David Broder's addled mind continues to punch out 750 words a week for the WaPost, and this time he's treated us once again to the old standard of the left--that we need to raise taxes to deal with our accumulating debt--never mind that policy choices have created (and exacerbated) this debt.
This is how the left would have it; create entitlements (even when national debt is already out of control) then point back at the fiscal "crisis" to justify raising taxes.
Little or no talk of cutting spending, in this article or anywhere else.
From the Washington Post:
ReplyDelete"A study we conducted at the Tax Policy Center found that Washington would have to raise [income] taxes by almost 40 percent to reduce -- not eliminate, just reduce -- the deficit to 3 percent of our GDP, the 2015 goal the Obama administration set in its 2011 budget. That tax boost would mean the lowest income tax rate would jump from 10 to nearly 14 percent, and the top rate from 35 to 48 percent.
What if we raised taxes only on families with couples making more than $250,000 a year and on individuals making more than $200,000? The top two income tax rates would have to more than double, with the top rate hitting almost 77 percent, to get the deficit down to 3 percent of GDP."
Zoinks.
You mean the deficit Bro. Barak inherited?
ReplyDeleteVAT baby, VAT.
ReplyDeleteI say bring it on. Put a VAT in place, elect Republicans, take a meat cleaver to entitlements and do away with the IRS.
This might be the road to the FairTax.
Can you imagine scraping the IRS? The greatest tool for mischief in the politician's arsenal since 1913, taken away, gone. To be replaced by a consumption tax which everybody pays, the rich, the poor, the legal, the illegal, the on the books, the off the books. Trust fund assholes (who love to fund Dems) no longer get a free ride. No more tax breaks for "friends" of pols. No more April 15th, no more 1040s or 1099s or W9s. The IRS code would take its place on the ash-heap of history along with its philosophical brethren Mein Kamph and Das Capital.
A tax on consumption, not on production. A true and honest tax, easy to understand and everybody has skin in the game. It would take us about 15 minutes to have the strongest economy in the history of the World. An economy of vibrancy and innovation. A new Rome.
My God the day it happened would be like Mardi Gras (without the booze, the drugs and the hookers). And the Democrats would absolutely lose their communist minds.
Oh mighty and merciful God, please make it happen! We're on the cusp of a new Dark Age. We need a miracle.
Saying BHO inherited the deficit from GWB is like saying that an Officer of the Deck inherited a bad situation from the previous watch in which his ship was headed towards shoal water, he knew it, and ACCELERATED TOWARDS THE SHOAL WATER.
ReplyDeleteFor better or for worse the IRS is here forever, until the USA is no more.
I mostly agree Mr. Clean, but I think there is a bit of dishonesty in trying to sweep the inherited aspect of the deficit under the rug.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is astronomical. Yes, this is a nightmare of the caliber that only government could create. But simple honesty demands that we skip the red herrings when it comes time to see who is responsible for what.
To "inherit" a debt and work to pay it off is one thing.
ReplyDeleteTo inherit the debt, double down on it while expanding spending at an unsustainable rate and complain about the debt inherited is another.
Again, more red herrings. Are we incapable of talking about a particular topic without changing the subject to blame BHO in some way, for something? How is this not dishonest and evasive of the point?
ReplyDeleteI am all for talking about BHO driving us into an iceberg, but can we have just a little maturity while doing it?