Quote:
Originally Posted by Donna2
Interesting. Do you believe that everyone in this country, every one, should pay their fair share? If 50% of the taxpayers are shouldering 96% of the tax burdens, should they be expected to pay more, less or stay the same? There are very many, myself included, who don't pay nearly enough and there are millions of free-loaders who pay nothing. Where do we begin?
|
Yeah, I think everyone who has income should pay taxes. I think many more corporations should pay taxes--only about one-third of them pay any taxes currently. When the tax burden is increased, I think it needs to be increased to a greater degree on the wealthiest Americans than on the middle and lower classes, but everyone should pay some taxes. And I can't see anything wrong with increasing tax rates across-the-board. Our federal tax rates are currently very near the lowest they've ever been in the history of the income tax system. I see no reason why they shouldn't be increased in order to begin to repay the national debt created by our political leaders over the last decade or so. They can always be reduced in the future when the revenues are less critically needed.
I'm not buying the outmoded political theory that taxes need to be decreased in order to encourage economic growth. Like I said, taxes are near a historical low point right now, and no particular economic recovery is evident. In fact, I think it's pretty well accepted by economistsa that the crushing debt load on the country will be a greater inhibitor of future economic growth than almost any other factor.
But underlying all of this must be a program to reduce spending by the federal government. For lack of a better idea, I like the though of simply reinstituting the 1990 Pay-Go law. In essence, it prohibited any increase in government spending unless there was a concurrent reduction in sending somewhere else in the budget. I also think there needs to be a pretty dramatic across-the-board cut in the federal budget--something in the range of 10% or so. Businesses cut budgets like this all the time--why not the federal government? The recent "cut" announced by the administration was embarrassingly tiny--1/2% as I recall--and they tried to make a big deal of it.
Nope, we need to cut spending pretty harshly, and then enact a law that prevents spending from escalating out-of-control once again.
That's where I come from. And that's why I'd never be elected to Congress!