How to fix economy: lower corporate taxes, higher taxes on the middle class

Az, you seem to equate cost over runs with waste. Is that always true?

If we need a certain weapon system, and it runs over the projected cost, that's an indictment on the folks that estimated the cost and contracted for the weapon.

It doesn't necessarily mean it's all waste though, does it?

Would the program have been voted down if the true costs were accurately determined ahead of time?

Obviously we should have better numbers. Lawmakers should be able to vote based on realistic projections.

But, I don't think you can just say that $300 Billion would go to the bottom line if we solved this problem.

 

We've institutionalized waste and corruption under mistaken assumptions of patriotism. Is the ratio of waste to savings 1 to 1? Of course not.

But if you're looking for the biggest savings, by the numbers the DoD is obviously the place to start.

 

A very salient point that applies on everything from home projects all the way up to this. There are often legitimate reasons for cost overruns.

The government's (and especially the DOD's) prior behavior, though, suggests that cost overruns are usually equated with bill-padding. This would be especially true in matters involving the Halliburtons of the world.

 

I quintuple-dog-dare any Republican to push this idea in public.

 

If you want lower taxes on corporations, it has to be tied directly into job creation. Right now, corporations want the lower taxes, and are saying "Trust Me" about creating jobs. Only, they're not doing that.

Just throwing shit at the wall, but maybe a proposal like a corporation can reduce their tax rate directly tied to a percentage of increase in hiring as long as the median increase in payroll rises (just to prevent a business from hiring two executives instead of ten regular employees and claiming the credit).

Hire 10 percent more employees, get a 5 percent reduction on corporate taxes for next year. Or something like that. But don't just say that corporations need their taxes lowered, when they've proven in the past that they'll just pocket the money themselves.

 

The "budget crisis," while it is real, is also codespeak for the Uberclass agenda to defund and dismantle all public programs benefiting anybody except the Uberclass.

Slash the budget dramatically or taxes on the middle class will zoom. (Remember of course we are NOT raising taxes on the Uberclass in any scenario whatsoever.)

 

I'm sure the fact that there was a recession on in 1991 had nothing to do with it.

 

Tell you what, why don't you show me evidence of a successful luxury tax?

There must be plenty to choose from.

 

The hell you say. Yacht guys say it's your fault you don't have one of these. They got theirs, get yours.

And I love how they say they worked their way through college to get to where they are now. Hell yeah, most of them were told to do so by parents who footed the bill, or what they couldn't extract from local scholarship givers in their community with an "I own you" threat.

 

It's kind of funny when Print goes all populist.

It's like he and Starman are opposite sides of the same coin.

 

What Starman said.

 

I would absolutely pay more in tax money. Gladly. But, the problem is, all anyone ever says is "We've got to raise more money AND cut the budget".

There are never any answers why we have to do both. If you need more money to fund programs because of increased costs, that's one thing. But if you need more money AND you're going to offer less, that doesn't make any sense to me.

People complain about pension reform (particularly in my state) and it seems cut and dry to me. If you pay X, you should receive X upon retirement. Not more than X. That creates an unsustainable system. Same with social security.

Programs like Medicare, welfare, wic, SSI and the like were meant as temporary solutions to help people get through a rough patch in their lives. Now, there are a good chunk of those people who look at those programs as a full-time job and don't get work otherwise.

They're not contributing to the system. The system should be fixed.

Now, having said all that, if you want to overhaul those programs, you've got to overhaul the tax code so that either 1.) Everyone is paying a flat tax that is fair and equal and covers everything within a reasonable budget or 2.) You can keep the system as is and the rich are going to have to pay more. No loopholes. Period.

Unfortunately, though, we couldn't even get Congress to agree on a resolution allowing human beings to breath oxygen at this point. No way in hell anything remotely resembling change gets done. Not now, not ever.