Surprise, surprise Team Obama floats VAT

[MystifyingVol]

Under the Fair Tax, monthly prebate checks, based on a percentage of the poverty line, would go to all households in order to pay for basic necessities.

This has always confused me about the Fair Tax, why set up a whole process for prebates? Wouldn't be easier to a.) reduce the overall % of the tax so that it would be neutral or b.) not apply tax to the necessities?

 

[MystifyingVol]

It's the main thing that pisses me off at the Democratic Congress -- the failure to stand tall and kill these pork projects.

You seriously thought that the Democratic Congress was going to kill any type of pork?

 

[MystifyingVol]

eliminate:

Department of Energy
Department of Education
Housing and Urban Development
no more funding for NPR, NEA, or PBS
the IRS (and go to a strictly consumption-based revenue structure for the federal government)
phase out Social Security over time
Eliminate labor unions for government employees, including teachers' unions
restrict Congressional travel overseas
enact a Balanced Budget Amendment to include an elimination of earmarks and other drop-in legislation
eliminate all federal social welfare programs
repeal the 17th Amendment


that's just a start. I believe that the federal government has been violating Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution for decades and if it is pushed back behind that wall, this nation would be much better off.

I wholeheartedly agree with the repealing of the 17th Amendment. I also say shut down the Federal Reserve and stop the use of fractional banking and return us to a hard currency.

 

[Godfatha]

Krazillions.

I don't like it, either. It's the main thing that pisses me off at the Democratic Congress -- the failure to stand tall and kill these pork projects.

You, being a lawyer, are not on the "frontlines" of the economy. I am, and if you think this economy is turning around soon, then I have some swampland in Arizona...

 

[gsvol]

You seriously thought that the Democratic Congress was going to kill any type of pork?

The only pork the democrats are likely to kill is the KFC big daddy.

I wholeheartedly agree with the repealing of the 17th Amendment. I also say shut down the Federal Reserve and stop the use of fractional banking and return us to a hard currency.

:thumbsup:

Of course the two main presidential opponents of what we now call the federal reserve (which is neither federal or has anything to do with a reserve), during the twentieth century, namely McKinley and Kennedy, were both assassinated.

A few congressmen along the way also lost their lives opposing the international central banking system during the twentieth century.

This is very much what the revolutionary war was all about.

During this administration we have the first American head of state bowing to a foreign sovereign since 1776 and the first muslim pirate attack on an American ship since the early 1800s.

So what a lot of young American young people think of as progressive, even revolutionary is actually counter revolutionairy and digression back to feudalism.

 

[Oldvol75]

this won't affect anyone making less than $250k $200k right?

This won't affect people making under a dollar!

 

[paul1454]

Most economists seem to think that the current total national debt, as a percentage of GDP, is acceptable. The problem is that in recent years the annual deficit has been going up at an alarming rate. If the economy imporves, that should relieve some fo the burden, both in terms of spending and in terms of tax revenue.

This is simply not true. First, national debt and deficit are inherently linked. The deficit is simply the annual increase in that debt. An increased deficit, in turn, increases national debt. If the debt didn't matter, neither would the deficit. So, when you hear about fears of rising deficits, you are also hearing fears of the rising national debt. In fact, many economists have explicitly voiced their concerns about the rising national debt. See What’s Sustainable About This Budget?;

The administration projects that the debt-to-G.D.P. ratio will rise in each of the next 10 years. By 2020, the government’s debts will equal 77.2 percent of G.D.P. This level of indebtedness has not been seen since 1950, in the aftermath of the borrowing to finance World War II.

Making matters worse, these bleak budget projections are based on relatively optimistic economic assumptions. The administration forecasts economic growth of 3.0 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009 to the fourth quarter of 2010, followed by 4.3 percent the next year. By contrast, the Congressional Budget Office predicts growth of 2.1 percent and 2.4 percent for these two years. Lower growth would mean less tax revenue, larger budget deficits and a more rapidly increasing debt-to-G.D.P. ratio.

Also CBO Estimate that Debt to GDP Ratio of 90% in 2020. If you think this isn't an issue, note that at present "Congress would have to raise income taxes by almost 40 percent to reduce -- not eliminate, just reduce -- the deficit to 3 percent of our GDP." Let that sink in for a minute. Once you've digested that alarming estimate, take a look at a graph of CBO deficit projections (below). In light of this, you would have to be crazy to think spending does not need to be decreased.