1. How much did tax cuts decrease revenue in this years budget forecast?
Pick whatever one you want from the CBO estimates, the White Office Budget Office estimates to be released on 4 Feb, or you can wait till shortly after 15 April to get a fairly accurate number.
2. What decrease in revenue is due to the events of 9/11?
Probably an unknowable number with any accuracy whatsoever.
3. How much have we increased spending due to the events of 9/11 and how did that additional spending effect the budget?
It much doesn't matter. There was an unpredictable expenditure in an unpredictable world [and economy]. When you add up all the variants of the actuals, we go into the red. Had there not been a tax cut after all those unpredictables, the budget would have been flat.
4. How much would you like to raise taxes? Most Americans spend nearly 50% of their income in various taxes. How much is enough?
Your 50% number is way the hell off for most Americans. The average income for a family is something around 60,000, add state taxes, SS, real estate taxes, sales tax. [where applicable, etc...you won't come near 50%. If you want to pick someone in the marginal tax bracket of 28%...they don't pay anywhere near 28% of their income.
But other than that, a deficit is a deferred tax liability. When you run a deficit you "raise taxes". Your just passing it on to someone else to collect.
5. Define *rich* as used in Democrat rhetoric.
I don't know what the standard rhetoric is. I'd probably use the top 5% percentile. But who cares?
6. If you're so concerned about the budget being balanced. Why did Al Gore want free prescription drugs for his mother? Why did he want free prescription drugs for Warren Buffet? Can't they both afford a decent health care plan on their own, without the help of a hard working mechanic with three kids financially supporting them?
Well, you've got two options [didn't we do this once?]. Give no one any prescription drug benefits at all, Warren Buffet and Al Gore can still get their prescriptions. Though it's not clear how many other people you'll exclude. There is roughly 15% of the population that are not covered by Medicare, Medicaid or private health insurance. This group generally is low on the income scale [but not low enough to qualify for Medicaid]. You'll also deny a good number of elderly access to prescriptions but you won't have to worry about Warren or Al. And you've probably denied that hard working mechanic with three kids and a wife.
If you want to provide access to free prescription drugs for the population, excluding the top n%, you can do that, and you'll probably create an administrative system that costs substantially more than giving the top n% free prescriptions. So you can have that hard working mechanic pay more to make sure that Al and Warren don't get free prescription drugs.
jttmab |
