The Tax System

I used to think the tax system was backwards lending itself to pork barrel laws allocating federal funds to personal interests in states and the federal government withholding money from the states when they needed it. If the state had higher taxes and the federal government less, it would leave the states to fund themselves and the federal government to be more selective on its spending. For example, if CA kept the $15 billion that was its share of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, it would have eliminated its 2011 deficit. In rethinking this I don’t think it wouldn’t resolve our overall problem as state and local governments are going bankrupt and relying on the federal government to cover them. The perfect example of this is Central Falls, Rhode Island. They want to take away half of the pension of retirees. The City is saying it may have to go bankrupt and the entire retirement system is in jeopardy if it doesn’t make the cuts. The Police Commander said he put 7% of his salary every month into his retirement fund for 27 years. The City opted out of Social Security for its municipal workers so the workers don’t have that to go back on. Workers say they’ll have to go on Welfare. The federal government in one way or the other ends up compensating when lower governments are not responsible for functioning properly. As no governmental agency can be trusted, there should be no opting out of SS. I do believe that all governments need to balance their budgets or at least do better. We can’t judge what catastrophes will occur and require unanticipated money.

At first, when I heard Donny Osmond say - we should be taxed on what we buy and not on what we earn; I thought he might be right so, I gave this idea some thought. Originally, I considered that our purchases are taxed by most states and cities and a higher tax on purchases that is split among the governments might be a better way to go. Generally, the rich buy more and bigger expensive things than the average American. Then I remembered that the rich also have more places to put their money and normally don’t spend more than they earn like the average American. Yes, some like Willie Nelson went bankrupt but I’m pretty sure it was because of bad choices and not necessitated by purchasing things that are needed for everyday life. I moved on to thinking that this approach might assist people in saving money which would come in handy if there was an emergency or encourage them to have fewer children but this is not going to happen. People with more children would need to buy more stuff. My conclusion is: the lower and middle class, not the rich, would end up paying a larger percentage of their income in taxes.

Cain and Huntsman are both offering tax code revisions which I will discuss tomorrow. I heard Ron Paul say that America is being run by the corporations. However, Republicans continue to say they will not consider a tax increase in spite of what happened with America’s credit rating. In Matthew, Luke and Mark when Jesus was asked by the Herodians if it is lawful to give tribute to Caesar he replies – Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. This is where we get the saying give Caesar his due. While the budget was being negotiated in August, GMA got representatives from various parties together to come up with a solution. I heard one of the 5 people say he didn’t like imposing a higher tax on those making $250,000 or more because it affected him; he wasn’t a Democrat.

We should decrease government waste and subsidies and close loopholes; not use hard working people to assist in balancing the budget. Each of us must tear down the walls that have been built by every ruling faction on the planet. It seems the people of the Middle East and others are attempting to change their countries. As others struggle to become more like the USA we are becoming more like a third-world country. Donald Trump said if we raise taxes on the rich they’ll take their business elsewhere. I say you’re sounding like the dictators that the Middle Easterners are tired of; they live in luxury while the people starve. If that’s what you think then I say you and others with the same attitude need to live and do business elsewhere. There are good Americans that can take your place.