Tax, Tax, Tax.

Can't resist the reference to "Read my lips - no new taxes"

 

Per year? Let's ask this question. How much should each driver in the US be paying per year for all the infrastructure?

 

^ if the costs were more obvious, maybe we would ship more by train and drive smaller personal vehicles.

 

That is hilarious. A bicycle tax. Some one earlier said NJ has an Exit Tax. If you sell your home and move out of State you have to pay a exit tax on the profits of the home sale. Gov is just getting creative aren't they.

Gov reminds me of a old uncle who eats you out of house and home and you can't get him to leave.

 

You missed the point. Of course not per year - where did that come from? My trillions and billions comment was intended to mean "in totality" of the problem.

 

In my opinion asking for your taxes to be increased is akin to volunteering for a pay reduction at work.

Stop asking Prius Drivers to pay more taxes. Time to get it from the people who have the money.

 

We all think our taxes are too high and of course I don't want mine raised. But if I have to pay them, I want them to be fair in relationship to what other people are paying. Everyone should pay taxes, even if it's just $1.50 because they only made $10, or $15,000 if they made $100,000, or $150,000 if they made $1 million and so on. A tax system based on fairness is simple and easy to understand by most people. For vehicle taxes, we should tax gas and mileage instead of singling out specific vehicles like hybrids/plug-in's/electric. Of course there will be some who think it's still unfair....

 

Gov is so inefficient and bloated that giving them your $64 Prius tax or just burning the money is the same accomplishment. Gov does not need more money. It needs to manage what it has better. You can't balance the budget you get fired and try another Politician.

 

Of course I missed the point. That's why I was asking for clarification. Trillions over 4 decades or so might make sense, but without a time frame and a comparison to how much we are spending today (way too much or way too little?) the point of the post was not apparent.

 

We have been firing the reigning parties nationally over the last decades and that has not given us Politicians who can balance a budget. What's the next move?

 

I guess they'll print more money and try to inflate our way out of the mess we're in? That's been the Fed's tool of choice since near it's creation.

 

If we printed money we would have run away inflation. Inflation seems to be under control.

The last Pres to Balance the budget was Bill Clinton. Perhaps ask him how he did it?

My humble opinion is a good economy helps and cost control. The economy is growing very little now and to raise taxes will just knock us into recession

 

Well the Fed thinks they can control inflation by shrinking or growing the supply of money. It's funny though that they've been flooding the market with unprecedented liquidity and can't seem to get inflation higher than 1.5% - 2%. They would actually like to see it in the range of 2% - 4% in a growing economy. Imagine that without the Fed intervention, we likely would be looking at deflation, which is no good for anyone.

I read the book - The Creature From Jekyll Island, and it opened my eyes about the history of money and the creation of the Federal Reserve system. Some of what's in it you do have to take with a grain of salt. But the underlying tone further in the book is that there is no way, even with a healthy economy that we can generate enough tax revenue to afford all the promises of the US Govt; Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, infrastructure, military, and the list goes on. So the key strategy for the Fed is to print more money to inflate our way through it, although I'm highly skeptical we'll be able to inflate our way out of it. Bill Clinton was the lucky one to be president at the time we had a few years of surpluses - he personally didn't do anything to get us there. The economy was ticking on all cylinders for a while, or at least we thought it until the dot com boom/bust hit. The economy was already on a sustained path coming from the Reagan/Bush years. Remember early on during the Reagan years, the economy was a mess because of the path the economy was already on coming from the Nixon/Ford/Carter era, and it didn't start looking healthy until late in Reagan's term. It takes years to make substantial changes to the economy and Clinton happened to be in the right place at the right time.

 

Good insights JH. I know politicians are good at pointing fingers and blaming others. Clinton balanced the budget under his watch. Unemployment was very low when he was president. Bubbles happen, Tech Bubble, Real Estate Bubble, etc. I get very nervous when people say to improve the economy we need to unravel Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. Just not true. Much can be done if we unwind the war, reduce foreign aid, repatriate Fortune 500 profits back to the USA tax free if used to create new products, services, capital investments to stimulate the economy. If we can reduce the tax burden that leaves more money for people like you and I to buy stuff and invest in our future. Interest rates are dirt cheap. Great time to borrow if you can make the payment.

I think it takes Leadership in Washington to make this work. Frankly with all respect, we haven't had that is the last 2 Pres.

Infrastructure can be accomplished with not creating a $64 Hybrid Tax. Just a nuisance. It can be accomplished with managing better the funds that are already collected.

There is a great debate going on today in America. Tax more and feed a bloated and inefficient government that cannot manage money very well. Tax less and free Americans from the burden.

 

Not holding my breath, but let's move Election Day to April 16, right after Tax Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Agree on most points. Now how do we go about managing the funds our gov't takes in? With 100 Senators and 435 Representatives in the House, it's like herding cats to get enough of them to agree on anything these days. And with a President unwilling to sit down with both sides to form a palatable compromise, I'm afraid we're going to see more of the same for at least several more years.

 

I agree 100%

 

I see a huge train wreck coming, and nobody is willing to put on the brakes.

We need to cut programs that are sacred cows to one of the parties: defense, Social Security, etc. The longer we wait, the more limited the options. This will be painful to all without a doubt, but do we want to end up like Greece?

I don't see anyone currently with the courage to wield a budget axe across the board in DC. Given the current political climate, any leader that attempts such cuts might find Margaret Thatcher less controversial when her government did that in the 1980's in Britain.

 

The average monthly social security benefit is $1,230.

Not sure we can cut that. In fact that is below the poverty income.

To me that is the Sacred Cow.

Defense is a run away train and hopefully peace is in our future. However we need to be prepared for anything.

Gov needs to just be more efficient. The Post office just needs to stop delivering mail on Saturdays. However the Gov is so locked up it knows it needs to be done, it wants to do it, but it cannot do it.

Another is to jump start business formation. Business that can create jobs that pay salaries, benefits and taxes and allow people to pay taxes. The pie needs to get bigger. Re patriot foreign profits by American Companies. If the money is used for R & D or Capital Investment within the USA that make it Tax free. If apple wants to bring in 100 Billion dollars to build a iPhone factory in the USA than by all means do it, that will pay taxes and create jobs.

 

On Social Security, the retirement age can be increased. Americans are living not two years but maybe two decades after their retirement age since SS started.