Very good, Bill! I would argue, though, that we do have a spending problem AND a revenue problem. A lot of the deficit could be reduced if we were more diligent about waste, fraud, and abuse. A small investment in that area (like more funding for the IRS to go after tax cheats - funding the Repugnicans want to cut) would pay itself back in spades. Another area of opportunity is to review programs periodically and see if they're still doing what they were intended to do and are still financially viable (not require them to be reapproved like some of the Repugnicans want). Oh, and balance the damn budget and pay down the debt so that our second biggest expense isn't interest on the loan we shouldn't have taken out in the first place!
Another thing that's appalling is that while the morbidly rich are avoiding taxes and passing on their stepped up wealth, some of the rest of us are getting caught up in the Alternative Minimum Tax net, which still doesn't seem to catch the billionaires we're subsidizing. My wife and I wound up paying AMT on our meager income for several years, and it really sucked.
Very good, Bill! I would argue, though, that we do have a spending problem AND a revenue problem. A lot of the deficit could be reduced if we were more diligent about waste, fraud, and abuse. A small investment in that area (like more funding for the IRS to go after tax cheats - funding the Repugnicans want to cut) would pay itself back in spades. Another area of opportunity is to review programs periodically and see if they're still doing what they were intended to do and are still financially viable (not require them to be reapproved like some of the Repugnicans want). Oh, and balance the damn budget and pay down the debt so that our second biggest expense isn't interest on the loan we shouldn't have taken out in the first place!
Another thing that's appalling is that while the morbidly rich are avoiding taxes and passing on their stepped up wealth, some of the rest of us are getting caught up in the Alternative Minimum Tax net, which still doesn't seem to catch the billionaires we're subsidizing. My wife and I wound up paying AMT on our meager income for several years, and it really sucked.
A straight up progressive tax code would be the fairest. VAT taxes are retrograde and hit the low income people.
I’ve been following this group for years. He nails it.