QuakerOats;1794750 wrote:Lower tax rates generate higher tax revenues (why, oh why, do we have to continue to explain that fact); couple that with spending cuts which should be easy (because the extra $800 billion spent during the crisis of '08-'09 NEVER WENT AWAY). We rocketed from spending $2.7 trillion to $3.5 trillion in one year, and have yet to back off. How the hell did that happen? Eliminate that extra by 33% a year over 3 years. Do that to stop the bleeding, then tackle major reforms to medicare and social security. Get the federal government out of the health care industry - period. Lastly, eliminate major departments and agencies, particularly those that interfere with the states or are duplicative in nature --- education, epa, and on and on and on ........... heck, over 150 agencies/commissions/offices go away with the end of obamaKare alone.
Lower tax rates do not necessarily generate higher tax revenues. It's a curve; so finding the optimal balance is the important part and I think we are significantly lower than optimal with our current individual tax structure. On corporate tax rates, I would agree that they are far too high and not competitive with the rest of the world. I'd like to see individual rates rise slightly for everyone(1%) and the creation of a new tax bracket for income over $2M at 48%. In addition, corporate tax rates should be reduced to 25% to fall more in line with the rest of the world. I'd also add a one-time provision allowing for companies to repatriate any international cash holdings at a rate of 15%; then in the same motion, ban any future provisions allowing for this to happen again.
The $800B went to increases in the entitlement programs from more and more Boomers retiring. Glad to see you are willing to cut entitlement programs by 33% though; good luck in convincing politicians to cut money from old people! I agree on eliminating the DoE but not the EPA although I would certainly be more than open to reducing the size of scope of all federal agencies. There's a ton of waste in government.
