Posted on 03/18/2006 9:17:37 PM PST by n-tres-ted
Tax freedom bump!
BTTT!
Wow, it's been posted for about four hours, and no Squirrels yet....
Amazing.
I'm not against all incumbents, by any means. One who looks closely can see major policy differences between the parties and between the candidates. Economic policy; national security; civil liberties; religion. To say that neither party and neither candidate is worth helping against the other is very unwise, I think. Doing so gives the candidate you would most oppose a better chance of winning.
I thought I made a bunch of squirrels mad last night and I haven't heard from them all day.
He made a great point, though. We've had illegals entering our borders like ants for years, some people have raised cain about it but, for the most part, we don't show enough outrage.
But the minute Dubai wants to manage some of our ports a bunch of people jump up and shout and the deal gets killed.
His point was that if enough people raise enough hell politicians WILL do something.
By George, I think you've got something there. With the fair tax, we'd have the money ourselves - health insurance could be shopped for like car insurance
I heard that call, and Rush did say he thinks the Fair Tax is a good idea. Later in the call, however, Rush referred to the "flat tax" couple of times. I sent him an email trying to get him to recognize the flat tax is just a different form of income tax. I think part of what he was saying is that politicians usually hear what they want to hear; i.e., they readily hear they should spend money on Katrina, but are more reluctant to hear a call for tax reform because they don't want to do it. Also, the MSM support spending for Katrina, but do not support tax reform. Rush admitted he was sounding like a pessimist, which he does not like, and said he would support tax reform if people will make it happen.
[Though I find it rather interesting that the AMT is essentially the "Flat" tax that so many say they want as an alternative to the current system.]
What I find more interesting is that the AMT is NOT an "alternative minimum tax" at all. It doesn't ensure that everbody pays some minimum amount of tax. A true AMT would be a tax where everybody paid 5% or 10% of income (or purchases) to support the functions of government. We would not have large portions of the populace paying less than 5%.
Instead, the AMT is a tax on high earners to ensure they pay several times their fair share. Tyranny of the majority, plain and simple.
I thought I made a bunch of squirrels mad last night and I haven't heard from them all day.YAWN!
And the AMT even taxes some who are not "high earners" at all, but get trapped within its definitions.
To see this, read some of the comments to the President's Tax Panel telling their own private AMT horror stories. AIR they were mostly in Comments #1 & 2.
It bothers me more that the income tax system completely skips over large groups in the bottom 50% than that it hits a few in the middle that would already pay at least some income tax.
I hate income taxes in general, and I don't like it that large groups of people know they can vote for more government spending and it'll never touch them.
I predict they'll "solve" the AMT problem by raising the threshold so fewer people get hit, while they also raise the rate to make sure the revenue isn't lost. Tax the high earners even more so the middle and lower earners can forget the AMT exists. Think it can't happen ? Go back to the late 50's when the highest marginal Federal Income tax rate was 90%.
No ... if the income tax is going to be around for a while, the "fix" I'd like to see in the AMT is that is be a true "minimum". Make sure everybody pays at least 5% of their gross income -- and it can only be voted lower after everybody is paying that little. That would bring all those leeches back into the discussion of which government spending is actually worthwhile.
I think your prediction of the AMT fix (lower threshold and raised rate) is right on the money unfortunately.
I'd still by far rather have the FairTax as a good starting point.
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