Nothing is guaranteed EXCEPT for two things:
1) We will NEVER cut spending because we now have more welfare recipients that vote than workers, at least when everyone is counted. Just no way.
2) This country WILL go broke if we don’t get closer to a balanced budget.
Given those two definites, the only option is to raise revenue, and then HOPE that it all doesn’t get spent. No promises here...but, as I said earlier, spending now has ZERO, NOTHING, at all to do with revenue...they are two different animals, which is why I hold out some hope here.
As to Laffer, he’s talking marginal rates and he’s right. I’m talking about the people on the bottom - I DO NOT support the latest tax increase ‘on the rich’ because I know that Laffer applies there, and it only slows the economy. However, at the bottom, there is revenue to be had...just the idea that some of it will come from Illegals having to pay more to live here, rather than wiring it home, gives me hope.
Wrong. I can accept your two things, but there’s a third you omit:
3). Deficits and the debt will NEVER be paid for by tax hikes. They can’t even counterfeit their way out, because it’d sink our currency first.
“2) This country WILL go broke if we don’t get closer to a balanced budget.”
The country WILL go broke, because we will NEVER “get closer” to a balanced budget, given the current leftward tilt of the nation.
A VAT won’t help, for the very reasons others have given — that is, the more you give them, the more they will spend. They won’t make more than a token effort to slow the progress towards financial collapse.
The ONLY incentive for the DC politicians to repair things will be AFTER:
- the Social Security monthly deposits cease
- the EBT cards run dry
- the doctors and hospitals stop receiving Medicare and Medicaid payments they have billed
- government employees stop receiving payment for their work
- those in the military find they are no longer being paid.
When that happens, you will see a real attempt to fix things.
But not until...