In my opinion there is no need whatsoever to cut the federal budget.
Instead, we need a new budgeting process.
First, Congress needs to start with a dollar figure for the money that is available to be spent. Not a figure for how much can be borrowed or printed, but a figure for how much is available from government tax revenues (and other govt revenue).
Next, Congress should start with a bill on the floor that is a budget with zero dollars and no line items. Reps. can offer amendments and the House can vote on them, in seriatum, until the dollar figure for the money that is available has been met. No more amendments after that. There is the budget.
And if someone’s favorite program did not get funded, tough shiite.
What gets lost I think are all the tax credits for people who make less than 40k. I’d prefer a flat tax but even still a lot of people are getting thousands more than they even paid in. I did it when I qualified because thats the tax code. I think it was 2009 we got a 8-9k “refund” even though Id only paid maybe 2-3k in taxes. Its basically a big welfare check once a year. No one should be getting any more than they paid in. I still feel dirty about it…:rolleyes:
I think we should scrap the whole income tax idea entirely and have a flat federal sales tax of 8% or whatever. Rich people buy more stuff so they will pay more tax and that will make the liberals happy. Poor people will still pay some tax, and that will be fair. No more using the tax code as a welfare system.
I very much agree. In my mind there are two options:
Do away with the IRS and income tax entirely. Everyone pays a sales tax on items not deemed as necessary. No tax would be levied on food, electricity, and other items necessary for living. Spinner rims, 65" flat screens, and Fubu jackets would NOT be tax exempt, however.
Flat tax. Everyone pays X% of their income every year. Forms would be one page in length, and filed on April 15th…just like current taxes.
Congress has tried a number of different budget schemes to infuse some semblance of fiscal responsibility by process over the past 50 years. All have failed due to one basic flaw: Congress has essentially unlimited power to spend money.
The only way to fix the fiscal problem is for the voters to make the hard choices at the ballot box.
The problem is is that there are never enough “viable” candidates that we KNOW are going to do the right thing by the budget. Almost all of them, be it dem or Republican will still behave the same as their predecessors.:mad:
I personally interpret the tax credits you mention as “bribery for not collecting Welfare”, particularly EIC and MIW. As to whether or not there should be Welfare, that’s an entirely different story.