Posted on 06/25/2011 7:25:38 AM PDT by Kaslin
An old joke says the IRS will tax even your patience. Don’t say it out loud in Washington this summer. It might give new ideas to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
He told the House Small Business Committee this week that the Obama administration believes taxes on small business must increase so the administration does not have to “shrink the overall size of government programs.” As part of the administration’s plan to raise taxes on all Americans who make more than $250,000 per year, taxes will rise even more on small businesses, which file taxes the same way individuals and families do.
This jaw-dropping commentary by our nation’s treasury secretary comes even as he acknowledged the powerful role of small business as the nation’s best hope for new jobs. By some counts, more than 60 percent of new jobs are created by small businesses. This is a core reality that can’t be denied or ignored during a painful, anemic growth period when our nation desperately needs every single new job it can create.
Consider that our struggling national economy grew at an annual rate of just 0.1 percent during 2009 and 2010, compared to 3.2 percent over a period of nearly the last six decades. We lost jobs at a rate of 2.2 percent a year over the same two-year period, some 265,000 per month, compared to a historic growth rate of 1.6 percent since the early 1950’s.
The jury on 2011 is out. Distressingly, the latest testimony on administration solutions is now in.
Geithner argued that the government would be financing a “tax benefit” by sparing taxation on the hard-working, small business households toiling, some seven days a week, to put together $250,000 or more in combined annual income. It would be “good” for growth, Geithner said.
The comments reveal a stubborn worldview still held by Geithner, the president and other key financial officials. They see the swollen current size of government as something that must be maintained, and fed.
Geithner – capable, bright, energetic technician that he is – not surprisingly views the size of government through a technician’s lens. He is intent on finding ways to finance the funding challenge before him. He sees only two ways to grow revenue. First, increase borrowing. Next, raise taxes. In this particular world, there is no room for the third solution—creating more wealth. Nor is there apparently room for any notion that government must change the way it does business.
Most working and job-seeking Americans know better. They do not inhabit that particular world. They live in the world as it actually exists today.
In a country suffering from a nagging, norm-busting unemployment rate above nine percent, those of us in the working world need the tools and freedom to invest in own productive activities that stimulate new growth, new jobs and, yes, new tax revenues. We need a tax and regulatory environment that cuts bureaucratic red tape and encourages businesses of all sizes to create jobs and opportunity.
Small business is the engine of future growth. We must support the small businesses and entrepreneurs who are now sitting it out due to taxation, fear of taxation, restricted capital, burdensome regulations and continuing economic uncertainty. We can still take major steps to fix the problem. We can unleash the last weapon in our national economic arsenal—small business people and entrepreneurs—by empowering them today with the certainty. Empower them with the confidence that the risks they take today to pursue rewards tomorrow will not be taxed at new and unexpected rates tomorrow.
Sensible policies to promote economic growth lie at the core of the Free Congress Foundation’s program to freeze spending, promote growth and reform the entitlement programs.
Genuine growth begins at the shops, storefronts, home offices, and shared workspaces of our nation’s small businesses. Let’s keep their taxes at levels that make it worth it. While time is short, it’s not too late. So let’s muster a little more patience in hopes the administration moves its worldview more in line with the place where the rest of us live.
--that has a problem with Turbotax?
--quit reading at that line---
Not surprising but disturbing.
Geithner - one word....Useless!!! This guy should be sweeping out a bank and cleaning the toilets during the night, not heading the Treasury. What a wasted human being!!!
What we need is a good old-fashioned tax revolt - with pitchforks. Don’t like taxes? Let’s all take a tax holiday next year until these bumblers are gone.
FWIW the Government Accountability Office routinely issues reports on cases of massive government waste, mismanagement and inefficiency. The media rarely, if ever, shows any interest in these publicly available reports or in holding agencies accountable for how they spend (i.e., waste) tax dollars.
I read that as sarcasm by the author
Yesterday, Victor Davis Hanson said they don’t want to entirely kill the US as a nation. Rather, they are parasites whose goal is to just barely keep the host alive because they would die without it. That is an apt description.
Too late Geithner. I closed my business after ten years last month. Now all my profits won’t belong to the Fed or the State!
Go pound sand!
What TImmy hasn’t figured out is that many taxpayers are indeed like sheep. You can clip the wool off of them once a year, shear them to the skin, and they’ll even be grateful, but you can only skin them once.
how can the gov’t get more tax revenue?
increasing taxes wont’ do it... since they’re in all transactions already. all the money passes through their hands before getting pushed back into the economy.
the only way to get more tax money would be... to get more money coming INTO the country.
to get more money INTO the country, drop taxes. this will spur domestic businesses... which in turn may produce products foreign countries need.
of course, following this will result in the country becoming less weak (don’t want to say strong, as we’re a long way from that)... which would be counter to the intentions of the progressives.. past & present
One, two, three, four...
Hrmm!
One, two, (one, two, three, four!)
Let me tell you how it will be;
There’s one for you, nineteen for me.
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don’t take it all.
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
(if you drive a car, car;) - I’ll tax the street;
(if you try to sit, sit;) - I’ll tax your seat;
(if you get too cold, cold;) - I’ll tax the heat;
(if you take a walk, walk;) - I’ll tax your feet.
Taxman!
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Don’t ask me what I want it for, (ah-ah, mister Wilson
If you don’t want to pay some more. (ah-ah, mister heath)
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Now my advice for those who die, (taxman)
Declare the pennies on your eyes. (taxman)
‘Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
And you’re working for no one but me.
Taxman!
It's also the engine of anti-communism - which, to our current ruling class, makes it something to be feared and destroyed.
Timmy boy wants all of us work for the executive elite that run the big corporations and be under their yoke versus having our own business and have more freedom to make our own decisions for our lives.
“Geithner – capable, bright, energetic technician that he is “
That statement is belied by every statement before it.
End payroll tax deductions, and deductions for union dues. Make EVERYONE write a check to the irs every quarter, and monthly checks to their unions. People don’t even know how much they actually make! They think in terms of “take home” pay. Best way to educate them is to make them actually have to pay!
Those of us who are self employed already write quarterly checks. No union dues!
“Those of us who are self employed “
Eggs Ackley! You and I, and other self-employed understand. Most people with payroll tax deductions do not. And they eagerly await the refunds every year!
Can you point me to where VDH said that...the article...I’d like to read it. Thx
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