Posted on 01/14/2018 3:55:15 PM PST by Olog-hai
The federal government collected record individual-income-tax revenues through the first quarter of fiscal 2018 (October through December), according to the new Monthly Treasury Statement. This was the last quarter before the new tax-cut law signed by President Donald Trump on Dec. 22 took effect.
Despite taking in record individual-income-tax revenues, the federal government ran a deficit of approximately $225 billion during the quarter.
The Treasury collected a record $390,847,000,000 in individual income taxes in October through December, according to the Treasury statement. That was $30,568,380,000 more than the $360,278,620,000 that the Treasury collected (in constant December 2017 dollars) in individual income taxes in the first quarter of fiscal 2017 (which ran from October through December of 2016).
Fiscal 2016, when the Treasury collected $366,424,140,000 in individual income taxes in the first quarter (in constant December 2017 dollars), now ranks as the No. 2 all-time year for first-quarter individual-income-tax collections. …
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Cut spending, cut government. Better yet: Cut spending, gut government!
Just out of curiosity, what happens to any of us if we routinely spend more than we take in? I thought we were supposed to avoid that, so I have. I must have it wrong.
How many billions went to the care or capture of illegal aliens? Inquiring minds want to know.
the first quarter of fiscal 2018 (October through December)
It’s the wasteful spend by politicians who only see money, our money, as a number on a piece of paper.
pray congress does not reach a budget agreement by Friday. Then our President will be forced to shut down useless agencies and run the Feds on a cash flow positive basis.
Trump will know exactly how to trim the worthless to run cash flow positive.
You take out a loan to cover the difference. The Gov’t does that whenever it runs a deficit.
In California we are forced to spend well over $2 billion on services for illegal aliens.
Trump should reverse this to an automatic 3% annual spending DECREASE.
It’s time to get rid of all taxes, repeal the 16th amendment and start over. I would support some kind of value added tax to manufacturing and a higher value added tax to imports.
There would be less civil enforcement, no taxes taken out of paychecks and taxes are paid when items are purchased. Everyone would participate in this tax system. Let the federal, state, and local governments portion the tax revenue which would force them to live within their means. This would take out the tyrannical tax system we have now.
What we have now for the last 100 years and with the vote buying, the cronyism, the corruption, the trillions in debt and more, is obviously not working. Governments will not act responsibly with other peoples money unless forced to do so. It’s time to scrap the whole system and start over. It would get us back the the limited government our Constitution is supposed to represent.
CGato
You can spend an infinite amount but you can only make so much.
“I would support some kind of value added tax to manufacturing and a higher value added tax to imports.”
If you see how horrible the VAT tax has become in the EU you might change your mind. Forget about the “value added” shenanigans. Make it a national sales tax.
Yeah, that's a tax IN ADDITION TO ALL the other taxes they have over there with the EU, so we're not talking about the same thing here. I'm for scrapping the whole thing and starting over with ONE tax. The sales tax is a terrible regressive tax, especially for small businesses so I have no support for it, including on a national scale.
While not the same, the added tax would be similar to what used to fund the government before the terrible 16th amendment. While an added tax to manufacturing is not a tariff, it would act like a tariff to imported manufacturing since it would be higher tax for those. A higher added tax for manufactured imports would give our domestic manufacturing an advantage. It would also encourage more domestic manufacturing.
It would be a very simple tax, priced in to products and everyone would participate when they buy items. The civil tax enforcement would be much, much smaller as well and we wouldn't have that type of government tyranny always hanging over our heads (and the abuse we all have witnessed over the years, especially for Constitutional-supporting Americans). Americans would be more free with a tax like that.
All I know is what we've done the last 100 years has been a huge failure with an out-of-control government, the corruption, the cronyism, and most importantly the massive debt which threatens our very existence as a Constitutional Republic.
CGato
Amen
You know what opinions are like, right? Mine is a firm NO to a VAT tax. Flat income tax? Sure. Sales tax? Sure. VAT tax? Nope.
You responded to me so not sure why you got defensive on the EU’s VAT tax. I was merely pointing out the VAT tax you understand from the EU, isn’t the only tax they have (which makes it much worse in the scheme of things) and isn’t what I’m referring to.
The income and sales taxes have been tried with the 16th amendment. They have been utter failures and I point out why. They all need to be scrapped and replaced with something more freedom/Constitutional-friendly. Our governments used to be funded by tariffs.
What I support is just a little bit different than tariffs but would require much less civil enforcement and all Americans would participate just by being consumers since the tax is already priced in. Governments would have to live within their means.
I never said you had to agree with my take but I explain why I don’t want to continue to go down the path of failure that puts our Constitutional Republic at risk (massive debt, irresponsible/cronyism/corrupt government, etc.).
CGato
First, please understand that I realize that we are both talking about our opinions here. Your stated desire of a more constitutional, less corrupt taxation system is a goal we share.
Where we disagree is the potential use of VAT and tariffs.
The EU VAT tax (regardless of other taxes they levy) is one that is wholly determined by bureaucrats. Strike 1, 2 and 3. Tariffs, useful as a punishment for bad actors, are also set by the whims of politicians and risk retaliation.
IMHO the most fair and constitutional form of taxation is a low flat tax starting on dollar one of income plus a low, flat national sales tax.
OK then, we can agree on some things and disagree on others.
I’ve come to realize whatever tax system we go with is going to have a chance of politician or government manipulation. The answer is to have a system in place that is going to have the least amount of manipulation. It’s like the brilliance of our Constitution and the freedom scale. It’s supposed to be about getting the most amount of freedom with the least amount of government. What put that way out of balance was the 16th Amendment and to a lessor degree, the 17th Amendment. The creation of the Federal Reserve didn’t help either.
The progressives have had 100 years to prove this works but it has been an mammoth failure given what I’ve mentioned in previous post that this has led to. To get things back in balance we must repeal the 16th Amendment and most likely the 17th Amendment. Getting a flat tax or a national sales tax might temporarily solve some problems but the underlying manipulations are still there for an irresponsible government to make things worse.
What the 16th Amendment does with our current tax system is it puts every American citizen potentially under the gun of government. If you want a national sales tax that puts all business big and small under the gun of the government. So really nothing has changed if we don’t repeal the 16th Amendment. That’s not freedom.
At least with adding a small tax to manufacturing and a higher tax on manufactured imports would put the least amount of entities under the gun of government. Then American citizens and small businesses can do what they do best and drive our economy to being the best economy in the world. Of course repealing the 16th Amendment would be a must and replaced with something that protects our manufacturers from politician or government manipulations is also a must.
After looking over the last 100 years have proved a big failure with what we have, I have come to the conclusion something drastically needs to change to help save our Constitutional Republic. The same underlying corrupt status quo only leads us down the path of destruction. I don’t want that for my family and their future families.
CGato
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