[quote=poorgradstudent][quote=flu]
1. How about government spending less defense
2. How about government spending less social entitlement benefits programs.
3. How about government start actually make some of the corporations that pay no taxes at all pay taxes, like somewhat reforming the expatriation corporate tax rules.[/quote]
These are all great ideas in theory, and would all be challenging to implement.
1. If the government spends less on defense, I would happily see most of those savings go to tax cuts for the rich. It’s a pipe dream, because there is so much pork barrel spending on defense it would take a huge, bipartisan effort that just won’t ever happen in our lifetimes.
2. I hate having all social entitlement programs lumped together. Are we talking welfare? medicaid? medicare? social security? The biggest problem with entitlement spending right now is a demographic one, and there are no easy answers to that. Plus, seniors vote in droves, so politically it’s almost suicidal to piss them off. I’m not sure there is room for huge cuts in entitlements without significant long term social costs.
3. I would love it if we could cut individual taxes while increasing corporate taxes. Good luck with that though; corporations are even better at dodging taxes than rich people are.[/quote]
So the correct solution then is just to tax the working upper middle class (which don’t have the tax loopholes) and bring them down to the bottom 40-50% and gloss over the real problem…Um, yet that makes a lot of sense to me.
You wonder why Romney has bank accounts in caymen islands. You think it’s bad Romney is trying to get his home reassessed using high power legal counsel.. It’s because it’s legalized tax dodging. Absolutely nothing wrong with it…
It’s no different than
1. common folks that try to skirt paying more property taxes in magic slight of hands…Like if one buys a new home, and offers to pay the seller’s realtor/closing cost if they in the seller in turn lower the selling price.. All else being equal to the seller, i’m sure a lot of buyers have done that just that to lower their property tax rate (albeit small)…for what? To dodge paying more property taxes.
2. people previously reporting Mello-ruse as a tax deductible item when it wasn’t clear whether that was allowed (well, it is now)..
3. common folks that purchase things online and avoid paying state sales tax
4. common folks that try to undercut the selling price of a used car to avoid paying higher
5. common folks that when buying something from a small shop ask for the “cash only” price, knowing very well the merchant is going to intentional not ring it up and, therefore cheat the state out of sales tax.
Yes sir, the only difference between what Romney has at his disposal and the rest of us, is he has more tools, and the rest of us are just jealous with sour grapes that he does and you don’t. Because I guarantee most (not all, but most people) given the ability to dodge their taxes would.
So…Before anyone else asks for some other individual to pay more taxes, look at yourself in the miror and ask yourself, are you?
Regarding entitlement programs, yes I mean all of it. At least a lot of it should be reformed and self-contributed…
But you know the only real solution to self-entitlement programs that are underfunded or upside down is this..In fact the solution to any high debt problem is this
…Cut off the money supply and force the issue about making hard choices and austerity….
When the bill comes due, there is no money, and things shutdown…Then it won’t matter what the “terms, conditions,etc were”…Everything will be changed…Yes, even pensions. So cut off the money supply, and let’s make some real choices…
So get some popcorn, and watch Greece unravel as a data point. We have a lot to learn from it.