Taxing The Rich

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez got into a heap of trouble with the House Ethics Committee because she attended that Met Gala last year. Remember the one? She came into the gala wearing a dress that cost about a grand (which she didn’t pay for), that read “Tax The Rich” on the backside. She’d had her hair done ($300), got her makeup done ($250), and got matching shoes and handbag for the occasion (another $400). Plus the cost of the ticket to the gala was around $30,000. So, AOC was into this thing for about $32,000 all told, minus the limo ride to the event.

And she wants to tax the rich?

Let’s be fair for a minute, shall we? First of all, she’s NOT rich. She only has a net worth of $100,000. That’s about $650,000 less than what the average American’s net worth is. So, I can understand her wanting to soak somebody that’s not her. We all want that, right? Have the other guy pay the taxes?

Well, the other guy DOES pay the taxes.

It was just reported that the IRS data shows that in 2020 (the latest data available), the top 1% of Americans paid 42% of the income taxes in this country. In fact, 47% of all Americans pay NO income taxes what-so-ever.

Now, let me ask the question…fair being fair…is it fair for the wealthy in this country to spring for the rest of us? I know that from a purely selfish standpoint, I’d say, “Hell yes!”. But is it really fair? The answer has to be no.

So, while AOC flaunts around Washington and New York in style, enjoying the rich lifestyle that someone else is paying for (because you can’t afford it with a net worth of a hundred grand!) the real tragedy here is the unfairness that has been unleashed in the country by the left.

The left feels that if they redistribute enough wealth, they’ll gain the loyalty of those getting the money from those that have the money. That’s basically the whole Robin Hood theory, right? Steal from the rich and give to the poor? But the problem is it doesn’t work. There are problems with that way of thinking.

First of all, the wealthy know money better than non-monied people. They know how to make it, and they know how to protect it. And they contribute a lot more than you and I do to the campaigns of the people that actually write the tax laws. So, they have an “in” that we don’t have. That’s a tip in the scales of fairness in their direction that will be monumentally hard to sway back to the middle.

Second, you have to understand that being so well off means that the wealthy are fluid. Not just with their cash, but with their lifestyles. Look at someone like John Kerry or Al Gore, two very well known wealthy liberals. Kerry has a net worth of $250 million (most of it because he’s married to Theresa Hines Kerry…of the Hines ketchup fortune), and Al Gore is worth $300 million, most of it inherited from daddy. If there ever came a time when the wealthy couldn’t protect their money, trust me on this, they’d be out of the country so fast, you wouldn’t even be able to see the jet trails from their private aircraft.

There is a solution. Not everyone will like it, but it IS fair. That’s the flat tax. It’s been debated for decades, but the left doesn’t want it for one simple reason. You can’t redistribute wealth when everyone pays the same percentage. And as long as that is the left’s primary goal, to create a society that basically makes everyone equal in monetary circumstances, regardless of how hard they work, you’re going to need something that is unfair for the rich.

AOC’s problems in the House Ethics Committee aside, taxing the rich isn’t the answer. It never has been. It only leads to the wealthy looking for newer and better ways to hide their money. And they are much better at it than the rest of us are.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Saving Social Security?

There is a bi-partisan move afoot in our nation’s capital. Both Republicans and Democrats are getting together to try and save Social Security. Now, a lot of this is because of what Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that Social Security and Medicare cuts were off the table when it came to the deep spending cuts Republicans are looking for in order to pass a debt ceiling limit. And some folks can point to the State of the Union Speech where Biden felt he got the GOP to agree to leave Social Security alone. Actually, I don’t think either of those things were the cog that got them moving.

It was the debt limit.

See, if the House doesn’t go along with the Senate and approve raising the debt ceiling by June, the country basically comes to a halt. We already are in the bind, where we’ve passed the allowable debt ceiling, but the Treasury folks say they can most likely play a numbers game and get us through till June. But after that, if there is no deal, there is default on the debt. That’s something no one in Congress wants. Especially the Republicans

The Republicans know full well that if they don’t pass a debt ceiling increase, and the government has to default on it’s debt, nothing good happens in the country. We’ll be seeing a huge recession, the dollar will go to zero as far as buying ability, and other countries will stop using the dollar as the international reserve currency. And don’t think the Democrats won’t be there in spades pointing fingers!

But the Republicans realize, along with people like Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, that you can’t keep spending like a drunken sailor and expect everything to come home fine and dandy in the end. There will be a day of reckoning. That’s what scares the more conservative folks in this country. So, the GOP has decided to plant the flag and tell the Biden administration that the House isn’t going to go along with any debt ceiling increase unless it is tied to a spending reduction of rather large magnitude. That’s where all of this gets sticky.

Joe Biden has said he wants a “clean bill”, meaning he doesn’t want to tie the spending to the debt ceiling increase. Of course, he’d say that because he is the one spending like a drunken sailor! And in the end, it becomes a question of who is going to blink first. If the Republicans do, they are basically going back on their word to the people that put them in charge in the House of Representatives. If Biden blinks first, his entire agenda comes to an abrupt end…which it probably will anyway. After all, the House can basically kill any bill that the Republicans don’t like. They can’t do much in the Senate about it, but they can stop it in the House.

So, the Social Security mess boils down to about a dozen folks from both the House and Senate that want to fix Social Security, now scheduled to run out of money in 2034. That means that for the first time in a long time, we’re looking at the expiration date of the most expensive item on the federal budget running out of money within a ten year window. That’s not good for the economy. There are 66 million people who get a Social Security check each month, with the average benefit being just over $1,500!

What changes are going to have to happen? Well, for one thing, they are again toying with the retirement age to get at the money you’ve put into the Social Security program all of your life. And they are looking at putting an extra billion dollars in the kitty, and investing that money in countries around the world, like a lot of other countries do. They hope they could get a decent rate of return on that. Now, Democrats are worried that will lead to investing your retirement money in the stock market…which they view as unsafe. Of course, if you have a 401k, you’re already invested in the stock market, and it’s the one thing that is making you able to retire when you want. Beyond that, there are tax increases for those folks still working that will most likely kick in.

I’ve always thought that means testing would be a viable alternative. Let’s face it. If you’re a millionaire when you retire, do you really need $1,500 a month from the government? Why not let someone else get that money that isn’t sitting on a bundle of cash? The one thing Washington can’t afford to do is what I always wanted to do when I was working, which is to make Social Security voluntary. Of course, no one would be left at that point to pay into it. I don’t know many people still working today and under the age of say, 45 that think Social Security is going to be around for them anyway.

It will be interesting to see what this bi-partisan group comes up with. Hopefully, it’ll be a saving grace. Democrats that voted this in back in the 1940’s have to realize they never had a good exit strategy when the whole Other People’s Money syndrome ran out on them. It always does!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

The Final Word On Student Loan Debt

You KNEW it was going to end up with SCOTUS, right? I mean, when Biden announced that he was going to wipe some $400 billion off the books, which was basically another lie because he was transferring it to the rest of America, you KNEW that the states weren’t going to go for that.

And they didn’t.

Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments on why the government should and shouldn’t be allowed to wipe away the student loan debt. Initially, the plan is to drop up to $10,000 from anyone making $125,000 a year or less, or with a married filing jointly income of $250,000 or less. If the person had a Pell Grant, they could take up to $20,000 off what they owe.

OK, so that’s the plan, the numbers say that it’s going to cost us (you and me) about $400 billion over the next 30 years. Now, can anyone tell me the last time the government got the estimated cost of anything right? Buhler…Buhler… That’s right. The answer is never. They usually are two to five times below what the final costs are going to be. So, count on paying up to $2 trillion! The good news is, I’ll probably be dead in 30 years!

There are 40 million student loan borrowers in the country that are eligible for at least some forgiveness. If there is a silver lining in this anywhere it’s that 53% of them owe less than $10,000.

But the high court heard arguments Tuesday on two different levels. First there is the lawsuit from two students that have loan debt, but they wouldn’t benefit from all of the provisions. I really expect the high court to deny both of these petitioners their day. One of the students claims that they were denied because back in the day, their parents made too much money to qualify them for any relief. The other says she didn’t qualify because the loan was “privately held”.

The second part of the lawsuit is from six states, mostly in the midwest. They are fighting this on the basis that it’s not loan forgiveness, but rather a loan shift. It will still be paid back, only the US taxpayers will be the ones doing the paying. The fly in the ointment for the Biden administration (among others) is the fact that the President cannot pass new taxes. That requires Congress to get involved. So, if the money is being shifted to the taxpayers, that’s a tax increase. That’s illegal.

Of course, there is the moral aspect to this as well. No one held a gun to the head of these students and told them they HAD to take out a loan in the first place. They were totally free not to accept the terms of the agreement and to walk away. They chose not to do that. Another problem I personally have is that it sets a terrible precedent. If I take out a new mortgage loan on my house now, and decide in two years that I don’t have the money to pay for the loan, can I ask for a bailout? Why not? It’s been given to students because they were dumb enough to take it. Why not me?

And then of course, there is the fact that those are people that chose to get a higher education. It’s not like they were forced to go to college. And they could be forcing people who didn’t go to college to pay their debt. They also are forcing people like me that actually DID go to college, and DID pay back debt, to pay more debt. That’s debt that I frankly, didn’t incur, and shouldn’t have to pay back.

And finally, the straw that will break the camel’s back in this situation is the fact that Biden chose to use the “Emergency Clause”, which isn’t even written for students. It became law because of people serving overseas in the armed services. If they got into trouble paying back a loan because they were serving their country, they could have the loan or a part of it forgiven. It has nothing to do with college students. And of course, the fact that Biden tied it to the COVID pandemic, when he claims is over, and is officially set to end (according to the government) on May 11th. If there is no longer an “emergency”, then why do we need to have loan forgiveness? The students haven’t had to make payments on the loan since Donald Trump incorporated the waiver back in 2020 when the pandemic first hit. Biden keeps kicking the can down the road with extensions on waiving payments.

I would be very surprised by anything less than a 6-3 repudiation of Biden’s attempt to bypass the Constitution and impose a tax on America without Congress’ consent. Mark my words, no one will be getting their student loan debt forgiven. Bet the kids’ college fund on it! You can collect in early July when the ruling is released.

Carry on world…you’re dismiss.

How To Solve The IRS Funding Debacle

Part of the $300 plus billion dollar funding bill that Congress passed and Joe Biden signed as the “Inflation Reduction Act”, which it won’t do by the way, is the hiring of 87,000 IRS agents. Now, we’re being told that a lot of those 87,000 people aren’t going to be out on the street auditing your tax return. But a lot of them are. And I was surprised to learn that it’s not the uber-wealthy that are getting the bulk of the tax audits these days. It’s the people typically in the south, that have small incomes. Why you ask?
Because they don’t fight back against the IRS. It’s the Low Hanging Fruit Theory in full display.

But there is something Democrats who want to target the middle class tax returns are screaming about that doesn’t make any sense. They are supposed to be the party that “helps” the middle class, right? Just like they are the party that is supposed to “help” blacks, and Hispanics, and women, and gays. So, if they are trying to “help” the middle class, why would they sic IRS agents on them? Why go after the poor?

It’s because quite simply they don’t fight back. They wealthy have CPA’s that are pretty damn good at what they do. They would provide a challenge for the IRS agents, especially new ones that are more excited to carry a gun and use it, than they are about doing a bunch of math. The poor and middle class won’t hire these CPA’s at $200 an hour to go out and fight for them.

So…what’s the solution to a really bad bill?

I think if they were smart, the Dems’ should have gone the other way in regard to the IRS. Rather than give them six times their current budget, give them money to modernize their computer systems, maybe do some customer service training and hire some CPA’s to answer tax questions on the phone. Other than that, shrink the IRS. You can do it and still make the money you need to pay for Biden’s largess. Here’s how.

First adopt a flat tax plan. Everyone pays the same percentage. The argument that the poor need to have every cent of their meager incomes in order to make it to the end of the month doesn’t hold water. For them, they’d probably have less tax withheld from their paychecks than they do now.

The beauty of the flat tax is, it’s simple. There are no deductions. There are no tax credits. There are no wealth redistribution plans, which is probably why the Dems don’t like it. Everyone pays the same percentage of their income. It’s taken out of their paychecks, or withheld when they cash in an IRA or sell stock or whatever. They never see the money, and they never have to file a tax return. It’s completely taken care of. Withholding takes care of it all.

Yes, there is the gig economy that pays in cash basically. And you have the large army of waiters, waitresses and people that rely on cash tips for income. But what the IRS does now is figure out what their tax should be based on what they feel their tips should have been whether they are paid those tips or not. So, say they are using an 18% tip model. Someone in the restaurant spends $100 for dinner. The IRS says they should have received $18 as a tip. Some pay more of a tip, some pay less, but it would average out to between 15-18%. That’s what they are taxed on. The same can be done for food delivery people, Uber drivers, cab drivers, etc. And yes, it takes a few people to oversee it, but far from 87,000!

The flat tax is the simplest tax in the world to use, and it’s also the fairest. Why we are paying on average $180 per household for a CPA to do our taxes, even if it IS tax deductable? Think about it!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Oh, The IRS Has Problems!

That’s like saying that the sky is blue, I know (at least it’s blue out here in the desert!) But the IRS has many problems that it has caused. Not the least of which is that there are tens of millions of tax returns that are unprocessed and won’t be done in a timely manner. That’s because they get bombarded every year around April 15th through the 18th depending on the calendar. And they only have so many days to get those returns processed before they owe interest to the taxpayers.

But there are many solutions.

One of the ones that the IRS is contemplating is allowing taxpayers to file their taxes online for free. Yeah, that’s just like everyone from H&R Block to Turbo Tax already uses. But back in 2002, the IRS entered into an agreement with something called “Free File Inc.”. It’s basically a consortium of the tax services and computer tax programs on the market. The agreement said that the IRS wouldn’t compete with private enterprise in tax filing systems. So, they’ve been moot on the point ever since. That may change.

In 2018, Congress passed the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experiences Act, which told the IRS to get into the 21st Century. They haven’t done so. And the General Accounting Office (GAO) has released a report stating that they need to. It says the IRS needs to inform the Free File Inc. members that they are going to start offering tax filing online for free for basically 70% of the country. That would cause a rather significant blow to the likes of the H&R Block boys and the Turbo Tax folks.

There is an even easier way. Just create a flat tax system. That way, you don’t need to file at all. Wherever you got income from is responsible for withholding whatever the tax rate is, and sending it into the federal government. That eliminates the need for filing at all. The person paying you is responsible for reporting your income, not you. It would indeed eliminate all of the tax refunds out there (which are the biggest headache to the IRS) and would eliminate all of the paperwork and saving shoe boxes full of receipts every year. Whatever you made, they deduct whatever percentage is the flat tax, and send it in. Done.

The problem is, all of the Free File Inc. folks as well as CPA’s everywhere would revolt en masse. That’s not something they want to see happen and they certainly don’t want their ox gored. But it is the most efficient tax system out there. And the IRS could probably do it with half the staff. They wouldn’t need an army of CPA’s working for them, and they wouldn’t need to do audits on 1% of the country (that’s about 3,000,000 people!) It’s so good because it’s too simplistic.

And that is the reason it’ll never happen!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

A Word Of Warning About Obamacare

OK, I’ll preface this by saying that normally I am happy to give my political viewpoint about stuff, but I usually reserve glimpses into my personal life to maybe my family’s birthdays or other things like that. I don’t think this blog is about me personally. It’s about politics and media.

Having said that, I’m going to give you a strict word of warning moving forward about Obamacare. Now, I need to give you a little history before we get to the warning.

I retired at 54 years of age. My wife went back to work when we moved out to the desert, and worked for five years. So, she retired about five years ago. I had a couple of jobs since then that I did simply because we needed healthcare insurance. Three years ago, we went on Obamacare because it was cheap. But oh, there is a caveat there!

In 2021, my wife went on Medicare upon turning 65. Obamacare doesn’t allow the insurance companies to just drop one person from the coverage. They cancel the policy and you have to pick another policy. I was going through a firm in Florida to help me weave my way through the land mines. And usually, they did a good job. When my wife went on Medicare, I had to go onto a three month Obamacare policy. I picked the cheapest policy I could, and the plan was to have that for three months, then go on a two-month “short term” policy in January and February of this year, and go on Medicare in March. At least that was the plan.

However, the guy I had been working with for the last few years never told me that I had to cancel the policy in December or it would automatically renew. He knew I didn’t need Obamacare in 2022, and failed to tell me to call the insurance folks and cancel. I thought he was handling it, as he had been handling everything for the past couple of years. My mistake!

I started getting bills from the Obamacare people in January, February and March. I ignored them because I thought it was a clerical error. Nope. He never called and cancelled the policy. Now, the rub is, you get a “tax credit” with Obamacare that’s based on your income. If you make more than what you said you’d make at the beginning of the year, you have to pay back the extra tax credit the feds give you. That could be upwards of $20,000! Well, I didn’t pay the premium in January, so the policy was cancelled as of January 31st. But what they don’t tell you (and this is the warning), if you’re on Obamacare for one month, you have to follow their income rules for the whole year. So, living on next to nothing as we had been doing for the past two years, and looking forward to not having to do that this year was a waste. It looks like if I go over the extremely low income level I had set (and wanted to avoid), I would end up having to pay back the tax credit Obamacare afforded me. Thank God it wasn’t a huge amount to begin with.

To fight it is going to cost a LOT more money than just paying back the one month of tax credit, so that’s what I’ll probably end up doing. But beware. IF you go on Obamacare, realize that you a) automatically get renewed until you yourself cancel the policy and b) you will most likely owe the tax credit if you go over whatever your income level was set.

I had to learn the hard way. Thankfully, it’s only going to cost about $500.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Read My Lips…

Those were the famous words that cost George HW Bush reelection back in 1992. He campaigned hard on the fact that he would not want to raise taxes. During his run for the White House in 1988, he told the world, “Read my lips…no new taxes!” Then just two years later, he capitulated to Democrat demands that tax bracket rates be raised. That caused much ire and gnashing of the teeth of Republicans. And when Bush ran for reelection in 1992 against some Arkansas Governor nobody had ever heard about, he got whooped.

Well, it’s about to happen again.

During the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden announced that he wasn’t going to raise taxes on any American making more than $400,000 a year. Now, that got changed before the ink was dry. It was changed to any American couple not making more than $400,000 if they file jointly. Even so, that pledge is about to go by the wayside.

Biden is planning a $5.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2023. In order to do that, he needs to raise taxes. And I’m sure you’ve heard he is going to sock it to the billionaires out there. But he’s also going to do something else that will have an effect on the working class. He is proposing that the corporate tax rate be bumped from 21% to 28%. That increase will, according to economists who’ve done studies on corporate tax increases, will cost the workers for those companies about 50% of the total increase. That’s because it’s been proven when corporate taxes go up, it’s the workers at the corporations that suffer. And they usually ALL make less than $400,000 a year.

What happens is, according to the Tax Foundation, the tax increases will lead to lower wages, less hiring, higher unemployment with about 159,000 fewer jobs, and a slower economic growth.

Now, technically, is a “corporate tax hike” a tax on those making under $400k a year? No, but it’s the same thing as to say if Biden were to raise the sin taxes out there, cigarettes, or booze, it is still a tax increase on those with smaller incomes, because they are the ones more apt to engage in those activities.

The question is, will America rise up against Biden on this account if it comes to pass Congress? Actually, do you think it will matter much? I don’t. There are so many flaws with this guy that a roundabout tax increase on corporate workers isn’t probably going to move the needle much. I’m still believing that you or I could run against Joe Biden in 2024 and win. That’s especially considering that most economists surveyed have indicated that they believe there will be some sort of recession in 2023. If that happens, it’s going to sink Biden’s chances completely.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Why Biden’s Tax Plan Isn’t Going To Work

Joe Biden has a new tax plan. Actually, it’s a new budget. And he wants to spend over $5.8 TRILLION over the next several years to fix the military (how nice of him!), and put the Green New Deal into play. Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen. His plan has one major, and several minor flaws in it that I’m surprised someone that spend half a century in Washington couldn’t figure out. But then again, he doesn’t know what day it is!

Biden wants to increase fees and taxes on billionaires. He says he’s going to leave the rest of us alone. And you believe that, there’s this old bridge in Lake Havasu City that I want to sell you. The problem he has is he wants to tighten up the tax loopholes so those with money, and the expensive CPA’s can’t cheat the IRS. I’m ok with that. But the problem is, the billionaires ARE billionaires for a reason. They are very good with money. They’re better than you and me, and they’re better than Joe Biden, and they’re better than the people in Congress actually writing the tax code.

So, when Congress decides to change the tax code, these guys and gals get their armies of CPA’s together and figure out the loopholes, and trust me, there are always loopholes. That is the flaw in Joe Biden’s plan. But there is a fix.

It’s not the wealth tax that Bernie Sanders and AOC are pushing. Though that would be a more fair tax in a way than the current income tax system. And there is a reason why it is that Biden is going after billionaires and not millionaires. Do you realize that a majority of those serving in Congress are indeed millionaires? Not one of them is worth a billion dollars! But, there is a fairer tax structure for everyone. It’s the flat tax.

Let’s do Biden a favor and fix his problem here once and for all. First of all, it’ll never happen. The reason is simple. 48% of Americans pay no income tax to the federal government. The Democrats have slowly added people to the roles of non-taxpayer because they keep upping the amount you need to make before you actually start paying taxes. That’s not fair to the people that actually DO fund the government…the other 52% that get nothing added in return. That’s a problem that needs to be fixed.

So, we start with a flat tax. Let’s say, just for grins and giggles that it’s going to be 13%. There are no deductions, there are no exemptions. You make $100? You send $13 to the feds. It’s that simple. You could fill out your taxes on a post card. Or actually, if you’re employed, you wouldn’t have to fill out taxes at all if that were your only income. The employer would report your income to the IRS, and you would get a bill. Pay the bill and you’re done for the year. It’s like getting a credit card statement, except you need to pay the full amount. And if they are continuing with withholding, you don’t even have to worry about that. Any time you make any money, 13% is withheld from you and sent to DC.

Now, I don’t know how you currently do your taxes, but I use a CPA, and he would be pissed as hell at this method because you’re taking away his livelihood. Probably 80-90% of a CPA’s income is earned from February through the middle of April. And these folks do make a pretty penny. What’s interesting is, they buy software that does all the work for them. Every year, they’ll spend a few hundred dollars on the latest greatest software, and plug in numbers you have supplied. The good ones will be able to tell you how to lower your tax liability, but not everyone does that. A flat tax does away with the need to employ these folks. But don’t fret. They can find a ton of business elsewhere. Corporations always need good CPA’s. So do those billionaires that we were talking about earlier.

Is there a downside to a flat tax? Yup. It’s dreadful to the Democrats because those 48% of non-taxpayers out there will start having to pay taxes. They won’t like that, and are they going to blame the Republicans or the Democrats? Probably both. And you’re taking away Democrats’ big push to “save the little guy money and tax the rich!” You’re also taking away a major portion of wealth redistribution by giving those 48%’ers a tax refund when they haven’t paid anything in on their taxes. Such is life!

You want a fair tax system? There’s nothing fairer than a flat tax. Regardless what you make, you pay the same as everyone else. No tax brackets, no billion pages of tax code. No need for deductions, exemptions, record keeping or anything else. You make it, you owe it. Period.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Rick Scott Hits On An Idea

Florida Senator, Rick Scott has really PO’ed both the White House, all sorts of Democrats, and even some Republicans with his latest idea, which I think is genius.

He wants everyone in the country to start paying income tax.

Now, on the surface, you’d probably agree with him and wonder why that’s such a controversial idea. What you may not know is that about 50% of the country pays NO federal income tax. Oh, they get tax credits, which means they will get a refund, but they are below the minimum as far as earned income (adjusted gross income) which allows them to not pay anything into the federal government.

Scott got lambasted from pretty much all sides with his proposal. But when you think about it, he’s exactly right.

Here’s his point (and mine). We have now hit the $30 trillion debt limit and it’s still climbing thanks the Joe Biden and his spendthrift ways. We owe China trillions of dollars from the debts they have purchased over the years. And there is no end in sight. At some point in time, we have to start lowering that debt if we ever want to remain solvent as a nation. In order to do that, we need to have everyone, not just the top half of income earners in the country chipping in. There is no way short of a revolution that the money people in this country are going to step up to the plate to the tune of $30 trillion to get rid of the debt, even over ten years, without fighting.

And of course, those that are in the bottom half and pay no income taxes want to stay tax free. In fact, they want to keep getting tax refunds even though they pay nothing into the federal coffers. So it puts the country into a conundrum. Someone is going to have to give up and pony up. Scott is 100% right in saying everyone is going to have to step up.

Unless there is a way to tax what political party you belong to, or who you voted for (which I think would probably face a backlash at the Supreme Court), you need to include everyone in this. Democrats and Republicans both have added to the federal debt over the years, and it is basically the people in Congress and the presidents that have put us in this bind.

There is one way to do it, but I don’t think most Americans would stand for it. That would be to eliminate all entitlement programs until the debt is wiped off. That means no social spending what-so-ever. It means no extra spending on foreign aid, it means no new programs like Biden’s Build Back Better. It means that everything pretty much except keeping the lights on, paying the military, and only keeping those departments of the federal government that are truly essential to the country operating stay open. Everyone else gets to shut their doors. And even if the departments are open, they cut their staffs by at least 75%. Now, notice I said “entitlements” and new spending. We won’t count Social Security or Medicare in that because those folks have already paid into that. Those two programs are not entitlements. They are owed to the people that had their money taken from them without their permission.

If there is an easier way to get the debt down, I don’t know what it is. I’m not an economist, but I can say we start by cutting all social programs at the federal level. We can also tell China that since COVID started in their lab, and was their fault, and cost us trillions, we are cancelling all debt with them, we are wiping the slate clean as far as they are concerned. That will more than likely piss them off, but them’s the breaks. Maybe economists can figure out a better way to do it, but it will most likely involve doubling or tripling the current tax structure. And you thought the Tea Tax the British threw at the folks of the colonies wasn’t taken well? Just wait!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Dems’ Giving Tax Break To The RICH???

Yup. If they get their way in the massive $1.75 trillion social spending bill that Joe Biden is backing, Democrats will be giving the wealthy in this country a tax break that will be ten times larger than any tax break given to middle class citizens.

According to Business Insider, the reason is because of SALT. No, that’s not the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. This SALT stands for State And Local Taxes. Currently under a bill that was passed in the Trump administration, you can deduct up to $10,000 in state and local taxes that you’ve paid from your federal taxes as a deduction. That’s about to change.

Democrats see the SALT provision as a slap to blue states who have much higher state and local taxes than red states (which is one reason why most blue states are losing populations to places like Texas, and Florida, and Arizona. The House version of Biden’s bill would raise the amount that you can deduct on your federal income taxes from $10,000 to $80,000 in essence giving the wealthy who pay a lot in state and local taxes a big tax break.

You probably haven’t heard much about that one, but it’s being hailed as a payback to the states like New York, California, and the higher income tax states. Democrats blame the Trump rule of limiting the deduction to $10k as the chief reason why those big states lost population in the 2020 census. Actually, it was more because of poor fiscal management by the left, but hey…that’s another topic for another time.

Don’t think that the middle class is going to be totally left out in the dark. Oh, no…they’re not. Middle class families will most likely get about $2,500 in additional benefits on their taxes through the revamped “Child Tax Credit”. However, wealthier individuals, the very people that Joe Biden has said is going to basically pay for his $1.75 trillion boondoggle, will be getting an additional $25,600 on average back in tax savings based on an increase in the SALT limits that the House wants to apply.

If that’s disturbing to you, it should be. While telling the world that he’s in favor of taxing the wealthy and giving extra Child Care Credit to the middle class, Biden is actually expanding on a lie. He’s not going to be giving anywhere near the tax break to most people in this country. Oh, a few rich Democrats that are still left in New York and California will reap some really nice breaks. But a lot of those folks left those states already for friendlier climes. And it’s going to be a long while before they decide to move back to their old stomping grounds because they are finding life a lot easier from a tax perspective in their new digs.

Are you riled up yet? Maybe you should be. It’s just one of the reasons that only 27% of Americans favor Biden’s second spending bill. And it seems that Congress is damned determined that they are going to pass it if they can. They still today don’t have a Joe Manchin or a Kyrsten Sinema signature on board saying they will be for the bill. Both Senators, as well as all of the Republicans are going to be against it as this is written.

So, it comes down to the question. Will Biden let everyone know that the wealthier blue state taxpayers are going to be getting a break the rest of us aren’t going to get? Only time will tell, but my hunch is, Biden won’t say a word about it.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!