Posted on 11/29/2017 12:12:00 PM PST by DCBryan1
With Congress wrestling over a tax reform plan that critics say would explode the government budget deficit, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said she also is concerned over the surging level of public debt.
A Senate committee passed the GOP-sponsored proposal, which would slash the corporate tax rate and lower individual income rates for many Americans.However, the price tag of the plan is in the area of $1.5 trillion at a time when the Congressional Budget Official already is projecting a deficit of more than $1 trillion in the years ahead and with the total debt level at $20.6 trillion and rising. Of that total, $14.9 trillion is owed by the public.
The Trump administration contends that the lower tax rates would pay for themselves through growth. In her semiannual testimony before Congress, Yellen was asked about a proposal that would trigger tax hikes if economic goals are not met.
The central bank chief did not specifically comment on the trigger plan but said Congress is right to be thinking about the future of the national debt.
"I would simply say that I am very worried about the sustainability of the U.S. debt trajectory," Yellen said. "Our current debt-to-GDP ratio of about 75 percent is not frightening but it's also not low."
"It's the type of thing that should keep people awake at night," she added.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
“The Republican presidential front-runner said in a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Post that he’d be able to get rid of the more than $19 trillion debt’over a period of eight years’.”
Yah, and now we’ve got homeless people too!
Janet Yellen, Oh shut up, you dumb cow.
If the Fed stopped buying T-bills....
And it is about to go higher and higher. Then you will never sleep.
Yellen: Gee, I should’ve had a V-8!
Contends? There is no "contends" about it.
According to this douche nozzle we can tax and slow growth our way to debt free prosperity? Really?
We need to cut taxes raise import tariffs and get out of the way.
Except tax cuts stimulate the economy and the net effect is to increase revenue. But you know that.
Because raising taxes doesn’t increase revenue. It slows economic growth and decreases revenue.
Exactly the right formula cut or eliminate taxes altogether. Let the government extract their spending revenues via tarrifs as they once did
We agree. Let consumers of foreign goods bear the burden. This will also promote domestic industry which is another win.
So you keep saying. But what does that have to do with what Sacajaweau and I were discussing?
They did. The Fed is selling their stock now.
“it used to be said that “deficits crowd out private investment & cause inflation”, but so do high tax rates & steep tax codes crowd out private investment & cause inflation—(as we saw especially in the late 1970s & in other parts of the world.) Low taxes under Bush & Obama seem to have spurred lots of investment & innovation, more competition & not double digit inflation or recession. Obamacare is harmful to the economy, but not lower taxes. People who pay most of the taxes, owe most of the debt....& also OWN most of the debt...which is rich people owing money to themselves & the Federal Reserve always can buy it. The rich can afford to carry lots of debt..but really...we ought to replace payroll taxes & the corporate income tax by consumption taxes to eliminate 2 out of 3 income taxes..as tax simplification.
Payroll taxes are a regressive, destructive, first dollar tax on work, jobs, wages & raises....whereas the Supreme Court decided over 100 years ago that the corporate income tax is an EXCISE/consumption tax....but it’s a bad consumption tax which taxes exports but not imports. Eliminating the corporate income tax & payroll tax -& replacing them by a 20% VAT would replace a bad consumption tax that taxes exports & keeps earnings offshore to avoid triple taxation, plus state taxes.......with a good , efficient tax on imports but not exports, meaning trillions of dollars in offshore earnings and investment dollars would flood into the USA & keep flowing to support long term fast growth, more competition & innovation & higher productivity. Corporations spend a fortune on tax compliance & practically run their company around the corporate income tax, trying to minimize taxable earnings.
Suppose tomorrow, Congress replaced payroll tax & the corporate income tax by a 20% VAT. It boosts consumer confidence & business confidence for business investment & spending, which is where the big bucks begin to trade hands. You could have the 20% VAT begin on January 2nd, 2018, and make the corporate income tax elimination retroactive to the beginning of the 4th fiscal quarter of 2017, whereas you eliminate payroll taxes for the entire month of December, allowing taxpayers to keep a lot more of their paycheck for the Christmas season.
It’s sort of silly to play around with tax deductions on local & state income & property taz, but keep all those in the corporate tax code & for billionaires...such as giving money to shady “charity”, etc/ Plus eliminating the corporate income tax would be good for freedom of the church, which couldn’t be punished for using its free speech over candidates for office & political ideas. Corporations don’t get to vote in elections & they don’t collect Socical Security or Medicare, so why are they forced to pay taxes as individuals? If you eliminated payroll taxes & the corporate income tax by a 20% VAT, you would expand the tax base & increase revenues....then pave the way for something closer to a flat income tax with fewer deductions....or at least making the tax code less steep, by extending 20% & 30% income tax brackets to $1 million & $10 million.......instead of making the tax code steeper with over 20% & 30% tax brackets hitting incomes under $100,000
You could cut government spending on federal worker salaries across the board if you cut taxes thus.......because they are getting much more take home pay, and while you are boosting private sector wages & salaries.....which come from innovation & increased productivity from the supply side of the economy.f you could spend just a little less & get more......& tax a little more....you’d balance the budget with growth, efficiency of taxation on a broader base, more income ,low unemployment, more growth & wealth.....it would repeat the budget surplus of the late 1990s but for a longer term.....and maybe get the national debt down to $15 trillion with GDP over $25 trillion in less than 10 years. But I think you might see a $30 trillion economy in 10 years with the right mix of less spending overall without
cutting SS or Medicare, & better consumption taxes & better, less steep income tax code.....and maybe get the national debt below $10 trillion in 10 years against a $30 trillion economy. We could easily carry such a small debt versus such increased wealth...and like I said before...it’s the rich owning money to themselves because they pay most of the income tax and they own most of the Treasury debt, too”.
-———friend’s economic blog about taxes & spending. It seemed interesting. Beowulf
Yellen - who kept the cheap-money printing presses running for Obama, to make it cheaper for Obama to run up the debt, which in future years, at higher interests rates will be taking larger chunks of the budget - has no standing to lecture anyone about that debt.
She was deaf, dumb and blind as the head of the S.F. Federal Reserve bank in all the years the housing bubble and it’s related risky mortgage bubble was building, and in denial it was a crisis right up to the point it all fell apart. She was kept on and elevated to the top for one reason - finance Obama’s debt explosion.
Come to think of it, why not take 3/4 of the communist’s earnings from here on out?
>
Progressive legislation began in Teddy Roosevelt’s administration 1901-1909. The Federal Reserve Act wasn’t law until 1913.
Gov’t spending is controlled by Congress. And so is the amount of national debt. The Federal Reserve can’t spend a cent or issue a dollar of gov’t debt.
>
And Congressional spending was once controlled by the Constitution.
But, IMO, I put more blame on our gre-gre-gra-parents for voting in the Communists
similar to the Toon people warning Dubya that he has to face up to the terroristic threat right after spending 8 yrs ignoring it and enabling it....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.