As we travel through life, the times when we get together with
the largest number of our relatives are weddings and funerals.
We got to most weddings when we are in our 20’s and 30’s, and we
are generally in our 70’s when we got to the most funerals.
Since only 6% of all marriages make it to 50 years, the golden
anniversary celebrations are rare, but I’ve been to some. At this point, the total
is 2, and one of those was ours, although we do know a few other folks who made
it that far.
I had 3 relatives (on both sides) who lived to be 95. Since
yesterday’s doctor visit showed good results, I may live that long too.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/life-expectancy.htm
It’s been said that they only things you can’t avoid in life
are death and taxes – and taxes have been in the news again lately because of
the negotiations over our debt limit. (Our current debt is 129% of our GDP,
largely due to COVID. In 2019, the ratio was 100.9%)
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/debt-to-gdp-ratio
Without wading into the minefield of politics too much, all I’ll
add at this point is to say that our deficit problems are not caused
by excessive spending, but by insufficient revenue.
The editorial board of the Washington Post had a few ideas this
morning, but before I list them for you, you need to consider how we got to
where we are now.
Grover Glenn Norquist (born October 19, 1956) is an American
political activist and tax reduction advocate who is founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, an organization that opposes all tax increases. A Republican, he is the primary promoter of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a pledge signed by lawmakers who agree to oppose increases
in marginal income tax rates for individuals and businesses, as well as net
reductions or eliminations of deductions and credits without a matching reduced
tax rate. Prior to the November 2012 election, the pledge was
signed by 95% of all Republican members of Congress and all but one of the candidates running for the 2012
Republican presidential nomination
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Norquist
Not all members of the Republican Party are as insane as the
House Freedom Caucus, but even the one who aren’t crazy are reluctant to raise
taxes. I’ve done extensive research on tax cuts, and have concluded that tax
cuts do NOT grow the economy.
The best “bang for your buck” is food stamps, but there aren’t
many Republicans who will admit that. Here’s more details on that:
https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2013/05/food-for-thought.html
Unless Americans are willing to live
with a substantially smaller military,
reduced Social Security payments, more crowded classrooms and other
diminishments in what their government provides, lawmakers need to find about $2 trillion in
additional tax revenue over the coming decade, on top of the money-saving
budget reforms that we have detailed elsewhere.
Congress’s task is to raise the money
without dulling efficiency and warping incentives to grow, innovate and work.
As
we noted in our recommendations for shoring up entitlement programs, one potential reform is raising the cap
on wage earnings subject to Social Security taxes. Another is closing a loophole exempting pass-through
businesses — such as sole proprietorships, partnerships and S corporations,
which are not subject to corporate income taxes — from paying Medicare taxes on
their investment profits. Here are some other ideas:
Similarly,
lawmakers could end the “stepped-up basis loophole.” This allows a person
inheriting an asset — say, a share of stock — to pay tax only on the asset’s
gains in value since the death of the person who passed it on. A family,
therefore, could hold on to that share for decades, even as it rose in value,
but then pay tax on only a fraction of the accumulated gains at selling. Ending
this loophole would generate more than $100 billion in the next
decade.
Congress could eliminate the “carried interest
loophole,” too. This allows private equity and hedge fund managers to treat
their incomes as investment profits, so they get to pay the far-lower capital
gains tax on their incomes rather than the income tax that ordinary wage-earners do. Taxing gains as income would raise about $14 billion over the next decade and promote fairness in
the tax system.
President Biden has already announced
his support for allowing some of Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts to expire on time in
2025, letting the marginal income tax rate on the top earners return to 39.6
percent. This is the same rate that was in place for much of the 1990s. Reversing tax cuts for some
of those a little lower on the income scale could raise more revenue. Boosting
rates for those in the top three tax brackets would call on
married couples making more than about $364,000 a year to contribute more. For
context: Lawmakers set the income cutoff to receive the
first round of covid relief payments at $150,000 for a married couple.
Mr.
Trump also gave companies the largest cut to the corporate income tax rate in
U.S. history. Even many business leaders were surprised when Republicans reduced
it from 35 percent to 21 percent. A rate in the 25 to 28 percent
range would keep the United States competitive with global rivals. Going to 25
percent would bring in roughly $500 billion over the next
decade.
A carbon tax would raise revenue and
help shift society away from carbon-intensive
products by making them more expensive, spurring businesses and consumers to
find the cheapest and easiest way to avoid polluting. Some kind of mass rebate
system would have to accompany a carbon tax to ensure that it does not fall
hardest on low-income earners. But many plausible carbon tax proposals include
such a rebate and would still generate large amounts of money for
deficit-cutting. Discouraging pollution and raising money, a carbon tax would
be economically efficient and fair, asking those responsible for emissions to
bear some of the social costs of pollution.
No
one likes to pay higher taxes. But wise and targeted increases are essential to
fiscal stability. Changes are clear and within reach. The longer Congress
waits, the harder it will be to repair the compounding damage.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/30/united-states-taxes-trump-tax-cut-reform/
The Washington Post has won more than 70 Pulitzer Prizes,
second only to the New York Times, which has won nearly 100. The two pares are
two of the six that I read on a daily basis.
Today’s column is the first of a series that the Post plans to
publish about the debt problem.
If you still need more information about taxes, you may remember
that I wrote about the same topic roughly 3 years ago:
https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2020/09/death-and-taxes.html
No matter where you live, there are always going to people who
feel that taxes are too high. Compared to the rest of the world, though, our
taxes are actually quite low.
The most expensive corporate tax rate can be found in Brazil, which
has a rate of 40%. In comparison, the corporate tax rate in America is only
21%. Despite that low rate, 19 of America’s largest companies paid little or no
taxes last year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rates
https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/here-are-the-top-rated-cable-news-shows-for-june-2022/510130/
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