Tea Party Types and GOP: Explain this to me

[30ashopper]

The Bush Tax Cuts For The Rich have become a political football, but in the grand scheme of things they're largly irrelevant, wouldn't you agree?

 

[Geo]

Yes I would agree. My beef is with GOP saying unemployment extensions can't be granted until tax issues resolved or that they are a no-no because they add to the deficit.

I am against the tax cut extensions for anyone.

 

[Will B]

The US government does not have a revenue problem. They have a spending problem. Solve that, first. There...easy

 

[Geo]

I view extending what were intended to be temporary tax cuts as spending money.

Let's say you own a business and you had a temporary sale on everything in the store. This made your customers happy. Then sales dropped. Your business is upside down and you are borrowing more and more money to stay afloat. Now it is time for the sale to end. At the detriment of your
business- would you appease your customers by extending the sale because they can't get it through their skulls that you arent "raising" prices but rather you are just letting a publicized sale end? Would you rationalize that extending the sale isn't an issue but rather- your expenses are? Call it whatever you want- you still shouldn't do it because you can't afford it...

 

[30ashopper]

Yes I would agree. My beef is with GOP saying unemployment extensions can't be granted until tax issues resolved or that they are a no-no because they add to the deficit.

I am against the tax cut extensions for anyone.

I agree with you there. The leadership looks pretty silly when they argue for one and try to block the other.

 

[Matt J]

Thanks for showing up
to discuss.

It seems I messed up by saying $700B because as a few of you stated- that is not the cost of the tax cuts for a year. I apologize for not comparing apples to apples.

Pls come clean on your own inaccurate date. Idlewind, you said letting tax cuts expire would cost a family making 80K about $400 per month. The data I am seeing from the CBO says letting them expire would cost households making less than 200k an average of $1100 for a whole year.

Annual cost of all Bush tax cuts if extended for 2011
is $238B.

You're not really expecting an explanation or apology for those inaccurate numbers are you? They put the fear out there and that's where they leave it.

 

[scooterbug44]

I'm sad that the commission didn't include my plan to tax the politicians. I think that would have been a hit with everyone!

 

[Matt J]

I'm sad that the commission didn't include my plan to tax the politicians. I think that would have been a hit with everyone!

How exactly would you tax politicians? Your comment about that makes a beautiful sound bite, but it's not practical.

Politicians get money from two sources, their salaries and political contributions. If you tax the contributions it just requires them raise more money resulting in more lieing, false promises, and shady fundraising practices.

I'm including fraud and shady stuff in political contributions for those that want to point out the obvious 3rd income source.

 

[scooterbug44]

10% of their campaign contributions go to reduce the debt - this also applies to PACs.

And any money not used after the election is over or if someone chooses not to run is also forfeit. This is to help even the playing field between incumbents and challengers.

So noone in the US pays more taxes as a result of this proposal, the IRS now has a better reason to take a closer look at campaign finances, and a politician caught cheating/not reporting income can end up like Al Capone.

 

[Matt J]

10% of their campaign contributions go to reduce the debt - this also applies to PACs.

And any money not used after the election is over or if someone chooses not to run is also forfeit. This is to help even the playing field between incumbents and challengers.

So noone in the US pays more taxes as a result of this proposal, the IRS now has a better reason to take a closer look at campaign finances, and a politician caught cheating/not reporting income can end up like Al Capone.

No problem, now you just need the lawmakers to approve your plan. While you're at it throw in term limits and no pay raises.