Posted on 05/27/2009 7:11:38 PM PDT by Kaslin
Fiscal Policy: Given the number of new tax ideas making the rounds, you'd think we were in a rip-roaring expansion. But we're not, and new taxes are exactly the wrong thing to be proposing.
Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's top aide, is health care adviser to Obama's budget director, Peter Orszag. He wants a 10% value-added tax (VAT), similar to the European Union's, to "pay" for health care reform.
It's called value-added, but it's really value subtracted — a tax imposed on each level of production, from raw goods to consumers.
In Congress, meanwhile, Democrats are pushing for an Internet tax and a cap-and-trade tax on energy use. They want more money. What better way than to tax something people now use for free?
No question, if current spending plans remain in place, the federal government will need a lot more money.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
Cut government by 3 percent every year. Every year.
If we could replace the income tax with a VAT, I’d be all for it. For one thing, it would even the playing field against the EU. They get to tax our products, but we don’t get to tax them. So it would lead to something closer to fair trade.
But of course the plan is to simply pile one tax upon another. Income taxes, sales taxes, death taxes, capital gains taxes, liquor taxes, cigarette taxes, gas taxes, you name it and it’s in the works.
Is taxing health benefits and this VAT “trial baloons”???
Both will effect nearly everyone in this country. It would be a disaster.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Zero want to make us into the UK. VAT and NHS.
So a VAT tax, cap and trade tax etc. Still won't be enough.
Government spending increasing by leaps and bounds and tax revenue falling. For the first time in my life, I really worry for this country. We could see the end of the dollar's use as a reserve currency and massive increases in the money supply-inflation at 20% or more per year-and the destruction of the middle class-something the left has long desired.
What is so sad is that this is going on and few if any Republican senators or congresspeople are doing or saying anything about it. The closing down of Chrysler dealers who are contributors to Republicans and keeping open deals who contribute to Demorats is simply corporate fascism.
Which tax do they propose to permanently remove?
If the answer is "none", I see the final recipe for armed insurrection.
Even sheep have a limit of tolerance.
Except when you tax something, you get less of it. This is a tax on domestic production and will add between 30 and 50 percent (or more if there are several levels of production) on everything produced in the US. Ask the UAW what they think about the few remaining US automakers moving production to China.
Well, if they had a VAT but cut the income tax an equal amount, then that would cut labor costs. You wouldn’t have to pay workers as much if they were taxed less, and they’d still have the same takehome pay.
ANY tax is a drag on the economy. But if the Euros have the VAT and we don’t, it means that free trade is badly skewed against us.
the democrats cutting spending? I am afraid you are dreaming.
Our production wouldn’t go to Europe. It would go to places without a VAT and with low wages. Southeast Asia and China.
Raising taxes? An unpopular move - better to have stayed with Billy Beer (Jimmy Carter's brother if you're too young to remember)
If I had my druthers, we’d pass a constitutional amendment specifying that the federal government can get its revenue from only two sources: tariffs and sales tax.
Tariffs and sales taxes are truth in taxation. Anything else provides a smoke screen.
“Hi, your brick work is $500, but pay me in cash and I won't charge you VAT.”
The govt. loses out on the VAT, and the income doesn't get reported for the workers income tax either. A double loss.
China has a VAT. My understanding is, they reimburse the VAT on any products exported. In effect, it’s a tax-break to their domestic manufacturers who compete in international markets.
Would not support a VAT as a way to finance some socialist boondoggle. I am keeping an open mind as to any way to lower trade deficits or give our domestic manufacturers an edge overseas. A VAT is just a tool. How it’s applied is the rub.
VAT would be wonderful if replaced by Federal Taxes regardless of percentage. I would love to pick and chose what to buy and when to pay the VAT. That would be conservative policy at it’s finest. Of course no taxes at all would be nice.
With the ‘Rats in power, you can guarantee that a VAT would be used for a socialist program to buy votes, mostly from those who would be laid off as the few remaining factories closed.
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