDP. Take a look at this graph showing the real gdp. Reagan introduced his tax cuts in 1981. (This graph takes into account inflation)


This graph shows you that the GDP has been growing in an aprox. linear fashion, both before and after the tax cuts, indicating that the tax cuts didn't help. (You will notice that the GDP does go up more during the tech boom and less after 9/11).
We need to raise taxes to pay out social security and to defend this nation and to do the things the government is supposed to do.
Reply #2 from PolMach Forums Top
First of all, I think that instead of feeding the beast with more money, drastically cut the size of the government. The federal budget is currently $2 Trillion a year. It needs to be cut to at least $1.5 trillion, if not something closer to $1 Trillion. This process is a lot easier than you might expect. Some common sense reductions that would go a long way towards this goal:
-stop putting Japan and Germany on military welfare. Additionally, the cold war is over- dismantle military bases that were intended to protect against the soviets. We urgently need to get our military out of everywhere in the world besides america.
-End welfare, including foreign aid, personal welfare, and corporate welfare. Its a viscous and sometimes perverted cycle: we give billions a year to both israel and the palestinians, so they can use it to kill eachother. We give billions to corporations that messed up, and middle-class americans are left with the bill/. We give billions to the poor, and it has hardly helped anyone. Less than 10% of the total amount appropriated to welfare actually reaches the poor, the rest is spent on vast infrastructure and relatively high paying welfare office jobs.
-Amend the consitution to provent congress from using federal funds on projects that help only a specific geographic regions. I'm sick of congressman and senators spending billions a year on gifts for their voting districts using federal tax dollars, whether it be for a museum or pig subsidies or tax breaks for a local company.

That said, yes we definately have to start paying off the federal deficit. But doing so before constraining the current spending would be like trying to lose weight while eating a double bacon cheeseburger, fries, and ice cream for every meal every day. PS: don't forget to butter your bacon
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from PolMach Forums Top
Good suggestions. The budget has to be cut, true. However revenues need to be increased to fund social security. Also, the ammendment to prevent congress from using federal funds on projects that help only a specific geographic region is an excelent idea, although it would never pass congress. To ammend the constitution would require a huge majority to support the bill. The united states needs to have federal reserves also available so that we can enter a major war and be able to afford it. We can put a large number of our combat troops on reserve, and we can pull out of Korea. We can also stop those aformentioned welfare programs for the corporations and the countries. I am sure there are other ways to cut costs (such as the missle defense shield). But some spending areas need to increase. We need to decrease our dependence on foreign oil. This will be costly. We need to keep hubble (but do not need to go to mars). We need medical research and intrest free college loans for everyone.